High Roller

It was 1951 when Gerrie Powell first stole $100 from the cash register of the Henry Vogt Machine Company in Louisville, Ky. She was 22 years old. Once she became the firm's credit union manager she was well positioned to steal larger sums. Forty years and $6.2 million later, she was in prison for the largest credit union heist in history. But before her eventual conviction, the well-liked Powell and her lover Cindy Kelly parlayed a talent for gambling into a small fortune which they spent on horses, farms, clothes and trips. Powell's relationship with Kelly crumbled, but that was just another jolt in a rather sad life, at least as viewed by the author of this romanticized, witless account. Welles, a friend of Powell, was the first American woman to fight bulls in Mexico. 15,000 first printing. (July)