Former private investigator James Barnes of Breaking Out discusses his association with Chong Kim, the self-described survivor of sex trafficking whose memoir inspired the film Eden, and releases details of his investigation —
The stories of sex-trafficking survivor Chong Kim are poignant and the scope of her international presence is far-reaching. That’s what led Breaking Out – the NGO I founded to combat sexual slavery – to form a partnership with her. But during the course of this working relationship, ethical reasons left me with no other choice but to publish my investigatory findings.
Put simply, Chong Kim is a fraud.
What’s wrong with being a fraud? Why should we bother exposing one?
Many survivors who escape sexual slavery prefer to live the rest of their lives hiding in the shadows. If you’re a foreign victim on American soil, a program called TVPA will try to give you the resources to start a new life in the U.S. If you’re American, you can sometimes find private programs to help you readjust to society. But no matter how much or how little support you receive, chances are high that a victim will still feel a swell of shame and despair about her past. She will constantly fear revenge by her tormentors, so she’ll usually keep new people at a distance for fear of being discovered. The things she suffered are so raw that she can rarely discuss them without crying. Oftentimes she probably won’t be able to have an intimate relationship with a man without extensive therapy lasting years.
It’s already difficult enough to wade back into the waters of society when you’re an actual survivor. Imagine how much more difficult it would be if there were a general cloud of doubt hanging over you that led others to assume you must be lying? As long as frauds continue to hover over our field, it’s a real danger.
My name is James Barnes. I worked as a licensed private investigator for over a decade, based out of Florida. My job took me to many parts of the U.S. as well as different countries, where I worked international custody cases, searched for missing children, handled kidnap for ransom, effecting victim rescues, and Executive Protection operations and infiltrated sex trafficking rings.
But as a private investigator, there’s one aspect of the job that traumatizes you. The most painful example of it occurred during one case in Central America. Because of the nature of my work, I’m not allowed to describe intimate details of cases. But in general terms, I was hired to do kidnap for ransom, effecting victim rescues and Executive Protection cases around the world, particularly Central America.
Through this work I have learned and witnessed the horrors of being “taken” being forced to do things so horrible no one could possibly imagine. But at night, I was a wreck. Knowing what existed out there, knowing the victims existed and that I developed the skills and knowledge to do something about it, I couldn’t do nothing about it for one more day, it was time to do more.
So I withdrew all my savings to start a non-profit corporation called Breaking Out. I chose the name to symbolize the freedom I hoped to provide for these sex-trafficked girls, but it could have just as easily symbolized my own break with the private investigator path. A machinist mate friend offered to rent me a tiny corner of a warehouse, which I converted into a makeshift office. A filing cabinet that locks, a couple of yellow legal pads, some of my awards and diplomas and some 501c papers from the government were all I had to tell me that this was finally a company. It didn’t even have a computer or a phone! The early days were spent with a cell phone glued to my hand as I called anybody I had grown to trust, hoping to get a board of directors and staff….
Then one day a staff member told me that Chong Kim had contacted us through our company’s Facebook page. “Are you sure?” I asked. My staff member confirmed and showed me the message, which said she was interested in talking to our company about working together. I felt excited, but also nervous. After all, Chong Kim is one of the most celebrated figures in the sexual trafficking field.
Many survivors choose isolation from society, but Chong Kim took the bold step of talking about her story, which is why she’s so admired. Now she travels the world, doing speaking engagements that bring awareness to the horrors of sex trafficking, which has led to countless donations from affected listeners who couldn’t help but feel moved to help. Chong Kim has also founded Minorities and Survivors Improving Empowerment (MASIE), which assists victims with housing, connects them with legal services and helps them get help for drug addiction and mental illness. She somehow manages to keep an upbeat outlook on life despite telling stories of having her teeth extracted by Russian mobsters, watching other women get beaten and shot and suffering through tremendous physical and emotional abuse. What could an international figure that courageous and inspiring want with a guy like me?
Over several phone conversations, she expressed eagerness to be a part of our organization. She wanted to join our Board of Directors, mention us during her worldwide speaking engagements and as a former madam who used to control sex slaves, she felt she could give our staff invaluable insight into the psychology of those we were trying to fight.
