On this date in 2007, KTRK consumer affairs reporter Marvin Zindler died of pancreatic cancer.
Zindler, of course, is forever linked with the Chicken Ranch, as his series of exposés on the brothel directly led to its closure. And for that reason, many people (mostly men) who are old enough to remember curse his name. Despite being a self-admitted egomaniac, he was a powerful champion of the downtrodden in his lifetime, and did a tremendous amount of good. Where the Chicken Ranch was concerned, he let his lust for fame and the spotlight get the better of him, and this allowed people with a vendetta against the Chicken Ranch to manipulate him from a distance. Zindler was a person who firmly believed in his own righteous infallibility, and once it became clear the vast organized crime conspiracy behind the Chicken Ranch's operation did not exist, well, Zindler doubled down on the conspiracy angle rather than admitting he'd been duped. He went to his grave insisting on criminal conspiracy and corruption, although he was never able to prove any of his claims.
Despite this, nobody could argue Zindler wasn't committed to his job. He accomplished a tremendous amount of good throughout his career, championing the downtrodden and exposing slum lords, unscrupulous car salesmen and all manner of predators exploiting people who had neither the money nor power to fight back. But they had Zindler on their side. Despite constant pain from the cancer destroying him, Zindler insisted on delivering his famed
restaurant report from his hospital bed on July 20. It proved to be his final report. Just over a week later, he was dead. His passing in 2007 directly inspired me to seek out information on the "true" story of what happened with the Chicken Ranch, and when I learned that no such history book existed, I researched and wrote
Inside the Texas Chicken Ranch: The Definitive Account of the Best Little Whorehouse. So in truth, Marvin Zindler is responsible for my book.
Inside the Texas Chicken Ranch: The Definitive Account of the Best Little Whorehouse is available from both
Amazon.com and
BarnesAndNoble.com. It's also available as an ebook in the following formats:
Kindle,
Nook,
Google Play,
iBooks and
Kobo.
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Chicken Ranch Central
Armadillocon took place in Austin over the weekend. This is, for those unaware, an annual science fiction and fantasy convention that's been running for 46 years. This isn't a big cosplay-and-celebrity event like DragonCon or ComiCon you see on TV. It's a more intimate affair focused on authors and artists. It's a blast. I attended it for the first time way back in 1990 and hope to attend many more in the future.
My recap of the weekend, along with a goodly number of photos, may be found on my Substack. As traffic here to my blog has gradually declined over the years, I'm shifting more of my writing over to the Substack platform, which combines the blog concept with social media and a built-in newsletter, with the potential of reaching more readers. And as a writer, reaching more readers is the name of the game. I don't plan on wholly abandoning this space, but the main activity will happen over at the new digs.
Now Playing: The Kinks Live in London 1973-1977
