Lee Israel: Scammer She Wrote | 153

After her latest biography flopped, Lee Israel was hard up for money to buy booze and cat food. So, she used her research skills to access celebrity letters in prominent archives, stealing them and adding juicy tidbits to hike up their value. The librarians are clueless, and the collectors she sells to are flipping her letters for big bucks. But Lee discovers that the feds are not as charmed by her con artist bon mots. Be the first to know about Wondery’s newest podcasts, curated recommendations, and more! Sign up now at https://wondery.fm/wonderynewsletter Listen to Scamfluencers on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Start your free trial by visiting wondery.com/links/scamfluencers/ http://wondery.com/links/scamfluencers/ now. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Sarah Hagi?

  Audible subscribers can listen to all our episodes of Scamfluencers ad-free right now. Join Audible today by downloading the Audible app.

• 0:13Scaachi Koul?

  Sarah, have you ever had the impulse to buy an old letter by a famous and dead writer?

• 0:18Sarah Hagi?

  I feel like I'm more of a movie memorabilia girl. I'll look at a prop auction when I'm bored.

• 0:24Scaachi Koul?

  Hmm, interesting. I feel like I would pay maybe any amount of money to have an old letter from the guy who wrote Peanuts, but only if it was inexplicably erotic, you know?

• 0:37Sarah Hagi?

  What?

• 0:40Sarah Hagi?

  What are you talking about, you freak?

• 0:42Scaachi Koul?

  Wouldn't you want to own that letter?

• 0:43Sarah Hagi?

  No, he's a man pure of heart. We're not talking about a freak like Jim Davis.

• 0:46Scaachi Koul?

  But that's why you would want to own that letter. If Jim Davis wrote something horny, you'd be like, yeah, of course, Jim Davis wrote a horny thing.

• 0:53Sarah Hagi?

  Yeah, that's true, that's true.

• 0:54Scaachi Koul?

  It's nothing.

• 0:54Sarah Hagi?

  OK, I can see where you're coming from a little bit.

• 0:57Scaachi Koul?

  Well, I have a good one for you today, Sarah. It's all about the New York literati of way back when and how far another writer will go to have her genius recognized.

• 1:13Scaachi Koul?

  It's a sticky July evening in 1992 on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Kids play in the street, people feed quarters into payphones, and New Yorkers of all shapes and sizes are gathered on sidewalks and front stoops enjoying the summer night. A middle-aged woman tries to break through the crowd in front of her building. Her heavy eyebrows are furrowed in concentration as she lugs a clunky antique typewriter down the sidewalk. But she's not heading to her local coffee shop to work on her novel. Instead, the woman tears off a tag hanging from the typewriter that reads Eugene O'Neill. And with a huff, she lifts the typewriter and throws it straight into a trash can.

• 1:52Sarah Hagi?

  You know what? Type writers are very heavy, so this is a lot of effort to dispose of something.

• 1:57Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah, you know she's mad because she's throwing a typewriter.

• 1:59Sarah Hagi?

  I know she's mad because I've tried picking up a typewriter and I was like, how did people do that?

• 2:04Scaachi Koul?

  Now, this woman is not Eugene O'Neill, the renowned American playwright who died in 1953. Her name is Lee Israel. She's a writer as well, and a pretty good one, too. She's had bylines in The New York Times and in Esquire, and she's published three biographies, including one that hit the New York Times Bestseller list. Lee has been doing a lot of writing lately, but not for publication. She heads back up the stairs and reappears with another vintage typewriter tagged with yet another famous name. Lee trashes this one, too, and repeats the process over and over again. Lee spends the whole hot, sticky night throwing away about a dozen typewriters and constantly looking over her shoulder while she does it.

• 2:46Scaachi Koul?

  Because Lee isn't just cleaning house, she's disposing of evidence. Lee has been using these old typewriters to forge letters that she claims are from famous authors, and she's been selling the dupes for cold, hard cash.

• 3:00Sarah Hagi?

  So she was using these typewriters to say, like, oh, this specific writer used this type of typewriter. That's, uh, pretty smart.

• 3:08Scaachi Koul?

  Attention to detail. Well, just hours ago, Lee found out that she's become very, very popular with the FBI. So now, she's trying to get ahead of law enforcement to save her skin. It doesn't take a bestselling author to see that Lee's written herself into the role as a villain, and the FBI is gonna want a lot more than just her autograph.

• 3:33Speaker 02

  Hi, I'm Kenya Barris.

• 3:35Speaker 03

  And I'm Malcolm Gladwell. We're back for season two of our Audible original podcast, The Unusual Suspects.

• 3:40Speaker 02

  We're bringing you fresh, new conversations from guests like Anderson Paak, David Zedars, Ryan Howard, Rich Roll, Amy Sheld, and many more.

• 3:47Speaker 03

  Sign up for a free trial to Audible to listen to season two in the Audible app or by subscribing on Apple Podcasts.

• 3:54Speaker 04

  I'm Gemma Whelan, and in the new season of The Spy Who, we tell the story of the original femme fatale, the spy who was Mata Hari. A famous dancer turned World War I secret agent accused of seducing Allied officers to uncover their plans. But was she a temptress or a scapegoat for French failures? Follow The Spy Who now, wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also listen to the full season of The Spy Who Was Mata Hari early and ad-free on Audible.

• 4:27Scaachi Koul?

  From Wondery, I'm Sachi Cole. And I'm Sarah Haggy. And this is Scamfluencer. In the 1980s, writer Lee Israel received critical acclaim for her meticulously researched biographies. She relished her role in the hard-drinking, hard-partying circle of the New York literati. But when her latest book bombs, it's a big blow to her ego and to her bank account. So Lee comes up with a scheme to take advantage of her very specific set of skills: stealing letters from famous writers and selling them, and sometimes writing entirely new letters and passing them off as originals. Instead of writing about history, Lee is making it up.

• 5:11Scaachi Koul?

