Why the woman bought the BTK house
Preesi
'A rough life' led to success
The owner of Michelle's Beach House says her upbringing, not her
business, is what sets her apart.
BY CARRIE RENGERS
The Wichita Eagle
'A rough life' led to success
In a west Wichita home recently, a typical suburban scene played
out.
A 45-year-old mother of two, her hair casually tossed up in a
clip, lamented her browning lawn.
Her 20-year-old son rummaged through the refrigerator as one of
her girlfriends knocked on the front door, eager to show off the latest
anti-wrinkle cream.
None of it was much different than the scenario at most other
middle-class houses across the city. Except the wife and mom happened to
be Michelle Borin-Devuono, strip club proprietor and purchaser of the
infamous BTK house.
"I am a normal person," Borin-Devuono said.
But as the star of Michelle's Beach House television commercials,
Borin-Devuono takes an anything-but-ordinary approach to her business.
And as the winning bidder of Dennis Rader's house, she caught the
public's attention and aroused curiosity over why she would spend
$90,000 on a $56,700 house previously owned by a serial killer.
Is it a publicity stunt to generate business at her Derby club?
To learn the answer -- and what drives the former stripper to
succeed in what's typically a man's business -- you have to understand
the former Michelle Castiglione's formative years.
On her own
As the daughter of French-speaking parents from Tunisia,
Borin-Devuono didn't have a typical American childhood.
"Everything I know about life, I learned on my own," she said. "My
mom was a foreigner. She didn't know the American way."
Borin-Devuono was born in New Jersey. The meat-packing business
eventually brought her father to Wichita. She says he was abusive to her
mother, who subsequently administered beatings to her children.
Things got rougher when her father went to Vietnam for work. She
says he neglected her and her five siblings and then deserted them. Her
disabled mother went on welfare.
"We just had a rough life," she said. "We didn't have things like
our friends did. I remember having to split a candy bar amongst five of
us."
At 14, Borin-Devuono worked at a Sonic drive-in and gave her
paychecks to her mother.
"Going to school was a privilege," she said. "I never got to do
the things that most kids did," she said of things like sports and prom.
Borin-Devuono dropped out of high school her sophomore year. At
18, she worked the door of a strip club. At 19, she started dancing. But
then in 1981, at age 21, she had an epiphany. "I said, 'You know what?
I'm going to go find me my own building.' "
She opened the Tender Trap on George Washington Boulevard, but
four months later the city banned strip clubs and she "didn't know
enough to fight it."
She converted it to the Round Up, a country-and-western bar, which
lasted six moths. She reopened the Tender Trap, which went through a few
more incarnations in a couple of different locations, including
Haysville. She also had the Landing Strip on West Kellogg.
Borin-Devuono went through a series of ups and downs with her
businesses. During those busy years, she got her GED and also raised two
children: Brandon, who is almost 21, and Heather, who is 20. They both
attend Butler Community College, but she's still active in their lives.
Her son never leaves the house without kissing his mom goodbye.
Borin-Devuono said if she hadn't been in business for herself, she
couldn't have provided for her kids.
"I can still be a wife and mother," she said. "I'm not... dancing
on top of my kitchen table for my kids."
Instead, it has always been dinner on the table by 5 p.m.,
followed by homework, play time, then bed. It was only then
Borin-Devuono would go to work.
"It was just how they paid the bills," Brandon Borin said. "I grew
up with it. I didn't look at it like, 'Wow!' "
Borin-Devuono said it's her difficult upbringing -- which made her
strong -- that sets her apart, not what she does for a living.
"If it wasn't for my mother and father... I probably wouldn't be
the person I am today," she said.
Her lawyer, Charley O'Hara, has represented Borin-Devuono for more
than two decades.
"She's learned kind of on her own how to run a business," he said.
"And she does know how to run a business."
"She's very sweet," one of Borin-Devuono's dancers, who goes by
"Sidney," said of her boss.
"Working with as many girls as she does, she has very good
patience -- more than I would have, I can tell you that."
Borin-Devuono doesn't like her business to be called a strip club.
"To be more professional, you should say 'gentleman's club,' " she
said. Her dancers always have at least a G-string on.
"You have to leave something to the imagination, you know?"
Back in business
After taking a couple of years off from club life, Borin-Devuono
was back in business in 1997 with the Beach House at 2230 N. Nelson
Drive, which runs parallel to K-15.
The club had been in Wichita. Due to boundary changes, it's now in
Derby. Borin-Devuono said the city didn't welcome the business.
"I just held my head high," she said. "I knew my standards."
"She cooperates... with us pretty good," said Jimmy Queen,
operations division commander with the Derby Police Department.
"Whenever we do business checks... she always makes an effort to come to
us and talk to us. Very friendly."
Queen said there can be problems at the club, but "probably no
more than any other kind of bar."
Borin-Devuono said: "Listen, I'm not here trying to make a
whorehouse or a drug house of my business. I feel like being a dancer is
a form of an art, and you can do it with class.
"I'm not going to say we're perfect."
She has hadvarious misdemeanor charges, and some convictions.
"In those businesses, people do occasionally get convicted of
misdemeanors," O'Hara said.
'I want to help'
When Borin-Devuono first heard that Rader, a husband and father,
was arrested and charged with crimes connected to the BTK serial killer,
she immediately wondered about his wife.
"It ran across my mind, 'Oh, my God, what is this woman going
through?' " she said of Paula Rader, whom she does not know.
"I want to help this lady so bad," she thought.
When she heard their Park City house was to be auctioned, she
checked to see whether the money would go to Paula Rader. After she was
assured that Dennis Rader would not get the money, she bid. But she said
it wasn't a bid for publicity.
"I did not even focus on it having an impact on my business
because that's not what I was doing it for," she said. "This woman needs
to start her life over again. More power to her.... I just hope that one
day we can sit down and visit."
The transaction is tied up in litigation. Borin-Devuono doesn't
have the title yet, and it's not clear whether Paula Rader will get the
money.
Park City Mayor Dee Stuart said she met with Borin-Devuono after
she won the bid.
"You know, I believe her," Stuart said. "I believed that she had
some altruistic reasons."
"I'm all about helping people," Borin-Devuono said.
She gets emotional when she talks about her own tough times and
how people might view her now.
"Until you've been there and walked in my shoes, don't prejudge
me," she said. "I guess I'm OK with that because I've had that my whole
life."
Her tears give her away, though.
"What people don't understand -- I have a life outside my business
as well," she said. "I've got a heart."
IN HER OWN WORDS
. What I wanted to be when I grew up: "A flight attendant because
I love to travel."
. My business model: "I would say Oprah 'cause she says it like it
is, and she puts herself out there as a strong female entrepreneur."
. One thing I've learned in business is: "Treat others how you
want to be treated, and don't take anything for granted in life."
. My lowest moment in business: "When we had road construction in
front of us."
. My best moment in business: "Just meeting different people....
People from all around the world."
. I'd like to retire and then: "Do nothing!"
. One thing no one knows about me: "I'm a twin, but my twin,
Gerard, passed away." Also, "I'm a grandmother." Brock Borin is almost
three months old.
http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/business/12437711.htm
--
preesi
~~~~~~~~~
"The Meek Shall Inherit The Earth?
Yeah, after The Strong Kick The Enemies Asses For You Cowards!"
~~~~~~~~~
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