Betty Jean O'Hara (1913 in Chicago, Illinois[1] – 1973[2]) was a famed prostitute in Honolulu's "vice district" during World War II.
Finally she was banned from Monterey County, California, for two years and given a suspended 90 day prison sentence in April 1938.
[1] When Honolulu madams needed new prostitutes, they sent a "mail order" to agents, usually in San Francisco, to recruit them and arrange transport to Hawaii.
[3] O'Hara and the other women were taken to the Blaisdell Hotel on Fort Street,[4] explained the "10 commandments" for prostitutes and told any infraction would lead to them being removed from the islands.
She decided to live outside the red-light district and rented a house near Waikiki Beach with her friend Betty.
After the vice squad objected as prostitutes were not supposed to live outside the red-light district, the two women moved to the Pacific Heights area.
After the vice squad again objected, O'Hara and Betty went to Kauai and worked in one of the three brothels there, which serviced mainly plantation workers.
With the brothels occupied and the authorities distracted, the prostitutes started working outside the district.
With price controls circumventing the laws of supply and demand, O'Hara's system sped up the process and allowed each prostitute to see many more 'johns' every day.
[5] After martial law ended in 1944, partly because of O'Hara's notoriety, the red-light district was shut down.