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 Norma
Jean Almodovar (nee Wright) was born May 27, 1951,
to Mr. and Mrs. Harold M. Wright of Binghamton,
New York. She was the fourth child and first
daughter in a family of 8
boys and 6 girls. Through their mother, Helen Ruth
Doolittle Wright, daughter of Mark Arthur
Doolittle and Clara Chauncey, the family are direct
descendants of John Howland, Pilgrim of the
Mayflower, and of the Reverend Charles Chauncey,
President of Harvard University 1654- 1672. The
Chauncey family tree traces directly back to
Charlemagne and the royal houses of France and
England including the Plantagenets and William
the Conqueror. Her maternal grandfather is a
descendant of the once powerful Lyon Family of
France, then of Scotland.
 Norma Jean's
mother was a school teacher who retired when the
family started growing. Her father served in the
US Army during WWII, after which he was a factory
worker- and always a dreamer. Despite his best
efforts to provide for his family, there were
simply too many children to feed on too small a
salary. Their illustrious genealogical heritage
notwithstanding, Norma Jean and her siblings grew
up poor and the family was often dependent upon
charity to survive.
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Not long after
the birth of one of Norma Jean's younger sisters,
her mother became a "born again" Christian and
thereafter Norma Jean and her siblings were raised
as fundamental Baptists whose lives revolved around
the church and Christianity. Throughout her
childhood, Norma Jean believed she was chosen by God
to become a missionary to Puerto Rico, and so at age
18, Norma Jean was enrolled in Philadelphia College
of the Bible.
However, before
she could go to college, she had to get a job. Her
parents could not afford to send any of their
children to college and so it was up to each child
to find their own way if they wanted to further
their education. After Norma Jean graduated from
high school in June, 1969, she and a fellow
classmate moved to New York City where they lived
with her friend's Russian grandparents in the Bronx.
Norma Jean got a job working as a clerk in the
Empire State Building while her friend attended the
local Kings College.
In January of
1970, Norma Jean decided to take a short vacation
and visit her Aunt Rusty in California. She didn't
know it at the time, but her plans to become a
missionary were about to be derailed.
After visiting
with her aunt for a week, she went to visit her
Puerto Rican friends from New York who had relocated
to Los Angeles and had become deeply involved in a
fundamentalist religious cult. Her friends pressured
her to join them and become part of the "local
church." Within a week she succumbed to peer
pressure and found herself as involved in the church
as were her friends, even though Norma Jean had
already begun to have doubts about her faith in God.
During the summer of 1970, she met a cousin of one
of her New York Puerto Rican friends, a man who had
just been discharged from the Air Force. By
November, she was sure she was in love with him and
so on November 19, 1970, she became the wife of Mr.
Radames Almodovar. The marriage ended three years
later, with no children. By the time her marriage
was over, Norma Jean had disassociated herself from
the church and no longer considered herself a
Christian.
To
learn more about her philosophy on religion and
God, click here.
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As the family grew,
Norma Jean, as the eldest daughter,
assisted her mother in raising the younger
children as they came along. By the time
Norma Jean turned
18, she never wanted to change
another diaper in her life!
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In
1986 with my family after our father's
funeral. This is the last photo of all
my siblings together. My younger
sister Grace Elizabeth died of breast
cancer in 1995, and my mother died
July 31, 2008.
My oldest brother Douglas passed away
in 2014. My younger brother
Neil passed away unexpectedly at
the end of July 2020. My brother Ken,
also younger, passed away in 2021.
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All the girls in the
family for the annual portrait- the boys
had their annual portrait as well.
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She joined the Los
Angeles Police Department as a civilian traffic
officer in 1972. At the time, police women had to be
5'8" tall and were only assigned to indoor duties.
Norma Jean was 5'4" and did not meet the height
requirement to be a police woman, and she did not want
an indoor job, either.
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As a
traffic officer, she was assigned to the nightwatch
for most of her ten year career, working from 6 P.M.
until 2 A.M. out of the Rampart and Hollywood
Divisions. During this time she witnessed many acts of
corruption and serious criminal activity committed by
other members of the LAPD.
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During the first few years on
the LAPD, I was like a kid in a candy
store... so many handsome cops to date! So
many men... but with a few exceptions, most
cops I dated thought that making love was
like using their gun- and all they had to do
was take aim and shoot. Most couldn't get it
out of their holster before it went off...
and they were never concerned about MY
sexual needs! |
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| Ironically, she learned
from the cops she dated the sexual
meaning of the words "head," kinky"
and "laid"- and years later, the fact
that she knew and used these words in
a conversation with her "friend" Penny
was used by the vice cops to get a
search warrant, because the use of
those words, according to Alan
Vanderpool and Fred Clapp, "proved
that Norma Jean was operating as a
madam"!!!!!!! |
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Norma
Jean was nicknamed the "Bionic Arm" by her peers
because she spent all her work hours doing what she
had been hired to do, and on many occasions she
wrote in excess of 300 tickets a day. Her other
duties included directing traffic at the scene of an
accident, fire or homicide, and recovering stolen
vehicles.
