Long before the Murdoch empire’s phone-hacking scandal, Anthony Pellicano was the private eye that stars feared (and used) most. In his first interview since going to prison, he reveals new details on spying for Schwarzenegger, clearing Cruise's name—and why he dumped Michael Jackson.
...the most explosive find in Pellicano’s office was a trove of thousands of transcripts and encrypted tapes of phone conversations he’d illegally tapped. Pellicano had designed a wiretapping program to intercept calls that he dubbed Telesleuth. Aided by several phone-company workers he employed, he installed taps in telephone junction boxes and at the main switchboard that were then connected via phone lines to the computers in Pellicano’s office and remote laptops...
The disgraced detective still insists that none of his clients knew anything about his wiretapping, in particular the high-powered lawyers, like Fields, who employed him. “I didn’t tell no one about the wiretapping,” he says. “I didn’t trust lawyers: they had an obligation to tell on me.” Still, he adds knowingly, “You can turn a blind eye, but 99 percent of the lawyers out there don’t care how the problem was solved.” (more)
