# Hyapatia Lee: death fake? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 9, 2003, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hyapatia-lee-death-fake/167569 "2003-04-09T16:11:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2003, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hyapatia-lee-death-fake/167569/1 "2003-04-09T16:11:22Z")
Hyapatia Lee was a well-known porno actress a decade ago. She hasn’t worked lately, but most women in the genre retire early so I never assumed anything by it. However I recently read that the rumors of her death were false and she had faked her own death. I had never heard the original rumors that she was dead, nor was I able to find any further information about her fake attempt online. Anyone know the real story of what happened? ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2003, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hyapatia-lee-death-fake/167569/2 "2003-04-09T16:24:13Z")
Wow! I had never heard any “death rumors” either! Hope someone who knows “The Straight Dope” can fix us up here! I hope it ain’t so… * * * Fagjunk Theology: Not just for sodomite propagandists anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2003, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hyapatia-lee-death-fake/167569/3 "2003-04-09T16:42:10Z")
> [@](#): > > I hope it ain’t so I found several online references and all agreed that Lee was alive and faked her death. So it appears that much is probably true. But none of the online references I found gave any details about what happened or speculated on why Lee did this. ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2003, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hyapatia-lee-death-fake/167569/4 "2003-04-09T17:11:38Z")
It’s all from the friction burns she got from doing Ron Jeremy. ---
**Author:** ![Mephisto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/48db29/32.png) [@Mephisto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mephisto)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2003, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hyapatia-lee-death-fake/167569/5 "2003-04-09T17:44:20Z")
Wow. This is a story about which it is surprisingly difficult to find reliable information. I’ve only got rumors to share. Supposedly Hyapatia’s fake death tied several scams she was working together. It looks like she froze sales of merchandise through her website while filing for bankruptcy–-evidently she needed her income within a certain range to pull this off. Then (after becoming officially bankrupt?) she started spreading rumors that she was very sick. This fake illness was the prelude to her fake death. Some friends helped her spread her lies, thinking she was about to fake her death to escape a stalker (who may or may not be real). Once Hyapatia “died” she again started selling merchandise over the net. Allegedly, it was posted at her website that she left her family poor and destitute and that fans needed to buy up the last of her merchandise–-which, thanks to her death, was now comprised of collectors’ items–-so that her survivors could eat and pay their bills. I’m not sure, but there may have also been some sort of “memorial fund” or something. Does this story sound fishy to you? It does to me. I don’t really believe Hyapatia is guilty of everything of which she is accused, though I think there are some kernels of truth in there. I did find a couple sites that go into this story in more detail. I suggest that, if you’re interested, you go to the Luke Ford website and find Hyapatia’s name under the “stars section”–-most of the very convoluted story is there. I couldn’t say whether the allegations made against Hyapatia are true, nor whether those allegations are even reported correctly. I should also warn you that if you go to the Luke Ford website, you will encounter nudity (which is why I’m not providing a direct link here) and pop-ups. While searching for more information on this story, I found a website where you can purchase, for $6.95, an issue of _Draculina_ magazine which includes “an in-depth look at the life and fake death of porn star Hypatia Lee.” I would provide a link, but the magazine also contains Gothic Sluts, Wrestling Vixxxens, and Sexy China Dolls. If you wish, I will e-mail you the web address. I myself have never looked at this magazine before (honest!), so caveat emptor and all that. For what it’s worth, using likely search terms and dates, I searched my school’s journalistic database thingey–which provides stories from legitimate news sources–and came up dry. Evidently nobody considered any of this newsworthy enough to report on except a few rumor mongers on the web. I hope I was helpful. And if not, at least I found a couple nudie pix of Hyapatia while looking for info. Cheap thrills **and** nostalgia–not a bad way to spend some time between lit and algebra tests . . . 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Payton\_s\_Servant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3da27b/32.png) [@Payton\_s\_Servant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Payton_s_Servant)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2003, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hyapatia-lee-death-fake/167569/6 "2003-04-10T02:51:21Z")
According to [iafd.com](http://iafd.com) she faked her death, no details. I recall reading about a plan she had hatched to scam the govt by not paying taxes and ripping off customers. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f8ce5/32.png) [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Peyote_Coyote)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2003, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hyapatia-lee-death-fake/167569/7 "2003-04-10T03:46:11Z")
