Thirty-five of Bill Cosby’s alleged victims speak out

NEW YORK, USA –Thirty-five women who allege they were sexually assaulted by US comedy legend Bill Cosby were united Monday, July 27 on a magazine cover to tell startlingly similar stories of abuse.

They include models, waitresses, Playboy bunnies and women who used to work in show business. One says he raped her while she was grief stricken over the recent death of her 6-year-old son. (READ: Janice Dickinson accuses Bill Cosby of sexual assault)

The New York magazine cover story is the largest expose yet of alleged abuse from nearly 50 women who have publicly accused Cosby of assault from the 1960s to 1996 across the United States.

 

 

So far, 46 women have come forward to accuse Bill Cosby of sexual assault, in some cases, according to a recently unsealed deposition, with the aid of quaaludes—a powerful sedative that can render a person functionally immobile. But these allegations are by no means new, with some stretching back decades—to a time when the culture of rape in America left victims little recourse but to suffer silently, and in shame. Today, the way we think and talk about rape has evolved, creating a safer space for survivors to feel empowered by speaking up and reclaiming their victimhood. And that’s led us here. Of the 46 women who have come forward to accuse Cosby, we spoke to 35 of them — “a sorrowful sisterhood” of women united by their dark experiences, steadfast in their resolve to remain silent no more. Read more: nymag.com/cosby-women.Amanda Demme

A photo posted by New York Magazine (@nymag) on Jul 26, 2015 at 6:05pm PDT

 

Cosby, a pioneering African-American comedian who played a beloved family doctor on the hit 1980s sitcom The Cosby Show, has become a pariah in the wake of the snowballing scandal.

Despite being interviewed separately, many of their stories are startlingly similar: that the famed comedian drugged them, then assaulted or raped them while they were barely conscious.

“Each story is awful in its own right. But the horror is multiplied by the sheer volume of seeing them together,” the magazine wrote.

New York photographed and interviewed each woman separately in a project that was six months in the making before the stories were uploaded on the web edition late Sunday.

The magazine’s website crashed on Monday, reportedly due to a hacker – not upset with Cosby’s accusers but allegedly out to avenge an unpleasant visit to New York, America’s biggest city.

In all 46 women have publicly accused the 78-year-old of rape or sexual assault. 

Many of the 35 in this week’s magazine story say they know of others still out there who have chosen to remain silent.

Victoria Valentino, a 72-year-old former Playboy bunny, was allegedly assaulted in 1969 when Cosby took her and a friend to a steak restaurant not long after her young son had died.

 

‘That kills me’ 

She told the magazine that Cosby gave her and her friend pills that would make her “feel better” but instead left her fighting nausea and her friend “completely unconscious.”

Valentino remembers Cosby sitting next to her friend on a love seat “with this very predatory look on his face.”

Victoria Valentino, 72, a former Playboy bunny, was allegedly assaulted by Bill Cosby in 1969. Valentino was dining with her roommate at their usual joint, Café Figaro, where Cosby happened to be part owner. He knew that Valentino’s 6-year-old son had recently died, and he told Valentino’s friend that he thought she could use some cheering up. “He took my roommate and me out to dinner. It was this new hip steak restaurant on the strip near the Whiskey a Go Go called Sneaky Pete’s. He was chatting her up and trying to charm her. And he reached across and put a pill next to my wine glass and said, ‘Here, this will make you feel better,’ and he gave her one. I wasn’t really thinking. I thought, Great, me feel better? You bet. So I took the pill and washed it down with some red wine. And then he reached across and put another pill in my mouth and gave her one. Just after I took the second pill, my face was, like, face-in-plate syndrome, and I just said, ‘I wanna go home.’ He said he would drive us home. We went up this elevator. I sat down, and lay my head back, just fighting nausea. I looked around and he was sitting next to my roommate on the loveseat with this very predatory look on his face. She was completely unconscious. I could hear the words in my head, but I couldn’t form words with my mouth, because I was so drugged out.” Tap the photo to hear Victoria Valentino tell her story, and watch her video interview at nymag.com/cosby-women.

A video posted by New York Magazine (@nymag) on Jul 26, 2015 at 6:20pm PDT

“He had me give him oral sex, and then he stood me up, turned me over, did me doggy style and walked out. Just as he got to the door, I said, ‘How do we get out of here, how do we get home?’

“And he said, ‘Call a cab.'”

Joyce Emmons, 70, who managed a comedy club, said she was assaulted in around 1979 after a night out with the star and friends, during which she had asked Cosby for a headache pill.

Instead of a Tylenol, Cosby said he had something stronger.

“All I remember is taking the pill,” she told the magazine. When she woke up, she “had no clothes on, and there was Bill’s friend totally naked in bed with me.”

Joyce Emmons, 70, was allegedly assaulted by Bill Cosby circa 1979. Emmons managed a comedy club and became friends with Cosby. They had known each other for about two-and-a-half years when Emmons and her friend went out to a club with Cosby and one of his friends. “I had a terrible headache, and I said, ‘Bill, do you have some Tylenol? I have a mother of a headache.’ And he said to me, ‘I have something stronger.’ And I said, ‘You know I don’t do drugs.’ He said, ‘You’re one of my best friends. Would I hurt you?’ And I believed him. All I remember is taking the pill; I don’t remember going to bed. But I do remember waking up in a fog and opening my eyes, and I had no clothes on, and there was Bill’s friend totally naked in bed with me. I said, ‘What the F did you give me?’ He said, ‘Oh, you had a bad headache, you were in so much pain. I gave you a quaalude.’ I was hurt with Bill more than angry at his friend. Bill let him take advantage of me. That kills me. That’s why I know the stories of what he did to the other women are true, because if he didn’t have the respect for me, who was really a close friend, then he could do that to anybody he didn’t know very well.” Tap the photo to hear Joyce Emmons tell her story, and watch her video interview at nymag.com/cosby-women.

A video posted by New York Magazine (@nymag) on Jul 27, 2015 at 6:52am PDT

She said Cosby told her he had given her a Quaalude. Emmons said she had been devastated by the behavior of someone she had considered a close friend. (READ: Bill Cosby admits drugging woman for sex)

“I was hurt with Bill more than angry at his friend. Bill let him take advantage of me. That kills me. That’s why I know the stories of what he did to the other women are true.”

In a lurid 2005 court deposition, Cosby admitted obtaining Quaaludes to have sex with at least one woman, obtaining seven prescriptions for the sedative and giving them to other people. (READ: Alleged Bill Cosby sex victims want full deposition released)

Last week, Cosby’s lawyer Monique Pressley defended the actor, who has remained almost entirely tight-lipped about the allegations, even as his reputation has been shredded.

“The sheer volume, or number of people who are saying a particular thing does not make it true,” she told ABC television. – Jennie Matthew, AFP/Rappler.com