notes
preface
1. “She was paranoid, hostile, violent and so impossible to deal with that one person I talked to insisted on being shown a copy of her death certificate before he agreed to be interviewed.” Mary Harron, letter to British Broadcasting Company, September 26, 1992, Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY.
2. Valerie Solanas, SCUM Manifesto (San Francisco, 1996), 28. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes from the SCUM Manifesto are from this edition.
3. Ti-Grace Atkinson, interview by Breanne Fahs, Cambridge, MA, February 1, 2008.
4. Smith, “The History of Zines.”
5. Valerie Solanas, letter to Ti-Grace Atkinson, June 16, 1968, Ti-Grace Atkinson personal collection, Cambridge, MA.
6. Quote from Marmorstein, “SCUM Goddess,” 11.
Sounding Off
1. Atkinson, interview by Fahs, February 1, 2008; the Field Boss, “15 Minutes Later”; Ti-Grace Atkinson, as quoted in Fahs, “Radical Possibilities”; Norman Mailer, as quoted in Mary Harron and Daniel Minahan, I Shot Andy Warhol, viii; Gaither, “Andy Warhol’s Feminist Nightmare”; Coburn, “Valerie’s Gang,” 9; Margo Feiden, interview by Breanne Fahs, New York, March 15, 2010.
2. Jeremiah Newton, interview by Breanne Fahs, New York, March 14, 2010.
3. Valerie Solanas, “Up Your Ass” (mimeograph), 1965, Andy Warhol Museum Archives, Pittsburgh, PA, 1. Other copies are currently in Margo Feiden personal collection, New York; and Ti-Grace Atkinson personal collection, Cambridge, MA.
4. Valerie Solanas, letter to Ti-Grace Atkinson, July 5, 1968, Ti-Grace Atkinson personal collection, Cambridge, MA.
5. Jo Freeman (aka Joreen), interview by Breanne Fahs, phone, October 14, 2010.
6. Birth certificate, Valerie Jean Solanas. Valerie’s name was misspelled, as Valerie Jean Solanus, as was her father’s, as Louis Solanus.
7. Quote from Harron and Minahan, introduction to I Shot Andy Warhol, xi.
8. Judith Martinez, as quoted in Jobey, “Solanas and Son.”
9. Martinez, as quoted in Jobey, “Solanas and Son.”
10. Coburn, “Valerie’s Gang,” 9.
11. Louis Zwiren, as quoted in Smith, “To Live with a Man,” 3.
12. Marmorstein, “SCUM Goddess,” 9.
13. Michaelson, “Valerie.”
14. Harron and Minahan, introduction to I Shot Andy Warhol, xii.
15. Jobey, “Solanas and Son.”
16. Coburn, “Valerie’s Gang,” 9.
17. Jobey, “Solanas and Son.”
18. Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, interview by Breanne Fahs, San Francisco, December 11, 2008.
19. Robert Fustero, interview by Breanne Fahs, phone, September 20, 2008.
20. Michaelson, “Valerie.”
21. Peter Moritz Pickshaus, letter to Mary Harron, March 12, 1993, Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY.
22. Fustero, interview by Fahs, September 20, 2008.
23. Michaelson, “Valerie.”
24. Robert Fustero, interview by Breanne Fahs, Silver Spring, MD, May 25, 2012.
25. Fustero, interview by Fahs, May 25, 2012.
26. Fustero, interview by Fahs, May 25, 2012.
27. Dr. Arthur Sternberg and Dr. Mannuccio Mannucci, psychological report, Elmhurst Hospital, June 26, 1968, Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY.
28. Martinez, as quoted in Coburn, “Valerie’s Gang,” 9.
29. Fustero, interview, September 20, 2008; May 25, 2012.
30. Martinez, as quoted in Michaelson, “Valerie,” 9.
31. Martinez, as quoted in Michaelson, “Valerie,” 35.
32. Jane Caputi, interview by Breanne Fahs, Atlanta, GA, November 15, 2009.
33. Fustero, interview by Fahs, May 25, 2012.
34. Michaelson, “Valerie.”
35. Michaelson, “Valerie.”
36. Linda Moran’s genealogical website (http://www.biondocella.com/showphoto.php?personID=I5&tree=Linda&ordernum=1) states that Moran was born April 8, 1951, to Edward Francis Moran and Dorothy Marie Biondo; these dates would confirm this time line.
