I hope Mr. Fleming is a writer like Jack Abbott. We can watch everyone at the New York Times heads explode when they have to choose between the "aspiring actress" victim and the "artist" criminal.
Really. Have you ever seen a suspect addressed as "Mr. Fleming" before?
Isn't "aspiring actress" another word for waitress?
Good comparison---you remember that Jack Henry Abbott's victim was an aspiring actor, Richard Adan, working as a waiter at a restaurant that I think was also on the Lower East Side. Adan's father-in-law (or soon to be father in law) wrote a GREAT letter to New Yorker magazine, bemoaning the misguidedness of people like Norman Mailer, who was entirely responsible for getting Abbott out, and largely responsible for not chaperoning him actively until he was convinced Abbott was no harm to society. In an unforgettable phrase , Adan's father in law lambasted people like Mailer and their "hollow liberal zeal" that would foist someone like Abbott on society once again, with the hope that we could take a chance on him, because "culture is worth a little risk".