Bitt Thrower (known on paper as Howard Phillip Thrower) was a successful man, who reflected on his position in life in the fall of 2004 as he sat by the hot tub and pool at his Atlanta area estate. Surrounding him were the fruits of his efforts, including an eight-thousand square-foot house with 5 bedrooms and 5 ½ bathrooms, a private lake, a barn and stables, an indoor swimming pool, an Escalade, a Jeep, two Corvettes and a Hummer, an outdoor basketball court, an impressive gun collection, titles to 3 other upscale homes, along with plenty of liquor, cash, and other “assets.”
He thought back to when he had been baptized as a 10 year-old in a Southern Baptist Church, soon after which he discovered a major skill: the strength and ability to blast a baseball out of the park. Bitt was engaging in his normal Sunday night routine of relaxing in a hot bathtub, reading the Sunday Atlanta Journal Constitution newspaper and drinking “2 fingers” of Johnnie Walker Blue. His sons and twin one-year-old daughters were fast asleep in their upstairs bedrooms, so he settled in for a nice read before turning in himself.
Bitt stayed busy running two night clubs, “Flashers” and “Platinum 21,” and an auction/warehousing business at the time. Flashers, where he was the manager, had become the number two seller of champagne out of 50 Atlanta area clubs. Bitt’s official title was General Manager of Operations, and he worked with a man named Mario Freese, who had brought him into the night club industry (as well as other “hustles” and money-making ventures).
He was attending a Baptist church in Newnan near his 40 acre residence. After working all night Saturday at Flashers, he had taken his son, step-son and twin girls to worship services that morning on no sleep. This was part of his usual routine. He was a believer but not a practitioner of faith. The nanny was off on Sundays and the 6’3” 300 pound, gravelly-voiced Bitt intended to wind down before going to bed. After a bubble bath, he took his drink and a cigar to his deck to read and relax. He had spent the day grilling steaks and watching the kids swim. He also had played baseball in the meadow with the boys while the girls played in the barn.
Addicted, not to money but power, Bitt enjoyed his relationships with politicians, celebrities and professional athletes. He felt like these important people were, in a manner of speaking, at his beck and call. He talked on the phone with many of the famous, including Ervin “Magic” Johnson on a couple of occasions. He rubbed shoulders with entertainers like Rod Stewart, many of whom liked to be around the beautiful dancers in the club scene. Bitt was just the man to make “entertainment arrangements” for his well-known customers and acquaintances.
Bitt could drink large amounts of alcohol but usually refrained from heavy consumption. After reading the sports section, he reflected for a brief time on an agreement, more like a plea, he had made to God recently. He wanted Him to spare his boys from following in his footsteps. He had some blood pressure issues, was overweight and didn’t exercise. A workaholic, he figured that every hour he slept cost him at least $160.00 in tips at one of the clubs. Hence, working all night on Saturdays was very profitable. Despite his activities, he had a spark of “good" in him that kept peeking out. He donated food items and “blow-up houses” for kids at the local church. He was also a generous giver to the offering plate on Sunday mornings although he always gave cash and never wrote checks or put his name on a donation envelope.
Relaxing on his deck, he thought briefly of his third wife from whom he had been legally separated for several years. She was the mother of his girls and would die of breast cancer in the years to come. He finished the sports section of the paper and relaxed. He thought about all of the things he had purchased that were stored on his farm and filled his over-sized garage and barn. Many of them were in unmarked boxes. There were building materials, poker machines, Masters golf sportswear, designer clothes, machine guns and all manner of items to the extent that he had no exact idea what he owned. He bought 2-3 cars at a time and routinely purchased various items by the truck-load to later sell out of his warehouse or at local auctions.
Most of his acquisitions were made through contacts with customers at the clubs. He never ceased to be amazed at what “women and whiskey” would bring to the table for him in terms of deals for clothing and goods. He felt like he was on top of the world with the wildly successful Platinum 21, employing 120 dancers a night, and Flashers, drawing all manners of celebrities and athletes. National Football League players frequented Flashers for drinks and female companionship as did National Basketball Association standouts.
Bitt never felt more powerful than he did when rubbing shoulders with important people who dropped “tons” of cash in the clubs and into his pockets. He considered himself a big, strong man unafraid of anything or anyone; the kind of guy who runs towards flying bullets and not away from them. Bitt didn’t routinely carry a gun, though. He had decided that he wouldn’t carry one unless he intended to use it.
He reflected on the fact that his unbalanced wife left him even though he was never unfaithful to her. Afterwards, he had all of the sex he wanted with multiple partners whenever he desired. He would frequently walk into the club with a beautiful girlfriend who served as his “chick magnet.” When he left the club later, it was often with the girlfriend and 2-3 more beauties. Despite all of his acquisitions and a lifestyle that would be the envy of many, he never blamed his poor choices on his family. His parents were top notch Godly people. His father was a great all-around high school athlete and boxed in the military service, including two sparring matches with Joe Louis.
Bitt’s mother, a perfect Southern Belle, had raised him and his siblings with her husband’s help. His brothers, excellent athletes, both excelled as high school coaches and his sisters were successful professionals in the private and the public sectors. Bitt always had everything he needed growing up, but not everything he wanted. His family couldn’t afford to send him to baseball camps for college or professional exposure and his mother became an expert in feeding the family on a limited budget. Despite the fact there was not a great deal of money around, Bitt recognized that he had a great family and all he truly needed throughout his childhood. His decisions were never made out of a sense of being deprived although he was one of the “have-nots” among the kids his age in LaGrange, GA as far as cars and clothes were concerned.
Bitt had developed a hunger for all of the “good things” in life, often telling close friends that he was going to “get mine and 10 times more.” While he sat on the deck in 2004, he told himself that he had the world by the tail. Much of his success, he thought, was due to his “smooth” approach with his nightclub customers and his ability to make them believe they were the most important people in the world. He made them feel as if no one else in the club mattered and he was their best friend. He never sat in the office, instead walking among the patrons, encouraging them to spend on drinks and female companionship. This approach boosted business and fostered popularity, not to mention money, for him. He concluded, dressed in a bathrobe from the swanky Las Vegas hotel Rio, as he sat, that he was vastly successful and thought to himself, “I have arrived. Look at what I’ve done.”