Speaker 1: Novel.
Speaker 2: Hey listeners, this is Ellie Flynn. Before we get started,
Speaker 2: I just wanted to let you know that this episode
Speaker 2: contains swearing and explicit sexual language and a scene that
Speaker 2: raises questions around consent, which might be distressing. It's also
Speaker 2: a story of female empowerment and camaraderie thanks to the
Speaker 2: women who have shared their stories with us. We contacted
Speaker 2: the photographer mentioned in this podcast multiple times for comment,
Speaker 2: but we never heard back. He has not been charged
Speaker 2: with any crimes and is presumed innocent under the law.
Speaker 2: We also contacted Playboy USA. They state that they've asked
Speaker 2: their licensees to blacklist the photographer mentioned in this series
Speaker 2: and that they prohibit paid to play the practice of
Speaker 2: charging models to appear in magazines. Our research into his
Speaker 2: association to Playboy and their statement can be heard in
Speaker 2: episode four. What do you do when you're a young,
Speaker 2: green glamor model who's desperate to make it in the industry, Well,
Speaker 2: you go to a shoot camp, all inclusive, week long
Speaker 2: events in exotic parts of the world where models and
Speaker 2: photographers come together to take photos and party. And the
Speaker 2: biggest one of all is the IBMS. And no, that's
Speaker 2: not a medical condition. It's the International Bikini Model Search,
Speaker 2: the super Boys floor.
Speaker 1: Rouder, catching me at the Miss Miami, I be Miss.
Speaker 1: We are so happy to be here for Playboy. I
Speaker 1: got chosen, should be published Playboy Mexico.
Speaker 3: On everywhere I.
Speaker 2: Go, it's just IBMIST, IBMIST. I've seen it promoted everywhere
Speaker 2: on social media, and I've been told time and time
Speaker 2: again to go to the IBMS. I'm told it attracts
Speaker 2: huge models and amazing photographers. If I want to find
Speaker 2: the glamour, that's where it's going to be.
Speaker 1: I am here today to tell you about the IBMS.
Speaker 4: Bahamma's event coming up.
Speaker 1: Let's get your books.
Speaker 4: This is the one.
Speaker 2: This is the glitz and glam. Everyone knows about it,
Speaker 2: a big event of the year. Crucially, we know Luis
Speaker 2: Gomez is not going to be at this event. I'm
Speaker 2: not ready to make myself or my investigation known to
Speaker 2: him just yet. So it's a perfect opportunity to get
Speaker 2: to know this world better. From speaking to our sources,
Speaker 2: I feel like I understand Luisa's m O. It appears
Speaker 2: that he tends to work with models new to the industry,
Speaker 2: who are more likely to be swayed by his reputation,
Speaker 2: but I do still have some questions about the industry itself,
Speaker 2: what's left of it, what being a glamor model today
Speaker 2: is really like, and what it looks like to make it.
Speaker 4: I want to walk in the model's shoes.
Speaker 2: So that's why my producer Eleanor and I decide to
Speaker 2: go to the IBMS. We contact the organizer, a guy
Speaker 2: called Patrick McKinney, to ask if.
Speaker 4: We can come.
Speaker 2: They know that we're journalists, they know that we're covering
Speaker 2: the glamour industry for a podcast, and they know that
Speaker 2: we're going to interview people, but they don't know that
Speaker 2: we're looking specifically into Luis, and they don't know much
Speaker 2: about the kind of dark side that we're investigating. So
Speaker 2: we're hoping that we can get some answers there and
Speaker 2: we can get a bit of a better understanding of
Speaker 2: the industry. He says he's happy for us to come,
Speaker 2: but asks us to pay one thousand US dollars each
Speaker 2: to cover food and board. We pay, book our flights
Speaker 2: and start packing our bikinis. Oh my god, we're going
Speaker 2: to be in an all inclusive resort in the Bahamas,
Speaker 2: living it up, having the time of our lives doing
Speaker 2: a bit of reporting. But two weeks before the trip,
Speaker 2: Alana gets a call from Patrick.
Speaker 5: There's been a bit of a change of plan and
Speaker 5: the event is no longer happening in Bahamas.
Speaker 2: Now a much smaller event in Florida, in Orlando, which
Speaker 2: is where the organizer lives. We've been told that there
Speaker 2: still will be Playboy models and it will be held
Speaker 2: in a mansion, but Orlando is not quite the Bahamas.
