“The FFP Club”
“The FFP Club” ... everyday brings the reality of a new opportunity to learn and grow. While much of the learning hasn’t been easy, I hope the growing part will, at the very least, allow me to leave footprints that, someday, my children will feel proud to claim belonged to their mother!
ALL THAT SPARKLE COMES WITH A PRICE…
It continues to make my head spin that 31 years later, I’m still discovering the secrets of a man, so dark and complex, that I’d wager (one of my own limbs) not even Freud could figure him out! While Al will leave a legacy of architectural planning and design, including tangible imprints, and physical monuments of significant consequence to the world when he’s gone…what will be said about his character? As the father to four children, two of which are mine, there are two of his daughters who maintain “there are most likely more of us out there!” He was my husband for 16 years, and the man I loved for 19 years. He will also leave behind a trail of lies, fraud, battered spirits, broken hearts, mile upon mile of “scorched earth,” even death, and enough tears to fill an Olympic-sized, swimming pool, and will symbolize to many, a figure to be feared.
A PUBLISHED ARTICLE WHICH APPEARED IN THE U.K. FROM 2010; WAS SHE, TOO, A MEMBER OF THE CLUB?
Over the past many years, (we’ve been divorced since 2008), I’ve had several odd occasions to reconnect with various people from Al’s (and/or our) past…be it friends, business partners, car buddies, old (his) girlfriends, housekeepers, lawyers, even secretaries and babysitters. Shortly following our divorce, I learned about a past pregnant girlfriend, Lorraine, who committed suicide at one of Al’s homes and left behind a note which cited his rejection of her and their unborn child as the cause. I had known previously about her existence and the taking of her life; the news of her pregnancy and the suicide note, however, came as another surprising blow. So too, only recently, did I learn about what was commonly known, among Al’s friends, business partners and staff, as Al’s “Frequent F**king Plan”...whaaat, really? Unfortunately, for me, and who knows how many others, a resounding YES is the answer!
THOSE INFAMOUS “RED BOXES” PROBABLY TOOK UP A GOOD BIT OF DRAWER SPACE IN HIS OFFICE I WOULD GUESS?
A “friend” of Al’s, who shared this with me, explained that for decades, Al “had” (used as a Verb) women all over the world, as far away as Rome and Saudi Arabia, but many scattered throughout the United States, including his native New York, that particular collection of women were referred to as.... the “FFP club.” The women were ranked, in levels of seriousness, by the types of gifts he would frequently, and generously, bestow on them. Of course, or at least, I hope that the “FFP Club” women didn’t know about each other, and also weren’t aware of the 20+ years he was married to his first wife, nor the 19 years that Al and I were together; 16 of which were as husband and wife? The friend went on to tell me how all of Al’s office staff was, strictly, ordered to refer to any woman calling for him, and those who might be seen with him, either in or out of the office, as “Dear,” thus reducing the possibility of confusing, or calling, any of the various “ladies” by an incorrect name.....which had already happened on at least two occasions, and clearly necessitated the implementing of a new system. The staffers who failed to remember the “code” were fired immediately upon calling the wrong women, the wrong name. Gifts, of various size and importance, were given depending on the recipient, and their level of ranking within the FFP. The list of gifts included cars, (Jeeps were a favorite); jewelry was also a “go to,” and on one occasion, a box arrived with 7 neatly-ribboned, red Cartier boxes, each of which contained a “Signature,” Cartier Love Bracelet, and were gifted to various women within less than a year’s time. As awkward as it is for me to acknowledge, much less disclose, that’s an awful lot of “mileage.” I suppose there’s a modicum of comfort to be taken knowing that I discovered all this after the fact…or is there? Artwork was also often chosen and gifted, but during my lunch meeting with this particular friend, she went on to disclose that, a “jackpot gift” was a Mink or Sable coat which had happened twice. One woman even got a house; that little gift and secret was ultimately, and begrudgingly, disclosed AFTER my divorce from Al and during the pendency of his Bankruptcy case. I guess for all I, or Al’s kids know…it’s possible they have siblings living in Vermont? Humor helps almost everything, and so when I sarcastically asked the friend and source of all this knowledge, “well then what happened to me...I never got a Mink? She replied with a smirk and said, no you got it all; he married you!” Yikes....it’s too bad there’s already a movie called “The Good, Bad and The Ugly”.....right?
ONE OF THE “GRAND PRIZES.”
Thankfully, those bizarre meetings haven’t happened very often. It would be really difficult to endure awkward conversations like that on a routine basis! Nonetheless, I’m grateful for the added knowledge, and steadfastly maintain that my two children are the greatest, and only, gifts that matter!
It does make me wonder, however, about that one box that arrived at our home in the early part of 2003 from Nat Klarsfeld Jewelers, an old-school, private jeweler in New York, whose elegant offices were located on one of the top floors in a very “high-brow” office building in Manhattan, where Al and I once visited together, several years earlier. The label on the box was addressed to both of us, Mr. & Mrs.Capone, so yes, I opened it. Four, white leather jewelry boxes of varying sizes with the Klarsfeld gold insignia on each were tucked neatly inside that package. Realizing what I had, mistakenly, stumbled upon, and because I like surprises, I closed and resealed the box, thinking the next few Birthdays and Christmas’s would be especially lovely.
THIS WAS NOT ONE OF THE GIFTS I EVER RECEIVED; WHO DO YOU SUPPOSE IS WEARING IT NOW?
The fact remains however…I only, ever, received ONE of those four boxes between then and 2007, which is when Al and I separated. Who, or how many, do you suppose are wearing the contents of the other three white leather boxes? During the year from September, 2007 thru September, 2008 when we were going through our separation and the on/off again, degrees of crazy-making by Al; Connie or Candy…I can’t recall what her name was, but one of Al’s new “FFP club members” bragged to Al’s “on-call” tennis pro about the stunning, diamond watch Al had recently gifted her. I guess old habits die hard? It may be a while before I feel brave enough to share the follow up to this chapter… but, I promise, eventually it will happen! In the meantime I will leave you with another “gem” of a quote from one of my children, “I just don’t understand what it is but I guess “The Don” has “game” by the pound, and… at the age of 80?”
The early days… just another Concours d’Elegance and summer on Long Island
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