Fatty Arbuckle Rape Trial of Rappe in San Francisco, Hearst, Yellow Journalism & Bio.
From "Fatty"
by Wanda Felix http://www.ralphmag.org/fatty.html
By 1921 Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle was one of the highest paid actor/directors
in the motion picture business. But on September 5 of that year, during a
weekend party he was throwing at the Saint Francis Hotel in San Francisco, the
water in the goldfish bowl turned murky. Virginia Rappe (Rap-pay), a girl
attending the party, ran screaming from a bedroom, took sick and died four days
later.
On September 17 Roscoe Arbuckle was arraigned in San Francisco charged with the
rape and murder of Virginia Rappe. The legendary producer, Adolph Zukor (who
footed the legal bill) tried to bring in the great trial lawyer, Earl Rogers,
father of Adela, but Rogers was in ill health and couldn't take the case.
Adela remembered her father speaking to her about Fatty's plight, "They will
make it very tough on him, because of his weight. A man of that enormous fatness
being charged with the rape of a young girl will prejudice them, even just the
thought of it."
Indeed, they made it very tough on the fat man. As Kevin Brownilow puts it in
Hollywood: The Pioneers,
"District Attorney Matthew Brady ... must have been beside himself. An intensely
ambitious man, he planned to run for governor. Here presented to him in the most
sensational terms, was the scandal of the century-an apparent open and shut
case."
The ambitious Mr. Brady had a very helpful ally in William Randolph Hearst ---
the undisputed champion of yellow journalism. Early director, and friend of
Arbuckle's, Viola Dana recalled,
"Hearst was instrumental in wanting the motion picture industry in Northern
California (i.e. San Francisco), and instead it settled in Southern California.
I think that was part of his motive in crucifying Arbuckle."
Hearst crucified Arbuckle for another reason --- circulation ... Hearst was
gratified by the Arbuckle scandal; he said later that it had "sold more
newspapers than any event since the sinking of the Lusitania."
§ § §
The ugliest twist, one many people are unaware of, is that Arbuckle was
completely innocent. He was set up by a venal woman named Maude Delmont, known
as "Madame Black." Delmont would provide girls for parties and then have the
girl claim she was raped by a prominent director or producer. Concerned about
his career, the victim would submit to Delmont's request for money to keep the
story out of the press. When Rappe died a few days after the party, from a
condition unrelated to the events at the St. Francis Hotel, Delmont gave Fatty
Arbuckle's name to the police.
Arbuckle's wife stuck by him throughout the trial --- such was the public's
scorn that she was shot at while entering the courthouse --- but the producers
in Hollywood forbade his movie friends to testify on his behalf fearing that
their careers would be besmirched and that the scandal would cut into profits.
After two trials resulted in hung juries, Fatty was acquitted at the third, with
a written apology from the jury --- an apology unprecedented in American
justice.
"Acquittal is not enough for Roscoe Arbuckle [they wrote]. We feel that a great
injustice has been done him ... there was not the slightest proof adduced to
connect him in any way with the commission of a crime. He was manly throughout
the case and told a straightforward story which we all believe. We wish him
success and hope that the American people will take the judgement of fourteen
men and women that Roscoe Arbuckle is entirely innocent and free from all
blame."