  But eventually, the feds will catch on to her scheme, and Lee will have to reinvent herself once again. This is Lee Israel: Scammer She Wrote. It's 1983 in New York City. Lee Israel is sitting in a dark-paneled restaurant full of big suits, big hair, and even bigger egos. Lee is in her 40s. She has short, dark hair and eyebrows that arch dramatically whenever she makes a cutting remark about another writer, which is often. She's got everyone at her table laughing at her acerbic wit. She's mean like Regina George, but droll like Frasier. Lee specializes in writing feature articles and well-researched and well-reviewed biographies

• 5:56Scaachi Koul?

  of Golden Age starlets and writers. Lee is living the life she always wanted: the life of a writer.

• 6:03Sarah Hagi?

  It's really interesting thinking about writers this way because I think for a lot of people, it's not just about like, oh, I'm a writer, I have this talent, I'm being published. It's like the lifestyle in your mind of a writer who is tortured and in these salons with these New York people. And you know, it's like half of this image and also a little bit of actually working.

• 6:25Scaachi Koul?

  It's almost no working, if you think about it.

• 6:28Sarah Hagi?

  Yeah.

• 6:28Scaachi Koul?

  Well, Lee was born in 1939 to Jewish parents in Brooklyn, went to college in New York, and spent decades working her way up as a freelance writer. She penned articles for everything from Soap Opera Digest to profiles for the New York Times. She profiled Katharine Hepburn for Esquire in 1967 and published her first book in 1972. In 1980, she hit the bestseller list. But it's been a few years since Lee's actually written anything. She's mostly spent her time having liquid lunches and waxing poetic about potential subjects for a new book. Lee wants her next subject to be someone great, or at least someone only she could write about. Lee's favorite subjects are brilliant and mysterious

• 7:07Scaachi Koul?

  women, people it would take a really special writer to understand, a writer like Lee. You may have noticed that Lee is her own biggest fan. Maybe it's the accolades, maybe it's the drinking, but she seems to have no sense of imposter syndrome.

• 7:24Sarah Hagi?

  I love a writer who isn't pretending to have imposter syndrome. Someone who's just like, I'm good at my job and I'm owning it, and I'm not going to pretend that this is hard for me.

• 7:35Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah, very true. But Lee's confidence doesn't always serve her well. She was working with Betty Davis on an autobiography, but it fell apart because, as Lee later writes, she yelled back. She also starts, but eventually abandons, books about Roy Cohn, Vanessa Redgrave, and Woody Allen. And each time, Lee had to return her advance money to the publishers after she canceled the contract. She's wasted so much time on these efforts that she's open to it when Macmillan offers her big bucks for a biography on the beauty magnate Astaire Lauder. Lee doesn't have much interest in Astaire herself. This is all about the money, and it's a lot of money. According to Lee, it's somewhere in the high five figures. Yeah, that's a ton of money back then.

• 8:18Scaachi Koul?

  And also, I feel like this is the kind of, quote, "easy job" she could do in her sleep. But that means it's not challenging, which is a problem for someone like Lee. Yeah. Lee probably imagines herself finishing work in time for happy hour every night. But Lee is about to learn that writing about Este is going to be much more complicated than she thought. Because writing about people who are alive can be tricky, especially when they want you to stop.

• 8:46Scaachi Koul?

  Shortly after she gets the Este Lauter gig, Lee pushes her way into a grimy dive bar. It's the middle of the day, and the man she's looking for is perched on one of the stools. Jack Hawke, a tall, handsome man in his 30s with impressive white veneers. His original teeth were allegedly punched out by a hustler he tried to rip off. Lee has been friends with Jack for a while. She knows he's a sort of lovable grifter. Jack's also the kind of guy who fancy lawyers hire to handle their less savory issues. And this includes lawyers for Este Lauter. That's why he's waiting for Lee today. Este knows that Lee is good at digging, and she would prefer to keep her secrets out of her biography. So she wants to offer Lee a deal to put the pen down.

• 9:29Scaachi Koul?

  Lee has already turned down an offer of $60,000. $60,000 to not write a book. Now, Jack swirls his drink and tells Lee the old broad is still determined to bury the project. So Lee can name her price. Lee considers the offer. The money would be nice, but it's the only reason she took this gig in the first place. But something nags at her. Lee has written about a lot of Golden Age heroes who stood up to censorship. And if she wants to live up to their standards, she needs to take a page out of their book. Sure, Este is no Joseph McCarthy, but Lee can't walk away from the truth. So she turns Jack's proposition down. She's writing the damn book. Lee, you idiot.

• 10:12Sarah Hagi?

  Totally understand. I am anti censorship. Listen, I've been banned from a newspaper or two. But this is dumb. Like, it's not that important. Who cares? I would be like, you know what? 60, mm, make it 80. Imagine getting money to not do something.

• 10:27Scaachi Koul?

  Okay, well, Sarah, here's the thing. This is where I tell you that we are taking this little morality play from Lee's own memoir. It turns out that the most comprehensive written source we have on Lee is Lee. So there is a chance that her motivations were less than pure. What we do know is that Lee is ready to dive headfirst into her research, which is her favorite part of writing. She could spend all day poring over books and articles and letters, but she soon learns that she won't have time because Este has decided to try and stop Lee another way, by releasing her own autobiography. It's now a race to the bookshelves, and Lee's publisher wants her to win. So Lee has to hurry through her normally meticulous process. And ultimately, Lee beats Este to market, but her book bombs.

• 11:12Scaachi Koul?

  The book is unpopular with customers and critics alike, and she knows it's because she rushed her research. Years later, in her memoir, Lee refers to the Este book as, quote, "unimportant." For Lee, her hurt pride is more devastating than any bad review.

• 11:28Sarah Hagi?

  You know, this is kind of proof that some people shouldn't bet on themselves.

• 11:33Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah, there's a lot of stories we cover where the lesson is people should believe in themselves less. And Lee's pride isn't the only thing to take a hit. Her career does as well. She tries to stretch the money from her book advance to last as long as possible. But just like the work lunches and martinis, the cash dries up. Between the Este debacle and her, let's say, prickly personality, no one is willing to give Lee another chance. Sure, her previous books were good and sold fairly well, but despite her own sense of self-importance, Lee is too big a risk for any publisher to bet on again. Lee has only ever been a writer, and if no one is paying her to write, she has no idea what she's gonna do next.

