Much fiction, from Pride and Prejudice to The Talented Mr. Ripley, focuses on the male con man—the lothario who engages with the aspirations of beautiful, intelligent, and often wealthy women, enticing them to relinquish their bodies and fortunes. Keith Raniere, the 58-year-old leader of Nxivm, a cult-like organization based for decades near Albany, New York, was one such man, though an unlikely Don Juan. He was a former IT guy who founded a pyramid-scheme-like grocery business in the 1980s, then hawked vitamins, and, some 15 years later, transformed into the guru to heiresses, actresses, and general deep-pocketed enlightenment seekers. But the guru thing was merely instrumental, a means to an end. In secret, he was enacting a jaw-droppingly bizarre sex scheme for his own pleasure, intertwining themes of madness, pain,…