Considering that we were a relatively unknown company that struggled to even make payroll every month, I couldn’t believe my luck. Here was one of the most conspicuous public figures in our field offering to give our fledgling operation a boost. The more she helped, the more lives that could be liberated from sexual slavery. We would even get the added bonus of providing our staff with invaluable training, as they would receive intimate psychological profiling from her madam background that would help us understand the predators we were hunting.
Once we’d had a few conversations about what the working relationship would entail, she opened up and told me her personal story about escaping from sexual slavery. She had gone to a bar in Texas and met a Marine. After two weeks of dating, he asked her to meet his parents. When he drove her to his parents’ house, they arrived in Florida where suddenly, the previously smiling and charming man she had fallen for turned into a cold hearted animal who ordered her to get out of the car. She said he sold her into slavery to Russian mobsters, who transported her to a warehouse in Las Vegas.
According to Chong Kim’s story, the warehouse was partitioned into different sections based on age and race, such as Indian, Spanish, Russian, etc. Because she was a beautiful Asian woman that looked younger, she was kept with the underage girls. The mobsters trained her to become a madam, responsible for controlling the other sex slaves so they wouldn’t get ideas of retribution or escape. She often had to travel to Florida to swamp areas, where her captors would force her to witness girls being shot and killed, their corpses dumped unceremoniously in swamps to teach them a lesson. Sometimes, they forced her to do the killings herself. She also told us about being forced to sit in ice baths for hours, or have her teeth extracted without anesthesia, just so she could learn whom her masters were. Witnessing the beating, rape, and intimidation of her fellow sex slaves was commonplace, even for girls as young as twelve. Being in this physically abusive environment even led to a disability in her left leg that caused her to walk with a limp for the rest of her life. She frequently fantasized about suicide and even asked her tormentors to kill her. As a madam, she also soon learned that federal agents, US Marshals, policemen, politicians and famous actors were all involved in the web of corruption.
Chong Kim continued her nightmarish story, revealing that a madam brought her to a suite in Caesar’s Palace, where a steady stream of Johns would enter to have sex with her. One of the Johns fell in love with her and purchased her exclusively. As a result, he would give her privileges to leave Caesar’s Palace periodically, as long as she returned at a specified time. It was during one of these leaves of absence that Chong Kim finally summoned the courage to escape. Despite having the disability in her leg, she managed to climb into an air vent in Caesar’s Palace, crawling on her hands and knees until she found an exit point and burst onto the street below, hurtling down three stories. Then she limped her way to safety, finding the nearest pay phone and calling the police.
One detail struck me immediately as being strange. Why would she escape through an air vent when the John had given her privileges to leave the grounds? Couldn’t she have just left the hotel and used a pay phone to call the police?
But at the time, I figured that maybe I had missed a detail, or maybe she had gotten two different stories confused. The main thing I focused on was the tremendous bravery Chong Kim had displayed. Her story stayed with me for days afterwards. I felt so moved – and so grateful that she had joined Breaking Out’s circle – that I had to thank her in some fashion. We weren’t a wealthy company, so I thought about alternatives to money. Because I was familiar with the brutality of the Russian mafia and their infamous love of retribution, I called her at a later time to offer her protection. Highly trained staff members would come to her speaking engagements, monitor her house and transport her where she needed to be, to make sure no one from her past would seek revenge.
She said, “Yeah, that would be great!” But future calls to solidify the plans would lead to her disappearing for a bit. Then when she’d pop back up on the radar, I’d bring it up again, and she’d agree, but then not follow up.
I found that surprising, but thought that maybe she already had these services on her own. So I offered to get her free psychiatric care, since she had told me that she never had it. It would be a critical step to healing.
She said again that would be great. But whenever follow up calls would lead to me recommending specific psychiatrists, or explaining how we would get the funding, she wouldn’t follow up.
After spending so many years in my lines of work, the radar kicks in quickly when something doesn’t feel right. Why wouldn’t Chong Kim want protection if her life were in danger? Why would she refuse psychiatric help when she had survived such an emotionally scarring experience?
Following a hunch, I offered to set her up with some federal law enforcement agents so they could help her bring down her Russian captors. Of the three things I had offered as a thank you, this was the most appealing. Surely she would pursue it. It would give her a chance to put those evil Russian mobsters in prison for the rest of their lives, but more importantly, numerous fellow victims would finally be liberated from the cruelest fates imaginable. As a survivor, surely she’d want to change the fates of women suffering from the same torture she had experienced.
