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He was arrested by police 11/21/02 for allegedly hiring a thug to intimidate Los Angeles Times journalist Anita Busch from writing on Pellicano's client Steven Seagal. (Read the FBI affidavit filed in support of the Pellicano criminal charge. Read more on Pellicano from Smoking Gun)

Pellicano hates his biggest competitor - Gavin de Becker, calling him a "f--king wimp." (Jeannette Walls, Dish, pg. 276)

Journalist Alex Constantine writes: "Pellicano has more mob connections than J. Edgar Hoover."

Born Anthony Joseph Pellican Jr, the grandson of Sicilian immigrants, in 1944 in a working class suburb of Chicago, Pellicano grew up on the streets. "I could have been a criminal just as easily." (Dish, pg. 276)

"Kicked out of high school because he was "too interested in being a tough guy," he acquired discipline and a diploma in the Army Signal Corps. In those days he was Tony Pellican -- his grandfather had dropped the O when the family left Sicily. By the time he finished his stint as an Army cryptographer, he had changed his surname back to Pellicano, in honor of his heritage, he said." ("Streetwise Gumshoe to the Stars," by Shawn Hubler and James Bates, Los Angeles Times, September 11, 1993)

Raised by his mother, Anthony dropped out of high school. He got a GED in the army signal corp before joining the Spiegel catalogue company "skip tracing" customers who didn't pay their bills.

In 1969, he set up his own business as a private detective. He found several publicized missing persons and became a celebrity in Chicago. He worked for the government. He loved publicity. He "drove a huge Lincoln Continental, hung Samurai swords in his office, and sealed his letters with monogrammed wax." (Dish, pg. 276)

In 1974, Pellicano declared bankruptcy. His filing revealed he'd borrowed $30,000 from Paul "The Waiter" de Lucia, the son of a reputed mobster. "Paul de Lucia is my daughter's godfather," Pellicano said. "He's just like any other guy in the neighborhood." (Dish)

Pellicano had to resign his position on the Illinois Law Enforcement Commission.

In 1977, Pellicano gained fame in what his detractors called dishonest. He purported to have found the body of Elizabeth Taylor's third husband, Mike Todd. It had been stolen from a Chicago cemetary.

Bringing along a camera crew from a local news station, Pellicano dramatically walked seventy-five yards south of the excavated grave, reached around under some leaves and branches, and by jove, he found a plastic bag of Todd's remains. Pellicano's rivals claimed he'd staged the entire episode for publicity. (Jeanette Walls, Dish, pg. 276-277)

Lt. Joseph Byrnes of the Forest Park, Illinois, police told journalist John Connolly: "Seven patrolmen and I, walking shoulder to shoulder, searched every inch of that small cemetery, and we found nothing. The very next day, Pellicano makes a big deal of finding the remains in a spot we had thoroughly checked." (Los Angeles magazine, 2/94)

Taylor introduced Pellicano to her Hollywood friends. Criminal attorney Howard Weitzman hired him. The two successfully defended John DeLorean from cocaine trafficking charges.

In 1983, Pellicano moved to Los Angeles, setting up an office on Sunset Blvd (now at 9200 Sunset Blvd according to his website www.pellicano.com). He was coached by Fred Otash, the private investigator for the notorious 1950s gossip rag Confidential. (Dish, pg. 277)

Pellicano became what he calls "the ultimate problem solver." (Dish, pg. 277)

Jeannette Walls writes in her 2000 book Dish: "Pellicano didn't tackle the problem, he went after the accuser. He has, foes say, boasted of his underworld contacts and threatened people with violence."

Pellicano boasted about his membership in MENSA, a group for people with high IQs.

Before the deaths of Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman, O.J. Simpson hired Pellicano to silence a secretary who accused the football star of abusive behavior. Pellicano dug up embarrassing info about the secretary. "Anthony is one of those people who is, shall we say, a lion at the gate," said Simpson after the case was dismissed. "He is not a man to be on the wrong side of." (Dish, pg. 277-78)

Pellicano is believed to be the one who dug up information about Patricia Bowman, the woman who accused William Kennedy Smith of raping her. (Dish, pg. 278)

When a former receptionist sued Don Simpson for $5 million, Pellicano dug up embarrassing information about her, ruining her life and her case.

"So when a doctor named Stephen Ammerman, who was said to be treating Don Simpson for drug addiction, died of a drug overdose at Simpson's Bel Aire estate, the producer immediately called Pellicano. Later, Ammerman's family filed a wrongful death suit, alleging the doctor hadn't willingly taken the drugs that killed him and that Pellicano and others destroyed evidence before police arrived on the scene. The charges against Pellicano were dismissed after Simpson himself died the following year of a drug overdose." (Dish, pg. 278)

Pellicano tried to track down Spy magazine's anonymous Hollywood columnist Celia Brady.

"When Los Angeles magazine was preparing an expose of the tabloid [National Enquirer], reporter Rod Lurie said the detective threatened him and tried to get the piece killed. "There was consistent cultlike phone intimidation from Pellicano," said Lurie. "He would call my friends and family and editors I worked for at other magazines, saying I was through in this town." According to Lurie, Pellicano paid the reporter's research assistant to steal his notes." (Dish, pg. 279)

In 1989, Lurie got a hold of a list of the Enquirer's paid tipsters. Soon after, Anthony Pellicano called Lurie, and according to Rod, became "very threatening [and] told me in no uncertain terms that he was working for the Enquirer and he was being paid a lot of money to get this file back."

Pellicano called Lurie's editor Nancy Griffin and warned, "Bad things can happen to nice lady editors."

Kim Masters writes in the March 2003 issue of Esquire: "In March 1990, Lurie was knocked from his bike by a hit-and-run driver, breaking some bones. He doesn't claim that Pellicano was somehow involved in the accident, but Lurie says Pellicano may have wanted him to think so when Pellicano called him shortly afterward. "Pellicano knew about it awfully fast," he says. "But that could be drama-queen stuff - on his part or mine."

On March 11, 1990, Lurie was riding on a motorcyle near his home in Pasadena. A car drove up behind him and hit him. Lurie wound up in the hospital with two broken ribs and a busted back. "It was no accident," he Lurie. "That car hit me on purpose. There's absolutely no doubt about it ... I saw the the guy veer over and go right for me. The tabloids warned me if I didn't back off I'd be sorry. I think they just made good on their threat." (tabloidbaby.com)

"I can't do everything by the book," says Pellicano. "I bend the law to death in gaining information." Pellicano tells people he carries an aluminum baseball bat in the trunk of his black Nexus. "Guys who fuck with me get to meet my buddy over there," he told a reporter, pointing towards the bat.

Pellicano tells people that he is an expert with a knife. "I can shred your face." He has a blackbelt in karate. "If I use martial arts, I might really maim somebody. I have, and I don't want to. I only use intimidation and fear when I absolutely have to." (Dish, pg. 278)

"Reporter John Connolly also experienced Pellicano's hardball P.R. when he wrote an article on [Steven] Seagal. Connolly claimed that he had evidence that Seagal was linked to the mob, had lied about his CIA experience, and had paid to have someone killed. Seagal turned Pellicano loose on Connolly. The reporter, a former cop, didn't back down, but the experience was harrowing. "Most journalism schools don't teach reporters how to respond to a Lousville Slugger," said Connolly. His tactics have a real chilling effect." (Dish, pg. 290)

9/8/94: LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A private eye with a celebrity clientele denied he was shadowing O.J. Simpson's ex-wife when she was slashed to death.

``I only wish that this were true,'' Anthony Pellicano told The Associated Press on Thursday. ``Imagine, I watch O.J. do it or someone else do it. Think of the money I could make. I would be a hero to O.J. or a hero to the public. I'm saying, why can't this be true?''

Pellicano, who has worked for Michael Jackson and Roseanne, said he has been subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury because he was wrongly fingered as a potential witness by John Dunton.

Dunton, a convicted forger, was jailed for contempt on Wednesday for refusing to appear before the grand jury investigating Simpson's friend, Al ``A.C.'' Cowlings. According to Pellicano, Dunton told police he saw the sleuth in a car outside Ms. Simpson's Brentwood home on June 12, the night she and Ronald Goldman were killed.

``I don't think police believe him,'' Pellicano said. ``I think he made the whole thing up to police and when he was called before a grand jury and was put under oath his attorney told him to shut up.''

According to the David Van Biema article in Time magazine 9/19/94, a man named John Dunton (described in an article in "Jet" as an ex-convict with a record for forgery) was jailed for refusing to testify in the [Al] Cowlings investigation after claiming on TV that two men killed Nicole and Ron, and that a private eye hired to follow Nicole witnessed the murders. Pellicano then denied that he was the private eye referred to, although Dunton hadn't named him. (At this point Pellicano had been hired by Fuhrman to defend him against claims of planting evidence.)

