Rat Pack Party Girl: From Prostitute to Women’s Advocate

by McCormick, Jane

  On January 18, 2006, Las Vegas journalist/writer, John L. Smith, wrote in an article, “Tax troubles of Mafia Cop might be blessing for woman who got taken.” In this well-written piece, Smith tells how Eppolito swayed her into believing his ability to pull off a blockbuster movie with the use of his connections and storytelling ability. He wrote, “But McCormick was stunned when she learned how Eppolito and Caracappa were arrested in Las Vegas on charges they had acted as freelance hit men for the Lucchese crime family and her story had stalled and the money vanished.”

  Gone, but not forgotten.

  That $45,000 lined Eppolito’s pockets, but allegedly didn’t make its way to the proper federal tax forms.

  The result of my story and others that made their way into print after the arrest of the so-called “Mafia Cops” was that a federal grand jury leveled the charges of filing false tax returns against Louie Eppolitio and his wife, Frances. The government alleges that the Eppolitos made substantially more income from Louie’s screenwriting business from 2000 to 2003 than they admitted on paper.

  Based on paper trails and signed affidavits, they’re very hard to beat. And in this case, it appears the Eppolitos bragged in a taped telephone conversation about their plan to beat the IRS.

  “Well, at least they found out where my $45,000 went,” I found myself thinking.

  In April of 2006, I flew to New York and Louis Eppolito Jr., his openly gay son who reached out to me through the Internet, picked me up at the airport. I went to the trial and learned about the horrific crimes that he and Caracappa had committed.

  After one of the court sessions let out, I confronted Eppolito on the street and in his face I said, “You’re a fuckin’ liar and a son-of-a-bitch! You hurt me financially and I’ll never forgive you for that!”

  Eppolito looked terrible but still tried to convince me that he never tried to hurt me, that he was tricked by the FBI, and that he thought my story was going to be on film.

  During that time I met Guy Larson, who interviewed me for his next book called The Brotherhoods: The True Story of Two Cops who Murdered for the Mafia. My experience with Eppolito was written there. The book defines the truth about the corrupt cops and how they used their NYPD badges to take mafia-made men off of the street to deliver them to the mafia. That in one incident, the two of them stood watch outside of a garage while a man they delivered was tortured and brutally murdered and buried outside of the garage.

  On April 6, 2006 Eppolito and Caracappa were convicted of labor racketeering, extortion, narcotics, illegal gambling, obstruction of justice, eight counts of murder and conspiracy to commit murder, charges stemming from the 1980s and the early 1990s in New York , and in the 2000s in Las Vegas.

  Interest in the Eppolito story and my connection to him continued. On September 27, 2007, I was interviewed by KTNV’s Darcy Spears, Chief Investigative Reporter on the mafia cop trial, and was interviewed again on October 2, 2007 with KTNV in a segment called the “Mafia Cop Trial Witness.”

  Chapter 31

  Moving Forward to the Future

  After our experience with Eppolito, we decided to move forward in May, 2007 and hire a Minnesota editor. The editor advised us to re-write The Confidence Game, removing Eppolito from the story entirely.

  Patti and I went along with her professional advice and within the next few months, Patti came up with Breaking My Silence: Confessions of a Rat Pack Party Girl and Sex-Trade Survivor.

  Patti encouraged me to try and help others through my experience. She believed that it could have happened to her or anyone if they’d been in my shoes. Patti wanted to understand how I’d gotten into prostitution and how hard it was for me to get out of it.

  By the end of July of 2007, we self-published Breaking My Silence, and printed 2,000 copies. Now we were off to the races, selling and promoting our book.

  I’d been talking to Rubén Rosario, writer for The Pioneer Press in St. Paul, the whole time about Eppolito and my book coming out. On September 1, 2007, Rubén Rosario wrote a article called “Rat Fink will Have a Day in Court with Janie.” Rubén knew about Eppolito when he wrote for a newspaper in New York. He was the guy who gave me the idea to add on Confessions of a Rat pack Party Girl and Sex-Trade Survivor.

