Vegas’ Dark Side – The Stories of Ex-Prostitutes

PETER: All right, guys.
Today we have a super interesting story.
We’re going to meet up
with a former prostitute
who made her career here
on the Las Vegas Strip
who has since had an intervention.
Got out of the industry and life purpose
is to get other prostitutes off the street.
She’s gonna show us
the ins and outs of what goes on here
and then bring us on to
the home that she started
that rehabs these women,
gives them job training,
therapy, and the skills
to get into something else in life.
So we got a great opportunity to get
fantastic insight of what goes on here
on the Strip.
ANNIE: I don’t want to
get you in trouble with the channel.
PETER: Why?
-I don’t want to say
certain names, you know?
This is where you worked?
-Yes, the Las Vegas Strip.
-How many years ago?
-Oh my gosh, from 1987…
..to ’98.
Like full-time in the escort services.
-In all of these hotels?
-Yes, absolutely.
And not only that…
Sometimes houses that are
very high-class houses around the valley
but only if it was a special, special buyer
that was looking to purchase girls like us.
This is your friend, Ashley?
-Yes, this is my friend, Ashley.
-Ashley’s got stories too?
-Yes, she does.
-Okay.
-She’s definitely a beauty here, aren’t ya?
-Aw, thank you.
-You know, modeling is a thing.
That’s what pulled you in.
-Modeling?
-Yeah.
-Is that common story, the modeling?
-Actually it is and they’re actually
targeting more, like, teens and all that.
So people really need
to get educated on it.
-Okay, they’re targeting
teens right now for modeling?
-Yeah.
-And then they bring ’em into prostitution?
-Yeah, it’s like a setup.
-And honestly if you think about it,
prostitution denotes choice.
When you don’t have a choice
and you’re mentally wounded,
and you’ve gotten, you know,
this complex trauma thing
from being raised as, like me,
this background.
Hers is a little different,
that’s why I like both of our stories.
Because the background that I had
was complex trauma filled
with my father abusing my mother
in front of us kids and abusing us kids.
So it was normal for me to look for
a strong man that took charge.
Because that’s who my daddy was.
-Okay.
-And it’s funny because the pimp…
The pimp-hoe game,
that’s the one I come from.
From the original.
We the original OGs, just to let you know.
We the original.
I don’t care anyone tries to replace us.
-What? Pimp and hoe what?
-Pimp and hoe. Pimp and hoe parties.
-What do you mean?
The original of the parties?
-Yeah, we were like
the original inspiration for all of that.
The decade that I come from,
the ’80s and the early ’90s.
-Okay, so this is a world
I don’t know much of
and a lot of my viewers
know very little about.
So we’re gonna learn a lot today.
-Yes we are and I’m excited.
-So you see a couple different worlds
going on when you go into casinos, right?
-Oh, absolutely, like, I have to fight
my flesh from being triggered from my past
and to believe and know that
I’m in the reality that I’m in right now.
Because it’s so strong.
-Explain that.
-The senses, and the feelings,
and the surroundings,
and the colors, and the nuances,
and the different people walking by.
I can literally look in a crowd,
point out pimps,
people that are being trafficked.
I can point out men that are buying.
So we call ’em tricks, Johns, marks.
I can see in this crowd right now
who would be a potential buyer
of someone that’s underage
or someone that’s 18 and over.
-This bathroom is the one
that I would go to touch up my makeup
or whatever, re-freshen up
after doing dates.
Which is going to the trick’s
or client’s room, whatever, buyer’s room,
doing what you gotta do
and then I’d go here,
and then I’d walk down there
to go up and, like, meet more people.
See what I could do. [laughs]
-Yeah.
-So this is…
It’s been a long time
since I’ve seen this bathroom.
It’s so familiar.
-Okay, let’s just be honest.
This is prime real estate.
-Yeah.
Right at the heart of the strip.
Prime real estate for making big money.
Making thousands and thousands of dollars.
We’re not talking $20.00.
PETER: A day?
-Yeah, not $20.00 tricks, not…
Like, we’re talking
1,000, 2,000, 3,000, 4,000, 5,000
for one trick to turn.
-When you say tricks…
What’s a trick exactly?
-A trick is when a person pays for sex.
-Okay, so the full…
-When there’s money exchanged, yes.
-The full participation?
-Not all the time.
Sometimes you just take your clothes off
and then you run out the room.
-Okay.
-‘Cause if the guy that’s buying
doesn’t have enough money to do everything
you don’t have to give him everything
if you don’t want to.
You just run.
‘Kay.
♪ Memories ♪
-So by the bathroom is the ATM.
So you can bring whoever down
or find someone over here.
“Oh, let’s get a couple drinks.”
and it’s so interesting.
And then in the bathroom
there’s a long length mirror.
I kind of want to show you.
I would stand in front of this mirror
and look behind me as guys would pass by.
[giggles]
-Oh wow.
-And I’d be like, “Ooh.”
and I’d, like, smile in the mirror,
and wink or whatever,
and then come out and get a date.
And then the ATM is right there. [laughs]
ANNIE: Ashley, I just thought about it.
Let’s walk over to ******.
Let’s show him *******
and that bathroom down in the basement.
That’s one I used to hide in
from all the vice and all the pimps.
Oh my God, you gotta see this thing.
I used to sit in there
where the shutters are
and I would just sit, and wait,
and see if there’s a rich guy,
or someone that looks like he has money.
If I was in between calls
of the escort service
’cause I was super busy
I would sit there and wait
to see if I could catch me a whale.
-A whale is just a high roller?
-That’s right.
I would sit there,
and right where the little curtains are
you can sit there and have a drink
really inconspicuously,
and just hang out, and look around,
and spy at the tables,
and then this bar,
I don’t know how many nights
I sat at that bar, girl.
I would sit here
and I would just looking around like,
“Hey, there’s any action going on?”
And there would be guys
coming to sit at the bar and I’m like,
“So what are you doing here?”
like, “What’s going on?”
“Are you by yourself?”
They’re like, “Yeah, why?”
“Oh, I just want to see if
you want some company tonight.”
They’re like, “Are you saying what
you’re saying? What I think you’re saying?”
“Yes.”
-This bar, I would always sit at and just
have a drink, whatever.
The second chair is where
I first got arrested
and what was even more messed up
is that the undercover had
a Jack and Coke, or Captain or whatever,
and it was real ’cause
my ex-trafficker dude at the time
told me, you know,
if they’re not really drinking
then they’re probably undercover.
But he was drinking ’cause I sipped it.
-He was good?
-Yeah, then my dude called.
And I was like, “Yeah, so where you at?”
and I told him I got a date in front of me.
I got arrested.
And we walked all the way in the back to
the secret area by the elevators.
Yeah, fun times.
-You and the undercover?
-Yeah.
-How many years ago?
-Oh man… 2013.
PETER: When did you both get out of this?
-So she got out after me.
The first time that I got out was 1998
’cause I got engaged to one of my tricks.
PETER: How much are
the most expensive shoes?
ANNIE: Oh, gosh.
The Louis Vuitton…
You got Louis Vuitton’s here?
This one right here?
CLERK: Both of them.
ASHLEY: Oh, the pink one?
That’s cute.
ANNIE: This is very cute.
ASHLEY: I’ve never seen that.
ANNIE: But I really love this.
This is kind of my thing right here.
ASHLEY: Yeah.
-This chameleon rainbow thing.
This totally matches what I have on today.
You have to understand
that this was part of our lifestyle.
-The shoes?
-Clothing.
If I wanted to get more cash out of them
I would take them shopping with me.
I’d say, “Oh, I want to go to Tiffany
and get a couple… A diamond ring.”
“Oh, I want a Louis Vuitton,
I want a Chanel purse.”
Right there.
-So the movie Pretty Woman,
sort of like that?
-Do you know that that’s all the girls
that are call girls,
that’s our fantasy.
When I saw that movie…
-To be Julia Roberts?
-I saw it with my trafficker
when it first came out.
And I left the movie,
I was walking out of the theater,
we were in Hollywood at the time.
I walked out of the theater, and I was
balling my eyes out, and he goes…
I’m just gonna be graphic…
I’m gonna be honest about what he said.
“What the f*** are you crying about,
b****?”
and then I was like,
“What did you just say to me?”
He’s like, “You fa**** b****,
what are you crying about?”
I go, “You don’t get it do you?”
That’s what I want.
I want that.
That’s who I want in my life.
He’s like,
“Well, you ain’t getting that with me,
b****, I’m a pimp”
The first trick I turned in Las Vegas
was at a certain bar that was very famous.
A lot of people went to it
and it was near a nightclub inside it,
a very famous casino.
That we’re walking towards right now,
and I sat at the bar, and I had on a blue
beautiful sweater cardigan from the ’50s.
And I had on a real short miniskirt
with spike black sparkle heels.
No nylons, totally tanned.
My legs were shiny.
And I was just sitting there, like all sexy
and
this guy walks up to me and he’s like,
“Hey, do you know what time it is?”
I said, “Really, dude?”
I said, “You have a watch
on your hand right now, seriously?”
He ended up giving me $1,000
just to go upstairs and talk.
So I did.
-That’s it?
So you weren’t…
You weren’t a prostitute at this point?
-No I was. I was already turned out.
-How did you start?
-I’d already been in Hawaii.
So I started because I was in Minnesota
at the time, I had three jobs.
My girlfriend and I were going out
to the night clubs with fake IDs.
I was a teenager and
she and I met these two guys at the bar,
and they were pimps and we didn’t know it.
They were undercover pimps.
So this goes in front of the casino
You have more, like, a good view.
-Okay.
-Right there… Right there…
She’s working.
She’s working?
-She’s working.
-How do you know,
just ’cause she’s dressed…
-100%.
-How do you know?
-Her face, the way she’s looking.
The energy.
-A lot more at night though, right?
-Oh my gosh, so much more at night.
During the day is like a safe shift,
that’s why we call it.
I call it the renegade shift
because when I left both of my pimps,
specifically my first trafficker
I should say,
I worked during the day because I knew
that he was sleeping all day long.
‘Cause he was up at night all… you know?
-Right.
-That’s when you make the most money.
You make the most money
when people are drinking.
People are getting high on cocaine.
People are getting high on weed
or fentanyl, whatever it looks like,
they’re popping pills
and they’re calling the escort service,
and you’re making them happy.
-Okay, so origin story,
you’re in Minneapolis,
your friend, you’re going out to clubs.
A pimp… You meet a pimp.
-Yes, I met this pimp
and I did not go with him.
My girlfriend went with the other guy.
The other guy became
a very well-known pimp here in Las Vegas.
He brought her out to Hawaii and then
when we went to Hawaii
I turned my first trick
on the Waikiki beach
with a Japanese man
and I didn’t have to have any sex.
-Just… Oh, go this way,
I’ll go right here.
You didn’t have to have any sex,
what did you do with him?
-All I did is take my clothes off
and the guy freaked out,
and he kind of lost it.
It was less than three minutes
and I just walked out
and I thought,
“Who would not do this for a living?”
Like, who would not get $500
or $1,000, $2,000
just to take their clothes off?
‘Cause I’m in like Flynn.
Let’s do this, you know?
And…
-Yeah, but Annie today,
would say no, right?
-But here’s the thing…
Of course but
there was no internet back then.
This was 1987.
Such an underground world.
-Right.
-It was so taboo and so attractive.
It just drew me in like the Twilight Zone.
-You say it’s attractive
but a lot of women would say
that it’s very unattractive.
-You know what… I have to…
To be honest with you, on my flesh,
and my wants and needs
of the human body of a female…
-Yeah.
-It’s very attractive to me
because I can meet a very wealthy man.
I can meet a good looking man.
I can find a man that can take care of me
and my family for the rest of my life
and I’ll be happy.
And that’s our idea and fantasy
when we sell ourselves
when we get into the business.
-Okay, so you have that
Richard Gere fantasy from Pretty Woman?
-Absolutely.
-Like, you’re gonna meet that guy.
-Yep.
-And it’s, you know, off into the sunset?
-Mm-hmm.
-But you’re not using logic
because logic says,
“Here’s a trick, here’s an amount of money,
here’s an amount of time and it’s over.”
-Right.
-Oh, no thank you, ma’am.
-She’s probably being trafficked
herself right now, labor trafficked.
-You think?
-Oh yeah, she’s so aggressive.
There’s reasons why people are like that.
That’s happening in our city a lot.
Not just sex trafficking
but labor trafficking
of the Asian community.