Graham Brink writes for the St. Petersburg Times 12/7/00 about Anthony Pellicano:

He says he grew up around Chicago, running with a rough crowd and had trouble in school. He never went to college. In the 1960s he encoded and decoded secret messages as an Army cryptographer. Upon his discharge, he went to work as a bill collector for Spiegel, the mail-order house.

Pellicano parlayed his talent for finding people into a job as an investigator at several Chicago detective agencies. Eventually, he put out his own shingle, specializing in collections and missing persons. He went by the name Tony Fortune.

The local papers followed his successes, showcasing his role in reuniting runaway kids and kidnap victims with their families. After he went bankrupt in the mid 1970s, one of his creditors was the son of a well-known organized crime boss. Pellicano has denied active ties to the mob but admits knowing his share of gangsters.

He moved to Los Angeles in 1983 and made an almost immediate splash. A year earlier, sports car manufacturer John DeLorean had been busted on federal drug charges. Agents had DeLorean on video closing a drug deal. DeLorean was acquitted after Pellicano's analysis of phone lists and audiotapes helped discredit a star government witness.

The case opened a lot of Hollywood doors for Pellicano. It also helped solidify him in the relatively unmined audio analysis business.

Much of what Pellicano calls "help" can safely be described as ethically questionable.

A secretary sues a movie producer [Don Simpson] for $5-million for subjecting her to cocaine and porn movies. Pellicano steps in, and the case goes away. Sometimes he bypasses the source and hits the messenger. Several entertainment reporters have accused him of trying to intimidate them into killing stories about his clients.

A typical case, as Pellicano told GQ: Drug dealers are preying on a rich kid's addiction. The father hires Pellicano, who talks to the drug dealers . . . with a baseball bat. The dealers don't come around anymore.

........

Jane Galbraith writes about Pellicano in the 9/1/93 issue of Newsday:

In recent weeks, Pellicano also was hired by a Columbia Pictures executive to find out who'd been spreading rumors linking the executive to Heidi Fleiss...

In the not-so-distant past, Pellicano's name could be found in newspaper stories about how Roseanne Arnold found the daughter she gave up for adoption - she became enraged with him later, believing he sold the story to the National Enquirer - and again in stories disputing the legitimacy of taped conversations between Gennifer Flowers and then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton.

Who is this guy? His business cards say that he does either "private investigation," "electronic surveillance" and / or "negotiations" - he's had three versions printed. His purported expertise in any combination of the above has brought him clients ranging from Kevin Costner to the National Enquirer - and a high-profile status achieved by no other private "dick" working the Tinseltown beat. He's also been dubbed "The Big Sleazy" by GQ magazine - a moniker some say couldn't be more accurate.

"He turns up really spectacular kinds of evidence," said one avowed fan, entertainment lawyer Bertram Fields, who represents not only pop star Jackson but other big names as well. Fields, who hired Pellicano in the Jackson case, credited him with getting the emotional distress suit dismissed against "Beverly Hills Cop" and "Top Gun" producer Don Simpson, whose secretary had claimed he made her schedule appointments with prostitutes and other alleged transgressions.

On the foe side is Jeffrey Wells, a freelance writer covering Hollywood who believes Pellicano tapped his phones when he was doing some investigative reporting on Columbia Pictures executive Michael Nathanson earlier this year.

The Chicago native first made a name for himself in Los Angeles by casting doubt on government tapes as an expert witness for John DeLorean in the former auto maker's 1983 cocaine trial. DeLorean was acquitted - and later claimed Pellicano intimidated government witnesses.

Pellicano, who did not respond to a reporter's requests for an interview, has admitted to resorting to strong-arm tactics. He's bragged about beating somebody with a baseball bat on behalf of a client.

11/14/02

From Reuters, 10/27/02: ....[A] federal magistrate in Los Angeles denied bail for Alexander Proctor because of his prior drug and burglary convictions and prosecutors' claim that he is a flight risk, Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Saunders said.

Proctor, 58, was arrested outside his West Los Angeles home earlier that day by a team of Los Angeles police and FBI organized crime agents. He was charged with a single charge of interfering with commerce by threats of violence, for allegedly trying to stop the Times and Busch from printing the stories.

If convicted he could receive up to 20 years in jail.

...........

Ned Zeman, a Vanity Fair contributing editor who wrote a feature about the plot, reported being threatened at gunpoint by two men as he drove to his home in Los Angeles. Zeman said that two men in a dark-colored car pulled alongside his car, pointed a gun at him and said, "Stop it" and, "Bang," according to a Vanity Fair spokeswoman. Police so far have not linked the cases. Saunders said he expected more developments in the next few days.

Luke says: I've learned that Proctor is an electronics expert. "Unlicensed private investigator." Proctor's a maven at eavesdropping. PHe works for people like private investigator Anthony Pellicano, who journalist Jeffrey Wells says in 1993 used an electronics device to listen in to his cell phone calls while Wells was investigating the Michael Nathanson - Heidi Fleiss scandal at Columbia Pictures.

Proctor bugged a Jewelry store in Ventura County and figured out when the owner was going to show up with diamonds. Proctor used a bug to rob the guy in a non-violent way. Proctor knew from bugging the owner's phone that he was going to show up at a certain time with diamonds. Proctor then snatched the guy's diamonds.

Two sources have told me that Proctor has ties to tough guy and infamous private eye to the stars Anthony Pellicano. Did Pellicano order Proctor to bust Busch's windshield?

Proctor ain't communicating much with his public defender. He banks that richer and more powerful people will come to his aid.

It looks like there were different people, not Proctor, and not Pellicano, who threatened Vanity Fair reporter Ned Zeman.

I think the people who aimed a gun at Zeman and pulled the trigger (no bullets were fired) were trying to intimidate investigative journalist John Connolly who's published two devastating articles about Steven Seagal in Spy magazine (August 1993) and Penthouse (1998).

According to Barry Levin, defense attorney for producer Julius Nasso, the feds are investigating Steven Seagal for these threats to reporters.

From forensicaudio.com: "Anthony Pellicano is none other than the nation's foremost forensic expert on tape recordings. His expertise proved crucial in sparing automaker John Z. De Lorean from a new career manufacturing license plates. Pellicano also helped expose the infamous eighteen-minute gap on the Nixon Watergate tapes and the extra gunshots during the assassination of President Kennedy in Dallas. His expertise is all but irrefutable in a court of law.

"[T]he term forensic audio was coined by Pellicano, who pioneered work in this revolutionary field more than twenty years ago. Pellicano's laboratory in Los Angeles a dazzling array of computers, spectrum analyzers and other electronic gadgets is generally regarded as the finest in the country, rivaling those of top law enforcement and intelligence agencies."

Journalist Stuart Goldman writes on tabloidbaby.com about a 1990 incident:

The Enquirer's chief goon, Anthony Pellicano, ("The Nation's Most Publicized Private Investigator") began a nonstop campaign to hound [Rod] Lurie, [Gavin] de Becker and myself. Pellicano was right out of a bad Fifties B-movie. He loved to do the good cop/bad cop bit. He threatened, he bullied, he wheedled, he cajoled. (At one point, Pellicano sent me a personal check as "hush" money to keep me from incriminating the Enquirer.) When I changed my private telephone number -- which I did frequently -- he'd call just to let me know he'd made the new number (Pellicano enjoyed a rep and expert bug/wire man).

On March 11 [1990?], Rod Lurie was riding his bicycle near his home in Pasadena. An unmarked car (no plates) drove up behind him, suddenly sped up, and whacked Lurie fifty feet into space. The bicycle was instant scrap, and Lurie wound up in the hospital with two broken ribs and a busted back. When I called him after the accident, Lurie was resolute: "It was no accident," he said hoarsely. "That car hit me on purpose. There's absolutely no doubt about it ... I saw the the guy veer over and go right for me." I asked him if he had any idea who was behind it."Lemme put it like this," Lurie said. "The tabloids warned me if I didn't back off I'd be sorry. I think they just made good on their threat."

.........

According to ispn.org: "Jerry Scalise...[member] of the Joe Ferriola street crew headquartered in Cicero and the adjoining Western Suburbs [in Chicago]... This renewed interest in Jerry Scalise augers well for the clever little thief, at least from the public relations side of things. Reportedly Scalise is preparing to write his memoirs with Los Angeles attorney Anthony Pellicano, himself a Cook County native. Scalise and Rachel undoubtedly hope to cash in with a lucrative movie offer from a Hollywood studio. The 1990 motion picture Good Fellas brought instant fame and recognition to one Henry Hill..."

