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I first met Nina 'Cookie' Goodhope in the summer of 1986 as we were introduced through a mutual friend. It was not your average hot summer day when Cookie and I first spoke, it was a record breaking day with heat in the low 100°F numbers and it wasn't near to noon yet. Nina was in the kitchen baking chocolate chip cookies for this afternoon's arrest, "They love my cookies! The aroma of fresh baked cookies wins the boys over without a fight 2 out of 3 times." Hence her nickname, aka "Cookie". I still hadn't asked Nina a single question for our interview as she continued on, "I can be tough when I need to be, but only when I need to be ... I don't need to go around town slinging guns and flashing my badge and talking a big game and stuff, that's just not me." Her disarming manner goes over well with the bail jumpers that she hunts down. "I can be the tough bounty hunter one minute and then switch gears like that and be the girlfriend baking cookies ... I move in and out of the roles very easily. It's seamless", she added.
The bounty hunters I had interviewed were generally big guys but not so that you would notice on the street - these were not your Gold's Gym type. A bounty hunter can always buy muscle but what they really need is smarts. A successful bounty hunter avoids excessive confrontation because every pickup is a lawsuit waiting to happen. One bounty hunter told me a big part of his success has been unfailing politeness.
Cookie's story is typical, she is a woman with a heart of gold, just trying to find her way along life's rocky road, which is strewn with "all the wrong men." But Nina "Cookie" Goodhope stands out from the pack. She drinks, smokes, cusses and serves up the best damn tasting chocolate chip cookies anywhere on this planet, and when called for packs large firearms as accessories in her work. Cookie is a bounty hunter, making a living by hauling in miscreants who have jumped bail.
Location of the photo is Reno, NV as we were headed back home to Austin, Tx, 78704.
( In the back seat: Vietnam era U.S. Marine Corp bullet resistant vest and her 1911 Colt .45. I ate all the cookies earlier.)
[Parody, satire, fictional dramatisation.]
Nikon F2, Nikkor 24mm f2.8, Ektachrome 64. Transparency scanned to digital.
Photoshop CS3 and collage.
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