
Another apparent crime that has captured the interest of California's law enforcement community is the mysterious disappearance of Anthony Fox, who vanished without a trace around Christmas, 2001. Fox was a partner in a notorious nightclub that operated as a venue for drug dealers called The Viper Room. This club was located on Hollywood's Sunset Strip and had a history of being controlled by members of the American Mafia. In the 1940s, the club, then called the Melody Room, was a gambling and drug den, controlled by Bugsy Siegel and his associates.
Decades later, this nightclub, renamed The Central, was in decline, until owner Anthony Fox was approached by a rising star in Hollywood, Johnny Depp. Depp had first arrived in Hollywood a decade earlier after dropping out of High School, dreaming of becoming a rock star. As is typical in such cases, Depp struggled for several years at menial jobs until he got his big break as an actor in the Fox Television series '21 Jump Street.' Overnight, Johnny Depp became a teen idol. The calculating Depp would then move on to serious acting in motion pictures, most notably as the FBI agent who infiltrated the New York Mafia, 'Donnie Brasco,' the strung-out lead character in 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,' and the notorious drug dealer George Jung in 'Blow.' Depp has publicly called for the release of Jung from prison, where Jung is currently serving a lengthy prison sentence for drug trafficking.
When Johnny Depp teamed up with Anthony Fox to form 'The Viper Room,' the timing could not have been more perfect. At that time, New York City nightlife was being catered to by Peter Gatien's LIMELIGHT, an abandoned Church that attracted celebrities and drug dealers. That club's most popular venue was 'King of the Club Kids' Michael Alig's Disco 2000 events, which came to a grinding halt after the heroin-addled Alig murdered and dismembered a Club drug dealer named Angel Melendez. Down South during the 1990s would emerge the Miami Beach equivalent of New York's LIMELIGHT, Chris Paciello's club called LIQUID, which he ran with his and Madonna's mutual friend Ingrid Casares.
On the West Coast, no such club existed in the same league as the LIMELIGHT and LIQUID, but the opening of The Viper Room quickly filled this void. At that time in 1993 Johnny Depp's career was taking off and he would use his celebrity to turn 'The Viper Room' into the hippest and trendiest nightclub on the Sunset Strip. From the beginning, as in its previous incarnations, The Viper Room was a place where drug dealers flourished. To this day the Viper Room's website features as its logo a female snake seated atop a pair of dice, in a posture that seemingly allures her prey to be injected with her poison. On Halloween night, 1993 Johnny Depp's friend River Phoenix took such a 'roll of the dice' and died after injecting drugs into his veins inside the Viper Room. Depp was among the Viper Room employees and patrons that watched as Phoenix lay dying on the sidewalk outside the club. He was 23 years old.
As the 1990s drew to a close Federal authorities took action against those involved in the operations of THE LIMELIGHT and LIQUID nightclubs. LIMELIGHT owner Peter Gatien was charged with drug trafficking but was acquitted in a Federal trial. Gatien later pleaded guilty to income tax evasion and was deported to his native Canada. LIQUID owner Chris Paciello pleaded guilty to several crimes, including his association with members of the American Mafia as well as his role in the murder of a Staten Island woman during a botched robbery. Paciello is currently in the Witness Protection Program and may testify against Mafia associates in upcoming prosecutions.
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