For all the work
she did during her on duty hours, off duty Norma
Jean liked to play just as hard as she worked. She
found the handsome cops she worked with difficult to
resist and dated many of them. From them she learned
just about every 'deviant' sex act that can be done
with another human being, even though many of these
acts were still felonies at the time and every cop
she dated was a felon under the law. After a short
while, the novelty of dating cops wore off when she
discovered that very, very few of them seemed
interested in reciprocating pleasure, legal or
otherwise.
In 1975,
Norma Jean met Victor, the man who is now her
husband. He did for her what all the cops she
dated had failed to do (or even try to do)- he
gave her pleasure and told her it was her right as
a woman to experience multiple orgasms. We'll
return to their relationship later.
In 1974 Norma
Jean suffered the first of three work-related
traffic accidents. She hurt her back when the three
wheeled Harley Davidson motorcycle, to which she had
been assigned at the time, hit the car in front of
her. The driver, seeing the police vehicle behind
him, decided not to go through the red light and
stopped suddenly, backing up his car into Norma
Jean's motorcycle. Norma Jean was on disability for
over a year and a half as a result of this accident,
and was hospitalized on two occasions. It was during
this time she met Victor.
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In her second on
duty accident, she was attacked by a Hollywood
businessman. He attempted to run over her with his
vehicle- but only managed to knock her down. He was
arrested for assault, of course, but the City of Los
Angeles did not want to prosecute a member of the
Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. As city property,
Norma Jean was not allowed to sue him for the
physical and emotional damage he caused her.
The third and
final accident occurred on April 18, 1982, at 11:10
P.M. The police car she was driving on Hollywood
Blvd. was rear-ended by a very intoxicated man in a
stolen car, who, as it turned out, was an illegal
alien and had just committed an armed robbery. He
fled the scene of the accident involving Norma Jean,
but was apprehended moments later after a brief
pursuit around the block with a couple of several
undercover cop cars which happened to be right
around the corner when the accident occurred. The
suspect was released shortly after being booked into
the Hollywood jail, while Norma Jean was still in
the emergency room having x-rays taken of her
reinjured back and neck. That was the last day she
ever worked for the Los Angeles Police........
Norma Jean was
already very disillusioned with the LAPD and she was
angry with her co-workers for their corrupt
activities (the burglary and drug ring,
murder-for-hire- ring, sex with 10 year old girls,
etc.). This accident was the final straw. She knew
that the man who hit her would never be prosecuted-
and just like the situation with the Hollywood
businessman who had tried to run her over, she knew
that she could not count on the City of Los Angeles
to be concerned for her well being. After completing
the accident report, she went home and in a symbolic
gesture of cutting her ties with the LAPD, she tore
up her uniform and cut up her shoes. To replace them
would be very expensive and she didn't want to be
tempted to go back on her decision. She had vowed
that she would never again return to work for the
LAPD.
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When the City stopped paying
her disability benefits, she decided to take up a new
career. She chose to become a high-priced Beverly
Hills Call Girl. She is often asked why she chose this
profession when she could do so many other things,
including her crafts (doll-making)... her answer is
that she wanted to make a social statement about the
moral hypocrisy of our society- a society which seemed
completely untroubled by the police corruption that
permeated the LAPD, and yet demanded that law
enforcement spend a significant portion of its scarce
and valuable resources to set-up and arrest women
whose sole "crime" was to accept money from men for
acts of sex in which they could otherwise legally
engage, even with thousands of men- provided the sex
was free. The arrest and subsequent incarceration
would brand them forever as a prostitute and destroy
their lives - all in the name of protecting them from
exploitation.
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Her statement was simple- "I
would rather be a whore- an outcast from society- than
to work for the Los Angeles Police Department. It is
much more honest and I can live with myself." In
addition to her new found profession, she continued
her doll business, which, while it didn't generate
much income, but helped to reduce the stress and anger
she still felt toward the LAPD. As well, she continued
working on the book she began writing while working
the night shift on the LAPD, during the many hours she
spent waiting for the tow company to arrive to tow
away the stolen and illegally parked cars she found
during her tour of duty. The book now included her
experiences as a prostitute and she titled the book,
"Cop to Call Girl."
On September
17th, 1983, seven cops with their guns drawn knocked
at her door to arrest her on one count of pandering.