  He quotes me as saying, “McCormick hopes the book will give her some credibility as she tries to persuade legislators to enact tougher laws and enforcement directed at the demand-side of the sex trade–the ‘johns.’ She believes, as others do, that American law enforcement has mostly given the customer a pass. She cites Sweden and Norway as countries that do a better job of going after the men who drive the trade.”

  He also quotes the lawyer who consulted us before the book went to press. Mark Anfinson said, “I’m very surprised that a publishing house has not picked this up. When you review copy for invasion-of-privacy concerns, you want to remain detached. But it was exceedingly hard to do with the book because it was so moving. It has a ring of authenticity as you go through it,” he said.

  We had just gotten it hot off the press when we rushed to Vegas to interview a movie producer who was interested in signing a contract. We were both nervous about signing anything after what we’d been through so we declined the kind offer.

  While we were out there staying with Paula, I was interviewed by the Las Vegas Sun on October 6, 2007. Ed Koch wrote a story called She Tells it Her Way: Former Call Girl Writes that She Slept with Stars like Sinatra, Much to Her Regret.

  In his article Ed wrote, “Whatever thrills came from that alleged contact with celebrities, former Las Vegas prostitute Jane ‘Baby Jane’ Harvey McCormick is on a crusade to change laws to punish johns and pimps, and help prostitutes escape a life of sexual abuse and exploitation.”

  He continues with, “UNLV criminologist Alexis Kennedy, said McCormick’s book can open a much-needed dialogue about focusing more on punishing prostitution’s demand side and stopping the criminalizing of the supply side.”

  Also he writes, “Patti Wicklund, who co-wrote Breaking My Silence, said that while interviewing McCormick she came to understand how a teen with little education and no other work skills could get caught up in such a sordid trade.”

  “How else was she going to make it working as a nurse’s aide for ninety cents an hour in those days?” Wicklund said.

  “I wanted to show the reader that Janie was a real person—a face on prostitution. She has a heart and feelings just like anyone else. I wanted to show how such a nice person could fall into it.”

  After that interview, Ed Koch found more photos taken by Associated Press and he advised me to contact the University of Las Vegas Nevada archives. The Liberian contacted us and sent me more photos that were taken that same day. They responded saying, “The girl in the photo is listed as unknown.” Patti told them who I was and from that day forward I’m listed as Jane Harvey.

  I did many radio and television interviews across the country. The print and television media welcomed me with interviews. I have been interviewed by The Book Masons with Dennis Fleming, Minneapolis Star Tribune with Krisin Tillotson, Las Vegas Weekly with Damon Hodge, Living Las Vegas with Megan Edwards, Playboy Radio with Michelle Stucker and many more.

  Not long after that I got a call from Doug Dunlap, FBI Forensics Director in Quantico, Virginia. Doug had gotten a copy of my book at the Gambler’s Book Club in Las Vegas. He and Doug Forsman, Special Agent at the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, Alcohol & Gambling Enforcement Division in St. Paul, invited us to speak at the Racketeering Records Analysis Seminar at the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension on November 8, 2007.

  Our book was a welcome sight to Dunlap who bought a book for each of the agents in the room and a couple for the FBI library in Quantico. After speaking with his group of agents, Doug Forsman wrote, “Everyone at the seminar thought you did an excellent job in creating awareness and educating the class with your first-hand knowledge of family abuse and the sex trade. You are a true inspiration for having the courage to turn
your life around and then publicly share those experiences with others in hope of either preventing such abuses from affecting others or helping those similarly touched by abuse know that they too can turn their life around.”

  In addition, Dunlap had me speak through the phone with additional classes in Quantico.

  Then weeks later I was introduced to Executive Board President Benjamin Leong at the International Organization of Asian Crime Investigators and Specialists Convention in St. Paul. It was an honor to be able to speak in front of two hundred FBI Agents. I stood nearly one head above the podium and told them to stop arresting the girls and start arresting the pimps and johns. It was interesting to see some of them with tears in their eyes while others never said a word.