2/2/98

Washington Weekly: "The Clinton White House has its agents scouring the country digging up dirt on the 24-year-old girl who made claims of a sexual involvement with Bill Clinton. The old Bimbo Eruption Swat Team has gone into overdrive, recruiting private investigator Anthony Pellicano, whose last claim to Clinton damage control fame was his "scientific determination" that the Gennifer Flowers tapes had been edited. (An independent laboratory analysis later confirmed their unedited authenticity) Now Pellicano has resurrected Monica Lewinsky's old drama coach, who did his own Gennifer Flowers number on her just minutes before Clinton's State of the Union Address."

...........

Robert Miller writes 3/10/98 on alt.fan.oj-simpson:

Anthony Pellicano was the private investigator who worked for Mark Fuhrman during the criminal trial. He was sicced on those who would besmirch Mark's otherwise pristine reputation. It was Pellicano who called the woman whose roommate had dated a friend of Fuhrman's and who said that he was a rude racist guy. When she was asked if she'd talked with anyone in the government, she said that Pellicano identified himself as from the government, as I recall. I believe it was Cochran who was questioning her, and both he and Ito agreed, "Let's not go there" regarding Pellicano.

Pellicano worked with Cochran and Weitzman, two of Simpson's attorneys during this ordeal, when they represented Michael Jackson in the child molestation lawsuit. As we all know, that was settled but Jackson's reputation was besmirched. Nice job, guys. Well, Pellicano turned up in front of the House Select Committee on Assassinations, the same august body that Drs. Michael Baden and Werner Spitz worked on. All three worked to disprove that a conspiracy was involved in the murder of JFK. During the discussion about the acoustical testimony surrounding the DPD tape made the day that Kennedy was shot in Dealey Plaza, Pellicano presented one of several critiques disputing the evidence of more than three shots.

In the book CONTRACT ON AMERICA by David E. Scheim, the following: "The first [critique] was presented unsolicited by Anthony Pellicano, a private investigator from Chicago who subsequently handled a controversial tape for the defense of auto maker John DeLorean that was leaked to the press by Hustler Magazine publisher Larry Flynt. Pellicano's criticisms were disposed of by Dr. Barger in subsequent testimony before the House Committee."

In Livingstone and Groden's HIGH TREASON, the authors state that before his appearance in front of the HSCA, he had testified that the 18 and 1/2 minute gap in one of the Watergate tapes was accidental. Also, you guys may remember that it was Judge Ito who sat on the bench during the DeLorean trial. Does anyone out there know why Anthony Pellicano's unsolicited testimony was taken by the HSCA? Or what position he held to be able to give his two bits about the 18 and 1/2 minute gap?

The Pellicano Brief

Rod Lurie writes in the February 1992 issue of Los Angeles Magazine:

My wife's private line rang. A minute later she returned, slightly ashen, and said an "old friend" was calling.

When I took the phone, he didn't introduce himself. He didn't have to - I recognized his voice immediately.

"I thought I'd never have to call you again," Anthony Pellicano said.

The last time I heard from Pellicano was a year and a half ago, while I was working on a story for this magazine called "I was on the Enquirer's Hit List." Pellicano, a notorious private detective, had been hired by the National Enquirer to "discourage" my story. He was the man who Assistant U.S. Attorney James Walsh claimed had intimidated government witnesses in the John DeLorean case and who, in a recent issue of GQ, bragged he'd beaten somebody with a baseball bat on behalf of a client. Pellicano had said he'd killed "hundreds" of stories and strongly suggested I drop mine.

"What do you want?" I asked him.

"What do I want?" he said, as if the answer were ludicrously obvious. There was a small pause. "'Don R... [Pellicano's attorney Don Re?] whore...Don...Pellicano wants his job...call Patrick about Norm and relationship to Pellicano....'"

I was stunned. Pellicano was reading from the notes I had compiled during my current investigation into the Enquirer. "This is libelous," he said with a drawl. "I spoke to Don. R. He's one of my best friends. He says he never spoke to you... I'm going to subpoena all your notes... You've brought yourself a lawsuit, pal."

"Where did you get my notes?"

"Would you tell me your sources? So why would I tell you mine?"

As I was soon to find out, Pellicano had paid my research assistant $3000 for the notes. Not only that, the Star, which the Enquirer had purchased in 1990, had given my assistant a check for $500 to monitor the progress of my article.

John Connolly writes in the February 1994 issue of Los Angeles Magazine:

Early last summer, I received a telephone call from Anthony Pellicano, who informed me that he was working for Steven Seagal, about whom I had just written an unflattering article for Spy magazine. Pellicano said he was "going to get" me and then began tirade, calling me every name in the book and linking some curse words in couplets I had never heard before. I interrupted him long enough to ask if he always spoke to people he had never met in such an obnoxious manner. He responded by screaming that I was a "cockroach" and went on to say I should be glad I was in New York and not on his turf in L.A. I asked Pellicano if he was always a tough guy. "I'm not only a tough guy," he said, "I'm connected to the right people, you asshole."

I concluded the conversation by telling Pellicano the date of my arrival and the hotel I would be staying at during my next trip to L.A. and suggested he bring his famed Lousville Slugger. He never showed.

On September 14, 1989, a 31-year old African-American clerk named Deryl Brown was summoned to the personnel office at Paramount, where he'd worked for seven years. The director escorted Brown into a private room and introduced him to another man, whom he said was an attorney. According to a later complaint Brown filed in superior court against Paramount and Pellicano [which was later settled quickly by Paramount], the director then left the room.

The complaint said the "attorney" then accused Brown of conspiring with a female coworker to sell drugs and steal valuable company memorabilia. When Brown protested, he was told that unless he admitted his guilt, he would be both fired and prosecuted. "You're in deep shit, asshole!" Brown says the man screamed at him. "You don't want to make an enemy of me." When he tried to leave, the lawyer blocked the doorway and, said Brown's attorney, Helena Wise, "made racial slurs," saying Brown couldn't afford to live in the neighborhood he did unless he was dealing drugs. After a half hour, he was allowed to leave.

Brown later identified the attorney as Pellicano...hired by one of Paramount's biggest producers, Don Simpson, to help out in a suit filed against him by a Paramount secretary, Monica Harmon. ...Pellicano had leaned on [Brown] to testify against Harmon's character. Pellicano also tracked down a former Paramount page, Patrick Winberg, who had moved back to his hometown in Minnnesota. Pellicano "talked" the page into returning to California and testifying in depositions that he had given cocaine to Harmon. Pellicano paid for Winberg's airfare and stay at th Westwood Marquis. Winberg told me, however, that Pellicano had paid him $11,000 and promised to double that amount but never made the second payment.

...[I] 1990 when Rod Lurie was researching his Los Angeles magazine piece on how the National Enquirer gets its information. Lurie got a call from Pellicano, who identified himself as a private investigator working for th Enquirer. Indeed, as Lurie recalls, Pellicano said, "I am the Enquirer." He demanded to know the identity of Lurie's source at the tabloid. When Lurie wouldn't cooperate, Pellicano said he would find out, adding, in what Lurie termed in the article a threatening manner, "I am relentless." In the ensuing months, Pellicano lived up to that image. He called Lurie on his unlisted phone number, bad-mouthed him to his sources, accused him of extortion and threatened him with a "nuisance suit" to block the article's publication. The piece was published without further incident, but the following year, when Lurie was working on another Los Angeles story about tabloid dirty tricks, he again crossed paths with Pellicano. Lurie was told by his assistant that Pellicano had approached him and asked him to spy on Lurie. Although the assistnat said he turned Pellicano down, Lurie remained suspicious.

The next day, he fabricated some notes about the Enquirer and asked the assistant to type them into the computer. Two days later, he got a call from Pellicano, who smugly read to him the very notes he had written. Late last summer, I tracked down the assistant, who admitted in a taped interview that Pellicano had paid him $3,000 for the notes. But Pellicano wanted to be sure he was getting his money's worth. To guarantee the assistant wouldn't try to pass off counterfeit information, Pellicano threatened him. According to the assistant, Pellicano said, "I make a living knowing if somebody's bullshitting me! I can look up a bull's asshole and give you the price of butter." Then, pointing to a blue aluminum baseball bat in the corner of his office, Pellicano told the assistant, "Guys who fuck with me get to meet my buddy over there in the corner."

11/22/02

Matt Lait and Scott Glover write in the 11/22/02 LA Times:

A man charged with threatening a Los Angeles Times reporter who was researching the relationship between Steven Seagal and an alleged Mafia associate told an informant for the FBI that Seagal was behind the threat, according to court documents.

Alexander Proctor, a 59-year-old ex-convict charged with threatening reporter Anita Busch, allegedly told the informant during secretly recorded conversations that he had been hired to carry out the threat by Anthony Pellicano, known as the private detective to the stars. [I reported most of this 11/13. I know the name of the informant, a man with ties to the Russian mob.]