Her unfinished manuscript was confiscated by the
police as "evidence" of her crime and she was taken,
in handcuffs, to the downtown LA police headquarters
where she once worked. The pandering charge stemmed
from her attempt to fulfill the alleged sexual
fantasy of a former friend who was still a traffic
officer. The "friend," Penny Isgro, had come to
Norma Jean's home wearing a wire, and later admitted
during Norma Jean's trial that she had helped set up
Norma Jean to prevent her from writing an expose of
the Los Angeles Police. Through the perhaps
deliberate incompetence of her attorney (whom she
later successfully sued) Norma Jean was given no
defense whatsoever during her brief trial, and as a
result, was convicted of that one count of
pandering- which was a felony.
For making a
phone call on behalf of her very unattractive fifty-
year old, six foot two, two hundred fifty pound
"friend", Norma Jean was facing a mandatory three to
six year incarceration in the California State
Penitentiary. The judge postponed sentencing until
after a 90 day psychiatric evaluation could be done
to determine whether or not Norma Jean posed a
"threat to society" for her crime of trying to
fulfill her friend's sexual fantasy. The judge
allowed her two weeks to put her affairs in order,
before she was to return, the day before
Thanksgiving 1984, to be remanded into custody.
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During this brief period of
confinement, she would not be an inmate so she would
have no prisoner rights such as visits from friends.
The only visitor she would be allowed to have during
the 90 days of her evaluation (which included all the
holidays from Thanksgiving through the New Year 1985)
would be a husband- if she were married. The problem
was that she and the love of her life weren't married
and weren't planning to do so.
She met Victor
in 1975. An actor, writer and architect, he was
everything she had ever wanted in a life partner.
His stage name Victor Savant.... means "victory in
knowledge." Although it took her six months to
realize it, Victor was her "grand passion." They
dated each other many years and were deeply in love
but they had no plans to marry. Neither one of them
believed that the State has a right to license
personal relationships, and as atheists, they
certainly did not believe in being married for
religious reasons.
Norma Jean and
Victor were shattered by her arrest and conviction,
and now that she was going to be incarcerated for
three months, she needed Victor's support more than
ever. The thought of being away from each other for
90 days was more than either could bear, so they
were married on November 19, 1984, just a little
over a day before she went to prison.
Unbeknownst to
her, Victor or the judge, Norma Jean would be held
in solitary confinement during her stay as a guest
of the State of California. She was told that it was
"for her own good..... to protect her from other
inmates because of her police background." It was
also, no doubt, for her own good that she was
handcuffed to herself and to two guards as she was
escorted from her tiny cell to the offices of the
psychiatrists who were to examine her. The
psychiatric evaluation itself took only a little
over three hours, but she was kept in solitary
confinement for over two months before being shipped
back to county jail and then to see the judge.
When she was
released from solitary confinement on January 9th,
1985, the judge, who noted that the report said
Norma Jean wasn't a danger to anyone, felt that the
mandatory three to six year sentence was "cruel and
unusual punishment" as applied to her. Norma Jean
had no prior criminal record, so instead of sending
her to prison for the mandatory minimum sentence, he
put her on three years probation. At the time, the
District Attorney's office made a public statement
that they had no plans to appeal the judge's
sentence.
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Having
been denied the opportunity to speak out during her
trial about what had been done to her, Norma Jean
decided that going back to the public to state her
case was the only thing she could do. She continued
her outspoken media campaign against the corruption
within the Los Angeles Police Department. [Her
prosecutor, Richard Weber, in a later interview
with American Justice, stated that Norma Jean had
a "vivid imagination" when it came to the
corruption on the LAPD, a statement which was
completely invalidated with the revelations of the
Rodney King beating and the subsequent Rampart
Division scandal, among other police
scandals.....] Her constant appearances on
television further enraged the powerful LAPD
officials and District Attorney who had hoped to
silence her with the "taste of prison" imposed on
her by the judge. She also lobbied to have her
manuscript and research material returned to her,
volumes of research and typed pages taken as
evidence of her "pandering efforts" even though none
of it was ever used in court- and it was never
returned to her either.
Her
high profile public appearances were rewarded when
on December 6th, 1985- eleven months after she was
sentenced to probation, the Los Angeles District
Attorney's office filed an appeal to overturn her
probation sentence on the grounds that the law
mandated a three year minimum prison term on the
first offense. According to the District Attorney
Ira Reiner, Norma Jean's crime was "worse than
rape or robbery" or even a violent assault on
someone, and further, that she had compounded her
"crime" by writing a book which would cause
"disrespect for law and order." In the appellate
brief filed in the State Supreme Court of
California, the District Attorney made over 57
references to the "harm to society" that would be
caused by Norma Jean's book if it were published.
