Bess Myerson - Later Years

Later Years

In the 1980s, Myerson's life was darkened by a legal controversy (colloquially known as "the Bess Mess"). Her lover, sewer contractor Carl Andrew Capasso, who had been convicted of tax fraud, was accused of bribing Judge Hortense Gabel by arranging for a job for Gabel's daughter in Myerson's department. Myerson was also indicted and resigned her positions with the City of New York. She was ultimately acquitted.

On May 27, 1988, Myerson was arrested for shoplifting in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania, after she left the Hills Department Store with multiple items for which she had not paid. On July 15, 1988, she pleaded guilty to retail theft and was fined. The arrest occurred while she was believed to be visiting Capasso at the Allenwood Detention Camp.

Read more about this topic:  Bess Myerson

Famous quotes containing the word years:

    Flood-tide below me! I see you face to face!
    Clouds of the west—sun there half an hour
    high—I see you also face to face.
    Crowds of men and women attired in the usual costumes, how curious you are to me!
    On the ferry-boats the hundreds and hundreds that cross, returning
    home, are more curious to me than you suppose,
    And you that shall cross from shore to shore years hence are more to me, and more in my meditations, than you might suppose.
    Walt Whitman (1819–1892)

    I had lived over twenty years without the legal right to be alone one hour M to have the exclusive use of one foot of space M to receive an unopened letter, or to preserve a line of manuscript “from sharp and sly inspection.”
    Jane Grey Swisshelm (1815–1884)