Cyrstal Mangum (left), the stripper whose pack of lies about the Duke lacrosse team led to the disbarment of the prosecutor who took up her phony case, is charged with murder in connection with the stabbing death of her boyfriend. Mangum landed in the slammer last week after allegedly stabbing her boyfriend. She has a history of abusing her boyfriends.
But even the murder charge will not overshadow Mangum’s other crime: smearing the reputation of three white men, all players for the Duke lacrosse team, by falsely accusing them of raping her when she showed up at a wild party to entertain.
The Murder And Mangum’s Rap Sheet
On April 3, police alleged, Mangum stabbed her 46-year-old boyfriend Reginald Daye in the torso. He died on April 13. The Durham Herald-Sun reports that on Monday, police recast their charges against the stripper, elevating them to first-degree murder and two counts of larceny.
Mangum has many times been in trouble, as The New American reported last week. Before killing Daye, she attacked another boyfriend before setting his clothes on fire in February 2010, a crime for which she was tried in December and sentenced to time served.
Reported the Raleigh News and Observer:
In February 2010, police accused Mangum of slashing the vehicle tires of her boyfriend Milton Walker, smashing his windshield with a vacuum cleaner and setting fire to a pile of his clothes in a bathtub while the police and her three children were in her apartment.
Mangum was convicted of child abuse, vandalism and resisting an officer.
The felony arson charge against Mangum was dismissed earlier this year.
The Lacrosse Scandal
Though Mangum owes her latest 15 minutes of fame to carving up her boyfriend, before that, she achieved national notoriety for manufacturing a wild tale of rape, à la Tawana Brawley, and nearly ruining the lives of three lacrosse players for Duke University.
Mangum, a stripper, showed up at the home of the team’s co-captains to perform during a party. She concocted a tale of rape and assault, and because she is black and the players were white, the story rocketed across the country on television screens and in the pages of the New York Times. Her entire story, like that of Tawana Brawley, was an obvious falsehood, but that didn’t stop the Times and other media outlets, as well as a group of professors at Duke, from smearing the players and, for all intents and purposes, declaring them guilty. The university even canceled the lacrosse season.
But Mangum’s tale came crashing down. The state Attorney General dropped the charges, calling the case a “tragic rush to accuse.” The prosecutor, who was disbarred, landed in jail for a day.
The players sued the prosecutor and police, and a federal judge has said the case will proceed.
Mangum Accused
So now the accuser stands accused once again. But this time, the charge isn’t merely telling lurid lies about white male perfidy. This time, someone is dead.
The co-author of Mangum’s book on the case hopes observers don’t rush to judgment, citing what she did to the Duke lacrosse players.
Daye’s nephew had it pegged when he spoke to the 911 dispatcher after the stabbing, according to the Durham Herald-Sun: “It’s Crystal Mangum. THE Crystal Mangum,” said the nephew, whose name was removed from a publicly-released version of the emergency call. “I told him she was trouble from the damn beginning.”
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