Murder Addiction: Hollywood’s real problem?

On By Swarn GillIn Commentary, Humor, Pop Culture, Prose and Poetry

Hollywood, CA – Today horror and shock turned into sympathy and understanding as serial murderer Harry Weinberg admitted to the public that he is in fact a victim of murder addiction.  Just a week ago it was finally discovered that Weinberg had been murdering young female actresses for over 2 decades, and police had thought they caught one of the most monstrous serial killers in U.S. history, but todays heartfelt speech by Weinberg softened the hearts of many when they realized, that like many of us or people we know, he too was suffering from addiction.

Weinberg is a Hollywood mogul known to many for producing some of the most prolific films over the last 30 years and owner of one of the biggest Hollywood Studios Mallowmax.  Having scores of great films under his belt it was hard for even this journalist to not give him some leeway after his impassioned words.  Weinberg said, “I guess you could say that I might be responsible for that first murder, but you know I felt I had pretty good reasons for it.  You never think that doing it once will spark a lifelong desire that you can’t explain.  Before I knew it I had murdered 5 more young actresses in a week.  It’s like it didn’t even matter if they were talented or not at first, and then it became sort of a game.  Like the more talented they were, the more I wanted to murder them.  It really escalated in ways I never imagined.  But now I know I need help and am going to check myself into a clinic that specializes in murder addiction and get the treatment I need…finally…it’s been so long…”  Weinberg then broke into sobs at which point law enforcement officer Sgt. David Wolski, who had initially arrested Weinberg, also became overwhelmed by emotion.  We had a chance to talk to Wolski after Weinberg’s announcement. “When I first started investigating this case I was in a state of horror.  Finding out how he took advantage of the dreams and hopes of young actresses who had no recourse but to trust him and walk into his home.  This type of manipulation is typical of your average serial killer.  FBI profilers made this quite clear.  But now after hearing about how he’s struggling with addiction…well to be honest I don’t know if it’s moral anymore to put him in jail. He’s sick, and he needs help.  Law enforcement will be meeting with the District Attorney’s office later today to discuss our next move.  But I think it’s clear at this point that a lot lighter sentence is warranted.”

Others in Hollywood have also come under fire during this scandal for not alerting authorities earlier of the murders that were heavily rumored to be taking place.  Several big actors have been named in knowing about Weinberg’s behavior including Hollywood star Bob Afflert.  Afflert, however denies any explicit knowledge when we talked to him, “Listen you hear rumors sure.  It happens all the time.  This is a tough business.  Sometimes people say it’s murder getting ahead here, but you know…you think that’s just an expression.  I never thought someone would actually be getting murdered.  I mean sure there are many days that go by where a young actress doesn’t show up to a set, but dreams are dashed 20 times a minute in this industry, you just figure, here’s another actress who couldn’t make it and has gone back to her farm in Iowa or something.  As I look back, yeah I can see now that a lot of them were probably being murdered.  It’s sad to look back and think of all those lives lost.  But no more sad than a powerful and wealthy man suffering from addiction.  I hope he gets the help he needs.  As a powerful and wealthy male myself, I realize it’s all too easy to fall into addiction like this.  Nobody is going to bring those girls back to life, so I hope that moving forward we can focus more on the help he needs and not the hurt he caused.”

Nevertheless public outrage remains high and questions the structure of an industry that could support this type of behavior so long.  They worry that Weinberg isn’t the only one who has behaved this way, as young actresses going missing has been a common theme throughout Hollywood’s history.  People wonder if this incident will finally change the culture of silence and looking the other way that has been a mainstay in the industry, or whether more young actresses will be murdered under the guise of everybody’s favorite cliché: “That’s show business!”

22 thoughts on “Murder Addiction: Hollywood’s real problem?”

    1. Yeah it does make one shudder sometimes to think what people with nearly unlimited money and power might do to entertain themselves. Maybe this is a rock that starts the avalanche in Hollywood. One can only hope. I read that Weinstein was only exposed now because a number of people became powerful enough themselves that he couldn’t hurt them. While I would hope such people are shut down quickly, I, for some reason, find it heartening that their reign does come to an end and they exposed for who they are.