The
District Attorney's decision to appeal Norma
Jean's probation sentence was a first in the
history of Los Angeles where never before had a
sentence imposed by a judge been challenged by the
DA's office. However, the appeal did not surprise
Norma Jean, who had expected retaliation by the
police because she had been so vocal and public
ever since she had been released from prison on
probation. She was just a bit surprised at the
blatant references to her manuscript in the DA's
appeal, which did not hide the fact that Norma
Jean's continued efforts to publish her book was
the main reason for wanting to overturn her
probation sentence and send her to prison.
Upon
learning of the appeal, Norma Jean decided that
perhaps she hadn't been vocal enough. Her brother
Neil had recently moved back to California and
introduced her to J.R. - a Libertarian activist
who suggested the Norma Jean run for office. He
offered to be her campaign manager if she won the
endorsement of the LP at the State Convention in
February of 1986. Norma Jean had registered as a
Libertarian in 1978, after Victor introduced her
to the libertarian philosophy. Although Norma Jean
immediately embraced the philosophy and fighting
for freedom became the driving force of her life,
she was not active in the Party until her 1986
campaign.
She did
receive the endorsement of the Libertarian Party
of California for her bid at elective office. And
she was not a one issue Libertarian as some in the
LP thought she would be. While she did not win,
she made an impressive showing with over 100,000
votes cast for an admitted felon hooker. Most
importantly, she was able to take her message to
an even broader audience because of the District
Attorney's ludicrous claims in his appeal of her
sentence. Unfortunately, her public profile did
not keep her from going to prison.
Following the
election, on December 15th, 1986, the California
Appellate Court heard oral arguments on the
appeal/ On March 25th, 1987, with a 2 to 1
majority, the court overturned her probation
sentence and ordered her to be returned to court
for imposition of the mandatory three to six year
prison term. Her new attorney, Larry Teeter,
appealed the decision but was unsuccessful. On
July 31, 1987, after serving 2 years and 7 months
on probation with no violations whatsoever, Norma
Jean was resentenced to three years in state
prison.
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Just before being
resentenced to prison, Norma Jean went
back on the talkshow circuit, where she
once again antagonized those who wanted
to silence her. Norma Jean firmly
believed that remaining in the public's
awareness was the only way she would
remain alive during her incarceration.
She was invited on the Late Show
Starring Joan Rivers, where she amused
the audience with her satire aimed at
the LAPD and the District Attorney.
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The
injustice of her case was the subject of a "60
Minutes" investigation and she was interviewed by Mr.
Ed Bradley while she was incarcerated. The producers
at "60 Minutes" found evidence that she was in prison
for no other reason than that she was writing a book
about police corruption which the Los Angeles Police
did not want published. The judge who had been ordered
to sentence her, and a former Los Angeles prosecutor
agreed with their conclusion that Norma Jean's case
had been handled differently than others who had been
accused or convicted of the same charges, and that the
prosecution "had so vigorously pursued the arrest and
incarceration" of Norma Jean Almodovar solely because
her book "held the department (LAPD) up to public
ridicule." |
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of the overwhelming response to the media's
spotlight on her case- the editorials which
were written in her defense and the outrage
expressed by taxpayers who thought the LAPD
and District Attorney's office had better
things to do than waste money incarcerating
someone like her, Norma Jean served nearly 18
months as an inmate of the California
Institute for Women. In California, all
prisoners are given a day for day credit
incentive for good behavior- however, the
judge could have applied the time she had
spent on probation and the time in solitary
confinement being studied, in which case she
would not have been incarcerated at all. She
served two different sentences for the same
"crime." And when she was released on December
14th, 1988, she continued to serve another
three years parole. Finally, on January 26,
1990, she was free from seven years of legal
hell. The good citizens of Los Angeles would
once again have to worry that Norma Jean was
on the loose and still seeking a publisher for
her book that started all her legal troubles
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Not
everyone thought Norma Jean was a menace to
society. In the years following her conviction
and incarceration, she was nominated to appear
in "Who's Who in American Women" and by
"Outstanding Young Women in America" in
recognition of her political activities on
behalf of women. The Lt. Governors of America
invited her to attend their annual conference in
1986 even though she lost the election. She did
send them some of autographed posters from her
campaign....
Years passed
after her release from prison and still no
publisher was willing to go out on a limb by
publishing her controversial book. Some
publishers claimed that no one wanted to hear
about the rampant corruption within the Los
Angeles Police Department. Other editors in New
York were reluctant to tackle someone as
formidable as LA Police Chief Daryl Gates. It
seemed that no publisher wanted to risk
incurring the wrath of the LAPD until an
incident happened one fateful night in LA. On
March 3, 1991, an ordinary citizen, Mr. George
Holliday, made an amateur videotape of four Los
Angeles police officers severely beating a black
man stopped for a traffic violation. The
aftermath of the Rodney King beating and
subsequent acquittal of the police officers
involved led to days of rioting, looting and
burning on the streets of Los Angeles and the
resignation of the powerful Chief Gates.
