Under Watch: Bernard Kerik, Drew Peterson and Hulk Hogan’s wife Linda
Former New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik, who was once nominated to head the federal Department of Homeland Security, indicted on 16 counts of conspiracy, tax fraud and making false statements to federal agents. Kerik could be a classic in the chronicles of hidden alcoholism. If it were only the fact that he withdrew his name from nomination because he didn’t pay the nanny tax, Kerik wouldn’t be “under watch.” However, prior to this he abandoned an illegitimate Korean daughter, accepted undisclosed gifts from firms doing business with New York City, had at least two mistresses, declared bankruptcy, was expelled from Saudi Arabia after a physical confrontation with a local police official, and ignored an arrest warrant for failure to pay his debts. He is accused of:
1. hiding hundreds of thousands of dollars received while heading up New York’s Department of Corrections, as police commissioner and later as one of presidential candidate Rudy Guliani’s business partners,
2. accepting a $255,000 apartment renovation, including Jacuzzi and marble rotunda, in exchange for working to get city contracts for a Mafia-connected company,
3. concealing this income, rent payments a New York real estate developer made for him on an Upper East Side apartment and more than $75,000 from a book contract, and
4. lying to three different White House officials about his tax and financial histories when applying for his positions as Homeland Security chief and senior policy adviser to the Coalition Provisional Authority, which governed Iraq after the 2003 invasion, where he led and failed in the effort to establish and properly train the Iraqi police force.
As a former Parks Commissioner wrote, while many officials have gotten into trouble for one of the many indiscretions of which Kerik has been accused, “it is rare for anyone to be under fire” for all of these issues. According to the indictment, he complained that his civil servant salary was inadequate and he “felt like he was on welfare.” In what may be a grand example of the paradox of addiction–the highly functional alcoholic who achieves extraordinary success (“sometimes it takes an addict”) while abusing others and living by a “rules don’t apply to me” attitude–he is credited with cutting NYC shootings by 74% and overall crime by 60% while police commissioner. The unusual variety of behaviors could stem from having had an alcoholic mother, who was murdered by her pimp when Kerik was a child. However, a rare sign of alcoholic egomania is to have busts made of oneself–think Josef Stalin, Kim Jong Il and the late former dictator of Turkmenistan, Saparmurat Niyazov–all confirmed alcoholics. Kerik once used city funds to commission 30 plaster busts of himself to be distributed as gifts to friends and dignitaries.
Illinois state police sergeant Drew Peterson, whose fourth wife, Stacy Ann, mysteriously disappeared in late October. Days later, investigators re-opened the case of his third wife, Kathleen Savio, who died in 2004 by what was then determined to be accidental drowning. Such coincidences–along with four marriages (as mentioned in Drunks, Drugs & Debits, 85% odds of alcoholism), the last two to women far younger–in themselves suggest a high likelihood of foul play rooted in alcoholism.
Further evidence includes a temporary order of protection against Peterson in 2002 after Savio alleged he physically abused her. In a letter to the state’s attorney’s office, she wrote that he had been having an affair with a minor and feared her husband might try to kill her. The family members, who had repeatedly been told she feared her husband, refused to believe an inquest’s finding that her drowning had been an accident. After a review of crime scene and autopsy photographs, it was found that a one-inch gash to her head had not rendered her unconscious, which would have been necessary for her to accidentally drown. A judge, with the support of Savio’s family granted a petition to exhume Savio’s body.
Linda Marie Bollea, aka Linda Hogan, 47, whose 23-year marriage to Terry Bollea, aka Hulk Hogan, 54, was reportedly marked by multi-thousand dollar shopping sprees for items she’d use or wear only once and a party-hearty lifestyle, filing divorce papers. Hulk, who consulted with divorce attorneys months earlier, is said to prefer a low-key lifestyle, while Linda loved being the center of attention late-night on the town. In the meantime, their son Nick Bollea, 17, was arrested on charges of felony reckless driving involving serious bodily injury for an incident in August in which he was reportedly street racing, struck a curb, spun across two lanes of traffic and slammed rear-end first into a tree. While Nick was wearing a seat belt, his passenger, John Graziano, 22, who has been comatose since the incident, was not. Since Hulk owned the car, he could be on the hook for a multi-million dollar settlement.