Vary messy business

"You know," she continues, "I have a very good name in this city. I'm not the type of person to leave bills unpaid. I just don't believe in that."

Cox says he isn't totally without sympathy for the financially strapped ex-publisher. At one point, he even offered to forgive $3,482 if Armstrong would pay the rest. "I was so sick of fighting her, I told her I'd come down on my hourly rate and I wouldn't fight her on some of the complaints she said she had about my work. But she did get the work out of us, and we expected to be paid."

Cox says he well knows the old adage: "There's no getting blood out of a turnip." He never expects to collect a dime of the judgment he has against the women.

"But you know what," he says, "I'm going to keep after [Armstrong] with my picket signs. And I'll get $40,000 worth of entertainment humiliating her every time she turns around.