According to the FBI, Proctor told the informant that Seagal had hired Pellicano to threaten the reporter. "He wanted to make it look like the Italians were putting the hit on her so it wouldn't reflect on Seagal," Proctor told the informant, according to a search warrant affidavit filed by an FBI agent assigned to the case.

On Thursday, more than a dozen FBI agents searched Pellicano's West Hollywood office. An FBI spokesman, Matt McLaughlin, said Pellicano had been arrested in connection with what appeared to be explosive materials discovered in his office during the search. He is expected to appear before a federal magistrate today, McLaughlin said. [I named Pellicano a suspect 11/13 and wrote that he had close ties to Proctor.]

One federal law enforcement source close to the case said that "at this time, other than Proctor's uncorroborated statements, there is no independent evidence that Seagal was involved in the threat made to the reporter." The source added that investigators were still assessing Proctor's credibility and possible motives.

An attorney for Seagal said his client had no involvement in the June 20 threat against the reporter, who woke up that morning and found a dead fish, a rose and a note attached to her car windshield, which had been punctured. The note was a one-word message: "Stop."

Before he was handcuffed, Pellicano declined to comment. As a celebrity sleuth with a star-studded clientele, he has cultivated a tough-guy image: He hands out paperweights to reporters saying, "Sometimes ... you just have to play hardball."

Proctor, who was being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles without bail, has pleaded not guilty in the case. His attorney, Victor Cannon, could not be reached for comment.

According to court documents, Proctor told the informant that he owed Pellicano $14,000 and agreed to intimidate Busch for $10,000. But after the job was done, Proctor said, "they" were so pleased with his work that Pellicano agreed to wipe out his remaining debt.

Proctor allegedly told the informant that he was supposed to "blow up" Busch's car as a warning so she would stop reporting on the story about Seagal. But he said it would have been too difficult to set her car ablaze, because she lived near an apartment complex. He said Busch also had a neighbor who stayed up late at night, and he was apparently afraid he would be seen.

In the end, Proctor allegedly told the informant that he bought the fish and rose and placed them on Busch's car, putting a bullet hole in the windshield and taping the cardboard sign to it.

After Busch's car was vandalized, she told authorities she thought the incident was related to her investigative work on an article about Seagal and his former producing partner, Julius Nasso, who had a bitter business fallout with the film star.

According to federal authorities, Nasso is an associate of the Gambino crime family. He was indicted earlier this year, along with other reputed mob figures, in connection with a plot to extort money from Seagal. He has pleaded not guilty.

Seagal is scheduled to testify next year as a prosecution witness at the trials of several alleged mobsters and Nasso in Brooklyn. Last month, Nasso's attorney alleged in a court document that Seagal might have been involved in the threat against Busch, and that could reflect on the actor's credibility as a witness.

Proctor's taped statements to the informant are detailed in a 21-page application for a search warrant [to search Proctor's residence].

According to the FBI, the agency's informant was facing criminal charges of his own, including mail fraud, at the time he agreed to cooperate with the investigation of Proctor.

The day after Busch's car was vandalized, the informant called the reporter, saying he knew who was responsible. He said Proctor at that time told him he had vandalized the car and was working for guys "back East" who were ruthless and wanted Busch to back off her story.

The informant then agreed to wear a concealed recording device while trying to coax out more details about the plot from Proctor.

During a July 3 meeting with the informant, Proctor reportedly said he had actually carried out the threats against Busch on behalf of Seagal, not ruthless men from back East.

According to the court documents, Proctor talked to Pellicano on several occasions. There is no indication in the documents that he ever met with Seagal.

According to prosecutors, Proctor is an ex-convict with burglary and narcotics-related convictions. He is charged with interfering with commerce by threats of violence. If convicted, he faces a maximum of 20 years in prison.

11/23/02

Hillary's Private Eye Arrested in Reporter Intimidation Case

I found this on a Rush Limbaugh newsgroup:

A California private detective who worked to discredit Clinton Sexgate accusers Monica Lewinsky and Gennifer Flowers has been arrested in connection with attempts to intimidate a reporter for the Los Angeles Times after the FBI caught him with an arsenal of explosives.

Anthony J. Pellicano was arrested Thursday after a search of his office by a dozen FBI agents turned up an "array of explosives," reported New York's Daily News on Saturday.

In February, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton was alleged to have hired Pellicano in 1992 in an attempt to discredit Gennifer Flowers' claims of a twelve year affair with Mr. Clinton.

The episode bears an eerie resemblance to the account of Clinton sex-accuser Sally Perdue, who told the London Telegraph in 1994 that after she was threatened with physical violence, her car windshield was broken and spent shotgun shell was left on the seat. Perdue abruptly relocated to China a few months after talking to the Telegraph, shortly after Paula Jones sued Mr. Clinton for sexual harassment.

Though Pellicano's name never surfaced in connection with Perdue's allegations, he reportedly played a key role in attempts to discredit both Monica Lewinsky and Gennifer Flowers.

Four days after the Lewinsky story broke in Jan. 1998, ex-Lewinsky boyfriend Andy Bleiler came forward with the claim that she had stalked him. The Washington state school teacher also contended that Lewinsky wanted to become a White House intern so she could perform oral sex on then-President Clinton. "I'm going to Washington to get my presidential knee pads," Bleiler's lawyer, Terry Giles, quoted Lewinsky as saying.

"Anthony Pellicano, the L.A.-based private investigator and O.J. defense team veteran [was] responsible for digging up Andy Bleiler," the New York Post's Andrea Peyser reported days later.

Sexgate provocatuer Lucianne Goldberg told Peyser that Pellicano's services were bought and paid for by the Clinton White House. When Peyser confronted the Los Angeles private detective with Goldberg's claim, he didn't deny it. "You're a smart girl. No comment," Pellicano told the Post reporter.

Digging up Bleiler's "presidential kneepads" story wasn't the first time Pellicano had gone to bat for the Clintons. According to Ron Kessler's 1995 best-seller, "Inside the White House," Clinton's first presidential campaign relied on Pellicano's expertise in the field of audio analysis to discredit Gennifer Flowers' smoking gun tapes. "The Clinton camp made much of the fact that Anthony J. Pellicano, an expert on audio recording analysis, had told the press that a twelve-minute portion of the tape of conversations between Flowers and Clinton had been 'selectively edited' at two points," Kessler reported.

To counter Pellicano's claims, Flowers submitted her recordings to Truth Verification Labs, which found them to be 100 percent authentic. In 1999 Flowers filed a defamation suit against Clinton campaign officials James Carville and George Stephanopoulos - along with then-first lady Hillary Clinton - based on their attempts to use Pellicano's analysis to discredit her.

During a February court appearance, the head of Flowers' legal team, Judicial Watch Chairman Larry Klayman, told the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, "Anthony Pellicano was a private investigator hired by Mrs. Clinton herself. And he's the one who did the analysis of the tapes."

Of the more than two dozen media reports on Pellicano's Thursday arrest so far, none have mentioned his ties to the Clinton attack machine.

11/28/02

(Reuters) A celebrity private detective... was released from a federal jail on bail on Wednesday in an unrelated illegal weapons possession case.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Fernando Olguin rejected prosecutors' argument that Anthony Pellicano, 58, represented a public threat because he had two live grenades and enough plastic explosives to blow up an airliner in a safe in his office, and ordered Pellicano released on $400,000 bond.

Pellicano has been jailed without bail since his arrest on Nov. 22. On Wednesday, a rumpled Pellicano walked jauntily into U.S. District Court in Los Angeles in jail-issue blue pants and a green top with his hands chained to his waist.

A number of the city's most prominent lawyers who have used Pellicano's sleuthing services wrote letters to the court to plead for his release for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Dan Saunders asked the judge to lock up Pellicano without bail based on the gravity of the weapons possession charge and Proctor's allegations.

"What was he doing with those bombs?" Saunders said. "We believe his possession of those weapons of death and mass destruction meets the showing of dangerousness."

Pellicano's attorney, Donald Re, argued that his client, who had no criminal record and a long relationship with local law enforcement as an expert in analyzing tape recordings, should be released on bail.

"His background with law enforcement is enough to demonstrate that he is trustworthy," Re told the judge. "And the outpouring of letters after his arrest from the best legal talent in town."

The judge ordered Pellicano to hand over his passport and restricted his travel to Los Angeles and Orange Counties. He set a Dec. 17 preliminary hearing.

12/25/02

More People Going Down In Steven Seagal - Anthony Pellicano Investigation

I hear that Steven Seagal had calls placed to the brother of John Gotti, Peter Gotti, to help him with his former producing partner Julius Nasso.

More of Pellicano's guys are going to get arrested. Pellicano is friendly with various people suspected of belonging to the Mafia like Ronald "Ronnie" Lorenzo, who owns a pizza place in Brentwood and the restaurant Splash in Malibu. Ronnie, who's spent ten years in prison, is suspected to be the main Los Angeles player in the Bonnano family. Ronnie is best friends with actor James Caan and actor Frank Sivero. Sivero is a real hood. He used to collect money for Joe Isgro.

