The Mammoth Book of Celebrity Murders (64 page)

Sadly his mother died in 1899 when he was only 12. His father soon stopped supporting him so the youngster began making ends meet by doing odd jobs in a local hotel. He consoled himself by
singing at work, and it was here that a professional singer overheard him, suggesting he attend a local amateur night at a nearby theatre.

Roscoe watched several acts perform on stage – if their work was not considered good enough the crowd would jeer and then, to his horror, a long hook would come out and pull the poor
performer off the stage. At that point Roscoe decided that he would not put up with such humiliation and determined that he would do well. He sang a few songs and danced, concluding with clowning
around and doing somersaults – when he saw the dreaded hook appearing he somersaulted into the orchestra pit in panic. The audience loved him, he was applauded heartily and won the
competition.

No longer a failure, he was spotted by important people in show business and in 1904 was invited to sing for Sid Grauman at the Unique Theatre in San Jose. From then he began to tour with the
Pantages Theatre Group and travelled the West Coast of the States. By 1906, he took a job in Portland, Oregon working for Leon Errol at the Orpheum Theatre, from where the company, including
Arbuckle, began touring other theatres with their show. Often Arbuckle would take centre stage and being extremely versatile was hugely popular with the audience; he was able to turn his hand to
any form of entertainment and was a credit to the company.

Arbuckle’s acting career was to start in 1909; while in California, he took a part in his first movie called
Ben’s Kid
. He thoroughly enjoyed the work and with the money it
provided he was able to dress well, becoming a rather striking figure who took great care of his appearance. He refused to let his size be the cause of “mickey taking” and would not
allow his friends and colleagues to refer to him as “Fatty” – he would always interrupt and simply remind them that his name was Roscoe.

Roscoe met a beautiful, slim, young singer called Minta Durfee, whom he affectionately called “Minty”. They were soon married and were indeed a happy couple, although they were a
strange match as Roscoe towered over his petite wife.

Arbuckle resumed his stage career by joining the Morosco Burbank Stock Company. The work took him and Minta through China and Japan, Minta enjoyed the sightseeing but was not happy at the sight
of her new husband drunk with the male members of the company. When he took to drinking his personality changed for the worse, and rather than being considerate and jovial, he would become
argumentative and spiteful.

To Minta’s relief the couple returned to America later that year and Roscoe started work at Mack Sennett’s studio, Keystone, where he became one of the famous Keystone Cops. They
were hugely popular, silent slapstick films in which Roscoe was involved in much pie throwing and clowning around. He was in many brilliant films and worked with great actors of the time, including
the undisputed greatest – Charlie Chaplin.

Roscoe still refused to use his size to get a cheap laugh – for example, he would not allow himself to get stuck in a doorway or chair, although it must be said he was well aware that his
weight did add a comedy value to an already comical routine.

By 1914, Arbuckle had started to direct some of the films in which he acted and was able to prove that he could produce almost feature-length films moving from one-reelers to two-reelers.

Being such a heavyweight tends to result in medical problems and in 1916 the comic had a severe health problem – an infection on his leg turned into a carbuncle, which proved to be so bad
that he almost had to have his leg amputated. Fortunately this was not the case but the illness took its toll and Roscoe was briefly addicted to morphine as he lost around 80lb.

After recovering from this bout of illness he went into partnership with Joseph Schenck, and they formed their own film company called Comique. This partnership was to provide Arbuckle with more
creative control over his work and it wasn’t long before they started to enlist young up-and-coming stars to come and work for them, one very successful name they added to their team being
Buster Keaton. This was to prove highly successful and the pair starred together in their 1917 film
The Butcher Boy.

Although Arbuckle was enjoying a highly successful professional life, unfortunately the same cannot be said for his marriage. The couple were now struggling, partly because of Arbuckle’s
drinking, but also the amount of time spent away from each other whilst he was filming. Unable or unwilling to give up his drinking, they were unable to resolve their differences and the couple
separated in 1917.

Comique films went from strength to strength and they managed to produce some of the best movies of the silent era. After two years Arbuckle was once again ready for a change and decided to
relinquish control of Comique to Keaton and signed with Paramount, reportedly for $1 million a year.

