On 5 January 1988, Tanya Smith, then two years into a 13-year prison sentence in West Virginia, walked out of her cell and kept on walking. Smith, who had been convicted of bank and wire fraud, wanted a shot at an appeal. Having grown increasingly desperate, she hatched an unorthodox plan to try to win her freedom from the outside. With the help of an accomplice, she disguised herself as a lawyer and floated confidently past the security guards who observed her every move.
Despite her nerves, Smith says she knew her plan would work - and it did. Sitting now in the immaculate sage-green kitchen of her home just outside Los Angeles, the 64-year-old appears content and humble, in keeping with the book blurb that declares she is enjoying the peace of suburban motherhood. She tears up a few times during our call when she thinks about the strained relationship she has with two of her three children, for example.
After a while, I stop asking her whether she ever worried that any plan of hers wouldn't work out, because the answer is always: No. As for her prison break, she says: 'I wasn't sure how I was gonna do it, but I knew I was gonna do it. I knew I'd figure out a way - I usually do. When my brain kicks in and there's something I gotta do, I'll make sure it happens.'
Collection
[
|
...
]