Blonde Ambition Page 6

  The inquest was scheduled for the week of October 23. If jurors at the inquest were to decide that a crime took place, the case would then be sent to the attorney general's office.

  Reginald Ferguson, the assistant commissioner of the Royal Bahamian Police Force, told the press that no drug paraphernalia or traces of illegal drugs were found on Daniel Smith, in the hospital room, or near the room.

  He didn't mention the two pills that nurse Nadine Carey found in the bed of the "third person" in the room, the bed where Howard K. Stern had slept.

  Thursday, September 14

  The following day in a continued volley, Michael Scott, the Bahamian attorney representing Anna, delivered a prepared statement. "The devastation and grief over Daniel's sudden death, coupled with the sedation, has been so extreme that Anna Nicole experienced memory loss of the event." He went on to say that "Anna Nicole was so distraught at the loss of Daniel that she refused to leave his side and it was necessary to sedate her in order to check her out of the hospital." Later, he said, Anna had to be reminded that Daniel had passed away.

  In concluding his statement, Michael Scott said he wanted to clear up the mystery of the third person in the room. It wasn't a mystery or even unusual. The third person in the room was "another one of Anna Nicole Smith's attorneys," a man named Howard K. Stern.

  Sunday, September 17

  Expert examiner Dr. Cyril Wecht, who has performed approximately 14,000 autopsies and has supervised, reviewed or been consulted on approximately 30,000 additional postmortem examinations, was brought to the Bahamas by Callender and Company, the Bahamian law firm of Michael Scott, to perform a second autopsy "on behalf of the family." Dr. Wecht, a frequent cable news guest, has been utilized in many high profile cases including the 1969 drowning death of Kennedy campaign worker Mary Jo Kopechne, the murder case of American heiress Sunny von Bulow, and the strange suicide of Whitewater figure Vincent Foster. Now, after spending three hours in a chilly morgue on a hot Sunday afternoon in the Bahamas, Dr. Cyril Wecht has added Daniel Wayne Smith to the list.

  According to Dr. Wecht, he found no scratches or marks on Daniel's body, and blood tests ruled out the presence of alcohol and other drugs including cocaine, opiates and amphetamines. The procedure he performed detailed Daniel's death as an accidental lethal combination of two anti-depressants— Zoloft and Lexapro—and methadone. Though methadone is supposed to be carefully administered by a doctor and has typically not been thought of as a "street drug," recreational use of the drug has become a problem. According to Wecht, Daniel had no known addiction to morphine or heroin. Methadone is commonly used to wean people off of those drugs.

  Since it wasn't a large dose of a single drug in Daniel's system and given that it was a happy occasion and a time for celebration with him seeing his new sister, Dr. Wecht ruled out suicide. It was the combination of the three drugs that caused the cardiac dysrhythmia, which led to Daniel's death.

  Dr. Wecht said he could only find one of the antidepressants, Lexapro, as being prescribed. He was able to trace that to Dr. Sandeep Kapoor in California. Dr. Kapoor told him that the prescription for Lexapro had been written for Daniel to help him deal with depression after he broke up with a girlfriend approximately four to five weeks before. The depression would have gotten bad mid-summer, around the same time that Anna had moved to the Bahamas with Howard K. Stern.

  Dr. Wecht said he believed the other anti-depressant, Zoloft, had been prescribed by another doctor, he "just did not know who." Ray Martino, who Daniel was living with before his trip to the Bahamas that night, claims he found Zoloft in Daniel's belongings in California, two weeks after Daniel's death. The prescription was half full. According to Dr. Keith Eddleman at New York's Mt. Sinai Hospital, Zoloft and Lexapro are both "Seratonin Reuptake Inhibitors" and taking the two of them in combination would have a similar effect as taking a double dose of one of them. "Serious," he said. "But probably not in and of itself fatal. The methadone could have pushed those over the edge."

  So, the big question is, where did the methadone come from, which Dr. Wecht says delivered the fatal blow. He also says it appears to have been ingested, not injected. Remember, Dr. Kapoor had just written a methadone prescription and shipped it to a pregnant "Vicky Marshall" (Anna Nicole's real name) only a few days before Daniel's death. Shortly after Anna's death, the website tmz.com released a photo showing methadone in her refrigerator. Eyewitnesses tell me they saw the drugs not only in Anna's personal refrigerator in her bedroom, but also multiple bottles in the main refrigerator in the kitchen.

  According to Jack Harding, the private investigator Daniel spoke to, Daniel said Howard gave everyone drugs, "including me." But Daniel added he "got off of them," and was "now clean."

  When Dr. Wecht spoke with Howard and his attorney after the autopsy, and told them that Daniel's death was caused by a lethal drug combination, he says Howard appeared to be "shocked and saddened by this event."

  It is, as one medical examiner told me, possible that Howard gave Daniel the methadone and did not anticipate that Daniel would die.

  Monday, September 18

  Getty Images, the world's leading photo broker, sold all of Howard's photos of Daniel's last night alive to In Touch Weekly and Entertainment Tonight for reportedly upwards of $400,000. What Howard hadn't given to Getty Images was the gruesome last photos showing Daniel dead in Anna's arms. But knowing that several people had already seen them, he warned at least one friend "that if you hear about me taking those photos, here's why: Anna wanted me to take some pictures because she thought he'd come alive again like a prince."

