Iceberg Slim: Portrait of a Pimp Page #4

of their mothers.

- The person that had

the greatest effect on him

Psychologically

was his mother.

He didn't want

to keep hurting his mother,

And yet

there was a part here

That was a divided soul.

Because there were

also parts of him

That were angry

at his mother

And held things

against his mother,

Which really psychologically

Had some things to do with

the way he treated other women

And his utter

disrespect for women.

My reputation coming up

Before I got

street poisoned,

All of my mother's friends,

All of my associates'

mothers and fathers,

They all thought

I was the most charming,

The sweetest-

they used to talk about,

Oh, your son is so sweet.

Oh, he's such a gentleman.

You see what I mean?

So to get from that "a"

To the horrific "z"

of pimping

Required more of me

Than it did

the average person.

Which I think played out

In his very, very

direct experiences

With some of the girls

in his stable,

Including the girl

who he beat violently,

And at the same time wanted

to nurture and hold and hug.

- But I always had

that suckers streak in me.

I don't mean that

it compromised my pimping.

But it was always there.

- You can't just

dog a woman out

And just gorilla pimp

a b*tch to death.

There's gotta be some compassion

to pimping in there,

Some soft side, some tender

loving pimping in there.

Because if you constantly

with the women,

You gotta have

a natural feeling for 'em.

They give you money.

You respect 'em.

You actually being

a father figure to 'em.

- 28 years old,

he's released from leavenworth,

He's back on the street

flat on his ass.

So automatically,

his first thought is, like,

Okay, I gotta get

my pimping game back up.

- He has

no other alternative

But to turn

to strong-armed robbery.

And within a month, bam,

he's back in the slammer.

He's sentenced to cook county

house of corrections

For a year.

They put him on

the coal pile.

Never done a hard day's work

in his life.

A pimp on a coal pile

is like oil and water.

So good Friday 1947,

he escaped.

- He's a fugitive

from justice.

He's running all over

the midwest

With eight prostitutes

And he's an addict

of heroin and cocaine.

- Did you make

a lot of money?

Oh...

But where'd it go?

In my arm.

In a blizzard of cocaine

Up my nose.

All kinds of clothes.

Spending it across the bar

in cabarets.

- Dope is maybe one of

the greatest pimps to ever live,

Because anybody

who uses dope

And gets hooked on dope,

You're a ho

and the dope is pimping you.

When you're in the life,

You never realize that

you're going to get old.

That never occurs to you

Because the drugs

keep you in a trace.

By the late 1950s,

He's got his girls

in whorehouses,

He gets busted,

they run his fingerprints

And find out

he's an escaped convict.

- His run in the game

is over.

He's sentenced back

to the house of corrections.

He does nine months

in solitary confinement.

- I looked around

my new home.

It was a tight box

Designed to crush and torture

the human spirit.

I raised my arms above me.

My fingertips touched

the cold steel ceiling.

I stretched them out

to the side.

I touched the steel walls.

The mattress cover

was stained and stinking

From old puke and crap.

It wasn't just the cell.

It was the sights and sounds

of the misery and torment

On the row.

- At the end

of the fourth month,

My skull was shaking

on my shoulders

Like I had palsy.

- He said that

he would have to do things

To strengthen his mind

To keep from going crazy.

- His writing

may have actually begun

In that prison world

in that setting

Where he started

creating stories,

Whether about his own life

or fictional ones.

- He said, I had to play

mental games with myself,

And I had to have

certain conversations

To just keep me going.

He said, because

I was determined

That the man

was not going to break me.

I could

just lay right down

I tell you, children,

I could lay right down

He had a lot to cope with.

His best friend,

joe "party time" evans,

Was killed.

Baby bell was dead.

- He gets a letter

from his mother,

And that she's very sick

And that he needs

to get out to los angeles.

- I had come to a decision

in that awful cell.

I was through

with pimping and drugs.

I had found out that pimping

is for young men,

The stupid kind.

I got insight that perhaps

I could never have hoped

to get outside.

I could see

the terrible pattern of my life.

Mama might die in california

at any time.

I had to get to her

before she died.

I had to convince her

I loved her.

I had to get there

As much for myself

as for her.

- Here he is, he's struggling

trying keep his sanity,

And during this time,

He finds out

they may tack on more time.

He may not get out

when they tell him

That he's

supposed to be released.

- In order

to secure his freedom

On the day that he

is supposed to be released,

He writes a letter

to the warden

In which he makes

a legal sounding plea

For his release.

- Using the pen

and the paper

To get somewhere in life

for the first time

Was cathartic for him.

This is when he became

a writer, in effect,

And that writing,

then and later on,

Enabled him to leave

the penitentiary,

Enabled him to leave

the life of crime behind

And so through writing,

He really did

change his life.

- Writers are born

and not created,

So that gene,

that genius gene

Has always been there

somewhere inside of you.

It just takes something

to trigger it.

- He says I hated

being in the steel casket

Where they locked me away,

But they saved my life.

Because if I had tried

to continue on,

I wouldn't have lived.

He said, so I knew

That I was going to leave

the street life alone

And do whatever I had to do

To straighten up

And lead

a different kind of life.

love and happiness

making it right

love and happiness

making it right

love and happiness

making it right

- Los angeles becomes

the end point of his journey

Because he's trying

to get back to mama.

I had no one except mama.

My coming to her

had been like a miracle.

It was the magic

that gave her strength.

She told me

that I should get married

And have children.

- I had come out here

to california

'cause I was just bored,

so I came out here.

I had worked

for a hamburger stand

And this guy started-

stopped by there

And he looked like

a professional to me,

Either a doctor,

a lawyer,

Or a president

of some bank.

Impeccably dressed.

Shoes shined,

the car spotless.

Just unbelievable.

And he said

could I take you somewhere

Where you could eat something

besides a hamburger?

I said, what the hell.

So we go and we eat.

And I drank too much,

Which I usually did

back in those days.

I drank all of my whiskey

And all of

anybody else's whiskey

I could get my hands on.

And I got sick

Like I have never been sick

before in my life.

And he took me

to the emergency room.

The doctor said

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