Anita Busch graduated from college and moved to Chicago where she worked as an editor and reporter for Advertising Age magazine. In 1990, she moved to Los Angeles to cover marketing for the entertainment trade paper The Hollywood Reporter before moving over as film editor/senior film reporter at Variety. She covered the entertainment industry for 14 years and has worked for The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Vanity Fair, Entertainment Weekly, JFK Jr.'s now defunct George, Premiere, L.A's NPR radio station and Time magazine. She also served as the editor of The Hollywood Reporter overseeing a staff of 100 people with reporters in about 20 countries. She retired from journalism after her life was threatened and her phones illegally wriretapped while a reporter at The Los Angeles Times. The criminal investigation led to the largest illegal wiretapping case in the history of the FBI and U.S. Attorney's office.
Those convicted under the RICO (racketeering/organized crime) act included "private investigator to the stars" and ringmaster Anthony Pellicano, a drug runner named Alexander Proctor who was caught on tape by the FBI saying that he was hired by Pellicano to blow up Busch's car, a dirty Los Angeles cop named Mark Arneson who accessed Busch's information illegally on law enforcement databases and sold it to Pellicano, a dirty Beverly Hills cop, Pacific Bell phone company workers who were paid by Pellicano to illegally wiretap Busch's phones, a former Hollywood Records executive, a computer whiz who developed the wiretapping equipment, a Las Vegas businessman, and the lawyer for billionaire businessman Kirk Kerkorian. The trial also exposed the Los Angeles Times' cozy relationship to Pellicano, who now is serving 15 years in federal prison on 76 counts. A dirty FBI agent was also arrested for illegally accessing information on Busch's case that ended up in the hands of Pellicano's lawyers prior to trial.
Busch testified in two federal criminal trials and must testify in the upcoming state criminal trial. She is not sure she will make it to the reunion.
Anita, this is amazing. What you've lived through is no less intriguing than the plot of a good Grisham novel. The Pelican Brief comes to mind for more than one reason.
ReplyDeleteYou have got to write a book about this. Given the circumstances of Pellicano's relationship with Hollywood however, I suppose the movie deal might be more difficult. Seriously, I bet the publishing houses and agents are beating your door down.
Needless to say, if I were a subscriber to the LATimes, you could be sure that I'd cancel immediately.
Good Luck,
Larry Johnson
Larry, I wish it had never happened. Why don't you post something about yourself on this blog? Anita
ReplyDeleteAnita:
ReplyDeletequite an interesting "read"....sounds like an "adventure" but one that obviously was rather scary. Hope this finds you well. Take Care. Katie Bakke (Becherer)
Katie, where are you? Give me your email address!!
ReplyDeleteHi Anita, wow that's quite a life..., thus far! I hope all is going well, and you feel safe these days. Anyhow, I took a trip down memory lane..., and I thought I remembered you being a cheerleader for Wrestling, were you not? Maybe it was just a dream (lol). In fairness my memory is a little fuzzy, since it would have been 30 plus years ago. Wow, how time flies! So I looked in the year book and saw no picture of you in the cheerleading section, but I did notice you were on more pages than anyone else. Then I saw you were Senior Editor (ah-ha), so now we know why. Just kidding Anita, the truth was..., you were pretty and popular and participated in a lot of school activities back then. I did see you were a Wrestling Sectional Queen, maybe that's what I recall. So you lived in Chicago, then LA. What state these days?
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