They had sexual relations with many of the white men on the train, which made them vulnerable to prosecution under the Mann act. (This was a law that made it illegal to transport women between states for immoral practices, such as prostitution.) Either in response to a question by the police, or by their own accord, the women testified that they had been raped by a group of black men on the train. Victoria Price identified nine men in the jail as the ones who had “raped” her and Bates: the Scottsboro boys. The nine were scheduled to stand trial the next