The Wasp Woman Redeemed

It's hard to ignore a book titled Wasp Woman.

The Wasp Woman was a 1959 B-movie starring actress Susan Cabot. The plot involved cosmetics magnate Janice Starlin, whose fading youth drove her to experiment with wasp enzyme injections to restore her beauty and boost her company's fortunes. As one might expect, things go wrong.

The film, produced and directed by cult cinema icon Roger Corman, is Cabot's most memorable part. While she did star in several above-average films in the 1950s, her career scarcely lasted a decade. Wasp Woman was her final role.

Cabot most likely would have faded into obscurity if not for her grisly murder at the hands of her own son, Tim, in 1986. The circumstances of her death involved human growth hormone (HGH) injections given to Tim, who had a form of dwarfism. He received the shots from 1970 to 1985.

Parallels were drawn between Janice Starlin and Cabot. She was characterized as someone who would do anything to help Tim, and that included experimental doses of HGH derived from cadavers. Later, the treatments were linked to a fatal brain disorder and halted in 1985.

In subsequent murder trials, Cabot was essentially blamed for her own death. Tim was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to three years' probation.

Author Lona Bailey has framed Wasp Woman as a redemption and defense of Susan Cabot's reputation. According to Bailey, Cabot's legacy has been maligned by misogynistic lawyers, doctors, judges, and the media. Bailey's task, as she sees it, is to balance the scales to reflect a more honest interpretation of Cabot's life and death.

Bailey’s scholarship and aim serve Cabot well. But her analysis often judges the past by today's standards. I don't dispute her thesis, but 1986 and 2026 are hard to compare on a side-by-side basis.

Bailey does an excellent job of describing Cabot's early life and her movie career. Though she never rose above B-movie status, Cabot showed real heart, overcoming a childhood of poverty and abuse, to carve out a film career. The book holds inspiration and hard truth. Bailey deserves credit for restoring Susan Cabot's humanity.

I received an advance reading copy from NetGalley.