TACOMA, Wash. — Jeremy Martin was 27, looking to get out of his Texas hometown and find some direction in his life.

So he joined a traveling crew selling magazines. He believed the promise of money, fun and travel.

For three years, he slept on motel room floors after working 14 hours a day, six days a week.

Not only were the days long, but they also could turn mean.

To make sure he put subscription sales above all else, Martin said in a recent interview with The News Tribune, he was brainwashed, threatened and sometimes beaten.

But nothing was as bad as what happened to him earlier this month after he told his boss he was leaving the crew.

Police and prosecutors say six members of Martin’s crew broke into his room at a Lakewood motel Oct. 12 and beat Martin and his best friend with baseball bats, a golf club and brass knuckles. Six people were arrested in connection with the attack.

Martin and his friend — who The News Tribune is not naming because he could not be reached for this story — had put up with mistreatment for years because they had nowhere else to go.

They were stuck in an industry that experts say is unregulated and thrives on violence and coercion.

“There is no regulation of this industry at all,” said Earlene Williams, who runs Parent Watch, an organization created to keep tabs on the industry and help those who want to get out.

At any one time, more than 200 traveling magazine crews are working in the United States, Williams said. Because the crews are constantly traveling, no single entity can watch over what they do, she said.

Martin could have used the help.

“The only thing I wanted from this game was to get out if it,” he said.

WASHINGTON WAS THEIR GOAL

Earlier this year, in a Baltimore motel room, Martin and his friend decided it was time to end their “mag crew” life.

They had the perfect place to go.

“Washington was always it,” Martin said. “We said once we get to Washington, we’re through.”

The state was just what he expected. The rain was rough, but the people, the diversity, the girls — this was it. The Northwest was where Martin would finally begin his life.

This fall, he and his friend finally made it. Martin told his bosses he was out of the business once they were done with the area.

Two weeks later, on the night of Oct. 12, Martin was relaxing on the floor of his Best Night Inn motel room. His friend was in the bed, watching “Family Guy.”

A roommate came in to pack up some things, and asked to use the bathroom. As he opened the door to the bathroom, several crew members came into the room and started beating Martin and his friend, court documents state.

In the interview with The News Tribune Martin told what happened next:

He said he was on the floor when a crew member started hitting him with a bat. The others were screaming and kicking.

“I get met with a bat,” Martin recalled. “I was lying on the ground, getting hit, and I was able to hold on to the bat. He said, ’Let go of the bat!’ Someone in the back said, ’Hey, let me get some of Jeremy.”’

Martin was hit repeatedly with a golf club. He said the only thing that saved him was that the club broke when someone smashed his ankle with it.

He was able to see his friend, still on the bed. He looked unconscious and bloodied. The crew members kept beating him. He couldn’t move. He just kept taking the blows, Martin said.

“I remember thinking, ’Man, just leave him alone,”’ Martin said. “What else can you do? There was no justice in those swings.”

Earlier that week, Martin suspected he was in trouble and asked the motel to keep an eye on his room. Police were called quickly after the beating began.

The attackers had a lookout and immediately fled as officers arrived.

Police stopped the group’s white Ford Expedition in the parking lot. Six men were inside. One had brass knuckles and a loaded gun, police said.

Officers arrested the six men: Glenn A. Pinkney, 21; Vespucci D. Cole, 39; Richard H. Griffith, 36; Samuel Cole, 40; Joshua T. Neloms, 24; and Jonathon B. Massey, 21. All were charged with first-degree robbery and second-degree assault and have pleaded not guilty.

Pierce County deputy prosecutor Sunni Ko said the charges could change once she reviews medical records about the injuries Martin and his friend suffered. Martin hurt his back, leg and ankle, along with multiple cuts. His friend spent a week in the hospital with head injuries.

Calls to four of the men’s attorneys seeking comment were not returned. The other two declined to comment because they had just received the case and had not been able to visit with their clients.

PROMISES UNFULFILLED

Managers of the organizations whose crews roam the country selling magazine subscriptions advertise for workers in job publications, on Web sites and through signs placed across the country.

The ads promise money, a fun atmosphere and travel across the United States.

Martin saw such a sign when he was living in Texas, called the phone number and ended up joining the crew in Chicago.

“We come with the hope of actually being able to do something,” he said. “But it’s nothing but a lie.”

Martin said he was promised he’d be paid based on the number of subscriptions he sold. His pay varied each week — sometimes he calculated it should have been $1,000 — but he never got what he thought he’d earned, he said.

Plus, he had to pay for his food and rent. In the end, he was pretty much broke.

No one connected with the organization that ran the crew Martin worked in could be reached for this story.

The groups he was familiar with vary from a dozen people working in sales to up to 50. In many cases, they stay for a few months in one city, packed into motels.

Martin said he worked 12 to 14 hours a day, six days a week, with Sundays off except for the daily meeting.

Managers held meetings every day at 7 a.m. There, Martin said, he was “brainwashed” to consider only profit and production.

In the closed environment of motels and vans, salespeople cared only about their status and sales, thinking it would give them money and respect.

It became their only focus, and many forgot they were sleeping in motels, barely making any money at all.

“Once they get in, they’re hoping the status gives them freedom from abuse,” said Williams of Parent Watch.

The biggest threat, she said, is brutality.

“Something that is unique to this industry is the level of violence,” she said.

Salespeople are beaten for not making a quota in sales, Williams said. Some managers even drive sellers out in the middle of nowhere in a strange area and abandon them.

The Web site travelingsalescrews.info tracks violent incidents involving crews through news reports. It has counted more than 300 felony cases and 86 deaths involving magazine crews over the years.

Williams’ organization helps crew members seeking a way out. She said she gets multiple calls daily asking for help. This week, while she was speaking to someone trying to get out of a crew, a manager came in and beat him, she said.

READY FOR STABILITY

Martin said he was jealous of the homeowners he visited in neighborhoods where he touted magazines.

He wants a home, but since the attack, he’s without a stable place to live. He hopes to work both a day and a night job until he has a place to “lay my head without worrying about it getting kicked in,” he said.

“All I want to do is live a normal life,” Martin said. “I want a gym membership. I want to play basketball on Sundays. I want to go to church. I want neighbors.”

He said he plans to stay in the area, because Washington was always his goal. What happened at the motel wasn’t because of where he was working, he said, it was the people he was working with.

Martin does have advice for anyone in his position three years ago when he joined the “mag life.”

“There’s got to be something better,” he said. “This ain’t even a last resort. You’re going backwards.”