Epilogue: Dr. Leedom reinstated
Lichtenthal marries a prison nurse
When Barry Lichtenthal was arrested on April 10, 2003, his bail was set at $1.75 million. Leedom didn’t bail him out, and no one else did either. He sat there until his conviction in March 2004, and then spent four more years in Connecticut prisons.
This didn’t mean, however, that he couldn’t find another woman to charm. He did—a prison nurse.
In March 2008, the head nurse supervisor at the Osborn Correctional Institution began hearing rumors that one of her female nurses was involved in an “undue relationship” with Lichtenthal. The prison’s security department put Licthenthal on phone and mail review. It turned out that on he had called members of his family and asked them to send flowers to the prison nurse for him.
On May 23, 2008, Lichtenthal completed his sentence on the state charges and was transferred to the Wyatt Federal Penitentiary in Central Falls, Rhode Island, to resume serving his sentence for his securities fraud conviction. Apparently, however, he continued to have contact with the prison nurse.
The nurse was interviewed by prison investigators about her involvement with Lichtenthal in July, 2008. She admitted that they had a “connection,” which violated regulations.
The nurse resigned, effective August 14, 2008. On September 3, 2008, she and Barry Lichtenthal married. He was still in federal prison.
Letters from Lichtenthal
A few weeks later, Lovefraud began receiving letters from Lichtenthal. The first was 16 pages, handwritten on loose leaf paper, and mailed September 15, 2008. Lichtenthal took exception to this article. He accused Lovefraud of publishing unsubstantiated claims and giving Leedom an opportunity to vilify him.
“Liane’s entire story is self-serving, with bits of truth entwined in a web of intentional vicious untruths,” he wrote. “I am not Mary Poppins. I have been in the past a thief and a con man. I am not however, by any stretch of the imagination, even remotely related to, or like the person Dr. Leedom describes. He is a person of her own sick invention.”
Lovefraud stands by this story. It was thoroughly researched, and every statement made was documented. Lichtenthal listed 41 points about why he was right and Leedom and Lovefraud were wrong. Most of them had no bearing on the crimes for which he was convicted.
“Liane calls me a predator,” Lichtenthal wrote in point #15. “The charges to which she is eluding [sic] is [sic] not even a felony. It is a 4th degree misdemeanor. She is intentionally sensationalizing what was no more than a very bad joke having gone bad. I’m 64 years old and have no history of any deviant behavior whatsoever. I have 7 children (not 8 as she alleges), and I was a father to her two kids through the day I was arrested.”
Con Communications
Lichtenthal was in the news again on August 6, 2010. According to an article on CTPost.com, he was in court fighting an attempt by the state probation office to prevent him from running his new business.
Lichtenthal and his new wife had started “Con Communications” in December 2009—a business that sold goods and services to prison inmates, including exotic photographs and “hookups with pen pals.” The probation office wanted access to his and the company’s computers. According to the news article, the judge reserved decision on the case.
On March 8, 2011, Lichtenthal was again in court, again facing charges of impersonating a doctor. According to an article on CTPost.com, police said he claimed to be a psychiatrist in September 2010, and then contacted a gynecologist offering to provide help to patients.
Moving on in life
Leedom, in the meantime, rebuilt her life. In 2004, she began teaching as an adjunct professor of psychology at the University of Bridgeport in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The courses she taught included Introduction to Psychology, Psychology of Women, Social Psychology, Biological Psychology, Forensic Psychology, Child and Adolescent Development and Adult Development.
She also taught graduate-level courses, such as Pharmacology, Psychopharmacology, Personality and Psychopathology and Research Methods.
In 2008, Leedom wrote a book chapter entitled Human Social Dominance in the Encyclopedia of Power, edited by Keith Dowding. She’s been writing five scientific papers related to psychopathy and victims of psychopaths, which are in various stages of review and publication. One of them is “Did He Ever Love Me?” A qualitative study of life with a psychopathic husband.
Leedom worked to make amends to the people who were victimized by her ex-husband, and in the summer of 2010, her insurance company settled their claims.
She also worked to have her privileges to practice medicine reinstated, and on October 19, 2010, the Connecticut Medical Examining Board restored her to the full practice of medicine.
In an article on the Lovefraud Blog about her reinstatement, Moving on with life, Leedom stated that she was an unwitting accomplice to her ex-husband.
“I am speaking out about the fact that I was an unwitting accomplice to fraud to help to bring attention to this phenomenon,” Leedom wrote. “Psychopaths con and manipulate people into helping them do their dirty work and sometimes also into doing their dirty work for them. If we can raise public awareness of psychopathy, and stop non-psychopaths from helping psychopaths, we will be able to do a great deal of prevention. Do not ever help a psychopath in any way, or you will be tricked into becoming an accomplice.”