Jennie Bauter and her Brothel at Jerome, Arizona. c1898

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Jennie Bauters. ?-1905.

Jennie in the black dress on the brothel's balcony. 1898.

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Hello! I'm Mr. Ed

Blog Created: 8-17-2026

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FROM:

April 07, 2026

Pictured here is Jennie Bauter’s brothel at Jerome, Arizona in 1898. Jennie is the woman in the black dress in the center of the balcony. This was her second building on this site which burned in 1898. The first burned down in 1897 and the third building still stands today. When Jennie Bauters was murdered in 1905, she was reputed to be the wealthiest woman in the Arizona Territory.

Born in Belgium, Jennie immigrated to the United States in July 1896 with her 14-year-old son, John Phillippe. She enrolled him in a Catholic boarding school in Chicago before moving west to the booming mining town of Jerome, Arizona.

In Jerome, she established “Jennie’s Place” which became the town’s grandest and most famous brothel. While others operated in tents or shacks, her establishment was a central part of the town’s “economic trinity” alongside mines and saloons.

Jennie’s business survived several devastating fires that plagued Jerome between 1897 and 1899. Each time her wooden structures burned down, she rebuilt, eventually constructing a fireproof brick building after the city incorporated in 1899; this third building still stands today.

She was known as a shrewd entrepreneur who provided medical care for her employees and was reportedly generous toward “down-and-out” miners.

Her life ended violently in 1905 when she was murdered by an opium-addicted boyfriend, Clement C. Leigh, in the mining camp of Goldroad. Clement was later convicted and executed for the crime in 1907. Today, her former brothel in Jerome is a popular historic site and museum, and legends of her ghost reportedly haunting various Arizona towns persist.

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FROM:

Pictured here is Jennie Bauter’s brothel in Jerome, Arizona, as it appeared in 1898. Jennie, dressed in black and standing at the center of the street, was one of the most prominent and financially successful madams in the Arizona Territory. The building shown in the photograph was actually the second structure she erected on this site. Her first brothel had been lost in the devastating Jerome fire of 1897, a common hazard in the bustling mining town where wooden buildings and lively nightlife made flames a constant threat.

Unfortunately, tragedy struck again in 1898 when this second building also burned. Undeterred, Jennie constructed a third structure on the same spot, and remarkably, that building still stands today—one of the few surviving physical reminders of her remarkable life.

Jennie Bauters became well known not only for her business acumen but also for her independence at a time when few women controlled their own financial destinies. By the early 1900s, she was reputed to be the wealthiest woman in the entire Arizona Territory, a testament to her determination and strategic management. Her life, however, ended violently in 1905 when she was murdered, leaving behind a legacy woven into the history of Jerome’s mining-era past.

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FROM:

Jerome, Arizona’s Most Notorious Madam and Proud Business Owner

Born: Possibly 1862, Present-day Belgium

Died: 3 September 1905, Goldroad, Arizona Territory (Present-day Arizona State--Goldroad itself is an abandoned site)

Also Known As: Belgian Jennie

Very little information about Jennie is readily available online, however I first learned her story while visiting the Jerome Historical Mine Museum in Jerome itself, so what little is known of her story is certainly verifiable in the historical sense.

According to several online articles, Jennie gave birth to a son named John in Brussels. When her son was old enough, the pair moved to the United States. Jennie left her son in a boarding school in Chicago while she herself moved out west, quickly becoming one of the most notorious and wealthy madams in the Arizona Territory.

In October of 1896, Jennie secured a mortgage on three small parcels on land in the copper mining village of Jerome, constructing a wooden building on the site called “Jennie’s Place.” While on paper Jennie claimed the building was a boardinghouse, in actuality it was one of the first brothels in Jerome. Over the next four years three fires would crash through the small village, and each time Jennie had to rebuild.

Yet despite the setbacks, Jennie was making the big bucks. By 1900, Jerome had incorporated as a city and was demanding all buildings be fireproof, which Jennie was able to accommodate in her latest brothel.

Jennie left Jerome in 1903, after being repeatedly harassed by a stalker, and settled in Goldroad instead. Goldroad was a small mining community about halfway between Kingman and Oatman that no longer exists today. All that's left of Goldroad is the mine which has operated on and off for more than a century now.

Unfortunately, Jennie’s stalker followed her there. While some claim the man titled himself as Jennie’s husband, the truth was he wanted Jennie and her money, and she was willing to give him neither. Jennie told anyone who would listen that the man was threatening her, and yet nothing was ever done about it.

