compiled by Patrick H. Moore
This is the week for wrapping up cold cases. On Tuesday, some 36 years after committing his first grisly crime, the Alphabet Murderer, Joseph Naso, was given the death penalty for raping and murdering four (and possibly seven or eight) victims. And then yesterday, as a sort of prelude to the October publication of her memoir, The Girl: A Life Lived in the Shadow of Roman Polanski, Polanski’s rape victim, Samantha Geimer, broke decades of silence and spoke about her 1977 travail when the Franco-Polish film director — and former husband of Charles Manson murder victim Sharon Tate — raped her at Jack Nicholson’s house following a photography session.
In what some may decry as weakness, but what I see as the strength of a born survivor, Ms. Geimer, now 50 years of age and the mother of 3 children, states quite openly that the rape, bad as it was, was something she learned to live with. The real problem was dealing with the endless media storm that followed the charges, which included rape and sodomy, being brought against Polanski.
Ms. Geimer’s decision to write and publish her memoir, which was co-written with an uncredited author, was motivated by her fervent desire to, at long last, “take back ownership of my own story”. Rebecca Keegan writes for LA Times Entertainment:
It was in March 1977 that the then Samantha Gailey climbed into Polanski’s rented Mercedes for what she and her mother thought would be a magazine photo shoot. Her mother, an actress, had met Polanski at a party.
“We thought, ‘Man, I’m gonna be famous now,’” Geimer said. “We’ll get me in Vogue Paris and then maybe I’ll get a good part. One step and you’re on your way. That’s what we thought it was, a chance, my big shot.”
Instead, Polanski drove her to Jack Nicholson’s Hollywood Hills home, gave her Champagne and a piece of Quaalude and, after learning that she was not on birth control, anally raped her, according to court records.
Reeling from the effects of the alcohol and Quaalude, and overwhelmed by the star power of the successful director and his greater age (he was 44 at the time), Geimer says she did not try to fight him off.
“Why fight?” she writes. “I’ll do pretty much anything to get this over with.”
Geimer describes how she emotionally departed the scene during the encounter, silently wishing for Polanski to stop talking. “He holds my arms at my sides and kisses me,” she writes. “And I say, ‘No, come on,’ but between the pill and the champagne it’s like my own voice is very far away.”
In the book, Ms. Geimer describes her fear and her tears later in the Mercedes as Polanski drove her home. She recalls the film director asking her if she was okay and telling her not to say anything to her mother.
“I got my pics taken by Roman Polanski and he raped me,” she wrote after that night in her diary, according to the book.
Later that night, Geimer’s sister overheard her talking to an ex-boyfriend about what had happened. Her sister told her mother who called the police. She pressed charges, rendering her instantly the focus of a media and police storm, which prompted her, she writes, to wish she had never told anyone what happened.
“Somehow, what had happened – as bad as it was – was not going to be as bad as what was coming,” Geimer wrote.
“I ran into the two-headed monster of the California criminal justice system and its corrupt players, whose lust for publicity overwhelmed their concern with justice.
“My crime? Being the rape victim of a Hollywood celebrity.”
Now married and a mother of three, Geimer said she harbors no hatred or rage against Polanski.
“My family never asked that Polanski be punished. We just wanted the legal machine to stop.”
Over the years, Geimer has often defended Polanski’s right to move on with his life. When the famed director was nominated for an Oscar for “The Pianist,” she wrote an op-ed piece for The Times arguing that his movie should be judged on its merits. She also participated in Marina Zenovich’s 2008 documentary, “Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired,” a film which highlighted the legal peculiarities in the case and the way the judge courted publicity, often asking reporters how they thought he should rule, for maximum public-relations benefit.
After watching the documentary, Polanski wrote Geimer a letter, which appears in the book. “I wanted you to know how sorry I am for having so affected your life,” the director wrote.
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Polanski ultimately pleaded guilty to having unlawful sex with a minor. He served 42 days at a secure unit and underwent psychiatric evaluation prior to formal sentencing. The director, now 80, fled the United States on the eve of his sentencing in 1978, fearing that the trial judge Laurence Rittenband, now deceased, planned to go back on a previously agreed upon time-served deal.
In 2009, Polanski was re-arrested in Switzerland as the US sought extradition. He was ultimately freed by Swiss authorities, however, who said the US justice department failed to provide records of a hearing in which Polanski claimed his case had been settled prior to him fleeing.
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In 1988, Geimer filed a civil suit against Polanski, alleging sexual assault; it ultimately was settled for a six-figure sum. It took years to collect the money but when she finally received it, it proved very helpful in raising her three children. Her work as a secretary, and her husband Dave’s as a property manager, were not very lucrative.
The crime pundits, of course, have often complained that Geimer was not sufficiently angry at Polanski. Legal commentator Nancy Grace has called her a “weak victim” and talk show host Phil McGraw said she had “victim’s guilt.”
In response to those accusations, Geimer stated:
“I don’t like it when people try to sensationalize what happened for their TV shows and talk about it with words like ‘gruesome’ or ‘horrific’. How can you make a living doing that to other people?”
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One key point that seems to be overlooked in all of this is the part Geimer’s mother played in the rape. As an actress and an adult, what was she thinking when she allowed her then 13-year-old daughter to be alone, unescorted, with Polanski?
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Geimer’s book, accompanied by several black and white photos taken in 1977 by Polanski, is set for release in France on October 3.