It’s a great advantage for the traffickers
to really take advantage of
all the different countries
and cultures of different people…
..that can’t speak English.
-Right.
Okay, so I don’t want to
put Vegas under the bus
’cause I was just here with my wife,
we had a great time.
Like there’s so much amazing stuff here.
The performance, Cirque du Soleil, right?
-Yeah.
-Or like any of the shows,
Murray the Magician…
-Yes.
-Did a video with him, such a cool guy, right?
-Yeah.
I know him by the way.
-But they’re just different levels here.
Right?
-Yeah, there is.
-Operating at the same time.
Like you’re saying that lady’s trafficked.
Potentially.
-She potentially is.
The way she’s acting.
She how aggressive she was, pushed you
and tried to make you take her card?
-Yeah, yeah.
-You only do that if you’re under the gun
trying to make some money.
She’s trying to make her commission.
If she doesn’t make her commission
for her trafficker
she’s gonna get in trouble
or her family won’t eat
or her kids will be taken away
by the traffickers.
They’re forcing you…
Force, fraud, and coercion.
That’s the definition of sex trafficking
and labor trafficking.
It’s any time someone
forces you to do labor,
or sex
and you’re getting paid,
and they’re controlling it,
or they’re physically
using violence as a threat.
-Okay.
-And hurting your family,
maybe your animals.
One of my animals got killed
because I didn’t do what my pimp said.
-Back to the start though,
you wanted to do this?
-I did.
It was my choice in the beginning.
-So it was your choice.
-It was.
-So then what do you mean by
the pimp says you have to?
Like, you’re under the control of the pimp?
You can’t bounce out?
-And I was…
And listen, I was totally against pimps.
And that’s where this comes into play.
-Okay.
-Because if y’all know that song…
I’m not gonna say the name of it.
The song has a female and a male
rapping back and forth.
This back then was
underground explicit lyrics.
It was in the ’80s.
There’s been rumors that this man
was never even a pimp
but he got these lyrics from…
He was a talented writer.
They’re not… You know,
some people say this guy was a pimp.
Some people say he wasn’t a pimp but…
So it goes like this, the pimp says,
“Say, ho…”
and then he says,
“You like to…”
“Oh, you like me to say ‘make love’?”
and then he says,
[rapping] ♪ I saw you walking
down the street and I had to stop. ♪
♪ Turn up the radio and drop the top. ♪
♪ I said you look so good,
you look so fine, young tender… ♪
♪ Would you be mine? ♪
♪ I drive you in my car ♪
♪ I take you to my house,
’cause I’m a mack. ♪
♪ I cold turn you out, I won’t ask. ♪
♪ And I sure won’t beg,
reach right over and rub the leg. ♪
♪ I take a hand behind this mini skirt… ♪
I’m not even going to say
the rest of the thing, ok?
So the girl’s response…
♪ You provoke no feeling,
you must’ve forgot ♪
♪ the girls with whom you’re dealing ♪
♪I haven’t the urge to get busy like
those dizzy lizzies used to dance for you.♪
♪ Yo, I can’t put up. ♪
♪ You’re vocab is restricted,
you’re addicted to the words you inflicted. ♪
♪ Time after time, lie after lie. ♪
♪ Talking ’bout the b****
that are on your mind. ♪
♪ Do they call your short?
Is it your height or your width? ♪
♪ Dis me boy,
I’ll hang your balls from my cl**. ♪
The reason why I like that rap is because
my ex-trafficker loved that artist.
-Oh.
-And I was the girl saying
I am not gonna be pimped by you.
I will never choose up with you.
Choose denotes a choice.
Making it seem like you chose the pimp.
You chose the trafficker to be your “daddy”
so to speak.
All the girls are told,
“You have to call us ‘daddy’.”
Daddy this and daddy that
because you’re in the family,
this stable of women
that’s sharing the same man.
-Right.
-They’re having sex with the same man.
-So all the prostitutes
are having sex with their pimps?
-All…
We call them sex trafficking victims.
But not all of them are… yeah.
-What’s… You don’t say prostitute?
-I don’t call them prostitutes
because any time you have a trafficker
they’re being trafficked.
-Okay.
So anyone that has a pimp
is a sex traffic victim?
But what if they want to pop out?
I’m sure some pimps are like,
“Whatever, bye.”
-Well, the thing is when I used to work,
when you leave a pimp,
you leave with nothing, first of all.
Number two, when you leave
you get beat down, hunted down,
they send their handlers to find you.
And you get kidnapped,
which happened to me.
I got all my hair cut off
in front of six pimps.
And they brought their girls to this…
This, you know, “checking” of me.
They call it, you know,
I was getting served.
And my ex-trafficker made me
take all my clothes off, my pimp
and he said, “Bend your head down.”
Then he had a gun to my head like this.
And so I bend my head down
and I heard the razor turn on.
[buzzing]
And he shaved all my hair off.
Because he knew that my money
was part of my look.
Like my long, blonde, curly, pretty hair.
-Right, right.
-And back then I didn’t have colors
like I do now.
So… But what’s so funny about…
And that was traumatizing.
I was totally nude.
He beat me with attire from the fireplace
and he was checking me
in front of the other pimps
Pimps were like, “Man, check that b****.
Check that b*****.”
He was spitting on me.
Like loogies, like, [hoch]
and in my face.
And then he took the poker
from the fireplace and he just went boom.
And my leg right here…
Got like…
The muscle got completely killed.
So I have… To this day I can feel,
like on my muscle tissue
that there’s no…
There’s like a void of muscle right there.
Um, and…
He had me there at that lure.
The lure of the pimps
for probably about six hours
and then he brought me back to my own house
and he already had a girl waiting,
sleeping in my bed.
And I had left him.
I had left him, Peter.
I wasn’t with him anymore
and he kidnapped me
back into the stable.
You’ll see the casino-grade cameras
but they have face recognition now.
They never used to.
And they can recognize anybody
and find anybody
if they’re looking for them.
That’s just the way it is.
-So as a whole in Vegas,
do the casinos know about this system?
-Absolutely, they’re being trained.
I’ve trained several casinos already.
I train casinos.
-They hire you?
-Yep.
I’ve trained security how to spot girls,
how to not trigger them out,
and treat them…
How to treat them with respect
when they’re telling them
to leave the property.
How to offer them services when
they’re trying to get away from their pimp.
They need that.
-So what percentage of girls right now
are under full control of their pimps?
-Here’s security, this is where
I used to get kicked out, right here.
This is their main…
Clayton used to be his name.
He was head of security.
He would sit right here.
-Oh, okay.
-And there’s a back door
that they take you in.
Right here.
Um…
Okay, do you remember this bar, Ashley?
-Yeah.
-This… Me and my pimp
used to come here dancing.
Cleopatra’s Barge.
This was our spot.
-Okay, so you come dancing with your pimp?
This guy controls you,
treats you like sh**,
but you still love him?
-Yes.
I was in love with him.
He couldn’t do anything wrong.
Like, he was my partner for life.
He was like the love of my life.
He was my everything.
He was my best friend.
I felt like he understood me.
I went to Hawaii, turned my first trick
and came back.
Quit all three of my jobs from Minnesota
and then that’s where I met my pimp.
Up in Minnesota at the Skyway Lounge
on Hennepin Avenue in Minneapolis.
I brought him with me here.
-Okay.
-Because my girlfriend moved here.
The one that went to Hawaii.
He moved to Vegas.
She said,
“Girl, there is so much money here.”
“If you don’t get down here…
Annie, I’m making thousands every night.”
“Thousands!”
She’s like, “Girl, this is the place.”
That’s the bar.
And it was different back then,
there was no walls.
Right now it’s called
the Vista Cocktail Lounge
but it was a different bar.
-So let me understand this better.
You’re a competent educated person,
you had jobs.
Didn’t you see the writing on the wall?
Like what this world would be like?
Couldn’t you sort of see?
-I… You know…
-Or it’s just the rush
of the money or the…
-Yeah, the rush of the money.
In the beginning
I didn’t know I was gonna get trafficked.
I… I didn’t know that I was gonna have
a pimp control all my money,
and abuse me, and control me,
and watch my every move,
and take advantage of me,
and beat me down
when I didn’t do what he said,
and slap me when I looked at another pimp.
When I was walking and look at another man
he would get so jealous
he would just backhand me
and I would just sit there like this.
I wasn’t allowed to look up.
It’s called staying in pocket.
It’s the language they use.
You just have to look down
when you’re walking with your pimp
and you can’t walk with him,
you gotta walk behind him.
-Oh.
-You can’t walk with him.
You have to walk…
-Makes for tough videos doing this.
-Yeah.
You can’t walk with him,
you don’t get that…
You don’t get that,
like, blessing to walk with him.
You have to prove yourself first.
-So why are you in love with this guy?
-I just think it’s from my complex trauma.
And most girls that get…
-It’s all from childhood?
-It’s part of that
and a lot of the women that get trafficked
have this history of sexual abuse
in their life.
-Yeah.
It happened to them
when they were younger.
They’ve never gotten over it.
They’ve never had their counseling
and now they’re looking
for someone to rescue them.
So they gravitate towards any person
that gives them any attention.
And they hook ’em, [snaps]
line and sinker like that.
And they tell ’em,
“Yo, I’m gonna take care of you.”
”I’m gonna buy you nice things.”
”I’m not gonna let anyone hurt you.”
-They know exactly what to say, huh?
-Yeah, and they’re good looking,
they’re giving them gifts.
Okay, here’s the place.
There’s a…
-What’s that?
-There is a bathroom down here
that I used to hide in.
I would hide from security
when they were chasing me ’cause I would
get kicked out of all the casinos.
It was like my place where I could
be by myself and I could think straight.
-Okay.
-So it was kind of like
my self-counseling room.
And you’ll see what I mean
when you see this bathroom.
It’s so luxurious and it’s comforting.
And the other thing was
there’s mirrors in there
and beautiful lights.
So you can look at yourself,
you can fix your makeup,
and you can kind of like
have a little meeting with yourself.
PETER: I can’t go in there with you,
Do you want to just go in with a camera?
ANNIE: Yeah, yeah.
ANNIE: Okay, we’re going into
my special little place, y’all.
Look at this.
Beautiful. Okay, first of all,
this is the bathroom section
and then this is where we go and we sit
and we do our makeup.
Look at this.
Isn’t it nice in these nice cute little…
Cute little chairs.
Don’t worry,
I don’t got you guys on-camera.
And I would just sit here
and I would check my makeup in the mirror.
Which I’m gonna do right now.
Just to make sure I’m not leaking.
[chuckles]
Yeah, this is the scene right here, baby.
Then I would sit here
in these nice little chairs…
..and I would wait
for my phone to ring
and my beeper to go off.
So I could go on calls.
ANNIE: Every time I got a call
I would sneak and park over there
because I didn’t ever think
security was following me.
I thought I was being slick
but they were watching me on the cameras
the whole flippin’ time.
This right here is the most expensive
retail space in the world.
-Really?
-Guess what.
My favorite stores are here.
The tricks would say to me,
“Where are we going shopping?”
I’d be like,
“Well no, we’re not going to Jimmy Choo’s.”
We’re going to Johnny Versace’s
’cause I want to get me some jeans.
-So the tricks…
You had a fee for the trick?
-Yeah.
The agency fee.
-And then on top of it…
..you’re like, “Take me shopping.”?
-That was my tip.
Okay, so here’s how it breaks down
with the escort service.
You go on a call.
-Yeah.
-And they send you on a call
for like 150 to 250,
and then you go walk in the room,
you get the money, you take the money,
you take your clothes off
and then you get dressed right away.
‘Cause if the guy doesn’t have
any more money than that
you bolt.
-Wait, 150, 250, go in the room,
take your clothes off…
Five seconds, back on?
-Yeah, and you make 50 bucks.
But that $50 goes to the phone girl,
the girl that sent you on the call
or the phone guy that sent you on the call.
So you make no money off that.
So whatever you make
above and beyond that, that’s yours,
and then you take a percentage.
-So your job is to get ’em to want more?
Of course, and they always do.
‘Cause once you get her clothes off
why wouldn’t you want more?
Especially if your body’s cute
and you’re pretty.
-How much?
-Oh my gosh, it depends.
If the guy has crocodile shoes on,
if he has a Rolex Presidential watch,
I’m gonna tell him it’s 5,000.
$5,000.
-For an hour?
-Yeah.
Or if he doesn’t have that
I’ll say, “Well, it starts at $1,000
and goes up from there.”
