JERRY WESTLUND IS A CROOK!

BITTER SUITES BEHIND DOLLS
written by: THE KINGPIN THORNE PETERS

www.ThornePeters.com

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I wrote this to Michael Erskine at
The Commercial Appeal in a familiar journalistic format.
Because of the self imposed limitations of their newspaper they will not be able to run certain elements of this story which are germain to the plot, so this is the unvarnished version.
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On December 16, 2007, The Commercial Appeal, in Memphis, carried the article: DOLLS IS STILL OPEN DESPITE LAWSUITS, reporting on the pending cases against Charles G. “Jerry” Westlund, Jr. owner of Downtown Dolls, a strip club located a hop, skip, and a jump from fabled Sun Studios and across the street from the original Heartbreak Hotel, over in the part of town known as “The Edge”. The article detailed the practices and attitudes of the dancers who routinely break the law in order to make money, as well as the many legal obstacles the club faces, because of prior arrests of strippers made on the premises for acts of prostitution and drug sales, as well as their ongoing court battle to receive a topless permit from the city.

Notably, the club is being investigated for a host of zoning violations; they have citations pending for improper use of the property and not obtaining a permit for their exterior lights.The Appeal also ran a photograph of the row of rooms, located off an alley in back of Dolls, behind a locked, razor wire fence and, along with the city-county Office of Construction Code Enforcement, wondered what purpose they served, since there is only supposed to be a warehouse there.

It turns out that Westlund has been living there illegally with several employees. This is an exclusive account of what the scene is like in the private suites from a former employee and it is more lurid than previously speculated. According to this insider's account, the facility is nothing less than a “part den of iniquity part day care center”.

This is the first in a sensational three-part series that takes an in depth, unvarnished, behind the scenes look at the activities in the club and the man in charge; it is a story of greed, depravity, lawlessness, obsession and the worst kind of neglect. Though be advised that these articles provide a graphic up close portrait of how strip clubs operate and the rules that the management and dancers play by when deciding which erotic acts are acceptable whether they are permitted by law or not, so it may not be suitable for all readers.

These firsthand revelations come from The Kingpin Thorne Peters, an author and talk radio show host, living in Memphis since 1998, who spent twenty years emceeing in Hollywood's exotic dance clubs, beginning in 1978. After eight years out of the business, he went to work briefly at Christie's Cabaret for Steve Copper in October 2006 then for Westlund from January-October 2007 between The Pony and Downtown Dolls as a manager and deejay.

Kingpin was fired in October 2007 without being given a reason, but claims it was because he constantly warned the owner, and Miguel, the general manager of Westlund's Mid South operations, that girls were performing oral copulation and straight sex in the V.I.P. Lounge. His concern was that they were going to get closed down like Platinum Plus did if they didn't put a stop to it, by getting rid of the girls that were chronic offenders.

“Our inalienable, undeniable right to consent must be upheld in the name of freedom, otherwise democracy is a dictatorship by vote,” Kingpin proclaims. “But there is a time and place for everything and a strip club is for lap dancing not for sex.”

By law, an employer cannot fire an employee for complaining about illegal practices in the workplace and Kingpin has filed a Whistleblower Retaliation suit against Westlund.

“If a person works at a sewage treatment plant,” Kingpin parallels, “and they complain to management that the waste is being improperly disposed of, which creates a hazard to the community and threatens their job security, an employer is not allowed to fire the employee on that basis . . . especially when that employee is among the very best in the business by all accounts.”

Kingpin is an avowed hedonist and defender of personal choice, but believes that the practices Westlund and the management allow in the club crosses a line. It is on this basis that he has come forward to speak out on the record, hoping it will change the current trend and save the industry from owners who jeopardize the jobs of employees and dancers by allowing unlawful acts of carnal knowledge to take place on the premises for the extra revenue.