She agreed to the idea, but yet again, blew me off every time I tried to put the plan into concrete action. There was always an excuse, ranging from a speaking engagement to a family obligation.
It was during these repeated evasions that something else clicked: her delivery of the story was unlike anything I’d ever heard before.
When sexual trafficking survivors discuss what they suffered, the emotional trauma floods their body all over again. Their eyes radiate fear and pain, they often cry, and at the very least, they frequently pause so that they can compose themselves. Chong Kim told her story with a flat monotone. She sounded more like someone remembering a high school track meet than a survivor. Through all my years of experience with victims, that was a first.
The detail that had bothered me at first – that I had tried to brush off – now took on new importance considering the other oddities that were emerging. Why would she escape through an air vent when the John had given her privileges to leave the grounds?
So I called the investigation unit of Caesar’s Palace. I spoke to the head of security, who sounded sharp and professional. I asked, “Could someone crawl through an air vent in your hotel?” “No,” was the flat reply. When I asked for details, he said Caesar’s Palace has three towers, with three corresponding air vents in these towers’ ceilings. There is one other air vent in the basement. The distance between the ground and the ceiling is far too high. The head of security explained, “No way can someone escape from the ceiling air vent.” I asked, “What about the basement?” He replied, “You could get to the basement air vent, but no human being would be able to fit inside. All of the air vents are just too small. It’s not possible.”
I thanked him for his time and hung up the phone. After a restless sleep, I went to work the next morning, gathered our team and had a discussion about whether or not we should investigate these oddities. Throughout the conversation, we kept bringing up how many different cases we had sitting on our desks that simply didn’t have the funding. Every time we said no, that meant people were out in the world living through nightmarish suffering with small hope of rescue. Wasn’t it possible that Chong Kim had legitimate reasons for refusing protection and psychiatric care? Wasn’t it possible she had already worked with federal law enforcement to bring down her captors? Wasn’t it possible that she said air vent when she meant something else? Wasn’t it possible that she had just overheard about the powerful people involved in the web of corruption from someone who was fabricating their story? Wouldn’t it be better for sex slaves trapped all over the world if we just focused on increasing our capacity to help them?
So we put aside our reservations and decided to collaborate on our first project together. Chong Kim called to inform us that she was working with federal law enforcement to bring down a sex-trafficking massage parlor in Texas. Massage parlors are usually the least sophisticated rings to bring down. We spoke to her and explained the methods we’d used in the past to infiltrate them. (Details are being withheld in order not to jeopardize future investigations.) Then we asked her to meet with the federal law enforcement we work with, to make sure her traffickers were caught, the current case in Texas would be handled correctly, and most important to get her and the other victims she claimed to be captured with were getting the help they all deserved.
Chong Kim didn’t even address our efforts to arrange the meeting with them, The next time we heard from her, She asked us to just follow breadcrumbs for the Texas case an investigatory term for following up on small amounts of info here and there. We would get some names and do background checks. Or she would send us some license plate numbers and we would run them for priors. We met no one, didn’t get regular updates about the status of the investigation and didn’t even know which massage parlor was being targeted.
She fell out of touch for a bit, then suddenly popped back up to tell us the massage parlor had been brought down. She thanked us for our help and even wrote a letter of support that we used on our company website and Facebook page. This had been unquestionably the most nebulous and bizarre investigation I’d ever been a part of, but something even stranger emerged from it: the letter she wrote for us asserted that she was an American. She even made a point of saying that as an American, she didn’t have access to TVPA benefits. But in her memoir, she claimed to have immigrated to the United States from Korea in 1977. If she had been foreign-born, she would’ve had access to TVPA. So which story was correct? It couldn’t be both.
People might wonder why Breaking Out didn’t just sever ties with Chong Kim at this point. The main one was that we were still struggling and wanted her help. In my field, when Breaking Out doesn’t have the finances to take on a case, that means young, innocent girls all over the world wake up in the morning with nothing to look forward to other than demeaning and dangerous forced prostitution. I couldn’t bring myself to pull the plug yet.