In
1993, Norma Jean's new literary agent sent the
manuscript to an editor at Simon and Schuster
along with a copy of a Time Magazine article about
the riots and the LAPD. With it's corruption
exposed, the LAPD should no longer pose a threat
to anyone willing to publish Norma Jean's book.
The editor agreed, a deal was negotiated and her
book was finally published in 1994.
Ironically or
perhaps the hand of destiny, the first radio media
to contact Norma Jean for an interview to discuss
her book was the producer for the radio show of
her former boss, LAPD chief Daryl Gates. After
retiring from the LAPD, Mr. Gates was offered a
radio show of his own on which to spout his
rhetoric. Norma Jean agreed to be a guest on his
show provided that the "Entertainment Tonight"
crew could videotape her interview for their own
broadcast. With a film crew on hand to capture
their sometimes fiery and always intense dialogue,
Norma Jean minced no words expressing her opinion
of the reign of Daryl Gates.
Although Norma
Jean's book debut appeared not to have any impact
on the LAPD at the time, the recent scandals which
have rocked the LAPD are no surprise to those who
read "Cop to Call Girl." There are daily
revelations of more corruption within the LAPD,
which Norma Jean tried to expose years ago. How
many tainted cases could have been avoided if
public officials- including the District Attorney-
had spent more time and effort investigating the
claims made by Norma Jean, rather than trying to
silence her? One wonders if the prosecutor at her
trial, Richard Weber, still believes that the LAPD
corruption she witnessed is all in Norma Jean's
mind, or if he will at last admit that it is and
has been an ongoing situation which needed
exposing a long, long time ago......
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Since her conviction in
1984, Norma Jean has been active in
several sex worker rights groups, and
has been interviewed in over 1,000
radio, television and print media
outlets all over the world, and has
lectured at colleges and universities
across the country.
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She attended
her 25th class reunion as the second
most infamous graduate of Binghamton
Central High School- the first being Rod
Serling of the "Twilight Zone" fame.
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Norma Jean's
involvement in the sex worker right's movement began
as soon as she became a prostitute. It wasn't until
after her arrest that she met Margo St. James, founder
of C.O.Y.O.T.E., the first and most well known
prostitutes' rights organizations in the US. Her
lawyer at the time was a friend of Margo's and
introduced the two over the telephone. After attending
a conference at Margo's house, where Norma Jean met
other enthusiastic activists, Norma Jean returned to
LA and revived the dormant LA chapter of C.O.Y.O.T.E.
She has been the executive director of the LA and
Southern California chapter since that time.
In 1995, she
represented C.O.Y.O.T.E and the US as an official
NGO delegate to the UN Fourth World Women's
Conference in Beijing, China. It was at the UN
conference that Norma Jean achieved what she
considers an accomplishment of a lifetime. She and
four of her peers (representing Thailand,
Australia, Malaysia and England) verbally battled
the well-funded "Coalition Against Trafficking in
Women" and other international anti-porn,
anti-prostitution groups during the workshops and
seminars held prior to the ratification of the
Platform for Action. [Every ten or so years,
this document-- which sets the course for
legislation adopted in UN member countries- must
be thoroughly discussed, every word in the
document debated and finally accepted for the
member nations' delegates to ratify.]
The workshops
and seminars presented the only real opportunity
for lobbying the UN delegates before the
ratification process began. Changing a single word
in this document is a major challenge for any
group, much more so for four unfunded sex workers
who, until they arrived at the conference, did not
know each other, were staying in different
locations during the conference, and had no means
of communicating with each other [unlike the
opposition group who was staying at the five
star hotel in Beijing, and had cell phones to
communicate with one another].
Despite all
the obstacles, the five successfully got a single
word of text inserted in the paragraph which
specifically dealt with the subject of
prostitution and pornography. The original text
read, "...all prostitution and pornography are
incompatible with the dignity and worth of the
human person and must be eliminated." The final
text in the same paragraph which was ratified by
the UN delegates now read, "...all FORCED
prostitution and pornography......" The new
meaning is clearly different from the original
text and makes a world of difference for
prostitutes around the world who have chosen their
work and refuse to be bullied into believing they
are "victims" because they engage in sex work- as
dictated by the Coalition Against Trafficking and
their crowd who are opposed to validating any sex
work whatsoever.
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The "antis" as we called them- sure
didn't want to hear what we had to say about their
theories of sex work.
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Norma Jean speaks
to the workshop on the true
"violence against women"- which
is abuse at the hands of law
enforcement officers who are
supposed to protect women from
"exploitation"
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Norma Jean and
her colleagues in front of the
hotel in Beijing where the
United Nations Fourth World
Conference in Women was held
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Norma
Jean with Sadhanna M. (from India), Dr.
