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El Paso Herald-Post from El Paso, Texas • 51

Location:
El Paso, Texas
Issue Date:
Page:
51
Extracted Article Text (OCR)

3 EL PASO HERALD-POST Friday September 30 1077 a Author speculates death accidental Starr Faithful By NORMAN KADEL irZZueVrUw NEW YORK When the body of Starr Faithfull was found on the sand at Long Beach Long Island the Monday morning of June 0 1931 her name provoked more speculation than the meager facts of her bizarre death It sounded made-up like a burlesque or a movie But the facts of her name at least were mundane TWENTY-FIVE years earlier in Evanston 111 Helen Wyman had' named her baby daughter Starr because she liked the sound Years later after Helen had divorced Frank Wyman and married Stanley Faith-full Stanley adopted Starr and her sister Thus Starr became Starr Faithfull -When her death was reported newspapers described her as a debutante which was' ridiculous neither the Wymans nor the Faithfulls ever amounted to anything socially Or as a prostitute After aU when she was found drowned and otherwise fully clothed she wasn't wearing panties -Didn't that let everybody know what kind of girl she must have been? Eventually some specifics of her anguished short life did emerge But nobody knew how or why she died Today nobody knows how or why she died But speculation persists SANDRA SCOPPETTONE a writer who lives in Greenport near the outermost tip of Long Island was born five years after Starr Faithfull died and know of the notorious case until she was researching crime for another writer a friend fat 1975 "I want this Miss Scoppet-tone declared and that was the genesis of "Some Unknown (Putnam SS-95) a novel blended of facts and necessary speculation which has Just been published Expectations are high first hardcover printing is 25000 copies and next year Bantam will issue 375000 copies in paperback Miss Scoppettone began with the usual research library archives of newspaper and other published reports of the time While visiting in Greenwich Village she walked down to 12 SL Luke's Place where the Faithfulls had lived and got to meet their landlady The old woman have a lot to tell but shared all that she remembered World Series trapeze winners Rock-Smith Flyers are scheduled with tickets priced at 11-50 Box seats and reserved seats are 1 extra she grew up with no concept of loving a boy or man other than romantic magazine stories Starr's diaries along with contemporary accounts gave Miss Scoppettone essential lnsighta but she still had to fabricate at least the final two-and-a-half days in life At hearings following the girl's death the last person to admit aeeing her alive was a beautician in Grand Central Station New York City who had spoken to her at noon on Friday June 5 Starr who loved parties was not one to spend a weekend alone She 'might have craahed a bon voyage fete aboard some departing ahip All that is known is that this girl an expert swimmer had drowned in shallow water (there was sand in her lungs) been taking the barbiturate Veronal there was enough in her system to have made her sleepy but not to have knocked her out SO AUTHOR Scoppettone had to create one or more companions for that final weekend and to surmise how Starr died She elected to blend in the sage of an Italian-Ameriean family- "I used my own background admits Miss Scoppettone who is Italian-Ameriean "but the family in the book is not my family for my account of the end of Starr's life I believe how it happened It was accidental She did 11 performances (Gonttnned boa Page 2) their flawless execution of a three-and-a-half somersault They will repeat the unusual at each of the 11 shows next week ANOTHER OF THE Shrine Circus daredevils is Dennis Sherman a former Hollywood stunt man who climbs to a 05-foot high platform and dives onto a sponge rubber pad There are animal acts aplenty Roeaire and Tony the Wonder Horse won a Variety Performer's Award in Las Vegas last year as a top comedy act Precision riding by the Maple Grove Arabians will delight all horse lovers Two Dromedary camels and four South American llamas perform in the center ring while five elephants billed as Fabulous Pachyderms" dazzle the audience with their agility and balance Chimpanzees poodles and Spits dogs ail get their chance to star Lithesome grace and beauty are demonstrated by the Shrine Cireue as they do aerial loops hair hangs and the the Spanish web AMONG THE clowns is master funster Lee Marx who was born into the circus and actually slept in the tray of his father's trunk Lee followed his father's footsteps adding luster to the family name Traditionally Lee does a show for youngsters from El special schools who are brought to the Coliseum by the Shriaers Nobles from El Maida Temple each year sell enough children's tickets so every school-age child in the area can attend the big show Business and professional people cooperate In this endeavor Shriners also man the ticket windows parking lots usher and stage the opening ceremonies They are also experts at finding lost children because Shriners have been helping youngsters through their crippled hospitals and burns Institutes for more than half a century MATINEE PERFORMANCES are at 4:15 pm Wednesday through Friday Evening shows start at I Saturday there are three shows: at 12:45 4:30 and Spm Sunday's final day has shows at 1:30 and 5 pm Tickets may be obtained from any Shriner as well as at Gunning-Casteel QIK-N-EZE 10 Food Corrals and JIF-E-MART Adults vl4ffKtebr' write those suicide letters but she trying suicide at the moment she died There was a man involved I'm She paused then asked: "You won't give away the ending will Of course not we assured her her AS A NOVEL "Some Unknown Person" has impact more for its factual content thaa for literary style yet Miss weaving of this unsolved crime with imagined conversations and encounters credible and absorbing Until now Sandra Scoppettone has earned a modest living with her writing which has included a play screenplays for films and TV and two novels one of which for young adults Now the situation had changed contract for "Some Unknown Person" promises a 375000 printing also for her next book Mbs NOT the first writer to want to know about Starr" she said to Sandra "After she died a young follow came down and asked a lot of questions He wrote a book but he got it all The young fellow had been John whose novel "Butterfield 8" appeared in 1935 with its tragic heroine Gloria Wandrous somewhat loosely based on Starr Faithfull The book that emerged horn Mbs research had to center on the most lurid circumstance of the ease and the single foetor wMeh had most to do with shaping or crippling the outlook on lib At the age of 11 Starr had been seduced by a relative Andrew Peters 45 the mayor of Boston who used her sexually for the next eight or nine years keeping her dependent by addicting her to alcohol pills and ether lib Vflb HMIv MOI OTP Ng SI Will SOn WAS hardly urprbiitlYitlwJJH RUftli'l.

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About El Paso Herald-Post Archive

Pages Available:
770,311
Years Available:
1931-1997