TEXAS: V for Vice

Gaudy old Galveston (pop. 75,000) has been a wide-open sin city and the gaudy shame of Texas since the days when Pirate Jean Lafitte made it his island playground. Prostitution flourishes in the houses of Post Office Street, one of the last unabashed red-light districts in the nation. After-hours gin mills and gambling joints thrive in defiance of Texas laws, under the tacit protection of kickback-hungry city officials. From time to time, ambitious reformers have made feeble efforts to clean up Galveston, but the town has always quickly returned to its wicked...

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