Bag Toys: Sex, Scandal, and the Death Mask Murder

In 1985 prominent New York art dealer Andrew Crispo was linked by police to the sadomasochistic torture and murder of fashion student Eigil Vesti. Bernard LeGeros, a gallery employee and personal associate of Crispo, received a life sentence after confessing he had killed Vesti on orders from his boss; Crispo was acquitted, although he spent three years in jail for tax evasion. France, author of a 1988 Vanity Fair article on the case, careens from Manhattan's seamy gay underground to the chic, money-driven art scene and social whirl in a scorching expose of brutal sex crimes and judicial negligence. He graphically tracks Crispo's plunge into cocaine abuse, drug trafficking and S&M torture. France endorses speculation that politically ambitious prosecutor Kenneth Gribetz failed to indict Crispo for Vesti's killing due to apprehension that the high-profile case was too uncertain. (June)