When asked about his unlikely role as the voice of moral reason Kingpin growls, “This isn't about morality; it's about maintaining a level playing field in the workplace. If some dancers do more than the law allows the customers will line up for them and everyone loses money . . . if she gets busted we can lose our jobs or get arrested.”

Kingpin surmises that the corruption starts at the top. “Guys like Westlund, and (Ralph) Lunati, and (Danny) Owens before them, want to play Mafia Don,” Kingpin disseminates. “They get on a power trip, because they can call forth one of their 'special' dancers for their 'special' customers and allow her to provide him with her 'special' services with a royal snap of the fingers . . . for a 'special' fee.”

On this and previous occasions, Westlund has refused comment on the many and varied charges and accusations leveled against him, but through his attorney, Edward Bearman, maintains that he does not allow acts of prostitution or any other sexual violation to take place at his clubs.

However Kingpin insists that Westlund routinely sets up private parties for customers at Dolls behind closed doors in the bowels of the club during and after business hours. “Westlund really only keeps Downtown Dolls open so he can do his down and dirty business in the nooks and crannies,” Kingpin charges. “That place often does its best business after it closes.”

To back it up he offers this observation as proof. “On the surface, that club makes as much in a given month as The Pony makes in a good night—not a great one. The club can't even pay for it's alcohol order and overhead; he's supposedly behind in his note on the club; (to former owner Ralph Lunati) they've closed two nights a week and stopped paying the deejay; some nights there's no security. That location does not attract the money set and since the club can't get a topless license it can't hold a crowd or quality dancers. So why would anyone keep a business open that loses money every night unless it had hidden value?”

Downtown Dolls operates the strip club in the middle of three connected buildings, all owned by Westlund, at 600 Marshall Avenue. The Tenderloin Steakhouse sign is outside the north building, where the entrance to Club Six-1-Six used to be, and the Off Beale sign is outside the south building. Kingpin provides an inside diagram of the place.

“Below Dolls, there is a basement filled with mannequins, discarded arcade games, stacks of furniture and piles of fixtures that is nearly the same size as the entire upper floor . . . it's a haven for rodents. The north room is where the booths are set up for lap dances and the south room is an unused two story hall with a raised stage and a warped dance floor. Throughout the south building, there are small rooms and and even an upstairs sky box that looks down on the empty stage, but that whole side is a dusty cavern in total disarray, with a broken down bar, rickety furniture and creaky stairs . . . it has all the charm of a condemned building. Customers or dancers are not permitted on that side without express permission, which can only come from Westlund or Miguel.”

One night, Kingpin says Westlund called him from The Pony and told him to prepare a “private party” for Stromile Swift, a player then on the Memphis Grizzlies, and his entourage, in the secluded south building. “I called back the 'Kool Aid Man' (a nickname for Westlund used behind his back by dancers and employees that refers to his appearance) to let him know the place had been dusted off. In twenty minutes the guys rolled up in Westlund's personal limo, with a half dozen girls in The Pony truck right behind them,” Kingpin chronicles. “During the night I would go back and forth to check on them . . . some of the girls were in the back rooms with the guys, others were fooling around in corners, but they had carte blanche to do whatever they wanted and the girls would allow . . . none of it was legal in that venue.”

Kingpin says Swift was not having sexual intercourse on the premises with the Las Vegas feature dancer, called SEXXY CJ, that Westlund delivered to him, but engaged her in erotic acts of foreplay that are illegal inside a strip club. Later on they left together. Kingpin also testifies that the owner and general manager were present at least some of the time during the soirée.

“Westlund and Miguel came by later while some of the guys were in the back doing their thing . . . you could hear the sex echoing off the walls and we all made comments and guffaws, so there was no mystery.”

Though Kingpin has no proof that money changed hands for this illegal event, he has a theory. “It seems to me the girls weren't doing it out of the goodness of their hearts, and Westlund isn't in the charity business, so someone was paying someone for something.” Kingpin underscores that this was not the first nor last evening of its kind condoned by Westlund and or Miguel that was hosted in the south building for customers with profile or money.

