The Murder of a Shopping Bag Lady

by Brian Kates, Mario M. Cuomo (Introduction), Lucy Albanese (Contributor)

Based on several years of painstaking research and interviews, this book explores the personal and bureaucratic circumstances that led a hard-working, family-oriented Italian woman to become a shopping-bag lady who was murdered at age sixty-seven

Genres: Nonfiction, True Crime

247 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1985

Reviews

[MaryAlice · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Murder of a Shopping Bag Lady by Brian Kates was published in 1985. The homeless woman, Phyllis Iannotta, was beaten, stabbed, raped and killed in New York City on April 23, 1981. The sixty-seven year old woman's body was found in a parking lot in Hell's Kitchen. Little was known about Phyllis until Kates, a NY Daily News reporter, set off on a quest to learn more about her.

"No little girl grows to womanhood with the dream of becoming a shopping bag lady."

He learned, among other things, that Phyllis was diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenia at age 52 which is unusual. Kates not only tells the story of how he tracked down Phyllis' pre-homeless identify and life, but also documents how deinstitutionalization of mental health facilities lead to an increase in homelessness.

Times have changed; poverty and the homeless situation remains about the same. In addition to information about Phyllis, Kates writes about other homeless women he interviewed. This is a good read for anyone who is curious as to what life on the streets is like and how some little girls do indeed grow up to be bag ladies.

[Fishface · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not only traces the tragic decline and fall of Phyllis Ianotta, a homeless woman in NYC, but goes deeply and compassionately into the circumstances that left her mentally ill, on the streets and defenseless against predators. Very political and far-reaching as true-crime stories go. Worth reading whether you are an advocate for the rights of crime victims, the mentally ill, or just fighting the good fight against poverty.

[Maye · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exceptionally well written.

[David Teitelbaum · Rating 5 out of 5]

For all those civic-minded people who see the issue of homelessness and the problem of the Forgotten Man (in the case of this book, literally a Woman) of importance to address, to try and find solutions to the problems--or, at least to re-examine those suffering, humanize them and lend them a helping hand--this book is a great peek into the issue.

This graphic and frank book is set in a different era than today's in NYC; nevertheless its subject matter is no less pertinent and the timelessness of the book is certain due to how much is still left to be done in society--to first humanize those in need and then to help them.

[Michelle Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book uses the death of a homeless woman to tell the story of poverty and homelessness in an urban setting. It also gives some history as to how the homeless population swelled at one point, the changing of laws that kept people with severe mental disorders housed in institutions. Which seems a shame to me.

Very interesting, I still have this book. It a part of my foray into adult "real" reading, as opposed to just reading romance novels, lol

[Judy Gacek]

1985