Chapter 8: Heidi Wear: The Mid 90s Heidi Pioneers Personal branding And Cashes In With Her Own Line Of Branded Sleepwear
Heidi Fleiss goes to trial with the eyes of the world on her, and the Fleiss family’s close bonds are tested as they are asked to turn against each other in court. But Heidi Fleiss mania has already peaked as the OJ trial begins and takes focus. The jurors deliberate and then have second thoughts. Plus the story of Charlie “Good Time,” the Malibu music promoter with a Heidi connection.
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
Live from Los Angeles.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Yeah, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presents Oscars
the sixty six, and you will look Academy.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Award gentlemen, your host of the sixty six, then you
will look Academy Awards.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Whooecbert Dahoman, This mini show biz executive, so nervous, sweat
and over one woman's society Fly honey.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Yeah. Previously on Heidi World, Heidi Flis's trial has captured
the world at the moment when television channels like Court
TV are creating the twenty four hour content cycle with
other LA trials like The Menandez Brothers and OJ Simpson.
But Heidi's crimes are only arguably even crimes in a
(01:02):
crooked system that prosecutes sex workers and criminalizes sex work.
Welcome to Heidi World, Chapter eight. Heidiwear. Heidi Pioneer's personal
(01:27):
branding and cash is in on the scandal with her
own line of branded Sleepwaar the mid nineties. Welcome back
to Heidie World. I'm your host, Molly Lambert. It's nineteen
ninety four. Heidie's estate in the hills above LA has
(01:50):
sold for just under its one point eight million dollar listing.
Heidi has moved out of the house and is trying
to keep her location off the grid to avoid more
media attention. The Tower Grove mansion is bought by an
Italian named Federico Pignatelli, whose fortune comes from manufacturing laser
(02:10):
dental products in San Clemente. Heidiflice is still the subject
on everyone's lips. In July of nineteen ninety four, at
long last, Heidi is able to unveil physical prototypes of
her new clothing line of sleepwear and casual accessories, Heidiwear.
(02:31):
The first ever Heidiwear store opens in Pasadena. A tan
and relaxed looking Heidi is there manning the Hidiwear counter
herself and offering to autograph any item in the store,
which sells the infamous Hidiwear boxers with the condom pocket,
as well as T shirts, leggings, and tank tops with
prices that top out at thirty bucks. It's a branded
(02:54):
capsule collection and ahead of its time notion that will
eventually take over sleepware and streetwear and lead the world
to where we have Savage by Fenti, a capsule collection
of lingerie sold to me by a famous person. There
is also Get This, a hotline you can call to
order stuff from heidiwar. The number is one eight hundred
(03:16):
Heidi PJ. Obviously I called it to see what happens now,
and the answer is it's a sex party hot line.
And because I am a podcast defective, I wondered what
(03:36):
happened when you call other old hot lines? So I
called the hot line one eight seven seven Team Her,
which is the hot line that Paul Thomas Anderson made
an infomercial for in a stunt to promote Magnolia, which
starred Tom Cruise as Frank TJ. Mackie, a seduction artist character.
Let's just say that I called the number a lot
at that time, and it gave you a pre recorded
(03:58):
message of Tom Cruise as Frank TJ. McKee inviting you
into the seduce and destroy universe. Well, anyway, I guess what
happens when you call it now? You get the same
sex party line that you get when you call the
Hidiewear number. Isn't that beautiful? I also called the JJ
the Beeper King Hotline and found out you got the
(04:19):
same sex party line there, which is very satisfying. It
means that there's some company out there who is buying
up all the old hotlines for people who don't have
the Internet that still call sex hotlines like me. While
Heidi is ringing up the boxers at the Hidiwear store,
she and her father are getting their bells rung over
(04:42):
potential tax fraud. To get Heidi the loan for the
wildly expensive house, doctor Paul Flices had lied and inflated
his income. He had also said that he would live
on the property when he was really living at a
property in Venice. The irs claims that Paul Flies helped
his do her hide assets and inflated his own income
(05:03):
when he co signed the loan, that he listed Heidi
as a dependent making thirty three thousand dollars a year
on his nineteen ninety two tax return on income he
said he partially furnished. The indictment also claims Heidi had
given checks from clients to her father and younger sister
Shana to deposit for her part Heidie starts up and
(05:25):
down that her parents truly believed that she was working
as a realtor and counselor, and that they found out
what she actually did for a living at the same
time the rest of the world did. Now, it's very
possible that doctor Paul Fwis didn't know how much money
his daughter was actually making or what exactly she was
doing to make it, So why did he offer to
(05:47):
go in with her on the house? Who knows he
loved his daughter and wanted her to have whatever she wanted.
A lot of rich parents co signed loans for their kids,
especially to buy property, but still wouldn't The crazy price
tag on the house signaled to Paul, who was very smart,
that something was up. Shana Flace thinks her parents were
(06:08):
in denial.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
They knew, but they didn't want to know.
Speaker 5 (06:14):
It was like, we won't ask, and you don't have
to tell.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Shana flies if Heidi was telling them she was working
as a realtor maybe they just thought she was getting
a really good deal, but the irs disagreed. In August
of nineteen ninety four, Heidi and her father, Paul Flicce,
plead not guilty to the federal charges of tax evasion
(06:39):
and money laundering. It's just weeks before Heidi's other trial
for pandering.
Speaker 6 (06:47):
If anyone should be embarrassed by all this, it should
be the government for charging Heidie with a victimless crime
and bringing these very peculiar charges against me. I don't
know why they're bringing this case. I didn't do anything.
Paul Fleish, pediatrician.
Speaker 5 (07:05):
I don't think Dad knew what he was getting into.
Dad probably said, why would anyone loan you this money
when I'm a doctor and I couldn't get a loan
like that, And it was probably like, just sign the
papers and watch me, Dad, I'll get the loan.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Shana Flice is not doing well herself. She has been
told she might be called into the case as well
for cashing checks from Heidi. She loves her sister, but
her sister is also the one who got her in
a car wreck that almost killed her and might now
drag her into a criminal case. As Heidi becomes one
of the most notorious women in the world, her sister
(07:42):
Shana starts dabbling with heroine, first snorting, then smoking it,
and finally shooting up. After trying to go cold turkey twice,
she goes to a rehab facility. She's working a job
at a preschool that her dad helped her get, but emotionally,
Shana is still struggling with the turmoil of her family
breaking down so publicly. The trial of O. J. Simpson
(08:28):
for the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman
is said to happen on the same day as Heidie's
pandering trial on September nineteenth, at the same place, the
downtown Los Angeles Criminal Courthouse. Everyone is salivating over what
some are calling the tabloid super Bowl. The courthouse says
(08:50):
it's a coincidence. Heidi's August trial was postponed because her
lawyer had another trial scheduled. Some think the judges behind
the Heidi trial pushed its date to verge with the
OJ trial, figuring the OJ trial will take some of
the media glare off of Heidi. Local journalists agree that
OJ Simpson is a bigger story because he was a
(09:11):
national celebrity to begin with, whereas the Heidi scandal is,
in many ways a small town story that has been
blown out to huge proportions because of its connection to Hollywood.
A guy named Aziz Mohammed, selling bootleg The Juice's Loose
shirts for the OJ trial outside the courthouse tells a
reporter he'd consider making T shirts for Heidi two, but Heidi,
(09:33):
of course, already has her own line of T shirts.
In September, Heidi goes to court ordered drug rehab. She's
tested positive six times in the last month, in violation
of the terms of her federal case. Her lawyer argues
that the drugs she tested positive for arn't hard drugs.
She has a prescription for Valuum, but she also tests
(09:54):
positive form methmphetamines. Heidi says someone spiked her Coca cola
with drugs at a birthday party. She's been in federal
custody in jail, but she's now moved from the Metropolitan
Detention Center to a rehab house in Pasadena called Impact House.
The trial is rescheduled to start on November first. The
(10:14):
La Times runs a story saying that Heidi Fleiss's celebrity
has already peaked and most people in town have moved
on to the oj case, which is happening two doors
down the hall. One person who does show up is
Norma Jean Almadovar, a former LAPD officer who became a
high end escort. She's there to promote her new book,
(10:36):
from Cop to Call Girl. I'm here to make sure
she gets a fair trial.
Speaker 7 (10:43):
In California, there's a tremendous prejudice against people in the
sex industry.
Speaker 6 (10:47):
Norma Jean Almodovar, sex worker former cop.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
On November eleventh, a jury is assembled for the pandering
and Cooke possession trial. One perspective jurr believes prostitutions should
be legal. Another thinks the Bible forbids it, which to
me says they didn't close read the Bible. The religious
potential juror is cut loose. Heidi has a team of
lawyers that includes Anthony Brooklier and Donald Marx, who are
(11:15):
looking into whether Detective Sammy Lee's sting was conducted illegally.
The four girls who are expected to testify against Heidi
after being busted in the sting are Kimberly Birch, Peggy Shink,
Samantha Burdette, and Brandy Maclain. Brandy has still been living
with Heidi on and off while working as a clerk
at the Heidiwear store. On November fifteenth, the courtroom hears
(11:38):
a tape of the sting that reveals what an absolute
slapstick fiasco it was. Heidi appears in court in a
blue suit with gold buttons furnished by her new outfitters,
Dulce and Gabbana. Her whole family is there, but Heidi
can barely face them. One of Heidi's lawyers, Donald Marx,
makes an opening argument that the sting was entrapmant. He
(12:00):
says the cops pursued Heidi and coerced her into committing
a criminal act. Heidi's lawyers file emotion with the judge,
arguing the case should be dropped because the Johns aren't
being prosecuted. November sixteenth, Heidi wears a black suit with
velvet cuffs. Alan Carter and Anthony Brookler examined Sammy Lee
(12:21):
on the stand.
Speaker 8 (12:24):
Each officer asked the young lady basically, for fifteen hundred dollars,
what would they get. The answers ranged from straight sex,
to oral sex to what they wouldn't do. Detective Sammy Lee,
Beverly Hills Police Department.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
The girls said, for that amount of money, you could
get oral or straight sex, but no anal sex.
Speaker 9 (12:48):
Heidi Flies didn't ask to be introduced to you. Correct,
It was your idea. You asked for her telephone number,
she didn't offer it.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Correct.
Speaker 9 (12:58):
If you don't content her, she probably never calls.
Speaker 10 (13:02):
You, but you do call.
Speaker 9 (13:04):
Correct. Anthony brook Layer Hidie Flice's defense.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Attorney on November seventeenth, Judge Judith L. Champagne rules that
it's irrelevant whether the Johns are charged. Later that day,
Samantha Burdett takes the stand in a mini skirt. Heidi
is wearing a gray pinstriped pilchain Gabana suit and appears
to be miserable. Burdette tells the story of the night
(13:30):
of the bust. She was offered fifteen hundred dollars to
meet some Hawaiian businessmen. She said she'd received anywhere between
one and ten thousand dollars for a job involving quote
sexual favors. Sammy Lee, undercover, asked for some cocaine, and
Burdette sold the officers two small bags of coke and
(13:50):
received cash for that on top of the fifteen hundred.
