Say it ain’t so! A friend mentioned that he had heard that one of the Tarzan actors was convicted of child rape. Surely it wasn’t Weissmuller, I hear he loved kids and worked with them building strength in swimming and so forth. Does anybody know about this or is it a an UL?
Sir
Lex Barker. In 1987 Cheryl Crane, Lana Turner’s daughter, wrote a book alleging that Barker, while married to her mother, molested her. Hold on a second – I have the book, but haven’t read it in years…
Okay, according to the book, the molestation first occured when Crane was elevenish, recurred fairly often – every time her mother was out of town – and included actual (and increasingly violent) penetration, as well as fondling and threats to keep her quiet. Crane alleges that the molestation continued over the whole course of Barker’s marriage to her mother (several years) and ended when she told her grandmother. The grandmother told Lana, who rallied to her daughter’s defense – sort of. Anyway, she kicked Barker out and divorced him. However, the police weren’t notified out of fear of a scandal. The whole story never saw the light of day until Crane wrote the book after Barker’s death. Barker had children of his own, BTW, and I believe that they denied Crane’s allegations after the book came out. The book is: Detour: A Hollywood Story by Cheryl Crane with Cliff Jahr. Barker got off lucky – Crane stabbed her Mom’s next paramour. And, that scandal couldn’t be hushed up.
Jess – who is, once again, depressed by the junk taking up space in her brain. Not to mention bookshelves.
Thank you, Jess.
Sir