How Paris Hilton helped solve a crime

Joe Francis, who’d made a fortune getting girls to strip for the camera, now was the star in his own nasty video.  Only difference he wasn’t convinced to do it by a slim chance for fame but by the point of a gun.

Why? Los Angeles county prosecutor Hoon Chun

Hoon Chun, L.A. county prosecutor: The purpose of the video was quite clearly extortion. In fact, demanding various sums of money—large sums of money—in order to not publish the videotape that he had forced Mr. Francis at gunpoint to make.

It was like some far-fetched caper movie or a horror flick that wouldn’t end. Francis was held up on a Thursday night into Friday...  it was soon after daylight friday when the calls began.

Joe Francis (audiotapes): Hello

Caller:  good morning

Francis: Good morning

The caller demanded money. Half a million dollars.

Caller: It’s gotta be non-sequential bills.

Francis: Hold on hold on hold on. Okay, okay can I write it down. Can you give me a minute?

But the perpetrator had over estimated Francis’ sense of decorum: Why would he worry about a nasty video tape?

Mark Ebner, investigative journalist: For a guy who has made a multi-million dollar career out of what amounts to soft core pornography via his “Girls Gone Wild enterprise,” that really isn’t all that embarrassing.

Investigative journalist Mark Ebner has written extensively about the Francis case in print and on his Website “Hollywood Interrupted.” He was a consultant for Dateline on this story.

He says Francis played it cool with the extortionist.

Ebner: In other words, “go ahead.”  “You know what?  I’m not going to pay money to you, If you’re threatening to put that on the Internet, go ahead.  You know?  People have said or done a lot worse things to me.”  And that’s his attitude to his credit. 

So when those calls started coming in, the LAPD was listening in too. Francis wasn’t trying to squelch the video; he was trying to catch the bad buy.

Francis: Hello?

Caller: It’s gonna be non-sequential bills

Francis:  All right non sequential bills. How do I tell my bank non-sequential bills?

Caller:  Meaning that the serial numbers won’t be in order. 45 40

Francis: It was like a movie.  You know?  Everybody would run to the one room.  You know?  Where they start tracing the calls.

Francis:  I’m not keeping that kind of money in the house so you tell me when want to do it.

Caller:  You got a pen and paper?

Francis:  I got a pen and paper.

Caller:  You’re not going far. You’re just going to a phone booth. You’re going to look to your right you’re going to see a bus depot ...you’re going to see one phone and it’s a Verizon phone. Get to that phone in 20 minutes and I’ll give you a call.

A phone booth? This guy had seen too many B-movies. And he wanted Joe to bring the money in a trash bag.

Francis: A trash, like a Hefty bag

Caller:  Yeah yeah. Do you have any?

Francis:   Don’t you think that’s gonna be a little obvious I’m carrying a Hefty bag on the street.

Caller:  Half million dollars weighs 22 pounds

Francis: Weighs 22 pounds

Caller:  Double the Hefty bag up

Francis: So I’m going to carrying three hefty bags down a ----ing street

Caller: You won’t be carrying it down the street. Let me call you back with the exact thing to do.  It’ll be pretty simple.

Most of the calls would end abruptly, quickly.

Caller:  I’ll call you later on today. I can’t be on the phone for this phone too much longer. Bye-bye.

Hoon Chun, L.A. prosecutor: It is a strange sort of demeanor. In the old days—you know, we’ve all seen the movies where they actually trace wires.

Keith Morrison, Dateline correspondent: Give me another 30 seconds.

Chun: Right exactly. Well, now we live in this electronic age, where you can literally know somebody’s phone number— because of there is a thing called Caller I.D.

By the way, this went on for nearly six months, as the extortionist kept on calling in an effort to set up that money drop.

Morrison: How did the content of those phone calls change over time?  Or did it?

Francis: It did change over time.  Because at first I was really freaked out and really scared.  And as I became more comfortable with my security and my situation—and he became more agitated, I felt more comfortable and maybe even cocky or complacent.  You know?

Morrison: As he got desperate?

Francis: Yeah, as he got desperate.

So... they must have caught him, right?  Well, no. Those phone calls suddenly stopped. Despite those quick phone traces and a fingerprint or two left behind—the LAPD’s case came to a dead stop,  languished for nearly a year.

Francis: I was beginning to think that no one was ever going to be found.  I thought that I would always wonder.

Morrison: Did you feel safe here in your home during that time?

Francis: I felt safe because my house was an armory at that point.  I mean, I had more bodyguards and security — there’s enough fire power in this house if anybody came in, I’d feel sorry for them. 

Of course, Joe Francis, the guy behind “Girls Gone Wild” wasn’t sitting home alone with his security detail. He was still sending his own cameras to colleges and booze-soaked spring break towns around America, still making a killing from his videos. And Joe was still living that Hollywood party life.

Which is how the heiress joins our story—in the most unlikely way.

Francis: Well, a girl I dated, Paris Hilton was at a party with me and she pulled me aside and said, “I have to talk to you about something.” 

That Paris Hilton? Why.. Yes.

Remember Joe and Paris hung out in that same crowd, the one with the stars, the wannabes, and the charming bad boys. But who would ever have thought that in this real life cheesy movie, Paris Hilton was about to become Nancy Drew in the peekaboo dress.

Francis: And I just thought it was gonna be some just random thing.  And she goes, “Look, I know who did it.”