Later in the day, Sherry and another girl woke Jennifer and me up and told us that Big D wanted to see us right away. We clean up fast and go down to see him. Big D looked worried and a little scared. Not for him but for us. “You fucked up,” he said. “Spider was selling dope for the Tanakas.” The Tanakas were Japanese mobsters, probably Yakuza, and they wanted either the dope or the money back. Big D said he couldn’t help me anymore, that I was on my own. He said I should buy those tickets and leave the island as fast as possible. For some reason I can’t remember or explain, Jennifer and I had done acid that morning and we were tripping hard.
We went back to the condo to gather up what we could. We called Linda and Tom but got no answer. Jennifer then suggested we go to her mother’s house. Her mom was a cool lady according to Jennifer, but she didn’t like hard drugs and didn’t want them in the house. We decided to do whatever drugs we had left, loaded up the car, and headed to her mom’s house.
When we got to her mom’s house, I realized where Jennifer had gotten her looks from. Her mom, Amy, was about five feet four inches and exquisite in every detail. She had light brown hair, smoky gray eyes, and a golden, tanned skin that looked like it had been polished. A lot of people thought she looked like Jane Seymour, the actress. A real knockout.
Just like Jennifer had promised, Amy was a very cool lady. A thirty-six-year-old free spirit that had managed her affairs well enough that she owned a couple of condos in Waikiki and another condo in Las Vegas. She’d been married a few times and the real estate and financial support were part of the divorce settlements. Amy didn’t have to work and what she basically concentrated on was keeping herself looking great and having a good time. Jennifer had an older sister named Tracy who was in Hollywood trying to become an actress. She also had inherited her mom’s good looks. And there was a younger brother they called Speedy who was spoiled rotten.
After I unloaded my stuff, Jennifer and I went into the living room, where Amy was entertaining a male friend of hers. They were both drinking and I could see that Amy was on her way to being drunk. After a few minutes, Amy’s friend looked at me and asked if I had any weed on me. Jennifer looked at me and nodded and said that I did. I broke out the weed and we spent the rest of that afternoon and night getting stoned.
The next morning, Jennifer and I woke up naked in her bed. This was the first time we’d spent the night together and she was all snuggly and affectionate. Then she dropped a bomb.
“My mom asked me last night if you have ever had a mother-daughter three-way before.” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. This was one wild family.
“No,” I told her. “But I’m ready to try anything once.”
Jennifer slapped me on the chest.
“Yeah, I know you guys. That’s why I’m glad we leave for California in a couple of days.”
We fell back asleep and woke up around noon to the sound of Amy and her son. I got up to go to the bathroom and ran into Amy wearing a tiny pink kimono that made it clear she had nothing on underneath. Amy asked me if I still had some weed. I told her I didn’t but I could get her some. I called my friend Chris back at the warehouse and asked him if he had anything. He always did. So I told him I’d be over there later. I had to go to my parents’ house to get the rest of my and CJ’s money, and Jennifer said she wanted to come along. Amy asked me if I knew how to ride a motorcycle. I said I did and she offered to let me ride her big Harley. So Jennifer and I went to get the weed first and then rode to the base to my family’s house.
When I got to the house around two that afternoon, I knew from my first look at it that I no longer belonged there. Something had changed in those months that I’d been there and the changes weren’t for the better. I felt like a visitor who had overstayed his welcome. I didn’t tell my mom I was leaving the next day. But I did call Ropati. He came over and we talked in my room for a while. I told him I’d gotten my ass in a crack and that I needed to leave. We hugged and I didn’t know at the time that I would never see him again. A few months later, Ropati had gotten himself a huge drug habit and he died of an overdose.
I said good-bye to my brothers and sister and my heart sort of broke not knowing when or even if I’d ever see them again. The life I was living was unpredictable and literally anything could happen without warning when you get yourself involved in drug dealing.