There are videotapes of Sivero with Ronnie Lorenzo and porn star Tabitha Stevens.

James Caan offered his home as collateral toward the $2-million bail for Lorenzo and appeared as a character witness for his dear friend.

From nlpc.org: In 1993, reputed mobster Ronnie Lorenzo was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison in Los Angeles for drug trafficking. A federal jury convicted Lorenzo of conspiracy and distribution of cocaine in two 1990 deals with FBI informant Robert Franchi. Lorenzo reportedly trusted Franchi due to their mutual friends in Raymond L.S. Patriarca’s organized-crime family in New England. Authorities believe Lorenzo is a member of the Bonnano crime family. See: Paul Lieberman, “Inside Hollywood Mike’s Crew,” L.A. Times Apr. 14, 1996. According to DOJ’s draft RICO complaint against LIUNA, “The Bonnano family...is headquartered in New York City and operates in various other locations in the United States. The Bonnano family is [a] New York City LCN family...” [Robert D.] Luskin represented Lorenzo on an appeal that Lorenzo lost on Oct. 8, 1998.

From Konformist.com: During the trial of [Joey] Ippolito and [Ronald] Lorenzo (the two were tried together), the Los Angeles Times had reporters covering the entire thing, and yet, strangely, the news reports only mentioned Lorenzo by name. In a Spy magazine article titled "Cafe Nostra", by John Connolly (who had the best early investigative coverage of Danny Casolaro's death and what is now known as The Octopus), Ippolito was mentioned by name. The story, about the strong connections between the Mafia and major players in Hollywood, was listed as "Part I in a series of articles." The issue, from March 1994, was the last issue before the sudden unexpected shut-down of Spy, which happened almost immediately after the publication of the issue. The official reason was money, but there was no warning signs of financial problems, and the magazine was as popular as ever. Spy returned a few months later under new ownership, a pathetic shell of what it once was, providing glib satire without bite. The other parts of the series of articles by Connolly were, unsurprisingly, absent from the new Spy.

3/03 GQ by John Brodie

"I think I am going to jail," [Anthony Pellicano] said when we spoke in December. "I think I'm going to jail for a long time. If the prosecutor were of the mind to treat this in a fair manner, this would be a misdemeanor possession and I would be allowed to retain my license and continue my business." Then he added somewhat ominously, "But there's somebody in the background that's pushing this felony conviction, and I don't know why."

Documents generated by L.A.-based FBI agents portray Pellicano as an operative of Seagal's who was hung out to dry. New York-based law enforcement sources and Seagal's own attorney spin a different tale: They claim members of the Gambino crime family orchestrated the fish-and-rose tableau to destroy the action hero's credibility before he could testify against them in an upcoming federal racketeering trial. ...The greater mystery is why the government has not arrested anyone for setting in motion the attack on Anita Busch. [LF: Because the government doesn't want to reveal Busch's ties to government intelligence agents?]

James P. Walsh, the United States attorney who prosecuted the case, notes that when Pellicano (in his role [on the John Delorean 1984 case] as the defense team's tape expert) examined the videotapes at the FBI's lab in Washington, a confrontation just happened to break out between Pellicano and an agent in the room. "In the course of that, Mr. Pellicano damaged in a small way one of the tapes. In other words, there was a small puncture that was put into one of the original tapes," said Walsh, noting that the tape was almost rendered unusable.

Nevertheless, on the night of August 26, Vanity Fair writer Ned Zeman had eaten at Il Sole, an Italian place on the Sunset Strip, and was driving his Saab 9-3 home up Laurel Canyon when a flashing light appeared in his rearview mirror. He pulled over. Zeman had recently finished an article about the rancorous professional divorce between Steven Seagal and Julius Nasso...

None of this crossed Zeman's mind as a dark Mercedes-Benz with tinted windows pulled up alongside him. The journalist reached under his seat, where he normally kept his wallet. As he lifted his head back above the dashboard, the passenger-side window of the Mercedes rolled down, and Zeman was confronted by a man pointing a semiautomatic pistol at his head. "Stop," came a voice from inside the car.

Zeman ducked, thinking he had a road-rage idiot on his hands. He heard the assailant pull the trigger, but there was no bullet in the chamber, and the gun just clicked. A voice from within the Mercedes said "Bam!" or "Bang!" and then the car sped off.

The whole incident lasted five seconds.

As Zeman waited for the police to arrive, he thought about a G.I. Joe doll he had found in his front yard a few days earlier. The doll was missing a head.

Steven Seagal's longtime lawyer Martin Singer says Seagal has nothing to do with Pellicano...

Anthony says he hates Seagal. "First of all, Steven Seagal is an enemy of mine and has been for seven years. I can't stand the piece of shit. He's a rat cocksucker. Nobody's going to believe that I did this for Seagal," Pellicano said, his voice bubbling to a crescendo at the perceived injustice of it all. "Number one, I didn't do it for Seagal. Number two, if I was going to intimidate somebody, I'm not gonna put a fish on their car. I'm going to be in their face like I've been all my life."

Other L.A. private investigators are troubled by Pellicano's version of events, noting that the work for Gorry Meyer & Rudd would have put him back into Seagal's orbit. In the past, Pellicano has been accused of playing one side of a case against the other. Nils Grevillius, a former Pinkerton agent and a rival investigator, interviewed the parking valets at Pellicano's office building last fall. As Grevillius states, 'I asked them, 'Say, didn't I see that actor Steven Seagal over here the other day?' And they said, 'Oh yeah, he comes here all the time.' Now, I was standing right next to Pellicano's Mercedes convertible, which has a special spot next to the valet-parking area, and they nodded to Pellicano's car when I looked at it. The night before Thanksgiving, I was talking to the security guard in the lobby, and I affected the mien of a rube and said, 'Gee, didn't I see Steven Seagal in here the other day?' And the security guard said, 'Oh yeah, yeah, he's here all the time. In fact, his private detective is upstairs. and he's the one who got in trouble.'"

But the government does not seem in any hurry to move past Pellicano and up the evidentiary chain - at least until Seagal has finished singing in the Gambino trial. According to Seagal's attorney, neither the FBI nor the LAPD has questioned his client in connection with the attacks on the journalists, nor has the FBI requested Seagal's bank or phone records. As of press time, no one has been arrested in connection with the attack on Zeman. The FBI scheduled, then postponed, a lineup.

3/4/03

Anthony Pellicano Going Down

XXX says: Earlier this week, we learned that because of a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling, the charges against Alexander Proctor for damaging the car of journalist Anita Busch are being thrown out. According to the government informant, Proctor was acting for Pellicano on behalf of his client Steven Seagal.

Now it looks like nobody is going to be charged over the threats to Busch and Vanity Fair's Ned Zeman. But Pellicano is still going down for other things. His career is finished and he faces ten years in jail.

If it would not have been the Hobbes Act, the Proctor case would've fallen down for any number of reasons.

After the feds busted Pellicano for illegal possession of explosives, the FBI (and some to the prosecutors in the downtown) started getting phone calls. They got fantastic leads about illegal things Pellicano has done.

Pellicano is going to be indicted any day now. He was supposed to have been indicted over the explosives last week.

Pellicano was never tied into the Anita Busch thing except by the snitch and the resulting search warrant and affidavit. The feds hoped to get enough stuff on Pellicano to bust him for the Hobbes Act stuff.

The threats to Busch and Zeman will end up as a small footnote to the whole Seagal-Pellicano-Nasso thing.

We don't know who threatened Zeman. Barry Levin has theories that it was a relative of Seagal's.

It was a total accident that the Pellicano-Seagal connection ever got in the paper. There was an early search warrant and affidavit filed for Proctor's arrest. That was supposed to be sealed. It had the wrong address on Proctor. So they had to get a new warrant. They put the old one in the file and forgot that it was public.

American Movie Classics is covering all bases in their documentary on this drama. Everyone spoke to them except Steven Seagal. They've got Elie Samaha, screenwriters, directors. The documentary used to do HBO Undercover and they nailed it.

From the 3/1/03 LA Times:

Federal prosecutors moved Friday to dismiss an indictment charging a Southern California man with threatening a Los Angeles Times reporter who was researching the relationship between actor Steven Seagal and a reputed Mafia associate.

Originally, prosecutors charged that Proctor's alleged actions amounted to interfering with interstate commerce by threats of violence, a violation of the federal Hobbs Act. But this week, the Supreme Court ruled in another case that the Hobbs Act applies only when force is used to obtain property.

