Looking Into the Theory behind Madam Heidi Fleiss’ Life of Crime
In society, prostitution is labeled as one of the oldest crimes in the world. It fills the streets and hotel rooms of cities all over the globe, bringing home income to sex workers daily. While the adult industry is considered taboo in the world today, it doesn’t stop an individual’s interest in the line of work. Some women and men choose the occupation of “prostitutes” or “streetwalkers”, while others choose to work the management portion, most commonly known as “pimps”. Back in 1990, Heidi Fleiss chose the lifestyle of arranging bookings, controlling prostitutes, and taking portions of worker’s earnings. Ultimately, she began her business through her profession as an upscale panderer.
Heidi Fleiss is a criminal best known as the “Hollywood Madam” of an upper class prostitution ring that provided services to elite clients such as Charlie Sheen. Before her life of crime, Heidi was born and raised in Los Angeles, California by her parents Paul and Elissa Fleiss. They brought all six of their children up with sixties values, implementing the quote “Do your own thing.” Heidi seemed to have a great childhood, but a bump came in the road when her parents decided to get a divorce. Paul and Elissa Fleiss divorced sometime when Heidi was between the ages of 10 and 16. She always had a close relationship with her father, so Heidi decided to live with him after the split. While living with Paul, Heidi dropped out of high school, received her high school equivalency, and then headed to college. Not long after Fleiss went to obtain an education and work as a waitress, her life took a major turn.
In 1987, Fleiss then began directing a prostitution ring under an established brothel-keeper named Madam Alex before she started her own. It is said that Heidi and Madam Alex had a very close relationship, almost like mother-daughter. Even though they cared about each other, Madam Alex was often abusive to Fleiss. Since Heidi wanted to be an expert at the business, she began prostituting for a small period of time so that she could learn all about the adult industry. During the time, Heidi was figuring out that she was leading Madam Alex’s business. Madam Alex’s staff was coming to a scarcity, as workers were getting older and wanting to retire from the business. This gave Heidi the ability to assist Madam Alex by recruiting younger women for their staff. Through her new professional connection, Fleiss met Hungarian film director Ivan Nagy who she dated at the age of 22. Ivan was an older man who was wealthy and knowing Heidi’s past it’s no surprise that she would be interested in him. Before dating Ivan, Heidi was in a relationship with capitalist Bernie Cornfeld who was one of the richest men in the world. Fleiss was introduced to his wealthy lifestyle, and quickly fell in love with it. Cornfeld treated her to lavish vacations, and luxury gifts thinking this would keep Heidi with him. The couple’s relationship ended up being very brief, due to the fact that Bernie wouldn’t be monogamous.
However, Fleiss’ relationship with Ivan was different. He seemed to really care about her and had her best interest at heart in the beginning. Ivan Nagy was very much in love with Heidi and frequently expressed his feelings to her. He wanted to help her straighten her life out by helping her leave the industry, and putting their lives together. In the middle of the relationship, Ivan encouraged Heidi to stop working for Madam Alex, so she then left the job. After leaving, Madam Alex interfered with Fleiss’ relationship with Nagy, by insisting that Heidi go back to work. Fleiss went back to Madam Alex for a couple of weeks before she started her own business.
In 1990, Fleiss left Alex and started her own prostitution ring. She conducted her call girls at a mansion in Beverly Hills, bringing in over a million dollars a year. As a madam, Heidi became quickly successful claiming that in her first four months, she made one million dollars. After a while her business became so popular and profitable, that she started rejecting girls that didn’t meet standards. Most of Heidi’s clientele were Arabians that wanted young blonde females that are described as “the girl next door” in California. The majority of clients wanted normal sex, but every now and then Heidi’s girls would get requests for unusual acts. Heidi and her staff tried their best to stay discreet, but it unfortunately didn’t work out.
Since prostitution was strictly illegal in California, it was no surprise that Heidi would get caught. In 1993, Fleiss was arrested for pandering and tax evasion. Pandering also means “pimping” and she was charged with tax evasion for not paying taxes on her business. The trial consisted of audio recordings and undercover police videos. Fleiss was facing up to eleven years, but she was sentenced to just 37 months. Out of those 37 months, she only served 21 with federal charges filed at a bail of one million dollars. Heidi claims that Ivan was the person who called the police, but Ivan states that he did not. Fleiss said that Ivan would turn her in because she went back to work with Madam Alex, and he didn’t appreciate that. This left Heidi with angry emotions towards Ivan, and upset that her prostitution ring had now come to an end. Even though Fleiss got caught, she didn’t seem too concerned about the dilemma she was in. She was too busy raging at and about Ivan, and how he turned her into the police.
Six weeks after Heidi was arrested, Ivan Nagy was arrested for drugs but was never charged. At this point, everyone began ganging up on Ivan for legal reasons, including Madam Alex and Heidi. Because of this, Fleiss didn’t want to be seen in public with Ivan. She would even leave instructions at the door of her apartment saying that Ivan was not welcome there. It had came out into the light that it was Ivan’s intention to get Heidi to steal the business from Madam Alex, and that he was claiming that he didn’t know that Heidi was hooking. Everyone else thought that Nagy was charming, but Madam Alex thought otherwise. Alex said that Ivan used to physically abuse Heidi and that once he even traced her neck with a knife. In a documentary called Heidi Fleiss: Hollywood Madam, Ivan was asked what he thought of Madam Alex, he said “Well for one thing she’s a drug addict, and she’s probably one of the most horrible human beings I’ve ever met in my life.” Alex and Nagy haven’t had a good relationship since the beginning, especially when Nagy didn’t want Heidi working for Alex anymore. Because of this, Madam Alex made allegations that he sold Heidi to her for 500 dollars, and Ivan thought it was ridiculous because he was already wealthy.
Altogether, I concluded that the theories that Heidi Fleiss possessed was mainly a mix of Rational Choice Theory and Social Learning Theory. The reason why I felt that it was Rational Choice Theory was because Heidi always had a way with men. This caused her to interest in the adult industry once she saw she could make a decent living off of it. At first, Heidi worked under Madam Alex to lower the chances of getting caught, but then she took the big jump to start her own business. She made the decision to start pandering because she liked the industry and wanted the money, but it never occurred to her that she would get caught. After she did get busted, she did her time in jail and realized she made a poor decision. In the end, it seems to me that she got the opportunity to be a part of the world of prostitution, and acted on it. Ultimately, she committed the crime, and didn’t think twice about the consequences she would face when getting caught.
I also felt that Fleiss’ crime also associated with the Social Learning Theory. She met Madam Alex who was a prostitution ring leader who taught her all aspects of the business. Alex even let Heidi work as an escort, and educated her on how to conduct a ring. This means that by Heidi being heavily associated with Alex, it created stimulation for Heidi to break the law. With Alex being someone that Heidi admired, it was without a doubt that Heidi would be influenced by her bad behavior.
In conclusion, I believe that Heidi Fleiss set herself up to be a criminal. She made her own connections and kept associating with the wrong individuals by choice. No one was forcing her to do illegal acts, and she even went out on her own with it. Conveyed by both theories, it’s clear that she was influenced by negative figures and made several bad decisions. However, because of her story she will forever be known as the famous “Hollywood Madam.”
Works Cited
Biography.com Editors,“Heidi Fleiss Biography.” Biography.com. A&E Television Networks, Web. 26 April 2016.
“Heidi Fleiss: Hollywood Madam.” 24 September 2014. Youtube. Web. 26 April 2016.
