NORTH COUNTY -- Two competing books set for release this spring tell the sordid story of the man now known as the most corrupt member of Congress in the nation's history -- imprisoned former North County U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham.

The dark tale of Cunningham's rise from his days as a Navy Top Gun pilot and meteoric fall are recounted in books by San Diego-based Associated Press reporter Seth Hettena and four reporters who wrote the story as it happened for The San Diego Union-Tribune.

In November 2005, Cunningham pleaded guilty to one count each of income tax evasion and bribery for his role in a massive bribery scheme that saw him take $2.4 million in bribes in exchange for steering tens of millions in government business to defense contractors. He is now serving an eight-year, four-month federal sentence near Tucson, Ariz.

One of the books on his fall from the pinnacle of power is titled "The Wrong Stuff -- The Extraordinary Saga of Randy Duke Cunningham, the Most Corrupt Congressman Ever Caught."

Its authors won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for their reporting on Cunningham. The writers are: Copley News Service reporters Marcus Stern, Jerry Krammer and Washington Bureau Chief George E. Condon Jr., along with San Diego Union-Tribune reporter Dean Calbreath.

The book by the Associated Press' Hettena is called "Feasting on The Spoils: The Life and Times of Randy 'Duke' Cunningham, History's Most Corrupt Congressman."

Hettena said last week that he wrote the book to answer the question, "How did the man who was a Navy ace in Vietnam become the most corrupt congressman in U.S. history?"

While the answer may never be known, there are clues that the seeds of Cunningham's past paved the way to his fate, Hettena said.

"The road to corruption begins in someone's formative years -- how they behave as a young person reveals where they are headed," he said.

Cunningham had a reputation as a bully in high school, Hettena said.

Then, as a pilot during the Vietnam War, Cunningham received the Navy Cross after he shot down three enemy planes in a single day. But that wasn't good enough for him, Hettena said. Cunningham wanted the Medal of Honor.

"He felt that he was cheated out of it ---for years he had this deep feeling of resentment … that things were due him," Hettena said.

Later, Cunningham broke into his commanding officer's files and read his own and other officers' performance reviews, Hettena said. Yet when the commander learned what Cunningham had done, the case was quietly dispensed with, Hettena said.

He added that the two officers who were in charge of Cunningham's squadron told him about what Cunningham had done, an incident he describes in his book.

Hettena said he believes that being let off the hook for such a serious offense only added to Cunningham's sense that he could "do no wrong" and if he did, nothing would happen to him.

The idea for a book on Cunningham, one that would delve into his complex and seemingly contradictory character, was one that came to Hettena one day in the shower, he said.

He instinctively knew it would be a story that people would want to read, and pitched the idea to an agent, "and the agent thought so, too," Hettena said.

Meanwhile, Copley's Stern had his book deal come in the form of an invitation from the office of Del Mar literary agent Sandra Dijkstra, Stern said last week in a phone interview from the houseboat he lives in on the Potomac River.

"But I don't have all the energy and vitality that Seth has, so I needed three people to help," Stern quipped.

The boat slip where Stern's boat was docked is close to where Cunningham lived on the now infamous 42-foot pleasure boat called the "Duke Stir" -- a boat that belonged to one of his co-conspirators, defense contractor Mitchell Wade.

In early 2006, Wade pleaded guilty in a Washington federal court to his role in the bribery scheme, which saw him ply Cunningham with more than $1 million in illicit gifts, cash and favors. Wade is now awaiting sentencing and, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Washington, continuing to cooperate with the government in the ongoing investigation of Cunningham's associates.

Stern's boat is called, "Muckraker," said Stern, who in June 2005 broke the first story on Cunningham's illicit dealings with Wade.

What first piqued Stern's curiosity about Cunningham, the writer said, was when he noticed that the eight-term congressman reported making two separate trips to Saudi Arabia that were paid for by a private businessman.

"Having been to Saudi Arabia twice myself, I knew it wasn't the sort of place Cunningham would go twice -- it's not really a party kind of place," Stern said.

So he started doing Web searches about San Diego businessman Ziyad Abduljawad, the man who had financed Cunningham's two trips. When that search didn't unearth anything, Stern said, he began looking at Cunningham's dealings. An online records search showed that Cunningham had sold his Del Mar Heights home to a Nevada company named 1523 New Hampshire Ave. LLC.

Because there is a street in Washington with the same name and because Stern knew the street well, having grown up in the city, he decided to look into things further. As it turned out, 1523 New Hampshire Ave. was the address of Wade's defense company, MZM Inc.

At the time Stern first began his research, he had no idea who Mitchell Wade was, he said. So if Wade had simply called his company Mitchell Wade Inc., that would probably have been the end of it, Stern said.

Besides looking at Cunningham the man, Stern said his book also serves as a launching point for an examination of the process politicians call "earmarking." Earmarks are last-minute spending authorizations that are often slipped quietly into bills at the request of lawmakers. They are one of the main ways in which Cunningham was able to steer tens of millions of dollars in government business to those who were bribing him.

Stern said he is amazed at the dismal efficiency of a system that allows defense contractors and their lobbyists or their proxies to make large contributions to lawmakers, who then amend bills with favorable deals to those same people.

"It's sort of like a self-licking ice cream cone," Stern said, adding that he was quoting a defense contractor who had worked for Poway defense contractor Brent Wilkes and Wade at a sensitive Army intelligence facility.

Wilkes was indicted last week by a San Diego federal grand jury on charges of bribery, fraud and money laundering in connection with the Cunningham case. Wade pleaded guilty to bribery last year in the Cunningham case and is now awaiting sentencing.

Contact staff writer William Finn Bennett at (760) 740-5426 or wbennett@nctimes.com. Comment at nctimes.com.

San Diego-based Associated Press reporter Seth Hettena has written a book on the meteoric rise and fall of former U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham.