Editing Roscoe Arbuckle (section)

==Scandal==
{{Hollywood1921}}
On Monday, September 5, 1921 ([[Labor Day]]), Arbuckle took a break from his hectic film schedule and, despite suffering second-degree burns to both buttocks from an on-set accident, drove to San Francisco with two friends, [[Lowell Sherman]] and [[Fred Fishback]]. The three checked into three rooms at the [[Westin St. Francis|St. Francis Hotel]]: 1219 for Arbuckle and Fishback to share, 1221 for Sherman, and 1220 designated as a party room.{{Citation needed|date=September 2019}} Several women were invited to the suite. During the carousing, a 30-year-old aspiring actress named [[Virginia Rappe]] was found seriously ill in room 1219 and was examined by the hotel doctor, who concluded that her symptoms were mostly caused by intoxication and administered morphine to calm her. Rappe was not hospitalized until two days after the incident.<ref name="trutv1"/>

[[File:Appartamento 1221 del st. francis hotel di s. francisco, 5 settembre 1921.jpg|thumb|Suite 1221 of [[Westin St. Francis|St. Francis Hotel]] shortly after Arbuckle's party]]
At the hospital, Rappe's companion at the party, Bambina Maude Delmont, told a doctor that Arbuckle had [[rape]]d Rappe. The doctor examined Rappe but found no evidence of rape. She died Friday, September 9, 1921 from [[peritonitis]] caused by a [[ruptured bladder]]. Rappe suffered from chronic [[urinary tract infection]]s,<ref name=Lewiston>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=7rEgAAAAIBAJ&pg=4726,1981542&dq=virginia+rappe&hl=en |title=Testify Regarding Early Life of Virginia Rappe |date=October 31, 1921 |work=[[The Lewiston Daily Sun]] |access-date=January 30, 2015}}</ref> a condition that liquor can irritate dramatically. 

The day after Rappe's death, Arbuckle was arrested and arraigned on charges of murder and held without bail. A [[grand jury]] also indicted him on manslaughter of the first degree on September 13, 1921.<ref name=industry>{{cite magazine|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|date=September 16, 2021|page=39|title=Scandal Hits Industry|url=https://archive.org/details/variety64-1921-09/page/n150/mode/1up?view=theater|access-date=January 2, 2024}}</ref> 

Delmont told police that Arbuckle had raped Rappe. The police concluded that the impact of Arbuckle's overweight body on top of Rappe caused her bladder to rupture.<ref name="trutv1"/> At a press conference, Rappe's manager, Al Semnacher, accused Arbuckle of using a piece of ice to simulate sex with Rappe that led to her injuries.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=SLgaAAAAIBAJ&pg=6297,1130214&dq=sid+grauman&hl=en |title=Miss Rappe's Manager Tells Worst He Knows of Arbuckle |last=Hopkins |first=Ernest J. |date=September 25, 1921 |work=[[Pittsburgh Press|The Pittsburgh Press]] |page=3 |access-date=January 30, 2015}}</ref> By the time that the story was reported in newspapers, the object had evolved into a [[Coca-Cola]] or champagne bottle rather than a piece of ice. In fact, witnesses testified that Arbuckle rubbed the ice on Rappe's stomach to ease her abdominal pain. Arbuckle denied any wrongdoing. Delmont later admitted to plotting to extort money from him.<ref name=BBC>{{cite news |title='Fatty' Arbuckle and Hollywood's first scandal |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14640719 |last=Sheerin |first=Jude |date=September 4, 2011 |work=[[BBC News]] |access-date=January 30, 2015}}</ref>