It was whilst with Paramount that he worked on his first real feature movies. The pace was much faster and he was expected to make around half a dozen a year. He was working flat out and
suffering as a result. Eventually, in need of a break, he decided to take a short vacation in San Francisco with Fred Fischbach, his long-time friend, and actor Lowell Sherman.

Just before leaving for his holiday, Arbuckle managed to sustain second-degree burns during filming to both of his buttocks. Reluctant to cancel his long-awaited trip he decided to go ahead with
the planned vacation. By way of anaesthetic he packed cases of booze into the boot of the car and the trio set off with Arbuckle at the wheel.

On arriving they booked into the St Francis hotel and took three rooms – one for Fischbach and Arbuckle to share (1219), one for Sherman (1221) and 1220 to be used as a party room. They
were all set to enjoy the Labour Day weekend of 1921.

Among the guests at the party was a young actress called Virginia Rappe. Rappe had been born to a single-parent mother, who died when the child was only 11; Virginia was then raised by her
grandmother in Chicago. She had grown up seeking the affection of men and had had several abortions by her mid teens before giving birth at 17 to a child which she had put into foster care.

She had begun a modelling career and moved to San Francisco where she worked as an artist’s model. She finally seemed to have found happiness when she became engaged to a dress designer
named Robert Moscovitz, but this was to be short lived as Moscovitz was tragically killed in a trolley-car accident.

She began getting small parts in motion pictures and started dating director Henry Lehrman. Her acting ability was only mediocre and the best award she managed was in 1918 when she was awarded
the title “Best Dressed Girl in Pictures”.

Virginia had showed up at the party with her manager, Al Semnacher, and another woman called Bambina Maude Delmont. Delmont had a dubious background, had been in trouble with the police on
charges relating to extortion, bigamy, fraud and racketeering, and was reported to have been hired in divorce cases to provide compromising photographs. Other guests came and went including
actresses Zey Prevon and Alice Blake.

The party was much as one would expect, with plenty of food, drink and music. Apparently at some point Arbuckle left to take his friend Mae Taub (daughter-in-law of Billy Sunday) into town. He
went to his own room to get a change of clothes for the drive into town, not realizing that his life was about to change forever.

According to Arbuckle, he entered his bathroom to find Rappe lying in a dead faint on the floor. Assuming she had had too much to drink, he carried her to the bed in order that she could sleep
it off. When he lay her down she asked for a drink of water so he went and got her a drink before leaving the room in order to change his clothes for the journey.

When he re-entered the room he found what Virginia had fallen off the bed and was now on the floor, moaning and writhing. He managed to get her back on the bed and left the room to get a bucket
of ice. The reason for this was two-fold: Arbuckle believed that the ice would calm the woman down; also, he would use a trick he had been taught to distinguish a person who has faked fainting. His
friend Buster Keaton had said that if you held ice to the skin you should only get a reaction from someone faking it.

After waiting for Arbuckle, Delmont decided to come to his room to find out why he was taking so long. When she entered she found him holding an ice cube on the woman’s thigh. Arbuckle
explained the situation and she too thought that Virginia was drunk, but she then began screaming and tearing at her clothes, which alerted Zey Prevon and Alice Blake who came in to see what was
happening. By this time Arbuckle was losing his patience and, still considering the girl to be drunk or faking it, he asked the guests to remove her from his room. Fischbach now came in to see what
was happening to find the girl shouting at Arbuckle, “Stay away from me! I don’t want you near me!” Then she turned to Delmont and said words that would damn the entertainer,
“What did he do to me, Maudie? Roscoe did this to me.”

They decided to quieten her down by putting her into a bathtub of cool water, which did in fact have a calming effect on her. Arbuckle and Fischbach helped her to room 1227, where Arbuckle
called the hotel manager and doctor. On the doctor’s examination he concluded that she was drunk, so she was left on the bed and the party continued. Arbuckle took Taub into town and returned
to the hotel where he was told that the hotel doctor had given Virginia morphine and she was now asleep.