• 12:17Scaachi Koul?

  A few years after her failed biography, Lee pushes open the heavy doors of The Strand, New York City's largest and most iconic bookstore. But she isn't here to shop. Lee is holding a stack of her own cherished books, personal favorites that have lined the shelves of her apartment for years. And today, she's hoping to sell them. It's painful to part with them, but Lee is desperate. She's down to her last few dollars. Lee's had a long downward spiral since the Estee Lauder mess. Now 50, Lee is on welfare and has slid into full-on alcoholism. She uses what little money she has to buy booze, care for her beloved cat, Jersey, and pay for her rent-controlled studio apartment on the Upper West Side. So now, book by book, she's selling off her personal library.

• 13:02Scaachi Koul?

  But today, the buyer at The Strand turns her away. As far as he's concerned, Lee's got nothing worth buying. Lee feels a surge of anger and despair. So she flies into a rage, shouting at the buyer and shoving the books onto the floor. This gets her kicked out of The Strand and banned for life. It just isn't fair. Lee used to get paid to write books. Now she's not even allowed back into her favorite bookstore.

• 13:29Sarah Hagi?

  I have this experience every time I consign clothes. Every time I go into a consignment shop, they're like, "This is worth nothing." But I hold on to my dignity and I don't freak out. And Lee could learn a thing or two from me.

• 13:41Scaachi Koul?

  Yes, Lee could learn so much from you, Sarah. Lee tries to hold down a 9-to-5, doing things like copy editing and assistant work, but she can't stand being spoken down to by her employers. She never lasts in an office more than a few days. It isn't just work that Lee's losing thanks to her bad attitude. Her drunken tirades have scared off all of her friends, and no one will be near her anymore except her beloved cat, Jersey. Until Jersey passes away.

• 14:10Sarah Hagi?

  That is devastating. Even as someone who doesn't have a pet, I actually don't have a pet because I don't want to think about it dying.

• 14:17Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah, I can't imagine my cat dying. Lee truly feels like she has nothing. She sold off everything worth anything, even a tear-stained letter that the Catherine Hepburn wrote to her while Lee was profiling her for a big magazine. This low in particular must have stood out to Lee. She used to spend her days chatting with Golden Age stars. And now, she's all alone. But then, a few weeks later, Lee is walking the streets of New York at night when she notices two eyes staring at her from underneath a parked car. She looks closer, and in the faint glow of the streetlight, she sees a kitten. Lee has been struggling so much, but this feels like fate, and she really needs a little love right now. Lee scoops up the cat

• 15:02Scaachi Koul?

  and sees that her little face is half-orange and half-black. And Lee decides to name her Doris, after an ex that Lee also considered too-faced. Lee takes Doris home, but the cat refuses to eat, and Lee has no idea why. Her grief at losing one pet is still so fresh, and Lee is desperate to save her new friend, but she can't afford the vet. To save her new baby Doris, Lee is willing to do anything. And this little face, with its big eyes and whiskers, will turn Lee from cat lady to criminal.

• 15:36Scaachi Koul?

  Around the time that she brings Doris home, Lee is spending time in her holy place, the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Outside of her apartment, this is the only place she can actually escape her woes. She's there looking through the letters of a late, great soap opera writer to see if there's anything that would make for a good freelance article. Lee loves writing about the lives and letters of women she relates to, Golden Age starlets and writers who complain endlessly about their problems. Lee loves the way they tear down mindless executives, absent lovers, and overhyped competitors. Sure, these women may have all been more famous than Lee, but they all must feel, to her, like kindred spirits. This soap opera writer had been pen pals with Fanny Bryce,

• 16:21Scaachi Koul?

  the early 20th century singer and actress who inspired the movie Funny Girl. The letters aren't exciting at all. Fanny even writes that she's a better actress than a writer, so she promises to tell her most interesting stories in person. But Lee knows what a big deal Fanny is. The letters aren't doing much just sitting here in an obscure writer's personal effects, but an autograph seller could probably sell them for a decent chunk of change. When Lee sold her letter from Katharine Hepburn, she got a few hundred bucks, so these have to be worth something. And Lee needs money for Doris's vet bills. She figures, Fanny Bryce is dead, but Lee is alive, and so is Doris, for now. So Lee makes sure the coast is clear,

• 17:04Scaachi Koul?

  and then carefully slides three Fanny letters into her notebook. She goes into the bathroom and slips the letters into her shoes, and then she gets out of there as fast as she can. She immediately heads to the nearest bookstore specializing in rare letters. The whole way over, Lee practices a complicated and made-up story about how she stumbled onto this rare find. But when she gets there, the bookshop owner just asks one question. Is she the Lee Israel? Lee must feel elated. Not only does someone still remember her writing work, but her reputation is enough for the autograph seller to make an offer. It's only 40 bucks per letter, $120 in total. But still, this money is more than enough to help Doris.

• 17:47Scaachi Koul?

  Before Lee leaves, the bookseller says one more thing. She'd pay more if the letters were juicier. Lee thinks about this promise the whole way home. How much would these juicy letters be worth exactly? And where could she find some?

• 18:04Sarah Hagi?

  Obviously, this is a lightbulb moment for her, but also attaching her name to this sale of letters she stole from the library that are—there's a record of them existing. I feel like that is a very bad move, but she probably doesn't realize how far this obviously is gonna go.

• 18:20Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah. But for now, when Lee enters her apartment, she's shaken from her thoughts by even better news. Doris has licked her plate clean. She's eating again. Lee doesn't even need to pay the vet. Flushed with cash and probably riding high from the autograph seller room remembering her name, Lee considers this new side hustle. And it sparks an idea that will take advantage of her research savvy, excite her creative side, and bring her a lot more income. Lee heads off to buy an antique typewriter, something old enough to have belonged to Fanny Bryce. And she returns to the performing arts library, pulling the same scheme: letters from Fanny tucked in her notebook, then her shoe. This time, she takes them all the way home. She noticed there was enough empty space

• 19:05Scaachi Koul?

  on the letters to add a postscript. So now, in her apartment, Lee places an authentic Fanny letter in her typewriter. In this note, Fanny celebrated the birth of her grandson. Lee, probably laughing to herself, adds a PS. Sarah, can you read it?

