Room 1219: Fatty Arbuckle, the Mysterious Death of Virginia Rappe, and the Scandal That Changed Hollywood by Greg Merritt

Author:Greg Merritt [Merritt, Greg]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, Fatty Arbuckle, Nonfiction, True Crime
ISBN: 9781613747926
Amazon: 1613747926
Barnesnoble: 1613747926
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
Published: 2013-09-01T04:00:00+00:00

After Arbuckle’s testimony and over the prosecution’s objection, the deposition of Dr. Maurice Rosenberg was read into the record. (He had been interviewed by defense attorney Brennan in Chicago.) Rosenberg stated that he treated Rappe in Chicago in 1913 for cystitis, a chronic inflamation of the bladder. After the deposition was read, the defense rested.

The next day, the state began calling rebuttal witnesses. Tellingly, they did not attempt to impeach Arbuckle’s testimony. (The obvious witness to do so was Delmont, for the avenger had a very different version of what occurred in and about 1219.) Instead, they refocused on Rappe’s health. Catherine Fox* of Chicago claimed to have known Rappe for twenty-two years but never knew her to be in pain or tearing her clothes or consuming alcohol. After Assistant DA U’Ren queried Fox for two hours, the defense posed but one question.

“Were you with Maude Bambina Delmont yesterday?” McNab asked her.

“Yes, I was with her all afternoon.”

“That’s all.”

Others testified to Rappe’s good physical health: the former assistant manager of the Hollywood Hotel, where Rappe had lived; a psychiatrist who had treated her; a chauffeur, a nurse, a director, a cameraman. A magazine publisher testified to hallway lurker R. C. Harper’s bad reputation, though it would seem Harper’s improbable testimony had accomplished as much. Harry Boyle stated that 1219 had not been occupied since Arbuckle checked out, and Edward Heinrich returned to detail all the dust and hairs he found in 1219, thus arguing against Kate Brennan’s contention that she had thoroughly cleaned the room before he entered it.

In what branched off into its own sideplot, a clerk at the hot springs where Minnie Neighbors told of seeing a pained Rappe said she did not remember Rappe, and she produced the spa’s register, which lacked Rappe’s name. Likewise, Kate Hardebeck returned to say her “niece” had not been away in August. Before the day was over, Brady had Neighbors arrested for felony perjury. The next day, the defense called a hot springs attendant who remembered renting a bathing cap to Rappe and speaking to Neighbors about her; they then recalled the hot springs’ clerk to demonstrate that her memory of guests was fallible. Countering, the state introduced the hot springs’ swimwear rental book, which lacked Rappe’s name. Around and around they went.

The final witnesses in the trial were three MDs who had been appointed by the court nine days prior to microscopically examine Rappe’s bladder. The panel’s findings: Rappe had suffered from a lingering case of cystitis. It was a rather ambiguous diagnosis, for it failed to determine how long she had suffered or the severity of the symptoms (which can vary greatly), and none of the doctors could say with certainty that cystitis predisposed her bladder to rupture. They did dispense with a defense theory that she may have had a partial tear prior to the deadly rupture. However, the defense interpreted Rappe’s prior medical condition as confirmation of the testimony about her abdominal pains and of a bladder disease that dated back, at least, to Dr.

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