Speaker 2: So I don't know how to say this all like
Speaker 2: sort of causing offense to all of our American.
Speaker 4: Listeners, but like so much looks the same. It's kind
Speaker 4: of like it's these kind of soulless parking lots with
Speaker 4: like Owend's and Denny's, an ihop a Hampton in We're gotted. Yes,
Speaker 4: So that was obviously a real blow. Yeah, I'm furious.
Speaker 2: I wanted to go to an all inclusive in the
Speaker 2: Bahamas and I'm never going to get that opportunity on
Speaker 2: a reporting trip again. It's still exciting, though, this is
Speaker 2: my first opportunity to see the glamour world up close.
Speaker 2: Is it really just victim after victim, scam after scam?
Speaker 4: Or am I finally.
Speaker 2: About to enter the glamorous world of so many models fantasies.
Speaker 4: Can here we go, Oh my god, I actually can't
Speaker 4: believe that that we're doing this.
Speaker 2: I'm Ellie Flynn and from the team at Novel. This
Speaker 2: is the Bunny Trap, episode five, The Wild West.
Speaker 4: So we're here. We are here, pulled up. That's knock
Speaker 4: on the door. Completely not what I'm originally.
Speaker 2: We've arrived at the IBMS and our first impressions are underwhelming.
Speaker 2: This is not the mansion Patrick described on the phone.
Speaker 2: It's actually a neat, mid sized suburban house identical to
Speaker 2: the others on the street.
Speaker 4: Where's the playboy mansion of my glamour dreams?
Speaker 2: The door and once we ring the doorbell and go inside, oh,
Speaker 2: we're greeted by what can only be described as a
Speaker 2: motley crew. There's about seven people here. Three half made
Speaker 2: up models mill around the room in massive high heels,
Speaker 2: while the photographers are padding around the open plan living
Speaker 2: room and flip flops or bare feet, wearing T shirts
Speaker 2: and board shorts. It look like they've wandered in off
Speaker 2: the street. Some of them are playing with their lighting equipment.
Speaker 2: One of them is in the middle of baking a
Speaker 2: batch of cookies.
Speaker 1: I have four kinds of cookies that I bake, and
Speaker 1: I wanted to see what you were if you have
Speaker 1: any dietary restrictions.
Speaker 4: I don't have any dietary restrictions.
Speaker 2: Alongside the cameras and leads crowding the kitchen table, there
Speaker 2: are bowls of scrambled egg left over from a home
Speaker 2: cooked breakfast. Top forty hits blare out of the wall
Speaker 2: mounted TV. This doesn't seem like a professional glamor modeling event.
Speaker 2: In fact, it feels more like a family get together. Patrick,
Speaker 2: a fit looking guy with biceps straining out of his
Speaker 2: T shirt, greets.
Speaker 4: Us with a warm hug, like we're long lost relatives.
Speaker 2: The only clue as to where we are is the
Speaker 2: baseball cap on his head and blazing with the letters IBMS.
Speaker 2: Patrick's apologetic about the fact that we aren't in the Bahamas.
Speaker 2: He says it's because the beaches aren't ready.
Speaker 6: There was a hurricane Hurricane George, like five six years
Speaker 6: ago and infected the Obamas, and before the hurricane we
Speaker 6: were there, like three hundred of us. We're all there
Speaker 6: for the event and it was beautiful.
Speaker 2: So instead, the next IBMS will be in Costa Rica.
Speaker 6: I was like, okay, so move it to Costa Rica,
Speaker 6: and that's what we did, and everyone moved to Costa
Speaker 6: Rica with me. We don't have problems there.
Speaker 2: So looking around this room, I've got no idea what
Speaker 2: we've spent two grand on.
Speaker 4: When I ask where.
Speaker 2: The Playboy models are, Patrick tells me they're running late
Speaker 2: and we'll be here tomorrow.
Speaker 4: He tells us not to worry. There's another glamorous site
Speaker 4: for us to observe.
Speaker 6: Someone's going to shoot in the Mermaid thing today.
Speaker 2: Draped over the back of a kitchen chair. It's a
Speaker 2: gigantic loan mermaid tale.
Speaker 6: Just check this out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, you don't kill it? Wow?
Speaker 4: Oh heavy?
