Crime: The Way It's Done
Whether it's armed robbery or running a brothel, there's a right way and a wrong way.
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Whatever the girls made in that place, I took $2 off $5. If they lived there and paid roof and board, they'd pay $10 a day and the same $2 off each $5 they made. But there were no $5 dates in my house. I lived by the railroad yard where the railroad men got paid twice a month and came down. It was a good go. Girls who walked the streets and wanted a room for an hour or two, whatever they made was theirs, they just paid me for the room. But there wasn't but two girls I'd rent rooms to like that. If any others come off the street, I didn't know what they was talking about. I wasn't allowed to. We had rules on my payoff. I had to operate in such a fashion and keep it like a family rooming house.
When I got the house it was a boarding house. This old woman had died and her son had just kept the roomers there. They'd been having roomers there for years. The same ones. There was one gambler that knew me, and when I moved in, he said, "Sal, what are you up to?" He knew.
I said, "I'm fixing to open this sonafabitch up."
And he told me, "I thought so. Well, I can't stand the heat, baby."
And I told him, "I need your room anyway." It was understood. So he moved. He left the front room for my hustling parlor; that faced the street, which made it convenient. Upstairs I had six roomers. I got them all together in the parlor that night and I told them, "I don't know who's going to stay and who's going to stay and play, but it's going to be a playhouse from now on."
And this little bitty guy, I never will forget him, he was about 920 years old, he says, "Well, I can't play—I gotta work tonight." Just so serious.
I told him, "Well, we're going to play every night, honey."
And he told me," Are you going to sell beer?"
I told him, "I don't have no license to sell beer."
He got mad and he said, "Have you got a license to run a whorehouse?"
I told him, "Honey, I'm not running a whorehouse. It's a playhouse. Don't you understand?"
We made friends before he left. The rest of them, they all said, "Well, if we want a girl we'll come back and see you." Laughing. I never did have no rumbles out of them. They never did run and call the police like a lot of people would. I don't know, maybe it was the neighborhood. Around there, there was a colored house on one street and then another one that was all Mexican. And there was so many connections around there. Even the drugstores—they sold pills. It was just a real regular whoretown, I guess, right in that vicinity. What made my place look good, I had my kids with me.
You know, that's why I think my kids turned out to be squares, both of them. The oldest one married a policeman's daughter. I don't know, they just don't want no part of that kind of life. They've seen it with me.
Richie
I HAD MY FIRST PROSTITUTE at sixteen. At that age, she had me.
That in itself is a profession and when you're young like that, you make all the mistakes. You have to make all the mistakes even though you're advised to avoid them.
There's a very definite line there. Because a woman gives a man money, that doesn't make him a pimp in the professional sense. If he compels her through a physical threat, a threat of violence, that's not accepted either. I'm talking about the people who are more or less successful at it.
It's a mental thing. A woman usually turns to prostitution because of some inadequacy, some inability to adjust or cope with society. As a result, prostitutes are always strange. Just one step away from a mental institution. A lot of them probably should be in a mental institution. Some of them I had should have been. Naturally I had no qualms about taking money. They want to give it to you.
It's another world. I've read a number of books by people who aren't in prostitution or even in drugs and I know they're not right. It's not for real in those books, but the average reader doesn't know that. He has to accept it as being valid where it isn't. With all those little discrepancies. I don't know if I can bring the whole philosophy down. Let's see. A prostitute needs a man. There's a big difference between colored and white prostitutes. The colored prostitutes, honestly, it's almost like they accept their fate, you know. And there's a great deal of homosexuality that exists among prostitutes of both colors.
You ever hear of what they call a "jasper broad"? That is one who is bisexual, she likes both men and women. And since she's a prostitute she can entice other prostitutes to work for you or even turn them out and make them prostitutes for you. If she's your woman you're all set. She can get you a stable and maintain the stable and keep it under control. There is little or no responsibility for you, all you have to do is get the money.
You don't have to worry about putting them to work or when they get sick. All these problems she takes care of. That's the ideal situation. They accept this stable type proposition easier among the Negro than the white prostitutes. White prostitutes have a tendency to be more possessive. They don't like the idea of having to compete with other women.
But you have to set up some kind of competitive system. To the average person it must seem incredible that a woman should think that way or be induced to think that way, but she can.
And you have to be supportive. I once thought you have to prove yourself to be real capable sexually, but sex is no problem because a prostitute who's been out working all night is not interested in sex when she comes in. There are those tricks she's had and they've done things you never thought of doing. So it's not a question of that. It's that she needs a support, she needs someone to handle her. She's like a robot and she has to be guided. She has to have support all the time. I think everybody makes that mistake in the beginning. They think that if they lay on her all the time, it's taking care of business. But if you make yourself too common with one and she's been out there quite a while, she will lose respect for you and eventually you will find somebody is shortsocking some of that money you're supposed to be getting. I tried to tell some of these guys and it was hard for them to understand what I mean.
I had one girl. She was about your shade. She was colored and Mexican, a very exotic-looking girl. She was a jasper and very intellectual, very smart, a chic person. She was fabulous in bed, but rather than lose respect and lose the discipline and control of the situation, I avoided her. I wanted her and I would a lot of times be aroused and I'd get up out of bed and leave rather than touch her because I knew that as soon as she became conscious of the fact that I had weakened in that respect, they figure they're out working and you're out chipping someplace. So what good are you? If that's the kind of person you are, they don't need you. You know what I mean. Consequently the respect is not there.
I've had a beaucoup of them, some for just a short time, and I've taken money off some I don't know if it was a man or a woman because I was never in bed with them. That sounds strange, but it's true.
Now a prostitute takes pride in a man she wants. You'll find in the world of pimps and prostitutes that certain pimps gain a certain amount of prestige. A prostitute will be going to him just because she can say later that she had him. She'll stay with him a while and give him her money and then she'll say, "Well, I had him."
So it's an important thing how a man carries himself in this element, in this environment. His conduct, the way he dresses, the way he carries himself, the way he conducts himself around people, around his own people. It's an important thing. He gains a certain amount of prestige. His woman wants to see him in a nice automobile, she wants to see him dressed nice. She wants to see him go into a place and pull out a roll of money and look good, because that makes her look good. It's her man, she represents him, that's her.
Webster
THERE'S AN OLD GAME CALLED the American Services Association. Generally, the way it is, you get you a lot of pamphlets and things made up. Say you got an insurance policy and you have a pamphlet showing a lot of stores and businesses and things. You go, you knock on a door, a lady comes to the door and you say, "Good evening, madam." You start conning them. "Good evening, madam, is the lady of the house here?"
And she say, "Well, I'm the lady of the house here."
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