For the next few months, our only communication consisted of sporadic phone calls where Chong Kim would inform me about various awards she had received or prestigious events she had attended. Before I could change the subject to Breaking Out and our current cases, she would hang up. At this point, being certain that she was 1) a fraud and 2) not promoting us at all, we decided to go public with our suspicions on our company’s Facebook page. This was the point of no return. I was determined to bring down Chong Kim, no matter how elevated her status was.
After our Facebook posting, our company’s answering service lit up like a telethon. We got a blitzkrieg of calls from various reporters asking for evidence. When Chong Kim’s lawyers sent us a cease-and-desist letter, I knew I had to go back to my private investigator roots to get hard proof that Chong Kim was a faker.
First, my team and I created a timeline consisting of what she has said on TV, what she said in interviews and what she wrote in her book. Her story has changed multiple times.
Next, I uncovered a theft-by-swindle case from 2009 that saw Chong Kim convicted by a Minnesota judge for stealing money from a human-trafficking survivor. The case number is 62-K6-07-003251. The theft-by-swindle arrest occurred on February 15, 2006. The date of the court filing was September 11, 2007. I was unable to travel to Minnesota and interview the respective parties, so how these two met and how the relationship had progressed are unavailable to me. But the court case – which is available on public record – revealed that she had offered to handle the entire life savings of this survivor. The total amount of restitution owed to the victim is $15,246.92. The balance due as of September 29th is $403.00. Chong Kim had gained the victim’s trust through the “we’re both survivors” angle. Chong Kim pled guilty to the charge, had to serve time and is still currently paying off restitution, which without gainful employment makes me question where the money from her donors really goes? She is also currently on probation in Minnesota as a result. Is there anything more despicable than stealing the livelihood of a human-trafficking survivor?
Chong Kim walks with a cane, which she told me was an injury suffered from her days of sexual slavery. From a former teacher of hers who wishes to remain anonymous, I discovered that she actually had that disability since she was seven years old, and up until at least 2005, she collected Social Security checks for it. In her memoir, she also claims to have had the injury in childhood, a source of shame for her parents who didn’t want to be seen with her because of it. The same teacher who has known Chong and her sisters for most of their lives told me as a teacher he has never seen any evidence of abuse and even as late as 2008, when he last [saw] Chong Kim, could not believe the story she has put out to the public.
In Chong Kim’s memoir, she painted a portrait of her mother as being incredibly physically abusive. She would slap her, punch her and lock her in the closet for hours. She claimed her father was demanding and controlling. Both parents reviled her for being unable to fit into the white world enough, so they spewed verbal abuse at her constantly. But in 2005, Chong Kim gave up custody of her son to her parents. Why would she do that if the stories about her parents were true? How come her sisters have never come forward to confirm those claims against the parents? And with the passing of her father late 2013 I am only to assume he went to Korea to pass as there is no record of his death anywhere in the US, How was Chong at his bed to see him dying with a smile on his face?
Chong Kim frequently claims that she was living in Texas when she got sold into sexual slavery in 1994, when she was nineteen years old. A former teacher of hers that we have interviewed – who wishes to remain anonymous – says she was actually a junior in high school in 1994, at Bridge Creek High School in Minnesota, which is obviously far away from Texas. Chong Kim also told us that she was twenty-three when she escaped from sexual slavery. But she usually mentions 1997 as the date that she escaped. If she was nineteen in 1994, she would be twenty-two if she escaped in 1997, not twenty-three.
The date she mentioned as her first year suffering under sexual slavery – 1994 – has a corresponding Yearbook from Bridge Creek High School. This 1994 Yearbook clearly contains a photo of Chong Kim. Attending a Minnesota high school is a far cry from sexual trafficking. Plus we have a contact from that same high school – who wishes to remain anonymous – that swears Chong Kim was still attending that school in 1995, when she would have been in the thick of the sexual trafficking days according to her story.
But the most damaging discovery occurred when I asked a colleague who runs a licensed investigative agency to conduct a background check. Chong Kim’s social security number is linked to multiple people. Further investigation revealed her date of birth to be 1975. But her social security number first appears on the grid in 1977, I mention this because it makes it questionable how she has publicly said at 31 years old she has been in this country for twenty two years.
