Fatty Arbuckle was a star. He could act. He could sing. He could make an audience roar with laughter. By the 1910s, he was one of the highest paid actors, and among the most popular stars of silent films. It seemed like nothing could stop his shine. But then, following a weekend of partying at the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco, his friend Virginia Rappe died. It wasn’t immediately clear why Virginia died, but her friend supplied the answer: Virginia had been raped and killed by one of America’s most beloved stars.
Then Kristin tells us about the ultimate old-timey kidnapping. If your parents ever warned you about taking candy from strangers, this is why. On July 1, 1874, four-year-old Charley Ross and his six-year-old brother Walter were playing in their front yard when two men pulled up in a horse-drawn carriage. The men offered to buy the boys candy and fireworks. Naturally, the boys jumped at the chance. The men took the boys on a long, winding ride. They stopped at a store, and gave Walter 25 cents to buy fireworks. But after Walter made his purchase, he came back outside to find that the men were gone. They’d taken Charley with them.
And now for a note about our process. For each episode, Kristin reads a bunch of articles, then spits them back out in her very limited vocabulary. Brandi copies and pastes from the best sources on the web. And sometimes Wikipedia. (No shade, Wikipedia. We love you.) We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the real experts who covered these cases.
In this episode, Kristin pulled from:
“Charley Ross: Efforts to induce Westervelt to confess — he says, ‘search the Catholic Institutions,’” The Tennessean
“Among the missing: Charley Ross,” by Jay Robert Nash for The Tampa Tribune
“A notorious 19th century kidnapping in Brooklyn,” by Michael Pollak for The New York Times
“‘JonBenet’ case of its time — 1874,” by Jeff Gammage for The Philadelphia Inquirer
“Little Charley Ross,” The St. Albans Advertiser
“The story of Charley Ross,” ushistory.org
“The disappearance of Charley Ross,” by Steven Casale for The Lineup
In this episode, Brandi pulled from:
“Fatty Arbuckle and the Death of Virginia Rappe” by Denise Noe, The Crime Library
“The Skinny on the Fatty Arbuckle Trial” by Gilbert King, Smithsonian
“Roscoe Arbuckle” wikipedia.org
31: The Many Losses of Marybeth Tinning & the Cannibal Cop
30: Murders at a Chinese Hostel & Gypsy Blanchard’s Quest for Freedom
29: The Internet’s First Serial Killer & the Disappearance of Cora Okonski
28: The Kidnapping of America’s Best Businesswoman & the Murder of Lisa Techel
27: The Strange Life of Michael Marin and Game Night Gone Wrong
26: The Big Break & the Kidnapping of Bobby Greenlease
25: The Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping and the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
24: The Charming Kidnappers & the Swope Family Murders (?)
23: Rolling Stone’s Most Outrageous Article & the Bever Family Murders
22: Food Lawsuits with the Gaming Historian
21: Never Trust a Hottie & the McMartin Preschool Trial
20: The Case of the Missing Pants & the Chicken Coop Murders
19: The Suicide of Conrad Roy & the Disappearance of Bobby Dunbar
18: The Family Annihilator & Is This Love?
17: The Astronaut Love Triangle & the @$&!?* Pre-trial Hearing
16: The Runaway Bride & the Not-So-Perfect Crime
15: The BTK Serial Killer & That Time Some Dude Stole the Mona Lisa
14: A Serial Killer in the Making & the Many Faces of Juanita Maxwell
13: The Home Owners’ Association From Hell & Jennifer Jackson’s Murder
12: Video Game Lawsuits with the Gaming Historian
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Ghosts of Dallas
Picture The Scene - A True Crime Podcast
Mortal Musings Podcast
True Crime Investigators UK
Dateline NBC
Crime Junkie