But even as they asked for a dismissal of the indictment against Proctor, prosecutors filed a criminal complaint Friday charging the ex-convict with conspiracy to distribute cocaine. If convicted under the new complaint, he faces up to five years in prison. Some of the evidence for the new charge was uncovered during the investigation of the alleged threats.

3/13/03

From LATimes.com:

Hollywood private detective Anthony Pellicano, who has represented some of the biggest stars in show business, faces possible indictment on charges of widespread illegal wiretapping and witness intimidation, backed by threats and occasional violence, a federal prosecutor said in court Wednesday.

What began as an investigation into a threat against a Los Angeles Times reporter has grown into a large-scale probe involving other potential victims, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Daniel Saunders.

Saunders said FBI agents have obtained the names of a number of people, including some lawyers, who hired Pellicano to conduct illicit wiretaps or secure the silence of potential witnesses.

He said the FBI has also identified the computer software Pellicano allegedly used to tap into telephones, his contact at the telephone company and a corrupt law enforcement officer who assisted him.

Saunders made the disclosures during an unsuccessful prosecution attempt to revoke Pellicano's $400,000 bail on an unrelated charge of possessing explosives. U.S. District Judge Dickran Tevrizian said he wanted to see sworn affidavits from some of the government's witnesses before deciding whether to revoke Pellicano's bond.

4/28/03

Anthony Pellicano Drama

XXX says: Even though they've dismissed federal charges against Alexander Proctor for terrorizing Los Angeles Times journalist Anita Busch, this case ain't over.

When law enforcement tossed Anthony Pellicano's office on Sunset Boulevard and found the illegal grenades, they also found evidence of wire-tapping. That Pellicano had been wire-tapping people on behalf of clients. There's a Grand Jury investigating this. Some prominent Los Angeles entertainment attorneys have been subpoened to appear and they are most uncomfortable about doing so.

Journalist John Connolly is working on a book on Anthony Pellicano called The Bad Detective.

Journalists who've been terrorized by Pellicano include Jeff Wells, Rod Lurie and Stuart Goldman.

Pellicano may be involved with the Max Factor heir (Andrew Luster, 39) who fled in anticipation of going to prison. Proctor told the FBI's informant that he was going to be paid $100,000 to help a criminal defendant flee the country.

There's a connection between Pellicano and Bill Pavlick, the unlicensed private investigator Luster used in his defense - Steven Seagal (as referenced in the March Esquire story on Pellicano). Seagal claimed he was using Pavlick for his investigations rather than Pellicano. That's a set-up.

Pavlick is a fired LAPD officer who drew a psycho pension. He worked as an unlicensed investigator on the OJ Simpson and Phil Spector cases. Pavlick is under investigation by the state of California for unlicensed activities. He's supposed to get a PI's license to do what he does.

Steven Seagal is an angry child. I believe he hired Pellicano who hired Proctor to intimidate Busch. I believe Seagal is passive-aggressive and wants to anonymously lash out at people and Pellicano is the ideal vehicle for that sort of aggression.

Seagal's friendships with law enforcement are on a superficial level. The FBI regards him as a punk and a sissy. Seagal had good relations with US Customs for a long time and he functioned as a reserve US customs agent so he could carry a gun all over the country. But Seagal burned that connection out by acting like a schmuck in Santa Barbara. You might recall a story about seven years ago about Seagal date-raping his 15-year old babysitter. That burned out his law enforcement connections.

His current connections with law enforcement have more to do with his problems with the Gambino crime family. I doubt Seagal will go down for the Busch threats.

Proctor could still go down in state court. The state's version of the penal code for extortion is different from the federal version.

I don't think Proctor will ever give Seagal up. I don't think Proctor ever met Seagal.

I don't think Pellicano will give anyone up unless he's facing 20-years in prison. I expect Pellicano to serve three or four years.

Pellicano is a neurotic angry control freak. His career is over. The feds have wanted him for a long time since he screwed them over the John DeLorean case in 1983.

Marty Singer pits tabloids against each other. He'll kill stories by promising he will get them a better story.

From the BBC: The great grandson of Max Factor, Mr Luster was arrested after a woman he met went to the police alleging he had spiked her drink with the so-called "date rape" drug, Gamma-Hydroxybutyrate (GHB).

When detectives raided his home, they say they found 17 videotapes or Mr Luster having sex with apparently unconscious women, many of whom have yet to be identified. Detectives were reportedly investigating whether he could have been part of an international ring of playboy millionaires said to be known as the Bachelors, who trade film of their date rape attacks over the internet.

Several years ago a British woman claimed that she had fallen victim to such a gang, telling police she had been raped in a London hotel after GHB was slipped into her drink.

Mr Luster has consistently denied the charges against him, claiming the women on the videotapes were engaged in consensual sex.

6/4/03

LA Police Sergant Suspended For Tapping Confidential Police Database

From The Los Angeles Times:

A Los Angeles police sergeant has been suspended for allegedly tapping into confidential police databases on behalf of Anthony Pellicano, a Hollywood private investigator who has worked for some of the biggest names in show business, law enforcement sources said.

FBI agents and Los Angeles Police Department investigators who served search warrants on Pellicano obtained records that led to Sgt. Mark Arneson, a 29-year veteran of the force.

The logs indicated that Arneson had accessed personal information about Anita Busch, a Los Angeles Times reporter who was investigating actor Steven Seagal and his ties to an alleged Mafia associate. The records Arneson had access to included Busch's driver's license, car registration and driving record, police sources said. Pellicano has been under investigation for alleged involvement in an effort to threaten Busch.

11/11/03

The Scoop On The Chameleon Group, Anthony Pellicano, Anita Busch

Ross Johnson, the last of the truth tellers, writes:

1. Chameleon Group. The snitch that burned Alex Proctor on the Pellicano case initially tried to shake down Jules Nasso's lawyers by giving them the wrong lead about who whacked Anita Busch's car. The snitch was trying to work the feds, Nasso's lawyers, and possibly the LA Times for payment for the information. But the snitch had to sniff out the wanna see factor, so he told the Feds and the mob lawyers that it was a bunch of israeli muscle guys from a security agency that screwed with Busch's car. Nasso's lawyers narrowed the search to Chameleon, which may be a totally legit operation. (their cool web site is for those who want to know what ex-Mossad members do when they move to Hollywood) My sources close to the U.S. attorney's office (whose information I shuttled to you so that you could scoop everybody on the Pellicano story) checked out Chameleon, found out they were not to be messed with, and left it at that.

There was one reporter at Alex Proctor's arraignment: yours truly. I got a tip that Anthony Pellicano's attorney, Don Re, wanted to rep Proctor, and the feds told Re that it was a total conflict of interest. So in walks another mob lawyer, who is there to sniff out if Proctor has any money, like cash money, to get a defense going. Well, Pellicano didn't have a way to get cash to Proctor, so Proctor had to use a federal public defender. Still, Proctor didn't make a deal to rat out Pellicano on the Busch hit. Why? The whole Busch fish caper read great in the papers, but it was a vandalism beef, at the end of the day. Proctor is going to do a little time on a drug beef, and he'll never rat out Pellicano.

How did I know Pellicano was in on the Busch car hit? The mob lawyer gave me the 4-1-1 on Proctor. Proctor has worked for Pellicano for years in Pellicano's wire tapping business. Pellicano and Proctor go back almost twenty years.

Now let's talk about Pellicano's wire tapping business. The only two reporters at Pellicano's first bail hearing was moi and Gina I-forget-her-last-name from Reuters. Who did we see there? Two very well-known lawyers, one a pit bull that's been featured in your column and the other one of Hollywood's toughest divorce lawyers. They ain't there out of the goodness of their heart. The message to Pellicano was this: keep quiet and his extended family will be taken care of while Pellicano does his bit in the pen on the explosives rap resulting from the C-4 and hand grenades that were found in Pellicano's office.

The Hollywood lawyers at Pellicano's bail hearing knew that the feds had found the transcripts of Pellicano's wiretaps done on the behalf of the lawyer's clients.

Don't expect these transcripts to ever become part of the public record, because Pellicano will plead guilty to the illegal wiretapping. It's perfectly legal for lawyers to use information from a p.i. as long as the p.i. doesn't tell them he got the information illegally. The feds may be talking to Bert Fields et al, but nobody's gonna roll on Pellicano because these lawyers are all one step removed (wink-wink) from Pellicano's wiretapping.

But there is one rub. What the feds want is to get one of Pellicano's electronic operatives to roll. Pellicano never planted the bugs himself, he got an operative to do it. And these guys are like Proctor, they're ghosts. They live in the shadows, like Travis Bickle.

What's the story here? The big one is how dirty stars play when they go through a divorce. Man, it's ugly. The forensic accounting is nothing compared to the dirt digging. Do you think for one second Tom Cruise didn't have a full file on Nicole Kidman's every phone conversation when they were going through a divorce?