[[File:Fatty's Chance Acquaintance - Roscoe Arbuckle - 1915, Keystone Film - EYE FLM20359 - OB 685589.webm|thumb|''Fatty's Chance Acquaintance'' (1915), with [[intertitle]]s in [[Dutch language|Dutch]]. Runtime 00:14:39.]]
[[File:Love 1919 poster (cropped).jpg|thumb|[[Winifred Westover]] with Fatty Arbuckle in 1919 film poster for ''Love'']]
Arbuckle was regarded by those who knew him closely as a good-natured man who was shy around women, and he had been described as "the most chaste man in pictures."<ref name="Ellis"/> However, studio executives, fearing negative publicity by association, warned Arbuckle's industry friends and fellow actors (many of whose careers they controlled) not to publicly defend him. [[Charlie Chaplin]] told reporters that he could not believe that Arbuckle was guilty, having known him since they both worked at [[Keystone Studios|Keystone]] in 1914. Chaplin "knew Roscoe to be a genial, easy-going type who would not harm a fly."<ref>{{cite book| last= Chaplin| first= Charles| title= My Autobiography| page= 270 | publisher= Simon and Schuster| year= 1964| isbn= }}</ref> [[Buster Keaton]] issued a public statement in support of Arbuckle that resulted in a mild reprimand from Keaton's studio.{{Citation needed|date=August 2023}} Actor [[William S. Hart]], who had never met or worked with Arbuckle, issued a number of damaging public statements presuming Arbuckle's guilt. Arbuckle later wrote a premise for a film parodying Hart as a thief, bully and wifebeater. Keaton purchased the premise, and the resulting film, ''[[The Frozen North]]'', was released in 1922, almost a year after the scandal first emerged. Keaton cowrote, directed and starred in the film, and Hart refused to speak to Keaton for many years afterward.<ref name=Neibaur>{{cite book |last=Neibaur |first=James |title=Buster Keaton's Silent Shorts: 1920–1923 |year=2013 |publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield]] |isbn=978-0810887411 |pages=185–186 }}</ref><ref name=Meade>{{cite book |last=Meade |first=Marion |publisher=Hachette Books |title=Buster Keaton: Cut to the Chase |date= 1997 |chapter=Chapter 12: "Cops" |isbn=978-0306808029 }}</ref>

The prosecutor, San Francisco district attorney [[Matthew Brady (district attorney)|Matthew Brady]], an intensely ambitious man who planned to run for [[Governor of California|governor]], made public pronouncements of Arbuckle's guilt and pressured witnesses to make false statements. Brady at first featured Delmont as his star witness during the indictment hearing.<ref name="trutv1"/> The defense obtained a letter from Delmont admitting to a plan to extort payment from Arbuckle. Delmont's constantly changing testimony effectively ended any chance of the case proceeding to trial. Ultimately, the judge found no evidence of rape. After hearing testimony from party guest Zey Prevon that Rappe said "Roscoe hurt me" on her deathbed, the judge decided that Arbuckle could be charged with [[first-degree murder]]. Brady had originally planned to seek the death penalty, but the charge was later reduced to [[manslaughter]].<ref name="trutv1"/>

After nearly three weeks in jail he was released on [[bail]] of $5,000.<ref name=bail>{{cite magazine|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|date=September 30, 2021|page=39|title=Arbuckle Admitted To Bail In $5,000|url=https://archive.org/details/variety64-1921-09/page/n238/mode/1up?view=theater|access-date=January 2, 2024}}</ref> 

===Trials===
Arbuckle's trial was a major media event. The story was fueled by [[yellow journalism]], with many newspapers portraying Arbuckle as a gross lecher who used his weight to overpower innocent girls. [[William Randolph Hearst]]'s nationwide newspaper chain exploited the situation with exaggerated and [[sensationalism|sensationalized]] stories. Hearst was gratified by the profits that he accrued during the Arbuckle scandal, and he allegedly said that it had "sold more newspapers [...] than when the [[Sinking of the RMS Lusitania|''Lusitania'']] went down."<ref name="Hearst">{{cite book |last1=Brownlow |first1=Kevin |title=The Parade's Gone By ... |date=1968 |location=Berkeley |isbn=9780520030688 |page=486 |publisher=University of California Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wCD5EH64Qw8C |access-date=27 April 2023}}</ref> Morality groups called for Arbuckle to be [[Capital punishment|sentenced to death]].

====First trial====
[[File:Roscoe Arbuckle Trial - 1921.jpg|thumb|Arbuckle and his defense lawyers at the first trial, November 1921]]
The trial began on November 14, 1921 in the San Francisco city courthouse.<ref name="trutv1"/> Arbuckle hired as his lead defense counsel Gavin McNab, a competent local attorney. The principal witness was Prevon.<ref>Daily Mirror headlines, October 1, 1921</ref> At the beginning of the trial, Arbuckle told his estranged wife Minta Durfee that he had not harmed Rappe. Durfee believed him and appeared regularly in the courtroom to support him. Public feeling was so negative that shots were fired at Durfee as she entered the courthouse.<ref name="Hearst"/>