-How much does your pimp
get out of that $5,000?
-All of it?
-100%.
-So then your pimp pays you every month,
or every week, every day?
-I broke myself
every single night that I got home.
I would have 10 traps.
We call them 10 drops.
10 drops to 15.
-10 drops?
-Yeah, drops.
-What do you mean?
-So those are drops to the agency fee.
So that’s… we’re talking about,
like, between…
Between $1,500
and $3,000 or $5,000 in drop money.
Not the tips.
The tip money was above and beyond that.
So the pimp would get the tip money.
That’s what he would get.
My tip money.
When you’re with a trafficker pimp
they get 100% of the money,
that’s the deal between you two.
A girl…
-So how does he know though?
If the guy tipped or not,
you could conceal it.
-He doesn’t, he has to trust you.
-Okay.
-And trust me, I used to
hide money everywhere in the house.
That’s how I escaped.
-You lived with your pimp…
-And I would cut pieces of the carpet out.
And I would stick…
He doesn’t even know this.
So when he watches this he’s gonna laugh.
I would cut…
-He’s gonna laugh?
-Yeah, I would…
-You still talk with him?
-No.
But I know he’s
probably gonna watch this video.
I would cut pieces of the carpet,
I would put it inside the statue,
I would hide it near the chandeliers
Like, I just… I did scand…
I’d put it in my car.
I’d cut pieces of my car
and slide the money in there.
And I had a stash
so if I needed to leave him I could run.
Like, I would stash $10,000,
$5,000, $15,000, whatever it was.
We’d call ’em racks back then.
-So $5,000, your pimp takes all of it
but how does the money break down?
You said you have to pay off
the bartender maybe, you have to…
Sorry, Ashley.
-Yeah, so I work for the bartenders…
And I worked for mostly bartenders
and valet drivers.
-Okay.
-So I had… and then also
concierge from certain hotels.
I would split the fee in half with them.
That was our deal.
So if I got a call from a nice hotel,
like a four or five star hotel,
I would split the fee.
So if they quoted someone $10,000
I would get five and they would get five.
And I would get to keep the five
but then that went to my pimp.
That went to my trafficker.
-How much would your pimp pay you?
-Nothing.
He would give me $5.00 or $10.00
to go buy condoms.
-You’re only doing this
at this point out of fear?
-I’m doing it out of fear, but love.
‘Cause I’m totally…
I have a trauma bond with him,
and I’m in love with him,
and I want to make him happy.
-How normal is this?
-It’s very normal in the pimp world.
Very normal.
-Why not just go on your own,
it’s less safe?
-Um, I did do that, it’s called renegading.
You feel lonely,
and I tried it for many years off and on
but you’re always looking
around your shoulder
like he’s gonna find you, and kidnap you,
and hit you, and pistol whip you and…
And that’s what they do.
They don’t allow girls to be
renegading by themselves.
Okay, now it’s starting to rain, y’all.
So you are brainwashed
into believing this person loves me.
This person cares about me.
This person has my best interest at heart.
This person’s building a future for me.
This person’s stashing money for me.
This person’s building a business for me.
This is all about the family and the love
and all about our future.
Buying houses, buying jewelry stores,
buying real estate, buying cars, you know?
Looking good, having racks and stacks,
and having diamonds on our fingers,
and Rolex watches with diamonds,
and bling here, bling there.
That’s what it was.
If there was so much money in Vegas
in the late ’80s and the early ’90s, I…
You could swim in the money.
The economy was doing good
and we were just banking. [snaps]
Banking left and right.
And I never thought
that it would ever go dry.
I never thought
that I could not make money.
Like I thought even if I get old I’m just
gonna get a bunch of plastic surgery.
I’m gonna pull my face back
and I’m gonna look cute.
My body’s gonna always look sexy
and I’m gonna do this
for the rest of my life.
That’s what I was thinking.
It’s crazy, right?
-But the job itself…
Wasn’t it terrible?
Like, how do you mentally do that?
-You have to totally shut down.
Hold on, I’m gonna get this real quick.
-Yeah, yeah, sure.
But we gotta ask that question.
-Hookers for Jesus, can I help you?
-That’s the name of the group, right?
Hookers for Jesus?
She’s changing it I think.
-She is.
It’s um… So it’s gonna be…
It is pink chair.
-Pink chair?
-And then Hookers for Jesus
is still gonna be there.
It’s gonna be like our outreach
and we have Destiny House
and Dream House.
-Wow.
-Yeah.
-So everything she’s saying,
you agree with?
Same experiences for you or…
-[Ashley giggles]
I’m laughing in the background
’cause I’m like,
I thought the same thing getting older.
I’m like, “What am I gonna do?”.
Just get plastic surgery.
ANNIE: Okay, hold on a second.
Hold on, what’s your name?
Okay, I have this on mute,
she can’t hear me.
A girl’s just calling,
I’m gonna say a fake name.
Alice is calling, she’s asking for help.
She wants to apply
for a Destiny House program.
Her pimp’s getting violent
and she wants to get away from him
and she’s scared.
-You’re the hotline for this basically?
-Sometimes we are, yeah.
-Wow.
Okay.
-Okay, so do you have a pen?
Are you ready?
I can hear she has a baby.
I can hear the baby in the background.
Um, but she said
that she has to leave her situation.
And she said she’s safe
for the next couple days
but it’s getting scary she said.
-So this woman that called you,
you know her?
You’ve talked to her before?
-Never, first time.
-Okay, so what does she want from you?
-She wants to see
if she can get help from us.
Resources and possible housing.
She sounded about
like 17.
She sounded young.
-[Peter groans]
-Really young.
-You said there was a kid?
-I could hear a baby
in the background, yes.
-So do you see a lot of that?
-Yeah.
You know, it’s very common
for the traffickers to get their
women pregnant.
‘Cause it traps them
into the relationship longer.
And they can keep the girl from leaving.
‘Cause the average life of a working girl
that’s with a pimp…
Okay?
The average time that they stay
if they’re a good pimp…
And they… You know and…
I don’t want to quote any pimps but
you’re supposed to pimp
so good that she leaves you.
She never gets fired.
You pimp so good [snaps]
she leaves you.
-Wait, wait, you pimp so good
so she stays with you
for life I would think.
-Yes, but you pimp so good she leaves you.
That means you’re a hard pimp
and you worked her to the bone.
Now she’s too tired,
she can’t work anymore.
That’s what that philosophy means.
-How many years
does that relationship typically last?
-Five to seven.
If the girl’s in love with her trafficker
and is totally bought-in
to the relationship of the stable
of sharing him with a bunch of women
and then building that dream together.
Because they’re all building that
dream together, it’s an entrepreneurship.
They’re making a dream come true
for each other.
Even though when she leaves
she knows when she walks out that door
she gets nada, [snaps] nothing.
-So every trick that takes place,
every John that is out there
hiring a prostitute’s service…
Or I’m sorry, not prostitute,
what am I supposed to say?
-Well most of them
are victims of trafficking.
-Okay.
Every victim’s… Victim of trafficking,
known as prostitute also…
Every one of those services is basically
indirectly funding this pimp’s lifestyle?
-Yes.
Absolutely.
And I think if they knew…
I don’t think men are inherently…
Like no one’s inherently evil, right?
We’re not, like, waking up going,
“Hahaha I’m gonna be…”
[as Dr. Evil]
“One million dollars.” you know?
I don’t think these men
that are purchasing women really understand
the ramifications of pornography,
and sex for sale,
and what happens behind the scenes.
Sure, they’ve seen the movies
about the ’70s pimpin’, and the big hats,
and the guys walking with the cane
but
do they know the reality
of when that girl goes home
is she gonna get beat down
for not meeting her quota?
There’s quotas we have to make.
If you don’t make your quota every night
you can’t come home.
-What’s a quota usually?
-It just depends.
Every pimp’s different.
Like for me personally, my personal quota
was a bad night
was like a couple thousand dollars, right?
Not including the agency fees.
So let me just say
a bad night’s about $5,000 to $7,000.
A good night is about $10,000,
to $15,000, to $20,000.
Now one time at this really nice casino
that’s behind us right here.
I met this guy
that was a collector of Salvador Dalis,
and he was calling girl,
after girl, after girl, after girl,
and this guy was handing out
10 grand for an hour.
So I got him to spend
multiple hours with me the entire night.
I made a grip off that guy.
I sent a bunch of my friends to him.
I’m like,
“Hey, this guy has a lot of money.
He was coked out of his mind.
Do you know I was sober doing this work
the first nine years?
Completely sober.
I barely drank.
I didn’t ever…
I really didn’t smoke any weed.
I wasn’t really a weed person.
I was against pills and against blow.
And the first time I ever did blow
was April 17th 1997.
I felt empowered.
So for me to stay in the industry
I needed a drug.
Because at that point of my life
I was broken up with two of my traffickers.
My whole life was, like,
shattered at this point.
I didn’t have anything to show
for what I used to do.
And so doing cocaine was my answer.
Like let me just do a little bump
and I’ll make a bunch of money
and I’ll just keep
all this money for myself
and finally stack my money.
But it didn’t work out like that
because the drugs took over my life
and I ended up,
like, working only a couple times a week.
And then I would get high
the rest of the week.
Men did not love me.
I never got what I…
I’m gonna cry right now.
[sobbing]
-It’s all right.
-[crying] They never loved
the real person that I was inside.
I just wanted to be loved by them.
I just wanted them
to see me for who I really was.
I didn’t want them
to think of me as a call girl.
I wanted to be Annie.
I didn’t want to be Fallen anymore.
That was my working name, Fallen York.
I wanted for them to love me
as a real human being.
-Yeah.
-100%… My soul.
And I couldn’t…
I couldn’t get that.
And so I was devastated
and that’s why I started doing cocaine.
Did you ever meet a worker
that had a great upbringing
and good cohesive family,
and they seemed happy at home?
-No.
-You never saw that?
-No.
I don’t… I’m trying to think.
I even had friends that were wealthy.
They grew up with wealthy parents
but they were working.
I don’t understand that.
And they had really
no good relationship with their parents.
Like, their parents ignored them.
They sent them off to college.
They effed off the college money,
they ended up not going.
Their parents tried to control them
with the money and they didn’t want that.
So they broke away from the inheritances
and they started hoeing
That’s what they call it, hoeing up.
[sniffs]
And they were free then.
Even though they were with a trafficker,
they were free ’cause they
could at least get to choose
their own path in life.
With the rich parents,
sometimes they control their kids.
So it’s kind of like they’re
exploiting their own children, you know?
In a way.
-Right.
-“Oh, you have to take this for a career.”
“Oh, you have to pick this college.”
”Oh, you have to go to this school.”
“Oh, you have to marry that person.”
”You have to marry up in our family,
our family is multi-millionaire.”
You gotta find someone a little richer.
It’s the same thing as pimping.
I mean c’mon, think about it.
Like, c’mon.
-Oh, interesting.
-And so how do you break away from that?
Like, what’s the better choice?
Someone that lets you do what you want?
You know, you get to go out and have sex
with a bunch of different people
and make a bunch of money…
-Does anyone want that though?
-And that’s what I was saying
the other day, Peter.
Nobody…
Nobody wants to really do this.
Here’s the thing.
The women that do this
and the young men…
‘Cause there’s male escorts too. [sniffs]
And there’s trans of course.
The people that do this..
We are the best actors and actresses
I’ve ever seen in my life.
Fake orgasm, fake smile, fake personality,
charismatic demeanor.
You know, fun-loving personality.
Like, “C’mon, let’s party, let’s have fun.”
“C’mon, let’s make your trip
the best trip you ever had in your life.”
And 24/7 you don’t take off that mask.
The only time you take it off is when
you go home and you fall asleep at night.
That’s the only time you become the real.
And then after a while that real person
that you used to be fades away
and you literally become
the persona that you created.
Which is Fallen.
I was… Annie disappeared,
the last time I heard
someone say my name…
‘Cause everyone knew me by Fallen.
It was my parents and I wasn’t allowed
to really see my parents.
I wasn’t allowed
to go back home to Minnesota.
I barely got to go.
When I did I was always spending time
with my trafficker.
-Okay, I was out at the Alien Cathouse
in Nye County a couple weeks ago.
Doing a video of what’s outside of Vegas.
I came up to this house, cathouse.
-Uh-huh.
-I didn’t think they’d let me in
or let me film.
They did.
I talked to a worker there.
She honestly…
-Said she loves it?
-She honestly seemed like she enjoyed it.