• 19:22Sarah Hagi?

  Yes. Lee, pretending to be Fanny, says, "He has my old nose. Do I have to leave him an extra something for repairs?" That's really charming and clever. I feel like a lot of people who forge stuff don't have the riz of the original person. But Lee obviously is such a good writer that she can make this very exciting.

• 19:41Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah, unfortunately, that's very funny. And this is exactly the kind of edgy tidbit that should drive up the price of these letters. Lee's crazy plan has evolved from stealing correspondence from the famous people she admires to writing as them too. And just like that, New York Times bestseller Lee Israel is ready to write again.

• 20:07Speaker 05

  You stepped out for your morning jog. Except it's not your usual morning jog. You started listening to an epic sci-fi book on Audible. Thirty chapters later, you've accidentally run a half marathon. You lost track of how far you've run, somewhere just past the city limits. You can't stop. You have to find out what happens next. Then it's over. The universe seems bigger. You feel different. You feel like you have no idea where you are. Audible, stories that speak to you.

• 20:38Speaker 06

  There are books that change how you see the world, and there are books that change how you see yourself. In a new podcast series, A Great Book with Barack Obama, President Obama sits down with a series of surprising and sharp guests to explore six books that have shaped his life and perspective on the world. From Song of Solomon and the Fire Next Time, to All the Pretty Horses and Gilead, the president is joined by guests like Tom Hanks and Ta-Nehisi Coates to reflect on how these timeless stories shaped his thinking on everything from fatherhood to leadership, and discover together what they tell us about the world we live in and the world we want to create.

• 21:21Speaker 06

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• 21:47Scaachi Koul?

  Sometime in 1991, Lee is in her apartment, hunched over a boxy old TV that's laying on its back. But this TV isn't for watching. Lee lays a freshly typed letter over a photocopied signature and carefully traces it, using the TV as a makeshift lightbox. Right now, Lee is working on a letter in the voice of Louise Brooks, the silent film actress who popularized the flapper look in the 1920s. Louise is too famous to have her letters sitting out in the library, so Lee recently started writing letters as Louise, pulling exact quotes from her research and assembling the letters with knowledge from her time in the archives. So far, the autograph dealers around the city seem like they can't tell the difference. They're impressed with her vast collection and always excited to see what she's brought them.

• 22:31Scaachi Koul?

  And Lee seems to feel like, if they're this easy to fool, they deserve it. As a biographer, you might think Lee would feel guilty about attributing fake letters to important people. These are the kinds of primary source documents that she spends hours poring over in her work, assuming that they are real. Now, there's a chance that the things she makes up in her letters will be included in accounts of the celebrity she admires so much. Her work could change history, but Lee later says that she was careful not to alter any large truths about her subjects. And maybe she thought she was so good, she wasn't doing them any harm.

• 23:07Sarah Hagi?

  This is classic scammer, creating like, a weird set of rules in your own mind and like, boundaries that aren't quite real, to justify doing something that's wrong, right?

• 23:18Scaachi Koul?

  Arbitrary internal logic.

• 23:20Sarah Hagi?

  Yes, exactly.

• 23:21Scaachi Koul?

  Well, listen, the world of celebrity autographs has always been very loosely regulated. These businesses are all built on trust. Before the internet, collectors would simply call up dealers to ask about letters from a specific writer or actress, or they'd go to trade shows to see booths lined with memorabilia. There were no five-star reviews, so they just had to trust the dealer wasn't screwing them over, which meant the dealers had to trust their sources, too. Sure, there were tests that could be performed, comparing signatures or checking the manufacturing date on the paper, but that's expensive and time-consuming. Plus, like any small industry, rare letters are a competitive field. Dealers want to build relationships with sellers who have big collections, so they're incentivized to believe them.

• 24:05Scaachi Koul?

  And if the autographs make their customers happy, who's a fake letter gonna hurt? Not Lee, that's for sure. This is the most fun she's had in years. And after a few more sales, Lee doesn't even think that she needs to quote these stars directly. In her opinion, she's so good at embodying her subjects that she can just make up period-specific jokes, gossip, and thoughts on the news of days past. Can you read a passage Lee wrote as Louise about an actress whose affair inspired homicidal rage?

• 24:34Sarah Hagi?

  Sure. She wrote- I could not have been more shocked that Walter Wanger shot Jennings Lang in the balls. I can't imagine anyone going into a jealous rage about Joan Bennet. People were saying at the time, because the fight took place in the NOA parking lot, that they were really squabbling over a parking space. But Joan's husband before Walter had attempted suicide at the thought of Walter having her. So she must have something that the camera doesn't catch. Ooh, I mean, these are the kind of texts someone who's being especially bitchy would send their friend. And I feel like she got the voice of someone saying that exactly right.

• 25:11Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah, it's a shame. It's false. Well, Lee's freestyling makes the letters juicier, and it also satisfies her creative itch. In fact, Lee starts to feel like these forgeries might be the best work she's ever done. Maybe there's a market for her own writing after all. But with Lee's writing comes Lee's biggest weakness: her own hubris. And this time, her trademark sense of self is going to cost her a lot more than just books sales.

• 25:38Scaachi Koul?

  As she gets deeper into her scheme, Lee collects more tools of her trade. And today, she's unlocking the metal door of a storage locker. Its shelves are stacked high with vintage typewriters. Each one is labeled with a famous name: Eugene O'Neill, Aldous Huxley, Dorothy Parker, Humphrey Bogart, and more. These, of course, all belong to Lee. She's expanded her collection to include typewriters from different decades that could feasibly belong to different writers. That's just the kind of thoroughness you can expect from Lee Israel. Clacking on these antique keys also helps Lee get into character. She makes sure to choose subjects who are already dead, and those she feels a sort of kinship with. She later says she almost channels them in her writing.

