Patricia Cornwell and the strange case of the missing millions
Her bestselling crime novels made her a fortune – millions of dollars
of which appear to have gone missing. Patricia Cornwell reveals all
about the mystery that threatened her very livelihood.
"I would be the first to say I have a lot of strange things happen to
me. A lot really, truly aren't something I did. How many people get
escorted off a plane because [Federal Marshals] think you're armed? I
didn't cause that. I just had a cell phone on my belt. Or my dalliance
with [FBI agent] Margo Bennett: who would think that could be related to
what happened years later when this guy tied up a priest, and got into a
shoot-out in a church? Who would ever think? I don't know. It is what
it is."
Everything, it seems, happens to Patricia Cornwell. So when my phone
rings one evening and Cornwell herself is on the line saying she wants
to discuss one of the most trying periods of her life, I am intrigued to
say the least. Whatever could it be? Alien abduction? When she mentions
she is coming to London to continue her infamous research on Jack the
Ripper, I wonder whether she has finally cracked the case. I am summoned
to the Savoy for an audience.
Interviews with Cornwell are never
mundane, frequently entertaining and often profoundly confessional. She
discusses issues many people would hesitate to share with their closest
friends. In previous conversations, she has talked frankly (sometimes,
she admits, too frankly) about her father abandoning his family on
Christmas Day, her mother's subsequent battles with depression, the
abuse she suffered as a child in foster care, her own mental-health
issues, her sexuality and marriage to Staci Gruber, her public support
for President George Bush Sr and her comparably public falling out with
his son, George W. Some habits die hard. "Some of the people I have
supported [politically] were personal friends," she tells me today.
"George W Bush – may god forgive me – because I knew his parents really
well. I didn't realise until later that I wasn't going to support him
any more."
When I arrive at the Savoy, I am greeted by Cornwell's
personal manager, but only after he confirms my appearance with his
iPhone. I feel a flutter of nerves. As we move through the lobby, I
realise we are being shadowed by a security guard who silently
accompanies us in the lift. "Hello," I say, attempting small talk. After
a granite-hard stare, he smiles thinly. My nervousness increases.
Cornwell
herself is more welcoming. Wearing trademark designer jeans, cowboy
boots and a T-shirt featuring the family crest of Kay Scarpetta, the
forensic pathologist heroine of 20 of her novels, she shows me into a
sitting-room with a view of the Thames. Two others are present:
Cornwell's sister-in-law Mary Daniels, and Joan Lukey, her attorney.
Those nerves flutter again.
For the next two-and-a-half hours,
Cornwell exhibits an array of emotions, from frustration to resolution,
outraged disbelief to righteous indignation. "You don't do this to me
and my family and friends and have me throw in the towel," she says
defiantly. "One thing people don't tend to anticipate about me is that I
have an unbelievable capacity to endure misery because I have had so
much of it. It doesn't mean I enjoy it or that it doesn't take a toll.
But I am no stranger to it. I have not lived some charmed life where if
you trip me up I don't know what to do because I have never felt this
before. There isn't much I haven't felt."
Cornwell is referring to
the lengthy, complex and "staggeringly" expensive lawsuit she began in
October 2009, seeking damages estimated at $180m against her business
managers, Anchin, Block & Anchin, whom she accuses of fiduciary
mismanagement of her money and assets. Anchin were hired in 2004 to
manage Cornwell's investments and tax liability. A personal business
manager, Evan Snapper, was engaged to oversee everything from buying her
helicopters to paying Cornwell's personal cable-TV bills. "I felt I had
made the smartest business decision of my life. You are going to use a
real firm that handles real people in the entertainment industry."
After
almost five years, Cornwell ended the relationship with Anchin, Block
& Anchin believing that her net worth, which she estimated to be in
the region of $35m, had seemingly remained stagnant despite substantial
yearly earnings in the low-eight figures.
Cornwell's initial
suspicion was that there had been a significant mismanagement of her
investments and expenses: paying over the odds for her part-ownership of
a Warren Buffett NetJet, for instance. In reviewing files returned to
her in September 2009, Cornwell found a cancelled $5,000 cheque, made to
Cash, that Snapper directed be paid to himself from her funds,
purportedly as a Bat Mitzvah gift to his daughter Lydia. Cornwell had
never met Lydia, nor had she authorised the present. "I can't even put
my hands around the fact that hiring Anchin [would turn out to be] the
most dangerous thing I could have done in terms of my business, my
finances and my reputation."