The men wanted her to do a dance, so she
started a strip tease, at which point Sammy Lee burst
back into the room to bust her. On November nineteenth,
the case rests. Heidi appears in court in a bone
white miniskirt suit again by Dulceangabana. In Old Town Pasadena
(14:13):
at the Hidiwear Store, business is brisk. According to a
Hidiwear store employee who goes by the nickname Squirrel, hidiwear
is quote moving like hotcakes. November twentieth, The La Times
runs a real estate story about how a Venice condo
where Heidi lived after moving out of the Beverly Hills mansion,
has sold for three hundred thousand dollars. The Venice condo
(14:36):
was owned by Paul Flice. They run this alongside a
story about how the condo in Brentwood where Nicole Brown
Simpson and Ron Goldman were murdered has been put back
on the market for seven hundred and ninety five thousand dollars.
The four bedroom condo can also be rented for five
thousand dollars a month. Absolute ghoulish shit, but what else
(14:58):
would you expect from the CA California housing market. November
twenty second, the trial resumes with Heidi's team showing the
video of the hotel room sting in its entirety, complete
with the undercover Asian American police officers speaking in terrible
fake Japanese accents. When Samantha Burdette gets on the bed
(15:19):
in her Red Song lingerie, the smoke alarm goes off
in the next room from the cups, who are watching
the action from a camera feed remotely in the room
next door while chainsmoking cigarettes. The video is often accidentally
funny and people start laughing in the courtroom, including Heidi,
who is wearing glasses and another suit. After the video,
(15:41):
Anthony Brookleier cross examines Detective Sammy Lee.
Speaker 9 (15:48):
This whole thing was a setup.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Correct.
Speaker 9 (15:51):
Correct, It was all arranged with the people in the
next room.
Speaker 8 (15:55):
Correct.
Speaker 9 (15:57):
Why did you need to hide a video camera in
the bedroom where Burdette disrobed?
Speaker 8 (16:05):
Anytime you have a vice operation, the videotape is good
both as evidence and regarding the conduct of the officer.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Of the four girls busted, all of whom flipped for immunity,
only two are called to the stand. Brandy McLain is absent,
as is Peggy Shank, who has fled with her young kid.
Samantha Burdette and Kimberly Birch both testified that they were
offered fifteen hundred each to go out on the job,
that this was a normal lower end rate for them,
(16:39):
and that Heidi took her forty percent cut. They were
shocked when the job turned out to be a setup.
Despite everyone in Hollywood freaking out that they'll be named,
no names of John's come out in court. Not only
are the powerful men who bought sex from Heidi protected
from the consequences, they don't even have to suffer the
mild embarrass of being outed as her clients. November twenty ninth,
(17:05):
closing arguments, Heidi wears a gray Dulce and Gabbana suit
and another pair of glasses. Carter argues against the idea
of entrapment, saying it's not entrapment if they would otherwise
go about committing this crime. Sure, the cops asked Heidi
for girls, but she could have gone off the strange
vibe in her gut that she was getting from Sammy
(17:27):
Lee and said no. That she readily agreed to procure
girls for quote niko Akai speaks to the fact that
this was something she does regularly. He compares Heidi to
a luxury car dealer hawking her wares.
Speaker 11 (17:43):
If Miss Flye was on trial for a speeding ticket,
the defense would say it's the government's fault because the
government built the highway. All detectively did was open up
the road. Miss Flice sped right down the road. Alan Carter.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
Prosecutor Anthony Brooklyar brings the focus back out to the
fact that Heidi is being prosecuted at all when violent
crimes constantly go unsolved in the city of Los Angeles.
Speaker 9 (18:11):
This is hypocrisy at its best. This is so serious,
isn't it? How serious does the prosecution or the law
really think this is when they never prosecute the mail customer.
Prostitution is legal in Nevada, just two hundred and fifty
miles away. It's a function of where you live as
to whether or not this is illegal. Yes, this is
(18:32):
technically a crime. So is spitting on the sidewalk. It's
not appropriate for law enforcement to induce the commission of
a crime. They're going to make this happen, Come what may.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
Brooklar calls the case an abuse of power by the cops,
a show of force for a victimless crime. Maybe not
the best use of twenty armed police officers and the
LA city budget. And he is appsol right. Alan Carter
almost gets it.
Speaker 11 (19:06):
Recently, there's been a new twist. It's a bad twist.
I did it, but it's somebody else's fault. Yeah, I
arranged for those women, but it's Detective Lee's fault. If
we travel down that road, you all better buckle up
and lock up real tight. Now, all of a sudden,
the defendant is no longer on trial. It's the police
officers who are on trial.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Heidi is facing a sentence of eleven years for pandering.
The jury is made up of five women and seven men.
They go off to deliberate on the last day of
November when Heidi World returns. How the jurors deliberated. Welcome
(20:13):
back to Heidie World December three. One of the jurors
is a woman named Shila Matrowski, a forty eight year
old phone company worker from Bell Gardens. Mitrowski says the
jury was evenly split at first on Heidi's guilt. Four
of the women and two of the men initially believed
(20:34):
Heidi should be acquitted. Nobody on the jury really buys
Tony Brooklier's argument about the sting being entrap meant. Four
days later, the jury comes back with their decision. Heidi
is convicted on three counts of pandering. They find her
not guilty of supplying the police with cocaine and reached
(20:55):
a checkmate on the other two pandering counts. Heidi puts
her head on the table as the judge reads the
first and second guilty verdicts, then sits back up and
slams the table with her fists. As the judge reads
the third guilty verdict, her father in the front row
of the courtroom also drops his head and starts weeping.
(21:15):
Alan Carter declares the trial a success, a triumph of morality.
Speaker 11 (21:23):
People who go into the prostitution business are usually pretty
sad souls, and they're exploited by panderas.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Judge Judith L. Champagne sets a sentencing date of January
twenty first. Jerry four Women. Sila Metrowski is informed that
Heidi could get as many as eight years in jail
with a mandatory minimum of three. Oh no, that's way
too much.
Speaker 7 (21:51):
You've got kids out on the streets dealing drugs for
crying out loud, and they get probation, Sila Motrowski. Jery
four woman.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
So close, Sheila, You're so close. Maria Campos, a thirty
eight year old hospital receptionist from Northeast LA, says the
Jerry watch tapes of the sting repeatedly and argued a lot.
Jur Nancy Reyes, a twenty four year old secretary from
Monterey Park, also seems regretful about the guilty verdict. When
she learns that Heidi will go to jail, she even
(22:25):
calls the cops overbearing.
Speaker 12 (22:29):
I don't think she should go to jail for it.
I just don't think it's fair that she has to
do time for something like this. It's upsetting. I mean, hey,
she didn't kill anybody.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Nancy Reyes, another juror comments to the press under a
promise of anonymity, that several jurors did feel that Flies
had been entrapped by the cops, but chose to bargain
with the jurors who could not be convinced rather than
come out with a hung jury. They didn't realize that
if Heidi had been con on the coke charge but
(23:01):
not on pandering, she'd have been eligible for probation. Pandering,
it turns out, is a much more serious charge given
the nondescriptly elegant name that they use, instead of pimping.
Speaker 4 (23:17):
I heard some of them talking afterward on TV, and
I couldn't believe it. They thought they were doing me
a favor by convicting me of pandering rather than the
drug charge. They thought I'd just get a ticket or something.
Heidi Flies.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Other jurors like forty two year old Department of Water
and Power worker Darryl Kittagawa, believe firmly that justice was
served and that the police did not act inappropriately. After
the conviction, Heidie's bail is set at seventy five thousand dollars,
which she posts and flees to a condo in Santa Monica.
(23:55):
There is no more hoping for a good outcome. Her
entire world shattered.
Speaker 6 (24:02):
I'm still in shock.
Speaker 4 (24:05):
Oh my heart has never beaten so fast. I heard
them say guilty on the first count, and then I
just couldn't hear anymore. I just went blank. My father
was crying. He said to me, be strong and think
of something positive. I can't even think.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Her mother, Alyssa, gives a comment to the press about
how Heidi is being punished too harshly, referencing the Menendez
brothers and the cops who beat Rodney King.
Speaker 10 (24:37):
There's something flawed about people who can't decide about the
guilt or innocence of admitted parent killers, and people shone
on cam I smashing the head of someone else and
then find Heidi guilty. I just don't believe the good
of society has been served by putting Heidi in jail. Alyssa,
Heidi's mother.
Speaker 4 (24:59):
I don't care about anything but what's happening right now.
Even if the guys were going down to that wouldn't
help meet.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Would it. The media is disappointed by the lack of
big names revealed in the case. No new movie stars
were mentioned, or even any rich idiots. The only names
that ever came out were the ones blurted out to
Vanity Fair by Heidi Fleiss herself, which she immediately tried
to redact. The newspapers are inundated with letters, people calling
(25:30):
for the legalization of sex work, people calling for the
LAPD to focus on things like carjacking instead of watching
women undressed in hotel rooms. Some of the jurors go
on Heraldo to talk about the verdict, and Shila Metrowski
realizes when a legal expert explains entrapment that she did
not actually know what entrapment was during the trial.
Speaker 7 (25:56):
After I flew back home, I was sitting there watching
Heraldo on TV. I thought, holy cow, I did that wrong.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Matrowski also starts thinking about sex work and that forty
percent commission. She tries to put herself in Heidi Fly's
black leather boots.
Speaker 7 (26:19):
To me, there really and truly is that possibility. A
lot of people will do a lot of things for
that kind of money. I feel very badly. I feel
I made a mistake when I found her guilty of
those three counts.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
There's also gossip that Heidi has a new bow. Frank
Sinatra's son, Frank Sinatra Junior.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
I don't know how all this stuff gets started. Heidi
flies I befriended because she and I went through something
of the same nature, and when word reached the tabloids,
bless their little hearts, they decided here was something they
could make money with. They even had it in one
of the papers last weekend that she and I were
going to run off to Vegas and get married. That's
a lot of horse dump. Do you know what would
(27:06):
happen if she left LA right now? They'd lock her
up and throw away the key. She knows that, and
so do I. Frank Sinatra Junior.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Singer, December thirteenth, A Ray of Hope for Heidi. Five
jurors sign a statement saying they discuss the case improperly
outside the courtroom and didn't fully understand what they were doing.