That night, Jennifer, Amy, Speedy, and I went out to dinner and got a little tipsy. When we got home, Amy wanted to go out to a club. Jennifer and I were getting up for an early flight in the morning and needed to get some sleep. So we volunteered to “babysit” Speedy. Knowing she probably wouldn’t see me in the morning, Amy came over and wished me good-bye and a good flight and wrapped her arms around me to give me a kiss. This was not an innocent kiss. She was trying to taste what I had for lunch—right there in front of her daughter. “Okay, Mom,” Jennifer said. “Leave my boyfriend alone, please.” Although she tried to be playful saying this, she was definitely not amused. I always wondered what would have happened if we hadn’t left the next day. Probably none of it would have turned out well. Crazy, but not at all well.
11
Circus Circus
I slept most of the flight from Hawaii to Los Angeles because I’d smoked a ton of weed before getting on the plane. When we landed at LAX, I rented a car and drove south toward Oceanside. I was planning on surprising my grandmother. She was living in my parents’ house while they were stationed in Hawaii and I knew she had plenty of room for me and Jennifer.
This was Jennifer’s first time in LA and she was as excited as a puppy in a bacon factory. We got to Oceanside around ten thirty that night and just for fun I cruised the old neighborhood while heading to the house. As luck would have it, I saw a car with my homeboy Chato in it. I told Jennifer, “Watch this.”
I pulled in front of his car, stopped, and got out yelling a lot of shit. “So what, brah. You looking for a beef?” This was Hawaiian street slang for “You want to fight?” The truth is I probably looked like one of the many Samoans that lived in Oceanside. We had a lot of them, especially on the East Side. The last time they’d seen me, I was Nite Owl, the homeboy with a shaved head, khakis, and Pendleton shirt. I now had my hair below my shoulders and was wearing a floral shirt, drawstring pants, and dock loafers.
I’d jumped out of the car acting like a maniac and Chato and two other homies got out ready to smash me. Before they get close enough to do some damage, I yell out to them that it’s me, Nite Owl. They stop, take a hard look, and a moment later we were hugging and laughing right there in the middle of the street. They were on their way to see some girls who had a bottle of Sherm (PCP) and they were getting ready to party for the night. It was made from embalming fluid, and back then, there was an epidemic of PCP all over the country. I introduced them to Jennifer and told them that we were on the way to my grandmother’s house but I’d call them later and meet up. We got to my grandmother’s around 11:00 P.M., and needless to say, she was extremely surprised to see me. I introduced her to Jennifer and told my grandmother that Jennifer and I were on our way to Las Vegas to stay with her family and we’d only be staying with her for a few days. She said we were more than welcome and put us up in my uncle Manuel’s room.
The next day my grandmother wanted to know if my parents knew where I was. I told her they didn’t. Then she asked if Jennifer’s parents knew and I said that her mother knew. That’s when she laid that Muñeca handle on Jennifer. A doll. She took an immediate liking to Jennifer, and Jennifer seemed to like her as well.
After eating, Jennifer and I went driving around the neighborhood looking for Chato. I ran into a bunch of other homeboys who, after being blown away by the way I looked, were happy to see me. The news had already gotten around that I was back and that I was looking “funny.” We found Chato at his mom’s house and there were some homegirls there as well. One of the homegirls lifted the long hair on my head and s
aid, “You need a haircut, Nite Owl.” I looked at her and said, “Shave it. Cut it all off.” She did. I was transformed once again, blending into my environment like a chameleon.
I told them that I was on my way to Las Vegas to visit Jennifer’s family. Robby, one of my homies, asked if he could go along with me. He said he knew some people there. So I said okay if his car worked. He said he’d have it tuned up and ready for the drive.
I ran into another homeboy named Frankie who had started doing tattoos while I was gone. So I asked him to touch up a cross tattoo I had on my arm. Jennifer was fascinated and told me she wanted to get a tattoo as well. She decided to get a tattoo of a heart on her butt with her name and my name on it. Frankie obliged and before we knew it, there were like a half-dozen homeboys standing around trying to grab a peek at Jennifer’s outstanding ass.