Brady's first witnesses during the trial included model Betty Campbell, who attended the party and testified that she saw Arbuckle with a smile on his face hours after the alleged rape occurred. Another witness, hospital nurse Grace Hultson, testified that it was very likely that Arbuckle raped Rappe and bruised her body in the process. [[Criminologist]] Dr. Edward Heinrich testified that fingerprints on the hallway door proved that Rappe had tried to flee, but that Arbuckle had stopped her by placing his hand over hers. Dr. Arthur Beardslee, the hotel doctor who had examined Rappe, testified that an external force seemed to have damaged the bladder. However, during cross-examination, Campbell revealed that Brady had threatened to charge her with [[perjury]] if she did not testify against Arbuckle. Dr. Heinrich's claim to have found fingerprints was cast into doubt after McNab produced a maid from the St. Francis Hotel who testified that she had thoroughly cleaned the room before the investigation took place. Dr. Beardslee admitted that Rappe had never mentioned being assaulted while he was treating her. McNab coaxed Hultson to admit that the rupture of Rappe's bladder could have been the result of [[cancer]] and that the bruises could have been caused by the heavy jewelry that Rappe was wearing that evening.<ref name="trutv1"/>

On November 28, Arbuckle testified as the defense's final witness and was reported to be simple, direct and unflustered under both direct and cross-examination. In his testimony, Arbuckle claimed that Rappe (whom he testified to have known for five or six years) entered the party room (1220) around noon that day, and that sometime afterward he retreated to his room (1219) to change clothes after Mae Taub, daughter-in-law of [[Billy Sunday]], asked him for a ride into town. In his room, Arbuckle discovered Rappe in the bathroom vomiting into the toilet. He claimed that Rappe had told him that she felt ill and asked to lie down, and that he carried her into the bedroom and asked a few of the party guests to help treat her. When Arbuckle and a few of the guests entered the room again, they found Rappe on the floor near the bed tearing at her clothing and experiencing violent convulsions. To calm Rappe, they placed her in a bathtub of cool water. Arbuckle and Fischbach then took her to room 1227 and called the hotel manager and doctor. At this point all those present believed that Rappe was just very drunk, including the hotel doctors. Assuming that Rappe's condition would improve if she slept, Arbuckle drove Taub into town.{{Citation needed|date=September 2019}}

The prosecution presented medical descriptions of Rappe's bladder as evidence that she had suffered from an illness. In his testimony, Arbuckle denied that he had any knowledge of Rappe's illness. During cross-examination, assistant district attorney Leo Friedman aggressively grilled Arbuckle about Arbuckle's refusal to call a doctor when he found Rappe sick and argued that Arbuckle had refused because he knew of Rappe's illness and saw a perfect opportunity to rape and kill her. Arbuckle calmly maintained that he did not physically hurt or sexually assault Rappe during the party, and he also stated that he had never made any inappropriate sexual advances against any woman in his life. After more than two weeks of testimony with 60 prosecution and defense witnesses, including 18 doctors who testified about Rappe's illness, the defense rested. On December 4, 1921, the jury returned five days later [[hung jury|deadlocked]] after nearly 44 hours of deliberation with a 10–2 not-guilty verdict, and a [[mistrial (law)|mistrial]] was declared.<ref name="trutv1"/>

Arbuckle's attorneys later concentrated on juror Helen Hubbard, who had told other jurors that she would vote guilty "until hell freezes over." She had refused to examine the exhibits or read the trial transcripts, having already decided on Arbuckle's guilt in the courtroom. Hubbard's husband was a lawyer with connections to the district attorney's office,<ref name=Fine>{{cite book |title=Difficult Reputations: Collective Memories of the Evil, Inept, and Controversial |date=April 1, 2001 |last=Fine |first=Gary Allen |page=151 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0226249414}}</ref> and he expressed surprise that she was not challenged during the ''[[voir dire]]'' process. Some of the jurors revealed that they believed Arbuckle to be guilty, but not beyond a [[reasonable doubt]]. During the deliberations, some jurors joined Hubbard in voting to convict, but all but one eventually changed their vote. Researcher Joan Myers suggests that Arbuckle's defense team targeted Hubbard as a villain because there had been a great deal of media attention on women serving in juries, a practice that had been legalized only four years earlier. Myers also records Hubbard's account of the jury foreman's attempts to pressure her to change her vote. While Hubbard offered explanations on her vote whenever challenged, Thomas Kilkenny, the other juror who voted guilty, remained silent and quickly faded from the media spotlight after the trial ended.<ref name=Myers>{{cite journal |title=The Case of the Vanishing Juror |url=http://www.feminismthreepointzero.com/?page_id=33 |last=Myers |first=Joan |journal=Feminism 3.0 |date=March 18, 2009 |access-date=January 30, 2015}}</ref>

