Not Your Normal Kind of Family Businesses

A family business is a commercial organization in which decision-making is influenced by multiple generations of a family, related by blood or marriage or adoption, who has both the ability to influence the vision of the business and the willingness to use this ability to pursue distinctive goals. They are closely identified with the firm through leadership or ownership. Owner-manager entrepreneurial firms are not considered to be family businesses because they lack the multi-generational dimension and family influence that create the unique dynamics and relationships of family businesses.

While I sit restlessly in my 8 by 8 prison cell. I once recalled praying to God that my family would have gotten into a legitimate business as far back as those prohibition days. When Prohibition was ratified by the states on January 16, 1919 and officially went into effect on January 17, 1920, with the passage of the Volstead Act. Despite the new legislation, Prohibition was difficult to enforce.

That’s when my family’s business began. The increase of the illegal production and sale of liquor (known as “bootlegging”), the proliferation of speakeasies (illegal drinking spots) in which my Great Grandfather own and operated 9 well organized illegal speakeasies establishments throughout Florida. In early 1933, Congress adopted a resolution proposing a 21st Amendment to the Constitution that would repeal the 18th Amendment. The 21st Amendment was ratified on December 5, 1933, ending Prohibition. If it wasn’t for that repeal my family would probably still be filling them former roaring 20’s party goers bathtubs with illegal gin and hauling truckloads of liquor from Canada and Cuba and having vinous moonshine drinkers staying up until the wee hours of the night.

My Great Grandfather and Grandfather never ever considered involving the family in any legal enterprises like raising chickens, farming, cattle, (well maybe not cattle because I’m quite sure my family would have started a cattle rustling family business), opening a supermarket chain or a car dealership, window cleaning, construction, hauling garbage, a clothing store or even an alligator farm while we resided in the Everglades of Florida. There was a multitude of legitimate businesses my family could have started.

My gangster Great Grandfather’s next capital venture was to introduce my Grandfather into the escort service family business. In reality it was merely a front for prostitution. There really isn’t much difference from prostitution and escorting services. Prostitution is sometimes described as sexual services, commercial sex or, colloquially, hooking. It is sometimes referred to euphemistically as "the world's oldest profession" in the English-speaking world. A person who works in this field is called a prostitute and is a type of sex worker.

Generally, an escort service works to accomplish two goals at the same time. These include acquiring funds for services given to the client and to ensure the client receives satisfaction for the provided services. The escort wants to pleasure the other party by his or her presence, even if it is just to engage in conversation for the night. The need to do anything sexual does not need to enter the situation unless both parties agree to consensual sexual relations. However, the escort service wants repeat business or word-of-mouth advertising by ensuring satisfaction with the client. This often requires a very different tactic.

Our new escort family business was set up in an area where several famous tourist attractions were located. Believe it or not setting up shop near or around Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Orlando and The Christ Church of Orlando, Florida were ideal spots to earn a lot of illegal capital.

That Family business came to a screeching halt when one of the family’s escort prize possessions the runway cat walker beauty queen. No names please, ahhh… Regina Crowder was interviewed on that TV crime investigating reporting show 20/20 in the early 1980’s.

My grandfather would sit me on his lap and tell me after she spilled the beans by telling over 12 million viewers what she did for an unhonest living to ABC News correspondent Elizabeth Vargas. Regina (aka Gina Lovelace) told Ms. Vargas that I was told to charge $500 per hour for GFE (girlfriend experience), then $700 per hour for PSE (pornstar experience); although I was working through a private family escort service agency, (aka Delightful Escort Services) in which meant I only made 50% of what they charged plus any tips I receive (which are very few). I did my best to regulate a monthly expense plan based on my monthly average. If I made more, that is put to the side for any situation or period when I wasn’t given any clients. I had additional expenses for clothes and transportation. I only did outcalls, (a termed generally used by escort services in their ads. Meaning: the escort is able to go "out" to your home or hotel, or she offers her services "in" her home or hotel room she has for the time her services are offered), so it could get pricey. The type of clients I receive enjoyed high-end fashion escorts, which could really, really get expensive to maintain that glamorous look. The escort service didn’t provide for clothing, wigs, make-up, lingerie, condoms or high heels. As lucrative a job it was, I have not told a soul. She should have stated, up until now.

Gina proudly stated before the cameras that she had everyone believing that she was some kind of consultant. I did not [file taxes], so I basically had a ton of cash in a lock box and tried to work around the escort service agency the best that I could.  

My grandfather screamed double crosser!!!

Ms. Lovelace said that she escorted a lot of influential Bankers, so she kind of learned some valuable loopholes. It used to be a side hustle, but I became very busy to a point where I was basically working almost eight hours a day. So I quit my old job as a cocktail waitress and opened my availability up. Since then, sex work has covered 100% of my expenses, but there are dead months where I wouldn’t even make what I make on average, so I did small side jobs to stay afloat if needed. Snitching to the tabloids also, my Grandfather wailed!!!

Six Months after the telecast the remaining parts of a woman’s body parts were discovered by alligator hunters in the Everglades. An autopsy revealed that the remains belong to a former escorter Regina Ann Crowder 24 years of age.

When that business dissolved my family when immediately into the cocaine and crack cocaine distribution family business. Crack cocaine, also known simply as crack or rock, is a free base form of cocaine that can be smoked. Crack offers a short, intense high to smokers. The Manual of Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment calls it the most addictive form of cocaine. Crack first saw widespread use as a recreational drug in primarily impoverished neighborhoods in New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and Miami in late 1984 and 1985; its rapid increase in use and availability is sometimes termed as the "crack epidemic". That’s when my father introduced me 15 years later into the family business. I was only 13 at the time. I would go on the streets and make as much as $20,000 per day.

Unfortunately, I got cocky and stupid and tried to sell 5 kilos of 95% pure cocaine($100,000) to a DEA (Drug Enforce Agent).

I thought that me being a minor they couldn’t do a thing about it. The judge told me that he would give me enough time in juvenile detention until I was old enough to go to prison. I’ve been in prison now for 14 years with no end in sight.

The ironic part of me being incarcerated is the unmitigated fact that my family is now involved in a legal business. They have over 13 Drug & Alcohol Treatment Center throughout Florida.