And she always seemed like a nice girl. ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2003, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hyapatia-lee-death-fake/167569/8 "2003-04-10T12:25:48Z")
From the trivia section under her [mini-biography at IMDB](http://us.imdb.com/Bio?Lee,%20Hyapatia): > [@](#): > > Faked her own death in the late '90s but was discovered alive in California. Never gave a reason for faking her death. > > After retiring from adult movies in the mid 90s, she tried to distance herself from the adult film industry as much as possible and is said to very regretful about doing adult movies. > … > (2002) Lives in Indiana with her second husband and three children. Indiana is just a stone’s throw from here. S’pose I could just swing over and ask her about it. Or maybe a Hoosier Doper could volunteer to track her down and get the SD. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hyapatia-lee-death-fake/167569/9 "2003-04-11T03:50:36Z")
Yeah, I’m sure she’d just _love_ people calling her up to discuss her porn name. I’m just shocked that someone who would have sex with a strange on stage for money would turn out to have questionable morals. ---
**Author:** ![Tristan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tristan/32/18058_2.png) [@Tristan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tristan)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hyapatia-lee-death-fake/167569/10 "2003-04-11T10:16:04Z")
**Sam Stone** - Wow, that’s a pretty broad brush you’re using there. I hope you’re wearing good back support. The adult industry is pretty inclusive. The odds are good that Hypatia knew every guy she ever did a film with. I’m not saying they were all poker buddies on the weekend, but at that time, men in the industry were still fairly consistent. And I don’t see any problem with her morals, up until a possible defrauding of the gov’t. Of course, I don’t see anything morally wrong with porn either. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2003, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hyapatia-lee-death-fake/167569/11 "2003-04-12T06:18:46Z")
I didn’t say it was. Playing poker isn’t immoral either. But if I sit down at a poker table I’m not expecting many of the players to be Father Mulcahey, y’know? ---
**Author:** ![FallenAngel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@FallenAngel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FallenAngel)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2003, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hyapatia-lee-death-fake/167569/12 "2003-04-12T22:53:59Z")
She was my favorite porn star of her era. I liked her because she always looked like she was having fun, and while not a particularly good actress, was at least articulate. She also, I learned while working in the retail distribution side of biz very briefly, was a major force in trying to get actual plots and storylines expanded in the porn market, and had a taste for classic literature. The sheer boneheadedness of her alleged death faking efforts leaves me a little sad, truth be told. ---
**Author:** ![raisinbread](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8491ac/32.png) [@raisinbread](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raisinbread)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2003, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hyapatia-lee-death-fake/167569/13 "2003-04-12T23:15:28Z")
> **[Internet Adult Film Database](https://www.iafd.com/deadporn/)** > > The Internet Adult Film Database is an on-line searchable database of over 541,010 adult movies titles and 207,692 porn performers. We also have links to over 118,839 reviews and 250,000 titles in our price search engine. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2003, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hyapatia-lee-death-fake/167569/14 "2003-04-12T23:59:39Z")
Holy cow. Looking at that site… Porn stars must drop like flies. Considering that most of them should still be quite young, and most of them have to at least look physically fit, the death rate seems out of this world. Lots of murders. Another strange thing - quite a few women with self-inflicted gunshot wounds. My wife is a psych nurse, and she says that gunshot suicides are very, very rare for women. Strange world. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f8ce5/32.png) [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Peyote_Coyote)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2003, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hyapatia-lee-death-fake/167569/15 "2003-04-13T00:34:30Z")
Well, Sam, look at how many of them died of AIDS and OD’s. There also seemed to be quite a few automobile accidents, possibly as a result of driving while intoxicated? Lastly, I may sound like a conspiracy nut, but I would be willing to bet that a few of those self-inflicted gunshot woulds were cleverly concealed murders. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2003, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hyapatia-lee-death-fake/167569/16 "2003-04-13T05:11:16Z")
Raisinbread’s site was the one I referred to in my OP where I first heard about this whole thing. Unfortunately, the complete story they told was “Hypatia Lee - Faked Her Own Death.” Which prompted my unsuccessful search, which prompted this thread… Thanks all for the information.