# Foxy Lady closes after reopening



## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

By *O'Ryan Johnson*
Sunday, December 17, 2006 - Updated: 03:49 AM EST

*F*riday night, and the Foxy Lady was open again. But before customers could enter, they had to get frisked by one of the strip club's three bouncers. Big, tough and polite, they ran their hands down flanks and around hips, checking for weapons. 

"Sorry, man, I gotta pat you down," said the bald bouncer with an earpiece attached to a concealed walkie-talkie. 
It wasn't the sort of contact men heading into the club were hoping for, but no one seemed to mind. After all, they had just passed two memorials - one a huge bank of lighted candles - for the manager and bouncer slain at the New Bedford nudie bar just days earlier.

Inside the club, there was nowhere to hide. 
The floor plan was wide open and gave anyone passing through the door a line of sight to just about the entire place. 
To the right were the bar, the center stage and a dozen or so tables. Through a partition was the Champagne Room, where customers drop $150 a half hour to share a drink with the lady of their choice. 
To the left, dancers bounded through in platform acrylic heels, slinky gowns and bustiers that flashed skin as if they were starlets on a Hollywood red carpet. 
As many as 10 dancers were working Friday night. Several of them had been on duty when a lovelorn gunman squeezed off those fatal rounds before turning the gun on himself early Tuesday morning. 
One dancer said she was in the rear of the club around closing time when the first shots were fired. 
"I was just like, 'Let's shut up and comply,' " she said of her attitude toward the shooter. "But these (girls) started screaming, like waving a yellow flag, 'Hey, here we are.' I was jumping over girls trying to shut them up." 
Still rattled, some dancers suddenly reached out and hugged each other, seeking and giving comfort. 
By 10:30 p.m., the crowd was picking up. Dancers sat at tables with happy customers. Regulars lined the bar around the stage. Some meandered to the back room for a lap dances. 
One dancer said the scene was typical for this time of year. 
"For Christmastime, this early in the night, it's about average," she said. 
The owner, Thomas Tsoumas, said yesterday he hadn't expected a big turnout Friday, but wanted to give his employees something to think about besides Tuesday's bloodshed. 
"We lost two giants, two giants," he said. "We're really broken up. But we're going to get up and dust ourselves off. We have to carry on. Especially in the memory of both of those men." 
Yesterday, Tsoumas thought better of it and shut down the Foxy Lady ... again.

- [email protected]

Foxy Lady Now Set To Reopen Next Week

*BOSTON -- *It was a brief reopening for the strip club where a man shot and killed two club employees before turning the gun on himself last week. 

The Owner of the Foxy Lady, Thomas Tsoumas, reopened the club on Friday, just a few days after the shootings and before the funerals of those killed, including the club manager and security guard.

Tsoumas tells the Boston Herald that he was following the advice of grief counselors who recommended that getting back to work could be therapeutic for workers. But Tsoumas said he decided to quickly shut the club again until after the funerals, saying he'd received calls from New Bedford Mayor Scott Lang and police Chief Ronald Teachman asking for the delay.

He plans to reopen the club on Wednesday.

_Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed._


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## 94c (Oct 21, 2005)

This entire incident goes to show you one important lesson.

All the training in the world will not prepare you for a person with a high-powered rifle and a plan.

A plan that includes a willingness and acceptance to die.


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## 2-Delta (Aug 13, 2003)

I wonder if the girls will be wearing a mourning band now (aka electrical tape over the nip)


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## SOT (Jul 30, 2004)

It also says that guys will go to even a combat zone for a peek at some naked wimins.


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