Fatty Arbuckle | Biography

During 1921 and 1922, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle was the central figure in three notorious trials for manslaughter, and his case provides a prime example of business and political means used to derail justice. The veteran vaudeville and silent film star was accused of sexually assaulting a 25-year-old starlet who died of peritonitis from a ruptured bladder, and not an alleged Labor Day attack. Arbuckle was born on March 24, 1887, in Smith Center, Kansas. His family moved to California in 1888, where Arbuckle enjoyed success as a singer. After several years of singing on vaudeville, Arbuckle met Mack Sennett, owner of the Keystone Film Company, in 1912. He became a star as a member of Sennett's frantic, slapstick Keystone Kops.

In 1921, while at the peak of his popularity, Arbuckle found himself in serious trouble. Arbuckle attended a party thrown by director Fred Fischback at the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco on Labor Day weekend. Actress Virginia Rappe, Maude Delmont, and agent Al Semnacher joined the party. Rappe left the room at one point and was found by Arbuckle on the bathroom floor. Helped by Arbuckle to a bed, hotel officials were eventually called, and she was taken to a hospital, where she died five days later.

Delmont had a history of setting up rich men with young women, who then accused the man of rape, and then were blackmailed by Delmont. With the death of Rappe, Delmont went to police and accused Arbuckle of raping Rappe. Arbuckle was charged with murder. Under California law at the time, any death resulting from rape or attempted rape was considered a first-degree murder regardless of intent. At the inquest, a lack of evidence caused the murder charge to be reduced to manslaughter.

San Francisco district attorney Matthew Brady (who planned a run for higher office) used the case to champion the cause of moral welfare, and yellow journalism, particularly in the newspapers of William Randolph Hearst, whipped the public into a rage against Arbuckle with lurid, invented "details" about the case. The first trial began on November 15, 1921, at the center of a media circus. Arbuckle's main accuser, Delmont, was unable to testify because of a prior arrest for bigamy, not to mention the more than 50 charges of extortion and blackmail filed against her. The first jury hung with an 11-1 vote for acquittal. The one holdout juror stated that she had decided before trial that Arbuckle was guilty and that nothing would change her mind. Arbuckle's defense believed that the facts were so clear cut that they did not bother to have Arbuckle testify in the second trial, and in January of 1922, the vote was 10-2 for conviction. The final trial began in March 1922. The jury returned its verdict in six minutes: not guilty. The jury also took the remarkable step of issuing a public apology to Arbuckle for the suffering he had endured through the scandal. Although Arbuckle was cleared, a cloud hung over his career. His films were banned, and he was made a scapegoat for the public perception of Hollywood immorality. Arbuckle retired for a time, but through the aid of friends such as Buster Keaton, he was able to return to directing under a pseudonym. Arbuckle died in his sleep in 1933.