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Prologue

I woke up in the psych ward at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Manhattan strapped to my bed, confused, disoriented, scared, and thinking, “How did I get here? What have I done?” What went down in the previous hours started coming back to me piecemeal, but to this day the night remains one big, blurred, fucked-up nightmare. My brain filled in the missing parts of the night with hallucinations; I have visions of being bundled into a straightjacket and taken away in an ambulance. But according to people who were there, it didn’t happen that way. That was all in my warped mind. What actually happened might be even worse. The man who loved me and who I loved the most had to duct tape my hands behind my back to stop me from further hurting myself and him. He had to have me committed to a mental ward of a hospital to save my life.

As I scratched and clawed my way through Evan’s Brooklyn loft just hours earlier, the only thought in my mind was to end this. I wanted to end my misery and I wanted to end my life. I couldn’t handle any of it anymore. But Evan stayed strong because he knew I was worth saving. Evan took my punches, dodged the heavy objects I hurled at him, suffered through my relentless scratching, and he did the one thing he knew to do: stop the madness and get me help.

I don’t remember the ride in his Suburban over to the hospital. I don’t remember Dr. Lugo talking Evan through what to do. I don’t remember entering the hospital or being checked into the psychiatric ward. I don’t remember being strapped to a gurney and the cops questioning Evan about the night’s events. I just remember waking up the next morning in lockdown in the place where they keep the most dangerous mental patients. Was I mental? I didn’t believe it. My emotions had taken over my thought process, and I was reduced to questioning everything around me and not being able to make sense of any of it.

The psych ward frightened me. I was just a porn chick going through a rough time trying to get out of my contract. Why was I in a room behind locked doors that doctors had to be buzzed in and out of? Why was I in a room with four beds with a variety of women whom I did not relate to, who were not like me? The girl in the bed next to me was a black girl younger than me who had tried to kill herself. She was obsessed with shrimp parmesan and her sister would bring it to her daily, and every day she’d offer me some and each time I’d say no. To this day, the sight of shrimp parmesan sends chills up my spine. I wasn’t there to make friends. At first, I wanted nothing to do with the place or anyone in it.

In the bed next to her was a Middle Eastern girl with black curly hair and a flashlight she’d shine around the room after the lights went out. She didn’t talk much, but she did mumble her prayers a lot. I would pretend not to hear her. She scared me. I overheard the nurses say that she had delusions about becoming a suicide bomber and that’s why she was in the ward. The bed at the end was host to a revolving array of patients whom I don’t really remember.

The reality of the night before started coming back to me, and bits and pieces were told to me. I realized that I’d had a major meltdown. A psychotic break. A suicide attempt. I was inconsolable. I was out of my mind. There was no talking me off the ledge this time, as Evan had done before.

I was in St. Vincent’s psych ward for fourteen long days, and it was not what you could call time well spent. I just lay there in my hospital bed like a statue. I wanted nothing but out. But I did everything you shouldn’t do if you want to be released from the psych ward. In full denial for the first few days, I acted out in every way imaginable. I figured if they think I’m crazy, I might as well play the part. I talked to myself out loud. I refused medication. I wouldn’t eat anything. I picked fights with other patients. I took it all out on Evan, calling him daily and cursing him out for the entire ward to hear.

I pulled the diva act and tried to own that pay phone. My cell phone had been confiscated, so the pay phone was my only connection to the outside world. So, when anyone else tried to use the phone, I unleashed a shit-storm of anger, screaming, “I’m on the fucking phone! You wait your fucking turn! I’m on the phone! I’ll be done when I’m done! I’ll fucking kill you!”

Making death threats in the psych ward is not exactly the way to prove that you’re not crazy and get released. One day, I even tried to escape. When those buzz-in, locked doors opened, I made a run for it, forcing the orderly to wrestle me to the ground.

When I realized there was no way out unless I played by the rules, I threw the rules in their face. They had been asking me to shower for days and I refused. I was defiant and angry and anti-authority. After days of nagging me to shower, I finally said, “Fuck it. You want me to shower? OK, I’ll shower.” So I stripped off all of my clothes, walked out of my room into the hallway completely naked, and looked at the first nurse who came my way and said, “OK. You want me to shower? Here I am. Where’s the fucking shower?”

