Read All About Lolita!

How the New York tabloids titillated readers by turning a bizarre tale into a Fatal Attraction parable of teen prostitution

The 10-minute ride from Amy Fisher's waterfront Long Island home to the academically elite John F. Kennedy High School, where she is in her final year, is a montage of Middle American normality: flags fluttering over front porches, hand-painted signs tacked to trees announcing weekend garage sales, white-haired elders watering lawns, teenage boys working on cars. But somehow, as Fisher traveled that brief and reassuring stretch of terrain day after day, her life took the sort of detour that is every parent's nightmare. She is accused of becoming a prostitute by age 15, meeting customers through an escort service and sustaining...

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