Fourteen-year old Cuban native Estelita Rodriguez signed a contract with MGM studios in 1942. She was dropped by the studio, however, just prior to filming her first picture. She moved to New York and signed a five-picture deal with Republic Pictures, a studio that produced Roy Rogers movies and specialized in Westerns.

Her debut was in Along the Navajo Trail in 1945, a film that Estelita admitted was a nightmare to make. She complained that she was treated like a child on the set. She gained respect and soon was regularly appearing in Westerns, making two dozen films between 1945 and 1959, including Rio Bravo with John Wayne. After a seven-year gap, she starred in the low-budget Western horror film, Jesse James Meets Frankenstein’s Daughter  in 1966. This was Estelita’s final film.

Estelita was married four times, including four years to actor Grant Withers. John Wayne was the best man at this wedding. The couple divorced in 1955 and Withers committed suicide a few years later.

Estelita was found dead in her home in March 1966. The cause of her death was never made public. Estelita was 37.

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In 2003, college senior Rachel Corrie traveled from her hometown of Olympia, Washington to Rafah, a combat zone in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. Her goal was to make Rafah a “sister city” with Olympia. During her mission, she joined up with a pro-Palestinian activist group called International Solidarity Movement. The group opposed the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) common practice of demolishing Palestinian houses in hopes of locating weapons and underground tunnels used to transport weapons and ammunition.

Less than two months after arriving in Rafah, Rachel made herself part of a human shield to block the IDF’s bulldozers from carrying out their demolition. As a result of a three-hour confrontation with Israeli forces, Rachel was killed. Conflicting accounts of Rachel’s death arose from a subsequent investigation of the incident. Fellow protesters claimed that the bulldozer operator deliberately ran over Rachel, while other eyewitnesses reported that it was an accident, explaining the operator had poor visibility from the vehicle’s cab and couldn’t see her. An Israeli Army investigation concluded that Rachel’s death was, in their opinion, an accident. However, Amnesty International, along with B’Tselem and Yesh Din, two Israeli human rights groups, criticized the final decision.

In 2005, Rachel’s parents filed a civil lawsuit against the state of Israel. The lawsuit charged Israel with not conducting a full investigation into the case and with responsibility for Rachel’s death, contending that she had either been intentionally killed or that the soldiers had acted with reckless neglect. As a symbol of their convictions over monetary gain, they asked for an award of one dollar. An Israeli court rejected their suit. In 2014, the Supreme Court of Israel rejected the appeal.

Rachel was 23 years old.

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From the time she was nine years old, when her grandfather bought her a drum kit, Sandy West had been rocking. Using every spare minute to practice, Sandy became the drummer in her Long Beach, California elementary school band. Later, she was the only female drummer who played in local bands.

Fifteen-year-old Sandy met flamboyant producer Kim Fowley in the LA club scene. Fowley hooked Sandy up with another young, female musician, guitarist Joan Jett. There was instant energy between Sandy and Joan and their pairing became the genesis for the pioneering band The Runaways. With the addition of singer Cherie Currie, rhythm guitarist Lita Ford and bassist Jackie Fox, The Runaways launched a whirlwind career of recording, touring and the obligatory sex and drugs.

After the brief success and subsequent break-up of The Runaways, Sandy found it difficult to secure work in the music industry. She blamed her lagging post-Runaways career squarely on producer Kim Fowley.”I owe him my introduction to the music business but he’s also the reason I’m broke now,” Sandy said in an interview. Sandy was forced to seek work outside the music business, at different times working in construction, tending bar and as a veterinary assistant. She also engaged in criminal activity, eventually spending some time in jail.

Sandy was a heavy smoker and was diagnosed with lung cancer that spread to her brain. She died in October 2006 at the age of 47. Her band mates had nothing but praise for Sandy, both as a drummer and as a friend.

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As Bill Cosby’s sexual harassment and assault retrial begins, the story of his relationship with Paige Young remains a forgotten footnote to the list of Mr. Cosby’s accusers.

A naïve budding model named Paige Young was presented as “Miss November” in the penultimate issue of Playboy magazine for the year 1968. The pretty and petite brunette became a favorite of publisher Hugh Hefner and was a regular at his notorious, star-studded parties held at the famed Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles. However, it appeared that Hefner had specific plans for Paige.

The parties at the playboy Mansion were storied affairs. Guest lists were regularly comprised of the most famous names from the world of Hollywood, professional sports and the media. They were alleged to be awash with a level of debauchery that would rival Caligula’s soirées of ancient Rome. The alcohol flowed freely, as did the drugs. As a special service, Mr. Hefner would often hand-pick a “companion du jour” for those male guests that made the request. Hef received one of those requests from his good friend, comedian Bill Cosby. Cosby, at this time, was a popular stand-up comic who had great success co-starring in the TV series I Spy with Robert Culp. He was an in-demand performer, whose comedy records were lauded as “comic masterpieces.” He was also married with two children and a third on the way. But, Cosby had taken an instant liking to Paige Young and mentioned his desire to Hugh Hefner. Hef arranged for Paige to “date” Cosby, but it wasn’t a “date” in the conventional sense. Paige was plied with drugs and subjected to CIA-caliber mind control. She was coerced into sexual slavery, first with Cosby then with a number of Hef’s stable of elite acquaintances, including married actor-director John Huston, who was 38 years her senior. Paige was part of this “program” for years.

People who knew Paige — like her neighbor, model Melanie Myers — said she always looked tired and dazed. She was distant and detached in her speech and seemed “out of it.” After a while of observing Paige’s distressing behavior, Myers was invited into Paige’s apartment. In one room, Paige had arranged a pentagram on the bare wooden floor. One wall of the room was covered from floor to ceiling with photos of Hugh Hefner. Across each photo was scrawled the words “Hugh Hefner is the devil.” Myers was speechless as Paige expounded on her hatred for the Playboy publisher. Suddenly, Paige produced a .38 caliber handgun and told Myers that she had planned to kill herself. Myers panicked and fled Paige’s apartment, fearing that her neighbor may harm her. She headed straight to the police to explain what she had just witnessed.

Returning to her apartment complex with police officers, Myers entered Paige’s dwelling. She directed officers to the room where she had seen the photos. When they entered the room, they discovered Paige’s blood-soaked body lying on the floor on top of an American flag. It appeared that, after positioning herself on the flag, Paige had put the barrel of the gun in her mouth and pulled the trigger. An investigation speculated that Paige wanted to send a message to her mental “captors.” Paige took her own life just a few months after her thirtieth birthday.

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