As much as this experience was the lowest point of my life, I’m grateful for it. Sometimes you need to go off the rails of the crazy train to get on the right track of your life. And that’s exactly what I did.

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Chapter 1
Idol Worship

How bad do you want what you want? I wanted to be famousand adored so bad it nearly killed me. Well, in allhonestly, I nearly killed me.

But before we get to that, let me start at the beginning… In 1986 I was ten years old and my mother had already left us.It was just me, Linda Ann Hopkins, and my dad, David Hopkins,a carefree hippie of English, Dutch, and Irish descent. I was born inGreat Falls, Montana, but was living with my dad in Fresno. On arare father-daughter day out, he took me to a thrift store in town todo some shopping. We were on a budget. As we made our waythough the tiny, cramped shop, I saw her hanging on the dusty wallbehind some cracked vases and rusty candelabras. It was a beautifulblack-and-white photograph of Marilyn Monroe from the KoreanUSO tour she did in 1954. She was beaming as she posed for hundredsof handsome men in uniform, who in turn were ogling her inall her blond-haired, blue-eyed glory.

Something lit up inside me when I saw that photograph. Ithought, "Someday, men are going to look at me that way."I couldn't stop staring at this photo, thinking how much I wantedto be that girl. The girl everyone adores. The girl whom fame made so happy (little did I know what a sad wreck she really was). All Iknew about Marilyn at the time was how much I wanted to exudethe power that she did. I wanted to be famous like that. I just didn'tknow what for yet. I never thought it would be for porn.

Around the same time the Marilyn Monroe photo was burnedinto my brain, I stumbled across another piece of inspiration. I washome alone one day after school. Dad was still at work. I was usuallya good girl; I learned manners and respect for others very earlyon from both of my parents. Although I had never looked throughmy father's things, on this one day my curiosity got the best of me. I had seen my dad hide a stack of Playboy magazines once and wasanxious to take a peek inside. I wanted to know what a woman'sbody looked like. I was just a young girl—an awkward one at that—and I wanted to compare myself to a full-grown woman. It was anatural fascination. The curiosity to see a naked woman left me searching through my dad's teak, tapestry-covered dresser, one ofhis finds from Thailand when he was there during the Vietnam War.I opened the drawer and there was a Playboy with supermodel PaulinaPorizkova on the cover. The supermodel and actress was holdingback her long, beachy, golden brown hair with a lean, elegant armand gazing at the camera with her ice blue eyes emanating a fierceself-confidence.

I thought Paulina was the most beautiful woman in the world,and I couldn't stop staring at her photos in Playboy. I was even moreimpressed when I learned she'd married Ric Ocasek, the lead singerof the rock band the Cars. She was a rock wife and a beautiful supermodel,and I just idolized her for that. I wanted what she had.It was that Paulina cover that made me want to be in Playboy. Fromthe moment I saw this cover in the summer of 1987, I had a simplequest: be a Playboy model, be married to a rock star, and be rich,famous, and adored.

Looking up to stars like Marilyn and Paulina was my escape.

My parents separated when I was ten. I didn't have my mom or dadto talk to, because they fought a lot and were so wrapped up inthemselves. So instead I escaped into a fantasy world of supermodels,celebrity, pin-up girls, Playboy Playmates, and rock stars as Iflipped through the pages of my dad's issues of Playboy, Rolling Stone,LIFE, and whatever music or teen magazine I could get my handson. I thought about what these gorgeous celebrities would be like inperson, what it would be like to live their lives and to be as cool andhappy as they seemed to be in the pictures. I would daydream aboutthese models, rock stars, and actresses instead of doing my schoolwork.My grades suffered and I got a lot of notes from the teacherthat read "Linda doesn't apply herself enough." Fair enough.I would also rummage through my father's cassette tapes—hewas a rocker—and lust after Jim Morrison. To this day, if I could go back in time and fuck a famous rock star it, would be Jim Morrison. I idolized the Doors, Led Zeppelin, and Pink Floyd—the olderbands that my dad was into.

I wouldn't know until years later, after some therapy, that whatI was doing was filling the void left by parents who weren't there forme. Some kids in tough situations cope with absent parents byovereating, others with being sexually inappropriate (more on thislater), others with drugs and alcohol or getting into trouble atschool. For me, at age ten, I disappeared into daydreaming aboutwhat it would be like to live the lives of those models, rock stars,and celebrities I read about in magazines or saw on television.

