“Dead Eyes”. The stare of a psychotic. Meeting with Elizabeth Holmes was apparently a frightening event. She’d wear all-black turtlenecks, carefully planned to emote a “Steve Jobs” feel. 

Her makeup was simple: Femme Fatale red lipstick and simple eyeliner. Holmes lowered her voice a few octaves to sound more authoritative, but it was the stare that unnerved people. She would never blink, eyes burrowing through people. Holmes was playing a part. And, like an actor in a play, it was all fiction. An act to fool an audience.  

Holmes started a $9 billion market cap bust called Theranos. She'd claimed that her medical device could diagnose multiple medical conditions with a single drop of blood - conditions that previously would take several vials of blood. She told Fortune Magazine a series of baldfaced lies, and Theranos came crashing down after a Wall Street Journal exposé got the attention of the feds. 

The collapse of Theranos was inevitable. It was a house of cards. The Theranos blood-testing machine, called “Edison” was no more scientifically valid than Scientology’s “E meter”.

10 years ago, Vice President Joe Biden toured Theranos’ Potemkin campus to get a look at Holmes' miracle machine. Holmes was a high-end democrat donor so the vice president taking time to meet with Holmes and prop up her fraud seemed like a natural fit. Biden toured the fake lab and saw the fake Edison machine. 

He liked what he saw: 

"This is inspiration. It is amazing to me, Elizabeth, what you’ve been able to do. What’s most impressive to me is you’re not only making these lab tests more accessible ... empowering people whether they live in the barrio or a mansion, putting them in a position to help take control of their own health.” 

Phony. She was forced to tell the truth when she was deposed by the SEC. The Federal Prosecutor called her fraud on the scale of Bernie Madoff. 

Holmes’ Icarus-like plunge was predictable. She managed to manipulate herself into vast wealth, but reality brought her crashing back down. She fell to earth and into prison, but not before she and her legal team used every method of manipulation to keep her from serving a lengthy prison sentence. 

Holmes played the “I was raped” card. Twice. She claimed she dropped out of Stanford because she was raped. She claimed she was sexually abused by her co-defendant Sunny Balwani. 

Between her arrest and incarceration, Holmes got pregnant. Twice. She claims that she never thought she would be convicted so having children was just part of life. Or maybe her pregnancies were more cards to play in her game of manipulation. Another form of sympathy manipulation. Like her claim of being a rape victim, maybe being pregnant would gain her sympathy and an acquittal. Her children were pawns to play. It didn’t work.  

Holmes was convicted and sentenced to federal prison and ordered to pay over a half-billion dollars in restitution. Holmes will never pay the fine. She will pay, in time served. Her sentence of 11.25 years was reduced to 9 years for “good behavior”. Apparently, her manipulation worked to a small degree. Holmes is two years into her sentence. She'll see freedom in 2032.

But, ever the manipulator, Holmes delayed her incarceration by a few minutes. Why? She reported to prison but was pumping breast milk for her daughter named “Invictus”. The prison had to wait for Holmes to pump. She and her legal team filed a motion requesting that she be allowed to stay out of prison while her case was on appeal because she had young children, stating:  

"Ms. Holmes has deep ties to the community: She is the mother of two very young children; she has close relationships with family and friends, many of who[sic]  submitted letters at sentencing vouching for her good character; and she volunteers with a rape crisis and counseling organization." 

People Magazine interviewed Holmes in prison and published a gushing piece on Wednesday. The Hollywood Reporter wrote about Holmes as well. People Mag and The Hollywood Reporter do little to place blame on Holmes - instead, they include sugary passages like this:  

While in prison, Holmes detailed her usual routine, which includes working out, working as a reentry clerk, attending therapy, counseling inmates who are rape survivors, teaching French classes and reading. Given she was still breastfeeding for her baby when starting her prison sentence, Holmes said she spoke to the prison's warden about allowing incarcerated women to breastfeed privately. Authorities eventually built multiple lactation rooms in the housing units. 

According to People magazine Holmes is now, a champion of civil rights.  

Holmes was motivated to draft an American Freedom Act bill, which People describes as one aimed "to bolster the presumption of innocence and change criminal procedure" which she described as her "life's work." 

In lieu of reading gushy glam pieces casting a convicted criminal as a victim, read the book Bad Blood. Holmes is a criminal. A manipulative convict who, blames everyone but herself. She blames the criminal justice “system”. According to Holmes her life in prison is "hell". 

Gone are the Steve Job turtlenecks, the eyeliner, and ruby red lipstick. What remains is a manipulating criminal. But she kept her eyes. Unblinking eyes. Doll’s eyes. Dead eyes.