September 9, 1921: The Arrest of Fatty Arbuckle

September 9, 1921: Actress Virginia Rappe dies, leading to the ruination of actor Fatty Arbuckle.

Roscoe Conkling Arbuckle was born on March 24, 1887 in Smith Center, Kansas. He was born into scandal: Both parents were thin, and he was a fat baby: 13 pounds. So his father presumed that his wife had cheated on him with a fat man, and named the baby after a prominent politician of the time, known for his philandering: Senator Roscoe Conkling of New York.

He grew up outside Los Angeles in Santa Ana, California. His mother never recovered from his birth, and died when he was 11. His father was abusive, and Roscoe left home and got a job doing odd jobs at a hotel. By 1904, at age 17, he was singing at a San Francisco theater owned by Sid Grauman, who built Hollywood's famous Chinese Theatre in 1927. Through Grauman's Hollywood connections, Arbuckle began his film career in 1909, a year after marrying actress Araminta "Minta" Durfee.

By this point, he was over 300 pounds, and he variously billed as "Roscoe Arbuckle," "Fatty Arbuckle," and "Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle." When addressed as "Fatty," he would say, "I have a name, you know." Another nickname was "The Prince of Whales."

Although his films were silent, he was also known as a great singer. The greatest opera singer of the era, Enrico Caruso, told him, "Give up this nonsense you do for a living. With training, you could become the second greatest singer in the world." Caruso meant, after himself. In spite of his size, he was also a great physical comedian, and could run up stairs and do somersaults. 

He had discovered Buster Keaton, and mentored Charlie Chaplin. He made several films with actress Mabel Normand as his co-star. In 1921, when he was 34 years old, he and Chaplin were the 2 most famous film comedians. However, shortly before the incident that would change his life, his wife Minta left him.

Virginia Rappe was also an actress, but not nearly as famous. Born on July 7, 1891 in Chicago, she also lost her mother when she was 11. She was raised by her grandmother, and in 1916, she headed west to find work as a model and an actress.

By 1921, she had made 10 films, including An Adventuress. At the time, neither she nor her co-star Rudolph Valentino were yet widely known. Both would become famous, but, while Valentino would enjoy his fame, Rappe would not live to see hers. (Of course, within 5 years, Valentino would be dead, too.)

On September 5, 1921, Labor Day, Arbuckle rented 3 rooms at the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco: Room 1219 for himself and film director Fred Fishback, 1221 for director Lowell Sherman, and 1220 in between as a party room. Lots of people were invited -- more men than women. Although Prohibition had been in effect for nearly 2 years, the booze was freely flowing.

Rappe had been invited, although by whom has never been established. She drank too much, and tried to go to the bedroom that had the nearest bathroom, so she could throw up. When she got there, she found her friend Maude Delmont there, having sex with Sherman (who was married to someone else). So Rappe went into Arbuckle’s room.

Shortly after this, Arbuckle went into his room, and, according to his own testimony, saw Rappe on the floor of the bathroom. He carried her to the bed and went back into the bathroom, shaved, took a shower and got dressed.

He testified that, when he came back out, he thought she didn’t look right, so he called the hotel doctor. The doctor examined her, and figured she had just overdone it on the booze. He gave her a shot of morphine to calm her.

No crimes were reported that night. The next day, Arbuckle went back to Hollywood. It all seemed to be a typical night in celebrity life.

The day after that, Rappe was hospitalized. Two days after that, on September 9, she died, only 30 years old.

At the hospital, Delmont told a doctor that Arbuckle had raped Rappe. (Yes, I know, the combination of accusation and name is unfortunate. Her name was pronounced like rap music.) An autopsy found that she had peritonitis, caused by a ruptured bladder. It also found that she had a venereal disease, which Arbuckle did not have. What it didn't find was any evidence of recent sexual activity, consensual or otherwise. Her medical records showed that she had chronic urinary tract infections, which make drinking alcoholic beverages dangerous.

Not satisfied, Delmont told the San Francisco police that Arbuckle had raped Rappe, and was thus responsible for her death, because his weight caused the injury that killed her. Since the incident happened in San Francisco, seat of the media empire of William Randolph Hearst, who also had film industry interests, Hearst's "yellow journalism" played the scandal up. Arbuckle's friends, including Chaplin, stood by him, calling him a gentle person who would never have done anything like that.

But Matthew Brady, District Attorney for San Francisco, was one of those prosecutors who thought a big trial win would advance his political career: He wanted to run for Governor of California. On September 17, he had arrested Arbuckle arrested for first-degree murder. Realizing he couldn't make that charge stick, he reduced it to first-degree manslaughter.

Delmont told the police that she had heard Rappe scream. This was unlikely, as she was two hotel rooms away. The people outside Arbuckle’s room testified that they had heard no screaming. Moreover, Rappe's V.D. was entered into evidence, as was the fact that Arbuckle didn't have it. That certainly cleared him of the rape accusation, but the charge was manslaughter.

His 1st trial ended on December 4, 1921, in a hung jury, because 1 juror, Helen Hubbard, refused to believe he was innocent: She said she would vote guilty "until Hell freezes over." She should have been disqualified from that jury: Her husband was a lawyer who had done business with Brady's office.

In the 2nd trial, one of the witnesses from the 1st trial, Zey Prevon, testified that Brady had threatened her if she didn't lie for him. Another witness from the 1st trial, Jesse Norgard, was, at the 2nd trial, exposed as an ex-convict who was facing another prison term, and did Brady's bidding as part of a plea deal. Another witness, criminologist Dr. Edward Heinrich, changed his testimony from the 1st trial: The fingerprint evidence that he'd found was faked.

