Roy Moore's penchant for flirting with teen girls was "common knowledge" and "not a big secret" around Gadsden, according to some area residents.

The Senate candidate has denied any wrongdoing in the wake of a report from The Washington Post in which four women accused Moore of inappropriate advances - and in one instance, a sexual encounter - toward them when they were teens and he was in his early 30s.

One of the four women claims she was 14 at the time, making her the only one whose claim would represent a legal violation. Moore has said he never met her. A fifth woman came forward this afternoon.

Moore and other Republican leaders have questioned why it took so long for his accusers, now in their 50s, to come forward publicly.

And yet people who lived in Etowah County during that time have said Moore's flirting with and dating much younger women and girls was no secret.

"These stories have been going around this town for 30 years," said Blake Usry, who grew up in the area and lives in Gadsden. "Nobody could believe they hadn't come out yet."

Usry, a traveling nurse, said he knew some girls that Moore tried to flirt with.

"It's not a big secret in this town about Roy Moore," he said. "That's why it's sort of frustrating to watch" the public disbelieve the women who have come forward, he said.

The Mall

Colleagues and others who knew Moore told the Washington Post that he often walked alone around the Gadsden Mall.

The mall opened to great fanfare in 1974, anchored by department stores like Pizitz, Belk Hudson and Sears. It had a movie theater, lounge, drug store and restaurants including Morrison's Cafeteria.

It soon became a popular local hangout, especially for teenagers.

Wendy Miller told The Post that she was 14 and working as Santa's helper at the Gadsden Mall in 1977 when Moore first spoke with her and told her she looked pretty. Two years later, when she was 16, he asked her out on dates, although her mother wouldn't let her go.

Usry, who was a teenager at the time, remembers seeing Moore at the mall often.

"He would go and flirt with all the young girls," he said. "It'd seem like every Friday or Saturday night (you'd see him) walking around the mall, like the kids did."

Jason Nelms, who now lives in Tennessee but grew up in nearby Southside, was a regular at the mall when he was a teenager.

He recalled being told by a mall employee that they kept watch for an older guy who was known to pick up younger girls.

Nelms said he was told later by a concession worker at the mall that it was Roy Moore.

The Gadsden Mall. (Wikimedia Creative Commons, Mike Kalasnik)

Greg Legat worked at the Record Bar, a music store near Sears in the mall, from 1981-1985. The store was just down from the back entrance of the mall, near the three-screen Mall Theatre. It was a popular place for parents dropping off their teens in the evenings and on weekends.

Legat, now 59, said an off-duty Gadsden police officer named J.D. Thomas told him about various people he should look out for when he was working. This was around 1981, and Thomas worked security at the mall.

One of the people was a pickpocket, he said, while another was someone prone to pick fights.

One was Roy Moore.

"I asked him, 'What did he do?'" Legat recalled. "He said, 'If you see him, let me know. I'll take care of it.'"

'Common knowledge'

Five other current and former Etowah County residents also spoke to AL.com with similar accounts.

"Him liking and dating young girls was never a secret in Gadsden when we were all in high school," said Sheryl Porter. "In our neighborhoods up by Noccalula Falls we heard it all the time. Even people at the courthouse know it was a well-known secret.

"It's just sad how these girls (who accused Moore) are getting hammered and called liars, especially Leigh (Corfman)."

On Monday, Beverly Young Nelson became the fifth accuser to come forward against Moore. During a press conference, she said she was a 16-year-old waitress at the Old Hickory House restaurant in Gadsden when Moore sexually assaulted her in his car. He was in his early 30s at the time, she said, and the deputy district attorney of Etowah County.

Another former waitress, Victoria Beverstock, told AL.com today that she was 20 years old and working at The Poor House restaurant in 1992 when Moore came in a few times a week to eat and do paperwork.

She said he made her and the other waitresses uncomfortable by staring at them and flirting.

"He watched us girls quite openly," said Beverstock. "His eyes crawled over our shirts and our backsides. He was so open about it that I would try and handle his order as quickly as possible.

"When you didn't smile and flirt back with him, give him an opening, he became rude and demanding," she said.

Teresa Jones, who said she worked at the Etowah County District Attorney's Office with Moore, took to Twitter on Friday to say it was "common knowledge" that he pursued teenage girls.

"As a Deputy DA in Gadsden when Roy Moore was there, it was common knowledge about Roy's propensity for teenage girls," she tweeted. "I'm appalled that these women are being skewered for the truth."

She later told CNN that Moore often went to local high school events and other hangouts: "It was common knowledge that Roy dated high school girls, everyone we knew thought it was weird...We wondered why someone his age would hang out at high school football games and the mall."

Tony Hathcock is a photographer in Gadsden who told CBS News that he's known Corfman well for five years and believes her. They are both very conservative Republican voters, he said, and both voted for Trump. He said she had nothing to gain from speaking out, but felt safe speaking out now because her children are now adults.

He said that growing up in Gadsden, he'd heard rumors about Moore. Last week, he posted on Facebook a defense of Corfman. He said that even as a middle-schooler in Gadsden he'd heard stories from people he knew about Moore's behavior making them uncomfortable.

*Updated on 11/13/2017 at 7:57 p.m. to include additional quotes from Jason Nelms and Greg Legat. Additional reporting William Thornton (wthornton@AL.com).

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