Anthony Brooklyer wants to get Heidie's conviction overturned. With this statement,
gil Garcetti says, even if the verdict is overturned, Heidi
(27:38):
will be prosecuted again. Thinks a lot. Gil Anthony Brooklyar
is on the case.
Speaker 9 (27:46):
There were juror irregularities that occurred during the course of
the trial which deprived our client of a fair trial
and a true verdict. Though inadvertent, a real injustice has unfolded.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
But jurors changing their minds after a case ends isn't
enough to overturn it. It's the talking about the case
outside the courtroom that was more blatantly against protocol. The
jurors who were sympathetic to Heidi, like a man named
Joseph Lechuga, were concerned a retrial might give Heidi an
even worse sentence rather than a lighter one. But Heidi
(28:23):
is elated.
Speaker 4 (28:27):
My future was so bleak, so so bleak, and now
maybe there's another way.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
God am I happy.
Speaker 4 (28:38):
It takes a lot of courage for anybody to come
forward and admit they did something wrong.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
It's a very hard thing to do. Nineteen ninety five,
the mid nineties are here, and with them Heidi's fate.
Gil Garcetti is upset about LA's reputation as a place
where tawdry scandals involving famous people as all the media
cares about, so he invites local public television legend Chule
(29:07):
Houser to the LA Courthouse to show him what it's
really like boring, mostly incredibly boring. The episode airs as
part of Hulehauser's show Visiting on the night before the
oj Simpson trial begins. December thirtieth, Heidi turns twenty nine
years old. Happy Birthday, Heidi. January twenty sixth, The Victoria
(29:31):
Sellers catches a felony drug charge for that traffic stop
where she asked the cops to fetch her purse and
they searched it. She's booked for possession of methamphetamine for
sale and also for having the downer diazepam. She has
brought to court in Van Nuys and sentenced to thirteen
days in jail and three years probation. January thirty first,
(29:52):
Judge Champagne agrees to hear the jurors testimony. February fourth,
the jury gets limited imunie from being prosecuted for misconduct.
February twenty fourth with immunity granted. The jurors cop to
what is called quote unquote horse trading, dealing behind closed doors,
and bargaining on votes. Five of the jurors wrongly thought
(30:15):
that the drug charge was a heavier charge than pandering
and thought they were helping Heidi get a lighter sentence
by voting not guilty on the drug charges. They were wrong,
but furthermore, they were clearly all completely confused. Judge Champagne
gets mad at Jerry four women Shila Metrowski for not
reporting this to her when it was actually happening. Heidi
(30:36):
is at the courthouse watching wearing a gray turtleneck and
a gray skirt suit.
Speaker 4 (30:44):
It's really hard, very very hard.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
March first, Bernie Cornfeld dies. He had suffered a stroke
in December during a trip to Israel and dies of
pneumonia in a London hospital at the age of sixty six.
Cornfield and Heidi kept in touch long after their breakup,
and Heidi regarded him as both the mentor and perhaps
her great love. He was a hustler's hustler, which appealed
(31:12):
to heidi sents for moneymaking. Although he'd moved to Europe
in the late eighties to evade the Irs over a
twelve million dollar debt. He was still trying to do
crazy deals, like trying to buy MGM Studios in nineteen
ninety two with five hundred million dollars in cash. There
is also some evidence that he may have allegedly been
(31:32):
a CIA plant, fake rich guy, sort of like Jeffrey Epstein.
And I couldn't prove this obviously, but let's just say
the rabbit hole exists. March twenty fifth, Judge Judith EL
Champagne rejects the bid for a retrial and sets Heidi
sentencing for May. She is dubious about jurors claims that
(31:53):
they swapped votes.
Speaker 13 (31:56):
It is a parrot to the court that with each
opportunity to describe their acts of misconduct, these acts of
misconduct seemed to grow a little like Pinocchio's nose.
Speaker 11 (32:06):
Judge Judith L.
Speaker 7 (32:07):
Champagne, So we got a little comedian on the bench.
Sounded like she didn't believe us. But we wouldn't have
put ourselves on a limb to make the statements we
did if.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
We weren't telling the truth.
Speaker 7 (32:21):
I feel it's very unfair to Heidi.
Speaker 10 (32:27):
It's really tough.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
As desperate as Heidi might be, at least Heidiwear is
doing well. Chrissy Teagan, who followed me for some reason,
responded to one of my posts on Twitter announcing this podcast,
saying that her mom took her to the old town
Pasadena Hidiwear store when she was a kid to get
Heidie's autograph, which might make an impression on you about
(32:52):
how celebrity works. Heidiwear is selling like crazy, and Heidi
even wants to open a second Hidiwear store, but her
pesky meddling trials keep getting in the way. On May eleventh,
Paul Flices takes a plea bargain. After refusing previous offers.
He agrees to plead guilty to lesser charges to get
(33:12):
his sentence reduced. He wears a gray pinstriped suit in
court and has a nervous habit of smiling and tapping
his fingers.
Speaker 6 (33:22):
I was aware that she had a misdemeanor gambling conviction.
I was aware that she had income, but I had
no special knowledge.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
With the plea bargain, he is up for only four
to ten months in jail, which could conceivably be served
at home with an electronic bracelet. In his plea bargain,
Paul fly says he was aware that Heidie was working
in the sex business. According to the court, doctor Fliss
admitted that in nineteen ninety he knew Heidi was making
money illegally from a booky business. A third party, possibly
(33:56):
his daughter Shana, told him Heidi was running a call
roller range in nineteen ninety two, the year he led
her deposit seventy thousand dollars and two of his bank accounts.
Speaker 6 (34:07):
I love Heidi, She's my daughter. I love her very much.
I'm still quite worried about my daughter.
Speaker 11 (34:16):
I have my own problems.
Speaker 10 (34:19):
I have so many problems. This is just another example
of Paul's lovingness and his concerned for the family. Paul
did nothing wrong. He was just doing the expedient thing
for the sake of the family.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
In the plea bargain, Paul Flice admits to helping his
daughter even when he knew she was running an i
legal business. He helped her get a car loan to
buy her corvette by taking the loan out in his
name and taking cash from Heidie to pay it off,
and he also helped her get the million dollar home
loan for the Tower Grove estate by filling out the
loan application with falsified information, and.
Speaker 4 (35:02):
It's very difficult for a twenty five year old girl
to get a loan or insurance on.
Speaker 12 (35:09):
A core vat.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
He was doing what a lot of parents with money
do for their kids, for better or worse, almost always
for worse, and he didn't care about the possible illegality
of the money because he's a man of the seventies.
You can look at it as he just wanted to
help his daughter, or that he was spoiling her and
enabling her, helping her get the material goods that would
(35:35):
ensure her downfall, or both. It's complicated. On May nineteenth,
Heidi's lawyer in the irs case tries one last time
to get the charges dismissed. He argues that they're treating
his client like she's al capone. It does not work.
She's also up for sentencing in the pandering case for
somewhere between eighteen months and eight years. She is trapped
(35:59):
in a reality that is genuinely kafa esque. She knows
she's being used by the City of la by the
cops and the courts, and the district attorney to make
it look like they take action on crime, but she's
well aware that the seriousness of her crimes pales in
comparison to a billion other things, and from her previous
(36:19):
experiences with the cops after her friend Wendy Tarr was murdered,
she knows that the LAPD don't really do shit, especially
for victims of sexual assault.
Speaker 4 (36:30):
The whole thing is so ridiculous, especially right now with
everything going on in the world, like the prison overcrowding,
the bombing in Oklahoma City. To spend this much time
and money on me, it is crazy. I think I've
been punished enough.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
When Heidi World returns, Heidi faces sentencing and her future.
(37:19):
Welcome back to Heidi World. May fifth, Judgment day. Heidi
appears in court wearing a gray miniskirt suit. Judge Judith L.
Champagne has weighed the arguments made by Alan Carter for
the prosecution and Anthony brook Leer and his team for
(37:39):
her defense.
Speaker 11 (37:42):
We're dealing with someone who prays on the young, the naive.
She steers impressionable people in the wrong direction. That kind
of conduct needs to be punished.
Speaker 9 (37:56):
Your honor, No one was hurt in this case. No
one was coerced and no one operated under duress. All
my client did was arranged consensual sex between consenting adults.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
Judge Champagne sentences Heidi to three years for pandering and
finds her fifteen hundred dollars. Heidi shows no emotion in court, numb.
Speaker 7 (38:26):
It's like sex.
Speaker 11 (38:27):
It's the worst crime on earth.
Speaker 10 (38:29):
It's ridiculous.
Speaker 4 (38:31):
No one lost money, no one got hurt.
Speaker 13 (38:37):
This was a highly sophisticated and lucrative criminal enterprise. It
cannot be called a victimless crime. It's very degrading and
it does take its toll.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
Alan Carter had asked for four years for Heidi. Judge
Champagne opted for three, which is the shortest mandatory sentence
for pandering. Heidi's family is horrified, seeing this as a
miscarriage of justice.
Speaker 10 (39:04):
Seeing your child locked up is a nightmare. That's what
happens when they make laws one size fits all, They
indict people where it really is inappropriate.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
Heidi thinks Alan Carter is a total hypocrite who infantilizes
women for choosing sex work.
Speaker 4 (39:27):
He said they're stupid and I degraded them. He's the
one who's really bashing them.
Speaker 1 (39:36):
Heidi posts a two hundred thousand dollars bond and files
an appeal. She's allowed out on bail during the appeal,
which can take up to a year. May thirty first,
nineteen ninety five, Heidie opens a second Hidiewear store in
Santa Monica on the Third Street Promenade. The first Hidiwear
store has moved to a prime location in old Town Pasadena,
(39:59):
which is an open air mall that's like the grove
for people from the past. The best selling item at
both Heidiwear stores is the boxer shorts with the condom pocket.
June second, the La Times publishes some letters from people
who are angry about the city budget being spent on
the Heidi Flights trial at a time when hospitals are
in danger of closing down due to lack of funds.
(40:22):
People write into support Heidi, saying it's outrageous that she
might go to prison while the men who got her
in trouble walk away without a scratch. June ninth, the
judge in the federal case refuses to drop Heidi's charges.
June thirtieth, the opening day of the federal irs trial.
Speaker 4 (40:43):
I'm scared as hell, but I've got to remain optimistic.
Speaker 1 (40:50):
This time, some of the witnesses called our clients. The
first John to take the stand in the federal trial
is film and TV producer Howard Schlinker, former owner and
stakeholder and sports teams like the Denver Nuggets and the
Houston Rockets. He cops to writing five checks for a
total of seventeen thousand dollars to Heidi for sexual services rendered.
(41:12):
Manuel Santos, president of Dubisco, Mexico and real estate developer
from Monterrey, also testifies that he wrote checks totaling forty
thousand dollars for prostitutes from Heidi all through nineteen ninety two.