Like, the person in charge of the cathouse
didn’t seem nearly as happy.
-Yeah, ’cause they were afraid
she was gonna slip and say the wrong thing.
-No, but they wanted her to speak.
-Yeah, because she’s gonna
advertise their services.
-It’s legal.
-Yeah, but I looked at her in the eye.
She didn’t…
I think she said she’s providing a service.
There’s a lot of loneliness
and unhappiness in society.
-Right
-And she can help people,
and she feels a purpose in that.
-Yeah.
It’s true, I felt the same way for a while.
-Then she goes home to the Bay Area.
It’s like one month on,
one month off or something.
-Yeah, that’s what they do,
you cannot leave.
-They go home.
And she’s into other hobbies and stuff.
But she didn’t seem upset about it.
-Yeah, well, you know…
-Just great acting or do you think
some women actually…
-I really think it could be
and I haven’t met this person.
So I don’t know, but maybe if I met her,
and talked to her, and said,
“Hey, what’s really going on with you?”
Like, “You got some folks at home?”
Folks means in the game.
It means “your family”.
Your pimp family.
-Okay, okay.
-So she might have folks at home
that she’s paying
and they’re making her work there
or it legitly could be
she’s working on her own
and she’s just trying
to make money for college.
I wanted to go to college
but I never got to go.
Into music and stuff, and it’s funny
’cause I’m married to a musician now.
-Why didn’t you just waitress tables?
-I used to actually.
I’m really good at it.
-You could make enough money,
do that, go to community college…
[sighs]
-I’m being all practical here,
I’m being all logical.
-That’s not enough money.
-Okay.
-And that’s a lot of work.
I mean you hustle, hustle, hustle.
Bus, bus, bus, like, c’mon.
I worked at a Japanese restaurant
called Ichiban’s in Minnesota
and I worked at a place
called Dulono’s Pizza.
I loved it, don’t get me wrong,
but it’s before I knew about the game.
When I got turned onto the game, Peter,
I’m telling you…
Once I knew that I could sell my body
and make money
I couldn’t take that…
It’s like I married the game.
I married it.
I took a ring…
-Golden handcuffs?
-..and I literally was like,
“I’m not taking this off.”
Because now I know that my…
I don’t want to say weird things.
I don’t want to say a swear word.
-Okay.
-So you might have to block this out,
my p**** has power.
-Ah, yeah.
-I was…
Done.
-You would never do it again, right?
Or recommend anyone get into it?
-No.
-I don’t recommend it.
It’s too crazy of a lifestyle.
I almost got killed.
In fact there’s a hotel
across the street right there.
Um…
-Yeah. [sniffs]
-Okay.
-There was a person that opened the door
and he was in a suite,
and I said, “Can I see your ID, sir?”
‘Cause I felt something weird about it.
It was something really off.
And he was like, “Yeah.”
He goes back to the back, comes back,
and he pulls out a .357 Magnum
and goes, “This is my ID.”
And I just was like, “Okay.”
And so I walked into the room,
he had a gun held to me.
Snub nosed, I don’t know if
you’ve ever seen a snub nosed gun
but he had it
pointed at my stomach and then he
put it to the side of me
and made me take my clothes off.
He raped me.
And, uh…
Wow… That was…
[chuckles in disbelief]
I thought I was gonna die that night.
-I think when people hear
the word trafficker
they’re thinking of
a very cold relationship.
As in you have the overlord boss.
-Nope.
-And then the product.
-Nope, only when it’s enforced. Nope.
So this is what’s funny.
You’re gonna laugh when I say this.
So first of all, pimp is
power in manipulating people.
Basically that’s what a pimp is.
ASHLEY: Wow.
-Power in manipulating people.
Because if you don’t do
what the trafficker, AKA pimp says
not only will you be threatened
with getting beat, right?
Or someone you love getting beat.
Someone you love getting murdered.
You get threatened with
you ain’t getting no…
You know, the D.
You ain’t getting no D.
-Haven’t you had enough D though
with your work?
-Well when you…
Okay, so that’s totally separate
because when you’re at work you shut off.
You are in actress mode.
-Okay, okay.
-So you don’t feel anything.
-It doesn’t even count?
-No, you don’t feel it.
You don’t have orgasms.
You just are a robot.
You go through the motions
and you do what you’re supposed to do.
-Right.
-But then when you come home
you’re supposed to be
hugged, kissed, loved, massaged.
“Oh baby, did you have a good night?
You got us some money, baby?”
Like, “Yeah, daddy,
I got us some money, baby.”
And then you hug him, and kiss him,
and then you have sex.
That’s the normal pimp-hoe relationship.
But it doesn’t always work like that
because if you’re not
in the pimp’s good graces…
You’re not in the trafficker’s good graces
you’ll be thrown into a room
or he’ll go to another house
that he has another girl staying at
and go spend the night
or spend the week with her
because it’s her turn.
And now you have to sit home
at your house all by yourself
waiting for him,
calling him on his cell phone.
“Are you coming home yet, daddy?
Are you coming home yet, baby?”
I was the bottom girl.
You know what a bottom girl is?
-No.
-Let me tell you what that is.
So a bottom girl
is the main girl in the stable.
The family of traffickers.
She’s the one
that watches over the other girls.
She’s the one that checks them.
She’s the one that makes sure
they’re staying on their game
getting the money.
That they’re not cheating on him
or the family, so to speak.
-How big do the families get?
-It just depends, like…
It could be anywhere from 3 people,
2 people, to five, to 10, to 15, to 20.
-Okay.
-If it grows bigger they call it…
You know they get the…
It’s called a trophy.
It’s, you know, the pimp of the year award.
I know that sounds insane
but that’s what the do.
They give out these awards
for pimp of the year.
-Who gives them out?
[laughs]
It’s a certain culture
that does a subculture.
ANNIE: A lot of people want to give
the pimps, the traffickers a terrible name
and put them away for
20, or 30, or 40, or 50 years.
You know, “They’re pedophiles.
They’re predators.”
Hey, we can definitely state facts
when we see it happen
but in all reality
there is no services for traffickers.
There is no services for the pimps.
There is no way to rehabilitate them.
No one’s feeding that need
or filling that need.
And it’s sad to me because
these pimps have horrendous…
A lot of them have horrendous backgrounds.
Both of my traffickers, my pimps…
-Uh-huh.
-Had horrible childhoods.
Horrible.
-So you have empathy for these guys?
-I absolutely do.
And I know that there is an entrepreneur
in them because they’re hustling.
That’s what they call it in the game.
-Yeah.
-They’re hustling.
They’re trying to make it
and there is a niche for that.
There is a need for someone
to come up along beside them,
help them get out of the game.
Help them have the money,
whatever it is to pay restitution
to the girls that are hurt.
But then whatever else is left in them
as far as entrepreneurship,
teach them a new trade.
Teach them to teach other pimps
how to get out the game.
-How many pimps do you think
are operating in Las Vegas?
-Oh, in Las Vegas, ugh, thousands.
-Thousands?
-Thousands, yeah.
-How many prostitutes?
-Oh my gosh. [laughs]
Let’s rephrase it, how many victims
of trafficking and possible prostitutes?
I would say on any given weekend,
between 10,000 and 30,000.
Yeah.
A lot of them come in just for the weekend
to work and then they fly out.
But I lived here, so…
-And they’re staying in these hotels?
-Yeah, some of them are.
Sometimes they’ll stay at, like,
an Airbnb
Which is way more safer.
So, you know,
they don’t get discovered by the vice.
-Vice, what’s vice?
-Vice is undercover prostitution.
Undercover trafficking, yeah.
So they’re planted in the casinos.
They don’t have…
They have regular street clothes on.
They get called when there’s girls
at the casino with their pimps.
-Okay.
-And so what ends up happening is
the girls get kicked out of the casino.
Which I used to get
kicked out all the time.
And then they spot the pimp
and they get him on record
to put his face on camera
to make sure that if they see him again
they can watch out
to see if there’s any girls that he has
coming into the casino making money.
But they don’t really stop it.
It kinda is something
that is hard to manage.
Because there’s too many people
coming and going in these casinos.
Things are changing.
We are looking better in Vegas.
-It’s more of a family place now.
-Yeah.
-Right? I see more kids.
-But it’s still…
We still have an underground world here.
I don’t think it’s ever gonna go away.
-Yeah.
-There’s always gonna be
people selling sex.
-Oh yeah.
-There’s always gonna be underground drugs.
There’s always gonna be
that subculture of Las Vegas.
Which is the gangster.
And that’s the allure of Las Vegas.
It’s the lights, it’s the money,
it’s the fantasy.
It’s everything
’cause when you come here…
And I’m not gonna lie.
You come to the Strip at night
and those lights are turned on,
there’s something beautiful about it.
I don’t know about you guys but I want
to see what’s in those buildings.
I’m like, “That looks so beautiful.”
I love lights and colors.
-Yeah.
-But to me it says money, power,
um, entrepreneurship.
ANNIE: I think that we have
such a potential here in this city
to make our city better.
‘Cause we’re ground zero for trafficking.
Did you know that?
Per capita,
we’re ground zero for trafficking.
-What got both of you out of this?
-[Annie chuckles]
It’s called tipping points, huh?
-Yeah, I got rescued out with my trick.
-The first time.
And then you…
-Uh, I committed suicide
and I’ll tell you more about that later
but I don’t want to die.
-Wow.
[Ashley chuckles]
-So we’re gonna go to the house?
-Yep.
-Which you went through, right?
That was part of your process
of getting out of this?
-Yeah, um, that’s my process of healing
and just finding my value and worth.
-Yeah.
Talking about it and doing this work
can actually help us heal.
Because now we’re focusing on
fixing, and helping, and contributing,
and loving, and guiding someone
out of the lifestyle.
Which is a total reward.
It makes you feel good inside
’cause you know
that you’re possibly saving someone’s life.
Not every person that gets out of this
wants to do this work.
Because it’s really difficult.
‘Cause it triggers us.
It’s called vicarious trauma and it’s real.
-You’re not getting triggered today
are you?
-No.
-You cried a little bit.
-I did because I remember chasing
the feeling of home.
I just wanted to feel like I was safe
and that someone loved me,
and that someone cared for me.
That’s what I was chasing
the entire time I was being trafficked.
And even in the lifestyle itself.
Because I thought if I had money
and if I had stability
that people would love me
and I would find my family finally
but that never happened.
And that’s what you’re constantly chasing.
You’re constantly chasing
this golden carrot.
I’ll finally attain this if I do this
and then if I do this,
and then if I do this,
and maybe if I do this,
and maybe if I meet this person
you’re gonna finally attain
the ultimate, like, nirvana
but you don’t.
Because that doesn’t exist
in this lifestyle.
And so the spirituality piece
was missing from my life.
I didn’t, at the time, believe in God.
I was mad at God.
I was like, you know, “F***God.”
He took my sister, he took my grandma,
I’m mad at him right now.
-Mm-hm.
And he can kick rocks
as far as I’m concerned.
-How many years have you been doing it?
-Next year will be 20 years.
Las Vegas Strip has changed so much.
When I look at it now
it’s like a different friend.
Now I look at it as
a place of happiness.
PETER: There’s nowhere I can film in here?
-Yeah, the only only thing
you can’t really film is, like, the exit,
the premises facing the street.
Don’t film that because it’s identifiable.
This is all guarded,
no one can see this from the streets.
So it’s safe.
-Yeah.
Wow, very peaceful out here.
You’ll see, like, security cameras.
They’re casino grade.
They can zoom
and they can hear conversations.
Also, security is packing.
-You have physical security around here?
-Mm-hmm.
So if any intruder comes on our property
they’ll probably get shot.
So don’t come over here.
-But nobody knows where this is?
-No.
Someone donated this to us, yeah.
-Oh wow.
Yeah, I was curious,
how do you get your funding?
-Donors.
We are phasing out of governmental grants.
I turned three down this year so far.
-Okay, why?
-Because I want to get
private donors instead.
Because they don’t give us the freedom
to do what we really want to do.
-Okay, so with the government grants,
strings attached?
-So many strings.
-Okay.
-And so much paperwork.
-Oh, yeah.
-It’s like you pay more to report the grant
than anything else.
With the government grants,
and there’s nothing wrong with it
’cause we have a stellar record.
We get all of our books audited every year,
costs a lot of money,
but our books are stellar.
Every single cent that’s spent
on Destiny House, Dream House,
which is a property that’s beyond this one,
it’s another location,
is accounted for.
So whoever donates to us
can rest assure
it’s going to direct services.