So if Kingpin is so pro choice and is not coming forward to be a tattletale, why tell this story for the record? “If those money guys came into the club and tipped on stage and got lap dances, fair and square, the girls on the shift would have made money and then they would have had tip out for me,” Kingpin reasons. “Instead it was just another slow night, because our best customers were being serviced out of bounds.”

Just off the beaten path in Westlund's exotic dance world, accessible through the basement at Dolls, and off a back alley behind the club, is the complex of rooms at 631 Madison that are officially listed as a warehouse, though, from the picture posted in the December 16 Commercial Appeal article, it appears to have some homey touches, which is curious to inspectors who have been unable to gain entry onto the compound through the razor wired gate off Madison. There have been no requests for construction permits filed with the city-county Office of Construction Code Enforcement in years, but, according to Kingpin, the sheds out back have been gutted and remodeled into luxury suites that are, in fact, Westlund's home away from his California home.

“Westlund didn't come to Memphis much at first, so he would stay in hotels and bring dancers and V.I.P.s to his upstairs suite at The Pony to mess around,” Kingpin cites. “But after Platinum closed, The Pony became the cash cow of his empire and he started hanging around Memphis more, so they turned the warehouses behind Dolls into his home and party headquarters.”

In March 2007, when a citizen reported the improper doors being installed, inspectors visited the property but found no evidence of construction in progress. They were told that it was only a storage facility. Kingpin contends that Westlund waited for the inspectors to end their investigation then had nonunion, unlicensed workers going around the clock so he could move into his luxury suite by June 1, 2007 which was accomplished.

“Westlund told us that if we were officially asked about the 'Fab Suites', as he calls them, (a term that references his self aggrandizing moniker, 'Mr. Fabulous') to say they were used for storage of art and furniture, but to never let on that anyone lives back there, because of property tax, insurance and zoning issues . . . further jeopardizing the club and our jobs.”

Westlund has evidently set himself up in fine style back there by Kingpin's standards. “It's really lavish and well appointed, in a chintzy way; we'd round up girls after shift and party in the jacuzzi when they were still building the place and Westlund was away . . . his room is about 2,500 square feet alone.”

When asked if the place was used by Westlund for prostitution, Kingpin airily responds, “Well, can you define prostitution? When the XXX-rated features come to town they stay in a special suite back there—the one with the Christmas wreath on the door in the photo—and part of their fee to come to town is to service Westlund. Other times Westlund and a group of his high end customers pull up in the limo caravan with a gaggle of hot young women from the club and party the night away. Now I can't say what motivates those sweet young things to party all night with those tubby old dudes, or what reason Westlund would have for wanting to share his digs and babes with a bunch of guys, but if I had to take a good guess I bet I'd get it right.”

Kingpin says that Westlund goes out of his way to ingratiate himself with celebrities, because he is desperate to launch a reality T.V. show based on his life, which has been in limbo with HBO Productions for two years. He feels that offering high profile people action with a lady in his hospitality suite puts him in the fast lane.

“The 3-6 Mafia guys are at the club a lot and they go back there to party . . . instead of staying upstairs and tipping. In October, he had 'Slash' from Guns & Roses back there and Westlund acted like he had invented cool because he had hooked up a rock star with a stripper . . . if all he could have hoped for was a lap dance, Slash would have stayed in the club tipping instead of partying back at Westlund's.”

Sadly, the story takes a truly deplorable turn beyond any issues of personal freedom, as it claims innocent victims that are exposed to this unsavory lifestyle, which often carries over from the stage into their personal lives . . . and their children's. Kingpin reveals that Westlund is not the only resident back there. His general manager, Miguel, lives in an annex with Jewel, the stripper he has fathered two children with in barely two years. Kingpin fears the environment back there might not be conducive to child rearing.