Another thing that Pellicano is great at is illegally wiretapping the women who sleep with stars and come back either pregnant or psychotic. Remember the woman who sued Steven Seagal for all sorts of stuff after she slept with him on location (you have her name, I forget.) Nobody knew this was the same woman who had faked her own death years earlier on an insurance fraud scam until Pellicano went to work. And why is it that after Pellicano goes to work, all the subjects of his investigations are suddenly under the gun for taking anti-depressants? Read any deposition of someone suing a star that Pellicano has worked for that star (through the star's attorney), and it's all about the poor plaintiff looking deranged because they're taking Xanax or Prozac. If you think Pellicano finds out about these people's perscription drug use by anything other than wiretapping, then you believe in the tooth fairy. Pellicano is not some great sleuth with tons of investigators going through public records. HE gets his information putting bugs on phones and paying off cops. That ain't shoe leather, amigo. The reality is so far from Phillip Marlowe it's a joke.

Why am I telling you this? You owe an apology to Anita Busch. I want you to say, "I'm sorry, Anita." How would you like to be a single woman who, by the nature of her profession, has to be paranoid? And then goes online at Lukeford.net to read how crazy she supposedly is? You crossed the line, Lukie Boy. I believe in the power of the Web to get to the truth, but you can't torture people like Anita. She was deeply hurt by what you wrote, and she's not even a public figure.

11/17/03

Will Somebody Wake Up Bill Keller?

Paul Barresi writes Luke 11/15 at 44:45PM: "Punk"

XXXXXX writes: I've been on this Anthony Pellicano-Alex Proctor-Steven Seagal-Jules Nasso-Anita Busch story since June 20, 2002. I've talked to every wacko between here and Brooklyn so many times that I'd pretty much lost interest in the whole stupid mess. But what I saw in today's edition of the NY Times, in a story by-lined by Laura Holson and Bernie Weinraub, just made me fall out of my chair.

Fact: Singer works for Stallone and Schwarzenegger. Pellicano works for Singer. The idea that Pellicano would hire Barresi to dig up dirt on two of Marty Singer's favorite clients makes no sense. It's just a pathetic attempt by someone to distance Stallone and Schwarzenegger from Singer-Pellicano.

Will somebody wake up Bill Keller, the new executive editor of the NY Times, and tell him there is something very, very wrong with his reporters on this Pellicano story?

2/11/04

The Pellicano Brief

Vanity Fair reporter John Connolly and Howard Blum produce a gripping article on private detective Anthony Pellicano in the March issue.

There are no bombshells in the article but many interesting details.

Connolly placed the first story in the New York Daily News about the threat on Anita Busch's car in June 2002. He continues his friendly relationship with Busch in this article, placing her in a good light, and in exchange getting details about her in that painful month. The VF writers do not question why anybody would want to threaten Busch when neither she nor her writing partner Paul Lieberman came up with anything original on the Steven Seagal - Julius Nasso story despite weeks of work.

I can't recall the last time the LA Times broke a big story on the entertainment industry.

"What's the happiest day in a politician's life?" asks Mickey Kaus. "When he finds out he's being investigated by the LA Times."

Anita's homicidal friend Dave Robb is also placed in a heroic light and was surely a source for the article.

Busch complained to FBI agent Stan Ornellas that her phone was bugged, something that Pellicano could be suspected of doing.

A security expert testified at a deposition, "It is pro forma for you to advise clients to conduct sweeps of their telephones in any matter in which Bert Fields [leading Hollywood lawyer and employer of Pellicano] is involved as the opposing counsel."

Bert Fields writes novels under the name D. Kincaid about legendary attorney Harry Cain who has a close relationship with private eye Skip Corrigan, who frequently breaks the law.

Five of Pellicano's former employees have been given limited immunity from prosecution and are cooperating with the federal investigation. One of them told VF: "I had been in hiding. The F.B.I. made me leave town. I am a pivotal part of this and must watch my ass. I have a gun in my home. My house has been damaged... He called my paretns...and said, 'I know your daughter's testifying and that's a damn shame.' That's when the F.B.I. told me to leave. I went to live with my bodyguard."

1/12/05

A source writes: "Well the LA Times once again scoops everyone (not). This piece is remarkable in it's lack of use of both adjectives and adverbs, a style so typically characteristic of this particular newspaper. It also contains a surprising number of real facts, another riveting departure."

By David Rosenzweig, Times Staff Writer

For the last two years, FBI computer specialists have been combing through the equivalent of nearly 2 billion double-spaced pages of text, enough to fill 245 rooms measuring 10-by-12-by-10 feet.

Those computer files were seized during a raid on the Sunset Strip offices of famed private detective Anthony Pellicano. Also confiscated were two hand grenades and a quantity of C4 plastic explosives, resulting in a 30-month federal prison sentence for Pellicano.

Although the contents of the files have not been disclosed, they may be relevant to a pending federal wiretapping probe involving Pellicano, a number of rogue police officers and some big-name entertainment lawyers. If so, that investigation could be significantly affected when a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decides on a request by Pellicano's lawyers to declare the search illegal, suppress the seized evidence and overturn his conviction.

A hearing is set for Thursday in Pasadena, but any ruling could be months away.

1/13/05

The day after I publish the above story (fewer than twelve hours later) and leave town for six days to Las Vegas, three men in plain clothes come to the house where I live. They flash LAPD badges to my landlady. They say they see my car. They want to speak to me. They reveal various information about me. She says I am not home. They want access to my place. She says no. They leave. I suspect they were fake credentials and probably people wanting to intimidate and harass me.

Some Insights Into Pellicano's Life:

* Therese DeLucio, the woman he married two days before going into prison, was a striptease dancer at a bar. He's divorcing her.

* One of his daughters has refused contact with him for years.

From the website SinHablar.com:

Pellicano is attempting to get released early from federal prison. A hearing occurred on Thursday, January 13, 2005 in Pasadena of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. A three-judge panel will render an opinion within three months on a request by Pellicano's lawyer, Donald Re, to declare the search illegal, suppress the seized evidence and overturn his conviction. If successful, this could effectively nullify the ongoing federal probe into Pellicano's use of wiretapping and extortion in the service of his celebrity clients.

There are essentially three facets to Pellicano's argument:

(1) The warrant authorizing the search and seizure was unconstitutionally overbroad in scope.

(2) The prosecution acted in bad faith when it obtained the search warrant on grounds of a possible Hobbs Act violation (the federal extortion statute).

(3) The grenades found in Pellicano's office were "homemade" weapons. Precisely BECAUSE Pellicano had turned the relatively harmless practice grenades into lethal weapons by sealing the vent holes with adhesive plugs and filling the interior chambers with explosive powder for his own personal use, this DOES NOT constitute a crime because as "homemade" weapons (not intended for sale) Congress has no jurisdiction since it's authority to tax or regulate interstate commerce should not apply.

June 9, 2005

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A federal court on Thursday ruled that prosecutors can comb through transcripts of wiretaps found in the office of celebrity sleuth Anthony Pellicano, in a case that could involve some of Hollywood biggest stars. The ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Pellicano's argument that the November 2002 search of his Hollywood office was illegal, and that evidence seized there could not be used to convict him. The court also confirmed Pellicano's conviction on charges that he had unregistered firearms, grenades and enough plastic explosives to bring down an airliner in a safe in the office. Pellicano, a private eye for more than two decades, called himself a "sin eater" for Hollywood stars and was often called on to keep his clients' names out of the press.

2/7/06

Pellicano faces bug charges

By Jesse Hiestand for the Hollywood Reporter:

Hollywood sleuth Anthony Pellicano was charged Monday with wiretapping and conspiracy for allegedly leading a scheme to secretly bug the phones of Sylvester Stallone, Keith Carradine and more than a dozen others.

The 110-count indictment against Pellicano, three associates and three former clients also alleges racketeering and wire fraud for the illegal access of dozens of people's criminal and driving records.

What remains unanswered is whether the lawyers who hired the Pellicano Investigative Agency were aware of the wiretapping and other tricks that, prosecutors allege, gave them a tactical advantage in court. Authorities now hope the threat of long prison terms will persuade the defendants to speak -- even if Pellicano maintains his silence.

"We'll do the investigation and see what the facts show," acting U.S. Attorney George Cardona said in announcing the case at the agency's Los Angeles offices. "These charges allege a disturbing pattern of criminal conduct in which money flowed freely to sworn law enforcement officers to violate their oath and uphold the law to provide the means for Pellicano and his associates to violate the rights of others."

One law firm, Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman Machtinger & Kinsella, acknowledged Monday that attorney Bert Fields and others used Pellicano on at least two of the cases referenced in the indictment, adding that "if Mr. Pellicano engaged in any illegal activity, he did so without their or the firm's knowledge or authorization."