Elders and Paulo Longo from Brazil at
the International Conference on
Prostitution (ICOP) in 1997. The sex
workers- not the academics- raised the
money to bring Dr. Elders to the
conference.
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When Norma Jean returned from
China, she and the other C.O.Y.O.T.E. LA members were
approached by two professors from California State
University, Northridge, about the possibility of
cohosting and co-organizer an international conference
on prostitution. The joint effort would be held in
March, 1997, at the Airtel Plaza Hotel in Van Nuys,
and Norma Jean was asked to be the co-chair of the
organizing committee. She agreed to do so because one
of the professors, Vern Bullough, along with his wife
Bonnie, had such a good reputation as a champion of
sex workers, and had coauthored a number of books on
the subject.
The
relationship between the professors and the sex
workers quickly soured when Norma Jean realized that
the sex workers were being lied to and that the
professors who wanted other academics to come and
meet the sex workers from around the world, couldn't
themselves be bothered to listen to or treat the sex
workers from Los Angeles with respect. The
conference, there after referred to as ICOP, had
mixed results.
Aside from the
problems with the University and the academics, the
sex worker portion of the conference was well
worthwhile. A few of the plenary sessions which were
planned and sponsored by sex workers (and not the
academics) turned out to be the most popular and
certainly the most interesting of the conference.
Former US
Surgeon General Dr. Joycelyn Elders was the keynote
speaker of the conference- invited by C.O.Y.O.T.E.
LA and the other sex workers- and was by far the
most well attended function of the conference.
However, when she was first invited to speak- by
Norma Jean- the two professors from CSUN twice
cancelled her attendance. The first faux pas was
when one of the professors mistakenly believed that
Dr. Elders had been the former Secretary of
Education and didn't believe that her presence at
the conference had any relevance. He was patiently
informed that as the former US Surgeon General, Dr.
Elders had a great deal to contribute to a
conference which would address the health issues of
sex workers.
A new invitation
was issued to Dr. Elders, but because of the blunder
made by the CSUN professors, her speakers' bureau
now demanded a 50% deposit for her speaker's fee.
The sex workers assured the professors that they did
not expect the University or the professors to raise
the money for the speakers' fee for Dr. Elders and
would raise the money for the deposit. However,
before they were given the opportunity to do so, the
other professor cancelled Dr. Elder's scheduled
appearance, stating that the university would not
pay the $10,000 speaker's fee requested by Dr.
Elder's agency.
The sex workers
did raise all the money for her fee and Dr. Elders
was the keynote speaker for the conference.
Ironically, the professors and other CSUN academics
made certain they took pictures with her after her
speech. But because the sex workers- and not the
academics- had raised all the money for her
speaker's fees, Norma Jean felt that it should be
the sex workers from developing countries who spent
time with her after the luncheon, so Norma Jean
whisked her away from the fawning academics and made
it clear that the academics who had contributed
nothing, were not welcome to spend any time with
her.
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Xaviera Hollander and
Norma Jean at ICOP
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The
Panel of Infamy- World's Most Notorious
Whores- (left to right) Margo St. James,
Helen Buckingham (London) Dolores French
(Atlanta) Xaviera Hollander (the Happy
Hooker), Cynthia Payne (London), Norma
Jean, Sydney Biddle Barrows (The
Mayflower Madam) and a former school
teacher turned madam.
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After the conference ended
Norma Jean was ready to give up activism altogether.
She was exhausted from 18 months of intensive work
organizing the conference, angry at the way she and
the other sex workers had been treated by the
professors from CSUN, and frustrated by the attitude
and behavior of some of the local sex workers during
the conference. In other words, she was at the point
of complete activism burn-out, a condition that
strikes many activists no matter what the cause.
Throughout
April and May of 1997, she felt certain that she
never wanted anything to do with "causes" again. She
had plenty of other projects that could occupy her
time, including resuming her many book projects and
her artwork. There was no shortage of possibilities
and the temptation was strong to put her many years
of involvement in the sex worker rights' movement
behind her and get on with her own life.
Still, once in
your blood, activism is a difficult passion to
stifle. Ever since the conference, a male sex worker
from San Francisco had been crashing on Norma Jean's
couch. Together they discussed the possible ways in
which to remain activists but have more impact and
see more results from their work than their efforts
within C.O.Y.O.T.E.'s political boundaries. The
lessons learned from their unpleasant interface with
the CSUN academics during ICOP must be incorporated
into any new project they started.
By June, 1997,
Norma Jean and Steve G. prepared a proposal for a
new, international organization-- one that would be
able to raise money through tax- deductible
donations AND allow health professionals, law
enforcement officials and others to associate with
them. The blatant political nature of C.O.Y.O.T.E.
precluded such associations in the past, and since
C.O.Y.O.T.E. was not a registered organization,
raising money had been an almost impossible task. As
a non-profit 501 (c) 3, the new organization would
not have to be funded solely from the pockets of the
few dedicated LA area activists.
