The Hollywood Phone Hacker Agrees To Interview While Imprisoned
Anthony Pellicano, Detective to the Stars, agreed to his first sit-down interview since imprisoned in Texas in 2008. Name-dropping and exposing his previous celebrity clients, Pellicano hands over the dirt he dug to Newsweek.
Intimidating and erratic, Pellicano was the number one man contacted by Hollywood when someone had a problem that needed to "go away." Using a computerized phone-hacking system in his Sunset Boulevard office, he found his information via phone lines and solved issues with a Louisville Slugger.
After he allegedly hired someone to intimidate Anita Busch, journalist at the LA Times, Pellicano found himself involved with the FBI and eventually behind bars.
He speaks openly about his past Hollywood clientele during the interview.
“If you saw the stuff I found in celebrity homes: cocaine, heroin, Ecstasy, vials of narcotics. There was a doctor shooting up celebrities with morphine for $350.”
Among his clients were Arnold Schwarzenegger, Farrah Fawcett, Kevin Costner, Courtney Love, Chris Rock, and über-agent Michael Ovitz. When the FBI raided his office, they apparently missed the "Arnie Files."
“They come to my business…I have personal stuff on Arnold…If they found that stuff, he never would have been governor.”
He was brutally honest with his clients, noting his threat to Michael Jackson regarding his child molestation case.
“I said, ‘You don’t have to worry about cops or lawyers. If I find out anything, I will f--k you over.’ ”
The investigation into Pellicano's business ended in discovery of "a trove of thousands of transcripts and encrypted tapes of phone conversations he’d illegally tapped," plus "allegations of bribery of law-enforcement officers, identity theft, and high-tech eavesdropping."
He was eventually found guilty on 76 charges, including "wire fraud, racketeering, and wiretapping." He received the maximum sentence of 15 years at Big Spring Federal Correctional Institution.
“Pellicano’s sentence was based not on any refusal to cooperate, but on what the law and the trial judge deemed just punishment for his many years of egregious criminal conduct,” said Dan Saunders, who prosecuted Pellicano and is now a partner at Bingham McCutchen in Los Angeles.
Currently appealing his conviction, Pellicano could be released by 2013. When he attains freedom, he will enter an empty world and be forced to start anew.
“Everything I have is gone, including my family," said Pellicano.
