two. Exner - via the Times and Post
- became a media sensation.
Riding the wave, Exner now took advantage of the publicity and
decided to write a book. Big-time literary mogul Scott Meredith
was her agent. Meredith reportedly sold serialization rights to
the book, sight unseen, to the National Enquirer for $150,000.
The book outline was prepared by Meredith's office and was
approved by Exner's attorney. A co-author was arranged for.
The co-author turned out to be Ovid Demaris. This is significant.
Demaris is usually described as a veteran crime writer of such
books as Captive City and The Green Felt Jungle . This is true as
far as it goes, but it does not go far enough.
Demaris Enters the Scene
In his prologue, Demaris writes that he was in the midst of a
multi-city tour for his previous book when he heard about Exner's
story. The previous book was an oral biography of Hoover entitled
The Director. In the Hoover book, Demaris has some disparaging
remarks about the Church Committee: it was politically motivated,
inspired by "rehashes of old charges," and was "flogging a dead
horse." Demaris was also unhappy with the many books on Watergate
and the fall of Richard Nixon. He characterizes them with the
following: "While some of their