  That was where I’d met several agents, and one in particular told me that he knew about my story because they had Eppolito’s telephone bugged during the time he was interviewing me for the movie script he was writing.

  I also talked to an agent who worked on Sinatra’s case, figuring out whether he was involved with the mob or not. He sat close to me for nearly an hour as he interestingly probed me for information about Sinatra. I told him that Frank had nothing to do with the mob, except that he’d grown up with them and they were friends. The Special Agent said, “He was always looking for something that he might have missed, even if it happened forty years ago.”

  Finally, we decided to start our own program called Breaking My Silence at the Suburban Community Channels in White Bear Lake, Minnesota.

  Suburban Community Channels is one of many non-profit organizations from across the country that is sponsored by the United States Government as a form of free speech. Anyone can join any of the many facilities that are around the country to produce their own program. I hosted the shows and Patti produced them. We interviewed non-profit organizations, victims, local college students and faculty, church leaders and police to raise awareness of prostitution and child abuse—a too-long taboo, hush-hush subject. We believed our program would give the public and organizations a voice, that it would show that we demand a change!

  We called countless organizations and individuals: Sojornour, Breaking Free, Source Annex, Minnesota Adult and Teen Challenge, Destination Freedom, Minnesota Coalition for Battered Women, Restoring the Heart Ministries, Alexandra House, The Refuse Network, Brown Colleges Criminal Justice classes, Linda Miller, J.D., Executive Director of Civil Society lecture on immigration and human trafficking, Dr. Mic Hunter’s book Honor Betrayed: Military Sex Abuse, Al Erickson’s book Parent’s Arise! Grandparents Arise! Ramey County Attorney John Choi about the laws on prostitution and Source Annex seminar, Sex Trafficking in the Midwest, with Director Peter Wohler.

  We created a web site for the book and added personal interviews with non-profit organizations, authors and sex trade survivors to it. All of these are proof of the support we wanted to make available for anyone wanting to learn and change the way the world thinks about human sexual abuse and its consequences.

  In our view, men purchasing a human being for sex should have their photos posted on billboards, television and the Internet every day and all the pimps should be put away permanently! In 2012 we received a Community Involvement Award and we believe that our programs opened a window of help and understanding about abuse and prostitution. It isn’t a secret anymore and we will continue to shatter the silence and stop the violence.

  Our goal is to bring these organizations together. To give the community information so the victims can find help and understanding.

  For the next three years I did speaking engagements to educate the public about prostitution, which includes the FBI’s Eastern States Vice Squad Conferences, Philadelphia Training Conferences and International Organization of Asian Crime and Terrorism Conference—my book is in the FBI libraries as a training and resource tool, health care professionals, lawyers, law professors, teachers, psychologists, high school youth and families who have lost a loved one to the sex-trade.

  At the end of January of 2012, I got a call from Jonathan Walton, Producer for The History Channel, in association with Asylum Entertainment. He said he’d read my book and that they were creating programs called 10 Things You Don’t Know About… He wanted to know if I’d be willing to come to Las Vegas and be interviewed for the upcoming segment called 10 Things You Don’t Know About the Rat Pack.

  “I’d love to be on your show,” I replied, “But it will take me a long time to tell you everything I know about the Rat Pack!”

  Jonathan laughed, “How many years was it?”

  “Off and on for ten or eleven years,” I said.

  On February 15, 2012, Jonathan sent me an appearance release contract from Asylum Entertainment and after signing it they flew me out to Vegas two weeks later.

  They booked a room for me near the convention center and the next day a guy from the crew came and took me to the Plaza where the interview would take place.

  Inside the showroom down by the stage they had a table set up for me. Three cameras surrounded me and a group of young gracious crew members.

