CRAZY LOVE OF LINDA & BURT PUGACH - LOVE IS BLIND

CRAZY LOVE OF LINDA & BURT PUGACH - LOVE IS BLIND

Photo: nytimes.com

He only had eyes for his lover. He tried hard to get it. So he hired three men to throw acid that blinded his lover. Until finally, her blind lover married him.

Linda Riss was only 20 years old when she met a man who stole her heart. Linda is absolutely beautiful, with flawless skin and big brown eyes - "like a painting", as her friends said.

Burt Pugach is a successful lawyer, used to getting what he wanted, and he wanted Linda. Their relationship was to become an extraordinary love affair – twisted, passionate, and sometimes bitter.

If Linda had known that her lover would eventually trick her, stalk her, assault and blind her, and then go to jail for it - perhaps she would have turned away when she introduced herself on an autumn day in 1957.

Or maybe she would not have. Because when he was released from prison 14 years later, he married her. They were still married until death did them part.

In 1959 Pugach began dating Linda Riss, a 21-year-old woman from the East Bronx. After learning that Pugach has a wife and daughter, Riss breaks off their relationship. Pugach then threatened to kill or harm Riss if she left him, saying, "If I can't have you, no one else will have you, and when I contact you, no one else will want you." Riss reported threats to the New York Police Department to no avail. Upon hearing of his engagement to Larry Schwartz, Pugach hired three attackers to attack Riss. The assailant threw lye in Riss' face, leaving her blind in one eye, nearly blind in the other, and with an eternal scar. Pugach was convicted of the guilt and spent 14 years in prison, during which time he continued to write letters to Riss.

Even more strange is that after 23 years of marriage to Linda, in 1997 Burt was arrested and tried for stalking a secretary from the Philippines with whom Burt had an affair for five years, and Linda continued to support Burt. “Burt was a wonderful and devoted husband,” she testified. This time the news made national headlines. Their relationship remains a mystery – what keeps her going? Was it the triumph of forgiveness, obsessive devotion, or self-delusion? Or is Linda looking to Burt for financial protection?