Heidi Rikan was an ex-stripper, working for the mob in Washington D.C. White House Call Girl tells how a call girl operation she was running at the time led to the Watergate break-in, which brought down Tricky Dick Nixon himself.
Though it's a fully sourced political non-fiction, it reads like a detective novel, full of prostitutes, mobsters, political operatives, and even football team players. And it's got plenty of evidence, including photos of an address book owned by the main call girl in question, chock full of very interesting phone numbers and addresses.
For forty years we've only heard the Woodward and Bernstein perspective on Watergate. Now we've got the photos. What's more, we've got Heidi's little black book.
I was drawn to this gossip filled book by the salacious cover photo of Heidi Rikan, a call girl who was a best friend of a woman named Maureen Kane. Ms. Kane later married John Dean, and the rest is history. All the President's Men bored me to tears and this one is not much better. As a Green Bay Packer fan, the highlight for me was a few names in Heidi's little black book. Paul Hornung, Donny Anderson and Max McGee are there amongst several other famous men. D. C. Has always been a cesspool of corruption and repulsive behavior and the cast of truly horrible people only reenforces this fact. White House Call Girl is not a good read.
Despite the somewhat quirky writing style, White House Call Girl delivers the goods. Phil Stanford had followed the story of the Columbia Plaza call girl ring for four decades, and his diligence yielded the address books kept by Heidi Rikan, the ring’s madam. Inside those address books was a Who’s Who of Washington political and sports figures. They included White House John Dean, Nixon campaign official Jeb Magruder and two influential members of the Senate Watergate Committee — Sen. Lowell Weicker and majority counsel Sam Dash.
Informative. I have heard the comments about the Infamous Watergate TAPES for years on end never really knew what was on them. Now I know. No wonder they all were trying hard to cut ties with each other. Unfortunately it probably still goes on they have just become a little better at covering it up. Thank goodness for private investigators and journalists at least it will keep them looking over their shoulders.
Need to reread, and get some historical context to decide on this. Overall, it's kind of seemy and exploitative, but who knows, maybe more truth then fiction.
I enjoyed the book quite a lot, albeit the story flowed disjointed at times. All the dots were connected including NFL players, the mob, double crosses, call girls and all were colorful in their own right. Aliases abound, books written by most of the players. Gotta couple in my queue now. The author did well going through decades of info and just recently released records that had been sealed for 40 years. Should you have any interest in Heidi, this would definitely be the one for you. Scattered tho it was, everything got buttoned up. Deep Throat, Dean, Woodward, no one is innocent. "Because we've got the photos. What's more, we've got Heidi's little black book".
Having grown up with Watergate and seeing the hearings and news reports on TV when I was a kid, this is an interesting look at what was possibly withheld from the public. I'm not calling the author's integrity into question but just because you read it, does not make it true. That said, I've always felt that there was way more to the Nixon scandal than what we've been lead to believe. The claims laid out in this book seem very plausible.
Interesting information about the call girl network and the support Characters from the White House, DC police and CIA It seems to me almost an afterthought. It does show the perpetrators profiting.
Good read..qell referenced, different take on the Watergate fiasco. Recommend reading Silent Coup as referenced in this book. Basic takeaway is Nixon got betrayed by his trust in his subordinates, who were screwed by John Dean...