Silicone and super glue: How one man illegally reshaped women in America

Vinnie Taylor had been administering silicone injections for seven years, until one woman died. Photo / Getty

Vinnie Taylor would meet his clients inside hotel rooms throughout the East Coast of the United States, equipped with gallons of silicone, super glue and cotton balls, according to federal prosecutors.

He told some of the women who came to him seeking fuller figures, according to court documents, that he knew what he was doing was illegal but assured them that they would be safe.

It's like how "marijuana is illegal, but everyone uses it," Taylor reportedly told one of his customers, according to court records.

But after seven years of administering the cosmetic injections to women in more than 3000 sessions, at least one of those instances proved deadly, revealing Taylor's operation to law enforcement and landing him in jail.

Taylor was not a doctor and did not have a medical license. He purchased 152 gallons of silicone for his business and made about $1.59 million in revenue, federal prosecutors said. Taylor, 44, of Wilmington, North Carolina, pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges for administering the illegal injections on Thursday, agreeing to serve 12 to 15 years in prison as part of an agreement with prosecutors.

Taylor administered the silicone buttocks injections in hotel rooms in Maryland, Virginia, Missouri and elsewhere, charging customers from US$800 to US$1000 for an initial visit and US$350 to US$800 for repeat business, according to court papers filed in US District Court in Maryland.

"After injecting the silicone, Taylor used super glue and cotton balls to prevent the silicone from leaking and wrapped her buttocks in plastic wrap," the plea agreement states in describing the process.

Taylor injected food-grade silicone - designed for processing and packaging - into the women seeing him but told them it was medical-grade silicone, court documents said. He told one woman that "silicone is not harmful if it is injected into you."

In the case of injections Taylor administered in Maryland at a hotel room in March 2014, the woman began having problems breathing after she left. She was taken to a local hospital, where she later died.

The medical examiner determined the woman's cause of death "to be acute and chronic respiratory failure due to a foreign substance," court records state.

Taylor told other clients afterwards that he had administered injections to her but claimed "that her death was not his fault as he was 'just trying to fix her,' " according to federal prosecutors, and "Taylor also remarked that she had been sick when she came to him."

Taylor admitted that his "conduct resulted in the death of the victim in March 2014," according to a statement from the US Attorney for the District of Maryland.

Federal public defenders representing Taylor said that it is the office's policy not to make comments, and declined to do so. Taylor is scheduled to be sentenced in federal court in August.

Taylor also is expected to plead guilty to manslaughter in Prince George's County (Maryland) and be sentenced to 10 years in prison, a sentence that will run concurrent with his federal sentence, according to a spokeswoman with the Prince George's County State's Attorney's Office.