Monday Night/Last Night

I don’t have access to Fox Nation primarily because it requires more bandwidth to enjoy than I have available where I live.  However, Tucker Carlson interviewed Tony Pellicano. He was one of the more interesting guys in Southern California when I worked for the Orange County District Attorney’s Organized Crime/Grand Jury Unit. This was some time ago, of course.

I encourage you to listen to the interview. The bit on the Tucker Carlson Tonight show was more of a teaser.

Pellicano was the Private Investigator to the Stars, P.I. to Michael Jackson, for example. He made a few friends and a lot of enemies. I always got along with him, and while he and I were not friends, he allowed us to use some of his advanced electronics. Pellicano always had the best. The very best audio enhancement equipment on the West Coast, for example.

He claimed to be mobbed up – with roots in Chicago and we checked. Not so much. He knew the LA Mafia at the time but so did everyone who moved in those circles at the time.  At one point he tapped Heidi Fleiss’ phone. She was madam to the stars and the politicians. Tony gave us tape copies and thousands of pages of transcripts. I think that it was insurance. It was useful to us because we prosecuted politicians and judges who used Heidi’s service. They never actually paid for the girls, but people interested in getting favors did. The call-girls were bribes. I met Heidi much later when she’d moved to Nevada.

Eventually, the FBI set him up, found C-4 in his office, and sent him away for what turned out to be 17 years.

Tony Pellicano was the inspiration for the Showtime series,  Ray Donovan. He genuinely was the fixer to the stars.

 

Thought-of-the-Day

 

The Arizona Monsoon

Rain falls where it falls, but this has been a great year for moisture in Arizona. To date, the White Wolf Mine has had about eight inches this summer and it’s forecast to continue raining all week.

People don’t think of lush forests when they think of Arizona, but they do exist and this year they’re getting enough rain. So far about five times as much as last year’s summer rain.

For many people, the image below comes to mind when discussing the monsoon in Arizona.

 

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

38 COMMENTS

      • Has anyone ever suggested to you that you may be spoiled, Bandmeeting, I’m green with envy regarding your trip to Ketchikan. That area is one of my very favorite places on Earth. It was where I wanted to end up but the Mogollon Rim won out primarily because of proximity to grandchildren. If I moved to Alaska, I’d never see them. But other than that, it would have been the Sitka – Ketchikan area. It would have meant buying a floatplane (I have a license to fly) and a respectable boat – oh the horror. I gave it up for the Rim.

        My consulting work would have suffered too. It’s a long way even with the float plane, to anywhere.

        • Spoiled? Moi?

          I think you made a good choice. Maybe a summer place in Sitka. I’m doing this rather short jaunt sort of because of Sitka. I was flying ANC-SEA in March and was just amazed by SE Alaska. I looked down on Sitka and told myself I’d like to go there. Delta sent out a crazy miles offer a few days after I got home and I took them up on it.

          Sea-Tac is really close so if you were to spend time there you could whisk off to whatever exotic locale is in need of you and your services quite easily. Happy Jack International doesn’t get you to many places.

          • A lot of people know about Sitka, but the islands can be private. Not many people in Arizona know where Blue Ridge is.

  2. Heard Tucker’s bit with Pellicano, interesting guy. He said, “I was always respectful at first.” Tucker presses him (with a chuckle) and Pellicano answers ( to paraphrase), “I used other means.”

    I guess the FBI was getting tired of the competition from him.

    I’ll state the obvious: We are witnessing the Socialism of America under every scumbag Democrat in charge. Many of us said early last year they would burn the place down to get what they want. And they are. Instead of being in prison they are in the White House, Congress, and Statehouse’s. “Emergency powers” my a$$. (Excuse me Lord, that’s the only way to say it right now.)

    We still have green grass in the pastures, good amount of rain this year. A bit hazy and smokey from those wonderfully managed western forests currently burning up…again. Thinking the USFS and FBI should trade places, might improve a few things.

