In 2000, JT LeRoy was the biggest literary star in the world. It was all an elaborate hoax.

The first thing people noticed about JT LeRoy was the way he looked. 

Behind his big fedora and oversized sunglasses was a skinny boy with a nervous energy. He hated the spotlight. But had a reluctant rockstar aura about him. 

When he spoke, people leaned in to listen. Both because he spoke so softly it was near impossible to hear the words that were coming out of his mouth, and because people were genuinely interested in what he had to say. 

JT LeRoy was an enigma. And a showman. And there's nothing more appealing than a mysterious person who puts on a bloody good show. 

LeRoy first came into the public eye in 2000 when his semi-autographical novel Sarah was published. The author was known to his publishers as Jeremiah Terminator or "JT" LeRoy, a teenage boy who spent hours talking to them down the phone, in whispered tones with a Southern lilt. 

The book, which went on to become a bestseller, is narrated by an unnamed boy whose mother Sarah is a "lot lizard" - a sex worker who works the truck stops in West Virginia. In the book, the unnamed boy works alongside his mother, who is often abusive, from the age of 12. Seeking her approval and love, he begins to dress in her clothes and imitate her.

"JT LeRoy" and "Speedie". Image: Getty. 

The book hit a cultural nerve. Both because of the lyrical nature of the writing and the brutality of the story. It was a Southern gothic tale of gender fluidity, sex work, abuse, and drugs. The American literary scene hadn't seen anything quite like it. 

Throughout the promotional trail for the book, it was heavily implied the story was based on JT's own upbringing. Because JT refused to do media interviews or appear in public, most of his backstory was based on hearsay. People were pretty sure the author was transgender. It was believed he was HIV positive. No one really knew what he looked like. 

In 2001, LeRoy's second book, The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things, was published, once again to critical acclaim. 

It was around this time that the author began to reluctantly make public appearances. He was a waifish figure in oversized accessories, with a quiet, almost feminine, voice. He would sit on stage alongside his very famous, almost entirely female admirers who would read from his work. These admirers included Winona Ryder, Rosario Dawson, Liv Tyler, and Courtney Love. Madonna sent him books about Kabbalah. Bono gave him career advice. He often stayed at Carrie Fisher's house. 

"He’s one of those guys you can lay in bed with and watch movies with and cuddle with and feel safe doing that. He is so true, such a poet," Ryder said at the time. 

"My secrets I can share with him. I trust him and feel safe with him. I tell him things I probably don’t tell anybody else," Tyler told Vanity Fair in 2003.

Throughout most of LeRoy's public appearances, the author was accompanied by his British handler "Speedie", a brash figure who would fed off the media's questions. 

In 2004, Italian director Asia Argento co-wrote, directed and starred in the movie adaptation of The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. It was a flop. 

Soon, cracks were beginning to show in LeRoy's facade. His third book was due but he couldn't produce anything worthwhile. He seemed to be spending more of his energy on his newfound fame, appearing in magazine shoots and as a model for brands like Abercrombie and Finch. In a wild turn of events, JT, Speedie and Speedie's husband "Astor" started a band and began playing to crowded rooms. 

Then, in 2006, a New York Times article finally revealed the truth. There was no JT LeRoy. Instead, LeRoy was a combination of two people: Laura Albert, a 40-year-old former phone sex operator who wrote all of LeRoy’s books and spoke to his publishers on the phone; and Savannah Knoop, the half-sibling of Albert’s (now former) husband, who wore the oversized sunnies and fedora and appeared as JT in public. And Astor? He was Albert's real-life (now former) husband, Geoffrey Knoop. 

"Imagine you are married and you come home one day and your husband is putting a mask on and underneath he’s a reptile, he’s a f**kin' snake. It’s like a cheap TV movie from the 80s," Argento said after finding out about the ruse. 

In 2008, Knoop wrote a book about her role in the scam, called Girl Boy Girl: How I Became JT Leroy. The book was adapted into a movie called JT LeRoy in 2018, in which Laura Dern starred as Albert and Kristen Stewart starred as Knoop. 

Albert would later explain that she first created the persona of "Terminator" when she would phone suicide hotlines as a troubled teen. 

"I’d never be me. I’d create characters, usually boys," Dern’s Albert recollects in JT LeRoy. "Some of them didn’t make it, but JT kept calling."

She further developed the persona when she worked as a phone sex operator in her 20s. 

And later, she began to write stories from LeRoy's perspective. When they started to gain traction in the literary world, she decided to keep the persona alive. When people started demanded LeRoy appear in public, she enlisted Knoop, her husband's half sister who also happened to be an actor, to play the role. They strapped down her breasts, and covered her features with a peroxide blonde wig, a fedora and oversized sunnies. 

Laura Dern and Kristen Stewart in JT LeRoy. Image: Universal. 

Then came "Speedie". And then the band. And then things came tumbling down. 

In 2007, Albert was found by a jury in a Federal District Court to have strayed beyond the normal limits of pseudonymous invention, by signing a movie contract using her nom de plume. According to The New York Times, the jury ordered Albert to pay $116,500 to Antidote International Films, which, in 2003, signed an option contract with JT LeRoy to adapt Sarah.

In 2016, documentary maker Jeff Feuerzeig gave Albert the chance to tell her own story in Author: The JT LeRoy Story. The end result was a complicated tale about a troubled childhood, institutionalisation and an addiction to sex hotlines. 

"Madness very much played into this story," Feuerzeig told Vanity Fair at the time. 

Albert has since divorced her husband. These days she writes under her own name. But she hasn't ruled out a return to JT LeRoy. 

In the documentary, she compares the persona to Tinker Bell, saying he exists "if people believe".

Feature Image: Getty.