The safe that likely protected the illicit funds collected in a Douglas house of ill repute and potentially its book of clients now holds the personal papers and valuables of a retired Casper physician assistant.
Its door has been opened with the help of a safe locksmith.
John Noffsinger said he purchased the safe that has the name “MAGGIE AUFRANCE” across the top about 25 years ago from a dental office where his wife worked.
Maggie AuFrance operated houses of prostitution in Douglas for much of her life.
The dental office where the safe sat was owned by Dr. Kent Neubert, who recently retired.
“His office was in a little old house on Durbin Street. (Neubert) said the safe was there when he started working there in 1983,” Noffsinger said. “At that time, the business was owned by a dentist named Don Anderson. Kent believes that he started the clinic in 1958 and the safe was acquired from someone in the Sandbar District.”
The Sandbar District of Casper was notorious for its own bars and houses of prostitution.
Noffsinger said when he initially asked about the possibility of buying the safe, he learned it had never been opened. He wanted to be able to use it, so Neubert found a locksmith who was able to get inside and provide a combination.
“There was nothing in it at the time,” Noffsinger said.
That locksmith is now retired and does not recall the job. Noffsinger said there are no holes in the safe that show it was drilled.
Cracking Old Safes
Opening old safes like the one that belonged to AuFrance is a specialty for Thad Hoff of Wyoming State Safe & Lock in Laramie. He said he gets sporadic requests to open an antique model.
The safe Noffsinger owns has the brand name “Steel Monitor” and its manufacturing location as Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Hoff said most antique safes such as the one owned by the Douglas madam reflect a custom order and the true manufacturer’s name might not be on the safe at all. He has never heard of the “Steel Monitor” brand.
Getting into an old safe that consists of a dial, ring, and three or four wheels and a deadbolt can involve different techniques, he said. Filing the fingertips like in the movies to make them sensitive to feel wheels align is not one he employs.
“Manipulation is a valid thing,” he said. “There are guys who do hold world records on being able to open three safe locks. I think the record now is like 15 minutes or under 15 minutes.”
That technique actually involves touch and sight, where the safe cracker dials the lock wheels and returns to a certain position to determine the combination.
For more modern safes, with locks constructed using three wheels, Hoff uses an auto dialer that in 36 hours can run through the majority of combinations for about a million possibilities.
But antique safes had no standard and, depending on the manufacturer, might have utilized three, four, or five wheels in the locking mechanism. Auto dialers can be configured to work on them, but there would be a billion possible combinations that would take a long time to crack.
Drill Technique
Hoff said the most efficient and cost-effective way to open old safes is to drill a small quarter-inch hole in a strategic location and insert an optical scope similar to what physicians use during some types of surgery.
With the scope, he can observe the wheels to then turn the safe dial and align the wheels to allow the bolt to be turned to open the safe.
AuFrance’s safe was typical in Wyoming during the era of the Hole-In-The-Wall Gang and others, he said.
Instead of trying to “crack” the safe using skill, most robberies then involved the use of dynamite or nitroglycerine to get inside.
“Bankers got nervous and they started ordering anti-dynamite units,” Hoff said. “They’re kind of a roundish configuration, and I see them all over the place. A lot of old bank lobbies have them now.”
Hoff said many modern businesses in the state still use safes that are 120 or 150 years old. Typically due to the need to get what’s inside and not run up big bill, the business opts for him to drill the hole.
“I’d much rather charge them for less time and get the darn thing open, repaired and back up and running,” he said. “If they’re locked out of their cash, they’re usually wanting to get their money out pretty quick to get the business back up and running.”
That the safe now owned by Noffsinger carries the name “Maggie AuFrance” instead of Maggie Wheelock would seem to put its purchase before 1913, when she married Ben Wheelock, a Douglas pioneer.
According to local Douglas history, AuFrance arrived in the town with a gentleman who reportedly promised marriage but set her up in a house of prostitution in the late 1890s.
Her business skills and attention to detail, including sending her “girls” for monthly exams and maintaining a low profile, made her wealthy.
A local historian who wrote about AuFrance for the “Pages of Converse County’s Past” publication reported that AuFrance took 60% of the earnings of the 10 women she typically kept in the house.
She used her wealth to purchase real estate, and newspapers of her day reported she invested in sheep and cattle operations. She drove a fringed carriage and would have needed a safe to keep her funds protected.
Funds No Problem
Bill Barlow’s Budget newspaper in Douglas reported on Aug. 23, 1905, that AuFrance paid $350 “without protest” for an assessment on her business that was part of a fundraiser for the state fair. Those funds would be equivalent to $13,245 in 2026.
In 1908, AuFrance was mentioned in the May 6 edition of the newspaper as paying the hospital and funeral costs for a “Mrs. Bovee” who died from a “gunshot wound received some time ago at the hands of her paramour and from which she never recovered.”
The article stated that Bovee had worked for AuFrance for “some time.”
In 1912, AuFrance was arrested on a federal Mann Act “white slavery” charge for bringing in two young women from Fort Wayne, Indiana, to her establishment across state lines and then locking one in her room against her will.
A Cheyenne jury deadlocked at her initial trial. A second trial a few days later resulted in a conviction and sentence to Fort Leavenworth Penitentiary for a “year and a day.”
She served about six months working in a kitchen and was released early in June 1913. She then married Wheelock.
The Worland Grit at that time called her the “wealthiest woman in Wyoming.”
The Cheyenne State Leader reported on Sept. 7, 1913, that she had already “sold her establishment” but “still owned valuable real estate there.”
Maggie Wheelock returned to her trade after her probation at another location in Douglas.
Prohibition Raid
The Casper Herald reported on March 23, 1925 that Maggie Wheelock, a “wealthy ranch owner,” was raided by state and local lawmen who confiscated 100 gallons of wine, 40 cases of beer, 10 gallons of whiskey and 50 10-gallon jugs that were empty but once contained alcohol.
When officers broke in through the back door, Wheelock protested and sat on pillows.
“Mrs. Wheelock claimed she was ill and couldn’t be moved,” the newspaper reported. “But this fact was better understood when the 12 quarts of old champagne was discovered under her resting place.”
While Wheelock continued to live in Douglas, the “Pages of Converse County’s Past” stated she also had a “house” at 220 S. Wolcott in Casper.
An ad in the Casper Tribune-Herald on Oct. 16, 1932, advertised a nine-room, modern, unfurnished house for rent, “price reasonable” at that Wolcott address. The contact information directed readers to Maggie Wheelock in Douglas.
Whether that home once housed the safe owned by Noffsinger could not be verified.
Maggie (AuFrance) Wheelock died on May 2, 1940. She was 62.
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