====Second trial====
The second trial began on January 11, 1922 with a new jury but with the same legal defense, prosecution and presiding judge as those of the previous trial. The same evidence was presented, but this time, witness Zey Prevon testified that Brady had forced her to lie. Another witness who testified during the first trial, a former studio security guard named Jesse Norgard, testified that Arbuckle had once offered him a cash [[bribery|bribe]] in exchange for the key to Rappe's dressing room but that Norgard refused. Norgard claimed that Arbuckle stated that he wanted the key to play a joke on Rappe. During cross-examination, Norgard's testimony was impugned when he was revealed to be an ex-convict under indictment for [[sexual assault|sexually assaulting]] an eight-year-old girl, and was seeking a sentence reduction from Brady in exchange for his testimony. In contrast to the first trial, Rappe's history of [[promiscuity]] and heavy drinking was detailed. The second trial also discredited some major evidence such as the identification of Arbuckle's fingerprints on the hotel bedroom door. Heinrich disowned his testimony from the first trial and stated that the fingerprint evidence was likely faked. The defense was so confident that Arbuckle would be acquitted that they did not call him to testify, and McNab did not deliver a closing argument to the jury. However, some jurors interpreted the refusal to permit Arbuckle to testify as a sign of guilt. After five days and more than 40 hours of deliberation, the jury returned on February 3, deadlocked with a 10–2 majority in favor of conviction, resulting in another mistrial.<ref name="trutv1"/>

====Third trial====
[[File:ArbuckleExonerated1922.jpg|thumb|upright|News story of the not-guilty verdict, 1922]]
By the time of Arbuckle's third trial, his films had been banned and newspapers had been filled for the past seven months with stories of Hollywood orgies, murder and sexual perversion. Delmont was touring the country performing one-woman shows based on her involvement with the case and lecturing on the evils of Hollywood.{{Citation needed|date=September 2019}}

The third trial began on March 13, 1922, and McNab took a forceful approach, attacking the prosecution's case with long and aggressive examination and cross-examination of each witness. McNab also introduced more evidence about Rappe's lurid past and medical history. The prosecution's case was weakened because Prevon, a key witness, was out of the country after fleeing police custody and unable to testify.<ref name="trutv1"/> As in the first trial, Arbuckle testified as the final witness and maintained his denial of any wrongdoing. During closing statements, McNab reviewed the flaws in the case and attacked Brady for believing Delmont's outlandish charges, a woman whom McNab described as "the complaining witness who never witnessed." The jury began deliberations April 12 and took only six minutes to return with a unanimous not-guilty verdict. Five of those minutes were spent writing a formal statement of apology to Arbuckle for subjecting him to the ordeal, a dramatic and unusual gesture. The jury statement read:<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-09-27 |title=OPINION {{!}} OLD NEWS: Fatty Arbuckle found innocent after three trials; judgment came too late for his career |url=https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2021/sep/27/arbuckle-not-guilty-career-ruined/ |access-date=2023-09-02 |website=Arkansas Online |language=en}}</ref>

{{quotation|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.}}

Some experts{{Who|date=October 2023}} later concluded that Rappe's bladder may have ruptured as a result of an abortion procedure that she may have undergone shortly before the party. However, her organs had been destroyed and it was now impossible to test her for pregnancy. Because alcohol was consumed at the party, Arbuckle pled guilty to one count of violating the [[Volstead Act]] and was ordered to pay a $500 fine ({{Inflation|US|500|1922|r=-3|fmt=eq}}). At the time of his acquittal, he owed more than $700,000 (equivalent to ${{Inflation|US|.7|1922|r=0}}&nbsp;million in {{Inflation/year|US}}{{inflation-fn|US}}) in legal fees to his attorneys for the three criminal trials, and he was forced to sell his house and all of his cars to pay some of the debt.<ref name="trutv1"/>

===Aftermath===
[[File:Mintadurfee.jpg|thumb|upright|Minta Durfee, cover of ''Photoplay'', December 1915]]
Following Arbuckle's arrest, hundreds of exhibitors withdrew his films from distribution.<ref name=industry/>

The scandal and trials greatly damaged Arbuckle's popularity among the general public. In spite of the acquittal and the apology, his reputation was not restored and the effects of the scandal continued. [[Will H. Hays]], who served as the head of the newly formed [[Motion Picture Association of America|Motion Pictures Producers and Distributors of America]] [[Censorship|censor]] board, cited Arbuckle as an example of Hollywood's poor morals. On April 18, 1922, six days after Arbuckle's acquittal, Hays issued a lifetime ban that would prohibit Arbuckle from film work. Hays also requested that all showings and bookings of Arbuckle's films be canceled, and exhibitors complied.{{Citation needed|date=September 2019}} In December of the same year, under public pressure, Hays rescinded the ban. However, Arbuckle remained unable to secure work as an actor.<ref name="trutv1"/>

