Just a gigolo

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Winston Salem Journal Mar 12, 2002

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Woman says that she lent man $6 million.

Witness testifies defendant in case said he'd repay her

By John Hinton JOURNAL REPORTER

GREENSBORO -- A former Winston-Salem resident testified yesterday that she lent James Anthony Savage more than $6 million during their 21/2-year relationship - money that a federal prosecutor said that Savage used to support his lavish lifestyle.

Jean Williams Foster said that she lent Savage the money because he agreed to repay her when his communication business was established.

"He said he needed it for his business," Foster said. "He made it clear to me that I would lose my entire investment if I didn't give him money to finish the job."

Foster was the first witness to testify at Savage's trial in U.S. District Court in Greensboro. Savage, 32, a native of Ohio, is charged with 32 counts of conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering and interstate transportation of stolen property.

Savage is accused of defrauding Foster and three other Winston-Salem women of more than $7 million, said Clifton Barrett, one of the assistant United States attorneys who is handling case. Savage used several aliases and put his assets in his wife's name, Barrett said, and bought several expensive cars and a mansion in Sarasota, Fla.

Federal authorities have seized $400,000 of Savage's money and other evidence, Barrett said.

A federal grand jury has indicted Savage and his former wife, Margaret N. Handsman, on charges that they defrauded seven investors in North Carolina and Florida, including single women, of large sums of money from November 1996 to October 2000. Savage legally changed his name to Mario Racanelli last year. Handsman married Savage in July 1996 and divorced him in June 2001.

Handsman pleaded guilty last week to one count of conspiring to launder money, and she might testify in Savage's trial, Barrett said.

Savage, a self-proclaimed gigolo, has pleaded not guilty. Nils Gerber, Savage's attorney, said that several women gave Savage money and other items as gifts, not as investments.

Several of these women had sexual relations with him, and they paid him to continue their relationships, Gerber said.

In her testimony, Foster said she met Savage through a ballroom-dancing organization in Winston-Salem in the fall of 1996. By January 1997, Foster, who was 65 at the time, and Savage had a romantic relationship, and she said she began lending Savage large sums of money.

Savage told Foster that he needed the money to start a business involving selling cell phones in the Triad, Foster said. He agreed to repay her, but he never did, Foster said.

Foster gave him money from two trust accounts that contained $8 million before she met him. She said she gave him the money as an investment, and not as payment for sex. Savage never signed any loan documents, she said.

During their relationship, Foster traveled to Nashville, Tenn.; New York; Boston; Miami; and Denver to visit Savage and lend him money. Foster said she kept a list of the amounts.

"I didn't want him to think or anyone else to think that I was cheating him in any way," Foster said.

She went to the authorities in August 1999 after she had depleted her accounts, Foster said. She visited him in Florida at that time after he told her that he had been shot and wounded in Mexico. She refused to lend Savage any more money. Testimony is scheduled to resume this morning.

-- (lars@indy.net), March 13, 2002

Answers

When the end comes I know

they'll say just a gigolo

Life goes on without me

-- (Louis Prima @ Las.Vegas), March 13, 2002.


“A former Winston-Salem resident testified yesterday that she lent James Anthony Savage more than $6 million during their 21/2-year relationship “

Gigolo my ass!! 21 ˝ years for $6M? Sounds like the average married stiff to me.

-- Send (mo@money.please), March 13, 2002.


I think it's two and a half, not twenty one and a half.

But it does bring up the age-old question...

Why can't a man living in Winston-Salem, NC be buried west of the Missisippi River?

-- (just@wonder.ing), March 13, 2002.


To "just wondering":

I think jokes and riddles are what this forum needs to pep it up. And speaking of riddles, you have come up with a real pipperooni.

-- Peter Errington (petere7@starpower.net), March 13, 2002.


Riddle answer: We generally wait until people are dead before we bury them anywhere. This, of course is not as much of a necessary condition as the riddler indicated.

-- Little Nipper (canis@minor.net), March 13, 2002.


This, of course is not as much of a necessary condition as the riddler indicated.

Part of the fun of riddles comes from not reading too much into them.

-- (just@wonder.ing), March 13, 2002.


buried alive

-- (
winston@salem.salon), March 13, 2002.

This gigolo was strictly small-time. Six million? Ha, chump change. An na Nicole Smith was awarded 88 million for performing her wifely duties.

-- (lars@indy.net), March 13, 2002.

I think the old boy was just using her to stick it to his children, who he allegedly hated with a passion. This is not a new theory and she is just getting what was promised, less actually. At 89, I suspect that J. Howard was short a few cards but still crafty as hell.

Now I’m not too overly picky when it comes to the ladies, but Anna Nicole just doesn’t ring any bells. She looks to me like she’s one Big Mac away from becoming the current day Shelley Winters.

If this latest ruling holds up, she will waddle off with $50M or so.

Not too shabby!

-- Send (mo@money.please), March 14, 2002.


Ana and her husband were friends for years before she married him. He had apparently been involved in her ... career ... for quite a while. If he saw fit to marry her, good for them both. Every guy hopes some woman will stick around in his later years, and maybe when you're very old you don't care if the hair color came out of a bottle or the boobs are inflated.

-- helen plays soft violin music (you@savage.beasties.you), March 14, 2002.


Sorta Helen. He actually brought her ‘career’ to an end and never supported it at all. Marshall met Anna in October ‘91’ when she was stripping at a Houston skin bar called Gigi’s. She was a big boned ‘B’ dancer that was relegated to dancing the day shift and that turned out to be the best good luck turn of her life. Marshall had just lost his previous squeeze and was very despondent…….go figure. His chauffeur had seen Anna dance at Gigi’s and took Marshall there one day to cheer him up. He took a fancy to her and provided gifts and cash right up to the day they were finally married in June of ‘94’.

The day after she met Marshall at Gigi’s for the first time, she quit her job and never worked again until his death. That could depend on your interpretation of the word ‘work’.

Far as I’m concerned, both of them got what they wanted and appeared to be happy together.

His kids were understandably upset but the courts have finally brought this tale to a conclusion….maybe.

-- Free (head@case.analysis), March 14, 2002.


Best said Send.

-- Carlos (riffraff@cybertime.net), March 14, 2002.

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