Privilege : The Enigma of Sasha Bruce

by Joan Mellen

what drove a beautiful heiress to her death-her own finger on the trigger or that of her last and most brutal lover...?

Genres: True Crime

Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Joan Mellen is the bestselling author of twenty books, including A Farewell to Justice, her biographical study of Jim Garrison s New Orleans investigation of the Kennedy assassination. She has written for a variety of publications, including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, and Baltimore Sun. Mellen is a professor of English and creative writing at Temple University in Philadelphia.

(from http://www.booksandbooks.com/book/978...)

Reviews

[Lobstergirl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most people today, if they've heard of Sasha Bruce, know only that she's the person for whom Sasha Bruce House, a shelter and facility for at-risk youth in Washington, D.C., is named. Barack Obama stopped by to do some painting there right before his inauguration. Bruce's own life, despite every advantage of wealth, education, and social position, ultimately came to a sordid end. The daughter of famed diplomat David K.E. Bruce (a scion of the Bruce's Variety retail family, and formerly the husband of heiress Ailsa Mellon Bruce, daughter of Andrew Mellon) and society hostess/style icon Evangeline Bruce, Sasha died under mysterious circumstances at age 29 in 1975, at the family's southeastern Virginia estate, Staunton Hill. It has never been resolved whether her death - she was was found barely breathing under a tree, a gunshot wound to the head - was suicide or murder at the hands of her husband. David Bruce's refusal to have an autopsy done and to even embalm the body, as he needed to be back in Washington the next day for a meeting with the President and wanted a quick burial, helped ensure that Sasha's death would forever remain unresolved.

At the time of her death, the troubled and frequently suicidal Radcliffe graduate, burning through her trust fund, had been married for several months to an exceedingly slimy and gold-digging, unfaithful, physically and psychologically abusive Greek citizen, Marios Michaelides. Her choice in men was generally terrible. They were usually married, they were often after her money, and she was always willing to spend it on them. She had recently ended a relationship with another predatory Greek under investigation for trafficking in forged religious icons in London, whose art gallery business she funded. Michaelides, who had only weeks before Bruce's death obtained a quickie Haitian divorce from his first wife in order to marry her, proceeded to take numerous valuable objects from the mansion before moving back in with his ex-wife. Tipped off in Greece that authorities were interested in questioning him about Bruce family heirlooms, he never returned to the U.S. to face various charges against him, ultimately including murder. Mellen's is a fairly typical middling true-crime account, heavy on the psychologizing - absent father, distant mother, self-destructive, self-loathing daughter. One might expect better writing from a professor of English; some sections read as though transcribed from random scraps of paper, and it lacks notes and an index. The sad moral of this tawdry tale appears to be that money can't buy happiness, love, or for some, even the most rudimentary common sense.

Evangeline and David Bruce's London drawing room:
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[Lori Berrios · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book proves money can’t buy happiness. I blame her family for not stepping in.

[Brook · Rating 4 out of 5]

With both of my parents being raised in Charlotte County and having spent much of my own youth at my grandparents, I was aware of the Bruce estate and many of the local key players mentioned in the book. I did not however, know the details of the life and upbringing of Sasha Bruce nor the events of the day she died. The author clearly did an amazing amount of research on the history and impact of the Bruce family going back to the birth of this nation and their influence in the political world, nationally and internationally. She also meticulously combed through Sasha's life and unfortunately, the questionable characters throughout it including her husband who was charged with her murder but never brought to trial. To be non-fiction, I found there seemed to be a great deal of speculation, generalizations and judgment with the writing being verbose at times. However, it was an interesting read and lesson that money, social status and privilege itself does not bring happiness and unfortunately, may have been the very cause of Sasha's struggles and demise.

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Glad to know the bizarre & interesting story--since Brookneal is near me--but the writing/editing is not great which results in a lot of repetition and a somewhat confusing narrative. Also, you learn at the end that the author is untrustworthy--she testifies in one of the murder trials. Unfortunately and maybe due to the author's bias, the victim is fairly unlikeable, spoiled & mentally unstable, so the general consensus of my book club was that we didn't really care if she committed suicide or was murdered by the pathological, abusive boyfriend that she picked. She chose to waste her life and was bound to die tragically.

[Tom Schulte · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not that I would think that being born into the "privilege"mentioned in the title imparts acumen, but surely this unfortunate ambassador's daughter could have had the situational awareness not to be taken in by --two-- criminal swindlers into long, protracted love and finance dealings. Still, it is well researched and reads very well and briskly.

[Kelly · Rating 1 out of 5]

A poorly written and boring book that goes into too much detail about nonessential information about Sasha Bruce and all of her boyfriends as well as a history of the family. So boring!!