Rape allegations mount against Bill Cosby #3

[wendiesan]

I thought these two related stories by Robert Hubert re BC were very interesting. The first (Dr. Huxtable and Mr. Hyde) was published June 9, 2006; the second (How Bill Cosby Took Down Bill Cosby), December 7, 2014.

In the first, Hubert examines the phenomena of BC's "call out" series of meetings with poor black citizens in which he used his Dr. Huxtable persona as a platform from which to berate and criticize audience members. BC allowed Hubert to attend a meeting and it's following dinner, but refused to talk to him. Hubert looks at BC's very controlling personality in light of recent revelations. BC's anger. his arrogance and his silence are recurring themes.

“He did a lot of good works behind which he could stash his crimes of excess.” — Tamara Green

Reaction was fierce, and ran the gamut: Cosby, attacking his own people from the safe perch of vast wealth, was cruel and way off the mark; or, he had the cojones to go right up the gut of what desperately needed to be said. Washington, though, wasn’t Cosby’s first call-out. No, like a play debuting in the hinterlands, he had tried out his spiel first, a couple months earlier, in Philadelphia. Then-Inquirer columnist Lucia Herndon broke the story, something that still unnerves her....

In March 2004, Herndon was asked to make a few remarks at the semiannual Year of the Child production at Deliverance Evangelistic Church in North Philadelphia — a Sunday afternoon celebrating extracurricular achievement. Actor Clifton Davis would sing. School superintendent Paul Vallas would speak. So would school reform commission head Jim Nevels. And weatherman Hurricane Schwartz. And Bill Cosby.

This excerpts from this speech are very like the "pound cake" speech

Herndon and Hurricane Schwartz turned to each other, wide-eyed. What was he doing? Why here, at this event, with all these children, some of them as young as five? Cosby didn’t even mention them, the performers or their families, even though a pat on the back was supposed to be the point of the event. Or so Herndon thought. And she said so in an Inquirer column that ran 10 days later — not disagreeing with Cosby’s points, but declaring that he picked the wrong time and place. Why was he lecturing an audience of parents that did get it?...

A few days later, Herndon got a phone call. It was Bill Cosby. He was angry. She had it wrong, he said...It went around and around like that for some 40 minutes. Herndon wouldn’t budge. Cosby wrote a letter to the Inquirer, which was printed. Then Herndon got a letter from his lawyers, threatening the paper with legal action. Because, as she sees it, she disagreed with Bill Cosby. The lawsuit never materialized, but “Mom has fallen out of love with Bill Cosby,” her daughter teased her.

http://www.phillymag.com/articles/dr-huxtable-mr-hyde/

In the second article, Hubert continues to develop his contention regarding BC.

One of his accusers, a lawyer named Tamara Green — who first told her story of being drugged and molested by Cosby to the Daily News in ’05 — nails it now in simple terms: “I knew it would emerge again because he’s so arrogant.” That even though the Andrea Constand accusation passed, he would keep speaking from on high, from the platform of “Bill Cosby,” and that’s what would eventually do him in.

SO MUCH DEPENDED on the strength of the image, that Dr. Huxtable and Bill Cosby were one and the same. Yet there were plenty of hints along the way that maybe that wasn’t the case. A woman named Autumn Jackson, claiming to be his daughter, tried to extort $40 million from Cosby in 1997, and he admitted to a “rendezvous” with Jackson’s mother and payments of more than $100,000 in support over the years. There were also plenty of minor episodes that let everyone know who was running things; for example, a contestant on You Bet Your Life, Cosby’s early-’90s redo of the Groucho Marx vehicle, wrote about the on-set vibe: “Just before we tape, the producer tells one contestant, ‘Your job is to make Mr. Cosby look good. Don’t try to make yourself look good, or he’ll chew you up and spit you out.’” When I was working on my profile of Cosby in ’06, four different assistants of his called me, sending glowing reviews and other information about him, which isn’t so odd, at least not for those who have four assistants. But the barrage of positive information, coupled with virtual silence from the man himself, was transparently controlling and paranoid.

http://www.phillymag.com/articles/the-fall-of-bill-cosby/

 

[Donjeta]

http://www.broadstreetreview.com/dance/decline-of-bill-cosby

At the end of his set, Cosby told the audience, “I guess you expect me to tell a racial joke.” Almost grudgingly, he conveyed a gentle tale about a black minister in Mississippi whose civil rights activity gets him chased out of the state by the Ku Klux Klan. He flees to the safety and comfort of New York City, only to be visited one day by the voice of God, insisting that he return to Mississippi.

“Well, God,” asks the terrified minister, “if I go back to Mississippi, will you go with me?”

“Yes, my son,” God replies. “I will go with you.” Pause. “As far as South Philadelphia.”