  That same night that Getty made the deal on the photos of Daniel with his new baby sister, Entertainment Tonight aired an interview with celebrity photographer Larry Birkhead, the man who claimed he was the father of Anna's newborn baby. "I've never had a person take off and run away from me, especially to another country," he said. "The reason why, I was told, she went to the Bahamas was, I guess if a baby is born in the Bahamas and the mother is a resident of the Bahamas, I think it would be harder for a father who wanted to participate in a baby's life to be able to do so."

  Howard K. Stern said he was shocked and angered that Larry Birkhead would use the media to suggest things about Anna and her baby that weren't true, and he scheduled a media appearance for the following week on Larry King Live to say so.

  Wednesday, September 20

  Bahamas Chief Justice Sir Burton Hall issued a Supreme Court Memorandum, stripping magistrate Linda Virgill of the exclusive designation of "coroner" and abolishing the special "Coroner's Court." Linda Virgill was not unfamiliar with the cutthroat nature of Bahamian politics. Her husband, Charles Virgill, the former Bahamian Housing Minister and Free National Movement election campaign manager, had been shot to death in 1997 after disappearing from a party meeting kicking off the election campaign.

  The Bahama Journal reported that Chief Justice Hall did not provide a reason for his decision to abolish the "Coroner's Court," effectively axing Linda Virgill from further investigating the "suspicious" death of Daniel Wayne Smith.

  Howard K. Stern had gotten his wish: Linda Virgill had been "removed."

  Thursday, September 21

  Eleven days after his death in Anna's hospital room, Daniel's death certificate was issued on September 21, with the caveat "pending chemical analysis" on tissue samples that had already been taken. Though his body could now finally be lawfully buried, the funeral was still yet almost a full month away. There were apparently many issues that had to be resolved: including, where he would be buried and then how that would be paid for. Anna was living on the good graces of friends and a lot of IOUs.

  Despite word of big money photo and media deals, Anna and Howard were having "financial problems." Apparently, the money wasn't coming in as fast as it was going out. Exactly where hundreds of thousands of dollars in photo rights and exclusive fees were going is still unclear. Ben Thompson and Ford Shelley told me they were paying man
y of Anna and Howard's expenses at that point, including buying their groceries and paying their utilities. Moe and other employees have said they weren't getting paid.

  Howard, according to his own testimony after Anna's death, said he only had one client, Anna Nicole Smith. And after Daniel's death, his advisor role kicked into high gear. Decisions had to be made about their future, including where Daniel was going to be buried.

  According to an interview Bahamian Controversy TV did with Haitian nanny Nadine Alexie, who was caring for Dannielynn at the time, Anna wanted Daniel to be buried in Texas, where he was born. Apparently, Howard quickly talked her out of it. Nadine explained in her broken English, "Howard said it will cost too much money to bury Daniel in Texas because there'll be lots of money for transportation . . . And Anna said, 'I thought that whenever you [weren't] born in a country, you're not supposed to be buried in that country.' And Howard said, you know, it's okay. She can bury him right here in the Bahamas, that will cost them less money."

  She also explained, "Anna didn't have too much money back then and the money she was collecting for selling the baby's picture . . . that money wouldn't be enough to go and bury the boy down there in Texas."

  Anna had also always said she wanted to be buried in Hollywood, near Marilyn Monroe. So, a few days after Daniel died, Ray Martino and Howard's mother, Broncha Machla Schwartzwald Stern, had gone looking for the appropriate place to bury celebrity Anna Nicole Smith's child in Hollywood, where he lived and Anna had become famous.

  Marilyn Monroe is buried at Westwood Village Memorial Park in Los Angeles, according to Forbes magazine one of the "Top 10 of America's Best and Richest Cemeteries." Hidden behind towering high-rises that line the heavily trafficked Wilshire Boulevard, is this tiny cemetery near UCLA, which is the final resting spot of some of Hollywood's most famous stars. Besides Marilyn, Westwood Village is the home of the remains of Donna Reed, Natalie Wood, Eva Gabor, and Truman Capote. Martino and Howard's mother discovered that there were no empty spots available near Marilyn. Hugh Hefner had already bought the crypt next to his most famous centerfold for himself.

  They settled on the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, California. The Forest Lawn Cemetery is also a "Hollywood" place to be buried. This cemetery of the stars is the final resting place of many A-listers, including Gracie Allen, Gene Autry, Lucille Ball, Bette Davis, Burt Convy, Liberace, and Telly Savalas.

  Since they definitely wanted Daniel to be buried in Hollywood, Ray Martino and Howard's mother picked out a plot in Forest Lawn and had the contracts drawn. Forest Lawn just needed signatures and payment. Approximately one week later, Howard informed them and others that there was a change in plans. He called Ray Martino back in Los Angeles and announced, "We've decided to bury Danny here, and decided to live here."

  Anna said she wanted Daniel to be near her.

