an open letter to former pamela martin & associates escorts

Ladies, if I may be so forward, or so foolish, to address you as such:


You turned your back on Jeane. Maybe she wasn't the nicest human being to work for, but she was a human being, and you either knew or should have known what you were getting yourselves into. The fact that somewhere in the range of fifteen of you turned snitch to save your skins was despicable in light of how well you were paid. Admittedly, I only know so much about how you were treated, yet none of you were willing to come forward to educate me and others on any of the details but one, the woman who courageously attempted to establish contact with Ken Silverstein when he was an editor at Harper's. That woman was a hero and she has my deepest regards and respect.

As for the rest of you, the others that went into hiding, believe it or not, I get it. That being said, it doesn't excuse your kicking the late Ms. Palfrey to the curb. Many of you had moved on after more than a few years, and that's a good out, it's fair. Nonetheless, a number of you, the ones who testified against her, are scoundrels. You own a piece of her death, you are rats, scum, filth, indirect killers. I despise you. 

You see, what a number of you did helped bring PMA to its knees and Jeane to hang at the end of a rope. You are Judases. Not a lot of you were in any specific need to become escorts--there was little desperation involved in it, more a desire for a soft, materialistic life that you felt entitled to. That doesn't make you much different from the rest of the entitled whores that overpopulate this country, but it makes you lower than a streetwalker who's run out of options and finds themselves in the profession. Yes, I don't want to see the government and some of the elements you serviced victimizing you further, there's no point to that, and there's been enough suffering in all of this. But the fact remains that some of you, some of the over one hundred and thirty escorts that worked for PMA over the years, are going to have to live with what you did.

I was fair to you in my book, maybe too fair. But don't expect that I was letting you all off-the-hook completely, because I didn't. For the dozen-plus of you who turned informant, you have no sense of honor. It pleases me that this will cause you a certain degree of pain for the rest of your natural lives. A woman died, as you know, as we all know, and there's no going back from what happened. My hope is that some of you learned something from this and changed, but I'm not an optimist about people and their ways. My assumption is that this will haunt some of you psychologically in some way, yet it won't result in any real shift or transformation in who and what you are, selfish pigs, and that you're going to continue on your merry, indifferent ways just as before. How lovely for you.

Some idiot claiming to be one of you, Andrea Detty, made a limp attempt at undermining the book by suggesting that I hadn't contacted you, therefore, how solid could my attempt to chronicle what happened. That wasn't my job. My job was to tell what I experienced and learned, my part of the puzzle and to try to make as much sense of that as I could. That included obtaining more information. A lot of this was so that I was able to move on from my role in the last year of Jeane's very short life. That kind of an attempt is the act of a scoundrel, a liar, and a psychopath, exactly what I'd expect out of a genuine informant. There's nothing lower than that. Who is this magical person or persons that was able to speak extensively with the former escorts? If they exist outside of a government job, they're sitting on it, and at this point, now that a lot of the smoke has cleared, their behavior is incredibly unethical. I put out requests long ago on this blog for information from you women with no results whatsoever. The onus is on you. It wasn't even a nice try, "Andrea."

You women are the past, and what's past is prologue. I you want to clarify things, great, then do it, otherwise, shut the fuck up, forever, you have no legs to stand on, no credibility.

I could go on endlessly about you, but let me sum it all up: life is short, and the truth will one day come to light. One day we'll know precisely who the worst were, who were the heroes, who at least tried under terrible circumstances to do what was right at the time, and really, who the fucking animals were. Jeane is dead, and I am one of the caretakers of her legacy, one of the few who can bring her voice back from the grave, one of the only people in the world who can at least begin the process of allowing her to point her dead hand at the guilty. There never be a place to run. There is no place to hide from a sun that never sets. Dwell on that for the holidays.

Matt Janovic

Definite September release of DC Madam account

Ed.--This has been a long time coming. The book is ready. There will be a standalone site for it. There will be a brief except, some background, a bio, and various links.

A Few Words on Writing a Non-Fiction Book: expect to lose at least a few years of your life if it's going to be worth a shit on any level. When artists in a variety of mediums refer to their works as their children, they aren't fucking around. It's accurate, the unvarnished truth. Never envy writers, not even the wildly successful ones, because most of them are doing it to keep the Devil from biting their ass. I share that with them now, and life certainly won't ever be the same.

