20. Things Got Dark for Fatty Arbuckle Real Quick
Police investigators went with the theory that the heavy impact of the overweight Fatty Arbuckle’s atop Virginia Rappe during intercourse had caused her bladder to rupture. Arbuckle found himself in an increasingly bad situation and truthfully denied that he had done any wrong. It did him no good, and amidst a public furor whipped by an unscrupulous press and an even more unscrupulous prosecutor, he was arrested and charged with manslaughter. Initially, San Francisco’s District Attorney had wanted to try Arbuckle on a first-degree murder charge, and seek the death penalty.
The resultant criminal case was a major media event – the OJ Simpson scandal of the day. Those who knew Arbuckle regarded him as a good-natured man, who was shy. As some put it, he was “the most chaste man in pictures“. His friend Charlie Chaplin stated that he “knew Roscoe as a genial and easy-going man, who would not harm a fly“. However, after the Rappe scandal erupted, newspapers went with a far different image. The hitherto beloved comic actor was now depicted as a gross pervert, who routinely used his massive bulk to overpower and force himself upon innocent girls.