37. Fustero, interview by Fahs, September 20, 2008.
38. Watson, Factory Made, 35; Valerie Solanas, letter to Louis Solanas, May 23, 1970; June 29, 1967, in Breanne Fahs personal collection, Phoenix, AZ.
39. David Blackwell, letter to Mary Harron, June 5, 1996, Andy Warhol Museum Archive, Pittsburgh, PA.
40. Martinez, as quoted in Coburn, “Valerie’s Gang,” 9.
41. Michaelson, “Valerie.”
42. Martinez, as quoted in Watson, Factory Made, 36.
43. Blackwell, letter to Mary Harron, June 5, 1996.
44. Blackwell, letter to Mary Harron, June 5, 1996.
45. Jobey, “Solanas and Son.”
46. Jobey, “Solanas and Son.”
47. David Blackwell, interview by Breanne Fahs, phone, November 6, 2011.
48. Fustero, interview by Fahs, September 20, 2008.
49. Jobey, “Solanas and Son.”
50. Blackwell, interview by Fahs, November 6, 2011.
51. Michaelson, “Valerie.”
52. Watson, Factory Made, 36.
53. Michaelson, “Valerie.”
54. Martinez, “University of Maryland.”
55. Michaelson, “Valerie.”
56. Church, Brush, and Solomon, “Traumatic Avoidance Learning.” See also Brush, “The Effects of Shock Intensity”; Brush, “On the Differences.”
57. Solanas, SCUM Manifesto, 1.
58. Harron and Minahan, introduction to I Shot Andy Warhol, xiii–xiv.
59. Michaelson, “Valerie.”
60. Michaelson, “Valerie.”
61. Mary Harron, personal notes, circa 1992, Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY. Harron believed that Brush was the first person she contacted who had expressed sympathy for Valerie.
62. Harron and Minahan, introduction to I Shot Andy Warhol, xiv.
63. Michaelson, “Valerie.”
64. Michaelson, “Valerie.”
65. Harron and Minahan, introduction to I Shot Andy Warhol, iv.
66. Harron and Minahan, introduction to I Shot Andy Warhol, xiii.
67. Coburn, “Valerie’s Gang,” 9.
68. Solanas, Diamondback.
69. Coburn, “Valerie’s Gang,” 9.
70. Harron, personal notes, circa 1992.
71. Harron and Minahan, introduction to I Shot Andy Warhol, xv.
72. Arthur Sternberg and Joseph E. Rubenstein, Elmhurst Hospital psychological report, May 28, 1969, Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY.
73. Dick Spottiswood, interview by Mary Harron, New York, circa 1992.
74. Harron and Minahan, introduction to I Shot Andy Warhol, xv. See also Spottiswood, interview by Harron, circa 1992.
75. Spottiswood, interview by Harron, circa 1992.
76. Fustero, interview by Fahs, September 20, 2008.
77. Fustero, interview by Fahs, September 20, 2008.
78. Coburn, “Valerie’s Gang,” 9.
79. Jobey, “Solanas and Son.”
80. Newton, interview by Fahs, March 14, 2010.
81. Fustero, interview by Fahs, September 20, 2008.
82. Ramon Martinez, as quoted in Coburn, “Valerie’s Gang,” 9.
83. Watson, Factory Made, 241.
84. Ultra Violet, notes about Valerie’s whereabouts, Ultra Violet personal collection, New York. The Library of Congress recorded that Valerie registered “Up Your Ass,” giving 79 Washington Place as her address, on June 11, 1965.
85. Valerie Solanas, “A Young Girl’s Primer” [“For 2c: Pain, The Survival Game Gets Pretty Ugly”], Cavalier, July 1966, 38–40, 76–77.
86. Harron and Minahan, introduction to I Shot Andy Warhol, xvii.
87. Solanas, “A Young Girl’s Primer,” 39. Further page numbers appear in the text.
88. Jay, Tales of a Lavender Menace, 143.
89. Coburn, “Valerie’s Gang,” 11.
90. Solanas, “Up Your Ass,” 6.
91. Solomon, “Whose Soiree Now?”
92. Solanas, “Up Your Ass,” 1–5. Further page numbers appear in the text.
93. Billy Name was a photographer in Warhol’s inner circle. Warhol “adopted” him into the Factory. Billy hand-painted his large silver trunk, now on display at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, after the Factory adopted the motif of the color silver.
