Ex-Madam’s Exit : Woman in High-Profile Case Leaves Prison in Limo, Plans a Book

Lt. George Giurbino has seen a lot of people walk out of prison, but before Thursday morning, he says he’d never seen anyone do it like Karen L. Wilkening.

Dubbed the “Rolodex Madam” for her list of 500 clients, the convicted San Diego panderer was scheduled to be released from the California Rehabilitation Center about 9 a.m. Thursday. But by 7:30 a.m., her public relations man was already there, having sped up from San Diego in a rented silver limousine to “manage” a much-touted press conference.

“Usually on high-profile cases, we don’t set up this type of situation,” Giurbino, an administrative assistant at the medium-security prison in Riverside County, said as he corralled more than a dozen cameramen and reporters behind a yellow police line. “A lot of times inmates don’t want to be interviewed. This is not a situation like that.”

Indeed, when the 45-year-old Wilkening emerged, tearful and glowing in a sleek black and gold dress, she said she had plenty to say, “very possibly” including new information about her dealings with the San Diego task force investigating the murder of dozens of prostitutes. But before she divulged a thing, she said, she wanted a green salad and a glimpse of the sea.

“I need to go to a salad bar and get some fresh food,” she said when asked about her immediate plans. “I think I’ll go look at the ocean, because I haven’t seen it for two years. I’m real anxious to have some serenity.”

Wilkening, who ran a high-class call-girl ring until vice officers searched her Linda Vista condominium and confiscated her Rolodex in 1987, said she will definitely be writing an autobiographical book about her experiences. As Ray Drasnin, her publicist, pointed out in a press release, the details “read like a spell-binding novel.”

At the time of her preliminary hearing in 1987, Wilkening fled the country to avoid prosecution on 28 counts of pimping and pandering.

Nineteen months later, San Diego law enforcement officers spent $20,000 to track her down and bring her back from Manila.

But even after she pleaded guilty to two felony counts and began serving her 44-month sentence, other connections kept Wilkening in the news. She briefly shared a cell with Elisabeth (Betty) Broderick, the La Jolla socialite who killed her ex-husband and his new wife in 1989. And last fall, Wilkening testified at the trial of fallen financier Donald R. Dixon, who allegedly paid for prostitutes Wilkening provided with money from his Texas savings and loan.

On Thursday, however, after serving 18 months of her sentence--she obtained early release for good-time credits--Wilkening seemed pleased to bask in her own limelight. Drasnin, a San Diego publicist who said he began corresponding with Wilkening four months ago, had done his best to create some.

At his direction, reporters huddled just outside the prison door, so close that they could hear Wilkening’s cheerful “Bye-bye!” as she left her jailers behind. What lies ahead, she said, is not yet clear.

“I’m starting over from scratch,” she said as the limo driver loaded two cardboard boxes and a footlocker full of her belongings.

Wilkening, who once got paid $150-an-hour for providing prostitutes, earned 24 cents an hour in jail working as a literacy tutor--a job she said made her feel “extremely useful.” She also has training as an algebra teacher, a systems analyst and a management consultant, she said, and she could return to sales--she still has a real estate license.

“I’m going to find my highest purpose and serve it,” she said.

Judging from her reception Thursday, Wilkening will not fade quickly into anonymity.

The 1990 county grand jury found that while police did not “sanitize” Wilkening’s Rolodex to protect high-profile customers, one card in the file may have been removed while it was in police custody. The grand jury, which referred the case for further study by this year’s panel, also found at least one police officer’s name in the file.

“It would occur to me that some people might be worried,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Dick Lewis. “If she’s going to be writing a book and she’s going to be candid and truthful in that, it will be the first time to my mind that she’s been so.”