Speaker 2: What the fuck am I doing here? When I meet
Speaker 2: the event headliner, I realized things aren't going to get
Speaker 2: any better. He's a photographer called Bob Womack, or, as
Speaker 2: he prefers.
Speaker 7: The infamous Bob Womack photo.
Speaker 4: I've never heard of Bob, but the model's here assure
Speaker 4: me he's a big deal. Like Bob is who he's
Speaker 4: at editing skills for days. He's one of the top
Speaker 4: photographers in the industry.
Speaker 2: Bob is tall and wiry, puffing hard on a vape.
Speaker 2: He looks like he's in his late sixties, and he's
Speaker 2: wearing a homemade T shirt with his business name, email address,
Speaker 2: and cell phone number printed on it front and back.
Speaker 7: I've been a firefighter par mat for the last thirty
Speaker 7: eight years. I retired from the fire department a year ago,
Speaker 7: and I'm traveling around the country and around the world
Speaker 7: and shooting the hot girls in bikinis and lingerille on
Speaker 7: the beach or I'm pretty happy with that. Retirement doesn't suck.
Speaker 2: By and large, the models here are a lot younger
Speaker 2: than the photographers, and while I don't see anything on
Speaker 2: toward happening, this strikes me as the kind of environment
Speaker 2: where something bad could happen with the wrong photographer present.
Speaker 2: I ask the models if they've ever experienced bad behavior
Speaker 2: from glamor photographers. Is that's something that you've seen photographers
Speaker 2: trying to kind of push push boundaries?
Speaker 8: Yes, yes, all the time, all the time.
Speaker 6: Oh yeah, they will try, But with Patrick, no.
Speaker 7: They know better.
Speaker 6: I'm mean that we have rules like well, big one
Speaker 6: for me.
Speaker 1: Is just protecting the marrs like a big time.
Speaker 4: Have you had to fand people, Patrick? Oh yeah, really,
Speaker 4: lots of people, how many people are Sometimes.
Speaker 6: You know, you just tell people what's not allowed and
Speaker 6: they listen. But every once in a while people don't listen,
Speaker 6: so not allowed to come back, you know.
Speaker 2: I mean, as a model, I can't imagine how difficult
Speaker 2: it is to navigate your way through this safely, because,
Speaker 2: like as journalists, we're trying to work out, you know,
Speaker 2: who who are the good guys and who are and
Speaker 2: it's and it's hard. They're all bad guys. It might
Speaker 2: have been a throwaway line from Patrick, but it rings
Speaker 2: true for me. Unsurprisingly, Eleanor and I don't stick around
Speaker 2: until the end of.
Speaker 4: The event.
Speaker 1: To meet you.
Speaker 4: Okay, bye h.
Speaker 2: We paid nearly two thousand dollars to spend time with retirees,
Speaker 2: a woman in a mermaid toe and a man who
Speaker 2: is making bad after batch of cookies. I'm feeling the
Speaker 2: way a lot of the models I've spoken to have
Speaker 2: felt scammed.
Speaker 4: You're okay, you look absolutely pained. I'm just so confused.
Speaker 4: It's really really suspect to me.
Speaker 2: There is a sense of glamor and luxury on their
Speaker 2: website that I don't think translated to today. Maybe this
Speaker 2: is the reality of these events. Maybe It is a
Speaker 2: few models and a few photographers banding together to try
Speaker 2: and find something in a bit of a dying industry.
Speaker 2: And if the magazines don't exist anymore, then really, what
Speaker 2: are you doing it for? They all just kind of
Speaker 2: seemed happy to be there. Yeah, it's just I'm struggling
Speaker 2: to find where the glamour is in this industry.
Speaker 5: And we've asked about a refund, you know, partial refund,
Speaker 5: and Patrick said yes, so that's something that will chase up.
Speaker 2: I contact some of my sources to ask what they
Speaker 2: know about Patrick. I hear that he's used the hurricane
Speaker 2: excuse before to cancel events in the Bahamas, and that
Speaker 2: he'll never return our money. Then I find out something
Speaker 2: much worse. I'm told that the IBMS was the event
Speaker 2: that Luis Gomes was banned from and then invited back
Speaker 2: to because of his supposed playboy connections. Remember the one
Speaker 2: we told you about where the girl allegedly ran out
Speaker 2: of a shoot with Luis crying. We put all of
Speaker 2: this to Patrick in writing, but he never responded to us.