    • Tony Pellicano is a smaller guy, supposed to be good at some martial art, but I never saw that. From what I heard, he hired the muscle that he needed (in the same way that it’s better to own a politician than. to be one). There were bricks of hundreds, so he had all the scratch that he needed to get the job done. His claim to fame was that he was EFFECTIVE, and that’s a good reputation to have. He pushed it too hard, there’s a back story that involves his wife (isn’t there always?) and so forth.

      • He does a stint in prison, she walks away with everything else despite enjoying the lifestyle he provided. Nothing new.

        Jack Slade was a very good manager, got things done in much harder times in the late 1800’s. But when he drank he was nightmare if crossed.

        • Slade was an interesting guy. While sober he was a capable manager and something of a gentleman. Drunk was a different story. He was hanged in Montana in 1864, apparently for bad behavior. Twain met him while traveling west and it seem he caught him between drinks.
          “He was so friendly and so gentle-spoken that I warmed to him in spite of his awful history. The coffee ran out. …Slade was about to take it when he saw that my cup was empty.
          He politely offered to fill it, but although I wanted it, I politely declined. I was afraid he had not killed anybody that morning, and might be needing diversion. But still with firm politeness he insisted on filling my cup…I thanked him and drank it, but it gave me no comfort, for I could not feel sure that he would not be sorry, presently, that he had given it away, and proceed to kill me to distract his thoughts from the loss. But nothing of the kind occurred.”

          • Such a good anecdote. The hanging was an actual injustice, Virginia was too late to stop them. Slade’s reputation, as over blown was it was, got him in the end….or as history has written it.

  3. Glad to hear you are getting some rain. In my neck of the woods in eastern WA I believe we are at just over two inches of rain since the beginning of March; dry dry dry. Temperatures are also way up. Mentions of global warming are all over the place and nobody wants to hear any countering arguments such as global average temperature or the like. It is still just weather.

    • Everyone complains about the weather. I complained about dry conditions and local fires until the rain came and now I complain about wet conditions and flash floods.

      My local backhoe guy called this morning and we’ll be setting up a meeting to discuss more and deeper ditches to deal with monsoon.

      • An autobiography, wraps al three genres into one…only change the names to protect the innocent. (kidding)

        • No. But I have a portion written – the true story of Chapo’s lair, written fictionally.

          There were two mountains about five miles apart. One was the lair (one of several lairs) and the other was a large meth processing facility that utilized a mine under a mountain.

  6. Have you considered getting a Starlink from SpaceX? It’s specifically designed for BFE people like, well, you.

    As to the PI to the Stars? I knew a few cops like that. They had… insurance policies in case anyone, ANYONE, tried to fire, frame, demote, move to a different division, and so forth. There were two subdivisions of those cops. One was the subset that were actually honest and kept scrupulous personal notes on everything, and let people know it.

    The second subset were the not-so-honest cops who were the ones that the politicians, the alumni, the big-wigs all called before any other person, up to and including 911, were called. They also kept copious notes, as potential blackmail. Most of those were also relatively good cops, but one or two were just plain evil buttholes (like the one cop who had all sorts of actual physical evidence on murder cases in his desk that would have made the cases solid but the murderers got off, said detective managing to ‘retire’ without any charges filed against him after he retired.

      • Don’t think twice when Starlink finally becomes available. Mrs. and I love it. Set up was as simple as Elon’s minions claim. Plunk it down in an open area, connect the cables and BOOM! you’re in. Considering those rat-bastidges at AT&T, our previous provider, would only get us 2.5 mbps service, and that on a good day, we are very pleased.

  7. I met some “interesting” people when I was consulting to a private security firm, but not Tony P.

    “There are eight million stories in the naked city. This has been one of them.”

    • Exactly.

