WoodFellas: Frank Colacurcio and His Million-Dollar Empire of Flesh

But do they participate in onsite sex acts? "I'll say this," one dancer says. "One of our girls was on TV saying she's never seen sex in the club, and we burst out laughing."

Bob Payton, one of Frank's aides, once said in court that job seekers typically told him, "I have no money, I'm broke, my boyfriend left me, my husband beat me, I'm on welfare—can I get paid under the table? Things like that."

Adam Turman

According to the FBI, dancers at the Colacurcio clubs did a lot more than strip.

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More About

• Frank Colacurcio
• Federal Bureau of Investigation
• Cody Cote
• Crime
• Organized Crime

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Yet in spite of many dancers' precarious financial positions, some are single moms who don't need the added burden of jail time. But hard money can be tough to turn down. Dancers not only have to pay for the opportunity to strip, they can end up in debt for the effort. At $130 rent, it can take perhaps a half-dozen sex-free lap dances nightly just to break even. Those who don't are left with "back rent" that has to be made up another night. That's not counting the 10 percent "exchange fee" that dancers are also charged to redeem the club tokens that customers buy and use to pay for soft drinks (no booze allowed) and dances.

Cote, the FBI agent, says a few dancers take advantage of a more lucrative payoff: sex at Frank's house. A confidential informant, says Cote, claims there's "an open invitation" for dancers to earn up to $1,000 for having sex with the nonagenarian.

The FBI agent makes no similar mention of Frankie entertaining dancers at home. Maybe that's how they're different. As one stripper told federal agents about the father, "It's surprising that a guy so old still wants it so much."

(This story has been corrected since first being posted to clarify that Robert Kennedy was not yet Attorney General at the time of the Senate hearings mentioned.)

randerson@seattleweekly.com