The documents attached to this article as hyperlinks offer more details, but the portrait painted is clear: I’ll let you come to your own conclusions but our opinion is very clear If we are wrong then we invite Ms. Chong Kim to publicly sit next to us and answer accusations we as well as others have about her sexual slavery experiences. The magnitude of her supposed travels lead to higher speaking engagement fees, more author royalties from her memoir and the movie Eden, allowing her to enrich herself at the expense of real survivors and real victims who could use the economic and emotional support of good people much more. In our line of work, we all suffer when someone infiltrates our circles on the basis of dishonesty and self-enrichment. It makes survivors less likely to come forward for fear of being accused of lying.
Recently Somaly Mam – a figure with even more clout than Chong Kim – has been exposed as a fraud. When I heard the news, at first I merely ruminated on why con artists can continue to operate for so many years without being caught. Partly it’s because when people hear stories of such horrible abuses, their first impulse is to help, not challenge their claims. It’s also because powerful people might be able to help you with your own objectives, so you look the other way. Then sometimes when things start to seem fishy, people don’t want to act on their suspicions for fear of looking like a fool for all the previous support. At its most basic, people don’t have the time to investigate the veracity of everything they’re told.
But the fraud perpetrated by figures like Chong Kim and Somaly Mam go beyond the normal parameters. Why do they do this? Do they feel small and insignificant, so making up stories of intense suffering and dramatic escapes to the adulation of their audiences helps them fill a void? Do they suffer from mythomania? Are their motivations mainly economic? I don’t know.
However, what I do know is that Chong Kim has been accusing federal agents, former governors, Hollywood stars and armed forces personnel as aiding and abetting her traffickers. Law enforcement should therefore consider conducting a full investigation of possible fraud against her. Because the scope of this alleged conspiracy has greatly increased the power and drama of her story – and thereby her speaking engagement fees – she should also be accountable to pay restitution on all funds collected under said fraud.
To protect the victims of trafficking and the community at large from frauds like Somaly Mam and Chong Kim in the future, I’m also announcing the intent to form a coalition to bring the integrity back into the cause. This coalition will create a symbol that will be given to organizations or individuals that have been thoroughly vetted. If your organization check out, your funds is being used correctly you get to use this symbol on all your advertising, marketing materials. It will give the public the opportunity to know if they want to donate to an anti human trafficking organization their money is going to the cause and that organization is doing the job they claim to be doing.
I could have wallowed in my regret that I didn’t out her earlier. But concrete action is more important than indulgent self-pity. This coalition idea is a tangible, concrete step that will restore the honor of the community that fights sexual slavery. The real heroes in the trenches fighting to save suffering victims from the nightmare of human trafficking will no longer have to watch in frustration as con artists enrich themselves by taking advantage of good people’s best intentions. In the end, ensuring the integrity and honesty of our field will smooth over the damage caused by frauds like Chong Kim while making sure they will never emerge again.
Chong Kim Investigation Timeline of Inconsistencies
*Note- Page Number next to any information is from her book called Broken Silence. Copyright 2006 by Chong Kim with pseudo name Song Ja Song.
1. How long were you trafficked for and escaped in what year?
• In an article it states: While out on an errand by herself….she started running….and never stopped.
Reference:
Posted: Sep 24, 2012 9:36 AM EDT
Updated: Sep 24, 2012 9:36 AM EDT
By Kristin Kane, Reporter
http://www.myfoxhouston.com/
• In her book: Pg. 159- In the late December of 1996, I made my escape through the vent, I was so scared.
• In an article it states: She escaped in 1997 after two horrific years of being trafficked in both the US and Mexico.
Reference:
HELP HUMAN TRAFFICKING SURVIVOR CHONG KIM WRITE HER STORY!
Posted on April 27, 2013 by j.r.bouchard
http://
• In another article Chong Kim States: KIM: 1995 through 1997. And I ranked up as a madam in 1996.
Reference:
Aired December 26, 2013 – 15:30 ET
BECKY ANDERSON, HOST: Tonight, we devote this special edition of CONNECT THE WORLD to CNN’s Freedom Project
http://transcripts.cnn.com/
• According to her blog Vampires, Monster & Frankenstein:
1996/1997- Shortly after my escape from trafficking in ’96/97, I became a different monster.
http://
• 1994-1997- “saying I’ve been trafficked from 1994-1997 is accurate,”…according to her blog Betrayal http://
• In an article it states- The next four years she planned to work on a degree, was spent as a sex slave.