Eventually the man grew violent, and after a morning of hard drinking in which he declared he would take Jennie’s money even if it killed him, he went to her house armed with a loaded pistol. After breaking in Jennie’s door, the man demanded she hand over her money. The two began to argue loudly, and Jennie ran out into the street dressed only in her nightgown. Her stalker then shot her four times, killing her right there in the street in broad daylight. The man then attempted to kill himself by firing a shot into his chest and then lying down in the street.

Jennie’s murderer didn’t die that day.

Instead, he was arrested and taken to Kingman for trial. Eventually, he was hanged for the killing after exhausting all of his appeals. Snippets of news articles from his trial survive today.

The story doesn’t end there however.

The murderer and Jennie were both buried in the old Pioneer Cemetery in Kingman. Jennie’s son paid for her to have a grave marker with the money he inherited from her. In 1917, the cemetery was moved to a new location at the behest of city planners. Any bodies that went unclaimed by family were left in situ. Jennie’s body was one of the unclaimed—as was her murderer’s.

In the 1940’s the remaining bodies were dug up and moved to one mass grave, with a high school being built on the sight of the former cemetery. Today, Jennie and her murderer are trapped forever, buried under the football field at the high school.

White Cliffs Middle School.

According to one source, Jennie’s bordello in Jerome still stands. Today however, the business is a jewelry store known as “Nellie Bly.” Having visited the store myself a few years back, my advice to any potential visitors is to not ask the women working there if the store is named after the journalist of the same name. The women I encountered that day got very prickly over that question to say the least and reminded me the name was Elizabeth Cochran’s nickname and that many women have used the name over the years. Excuse me for asking a question.

Jennie was an immigrant and a single mother. She rose from abject poverty to become one of the richest women in the Arizona territory. Sadly, with her success came the ire of a jealous man, and she lost her life because no one was willing to help protect her, a notorious woman of the night. And if all that wasn't sad and horrific enough, today, Jennie has to spend eternity trapped lying beside the man who put her in an early grave. Jerome locals claim Jennie's ghost now haunts the town she once called home, and I can only hope wherever her spirit ended up, she's no longer being tortured by the man who ended her life.

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FROM:

Written by Debe Branning, Member of the Pioneer's Cemetery Assn Board of Directors/Arizona Genealogical Advisory Board

JENNIE BAUTERS

The football stadium at White Cliffs Middle School in Kingman, AZ gives an entirely different meaning to the term "team spirit". This football field was built on what was once the Pioneer Cemetery. The Pioneer Cemetery was used as the original cemetery in Kingman from 1900 to 1917.

In about 1903, Jennie Bauters—Jerome's most famous and loved madam—left Jerome, AZ and headed for a new boom town called Acne (now known as Goldfield). Jennie's gambling suitor, Clement C. Leigh, followed her there. After a time, Jennie began to feel he was somewhat of a threat. In September 1905, Leigh needed money to settle a bad debt. With anger and a gun in his hand, he headed to Jennie's place and demanded she hand over her cash. An argument ensued and Jennie tried to flee from the building. He chased after her, firing several shots which wounded her as she ran into the street. He approached the paralyzed woman and fired a fatal shot to her head. He then pointed the gun to his chest and fired again. He lay down beside her to die. But, instead, Leigh survived the suicide attempt and was carted off to jail. Jennie was mourned by all and laid to rest in the Pioneer Cemetery in Kingman. In 1907, justice was served and Leigh was hung. He too, was buried in the Kingman Pioneer Cemetery.

In 1917, the county began the task of moving the graves of the dearly departed to the new Mountain View Cemetery. Mohave County did not pay for your loved ones to be moved to the new location. That was the family's responsibility. So, some of the not so dearly departed, whose relatives would not come forward, were not moved. They were left behind at the deserted cemetery.

Mohave County donated the old Pioneer Cemetery property to the school board to build a new high school. A stadium and parking lot replaced the hallowed grounds. They say that in the 1940's, a group of youngsters playing on the football field began to unearth bones of the bodies that were never moved to Mountain View Cemetery. Many organizations were alarmed and took action to have the existing remains exhumed and placed in a solitary grave on the property. There is a plaque dedicated to the unknown buried pioneers on the school grounds. The old high school is now a Kingman middle school.

And as fate would have it, Jennie Bauters and her murderer, Clement Leigh, are now buried in the same grave and entombed forever in the end zone of a football field. So if you are ever attending a big football game at the old stadium and the excitement begins to magnify—beware the rising spirits might be more than just the cheering crowd.