JAMES FREY’S wrenching memoir of drug addiction, alcoholism and prison time became a bestseller in America after it was hailed by the television talk-show host Oprah Winfrey.

And J. T. LeRoy’s semi-autobiographical novels about his upbringing as an HIV-infected child prostitute earned the author critical acclaim and a host of celebrity friends.

So America’s literary world has been rocked by claims that Frey’s book contains wild exaggerations and that J. T. Leroy is a hoax, played by a woman masquerading as a man.

Frey’s account of his drug-fuelled downfall and redemption was described by Winfrey as “a gut-wrenching memoir that is raw and it’s so real”.

A Million Little Pieces soared to the top of the bestseller lists when Winfrey picked it as the first non-fiction book for her hugely influential book club. Frey became an inspirational figure for millions of readers who have struggled with addiction. His sequel, My Friend Leonard, is also a bestseller.

But The Smoking Gun, an investigative website, claims to have unearthed police records casting doubt on Frey’s story.

“The 36-year-old author, these documents and interviews show, wholly fabricated or wildly embellished details of his purported criminal career, jail terms and status as an outlaw ‘wanted in three states’,” the website said.

It cites a police report that contradicts Frey’s account of a central episode in A Million Little Pieces in which he describes serving a three-month prison sentence for possession of crack cocaine, inciting a riot, and assaulting a police officer in Ohio with his car.

The 1992 police report, discovered by the website, says that Frey was found drunk in his car without a driving licence but did not have any crack, or assault the police, or spend three months in prison.

“He [Frey] was polite and co-operative at all times. He was later released on $733 cash bond,” the police report says.

On his website, Frey, who originally pitched his book as a novel, dismissed the story as “the latest attempt to discredit me . . . So let the haters hate, let the doubters doubt, I stand by my book, and my life”. Frey will confront the accusations on the Larry King Live television show tonight on the CNN channel.

The second scandal involves the author LeRoy, who also claims to have been raised on the wrong side of the tracks.

LeRoy became a literary celebrity with semi-autobiographical novels about a 12-year-old boy who was lured into prostitution by his mother and escaped to become a homeless drug addict in San Francisco.

But The New York Times revealed that the former male prostitute does not exist. LeRoy is the invention of the couple who, the fictional author claims, rescued him from the street, and his public character is played by a 40-year-old woman.

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