He says on the stand that he often sent his
private jet to pick up the Heidi girls and fly
them to Mexico. Christina Watkins, an actress from the San
(41:35):
Fernando Valley who worked for Heidi, testifies that she had
sex with clients in Las Vegas, Paris, and Greece. Two
girls confirmed that the money was often dispensed in cash envelopes,
which they'd bring to Heidi's house, where she'd take her
forty percent cut and give them the rest. Samantha Burdett
testifies that her first client wrote her a check for
(41:57):
seven thousand dollars for sex July eleventh. I had a
good run, Alex Fleming. Madam Madame Alex is laid up
at Cedar Syani Hospital in her beloved Beverly Hills. She
(42:17):
is only sixty years old, but she is dying. Complications
from heart surgery put her on life support. Despite their
contentious relationship, Heidi is devastated, as is another one of
Alex's longtime frenemies. It's like losing a friend.
Speaker 8 (42:37):
In all the years we've played cat and mouse, she
never once tried to corrupt me.
Speaker 12 (42:42):
Fred Klapp retired LPED Vice Officer.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
Madame Alex's health, which has been terrible for years, deteriorated
further and she ended up in the hospital and her deathbed. Heidi,
who despite it all, really did care for Madam Alex
in some way, went to visit her when she heard
that she was dying.
Speaker 4 (43:06):
When Alex was dying in the hospital, she listed me
as a family member. The hospital called me every day
at my Heidie wear store and wanted.
Speaker 11 (43:15):
To know what I was coming by.
Speaker 4 (43:18):
I stayed with her as much as I could. I
went out of my way to make her laugh and
feel better, and then something happened that brought back all
the terrible things that she had done to me. On
my way in the head nurse and the ICU showed
me a list of people who had.
Speaker 11 (43:32):
Been there that day.
Speaker 4 (43:34):
The name Detective Sammy Lee was on the list, and
it made me rethink what I was doing there.
Speaker 1 (43:44):
On the day that Heidi's federal trial begins, Madam Alex
dies when her life support is disconnected. Heidi has conflicting
feelings about her mentor's death. In her book Pandering, she
writes an open letter about Alex.
Speaker 4 (44:02):
I always loved and respected her, although at times she
made it difficult. I have said things in the past
that were unkind, but it was always a reaction to
some unbelievable act of betrayal on her part. Time after
time I would call her on the phone and forgive her.
I would act like nothing had happened between us. I
learned to understand that her extreme verbal abuse, paranoia, and
(44:25):
backstabbing was just who she was. I think Alex had
a bizarre kind of love for me, which justified the
terrible things she did to me. We had a close
relationship because of our business and complex lifestyles. No other
person could relate to the things we dealt with.
Speaker 11 (44:44):
We spoke on the phone.
Speaker 4 (44:45):
For hours and hours and hours every day for five years.
The only time we would not speak was when Alex
would do or say something evil to me and I
would have to take a break to deal with my feelings.
Speaker 1 (44:59):
Heidi then RecA something incredibly anti semitic. Alex said to
her that I do not have to repeat here, but
feel free to read the book. She says Alex was
a mass of contradictions. She demanded loyalty and silence, but
she was a paid police informant who talked about her
trade with the tabloids. In court, the federal judge orders
to the stand mister Charlie Sheen. Judy Geller is a
(45:23):
USC grad whose father is a prestigious San Francisco lawyer.
She was also a Heidi girl who went on fifty
plus out calls. She estimates Heidi's take at sixty thousand
a month and testifies that Charlie Sheen was a major customer.
She was sent out on calls to Schlenker, Santos, and Sheen.
(45:43):
Charlie Sheen is shooting a movie called Shadow Conspiracy in Washington,
d C. And plans to give his deposition on videotape.
He is granted immunity for testifying. July twentieth, an FBI
handwriting expert says Heighty forged her father and sister signatures
on ESCRO documents and checks from clients. Special Agent William
(46:06):
Hellman compared handwriting samples and says that Heidi didn't even
attempt to hide her handwriting while forging the checks. July
twenty first, the.
Speaker 2 (46:18):
Checks were for sexual services hetero sexual services Charlie Sheen actor.
Speaker 1 (46:27):
The jurors watched the Charlie Sheen tape No, not the
sex tape of Charlie Sheen with Heidi girls that also existed.
The deposition he taped while filming on location in DC.
A sweaty, fidgety Sheene SIPs ice water on screen while
he admits to ordering girls from Heidi that he paid
for in cash at least twenty seven times from nineteen
(46:49):
ninety one to nineteen ninety three. The seven checks used
in court total fifty thousand dollars. Sheen says he is
now engaged to a model named Donna Peel. He claims
under oath he cannot remember the names of any of
the Heidi girls he spent time with, even the ones
he repeatedly proposed to. He also says he never gave
(47:11):
money to Heidi, just her employees. He puts out a statement.
Speaker 2 (47:17):
I apologize to my family, my future wife, my close
friends for all embarrassment these incidents may have cussed. I
offer no other explanation for my actions, only the truth,
which is contained in every detail within my testimony. I
(47:37):
wouldn't call it the past if it wasn't.
Speaker 1 (47:43):
Shana Flies is also called to the stand to testify
against her sister, but starts weeping. Shana tries to make
eye contact with Heidi, who stares down at her feet
and can't look at her sister in the eye. Shana
says she's incapable of testifying against her sister, striking a
blow to the prosecution who were expecting her to be
(48:05):
a star witness. Blood is thicker than water. District Judge
Consuelo B. Marshall, who is presiding over the federal trial,
holds Shane of flices in contempt of court and puts
her on house arrest. July twenty second, Heidi's mother, Alyssa,
(48:26):
ashe testifies that the Fly's family is so close they
share money and bank accounts pretty freely, the way people
now share Netflix accounts.
Speaker 10 (48:36):
Sometimes we forget who owes what to whom.
Speaker 1 (48:43):
The irs doesn't care. Assistant US Attorney Alejandro Majorca says
Heidi needs to quote pull her load, which is an
amazing choice of words. Majorca says Flies should work as
hard at paying her tax debt to the US government
as she did at building her prostitution business. August eleventh,
(49:03):
nineteen ninety five, Heidi is convicted in her federal trial
on six counts of money laundering, one count of conspiracy,
and one count of tax evasion. Wearing another tandalchain gabana suit,
Heidie starts weeping when the verdict is announced. Once again,
the jury seems unsure of what exactly they're doing. A
(49:25):
journ named Deona Watson feels immediate regret, saying that John
should have at least been prosecuted too. Jay Leno, who
is at the peak of his run of O. J.
Simpson material during the other big LA trial, makes time
for one last joke about Heidie Fwie, whose truthfulness stings.
Speaker 9 (49:46):
I think the woman of the point when a woman
in the rest of her prostitution.
Speaker 10 (49:50):
She jailed.
Speaker 11 (49:52):
You know what happens to a man, It's reelected.
Speaker 1 (49:56):
O September, first, Heidi is having dinner with friends at
the Ivy at the shore. One of her friends is
doctor Stephen Hofflin, who is Michael Jackson's plastic surgeon. After dinner,
they take a walk down the Santa Monica Peer when
they hear a loud splash followed by a man screaming
(50:18):
for his life in the water. Steve Hoflin jumps in
the water and rescues the suicidal drowning man.
Speaker 12 (50:24):
Well.
Speaker 1 (50:24):
Heidi runs to call nine to one to one from
a payphone.
Speaker 12 (50:29):
Steve didn't even think twice.
Speaker 4 (50:31):
He dove in with his wallet and beeper and everything.
Speaker 1 (50:37):
Heidi runs into the piers arcade and finds the harbor patrol,
who take a rescue boat out and are able to
save the suicidal man's life. Also in September, Charlie Sheen
gets married. He weds Don Appeal in Malibu. At Paul
(50:58):
Flice's hearing in a courthouse packed with his friends and supporters,
Doctor Paul Flis receives word he will get a one
day sentence with probation now for yet another crazy story
about another crazy guy that will make sense why I'm
telling it when I get to the very end. A
(51:21):
music executive known as good Time Charlie Minor is shot
to death by a spurned girlfriend at his beach house
in Malibu. Charlie Minor is known for hosting all night
parties every Saturday and for his constant revolving door of
beautiful young women in bikinis. He's the king of what's
called payola, where record companies ply radio programmers with money
(51:44):
and sometimes even drugs, and call girls if they agree
to play certain records on the air. Miner helped promote
stars like Janet Jackson and Sting to the top of
the charts, but he had fallen in status and was
now working for the music payola magazine Hits. Coincidentally, I
had my first ever internship in the media business at
(52:04):
age forty seven. Good Time Charlie was allegedly trying to
cut back on his hard partying lifestyle. He quit doing
drugs and cut down on drinking, but he had one
remaining vice. Sex. His friends called him a womanizer and
a natural promoter who enjoyed his life to the very
fullest and like Heidi and Madame Alex. Charlie Minor was
(52:28):
known for his ability to work the phones. Susette McClure
was a twenty seven year old exotic dancer who Charlie
Minor met at a Westside strip club called Bailey's twenty
twenty Gentleman's Club when he was there taking out some
radio programmers. One night, Susette McLure showed up at the
Beach House without calling first and found Minor with another woman.
(52:50):
When he said he didn't want to see her again,
she shot him in the head nine times. McClure's friends
say that she was a smart, sensitive cal poly pomonagraph
to it who became a topless dancer when her aerospace
job at the Howard Hughes Aircraft Plant in Long Beach
was downsized by post Cold War budget cuts. Why am
I telling you this story, you might wonder yet again,
(53:13):
because good time. Charlie Minor allegedly also had Heidi Fleich's
number in his rolodex. The focus of the Heidi flight's
investigation was mostly the film industry, but would it be
even a little bit surprising if music industry execs were
also involved. Anyway, the death had nothing to do with
(53:33):
Heidi's operation. It was just connected back to everyone knowing
each other. October nineteen ninety five, BBC producer director Nick
Brimfield's documentary about Heidi, called Heidi Flys Hollywood Madam airs
on Cinemax. Heidi attends the runway shows at California's Fashion
(53:53):
Expo to promote heidiwear in advance of her jail sentence.
She sits for a show from a line called misk
short from Miscellaneous, where one of the outfits is modeled
by another woman who used the fact that she was
once the center of a big scandal in La to
forge a career as a sort of professional celebrity and actress.