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  3. Born a Valley girl and having grown up in the Hollywood vicinity (with friends and family in the business) I did of course know about this kind of behavior. Reprehensible is putting it mildly. And I am sorry for any woman who is so desperate for fame that she considers these creeps her only way into films. I still remember being in radio when I was 16 with some of the greats (Bob Eubanks who went on to host The Newlywed Game and Casey Kasem who went on to host national Top 40 shows), when one particular (married) DJ (not the guys mentioned who were real gentlemen) would walk me down to the parking garage and grope me and plant a big sloppy kiss on my mouth. I was so naive, I accepted rides to the Teenage Fair and other big events in his big green Lincoln Continental and he would lock all the doors from the driver’s seat and tell me I couldn’t get out – ‘haha.’ I wasn’t the only girl he did this with either. As we had the opportunity to meet everyone from The Doors to Muhammed Ali (and party with some of the greats as well), we felt lucky to be part of the station, so we took it lightly and put up with it – and maybe even liked that it made us feel special – I really do not know, all these years later.

    I loved your satire though – made me smile in spite of it all – I am glad these things are finally coming to light. It’s gone on far too long. Aloha, Swarn 🙂

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    3. Thank you for sharing your experiences Bela. It’s interesting the amount of abuse we are willing to take to get what we want (or think we want in this world). I think it’s also easy when you’re young to not realize how far it can go, how much worse it can be for others, how it fosters a culture that is dangerous. Either way it certainly doesn’t change the wrongness of it all. Things simply could be different.

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  4. I’ve started trying to educate some of the naivety out of my own kids (who are 5 and 3) which will hopefully help protect them if they get into similar situations in the future. So far, this is the hardest thing I’ve had to do as a parent. A few months ago, when we were talking about inappropriate touching, my daughter (the 5 year old) asked why an adult would want to do that. Up until then she had assumed we were talking about other kids touching her in places they shouldn’t. I told her that there are some adults who want to hurt or even kill children. The look on her face we absolutely heartbreaking. I felt like I had injured her, and I suppose I had, but better than the injury she might suffer not knowing what the world is like (and there’s no guarantee of that).

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    2. Ugh, as parents Chris, we can share your dilemma about this subject and when/how to approach it. :/

      I’m always struggling with do I want my child to FEAR the world (a degree of helplessness?), or be as discernable as possible, or give them the hard cold facts? Not easy. :/

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  5. Great troubling, nauseating, satire Swarn.

    You did an excellent job using a name such as the late Harry Weinberg — a very well-known Pennsylvania billionaire philanthropist — in contrast with (what I thought was a mistake or ANOTHER wealthy American mogul caught abusing their socioeconomic position, AGAIN) the current news, and turning Wienberg into a cinematic serial-ish killer to drive home the “culture.” Well done. But your wonderful writing technique should not distract from what’s been going on in the ‘corporate world’ for far too long. Though the abuse has been marginalized by those elite powerful business men/moguls, I am pleased that they are being dethroned, outted, and put in their rightful places. It MUST continue even in the face of possible financial and/or occupational ruin by these men and their accomplices!

    Question: Do you think this transgenerational behavior is some direct or indirect ripple-effect of our long established American business culture — a product of FREE-enterprise and capitalsim/competition — that nurtures this continued behavior, particularly in hetero males and patriarchy?

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    1. I do certainly think that patriarchal structures are supported by class structure hierarchies, and capitalism certainly has built into it a power dynamics that helps sustain already existing inequalities. People who support capitalism sometimes make the argument that it’s like evolution…survival of the fittest. But this of course is wrong. Darwin never said “survival of the fittest” and that’s not really how evolution works. In fact evolution might favor cooperation, especially in the case of a social species like us, and so capitalism is counter to how evolution would work. But I digress. The point is that capitalism tends to most often help those who are already in a position of advantage. Enter the white male.

