merce). Fleiss conducted her trade from her new
home, often throwing high-profile parties with such
notables as Mick Jagger and Billy Idol in attendance.
Through an undercover sting operation, four of
Fleiss’s call girls were arrested on June 9, 1993, at a
Los Angeles hotel, and hours later Fleiss herself was
arrested at her Beverly Hills home. A deluge of me-
dia flooded the trial proceedings; it was speculated
that Fleiss’s “black book” could destroy the careers
of many top Hollywood celebrities, perhaps even en-
tire studios. Charlie Sheen was one of the few celeb-
rities to publicly admit patronizing Fleiss’s women,
spending upward of $50,000 on their services.
In 1994, at the age of twenty-eight, Fleiss was tried
for pandering and narcotics possession, receiving a
three-year sentence that was later overturned for ju-
ror misconduct. At the time of her arraignment,
Fleiss was approached for multiple publishing and
film deals, one of which was the 1995 television film
Heidi Fleiss: Hollywood Madam, a sensationalized
docudrama starring Fleiss and her real-life confed-
erates.
At her retrial in 1996, after a stint in rehab, Fleiss
was convicted of conspiracy, money laundering, tax
evasion, and attempted pandering and was sen-
tenced in January, 1997, to thirty-five months in
prison. After serving twenty months of her sentence
in a California federal prison facility, where she was
granted early release in 1999, Fleiss was released to a
halfway house but chose instead to return to prison,
finishing her sentence in September, 1999.
Impact Heidi Fleiss’s rise to fame after her illicit ac-
tivities and the media frenzy surrounding her and
her trial represent an emblematic Hollywood scan-
dal for the 1990’s. Her case particularly captured the
public’s attention because of its multifaceted ap-
peal: Sex, drugs, Hollywood celebrities, and Fleiss’s
own inflated sense of power and influence com-
bined for a tabloid bonanza.
Further Reading
Fleiss, Heidi.Pandering. Los Angeles: One Hour En-
tertainment, 2002.
Parish, James Robert.The Hollywood Book of Scandals:
The Shocking, Often Disgraceful Deeds and Affairs of
More than One Hundred American Movie and TV
Idols. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2004.
Alan Haslam
See also Crime; Drug use; Scandals; Television.
Flinn, Kelly
Identification Female military pilot discharged
from duty
Born December 23, 1970; St. Louis, Missouri
Flinn, the first female bomber pilot in U.S. histor y, resigned
from the U.S. Air Force instead of facing court-martial
charges for adulter y.
After receiving the prestigious outstanding camper
award at the National Aeronautics and Space Ad-
ministration’s (NASA) space camp held in Hunts-
ville, Alabama, at the age of twelve, Kelly Flinn knew
she wanted a career as a pilot. Keeping with her
dream, Flinn was accepted into both the U.S. Naval
Academy and U.S. Air Force Academy in late June,- She eventually decided to attend the Air
Force Academy and graduated in the top 15 percent
of her class in 1993. During her college career, Flinn
was invited to partake in numerous prestigious ca-
det exchange programs in both France and South
Korea.
At graduation, Flinn was commissioned as an Air
Force second lieutenant and was selected for admis-
sion to the Undergraduate Pilot Training program
at Columbus Air Force Base in Mississippi in Janu-
ary, 1994. In April, 1995, Flinn began the prestigious
B-52 flight training program in Louisiana, where she
received outstanding evaluations and was named
distinguished graduate of her entire class. Flinn was
then assigned to Minot Air Force Base in North Da-
kota in October, 1995. While in Minot, Flinn became
mission-qualified as the first female bomber pilot in
U.S. history capable of piloting and copiloting both
nuclear and conventional weapons missions. How-
ever, her impressive career took an immediate turn
for the worst when allegations and then official
charges of adultery were brought against her by her
superiors in January, 1996.
Flinn’s charges stemmed from an affair she was
having with Marc Zigo, an enlisted airman who also
coached an intramural soccer team on the base.
Zigo himself was married to another enlisted pilot,
who eventually informed her superior officer of
Flinn’s adulterous affair with her husband. Flinn ad-
mitted her wrongdoing to her superiors and in early
December, 1995, signed a statement that she would
not engage in such behavior again. However, she
again disobeyed a direct order and took Zigo, who
was still married, home to meet her parents in Geor-
338 Flinn, Kelly The Nineties in America