Speaker 2: He said it himself. They're all bad guys.
Speaker 4: Fuck me. It scares me that you just have no
Speaker 4: idea who you're meeting, or what kind of position you're
Speaker 4: putting yourself in, and that could be a dangerous situation.
Speaker 4: There just appears to be no regulation whatsoever.
Speaker 2: So now we're stuck in Florida, not sure what to
Speaker 2: do next, and more confus used than ever about whether
Speaker 2: there's anything remotely glamorous about the so called glamour industry.
Speaker 2: We've heard from so many models chasing dreams of stardom,
Speaker 2: but what does it really mean to make it? We
Speaker 2: decide to head south to try and find out to
Speaker 2: the glamor capital of the USA.
Speaker 1: New York is all about work, La is all about entertainment,
Speaker 1: and miamis all about fun.
Speaker 2: South Beach Miami, blue sea, white sand, and beautiful people.
Speaker 2: Everyone here is gorgeous, tans, glowing sous and music spilling
Speaker 2: out of boomboxes, beach bars, margaritas and crystal glasses. It's expensive,
Speaker 2: it's luxury.
Speaker 4: I can't believe it. So gorgeous I am.
Speaker 6: You're going to cry.
Speaker 4: We've found the glamour.
Speaker 2: When I thought of this world, when I imagined where
Speaker 2: this podcast would take me, this is what I've been
Speaker 2: looking for this whole time, and I've not found it.
Speaker 2: Anywhere until I got to Miami.
Speaker 4: Okay, well, now I can.
Speaker 2: See why everyone wants to live the high life, because
Speaker 2: I'm sorry.
Speaker 4: I'm never leaving. I live in now. I need to
Speaker 4: tell the father of my son and my son I
Speaker 4: won't be returning to a lot of day.
Speaker 2: Sorry.
Speaker 4: I love you, boy, Daly. I live in Miami. Now.
Speaker 2: I've lined up an interview with a model who seems
Speaker 2: to be living the glamorous lifestyle I had in my head.
Speaker 2: Her name's Melissa Laurie, and she's a big deal. She's
Speaker 2: been in the industry for ten years and she's got
Speaker 2: nearly half a million followers on Instagram.
Speaker 9: I wanted to be a superstar. I wanted to be
Speaker 9: a celebrity. It was sex, drobs, rock and roll.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 9: It was just all the glitz and the gleam, the yachts,
Speaker 9: just I want it at all.
Speaker 2: The thing I really want to know from Melissa is
Speaker 2: how she makes money in a world that seems to
Speaker 2: be full of gammas and dodgy operators. Unlike most of
Speaker 2: the other models I've spoken to, Melissa gets paid for
Speaker 2: her sheets.
Speaker 9: I have actually never ever paid a photographer in my
Speaker 9: entire life. I have never paid for a photoshoot ever,
Speaker 9: not once.
Speaker 2: The reality of the industry today is worse than I thought.
Speaker 2: Melissa says one of the only ways to make money
Speaker 2: is to travel around to be photographed by guys with
Speaker 2: cameras who are willing to pay to photograph a big model.
Speaker 9: Traveling models, you're going city to city mostly to work
Speaker 9: with amateurs, and amateurs are the ones that are willing
Speaker 9: to pay usually.
Speaker 4: But photo shoots alone don't pay the bills I know.
Speaker 9: For me and like most models that I know, this
Speaker 9: is not our only source of income. There's times that
Speaker 9: I can't even book a photo shoot for a month
Speaker 9: or two months. It's not reliable.
Speaker 2: So Melissa and all the other big models she knows
Speaker 2: have a second source of income.
Speaker 9: I do have only fans. That's like my pacid income.
Speaker 9: The only fans culture down here is massive. The sugar
Speaker 9: baby culture is massive. I used to be a little
Speaker 9: naive to it. I found out some of my friends
Speaker 9: were doing that kind of stuff. I'm like, oh, that's
Speaker 9: what you do. I had no idea.
Speaker 4: Do you feel sometimes like your pressure to kind of
Speaker 4: take things further, to be more explicit on there than
Speaker 4: maybe you first envisioned, you would be.
Speaker 9: Absolutely I do feel pressured. I have felt pressured being
Speaker 9: freely nude on the internet. Once you open that door,
Speaker 9: people want more, they want to see more, and they're
Speaker 9: tempting and taunting and teasing, and it's hard. I feel
Speaker 9: like people are judging me because it's considered sex work.
