Last Frontier’s femme fatale

Like all good Americans, Mechele Linehan believed in the creed of self-invention. It very nearly worked for her. But because it didn't, she has just begun a 99-year jail term for murder.

Fifteen years ago, she was working the strip clubs of Alaska, the state that calls itself 'the Last Frontier'. A pretty woman, she had no trouble being the most alluring girl in the joint.

After a few good years Linehan yearned for respectability, just like a girl in a Western who cashes in her takings from the brothel and rides the stage to a new life in a new city. So she headed south and settled in the lumberjack-and-tourist town of Olympia in Washington state, just far enough away from Alaska to go unrecognised.

She married a doctor, joined the middle class, had a daughter, now eight, drove a space wagon and joined the PTA and the ranks of the soccer mums. She was loved for her generosity and willingness to volunteer.

The trouble was, before she left Alaska, she changed the movie of her life - from old-fashioned Western to modern psycho-drama. To be precise, she saw The Last Seduction, the 1994 shocker starring Linda Fiorentino (left) - and, according to the prosecutor in her murder trial, she decided to act out the plot of the film for real.

In The Last Seduction, Fiorentino's deadly femme fatale steals $700,000 from her drug-dealing husband and goes on the run. She seduces a small-town insurance salesman, and persuades him to kill her husband - with no intention of sharing the loot with her new boyfriend.

Like the Fiorentino character, Linehan (left) knew she, too, could seduce anyone she wanted. From working the strip joints she had a string of 'fiances' who would buy her pretty rings and things. In 1996, there were two in particular: Kent Leppink and John Carlin.

First she persuaded Leppink to take out a million-dollar life insurance policy so that their life together would be secure. Linehan assumed that she would be the beneficiary and made several calls to the insurance agency to make sure. That was her one false move.

Then she persuaded Carlin to kill Leppink so that Carlin could marry her. At least that's what she said. They lured Leppink to a remote mining village with the promise that Linehan was waiting for him. Carlin shot him three times with a Magnum .44 on the lonely trail to a cabin which didn't exist. And then, of course, Linehan dumped Carlin, planning to get the insurance pay-out all to herself.

But without her realising, Leppink (pictured) had removed Linehan's name as a beneficiary only days before he was shot dead. There was no pay-out. The cops were suspicious but couldn't prove it. Linehan headed south. Eventually they pinned the murder on John Carlin, who went down for 99 years. Carlin told them where to find Linehan and a detective found the trail of calls from Linehan to the insurance company and so locked the handcuffs on her as well.

Linehan, now 35, protested her innocence demurely: "I beg you from the bottom of my heart to allow me the chance to go back to my family as soon as I possibly can." But the judge who sentenced her last week was not interested. The earliest she'll be allowed out is in 33 years, with good behaviour.

Scott Fitzgerald was right all along. The past caught up with his Great Gatsby, and there are no second lives. ·