94. Warner, “‘Scummy’ Acts,’” 52–55. For a thorough treatment of the specifics of the chronology of the “Up Your Ass” copies, and for an exposition of why Andy’s losing Valerie’s copy did not result in the shooting per se, see 50–64. The following institutions possess or have possessed copies of “Up Your Ass”: Hofstra University (copy acquired in 1971), the University of Virginia (acquired between 1964 and 1977), Indiana University (acquisition date unknown), and the University of Arizona (acquired in 2003 but now lost).
95. Valerie Solanas, letter to Andy Warhol, February 9, 1966, Andy Warhol Museum Archives, Pittsburgh, PA.
96. Up Your Ass ran at the George Coates Theater in San Francisco, January 12–April 8, 2000, and then traveled to PS 122 in New York, February 7–25, 2001, returning to San Francisco, January 18–21, 2001.
97. Solomon, “Whose Soiree Now?” 64.
98. Solanas, “A Young Girl’s Primer,” 38–39.
99. Harron and Minahan, introduction to I Shot Andy Warhol, xvii.
100. Newton, interview by Fahs, March 14, 2010.
101. Fustero, interview by Fahs, September 20, 2008.
102. Marmorstein, “SCUM Goddess,” 9.
103. Marmorstein, “SCUM Goddess,” 9.
Shooting
1. Fahs, “Radical Possibilities,” 591–92.
2. Smith, “The Shot That Shattered the Velvet Underground.”
3. Rowe, “Just Read My Manifesto.” See also Fahs, “Radical Possibilities,” 591.
4. Mary Harron, notes for I Shot Andy Warhol, Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY.
5. Valerie Solanas, “SCUM flier meeting announcement,” May 23, 1967, Andy Warhol Museum Archive, Pittsburgh, PA.
6. Solanas, SCUM Manifesto, 1. (Further page numbers appear in the text.)
7. Ronell, “Deviant Payback,” 16–17.
8. Newton, interview by Fahs, March 14, 2010.
9. Solanas, “SCUM flier meeting announcement.”
10. Solanas, SCUM Manifesto, 39.
11. Anne Koedt, interview by Mary Harron, New York, circa 1992.
12. Michaelson, “Valerie.”
13. Archibald, “Inventory/How to Join the Men’s Auxiliary.” The ad was reproduced in Fictional States, no. 18 (Summer 2005).
14. Atkinson, interview by Fahs, February 1, 2008.
15. Chase, “The Twig Benders,” 3.
16. Atkinson, interview by Fahs, February 1, 2008.
17. Newton, interview by Fahs, March 14, 2010.
18. Dominic, Queen of Peace Room, 56.
19. Newton, script notes for Mary Harron, 1994. Later, when Candy was asked about the Andy Warhol shooting, she said, “Valerie shouldn’t be judged by us for what she did.” She adamantly refused to criticize Valerie’s attack against Warhol, even though Candy herself loved him. See Newton, interview by Fahs, March 14, 2010.
20. “English” Pat may also have gone by the name Ingrid Phorn. When Mary Harron’s research and film assistants tried to find her in the early 1990s, no one had seen or heard from her in quite some time. See Newton, interview by Fahs, March 14, 2010.
21. Unidentified acquaintance, as quoted in Smith, “The Shot That Shattered the Velvet Underground.”
22. Guiles, Loner at the Ball, 301.
23. Jeremiah Newton, letter to Mary Harron, June 25, 1993, Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY.
24. Newton, letter to Mary Harron, June 25, 1993.
25. Newton, interview by Fahs, March 14, 2010.
26. Newton, interview by Fahs, March 14, 2010.
27. Newton, letter to Mary Harron, June 25, 1993.
28. Newton, interview by Fahs, March 14, 2010.
29. Warner, “‘Scummy Acts,’” 208.
30. Watson, Factory Made, 352. See also Newton, interview by Fahs, March 14, 2010.
31. Newton, letter to Harron, June 25, 1993.
32. Jeremiah Newton, letter to Mary Harron, undated, Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY. Daniel Burke, Alan Burke’s son, relayed to Diane Tucker, a researcher at the British Broadcasting Corporation, that no tape of this show exists any longer: “I could find nothing else that I felt was what you were looking for. Most video from the 60’s and early 70’s was on two inch tape. The cost of keeping tapes from that period was apparently so expensive that it was the practice of many broadcasters to reuse the tapes if there was no plan to rebroadcast them.” Daniel Burke, letter to Diane Tucker, September 9, 1993, Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY.