Speaker 9: I had this conversation I think with my roommate. She
Speaker 9: didn't understand why girls like turn to stripping and porn,
Speaker 9: and it's money survival. People have to survive. If you
Speaker 9: don't know what it's like to have nothing in your
Speaker 9: bank account and your survival mode, you will do things
Speaker 9: for money that you might not have done.
Speaker 4: So that's glamour today.
Speaker 2: There is still money to be made, but not in
Speaker 2: the pages of Glamor magazines. It's online on new platforms
Speaker 2: that blur the lines between modeling and sex work, and
Speaker 2: this opens models up to ever increasing demands for more
Speaker 2: explicit content. That's fine for models who want to enter
Speaker 2: the sex industry, but plenty don't. Lots of the models
Speaker 2: I've spoken to say they'd never consider having an OnlyFans account,
Speaker 2: and so it feels even more depressing that they're striving
Speaker 2: for a dream that died with Hugh Hefner. But the
Speaker 2: Playboy dream does still exist for many young green glamour
Speaker 2: models who don't know any different, and whether or not
Speaker 2: that dream is realistic doesn't seem to matter to Luis
Speaker 2: Gomez as long as there are still models willing to
Speaker 2: pay for the fantasy. And back in the UK, I
Speaker 2: learned that he's still coming up with new ways to
Speaker 2: cash in on that.
Speaker 4: Oh so depressing. He's still out there, like, how many
Speaker 4: models is that? And this fine where is going to be? Okay?
Speaker 4: So I'm just on the universe one three seven website.
Speaker 2: By now, Luis's website has become a permanently open tab
Speaker 2: on my laptop. There's usually nothing news to report, the
Speaker 2: same mix of Playboy covers and posts of Luis shredding
Speaker 2: on his guitar. But today is different. A new section
Speaker 2: has appeared, and it's called Events.
Speaker 4: What the actual fuck?
Speaker 2: Louise's ad advertising his very own shoot camp taking place
Speaker 2: in Puerto Ayata, a popular Mexican resort town on the
Speaker 2: edge of the Pacific Ocean. So this event is Fashion
Speaker 2: Beach Mexico Experience. Another amazing brilliant title We've been trying
Speaker 2: to piece together, Luise is, whereabouts and what is up
Speaker 2: to now? The most recent allegations I've heard about Luis
Speaker 2: are from twenty twenty, when the group of models in
Speaker 2: the UK called him out. There is Louise still claiming
Speaker 2: to be a playboy photographer? Are there any new allegations
Speaker 2: of abuse? This shoot camp is our first opportunity to
Speaker 2: find out.
Speaker 1: Can you hear me?
Speaker 5: Yes?
Speaker 1: Now I can, Now I can.
Speaker 2: We're talking to a freelance journalist who's agreed to attend
Speaker 2: Luis's event undercover.
Speaker 3: I'm we outside of town. There's vultures circling in the
Speaker 3: air overhead.
Speaker 4: God, that's ominous.
Speaker 2: We're calling him Mark, but that's not his real name.
Speaker 2: He's an American based in Mexico, one of the world's
Speaker 2: most dangerous places to be a journalist, so he doesn't
Speaker 2: want to be named in the podcast. Mark's going instead
Speaker 2: of us, as we thought sending a guy would give
Speaker 2: us the best chance to get close to Luis. So
Speaker 2: Mark's in Poersevata, getting ready to talk his way into
Speaker 2: the hotel where Luis Gomez is hosting his event, and
Speaker 2: we have the perfect idea to help him blend in a.
Speaker 3: Goofy guy who just happened to stumble upon a photo shoot, had.
Speaker 6: My camera on me.
Speaker 4: A guy with a camera.
Speaker 2: Mark's going to see how close he can get to
Speaker 2: Luise and send us voice notes along the way.
Speaker 4: Okay, good luck.
Speaker 2: Mark enters the hotel. It's a massive complex a five
Speaker 2: minute walk from the beach. He heads out into a
Speaker 2: courtyard filled with people.
Speaker 3: I'm in the back part of the resort, concets for
Speaker 3: the beach.
Speaker 10: I've got on of goes names Infinity.
