The Victor Jennings case is based on a real-life character I knew.
I'm Tom Arriola, the Crime Scene creator, here to tell you a little about behind the scenes at crimescene.com.
This particular case was inspired by a person I used to see every morning at a coffee shop. We didn't like the looks of each other. There was no reason for that other than what some might call a "guy thing."
Over the course of a year, I saw this character several times a week. It was a small coffee shop, so we'd all overhear his phone calls. I heard him making promises he wouldn't keep and brokering deals to expose the private lives of celebrities.
The man's name was David Hans Schmidt. The media referred to him by his self-proclaimed title, The Sultan of Sleaze. He was the first person to market celebrity sex online with a sex tape of figure-skating villain Tonya Harding.
His last deal involved Tom Cruise and stolen wedding photos. Schmidt asked for one million dollars to halt their publication. Cruise called the FBI, and after an investigation, David Schmidt agreed to plead guilty to extortion.
Like Victor Jennings, David Hans Schmidt died before serving any prison time. See how his story ended at the link below.
Publicist nicknamed 'Sultan of Sleaze' [redacted] – NBC News