(54:15):
Tracy Lord's Heidiflies is now thirty years old and headed
to jail. Even her family can't help her now as
she prepares to face her fate, but there remains a
lingering sense among the public that justice has not really
(54:38):
been served here. The show trial of Heidi Flies has
backfired on the LAPD when it comes to the court
of public opinion, but it has achieved its ultimate goal
to scare and silence sex workers. Next time on Heidi World,
(55:05):
Heidi gets out of jail and finds new fame in
the burgeoning genre of reality television. Meanwhile, her cousin Mike
Flice invents and gets rich off, creating a new reality
show about choosing a beautiful woman out of a lineup
of beautiful women, called The Bachelor,
Live from Los Angeles.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Yeah, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presents Oscars
the sixty six, and you will look Academy.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Award gentlemen, your host of the sixty six, then you
will look Academy Awards.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Whooecbert Dahoman, This mini show biz executive, so nervous, sweat
and over one woman's society Fly honey.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Yeah. Previously on Heidi World, Heidi Flis's trial has captured
the world at the moment when television channels like Court
TV are creating the twenty four hour content cycle with
other LA trials like The Menandez Brothers and OJ Simpson.
But Heidi's crimes are only arguably even crimes in a
(01:02):
crooked system that prosecutes sex workers and criminalizes sex work.
Welcome to Heidi World, Chapter eight. Heidiwear. Heidi Pioneer's personal
(01:27):
branding and cash is in on the scandal with her
own line of branded Sleepwaar the mid nineties. Welcome back
to Heidie World. I'm your host, Molly Lambert. It's nineteen
ninety four. Heidie's estate in the hills above LA has
(01:50):
sold for just under its one point eight million dollar listing.
Heidi has moved out of the house and is trying
to keep her location off the grid to avoid more
media attention. The Tower Grove mansion is bought by an
Italian named Federico Pignatelli, whose fortune comes from manufacturing laser
(02:10):
dental products in San Clemente. Heidiflice is still the subject
on everyone's lips. In July of nineteen ninety four, at
long last, Heidi is able to unveil physical prototypes of
her new clothing line of sleepwear and casual accessories, Heidiwear.
(02:31):
The first ever Heidiwear store opens in Pasadena. A tan
and relaxed looking Heidi is there manning the Hidiwear counter
herself and offering to autograph any item in the store,
which sells the infamous Hidiwear boxers with the condom pocket,
as well as T shirts, leggings, and tank tops with
prices that top out at thirty bucks. It's a branded
(02:54):
capsule collection and ahead of its time notion that will
eventually take over sleepware and streetwear and lead the world
to where we have Savage by Fenti, a capsule collection
of lingerie sold to me by a famous person. There
is also Get This, a hotline you can call to
order stuff from heidiwar. The number is one eight hundred
(03:16):
Heidi PJ. Obviously I called it to see what happens now,
and the answer is it's a sex party hot line.
And because I am a podcast defective, I wondered what
(03:36):
happened when you call other old hot lines? So I
called the hot line one eight seven seven Team Her,
which is the hot line that Paul Thomas Anderson made
an infomercial for in a stunt to promote Magnolia, which
starred Tom Cruise as Frank TJ. Mackie, a seduction artist character.
Let's just say that I called the number a lot
at that time, and it gave you a pre recorded
(03:58):
message of Tom Cruise as Frank TJ. McKee inviting you
into the seduce and destroy universe. Well, anyway, I guess what
happens when you call it now? You get the same
sex party line that you get when you call the
Hidiewear number. Isn't that beautiful? I also called the JJ
the Beeper King Hotline and found out you got the
(04:19):
same sex party line there, which is very satisfying. It
means that there's some company out there who is buying
up all the old hotlines for people who don't have
the Internet that still call sex hotlines like me. While
Heidi is ringing up the boxers at the Hidiwear store,
she and her father are getting their bells rung over
(04:42):
potential tax fraud. To get Heidi the loan for the
wildly expensive house, doctor Paul Flices had lied and inflated
his income. He had also said that he would live
on the property when he was really living at a
property in Venice. The irs claims that Paul Flies helped
his do her hide assets and inflated his own income
(05:03):
when he co signed the loan, that he listed Heidi
as a dependent making thirty three thousand dollars a year
on his nineteen ninety two tax return on income he
said he partially furnished. The indictment also claims Heidi had
given checks from clients to her father and younger sister
Shana to deposit for her part Heidie starts up and
(05:25):
down that her parents truly believed that she was working
as a realtor and counselor, and that they found out
what she actually did for a living at the same
time the rest of the world did. Now, it's very
possible that doctor Paul Fwis didn't know how much money
his daughter was actually making or what exactly she was
doing to make it, So why did he offer to
(05:47):
go in with her on the house? Who knows he
loved his daughter and wanted her to have whatever she wanted.
A lot of rich parents co signed loans for their kids,
especially to buy property, but still wouldn't The crazy price
tag on the house signaled to Paul, who was very smart,
that something was up. Shana Flace thinks her parents were
(06:08):
in denial.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
They knew, but they didn't want to know.
Speaker 5 (06:14):
It was like, we won't ask, and you don't have
to tell.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Shana flies if Heidi was telling them she was working
as a realtor maybe they just thought she was getting
a really good deal, but the irs disagreed. In August
of nineteen ninety four, Heidi and her father, Paul Flicce,
plead not guilty to the federal charges of tax evasion
(06:39):
and money laundering. It's just weeks before Heidi's other trial
for pandering.
Speaker 6 (06:47):
If anyone should be embarrassed by all this, it should
be the government for charging Heidie with a victimless crime
and bringing these very peculiar charges against me. I don't
know why they're bringing this case. I didn't do anything.
Paul Fleish, pediatrician.
Speaker 5 (07:05):
I don't think Dad knew what he was getting into.
Dad probably said, why would anyone loan you this money
when I'm a doctor and I couldn't get a loan
like that, And it was probably like, just sign the
papers and watch me, Dad, I'll get the loan.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Shana Flice is not doing well herself. She has been
told she might be called into the case as well
for cashing checks from Heidi. She loves her sister, but
her sister is also the one who got her in
a car wreck that almost killed her and might now
drag her into a criminal case. As Heidi becomes one
of the most notorious women in the world, her sister
(07:42):
Shana starts dabbling with heroine, first snorting, then smoking it,
and finally shooting up. After trying to go cold turkey twice,
she goes to a rehab facility. She's working a job
at a preschool that her dad helped her get, but emotionally,
Shana is still struggling with the turmoil of her family
breaking down so publicly. The trial of O. J. Simpson
(08:28):
for the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman
is said to happen on the same day as Heidie's
pandering trial on September nineteenth, at the same place, the
downtown Los Angeles Criminal Courthouse. Everyone is salivating over what
some are calling the tabloid super Bowl. The courthouse says
(08:50):
it's a coincidence. Heidi's August trial was postponed because her
lawyer had another trial scheduled. Some think the judges behind
the Heidi trial pushed its date to verge with the
OJ trial, figuring the OJ trial will take some of
the media glare off of Heidi. Local journalists agree that
OJ Simpson is a bigger story because he was a
(09:11):
national celebrity to begin with, whereas the Heidi scandal is,
in many ways a small town story that has been
blown out to huge proportions because of its connection to Hollywood.
A guy named Aziz Mohammed, selling bootleg The Juice's Loose
shirts for the OJ trial outside the courthouse tells a
reporter he'd consider making T shirts for Heidi two, but Heidi,
(09:33):
of course, already has her own line of T shirts.
In September, Heidi goes to court ordered drug rehab. She's
tested positive six times in the last month, in violation
of the terms of her federal case. Her lawyer argues
that the drugs she tested positive for arn't hard drugs.
She has a prescription for Valuum, but she also tests
(09:54):
positive form methmphetamines. Heidi says someone spiked her Coca cola
with drugs at a birthday party. She's been in federal
custody in jail, but she's now moved from the Metropolitan
Detention Center to a rehab house in Pasadena called Impact House.
The trial is rescheduled to start on November first. The
(10:14):
La Times runs a story saying that Heidi Fleiss's celebrity
has already peaked and most people in town have moved
on to the oj case, which is happening two doors
down the hall. One person who does show up is
Norma Jean Almadovar, a former LAPD officer who became a
high end escort. She's there to promote her new book,
(10:36):
from Cop to Call Girl. I'm here to make sure
she gets a fair trial.
Speaker 7 (10:43):
In California, there's a tremendous prejudice against people in the
sex industry.
Speaker 6 (10:47):
Norma Jean Almodovar, sex worker former cop.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
On November eleventh, a jury is assembled for the pandering
and Cooke possession trial. One perspective jurr believes prostitutions should
be legal. Another thinks the Bible forbids it, which to
me says they didn't close read the Bible. The religious
potential juror is cut loose. Heidi has a team of
lawyers that includes Anthony Brooklier and Donald Marx, who are
(11:15):
looking into whether Detective Sammy Lee's sting was conducted illegally.
The four girls who are expected to testify against Heidi
after being busted in the sting are Kimberly Birch, Peggy Shink,
Samantha Burdette, and Brandy Maclain. Brandy has still been living
with Heidi on and off while working as a clerk
at the Heidiwear store. On November fifteenth, the courtroom hears
(11:38):
a tape of the sting that reveals what an absolute
slapstick fiasco it was. Heidi appears in court in a
blue suit with gold buttons furnished by her new outfitters,
Dulce and Gabbana. Her whole family is there, but Heidi
can barely face them. One of Heidi's lawyers, Donald Marx,
makes an opening argument that the sting was entrapmant. He
(12:00):
says the cops pursued Heidi and coerced her into committing
a criminal act. Heidi's lawyers file emotion with the judge,
arguing the case should be dropped because the Johns aren't
being prosecuted. November sixteenth, Heidi wears a black suit with
velvet cuffs. Alan Carter and Anthony Brookler examined Sammy Lee
(12:21):
on the stand.
Speaker 8 (12:24):
Each officer asked the young lady basically, for fifteen hundred dollars,
what would they get. The answers ranged from straight sex,
to oral sex to what they wouldn't do. Detective Sammy Lee,
Beverly Hills Police Department.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
The girls said, for that amount of money, you could
get oral or straight sex, but no anal sex.
Speaker 9 (12:48):
Heidi Flies didn't ask to be introduced to you. Correct,
It was your idea. You asked for her telephone number,
she didn't offer it.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Correct.
Speaker 9 (12:58):
If you don't content her, she probably never calls.
Speaker 10 (13:02):
You, but you do call.
Speaker 9 (13:04):
Correct. Anthony brook Layer Hidie Flice's defense.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Attorney on November seventeenth, Judge Judith L. Champagne rules that
it's irrelevant whether the Johns are charged. Later that day,
Samantha Burdett takes the stand in a mini skirt. Heidi
is wearing a gray pinstriped pilchain Gabana suit and appears
to be miserable. Burdette tells the story of the night
(13:30):
of the bust. She was offered fifteen hundred dollars to
meet some Hawaiian businessmen. She said she'd received anywhere between
one and ten thousand dollars for a job involving quote
sexual favors. Sammy Lee, undercover, asked for some cocaine, and
Burdette sold the officers two small bags of coke and
(13:50):
received cash for that on top of the fifteen hundred.
