Hazing at Kappa Chi Alpha sorority involved boxing matches in which members fought for leadership positions. Chapter President Rose Oster, pictured above losing her title to Mildred Slotkin, used violence and intimidation to keep her sisters in line. She organized her band of thugs to run liquor, drugs, protection rackets, and even prostitution rings on campus and the surrounding community. Rose figured out how to use fundraising events to launder the sorority’s ill-gotten funds. Bake sales, talent shows, dunk tanks, silent auctions, and more occurred every weekend and were always well attended thanks to the free, if watered-down, booze.
Sorority sisters were expected to continue a life of crime after graduation, assigned to enterprises controlled by Kappa Chi Alpha chapters across the country. The public face of the sorority was that of dim-witted girls looking for husbands, hoping to lead lives of raising children, hosting tea parties, and attending church socials. In reality, the sorority ran a national crime syndicate hiding in plain sight.
One of the sisters allowed her younger brother, an avian enthusiast, onto the roof of the sorority house to watch birds. She didn’t realize he had a camera, which is how he captured the fight to determine the sorority’s president. Lucky for him, he wasn’t noticed and took the photo to the local newspaper as a human-interest story, hoping to earn an easy five dollars. The newspaper sent a female reporter to find out more. She was given a tour and grew misty-eyed remembering her own days as a sorority sister, at a different and decidedly less violent sorority. The girls put on a first-rate show, all of them dressed in their finery, drinking tea, nibbling cookies, and chatting about insipid topics.
“The fight on the roof? Oh, that was just some calisthenics and self-defense exercises. A girl can’t be too careful these days, especially on a co-ed campus. Those fraternity boys get some liquor in them and anything can happen,” Mildred told her. The reporter swallowed the story as easily as a tea biscuit, and the entire affair was relegated to the back of the social pages.
“Shocking!”
“Scandalous!”
“Dreadful!” lamented the pearl-clutching paragons of virtue and good taste.
“Those girls, half-naked on the roof! Fighting! This is why women should not be educated!”
The sorority’s house mother, who denied any knowledge of the calisthenics, promised to immediately stop them and to keep the girls covered in clothing from wrist to ankle at all times.
After a few days, the dust settled, and the Kappa Chi Alphas continued under their new president.
“Whoever let the kid in with the camera step forward now!” Mildred demanded.
Zelda Primrose stepped forward, knowing a quick confession would ease the punishment.
“It was my mistake,” Zelda said. “I didn’t know my brother had a camera. He was supposed to be looking at birds.”
“Oh, he found some birds all right! You thought it was good idea to send a teenage boy to the roof to watch half-naked girls?”
“I guess I wasn’t thinking. I’m sorry.”
“Sorry? Don’t be sorry. People make mistakes. That’s why pencils have erasers, right?” Mildred laughed and the girls watching laughed with her, out of fear more than humor. Mildred kept on laughing as two sisters descended on Zelda, each with a burlap bag of potatoes. They quickly knocked her to the ground, pummeling her torso and legs.
“Mind the face. We can’t have anyone walking around with a black eye,” Mildred said.
Unfortunately, the sisters were a bit too vigorous with the potatoes. Zelda’s spleen and one of her kidneys were ruptured. After a few days in bed, she died.
“Don’t worry,” Mildred reassured the sorority, “My uncle knows how to get rid of body. We’ll tell her family we think she ran off with some boy. Just like a sorority girl should.”
“What about the kid with the camera?” one of the sisters asked.
“If he causes any trouble, we still have plenty of potatoes.”