A Fourteen-Year-Old’s Ordeal Highlights Urban Dangers
After Bessie Cook leaves home, she tells a harrowing account to police that leads to the arrest of a Tacoma bartender.
Ben Cozza, a young bartender of this city, who was arrested by Detective Fitzgerald last night, was arraigned before Judge Griffin this afternoon on the charge of criminal assault on a girl under the age of consent. The complaint was sworn to by Miss Bessie Cook, a 14-year-old school girl. The girl, who had been missing for two weeks, sat in Judge Griffin's office this morning and related the story of her shame. She admitted she had left home following a dispute with her mother, eventually staying in rooming houses and being taken to Seattle by a man who later deserted her. She was eventually found by police after returning to Tacoma and searching for her parents, who had moved. She will be held by police to testify against Cozza, while the search continues for her missing sister.
“The Cook girl, neatly dressed in a tailor-made gown, her pretty, childish face flushed with excitement, sat in Judge Griffin's office this morning and for an hour related the story of her shame.”
Missing youth and the vulnerability of runaways in a rapidly growing city remain a somber reality in urban life. The language of the era regarding 'shame' masks the predatory nature of the systems these young women navigated, mirroring modern concerns about youth exploitation.
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