  America's most buxom troubled beauty decided she was going to live in the Bahamas for the rest of her life.

  chapter 4

  Shopping

  The lack of money was becoming a growing problem as Anna and Howard dealt with their other worries. Daniel's death was weighing heavily on them both, and Larry Birkhead, one of Anna's old boyfriends, had graduated from threatening e-mails to media appearances, speaking ever more loudly that he was the father of Anna's newborn baby.

  As for the claims of fatherhood, there was only so far they could run from the truth of DNA testing. But she certainly knew that what her ex-boyfriend Larry Birkhead was saying, was actually true. And in regards to money and favors, there is only so long that Anna could live on "I'm a celebrity" credit, depending on the kindness of friends and friendly new strangers to cut her a break. Anna was most likely unaware of the numerous IOUs that were stacking up and that many people, like bodyguard Moe Brighthaupt, remained unpaid.

  Anna Nicole wasn't handling any money. She hadn't handled her money in years. That was Howard's job. Quethlie Alexis and Nadine Alexie, two nannies working for Anna during the time, say that Anna clearly had a money shortage and that Howard would often put a stack of paperwork in front of Anna when she was heavily drugged and tell her to sign it. On several occasions the nannies heard Anna tell Howard that she couldn't read the papers, and he'd tell her to sign anyway. Howard signed most of the nannies' checks with the name "Vickie Lynn Marshall," and they claim that Dr. Khris Eroshevich, Anna's psychiatrist who often visited, also signed checks right in front of them the same way, using the signature "Vickie Lynn Marshall."

  At least the nannies were being paid. Others were working without remuneration, biding their time and biting their tongues until the Marshall money came in. "I got there the day after Daniel died, September 11," bodyguard Moe Brighthaupt told Fox News. "And up to the day she died, I didn't get paid one cent to work with her. . . . She was going through a lot of legal problems, so you know, I didn't want to bug her with that."

  Moe told the private investigators that at one point he knew Anna had several hundred thousand dollars in her safe in Los Angeles and believes that it was later moved to the Bahamas. Moe would see Howard pay "big wads of cash" all the time to people who'd come over to the house in the Bahamas. He saw "lots of money changing hands at that house." Howard told several close employees that there was no money, but promised there would be once Anna had finally won her battle against the family of her deceased billionaire husband.

  According to Moe, Howard "took care of everything. Her money and her drugs." But Anna's live-in lawyer was also overseeing all the other lawyers who were handling the growing tangle of legal woes for the blonde star. In addition to the case that had been appealed all the way to the Supreme Court over the billion dollar fortune of J. Howard Marshall, the eighty-six-year-old man she had met while stripping, she had the Bahamas residency issues, the looming paternity suit, the "suspicious" death of her son, and, soon, a dispute with dear friends over the house she and Howard were living in.

  The hole was getting deeper and deeper. Or the hill was becoming an insurmountable mountain.

  • • •

  It was Howard that was handling Anna's money as well as her career. He knew what was valuable about the Anna brand and what people wanted to see. And he was always trying to work every angle.

  Anna and Howard's friend David Giancola, the producer of Anna's last film Illegal Aliens, told me, "Howard was always thinking like a businessman. His theory has always been 'make them pay.' Whenever anyone wanted to run even a clip of Anna, he'd always try to get some money from it, saying, 'if they are going to get ratings, we should get dollars.'"

  After Daniel died, Howard was often seen chain smoking in the corner in the Horizons house, on secret phone calls and working on his computer a lot. But the tragedy was now making bankable news. The media and the public wanted, and was willing to pay for, access to Anna's pain, to know what she was going through, to see just how messy the life of America's favorite scarlet letter wearer had become.

  Less than a week after Daniel's death, Howard had made the big-money deal with In Touch magazine. In addition, about four days after Howard closed the In Touch deal, a contract from Entertainment Tonight worth a purported million dollars arrived at their Horizons house. It was a contract that would give them money so that they could bury Daniel, climb out of mounting debt, and a deal that, Howard hoped, would give them some much-needed positive publicity.

  Tuesday, September 26

  Five days after Daniel's death certificate was issued, in advance of the photo shoot and splashy Entertainment Tonight exclusive, Howard appeared on Larry King Live with the promise of a major announcement.

  Larry King first read a statement by Larry Birkhead: "I've been told by Anna Nicole Smith that I'm the father of her newborn child. I have proof of it. I've attended multiple doctors' appointments, participated in the planning of this child up until a minor disagreement more than midway through the pregnancy. In order to eliminate the back and forth claims regarding paternity, I am requesting that a DNA test take place in th
e U.S."

  And then Howard fired back. "Well," he began. "I think you have to look at what his motives are and, you know, if he honestly believed that he was the father based on when the baby was born, he should have handled it appropriately.

  "First, he should have waited until Daniel was put to rest," he continued, reminding millions of people that Daniel had not yet been buried more than two weeks after his death. "And, second, handle it through the proper channels, not through television and through the media. I mean for him to do that on Entertainment Tonight and, at the same time, send a slew of e-mails to Anna, it's just completely inappropriate."

  It was an ironic statement considering Howard himself was sitting in a television studio, dealing with the situation "through television and through the media."