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Finally,
in August, 1997, she and Steve G. were ready to
announce the formation of ISWFACE (pronounced
'ice-face'), the International Sex Worker Foundation
for Art, Culture and Education. Among the Foundation's
goals are the sharing of the many artistic sides of
sex workers from around the world, past and present,
and to create an international database of information
about prostitution and other sex work which could be
accessed by the many health care, law enforcement,
academic, legislator, student and other professionals
who interact with sex workers or their issues on a
regular basis.
While preparing
for its first art exhibit being planned for the fall
of 1998, ISWFACE was approached by a man who owned a
national historic landmark former brothel in Butte,
Montana, about the possible purchase of the building
for use as a museum and cultural center. At the
time, neither Steve or Norma Jean knew where Butte,
Montana was- geographically- and had no plans to
relocate the ISWFACE headquarters based on Los
Angeles.
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However, after Norma Jean
visited the Dumas Brothel in Butte, it became clear to
her and her co-founder that this building offered a
tremendous opportunity to the fledgling organization.
The building represented not only the history of the
American West, but also a significant portion of sex
worker history and culture. The Dumas, built in 1890
as a brothel and operated as such until 1982, had a
nearly one hundred year track record as a house of
prostitution. It had offered sexual services to the
community from the Old West mining camps through the
first and second World Wars, and had scores of stories
to tell. Its acquisition would be a major coup for
ISWFACE.
At first, all
the people of Butte seemed to be extremely friendly
and open to the sex worker organization. In late
August of 1998, the State Historic Society and other
local government officials presided over the
dedication of a park to the women of the red light
district. A plaque in their honor was placed at the
park/ parking lot entrance which now occupied land
upon which a former luxury brothel once stood. Metal
silhouettes of working women and their customers -
artwork created by the local high school students-
lined the park on all sides. How could ISWFACE
resist a place that actually recognized the
contributions to the community made by the women of
the red light district? And so an agreement was
reached with the owner and the first steps were made
to purchasing the Dumas.
During the fall
and winter months of 1998 through 1999, ISWFACE
poured thousands of dollars into the project. They
paid off all the outstanding bills owed by the man
from whom they were buying the Dumas. The intention
was to move ISWFACE's office to Butte, and with it
came the president of ISWFACE- Norma Jean- with her
husband Victor and Steve G. the ISWFACE vice
president.
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By December 1998, Steve and
Norma Jean had written a proposal for the projected
summer "International Cultural Exchange" program (also
known as "Whore Camp") which they distributed to
various individuals and local businesses in Butte
during the Christmas visit. The plans were
straightforward; ISWFACE would invite sex workers from
around the world to Butte for a summer long sex worker
festival. Those attending would also be required to
participate in the restoration of the Dumas and in the
many cultural events sponsored by ISWFACE,
One of the
fund-raising activities that ISWFACE planned was a
biker rally (The Dumas Brothel Biker Run 1999) which
was timed to correspond with the annual Sturgis,
South Dakota biker activities. Initially the biker
event was being planned by two members of a local
Los Angeles Biker Club, who asked Norma Jean to
design a flyer for them which would be given to
biker groups in Southern California and mailed to
other biker organizations nationwide. Some of the
activities mentioned on the flyer included a contest
for the "hairiest butt and biggest boobs," which was
supposed to be a joke.
Early in
January, 1999, Norma Jean called the Butte Chamber
of Commerce to get some information for the
brochures she and Steve were preparing. She was
informed by one of the Chamber staff that there was
a bit of misunderstanding up there and several
townspeople wanted to know what, exactly, was
ISWFACE planning to do in Butte?
Apparently some
illiterate and ignorant individuals misread
the organization's proposal and thought that ISWFACE
was planning a summer-long sex festival
rather than the sex worker festival
that was being organized. Perhaps it was wishful
thinking on their part that some of the "town
fathers" got things mixed up, but before you know
it, Norma Jean was back in the middle of a raging
controversy. A town meeting (dubbed a debate) was
organized by some local law offices, and Norma Jean
and Steve went up to Butte in the middle of an icy
cold January to answer questions and counter charges
being leveled against them.
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In the end, the
"Concerned Citizens" were not able to stop the
summer project and biker rally, although there were
enough editorials both for and against ISWFACE
printed in the Montana Standard to fill up the
infamous Berkeley Pit (a toxic waste dump in Butte).
The group of "concerned" people consisted mainly of
moldy old windbags- men who had once run the town
government WHILE the brothels were still operating-
now upset that an outsider was coming in to their
town to preserve a piece of history they thought was
best forgotten. Other members of this elite group
include a self-styled writer wanna-be whose
Christian "values" allowed her to dress more like a
whore than the real whore herself, Norma Jean.