33. Marmorstein, “SCUM Goddess,” 9.
34. Newton, interview by Fahs, March 14, 2010.
35. Newton, interview by Fahs, March 14, 2010.
36. Solanas, “SCUM Flier Meeting Announcement.”
37. Marmorstein, “SCUM Goddess,” 9.
38. Marmorstein, “SCUM Goddess,” 9.
39. Watson, Factory Made, 351.
40. Louise Thompson, interview by Mary Harron, New York, circa 1992.
41. Scherman and Dalton, Pop, 419–20.
42. Watson, Factory Made, 299.
43. “Valerie Solanis [sic] Interviews Andy.” (transcript), undated (circa 1967), Pittsburgh, PA, Andy Warhol Museum Archive.
44. Koedt, interview by Harron, circa 1992.
45. Watson, Factory Made, 299.
46. Shirley, “Slum Gods.” See also Sanders, Fug You, 314–15.
47. Valerie Solanas, advertisement for Up Your Ass, Village Voice, February 16, 1967, 22, as cited in Warner, “‘Scummy Acts,’” 58.
48. Marmorstein, “SCUM Goddess,” 9–10.
49. Doyle, Sex Objects, 32.
50. Watson, Factory Made, 299.
51. Ultra Violet, interview by Breanne Fahs, New York, April 17, 2012.
52. Harron and Minahan, introduction to I Shot Andy Warhol, xvii.
53. Andy Warhol, interview by Cahiers du cinema, May 1967, Paris. This was mentioned in Scherman and Dalton, Pop, 317.
54. Rich, “Manifesto Destiny,” 16.
55. Harron, research notes for introduction to I Shot Andy Warhol, Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY.
56. In a permanent exhibit viewed on April 14, 2012, at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, there is a quote that details this fact.
57. Ultra Violet, interview by Fahs, April 17, 2012.
58. Harron, “Pop Art/Art Pop.”
59. Ultra Violet, Famous for 15 Minutes, 185.
60. Harron, “Pop Art/Art Pop.”
61. Coutros, “Offbeat Artist/Producer.”
62. “The Ultra Violet Interview.”
