I know very little about Richard Cole and his book, but imagine that If he wrote the book because he needed money, he may have had mixed feelings about the project, and those feelings also may have affected the outcome. Perhaps he felt pressured to give the publishing house what they wanted (probably mostly scandals and private matters, since the publishing editor / ghostwriter didn't check many of the facts in the book), but felt bad doing it and told things inaccurately to blur the line between fact and fiction.