You ask yourself, "Am I telling too much about myself, or too little?" and because of how personal it all is, no one can tell you the answers, you're it, you're on your own.

This kind of an undertaking requires incredible care, more time than you ever imagined possible, keeping you up nights, bringing worry, even illness, it's terrible. But, if you've been involved in an event of significance, invested so much of yourself in it that it hurt, there's no other option but to get it out of your system, and that's why this book was going to be written and slaved over until it reached a state that brings with it closure. That was the main reason to write this account.

On the Title and Cover Art: I'm only giving you part of the title. It's Let the Dead Bury the Dead, with a subtitle to be revealed later on, for security reasons. The title comes right from Palfrey's, yes, the little horse's mouth (look up the origin of her surname) and from a comment by my former co-researcher when we were working for Jeane's defense. Both were stated in a context that rendered it incredibly callous, cold, just more of the joys that involvement in the case inflicted on me, I'm Mark Twain now.

The cover will be posted on the book's website. It's based on a medieval woodcut of a hanged woman being tormented by demons. In the original, the expression is dour, slack in the mouth a little. I gave the woman a bit of a grin to underscore the very real perversity of the case and its conclusion. I've had to include significant social, cultural, and historical context so that my involvement makes some kind of sense. This was an international story with many different players, too many. Insofar as I've been able to ascertain, no one has established meaningful contact with any of the former escorts from Pamela Martin & Associates, not even Ken Silverstein last time I asked him within the last couple years. Someone posting her claiming to be Andrea Detty asked why I wasn't talking to any of the girls, which is a loaded question if ever there was one. You tell me. See how that works, or rather doesn't? I've posted comments and statements on here several times asking some of the former escorts to come forward, but we're talking hookers here folks, so what do you expect? A lot of bullshit yammering, nothing constructive.

None of these women have much motivation to talk. If they do, they're going to find themselves in a world of shit, that is, if they're not there already. The new and old fixers, the appointees wrecking our government and negating the rule of law, these AUSAs, these scum at the DOJ, would nail their asses to the floor on some trumped up charges. Then again, they might just harass them until they cry uncle, make their lives hell, like Brandy Britton's.

They're not talking, get over it and yourself, whoever the commenter was. I don't believe it was Detty, but if it was, her question was calculated in a way that's very suspicious. Was she Jeane's Judas? I have no idea. But I think there was one, it wasn't just the stupidity of mailing USPS Money Orders at a Postal Station--laundering it that way, through the mails, and using all their services. They ever hear of Western Union or 7-11s? Jesus, people, I'd be a better criminal than that shit, you gotta be kidding me, but that's the truth, from the trial transcripts. These girls should have bypassed Jeane's instructions to buy and send like that, gone and gotten a Slurpee, a Playgirl, and mailed it from anywhere else. You can't tell me that Palfrey wasn't protected in DC, no way, she wasn't even a good criminal. You see, USPS Inspectors busted her ass in San Diego that first time around, in the early 1990s. Get the drift? You will after reading my book.

I don't say this about my writing often and am my own worst critic. But I have to say that this is a good book, a solid account done with incredible effort to get things right. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong, but I have to lay all my cards on the table. After I got involved, there was no other choice, it was always waiting at the end. No one can be 100% correct about these kinds of things, the criminal underworld and the secret world of spycraft.

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhh...

To all the trolls and goobers trying to--fuck, who knows what's going through their nearly empty minds? You're not accomplishing anything with the fake comments, the fake cease and desists related to my upcoming DC Madam book. Do you realize that this tends to embolden (look it up) people to push harder, to keep going to the very limits? That's what you've accomplished, at least that. Congratulations. Thanks for the STFU. I'll tag you back harder--I'll fuck you up with language--every single time. Former Pamela Martin & Associates escorts: you have no credibility.

DC Madam account: "Why don't you...?"

Ed.--I was recently contacted by one of Jeane's former escorts, a first I might add, since most of them have kept a low-profile for years now. I know all of their names, every single one, because several lists are in my possession from defense materials. That doesn't matter to me. Many of those names came out in the research of the phone records from numerous writers and sites, no one really gives a shit from what I can gather.  A French documentary team might be speaking with some of them, but I seriously doubt that they're being that thorough.

Also, this being America, there seems to be some confusion/conflation over what a historical account or a chronicle is, and what a book about an event by a non-participant constitutes. Because of the nature of the case, you would have to be God and been everywhere at once to have truly experienced, maybe possible at the NSA, not possible for the rest of us mortals. Hey, not everybody had a course in historiography, so let me make it clearer for those who haven't: the book is an account by someone who was a participant in other areas of the story. At one point there was only Jeane, me, and my co-researcher. After the firing of Montgomery Blair Sibley there was no one for a time, then she proceeded pro se with Preston Burton, her court appointed counsel who came back for seconds (he won out and got to travel to the estate salad bar for limitless trips in the end).

Around five days ago I got this comment from the someone claiming to be one of Palfrey's former escorts (see my responses):

Andrea Detty said...

I very much hope that your book is not filled with conspiracy theories. I worked for her and was in the trial. I'm so sick of people that know nothing, come to these "of[f] the wall" ideas. I was not the biggest fan of her. The only thing I agree with everyone, is that the trial was a complete waste of time, money, and resources. But if you were writing a book about her and the trial, shouldn't you have contacted people that were actually involved with it?

Friday, May 4, 2012 3:11:00 AM EDT

Yeah, you don't have to hope, there won't be any of that bullshit in it and do your homework some time. And really, that's all great Andrea...so why not drop me a line and fill me in on what you know? All of it, for truth, for the historical record, for the future. 

Or is setting the record straight unimportant here? Detty testified at Palfrey's trial in her favor, that Jeane was unaware of her soliciting, but to be blunt, the defendant was "guilty as shit" as one inarticulate Los Angeles attorney put it, the fact. The truth is, I have no idea if this is Detty at all. If they want to contact me, go through TOR, some third party service, encrypt it, do it, or forever hold your peace. Were they serious I'd have gotten an email from them and that's yet to happen, will almost certainly never happen. This is possibly someone trying to cause confusion about a book they've never read, that's not even out. Angela, I never heard of you either until I read the trial transcript. There was no need for me to spend good money to have someone lie to me, they can do that via cell phones, Blackberrys, iPads, email, etc., the upside of the technology and common sense. Yes, the trial was a "complete waste of time, money, and resources," and so was going to speak with her in person for reasons I'm sure you're familiar with if you are who you claim to be.

Put up, or shut up, spread 'em, now, not later. No? I thought so.

As I told this person in my responses in comments, I've put appeals out to the former escorts of PMA years ago with no response whatsoever. Am I alone? Are you fucking kidding me? No one has gotten to speak with any of them outside of a handful like Abby Cather ("Jennifer"), Detty, but nothing tangible. One escort attempted to contact journalist Ken Silverstein back in the spring of 2007 about Shirlington Limo that she'd been taken to appointments by them, information that could have linked Jeane and Pamela Martin & Associates to Chris Baker, maybe Mitchell Wade and Brent Wilkes, then to Hookergate itself. 

If any of the former escorts had anything to say to me or to others they would have by now (serious inquiries only). They haven't because most of them are scared shitless from legal harassment. You could write twenty books on this case and never get close to describing it fully. That's how writing about an event goes. Additionally, the public isn't going to sit through thousands of pages. The account contains literally hundreds of pages of primary information from the case. Beyond that, I suppose I need to write about who the attending janitorial staff was during the trial. 

I repeat: this book isn't like Tom Wolfe where he wasn't a part of the story, where everything was second-hand. There is that--a lot of that--because so much of this case took place in cyberspace, where an information war was fought against the defendant, for starters. Have you noticed that almost everything is mediated these days, indirect, because of the technology? No, of course not, that would be to understand the nature of the historical moment we live in. You know, I'm sorry, it's true, I was unable during the proceedings to go post-human and have my mind encoded on a microchip, then uploaded onto the web, sorry, my mistake there. Put up, or shut up, don't fuck me around. I'm absolutely sure it's going to be the latter. "I would have talked with you, but you got up in my shit"--bullshit, you have no serious intention of setting the record straight, none of you former PMA escorts have but a small handful. I'm very serious, as a heart attack, as the club of a riot cop crashing down on a dissident's skull. No one needs to remind me that I learned the true meaning of "lying whore" from all of this.

 "Why don't you blah-blah-blah?" Kiss my ass? Why yes, yes you should.