Speaker 3: Pools ah whatever. It looks like the horizon of the
Speaker 3: pool explosion.
Speaker 2: The crowd seems mainly to be Mexican families on holiday,
Speaker 2: but Mark soon spots Luise.
Speaker 3: A Black Star Wars baseball cap, a Black Star Wars
Speaker 3: T shirt, black shorts, black socks, a little sling bag
Speaker 3: around his shoulder, and he's wearing the big heavy kneepads.
Speaker 3: And I guess for getting down and taking pictures. I
Speaker 3: think I'll make an approach.
Speaker 4: The guy with the camera act works a treat. Luisa.
Speaker 4: Mark hit it off.
Speaker 3: I shook hands with Luis. He did a weird I've
Speaker 3: never had this happen before. He shook my hand and
Speaker 3: then snapped his fingers like around my hand. It's a toy.
Speaker 3: One of the weirdest things. He gives me bad vibes.
Speaker 3: That's how you that much. But he's friendly in a
Speaker 3: superficial way.
Speaker 2: Louise has an entourage. There are three photographers and five
Speaker 2: models from all over the world. Guatemala, Canada, the US,
Speaker 2: and Argentina.
Speaker 10: Yeah, we're all hanging out.
Speaker 7: There's a photo shoot wrapping up in the fountains and meat.
Speaker 10: I've got to know a few of the mines.
Speaker 3: Everybody's very nic.
Speaker 4: Mark captures the action on his phone.
Speaker 2: Louise is soaked to his waist, kneeling in the pool
Speaker 2: taking photos of a woman in a blue bikini.
Speaker 1: We go.
Speaker 3: Hiks now, I'll give back to it.
Speaker 2: It's crazy to hear Mark talking about what he's seeing
Speaker 2: being so close to Luise. It's even crazier to occasionally
Speaker 2: pick up the tone of Luis's voice in the background.
Speaker 2: As the sun goes down, Louise invites Mark to the beach.
Speaker 4: And there are some new.
Speaker 10: Props in one, two, three, four fire forces and then
Speaker 10: all of us, and then there's also a guy whose
Speaker 10: robberries to pick up the horse pook on the beach.
Speaker 10: The rest of the beach is just doing their beachy things. Yeah,
Speaker 10: it's a very strange scene.
Speaker 4: Now Louise wants to talk.
Speaker 3: Business Universe one three seven studios.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, now one, So we're gonna be doing you know,
Speaker 1: I speak more for Playboy, every.
Speaker 3: Chan, Maxine Lifestyle, What Set Magazine.
Speaker 2: Although amazingly Louise offers to give Mark his big break
Speaker 2: into the glamour industry as a photographer.
Speaker 1: Well, if you do like a good photos, although I
Speaker 1: can't help to.
Speaker 10: Publishing, Okay, yeah, I do a lot of my fifty
Speaker 10: three fifty three magazines. Yea in Mexico, No.
Speaker 8: In USA, in in everywhere, in Australia everywhere.
Speaker 10: Wow, all they playbooks everywhere.
Speaker 1: The all, the every chen around the world, every people.
Speaker 2: It seems Louise is still dining out on the same
Speaker 2: old claims that his Playboy connections give him the power
Speaker 2: to make a newbie's career, whether they're a model or
Speaker 2: a photographer. Mark didn't see Louise behave inappropriately with any
Speaker 2: of the models, but considering everything I've heard so far,
Speaker 2: I find it hard to believe his behavior would have changed.
Speaker 4: And then I hear from a new witness.
Speaker 2: She's got an allegation to share, and it's the most
Speaker 2: recent I've heard.
Speaker 1: I believe it was the longest and also at the
Speaker 1: same time shor it is a few seconds or minutes
Speaker 1: of my life. The thing is, obviously I wanted to
Speaker 1: try a modeling courier, didn't know how to do it.
Speaker 1: I'm not from Ali, I'm from Europe.
Speaker 2: Gabriella not her real name, had long dreamed of making
Speaker 2: it as a glamor model in the States. She met
Speaker 2: a fellow model who told her that shoot camps were
Speaker 2: a way to break into the industry. She recommended one
Speaker 2: that was happening in twenty twenty two, and guess he
Speaker 2: was hosting Luis Gomez. The event was almost identical to
Speaker 2: the one Mark went to. It cost five hundred dollars
Speaker 2: for six nights of food, board and photo shoots.
