Sacramento Escorts: Maury Diggs, Fox Theater builder, ex-convict
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any better, the U.S. district attorney for Northern California, John McNab, a Republican holdover from the previous administration, created a firestorm in Washington, D.C. When his boss, Attorney General James McReynolds, granted a trial postponement upon the request of the elder Caminetti, McNab resigned and told the press that corruption and political pull had a hand in the decision, according to David J. Langum, author of “Crossing the Line: Legislating Morality and the Mann Act.” Republicans in Congress and behind the printing presses rallied to McNab’s side, especially C.K. McClatchy, editor of the Sacramento Bee, who also had blown the whistle to authorities.
Ultimately, Caminetti got 18 months and Diggs got 2½ years for “white slave trafficking.” They appealed the sentence and got as far as the Supreme Court, arguing that the Mann Act applied only to prostitution, not affairs of heart — or at least mere immorality. By that time, McReynolds was a justice on the Supreme Court, where he unwittingly laid the groundwork for Roe v. Wade. Understandably, he had to excuse himself from Diggs’ and Caminetti’s case.