Heidi+Fleiss

Catherine Weyand ** Heidi Fleiss  **


 * Childhood**
 * Heidi Fleiss was born to Paul and Elissa Fleiss in 1965. She has two older adopted sisters, Kim and Amy, a younger sister named Shana, and two younger brothers named Jason and Jesse (Hubler, 1995). By the time she was 19 she was dating a 57 year-old multi-millionaire but the relationship didn’t last. She claims her ex-boyfriend won all of their fights because he used her lack of career and experience against her, which she then used as a reason to push herself into getting a real estate license. Her real estate career introduced her to a different lifestyle than she was used to, and led her to meet Madame Alex, who quickly introduced Heidi to the world of call-girls and prostitution (Labi, 2003). **

Fleiss was introduced to a famous madame, Madame Alex Adams, at Hollywood nightclub Helena, owned by Jack Nicholson’s former housekeeper (Levi, 2008). She quickly started to work for Madame Alex and had her first customer at the young age of 22, “ My first john—I was then 22—was gorgeous. I would have slept with him for free if I had met him in a bar or on a blind date. We had a great night, and I made $3,000 after Madam Alex's 40-percent cut was deducted from my fee” (Labi, 2003). Her work as a call-girl did not last long, because Fleiss cared more about the business end of the work, rather than the actual sexual part. As she worked with Madame Alex Fleiss began to see major flaws in the way that she was running her business. Heidi decided to combine the business skills and client list that she had acquired from Alex along with the rich people she had met through her ex-boyfriend and set out to start a rival prostitution ring (Levi, 2008).
 * Introduction to Prostitution **

Fleiss’ business grew in popularity mostly due to word of mouth. Her first customer was a Swiss business man with whom she set up with a few girls for one night in Los Angeles. From then on she had a consistent flow of business from some of the richest men in the world. Even on days that Fleiss considered unsucce  ssful she was still making as least $10,000 in a 24-hour period. The women that worked for Fleiss were mostly just friends that she had made while working with Madame Alex. The rules of her trade were that Fleiss pocketed 40% of every deal plus 40% of any tips there were over $1,000 (King, 2002). After only four months in the business Fleiss had made her first million dollars (Labi, 2003). She originally started working out of a nightclub called On the Rocks which was owned by her friend Victoria Sellers, daughter of actor Peter Sellers. Word got out that Fleiss was there on certain nights, so if customers wanted to place an order with her they could meet her there to discuss it. Regular clients of Fleiss’ could also call her up to request a girl, and Heidi would fly the girls to wherever her clients needed them to be. Fleiss was also very carefully when talking to customers and taking notes on what they needed. She made sure never to mention or allude to the fact that she was selling sex, and always referred to her services as “a nice evening” (King, 2002).
 * Becoming a Mad ****  ame  **

** Arrest and Trial  ** Fleiss was arrested in June 1993 for running her call-girl service and was arraigned in Los Angeles on five counts of pandering (prostitution) and one count of selling cocaine. Later on in her federal trial she was also charged with conspiracy, tax fraud, and money laundering (“Heidi Fleiss,” n.d.). She was eventually sentenced to three years in prison, three years of supervised release, 300 hours of community service, mandatory attendance at a substance abuse program, and a $400 dollar fine. Those penalties resulted from the federal charges of tax evasion, conspiracy, and money laun dering, but did not include the pandering charge (Hubler, 1997). Her court case was an extremely high-profile case due to the pop ularity of the clients she claimed to have listed in a little black book, a piece of information that had many celebrities throughout Hollywood extremely nervous. The most notorious client of Fleiss’ that was revealed during court proceedings was actor Charlie Sheen, who personally testified in court that he had paid over $50,000 for escorts from Fleiss that charged as much as $2,500 for one night (“Heidi Fleiss,” n.d.). Sheen was heard saying in his defense that when a person does business with a call-girl it doesn’t involve paying for sex, it’s paying for the girl to leave afterwards (Levy, 2008). Fleiss spent three years in prison in Dublin, California and was released to a halfway house after only serving two years for good behavior (“Heidi Fleiss,” n.d.).

After her release from prison Fleiss continued to work in the sex industry, only under more legal terms. She has written several books such as __Pandering__ and __The Player’s Handbook__ (“Then and Now: Heidi Fleiss”, 2005). She even created a DVD with friend Victoria Sellers called “Sex Tips with Heidi Fleiss and Victoria Sellers”, which offers details how to run a prostitution ring (“Heidi Fleiss,” n.d.). Fleiss currently runs a laundromat called “Dirty Laundry,” which she opened in 2007. Located in Pahrump, Nevada, a town about an hour outside of Las Vegas, the laundromat is situated in the middle of the town’s only mall (Lalama, 2007). Fleiss is running the laundromat as a source of income while planning to open her own brothel in a nearby town. Her brothel plans hit a snag while she was trying to secure the proper permits because of legal issues surrounding another brothel owner who was caught bribing public officials. Fleiss intends to open a stud ranch, where the workers are males appealing to female customers. Although her idea has been met with skepticism and criticism, Fleiss argues that she has had enough interest from potential clients to show that it would be income-producing, as well as plenty of interest from potential employees (Lalama, 2007).
 * Life After Prison **

“Heidi Fleiss”. (n.d.). Retrieved April 10, 2011 from http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/misc/heidi-fleiss/
 * Reference List ** :

Heidi Fleiss [photograph] (1993). Retrieved April 11, 2011 from http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,336909,00.html

Heidi Fleiss [photograph] (1995). Retrieved April 11, 2011 from http://www.nydailynews.com/news/galleries/the_oldest_profession/the_oldest_profession.html

Hubler, S. (1997). Fleiss Sentenced to 37 Months for Tax Evasion. // Los Angeles Times //. Retrieved April 10, 2011 from http://articles.latimes.com/1997-01-08/local/me-16452_1_heidi-fleiss/3

King, L. (Interviewer) & Fleiss, H. (Interviewee). (2002). // Life and Times of Heidi Fleiss //. Retrieved April 9, 2011 from http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0202/08/lkl.00.html

Labi, N. (Interviewer) & Fleiss, H. (Interviewee). (2003). // In Defense of Prostituion //. Retrieved April 9, 2011 from http://www.legalaffairs.org/issues/September-October-2003/feature_fleiss_sepoct03.msp

Lalama, P. (2007). Fleiss Opens ‘Dirty’ Laundromat. // Fox News //. Retrieved April 10, 2011 from http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,287652,00.html

Levy, A. (2008). The Once and Future Madame. // Elle //. Retrieved April 9, 2011 from http://www.elle.com/Life-Love/Sex-Relationships/The-Once-and-Future-Madam

“Then and Now: Heidi Fleiss”. (2005). // CNN //. Retrieved April 10, 2011 from http://articles.cnn.com/2005-02-28/us/cnn25.tan.fleiss_1_hollywood-madam-heidi-fleiss-madame-alex/2?_s=PM:US