-How many ladies here?
-That we can hold, ladies here?
-Yeah.
-So there’s 10… There’s 13 beds here.
-How many right now?
-Well, I can’t say that right now.
That’s private.
-Okay, okay.
-This is our offices right here.
This is also another house.
-This is great,
you got a swimming pool back here.
-Yeah, with a waterfall. [giggles]
I love that pool, I’ve swam in it myself.
We have our own well.
-So walk me through this.
You go to the Strip or somebody calls
like they did when we were filming.
You vet them or whatever…
-Yeah.
-Then you can bring them in here?
-Yes.
And our turnaround time
is between two and three days.
-Oh.
-So it’s not emergency housing but…
It used to be about two weeks
but if we can get one medical record
on a person we’re fine.
Like, we need to make sure
that the mental health
that they are requiring…
-Uh-huh.
-If they need a doctor or nurse 24/7
we can’t take them.
-Okay.
-Because we would rather put them
in a facility to stabilize their trauma.
But some girls have that type of trauma
where they’re totally wigged-out
and they can’t even think straight.
Like, think about a homeless person
talking to themselves, pushing a cart.
That kind of trauma.
And sometimes that happens…
-So when they get here, they’re fed?
-Yes… clothed.
-They get therapy?
How long is the program?
-This one can be one to two years.
-Oh, wow.
-And then our Dream House
is one to two years.
So if you do the full continuum
of our program, it’s four years,
but if you do the short track, it’s between
a year and a half to two years.
-[softly] Can we talk to anyone?
-Yeah, yeah, let’s walk in here.
Well hello.
WOMAN: Hi.
ANNIE: Hey, Sheila.
MAN: Hi, Peter.
PETER: Nice to meet you, Scott.
Sheila, nice to meet you.
-Hi, sir. Nice to meet you.
-Scott is our developmental director.
We hired him so we can get some new donors.
-Okay.
-So we can get away
from our government grants.
He’s working on new software
and he worked for a large organization
in another country for about 13 years.
So he has a lot of experience
and we’re hopeful
that we’re gonna be able to, you know,
raise enough funds to stay open obviously.
And expand, and create more locations.
-That’s the goal?
-Yeah.
‘Cause this model is very duplicable…
Duplica… I can’t say it right.
Franchisable. Franchisable. Better word.
-So you want to do this
outside of Las Vegas, different areas?
-Yes, and then Sheila,
she’s our outreach coordinator.
Volunteer coordinator.
You come with me into the jails.
-Yes, and we go out on the Strip.
Um, we speak to the ladies
on the arrest night.
-Yeah, the vice officers,
they try to arrest…
-Then they bring ’em to us.
They think they’re being arrested
but they bring them to us.
-Oh, great.
Wow, this is really well-organized.
I didn’t expect this to be honest.
-Yeah. Now…
And then here’s Miss Allie.
What are you doing, Allie.
-Hello, Miss Allie.
-I’m the housing resource advocate.
So they’ve completed the year program here
and then have gone onto transitional living
and they stay there
for about a year or two.
-Okay, so it’s one to two years here
and then transitional living afterwards?
-Mm-hmm, one to two years, yep.
Into Dream House and then the third step.
She’s the third step.
So long-term permanent housing.
-What line of work
do they typically get into
or it just depends?
-Oh yeah,
they could pick anything they want.
So they have about 500 choices.
We do partnerships with the grants
that give grants
for schooling, for college,
and for scholarships
for any type of job that they want.
So they could be anywhere from
an esthetician, to a chef,
or if they want to be a hotel concierge.
If they want to get into marketing.
If they want to become a judge one day.
If they want to become a lawyer.
They want to become a police officer.
We want to encourage them to do
whatever they feel called to do.
Not necessarily this work.
Some ladies though, want to do this work.
It’s not a large percentage
but there is a… Like a 10%.
-They want to work in the organization?
-Yes.
They want to work here.
-So they want to get what you’ve gotten?
That feeling of fulfillment?
-Yeah.
They want to give back.
-Yeah.
-So that’s’ that…
It’s a special piece that we like to…
We like to offer if we can.
It feels like a new thing happening now
where we’re seeing
more survivors kind of like step up,
and you already know as well as I do
a lot of people
don’t want to get on camera.
They’re afraid to tell their story
because this is real.
The traffickers, it’s a mafia.
It’s like a gang.
It’s like this undercover subculture
that wants to threaten them
to make them stay
in that subservient position
where they never tell their story,
they never share what’s happened to them,
and they hold their trauma deep inside,
and they never get
the true healing that they need.
This is Ashley’s office.
-[surprised] I didn’t know
Ashley worked for you.
-Oh my gosh, you didn’t?
-No, nobody told me that.
-Ashley, he didn’t know.
We didn’t tell him?
[Ashley speaking inaudibly]
Did we forget to tell you? [laughs]
-It’s all right, now we know.
-We were in the story…
-Nice to meet you, happy to have you here.
-Hello, Peter.
Thank you, happy to be here.
-Hi Peter, Amy.
-Amy, nice to meet you.
What are your positions here?
-I’m the head of operations.
-Okay, great.
-I’m the director
of the transitional house.
-The ladies she takes care of,
they’re not here today.
They were afraid to come on camera.
It’s okay.
-Okay, understandable.
-And several of them have
some court cases going on and they’re….
PETER: So what drew you to this work?
-So I wasn’t drawn
to the work in particular.
I felt that I was called to it.
So I was a little resistant even at first.
-You felt you were called to it.
What do you mean by that?
-Um, are you guys faith-based?
-No, I’m not but I get into
different religious groups.
-Okay cool, so I’m a Christian.
Follow Jesus Christ and
the Holy Spirit impressed upon me
some directions to take,
and as I followed them through,
it was leading me here.
And my initial response to that was like,
“No.” [giggles]
I don’t know anything about trafficking.
I don’t want to be part of that world.
I don’t want to know about that world.
You know… It’s messed up.
-Interesting.
So it natur….
You just naturally were guided in?
Was guided into this?
-Mm-hmm.
-How long have you been here?
-Five years.
-What trends, macro ones,
have you seen in the last five years?
Is there a big takeaway? I’m sure there’s
so much to unpack out of that but…
-Yeah, so much has moved online.
So much has moved digital.
-Okay.
-And grooming has moved so much online
and really expanded.
What used to be on the dark web
is moving right into your Instagram
and these other areas.
Where it’s just, you know…
How do you protect children
from these spaces
where everything in their lives
is happening right now?
-This is our little goodie bags
we give the girls.
PETER: You got such a cool team.
-Yeah, they’re…
You know, and it’s only half of our team.
So the rest are not here.
-How many are working here?
-23.
-Wow.
-Yeah…. 22.
-Between the two houses?
-Yeah.
-And here’s your book?
-Oh yeah, my book.
The English version,
I have it in Spanish too.
The story of what happened.
-Amazon?
-Yeah, it’s on Amazon
but we’re gonna have it on our website.
So if you guys want an autographed copy
and a little note written from me,
go to our website.
-Oh wow.
-www.pinkchair.org
These are gifts that people have given me
over the years and I just kept them and…
One of the girls that died made this for me
’cause she knows I love color.
This is a very special gift, they were
painting rocks in our art room next door.
-She went through your program and died?
-Yeah.
She got murdered by her trafficker.
-After the program?
-After the… Twice.
She went through our program twice.
This is before we had Dream House,
that’s why we created Dream House.
Because she had nowhere to…
She got into her own apartment.
We helped her get her own
apartment and car
but every time she got into her own place
she would go back and connect
with the old people she that knew.
And she would go back into the lifestyle.
Now it doesn’t happen
with every client that we work with
but because the trauma bonds
are so strong with the traffickers,
it’s like they’re parting
from their father, or their brother,
or the love of their life.
And they cannot let go.
-So what would a young woman
who has a terrible upbringing,
who’s gonna
get that trauma bond with a pimp
and be hooked in…
What’s an alternative?
What can she do?
‘Cause something’s
gonna need to fill that void.
-Yeah.
-That’s a real negative fill obviously.
So what should they do?
-Okay, exactly. So before that happens,
obviously we need to have programs
for education on trafficking
but also we need to have programs
that help them deal with their trauma.
So their first…
I call it the first days of their trauma.
Which is usually child abuse
or sexual abuse.
If that never gets dealt with,
they definitely are gonna be
way more susceptible to trafficking.
It’s way easier to traffic someone
that’s been broken.
Their personality’s been attacked
and their physical being’s
been attacked sexually
and physically, and mentally,
where they don’t know their own agency.
Which means they don’t have control
of their own body
and they don’t feel like
they’re their own person.
So…
-They really don’t feel like
they’re their own person?
-No, and they have codependency issues.
So they end up hooking up with people
that pretend that they love them
or believe in them
and then these people traffic them.
Whether it’s labor or sex.
-You need to get at these women very young?
-Yes, and…
-Get these girls at a young age
with all the therapy,
with the social support network.
-Yeah.
Yeah, we have to give them
a family back that they never had.
[laughing and chattering]
ANNIE: Did you tell him why
you can’t show your face?
-Well, if he got all them followers…
You know what I mean?
-Yeah, we’ll blur your face 100%.
-Your trafficker, if he sees this,
what will happen?
-He might chase me down,
hunt me down.
-‘Cause he did it before didn’t he?
-Yeah.
And drug me all the way back.
-Is he part of that subculture
from the ’80s and ’90s?
The pimp-hoe culture?
-Oh, no.
He wadn’t that tough.
-So he’s a romeo pimp?
-Yeah.
-Mm-hmm.
-Romeo… Romeo pimp is nice boyfriend guy,
you think everything’s good?
-Yeah.
-And then the switch flips one day?
BOTH: Yeah.
-We was going together in 2015.
-Okay.
-In 2016, when I moved into his house
I was turnt out
and then I got out in 2022.
-Tell Peter what that means, turnt out.
He doesn’t know.
-That means put you on the corners
and hoe, and prostitute.
Actually most of the stuff
I was doing inside our house.
PETER: You were in love with him?
TINA: Yes.
I thought he loved me but he didn’t…
The drugs played a part in it and
I had to perform for his drugs,
my drugs, and, you know, money.
-Mm-hmm.
-Yeah.
-And for eight years?
-Yes.
-Do you have kids?
-Yes, I have grown children.
They’re all grown.
-So they weren’t around?
-No.
I hid it for a long time.
-They know now?
-Yes, I told my daughter when I left home.
So she’s writing me letters
and she’s happy I’m safe and…
and…
Wow.
‘Cause I didn’t want to see
my family around him.
I didn’t want him around my family.
I mean ’cause he’s just a horrible person.
Sometimes it’s hard to walk away.
Just walk away.
If you had somebody like mine
they’ll see you dead
before they let you go.
So you have to reach out to somebody.
Especially somebody
that understands what’s going on
’cause some people don’t get this at all.
They think it’s just what we do,
what we like to do, you know?
When you’ve been forced to do it
it’s a whole different ball game.
I didn’t know about this place.
I went to a crisis place in [censored].
‘Cause I was contemplating suicide…
And at rock bottom.
-Mm-hmm.
-A lady that I never met before…
-Mm-hmm.
-..came to the crisis center where I was
and she called all the way here to Vegas
and talked to Annie and…
-Okay.
-And I never flown before either.
-Oh, wow.
-And this is a long way from home.
It took what, four hours,
and I was on a plane on my way here.
From everything that I knew.
-Wow.
-And I was scared to fly
and that was eight months ago.
Since I’ve been here
I don’t want to die anymore.
I just want to live and as you can see,
I can’t stop smiling.
-Yeah, you got…
It’s too bad we gotta blur your face
’cause you got an amazing smile.
-Oh, I know.
-You have such a beautiful smile.
-I can’t stop smiling.
-Wow.
-Been here eight months
and I’m getting my GED.
-Good for you.
-I’m halfway done with that.
And then I’m gonna be a medical assistant.
-Wow.
-Each potential girl that a pimp has
can make anywhere from $500,000
to a million, to $2 million,
to $5 million a year.
So when he loses a girl…
You know, and I’m not gonna say
everyone’s 500,000.
The lower end, sometimes
the lower end would be like 350.
But the higher end is up there
and if you lose one girl,
and you got 5 or 10,
that’s a lot of money.
If that’s your only bread.
-Yeah.
-So when you get someone off the street
whether it’s a high-class call girl,
to someone working on the blade,
doesn’t matter, it’s all the same thing.
-Do… Does the pimp ever give a day off?
