Sophia Michaels
Since its debut in 2019, the investigative docuseries “The New York Times Presents” has explored some of the most high-profile stories in news and pop culture, from Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl wardrobe malfunction to the conservatorship of Britney Spears. The latest installment in the series, “Sin Eater: The Crimes of Anthony Pellicano,” dives into the life and work of “Hollywood Fixer” Anthony Pellicano, a private investigator who worked for some of Hollywood’s top lawyers, musicians, comedians, actors, and more from the 1980s to the early 2000s.
Born in a suburb of Chicago on March 22, 1944, Anthony Pellicano embraced a “tough guy” persona at a young age. After being kicked out of high school, he obtained his GED in the Army Signal Corps while working as a cryptographer. After his time in the army, Pellicano returned to Chicago, where he worked as a bill collector and became interested in detective work. He founded his own investigative business in 1969 and found over 3,000 missing persons by 1975.
In 1976, Pellicano’s reputation was tarnished when he was linked to the Italian-American mafia in Chicago after accepting a $30,000 loan from Paul de Lucia Jr., the son of mafia boss Paul Ricca. He moved to Los Angeles in 1983 and found his first job on the west coast assisting attorney Howard Weitzman in defending John Z. DeLorean. This collaboration was monumental for Pellicano, as he developed a friendship with Weitzman, who connected him with notable celebrity clients in Hollywood.
Pellicano quickly started working with several A-List celebrities, ranging from actors to musicians, such as Kevin Costner, Don Simpson, Brad Grey, Michael Orvitz, Michael Jackson, Chris Rock, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Roseanne Barr, and Garry Shandling. He is credited for his work in the 1993 molestation case against Michael Jackson and has claimed involvement in the Monica Lewinsky, O.J. Simpson, and Gennifer Flowers cases.
While working as a private investigator in Los Angeles, Pellicano quickly became known as the “Hollywood Fixer” due to the measures he would take to make the “problems” of his clients disappear. His tactics included bribing employees at local phone companies and members of the Los Angeles Police Department to wiretap the phones of his targets and illegally obtain information.
Pellicano had a lengthy run as Hollywood’s most treasured private investigator, but his success came to an end in 2002 when LA Times journalist Anita Busch was investigating a story that linked Orvitz to potentially accepting mob money to finance a movie featuring Steven Seagal. On June 20, 2002, Busch found a dead fish with a rose in its mouth on her cracked car windshield, with a cardboard sign that read “Stop” on it. She later told police that she believed her phones were tapped and her computer was hacked by Pellicano.
After an informant led investigators to Pellicano, FBI agents obtained a search warrant for his office in November 2002. During their search, they found explosives, two hand grenades, loaded pistols, and bundles of cash totaling about two hundred thousand dollars in his safe. Pellicano pled guilty in October 2003 to a felony count of possessing unregistered firearms and a felony charge of possessing C-4 explosives and was sentenced to 30 months for his crimes in January 2004. He was then indicted on 110 counts of charges that included: racketeering, wiretapping, bribery, destroying evidence, and perjury. On Dec. 15, 2008, Pellicano was found guilty on charges of wiretapping, racketeering, and wire fraud and was sentenced to 15 years in prison and ordered to pay a $2 million fine.
Pellicano was released from prison on March 22, 2019 and has since worked with Joel Silver in an arbitration case with Daryl Katz in 2021 and wrote “The Neighborhood,” a fictional crime novel inspired by his own life. He told Variety that most of his current work involves corporate disputes and occasional #MeToo cases.
Anthony Pellicano’s career and crimes are featured in “Sin Eater: The Crimes of Anthony Pellicano,” which is streaming on Hulu now.