Reference:
Victim Speaks Out Against Human Trafficking. Updated: Fri 1:18 AM, Nov 16, 2012 By: Rashi- Vats
http://www.kbtx.com/home/
• In Chong Kim’s Blog it states: I was involved in trafficking for more than six months up to 2 and half years.
Reference:
Chong N. Kim
Monday, October 23, 2006 at 5:10PM
http://
• Interview: KIM: I was in one of the casinos. And I saw the vent. And it made me flash back to my childhood watching a James Bond film, and I said can you really crawl through there? You know, that’s what my thought was.
And there was a maintenance guy that would come. And I would play with the thermostat. And he would say why are you messing with the thermostat? And I said, how do you get out?
He was like, “Oh no, I can’t tell.”
And so basically I manipulated him by making him fall in love with me. I really took probably close to a couple of weeks. And he finally told me that if I go through I will end up in the laundry chute. To go through there, and then once I get there then I can go out.
Reference:
Aired December 26, 2013 – 15:30 ET
BECKY ANDERSON, HOST: Tonight, we devote this special edition of CONNECT THE WORLD to CNN’s Freedom Project
http://transcripts.cnn.com/
• According to her book, Broken Silence- Pg. 154- I had this overwhelming feeling that I might be pregnant. After what I witnessed I couldn’t allow my baby to go through the same scenario. I immediately made my plan to escape.
Pg. 158- I would offer my body in exchange for information about the vent tunnels, where it went and if there was a way out.
2. When did you come to the US with your family?
• In your blog it states- Hello, my name is Chong Kim. I am an Asian-Spanish American, thirty-one years of age and have been residing in the United States for nearly 22 years.
Reference:
Chong N. Kim
Monday, October 23, 2006 at 5:10PM
http://
• In your book it states: Pg. 23- My family and I migrated here approximately in the spring of ’77. My first language became Korean until I attended kindergarten in 1980.
Pg. 24- My uncle Paul Abernathy, who was Irish, was married into our family. He assisted us in our passports, travel expense, and our transformation into the American life. My aunt and uncle lived in Houston, TX.
1984-1985- Shook hands with President Reagan with family becoming naturalized … according to book pg. 9.
3. Have you ever been arrested and proof?
• According to book-Pg. 135- I [was] less likely to get busted or raided on, because one of the head traffickers worked as a US Marshal, through witness protection and also had inner connections with the Vice Team in NV, CA, NY and FL.
• Public record in MN shows Chong Kim was indeed arrested and pled guilty in 2009 for a felony charge of theft by swindle. According to court records MS Kim “swindled” over $15,000 from another Human Trafficking Victim from Japan., Condition – Adult: Details can be seen in our file under our cause page, Or refer to Ramsey District court case number : 06166722
A. Pay restitution, To victim-xxxxxxxxx $15,246.92
05/07/2009, Active 05/07/2009
B. Follow all instructions of probation, 05/07/2009, Active
05/07/2009
C. Remain law-abiding, 05/07/2009, Active 05/07/2009
D. Psychological evaluation/treatment, 05/07/2009, Active
05/07/2009
E. Psychiatric evaluation/treatment, 05/07/2009, Active
05/07/2009
F. Supply DNA sample, 05/07/2009, Active 05/07/2009
G. No contact with victim(s), 05/07/2009, Active 05/07/2009
H. Sign all releases of information, 05/07/2009, Active
05/07/2009
I. No misdemeanor violations, or greater violations.
05/07/2009, Active 05/07/2009
Service – Adult:
Type: Community work service
300 Hours For Indeterminate
Start: 05/07/2009
Status: Active 05/07/2009
4. How did you acquire your ‘injuries’?
• In your book it states: Pg. 29- In the Korean culture I couldn’t speak Korean anymore so I was automatically at fault, being a disabled child I was already an outcast. My mother was ashamed of my disability and she refuse to be seen in public with me.
Pg. 30- I eventually got tired of the constant surgeries that doctors were so amazed by, since my condition was a rare circumstance.
Pg. 97- My other fear was my physical mobility, I felt completely helpless and didn’t know what to do, even if I ran I knew I wouldn’t get very far with my limp.
• In an interview-I wore the same lens from 1995-97 and I could have become blind because of that, or my vision could have grown worse. I didn’t think about vision care as a health concern until in 2011, when I was diagnosed with blepharospasm, or constant blinking.