• 26:20Scaachi Koul?

  Here's a clip of Lee, decades later, reading from one of her fabricated letters on NPR. In this one, she's writing as Dorothy Parker, the Spitfire writer and heavy drinker. I have a hangover that is a real museum piece. I'm sure that I must have said something terrible to save me this kind of exertion in the future. I am thinking of having little letters run off saying, "Can you ever forgive me, Dorothy? Can you ever forgive me, Dorothy?" The phrase "museum piece" is Dorothy's, but the sarcastic apology is all Lee. She knows exactly what this kind of hangover feels like. And she's loving putting her own quips, complaints, and problems into the voices of her heroes. Not only is Lee writing again, she's also making new friends.

• 27:05Scaachi Koul?

  She becomes close with many autograph dealers in New York, and she enjoys laughing over drinks and talking about these great minds. The dealers marvel over the letters, complimenting the writing and the wit of the greatest writers ever. And Lee cannot help but agree. After all, they're talking about her. After so much time alone in her apartment, she's part of a community again, even if she got there by lying.

• 27:30Sarah Hagi?

  I'm sure there's a part of her that is like, very happy she's in this world again and being revered, but also kind of upset that it had to be this way and not because of the things she's writing from her own mind as Lee, right?

• 27:43Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah, I mean, I would feel like that. Well, Lee sometimes suspects that her big-ticket dealers know her secret. One even tells her that her works are, quote, "real if we say they're real." And Lee soon realizes why dealers are eager to keep accepting her letters. They're selling her forgeries at a serious markup. While Lee gets between $50 and $100 for each letter, some of them are resold for thousands of dollars. Lee doesn't get upset. She just sees this as a reason to write even more fake letters. But soon, one of these dealers will stop seeing Lee as a friend and start seeing her as a target.

• 28:21Scaachi Koul?

  At the peak of her scheme, Lee is sitting at a dimly lit bar in a restaurant with Alan, an autograph dealer and bookshop owner. In the past few months, he's bought many of Lee's fake letters. He was trying to corner the market on Dorothy Parker. But according to Lee's memoir, Alan reveals that he isn't here today to purchase anything. He wants Lee to buy something from him instead. His silence... Alan says he's recently been asked to testify before a grand jury about her. Lee is stunned, but there had been hints that some people were catching on to her scheme. Recently, she'd been writing letters as a playwright Noel Coward. These letters brought her the most joy to write. She thought she was doing Coward better than Coward.

• 29:03Scaachi Koul?

  As a member of the queer community herself, Lee had enjoyed mimicking the fabulous quirky style Noel used to talk about his sex life in his diaries. But one of her buyers alerted her to a problem. Someone he sold it to, a dealer on the West Coast, had sold some letters to a friend of the real Noel Coward, and the buyer immediately smelled a wrath. Noel may have been frank about his sexuality in his diaries, but he never would have been that open about being gay in his letters. In the 1930s, homosexuality was a crime. This was a detail that Lee completely overlooked. And now, her dealer friend says that he can't sell her letters in California anymore. But he's careful not to come down hard on Lee. They've made a lot of money together, and neither is particularly interested in stopping now.

• 29:48Sarah Hagi?

  I feel like her hubris is really catching up to her at this point because for someone who's thought out this scam so well, it seems like quite a rookie mistake and a bit thoughtless, to be honest.

• 30:00Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah, and dodging West Coast dealers is one thing, but a grand jury is quite another. Alan is a frequent customer of Lee's, so he knows that his testimony could ruin her. So Lee later writes that Alan makes her an offer. For $5,000, he won't tell everything he knows, or, at the very least, suspects. Lee swears she'll get him the money. She just needs a little time. Alan leaves the bar satisfied. He even pays for her drink. Lee downs her scotch and weighs her options. She doesn't have that kind of money, and she can't exactly forge something new now that she knows the cops are watching her. Sharpening her wit in fake letters has been some of the most challenging and satisfying work of her career. But now, it could land her in serious trouble.

• 30:44Scaachi Koul?

  If only she had real letters she could sell. And then she gets an idea. University libraries are full of letters from famous American writers that are worth lots of money. But this also means that they'd be missed if they were stolen, unless no one knew they were gone. Lee could use her typewriters and lightbox to create a perfect forgery of a real letter. Then she'd swap her forgery for the real letter and take the real one home to sell. But at this point, her reputation is tarnished. She needs someone to sell the letters on her behalf. If only she knew some kind of lovable grifter, someone like her old friend, Jack.

• 31:23Sarah Hagi?

  Oh, this is really smart.

• 31:26Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah, it's clever. And it's smart to call Jack because he's had a few hard years himself. He spent some time in prison, but has recently been granted a compassionate release. Jack has AIDS, which in the early 90s was a death sentence for him and hundreds of thousands of other people. But despite his illness, Jack is still Jack, so he's happy to meet Lee for lunch. At the restaurant, Lee lays out her plan. After she makes the swap, all he'd have to do is schmooze dealers into buying the real letters, and he can keep about half of whatever he gets for them. Jack is just tickled by his old friend's descent into crime. And the money doesn't sound bad either. He's in. Lee starts visiting university libraries at Princeton, Columbia, Harvard, Penn State,

• 32:11Scaachi Koul?

  and many more, bouncing between them to avoid attracting too much attention. She copies the letters she finds, then goes back to her apartment or hotel to replicate them. And the next day, she returns to the library and swaps her dupe for the real thing, hiding them on her person and praying that no librarians examine the materials she returns too closely. After each forgery, Lee gives the letters to Jack, who waltzes into the offices of dealers with a made-up story of how he stumbled upon these American treasures. And according to Lee, one of their best customers is Alan, the blackmailer. Soon, Lee is able to pay Alan his bribe with his own money.

• 32:50Sarah Hagi?

  Oh my god. You know what? That's really funny.

• 32:54Scaachi Koul?

  It's a pretty good scam.

• 32:56Sarah Hagi?

  Imagine the satisfaction you would feel if you pulled that off.