Most exhibitors still declined to show Arbuckle's films, several of which are now considered [[Lost film|lost]]. Paramount withdrew his latest film ''[[Crazy to Marry]]'' after only a brief release, and shelved two features he had already completed: ''[[Leap Year (1924 film)|Leap Year]]''{{sfn|Oderman|2005|page=199}} and ''[[The Fast Freight]]''. The latter films were ultimately released only in Europe,<ref name=Edmonds>{{cite book |last=Edmonds |first=Andy |title=Frame-Up!: The Untold Story of Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle |date= 1991 |publisher=William Morrow & Co. |isbn=978-0688091293 |page=302 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u29ZAAAAMAAJ&q=leap+year |url-access=subscription }}</ref> far away from the scandalmongers in America, and recouped at least part of their production costs. In March 1922, with Arbuckle's films banned, Buster Keaton signed an agreement to award Arbuckle 35% of all future profits from his production company Buster Keaton Comedies, hoping to ease Arbuckle's financial situation.<ref name=Meade/>

In November 1923, Minta Durfee filed for divorce from Arbuckle, charging grounds of desertion.<ref name=time1>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,716962,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071111175322/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,716962,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=November 11, 2007 |title=Milestones: November 12, 1923 |access-date=January 30, 2015 |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=November 12, 1923 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> The divorce was granted the following January.<ref name=time2>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,717388,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081204024049/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,717388,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 4, 2008 |title=Milestones: January 7, 1924 |access-date=January 30, 2015 |magazine=Time |date=January 7, 1924 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> They had been amicably separated since 1921.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.angelfire.com/mn/hp/minta1.html |title=Excerpts of Interview with Minta Durfee Arbuckle by Don Schneider and Stephen Normand |access-date=January 30, 2015 |publisher=[[Owosso, Michigan#The Movie Museum|The Movie Museum]]}}</ref> After a brief reconciliation, Durfee again filed for divorce in December 1924.<ref name=time3>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,741918,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070303073156/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,741918,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=March 3, 2007 |title=Milestones: December 8, 1924 |access-date=January 30, 2015 |magazine=Time |date=June 29, 1931}}</ref> Arbuckle married [[Doris Deane]] on May 16, 1925.<ref>{{cite book |last=Donnelley |first=Paul |title=Fade to Black: A Book of Movie Obituaries |year=2003 |publisher=Music Sales Group |isbn=978-1849382465 |page=37 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qAhtNiAl3YsC&q=arbuckle |access-date=January 30, 2015}}</ref>

Arbuckle tried returning to filmmaking, but industry resistance to distributing his films continued to linger after his acquittal. He retreated into [[alcoholism]]. In the words of his first wife, "Roscoe only seemed to find solace and comfort in a bottle". Keaton attempted to help Arbuckle by employing him for his films. Arbuckle wrote the story for a Keaton short titled ''[[Day Dreams (1922 film)|Day Dreams]]'' (1922) and allegedly directed scenes in Keaton's ''[[Sherlock Jr.]]'' (1924), but it is unclear how much of Arbuckle's footage remained in the film's final cut. In 1925, [[Carter DeHaven]]'s short ''Character Studies'', filmed before the scandal, was released, featuring Arbuckle along with Keaton, [[Harold Lloyd]], [[Rudolph Valentino]], [[Douglas Fairbanks]] and [[Jackie Coogan]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Leider |first=Emily W. |title=Dark Lover: The Life and Death of Rudolph Valentino |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r3qHDGpk5xwC&q=arbuckle |page=198 |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |location=New York |year= 2003 |isbn=978-0374282394 |access-date=January 30, 2015}}</ref> The same year in ''[[Photoplay]]''{{'}}s August issue, [[James R. Quirk]] wrote: "I would like to see Roscoe Arbuckle make a comeback to the screen. ... The American nation prides itself upon its spirit of fair play. We like the whole world to look upon America as the place where every man gets a square deal. Are you sure Roscoe Arbuckle is getting one today? I'm not."<ref>{{cite journal |last=Quirk |first=James R. |date=August 1925 |title=Speaking of Pictures |url=https://archive.org/stream/photoplay2829movi#page/n175/mode/2up |journal=[[Photoplay]] |location=New York |publisher=Photoplay Publishing Company |access-date=August 20, 2015}}</ref>