63. Michaelson, “Valerie.”
64. Ultra Violet, interview by Fahs, April 17, 2012.
65. The quote is from Marmorstein, “SCUM Goddess,” 9.
66. Harron and Minahan, introduction to I Shot Andy Warhol, xix.
67. Tallmer, “Andy Warhol.” See also Faso and Lee, “Actress Defiant,” 40.
68. Harron, research notes for introduction of I Shot Andy Warhol.
69. Harron, “Pop Art/Art Pop.”
70. Jeremiah Newton, interview by Mary Harron, New York, circa 1994.
71. Scherman and Dalton, Pop, 385.
72. Harron and Minahan, introduction to I Shot Andy Warhol, xix.
73. Paul Morrissey, interview by Breanne Fahs, phone, April 7, 2011.
74. Harron and Minahan, introduction to I Shot Andy Warhol, xix.
75. Ultra Violet, Famous for 15 Minutes, 167–68.
76. Ultra Violet, interview by Fahs, April 17, 2012.
77. Watson, Factory Made, 316–17.
78. Woronov, Swimming Underground, 373.
79. Jeremiah Newton, letter to Mary Harron, July 19, 1994, Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY.
80. Bockris, Life and Death of Andy Warhol, 1998 edition, 211.
81. Rosalyn Baxandall, interview by Breanne Fahs, New York, April 8, 2011.
82. Louis Zwiren as quoted in Donny Smith, “Proving You’re Not Crazy,” 24.
83. Much of the early work compiling the bibliography related to Valerie Solanas was done by Donny Smith. His zine, DWAN, named after his drag name given to him by his friend Susan, included three Solanas supplements. The first outlined different documents and articles that discussed Valerie and it provided an initial outline of the different editions of SCUM Manifesto available (including, notably, her self-published writings). Smith also interviewed several acquaintances and friends of Valerie in the next two Solanas supplements, both of which are cited frequently in this text—see Ruel Gaviola, “Donny Didn’t Shoot Andy Warhol.” In an interview by Donny Smith about his interest in Valerie, he said, “I’m interested in lesbian culture and history, especially lesbian separatism. But whenever I come across something about lesbians written by a man, I think, ‘Boy, that’s creepy.’ But then how is he any different from me? Anyway, maybe about 1989, I was crawling through the stacks of Love Library in Lincoln, Nebraska, searching for a book whose title I couldn’t remember, but I had a general idea where I’d seen it on the shelf. And I found instead a book called RANTS, which included an excerpt from SCUM Manifesto. I was amazed. It was like what I’d been waiting for all my life. Sharp and crazy and completely poetic. Like a more modern William Blake. Plus a lesbian.”
84. Valerie Solanas, letter to Andy Warhol, August 1, 1967, Andy Warhol Museum Archive, Pittsburgh, PA.
85. Watson, Factory Made, 325.
86. Ultra Violet, Famous for 15 Minutes, 183.
87. “Valerie Solanis Interviews Andy,” 25–27.
88. “Valerie Solanis Interviews Andy,” 19–20.
89. The Margo Feiden draft and that of Ti-Grace Atkinson of “Up Your Ass” are both clearly older versions of the play than the version Andy Warhol received. The “SCUM Book” had the most finalized version and was distributed relatively widely. At least three universities have versions of the “SCUM Book” in their collections (Hofstra, Virginia, and Indiana).
90. Valerie Solanas, postcard to Louis Solanas, June 14, 1967, Breanne Fahs personal collection, Phoenix, AZ.
91. Valerie Solanas, postcard to Louis Solanas, June 29, 1967, Robert Fustero personal collection, Silver Spring, MD.
92. Warhol and Hackett, POPism, 271. Although Andy referred to I, a Man being filmed in September, it was actually filmed in June 1967. The first version of the film ran ninety-nine minutes and opened at the Hudson Theatre on August 24, 1967. See Angell, Films of Andy Warhol.
93. Michaelson, “Valerie.”
94. I, a Man, directed by Andy Warhol, 1967–1968, Andy Warhol Museum Archives, Pittsburgh, PA. Clips of this film are available on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPQVtIk3g7s). Valerie saw the film with Maurice Girodias and recalled that, on seeing Ivy Nicholson there, he remarked, “Oh, that’s Ivy Nicholson, who used to eat my wife.” See Geoffrey LeGear, letter to Maurice Girodias, December 1, 1968, Andy Warhol Museum Archive, Pittsburgh, PA.
95. Ultra Violet, Famous for 15 Minutes, 169. See also Bockris, Life and Death of Andy Warhol, 2003 edition, 273.
96. Bockris, Life and Death of Andy Warhol, 2003 edition, 273.
97. Though Freddy Baer suggested that Valerie had a nonspeaking role in Bikeboy, Valerie did not. She asked Viva (who was at the time complaining loudly about menstrual cramps) what she made on Bikeboy and discovered that they both received twenty dollars. See “Valerie Solanis Interviews Andy,” 10.
98. Ultra Violet, Famous for 15 Minutes, 169; Harron and Minahan, introduction to I Shot Andy Warhol, xxi; Marmorstein, “SCUM Goddess,” 9.
99. Judith Martinez, as quoted in Watson, Factory Made, 352.
100. Valerie Solanas, letter to Louis Solanas, August 4, 1967, Breanne Fahs personal collection, Phoenix, AZ.
101. Bockris, Life and Death of Andy Warhol, 2003 edition, 280.
102. Ogar, “She Slept Here.”
103. Harron and Minahan, I Shot Andy Warhol, 109.
104. Girodias, “Notice to Unknown Writers.” Note that there was also a copy of this published in the 1968 Olympia Press version of SCUM Manifesto.
105. Victoria Morheim, Girodias’s assistant, described this in De St. Jorre, Venus Bound. Valerie once ran into Arthur Miller at the Chelsea and thrust a flier into his hands to urge him to attend a SCUM meeting.
106. Girodias, introduction to S.C.U.M. Manifesto.
107. Maurice Girodias, interview by Mary Harron, New York, circa 1992.
108. Harron and Minahan, introduction to I Shot Andy Warhol, xxi.
109. “Maurice Girodias,” Encyclopedia Britannica.
