MetaChat - The girl who conned the ivy league

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16 January 2010

The girl who conned the ivy league

post by: NucleophilicAttack at: 17:10 | 12 comments

She needs to be a movie with lots of Nouvelle Vauge songs

posted by The Whelk 16 January | 17:19

I was thinking like Catch Me If You Can.

posted by NucleophilicAttack 16 January | 17:22

That was fascinating. Thanks for the link. I have never heard of this story until now. I do not agree with the cop's theory that she may be a spy, or was working to become one.

posted by LoriFLA 16 January | 18:10

Lori, that cop sounded like he was a real wackadoo.

Great story, nuc, thanks.

posted by Stewriffic 16 January | 18:19

That story makes me sad. I wanted her to be able to reinvent herself, but it sounds like she was just running away from her problems, and they kept catching up to her.

posted by unsurprising 16 January | 18:29

I am too addicted to the Internet to do something similar. Damn this new technology!

posted by TrishaLynn 17 January | 00:11

Fascinating. The story was told a bit melodramatically, but it's indeed very interesting. I think it would be a lot to hope that she's able to truly turn over a new leaf. There seems to be a fair amount of pathology there.

posted by Miko 17 January | 00:23

Yeah, the local cop seems like an utter doofus:

Of course, Campbell concluded: Esther Reed was a spy.

If Campbell had learned anything from his time in the Coast Guard, it was that threats lurk everywhere. Everything started falling into place: the military boyfriends, the plastic surgery, the wire transfer from Europe, the false passport. Campbell could see now that Esther had been infiltrating military intelligence at its roots, by seducing young cadets at West Point who would become tomorrow's military leaders.

"It's Cold War spy stuff, the same thing the Soviet Union did to us for 50 years!" says Campbell, still excited by his theory. "They'd have some girl go in, have sex with them. Did you ever see the movie The Good Shepherd? It's exactly like that. Ten years from now, the guy is going up for his first star as a general, and he's on the Joint Chiefs of Staff or something. The guy gets a package, it has a movie in it, and it's 'You work for us now.' That's classic espionage."

Sexy spy! Yes! *rolls eyes*

Poor girl. It's so weird that she didn't need those identities at all; they served absolutely no purpose, except to allow her to "be" someone else who could be successful. I wonder if she's receiving psychological help in prison?

At least she's in a pretty nice institution.

posted by taz 17 January | 01:29

51 one months in prison seems like a lot.

posted by dabitch 17 January | 06:32

I get the feeling, dabitch, that they're punishing her for crimes they suspect she committed that they don't have evidence for. In any case there's a lot of identity theft that doesn't get prosecuted at all and not a lot that rates federal charges, so she has -- perhaps -- the ill luck to be made an example of.

I do get the sense that she's almost adopting a new identity as herself this time around.

posted by dhartung 17 January | 14:26

That was Martha Stewart's prison. Maybe she can get out on parole before the 51 months are up. Odd that she met a friend of Brooke's in prison. Small world (but I wouldn't want to paint it.)

posted by Obscure Reference 17 January | 14:34

Fascinating story! I also feel sorry for Ms. Reed. Growing up in a fucked up family can really mess with your head. I hope she is getting psych help while she's in prison.

posted by deborah 18 January | 02:00

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