Lady Lawbreaker

By G. J. Fuller

Twenty-three-year-old Brooke Taylor is still trying to come up with her own definition of normal. The doctors at Westside Mental Institution call her cold-blooded and insane. Brooke prefers to think of herself as a healthy mix of insane and genius. Recently released from the psychotherapy sessions to begin a new life, the strikingly beautiful Brooke is headed to Louisiana to visit friend. Now all she can do is wonder whether she will ever have anything positive to contribute to society or whether her high-octane, remorseless lifestyle will kill her before her next birthday, It is 2001.

A few days later Brooke enters a grocery store in Independence, Louisiana, a black cowboy hat perched on her head and icy-blue eyes that reveal nothing. She immediately finds herself caught in the middle of a dramatic robbery. As a man in a ski mask waves an AK-47 and demands the customers follow his orders, Brooke wages war against the gunman, and uncovers a deadly conspiracy.

In this novel based on true events, a young woman with a shadowy past puts her shrewd attitude and intuitive skills to work as she gives the two deadly perpetrators a night they will never forget. Louisiana is never the same again.

A masterpiece of suspense intrigue. Brooke Taylor is one of the most complex and bizarre characters ever. Once again, Fuller does a great job. -Rigwood Village Book Club

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Aug 15, 2012
• ISBN: 9781475937152

G. J. Fuller

G.J. Fuller holds a certification in criminal justice and is a graduate if the School of Paralegal Studies. He is the author of the highly-acclaimed, 1996suspence novel Chastity Innocence Unleashed and currently lives in the Midwestern United States.

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Copyright © 2012 by G. J. Fuller.

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ISBN: 978-1-4759-3714-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4759-3716-9 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4759-3715-2 (ebk)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012912384

iUniverse rev. date: 08/09/2012

All names have been changed to protect the privacy of any individuals connected to this story.

If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as unsold and destroyed to the publisher and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this stripped book.

Edited by: Miriam M. Fuller, Ed.D

Contents

Author’s Note

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

A Final Note

Further Resources

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"Insanity is like your shadow.

No matter how hard you run from it,

you can never escape it."

—Brooke Taylor

Author’s Note

"true-crime based on or describing an actual crime."

- Dictionary.com (2012)

This book is based on an actual crime. It is an attempt at a reconstruction of actual events. Much of the information researched came from interviews, court document(s) and news reports. Given the events occurred over ten years ago, and accounts of the story varied, the author had to choose the most plausible account to present. Where discrepancies arose, the most plausible version was presented.

On March 26, 2001, It was a horrifying trip to the grocery store for some people in Independence, Louisiana. Armed men attempted to rob the local Piggly Wiggly grocery store, killing one person, and frightening others during the robbery.

What is known about the attempted robbery; however, is that if not for resistance by certain people in the store that day, the armed robbers might well have gotten away with murder.

Their plan ran afoul and some individuals were there that they didn’t expect and they ran into some resistance. said Tangipahoa Parish District Attorney Scott Perrilloux in an interview with WWL-TV, Eyewitness News.

What might come as a surprise is that this was, in reality, a well-planned armed robbery attempt. Despite that, the story wasn’t given much media coverage, so it went virtually unknown until the writing of this book.

The basics of the story are founded upon true events surrounding the armed robbery and murder. With little resources to drawn upon, the daunting task of this story was to come up with a portrayal of the character of Brooke Taylor, who plays a pivotal role.

The character of Brooke Taylor is based upon a true-to-life former gang member from the streets of Los Angeles. Her gang affiliation with the thrill girls is renamed as such for privacy and safety purposes. The smash and grab thefts referred to in the book, are true events. They were rampant during the 1990’s and early 2000’s.

The gang life, as portrayed by Brooke, is also based upon accurate life circumstances.

Research has revealed that, in this particular event, the perpetrators disagreed on significant details. One perpetrator, who was later convicted of manslaughter, claimed that he wasn’t present at the store the day of the murder. Because of the varied accounts, there are some details of the story that the author had to sort out in order to provide the most plausible account of what happened.

Prologue

Los Angeles, California

March, 2001

I’m insane. Really.

I wish it were a joke, but it’s not.

Ok, now that I’ve got that out of the way, I’m kind of excited because it’s my first day out of outpatient therapy. I’ve been in therapy for a year, and I really don’t feel any different than when I first went in. Of course, I can’t tell the doctors that. I mean, what’s ‘normal’ anyway? You go to several different parts of Los Angeles, my hometown, and you’ll find several different definitions of ‘normal’. I haven’t come up with a definition of my own, yet. I’m twenty-three years old and still trying.

Seriously, I have moments where I sort of do things that I shouldn’t, and then I don’t remember them afterwards. It happens when I don’t take my medicine, or forget a dose. I call it losing reality. That’s the one time when being me, scares me.

Psychotherapy nearly put me to sleep. I mean, all the counselor did was ask me a hundred questions about my childhood—as if I could remember what I did when I was two years old.

Then she asked me why I always wear a black cowboy hat to our sessions. The answer is: because I want to. I’ve been wearing cowboy hats since I was fourteen. My dad used to wear one everyday, before he died. His was white, but he had blond hair so it looked cool on him. I prefer black cowboy hats, the same color as my hair. I guess, in a way, I wear it in remembrance of my dad. Now it’s sort of like my trademark.

Group discussions were boring. All everyone did was tell their sob stories. A lot of the girls in that place had been abused. That ticks me off. I hate abuse of any kind, but I don’t get sad, I get even. The doctors call me cold-blooded. I call it justice.

As a rule, I don’t cry. What’s done is done. I learned how to watch my back and take care of myself at Westside Mental Institution, but that’s another story.

My name is Brooke Taylor, and I’m headed to Louisiana. Actually, I’m supposed be headed to New York with my friend for spring break, but we have to make a stop in Louisiana to visit her relatives. Not fun. I hear they eat soup with a fork, among other things I’d rather not think about.

Well, there’s more, and since I doubt I’ll behave myself down there, let’s get it over with.

I used to be a thief—and that’s putting it mildly. I’d steal anything: jewelry, money—yeah I was a dip . . . that’s a pickpocket, and I even stole cars. I have to admit, learning how to be great at pick-pocketing wasn’t easy. I started as a kid. I practiced on the old people first. No problem. But the younger ones, well I’ll just say that I got chased a couple of times. It was good that I’m a fast runner. Believe it or not, out of over a hundred times, I never got caught. And who’d think an otherwise harmless California girl with long, wavy, black hair and crystal blue eyes, would do such things? Nobody. People always figure me for the cheerleader, prom queen, miss perfect—the complete idiot type. That really burns me up, but I let them think it anyway. They let their defenses down, and then I strike.

But my mom, well she was harder to fool. I slipped up once and my mom found out. She had me committed to Westside Mental Institution, one of the of most spooky places that existed at the time. To say I hated it is an understatement. I’ll die before I go back to another institution.

My doctor says that I’m insane. She says that I Iack feelings of remorse. I thought about that a lot. Am I cold-hearted? I decided that she was half right. I am insane. But I have feelings—just not the ones everybody else has.

I was once the leader of the thrill girls. That’s where life officially started for me. We were bored, restless youth looking to push