110. CJ Scheiner, interview by Breanne Fahs, February 7, 2011. The preceding quote from Scheiner is also from this interview.
111. Harron and Minahan, introduction to I Shot Andy Warhol, xxi.
112. Maurice Girodias, contract with Valerie Solanas, August 29, 1967, Mary Harron personal collection.
113. Watson, Factory Made, 334.
114. Harron and Minahan, introduction to I Shot Andy Warhol, xxi. See also Watson, Factory Made, 334; Michaelson, “Valerie.” Valerie denied this occurrence, as mentioned by LeGear in LeGear, letter to Girodias, December 1, 1968.
115. Harron and Minahan, introduction to I Shot Andy Warhol, xxi.
116. Friedman, interview by Mary Harron, New York, circa 1992.
117. Valerie Solanas, letter to Howard Smith, September 27, 1968, Dobkin Collection, New York.
118. Paul Morrissey, as quoted in “June 3, 1968.”
119. Watson, Factory Made, 334.
120. Scheiner, interview by Fahs, February 7, 2011.
121. Harron and Minahan, introduction to I Shot Andy Warhol, xxii.
122. Solanas, letter to Smith, September 27, 1968.
123. Harron and Minahan, introduction to I Shot Andy Warhol, xxii.
124. Harron and Minahan, introduction to I Shot Andy Warhol, xxii–xxiii.
125. Solomon, “Whose Soiree Now?” 46.
126. Barron, “A Manuscript.”
127. Harron and Minahan, introduction to I Shot Andy Warhol, xxiii.
128. Jobey, “Solanas and Son.”
129. Harron and Minahan, introduction to I Shot Andy Warhol, xxiii. The letter was likely written the second or third week of January 1968 before Valerie left for California.
130. Valerie Solanas, letter to Andy Warhol, February 10, 1968, Andy Warhol Museum Archive, Pittsburgh, PA.
131. Watson, Factory Made, 367; Coburn, “Valerie’s Gang,” 11.
132. Coburn, “Valerie’s Gang,” 11.
133. Valerie Solanas, letter to Andy Warhol, January 25, 1968, Andy Warhol Museum Archive, Pittsburgh, PA. Further dates are shown in the text.
134. Ogar, “She Slept Here.”
135. Ogar, “She Slept Here.”
136. Accounts differ about whether she met Geoffrey LeGear in 1968 in the San Francisco area or whether they were friends prior to this trip. For claims that they met there, see Watson, Factory Made, 367. For hints that they may have met earlier than that, see Geoffrey LeGear, letter to Andy Warhol, December 3, 1968, Andy Warhol Museum Archive, Pittsburgh, PA, and LeGear, letter to Girodias, December 1, 1968.
137. Geoffrey LeGear, email message to Breanne Fahs, February 4, 2014.
138. Coburn, “Valerie’s Gang,” 11.
139. Watson, Factory Made, 367.
140. Fahs, “Reading Between the Lines.”
141. John McMillian, as quoted in McLemee, “Dark Superstar,” July 2, 2004, http://www.mclemee.com/id72.html.
142. Ben Morea, interview by Breanne Fahs, phone, March 10, 2011. See also Ben Morea, interview by Breanne Fahs, March 18, 2012, Brooklyn, NY. In “The History of Zines,” Smith reports that Valerie got a few Greenwich Village bookstores to carry her mimeographed copies of the manifesto, which is likely where she stole the copy to give to Morea, given that the first Olympia Press edition of the manifesto was not released until after the 1968 shooting. These bookstores included Eighth Street Bookshop, at 17 West Eighth Street; Sheridan Square Paperback Corner, at 10 Sheridan Square; Underground Uplift Unlimited, at 20 St. Marks Place; Tompkins Square Book Store, at 97 Avenue B; and East Side Book Store, at 17 St. Mark’s Place. See Valerie Solanas, SCUM Advertisement, Village Voice, February 2, 1967.
143. Morea, interview by Fahs, March 10, 2011. The quotes from Ben Morea that follow are from this interview.
144. “Statement of Valerie Jean Solanas Made to Roderick Lankler, Assistant District Attorney,” public document, June 3, 1968, Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY.
