Friday, August 30, 2002

MURDERED MILLIONAIRE'S SECRET DOUBLE LIFE ... 'GOSPEL PITCHMAN' HID SEAMY SIDE OF SEX & STRIPPERS

Rick Chance, the founder of Empire Glass, an auto windshield repair business that, in addition to paying up to $100 of your insurance deductible, promises you 12 (count 'em, 12) free dinners if you do business iwth them, found himself murdered by one of the alleged several exotic dancers he was canoodling with, despite giving big bucks to his church and claiming to be more fond of the Scriptures than strippers. Brandi Hungerford, 25, is on the surveillance video checking in to visit Chance at a Best Western Hotel in Tempe. The next day, only one of them checked out.

Given her surname, Hungerford might have been attracted to Chance on the grounds of the dozen free meals he was serving up; the Empire Glass site clarifies that "This is a free dinner whether you dine alone, or if you are with someone else. This dinner offer is our way of thanking you for choosing Empire Glass Co. for you glass replacement needs." She also seemed fond of the $1 million in jewelry that Chance had in his briefcase. That police found two unwrapped condoms in his pocket suggests that things didn't go exactly as he planned that evening. Hungerford had checked into the hotel with her boyfriend, Robert Lemke Jr., a 24-year-old male stripper who dances under the name "Dakota". And here you thought that male strippers were only aroused by horned-up housewives who stuffed bills in their jockstraps.

A curious subplot involves Chance's ex-wife Jill Scott, a former Mrs. America. "Back in 1988, The ENQUIRER revealed that Jill had wed chance after dumping her husband George Scott--who claimed he'd shelled out $100,000 for plastic surgery to help her win the Mrs. America title!" However, not only did pageant officials successfully sue her for $100,000 for not admitting she was divorced from her first husband at the time of the pageant (wouldn't be married twice make one more qualified to be called "Mrs. America"?), she was later charged with filing a false $330,000 bankruptcy claim at the time she was married to the auto glass mogul ... and was also liable for a further $250,000 in damages after it was discovered her bible-thumping spouse hired a bounty hunter to shackle Scott's first hubby at gunpoint over unpaid child support, even as the poor sap was toiling at a Taco Bell in Belleville, Kansas. Got all that? Good.