The Insider, Mansion Madam, Part 1, property of Art Harris, www.artharris.com, all rights reserved

By Art Harris, (c), www.artharris.com, all rights reserved

The Insider broke my exclusive interview and house tour with Melissa Wolf, aka The Mansion Madam, on it’s new Atlanta affiliate, WXIA, aka, “11 Alive,” Thursday at 7:30 p.m., with part 2 airing TONIGHT, Friday, Sept. 14 at 7:30.

After Wolf was busted in January, charged with prostitution, running a brothel, illicit drugs and racketeering, the 43 year old “desperate housewife” and ex-Penthouse Pet, now mid-divorce from husband #2, says she lost her real estate job in Gwinnett County, Georgia, and had no choice but to take feather boas out of mothballs, and hit the road again, to prance across stages from Columbus, Ga. to Canada and pick up her former career as a featured stripper.

Honey, go hide the kids!

The Insider, Mansion Madam, Part 2: property of Art Harris, www.artharris.com, all rights reserved

Actually, Wolf, aka Taylor, remains fully clothed on The Insider (www.theinsideronline.com), tonight and doesn’t mince words…on or off camera. She’s mad as hell and wants her computer and red Corvette back– seized as part of asset forfeiture statutes, originally designed to infiltrate the mafia, and give law enforcement weapons to unseat mob bosses and organized crime.

But Gwinnett District Attorney Danny Porter tells me in an exclusive interview that Taylor and sidekick, “Naughty Nikki” Probert are “prostitutes who were engaged in sexual activities for money,” and since they allegedly plotted with each other to engage in sordid deeds, including use illicit drugs, that constitutes “racketeering”–and he says he’s got the evidence, computer records, wiretaps and more, to prove it.

“Ridiculous,” scoffs lawyer Max Richardson who calls Taylor innocent and the charges excessive. “Can you imagine treating Lisa like Al Capone? At most, this should be a misdemeanor prostitution case, but she’s not guilty of that either.

Richardson says the DA is “trying to dress up the case as a major felony, when it’s far from it, so he can try to take away the home she’s worked very hard to build. It’s not right. She’s done nothing wrong, and has every right to live there, and if we have to go to trial to seek justice, we will.”

“Bring it on, baby, bring it on,” says Nikki Probert, represented by lawyer Steve Sadow, who cut his chops defending the owner of Atlanta’s now defunct Gold Club, Atlanta’s former Taj Mahal of sin that drew celebrities in sports, entertainment and business to the cavernous strip club–and saw client Steve Kaplan, an accused Gambino mob associate, sentenced to a mere 16 months in prison, a major defeat for the government.

As for Wolf, mid-divorce from husband #2, she tells me it’s “uncomfortable” to be back dancing with women half her age to pay the bills, but you wouldn’t know it from her high energy and limber moves, even though she concedes “it’s time to get back to the gym.

Wolf calls it her “Not Guilty Tour,” and invited us to come along for the wild ride, to capture her comeback on tape for a true crime reality TV pilot I’m calling, “The Bible Belt Unbuckled,” that explores sex, sin and salvation in the suburbs through a colorful cast of characters and other high profile cases.

Melissa’s World, at times, seems like the bar scene from Star Wars.

There’s her devoted boyfriend, Greg, a nutrition store owner…facing a health scare of his own…7 cats, two dogs (including a Jack Russell who loves bean sprouts)…20-something strippers on the road who treat her like a rock star and seek her advice, geeky fans who fawned over her costumed as Queen of the Damned at Dragoncon…(including a kiss and a squeeze from actor Erik Estrada)..a Christian “mentor” who looks like an older Sharon Stone (and happens to be an ex-cocaine addict who partied with rock star Greg Allman in her youth and now crusades to get strippers off the streets) and sweet-talked Lisa back to Jesus…Then there’s tall, happily married, crusading lawyer (and neighbor) Max Richardson, who has saved killers from death row…

And last, but not least, her nemesis, the DA, Danny Porter, a gravely voiced, veteran prosecutor with notches on his belt for sending killers to the chair, who aims to send the alleged harlot to jail, maybe even seize her million dollar estate for county taxpayers as payback for Taylor’s alleged sins as a menace to society.

Is he trying to send a message? I asked him. “I don’t send messages, I prosecute cases,” says Porter, a marshal arts buff who shows me matching samurai swords his office. His wife ordered them out of their home when they married, he says, and they have become sort of a trademark. “I see the courtroom as combat.”

Ironically, Wolf has samurai swords of her own in the “manly” den, and makes a mock attack move at my camera to demonstrate her skills…and her chutzpa. “Danny Porter has branded me with a Scarlett Letter I can never wash off,” she smarts, only confessing to unsettling conservative, Republican golfers who point to her house overlooking the 9th hole at the Sugarloaf Country Club Estates outside Atlanta, where Michael Vick and Beyonce are neighbors.

No wonder some compare Sugarloaf Country Club Estates to a real life Wisteria lane. “Alot of men have a nervous laugh when they ask, “am I in the book?’” And women call up on the sly to inquire if their husbands are on her list. “Of course, I can’t tell them.”

The prosecutor also handled “The Runaway Bride” escapade (“there’s something in the water around here”) and draws headlines like summer lanterns draw lightning bugs. He doesn’t buy prostitution as a victimless crime, says it’s often accompanied by drugs and a criminal element and feels a duty to constituents to go after all crime, not just murders and meth labs. Regarding Wolf, he claims her clients were spending $600-700 a week, “unbeknown to their wives… on the hookers,” and that’s got to put a crimp on the household budget.

Wolf remembers the first time she met Porter–when he lead a swat team to raid her house last January, but had no idea who he was. “I don’t keep up with politics,” she says. “He said his name was Danny Porter, so I asked, “So?’ And he said, I’m the DA.’ I was confused because he had on fatigues. I thought the DA always wore suits.”

“Only time I wear a suit is in court,” Porter told me, confessing he was probably wearing black cargo pants “because I need the big pockets” and a polo shirt shirt with insignia. He recalls she was nervous.

“She asked if she could grab a valium and a cocktail if she was going to jail,” he recalled, “but I had to say no. We don’t allow that. I don’t think she meant it to be humorous, but it was pretty funny in retrospect.”

Taylor has pleaded not guilty, along with Probert, and sees a hearing in November, and trial scheduled early next year.

Does she ever feel like giving up?

“Did Rocky give up,” she asks me, with a wink and a smile.

Guess not.

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