'YOU'RE scared! I'M the one that went through hell': How fake 9/11 victim tormented genuine survivors



Tania Head emerged in 2003 as a survivor of the 9/11 terror attack; claims she was in South Tower

Was actually in business school in Barcelona



She rose to president of the World Trade Center Survivors' Network

In 2007 it was revealed that she had made up story



A new book, The Woman Who Wasn't There, exposes extent of her lies

She rose to fame in 2003 when her story emerged as one of only nineteen people to escape death above the point of impact in the South Tower in the 9/11 attacks.

Tania Head's survival story was made all the more heartbreaking since she lost her fiance in the North Tower.



America took Head into their hearts both as a victim and as the woman who publicly fought for the cause of the 9/11 survivors.



But in 2007 she became infamous as the woman who made it all up.

Web of Lies: Tania Head fooled the entire nation that she survived the 9/11 terror attacks

Knowing that her cover was about to be blown by an upcoming New York Times exposé, she revealed the shocking lies in 2007.



Now, the extent of Tania's cruel deception is being revealed further in The Woman Who Wasn't There, a book by Robin Gaby Fisher and Angelo J. Guglielmo Jr, which is scheduled for release next month.

As part of her web of lies, Head forced an actual survivor, Linda Gormley, to relive her trauma and mocked her when Ms Gormley found it difficult .



The lies began in 2003 when Head emerged as a survivor of the attacks, spinning her story to a nation still deeply wounded by the attacks.



Riding on the back of her lies, Head soon rose to become president of the World Trade Center Survivors’ Network.

Politicians, media, fellow survivors, and the families of those who died in the attacks all drew inspiration from her fabricated tale of tragedy and triumph.

Reliving the terror: Tania Head mocked and forced a genuine survivor to go through her ordeal of the attacks again Inevitably, she also became friends with fellow survivors, including Ms Gormley.

The fraudster convinced Ms Gormley that they should be leaning on one another to get through their trauma, and implored Ms Gormley to help her with her therapy.



Ms Gormley was reluctant to talk in depth about the terror, but couldn't say no to her forceful friend who, she believed, had suffered more than she had in the attacks.



Ms Gormley had witnessed people die, but Head had been badly burnt, nearly lost an arm and lost the love of her life, Dave, in the North Tower.



Exposed: The book reveals the cruelty Tania Head caused with her deceit

Head told Gormley that she had was undergoing an intense form of treatment to help deal with her post traumatic stress called 'flooding.'



The treatment involved Head reciting the terrible incidents of the attacks – and recording them.

Head told Ms Gormley that, as part of the therapy, she had to then listen back to the tape until her fear receded and to enlist the help of a friend if she needed support.



So Head asked her 'fellow' survivor to listen to the graphic recital with her.

Ms Gormley wanted to avoid reliving the nightmare and tried in vain to postpone it.



‘You’re scared! Ha! Why should you be scared? I’m the one who went through hell. All you have to do is listen to a tape with me,’ Head taunted.



And trapped in Head's apartment Ms Gormley , who had herself seen people die in the attacks, was forced to listen to the tape which brought back the terror of her own ordeal.



The genuine survivor was made to listen to Tania talk about looking at the lifeless body of her secretary who has been almost decapitated.



‘She has no head!’ she cries in the tape, ‘Oh my God! I can’t breathe! My skin is burning! They’re all dead, Everyone is dead!’



Ms Gormley is desperate to turn off the tape but doesn’t dare to stand up to Tania – whose forceful nature she was already aware of.



Head’s tape shines light on the intricate details she forged that tricked the entire nation into believing she was a survivor.



The tape starts with Head talking about and her future husband, Dave, having breakfast.

She dined on two sunny side up eggs, while he ate three over easy. Then they both commuted to work at the Twin Towers - she in the South Tower, and he in the North.

Head, whose real name is Alicia Esteve Head, was in fact thousands of miles away at business school in Barcelona.



The Woman Who Wasn’t There reveals the intricacy of the web of lies which allowed Head to become the face of the survivors, the woman who gave Rudy Giulani and Michael Bloomberg a tour around Ground Zero and who fooled the nation with her story.