• 33:01Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah, frankly, I would have to tell people.

• 33:03Sarah Hagi?

  You'd be like, "Suck it."

• 33:05Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah.

• 33:06Sarah Hagi?

  It'd be hard to not tell people.

• 33:07Scaachi Koul?

  Even better, Lee never hears about the grand jury threat again. She never finds out why. Maybe it's because no one would talk, or maybe she just wasn't making enough money for the courts to care. Whatever the reason, it only improved her grift. It's far more profitable now. Because Jack is much bolder than Lee was. He asks for more money, sometimes even more than the letters are worth. For some letters, she and Jack take home thousands of dollars. The two of them use their money to decorate Jack's new apartment and treat themselves to boozy outings. Lee even takes care of Jack as his battle with AIDS intensifies. They're partners in crime, and, more importantly, they're true friends. But Jack is about to get way too comfortable and doom them both.

• 33:54Scaachi Koul?

  David Lowenhart sits in his Manhattan office, looking down at a paper on his desk. He's in his late 30s, with dark hair and sharp eyes behind his black-rimmed glasses. He pushes them up his nose as he dials a number on his desk phone. He opened his own autograph dealership more than a decade ago. He's always taken his work very, very seriously. His office is crowded with seemingly endless stacks of yellow paper, letters, manuscripts, and political cartoons from some of the greatest minds in history. The piece of paper he's looking down at now is a rare, remarkable find: a letter from Ernest Hemingway himself. David knows this is real and is worth serious money, but he can't help but feel uneasy.

• 34:38Scaachi Koul?

  He keeps thinking about the smooth-talking, friendly man who sold it to him, claiming he found the letter amongst his dead lover's possessions. David's bought a few letters from Jack Hawke before, but the longer he knows him, the less he trusts him. It's just a gut feeling. Which is why he's making this phone call. He mentioned the letter to a friend and learned that it was supposed to be at Columbia University, not in anyone's private collection. So David calls the Columbia University Library. He reaches the head of manuscripts, and the librarian is confused at first by what David tells him. He says that specific Hemingway letter, the one sitting on David's desk, is still in their library. And then it dawns on them both: only one of the letters can be real.

• 35:23Scaachi Koul?

  David races uptown with his copy, so the two letters can be compared in person. And sure enough, they are exactly the same. Almost. After careful analysis, they figure out that the one in the library is a fake. David asks the name of the last person to sign in to view the letter, and it's Lee. Oh, brother. Although the scheme with the library letters is really clever, it is such a gamble, because with so many of these scams, it just takes one person to realize something's off. And also, her name's already been sullied, you know? Yeah, exactly. David's heard the rumors that Lee has been forging letters. He met her himself and didn't totally trust her.

• 36:06Scaachi Koul?

  And he prides himself on being absolutely certain that the pieces he sells are real. So just to be safe, he has a rule to not do business with Lee. But he had no idea that she had any connection to Jack. As a dedicated historian, David believes that Lee is endangering the legacy of great writers, and he wants to make sure she doesn't get away with it. So he calls the FBI. They come to his office to talk, and while the agents are all standing around his desk, David's phone rings. It's Jack, and he's calling to say he's just found a lovely collection of 20th century letters. The FBI asks David if he's willing to wear a wire. David agrees. He knows that the only way to keep Lee Israel from rewriting history is by threatening her immediate future.

• 36:55Scaachi Koul?

  Ghosts aren't real. At least, that's what journalist Tristan Redmond always believed. Sure, odd things happen in his childhood bedroom, but ultimately, he shrugged them off. Until he discovered that he wasn't alone, that everyone who lived thereafter him also had bizarre experiences they couldn't explain. And it gets even weirder. It just so happens that his wife's great-grandmother was murdered in the house next door. Is this ghost somehow connected to her murder? He decides...

• 37:23Speaker 05

  ...to go where no son-in-law should, digging up a cold case and asking questions that nobody wants answered. Like, could his wife's great-grandfather have gotten away with the perfect crime? This is a podcast about family secrets, overwhelming coincidence, and the things that come back to haunt us. For the best bingeable series like Ghost Story, listen to the Audible True Crime Podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Audible subscribers can get all episodes early and ad-free right now. Join Audible in the Audible app or by subscribing on Apple Podcasts. Dr. Seuss's Cat in the Hat and Fish are back for a whole lot of wonderfully whimsical fun. What happens when you switch bodies with your best friend?

• 38:06Speaker 05

  Discover a caveman frozen in ice? Or make an alien so angry he threatens to destroy the planet? Find out in season two of the Cat in the Hat podcast. The Cat and Fish are traveling the world in the great catastrophic cacophony cruiser, meeting genies, clown professors, cave trolls, and extraordinary characters along the way. With clever wordplay, imaginative rhymes, original songs, and stories celebrating curiosity, empathy, and creative problem solving, every adventure brings something new to discover. It's a world of wonderful words, big imaginations, and plenty of heart for the whole family. Listen to the Cat in the Hat podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

• 38:48Speaker 05

  Audible subscribers can binge all 20 episodes early and ad-free right now.

• 39:03Scaachi Koul?

  It's July 1992, and Lee is sitting in a fancy New York deli during the lunch rush. She stares down at what's left of her pastrami on rye, but she's lost her appetite. She can't help but feel that something is wrong. Jack was supposed to meet her here over an hour ago. He was meeting with a dealer to sell some of their stolen letters. They're good, and they're real, so it should be a quick transaction. Jack likes to chat, but this is a long time, even for him. Lee waves down the harried waitress for the check. Maybe Jack misunderstood their plan. Maybe he's waiting for her back at the apartment. Lee heads for the door, but as soon as she steps onto the busy street, a man in a dark suit skids to a stop.

• 39:46Scaachi Koul?

  He stares at Lee in shock for a moment before saying, Lee?

• 39:51Scaachi Koul?

  Lee has never seen this guy before. For a second, she probably thinks he's a fan of the Lee Israel. And it turns out, he is familiar with her work, but he's no fan. The man in the suit pulls out a badge. He's from the FBI.

