Get Out of Jail, Not Quite Free

"My repentance is foremost in my mind in every waking moment and its intensity increases with the passing of every day," writes Leona Helmsley in an uncharacteristically groveling letter to a New York federal judge. The missive goes on to contend that Helmsley, the prominent hotel queen who is serving a four-year sentence for evading $1.2 million in federal income taxes, should be released as soon as possible from the prison in Danbury, Connecticut, where she has been studying for a high school-equivalency diploma. An expected favorable ruling by the judge, perhaps this week, would allow Helmsley to rejoin her ailing...