145. Michaelson, “Valerie.”
146. Sanders, Fug You, 315.
147. Allen LeMond, interview by Mary Harron, New York, circa 1992.
148. Krassner, Confessions.
149. Cohen, “Hung Like an Obelisk.”
150. LeGear, letter to Girodias, December 1, 1968.
151. Bockris, Life and Death of Andy Warhol, 2003 edition, 290.
152. Morea, interview by Fahs, March 10, 2011.
153. Scherman and Dalton, Pop, 421.
154. Watson, Factory Made, 378.
155. Cohen, “Hung Like an Obelisk.”
156. Sylvia Miles, interview by Breanne Fahs, New York, April 9, 2011.
157. Margo Feiden, now a famed art dealer in New York City, often went by the name Margo Eden then. “In those days you had to have a stage name, and I was surprised when [Valerie] asked me if I was Margo Feiden.” See O’Brien, “History Rewire.” Glenn O’Brien edited Interview magazine for three years, wrote its music column, and was a definite Andy Warhol supporter. See also “Margo Feiden Sets Guinness Book of World Records.”
158. I interviewed Margo Feiden at this same location—a space she has lived in for at least forty-five years. In my first meeting with her, she practically floated down her staircase to greet me. She was dressed all in black and her hair was styled in long red pigtails; (eerily) she wore a sailor’s cap nearly identical to the one Valerie almost always wore. She offered me handmade seltzer water and frequently interrupted our conversation to tell her assistant to deal with the ever-present sound of her hyperactive alarm system in the apartment. With intense emotionality and careful description, Margo recalled the events of that morning in impeccable detail.
159. Feiden, interview by Fahs, March 15, 2010. Further quotes from Margo Feiden are from this interview.
160. Assistant district attorney Roderick Lankler took notes about Margo Feiden on June 4, 1968, the day after the shooting. He recorded Margo’s name, along with information about Valerie’s visit to The Alan Burke Show.
161. When I asked Feiden why she had waited forty-one years to tell anyone what had transpired that morning, she divulged, “I was traumatized. It was the age of Kent State, where mistrust of everyone was everywhere. I was never suspicious of police before. When you’re lost or in trouble, you find the police, but when they wouldn’t take the call, I feared that I would be a target and that the police would concoct a story about what had happened.” Feiden also admitted that she feared Valerie’s retribution for not producing Up Your Ass: “I liked her. I couldn’t not tell the truth. I felt strongly against producing the play and I couldn’t lie to her about it. The way she listened, you couldn’t bullshit her. She listened on a different wavelength than others did.”
162. Harron and Minahan, introduction to I Shot Andy Warhol, xxv.
163. Sleep.
164. Krassner, Confessions, 256–57.
165. “June 3, 1968”; Watson, Factory Made, 379; Bockris, Life and Death of Andy Warhol, 2003 edition, 296.
166. Smith, “The Shot That Shattered the Velvet Underground.”
167. Bockris, Life and Death of Andy Warhol, 1998 and 2003 editions; Harron and Minahan, introduction to I Shot Andy Warhol, xxv. Geoffrey LeGear also said that Valerie denied having worn a skirt when she shot him and that Andy made this up to get publicity over this. Margo Feiden also said nothing of Valerie wearing makeup or lipstick that morning. See LeGear, letter to Warhol, December 3, 1968.
168. Smith, “The Shot That Shattered the Velvet Underground”; Bockris, Life and Death of Andy Warhol, 2003 edition, 197–98, 297.
169. “June 3, 1968.”
170. In LeGear, letter to Warhol, December 3, 1968, Geoffrey LeGear wrote that Valerie accused Warhol of lying about this phone call and that “Viva’s being on the phone and seeing the gun are just low moves to get publicity, that there is no truth in them whatsoever.” Harron met Hughes years later; she offered a description: “He is small, neat, impeccably dressed, but brash. I suspect that brashness is his most likeable characteristic.” See Harron, “Pop Art/Art Pop.” Bockris, Life and Death of Andy Warhol, 2003 edition, 298.
171. “Statement of Valerie Jean Solanas to Lankler.” Valerie admitted to her boyfriend, Louis Zwiren, that she had both of these guns. See Donny Smith, DWAN Solanas Supplement no. 3, 25. For more on the shooting, see Richard F. Shepard, “Warhol Gravely Wounded in Studio”, 36. See also Faso, McLaughlin, and Henry, “Andy Warhol Wounded by Actress”; Behrens and Mann, “Andy Warhol Is Shot by Actress.” For a discussion of how much she spent on the Beretta gun, see Girodias, introduction to S.C.U.M. Manifesto, xii.