      Thank you as always for reading and your kind words. However, as much as I hate to disappoint you, Harry Weinberg was totally made up and I had no idea it was a real person…although I suspected that Harry Weinberg’s did exist somewhere. lol

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      1. Oh Swarn! You did NOT digress at all! In fact, you elaborated brilliantly! 👏

        Darwin never said “survival of the fittest” and that’s not really how evolution works. In fact evolution might favor cooperation, especially in the case of a social species like us, and so capitalism is counter to how evolution would work.

        As you know, I am a big fan of E.O. Wilson’s work, e.g. The Origins of Creativity, Half-Earth, The Meaning of Human Existence (one of my favorites), The Social Conquest of Earth, Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge, to name just five, and you just touched on social-organization, or as Dr. Wilson puts it: Superorganism or eusociality behavior in only 13 different species. Wilson argues humans have learned crude forms of it, hopefully improving/evolving, and over the evolution timeline we are “toddlers” at it so to speak, so we do it poorly compared to the other 12 species. I’d wager we do it crudely because we’re primates. Hahaha. 😉

        Yes, your random choice of a well-known historical philanthropist was… well, QUITE contrasting! I thought you did it intentionally. 🤣 Too funny!

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        1. I’ll answer your several comments all in this one.

          There are also some social species that practice hierarchies like wolves, and what we have going on often seems closer to that. But of course there are primates that also have similar hierarchies, but as Victoria has I think posted about before, that these systems aren’t long sustaining, they lead to overthrows of alpha males when they become too dictatorial and this often leads to a period of increased welfare for all once that dictator is overthrown. As humans we have the flexibility to choose that model which benefits the whole instead of a few, and we don’t seem to be too keen on doing that most of the time. Even when socialist or communist philosophies are espoused, they often lead to power structures that benefit a few over the many. The democratic socialist views of scandinavia do seem to lead the way in a lot of areas, but they are struggling right now with problems of pluralism now. It’s interesting how what seem to be superior political values can be completely derailed just because a bunch of dark skinned people enter your society. It’s sad…I hope they don’t lose sight of what’s important in the long run.

          You’re always for putting people in dungeons!! Go figure. 😉 More importantly you like to look for ways to give the gander what the goose is facing. Pardon the extreme example, but to me that’s always a bit like saying, “I hope that rapist gets raped in prison”. I am never an advocate of more rape being the answer to rape! It’s clear that most people can be taught to understand the importance of consent and can be made to feel sympathy for hurts other experience or could experience as a result of our actions. I mean I’ve never been raped and can yet still understand why raping somebody would be invasive, painful and traumatic. So it’s best to look at the many who are like me for what formula leads to that kind of thinking. I feel it’s quite possible to build a more compassionate society without making people feel the pain that they inflict on others. But I don’t know, maybe some pain is always necessary to learn from, but it doesn’t mean that we as a society can’t hold certain values to make progress. Right now we still live in a time where the behavior of Harvey Weinstein is justified, normalized, accepted. That should simply not be. It’s dehumanizing.

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          1. All true Swarn and just to be clear, I was totally teasing about ‘an eye for an eye’ corporal punishment system. My joking (with a massive Rambone dildo slapped on the table in front of Weinstein… for effect) was more a reflection of my “checked” anger and thoughts of harsher behavioral modification, but not action of course.

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      3. And now perhaps I’ve “digressed” with my rambling. Apologies.

        To my question and your fine answer Swarn, I DO feel we should make the “whistle-blower” (ala WikiLeaks?) environment more protected, more accessible for women not only in the corporate world initially, but in the aftermath as well. Would placing these powerful abusive men in identical situations (a BDSM dungeon full of hardcore Dominatrixes with a full compliment of “tools”? 😛 ) where THEY are the victims and for the identical time-span they put their victims through?

        P.S. I am sorta razzing, I think. 😈

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