I also hate it when people say he was guilty.
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bheck1 — 19 years ago(February 09, 2007 04:28 PM)
What gets me about Hearst's coverage of the trial was the exoneration of Rappe. Hearst portrayed her as some pure, virginal, saint-like, all american girl when in fact she had been a prostitute, had several abortions (the effects of which probably caused her death), and (according to Mack Sennett) had given half of his male staff clap. What did Pathe' Lehrman see in her enough for him to launch a press vendetta against Arbuckle. Lehrman might have gone after Virginia under the auspices of lust, but then you must consider the fact that Lehrman requested and was granted the right to be buried next to her upon his death. Maybe Lehrman was still in envy of Roscoe's talents?
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ceebeegee — 17 years ago(May 21, 2008 12:08 AM)
Slandering a girl who died horribly doesn't make Arbuckle any more innocent. There's no "in fact," there's no proof whatsoever that she'd been a part-time prostituteno doubt spread by the same type who eagerly spread equally unfounded rumors about Elizabeth Short. Something about a young woman dying horribly brings out the vultures. Your basic point, that Hearst portrayed her as a saint in order to smear Arbuckle and sell more papers, is well-takendon't fall into the same trap.
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MrBook_ — 13 years ago(May 06, 2012 08:20 AM)
Yeah the old "portray the rape victim as a slut" routine is the oldest trick in the book. (If she in fact wasn't a rape victim, that doesn't make it less reprehensible in this case.)
Pills are good! PILLS ARE GOOD! -
goldenpet — 11 years ago(April 20, 2014 04:22 AM)
I'm not making any accusations here, just posing some questions (Gross alert). I am wondering that if Ms. Rappe did have repeated abortions, which honestly, cannot be substantiated, that the instruments may not have been sterile, introducing pathogens into the urinal/reproductive tracts, and could have contributed to her chronic cystitis.
Also: The female urethra and the vaginal opening are in very close proximity to one another. An unskilled abortionist may have introduced an instrument into her bladder by mistake, thinking that they were accessing the contents of the uterus, and caused abrasions/injury to the interior bladder wall. I am not a medical professional, although I have had medical training in the course of caring for my mother. The circumstances of Ms. Rappe's preexisting chronic bladder condition and the later rupture, endured during a very painful several days for her before her demise, continue to puzzle me.
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Wherever you go, there you are. -
ContinentalOp — 15 years ago(November 17, 2010 04:43 AM)
"Lehrman might have gone after Virginia under the auspices of lust, but then you must consider the fact that Lehrman requested and was granted the right to be buried next to her upon his death. Maybe Lehrman was still in envy of Roscoe's talents"
I think it is safe to say that Lehrman was deeply in love with Rappe, regardless of her faults.
"Namu-myoho-renge-kyo" -
Catdubh — 19 years ago(February 17, 2007 01:57 AM)
Fatty was INNOCENT! He was the victim of William R. He5b4arst's sick, twisted need for control of the press and, people in general!
See what a difficult situation you've created. Proud of yourself now are you? -
scotbpens — 16 years ago(June 25, 2009 09:40 PM)
Hearst may have had a personal grudge against the entire Hollywood film industry because he felt that Marion Davies, his mistress of many years, wasn't getting the roles she deserved that could make her a major star. So he vented his frustration by seeing to it that the papers under his control painted Virginia Rappe as the flower of innocent American womanhood, and Arbuckle as a sadistic, lecherous beast.
It was also a time when various religious and civic groups were railing against the "sin" and "filth" in motion pictures and clamoring for "decency" in Hollywood. (Sound familiar?) To appease the moral cusaders, Arbuckle may well have been made a scapegoat, a sacrificial 5b4lamb, when according to those who knew him, he was really a pussycat. (Excuse the multiple animal metaphors!)