      Tony Pellicano (In my world Tony P is applied to Anthony Poshepny – inspiration for Col. Kurtz in Apocalypse Now.) was very much a niche player. He had a celebrity clientele who were willing to part with staggering sums. His office was large, he had staff, but Pellicano was the headliner.

      • Yep. The amount of under-the-table money available in Hollyweird is staggering.

        You want that? I can get it for you, but it won’t be at wholesale…..

      • Yes, Tony Poe. Remember him well. The last time I saw him was in the early 1980s in either Lucy’s Tiger Den, on Suriwong Road, or in Madrid on Patpong Road. My memory is hazy on which one it was. I blame old age now, not the alcohol that had been consumed then, for this lapse on my part. He was with his mate Jack Shirley at the time. They always seemed to be together in those days. On one occasion, when I was in San Francisco, Bill C and I were going to visit him (Tony Poe), as we had heard that he was ill but, for some reason, we did not. I think it was because Bill got drunk. When he died (Tony Poe that is) Bill forgot to tell me until after the funeral. The first I knew of it was when Bill asked me why I wasn’t there. Whether Bill went I am not sure.

        Lucy’s Tiger Den was a great spot. If you were looking for someone, or someone who knew where he was, you could usually find them there, or at the Grand Prix. Tiger’s plates of beans and his Friday night hobo feeds were a good source of nourishment.

        Rick Menard’s Grand Prix, on Patpong Road, was always a great place. I used to drink at the back bar, presided over by Rick himself. This was where you found the people you knew, or who knew people you knew. Like Tiger’s, the Grand Prix was another place where, if you were looking for someone, or someone who knew where he was, you could usually find them there. The front bar was usually filled with tourists gawking and salivating at the dancers. Rick also used to have re-runs of the British comedy The Benny Hill Show, or movies, on a large screen, the soundtracks of which you could listen to with a pair of headphones. It seems strange now, in my later years, as I recall watching the antics of Benny Hill on the screen, whilst drinking a cold beer and having an in-depth conversation with a nubile, bikini clad young lady.

        • Wild Bill and WoFat were at the funeral in San Francisco. It was a big event. A lot of us ended up at Bosco’s, which I know you recall.

          Benny Hill was funny sober, and hilarious when you had a buzz going. Whatever happened to Jack Shirley?

          Tony P was one of those politically incorrect guys who made things work and the Outfit tried to assassinate him at least three times that I know of. Tony P was tougher than the current crop of Capitol Hill Police in the US who are “committing suicide” – up to six now. Then again, none of those police officers had to survive in SE Asia on their own either.

          • Yes, we had some good times, with a great bunch of our friends, at Bosco’s. The other place which I used to frequent was the Yong San Cocktail Lounge on Bush Street. Had a thing going with Judy the owner at one stage.

            Don’t know what happened to Jack Shirley. Given his age he is probably dead now.

          • The last time I was at Yong San was with Tom Perdue and one of my OC guys. That was a LONG time ago.

        • Larry. Made some enquiries. Jack Shirley died of cancer in 2003 in Pattaya. Yes, the first time I went to the Yong San was with Tom Perdue too, and that was a long time ago.

  9. The one thing about rain is it is seldom evenly distributed. My rancher friends west of the Rockies are in a world of hurt. Even the beekeepers are worried. Here along the Front Range we had a wet spring. We may not have a monsoon season this year. If we do, the burned areas will produce bad slides.

    • Because the whole global warming hue and cry echoes, people worry about that. Weather patterns in the West are cyclical and somewhat predictable. Farmers want luscious wet years every year but it has NEVER been like that.

      • Apparently western Colorado (Ms. Boebart’s neck of the woods) isn’t taxed high enough to het an equity weather distribution, but seems the Front Range is. Coink-a-dink? I think not…AOC and General Polis have connections to Gaia, just ask them.

        • Exactly. It isn’t raining in Cali, but the rain still has to go somewhere. Nothing new under the sun.

          -Kle.

Comments are closed.