Double Life

He was the top justice of New York's highest court. She was a stunning socialite and his wife's stepcousin. In 1993, Sol Wachtler was convicted of blackmail and extortion against Joy Silverman, his former mistress. How did a respected jurist and one of the most prominent men in America end up serving time in prison? Linda Wolfe starts at the beginning-from Wachtler's modest Brooklyn upbringing through his courtship and marriage to Joan Wolosoff, the only child of a wealthy real-estate developer. Joy Fererh was three and a half when her father walked out. When she and Sol met, he was fifty-five and nearing the pinnacle of his legal career. She was a thirty-something stay-at-home mother who, with Sol's help, made a career for herself as a Republican Party fundraiser. They kept their affair a secret-until an explosive mix of sex, power, betrayal, and prescription-drug abuse set the stage for the tabloid headlines of the decade.