The men wanted her to do a dance, so she
started a strip tease, at which point Sammy Lee burst
back into the room to bust her. On November nineteenth,
the case rests. Heidi appears in court in a bone
white miniskirt suit again by Dulceangabana. In Old Town Pasadena
(14:13):
at the Hidiwear Store, business is brisk. According to a
Hidiwear store employee who goes by the nickname Squirrel, hidiwear
is quote moving like hotcakes. November twentieth, The La Times
runs a real estate story about how a Venice condo
where Heidi lived after moving out of the Beverly Hills mansion,
has sold for three hundred thousand dollars. The Venice condo
(14:36):
was owned by Paul Flice. They run this alongside a
story about how the condo in Brentwood where Nicole Brown
Simpson and Ron Goldman were murdered has been put back
on the market for seven hundred and ninety five thousand dollars.
The four bedroom condo can also be rented for five
thousand dollars a month. Absolute ghoulish shit, but what else
(14:58):
would you expect from the CA California housing market. November
twenty second, the trial resumes with Heidi's team showing the
video of the hotel room sting in its entirety, complete
with the undercover Asian American police officers speaking in terrible
fake Japanese accents. When Samantha Burdette gets on the bed
(15:19):
in her Red Song lingerie, the smoke alarm goes off
in the next room from the cups, who are watching
the action from a camera feed remotely in the room
next door while chainsmoking cigarettes. The video is often accidentally
funny and people start laughing in the courtroom, including Heidi,
who is wearing glasses and another suit. After the video,
(15:41):
Anthony Brookleier cross examines Detective Sammy Lee.
Speaker 9 (15:48):
This whole thing was a setup.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Correct.
Speaker 9 (15:51):
Correct, It was all arranged with the people in the
next room.
Speaker 8 (15:55):
Correct.
Speaker 9 (15:57):
Why did you need to hide a video camera in
the bedroom where Burdette disrobed?
Speaker 8 (16:05):
Anytime you have a vice operation, the videotape is good
both as evidence and regarding the conduct of the officer.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Of the four girls busted, all of whom flipped for immunity,
only two are called to the stand. Brandy McLain is absent,
as is Peggy Shank, who has fled with her young kid.
Samantha Burdette and Kimberly Birch both testified that they were
offered fifteen hundred each to go out on the job,
that this was a normal lower end rate for them,
(16:39):
and that Heidi took her forty percent cut. They were
shocked when the job turned out to be a setup.
Despite everyone in Hollywood freaking out that they'll be named,
no names of John's come out in court. Not only
are the powerful men who bought sex from Heidi protected
from the consequences, they don't even have to suffer the
mild embarrass of being outed as her clients. November twenty ninth,
(17:05):
closing arguments, Heidi wears a gray Dulce and Gabbana suit
and another pair of glasses. Carter argues against the idea
of entrapment, saying it's not entrapment if they would otherwise
go about committing this crime. Sure, the cops asked Heidi
for girls, but she could have gone off the strange
vibe in her gut that she was getting from Sammy
(17:27):
Lee and said no. That she readily agreed to procure
girls for quote niko Akai speaks to the fact that
this was something she does regularly. He compares Heidi to
a luxury car dealer hawking her wares.
Speaker 11 (17:43):
If Miss Flye was on trial for a speeding ticket,
the defense would say it's the government's fault because the
government built the highway. All detectively did was open up
the road. Miss Flice sped right down the road. Alan Carter.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
Prosecutor Anthony Brooklyar brings the focus back out to the
fact that Heidi is being prosecuted at all when violent
crimes constantly go unsolved in the city of Los Angeles.
Speaker 9 (18:11):
This is hypocrisy at its best. This is so serious,
isn't it? How serious does the prosecution or the law
really think this is when they never prosecute the mail customer.
Prostitution is legal in Nevada, just two hundred and fifty
miles away. It's a function of where you live as
to whether or not this is illegal. Yes, this is
(18:32):
technically a crime. So is spitting on the sidewalk. It's
not appropriate for law enforcement to induce the commission of
a crime. They're going to make this happen, Come what may.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
Brooklar calls the case an abuse of power by the cops,
a show of force for a victimless crime. Maybe not
the best use of twenty armed police officers and the
LA city budget. And he is appsol right. Alan Carter
almost gets it.
Speaker 11 (19:06):
Recently, there's been a new twist. It's a bad twist.
I did it, but it's somebody else's fault. Yeah, I
arranged for those women, but it's Detective Lee's fault. If
we travel down that road, you all better buckle up
and lock up real tight. Now, all of a sudden,
the defendant is no longer on trial. It's the police
officers who are on trial.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Heidi is facing a sentence of eleven years for pandering.
The jury is made up of five women and seven men.
They go off to deliberate on the last day of
November when Heidi World returns. How the jurors deliberated. Welcome
(20:13):
back to Heidie World December three. One of the jurors
is a woman named Shila Matrowski, a forty eight year
old phone company worker from Bell Gardens. Mitrowski says the
jury was evenly split at first on Heidi's guilt. Four
of the women and two of the men initially believed
(20:34):
Heidi should be acquitted. Nobody on the jury really buys
Tony Brooklier's argument about the sting being entrap meant. Four
days later, the jury comes back with their decision. Heidi
is convicted on three counts of pandering. They find her
not guilty of supplying the police with cocaine and reached
(20:55):
a checkmate on the other two pandering counts. Heidi puts
her head on the table as the judge reads the
first and second guilty verdicts, then sits back up and
slams the table with her fists. As the judge reads
the third guilty verdict, her father in the front row
of the courtroom also drops his head and starts weeping.
(21:15):
Alan Carter declares the trial a success, a triumph of morality.
Speaker 11 (21:23):
People who go into the prostitution business are usually pretty
sad souls, and they're exploited by panderas.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Judge Judith L. Champagne sets a sentencing date of January
twenty first. Jerry four Women. Sila Metrowski is informed that
Heidi could get as many as eight years in jail
with a mandatory minimum of three. Oh no, that's way
too much.
Speaker 7 (21:51):
You've got kids out on the streets dealing drugs for
crying out loud, and they get probation, Sila Motrowski. Jery
four woman.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
So close, Sheila, You're so close. Maria Campos, a thirty
eight year old hospital receptionist from Northeast LA, says the
Jerry watch tapes of the sting repeatedly and argued a lot.
Jur Nancy Reyes, a twenty four year old secretary from
Monterey Park, also seems regretful about the guilty verdict. When
she learns that Heidi will go to jail, she even
(22:25):
calls the cops overbearing.
Speaker 12 (22:29):
I don't think she should go to jail for it.
I just don't think it's fair that she has to
do time for something like this. It's upsetting. I mean, hey,
she didn't kill anybody.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Nancy Reyes, another juror comments to the press under a
promise of anonymity, that several jurors did feel that Flies
had been entrapped by the cops, but chose to bargain
with the jurors who could not be convinced rather than
come out with a hung jury. They didn't realize that
if Heidi had been con on the coke charge but
(23:01):
not on pandering, she'd have been eligible for probation. Pandering,
it turns out, is a much more serious charge given
the nondescriptly elegant name that they use, instead of pimping.
Speaker 4 (23:17):
I heard some of them talking afterward on TV, and
I couldn't believe it. They thought they were doing me
a favor by convicting me of pandering rather than the
drug charge. They thought I'd just get a ticket or something.
Heidi Flies.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Other jurors like forty two year old Department of Water
and Power worker Darryl Kittagawa, believe firmly that justice was
served and that the police did not act inappropriately. After
the conviction, Heidie's bail is set at seventy five thousand dollars,
which she posts and flees to a condo in Santa Monica.
(23:55):
There is no more hoping for a good outcome. Her
entire world shattered.
Speaker 6 (24:02):
I'm still in shock.
Speaker 4 (24:05):
Oh my heart has never beaten so fast. I heard
them say guilty on the first count, and then I
just couldn't hear anymore. I just went blank. My father
was crying. He said to me, be strong and think
of something positive. I can't even think.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Her mother, Alyssa, gives a comment to the press about
how Heidi is being punished too harshly, referencing the Menendez
brothers and the cops who beat Rodney King.
Speaker 10 (24:37):
There's something flawed about people who can't decide about the
guilt or innocence of admitted parent killers, and people shone
on cam I smashing the head of someone else and
then find Heidi guilty. I just don't believe the good
of society has been served by putting Heidi in jail. Alyssa,
Heidi's mother.
Speaker 4 (24:59):
I don't care about anything but what's happening right now.
Even if the guys were going down to that wouldn't
help meet.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Would it. The media is disappointed by the lack of
big names revealed in the case. No new movie stars
were mentioned, or even any rich idiots. The only names
that ever came out were the ones blurted out to
Vanity Fair by Heidi Fleiss herself, which she immediately tried
to redact. The newspapers are inundated with letters, people calling
(25:30):
for the legalization of sex work, people calling for the
LAPD to focus on things like carjacking instead of watching
women undressed in hotel rooms. Some of the jurors go
on Heraldo to talk about the verdict, and Shila Metrowski
realizes when a legal expert explains entrapment that she did
not actually know what entrapment was during the trial.
Speaker 7 (25:56):
After I flew back home, I was sitting there watching
Heraldo on TV. I thought, holy cow, I did that wrong.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Matrowski also starts thinking about sex work and that forty
percent commission. She tries to put herself in Heidi Fly's
black leather boots.
Speaker 7 (26:19):
To me, there really and truly is that possibility. A
lot of people will do a lot of things for
that kind of money. I feel very badly. I feel
I made a mistake when I found her guilty of
those three counts.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
There's also gossip that Heidi has a new bow. Frank
Sinatra's son, Frank Sinatra Junior.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
I don't know how all this stuff gets started. Heidi
flies I befriended because she and I went through something
of the same nature, and when word reached the tabloids,
bless their little hearts, they decided here was something they
could make money with. They even had it in one
of the papers last weekend that she and I were
going to run off to Vegas and get married. That's
a lot of horse dump. Do you know what would
(27:06):
happen if she left LA right now? They'd lock her
up and throw away the key. She knows that, and
so do I. Frank Sinatra Junior.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Singer, December thirteenth, A Ray of Hope for Heidi. Five
jurors sign a statement saying they discuss the case improperly
outside the courtroom and didn't fully understand what they were doing.
Anthony Brooklyer wants to get Heidie's conviction overturned. With this statement,
gil Garcetti says, even if the verdict is overturned, Heidi
(27:38):
will be prosecuted again. Thinks a lot. Gil Anthony Brooklyar
is on the case.
