Before Harvey

I chose to do my poem on this case on because it was a case I had never heard of before. In 1921, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle was tried but acquitted for the rape and murder of young, aspiring actress Virginia Rappe. I decided to do more research and more and more of it reminded me of what happened during the Harvey Weinstein incident in 2017. That scandal was really the first time I heard about a Hollywood "elite" man getting accused of sexual assault, so doing a poem that had the connection between Weinstein and Arbuckle was definitely what I wanted to do.

At a party in San Francisco in September of 1921, Rappe was looking for a bathroom in Room 1219 of the St. Francis Hotel when she felt a man grab her and throw her on the bed. The man fell on top of her, and the impact of his weight ruptured her bladder. That is what was determined as the cause of her death. She died a few days later and the man, Fatty Arbuckle was arrested and charged with rape and murder in thr first degree. Fatty went through three different trials and had multiple stories depicting different events that ocured that night, but when the the third trial finally concluded he was acquitted of all charges. After the trial, the third jury went out of their way to apologize to Arbuckle, and the legacy of Rappe was tarnished, with people going out and saying she had STDs and other negative assumptions.

Before Harvey

Before there was Harvey

There was Fatty Arbuckle

A Hollywood-icon

at the top of the world

In September 1921

Under the bright lights of San Francisco

Fatty Arbuckle raped Virginia Rappe

Killing her in the process

The media crucified him

“He was a hedonistic beast”

But the true justice for Rappe

Was murder in the first degree

Back and forth the juries went

It had to take three

But ultimately decided

Fatty Arbuckle was to walk free

So for poor Virginia Rappe

Just one of many women to face horrid crimes

There was no justice for her

Just as with so many others

References

Bellot, G. (2017, November 29). Hollywood’s First Major Harassment Case, 96 Years Before Weinstein. The Cut. https://www.thecut.com/2017/11/before-harvey-weinstein-virginia-rappe-roscoe-fatty-arbuckle.html

History Editors. (2009, November 13). Silent film star Fatty Arbuckle arrested for murder. History. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/silent-film-star-arrested-for-murder (is originally an article from 1921 that was republished)

Markel, H. (2020, September 9). The sexual assault case that shocked Hollywood almost a century ago. PBS News Hour. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/the-sexual-assault-case-that-shocked-hollywood-almost-a-century-ago