Reference:
Managing Editor: David H. Nguyen, Ph.D. Volume 2, Issue 2, Winter 2013
NEITHER HEIGHT NOR DEPTH, NOR HOT, NOR COLD By Chong Kim
http://www.cancerincytes.org/
5. How did meet your trafficker and when?
• According to book-Pg 94- Dallas, TX. In my second year of college, I was romanced by a con. A man that was in military attire, after dating for a few weeks.
• According to blog-In 1995, I fell in love with a military man, who persuaded me to move with him to an undisclosed remote area.
Reference:
Broken Silence by lilazngrl75, Age 31-40, Female, bloomington, Minnesota, United States. May 13, 2007
http://valleyrally.com/
• According to interview- She was an 18 year old freshman at DeVry University in Dallas. One night at a club she met, who she thought, was the man of her dreams. “Here comes this guy who is wearing a Marine outfit, and I was like oh my God. My girlfriends were like he is checking you out,” said Kim.
She found out her ‘boyfriend’ was really a recruiter. He was talking to traffickers from the Russian and Albanian mob.
Reference:
Victim Speaks Out Against Human Trafficking. Updated: Fri 1:18 AM, Nov 16, 2012 By: Rashi- Vats
http://www.kbtx.com/home/
• According to another article-She was recruited into sex slavery in 1994 by the person she believed to be her boyfriend. After just two months of dating, he drove her to an abandoned house in Oklahoma telling her that he needed to help a homeless friend
Reference:
Eden: a sex slave’s story
Written by investik8
July 17, 2013 at 10:32 am
http://
• According to article: Blinded by what she thought was real love, she left college where she was pursuing a degree in law enforcement and went with him….little did she know…she would be trafficked for the next 3 years.
Reference:
Sep 24, 2012 9:36 AM EDT
Updated: Sep 24, 2012 9:36 AM EDT
By Kristin Kane, Reporter
http://www.myfoxhouston.com/
6. Who were your traffickers — your ‘boyfriend’ or escort madam?
• According to book-Pg 97- A Madame of an Escort Service, she offered to help me find refuge, shelter, and food by sending me to Vegas for a legitimate job. Eventually, the female pimp who recruited me sent me to these gentlemen, who worked in Nevada where my experience in Human Trafficking began.
• 1994- Chong Kim who, at 19 years old, was sold as a domestic sex slave to Russian gangsters…according to http://
• According to article- After just two months of dating, he drove her to an abandoned house in Oklahoma telling her that he needed to help a homeless friend.
He chained her up in the basement and burned her passport and documents. There, she was raped and tortured before she was transported to the warehouse somewhere in an Indian reservation in Nevada.
Reference:
Eden: a sex slave’s story
Written by investik8
July 17, 2013 at 10:32 am
http://
• According to article: “From that point, I was beaten. I was raped. I was held hostage,” Kim said. “Then I got sent to Nevada, where we were held in a storage container. That’s where the trafficking started.”
Reference:
Bobby Ross Jr. | Christian Chronicle
July 2014
“From modern-day slave to slave for Christ”
http://
• According to article: She found out her ‘boyfriend’ was really a recruiter. He was talking to traffickers from the Russian and Albanian mob.
Reference:
Victim Speaks Out Against Human Trafficking. Updated: Fri 1:18 AM, Nov 16, 2012 By: Rashi- Vats
http://www.kbtx.com/home/
• According to interview: “I was held as a prisoner in an abandoned home and then transported to a distribution warehouse in Nevada and from there the traffickers would control me and other girls, 25-50 in each unit, transported through warehouse trucks,” said Chong.
Reference:
Posted: Sep 24, 2012 9:36 AM EDT
By Kristin Kane, Reporter
http://www.myfoxhouston.com/
7. Do you have a split personality disorder or not?
• According to book- Pg. 107- You begin to discover something that you never expected and sometimes the trauma is too big to handle that you begin to form an alter ego. “Jules” has always been there even before my trafficking, but the name didn’t come until I ranked up as a Madame, I never knew anything about split personality and how it worked, for years I thought something was seriously wrong with me and I was literally going insane.
Pg. 110- I was not aware of my disassociation or the possibility of my multiple personality, unless I found myself thinking, feeling and doing things.
