Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Linda Twigg, The Gangster Hippie Chick
DIMITRI MUGIANIS
The whole Linda Twigg scene was fascinating. In fact it was insane! Linda ran a
gambling parlor. She's dead now, but when she was alive, she was very, very dan-
gerous! She was this little blonde woman, five-feet-two and with blue eyes, cute
andpetiteandpretty,butscary.Shetookcareofpeople.Hunckelivedwithherfor
awhile.Butshewasalsooneofthescariestpeopleontheplanet.Ifyouknewher,
you should be scared of her. If you crossed her, you had your jaw broken.
45
Her gambling parlor on the Chelsea's second floor was a small room with
pokertablessetup,andHerbertlivedthereforquiteawhile.Lindahadherfingers
in all kinds of shit, drugs and gambling. She was such a character! You'd walk in
there and she'd say, “Get to work!” and she'd be dealing out pounds of weed.
ROBERT CAMPBELL
Once I told Huncke's partner, Louis Cartwright, that I thought Linda Twigg was
hot in her hippie dress. He said—and his voice sounded the way you would
think Captain Ahab's voice would sound—”Robert, stay away from her. She's
a
gangsterette.”
I was too stupid to realize that he was dead serious. “She's a
gangsterette,
Robert.”
This woman was attractive, smart, and very fucking dangerous.
JEROME POYNTON
There are beautiful shots of Linda's room in Francois Bernardi's documentary
called
Original Beats.
LindaTwiggwastheonlywomanwhohadalicensedpoker
chip, called the Doubling Cube. Poker chips are licensed as currency and she had
one of the licenses and sold chips to casinos that used her brand.
Journalist Mark Kramer describes the Doubling Cubes as “gold poker chips—embossed
with a marijuana leaf.”
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He also describes Linda Twigg's Chelsea room as follows: “Mounted on the wall were
photo portraits of William Burroughs, Candy Darling, Allen Ginsberg and other doomed
souls who'd visited this room down through the years. Strewn haphazardly about were Zip-
loc bags of marijuana and envelopes stuffed with cash. Lurking just beyond Linda's preter-
natural perkiness and the fragrant oils that signified her presence, there was an aura of un-
differentiated menace that kept Room 215's delicate behavior homeopathy intact.”
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