The Curator Meets Anthony Pellicano
(1976-1977)
| Right:
Anthony Pellicano is presently at the center of an extensive wiretapping-conspiracy
scandal involving various Hollywood and show business types in whom
I have little interest. My encounter with Pellicano---often described as "private investigator to the stars"---dates back to the mid-1970's when he was still practicing his trade in the Chicago area. Pellicano at that time ran an"electronic counter measures" business that specialized in discovering and removing electronic surveillance sevices which had been surreptitously planted in offices and homes. |
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| After I ran a piece on a WMAQ-TV newscast showing Pellicano engaged in his "counter measures" work, i was advised by an anonymous caller to check out the documents associated with Pellicano's recently-filed personal bankruptcy. |
| The schedule of debts in Pellicano's bankruptcy file included an outstanding $30,000 loan granted by the son of a late, and quite well known Chicago mobster, Paul "The Waiter" Ricca [right]. I subsequently located a clip in the WMAQ-TV newsfilm library that showed Tony Pellicano among the pallbearers at Paul Ricca's funeral (Ricca, whose real name was Felice De Luca, died in 1972). The association of Pellicano with a mob family was significant, for then-Illinois Governor Dan Walker had recently named the private investigator to the Illinois Law Enforcement Commission). |  |
| After I aired a piece based on the above facts, Pellicano was obliged to resign from the Law Enforcement Commission (a body charged with advising Illinois State legislators on law enforcement issues). WMAQ-TV, apparently in or near a crucial ratings period, used the Pellicano story as part of an ad campaign [see below]. |
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| Two
things strike me as curious about this ad. First, it shows me looking
at tract records in the Cook County Recorder of Deeds Office. The
Pellicano documents were, of course, in the custody of the clerk
of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Chicago. Secondly, I find part of the text of the ad puzzling: "Watch NewsCenter 5 and experience the 5th Dimension in news". What in the world is the "5th Dimension in news"? Not long after I ran my story, Pellicano, in a highly-publicized media event, "found" the remains of impresario which had gone missing from a west-suburban Chicago gravesite. Pellicano subsequently relocated to the West Coast. |
Created by Rich Samuels (e-mail to rich@richsamuels.com)