In retrospect, it was a prophetic joke. The minister in Cosby’s story lost his essence when he opted for life’s easy road. Something similar happened to Bill Cosby — a man who might have lived up to his avuncular self-image if he hadn’t accumulated quite so much money, power, and influence. Or as Charles Foster Kane put it in Citizen Kane, “If I hadn’t been very rich, I might have been a really great man.”

I dunno about that... as far as I'm concerned the problem is not that he's very rich, the problem is that he's allegedly a serial rapist. The money and power helped to attract victims and cover things up but they didn't put date rape drugs into anyone's cappuccino.

To be sure, Cosby is the author of a dozen or so warm, witty, and wise (albeit short) bestsellers, like Fatherhood and Time Flies. The only trouble with these books is that Cosby didn’t actually write them. Virtually all of his books were written with a collaborator, and anyone who knows the workings of celebrity-collaboration books can safely assume that the collaborator did most (and maybe all) of the writing. The late Ralph Schoenstein — coauthor of Fatherhood and Time Flies — was a genuine humorist with a dozen books of his own to his credit, but he never had a bestseller until he wrote under Cosby’s name.

 

[Blondie in Spokane]

Updated list of (alleged) victims:

Bill Cosby facing litany of allegations

http://cbs4indy.com/2015/02/14/bill-cosby-facing-litany-of-allegations/

 

[Tulessa]

I can't wait to see his victims get justice. He makes my skin crawl.

 

[SStarr33]

Did the 13 women who were going to be deposed for the first lawsuit file lawsuits as well?

 

[margarita25]

I can't help but wonder...were any victims overdosed, in which they might have died and a cover up was implemented?

Might any have threatened to tell, or fought back so hard they lost their lives?

This guy is an alleged violent serial rapist / pedophile with A LOT to lose...if one of his escapades started backfiring on him who knows what could have happened...

In hindsight, are there any women linked to Cosby that just disappeared? Just some thoughts. We've seen here on WS what the end result is in many SA cases (death), and with so many possible incidents, I think there's a good chance that not all attempts might have unfolded as planned...

FTR, his attorney's comments make me irate.

I believe all these women 200%!

 

[IzzyBlanche]

Did the 13 women who were going to be deposed for the first lawsuit file lawsuits as well?

IIRC it was past statute of limitations for them.

 

[BirdycatNY]

I don't care for Hustler's image or message--it's down towards the bottom of crude magazines, IMO.
So what does it say when that magazine, a pretty sleazy one at that, was naming and shaming BC ten years ago for doing exactly what these alleged victims are claiming?
There's an ad lampooning BC's clean cut image by portraying him as a roué drugging a young woman in his home. So, it seems that BC's habits were not only known back then but brought to the pubic's attention. Well, the Hustler's public anyway. I wonder where the cartoonist got his/her information.
FWIW, here's the site where interrobang shows the ad. It's not a Hustler site, but some people could be offended and might want to skip the information.

I should rephrase that. We're all offended already, not by the cartoon but by the alleged truth behind the cartoon.

I really hope that if paparazzi/racy media has any information on BC that they will provide it to LE. That's something positive media tabloids/erotica mags can do if they see celebrities potentially committing crimes, give it to LE before making it tabloid fodder. These allegations are so serious that I would hope that Hustler or any other celebrity/erotica media would share pictures or other information that is relevant to the allegations. Same goes for anyone who may have been privy to events alleged in allegations like drug dealers/or/medical professionals. Alleged rape and drug-facilitated rape is awful and takes away someone's free will entirely; it's not the same as reporting on celebrity dating or fashion choices. They should feel an ethical duty, even if there is no legal duty to disclose to LE. But like Donjeta posted above, it could just be because of Constand's claims. Jmo.

 

[ScarlettScarpetta]

The more women that come forward the less likely to me that they are all telling the truth.

If that was the case that BC was drugging and raping dozens of women for decades there is NO Way that it would not have come to light and that one would not have gone to the police and blasted it on the news back then.

Still waiting on something that shows some irrefutable evidence.

 

[margarita25]

The more women that come forward the less likely to me that they are all telling the truth.

If that was the case that BC was drugging and raping dozens of women for decades there is NO Way that it would not have come to light and that one would not have gone to the police and blasted it on the news back then.

Still waiting on something that shows some irrefutable evidence.

So, why do you think all these women are coming forward? In your opinion, what is the motive here? :waitasec:

I know we have discussed upstream the shame, fear, and numerous other emotions that rape victims face. They likely had many feelings that they might not be believed, etc etc considering such a revered, positively regarded celebrity/perp. And some of the victims did tell people, one lady told her supervisor, it was all swept under the carpet.

All these stories are so similar...they seem to me to be coming out to validate each other's stories.