Speaker 1: It's a cool experience, you know. I was super excited
Speaker 1: and happy. Of course, why not.
Speaker 2: On the first night of the shoot camp, Louise came
Speaker 2: over to Gabriella.
Speaker 1: Like, Hi, my name is Lois. What's your name? So
Speaker 1: he already showed me magazines since covers with his name
Speaker 1: because his name is Universe one thirty seven.
Speaker 4: He invited her to shoot with him the next day,
Speaker 4: and she agreed.
Speaker 1: And they're at ten eleven a m ish to his
Speaker 1: room to make pictures because he told me he likes
Speaker 1: making pictures in the room, so I didn't think much
Speaker 1: of it, and I told him at the beginning, I
Speaker 1: don't have many experiences. If you have any kind of
Speaker 1: suggestions of posing.
Speaker 4: Guide me.
Speaker 2: Gabrielle is so green that she hasn't yet decided her levels.
Speaker 2: The boundaries model set in terms of how explicit they're
Speaker 2: willing to shoot.
Speaker 1: I did not know what I was prepared for. I
Speaker 1: never planned on every kind of shooting nude.
Speaker 4: Gabriella in the Ways begins shooting on the balcony.
Speaker 1: I told him, I'm nervous. I've never, you know, made
Speaker 1: so many pictures professionally done, and at first he was
Speaker 1: positioning me on the balcony with underwear laundres. So with
Speaker 1: every shots when there's music, he makes you feel a
Speaker 1: little bit more comfortable, more relaxed, more easy, especially when saying, yeah,
Speaker 1: your looks are pretty, you look great. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: that is a gorgeous shot. There's going to be great pictures.
Speaker 2: Gabriella says that Luise suggested they move inside to the bedroom.
Speaker 1: It was first lingerie and then do you want to
Speaker 1: put your bra down?
Speaker 2: Gabriella describes Luise as patiently insistent.
Speaker 4: He doesn't overwhelm her. He plays nice.
Speaker 1: And then your slowly, step by step, also get into
Speaker 1: the content of making nude pictures. I told him that
Speaker 1: I don't feel comfortable. I've never done that. He said,
Speaker 1: you know what, no worries. It's just gonna be pictures
Speaker 1: for you. You can use them for your boyfriend or
Speaker 1: man whatever. You should just capture the beauty of yourself.
Speaker 1: And I believed him because I was, you know, figuring
Speaker 1: he is an honest, respectful man. He's a professional photographer.
Speaker 1: I figured it's okay for me as a woman to
Speaker 1: feel pretty and beautiful and comfortable in my own skip.
Speaker 1: That's the intention that I had for myself when I
Speaker 1: always making pictures of me being fully naked.
Speaker 4: Then Louise suggests that they do some filming.
Speaker 1: And I asked him again, you know you're not gonna
Speaker 1: put them anywhere. No, they're just for you and stuff
Speaker 1: like that.
Speaker 2: For the next few minutes, you'll hear Gabriella talk about
Speaker 2: what she alleges happened next.
Speaker 1: While he was making me feel more and more comfortable
Speaker 1: and making sexyon videos and pictures of me, he was
Speaker 1: putting the camera down, and after he put it down,
Speaker 1: he started his way up from my feet and legs,
Speaker 1: kissing me upwards. I was scared to leave at this
Speaker 1: point when I was with him alone in the room.
Speaker 1: So what other options do I have?
Speaker 2: Gabriella says it escalated to penetrative sex. She says she
Speaker 2: didn't say no to Luis because she was too scared.
Speaker 1: There were so many thoughts in my head from one second.
Speaker 1: So if I'm gonna say no, what are the consequences.
Speaker 1: He can choke me, he can beat me on my head,
Speaker 1: he has maybe a knife, I don't know what else.
Speaker 1: Too many thoughts rushing through my brain. That the possibility
Speaker 1: of me saying no was more harmful in my scenarios
Speaker 1: that I was making up than just saying yes to
Speaker 1: just get over, just let him have it, Just close
Speaker 1: your eyes and it's done.
Speaker 2: To be clear, Luis didn't threaten Gabriella, but she was
Speaker 2: alone in a room with a man she just met.
Speaker 2: She still felt a risk.