-No, not me.
Not me, I don’t know about y’all.
-No? That’s a crazy question, huh?
ASHLEY: Don’t even sleep
for most of the day
ANNIE: No, you can’t come home
unless you get your trap.
You gotta get your trap.
-You don’t get, like, Sunday’s off?
Let’s get a little break here.
-No! No!
-No?
-You don’t get the weekend off,
or one day off, you work every single day.
ASHLEY: All day, every day.
-Physically, how can you handle that?
ANNIE: You make it happen…
TINA: Yes, exactly.
-..or else you get your as* kicked.
These are rooms
and we can have two at a time
but only when our population’s higher.
Every room has a different theme.
So this is the royal suite.
-Who designed these?
-I did.
-You did? I can tell.
[ladies laugh]
So you have rooms available now?
-Yes.
There’s a waiting list right now.
-Why don’t you have them filled up?
-Um, because of staff.
-Oh.
-We need more staff.
So it’s usually a couple
house managers per shift.
I don’t know if you want to show…
TINA: My room?
-Look, she’s very, very moved-in here.
[Annie laughs]
TINA: This is my room.
PETER: It’s very comfortable.
-Thank you.
-You like Van Gough?
-Yes. [giggles]
I love Van Gough.
-So the religious element here,
is there a lot of…
-Well, we’re faith-based.
-You’re faith based?
-Yeah.
So does that mean whoever comes here
has to go to church every Sunday
or anything like that?
-No, not necessarily.
But they do go anyway
because they sign up for it.
-Okay.
-So we have a sign up sheet
for all of our programs.
So let’s say if somebody
doesn’t want to go to art class
or they don’t want to go to equine therapy
or if they don’t want to go to church
on Sunday they don’t have to
but usually everyone participates.
-Okay.
-Because who wants to sit at home
and just read a book?
-I’d rather go to church.
I mean yes, it’s very tempting
to watch Netflix non-stop
but I think I’d rather be
in a place where there’s…
And the girls are like that too.
They’d rather be with someone
going somewhere
to talk about spirituality
and the heart healing
than just sit at home and just,
like, work out or something.
-It’s better to be around other people
that are going through
the kind of same thing you are.
ASHLEY: This was my bed.
I had this whole wall covered in
butterflies, pink glitter, bible verses,
all the things.
Like, you couldn’t even see the paint.
It was like a pink wall of healing.
ANNIE: It was, I remember.
How did Ashley come into this program?
How did you get here?
ANNIE: Oh, that’s a neat story.
-[Ashley giggling]
-I was speaking at an event in California
and there was this cute little lady,
and she was just crying,
and I was like, “What is wrong?”
and then she said,
“My daughter is with a trafficker.”
-I end up here because
it was either me dying,
or me escaping and getting away.
I tried to commit suicide.
I actually have scars on my arm.
And I have a tattoo that says,
“He’s greater than I.”
I didn’t want to die.
So I called my mom.
I don’t know how I had her number.
I was so, so messed up
on cocaine and alcohol.
Now I did coke to keep drinking.
I didn’t do a lot of drugs.
If and when I was, you know, forced to,
by the tricks or whatever.
But I was at the Hooter’s Casino.
It’s not there anymore.
And I was on the third floor in my room.
And I took a blade out of my razor
and I just…
And the blood just poured.
-Wow.
-And I grew up
with a really good family in church.
So it’s ironic,
like, how my story happened.
But it reminded me… For me personally,
it reminded me of Jesus on the cross
and I was like, “I don’t want to die.”
So I called my mom
and I said, “If I leave,
I have to leave now, he’s not here.”
Like, he wasn’t in the state.
So…
[giggling] And she sent me this link
that said Hookers for Jesus
and I was like, “I’m not a hooker!”
[laughing]
See, at this point
I didn’t know I was a victim.
I didn’t know what trafficking was.
I just thought I was…
-What do you mean
you didn’t know you were a victim?
-I didn’t know that, I thought
I was like one of those video vixens.
Just getting money, hustling, like,
this is my dude.
I had a Romeo.
-You had a Romeo pimp?
-Mm-hmm.
-But you were giving sex
to all these men for money?
-Yeah.
-And you didn’t even…
It didn’t hit you as, like, that’s crazy?
-It didn’t until maybe
a year and a half before I got out.
-Is that what you mean
by the brainwashing of it?
-Yeah.
ANNIE: Absolutely, you’re…
-Like, if you think about it logically,
you’re like, okay, I’m with a guy
and I’m making money for him
by having sex with other men,
this is insanity.
-Yeah.
-But if you’re under the spell
or whatever you want to call it,
you’re just like,
“Oh, he loves me, I love him, this is…”
-Yeah, I chose this.
I chose this, this is what I do because…
And they reinforce that by the way.
They’re like, “Oh man, you’re just…”
I don’t want to swear
but let’s just say it,
“You’re just a punk b****
that likes to free f***.”
“Why don’t you charge for it?”
“You’re giving it away for free.”
-So you were with Romeo pimp.
Which everything started good.
Flowers and wine?
-That’s not how I met him though.
-Okay, how’d you meet him?
-Model Mayhem.
So… Oh, I have pictures,
they’re in my desk.
I’ll have to show you later.
ANNIE: Want me to go get them?
PETER: Yeah, go get them.
-They’re right on my desk.
Um, they’re facing down.
So I used to do modeling growing up,
things here and there.
And I went on Model Mayhem,
it’s like Facebook for modeling.
-Mm-hmm.
-And there was this photographer
that offered his work
and I would offer mine.
So we kind of switch and don’t have to pay.
So the makeup artist there
knew my future trafficker at the time,
now my ex.
And I said, “Oh, he has a magazine shoot
for his magazine out in Vegas.”
“Do you want to go? It’s so and so.”
So in November… Maybe like November 2011,
I went and met him
and it was so legit.
He has Holly Madison on the cover.
He has Ice Wife Coco on it.
Like all these celebrities
and I was like,
Okay, this could be the answer to my prayer
because back then
you know, the economy fell apart
in like 2007, 2008.
-Sure.
-People couldn’t even pay for gas.
You know, all that stuff.
Kind of like today but… [both laughing]
Not that bad… Oh, it’s raining.
-It’s starting to rain.
-Um…
So that’s how I met him and I talked to him
for maybe five, six months
and now that I look back,
he would say keywords like, you know,
“You gotta be all in or not.
You gotta make sure you’re ready for this.”
and I was like I think…
-And you’re thinking modeling?
-Yes.
-And he’s like,
“You gotta be a little risque.”
I’m like well I know
Victoria’s Secret and stuff like that
and he’s like,
“No, you really gotta give it a hundred.”
So I flew out to Vegas
either the end of June of 2012
or beginning of July…
and never came back.
-Mm-hmm.
-So he put me in a really nice hotel.
Kind of like pretty woman.
At this time I had no idea
what was ahead of me
and you know,
he was getting things “situated”.
We’re gonna have,
like, a “business” together,
and all this money, and whatnot, and…
Um, and ended up working in a strip club.
He told me that a lot of his girls
make money on the side doing that.
I’m thinking well if you do modeling,
why do you need that money?
-Right.
-And he was just like, yeah, you know,
just something for you, whatever.
And I believed it. I don’t know why.
I couldn’t tell you why
but I really believe in the beginning,
complex trauma
and the manipulating and all that started,
the brainwashing.
So I started dancing and… [giggles]
most of the time dancing,
I forgot to take my top off.
I was just like in a nightclub-type deal.
Um, and then he introduced me
to prostitution and trafficking.
So one of my clients in the strip club…
Thank you, Annie.
One of my clients in the strip club
asked me, “Can I see you outside?”
I was like, “No, I’m working.
I don’t work outside.”
So I talked to my dude at the time,
ex-trafficker.
He’s like, “Give me the phone.”
and he’s texting the guy, the buyer.
“Hey, you know, so I charge this much.”
and the guy think it’s me.
And then I did my first out-call
and the bottom girl at the time
took me to there.
And at this point I didn’t even, like…
I didn’t do anything sexual at that time.
It was just dancing, I know taking off
your top and all that,
maybe a little bit can be.
[sighs] So I walked in there
and it was $600.
It was right in the beginning, like,
of me really learning
how to make money and stuff.
And the instant I walked in there
and it happened, my soul left.
I can’t even explain it to you, it’s…
I can’t. There’s no words.
And then I had to give the money
to the bottom girl at the time,
and she gave it to him.
But these were my pictures.
Oops.
So this was modeling before.
This is just one of many.
I did a lot of runways and you know,
like for websites, for their clothing.
So I’d be the model that you pick out
the outfit that you like. [giggles]
This
was
when I was trafficked.
So he made me get implants.
Breast implants.
He made me dye my hair.
And…
I can tell there’s no life in my eyes.
This is probably, like, edited.
These aren’t.
ANNIE: You look gorgeous.
-But you can see there’s,
like, no white in my eyes.
I’m not even talking about reflection.
-Right.
Like, literally.
I was probably really messed up
in these pictures
but that was my life.
That I was a functioning whatever,
you know?
I left the game…
The life, or away… Thank you.
..from my trafficker October 19th.
Or yeah, October 19th of 2018.
And I got on a megabus
from here to California.
And I was going back home.
-Mm-hmm.
-But I wasn’t going
to my parent’s house because
even though throughout the years
I was trafficked from 2012 to 2018.
They would always try to help me.
I mean they got,
like, investigators, FBI, all this stuff.
And anytime I got arrested, you know,
they would show up in court.
All the things, and I feel so bad.
‘Cause one time…
Um…
I was in a different state and my family,
my bond was paid and I thought,
you know, my pimp did it.
My family paid it, $2,000 to get me out.
And my… [scoffs]
Oh, I literally walk through,
get my stuff, my belongings,
I was in there probably
like a day or two and [scoffs]…
So we get out and then there’s,
like, a door to the street or whatever.
[sobbing] My mom’s there
and she’s waiting the whole time
just to hug me.
And I looked at her, I said,
“I gotta go.”
And I just had attitude, like…
And she’s like,
“Ashley, we just paid all this money.”
“I flew out from here to save you.”
I said, “You can’t save me.
What are you saving from?”
And she’s like,
“I’m gonna f***king kill myself.”
Like, “I can’t do this.
I can’t lose my daughter.”
And I saw her crying
and she just sat on a bench,
and I don’t know what happened,
like, I don’t know what the jail did.
How she got home.
But another girl got out
the same time as me
and her dude picked her up,
I don’t know who he was,
but they had a baby in the back seat.
Full of beer cans and whatnot.
And I said, “I’ll give you $100
if you take me back to my hotel.”
and she did drugs in the car
while he was driving, and the poor baby…
I was just like,
kicking cans just to get in
and I got back,
and I got straight to work.
I had no feelings at that time
for my mom.
For anyone… Myself and…
So that day when I got on the megabus, um,
there’s a guy, his name was Christian.
-Mm-hmm.
-And I’ll never forget
driving on the freeway back to California.
I looked at the Strip and I cried.
I cried for the guy that I was with
all those years.
Because it’s what I knew.
It’s what I…
I survived. It’s what I did.
You know, I left everything.
I left my family. I left God.
I left my 20s, I left going to school,
getting a job, learning, all that.
-Mm-hm
Like, I didn’t learn how to
get registration on your car.
I didn’t learn how to adult.
While people were doing that,
I was being trafficked and I didn’t know.
And, um, all I could think about was,
like, you know,
all I want to be is Christian.
‘Cause his name is Christian, the guy.
I felt so bad for him
’cause I was crying the whole time.
I was like, “I’m just going through
a six year breakup.”
Little did he know…
So if he sees this…
Hi. [laughs]
And, um…
So I didn’t want to go to my parent’s house
’cause I felt too broke and embarrassed.
‘Cause I had gained a lot of weight.
Um, surviving whatever,
it got really, really bad.
So I went to a friends house and…
Oh man… [sighs]
He… They’re so nice
but his family just bought a restaurant.
Guess what was in the restaurant…
A bar.
And I could drink for free unlimited.
And I was like, “I can’t do this.”
So I ended up going to my parent’s house
and when I walked in the door…
My mom picked me up
and when I walked in the door
My brothers were there.
So I’m a triplet, I have two brothers.
-Mm-hmm
-My dad was standing there
and he just stared at me and I said,
“I look different, huh dad?”
and he was like, “Yeah.”
[sobbing]
He said, “Yeah, you do.”
It really bothers me because
you know, you do make looks…
money off your looks.
