The Fatty Arbuckle case (1962)

old friend, and their talk had nothing to do with Virginia. Official curiosity was first aroused by a strange telephone call that apparently was made in error. Deputy Coroner Michael Brown was in his office on September 10th when a woman, who said she was calling from the private hospital, inquired when an autopsy was going to be performed. Brown was puzzled; the coroner's office had received no report of any suspicious death. "What autopsy are you talking about?" he asked. The woman had just started to explain when Brown heard another voice whispering to her; this was followed by a sharp gasp, and the caller suddenly hung up. Brown promptiy called back to the hospital, only to have the same woman deny that she had telephoned him. When he became insistent that he recognized her voice, she replied, "I'm sorry, I have no information to give you." Indignant over the highhanded treatment he was receiving, the veteran official drove to the hospital. There he was told that the previous call had been a mistake. Brown refused to be put off and conducted an investigation of his own. He learned that a twenty-five-year-old woman patient had died that afternoon in the hospital and that her physicians, puzzled by the cause of death, had performed their own autopsy. Dr. Brown examined the vital organs in the hospital morgue and observ ed that the bladder was ruptured, an injury he thought had probably resulted from a blow or a fall. Normally, since the attending physicians had signed a death certificate, Dr. Brown would have dropped the matter, but because of the unusual behavior following the call to his office, he directed police to conduct an investigation into the death of the woman. When reporters learned that she was Virginia Rappe, they sensed a story and hurriedly briefed police on her background. The trail then led from Dr. Rummel to Maude Delmont at the St. Francis Hotel, and then to Zey Prevon 52