There are also things imo, like the "licking of the feet"...that imo does not sound like something you make up.

I could go on forever on why I believe these women.

Eta: I had a similar instance; I can't prove it, so never did anything about it. Its probably the same with these women. It would come down to their word against his. They likely knew it was a battle they could not win...and the shame...

 

[ScarlettScarpetta]

So, why do you think all these women are coming forward? In your opinion, what is the motive here? :waitasec:

I know we have discussed upstream the shame, fear, and numerous other emotions that rape victims face. I can't even imagine their feelings that they might not be believed, etc etc considering such a revered, positively regarded celebrity/perp. (For starters, on why they might not report it).

All these stories are so similar...they seem to me to be coming out to validate each other's stories.

There are also things imo, like the "licking of the feet"...that imo does not sound like something you make up.

I could go on forever on why I believe these women.

But yet people do make up stories. And sometimes people do remember wrong. And sometimes people feel shame and change the story years later because they don't want to face their mistakes of their youth.

I just don't believe that it is possible that All these women were horribly attacked and no one knows until 40 years later.

 

[margarita25]

I just don't believe that it is possible that All these women were horribly attacked and no one knows until 40 years later.

There are people who did know. Some of the victims did tell people. Just because BC was not prosecuted, it does not mean people did not know.

You know, I used to work with a celebrity who was almost as bad as BC. The things he would get away with, just because he was a celebrity, the things he would do that people looked past and accepted/let him get away with, just because he was celebrity...

MAKES ME SICK!!!

 

[margarita25]

(I'm starting to get pissed off here so going to take a breather, lol)

 

[margarita25]

But yet people do make up stories. And sometimes people do remember wrong. And sometimes people feel shame and change the story years later because they don't want to face their mistakes of their youth.

Remember wrong? Seriously?

 

[Donjeta]

Are you reading these stories? They're not all saying that they were horribly attacked, some said they weren't hurt and just came out to report instances of creepy behavior. Some reported possible attempts that failed for one reason or another.

And it is simply not true that no one knows until 40 years later. You keep bringing it up but it's not. We have heard of people that the victims told their stories when it happened and of people in the business who had experience of Cosby being a creep. Then there are the people who went to the police pretty soon. And many of the cases it's not even been 40 years since and we've heard of them already.

It makes ZERO sense to me to suggest that the women are coming out in the media because they feel shame and don't want to face their mistakes of their youth. Giving interviews about how they went to his hotel room and accepted some pills from him is the last thing they would be doing if they were hiding from their past. We wouldn't know anything about the mistakes of their youth if they'd stayed quiet and now there's suddenly a whole bunch of judgmental people on their case trying to shame them.


It's quite possible that all of them aren't telling the truth but even if some of the thirty or so are lying that could still leave quite a few women who are telling the truth about their rape.

 

[ScarlettScarpetta]

Remember wrong? Seriously?

Yes. Remember wrong. Time skews memories. It is shaped by our other experiences sometimes for the worse sometimes for the better. But skewed nonetheless.

 

[Donjeta]

Yes. Remember wrong. Time skews memories. It is shaped by our other experiences sometimes for the worse sometimes for the better. But skewed nonetheless.

Yeah it might be that Cosby misremembered when he said, "I did not drug and rape or sexually harass any of those women."

Wait, he didn't say that...


JMO I find it quite unlikely that lots of unconnected women would suddenly and simultaneously have a similar memory error that the same guy did the similar sort of things to all of them if nothing of the sort ever happened.

 

[ScarlettScarpetta]

There are people who did know. Some of the victims did tell people. Just because BC was not prosecuted, it does not mean people did not know.

You know, I used to work with a celebrity who was almost as bad as BC. The things he would get away with, just because he was a celebrity, the things he would do that people looked past and accepted/let him get away with, just because he was celebrity...

MAKES ME SICK!!!

That must have been hard. But are you then shaping the opinion on BC based on the Celebrity you know? I think that everything in life is skewed by our experiences.
I think it can be hard to not put biases on things based on what we know.
I just want to wait until there is something concrete in this issue.
I won't believe someone is a serial anything without good evidence.

 

[margarita25]

That must have been hard. But are you then shaping the opinion on BC based on the Celebrity you know? I think that everything in life is skewed by our experiences.
I think it can be hard to not put biases on things based on what we know.
I just want to wait until there is something concrete in this issue.
I won't believe someone is a serial anything without good evidence.

Nope, not basing my opinion on the celebrity I know. That was an afterthought, actually. My opinion on BC and all these women coming forward has nothing to do with my perception being skewed by personal experience. I believe these women after reading their personal accounts.

 

[margarita25]

There is mention of one Canadian victim iirc; Canada does not have statute of limitations from what I saw when I glossed over that particular article...can anything become of that?