. . . it is ever the trial of the scrupulous explorer to be saluted with the impatient scorn of chatterers who attempt only the smallest achievements, being indeed equipped for no other.

—George Eliot

The triteness of this entry’s title is, we hope, offset by gravitas of the above quote, found in another long book—but not as long as this one. Now for a report on the work-in-progress.

It is still seeing a second revision. But It is complete from end to end: the first honest exposé of Virginia Rappe and her accomplishments beyond having suffered a fatal injury at Roscoe Arbuckle’s Labor Day party in 1921. Of course, we parallel her brief life with Arbuckle’s abbreviated career as a motion picture actor. Then we cover each of his three trials for manslaughter in as much detail as the available sources allow.

As of today, the second trial, which occurred in January–February 1922, is done. It ended the day after the next big Hollywood scandal/mystery took place, the murder of William Desmond Taylor, which helped to make Arbuckle’s near-conviction a nonevent. Indeed, the second trial is typically the orphan proceeding among the other books on the Arbuckle shelf. That is because the second trial leaves in much of the implicit doubt, the uncertainty that these books leave out. Let’s hear from one of the jurors.

Nat Friedman was no less open regarding the jury deliberations and was counterintuitive to what the press—and Arbuckle’s lawyers—believed. His conviction “was the only logical verdict.” And did Arbuckle’s failure to take the stand influence the vote? Friedman answered with a qualified no. The jurors had to follow Judge Louderback’s instructions, that Arbuckle’s taking the stand at the first trial was “tantamount to a personal appearance” at the second. McNab wanted that very line item. However, that Arbuckle’s lead counsel failed to make an argument “certainly did” affect things, forcing the jurors to argue the case among themselves, so as to be thorough.

Going over the evidence in “businesslike fashion,” as Friedman put it, the majority from the beginning favored the state—and there was no ill feeling among the jurors as there was with the first trial jury. They had been civil throughout and

left the jury room as friendly a mind as when we went into it. Those who favored conviction were agreed that the case presented by the defense was one of the weakest we had ever heard. And as the evidence was presented, there was nothing else for us to do. We endeavored to follow the instructions of the court not to give weight to the fact that the defendant did not appear as a witness. From the reading of Arbuckle’s testimony at the last trial, the majority of the jurors were of the opinion that his story was contradictory.

Personally, I regarded the failure of the defense to argue the case as a confession of weakness [. . .] as though they were throwing up their hands. In our opinion, the case presented by the prosecution against Arbuckle was conclusive.

Friedman ended with praise for another Friedman and no relation. The young assistant district attorney, who shared the same surname, had presented the prosecution’s side of the case in a manner that was convincing and sincere. Leo Friedman, too, had also shown a certain empathy for Rappe, as the “victim” of a real crime. But her name had yet to come up as reporters went from one juror to another to get another juror to tell all.

(msp. 749)

We are well over 700 pages in manuscript. No small achievement—but the paragraphs are short, the dialogue that we have reclaimed keeps things moving, interesting, and committed to the truth—and the uncertainty.

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Postscript: This is intriguing. Is the woman in the middle really Virginia Rappe? The hair looks right for 1919. The face could be hers. The gif was created from one of the Photoplay Magazine Screen Supplements. These monthly shorts, the brainchild of publisher James Quirk, ran from 1919 to mid-1920 and promised to show “The Stars as They Are.” Presumably, an intertitle identified the three actresses enjoying each other’s company: Edna Purviance, Virginia Rappe and, flanking her, Olive Thomas, months before her tragic death. What these images prove again is that Rappe wasn’t seen as a bit player among her peers. As to the provenance, the archival footage may have been included in the documentary Edna Purviance, the Angel from Nevada, shown at the 2006 Cinecon Film Festival.