Cornwell's examination of her records
brought other inconsistencies to light. It took months to trace the
sale of a Ferrari, valued at $220,000. Although money was wired into her
account, Cornwell could find no documentation (a traditional bill of
sale) proving that this was the total sum paid by the vendor. "How do I
know that what was wired into my account was the exact amount that was
paid for that car and that someone didn't take a commission?" Cornwell
asks.
Although the total sums can only be estimated, Cornwell and
her legal team are attempting to trace between $40m and $60m in lost and
unaccounted-for earnings. Cornwell is of the opinion that her manager,
Evan Snapper, was primarily responsible for business mismanagement
issues. Anchin, who are fighting Cornwell's suit, denied any money was
missing, and informed Cornwell that her financial situation was a
product of a costly lifestyle.
The story soon took another twist.
Anchin did not take Cornwell's lawsuit lightly. In December 2009, they
hired James Cole, then an attorney and now the United States' Deputy
Attorney General. Late that same year, Anchin self-reported to the
Department of Justice and the FBI a number of campaign donations: to
Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign, and also to Virginia
Governor Jim Gilmore's short-lived run to be Virginia's senator. These
contributions were made on behalf of a variety of parties, including
Snapper, who were later reimbursed using Cornwell's funds.
As a
consequence of these payments, Cornwell was accused of masterminding an
illegal conduit scheme in violation of federal campaign finance law. The
disputed donations included an estimated $50,000 for tickets to a
fundraising concert by Elton John for Hillary Clinton in New York on 9
April. Cornwell had intended to go, along with Gruber, friends and
family, including her brother Jim, his wife Mary and their son. In the
end, none of the k original party attended: Cornwell flew to London to
accept a Galaxy Book Award the same night. Snapper went in her place,
along with several Anchin employees.
This made the donations
technically illegal: Cornwell had already given the maximum allowed by
law ($4,600) to Clinton's appeal. She accepts that her funds were used
in a felony, and is prepared to pay any fine imposed by the Federal
Election Commission (FEC). This is because the FEC imposes fines not
just for intentional improprieties, but for reimbursements that are
unknowing and not willful. Cornwell strongly disputes that she had any
knowledge the reimbursements were made, that they were illegal, or that
she ever intended to commit a felony.
Snapper later admitted that
he reimbursed the cost of the tickets ($2,300 apiece) from Cornwell's
funds. This was the felonious conduit scheme. What would become
significant is that Snapper not only used Cornwell's funds to reimburse
members of the original party, including Jim and Mary Daniels, who did
not attended the concert, but also the Anchin employees who did go. What
he would plead guilty to in 2010 was falsifying entries in Cornwell's
account ledgers. The Elton John tickets bought by Anchin were not
presented as campaign donations, but journalled under headings such as
clothing and meals.
Cornwell believes that the timing of Anchin's
self-reporting to the Department of Justice is crucial. It was two years
after the Clinton fundraiser, and two-and-a-half years after Gilmore's
senate campaign, but literally within weeks of the filing of Cornwell's
multi-million-dollar lawsuit.
That timing, and the fact that
Anchin's submissions pointed a finger directly at Cornwell, caused a
delay to the litigation. "[Anchin and Snapper were saying] that I
orchestrated [the campaign donations]. That I directed payments. That's a
lie. I did not orchestrate anything. I did not direct any repayments.
They are saying that nice little Patricia Cornwell, the Queen of Crime,
is really the Queen of Criminals."
The FBI began a criminal
investigation into the campaign donations, seeking proof that Cornwell
orchestrated the conduit scheme and knew that her conduct was illegal.
Cornwell says the first she knew about it was when her brother called in
January 2010. Although neither attended the Elton John concert, both
had been reimbursed for the tickets. Both he and his wife were
questioned by FBI agents without warning on the same morning. Jim had
just arrived at his woodworking company. "Jim used to be Deacon in a
Baptist church," Cornwell says, describing her brother. "He won't even
jaywalk. There is very little political activity."
Mary was pulled
out of a nail salon in Brandon, Mississippi, where the family lives. "I
was done with my manicure, waiting for my friend to finish," she
recalls. "The next thing I knew, I get a phone call. Someone says, 'Is
this Mary Daniels? You need to put the phone down and step outside.' I
was, like, 'You got to be kidding me. Who is this?'"
The "who" was
an FBI agent. "She came into the nail salon, in front of everyone in
the place, flashed her badge, and said, 'We need to speak to you – now.'
It was unbelievably intimidating. They made me go sit in the back of a
car. They sat in the front turned around, and stared at me. I was
terrified what to say about anything."
