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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So first thing you did, you paid her a compliment, so she's all ready, at ease almost. You give her some, you know, "Well, you sure look young to be the lady of the house," and so forth. And then you tell her, "Well, I'm with the American Services Association. We are in connection with the American Automobile Association and the NAACP, and I'd like to interest you in a project which will enable you to benefit yourself. I'm going to give you—" then you stop and say, "I'm not going to give you anything. I'm going to put you in the position to grab some of the goodness this organization has to offer." And you proceed to tell her how you get a discount on everything from a shoeshine to a hairdo. And you show her your pamphlets showing her all the stores and if she's a member of this club all the thing she can get. And you show her all the benefits that you can get from it and it only costs $37.50 a year. She can either pay all of it or half of it. Anything you get is a gift, you know, so you accept it. So now most of the time if you actually get them in this mood and show them all the facts that are connected with it, they'll pay the whole thing. So if they pay the whole thing you tell them, "If you pay the whole thing, the whole $37.50, you don't have to worry about any additional cost that comes in. You get a $500 bail bond certificate. You know, in most states if you have a wreck you can't be moved until the police officers arrive, but if you happen to be a member of this club and have a bail bond certification, then you can be moved right away."
You explain to them that if you're a member of this organization, then if you happen to have a wreck any bond that you would have to pay up to $500 you can get out without having to pay one penny. And then you explain to them that your lawyer for your organization is an ex-judge and he'll fight a traffic ticket if necessary. And if they have a gas war on, you get a percentage still for your gas. Anything, anything you can think of that there could be a percentage for it, you tell them they get a percentage if they're a member of this organization. And usually they pay the whole thing.
I'll tell you, most any game that's played, there's more than one way to play it. That's with the Drag Game—there's several different branches to it, and the Pigeon Drop, they're all different, and even the O'Grady. It all depends on who's got the game, who knows it, and how they play it. But mostly any game used can be used on white or colored, except that one I was just telling you about, the American Services Association thing. Mostly that is used only on colored because now there's this integrational crisis and you make sure you tell 'em, say, "Most white people already have this benefit, they been having it for years. But now, with the NAACP's official okay, the Automobile Association has banded together with several other millionaire businessmen to give the colored people the same benefit." Now this automatically gives a little boost.
How many of these can you make in day?
Usually we go to a project area. Like there's middle class people, they all live in these government projects. They automatically looking for some help. You know this from the neighborhood. You make a door-to-door call. Sometimes I've seen in the run of a day where I've made as much as $600. All depends on how hard you're willing to work, if you're willing to go make these calls, just go from door to door. Some doors you might not make it, then next two houses you might make it. And you'd be surprised how those $37.50's run up.
Jack
I'VE NEVER HAD A JOINT. I am a nickel-and-dime pimp who has been built up in the papers to be more than what I was. The only thing I've ever had was an apartment where I had three girls at one time. And that was a very short time. I mostly had one girl and that's it and I became strictly a pimp. I didn't write checks, I didn't rob. A lot of pimps are like burglars and they'll have an old lady, they'll send her to work only when they need bond money in the event they get busted trying to make a joint.
I've been called the vice lord of Harris County, I've been called the Lucky Luciano of South-Central Texas, and I've never had over three girls in my life. That really annoys me.
The only time I made good money is when a perfect square turned out and while I was with her she would make anywhere from $500 to $1500 a week. We were only together for about a month because I was doing a jail sentence in Houston there for a while. I have had some girls who could make close to that for short periods, but most of them, it was between $300 and $450 a week, that's all.
Everybody thinks being a pimp is easy; it's not easy.
There is more headache in pimping and prostitution than you'd have if you were working on a space problem over at NASA. Probably you'd have less headaches at NASA because with the whores you've got their emotions to contend with.
And I've never had a dope fiend whore and never will, this is just regular whores I'm talking about. (Though they all eventually get on pills, on Nembutal or barbiturates of some kind, most of them that I've seen.)
