The Good Old Days

Thinking about the good old days is something that people my age (51) do often, at least I do anyway. The world has changed so much and everything is different, nothing the same. My son is in his mid-twenties and surprised me yesterday when he referred to the “good old days”. The reference was to the 1990s.

Think about how different your life was throughout the 90s. The future held such promise for me. My son recounted the many ways life was better, even in 1999. The 90s was a great decade. Reflect on the music... yes, that is what my tour of the 90s songs is all about on both of my blogs. The Blueprint Blogcurrently has “Blue (Da Ba Dee)” by Eiffel 65 playing. This blog has “The Rhythm of the Night” by Corona playing in the header at this moment. She is so lively, so in love with life as many of us were back then.

What were you doing in the 90s?

Anyone remember World Cup Soccer in 1994? Orlando was one of the host cities in the US. For every game (before and after) I was partying at Church Street in downtown Orlando. I had various people that had no clue what they were doing answering my escort lines, which were ringing off the hook day and night.

While partying at the now defunct (yes, it is defunct no matter what anyone in Orlando claims or how much they attempt to revive it) Church Street, I met a wonderful group of guys from Ireland and Australia. These visitors were victim of a scam travel agency booking and had no hotel rooms so I offered to loan them my beach house for the week and they accepted. The house was smack on the beach in Cape Canaveral... One could step from the jacuzzi on its deck into the sand.

Each sent me a card to say hello and thanks when they returned to Ireland and Australia, and perhaps one was from the UK. I have those cards in a box in my storage, but if they're by chance reading this blog, contact me. We all had a falling out of sorts after the game – the Mexico vs. Ireland game in Orlando – but all was forgotten later. My cousins from Mexico were in town for the games too, and well, it was a competition thing that turned into a light brawl downtown. Hell, I don't even remember who won that game now. Cheers! and Salud!

That house was wonderful. A former love leased it for a year for me, but I spent less time there than anyone. My friends and family had barbecues regularly though. The last week that I had the house, I loaned it to a Jamaican friend to hold his birthday party and he had family from Jamaica and South Florida come in for a huge beach party. It was crazy during, but they left the house in perfect condition. What a house and what a time...

Moving forward... Remember all the hoopla over the 1999 to 2000 issue? Well on New Year's Eve 1999, I was in Times Square with my son and his sister Ruby. We stayed at the Marriott Marquis for the week, shopping till we dropped, and then New Year's Eve was the grand finale. One thing about Times Square on that particular night is that there are no bathrooms to use. We ended-up going back to the room for this reason and by then cops had the blockades up and we couldn't get back in so we had the balcony view.

The 1990s are filled with wonderful memories for me. This was before the War era. I think that the 2000s and 2010s should be called the War Era. From the moment Bush stepped into office, war was imminent. Life changed so much so quickly and has only gotten worse since.

My son remembers those years fondly. For this reason I am not sorry that I went into the escort business – we had lots of fun and a great life! But should a young man in his mid-twenties have to look back on the good old days? 

A Voice from the Past

Today I received an email from one of the victims of the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation's (MBI) Operation Plastic Empire. It was one of the most successful law enforcement operations in escort service history. When I state most successful, I am referring to the number of escort service owners arrested and convicted, and the number of services closed as a result of the operation. This is the only aspect of this operation that could be considered successful. Trevor was searching online when he came across my name, remembered me, ordered Memoirs of an Accused Madam, found the email address at the conclusion, and emailed me.

We spent some time on the phone trading stories and memories of MBI misconduct. Trevor is living proof that a person can eventually overcome an attack and persecution by the MBI, but the case began in 1996, so obviously it has been a long road for him. Still, he doesn't forget a single detail, as I don't regarding my own persecution. He recalled every moment of his isolation in the criminal justice system at the hands of the MBI. His first attorney later became a judge (gee, I have a first attorney like that too), his next attorney was from the Office of the Public Defender's Office – nice guy, but all too clueless. I spoke to the public defender back in 1996 when Trevor called me from jail, but I'll be the first to admit that I was dumb and didn't know what to do anymore than the attorney did. Suddenly I feared anyone attempting to connect me to the case and I backed away. I was of no help whatsoever, and for that I apologize to Trevor.

