The 'Girl In The Picture' Was Forced To Work At This Strip Club Before Her Death
Netflix has dropped their newest true crime doc, Girl in the Picture. Strap in, because this one’s a doozy.
Basically, the documentary covers the crimes of Franklin Delano Floyd (a.k.a Clarence Hughes, a.k.a Warren Marshal), who is now on death row for murder and kidnapping. But he somehow got away with it for a while, partially because of the different names he went by (but more on that later).
After marrying a woman named Sandi Chipman in 1975, he kidnapped her four children, but released three of them.
He kept Suzanne Marie Sevakis, who he renamed Sharon Marshall and raised as his daughter. That was, until he forced her to marry him, changing her name again to Tonya Hughes—while he called himself Clarence Hughes.
At the age of 20, Suzanne (a.k.a. Sharon, a.k.a. Tonya) was found dead from what appeared to be a hit-and-run in Oklahoma City in 1990. But no one knows for sure what actually happened, which is what the film explores.
Along the way, Floyd forced Suzanne into some sickening activities—including working at a strip club in Tampa. In the doc, Suzanne's friend Heather Lane says Suzanne would solicit sex for money on the orders of her husband/father, per The Daily Beast.
Ahead, catch up on the deets surrounding Mons Venus, the club where Suzanne worked, who owns it, and whether it’s still around today.
What is Mons Venus?
Mons Venus is a strip club in Tampa, Florida established in 1981, running along Dale Mabry highway.
What does the club have to do with Tonya?
While Tonya dreamed of going to Georgia Tech (where she earned a full-ride scholarship) and becoming an aerospace engineer, she wasn’t able to reach her goal. After getting pregnant with her boyfriend, Clarence refused to let her go to college.
The two moved to Tampa, where Floyd forced her to work at Mons Venus, per Oxygen. She eventually found a friend in Cheryl Ann Commesso, another stripper.
Floyd later shot and killed Cheryl at his home at the Golden Lantern trailer park, where he lived with Tonya and her son, Michael. Cheryl’s remains were reportedly found scattered alongside Interstate 25 in Pinellas County in 1997, per the Tampa Bay Times.
Is Mons Venus still around?
Oh, yes. Mons Venus has been in business for more than 40 years old and is thriving.
Who owns Mons Venus?
Mons Venus is owned by 82-year-old Joe Redner, per the Tampa Bay Times, who has also dubbed him Tampa’s “Strip Club King.”
But that’s not all—he also ran as a Democrat in local and state elections over the years, in addition to running for Senate, District 18 as an independent back in 2016, per Florida Politics.
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