“Westlund is one of those high school losers that never made it with the ladies, until he got the bank to rent them,” Kingpin sums up. “I don't hold it against him for being a kid in a candy store in the strip club . . . but they need to make sure that there are no babies at the scene of the tart parties that rage on till the dawn back there with people doing and taking whatever they're into for kicks.”

Kingpin tells us that also residing in the labyrinth of the club is Kyle, who he describes as a recovering heroin addict still struggling with alcoholism who acts as Westlund's manservant. Along with his work for Westlund and the club, Kingpin has also seen Kyle pull babysitting duty.

“Miguel would call from The Pony and want us to check if Kyle was drinking —which he always is—and Miguel would come cuss him out in the middle of the club. Yet he would entrust his baby to Kyle knowing he was tanked. Many times Kyle would just go back and forth to check on the baby downstairs, because he was working the door or security and Jewel would be in and out and Miguel would be out and about . . . now there's two babies back there and soon Jewel, 'The Puerto Rican Princess', as she's known on stage, will be back working it at The Pony.”

Along with his knowledge of the happenings in the back suites, Kingpin witnessed dangerous behavior that jeopardized Miguel and Jewel's recent baby before birth that was allowed to take place in the club.

“I was appalled when Jewel would drop into Dolls from downstairs when she got bored and sit at the bar drinking and smoking,” Kingpin seethes. “The music is bumping so loud in there it scrambles your brain, let alone a womb with a baby in it. I know there's a law out there somewhere that protects a baby from a mother so selfish that she can't put down her vices to secure its health . . . I just hope those were the only vices she was indulging during her pregnancy.”

Kingpin spoke to Jewel, Miguel and Westlund about her habit of hanging out at the Doll's bar in her delicate condition, but they were insulted that he brought it up, and that's when he feels the fallout between them began.

“Once again, my only concern is what is good and what is bad for business,” Kingpin decrees. “When customers and dancers alike are making outraged comments about some pregnant barfly drinking, smoking and erotically nuzzling other strippers, I wanted to run her off. But since she was Miguel's old lady, she was beyond my orders, so like everyone else I had to sit there helplessly watching her puffing and chugging her baby's health away . . . regrettably she had a difficult pregnancy and complications, so let's hope that child does not have severe or permanent damage . . . no thanks to her.”

As stunning and as pathetic as this portion of the story has been, it becomes even seamier as we go inside the club for a front row seat in the V.I.P. Lounge, as The Kingpin Thorne Peters divulges the level of acceptable and unacceptable sexual behavior being performed at The Pony, where he was in charge of managing the erotic activity between dancer and customer using his own set of rules more so than the conventional laws that are enforced by police.

But even his support of certain illegal acts that are committed time and time again pale in comparison to the illegal activities between dancers and customers Kingpin claims is being encouraged and ignored by the owner and the general manager in their desperate attempt to be the new Platinum Plus . . . even planning to rename Downtown Dolls, Platinum Dolls if they ever get a topless license.

The more Kingpin complained to them that they were going to end up just like Platinum Plus, the less secure his position became until he feels they wrongfully took his job. “The managers that allow the girls to commit the worst offenses are still there running the show,” Kingpin points out, “and if someone doesn't do something to stop them from feeding their greed, another club will go under and there will be a whole lot of people out of work and a whole lot of baby mommas going on welfare and a whole lot more heat on the next club, so we have to make sure that the owners and management find the integrity to monitor the dancers without taking bribes to look the other way so they don't sellout another club for the price of an illegal lap dance . . . then maybe these morals crusaders here in the C.O.G.I.C./carjacking capitol will focus on crimes where there is a victim that can't be saved because the cops are at the strip club fighting the war against lap dances.”

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NOW READ . . .

THE KINGPIN vs THE KOOL AID MAN

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TALES FROM THE VIP LOUNGE
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WESTLUND: THE MAN & HIS STRIP CLUBS
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Listen to The Kingpin

TALKIN SEX WITH THE LADIES
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Visit THE GIFT SHOP to purchase stylewear and items with unique designs and original isms created by THE KINGPIN
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