The Spying Game : My Extraordinary Life (ISBN: 0732910870 / 0-7329-1087-0)
Monte, Frank; Warner, Dave

ISBN 10: 0732910870
ISBN 13: 9780732910877

Bookseller: Blue Gum Books (Cromer, NSW, Australia)
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Book Description: Pan Macmillan Australia Pty, Limited, Sydney, NSW, Australia, 2001. Soft cover. Book Condition: Very Good+. 1st Edition. 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" tall. Looks Un-Read, Is Square And Crease Free Bar Minor Corner Bumps. Bookseller Inventory # 004519

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Larry King toasts Frank Monte

Larry King toasts Frank Monte

A visit to the chic restaurant Lotus for a glass of Dom Perignon to toast the 60th birthday of the man dubbed by the media as the world's most famous private eye, Frank Monte.

Monte was celebrating with his buxom ex-fiancee Sharon Sergeant who has recently caused a media storm with her outrageous antics hosting parties for a group of visiting British footballers and dancing to gay abandon with one of the most famous US porn stars in Las Vegas.

The highlight of the evening-apart from the series of lavish presents from the ex, was a phone call from US talk show host Larry King wishing Monte a happy birthday. Monte was a regular on King's show in the US when he lived for a few years in New York and he still catches up with King for dinner on visits there, as recently as 2 months ago.

In fact Monte was a regular on all sorts of TV shows-Howard Stern and Oprah to name 2 but that's a tale for a future story.

 

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Greek shipping tycoon, the late Aristotle Onassis, was plotting to overthrow Prince Rainier and Princess Grace shortly before his death. It was a bitter feud between the peasant Greek billionaire and the then impoverished royal rulers of the tiny European principality. But Onassis died before exacting his revenge - though his secret scheme has finally been exposed by the Golden Greek's one-time bodyguard, Australia's best known private eye, flamboyant Frank Monte. "He was going to ruin them financially because they had insulted him and his background - that's something you never did to Ari Onassis," says Frank. Breaking an 18-year vow of silence in a soon-to-be-released autobiography Tough Guy Spy, he also reveals how Onassis was obsessed with the afterlife and with black magic. "He'd arrange seances to coincide with the full moon," Frank tells New Idea in an exclusive interview. "Onassis was desperate to get in touch with the spirit of his only son and heir Alexander, who'd died in a plane crash, and he would summon clairvoyants late at night to help him. Sometimes he'd go into such a deep trance during these spiritual excursions that he could not be disturbed." According to Frank, Onassis was introduced to the occult years earlier by his one-time lover, Greek opera star Maria Callas. "She was into witchcraft - the full-on black magic thing with the witches' coven. His obsession was more with ceremonial magic, but he believed in certain aspects of the occult." Frank smiles wryly as he describes the almost nightly rituals Onassis would perform. "He had a room in his Rome penthouse done up in different colors with an altar - it was virtually a temple. Painted on the floor was a circle within a circle; there were purple candles, a triangle and ancient symbols. "He'd wear garments like a priest and a special ring. Then he'd chant to conjure up one of the 72 spirits of Solomon, which he believed would give him magical powers." And Frank claims he unwittingly became involved in some of the rituals. "Sometimes Onassis would need some objects shifted or a bell rung, but he couldn't do it himself because he had to protect himself from evil spirits by remaining within the inner circle. "He believed this magic protected him from dangerous demons and gave him his daily powers. He believed it so much that it did, in fact, give him extraordinary powers."

Spying in the 1990s is big business. Spying used to mean James Bond and secret government agencies fighting the Cold War, but not these days.

Now, spying often hits close to home as well as a company's bottom line. Our bosses read our e-mail and know how long we've been away from our desks. Whenever we enter a store, our every movement is recorded by hidden cameras. If we cheat on our wives, can we really trust that beautiful blonde giving us the eye across the bar? And who is that listening in on our cell-phone conversations?

It is estimated that Americans spend roughly $300 million a year at spy shops. An estimated $2.1billion was spent on closed circuit video equipment to monitor wireless communications, such as cell-phones.

Corporations have good reason to worry. Spying is no longer limited to governments. The White House Office of Science & Technology has estimate that business espionage costs U.S. Companies $100 billion a year in lost sales. In January 1997, Volkswagen paid General Motors $100 million to settle a corporate espionage lawsuit. That same month, Johnson & Johnson and a unit of Corange Ltd. settled a lawsuit by admitting they spied on each other. One company even allegedly gave employees an "Inspector Clouseau Award" for gathering the best secrets. For a peek inside this shadowy world, Gallery turned to a real spy, Frank Monte. The Australian-born Monte, is a colorful character right out of Hollywood central casting. He drives a Rolls-Royce and red Ferrari, smokes Havana cigars, hires beautiful women to be his operatives, and has had countless Indiana Jones-like adventures. The Hollywood analogy is no accident; a feature film based on his life, "The Private Eye," starring Ralph Fiennes, will be released in 1998. Monte was a cop in Australia in the '60s. He worked for private investigators while studying for his law degree and opened up his own agency in 1971. He established a world record for obtaining evidence in 27,062 divorce cases. He has been shot at 17 times and had his nose broken seven times. In 1973, Aristotle Onassis hired him to be his personal counterespionage agent. Years after Onassis's death, Monte made headlines by accusing the Greek billionaire of being gay. In 1975, the fearless Monte put together a security force of 2000 mercenaries to protect Sheik Rashid of Dubai from rebels. In 1979, the Rockefeller family hired Monte to find out what happened to Nelson Rockefeller's son, Michael, who had vanished into thin air while working in the jungles of New Guinea 18 years before. Monte opened up his first U.S. Office in Beverly Hills in 1989, and London as well as his original base in Sydney, Australia.