Dunne Wanted Daughter's Murderer Killed

Crime writer Dominick Dunne asked Anthony Pellicano to put out a contract on his daughter’s killer’s life—and relented only when the private investigator talked him down. Dunne hired the now-incarcerated Pellicano to follow John Thomas Sweeney in the mid-1980s; the Vanity Fair writer now tells Slate he wanted the murderer murdered. “I was nuts at that time with rage,” he says.

Pellicano cooled the society author's jets, saying, “Dominick, you don’t want to do this.” Less noble considerations may slowed the PI’s lunge for the speed dial, too: Dunne was low on cash at the time, and the private dick told him he'd be unable to fund his own personal potboiler. (More Dominick Dunne stories.)