Trevor managed to recall messy MBI cases that even I, the expert on the MBI, had long forgotten. One was the case of Thomas Capp (not sure the name is spelled correctly). Tom owned some place that served as a S&M house in central Florida. I do not believe that the services offered were in any way illegal, but I know little about the case and just remember the news and stories from escorts that I encountered around the time of the bust. Tom committed suicide before he ever pled to charges or made it to trial. He did so with a shotgun, if memory serves me, through his chest. It was a mess from what I heard, and Tom left behind many distraught friends.

I was unable to locate any information from Tom's case. Most likely this is because when a defendant dies before all appeals have been addressed the case is erased from records. In this case I do not believe that there was a conviction anyway. Rest in Peace Tom.

Tom is far from the only suicide on the hands of agents from the MBI and State of Florida prosecutors in central Florida. I personally know of several other suicides, and will venture a guess that there are more that I am not aware of. I recall there being an article in the Orlando Sentinel about Tom's suicide, but there is nothing to be found in the archives.

In the next week I'll be discussing suicide and the MBI. I sometimes wonder how some of the agents involved in the serious misconduct manage to live with the blood on their hands, and with the knowledge of the created cases that imprisoned victims for years and/or ruined lives. How does anyone live with such a sordid past?

Internet History Day

Today I am taking a break from the serious posts and reflecting on the past. In case you are unaware, for an entire decade I owned escort services in Orlando, Florida, until the state harassed me out of business and then later, after I closed the services, arrested me on racketeering and conspiracy charges. The website changed over the years, and actually began as Abra-Cadabra Orlando Escorts. Back then (late 1993) the domain name was just a page on the ISP's domain and had a character that reminded one of tinkerbell sitting in a champagne glass waving a wand in the air as magic dust appeared across the screen. When I renamed it Valentine's, the theme forever after was hearts. By then the domain was www.escortorl.com. It was one of the top 100 websites on the internet for years and was named a Net Guide Gold site. It was at the top of search engine lists in all keywords that pertained.

These are screenshots of the website in 1996, 1997, 1999, and 2001 - in order. The website is forever archived on the Internet Archive and can be found by typing the domain name in the Way Back Machine. Sadly, the Internet Archive didn't exist until 1996 when Alexa, an Amazon company, began its massive archiving of websites with the goal of creating a library. The website is a part of internet history. Indeed, the world has changed since the days of the wild west era of the internet.

The Past

Usually when people from the past reappear in my life these days I automatically figure that they are working as an informant for some law enforcement agency, either state or federal, but today the voice from the past was one of a true friend, a long lost friend from the past. I wrote of my relationship with the classy lady from Trinidad, Natasha, in Part One of the book. She was not mentioned thereafter as she disappeared and I never saw her again after 1996. I couldn't recall Natasha's last name, making any type of search impossible.

Natasha just happened to do a Google search for my name last night, as she wondered what ever happened to me, and to her surprise, found my Google profile. She never knew of my arrest and subsequent trial, but did indeed have her own experience with the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation (MBI). The agency threatened her with racketeering charges during "the Amnesty Program" back in early 1996. She took their advice, turned off the telephone lines, and got the hell out of Orlando.

We spoke for two hours – there was so much to reminisce about – from some famous clients of past to recounting our lives from 1996 forward. Natasha went through a hell worse than my own when she relocated to South Florida, but today she has a beautiful family and a wonderful new life and has left Florida far behind. Oddly enough, the conversation actually made me appreciate the MBI for what they do, when they're not doing it to me, here in Central Florida. I must imagine that if not for the existence of Orlando's morality police this area would be much like South Florida. Oh wait - I love South Florida!