JOE WALDHOLTZ RESURFACED last week, granting media audiences at Allenwood (Pa.) prison.
Reporters anxious for more on the con who swindled his ex-wife, former congresswoman Enid Greene, and her father out of $4 million, and bought a federal election in the bargain, hurried to Pennsylvania, anticipating honest information.But this wasn't like asking an arsonist how he burned down the city; this was tossing him the matches and asking for another demonstration.
Because the currency of Joe Waldholtz's criminology was, and is, lying.
Two years ago, while researching material in Washington, D.C., for a book on the Waldholtz saga, I found my most revealing interviews were with Chuck Roistacher, a hardened prosecutor-turned-defense lawyer.
Roistacher's summation on Joe Waldholtz (minus the expletives): "The worst man I've ever known."
Admittedly, Chuck represented Enid Greene, which might make his objectivity suspect. But I didn't find him to be an apologist - an East Coast version of Johnnie Cochran. Rather, I found him to be a man who enjoys a 2-inch steak, a fine Macanudo cigar and nothing but the truth.
"Know when I knew for sure?" Roistacher said one evening as he lit up a Macanudo after dinner. "It was when I went to the townhouse the night Joe disappeared and I saw the devastation in her (Enid's) eyes. She wasn't faking it. You can't fake that look."
Because of the overwhelming evidence against him, Joe is now acknowledging the overwhelming evidence.
When copping a mea culpa (all my fault) is your only way out, then you cop a mea culpa.
But in the classic way of sociopaths, it is a mea culpa laced with alibis and lies.
His latest disclosures reveal that the self-proclaimed new and penitent - and thinner - Joe Waldholtz remains a master of deceit. He styles himself as a victim of food and drug addictions; as a political prisoner done in by misguided but zealous election fraud; and even as he spins his self-portrait of criminal justification, he styles himself as a once incorrigible spin doctor now finally reformed.
But if he's truly penitent, then shouldn't Forrest Greene, Enid's wealthy father who is light $4 million, at least have received a custom-made set of Allenwood Penitentiary license plates by now?
It's a funny world. If Joe Waldholtz had physically manhandled his ex-wife, or anyone else, he'd be a pariah, an abuser.
But since his were blows of betrayal, ones that don't leave a mark, he is at worst a colorful rogue; at best a folk hero.
In my research, did I honestly find Enid Greene an unwitting dupe? Absolutely. I also found her to be power-hungry, an elitist and incredibly ambitious.
Traits that made her, as well as her equally power-driven father, perfect foils for Joe.
What I find most ironic about the Greenes is their impatience with others, the media especially, for continuing to buy Joe's schtick - when they themselves were once such willing and longtime consumers.
But notwithstanding that lack of empathy, still, they were the ones who bought the Brooklyn Bridge - and it was Joe who sold it to them. His own family.
While in Washington in late 1996, I tried to interview Joe in the D.C. jail.
I sat in the office of his court-appointed attorney, a refugee from the hippy era named A.J. Kramer, and hand-wrote my request, which was dutifully delivered.
A couple hours later, A.J. was back.
"Waldholtz doesn't want to talk to you," he informed me. "He said he's going to write his own book."
From the looks of these latest jailhouse interviews, it appears he's getting started, and earlier than expected.
The news is, they're letting him out early due to good behavior.
He must have told the jailers he loved their cooking - and they believed him.