The Death of LJ: My Brother a Murderer, #1

By Conrad Lowry

My brother was accused, charged and almost convicted of a brutal beating and murder about 12 years before this story begins. He escaped the charges because he turned state's evidence against his two confederates. We the family did not believe the charges were true. We believed in my brother's proclaimed innocence. This is the story of what happened after that.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Conrad Lowry
• Release date: Jan 29, 2016
• ISBN: 9781502254054

Book preview

The Death of LJ – A Limo Driver

Also by Conrad Lowry

My Brother a Murderer?

Still a Murderer

The Thugs Life

Betrayed

The Devil’s Bargain

The Creation of a Murderer

Childhood Constraints

Emancipation

Before the Hurricane

After the Hurricane

The Great Sex Detective and Other Stories

The Death of Acua Fuentes

The Great Love of Gabriel Rialto

God or the Devil

The Death of LJ – A Limo Driver

The Death of LJ

Conrad Lowry

Strongcastle Press

Miami

Copyright 2016  by Conrad Lowry

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing form the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Scanning, uploading, and electronic distribution of this book or the facilitation of such without the permission of the publisher is prohibited.

For LJ

The Story is Finally Told

There Is What Happens And What Does Not Happen.

Table of Contents

The Death of LJ – A Limo Driver

Also by Conrad Lowry

The Death of LJ

Copyright 2014  by Conrad Lowry

For LJ

Table of Contents

Preface

Trust

My Brother

TD’s Gladiator Ring

Gladiator Favorites

Never Saying No

Competition, Gratuity, Luxury Service and Betrayal

Gratuity and Pay

Tipping

The Limo Kingdom

Ass Kissing Royalty

We Don’t Accept Tips

Drivers are Contractors Not Employees

According to The Law

AristoCracker Fraud

Cash

Illegal Business Activities

Tipping and Diamond Miners

AristoCrapper Limo Service

Luxury Limousine Service Reduced to Shoddy Transportation

The Redneck Riviera

The Limo Business As Hell or Purgatory

Torment

A Driver Who Quits Starves And so Does His Family

Florida Limo Driver

Family Responsibilities

Last Minute Limo Job

Keep Your Personal Life Hidden

Trust and Belief – TD and Country

Prey

Florida Invite – Family Arrives Florida – Squeezed to Find a Home

Super Bowl Miami

Bragging About Helping

TD’s Wife Took Us Looking for Homes

A New Home

No Help Here

TD’s Daytona 500 Home Invasion

Daytona 500 Limo Driver Ripoff Exploitation

Robbed

Framed and Setup

Vegas Vacation – Running a Limo Biz in America

Livery Coach on a Windows PC

Running a Limo Biz Without Instruction

Client From Hell

The Client From Hell Complains

TD Displays His Ingratitude

Discrediting and Lack of Appreciation

You Ruined My Business

Bike Week Conscription – Wherein TD Disappears for Bike Week

TD Browbeats Jacob and I Into Obtaining A Motorcycle License

TD’s in Trouble

TD Hides

TD’s 3 Hours Past Midnight Stealth Children Pickup

Not One Word of Thanks

Accounting Paid Up

The Prolonged, Excruciating Duration of the Calculations Ordeal

My Accounting: Devalued When Being Paid

TD Don’t Pay For Babysitting

TD Don’t Pay for Running His Business and Answering His Phones

Jacob Worked For Free

TD Not Paying for Customer From Hell

Family Don’t Charge

The Repercussions of Being Paid –TD’s Embargo

You Are Not to Have a Nice Home

Eat a Toaster

Wherein TD Demonstrates the Effects of Favoritism and Disfavor

How to Be Promoted by TD

TD Hates to See Anyone Thrive

The Seventy Three Year Old Limo Driver

The Very Worst Driver

Favor Disfavor – Answer Every Single Call

The New #1 Driver – The Least Loyal of them All

In Which TD Once Again Uses Our Driveway As A Parking Lot – With Tragic Consequences

A Blocked Garage

LJ Accident – Threat – Abuse is For Free

Accident Repercussions – Threats and Intimidation

LJ is Terrified – Threats For Free

American Insurance

A Disreputable Attorney

Retaliation, Persecution, Predator and Prey

Don’t Interfere with My Slave

Homeless: Sleeping in TD’s Limos

Bragging About his Slave

LJ’s Reward For Obedience

Death of LJ

Consequences

Spying on Drivers

Attacking LJ

Good Looking People in Daytona

Helping LJ – LJ’s Suicide

Avoidance Intimidation Disowning a Friend

I’ll Give You Training

TD Hated to Pay Anyone

Repairs for Limo Rides

Bad Limo Repairs

Taking TD to Court

They Overcharged Me

Unlicensed Unqualified Repairs

A Ride in a Chariot From Hell

Incompetent and Unwilling Repair Delivery Transport

Tardy Unreliable Service

Hiding From Creditors

Work for Free – Free Training

TD’s Favors

TD’s Promises

TD’s Con Plus Free Insults

TD’s Private Police Security

TD’s Teachings

Wherein TD Demonstrates His Business Acumen

Wherein TD Demonstrates The Advantage of Buying Used, Making In House Repairs

The History LJ Walked Into – Mentored by TD

TD Knows about Crooks, Thieves

A Reexamination, or Recreation of LJ’s Last Hours

Suicide or Murder?