All the universe . . . or nothingness. Which shall it be, Passworthy? Which shall it be? -
matt-282 — 11 years ago(January 30, 2015 12:14 PM)
The transcrips of the first trial (November 14-December 4. 1921) still exist from courtroom records. Part of them are listed here:
On Monday, November 28, the defense called Roscoe Arbuckle to the witness stand as the very last witness. He was eager to testify. He had heard himself accused of one of the most terrible crimes imaginable and was relieved to able to publicly and emphatically deny it. He willingly wanted to tell his side of the story. For the past two months, the newspapers were filled with unfounded story after story that he raped and crushed to death the much smaller Virgina Rappe. He walked to the stand looking tired and drawn, with dark circles obvious under his eyes (having been up for days rehersing his impending testimony with his lawyer). He was neatly attired in a dark suit, a dark necktie, a white collar shirt and his expression and tone of voice was appropriately somber. He would be on the stand for a little over four hours. His lawyer, Gavin McNab led the direct examination. Arbuckle was simple, direct, and unflusted during the whole process.
Gavin McNab: "Mr. Arbuckle, where were you on September 5, 1921?"
Roscoe Arbuckle: "At the St. Francis Hotel occupying rooms 1219, 1220, and 1221."
McNab: "Did you see Miss Virginia Rappe on that day?"
Arbuckle: "Yes, sir."
McNab: "At what time and where did you see her?"
Arbuckle: "She came into room 1220 at about 12:00 noon."
Under his lawyer's gentile questioning, Arbuckle gave names of others at the party. He told how he had planned to take Mae Taub intob68 town and was going into the bathroom to get dressed when he discovered Virginia Rappe in pain.
Arbuckle: "When I walked into room 1219, I closed and locked the door, and I went straight to the bathroom and found Miss Rappe on the floor in front of the toilet. She'd been vomiting."
McNab: "What did you do?"
Arbuckle: "When I opened the door, the door struck her, and I had to slide in this way to get in to get by her and get hold of her. Then I closed the door and picked her up. When I picked her up she vomited again. I held her under the waist and the forehead, to keep her hair back off her face so she could vomit. When she finished, I put the seat down, then I sat her down on it. 'Can I do anything for you?' I asked her. She said she wanted to lie down. I carried her into 1219 and put her on the bed. I lifted her feet off the floor. I went to the bathroom again to clean up the vomit on the floor and came back in two or three minutes. I found her rolling on the floor between two beds holding her stomach in pain. I tried to pick her up but I couldn't. I immediately went out of 1219 to 1220 and asked Mrs. Delmont and Miss Prevon to come in. I told them Miss Rappe was sick."
He vehemently denied having ever put his hand over Rappe's on the door. He also told how a frantic Virginia had torn at her clothes and Arbuckle had helped her off with a dress and Fischbach came into the room. Then he said that Fischbach had taken the sick woman to the bathroom and put her in a tub of cold water. This was done, Arbuckle claimed, in hopes of calming down her apparent hysteria. When Virginia was carried back to the bed, Maude Delmont rubbed her with ice. Arbuckle said he tried to cover Virginia with the bedspread and an infuriated Delmont spoke rudely to him and he in turn barked, "If you don't shut up, I'll throw you out the window!"
The witness remained unshaken under an intense cross-examination by Assistant District Attorney Leo Friedman.
Leo Friedman: "What time did you say that Miss Rappe entered your rooms?"
Arbuckle: "Around 12:00 noon."
Friedman: "You had known her before?"
Arbuckle: "Uh-huh. About five or six years."
Arbuckle admitted to drinking some liquor but indicated that he was not drunk. The judge called a recess.
Court resumed with a startling exhibit by the prosecution. Virginia Rappe's bladder, in a jar of formadide, was brought into the courtroom!
Friedman tried to get Arbuckle to slip details about the room in order to get him to admit he had deliberately followed Virginia Rappe into the bathroom and raped her. But the defendant stuck to his story. Unable to get Arbuckle to change his story or make him slip details about the bathroom or the room itself, the DA next tried to wring at least an admission of callousness from the witness.
Friedman: "Did you tell the hotel manager what had caused Miss Rappe's sickness?"
Arbuckle: "No. How should I know what caused her sickness?"
Friedman: (incredulous) "Why didn't you tell anybody that you found her vomiting in the bathroom?!"
Arbuckle: "Because nobody asked me."
Friedman: "You didn't tell anyone you found her between the beds?"
Arbuckle: "Nobody asked me. I'm telling you"
Friedman: (cutting him off) "You never said anything to anybody except that Miss Rappe was sick?!"
Arbuckle: "Nope."
Friedman: "Not even the doctor?"
Arbuckle: "Nope."
When Arbuckle stepped down, most observers thought his testimony had scored strongly for his defense. Mo