Mary Daniels says the
events of that day began a year-long rift in the family that healed only
in December 2010. That is when the Department of Justice informed
Cornwell, through counsel, that she was no longer a target of their
investigation. In January 2011, Snapper pleaded guilty to a criminal
charge relating to falsifying 21 campaign donations, although he
maintained that he did so as an "ill-advised favour to Patricia
Cornwell". A civil investigation by the Federal Election Commission is
still to be resolved, as is Cornwell's original lawsuit.
Of all
the elements in the case, Cornwell names the implication of illegal
activity on her part as the most grievous. In practical terms, a guilty
verdict could have had a grave impact on her work, preventing her from
accessing high-security institutions such as prisons, FBI offices and
police mortuaries. "I always joke that I am trying to get into places
that everybody else is tying to get out of."
But this only goes so
far in explaining Cornwell's determination to clear her name.
Throughout the conversation, she returns time and again to the topic of
her reputation. "It means everything to me. My guiding principle in life
is the same thing that guides Kay Scarpetta – you don't abuse power. To
have willingly and knowingly committed a felony in a matter of campaign
contributions would absolutely be an abuse of power and I'd never do
such a thing. Why would I take such a chance on something like that?"
It's
a good question, one that places Cornwell's credibility and integrity
squarely on trial. As the case of the campaign donations turns upon
conceptions of intention and responsibility, should we believe that she
is a master manipulator, or a naïve celebrity?
Unravelling
Patricia Cornwell's character is quite a job. One defining challenge is
distinguishing fact from fiction. In a career spanning 21 years, the
56-year-old could measure out her life in vivid media headlines. Many
have centred on her phenomenal success as a crime writer: she has sold
more than 100 million books in 120 countries, has been translated into
at least 36 languages and her heroine, Scarpetta, has inspired a slew of
imitators (from Kathy Reichs to CSI). Cornwell herself escaped a broken
home and troubled childhood to become a publishing superstar with a
private helicopter and celebrity friends. "Suddenly I'm in Los Angeles
being introduced to Jodie Foster. I'll never forget my first visit to
the Beverly Hills Hotel. I was walking around my room coming out of my
skin because I was so nervous. I couldn't believe I was there."
Other
headlines were more sensational. A night out with Demi Moore ended with
Cornwell crashing a car while over the alcohol limit. In 1997, Cornwell
was outed, in part after that "dalliance" with FBI agent Margo Bennett
went public: Bennett's husband held Margo hostage, along with a
Methodist minister, in a church in Virginia. Margo managed to call the
police after incapacitating her husband with pepper spray and firing a
warning shot.
In 2007, Cornwell successfully sued a cyberstalker,
Leslie R Sachs, who accused her of, among other things, plagiarising his
novel The Virginia Ghost Murders, participating in a global
anti-Semitic conspiracy and, in a heartfelt poem, of being responsible
for the death of his cat.
"I went from being this crime-busting
trendsetter to being this source of scandal. Where I grew up [in the
small mountain community of Montreat, North Carolina], scandal is not a
good thing. Let's be honest, especially back in those days, not
everybody will give you a standing ovation if they find out you are gay.
There's no telling how much it affects the savage reviews I get on
Amazon. Are they really about my books or about me?" k
It's
another pertinent question to ask of someone whose life and work are in
constant and fluid interrelation. "From a young age, when the world was
too difficult for me to live in, I could create one of my own. I have
always been going back and forth through the looking glass. I had an
imaginary friend, and I would send myself on imaginary missions. I lived
very much in a fantasy world."
Part of the Cornwell enigma is the
shadowy presence of Kay Scarpetta, her fictional alter ego. What they
share, apart from a love of fine wine and sharp sense of humour, is a
courageous need to uncover the truth, no matter the odds. But there are
differences, as Cornwell makes clear, talking about Snapper. "It's a
problem because people think I am Scarpetta. First of all, she would
have figured this guy out in one second. It may come as a shock to my
fans, because Kay Scarpetta is supremely competent about running her
affairs, but I am a dolt when it comes to business. I am not interested
in it. I never have been. I have always got other people to do that
while I am running around morgues, chasing Jack the Ripper. I don't
understand investments – I wouldn't touch them with a 10ft pole. I am
scared to death of losing money."
Cornwell is a complex and often
contradictory personality. At its heart is a tantalising blend of
determination and stubbornness, egotism and generosity, bravado and
insecurity that defines many self-made, and self-reliant, success
stories – something she herself concedes. "I have always felt I was on
my own. I have a tremendous survival instinct. It is belied a little bit
by the fact that I have this humongous artistic temperament: I am very
sensitive. Those two things are kind of at war with one another. But
those two characters stick together and I manage."
