It’s not everyday you hear an incredible story about a Black woman who low-key stalked Michael Jackson as a young teen, grew up being friends with Prince, and finessed millions from banks while out-scheming the FBI. But that’s exactly what book lovers will be getting this month as Tanya Smith’s memoir lands in book stores across the country.
The Star Tribune sums up her life like this, “By the time she was a 13-year-old in 1973, Tanya Smith had procured a plane ticket, flown to Michael Jackson’s childhood home and begged to meet him. By the time she was 20, she accrued millions by breaking into banks’ computer systems. By 30, she was spending what would be more than 13 years in prison for wire fraud, bank fraud, conspiracy and attempted credit card fraud.”
In Smith’s book “Never Saw Me Coming: How I Outsmarted the FBI and the Entire Banking System — and Pocketed $40 Million,” she tells her extraordinary life story. First, she channels her interest in technology into acquiring phone numbers for Michael Jackson and other celebrities, and shrewdly steals $5,000 to deposit into her grandmother’s bank account.
By the time she’s 18 years old, she’s stacked millions in cash. And when the FBI chases her down with doubts that Black people are smart enough to commit such crimes without help, she proceeds to prove them wrong by stealing $40 million over time, along with diamonds, gold bars, and other valuable items. She eventually isn’t only on the run from the law, but from people who want to take her life. She eventually is arrested and convicted for a long prison sentence, but she secures her freedom by mounting her own brilliant self-defense.
Smith’s story has earned cosigns from Hollywood heavyweights such as Issa Rae and Janelle Monae. There has also been confirmation of an adaptation coming, though no further details have been revealed.
“Never Saw Me Coming” will be available everywhere books are sold on Tuesday, Aug. 13.