Morgan Ellis

I was part of a collective in Toronto - we never referred to ourselves as an 'agency', but the concept was similar. We shared ad costs, incall expenses and provided back up and emotional support for each other. It was very much like a University Dorm, full of general silliness, some 'monthly' bitchiness from time to time, and a lot of fun. Oh, and the occasional naked pillow fight. Plus, you almost always had someone hanging around for spontaneous duo appointments ;) It helped that we were all part timers with outside careers or school, drug free, and equally committed to maintaining good reputations. I'd highly recommend a collective to any ladies working as indies -- it was a really positive experience, and we're all still friends.

I spent the last year touring the USA, and Craig's List busts are disturbingly common. Busts of all kinds are, as a matter of fact. It's one of the reasons US escorts can come across as paranoid -- verification can be a long, drawn out process, and almost every girl requires it when booking a new client. While I was last in the Baltimore area, police conducted a sting on two girls operating a small, low volume incall. They actually ambushed clients leaving the incall, and blackmailed them into helping to set the women up. The bust took months to co ordinate, required dozen of officers, and the police force called local media to 'alert' them to it -- and provided footage of them leading out the girls, who they didn't allow to put on more than robes. Both were handcuffed, one was thrown on the floor so violently that they dislocated her shoulder. Who did the police 'save' Baltimore from? Two university students, one a single mother, neither with a record. No drugs, no pimps, no neighbour complaints, nothing but two single girls trying to graduate without working a minimum wage job. For this, the cops spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, in a region with one of the highest murder rates in the country. It's a relief to be back working at home, where prosecution is a little bit more sane. - Morgan