Ruth moved to Providence six years ago when she was 18. Young and on her own, she was swept up by a rough crowd of guys who dealt and used crack and cocaine. Hanging around the strip clubs with them until early in the morning was “the thing to do when you were bored.” After hours, her friends would sell cocaine to the women working at the clubs. 

They visited Club Fantasies, Club Desire, Satin Doll Gentlemen’s Club, Cheater’s, the Sportsman’s Inn and Club Balloons. Over a period of several years, Ruth “hung out” at the strip clubs. She talked to the women, and eventually ended up stripping at the Satin Doll. 

At Cheaters, a strip-club on Allens Avenue in Providence, Ruth observed the women in the bathroom. The girls would rush into the bathroom and “yell out the prices they were charging for various sex acts.” She watched as one woman dried herself off with a hand dryer after a sex act with a john.