  David Eisenbach, host, author and historian came onto the set and sat at the table directly across from me. Casually dressed, he was relaxed and spoke very calmly as he looked at me with his warm soft eyes. I talked to him for an hour, answering his questions about the Rat Pack and Frank’s relationship with Giacanna.

  After the interview, a crew member drove me to the airport and I returned to Minnesota.

  On March 2, 2012, Jonathan sent me a letter saying, “Jane was FANTASTIC on camera! Just FANTASTIC! The crew loved her. Our host loved her. Thank you Jane for being a part of our show!!!”

  A couple of weeks flew by and I received a copy of the program and was happy to see it on The History Channel.

  Finally, Luke Sacher was a director, producer and writer who produced Biography of the Rat Pack, and it aired on the History Channel. The very first part of the biography was live footage with me holding the cue cards for the Rat Pack at the Sands back in the ’60s. Not long after seeing that, Luke contacted me and wished he’d known who I was when he was producing the film because he would have put my name in it.

  In 2014 Norman Stephens, an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning Executive Producer called and requested to use part of my story in his new play called Voices in the Life of Prostitution in Nevada. Today, Norman is helping us with Rat Pack Party Girl with hopes of helping others understand, learn and know that abused children and prostitutes are people who have feelings and who are equal to everyone else on the planet.

  Rat Pack Party Girl is a representation of what happens to women who end up in child abuse, prostitution and a life of violence. No one should have to put up with this and society needs to understand that we are human beings, not sex slaves, and that human trafficking is a huge problem we have in the world today and it needs to stop!

  I am a women’s advocate today. I am no longer known as the Rat Pack Party Girl. I am a woman trying to speak out against the horrible crimes that are being committed to women today. Don’t be afraid any longer. We need to stand together and make a change in the laws in this world to shatter the silence and stop the violence.

  Epilogue

  Sixty-nine years after first being raped by my stepfather, I still awaken to nightmares of him coming into my room. Fifty-five years ago I entered the sex trade. I survived, but I am still paying for it.

  I lost everything I love—my children, my home, the big money, many friends, my self-esteem, and sense of worth.

  While I was in the trade, I suffered broken bones and head trauma. I realize that both as an abused child and a woman in the sex trade serving many men plus my “old man,” I suffered Stockholm syndrome—the tendency to idolize one’s “keepers.” I have attempted suicide, and I have been hospitalized for intestinal surgery, knee replacements, and a variety of other ailments. The silicone floating in my body as a result of enhancing my breasts with injections could still block an artery and kill me. I hav
e been treated for post-traumatic stress and eating disorders. None of this is unusual for someone who has slept with thousands of men for money. Women used in the sex industry often need a lot of medical care as a result of violence. They may need treatment for drug addiction or for infectious diseases such as AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. Many need mental health treatment for PTSD, psychotic episodes, and suicide attempts. About one-third of these women end up chronically ill, disabled, and needing Social Society benefits long before their time. Some of them never make it out alive.

  We all pay, in many ways, for the multibillion-dollar sex traffic trade, which includes prostitution, pornography, and other forms of sex exploitation and propaganda. What can we do to change this?

  My life today is good. I am grateful to be so many years out of the profession. But that is not enough, and I ask myself every day: what are we paying in lost potential for the millions of women involved in prostitution around the world? How can we encourage those involved in the trade to speak up, to fight back? How can we make purchasing sexual services a punishable offense, as it is in some other countries? Can we help young women value themselves enough to resist recruitment?

  In short, how can we help them to accept themselves as they are, to see the value of their lives and the value in what they have to contribute to the world? How can we help them find a healthier place, to find a better life? How can we get to these women before someone else does? The messages in this book are just one step in the process. Unfortunately, there’s still a long way to go.

  Janie (3 years old), Marion, Indiana 1944.

  Oren “Bus” Willis McCormick, Janie’s biological father, 1935.

  Mickie, Janie’s mother, Hawaii 1953.

  Woody, Mickie, Dick and Janie (13 years old), Hawaii 1953.