I was a big dreamer; it's all I had at the time. Well, that and my younger sister, Debra, but once my parents split, my sister chose to live with my mother full-time and I chose to live with my father. But Dad wasn't around much. He did the best he could, but he was working all the time and never home. I was home alone a lot and up until about age twelve, I was a very introverted, insecure, and lonely young girl.

I was not popular with the boys, but that was OK because Iwasn't into boys then. My sister, the cheerleader and volleyballplayer, was the popular one in school. I was the dorky jock— runningcross-country, reading, and hiking were my loves. I got high marksin physical education, but low to below-average marks in otherclasses at Fresno's Lincoln Elementary School. My teachers wereright—I just didn't apply myself. I'd rather hole up in my bedroomor the library and read a Nancy Drew novel instead of doing mymath homework.

On My Bookshelf as a Kid:

Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys Super Sleuths!, by CarolynKeene and Franklin W. Dixon

Days with Frog and Toad, by Arnold Lobel

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret and Forever, by JudyBlume

Sweet Valley High #1: Double Love, by Francine Pascal

Ramona Quimby, Age 8, by Beverly Cleary

Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders, by VincentBugliosi with Curt Gentry

On My Bookshelf Today:

The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers: A Study of the Chilling CriminalPhenomenon, from the "Angels of Death" to the "Zodiac"Killer, by Michael Newton

Marilyn: A Biography, by Norman Mailer

The Sexual Life of Catherine M., by Catherine Millet

The Secret Language of Relationships: Your Complete PersonologyGuide to Any Relationship with Anyone, by Gary Gold Schneiderand Joost Elffers

Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson, M.D.

Screw the Roses, Send Me the Thorns: The Romance and SexualSorcery of Sadomasochism, by Philip Miller and Molly Devon

A People's History of the United States, by Howard Zinn

Playboy: The Complete Centerfolds, by Chronicle Books

Some of my favorite books were considered inappropriate readingfor a young girl my age. I would read any book on serial killersthat I could get my hands on. I was fascinated with the psychology of murderers. I spent a lot of time during recess in the library readingabout John Wayne Gacy and Charles Manson. I was fascinatedwith Gacy because he would dress up as a clown, and I was reallyterrified of clowns, so I wanted to know more. I wasn't into the gorydetails; I was into the "why" of it all. I wanted to know what motivatedthem. When I would read that their moms were prostitutesor that their parents beat them or that they came from brokenhomes or were sexually abused, I would look around me and lookat the other kids and think, "Are they going to be serial killers?"

Am I going to be a serial killer? I'm from a broken home and, as you will soon read, my mother abused me. I would think, "Can this happen to me?" I was captivated by the thought. I was convinced, and I still am today, that anyone can be a serial killer. I think I could kill somebody if I had to. Well, I did almost kill myself, but we'll get to that later.

Some of my friends knew I was fascinated by murder. They'dsay, "There's Linda talking about Helter Skelter again." But I didn'tmind. It made me feel smarter. I might have only gotten C's andsome D's in school, but if they tested me on serial killers, I would'vebeen a straight-A student.

I was also an awkward-looking child and stood out from the restof my classmates. I was a lot, I mean a lot, taller and thinner thanmost of the boys and girls at Lincoln. I was naturally thin and extremelyfit because I ran cross-country. "Gangly" would be the bestword to describe it, but my classmates had other nicknames for me:Spider and Olive Oyl. Oddly, they never made fun of my unibrowor the crooked part in my hair. (Mom wasn't there to straighten itfor me, and Dad wasn't exactly putting bows and ribbons in myhair.)

"Oooh, here comes Linda, the spider," boys and girls wouldtaunt every day after school during cross-country practice out onthe track. "Look at Linda, the spider. She's got spider arms. She hasspider legs. She's a Spiderwoman!"

The thing was, I did kind of look like a spider. I was tall andthin, and my limbs stuck out of the awful mustard-and-red uniformsthey made us wear for gym class. The knee socks barelytouched my knees, despite me constantly pulling them up as highas they would go.