I've had call girls and this is the best area. And I've had what I call "joint girls," and I'm one of the kind of pimps that over the years I've felt if a girl will be a good whore she will work in a joint. It's a test for me. If she's there working in one of those places when I come by, fine, and if she's not, fine. But I would, when I could, put a girl in a joint first. If I got a girl to start with, when I first got with her, that's my test.
In a joint you meet every kind of situation, perversion, and what have-you, and if a girl's going to be a good whore, then before I put her on a phone or a trick book this is what I do. I don't know what others do.
A pimp in Texas, in my school of discipline, if you want to call it that, doesn't do anything. He just takes care of her in the sense of maintaining whatever needs to be maintained in the apartment, he makes sure that they have that. If you're working on the phone he makes all the necessary business arrangements. He does make contacts, say, if you're on the phone, to different porters, hotel porters, key people that generally have use for that business.
Part of a pimp's job is protecting the girl from men who are giving her trouble. Did you ever have any?
Rumbles? Yes. This is what a pimp does, Texas-style. And I'm sure that this style does not just stay here. I know some pimps in California: same thing. Many times, over a period of ten, 15 years, many times I've had this type situation.
One time in particular I got busted for. I was with Terry, she was in this hotel in Houston and it couldn't be worse. It was a skid-row area, but the hotel spot is not bad. Money-wise the spot is not bad, but the location of the hotel is terrible. And there was a rumble there and it happened to be a pimp.
He was just passing through and what he did is one I've played myself. A lot of times you'll go to a hotel or spot where you know you can make out with the gal, and you might even trick her and play the role of the square with the intent of stealing the whore. In other words, winning her affections, trying to get her to join up with you.
So Terry had the trouble with this dude in the room and she came back up to the room where I was at. I wasn't staying there but I was there that evening for a few hours. And she told me about it, so I go down there. I had my pistol and she had told me that it was a character, although she didn't know who it was, nor did I.
I go into this room and he's about half-juiced. And he opens the door. When he sees me—he's in his shorts, his undershirt or pants, and he had a bottle of beer I think in his hand—he tried to shut that door shut. Well, I took that pistol and, believe it or not, I just went like that, pointed it at him and pulled the trigger.
I don't know whether the bullet wasn't in the chamber or it didn't fire for some reason, but it did not fire. And after that, oh, man, about a week later, it shook the hell out of me. I actually got afraid, scared. I could have shot that guy.
Anyway, we tussled and I ended up whipping him over the head with the pistol and he took the bottle and he tried to hit me over the head—and may have. I don't remember. We all ended up in jail eventually because the manager—not the porter, the porter tried to cool it—he called the police while I'm up there cursing and carrying on and whipping on his head and all.
This is a trick of whores, you know. They'll rib you into these kind of positions. Many a pimp and many a character has been killed, shot and killed, because of some whore playing a trick like that.
It seems to me that some women thrive on that sort of thing. Some whores are nymphos, they say, I don't know. Some say they're frigid, some say they hate their father, I don't know. But some, I think, thrive on thrills, and they get some sort of bang out of getting their old man and another man feuding and they become the center.
So when I look back on this one particular case, I think maybe that's what she did. Anyway, we all went to jail and I got filed on. As I told you. there's a popular misconception—not that anyone is particularly interested, but it is a misconception-about pimps going and saying, "Say, buddy, you like my sister two pesos," or "How about spending the night with my old lady for a hundred." They don't do that. What they do is they make the contacts with porters and madams, people like that, they make contacts with people who set things up. They do not themselves call up the customers.
You may work a trick book. You may work that up yourself or you may buy it. In the trick book there are alphabetically listed different tricks, or customers, and these vary from $20 to $50, or there's one in Oklahoma that's $5000. I know a girl who made a dude in Amarillo for $55,000 over one week's time. That man, the trick, is from Canyon, there's no sense mentioning his name, what matters is that tricks like that are rare.
You buy a trick book. You buy one in Chicago or you buy one in Dallas or you buy one in Hollywood. And these say who goes for what. Like the Hollywood trick book says that -- goes for three girls, freaks, you know.
That's one of my kicks too. I'm sure there's a deep Oedipal complex involved, or some terrible side of. me, but I became freaky in this sense myself. I just can't dig a kick with one girl.
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