LaFonda Fay Foster and a codefendant, Tina Hickey Powell, were convicted of killing 5 acquaintances after a 4 day binge of drinking and intravenous cocaine injections. Trouble began when the women ran short of money to buy more drugs. They went to a friend's house and persuaded her and her husband, the housekeeper and two of the husband's friends to go out with them to cash a check. After a couple of hours of driving around Lexington, Powell and Foster ordered the 5 passengers out of the car and forced them to lie face down in the grass. They shot 2 of the victims there -one of whom died after being stabbed and dragged "for a considerable distance" under the car.

After stopping at a bar and getting more bullets, Foster and Powell drove to a loading dock behind a paint store, where they stabbed and shot a second victim and ran over the body with the car. A few hours later they took the 3 remaining victims to a deserted field, shot them in their heads, stabbed them repeatedly, cut their throats & ran over them with the car. They then set the car ablaze.

At trial the women admitted their quilt. Because Powell claimed Foster had coerced her into committing the murders, the jury recommended she be sentenced to life imprisonment.

There are few women on death row in the United States today. Those women who do inhabit the Row tend to be more isolated than their male counterparts. Most refuse to talk with outsiders. Yet from the beginning, we felt a special need to include women among those we photographed. Thus we were elated when Kevin McNally, Fay Foster's pro bono lawyer, gave us permission to meet his client.

We knew that Fay, one of the most notorious murderers in Kentucky, had gone on her drug-induced crime spree only a few days after finishing a jail term for minor offenses. Although Fay's life had never been exemplary, she had no history of violent behavior. The physical and sexual abuse she endured as a child undoubtedly contributed to her drug abuse and outlaw lifestyle. Fay Foster is a woman hardened by the hateful experiences of youth. Some say Fay was trying to kill her father the night she went on her rampage. She has little memory of it.

Fay looked very fragile when we entered the room-so close to the edge, I didn't think she would finish the interview. She had demanded that her lawyer be present; he acted as a buffer between us. Fay Foster trusted Kevin McNally as she had no other man. Men had given her little reason to trust them before now. The session began uncomfortably. Fay glanced

furtively toward Kevin for approval or reassurance. There was a slight vibrato to her voice. After several shrugs of Kevin's shoulders, Fay began to talk about her addiction.

"I think the worst thing about me being a junkie was that I lost my spirit, for life and people. Because I like people, in general, I do..."

Nevertheless. the opportunity to tell her own story was important to Fay. Like many other prisoners we interviewed, she complained that the media had no interest in her point of view. Since her arrest the press had portrayed her as a hardened degenerate.

After we met, Fay sent me videotapes of her arrest and trial. They are like scenes from a made-for-TV movie. But Fay's life in prison is just as hard as her life on the streets was.

"Violence...is a token given in exchange for respect and that's how it is on the streets too. You know, you give people their "props." In other words, you congratulate them for making some kind of criminal move. That's how it is in the ghettos....I don't know how else to say it."

Personal appearance is very important to Fay; in her life outside prison, her existence had depended on it. She complained to us about the ugly uniforms prisoners wore, the compromises she was forced to make. She has found clever ways of coping.

"I wear brown vitamins. I use that for my eyeliner and Kool Aid for my blush. Or, the red-orange vitamins, I use that for my blush since the Kool Aid started breaking my face out. And since I take vitamins every day, I eat whatever I use."

Fay somehow manages to live a full, eventful life inside prison. She corresponds with people, calls friends collect on the prison phones. She orders presents from catalogs and has them sent to relatives. Somehow she sends money to her mother and younger siblings.

Despite our shaky start, Fay eventually came to trust us. As tenuous as our initial relationship was, it is now firm and sustaining. When Lorie Savel was pregnant, Fay sent maternity presents. She continues to write me the most intimate, funny and bizarre letters, a hilarious and poignant diary of her day-to-day struggles. She adds chapters to her "autobiography" all the time.

We receive her annotated prison records; her notes in the margins are always critical of prison bureaucracy. LaFonda Fay Foster is one of the most interesting people I've ever met. She is a good person who committed horrific crimes. Seeing her tears in the cell, I submerge myself in her pain. Then I envisage her 5 victims and I am torn.