From TheSmokingGun.com 2/3/07:

FEBRUARY 3--An illegal wiretapping and information gathering network run by disgraced Hollywood private eye Anthony Pellicano allegedly recorded Sylvester Stallone's telephone calls and accessed confidential law enforcement records pertaining to other entertainment industry figures, including actors Garry Shandling, Kevin Nealon, and Keith Carradine, journalists Anita Busch and Bernard Weinraub, and powerful agents Bryan Lourd and Kevin Huvane. Pellicano and six associates were named in a 110-count federal racketeering indictment unsealed today in Los Angeles. A copy of the 60-page indictment can be found below. According to prosecutors, Pellicano, 61, used contacts in the Los Angeles and Beverly Hills police departments and at the phone company to illegally wiretap phones as well as to gain access to the confidential National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database. The indictment does not specify what Pellicano did with information improperly culled from the NCIC records, which contain detailed individual criminal histories and other law enforcement information. Pellicano, the indictment alleges, was "responsible for securing clients who were willing and able to pay large sums for the purpose of obtaining personal information of a confidential, embarrassing, or incriminating nature." While the Pellicano group's "investigative targets" would often include "opponents or witnesses in criminal or civil litigation," the indictment does not name any lawyers as being part of the illegal scheme. Charged along with Pellicano is Mark Arneson, a former LAPD officer, who allegedly was paid to tap into the NCIC system, and Rayford Earl Turner, a retired phone company worker who helped facilitate the bugging operation. Kevin Kachikian, a software engineer, was indicted for allegedly designing a computer program (dubbed "Telesleuth") which Pellicano used to wiretap conversations of Stallone, Carradine, and dozens of others mentioned in the indictment. Also named in the indictment is ex-cop Craig Stevens, who allegedly took money from Pellicano in exchange for tapping into Beverly Hills Police Department computers. Last week, Stevens pleaded guilty to six felony counts in connection with the Pellicano scheme. A former phone company manager, Teresa Wright, is identified in the indictment as a Pellicano source for toll records, phone numbers, and home addresses. On January 9, Wright pleaded guilty to a single felony count of unauthorized access of protected computer information, a felony. Both she and Stevens are believed to be cooperating with federal officials. (60 pages)

2/7/06

Lawyer to Celebrities Is Subject of Inquiry

The names cited in an indictment of private eye Anthony Pellicano read like a road map leading to Bertram Fields and his famous clients.

His name is nowhere in Monday's 60-page indictment of celebrity gumshoe and alleged wiretapper Anthony Pellicano.

But the shadow of 76-year-old lawyer Bertram Fields, who for years employed Pellicano as an investigator, looms over the case. Listed throughout the indictment are a host of alleged victims, including such prominent names as actor Sylvester Stallone and comic Garry Shandling, who battled with Fields' clients.

2/15/06

Entertainment Lawyer Indicted in Pellicano Probe

A federal grand jury today indicted prominent Los Angeles entertainment attorney Terry Christensen on wire-tapping and conspiracy charges in connection with the ongoing investigation of former private investigator Anthony Pellicano.

The two-count indictment alleged that Christensen paid Pellicano at least $100,000 to wiretap the wife of billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian during a bitter child support dispute in 2002. Authorities charge that Pellicano listened to the phone calls of Lisa Bonder Kerkorian and shared the information with Christensen.

2/25/06

From The NYT:

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 24 — Bert Fields, the Hollywood superlawyer, who frequently employed the disgraced private eye Anthony Pellicano, and his law firm are in talks with prosecutors to try to avoid charges in the wiretapping investigation that has already led to the indictment of at least 13 people, lawyers briefed on the case said.

On Friday, a lawyer involved in the case confirmed that the celebrity divorce lawyer Dennis M. Wasser, who has handled the marital breakups of Hollywood powerhouses like Tom Cruise, Jennifer Lopez and Steven Spielberg, was the lawyer who government investigators say had steered Mr. Pellicano to the lawyer for Kirk Kerkorian, the Las Vegas mogul and former owner of MGM. The objective was "going after" the lawyer for Mr. Kerkorian's ex-wife in their paternity and child support battle.

More than half a dozen other prominent Los Angeles lawyers, meanwhile, have retained defense counsel in connection with the Pellicano case. They include Charles N. Shepard, the head of litigation at Greenberg Glusker; David S. Moriarty, a former Greenberg Glusker associate who worked on several cases in which Mr. Fields was the lead partner and Mr. Pellicano was the investigator; and Daniel G. Davis, a Beverly Hills criminal lawyer who gained fame in the 1980's representing the main defendant in the McMartin preschool child molestation case.

4/25/06

LAT:

Chris Rock Turned to Pellicano in '99 Suit

The private eye allegedly checked police files on a model who filed a paternity claim.

Private investigator Anthony Pellicano allegedly searched confidential criminal databases for incriminating information on a Hungarian model after she asserted a paternity claim against comedian Chris Rock, court records and interviews show.

The disclosure adds the biggest celebrity name thus far to the list of people whom Pellicano purportedly sought to help by intimidating courtroom foes.

The model, Monika Zsibrita, 33, was named in a February indictment as one of numerous victims of Pellicano's alleged wiretapping and racketeering conspiracy on behalf of A-list Hollywood attorneys and other prominent clients.

Pellicano’s Unsung Targets

This website by Nomi Fredrick was named best website of the month by the May issue of Los Angeles magazine.

Here's an excerpt from April 25:

Anthony Pellicano committed many heinous crimes, the least of which is probably wiretapping. So why is the present media hullabaloo about the disgraced P.I. concerned primarily with the rich people he snooped on for other rich people? Frankly, who really cares?

...Let me share some of the stories I’ve learned since doing this website and blog…and no, I will never give out names. There was the unwed mother who had a history of drug use who Pellicano kept in servitude to a certain producer by threatening to report her to Child Services. There was a screenwriter whose handicapped child was directly intimidated. There was an optician who knew too much and was stalked and hounded till she lost her professional license and custody of her children. There was a paralegal that was raped and desperately keeps trying to just get on with her life. There was a professional musician who was involved in a certain famous murder, who endlessly has gone on Internet discussions since 1995, searching for someone, anyone, to believe his story.

From Page Six May 3, 2006:

Los Angeles Times has never been known for aggressive coverage of Hollywood's dirty laundry, but its out-to-lunch performance in the Anthony Pellicano case has Tinseltown folks scratching their heads. The paper has been scooped regularly in its own back yard by the New York Times. "This is the biggest scandal in the history of the entertainment business, and the L.A. Times has completely dropped the ball," said an insider. "Is it just that they are lame, or have important people leaned on them to lay off?" Private eye Pellicano was arrested in 2002 after FBI agents raided his office and found explosives in his safe. The feds also confiscated a huge cache of illegal wiretaps, which has led to the indictment of 14 others. Some of the biggest names in Hollywood have been questioned and may face charges. The N.Y. Times, which has been leaked transcripts of FBI interviews, has detailed Pellicano's relationships with CAA founder Michael Ovitz, lawyers Bert Fields and Dennis Wasser, Paramount boss Brad Grey and Universal chief Ron Meyer. The L.A. Times hasn't broken any stories. There was a rumor the paper was hamstrung because it had a relationship with Pellicano, but a spokesman told us, "The Los Angeles Times has never hired Anthony Pellicano."

5/9/06

From the LAT:

Federal prosecutors alleged Monday that Hollywood private eye Anthony Pellicano recently conspired with known mobsters in Chicago to put a prison "hit" on the man [Proctor] he allegedly hired to threaten a Los Angeles Times reporter.

...But records and interviews show that Proctor, 62, was moved in recent months from a federal prison in Greenville, Ill., to a federal facility in southeast Georgia, where he continues to serve a 10-year sentence for drug trafficking.

They also show that the purported plot was uncovered early this year when Pellicano was about to be released from a prison near Bakersfield on explosives charges stemming from the November 2002 search of his office, where FBI agents found two illegally modified hand grenades and C4 plastic explosives.

December 17, 2007

The Los Angeles Times reports (Greg Krikorian and Chuck Philips):

Attorneys allege that a 35-year veteran of the federal agency included false information in an affidavit.

...In requesting the search, [FBI agent Stanley] Ornellas contended that Pellicano hired an ex-convict to try to frighten two journalists out of writing unflattering stories about actor Steven Seagal. In one of the incidents, then-Los Angeles Times reporter Anita M. Busch found a dead fish and a red rose on the punctured windshield of her car below a note that read: "Stop!"

The affidavit suggested Seagal had been implicated in the scheme. The actor was never charged, and federal authorities have privately told reporters they have no persuasive evidence against him, although the FBI has not publicly cleared him.

The defense says Ornellas failed to disclose false statements by the ex-convict. An informant taped the ex-convict saying he shot a bullet through Busch's windshield and left a fish in a plastic pan on the reporter's car.