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...said in response to charges
made by "Concerned Citizens" that ISWFACE planned
to bring wild sex orgies to Butte, Montana.... a
much different event than the Sex WORKER Festival
that was the intended summer program. Probably
wishful thinking on the elderly gentlemen's
part....
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Project ended for ISWFACE and Norma
Jean. After spending over $150,000,
ISWFACE learned too late that the
individual from whom they were buying
the building had conned them into
believing the prized "artifacts" which
had so impressed them when they first
came to Butte were nothing but
worthless junk that had been found in
dumpsters, purchased at flea markets
and garage sales. Litigation ensued,
but ISWFACE, being the outsider- and a
group of retired prostitutes- did not
prevail. You can read more about the
end of the Dumas project and about
ISWFACE's current projects by going to
the ISWFACE
website. |
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The bikers rode into
town, and if the rally events had taken
place in town, it would have been a
financial success. The concert was held in
Jefferson County and the cops there
managed to accomplish what the "Concerned
Citizens" couldn't in Butte. ISWFACE lost
thousands of dollars. The idea of the
rally was a good one and ISWFACE planned
to continue the Biker event annually....
unfortunately it was usurped from them in
2002 by home town celebrity Evel Knieval
and his Butte "associates."
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Even during the Dumas Project
and certainly after it, Norma Jean and ISWFACE
continued to be involved in other areas of sex worker
rights and health issues. In 1998, Norma Jean was
invited to speak on a panel with other sex workers and
advocates at the World AIDS Conference in Geneva. In
May, 1999, an article she wrote on the need for
decriminalizing prostitution was published in the
Hasting's Women's Law Journal. In June, 2000, she was
the only sex worker to be invited to and participate
in the US Surgeon General's (David Satcher) workshop
and conference on Promoting Responsible Sexual
Behavior. And she continues lecture at colleges and
universities nationwide on the decriminalization
issue.
Aside from her
activism, Norma Jean occasionally had the
opportunity to work on her own projects. Not
surprisingly, her personal projects also reflect the
sex worker issues and are the subject of the many
book projects she is working on. One of her long
term book projects is "Cops,
Hos, Preachers and Politicos- Commercial $ex
$candals in America" which is a look at the
inevitable scandalous consequences of enforcing
victimless crime laws against consenting adults. She
is also working to finish her book covering her 18
months in prison- of the same title as her cartoon
book- "Prose and Cons- Postcards from Prison."
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 ABOVE: THE OJ TRIAL OF THE
CENTURY CHESS SET- CREATED IN 1995. CLICK ON IMAGE
TO SEE LARGER VERSION |
Due to her various physical
limitations (arthritis in her hands), for years, she
was not able to do her artwork or create jewelry. You
can still see her creations on her website www.normajeansgifts.com,
although she no longer sells them or creates them. A
project she did a number of years ago was an oversized
chess set of the OJ Simpson trial characters- based on
the "Trial of the Century." She was creating a series
of sculptures entitled, "Commercial Sex- the Way We
Work" until her arthritis became too painful for
her to use her sculpting tools. That changed in 2020
(a bad year for so many other things) when a dear
friend convinced her to try CBD capsules to mitigate
her pain. She was reluctant to do so, despite CBD no
longer being illegal in California, because she had
never tried illicit drugs even when she was on
the LAPD and cops had drugs (which were confiscated
during drug stings) at their cop parties.
Amazingly, within a few weeks, the CBD capsules began
to work and the pain in her hands and feet diminished
significantly. While she still has some
pain (particularly in her back), she was able to use
her sculpting tools and hands to sculpt again,
and created a doll for another friend of hers. Perhaps
now she can resume creating her "Commercial Sex"
project!
She continues to work on the book projects for ISWFACE
and the website www.policeprostitutionandpolitics.com
where she posts her research on police abuse and
corruption as well as the statistics from the FBI
which show that the lies being spread by prostitution
abolitionists are just that- lies. One of the main
projects for this website is the annual update using
the FBI statistics for "Operation Do the Math"
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Norma Jean is still happily
married to Victor, her lover, best friend and
companion since 1975. They live in the San Fernando
Valley area of Los Angeles, California, with their
cats, Silky, Sunny and Miss Kitty. By choice, they
have no children.
Victor became disabled in 2007 and Norma Jean is his
caregiver.
"Victor Savant" is his acting name, and at his
request, his real name is not used.
Those who know Norma Jean and Victor, know his real
name.
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Norma Jean 1986
during her campaign
ABOVE: THE OJ TRIAL OF THE
CENTURY CHESS SET- CREATED IN 1995. CLICK ON IMAGE
TO SEE LARGER VERSION
