The killing of a masseuse at a high-end Boston hotel this week, followed by the robbery at gunpoint of a Las Vegas woman at another pricey hotel last week opened a window on a vast and elusive underworld of prostitutes who advertise online and do business at fancy hotels, the Boston Globe reports. “What we believe is that there are a series of independent operations that are occurring, and it’s very difficult for the hotels to police them because they don’t know who it is that’s coming in to use their rooms,” said Police Commissioner Edward Davis. “We’ve been monitoring it very closely, but it’s very difficult to completely eliminate it.”
Both victims had advertised services on Craigslist. An employee of an escort service told the Globe that working independently through sites like Craigslist is highly dangerous. “Agencies are more secure – these sites are not,” she said, declining to provide her name. “The people who prey on these girls, they target independent escorts. They know that if you’re on Craigslist, you are unprotected.”