Her ambition
drove Cornwell to keep writing after publishers rejected her first three
novels. This self-confidence rubs shoulders with what appears to be a
naïve candour. More than once attorney Joan Lukey corrects her outspoken
client: for example, on the subject of that drunken car crash.
Cornwell: "Why on earth would I commit a felony? I hadn't had a speeding
ticket in over 30 years. I am fastidious, to the point of almost
obsessive, about trying to play by rules and being careful." Lukey: "20
years." Cornwell: "Well. That wasn't a speeding ticket. That was a DUI
[Driving Under the Influence]." [Lukey laughs, in slight disbelief].
Cornwell: "I am open about that. That's the only thing I have gotten in
trouble with. Everybody knows about that. My DUI in 1993. It's not a
speeding ticket." Lukey: "It's worse than a speeding ticket, Patricia."
Cornwell: "I have admitted to it. That doesn't make me a felon now."
There
are times when Cornwell adopts a grandiloquent, Scarpettian tone, as if
the story-teller in her has got carried away narrating her quest for
justice. For instance, when I ask whether she ever considers giving up:
"If I did that, what about all those people out there who don't have the
means to fight someone who has grievously wronged them, and they have
to live with that for ever?"
At the same time, you can't help
warming to someone who clearly lives at such an intense pitch, who
fights so tenaciously for what she believes in, and who is so willing to
lay her cards on the table. How many other writers would admit they
have encouraged friends to review books on Amazon? "I never said give me
a five-star review, but I would recruit friends and family and say, 'If
you know anybody, get them to post a fair review.'" Few other writers
describe fame with such guileless humour. "If you are walking through
the grocery store and a stranger wants to see what's in your cart, I
don't particularly enjoy that. God only knows what was in it.
Preparation H. 'Hi!'"
And few other writers blow their own trumpet
with such winning and wide-eyed wonder. "I love my career. It's like I
woke up and won the lottery. I am amazed by this every day. Yes, it's
extremely hard work. This isn't something you can cause to happen. It's
like a lightning strike."
If this unguardedness occasionally
leaves Cornwell vulnerable, then it also underlines vulnerability as a
defining theme of her life and work. From her debut on, she has
transformed her deepest fears into compelling crime fiction: Postmortem,
the first book in the Scarpetta series, was inspired by a serial killer
terrorising women in Cornwell's neighbourhood in Richmond, Virginia.
Traces
of her recent ordeals can be found in her most recent fiction. The
climactic homicide trial in new novel, The Bone Bed, takes place in the
same courtroom that was due to host Cornwell last month, before the
trial's postponement. "My way of dealing with fear is to walk right into
it," she says. Last year's Red Mist opened with Kay Scarpetta visiting a
women's prison in Tennessee. "The emotional part was I was checking it
out for myself. 'Here are the people who would cut your hair' – no, I'm
not going to let them colour it. 'Here is the classroom where they teach
English.' 'Here is the library.' I felt sick to my stomach. I couldn't
imagine [my wife] Staci being put through something like this."
Talking
to the inmates re-opened wounds from Cornwell's childhood – in
particular, the trauma of the foster-mother who took her in whenever her
own mother suffered a breakdown. "I felt that same gut-wrenching terror
and grief that I felt when I would see my mother lose it. Next thing, I
would go back to that awful house and that lady who would torment me
for four months at a time. Psychologically, there is probably not much
worse that you could have done to me," Cornwell concludes. "The only
thing they could do worse would be to physically hurt Staci or me. We
have really stepped up security."
After September's postponement,
Cornwell's trial is due to start in January. Relief mingles with
trepidation. "[The case is] not going to be without exposure. These
people know everything about my life. They know what I spend. They know
what I do. They know where I have lived. The good thing is, I have lived
a very open life. I don't have dirty secrets."
I ask why people
should sympathise with a multimillionaire seeking multi-million-dollar
damages at a time when many can't pay basic bills. Cornwell admits she
can't predict how the public will react. "There may be people who are
appalled. There may also be people [for whom] it becomes a point of
criticism about me. You are never going to please everybody. But I need
to get the truth out there."
Whatever the verdict, another
dramatic chapter is being written in the Patricia Cornwell story. Two
things seem certain: there will be fresh fodder for Kay Scarpetta; and
Cornwell herself will persevere. She recalls talking to Gruber, as they
arrived to be deposed by Anchin's lawyers. "I said, 'We are not pulling
up to a clinic for chemotherapy. Put it in perspective. There are things
so much worse than this. This isn't losing someone you love, or finding
you are bankrupt. I am still so much luckier than most people. I am
able to shoulder this. And I will.'"
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