Speaker 9 (27:46):
There were juror irregularities that occurred during the course of
the trial which deprived our client of a fair trial
and a true verdict. Though inadvertent, a real injustice has unfolded.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
But jurors changing their minds after a case ends isn't
enough to overturn it. It's the talking about the case
outside the courtroom that was more blatantly against protocol. The
jurors who were sympathetic to Heidi, like a man named
Joseph Lechuga, were concerned a retrial might give Heidi an
even worse sentence rather than a lighter one. But Heidi
(28:23):
is elated.
Speaker 4 (28:27):
My future was so bleak, so so bleak, and now
maybe there's another way.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
God am I happy.
Speaker 4 (28:38):
It takes a lot of courage for anybody to come
forward and admit they did something wrong.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
It's a very hard thing to do. Nineteen ninety five,
the mid nineties are here, and with them Heidi's fate.
Gil Garcetti is upset about LA's reputation as a place
where tawdry scandals involving famous people as all the media
cares about, so he invites local public television legend Chule
(29:07):
Houser to the LA Courthouse to show him what it's
really like boring, mostly incredibly boring. The episode airs as
part of Hulehauser's show Visiting on the night before the
oj Simpson trial begins. December thirtieth, Heidi turns twenty nine
years old. Happy Birthday, Heidi. January twenty sixth, The Victoria
(29:31):
Sellers catches a felony drug charge for that traffic stop
where she asked the cops to fetch her purse and
they searched it. She's booked for possession of methamphetamine for
sale and also for having the downer diazepam. She has
brought to court in Van Nuys and sentenced to thirteen
days in jail and three years probation. January thirty first,
(29:52):
Judge Champagne agrees to hear the jurors testimony. February fourth,
the jury gets limited imunie from being prosecuted for misconduct.
February twenty fourth with immunity granted. The jurors cop to
what is called quote unquote horse trading, dealing behind closed doors,
and bargaining on votes. Five of the jurors wrongly thought
(30:15):
that the drug charge was a heavier charge than pandering
and thought they were helping Heidi get a lighter sentence
by voting not guilty on the drug charges. They were wrong,
but furthermore, they were clearly all completely confused. Judge Champagne
gets mad at Jerry four women Shila Metrowski for not
reporting this to her when it was actually happening. Heidi
(30:36):
is at the courthouse watching wearing a gray turtleneck and
a gray skirt suit.
Speaker 4 (30:44):
It's really hard, very very hard.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
March first, Bernie Cornfeld dies. He had suffered a stroke
in December during a trip to Israel and dies of
pneumonia in a London hospital at the age of sixty six.
Cornfield and Heidi kept in touch long after their breakup,
and Heidi regarded him as both the mentor and perhaps
her great love. He was a hustler's hustler, which appealed
(31:12):
to heidi sents for moneymaking. Although he'd moved to Europe
in the late eighties to evade the Irs over a
twelve million dollar debt. He was still trying to do
crazy deals, like trying to buy MGM Studios in nineteen
ninety two with five hundred million dollars in cash. There
is also some evidence that he may have allegedly been
(31:32):
a CIA plant, fake rich guy, sort of like Jeffrey Epstein.
And I couldn't prove this obviously, but let's just say
the rabbit hole exists. March twenty fifth, Judge Judith EL
Champagne rejects the bid for a retrial and sets Heidi
sentencing for May. She is dubious about jurors claims that
(31:53):
they swapped votes.
Speaker 13 (31:56):
It is a parrot to the court that with each
opportunity to describe their acts of misconduct, these acts of
misconduct seemed to grow a little like Pinocchio's nose.
Speaker 11 (32:06):
Judge Judith L.
Speaker 7 (32:07):
Champagne, So we got a little comedian on the bench.
Sounded like she didn't believe us. But we wouldn't have
put ourselves on a limb to make the statements we
did if.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
We weren't telling the truth.
Speaker 7 (32:21):
I feel it's very unfair to Heidi.
Speaker 10 (32:27):
It's really tough.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
As desperate as Heidi might be, at least Heidiwear is
doing well. Chrissy Teagan, who followed me for some reason,
responded to one of my posts on Twitter announcing this podcast,
saying that her mom took her to the old town
Pasadena Hidiwear store when she was a kid to get
Heidie's autograph, which might make an impression on you about
(32:52):
how celebrity works. Heidiwear is selling like crazy, and Heidi
even wants to open a second Hidiwear store, but her
pesky meddling trials keep getting in the way. On May eleventh,
Paul Flices takes a plea bargain. After refusing previous offers.
He agrees to plead guilty to lesser charges to get
(33:12):
his sentence reduced. He wears a gray pinstriped suit in
court and has a nervous habit of smiling and tapping
his fingers.
Speaker 6 (33:22):
I was aware that she had a misdemeanor gambling conviction.
I was aware that she had income, but I had
no special knowledge.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
With the plea bargain, he is up for only four
to ten months in jail, which could conceivably be served
at home with an electronic bracelet. In his plea bargain,
Paul fly says he was aware that Heidie was working
in the sex business. According to the court, doctor Fliss
admitted that in nineteen ninety he knew Heidi was making
money illegally from a booky business. A third party, possibly
(33:56):
his daughter Shana, told him Heidi was running a call
roller range in nineteen ninety two, the year he led
her deposit seventy thousand dollars and two of his bank accounts.
Speaker 6 (34:07):
I love Heidi, She's my daughter. I love her very much.
I'm still quite worried about my daughter.
Speaker 11 (34:16):
I have my own problems.
Speaker 10 (34:19):
I have so many problems. This is just another example
of Paul's lovingness and his concerned for the family. Paul
did nothing wrong. He was just doing the expedient thing
for the sake of the family.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
In the plea bargain, Paul Flice admits to helping his
daughter even when he knew she was running an i
legal business. He helped her get a car loan to
buy her corvette by taking the loan out in his
name and taking cash from Heidie to pay it off,
and he also helped her get the million dollar home
loan for the Tower Grove estate by filling out the
loan application with falsified information, and.
Speaker 4 (35:02):
It's very difficult for a twenty five year old girl
to get a loan or insurance on.
Speaker 12 (35:09):
A core vat.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
He was doing what a lot of parents with money
do for their kids, for better or worse, almost always
for worse, and he didn't care about the possible illegality
of the money because he's a man of the seventies.
You can look at it as he just wanted to
help his daughter, or that he was spoiling her and
enabling her, helping her get the material goods that would
(35:35):
ensure her downfall, or both. It's complicated. On May nineteenth,
Heidi's lawyer in the irs case tries one last time
to get the charges dismissed. He argues that they're treating
his client like she's al capone. It does not work.
She's also up for sentencing in the pandering case for
somewhere between eighteen months and eight years. She is trapped
(35:59):
in a reality that is genuinely kafa esque. She knows
she's being used by the City of la by the
cops and the courts, and the district attorney to make
it look like they take action on crime, but she's
well aware that the seriousness of her crimes pales in
comparison to a billion other things, and from her previous
(36:19):
experiences with the cops after her friend Wendy Tarr was murdered,
she knows that the LAPD don't really do shit, especially
for victims of sexual assault.
Speaker 4 (36:30):
The whole thing is so ridiculous, especially right now with
everything going on in the world, like the prison overcrowding,
the bombing in Oklahoma City. To spend this much time
and money on me, it is crazy. I think I've
been punished enough.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
When Heidi World returns, Heidi faces sentencing and her future.
(37:19):
Welcome back to Heidi World. May fifth, Judgment day. Heidi
appears in court wearing a gray miniskirt suit. Judge Judith L.
Champagne has weighed the arguments made by Alan Carter for
the prosecution and Anthony brook Leer and his team for
(37:39):
her defense.
Speaker 11 (37:42):
We're dealing with someone who prays on the young, the naive.
She steers impressionable people in the wrong direction. That kind
of conduct needs to be punished.
Speaker 9 (37:56):
Your honor, No one was hurt in this case. No
one was coerced and no one operated under duress. All
my client did was arranged consensual sex between consenting adults.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
Judge Champagne sentences Heidi to three years for pandering and
finds her fifteen hundred dollars. Heidi shows no emotion in court, numb.
Speaker 7 (38:26):
It's like sex.
Speaker 11 (38:27):
It's the worst crime on earth.
Speaker 10 (38:29):
It's ridiculous.
Speaker 4 (38:31):
No one lost money, no one got hurt.
Speaker 13 (38:37):
This was a highly sophisticated and lucrative criminal enterprise. It
cannot be called a victimless crime. It's very degrading and
it does take its toll.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
Alan Carter had asked for four years for Heidi. Judge
Champagne opted for three, which is the shortest mandatory sentence
for pandering. Heidi's family is horrified, seeing this as a
miscarriage of justice.
Speaker 10 (39:04):
Seeing your child locked up is a nightmare. That's what
happens when they make laws one size fits all, They
indict people where it really is inappropriate.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
Heidi thinks Alan Carter is a total hypocrite who infantilizes
women for choosing sex work.
Speaker 4 (39:27):
He said they're stupid and I degraded them. He's the
one who's really bashing them.
Speaker 1 (39:36):
Heidi posts a two hundred thousand dollars bond and files
an appeal. She's allowed out on bail during the appeal,
which can take up to a year. May thirty first,
nineteen ninety five, Heidie opens a second Hidiewear store in
Santa Monica on the Third Street Promenade. The first Hidiwear
store has moved to a prime location in old Town Pasadena,
(39:59):
which is an open air mall that's like the grove
for people from the past. The best selling item at
both Heidiwear stores is the boxer shorts with the condom pocket.
June second, the La Times publishes some letters from people
who are angry about the city budget being spent on
the Heidi Flights trial at a time when hospitals are
in danger of closing down due to lack of funds.
(40:22):
People write into support Heidi, saying it's outrageous that she
might go to prison while the men who got her
in trouble walk away without a scratch. June ninth, the
judge in the federal case refuses to drop Heidi's charges.
June thirtieth, the opening day of the federal irs trial.
Speaker 4 (40:43):
I'm scared as hell, but I've got to remain optimistic.
Speaker 1 (40:50):
This time, some of the witnesses called our clients. The
first John to take the stand in the federal trial
is film and TV producer Howard Schlinker, former owner and
stakeholder and sports teams like the Denver Nuggets and the
Houston Rockets. He cops to writing five checks for a
total of seventeen thousand dollars to Heidi for sexual services rendered.
(41:12):
Manuel Santos, president of Dubisco, Mexico and real estate developer
from Monterrey, also testifies that he wrote checks totaling forty
thousand dollars for prostitutes from Heidi all through nineteen ninety two.