Young Man Killed at 1:45 AM on That September Day

New Orleans Dreams

LJ’s Funeral

The Minister and the Eulogy

The Sad Sad State of LJ’s Mother

After the Funeral – Dinner at a Restaurant

Aftershocks

My Brother A Murderer? Volume 2

Preface

My brother, TD, was accused, charged and almost convicted of a brutal beating and murder about 12 years before this story begins. He escaped the charges because he turned state’s evidence against his two confederates. We the family did not believe the charges were true. We believed in my brother’s proclaimed innocence. My mother said, He just hung around with the wrong people. He’s always been naive, gullible and innocent. He’s a victim of trusting and wanting to help. He’s easily manipulated and led. We fell into and believed what could be called the The Official Family Point of View.

This is the story of LJ’s interaction with TD.

The Death of LJ

Trust

There are many old fairytales with cautions to be careful who you allow to rescue you, who you let help, from the witch in Hansel and Gretel, to the Fox, in the Gingerbread Man. Such cautions – beware of the hand that assists you, of their ulterior motives – are relatively rare in modern stories. There is of course the bad guy we figure out right away, but the fairytale figures, though often outright evil in their intent, were not what I would call bad guys.

We are nowadays more straightforward, and less subtle in our stories. But I should've taken warning from all the childhood fairytales of my youth – there was always treachery – treachery and betrayed trust.

My Brother

Who to trust more than a brother? Especially a 10 year younger baby brother I had always wanted to trust and love. I did not have a good relationship with my one year younger brother MB. TD was the brother I could be close to, the brother for whom I long held high hopes, dreams and expectations, and now he was a success and offering to rescue me!

TD my baby brother, had his own limo biz, his own cars, his own company, his own employees. TD was offering me a job, I’ll help you out.

From the first I was concerned about TD’s current employees. Are you sure your drivers won’t resent me? I don’t want to step on their toes. I don’t want them to feel I’m depriving them of work or stealing their income.

Don’t worry, TD said.

But as things progressed, I could see TD seemed to take great pleasure in depriving his employees, in displaying and giving me preferential treatment, in giving his employees a reason to hate.

In the movies, police and guards give preferential treatment to a prisoner, to indicate a squealer, and turn the other prisoners against him. Was my brother doing this? There was no reason at the time to think so, but it was the result, and even at the very beginning I wondered if the result was deliberate.

I did not need preferential treatment. I just wanted work.

TD seemed to enjoy pitting driver against driver.

When I suggested – after sensing competitive hostility, antagonism and animosity amongst drivers directed towards me, Why don’t we have all the drivers cooperate and work together?

TD said, I don’t want cooperation. I want them to fight. I want them to compete, to feel they can lose their job at any moment, that they have to fight to keep it. And do whatever I want.

TD’s Gladiator Ring

TD, my brother, seemed to envisage his place of employment as a Roman Gladiator ring, – where drivers fought in cut throat competitions.

A gladiator ring wherein TD, the owner, pompously, self-righteously, pitilessly, mercilessly, cruelly and sadistically inflicted and incited abuse, injuries, deprivations, and indignities upon his victim employees.

A gladiator ring wherein TD encouraged conflict: by instigating, inflaming and fueling lies, deception, deceit, and treachery; – instilling fear, mistrust, cowardice, terror, suspicion and betrayal, with ever changing preferential, biased, discriminating ostentatious favoritism.

Misleading, misdirecting, misinstructing orders were given drivers – with plausible deniability!

Implied inexplicit and explicit abuse and insinuations, contradictory and conflicting demands and urgencies were added!

Rapidly changing and conflicting needs, desires and misinformation were instigated, mixed with ruthless uncertainties, to create maximum driver instability, unrest and uncertainty.

Where I tried to fit in with the other drivers, and eliminate animosity, TD fanned its flames. I was resented and disliked immediately, not for myself, but for the suspected nepotism, the apparent privilege and priority, which in reality was temporary, transitory, manufactured illusion. TD encouraged the drivers to fear and suspect me.

Where I only wanted to work, I feared I was being used as an instrument to insinuate and actually steal from the other employees, and deprive them of their livelihood. It was hard to gauge, hard to know what was really going on. TD seemed to revel in the driver’s unease, discomfort, and disconcertion – as well as mine!

Nothing seemed to make TD happier than when one of his drivers was unhappy – and it bothered me – because I suspected or feared I was often being used, flaunted even, as the pretense or cause of the unhappiness.

I wanted to work – to be employed, earning income, and distracted, lost in the mundane and the tedious far from home. But I did not want to steal from everyone else, or take more than my fair share.

Gladiator Favorites

I did not immediately realize, TD operated his limo gladiator business with rotational envied favorites. Whoever was the favorite of the time received most of the work, and quickly became hated by all the other drivers. Every other driver suffered and made do with what was left. Some gullible driver favorites actually thought they deserved TD’s temporary preference.