That’s what it’s all about.
If you don’t have it, someone else will.
And prior to being trafficked, I modeled.
So I had a lot of trauma
from modeling already that I didn’t know.
Then going into this, um,
made matters way worse and actually
you know, I’m lucky to be alive today.
That I don’t have STDs.
I don’t have HIV.
Um, I had the opportunity
to get my implants out for free.
There’s an awesome organization
called Face Forward.
They’re in California.
They’re in Hollywood, Beverly Hills,
and they help, like,
domestic violence survivors and all that.
The doctors…
I had a Beverly Hill doctor…
[laughs] do this.
I didn’t pay for my flight, nothing.
I just showed up.
And, uh…
So here I am, and I got here
October 30th of 2018.
And I’ll never forget
they did all the intake process,
and I come in,
and I sit on…
It was a different couch at the time
but I sat on this couch in here
and I had a box full of goodies.
Shampoo, towels, a pink Bible.
I had Bath and Body Works spray
and I sat there and cried
because I had shampoo.
I couldn’t… At one point I couldn’t even
get shampoo at the gas station.
Like, Rain or whatever it’s called,
like the really, really cheap stuff
and I just cried and I was like,
“Oh, my gosh, like, I’m safe.”
So they walk me to my room,
and I get settled,
and I lay in bed, and I’m like,
“Oh, I don’t have to, like,
get up and try to make money.”
I don’t have to, like, somehow check in
with the hotel and not get kicked out
or I don’t have to do this or that.
-Mm-hmm.
-Um…
And then it’s, you know?
I went from there, and I healed,
and I went to school
to be an EKG monitor tech,
And I worked at two hospitals.
I actually worked at UMC here.
-Cool.
-For a little bit, not too long.
And then I had an opportunity to work here.
So now I do what they did for me
to help others.
-Oh, wow.
-Yeah.
-Do you get the same feeling Annie does
of just, like,
this purpose in what you’re doing?
-Yeah, you know, it’s funny ’cause when
I was in Destiny House I was like,
“I’m never gonna work for you guys.”
[laughs]
-I never asked you to.
-Not in a bad way, I was just like,
“No, I’m gonna go have a life.”
Like, telling, you know, “I’m gonna get
my animal and my little place.”
and, um, you can still have that
but it just changes.
And I thought about it.
I was like, Okay.
And it comes so easy to me
’cause I’ve been there.
I know how to talk to these ladies.
I know certain lingo
and even like a breath on the phone,
I know what that means.
If they’re uncomfortable…
Just how they pause, like everything.
-So you… You ladies have incredibly high
emotional intelligence I bet.
You can read people very well.
-Yeah.
-You feel energy, you know what…
-Yep, you’re forced to.
-Yeah.
Survival skill?
-Mm-hmm.
If you don’t know that
then you’ll lose your life.
-So you can read…
You walk into a room,
you can read the room’s atmosphere
and the person that’s in it.
The world calls it gut feeling
but the spiritual world
calls it spiritual discernment.
-Yeah.
-So we can tell if someone needs help
or if someone’s gonna kill you.
And plus, you know…
Oh my gosh, turning thousands of tricks.
Thousands…
I don’t even know how many I turned.
-How many do you think?
Well at one time I thought
it was about 10,000
but the more I thought about it, it’s…
That was with new…
New, like…
New clients that aren’t repeat.
But repeat clientele I would say 20.
So about 20,000 tricks.
Maybe a little bit more.
-That’s so interesting.
-10 popped in my mind and I was like…
ANNIE: I mean…
PETER: 10,000?
-Yeah, I…
-Yeah, ’cause I never took a night off.
-Never took a night off, it was just
constant work, work, work, work, work.
Sleep, get up, work.
-So what would be the most amount
of tricks in one evening?
-Like, during Super Bowl,
and, like, they call it fight night…
-Uh-huh.
-So…
And sometimes CES,
it’s a computer convention during AVN.
Which is Adult Video Con.
It’s super busy
’cause a lot of nerds are calling
or a lot of sports fanatics are calling,
you know, when they see a fight.
Like one night it was
Mike Tyson and Holyfield.
That was a big night.
That’s when all the pimps came out,
they all dress up in leather.
They all come out to the clubs,
and like, it’s players night
and then the girls on the other hand,
they’re working for their pimps.
So that night
either you get a good lick
what I mean by that is you get a good trick
that has a lot of money
and you stay with him for hours on end
or you jump from hotel, to hotel, to hotel.
So you could probably turn,
in one night, 20.
20 tricks.
I wasn’t allowed to tell anyone
anything about anything that was going on.
-That’s changed.
-Police was the devil, yeah.
The police was the devil.
I work with the police now.
They were the enemy
and he was the good guy
and they were the bad guy.
Which by the way,
they’re not wrong all the time.
The police were part of this at times.
There were bad vice that were
actually having sex with some of the girls.
-How is it now? Has it cleaned up
or is it still pretty bad?
-It’s getting better
but only because it’s been exposed.
That’s it.
-Yeah.
-Once they know our game,
that we busted their game,
now game on,
they’re gonna change their game.
It’s unfortunate.
-Yeah.
-So right now
you doing this is exposing some game.
-Mm-hmm.
So they’re gonna switch up their game now.
They’re gonna change things a little bit.
Now that’s why
we need programs for traffickers.
Because they need to get healed.
They need to be charged with the crime
and learn how to…
-You need something like this
for traffickers?
-We need something for them.
Because they first of all,
need to be prosecuted.
And I’m not against
you know, making sure
that they pay for what they’ve done
but at the same time, they need help.
There needs to be in-house programs
in the jails for them.
[Peter sighs]
This is not an easy thing.
-Well, to lighten it up a little.
Let’s go to the strip, you were saying…
And what do you… What’s the terminology
when you get ladies off the strip?
-We’re gonna do Saturday night love.
That’s what it’s called.
-Saturday night love?
BOTH: Yeah.
-So we’re gonna go find
some beautiful women that are working
and we’re gonna tell ’em
that they don’t have to work anymore,
and if they need to get out,
here’s some resources.
-You think we’ll be able to find them?
-Yes.
-Oh yeah. [laughs]
I saw at least 20 when we were out earlier
and a lot of buyers too.
-We don’t have gift bags for those guys.
-No.
-Maybe one day we will.
It’s called handcuffs.
[all laughing]
-Man, I don’t know.
-Turn around, you’re under arrest!
-These are the outreach packages?
-Yeah, so we go all the way or go home.
So we make it cute
because most of these, um, victims
don’t have much
and we want to make them feel special.
So we make it colorful,
and glittery, and cute.
They get a pair of, like, soft socks.
You know, jewelry, basic stuff.
Bath and Body Works spray,
little ones too,
and it’s important to do little especially
if their dude’s around, or trafficker.
Because they can’t carry a lot of stuff
and they don’t wanna be like,
“Well I got this from so and so.”
and they could get beat.
And then we give them these little Bibles.
We put this on it, it says read me.
This is the trafficking wheel.
So I never knew I was trafficked.
I never heard that word.
And when I saw this, the only thing on here
that I don’t relate to
is learning English.
‘Cause I already know English.
The first time that Annie
shared this with Destiny House
when I was there as a client
I’d never heard of complex trauma.
And I was like, “Oh my gosh.”
And people really don’t realize
how this really affects you.
Like, I actually take medication
but it helps me.
I’m not saying that everyone has to
’cause in that situation,
whatever works for you,
but depression and all that is real,
you know?
It changes your brain, your chemistry,
your whole body.
And this is also important to give out
to the victims because some of them
like, who are on the street,
like, the corner working,
like Tina had shared earlier in her story,
they may not have anything.
I wish I had one of these back in the day.
There was times when I had
no toothpaste, no deodorant,
I was wearing the same makeup for days
and whatever it looked like.
So I’m just really happy to give this bag
’cause I’ve been there.
I know how it feels.
-Wouldn’t the pimps want you to be
all taken care of in that respect?
-Yeah, during the beginning.
Wine and dine you just like pretty woman.
But towards the end, you know…
-But as their product.
As in you need to perform a lot of tricks,
don’t they want you brushing your teeth,
and doing all these things,
and having all this stuff?
-Uh-huh, until they get the next girl.
Then you’re nothing, you’re just trash.
-Okay.
-Give me my little couple thousand,
whatever you make and then
they got a new girl that they’re grooming.
She’s the new, um…
New meat. New whatever.
You know, for back page.
And I don’t think they have that anymore
but just the new girl that…
You know, all the buyers haven’t tried.
They want to see, like, what she’s about
and just the new face in town.
But everyone’s story’s different.
Mine ended up really bad,
like on the street-type.
Some people just, you know,
leave with money or…
Actually no one leaves with money,
excuse me.
Some people might leave in a different way
um, but when I came to Destiny House
all I had was
a suitcase full of dirty clothes.
[chuckles]
PETER: We have outreach bags, right?
-Mm-hmm.
-Couple in there.
-But it doesn’t mean
we give bags out to everybody.
Sometimes the pimp’s
right around the corner and we can’t do it.
-Yeah.
-‘Cause he’s watching, they have spotters.
And handlers…
And what I mean by handlers are
they’re people that
spy on the new girl that’s working.
Um, because they want to
make sure she’s staying in pocket.
-It’s just gonna be a lot of, like, um…
Girls walking from casino to casino.
-Oh, yeah.
-Which is very… It’s probably a good…
It’s probably a good one we should do.
Let’s do it.
Oh, we can go this way.
-Oh yeah, the walkway.
-Yeah.
-I caught so many dates on this walkway.
[giggles]
PETER: So…
Crazy question, slap me if you want…
Does any part of the old lifestyle…
Do you miss any part of it?
-Um, if anything,
hanging out with my girlfriends.
Feeling like we’re free
even though we know
we’re in bondage with our traffickers.
But making money.
-Do you miss the money you were making?
-Yes, of course.
-So even though…
But your pimp was controlling it all.
Not giving you much, right?
-But there was this part in my mind
that thought maybe this is mine.
Maybe this is my money.
You got all the clothes
and all the nice things, right?
-Yeah, except for when I left
I didn’t get to keep my things.
I had to leave him and he…
He would cut my stuff up
and sometimes the…
One of my… Several of my friends,
their pimps would burn their clothes.
ANNIE: Well the best thing was
when you had a guy.
He would fly you out of town
where he was at.
And if your trafficker or pimp let you go
you felt like you were free
just for a little bit.
Like you were like,
“Ooh, I don’t have to be under his thumb.”
I can have food. I can hang out.
I can drink a little bit.
I can go shopping
and he doesn’t get to say no.
I get to be in the presence of another man
that’s even possibly good-looking too.
And that I get to finally do what I want.
-Did any of the Johns know
that you had pimps over you?
-I never told them.
-So they just don’t even know?
-No.
You’re not supposed to say that.
If you say that it’s a total turn off.
-So they think you’re…
-Right.
-If they know you’re in bondage
they’re not gonna be attracted to that.
-Yeah.
-So they’re thinking
you’re totally on your own?
-You you tell ’em, “I’m going to college.”
and they’re like,
[condescendingly]
“Oh really? Great thing. Okay, yeah.”
“That’s really smart. You’re a smart girl.”
“Oh, I like you even better now.”
Okay, watch this. Watch this.
I used to be on those cards.
[slaps cards]
See he’s trying to get you
to call an escort service.
-Yep.
Hey!
[slaps cards]
PETER: Can you grab one of those cards?
[slaps cards]
MAN: What is this?
ANNIE: Do you know you’re passing that out?
Do you know what is on those cards?
I used to be on those cards.
These are trafficking victims.
Did you know that?
I want you to look at that.
Just look at it.
Can I see one?
You see this?
This isn’t the real girl.
This girl has been on these ads
for over 20 years.
They need new pictures.
But this is a…
Oh my God!
$69.
$69 to get a girl to your room.
-Is that a real price?
-I’ve never gone to a room for $69.
[condescendingly] Really, dude?
So it’s legal to be out here
giving those things away?
-Personally,
I think they’re labor trafficked.
Maybe he doesn’t have certain documents
or maybe he’s struggling. Who knows?
ANNIE: Call this number, okay?
This is me, that’s my story.
He got afraid of me.
-So that…
-I think he thought I was a cop
or something. I don’t know.
-So is it illegal to do that or no?
-No, they can do it
but they have to have, like, a…
Here she is right here, look.
[cards slapping]
Hi ladies.
WOMAN: Hi ladies.
-Do you know… Can you speak English?