But Arbuckle's attorney, Gavin McNab, made a critical mistake. At the 1st trial, Arbuckle was calm, decisive, convincing, and his own best witness. At the 2nd trial, McNab was so sure of an acquittal that he didn't call Arbuckle to testify. The jury took that as a bad sign, and, on February 3, 1922, returned with a 10-2 vote to convict, resulting in another hung jury.

Arbuckle's films had been banned. Delmont was making money on the lecture circuit, billing herself as the woman who destroyed Arbuckle's career, and speaking on the depravity of Hollywood. To make matters worse, on February 1, 2 days before the 2nd trial's verdict, film director William Desmond Taylor was murdered, making for another lurid tale of Hollywood gone wrong. That murder has never been solved.

McNab took no chances in the 3rd trial. He destroyed Delmont, having presented evidence, provided by Keaton, that she had previously been involved in prostitution, extortion and blackmail. He made sure that all of Rappe's medical history was admitted as evidence. He let Arbuckle testify, and his story did not change.

On April 12, 1922, the case was given to the jury. They came back after 6 minutes. They had taken 1 minute to vote, and 5 minutes to compose a statement read by the foreman:

Acquittal is not enough for Roscoe Arbuckle. We feel that a great injustice has been done him. We feel also that it was only our plain duty to give him this exoneration, under the evidence, for 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 on the witness stand, which we all believed. The happening at the hotel was an unfortunate affair for which Arbuckle, so the evidence shows, was in no way responsible. We wish him success and hope that the American people will take the judgment of fourteen men and woman who have sat listening for thirty-one days to evidence, that Roscoe Arbuckle is entirely innocent and free from all blame.

The foreman left the jury box, walked over to Arbuckle, and handed him the paper on which the statement was written. He kept it for the rest of his life.

But, like his contemporaries, the Chicago White Sox players who were accused of throwing the 1919 World Series, he was banned from his chosen profession in spite of an acquittal. Thus he had no way of paying his legal bills. He was broke. The ban was officially lifted by the end of the year, but, unofficially, he was still out of luck.

Rappe's undoing, drinking, became Arbuckle's as well. Durfee later said, "Roscoe only seemed to find solace and comfort in a bottle." Already separated since 1921, she divorced him in 1925. He married twice more, but never had any children. Arbuckle had discovered Keaton, and Keaton returned the favor not only by assisting him in the 3rd trial, but by giving him work on his films, mostly writing.

Arbuckle adopted the pseudonym William Goodrich -- his father's name was William Goodrich Arbuckle. Under this name, he directed films starring popular entertainers of the time, including Louise Brooks, Eddie Cantor and Marion Davies -- ironically, the mistress of William Randolph Hearst, one of the men who had a role in his destruction. On a trip to Cleveland in 1927, he discovered a dancer and comedian named Bob Hope.

In 1932, Arbuckle signed a contract with Warner Brothers to star under his own name in a series of 6 short comedies. Among his co-stars was Shemp Howard, brother of Moe and Curly of the Three Stooges. These were his first "talking pictures."

On June 28, 1933, he finished filming the 6th and last of them, after 4 had already been released to good reviews. The next day, he signed a new contract with Warners, for a feature-length film. It was to be his 1st in 12 years. He went out with friends to celebrate, and told them, "This is the best day of my life."

That night, he went to bed, and never woke up, dying of a heart attack. He was only 46 years old.

His early death wasn't the first or the last within his circle. Fred Fishback died of cancer in 1925, only 30 years old. Mabel Normand died of tuberculosis in 1930, only 36. Lowell Sherman died of pneumonia in 1934, just 46.

Buster Keaton was luckier, living until 1966, among his last roles a half-silent, half-talking episode of The Twilight Zone in 1962.

Minta Durfee later said, "If I had to do it all over again, I'd still marry the same man," calling him "the most generous human being I've ever met." She successfully made the transition from silents to talkies, and then from film to television. She lived until 1975.

No film about Arbuckle's life has ever been made. Not that there haven't been ideas. Three notable overweight comic actors have expressed interest. All died before they could get started: John Belushi at age 33, John Candy at 43, and Chris Farley at 33.

Matthew Brady remained District Attorney for San Francisco until 1943, when he was defeated for re-election by Edmund G. "Pat" Brown. Brown did go on to be elected Governor, in 1958.

And Maude Delmont, the corrupt lying bitch who ruined Roscoe Arbuckle's life? Completely discredited and humiliated, she went back to her Missouri hometown, and died in obscurity in 1946, age 60.

*

September 9, 1921 was a Friday. These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 14-5 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. Babe Ruth and Wally Pipp hit home runs in support of Bob Shawkey.

* The New York Giants beat their arch-rivals, the Brooklyn Dodgers, 6-2 at the Polo Grounds.

* The Boston Braves beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 2-0 at Braves Field in Boston. Jack Scott pitched a 2-hit shutout.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Washington Senators, 5-1 at Griffith Stadium in Washington.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 8-5 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 10-3 at Redland Field in Cincinnati. (It was renamed Crosley Field in 1934.)

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Detroit Tigers, 20-15 at Comiskey Park. Yes, that's a baseball final, not a football one. Ty Cobb went 3-for-3 with 2 walks and an RBI.

* And the Cleveland Indians and the St. Louis Browns were rained out at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader the next day. The Browns won the opener, 2-0. Urban Shocker pitched a 3-hit shutout to beat Stan Coveleski. The Indians won the nightcap, 10-2. William "Baby Doll" Jacobson went 4-for-4 with an RBI for the Browns, but it was nowhere near enough. Over the 2 games, Tris Speaker went 2-for-8 with 2 RBIs, and George Sisler went 1-for-7.