The following day Dr Beardslee gave Virginia another dose of morphine and fitted her with a catheter as her friend had pointed out that she had not been to the bathroom in hours.

Later, Delmont called Dr Melville Rumwell and apparently repeated to him the same thing she had told Beardslee, that Virginia became ill after she had been raped by Arbuckle. Although the doctor
found no sign of rape he did give her painkillers as she was still experiencing trouble and pain when trying to pass urine.

By Friday, 9 September she was dead from peritonitis, an acute infection caused in this instance by a ruptured bladder. It would be alleged later that her bladder tore as a result of being raped
by the grossly overweight comedian.

The newspapers were filled with headlines about the possible rape of a young actress by comedy fat man “Fatty” Arbuckle, a scandal that was to live with him for many years. Several
newspapers boosted their sales with the “Arbuckle rap” headline and took it upon themselves to increase their readership by exaggerating tales regarding Arbuckle’s lifestyle. His
weight was now used against him and rather than being portrayed as a loveable, good-natured, chubby man, he was cast as a gross, overweight monster – which Virginia had seemingly no defence
against.

The stories in the press had a dramatic effect on the public’s opinion of their once-loved comic. Arbuckle read as many of the articles as he could manage, but was devastated by the
animosity thrust at him and struggled to come to terms with the virtual hatred that he was subjected to.

Arbuckle was formally arrested for first-degree murder; at a later date the charge was reduced to manslaughter that carried a possible ten-year prison sentence.

The first trial began on 14 November 1921, the Judge being Judge Sylvain Lazarus. Prosecuting was San Francisco District Attorney Matthew Brady, who argued that the sexual attack on Virginia had
ruptured her bladder, thus causing her ultimate death.

Roscoe Arbuckle’s defence was the lawyer Gavin McNab, also from San Francisco, who was often hired by celebrities.

Arbuckle’s estranged wife, Minta Durfee, had visited her husband in prison and believed his version of events, often attending the court hearing to show support for him.

The prosecution’s first witness was a nurse named Grace Halston who said that Rappe’s organs had been torn in a way that suggested force and that she had sustained several bruises to
her body. She eventually agreed that if somebody had bladder cancer it could cause the bladder to rupture.

Dr Arthur Beardslee testified that the bladder seemed to be injured from force inflicted from outside her body and under cross-examination admitted that at no time did Rappe mention she had been
assaulted by Arbuckle.

One party-goer, a model, Betty Campbell, testified that she had seen Arbuckle looking relaxed and enjoying himself just after the alleged attack, showing no signs of remorse and obviously
unconcerned about Rappe’s condition. Under cross-examination she admitted that she had been threatened by Brady if she didn’t testify.

The Judge was then presented with affidavits from Alice Blake and Zey Prevon backing up the claim of intimidation by the prosecution. Prevon was called to the stand and testified that she had
signed the statement saying Rappe had claimed “He killed me” under duress. Alice Blake made similar claims from the witness stand.

By 28 November the defence was ready to call Roscoe Arbuckle to the witness stand. He was more than willing to testify; after listening to the proceedings he was glad to have his say. The press
noted that he was well dressed and that he appeared to look very tired, with large dark circles under his eyes.

When asked his whereabouts on the night of the alleged attack, he confirmed that he was in the St Francis Hotel and that he did indeed see Virginia Rappe. He described that he was planning to
take Mae Taub into town and went into the bathroom to get dressed. It was here that he discovered Virginia on the floor in front of the toilet; she appeared to have been vomiting. He described how
he picked her up and placed her on the bed to lie down. On returning to the room some two minutes later he discovered that she was on the floor holding her stomach. He then asked Mrs Delmont and
Miss Prevon to come in to assist him with the sick woman.

He told of how a frantic Virginia had torn at her clothes and he had helped her off with her dress as Fischbach came into the room. He said that Fischbach had taken Rappe to the bathroom and put
her in a tub of cold water. This was done, Arbuckle claimed, in the hopes of calming her down. When Virginia was carried back to the bed, Maude Delmont rubbed her with ice.