Courtesy of HBO
Rachel Lee, the alleged mastermind behind the infamous celebrity “Bling Ring” robberies of the mid-to-late 2000s, is breaking her silence after over a decade of reticence. Who is the pretty young woman who made burgling Paris Hilton, Megan Fox, Lindsay Lohan, and so many other celebrities look like a breeze? We find out, sort of, in The Ringleader: The Case of the Bling Ring, streaming now on Max.
The only problem is, after watching Lee tell her story, you can’t help but wonder if she’s still pulling some kind of swindling act.
Introducing herself in director Erin Lee Carr’s documentary, Lee, now 33, talks animatedly about how thrilling it was to steal money from her mom’s purse as a latchkey kid. She admits she always had an inclination toward subterfuge, paired with resentment over her outsider status as an Asian kid in a largely white California community. She describes her teen self as isolated and insecure, and contends that she stole jewelry, clothes, drugs, and more purely for the thrill of it, and as a way to impress her friends.