Early Favorite For One Of The Best/Most Bizzare News Stories of 2006

[Honolulu_Blue]

The details in the story are amazing, if not mind-boggling. Some excellent quotes too...

Wendy Rudderman will have her work cut out for her if she ever plans to top this gem.

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/13588048.htm


Not a prison but a refuge, he says
Backed by one of the women, a man says allegations he locked up and abused prostitutes are all wrong.
By Wendy Ruderman
Inquirer Staff Writer

Prosecutors have described a shipping container kept in the backyard of a West Deptford home as a chamber of horrors - a steel prison where Jerome L. Wigmore Jr. held women captive, sexually assaulted them, and burned one with a blowtorch.

Not so, said Wigmore and one of the women he is accused of keeping hostage. To them, the metal box was a refuge.

"He would bring me out there to get away from all the havoc that's going on out here," said T.Y. Jones, 27, a Camden prostitute whom clients call "Terry Cake."

Wigmore and Jones tell a story very different from police, one of an unlikely friendship between a Swastika-tattooed ex-con and black prostitute living together in an adult version of a clubhouse.

But officials are sticking to their version of events and successfully argued Friday to keep Wigmore's bail at $150,000 cash, keeping him in the Gloucester County Jail.

One area of dispute is whether Jones was, as police contend, a captive or, as she put it, a guest.

Police say they freed her from the container in an October drug raid. Jones said she had an overnight bag and her cell phone.

Jones also said she was undaunted by Wigmore's tattoos, his Nazi talk, and the fluorescent swastikas painted on the ceiling.

"He was cool peoples to me," she said. "I miss him... . I love him."

While police have said they uncovered "a substantial amount of drugs" inside the container, Wigmore said police had found only three "dime bags" of crack cocaine in a dresser drawer in the house.

Police also said Jones had been found on a platform bed guarded by a vicious white pit bull that was ready to attack if she got down. But Jones, Wigmore, and even the Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office said the dog was outside at the time. Jones said she often petted the dog and fed it.

Wigmore, 36, is charged with more than a dozen crimes, including two counts of aggravated sexual assault, two counts of kidnapping, and two counts of criminal restraint. He also faces several serious drug charges, including manufacturing and selling drugs out of the container. The charges combined carry more than 100 years in prison time, although it is unlikely Wigmore would be sentenced to such a term if convicted of all of them.

In separate interviews last week, Wigmore and Jones described the box as a cozy one-bedroom efficiency protected by the pit bull, Snow, and an infrared surveillance camera bought at Home Depot for $49.

They said they had routinely locked themselves inside and smoked crack cocaine while watching DVDs on a 32-inch color television. They used a 5-gallon bucket with a toilet seat screwed to the top to go to the bathroom. Sometimes, Wigmore read Jones books about Hitler, she said.

"He would tell me all about" Nazi Germany, Jones said, "but he was like, 'That's not me. Maybe that was me a long time ago, but that's not me now.' "

Wigmore said his SS and Nazi tattoos, including a soccer-ball-size swastika on his chest, were "symbols of power" and his German heritage. He said he had nothing against blacks or Jews, but believed their cultures "are wiping out the white race." He said he had been "heavy" into an Aryan group during a 2000 prison stint on drug charges but wasn't anymore.

"The n-word is ignorant," he said.

Although Jones sometimes performed oral sex on Wigmore, both said they were mostly "get-high buddies." Jones would stay in the container twice a month for days at a time, she said.

For breakfast, Wigmore would make French toast from thick slices of bread he bought from an Italian market. They would order take-out Chinese food or panzarottis for lunch. In the evenings, they would eat Hungry-Man TV dinners with crispy apple cinnamon desserts, to Jones' delight, she said.

"I'd wine and dine her. Breakfast in bed, man. Just like in here," Wigmore said during the interview at the jail.

Inside the container, he said, he kept a gym locker stuffed with potato chips and other munchies. Jones could store her Dark & Lovely shampoo there, too, he said.

Wigmore said he would do laundry for Jones and other prostitutes he picked up on the streets, using the washing machine inside his mother-in-law's house on First Avenue, where he kept his container and where his wife lived.

"Most of the time, they'd bring a trash bag full of clothes," Wigmore said. "My wife would freak out."

Wigmore said his relationship with his wife, Betty, a school bus driver, had fallen apart. Things got so bad they sometimes hit each other, he said. He moved into the container about a year ago, popping inside the house only to take showers and grab food or a cup of coffee. He didn't like eating with his wife or mother-in-law, Alice Boozer, because they had rude habits and fought at the table, he said.

Boozer, 75, has said she and her daughter were often afraid of Wigmore, citing an occasional violent streak.

"He was the wrong person for my daughter," Boozer said in an interview last month. "He wasn't a nice person."

Betty Wigmore, who did not return phone calls seeking comment, often banged on the container, demanding to know whom he had inside, her husband said.

"I'd say, 'What are you worried about who is in there? I'm not bothering you,' " Wigmore recounted.

Jones said Wigmore did lock her inside the container - for protection against his wife. "He has to lock it because he don't want his wife to see me in there, and I don't want her to see me in there, neither," Jones said. "Every girl that came over there knew the deal."

Jones watched the surveillance monitor Oct. 27 as a SWAT team broke into the container, guns drawn, she said. She was wearing only boxer shorts and a T-shirt when the officers thrust her outside and onto the cold ground, she said.

"They said, 'Why didn't you come out?' and I said, 'The door was locked,' " Jones said. "They said, 'You know, by the door being locked, you're in there against your will,' and I was like, 'No, the hell I'm not.' "

Jones said she eventually had told police what they wanted to hear so they would release her.