• 40:06Sarah Hagi?

  OK, the only thing that comes close to being worse than this is if someone were to come up to you and you think they recognize you from your work and they're kind of like, hey, can you get out of my way?

• 40:19Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah, excuse me, do you need this chair?

• 40:21Sarah Hagi?

  Ma'am, your credit card was declined.

• 40:25Scaachi Koul?

  Well, the agent tells Lee that David, the autograph dealer, agreed to wear a wire during his meeting with Jack that morning. So the feds listened in as Jack told a fun little story about stumbling onto another priceless letter. Well, not quite priceless, since he was looking to make a lot of cash from selling it. The FBI confronted Jack right there in the office. And with just a little threatening, they got him to spill the names of the school libraries Lee has been stealing from. Jack also spilled that Lee was nearby, waiting for him. So they set off to find her, to see if they could get her to talk. Lee is too smart to get chatty without a lawyer. And since the FBI doesn't have a subpoena for her yet, Lee is free to go. But they warn her that they'll be in touch very, very soon.

• 41:10Sarah Hagi?

  This is probably the scariest thing that could happen to Lee. And I feel like Lee is such a confident person, especially with the scam. Like, she knew exactly how to execute it, exactly what people wanted. That she probably didn't even think far enough, like, hey, what happens if I ever get caught? And when does this become so criminal that the FBI gets involved?

• 41:29Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah. Well, Lee makes a beeline for her apartment. And once she gets there, she downs a bottle of scotch while shredding evidence, including all the antique paper and research notes she kept on her various writers. She then spends all afternoon running up and down the stairs with bag after bag, ditching every typewriter and trash cans along Amsterdam Avenue. But it's too little, too late. Around 6:00 PM, the agents show up at Lee's apartment and serve her a subpoena. The FBI didn't need anything in Lee's apartment to charge her. They easily built a case against her thanks to evidence from Lee herself. When she entered those libraries to steal the letters, she used her own ID every single time.

• 42:11Scaachi Koul?

  And when these libraries checked the letters she had signed out for viewing, they all found forgeries.

• 42:17Sarah Hagi?

  My god, I mean, that is just-

• 42:20Scaachi Koul?

  Real dumb at the end.

• 42:21Sarah Hagi?

  It's really, really a dumb way to get caught. And how do you lack that foresight of using your own name? It's like not even getting an accomplice to do it, not even finding a way to sneak in. Like, your name's right there. You may as well have confessed on camera.

• 42:37Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah. And the other thing is the FBI wasn't actually super interested in Lee when she was just selling her fake letters. After all, they didn't think she was making that much money from them. But the real letters she stole, they were worth closer to $20,000. Plus, she transported them across state lines, and that makes her crimes way more serious. The FBI doesn't take Lee into custody while they prepare for trial, so she isn't in jail quite yet. She can't afford a fancy lawyer, so she uses her crack research skills to find a great public defender. This lawyer convinces Lee that the only way she can avoid jail time is to plead guilty. If she wants to save herself, Lee will need to echo the line she gave to Dorothy Parker and ask for forgiveness.

• 43:25Scaachi Koul?

  In court, Lee's lawyer explains how difficult the last decade has been for her. The judge learns all about Lee's drinking and how she's pushed everyone in her life away. For someone as prideful as Lee, having her desperation laid bare for the public record must be excruciating. Finally, the judge asks to hear the newest piece the great Lee Israel has written: An Apology. Our smart and cheap public defender nods to Lee as she gets to her feet. Later, Lee will kind of shrug off this apology, but it's hard not to feel bad for her here, standing under fluorescent lights so far from the swanky Manhattan restaurants and warm dive bars that she's called home. She's 53 and her life has gone terribly off the rails.

• 44:07Scaachi Koul?

  She's got no one but Doris the cat and no one to blame but herself. Lee opens by telling the judge that she feels, quote, "enormous guilt about betraying her community and what she's done." And when she's finished, he gives her a pretty good review. He tells her she's clearly a smart woman and that she could be a very valuable member of her community if she stays out of trouble. He then sentences Lee to six months of house arrest. She also has to pay restitution to the dealers she swindled. And in a final blow, the court demands that Lee attends Alcoholics Anonymous meetings to deal with her addiction. She later says that she never does.

• 44:46Scaachi Koul?

  I think this is just more proof that Lee knows exactly the right things to say, but can't really do it in practice. Like, she's able to talk about her guilt and apologize in a way that seems sincere, because, again, she's a very talented writer, but it's clear she doesn't really want to do any of that in practice. Yeah. And after her wild 18-month crime spree, Lee is right back where she started, alone in her apartment with her cat. It seems like Lee will spend the rest of her life drinking, moping, and wondering if the world will just forget about her. She must believe, still, that she deserves more than this. But if Lee can't be remembered as a great writer, she can still be remembered as a great criminal.

• 45:29Scaachi Koul?

  She has one final performance in her, and if she can nail it, she'll be more famous than ever. Fast forward to 2006. After more than 20 years, Lee is finally signing another book deal. Simon & Schuster is offering her a deal to write about the life and times of a famous American author, herself. Oh, well, you know, second time's a charm, I guess.

• 45:53Scaachi Koul?

  Well, since her conviction, Lee has been working quietly as a freelance editor for Scholastic. It's not exactly flashy material, but at least it's honest, educational work. Her accomplice, Jack, had died from complications from AIDS in 1994. He never served any time in jail either. As the years went by, the temptation to write her own story, to gloat about how she brilliantly scammed the highbrow world of literary memorabilia, was too much to resist. She takes a pen to her contract, and with a flourish, she signs Lee Israel in big letters. No tracing or broken TV required. The book is fittingly brief, unapologetic, and pretty funny. And when it comes time to pick a title, she decides to reclaim her Dorothy Parker line.

• 46:37Scaachi Koul?

  Can you ever forgive me? Honestly, good for her.

• 46:44Scaachi Koul?

