Hotel Dick

About the Book

As an undercover house officer of the Helmsley Palace, Steve Peacock had taken a unique five-year peek into the lives of the wealthy, the powerful and the "lower" classes that serviced their every desire. This experience was a rare chance to immerse him in the subculture of the privileged. But more importantly, it was an occasion to witness the underbelly of greed and gluttony existing side-by-side with despair.

Peacock watched carefully and quietly as the pampered Palace guests spent vast sums of money on decadent pleasures. Likewise, he served as a buffer between the so-called elite and the hookers, thieves and street people who were drawn to this glass-and-steel luxury tower.

Hotel Dick: Harlots, Starlets, Thieves & Sleaze reveals what went on behind the closed doors of New York City's former playground of the rich and famous. The story of the rise and fall of Harry and Leona Helmsley has already been told; however, Hotel Dick is the first book to provide a secret window into the lives of the other bizarre and lust-filled personalities who roamed this notorious Manhattan landmark.

About the Author

Steve Peacock is Bronx-born writer, educator, and voice talent who now lives in New Jersey. An excerpt from his true-crime memoir-in-progress, Play Dead, Roll Over, was a finalist in Creative Nonfiction magazine’s 2011 “Anger & Revenge” contest. Additionally, his poetry has appeared in Monkeybicycle, Edison Literary Review, InDigest, South Jersey Underground, The Idiom, and Towson University’s Grub Street. Peacock, a former Washington, DC journalist, is founder of the investigative news blog U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor. He also is a certified English and special education teacher.