The next morning, I turn in the rental car and wait for Robby to show up. We hit the road around eleven thirty in the morning but didn’t get to Las Vegas until eight thirty that night. We had to stop a lot of times for Jennifer’s benefit because she’d never seen any of the desert between LA and Las Vegas and she wanted to see everything. We checked into Circus Circus and went looking for someplace to eat. Jennifer called her mom and told her we were in Vegas and then called her uncle who lives there. We continue walking around and Jennifer’s good looks get her noticed. One guy came up to her and told her to stand next to him while he played blackjack because he thought she would bring him good luck. She looked at me and I shrugged my shoulders and walked away to let her decide. I didn’t know from gambling, luck, or what people did in Vegas. She went over and stood next to him and sure enough he wins a couple of hands and hands her a $100 chip. She came up to me and said that he was now offering her $500 to go up to his room with him. I was upset but didn’t want to show it. I wanted her to make the “right” decision without influence from me. I wanted her not to want to go on her own. Which is kind of ironic because when she first met me, I was basically in the prostitution business, even if it was in an unconventional, tangential way. I didn’t run girls, but then again, I wasn’t exactly a pure innocent when it came to prostitution. So I told her to do whatever she wanted. So she went.
Robby and I played a few more games and waited for her. She came back thirty minutes later with the cash and said that all he wanted was for her to get naked and give him a massage. She didn’t have to “do” anything other than the massage. I just listened and didn’t say anything. We finally got around to getting something to eat when we went over to the MGM.
As we walked through the casino, this guy at the bar calls Jennifer over. He told her that he was with the band playing in the lounge and they were on a break. Then he asks her if she’ll take $1,000 to go up to his room with him. Like I said, she was a gorgeous nineteen-year-old girl with the body of a goddess and I think that people in the casinos naturally assumed she was a prostitute. No matter, she went ahead with that guy up to his room. I was upset but determined not to show it. I was under the impression that we had a relationship and should have, at the very least, a minimum level of fidelity. But I guess she felt otherwise.
She left with the guy, and Robby and I went to Circus Circus, where he met a local girl. She told Robby that she had some weed and did the two of us want to party. Her girlfriend worked as a cocktail waitress at some other hotel. The four of us went to my room and got massively stoned. I ended up in the bathroom having sex with the cocktail waitress while Robby got nasty with the other girl on the bed.
When we were done, the four of us went back to the casino to get some drinks. We ended up in the kino pits drunk and with the two girls hanging all over us. A little while later, Jennifer shows up, sees the girls, and gets really mad. “Who the fuck are these two?”
I told her they were just a few friends we just met. The cocktail waitress took a long look at Jennifer and said, “Is this your girlfriend? She’s really pretty. Maybe we can have a threesome.” Jennifer flipped out and began yelling at the cocktail waitress. When they realize that this isn’t going well, the two girls collect their stuff and walk off.
Jennifer took a small jewelry box out of her purse and threw it at me. There was a wedding band inside. “I used the money I made to buy you this. I thought you wanted to get married. I’m ready to do it. Are you?”
My nineteen-year-old pride made me say, “You think I’m going to marry a girl who sells her body. I loved you but you were too quick to make a fast buck by selling your ass. Now you want me to marry you? You’re crazy.” She stalked off, calling me a user, among other things. I was worn-out. I went back to the room drunk and high on weed and passed out.
The next day, I started piecing together the events of the night before and it took me a while to figure it out. I started looking for her in the hotel but she wasn’t there. Then I checked the hospital, the local jail, juvie—and nothing. Finally I called Amy, her mom, in Hawaii and Amy told me not to worry. Jennifer had gone to see her uncle and he’d bought her a plane ticket back to Hawaii. She was already in the air, apparently. Her mother didn’t seem upset with either me or Jennifer, and Amy just told me to call her in a few days and that Jennifer and I would work it out. I was devastated. I took out the ring and looked at it. What the hell had I done? Was she totally normal trading sex for money so she could buy me a ring or was I totally normal for thinking that a woman shouldn’t do that?
