The Original Hollywood Wiretapper

By Will Vaus
The trial of private detective Anthony Pellicano, who is charged with 110 counts of racketeering, wiretapping, conspiracy and other federal charges, has been capturing headlines for quite some time. No wonder. Its connections to the mob, eavesdropping on Hollywood conversations and the revolving door of movie industry personalities make for a good read. However, for me and my family, it is déjà vu.

Why? Because my father, "Big Jim" Vaus, was the original Hollywood wiretapper. He launched the practice of listening in on the stars in the 1940s and gained the same sort of notoriety then that surrounds Pellicano now. He was written up in the L.A. papers, and his story has been featured in Time, Life, Reader's Digest and in a 1955 movie, "Wiretapper." (more)

Will Vaus, author of My Father Was a Gangster: The Jim Vaus Story

Recordings of Jim Vaus talking about his life.
More stories about Jim Vaus...
The Hollywood Vice Queen (1948)
Wiretapping in Hollywood (1955)
Why Jim Vaus Quit Wiretapping (1946)

Pew! What's that smell? A progressive spying technique?

The head of one of the leading insurers in non-standard, high-risk personal auto insurance apologized on Thursday for some substandard behavior - spying in church on people who had the sued the company.

Progressive Corp Chief Executive Glenn Renwick apologized for the use of private detectives, who went undercover to join an Atlanta church group in order to discredit a couple suing the insurer. (more)

Eavesdroppping as a Plot Thickener

Sometimes it works, as in The Conversation.
Sometimes it doesn't, as in...

"Here's how bad "License to Wed" is:
Even the outtakes at the end are lame.








And so Ben and Sadie can't have sex before the wedding, which Frank (Robin Williams) monitors by bugging their apartment, then eavesdropping on them in the back of a van with the choir boy in tow, which is just wrong." (more)

...thus, obtaining full control of one's head-quarters.

Iran - The Islamic Republic’s Telecommunications Ministry has been empowered by the ayatollahs to eavesdrop on any and all mobile phone calls in the state’s relentless quest to drive out dissipated utterances, debauched SMS and dissolute video messages. ...

Meanwhile, as an adjunct to the crackdown on SMS and MMS traffic, barbers across Iran have been ordered to stop offering men “Western or other unconventional haircuts” on pain of closure of their business and possible imprisonment. (more)

Masons hit by bugging

Ireland - Police have launched an investigation into suspicions that meetings at one of Northern Ireland's largest Masonic Halls was bugged, the Belfast Telegraph can reveal today.

It is understood that the PSNI launched the probe after recordings were received in the post by Masonic officials at the headquarters of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Antrim at Rosemary Street in Belfast.

Police are investigating if the recordings are of secret rituals held in the building which is the main meeting place of freemasons in Co Antrim, one of the largest lodges in Ireland. (more)

Polish archbishop resigns in spying row

Poland - The newly-appointed archbishop of Warsaw resigned on Sunday after admitting he spied for Poland's former communist regime, in a major embarrassment for the Vatican and the powerful Polish Catholic Church.

Archbishop Stanislaw Wielgus read out his resignation, which came at the request of Pope Benedict who appointed him just a month ago, at a special mass in Warsaw Cathedral replacing a formal ceremony that was to have sworn him in. (more)