Speaker 1: I was feeling and in a us endangerous situation. My
Speaker 1: brain was like frozen. It was shutting off just I
Speaker 1: would say survival mode. I believe it was the longest
Speaker 1: and also at the same time, for it was a
Speaker 1: few seconds or minutes of my life.
Speaker 4: When it's over, Gabriella gets up to leave.
Speaker 1: Her mind is racing, not making it obvious that I'm
Speaker 1: super scared and nervous and shaking inside. Once I was
Speaker 1: actually right. Two minutes later in my room, I just
Speaker 1: figured what the fuck.
Speaker 2: It left her grappling with the idea of consent. Gabriella
Speaker 2: called her mom to help her understand what happened.
Speaker 1: I didn't cry because I didn't want her to be
Speaker 1: scared or worried about me. But I'm so glad and
Speaker 1: grateful that she was here having an open heart and
Speaker 1: listening to me and supporting me and knowing I can
Speaker 1: be honest to herself without being judged. That's what I
Speaker 1: needed at this moment, calling my mother and not being judged.
Speaker 1: And you know, at least I didn't get strangled, I
Speaker 1: didn't get beaten up.
Speaker 4: That was my man.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna say I'm a victim, However, I was
Speaker 1: an ef I'm gonna tell you right up front, I
Speaker 1: was stupid and naive because I didn't know. You blame herself.
Speaker 1: That's the thing, what I did? You blame yourself. You
Speaker 1: feel so stupid, you feel so what the fuck did
Speaker 1: I do? Why am I so stupid? And that's the
Speaker 1: thing I did not know. I already cried about it.
Speaker 1: You know what, when you can tell a story without crying,
Speaker 1: this is the sign that you healed, you healed. I'm
Speaker 1: not a victim. I'm a fighter. I'm a warrior.
Speaker 2: Gabriella was able to get through the rest of that
Speaker 2: terrible day by surrounding herself with the other models at
Speaker 2: the event, and they gave her the confidence to confront
Speaker 2: the ways.
Speaker 1: I will tell you even what happened later during that day.
Speaker 1: I'm at the best women that could have ever met.
Speaker 1: These girls advised me to make a recording of.
Speaker 2: Him coming up on the Bonnie Trap.
Speaker 4: Ladies, I got that, I got it all. I got
Speaker 4: it all, I got it all, I got it all.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, oh my god.
Speaker 4: Would you like to see him prosecuted?
Speaker 8: I would if I had a chance, because I know
Speaker 8: there's people who back me up.
Speaker 4: It's not just me.
Speaker 8: We're an Army in comparison to him.
Speaker 4: Thanks to the women who shared their stories with us.
Speaker 2: We contacted Luis Gomez multiple times for comment, but we
Speaker 2: never heard back. He has not been charged with any
Speaker 2: crimes and is presumed innocent under the law. We also
Speaker 2: sought comment from Playboy USA. They declined our request for
Speaker 2: an interview, but stated that they asked their licensees to
Speaker 2: blacklist the photographer mentioned in this series and that they
Speaker 2: prohibit paid to play the practice of charging models to
Speaker 2: appear in magazines. The Bonnie Trap is produced by Novel.
Speaker 2: For more from Novel, visit novel dot Audio. The show
Speaker 2: is hosted by me Ellie Flynn. You can find me
Speaker 2: on social media by searching my name that's eb l
Speaker 2: i e f Y double N. This season is produced
Speaker 2: by Eleanor Biggs and written by me Ellie Flynn and
Speaker 2: Eleana Biggs. Our assistant producer is Amalia Sortland, with additional
Speaker 2: production from Lee Meyer and Saskia Collette. Additional research by
Speaker 2: Valeria Rocker. The editors are Georgia Moody and Austin Mitchell.
Speaker 2: Our executive producers are Max O'Brien and Craig Strachan. Our
Speaker 2: fact checker is Fendall Fulton, Production management from Scherie Houston
Speaker 2: and Charlotte Wolf. Sound design, mixing and scoring by Daniel
Speaker 2: Kempson and Nicholas Alexander, Music supervision by Nicholas Alexander, Elena
Speaker 2: Biggs and Max O'Brien, Original music composed and performed by
Speaker 2: Jake Long, and additional production by Nicholas Alexander, Louisa Gersteine
Speaker 2: and Daniel Kempson. The series artwork was designed by Christina
Speaker 2: Limcol Willard Foxton, its creative director of Development
Speaker 1: Novel