{"id":207,"date":"2015-10-15T22:00:20","date_gmt":"2015-10-16T03:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/gumshoes\/?p=207"},"modified":"2015-10-15T22:00:20","modified_gmt":"2015-10-16T03:00:20","slug":"strolling-through-the-devils-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/gumshoes\/strolling-through-the-devils-garden\/","title":{"rendered":"Strolling Through the Devil’s Garden<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"91NSUhiOT5L\"<\/a>Devil’s Garden<\/em><\/a>
\nAce Atkins<\/a>
\nPutnam
\npaper $16.00
\nebook $11.99<\/p>\n

At one point in The Lost Detective<\/em><\/a>, Nathan Ward mentioned that Hammett had worked for a time on the Arbuckle case. And that reminded me that Ace Atkins had written a novel about Hammett’s work on the case which I had been wanting to read. \u00a0So I did.<\/p>\n

For those who may not be aware of the Arbuckle case, and I’m assuming that’s going to be many of you because Arbuckle is pretty much forgotten these days, it changed Hollywood and the studio system forever.<\/p>\n

The basics of the case are these. \u00a0Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle was a silent film comedian in the nineteen teens. \u00a0He was at least as big as Charlie Chaplin (whose career he had aided while they were both at Mack Sennett’s Keystone Studios), discovered Bob Hope, and helped a young man named Buster Keaton transition from vaudeville to film.<\/p>\n

\"Virginia<\/a>

Virginia Rappe<\/p><\/div>\n

Over the Labor Day weekend in 1921, Arbuckle drove his custom made Pierce Arrow (it had a bar and a toilet in it) from Los Angeles to San Francisco where he and two friends rented a suite of rooms at the Saint Francis Hotel. \u00a0A full scale party ensued with plenty of booze despite Prohibition. \u00a0During the festivities, an actress named Virginia Rappe, accompanied by a woman named Maude Delmont and a male friend, went to Arbuckle’s party, although none had been invited by Arbuckle.<\/p>\n

During the festivities Virginia went into one of the bedrooms. \u00a0When Arbuckle came in to wash up before going for a drive with a friend, he found her vomiting in the bathroom. \u00a0He helped her to the bed. \u00a0A little later, Virigina went into hysterics, complained about abdominal pain, and began ripping off her clothes. \u00a0A hotel manager was called, and Virginia was moved to another room. \u00a0Arbuckle returned to Los Angeles; Virginia Rappe was eventually moved from the Saint Francis to a sanitarium where she died that Friday. \u00a0An illegal autopsy (performed without the coroner’s approval) revealed the cause of death to be peritonitis from a ruptured bladder.<\/p>\n

Maude Delmont accused Arbuckle of raping Virginia Rappe. \u00a0The story grew wilder with each retelling, morphing into he raped her with a piece of ice to he raped her with a bottle. \u00a0Arbuckle was arrested and vilified in the press, particularly in papers owned by William Randolph Hearst. \u00a0After three trials (the first two ending in hung juries), Arbuckle was acquited. \u00a0The jury members all signed a letter of apology to him, something that was unparalleled.\u00a0 Maude Delmont was the prosecution’s star witness, yet she was never called to testify at any of the trials.<\/p>\n

\"Arbuckle's<\/a>

Arbuckle’s mug shot.<\/p><\/div>\n

Arbuckle’s career, however, was over. \u00a0He lost his fortune. \u00a0His films not only were banned, but many of them were destroyed. \u00a0(A complete filmography is almost impossible because Arbuckle was prolific and much of his work has been lost.) \u00a0And he found himself blacklisted by Will H. Hays, who had assumed the position of President of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America. \u00a0He had just returned to making films when he died in 1932.<\/p>\n

Devil’s Garden<\/em> is just as much about Hammett as it is about Arbuckle. \u00a0Hammett did work on the case, but how much work he did is unclear. \u00a0He probably wasn’t as involved as Atkins portrays. \u00a0He does incorporate a number of biographical tidbits about Hammett into his narrative.<\/p>\n

Atkins did his research well, although he does appear to take a bit of dramatic license with some of the details and timeline. \u00a0For example, it appears he has Hammett working as a Pinkerton a bit longer than he actually did. \u00a0Also, according to all accounts I’ve read by those who knew him, Arbuckle was not a ladies man, nor did he step out on his wife. \u00a0(They were divorced by the time of the party.) \u00a0Atkins portrays Arbuckle as more of a philanderer.<\/p>\n

Still, these are minor quibbles. \u00a0Atkins takes two historical figures whose paths crossed and manages to weave a cohesive story out of the facts that is entertaining and compelling. \u00a0And Arbuckle and Hammett aren’t the only historical figures with shady pasts who show up. \u00a0Atkins gives us a view into another world. \u00a0After all, (to steal a quote) the past is foreign country. \u00a0They do things differently there.<\/p>\n

While I might have some minor quibbles about the details, Ace Atkins has produced a dark novel than ranks alongside some of the best period noir I’ve read.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Devil’s Garden Ace Atkins Putnam paper $16.00 ebook $11.99 At one point in The Lost Detective, Nathan Ward mentioned that Hammett had worked for a time on the Arbuckle case. And that reminded me that Ace Atkins had written a novel about Hammett’s work on the case which I had been wanting to read. \u00a0So […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11,5,15,10],"tags":[64,67,66,85,65,68],"class_list":["post-207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bootlegging","category-dashiell-hammett","category-private-investigators","category-prohibition","tag-ace-atkins","tag-buster-keaton","tag-charlie-chaplin","tag-dashiell-hammett","tag-roscoe-fatty-arbuckle","tag-virginia-rappe"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3P58L-3l","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/gumshoes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/gumshoes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/gumshoes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/gumshoes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/gumshoes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/gumshoes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":214,"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/gumshoes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207\/revisions\/214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/gumshoes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/gumshoes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/gumshoes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}