Reports of strippers at the campground were also numerous, and the reports suggested that the presence of strippers may have begun as early as 1988. The witness who claimed to have seen a stripper in 1988, a Fort Lauderdale police officer, reported that he did not see any money change hands and that Rightmyer told her to leave the campground. This witness said it was known that the organizers did not want strippers in the campground. Rightmyer said that he banned strippers from the campground after an incident in which a stripper claimed that her money had been stolen. [ / Rightmyer told us he understood that the woman had collected money in advance of her performance but when she got up to dance she asked one man to hold her money. This man decided to distribute it among the bystanders to give as "tips" while she danced. She believed that these tips were in addition to the money she had collected originally. ]
Despite this ban, beginning with the 1992 Roundup we heard of strippers at least attempting to perform at each Roundup thereafter. In each case, however, the person who gave us this information said that when a MOB member or Rightmyer learned that a woman was stripping, the woman was ordered off the premises. One female deputy sheriff said she overheard people watching these women and discussing how upset Rightmyer and the MOB would be if they saw what was happening.
Numerous witnesses mentioned that two local men arranged a strip show for Roundup attendees at another campground because Rightmyer would not allow stripping at the Roundup. [ / One local woman says these two men approached her and asked her if they could rent her property during the Roundup. She says when they told her the purpose of the rental, she refused. ] These men attempted to get the Roundup to officially sponsor the show, but Rightmyer refused.
We interviewed one of two women who came to strip at the 1995 Roundup and the men who had invited them. These two women were professional dancers from a strip club in Birmingham, Alabama. One of these women told us that when she and the other dancer arrived at the campground they signed in as guests of two local officers from Birmingham. The women told the people at the desk that they were going to dance at the Roundup. She said the registration person emphasized that no stripping was allowed and told them they could dance with their clothes on but that they would be thrown out if they took their clothes off.
Nevertheless, one night they decided to dance and remove their shirts. While they danced a bucket was passed around netting them $200 or $300. The security people evidently had suspected they might perform, because shortly after they finished the dance, they were ejected from the Roundup. [ / After they were ejected they got a ride to Cleveland, Tennessee, and stayed in a motel there. They met some Canadians staying in a motel who were attending the Roundup. We were told by one of them that the other has moved to Canada to be with one of these Canadians and taken a job as a police dispatcher. ] The men who had invited these women to the Roundup confirmed these facts. The sign-in sheet for the 1995 Roundup contains the notation "stripper" next to the women's names and the men who had brought them as guests. The person running the registration desk said that these notations were made after the strippers' armbands had been cut off so that people would know not to let these women back in. [ / The men who brought these women in were initially told that they had to leave as well. They convinced the registration people that they did not know anything about the women's plans to strip, so they were allowed to stay. ]
In 1995 as well, a female guest of a local deputy sheriff got up on a table and began to strip. He claimed that this woman was a former girlfriend and he was terribly embarrassed when he saw her on a table pulling her clothes off. She was ordered down and told to get dressed but was not asked to leave. Initially the organizers attempted to eject the deputy sheriff but he apparently convinced them that he did not know she was going to strip, and he was permitted to remain. This particular woman's "performance" appears to have been significantly more spontaneous than the actions of the two professional dancers.