-No.
-Espanol only?
-Espanol.
-Yeah, how much this one?
Can I see?
Fifty.
[angry] Fifty!
Do you know
that these girls are being trafficked?
-Yeah.
-They’re being used, yeah.
WOMAN2: [Spanish]
Yeah.
-So is that a real price?
Like a girl’s gonna go to a room for $50?
-No, it’s a setup.
There’s no way.
-Okay, yeah.
-And that’s what…
Like, that’s how people get robbed
and things like that.
ANNIE: ..be able to make money.
WOMAN: Where do you guys get this stuff?
What do you think this is?
[angry] What do you think this is?
-You want to know what this is?
-Yeah, I want to know what that is.
-I used to work for these places.
-You used to… And you what?
Used to work for them and do what?
Hookers? Hookers?
Okay.
These ladies have pimps.
-They do?
-Yeah.
-For what I know
when I worked as a phone girl
um, they were entertainers.
-Yeah.
-So, I mean…
-Guess what.
-What?
-You being a phone girl,
you got a lot of good tips, right?
So I would tip my phone girl
$50 to $100 for every call she sent me on
and then I would get my $500.
-I don’t want to…
PETER: It’s public space. Public space.
ANNIE: It’s okay, he’s…
-But I’m just letting you know…
-Listen, I don’t want to be recorded.
-I understand.
-I have the right, right?
I have the right, right?
-Yeah, but listen…
PETER: You don’t have to talk then.
ANNIE: Part of being a phone girl…
PETER: Don’t talk. I have the right
to film the street, this is public.
It’s public.
ANNIE: [shouting] If this was your daughter
you wouldn’t be selling her like that!
-Is it your daughter?
[Annie shouting] You guys,
right now this is all trafficking!
This is trafficking, everybody!
Trafficking!
I used to be on these cards.
I’m done.
[woman speaking indistinctly]
No, bad for you!
You wait ’til God sees you
at the f***king gates!
Let’s see what happens.
Sorry, dude.
-No, don’t be sorry.
-She was about to hit me.
I’m not afraid of them people.
You know what, here’s the thing.
She had the nerve
to say she was a phone girl.
She was a… She was a trafficker, dude.
That’s why she’s so upset with me.
She was trafficking women!
-So what’s her part in all of this?
She’s working for the escort service.
Okay, right here, Ashley, huh?
But they’re together, huh?
-Yeah.
They’re working. They’re working.
See their tattoos?
-They’re working that young?
They’re like 16.
Oh, I gotta calm down…. phew.
-Yeah, it’s all right, it’s all right.
-I’m sorry, that’s what
we’re dealing with here, Peter.
It’s pure evil.
She denied what I told her.
And she knows it’s the truth.
That’s the problem with that girl.
She used to be a phone girl.
It’s really sad.
WOMAN: What’s a phone girl?
-A phone girl is someone that takes women
and sends them out on calls,
and then they… when the girl comes…
-Calls to prostitute?
-Yeah, the girls come back to her
and they give her a big fat tip
for sending them out.
So they’re trafficking the girls too.
-Right, right.
-That’s right.
Just sayin’.
-I used to be one of the girls.
-So she’s giving the card…
-Yeah.
-She’s giving the card
and there’s phone number and say,
you can… Wow.
Thank you for listening.
What’s your name?
-Silvia.
-Hi Silvia, nice to meet you.
Yeah, I…
-God bless you ladies.
♪ R&B from PA ♪
[music picks up]
PETER: Oh, yeah.
ANNIE: Let’s walk through here real quick.
Okay Ashley, keep looking.
The people that are
passing out those cards,
a lot of them are illegal aliens
and they don’t have a visa to be here.
So that’s the only job they can get.
So they’re, in essence,
part of the whole trafficking system.
They’re being trafficked
for not being legal.
So someone’s putting them under a thumb
of controlling them
because they can’t make any money legally.
-They had to pay someone
to get them over the border…
-That’s right,
and they owe them money right now.
-Yeah.
-So this is the only job they have.
And it’s possibly a big trafficking gang.
Squares?
ASHLEY: Yeah.
ANNIE: Those are squares.
Okay, so those typical guys right here…
The guy in pink, that guy talking…
I don’t know about Ashley,
but I might have approached those guys
and said, “Hey, what are you guys doing?”
I was showing him some tricks.
-Oh yeah.
-They’re here for a convention obviously.
-Yeah.
-So that’s your prime target,
like convention guys?
-Yeah, someone like that, yeah.
If it looks like they’re square.
They look like they’re clean-cut.
Like they have a lot of money possibly.
They’re not with their wives,
they’re drinking.
Perfect client.
-And what they drink.
-Yeah.
-Usually it’s like a Gentleman Jack
or an old fashion.
-Yeah.
-Did you ever feel bad,
like, about the wife?
Like the guy’s cheating with you.
Did you ever feel bad for her?
-You know, sometimes.
Sometimes I did but I would always try
to put it out of my mind.
-Okay.
-Which is probably wrong but…
‘Cause I don’t want to think about that.
That’s too much to worry about. Like…
-So just like the lady on the street?
-Right.
-She doesn’t want to think about it, right?
-No, I upset her.
And I feel sorry that I had to do that
but she needs to wake up.
These two girls are with their pimps.
So we can’t give them a bag.
-Okay.
-It’s sad… The pimps…
-How do you… I don’t want to put the…
-They’re right there,
they just walked up to them.
-Oh, okay.
ANNIE: Sucks.
So this is a situation where
sometimes you can’t approach someone
because it’s inappropriate.
PETER: So in that example, two girls,
two pimps, don’t get anywhere near it?
-No, it’s dangerous.
I wouldn’t recommend anyone do this
that doesn’t know what they’re doing.
Normally I have a team with me,
and someone that’s packing.
Someone in front of me and in back of me.
A lot of the pimps are packing.
You don’t want to get in a gun fight.
You know, you don’t wanna…
Oh my God,
we’re getting shot on the Strip tonight.
That’s happened here before.
The reason why I do this is
because I know what it felt like
to be stuck where I was.
In hell, not able to escape.
I felt like I was in, like this…
Un… This non-stop merry-go-round
of money, drugs, money, beatings,
occasional sex with my trafficker.
Watching one of my friends die.
Hearing about one of my friends
get shot at a brothel.
Just this horrible wheel I was on.
And I couldn’t get off of it.
So this is what I think when I reach out
and I see different women that are working,
that are being trafficked.
I think of myself
and I remember
what I was thinking in my mind.
And I didn’t want to live anymore.
-You wish there was an Annie
that came into your world back then?
-Yeah.
ANNIE: We can ask them if you want
who gets all their money.
SHOWGIRLS: Hi guys,
you want to get a photo?
-I can ask them.
Hey girls…. Girls, girls, girls…
Hey…Pst pst pst… Hey.
-Hey, I love your hair.
How are you guys doing? thank you.
-Do you guys want a picture?
-Oh, you know what, listen,
I was gonna ask you guys a question.
-What’s up?
-Do you guys…
Are you guys entrepreneurs yourself?
Like, this is your gig, right?
-Um, we work at the Flamingo.
We have a burlesque show.
-Oh okay.
I didn’t know
because some of the girls are not real.
-Yeah, some of them…
-It just depends on the show
I’m with [inaudible].
-Yeah, ’cause I didn’t know that.
-It just depends on who you talk to.
Some of them go, like, [inaudible].
They just kind of like do their own thing.
-Okay, thank you.
So I have a question
because some of these girls…
‘Cause I used to be
a call girl on the Strip.
And you guys know what a call girl is?
-I don’t
-What is that?
-So it’s someone that goes on calls
and you know those guys
that are passing out the cards?
-Yeah.
-So they’re passing out cards
and in 15 minutes, or 20 minutes,
there’s a girl direct to you
and then she gets paid an escort fee,
and then she has to tip the phone girl,
and then she has a pimp at home
that she gives all her money to.
-Oh wow.
-Yeah, so I used to do that.
When I was younger obviously.
Um, and I have two safe houses now
for women that are trafficked
here in Las Vegas.
I’ve been helping women for about 20 years
but I’m just wondering because I’ve seen
a lot of the girls dressed up and stuff
and I’m just wondering if there’s pimps
behind some of the other girls
that possibly are putting their girls out
dressed as… You know?
-Not that I know of.
I’ve definitely seen some girls out here…
But not…
-That are questionable, right?
-Um, I see girls in, like, little clothing
or, like, mesh clothing.
-I’ve seen them.
Like, I’ve seen them on the street.
-You know what I’m talking about
don’t you?
-They’ll be dressing
in, like, [inaudible] and stuff.
-Oh, really?
-Yeah, they’re like prostitutes and stuff.
-I didn’t know that.
-Yeah, and they’re soliciting the guys.
‘Cause I think they are.
I saw them talking to them.
-This is from like word to word.
So I don’t really know what’s going on.
-Yeah, okay.
-I work on the strip
but I think a lot of that happens
at that main bar I would say.
I’m not sure.
-Yeah.
-Depends on who you talk to.
-Well, you girls stay safe. Okay?
-Yeah, it depends.
-Just make sure
no one’s grabbing you or nothing.
-Well thank you.
-You guys have a good night.
Thank you.
-Oh, are you a Christian?
-Yeah, I love Jesus. I love Jesus.
-You still go to church every Sunday?
-Sometimes.
[all laughing]
-I do that too. I try.
-Yeah, yeah.
Anyway, thank you.
Have a good night.
-Thank you, appreciate it.
-Okay, your feathers are so cute.
They claim that they’re working,
and I believe them,
for a company called [censored].
-Okay.
-Yeah, and they said that they’re
not part of any weird thing
but they said that there’s other girls
that are doing this
and they’re soliciting clients.
I believe them.
I don’t think they’re working.
There was no tattoos on their bodies
and they seem kind of like
innocent and pure, you know?
Like I could tell that they hadn’t been,
like, damaged or raped yet or anything.
You know what I mean?
Like, I just could tell
that they were being fairly honest with me.
-So that’s interesting.
Today when we were out, we saw a lot.
-The day shift.
-Day shift?
-Yeah, day shift.
-Right now, not so many.
-Yeah, they’re probably at dinner
or they’re waking up,
taking a shower right now.
-Oh, right there.
Ashley, Ashley, c’mon, c’mon.
Here.
Hi.
I’m Annie.
This is a gift bag for you.
It’s… It’s got, like, resources in it…
and… and I used to be a girl.
I was one of the girls.
C’mon, c’mon, please just take it.
-I don’t want it.
-Okay, well you’re so beautiful.
-Thank you.
-Keep it moving, girl.
Keep it safe, okay?
-[Ashley speaking inaudibly]
-Yeah.
She doesn’t want one.
This is a really good example.
She knows that I know
what she’s doing and she laughed
and she goes, “No, thank you.”
She’s not ready.
So earlier when I was talking about…
and rapping that music.
That was not any way… enjoyment.
This was letting people know
that hip hop…
Some hip hop is corrupted
with trafficking lyrics
and trafficking encouragement
for young girls and young men
to get into that lifestyle
and it’s very dangerous.
It’s not good.
-So that was old school ’80s stuff
you were playing.
-Yes, old school pimp music.
-What about new stuff?
-Oh, it’s even more.
I was listening to some last night.
Girls are talking about being a pimp.
I couldn’t believe it.
-All right, ladies…
Ashley, Annie, thank you
for bringing us in.
-Yes, you’re welcome.
Most of us don’t have an understanding
of this world.
And it’s brave people like you two
that bring us all in.
So thank you for that.
-Thank you.
No, thank you.
-And then your organization,
which was very impressive today,
where do people find you?
-They can just go to www.pinkchair.org
-Okay.
-It’s simple www.pinkchair.org
-Okay.
-They can look up what we do.
They can email us, they can call us.
-Okay.
-We’re a 501(3)(c) and we get
our audited financials
done every single year.
It’s very expensive but it’s worth it.
So you get to see
everywhere your money goes.
-You do get to see that?
-Yep.
-‘Cause so many organizations,
it just sort of goes away.
-We send everybody that wants the report,
we’ll send it to them.
-Oh, very cool.
Anything else you ladies want to say?
-We just want to thank you
for being here
and having the opportunity
to show Las Vegas.
The true Las Vegas.
Which we love our city.
We need people’s help
to keep it a good city.
ANNIE: Remember this?
[Annie singing Memory by Barbra Streisand]
♪ I remember ♪
♪ the time I knew what happiness was ♪
♪ Let the memory live again ♪