The Ringleader: The Case of the Bling Ring

In a candid, first-time interview with Rachel Lee, the so-called teenage mastermind behind a string of high-profile celebrity robberies in 2008 and 2009, THE RINGLEADER: THE CASE OF THE BLING RING examines the motivations of Lee and a group of her friends who broke into celebrity homes in Hollywood to ransack and steal, exploring the possible reasons behind her actions including mental health issues and addictions, as well as the climate of celebrity excess that fueled the teens, recontextualizing the events behind the sensational headlines. In the mid-2000s, dozens of celebrity homes are burglarized and the crime ring behind it all is surprisingly unsophisticated – teenagers from Calabasas. At the center of the controversy is 19-year-old Rachel Lee. According to her co-defendants, she led the burglaries at the homes of Paris Hilton, Orlando Bloom, and Lindsay Lohan. Lee remained silent while the media and her former friends branded her the ringleader of a series of crimes that captured the culture’s fascination. Over 10 years later and following a prison sentence, Lee speaks for the first time intimately about her childhood and her role in the crime spree and outlines the culture of celebrity worship that prevailed in the early 2000s, when socialites and Hollywood stars flaunted their wealth and designer lifestyles on social media and popular reality shows. Driven by a need to be seen as a cool kid in high school and to emulate the lives of her idols, and using celebrity websites to track her victims’ whereabouts, Lee, along with her friends, targeted such bold-faced names as Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, and Orlando Bloom, breaking into their homes and helping themselves to over three million dollars’ worth of watches, jewelry, designer clothing, and cash. Chronicling the months of burglaries, the drama that transpired in the aftermath of the arrests and prosecutions, and the subsequent casting of blame, THE RINGLEADER: THE CASE OF THE BLING RING sheds light on a culture that led troubled teenagers from a well to do California neighborhood who nevertheless felt like outsiders, to covet, and believe they deserved, the lifestyles of the rich and famous.