He says on the stand that he often sent his
private jet to pick up the Heidi girls and fly
them to Mexico. Christina Watkins, an actress from the San
(41:35):
Fernando Valley who worked for Heidi, testifies that she had
sex with clients in Las Vegas, Paris, and Greece. Two
girls confirmed that the money was often dispensed in cash envelopes,
which they'd bring to Heidi's house, where she'd take her
forty percent cut and give them the rest. Samantha Burdett
testifies that her first client wrote her a check for
(41:57):
seven thousand dollars for sex July eleventh. I had a
good run, Alex Fleming. Madam Madame Alex is laid up
at Cedar Syani Hospital in her beloved Beverly Hills. She
(42:17):
is only sixty years old, but she is dying. Complications
from heart surgery put her on life support. Despite their
contentious relationship, Heidi is devastated, as is another one of
Alex's longtime frenemies. It's like losing a friend.
Speaker 8 (42:37):
In all the years we've played cat and mouse, she
never once tried to corrupt me.
Speaker 12 (42:42):
Fred Klapp retired LPED Vice Officer.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
Madame Alex's health, which has been terrible for years, deteriorated
further and she ended up in the hospital and her deathbed. Heidi,
who despite it all, really did care for Madam Alex
in some way, went to visit her when she heard
that she was dying.
Speaker 4 (43:06):
When Alex was dying in the hospital, she listed me
as a family member. The hospital called me every day
at my Heidie wear store and wanted.
Speaker 11 (43:15):
To know what I was coming by.
Speaker 4 (43:18):
I stayed with her as much as I could. I
went out of my way to make her laugh and
feel better, and then something happened that brought back all
the terrible things that she had done to me. On
my way in the head nurse and the ICU showed
me a list of people who had.
Speaker 11 (43:32):
Been there that day.
Speaker 4 (43:34):
The name Detective Sammy Lee was on the list, and
it made me rethink what I was doing there.
Speaker 1 (43:44):
On the day that Heidi's federal trial begins, Madam Alex
dies when her life support is disconnected. Heidi has conflicting
feelings about her mentor's death. In her book Pandering, she
writes an open letter about Alex.
Speaker 4 (44:02):
I always loved and respected her, although at times she
made it difficult. I have said things in the past
that were unkind, but it was always a reaction to
some unbelievable act of betrayal on her part. Time after
time I would call her on the phone and forgive her.
I would act like nothing had happened between us. I
learned to understand that her extreme verbal abuse, paranoia, and
(44:25):
backstabbing was just who she was. I think Alex had
a bizarre kind of love for me, which justified the
terrible things she did to me. We had a close
relationship because of our business and complex lifestyles. No other
person could relate to the things we dealt with.
Speaker 11 (44:44):
We spoke on the phone.
Speaker 4 (44:45):
For hours and hours and hours every day for five years.
The only time we would not speak was when Alex
would do or say something evil to me and I
would have to take a break to deal with my feelings.
Speaker 1 (44:59):
Heidi then RecA something incredibly anti semitic. Alex said to
her that I do not have to repeat here, but
feel free to read the book. She says Alex was
a mass of contradictions. She demanded loyalty and silence, but
she was a paid police informant who talked about her
trade with the tabloids. In court, the federal judge orders
to the stand mister Charlie Sheen. Judy Geller is a
(45:23):
USC grad whose father is a prestigious San Francisco lawyer.
She was also a Heidi girl who went on fifty
plus out calls. She estimates Heidi's take at sixty thousand
a month and testifies that Charlie Sheen was a major customer.
She was sent out on calls to Schlenker, Santos, and Sheen.
(45:43):
Charlie Sheen is shooting a movie called Shadow Conspiracy in Washington,
d C. And plans to give his deposition on videotape.
He is granted immunity for testifying. July twentieth, an FBI
handwriting expert says Heighty forged her father and sister signatures
on ESCRO documents and checks from clients. Special Agent William
(46:06):
Hellman compared handwriting samples and says that Heidi didn't even
attempt to hide her handwriting while forging the checks. July
twenty first, the.
Speaker 2 (46:18):
Checks were for sexual services hetero sexual services Charlie Sheen actor.
Speaker 1 (46:27):
The jurors watched the Charlie Sheen tape No, not the
sex tape of Charlie Sheen with Heidi girls that also existed.
The deposition he taped while filming on location in DC.
A sweaty, fidgety Sheene SIPs ice water on screen while
he admits to ordering girls from Heidi that he paid
for in cash at least twenty seven times from nineteen
(46:49):
ninety one to nineteen ninety three. The seven checks used
in court total fifty thousand dollars. Sheen says he is
now engaged to a model named Donna Peel. He claims
under oath he cannot remember the names of any of
the Heidi girls he spent time with, even the ones
he repeatedly proposed to. He also says he never gave
(47:11):
money to Heidi, just her employees. He puts out a statement.
Speaker 2 (47:17):
I apologize to my family, my future wife, my close
friends for all embarrassment these incidents may have cussed. I
offer no other explanation for my actions, only the truth,
which is contained in every detail within my testimony. I
(47:37):
wouldn't call it the past if it wasn't.
Speaker 1 (47:43):
Shana Flies is also called to the stand to testify
against her sister, but starts weeping. Shana tries to make
eye contact with Heidi, who stares down at her feet
and can't look at her sister in the eye. Shana
says she's incapable of testifying against her sister, striking a
blow to the prosecution who were expecting her to be
(48:05):
a star witness. Blood is thicker than water. District Judge
Consuelo B. Marshall, who is presiding over the federal trial,
holds Shane of flices in contempt of court and puts
her on house arrest. July twenty second, Heidi's mother, Alyssa,
(48:26):
ashe testifies that the Fly's family is so close they
share money and bank accounts pretty freely, the way people
now share Netflix accounts.
Speaker 10 (48:36):
Sometimes we forget who owes what to whom.
Speaker 1 (48:43):
The irs doesn't care. Assistant US Attorney Alejandro Majorca says
Heidi needs to quote pull her load, which is an
amazing choice of words. Majorca says Flies should work as
hard at paying her tax debt to the US government
as she did at building her prostitution business. August eleventh,
(49:03):
nineteen ninety five, Heidi is convicted in her federal trial
on six counts of money laundering, one count of conspiracy,
and one count of tax evasion. Wearing another tandalchain gabana suit,
Heidie starts weeping when the verdict is announced. Once again,
the jury seems unsure of what exactly they're doing. A
(49:25):
journ named Deona Watson feels immediate regret, saying that John
should have at least been prosecuted too. Jay Leno, who
is at the peak of his run of O. J.
Simpson material during the other big LA trial, makes time
for one last joke about Heidie Fwie, whose truthfulness stings.
Speaker 9 (49:46):
I think the woman of the point when a woman
in the rest of her prostitution.
Speaker 10 (49:50):
She jailed.
Speaker 11 (49:52):
You know what happens to a man, It's reelected.
Speaker 1 (49:56):
O September, first, Heidi is having dinner with friends at
the Ivy at the shore. One of her friends is
doctor Stephen Hofflin, who is Michael Jackson's plastic surgeon. After dinner,
they take a walk down the Santa Monica Peer when
they hear a loud splash followed by a man screaming
(50:18):
for his life in the water. Steve Hoflin jumps in
the water and rescues the suicidal drowning man.
Speaker 12 (50:24):
Well.
Speaker 1 (50:24):
Heidi runs to call nine to one to one from
a payphone.
Speaker 12 (50:29):
Steve didn't even think twice.
Speaker 4 (50:31):
He dove in with his wallet and beeper and everything.
Speaker 1 (50:37):
Heidi runs into the piers arcade and finds the harbor patrol,
who take a rescue boat out and are able to
save the suicidal man's life. Also in September, Charlie Sheen
gets married. He weds Don Appeal in Malibu. At Paul
(50:58):
Flice's hearing in a courthouse packed with his friends and supporters,
Doctor Paul Flis receives word he will get a one
day sentence with probation now for yet another crazy story
about another crazy guy that will make sense why I'm
telling it when I get to the very end. A
(51:21):
music executive known as good Time Charlie Minor is shot
to death by a spurned girlfriend at his beach house
in Malibu. Charlie Minor is known for hosting all night
parties every Saturday and for his constant revolving door of
beautiful young women in bikinis. He's the king of what's
called payola, where record companies ply radio programmers with money
(51:44):
and sometimes even drugs, and call girls if they agree
to play certain records on the air. Miner helped promote
stars like Janet Jackson and Sting to the top of
the charts, but he had fallen in status and was
now working for the music payola magazine Hits. Coincidentally, I
had my first ever internship in the media business at
(52:04):
age forty seven. Good Time Charlie was allegedly trying to
cut back on his hard partying lifestyle. He quit doing
drugs and cut down on drinking, but he had one
remaining vice. Sex. His friends called him a womanizer and
a natural promoter who enjoyed his life to the very
fullest and like Heidi and Madame Alex. Charlie Minor was
(52:28):
known for his ability to work the phones. Susette McClure
was a twenty seven year old exotic dancer who Charlie
Minor met at a Westside strip club called Bailey's twenty
twenty Gentleman's Club when he was there taking out some
radio programmers. One night, Susette McLure showed up at the
Beach House without calling first and found Minor with another woman.
(52:50):
When he said he didn't want to see her again,
she shot him in the head nine times. McClure's friends
say that she was a smart, sensitive cal poly pomonagraph
to it who became a topless dancer when her aerospace
job at the Howard Hughes Aircraft Plant in Long Beach
was downsized by post Cold War budget cuts. Why am
I telling you this story, you might wonder yet again,
(53:13):
because good time. Charlie Minor allegedly also had Heidi Fleich's
number in his rolodex. The focus of the Heidi flight's
investigation was mostly the film industry, but would it be
even a little bit surprising if music industry execs were
also involved. Anyway, the death had nothing to do with
(53:33):
Heidi's operation. It was just connected back to everyone knowing
each other. October nineteen ninety five, BBC producer director Nick
Brimfield's documentary about Heidi, called Heidi Flys Hollywood Madam airs
on Cinemax. Heidi attends the runway shows at California's Fashion
(53:53):
Expo to promote heidiwear in advance of her jail sentence.
She sits for a show from a line called misk
short from Miscellaneous, where one of the outfits is modeled
by another woman who used the fact that she was
once the center of a big scandal in La to
forge a career as a sort of professional celebrity and actress.
(54:15):
Tracy Lord's Heidiflies is now thirty years old and headed
to jail. Even her family can't help her now as
she prepares to face her fate, but there remains a
lingering sense among the public that justice has not really
(54:38):
been served here. The show trial of Heidi Flies has
backfired on the LAPD when it comes to the court
of public opinion, but it has achieved its ultimate goal
to scare and silence sex workers. Next time on Heidi World,
(55:05):
Heidi gets out of jail and finds new fame in
the burgeoning genre of reality television. Meanwhile, her cousin Mike
Flice invents and gets rich off, creating a new reality
show about choosing a beautiful woman out of a lineup
of beautiful women, called The Bachelor,
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