If Linda Riss had known that meeting Burt Pugach would cost her eyesight, she definitely would have steered clear from him from the beginning.
Or maybe she wouldn’t have.
Linda Ross was a beautiful 20 year old woman when she met the man that would change her whole life forever.
Burt Pugach was lawyer, a successful one at that and he was used to having his way with life. When he saw Linda, he wanted her for himself and he was ready to do anything to have her.
He was 30 when he met Linda for the first time.
He had just returned from London when he met her.
He told her she reminded him of an actress and even though she told him she was not one, he asked her out.
She said yes. And here begins their twisted love story.
He treated her to extravagant dinners and was lavish with his money when it concerned her.
Her family were impressed by him and thought she had met the ONE.
After some months of dating, Burt proposed to her, she said yes.
At the time, she was still a Virgin and Burt would pressure her to have sex with him before they got married but she was not swayed and insisted that she would not have sex until they were married.
He was a controlling and obsessive lover and hated to see her around any of her male friends. It made him very jealous.
He even went as far as taking her to a doctor for an examination to prove that she was a virgin and she was not cheating on him.
Even though it was an exhausting situation to be in, Linda still considered herself lucky because of the glamorous lifestyle he was feeding her which she wasn’t used to previously.
They were in the stages of planning for their marriage when Linda discovered that Burt was a married man. When she asked him about it, he did not deny the claims but promised her he was going to get a divorce as soon as possible.
He later brought some “divorce” papers to her to prove to her that he was separated from his wife.
She did some research using the index numbers and found out that the divorce papers were not real but forged.
Burt’s wife was not ready to leave him.
This was when Linda decided to call off the relationship and started mingling with other men.
But Burt was not ready to let her go. He became even more intense with his obsessiveness.
He called her friends and family, sent her countless letters and flowers all in a bid to get her attention back.
It got to a point where Burt decided that if he couldn’t have her, then, no one else could.
He paid 3 men to alter her appearance for life.
One normal day, these 3 men came up to her apartment and announced that there was a delivery for Linda, when she went to collect this delivery, the “delivery guy” doused her face with acid and ran off.
This permanently damaged her two eyes forever and rendered her blind till date.
Burt was arrested and sent to prison for 30 years but after 14 years, they let him out.
This is where the story gets interesting.
When he came out of prison, he searched for Linda and went ahead to propose marriage to her.
He told her she would never find another man like him.
She accepted his proposal and even revealed that she had not been intimate with any other guy all those years later.
Linda who is now in her 70s and Burt who is now in his 80s are still married till this day.