I don't remember who started the teasing, but everyone certainlyjoined in, especially Tiffany and Kelly Parisi, twin sisters andhead cheerleaders. They were straight out of central casting forpretty, bitchy classmate rivals. They were shorter, with an athleticbuild; kind of stocky with those thick thigh muscles that dancers orcheerleaders have; and they had short wavy brown hair, makingthem the complete opposite of lanky me with my long dark straighthair. But they were considered the prettiest girls in school, and wehad a mutual hatred for one another.

When they weren't picking on me during cross-country practice,they would nail me in the hallway at school for what I waswearing. Kelly would say, "Oh God, Linda. You're too skinny. Whoare those jeans by?"

Esprit and Guess were the big brands of the day, but I wasn't exactly a fashionista in grade school like the Parisis, so I wore button-fly dark Levi's from the boys' section of the affordable department store Mervyns. I was more of the hippie girl who didn't care what she looked like or what she wore. I loved Levi's because Dad wore Levi's and Dad was cool, but I also wore them because unlike Guess or Esprit, you could buy Levi's in different lengths, and I needed a few extra inches than most girls and boys.

The twin twits never understood my comebacks because my witwas informed by my fascination with serial killers. "Oh yeah, wellyour father is a serial killer. Ever wonder why you have that vanwith no windows? Serial killer van!" I'd say to the Parisi twins.

"Huh?" was their usual response.

I never cried or backed down at the teasing. Most of the time I would just let my keychain do the talking for me. I got this keychain from a gumball machine that was in the shape of a hand, and I bent the fingers down so the middle finger was the only one sticking up. It was attached to my cardinal red JanSport backpack, so when I turned my back on them they were sure to see it. It was the most direct way I could find to let them know that I didn't give a fuck.

But I did wonder why I got picked on so much. I didn't realizeuntil many years later when I was all grown up that the bitchy Parisitwins must have been jealous of my height and figure. At the time,I didn't consider my looks at all and I certainly didn't know if I waspretty or ugly. I just knew I was different.

That's why I wanted to look at those nude photos of otherwomen; because I wanted to see how I compared to them. I wantedto see what a beautiful woman was supposed to look like or simplyto know what other women looked like.

So when I saw that Paulina Porizkova Playboy cover that day inmy father's dresser drawer with her long, lean arm framing her face,I thought, Well she's thin and has skinny arms and legs and she'sin fucking Playboy. I felt more OK with myself after seeing thatphoto.

Needless to say, I didn't have many friends. But when I didbring friends home, I was embarrassed about how we lived. We hada nice two-bedroom apartment in Fresno, but it was filled withtreasures from my father's travels when he was a cook in the AirForce as well as lots of strange things from my mother's homelandof Thailand. When my dad came back to America after being stationedin Thailand during the Vietnam War, he brought back all ofthese audacious pieces of furniture and accessories. We had greenjade elephants and colorful tapestries everywhere and a hideous ceramicrooster that served no purpose but to embarrass me. I wasso self-conscious of what my schoolmates thought. And Dad wasalways cooking up some traditional Thai dish, which filled the smallapartment with exotic and pungent smells.

"Oooh, your house smells like fish and you have weird greenelephants," is what I figured everyone thought who came into ourhouse. Deep down, I thought my parents' exotic style was cool, butI was also embarrassed by it. Being half Thai, though, didn't embarrassme because so many people in my area of California are ofAsian descent. I fit right in on that front.

I think the problem with my parents' relationship was simplythat they were too young to be married. My mother—her name isPreeya—was fourteen and only spoke a little bit of English when shemet my twenty-year-old father. She was a busgirl on the base inThailand where Dad was stationed. She was almost eighteen whenthey got married in Thailand and left for America together. In Thaiculture, a girl who moved out of her house without being marriedwas considered a whore. So she was anxious to get married to moveout from under her parents' control. Dad and she were good friends,and it seemed like a good idea at the time.

But the marriage wasn't all it was cracked up to be and she becameangrier and unhappier, and this increased greatly as I turnedeight, nine, and ten years old. My dad was gone a lot because hewas working and going to college. He's had many occupations overthe years. He was a U.S. Forest Ranger, a truck driver, a pot grower,a teacher, and a winemaker. (He's had a steady job since I wastwenty-five, though, as head winemaker for Bridlewood Winery inSan Ynez, California.) My mom had a tough time assimilating toAmerican culture. She took ESL classes at night and took care ofmy sister and me by herself during the day, and she soon startedworking as a nurse. I try to put myself in my parents' shoes. Here'smy dad just wanting the perfect little Asian wife, and there's mymom, trapped in a house with two kids, barely speaking English,and her husband is never around. I think she resented having kidsat such a young age. And my dad wasn't coming home some nights,so that wasn't helping their relationship. Then Mom started to notcome home at night. She was rebelling against him. So I had neither parent around. When they were home together, the arguingwas intense. I'd sit up in bed at night and hear them scream at eachother and think, "Why don't you get divorced already?"

