Blonde Ambition (28 page)

   Mark Speer is also skeptical about Larry and Howard's apparent "friendship." "There is no way after what I heard firsthand at the Bahamian police station and at Howard's house, no way Larry Birkhead would even be civil to him unless he's in cahoots with him and has a deal." Moe Brighthaupt has also told people he knows that Howard struck a deal with Larry Birkhead.

   Virgie Arthur said, "J. Howard is dead. My grandson is dead. Now, my daughter is dead. That money is tainted for any greedy person that grabs it." And Virgie says that so far the prospect of that money has brought her family nothing but grief. She told me she "thinks about Ron Goldman's family in the O.J. Simpson case all the time. I see how much pain they are still going through, and I think that's what my life will now be like."

• • •

Unlike her over-the-top life, Anna Nicole Smith went out of the world quietly, without so much as a whimper. Anna told friends and relatives that she always thought she'd die young like her idol Marilyn Monroe. When she did so, she too was found naked like Marilyn of an apparent drug overdose. But Jackie Hatten says Anna never believed Marilyn's death was a suicide. "I don't think Marilyn Monroe killed herself," Anna told Jackie. "She was murdered."

   "It's like bad fiction,"
Playboy
founder Hugh Hefner told me. "As tragic as it was, in another sense, it is the life and the end that she might have written for herself." Regarding Anna's passing, he said, "There was obviously some drug abuse there, both prescription and presumably non-prescription. But I also think that one of the tragedies of her life is some bad choices in terms of friends and associates."

   Hugh Hefner remembers, "I think that she was always a very sincere person, and made some unfortunate choices. But, a good, good person—a small town girl with big dreams. And, I think that is the key to why she was so fascinating to so many people. It is easy to identify with her."

   And people continue to flock to all things Anna Nicole. Her home in the Bahamas has turned into a "Graceland" of sorts, with a constant line of tourists passing by her house and also visiting her grave as fans have for years visited Marilyn's. Bahamian taxi drivers have made fliers to promote their "Anna tour" around the island, often charging twenty dollars per tourist off the cruise ships they drive out to the house. The luxury suite where she died at the Hard Rock was completely refurbished, renumbered, and has been "spiritually cleansed" by a Native American Indian shaman. Fans have been desperately trying to book a night in the room where she took her last breath.

   Everything surrounding the story of Anna Nicole Smith's death seems a bit too unreal to be real, almost as if it is indeed an episode of a made-for-TV docudrama. Unfortunately, Dannielynn Hope Birkhead is forever without her mother. Anna Nicole is dead, lying beneath foreign soil, next to her son, Dannielynn's brother, who had just come for a short visit to celebrate her birth.

   Her father, Larry Birkhead, is filled with ambition. My hope is that his ambition doesn't overtake the future of Anna Nicole's little girl.

   For almost two decades, the knowledge, insight, and crossreferences of these professionals have helped me separate fact from fiction, evidence from perception, and knowledge from speculation. To this day, their contributions remain an invaluable cornerstone to my work. For their unwavering commitment and dedication to justice, I am forever in their debt.

   Realizing this is a controversial book, I must remember what my old journalism professor Dr. Lee Dudek taught me years ago. He said journalism is not a passive business. A reporter's job is to question the answers and actions, especially when intent and motivations may be hidden or unclear, and demand a voice.

   My hope is that this book will serve to "connect the dots," provide solid facts in this captivating case, and finally "break the dam of fiction" regarding what really happened to Anna Nicole Smith and what she wanted for her precious little girl.

   I also hope Anna's story will serve as a lesson to us all to be mindful of our friends, careful about our physical well-being, and supportive of those around us who need to conquer their addictions before those addictions consume and, sadly, conquer them.