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The Stalking of the Stars
Terror Amidst the Glitz of Hollywood
Rhonda Sunders. Deputy District
Attorney with the
Los Angeles County Stalking and Threat Assessment Team
APB News
By, Karl Idsvoog
The price of fame is getting weird,
dangerous and deadly. Many celebrities have become targets of potentially
violent, delusional stalkers who wage campaigns of terror against them. Olivia
Newton-John, Madonna, Michael J. Fox, David Letterman, Deborah Gibson, Barbara
Mandrell and Steven Spielberg are just a few of the stars who have become
victims. “It [stalking] bothers them a lot,” says Rhonda Saunders, a deputy
district attorney with the Los Angeles County Stalking and Threat Assessment
Team, because “they realize if someone really wants to get them, they will.”
Dangerous celebrity stalkers
“We get called weekly by celebrities
who are being stalked,” says Robert Martin of Gavin De Becker, Inc., a security
firm that has a massive database on stalkers. The firm monitors several thousand
known and suspected stalkers. “We want our clients to know where these people
are,” says Martin. And with good reason. Martin says celebrity stalkers often
suffer from a range of personality disorders. Many are delusional, some
dangerous.
TV Star killed by stalker
Exactly how dangerous a stalker could
be was brought to national attention in 1989; Rebecca Schaeffer, 21-year-old
co-star of the television show My Sister Sam, answered the door of her Los
Angeles home only to be greeted by her obsessed stalker, John Bardo. Bardo then
shot and killed her. Shortly before, Bardo had hinted in a letter to his sister
that he was going to do something, and it didn’t sound good.
Wrote Bardo, “I have to eliminate what I cannot obtain.”
Singer received dog teeth
Unlike domestic stalkers -- usually ex
spouses or lovers who stalk a former partner -- Martin says celebrity stalkers
“see a relationship [with the celebrity] that doesn’t exist.” And sometimes they
hear things only they can hear. While wandering in the desert in Arizona in
1980, Ralph Nau claimed a sorceress named Maria told him to go to Los Angeles
and pursue Olivia Newton John. He sent her threatening, bizarre letters,
including one containing dog teeth that the singer/actress took to Gavin De
Becker, Inc. The firm monitored Nau’s actions for three years.
Rejection brings rage
One thing certain about stalkers, says
Martin, is “they don’t go away.” Saunders said that often, stalkers are turned
away by people working for the celebrity. Celebrities are seldom alone, Saunders
explained. Whether celebrities work in a movie studio, on stage or on location,
people surround them and often won’t let the stalker get close. Saunders said
the “stalkers’ anger and rage may be turned against them.”
That’s what happened in the Madonna case. A man named Robert Dewey Hoskins
wanted to marry her.
A threat to cut Madonna's throat
To propose, Hoskins scaled the wall of
Madonna’s Hollywood Hills estate only to be scared away by Madonna’s personal
bodyguard, Basil Stephens. But Hoskins came back the next day. This time,
Madonna’s personal assistant, Caresse Henry, told him to leave. Hoskins became
angry and threatened to kill Henry. He said he would slice Madonna’s throat if
she didn’t agree to marry him. Several weeks later, Hoskins returned again and
again confronted Stephens. This time, Hoskins tried to take Stephens’ holstered
gun. Stephens ended up shooting Hoskins twice. Saunders prosecuted the case.
Hoskins was convicted and is now serving a 10-year prison sentence for stalking
and making terroristic threats against Madonna, her bodyguard and personal
assistant.
Fox gets thousands of letters
The one consistent trait of all
stalkers is persistence. Nobody knows that better than Michael J. Fox.
In 1989, Tina Marie Ledbetter sent Fox more than 6,000 letters, which became
increasingly threatening. In one letter Ledbetter wrote, “I’m coming after you
with a gun.” In another, after Fox’s wife, actress Tracy Pollan, became
pregnant, Ledbetter warns: “I’m going to kill you and that [expletives] bitch.”
Ledbetter was convicted of making terroristic threats and given three years
probation. She later was accused of stalking Quantum Leap star Scott Bakula, who
won a restraining order against her in 1996.
Karl Idsvoog is an
award-winning investigative TV Producer
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