NAME GAME: Pseudo-social scientists are out to refute my Theory of Lee, but recent events in Lompoc have proved how wrong they are. The Theory of Lee holds that anyone with the first, last, or middle name Lee — or any of its many variants — are statistically predisposed to commit sociopathic acts with greater frequency and severity than their numbers suggest. This May, a new study came out that concluded the name most associated with criminal behavior was “Jeremy.” Lee doesn’t even make the top 20. Obviously anyone named Jeremy has issues that give rise to inappropriate aggression. But not anything like people named Lee.
The most recent case in point is still unfolding in Lompoc, where police have issued an all-points bulletin for a stolen Buddha statue — six feet tall and four feet wide — which until 3 a.m. on August 23 had been the property of noted husband-and-wife psychic scam artists, who, it turns out, were both named Lee even before they tied the knot.
The apparent mastermind of this duo is Gina Lucyfenia Lee, age 30, who stumbled onto her “gift” at age 11 and has been practicing it on other people’s bank accounts since age 16. Her accomplice and husband is Anthony Lee Davis, whose role — other than driving about in a white Mercedes with the dealer plates still on — has not been apparent. Davis’s mother, it’s been said, might have been a psychic. Whatever the division of labor, it appears to have paid off. Since moving to Lompoc in 2012, the two Lees pleaded guilty to ripping off two customers for $244,800. Before that, they nailed a couple in L.A. for $201,000. In the parlance of California criminal code, this constitutes “excessive fraud,” suggesting by implication some kind of fraud might be considered more reasonable.