The Celtic prose poem: Gavin McNab’s argument for the defendant
A new version of the arguments is being drafted (as I write) delivered before the jury near the end of the first Arbuckle trial of November–December 1921. The first draft had been based on very detailed reportage. The trial transcripts, however, differ markedly from the paraphrased versions in published in newspapers. What follows is the…
A note on Aunt Kate Hardebeck
Those who followed the Arbuckle case from the beginning were surprised that Virginia Rappe had no family members—or even an extended family. No one came forward to claim her body in a San Francisco mortuary. By the time she was buried in Hollywood Forever Cemetery on September 19, 1921, ten days after her death, Virginia…
Inclusivity: the authentic and inauthentic working together
This is a progress report on the book and photo research. Over the past few days, I have been reworking real story behind the so-called war nurse Irene Morgan, Virginia Rappe’s masseuse and personal nurse from March to October 1920. I discussed her in an earlier post and have new information about her that makes…
Arbuckle’s “girlie,” Kate Brennan
Imagine, if you will, having a little editorial voice in the back of your mind, looking over the first 300 manuscript pages and complaining about the size of my tableau, “Why are you painting the ‘Creation’ around a clown?” I will let that question hang there and discuss one of the pleasures of my work,…
Fred Fishback: carrying Arbuckle’s water
What has challenges anyone giving serious thought to the Arbuckle case—from lawyers and reporters in 1921 to this writer over a century later—is to reimagine the sequence of events that comprise Virginia Rappe’s crisis in room 1219 of the St. Francis Hotel as well as Roscoe Arbuckle’s culpability or innocence. The trial transcripts provide some…
“Bad People”: Did an eminent San Francisco physician have a book in mind?
Slipped between the pages of the Arbuckle trial transcripts are some folded sheets of papers. One letter caught my eye. The letter writer seemed like a very serios fellow given his strong opinions on the Arbuckle case. Miley B. Wesson (1881–1981) was a pioneering urologist, especially new field of urologic roentgenology in the treatment of…
First thoughts on my second visit to the San Francisco Public Library
Last week, I worked on the Arbuckle trial transcripts at the San Francisco Public Library, filling in the gaps from my December 2024 visit. My familiarity with the course of all three trials, including every participant and their background, has served me well. It’s a kind of meta-understanding that makes everything in the transcripts intelligible,…
A brief consideration of a tales(wo)man: Mrs. Helen Hubbard
The new manuscript is now well informed by the trial transcripts. The next part of the book still needs to be written, devoted to the Arbuckle–Rappe trials—and they are both on trial in this book. But any verdict will be handed over to the reader with some new ideas to consider. This, I guess, makes…
Roscoe Arbuckle’s suicidal ideation or waxing philosophical?
A psychological portrait of Roscoe Arbuckle at this late date is all but impossible. One just has his “aw-shucks” remarks to go on and they are rather hard to take seriously or give a close-reading. But during a November 1920 interview, the comedian contemplated a weight loss regimen. “I’m going to train down for one…
“S.B., what’s a matter with her?”: Josephine Keza, the fly on the walls of Arbuckle’s Labor Day Party[1]
Assistant District Attorney Milton U’Ren interviewed Josephine Keza, a Polish immigrant and hotel maid, in room 1220 of the St. Francis Hotel on September 16, 1921, one week after Virginia Rappe’s death. Her statement, read into the record of the first Arbuckle trial, provides a different take on Virginia Rappe’s arrival at the Labor Day…
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Spite Work: The Trials of Virginia Rappe and Fatty Arbuckle 