  Well, the book causes quite a stir in the literary world. Some reviewers think it's wrong for Simon and Schuster to let Lee profit off of her crimes. Others wonder how much of the book can even be trusted. After all, she made a career out of lying. Lee soaks up the attention. She even goes on NPR and jokes about her crimes and the scandal. Here's a clip from the moment that the host, Madeleine Brand, asks Lee about whether or not she feels guilty.

• 47:10Sarah Hagi?

  Did you ever think, this is just wrong? I can't do this anymore. I can't deceive people anymore. This is, I just can't bear this. Yes, yes. As soon as the FBI showed up.

• 47:20Scaachi Koul?

  The thing about Lee is that she did scam, but she is honest about her own feelings and motivations. So I'm not really surprised by this response. Well, before long, Hollywood is interested in her story too. And Lee starts getting invited to fancy lunches again. Lee spends the rest of her life living in her same Upper West Side apartment, drinking, caring for her cat, and complaining. Lee dies in 2014 of cancer. And even at the end, she considers the letters her very best work. Four years later, the movie adaptation of her book premieres. It receives rave reviews. And actress Melissa McCarthy is nominated for an Oscar for her portrayal of Lee.

• 48:01Scaachi Koul?

  Before she died, Lee did get to see more of her forged letters go on sale. This time around, dealers told customers they were fake up front because now the fact that they were genuinely Israel forgeries was a selling point.

• 48:17Scaachi Koul?

  Sarah, I think what I have learned is that I should lie more as a writer.

• 48:23Sarah Hagi?

  I thought you were already lying a bit.

• 48:26Scaachi Koul?

  I'm actually not sure I'm lying enough.

• 48:28Sarah Hagi?

  Oh.

• 48:28Scaachi Koul?

  I think I'm telling too many of the truths and I should be telling a few lies.

• 48:33Sarah Hagi?

  Oh, OK. I'll let everyone know because I've been like, yeah, of course she's adding a little bit of this and a little bit of that. But I'm sorry, I had no idea. My bad.

• 48:46Scaachi Koul?

  This is a funny scam because it's like, who's the victim? Is it somebody who has thousands of dollars to pay for a Dorothy Parker letter? Is it the library?

• 48:56Sarah Hagi?

  Yes.

• 48:57Scaachi Koul?

  Is it like historical societies? It's not Lee, and I don't actually think the people buying the letters, but I guess I would feel bad for the library. What did the library do? You know, nothing?

• 49:06Sarah Hagi?

  Yeah, I think it's a library and also I think it's like discrediting the system of archiving and what matters when it comes to archiving letters of real writers. And also, you know, the people who are dead. She changed their story. She might have not created entirely new narratives, but she added flourishes to people's lives that they didn't approve of, which it's definitely a wrong thing to do. But I think this is like more a story about, not to get too real, but you know, the precarity of creative work and what it's like to be on top and those crazy highs and lows that creatives are constantly facing.

• 49:48Scaachi Koul?

  Lee is also somebody who just seemed to kind of act unpleasantly and that also impacted her ability to work and be employed, you know? And so then she's like, OK, well, I'm a pill, so I'm going to pretend to be writers who kind of are notorious for that and are now famous for it, but they're dead and then leaned into it and was really good at it, I guess. This story makes me think of a lot of people who are preoccupied with their standing in literature or in media or amongst this community of writers and less about the actual work. And I think Lee really wanted to feel like she was a part of those spaces. And this was her way of participating in it.

• 50:32Scaachi Koul?

  And that is a dangerous game.

• 50:34Sarah Hagi?

  Tale as old as time. Because people want power in any way they can. And like, this is how nerds do it.

• 50:40Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah. I guess that's the story of America. This is why you can't give nerds power. Once again, the lesson is you need a hobby. Learn how to paint.

• 50:50Sarah Hagi?

  Yeah, or marry rich, you know?

• 50:52Scaachi Koul?

  I'm never gonna advocate for that. You know why?

• 50:55Sarah Hagi?

  I'm willing to do that. I'm willing to give it all up. If you're listening, the three men who listen to this.

• 51:00Scaachi Koul?

  Someone marry Sarah. Leave me alone. And I think that's about it.

• 51:13Scaachi Koul?

  Follow Scamfluencers on the Audible app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to all episodes of Scamfluencers ad-free by joining Audible.

• 51:23Scaachi Koul?

  This is Lee Israel's Scammer She Wrote. I'm Sachi Cole.

• 51:27Sarah Hagi?

  And I'm Sarah Haggie. If you have a tip for us on a story that you think we should cover, please email us at [email protected]. We use many sources in our research. A few that were particularly helpful were Lee Israel's Can You Ever Forgive Me? As well as articles from The New York Times and The Guardian.

• 51:44Scaachi Koul?

  Pauline Scriven wrote this episode. Additional writing by us, Sachi Cole and Sarah Haggie. Olivia Brierly is our story editor. Fact checking by Lexi Pieri. Sound design by James Morgan. Additional audio assistance provided by Augustine Lim. Our music supervisor is Scott Velazquez for Frieze & Sing. Our managing producer is Desi Blaylock. Our senior managing producer is Callum Plouffe. Janine Cornolo and Stephanie Jens are our development producers. Our associate producer is Charlotte Miller. Our producer is Julie McGruder. Our senior producers are Sarah Annie and Ginny Bloom. Our executive producers are Jenny Lauer Beckman, Marshall Louie and Erin O'Flaherty for Wondery.

• 52:30Sarah Hagi?

  Hey, I'm Cassie DePecce, the host of Against the Odds from Audible Originals. In each episode, we share thrilling true stories of survival, putting you in the shoes of the people who lived to tell the tale. In our latest series, we track the story of Hugh Glass, the real-life revenant that inspired the 2015 film starring Leonardo DiCaprio. In 1823, Glass was brutally mauled by a grizzly bear in present-day South Dakota and left for dead. His survival depended on trekking through 350 miles of wilderness alone with grave injuries. But he was driven by his thirst for revenge. Follow Against the Odds wherever you get your podcasts. Audible subscribers can binge all episodes of Against the Odds early and ad-free right now. Join Audible in the Audible app or by subscribing on Apple Podcasts.