The Mammoth Book of Hollywood Scandals Read Online Free Page B

Virginia tear to pieces items of clothing while in the throes of abdominal pain. A friend also described how once, during a party, Virginia had ripped off her stockings to give them to an admirer. The evidence given by the people who had witnessed such events was clear: Virginia Rappe was not a healthy girl, and she had certainly been known in the past to tear at her clothes when partying or in pain.
    While listening intently to the evidence being piled up before him, Roscoe Arbuckle was nervously tearing paper into tiny little pieces. But finally it was time for him to take to the stand and, on hearing the news that he would be speaking that day, crowds gathered outside to such an extent that nobody could get into the building until the police cleared a pathway. Once on the stand he behaved in a calm, controlled and gentlemanly manner, while his estranged wife and mother-in-law both smiled and nodded their support to him from the gallery. His “performance” was impeccable; his delivery outstanding and even during what can only be described as a stressful and difficult cross-examination by the prosecution, he always remained composed and sure of every word that was coming from his mouth.
    The actor told the prosecution how he had come into his bedroom to dress, locked the door for privacy and then discovered the sick woman crumpled on his bathroom floor. He then told how he went out to get help, and gave damning evidence against Maude Delmont when asked how he found Virginia Rappe when he returned to the room:
    Nude. Mrs Delmont had some ice in a towel. There was ice on the bed and a piece of ice on Miss Rappe’s body. I picked the ice up from her body. I asked Mrs Delmont what the big idea was. She told me to put it back, that she knew how to care for Virginia, and ordered me out of the room. I told her to shut up or I would throw her out the window.
    After a great deal of questioning, recess was called, after which time the ruptured bladder of poor Virginia Rappe was carried into the courtroom as evidence. The offending organ was gawped at by the entire room before the theory was presented that perhaps the women who had dunked the woman into a tub of cold water had caused the bladder to rupture. Then questions were raised about the possibility that it had burst during a violent vomiting episode, or by falling off the bed . . . On and on it went, going round in circles with no obvious answer to any of the theories being presented.
    After many days and much evidence had passed through the court, it was time for the case to be wrapped up, and Roscoe Arbuckle sat quietly, picking at the fluff on his coat, rolling his tie and squeezing his lip while the prosecution tried to convince everyone that he was guilty. In fact, so determined was the prosecution that they even twisted the evidence to back up their own theories, claiming that Roscoe had placed ice on Rappe’s body, before telling her to shut up or he would throw her out of the window. This, of course, was a blatant lie – the ice had been placed there by Maude Delmont, and it was this woman who had been spoken to by Roscoe and told to “shut up”.
    Finally, they tried desperately to discredit every witness who dared take the stand in defence of Arbuckle, before resting their case and allowing the jury to go and make their deliberations. However, after forty-four hours of deliberation, the jury returned to the court and, on 4 December 1921, gave the news that they were deadlocked with a ten to two majority in favour of not guilty. Everyone was shocked, particularly when it was discovered that the woman who had initiated the deadlock was Mrs Hubbard, a woman who was married to a lawyer who frequently did business with the District Attorney’s office. Not only that, the woman herself was a member of a feminist organization – the very likes of which had called for Arbuckle’s films to be banned the moment he was arrested.
    “I will vote guilty until hell freezes