To become the favorite required no great skill. You might be TD’s drug supplier. You might be his brother. You might be one of his friends. You might be the person who never turned TD down, the person who always did whatever TD asked of you, no matter where or when.

Or you might simply be the newest driver, the flavor of the month. There was no seniority or reward for competence or loyalty.

One thing was sure, and eventually became apparent. You might expect to remain the favorite FOREVER but you were going to be replaced, and every other driver was out to get you.

Usually the favorite only lasted a matter of weeks. Sometimes months. Sometimes it appeared they would remain the favorite for as long as they never said no, and accepted all the demands and abuse TD sent. TD kept escalating and escalating, to see how much they could, how much they would take.

In the circumstance of being the favorite because you did whatever TD asked, it did not matter when you received the call, whether in the afternoon, the night or three in the morning, or if you had driven for 36 hours straight, or were drunk, you must do as TD requested. Perhaps you believed, as many drivers had previously believed, as long as you did not say no... and answered and obeyed every one of TD’s calls, the favorite driver position would remain yours, forever.

Regardless, you the driver, would soon discover within a matter of weeks or months, you were replaced.

And if you had dared say no, whether because you were sick, you had a date, or a previous engagement, or any other reason, you immediately became, TD’s least favorite driver, subject to the discards, the remnants of whatever work remained – if anything at all.

This was TD’s limo coliseum gladiator ring.

And those drivers who had never ever said no, who subordinated on every occasion their own needs for TD’s, no matter how urgent their own needs and how trivial and unimportant TD’s requests – they were in for the ultimate betrayal.

Never Saying No

The most obvious flamboyant result of a driver never saying no, was that for a time that driver became the most celebrated ostentatiously paraded favorite, given most of the work available. For this preference the favorite was always intensely hated by the other drivers, who waited for the favorite driver to burn out.

This flame out and break down usually occurred at TD’s instigation as a result of ever increasing, unreasonable, escalating demands, until the driver lacking sleep or sanity could comply no more.

Whereupon, at this juncture, the remaining drivers and TD would join together in tearing the former favorite to pieces with words, insults, slanders, complaints, lies, misrepresentations, misinformation, misdelegation, misappropriation, – every form of legal degradation, every conceivable or imaginable means of abuse.

As punishment or sport, TD dispatched former favorite drivers in vehicles to phantom jobs, to meet phantom customers, who never appeared. For this deliberately created phantom work, with several hours wasted in driving, confusion, purchasing gas and re-cleaning of vehicles, the driver would never be paid.

There were other times the former favorite driver was dispatched over and over to jobs for which there was no vehicle. The trip having already been dispatched to another driver half an hour earlier.

TD thought this was fun.

In those rare instances where the favorite failed to burn out quickly enough, TD enjoying the especial pleasure, of betraying what the favorite driver perceived as deserved loyalty; turned on the favorite without any overt reason.

At this point, the favorite would be replaced by any unpredictable other useless flavor of the day. Could be the drug supplier, could be TD’s friend, could be any of many random others for no particular reasons. Perhaps on that day TD liked the color of a driver’s shirt, his shoes, his accent, his bearing, his flattery, his pandering, his submission. Or perhaps on that day the favorite was chosen simply because he was so much more unreliable, erratic, incompetent, unmannerly, unskilled and ugly than you.

Someone else always became number one, and the favorite, no matter their loyalty, was always relegated to the bottom, with TD enjoying the betrayal the more the victim objected.

The result of all this in the workplace environment was competition, animosity and hostility. Work for drivers was feast or famine. There was no teamwork, no coordination, no collaboration for the greater good. There was instead, selfishness, loathing, hatred, jealousy, sabotage and endless deceit and betrayals.

Competition, Gratuity, Luxury Service and Betrayal

TD thrived in this dog eat dog environment. He said, I like competition. It makes me happy. And it’s good for business.

It destroyed morale and damaged the emotional stability and good humor of his employees.

It further damaged the quality and service of the customer experience, and the representation, appearance and quality of TD’s limo company in the customer’s, and the public’s consciousness. But to this TD paid no never mind.

TD reveled and luxuriated in giving the worst customer service possible. He offered the illusion of Luxury for big money, followed by the inevitable betrayal: the substitution of seedy, shoddy, second rate, barely tolerable transportation. TD had the conman’s delight in the cheat, the ripoff. The illusion created, replaced by the all too real grimy sordid reality, gave TD pleasure.

Cars were barely cleaned. They awaited their next job with dirt on the outside, sand inside. No drinks were provided.

Once TD decided the cost of sodas, water, ice, vacuuming and cleaning would come out of the driver’s pocket, drivers stopped supplying. Some drivers quit over this abusive, customer debasing work environment. Those who remained had a tendency to enjoy dishing out abuse and degradation. These were often the incompetent, biased, racist, brusque, obsessive, ill mannered, uneducated, and stupid. These were the qualifications for a good AristoCracker driver.

To really stick it to all his loyal customers, TD instructed his drivers, "Charge a full