The owner of the world's first commercially cloned dogs is a former cheerleader and beauty queen who scandalised Britain 30 years ago

It reads like the plot of a Russ Meyer sexploitation film, with a plot twist so barking that even the makers of Footballers' Wives would probably have rejected it.

But it turns out that the owner of the world's first commercially cloned dogs is a former cheerleader and beauty queen who scandalised Britain 30 years ago after kidnapping a Mormon missionary at gunpoint and manacling him to a bed for sex.

When Bernann McKinney hit the headlines earlier this week upon receiving five pitbull puppies from the South Korean laboratory that cloned her beloved dead pet, Booger, some cruelly noted that the dogs bore more than a passing resemblance to their owner.

The Seoul-based laboratory, RNL Bio, charged her $50,000 (£25,000) for the clones - one-third of its standard rate - because she helped them with publicity. But I doubt it could have anticipated the media frenzy that ensued.

The Mail was the first to connect McKinney to the infamous kidnapping of Kirk Anderson, a Utah missionary, by a Joyce McKinney back in 1977.

The paper noted "the face was familiar, albeit older and heavier. The surname was the same. So was the alleged American, ex-beauty queen background." Asked by the paper: "Are you really Joyce McKinney?", she snapped: "Are you going to ask me about my dogs or not? Because that's all I'm prepared to talk to you about."

However, the Guardian noted today that a check of public records in North Carolina confirmed that 'Bernann' is indeed the same woman who infamously said of her captive missonary: "I loved him so much that I would have skied down Mount Everest in the nude with a carnation up my nose if he asked me to."

No salacious detail has been spared in the retelling of the case. From the mink-lined handcuffs used to restrain Anderson, to his silky pajamas and the comment of McKinney's counsel, in rejecting his rape allegation, that "methinks the Mormon doth protest too much".

The Times website even pulls up an archive clipping of the paper's coverage of the court case today.

It's left to a pulp fiction blog to remind us of the seriousness of the charges McKinney faced before she jumped bail and fled the country with co-accused Keith May, with the pair disguised as mime artists.

The Trash Fiction blog notes: "The charge of rape could not then brought when the victim was a man, and anyway there wasn't anyone in the country who gave a toss about the alleged victim of the alleged crime: the prevailing opinion then - as it would probably be now - was that he must have enjoyed it.

"Curious double-standards we sometimes display, no?"