THE ARBUCKLE SCANDAL

Evening Star, Issue 17793, 15 October 1921, Page 10

THE ARBUCKLE SCANDAL

A NURSE’S STORY.

DYING GIRL'S STATEMENT.

America files give farther particulars of tho tragic death of Alios Virginia Rappe and the Arbuckle scandal.

Miss Ra-pno was well known as a. motion picture actress, artist’s model, and designer of women's clothes. She was reputed to have independent wealth as the result of oil investments. Her home was in Los Angeles,, where she lived with her aunt, She first appeared in motion pictures about four years ago. In the last season or two she had played loads with well-known men stars. She appeared as leading woman in two pictures produced by Henry Lehman, and was reported engaged to” Lehman. Alisa Rappe’s aunt acted pp chaperon for tho girl, her friends say. and always accompanied her io the motion picture studios when she went to work l>cforo the camera. She was regarded as one of the best dressed women in the motion pictures, and is said frequently to have won prirxs for dancing at a Santa Monica resort frequented by moving picture people. Miss Rappe was twenty-five years old. was born in Chicago, ami first camo into prominence in that city. Tins was in 1913, when she was earning a salary- of £I,OOO a year as a travelling art model. Sho gave advice to American girls, and suggested that they should choose original ways of making their livings, and not slip into the usual stereotyped way which stenography afforded. She next appeared in the news early in 1914, when short-tamed from Paris. AYith another Chicago girl, Helen Patterson, the girl had made a sensation on (ho liner Baltic by her daring attire during the trip to America, Both landed in Chicago wearing pink pantalettes or bloomers, which /showed below their skirts when they walked. They wore also wearing fruit- bouquets and fur anklets. Passengers on the ship said Miss Rappe and her companion had enlivened one evening by a “nightie tango,” a danco that was •riven with a nightgown worn over an evening dress. STATEMENT BY NURSE. The death of Afiss Rappe, -as has already been stated, occurred in Arhucklc’s rooms at the St. Francis Hotel, Los Angeles, following what was said to have been a very’ wild parly. “ I am used to coring people die. That is my business. I sco them die nil the time.” Nevertheless, Airs Jean Jamcison, nurse who cared for Virginia Rappo and heard her meanings and accusations of Roscoc Arbncklc—who caw tho beautiful girl pass away with tho words on her lips, “Get Roscoo; follow - this to tho finish.”—betrayed distinct emotion in tolling of her latent “patient.” “Sho didn’t want mo out of her sight for a moment,” said Airs Jamcison. “ From the time I tonic (lie case to the instant of her death she was continually calling mo to listen to what sho had to say. “And all her talk was about ‘ Roscos,’ as sho called him, and the injury he had done her.” Airs Jamcison, wise in the ways of patients, is scrupulously desirous of being fair, says an American paper. She knows that delirious persons sometimes say more than they mean. - : GIRL RATIONAL. “ The things I have told the police in my statement," sho declared, “were said by tho girl at tho times when she was apparently in full control -of her mind. “At other times she rambled. She was in great pain throughout. When her condition was at its worst sho made statements more extreme than the things she said when she was quieter. , I .shall tell these latter statements only at tho trial, if there is one, and tinder the qualification that thev’ wore made in delirium. But the things I have told so far were faid when her mind, as far as I could judge, was clear.” Mrs Jamcison does not interpret Virginia, Rappo’s dying words as meaning Hint anyone, was to “got” Arbuckle in (he censo of revenge. The word “ get,” slie declares, was evidently intended to mean “find.” or “bring.” This all-im-portant distinction, according to tho nurse, is based on tho girl’s attitude ns shown previously during the hours before death. “ She wauled to get into touch with Arbncklc, so that he would pay the expanses of her illness,” said Mrs Jamcison. “ Tho girl was far more worried over tho money side of her plight than over oilier aspects. Sho said : “‘.lt wouldn't ho right for me to have to pay for all this when it is Roscoc's fault. 1 *• When she said. ‘Get Roscoo,’ I understood her to mean: ‘Get him and make him pay the bills.’ THOUGHT OF HER FIANCE. ■‘lhe thing Hint worried her most, apart from tho money, was the wrong done to her fiance. Henry Lehrmnn, Los Angeles motion picture director. “‘I don’t want publicity about tin’s, h-ocanr-e. T don’t want Henry to know of it,’ sho said repeatedly. ‘lf he knows of it he will throw mo down.’ “ Tho thought that hurt her most of all, perhaps, was that Lehrmnu and Arbuckle had been fast friends for years, but that Aibuckle had treated her wrongly despite his friendship for her fiance. “‘lt wasn’t right for him to net this way toward me. when Henry was so fond of him and trusted him so,’ the girl said. She repeated this in various ways. ‘ Whnt kinu of way v>as that for him to treat a girl that was or.grg-M to his best friend’;’ she said. “As to the exact way in which sho got her fatal injury, the girl’s mind was a. blank. 1 think she had been too intoxicated to remember it. At any rate t-he never described clearly what hapjvoned in that room. “.Sim did not explain in any way flic tom condition of her clothing. Nothing sho said eh-ed any light on- that.. She made no allegations that Arhucklo had- hit her ; only that tie had ‘crushed’ her. “ TJto cir) did not know that she was going to die—in fact, when I took bold of the. case I did not think so myself, biic was young, and apparently had vitality, bbc sank very rapidly in tho last, twenty-four hours. Up to the vary lari, I think, ylio did not realise death was coming.”