Bernie Weisenfeld, a spokesman for the Prosecutor's Office, said the woman locked inside the container had "expressed relief" when released and had given a statement willingly.

But Jones said she would not testify against Wigmore.

After Wigmore's arrest, a 31-year-old woman from Monroe Township came forward and told police that Wigmore had imprisoned her in the container for a few days in mid-July, burning her leg with a blowtorch. The woman showed prosecutors scars that she said the blowtorch had caused.

Wigmore said the woman was a prostitute he had picked up near Broadway and Cherry Street in Camden who voluntarily stayed in his container twice - for a week in June and for two days in July.

"I treated her like gold, man," Wigmore said.

On her second stay, she refused to leave, he said. To get rid of her, Wigmore left and called his wife on his cell phone, he said.

"I told my wife, 'Honey, I got this chick in the container, right. She won't leave. Can you tell her to leave? Just get her out. Tell her I got locked up,' " Wigmore recalled.

The woman, he said, is getting back at him for kicking her out with no bus fare home and no drugs. He said he had not burned her with a blowtorch, and that if he had, why did she wait five months to come forward? If the woman was a hostage, Wigmore said, why didn't she just kick out the air-conditioner and escape through the hole or bang on the container or use some of the many tools stored under the bed?

Wigmore said the scars were most likely self-inflicted skin "picking marks" typical of a drug user.

Citing his good looks, Wigmore said he did not have to kidnap women. As he cruised Camden's streets, they would see his car and wave him down, begging to go back to the container, he said. Some prostitutes just showed up at his container, he said.

"I had girls throwing rocks at that thing at nighttime, wanting to get inside," he said.

For prostitutes, the container was merely a safe place to get high and "get their rest on," Wigmore said.

---

[albionmoonlight]

The best part was when the writer slipped in casually, halfway through the story, that he had a wife.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

The best part was when the writer slipped in casually, halfway through the story, that he had a wife.

My exact thought.

[Honolulu_Blue]

I'm a fan of all the weird, unncessary details this story includes:

"Wigmore and Jones described the box as a cozy one-bedroom efficiency protected by the pit bull, Snow, and an infrared surveillance camera bought at Home Depot for $49"

"For breakfast, Wigmore would make French toast from thick slices of bread he bought from an Italian market. They would order take-out Chinese food or panzarottis for lunch. In the evenings, they would eat Hungry-Man TV dinners with crispy apple cinnamon desserts, to Jones' delight"

"He didn't like eating with his wife or mother-in-law, Alice Boozer, because they had rude habits and fought at the table"

"Inside the container, he said, he kept a gym locker stuffed with potato chips and other munchies. Jones could store her Dark & Lovely shampoo there"

And the fantastic quotes:

"He was cool peoples to me," she said

Wigmore said his SS and Nazi tattoos, including a soccer-ball-size swastika on his chest, were "symbols of power" and his German heritage. He said he had nothing against blacks or Jews, but believed their cultures "are wiping out the white race."

"I'd wine and dine her. Breakfast in bed, man. Just like in here," Wigmore said during the interview at the jail.

"I treated her like gold, man," Wigmore said (about the girl he apparently took a blow torch to)
"I had girls throwing rocks at that thing at nighttime, wanting to get inside," he said.

For prostitutes, the container was merely a safe place to get high and "get their rest on," Wigmore said.

[st.cronin]

They sound like real fun people.

[digamma]

Originally Posted by st.cronin

They sound like real fun people.

Cool peoples, st. cronin. Cool peoples.

[Shkspr]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

"I treated her like gold, man," Wigmore said (about the girl he apparently took a blow torch to)

Apparntly, he wanted to melt her down into little ingots of hooker.

[Desnudo]

The dog's name is fantastic, in context.

[jeff061]

. He said he had nothing against blacks or Jews, but believed their cultures "are wiping out the white race."

That's fantastic.

[Mustang]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_BlueIn the evenings, they would eat [b

Hungry-Man TV dinners with crispy apple cinnamon desserts[/b], to Jones' delight"

I call bullshit...

I've never gotten ANYTHING crispy in a hungry man dinner..

[Milton]

This kind of thing happens all the time in Philly. Something in the water.

[Lathum]

only in new jersey

[cthomer5000]

Things get a little nuts down in south jersey. It's amazing how different parts of the state are.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

"Wigmore and Jones described the box as a cozy one-bedroom efficiency protected by the pit bull, Snow, and an infrared surveillance camera bought at Home Depot for $49"

"For breakfast, Wigmore would make French toast from thick slices of bread he bought from an Italian market. They would order take-out Chinese food or panzarottis for lunch. In the evenings, they would eat Hungry-Man TV dinners with crispy apple cinnamon desserts, to Jones' delight"

"Inside the container, he said, he kept a gym locker stuffed with potato chips and other munchies. Jones could store her Dark & Lovely shampoo there"

This story brought to you by the preceeding sponsors

Frankly, I actually believe the crazy drugged out Nazi's and first hooker's version more than the cop's and other hooker's. It just seems more plausable.

SI

[Super Ugly]

Wow, I used to go out with a girl from West Deptford. I remember her dad being cool peoples.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by Milton

This kind of thing happens all the time in Philly. Something in the water.

Originally Posted by Lathum

only in new jersey

You two need to figure this out...

[sabotai]

West Deptford is in New Jersey. This is like a mile from my house.

[Shepp]

Crack is a hell of a drug!

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by sabotai

West Deptford is in New Jersey. This is like a mile from my house.

Know the Wigmores by chance?