Highlighted Crime
Story of the Week -
On June 9, 1993, madam-to-the-stars Heidi Fleiss was arrested
as part of a sting operation run by the Los Angeles Police and Beverly Hills
Police Departments and the U.S. Justice Department. In the 1980s, Fleiss’
then-boyfriend introduced her to the leading Beverly Hills madam Alex Adams,
who, according to Fleiss, taught her the tricks of the trade. Before long,
Fleiss started a competing business, and when Adams was arrested in 1988,
Fleiss took her spot as the leading provider of expensive prostitutes in
Hollywood. As her business grew, she enjoyed the perks of celebrity, even as
her rising profile attracted the attention of local authorities. On June 9, after
she sent four of her employees (along with a quantity of cocaine) to fulfill an
arrangement made with three “clients” (actually undercover agents), the
27-year-old Fleiss was arrested and charged with pandering, pimping and
narcotics possession.
Fleiss’ trial, during which she refused to name any of her
agency’s high-profile clients (though testimony did reveal at least one of
them, actor Charlie Sheen), was the talk of Hollywood. She pleaded not guilty
to all the charges, and her lawyers argued that the authorities had entrapped
her. In December 1994, a California grand jury found Fleiss guilty on three of
five pandering counts and not guilty on the narcotics charge; she was sentenced
her to three years in prison and ordered to pay a $1,500 fine. Fleiss also went
on trial before a federal grand jury on charges of conspiracy, money laundering
and tax evasion. She was convicted in August 1995 on eight of the 14 counts and
sentenced to 37 months in prison.
All told, Fleiss served three years in prison, and was
released in the fall of 1999. She later began a two-year relationship with the
actor Tom Sizemore, star of films such as Heat, Saving Private Ryan and Black
Hawk Down. In 2003, Fleiss filed charges against Sizemore for violent abuse; he
was convicted that August on six of 16 counts, including abuse, threat,
harassment and vandalism. His initial sentence of six months in jail was
eventually reduced to 90 days, plus mandatory drug rehab and domestic-violence
and anger-management counseling. Fleiss, who has also struggled with drug
abuse, has attempted to profit from her infamy by authoring several non-fiction
books and in early 2008, Fleiss opened a Laundromat called Dirty Laundry in
Pahrump, Nevada; she also announced plans to open a brothel catering to female
customers.
Check back every
Monday for a new installment of “This Week in Crime History.”
Michael Thomas Barry is a columnist for www.crimemagazine.com and is the author
of seven non-fiction books that includes In
the Company of Evil Thirty Years of California Crime, 1950-1980. Visit
Michael’s website www.michaelthomasbarry.com
for more information. His book can be purchased from Amazon through the
following link:
No comments:
Post a Comment