Pg 116-117- Trafficker took her to their head trafficker: “I will be your personal master and you will be my concubine, you will now serve me and only me. I will have my potential clients that you will serve as well. Pg. 123- “I’m going to give you a name.” he whispered. “I want to call you Jewels, cause you are a ‘jewel’ to my heart.”
8. Rapes and assaults of Chong Kim
• Pg. 34-35- 3 years of age- 6 years of age. Sitters husband; “Another girl told her mom and when your daddy was picking you up at that time you were six years old, your daddy saw a police car. When we asked the (Ojum Ma) Korean lady what happened, she said that it wasn’t her husband’s fault, he’s slow and he didn’t get you pregnant so there’s nothing to worry about, ok.”
• Pg. 46 &49- 2nd grade 1982. Then there was this boy in my 2nd grade class name Sean. I cried every time he touched me in my private parts, there were times he would ask me to touch him.
• 1984- Attended West End Elementary in Kansas City, Mo… Pg. 39-40,43- I remember being in 3rd grade and the year was 1984-85. Mr. Bryant the assistant principal at Eisenhower. Oral sex wasn’t the only thing he forced me to do, he wanted me to stroke him and he wanted to insert his finger inside of me as well and kiss me in my mouth. …according to book.
• 1984-1985- Attended Eisenhower School in 3rd grade… according to book. Principal sexually abused her. Pg. 44- The next school year we had a different principal the moment I thought the abuse ended, it had only picked up where it had left off. The only difference was this principal didn’t make any sexual contact with me, but he did see me privately and it was more of fondling than anything else. I had a crush on him.
• June 7, 1993- CK’s parents go to Korea, CK raped by cab driver 2 hours south in small town by Yellow Cab driver. Lost court case to rapist, worked as a cocktail waitress then ended up dancing at strip club ran by Koreans in small town…according to book.
• Pg. 191- At the time I was in the outskirts of Greenville, North Carolina. I spoke to this guy off and on the whole time I was in NC. Turned out to be his friends that raped me.
• Even at church, a clergyman inappropriately touched her.
Reference-
Bobby Ross Jr. | Christian Chronicle
July 2014
“From modern-day slave to slave for Christ”
9. Foster homes and strip clubs?
• Pg. 64- 1993- I started smoking cigarettes and weed, drank beer and found myself at a local strip club. I started out as a cocktail waitress. Strip clubs were owned by Koreans. I didn’t give a shit what was going to happen to me, so guess what I did, I danced.
• Pg. 65- After the wild life phase, I decided to clean myself up and return back to Goodland and start my life over again
• By the time I was 14 to 15, I ran away from home, I couldn’t take the abuse and landed in the system, bouncing from one foster home to another.
Reference:
Chong N. Kim
Monday, October 23, 2006 at 5:10PM
http://
• According to a source- Kim attended Bridgecreek High School in Oklahoma the entire time into her senior year but did not graduate, and attended an alternative school there.
10. You kept and spent your money or you couldn’t?
• Pg. 135-Had over 30 girls working under me, only 10 were my trusted protégé I trained them to watch over the other girls and to treat them like products. These girls had to freedom to spend their own money, live in their choice of residence and to see who they wanted.
• “Even when I was a Madam I was still being held as a slave. I never kept any money, I was being monitored all the time.
Reference-
“Eden: a sex slave’s story”
Written by investik8
July 17, 2013 at 10:32 am
http://
11. Traffickers and clients-
• I [was] less likely to get busted or raided on, because one of the head traffickers worked as a US Marshal, through witness protection and also had inner connections with the Vice Team in NV, CA, NY and FL.
12. After escape two pregnancies, and a suicide or murder or alive?
• 1997- Remained in TX for the remainder of her pregnancy at a Maternity Home for Women after escape… according to book.
1997- July 3, induced labor to baby girl named Angel gave up for adoption after escaping trafficking…according to book.
Pg. 222- 1998- Lived in Pittsburgh, PA with Manuel. Got pregnant but Son’s father had passed away from suicide on November 11 and so she went back to TX.
Pg. 223- I returned home around March of 99. I shared with her about my pregnancy news before I went to the ER in Pittsburgh, PA. My son was born on August 26, 1999.
• According to source- Father is still alive from the ’99 pregnancy.
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