Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Jailed ‘psychic’ isn’t reading minds, but writing book
At least one of the predictions made by notorious South Florida “psychic” Rose Marks has come true since she’s been in prison. She is now a jailhouse author. But her book is not the tell-all she had planned to write about her life and the victims of her $17.8 million fraud.
Instead, Marks — also known by her nickname, Pinkey — has written a dictionary that promises to help readers “learn how to speak Gypsy!”
Marks self-published Pinkey’s Dictionary under an agreement with Amazon.com.
Even in the unlikely event sales of the paperback take off, there will be no “ka-ching” moment in Marks’ future.
She owes $17.8 million in restitution to 24 victims of her family’s massive fortunetelling fraud conspiracy, and the U.S. govern-
ment is already authorized to seize any profits she makes.
The book, which sells for $20.99, contains more than 1,000 words translated from English to what Marks calls the Gypsy, or Romani, language. The book also includes chapters that explain Romani traditions and superstitions.
The Romani people, or Roma, are an ethnic group commonly referred to as Gypsies, though many consider that word a slur. More than 1 million Roma live in the U.S., with an estimated 2,500 to 3,000 living yearround in South Florida. The group traces its roots to ancient India, and many Roma still arrange their children’s marriages, pay dowries and home-school their children.
Marks, 65, is serving 10 years in federal prison. She has been locked up since September 2013 when a jury found her guilty of masterminding the fraud.
Retired Fort Lauderdale Detective Charlie Stack, who started investigating the Marks family in 2007 and persuaded many of the victims to testify in court, said the book is a positive development.
“The biggest thing is that she’s doing something constructive with her time in prison and if any money is made from this endeavor, it will help the victims,” Stack said. “That’s the whole point of going to prison: You do your time, you serve your punishment, you realize what you did wrong and you try to turn it into something positive in your life.”
The case made international headlines because of the wacky nature of the allegations and the victim who lost the most money was best-selling romance novelist Jude Deveraux.
Federal prosecutors said Marks and several members of her family recruited desperate clients from all over the world at storefront businesses in Fort Lauderdale’s tourist district and across the street from The Plaza Hotel in Manhattan.
Victims said she told them she could foresee the future, change the past and even control the Internal Revenue Service.
They said Marks and her family exploited them at vulnerable times in their lives and used their religious and spiritual beliefs to fleece them.
Deveraux, a client for 17 years, said she went to Marks looking for guidance on how to get out of an abusive marriage and became dependent on her during a series of crises including several miscarriages and the accidental death of Deveraux’s 8-year-old son, Sam.
Marks wrote her book while serving time in the minimum-security federal prison camp in Alderson, W.Va, whose past wellknown inmates include lifestyle guru Martha Stewart and singer Billie Holiday.
Family members say that during her time in prison, Marks has been assigned to cleaning and landscaping jobs and has been baptized as a born-again Christian. Marks, who said she was mostly illiterate and received limited schooling because of Roma traditions, also earned her GED in prison, records show.
She dedicated her book to her grandchildren and great grandchildren “so they never forget where they came from.” She also thanked fellow inmates Hanan Khoury and Denise Bonfilio, both convicted of fraud, for helping and encouraging her to write the book.
“To all those who want to learn, remember you are never too old or young. I know this because I recently received my GED at age 65, which is why I realized a dictionary is so important,” Marks wrote in the dedication.
One of Marks’ sons, Michael, who served probation for his role in the crime, told the Sun Sentinel that his mom knew her book probably wouldn’t make a lot of money and that she checked with prosecutors to make sure they wouldn’t get into trouble. Under the publishing contract with Amazon, the author pays nothing upfront but the publisher receives a percentage from sales, according to Marks and Amazon’s website.
“Whatever the book does make, she hopes it goes toward the money she owes, the restitution to victims,” Michael Marks said.
Though many Roma people don’t like to be called Gypsies because it’s an inaccurate term riddled with negative stereotypes, Michael Marks said his mother decided to use the “G-word” because more people recognize it than the terms Roma or Romani.
“I hope this will shed a different light on our culture because we do have a spiritual belief system and we’re not just a bunch of people running around stealing people’s wallets,” Michael Marks said.
He said he thinks the book is important because it will help to preserve the language and traditions of his people, who were also targets of genocide in the Holocaust. The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum estimates that as many as 220,000 Roma people were killed.
“The younger generation don’t speak the language or understand the traditions or superstitions. We hope this will be a good reference book for the younger generation,” Michael Marks said. Like him and many members of his family, he said many Roma have become born-again Christians.
With standard time off for good behavior, Marks is scheduled for release in June 2022.
Stack, the former detective, said he hopes Marks has seen the error of her ways: “Maybe we’ll see some more good from Rose.”