That wasn't the only problem. There was also my mother's violent temper. I desperately wished I could have told my father what my mother was doing to me on those nights she was home and he wasn't. She was this petite, but strong, karate-chopping type of woman who would take out her frustrations on me with anything she could get her hands on. She'd whack me with a broom, throw a shoe at me, or just backhand me across the face. I think she took it out on me more than my sister because I was closer to my father at the time and she didn't like that.

I was Daddy's little girl for most of grade school. We'd go hiking,camping, fishing, and even hunting together. Well, he hunted;I picked flowers. We were very outdoorsy and earthy. We even hada pet pig when I was younger. But what Dad and I really bondedover was music. We listened to music together and watched musicmovies like Led Zeppelin's The Song Remains the Same. He was highas a kite, saying to me, "Linda! Linda! Come here. You have to seeJimmy Page play the guitar with a bow." I didn't know who or whathe was talking about and I didn't care that he was stoned; all I knewwas that Dad was paying attention to me and I loved what he wasshowing me. I loved the raw energy of rock stars. I loved the shirtlessJimmy Page. I loved it all.

Mom and I were not close. Her unhappiness and anger made abarrier around her. I felt displaced in my own family and alone.From around age seven or eight, I had to rely on myself—cook myown meals, do my own laundry, get myself ready for school, etc. Ina way, it was good because I learned to be self-reliant and very independent,which I still am today. But as a child, you want both ofyour parents to help you with the simple things and participate inyour life.

The worst fight I had with my mother was the day she snapped.After my parents finally parted ways in 1986, I was staying withmy mother on weekends and with my father during the week. Itwas a Saturday afternoon at her apartment in Fresno, and I madea comment about wanting to be back at my dad's house. I think Isaid something like, "Fuck you, I want to live with Dad all thetime." Little did I know how tough it was for her at the time to nothave custody and how betrayed she felt when I chose my fatherover her. She was going through a really rough time. She was workingtwo jobs, didn't have family around, lived paycheck-to-paycheck,and didn't even have an emotional support system afterthe divorce.

So we were arguing. She usually argued in Thai and spoke itreally fast so I couldn't understand what she was saying anyway. Shegrabbed me by the hair and then punched me straight in the face. Iheld my face in pain and looked at her with such hatred and shock.I felt so confused and devastated by that one blow. This is my mother, the one person who is supposedto protect me and instead sheis hurting me. She then wrapped herhands around my throat and beganchoking me. I was a strong-willedkid, and I was not going down withouta fight. That's not me. I did mybest to fight back, but she was a lotstronger than me. She was a smallThai woman but the devil inside hergave her this superhuman strength.The fight went on for at least a halfhour.

"No! No! Don't hurt her!" myeight-year-old sister, Debby, criedand screamed at my mother from across the room.

Mom hit me again. She was hitting me like she was fighting offsome sort of attacker. I was beaten and bruised and my hair was inmatted clumps from where she grabbed it. And the fight would'vekept going had my dad not walked in to pick me up at the exactmoment her fingers were clenching my throat. He had to put hisbody between my mom and me and reach out his arms to stop thebrawling.

"Dad, I swear I never want to see her again!" I screamed withtears running down my swollen face.

"OK. You don't have to," he said.

I lived with Dad full-time after that. And I didn't speak to mymother again until five years later, when my world came crashingdown for a second time.

That one fight changed my relationship with my mother andwith women in general forever. I wasn't mature enough at the timeto realize that my mom was the way she was because she was abusedas a child herself. I shut down emotionally and closed myself off, especially to women. But men, that was a different story. This seriesof events made my Lolita ways kick in a bit. I think that's why froma young age I dreamed of marrying a really great man, a man Icould feel secure with. But at the time it led to a pattern whereevery time I was hurt, I went to a man. Any man.