Seeing the big picture, with names

Hollywood freelancer (for the New York Times and others) Ross Johnson has fallen into the blogging web. And for his first meaty entry at The Ross Files, he names names and starts to connect dots behind the Anita Busch threat story that Nikki Finke wrote about yesterday. His first commenter warns, "ain't nothing good going to come of this. write about something else, Mr. Jhonnson" [sic], but Johnson promises more in later entries.

In June of 2002, a Temple City man named Daniel Patterson, who had been hooked up with a couple of reputed Russian mob figures, met with Alexander Proctor. (of course, the Russian mafiya is one slippery term used to describe some Russians and Armenians living in Southern Cal.) Patterson and his Russian friends had been caught by the FBI doing a precious metals scam in Pasadena (they said they were scientists at JPL and needed gold bullion for there experiments!) Proctor had a rap sheet for burglary (he would bug a jewelry store, and rob it when he heard on the wire taps that the owner was gonna be away.)...

The meeting with Patterson and Proctor would change many lives. Remember that butterfly who flapped his wings in Thailand?

If you do, you will understand the events that ensnared LA Times contract writer Anita Busch, Hollywood litigators Bert Fields and Marty Singer, divorce lawyer Dennis Wasser, Paramount Pictures chairman Brad Grey, New Times LA editor Rick Barrs, blogger Luke Ford, Assistant U.S. attorney Dan Saunders, screenwriter and Vanity Fair contributor Ned Zeeman, a transcriber for Premiere magazine who first heard the tale, a slew of Brooklyn lawyers for reputed Mob figures, convicted producer Jules Nasso, LA Times editor John Carroll, the SBC telecommunications company, (who employed an alleged wiretapper to the stars), a former LAPD cop who allegedly worked for Pellicano by accessing California Department of Justice data bases, FBI agent Stan Ornelius (who was Daniel Patterson's handler), John Connolly, a former NYPD cop and stockbroker who turned journalist (and became to Hillary Clinton, Harvey Weinstein and Tina Brown what Osama Bin Laden became to various leaders of Saudi Arabia), and moi, who initially tried to put it all together back in 2002.

OK Johnson, you got our attention. Just watch your back.