I told Robby what happened and his response was “Fuck it. Let’s go back to the hood.” So we left Vegas before noon and got to Oceanside that evening. Somehow or other we ended up at my homeboy Boogallo’s house who was there with a bunch of other homies. They asked about Jennifer and I told them she had to go back to Hawaii. There was a lot of dope around so we all got loaded and I eventually landed back at my grandmother’s completely stoned and stumbling around.
I called Amy’s number four days later and talked to Jennifer. She said that I’d hurt her and started crying. I tried to calm her down and told her I still had feelings for her and she shouldn’t have left. Then she said that if I came back to Hawaii, she would buy me a ticket. I agreed. But I asked her to give me a couple of days to get some things straightened out in Oceanside. I was stalling. I didn’t really know what the hell I wanted and being loaded all the time made it harder to figure out.
That night I was invited by a homegirl to come see her in Vista, which is near Oceanside. I went there with a couple of other homies. Eventually, someone broke out a bunch of Sherm and I ended up naked in a room with a couple of twins, also naked, having crazy drugged sex. I had the $500 ticket to Hawaii that Jennifer had sent me. And for some reason, I asked the two girls if they wanted to go to Hawaii with me. They both jumped at the chance. So I took out the ticket and said that I’d cash it in, buy a bunch of Sherm with it, sell it at a profit, and then we’d all be able to go to Hawaii. It was absolutely crazy. I was out of control again. I spent the money buying Sherm, getting loaded all over the varrio, and spent every nickel I had left, including all the money that CJ and I had made in Hawaii. Within a few days, I found myself in county jail facing burglary charges and a bunch of parole violations.
12
Small Fish, Big Ocean
I was still on Youth Authority parole, so some of the older homeboys in county jail told me that I should ask the judge to send me to Chino prison (an adult facility) on a ninety-day observation. When I came back from that, they would probably put me on adult probation and probably let me go. This was sound advice because it would reduce the amount of time I’d spend in jail. But this was adult jail and at the time, I didn’t quite know what I was getting into.
When I went to court, I brought that issue up with the judge and they agreed to send me to Chino for the ninety-day observation. So by March of 1983, I was in Chino West Yard for my 90-Op. As soon as I arrived there, I found six homeboys from my varrio. It was like going back to the neighborhood. Anyone who’s ever been there knows t
hat Chino West is wide open. Anything and everything you could want was available there. I was shown around by my homies and told that a Big Homie named Benny from Pico Rivera was running the place. I start working right away. My homies Sapo and Johnny from Logan Heights did some burglaries from other inmates for cartons of cigarettes and then sold the cigarettes for weed. Another homie named Mando was getting cocaine and heroin from the outside and we started helping him sell that.
One day I got up early and went out to the yard. I spotted Benny and some of his LA homeboys, so I went over to them to say hello. “Come over here, little homie, and have a seat,” Benny said. “What are you doing up so early?” I told him that my homeboy Mando was going on a visit and he needed me to hold something for him. That was because they always search you before and after a visit.
“You better make sure you put that up somewhere [put it someplace safe] because something’s about to go down and we might get locked down.”
No sooner than he finishes saying this, a guy comes running out of the cottage toward us. Benny waves him off and tells him to run to the other side of the yard. The guy follows Benny’s direction and runs off. A few seconds later, another guy comes running out of the same door. This guy is covered in tattoos. He’s also covered in blood from about ten different holes all over his chest and his arms. He runs out asking Benny and our group, “What’s going on?” Benny told him to get lost and not to come our way. So the bleeding guy staggers off toward Control and the alarms start to go off.
Confessions of a Cartel Hit Man Page 10