172. Bockris, Life and Death of Andy Warhol, 1998 edition, 298; Smith, “The Shot That Shattered the Velvet Underground.”
173. Bockris, Life and Death of Andy Warhol, 2003 edition, 298; Warhol and Hackett, POPism, 343.
174. Smith, “The Shot That Shattered the Velvet Underground”; Bockris, Life and Death of Andy Warhol, 2003 edition, 299.
175. Bockris, Life and Death of Andy Warhol, 2003 edition, 299; Smith, “The Shot That Shattered the Velvet Underground”; Warhol and Hackett, POPism, 345.
176. Smith, “The Shot That Shattered the Velvet Underground”; Warhol and Hackett, POPism, 344; Bockris, Life and Death of Andy Warhol, 2003 edition, 301; Ultra Violet, Famous for 15 Minutes, 169; Malanga et al., Gerard Malanga.
177. Mario Amaya recalled the ambulance driver telling him, “If we sound the siren, it’ll cost five dollars extra,” to which Amaya responded, “Go ahead and sound it. Leo Castelli will pay.” See “Andy Warhol Chronology.”
178. Ultra Violet, Famous for 15 Minutes, 170–71; Warhol and Hackett, POPism, 345; Smith, “The Shot That Shattered the Velvet Underground”; “I Saw Her Walk into the Office.”
179. Sergeant Shea, Police Report on Valerie Solanas, New York City police records, June 3, 1968.
180. Warhol and Hackett, POPism, 345. See also Bockris, Life and Death of Andy Warhol, 1998 edition; Smith, “The Shot That Shattered the Velvet Underground.”
181. Warhol and Hackett, POPism, 345–46.
182. Ultra Violet, Famous for 15 Minutes, 172; Smith, “The Shot That Shattered the Velvet Underground.”
183. Ultra Violet, Famous for 15 Minutes, 172. She went home feeling both exhausted and exhilarated. “For all these years now, I’ve been trained to experience events of every kind in terms of headlines and photographs in the paper. Real emotions? Real feelings? They have been smothered by our obeisance to the media, warped by our need to strike a pose, smile, smile some more, whip out a witty retort” (173–74).
184. Smith, “The Shot That Shattered the Velvet Underground”; “Andy Warhol Fighting for Life”; “Warhol Still Grave.”
185. Among the variant spellings reported for this officer’s name were Shemalix and Schmalix. Bockris, Life and Death of Andy Warhol, 1998 edition. See also Warhol and Hackett, POPism, 349. The first statement about the flower child quote from Valerie was in Michaelson, “Valerie.” Valerie denied saying this in “Warhol Still Grave.”
186. Indictment paperwork, New York City police records, June 3, 1968. See also Smith, “The Shot That Shattered the Velvet Underground.”
187. Shepard, “Warhol Gravely Wounded,” June 4, 1968; Dorr-Dorynek, “Lonesome Cowboy”; Smith, “The Shot That Shattered the Velvet Underground”; Ultra Violet, Famous for 15 Minutes. Note that her bail was eventually paid by her friend Geoffrey LeGear.
188. Warhol and Hackett, POPism, 351.
189. “Andy Warhol Fighting for Life.” The quote in the heading of this section is from Lou Reed, “Songs for Drella,” as quoted in Fahs, “Radical Possibilities,” 599. Andy Warhol thought it a strange coincidence that the date of the News headline was precisely six years to the day after the June 4, 1962, “129 die in jet” headline that he silkscreened for his painting. See Warhol and Hackett, POPism, 349.
190. Ben Morea, as quoted in McMillian, “Ben Morea, Garbage Guerrilla.” Pamphlet by Up Against the Wall, Motherfucker to support Valerie Solanas, June 4, 1968, reprinted in Dorr-Dorynek, “Lonesome Cowboy” and in Kritchman and Smith, “Valerie Lives!” Quote preceding the pamphlet is from Morea, interview by Fahs, March 10, 2011; see also McLemee, “Dark Superstar.”
191. Harron and Minahan, introduction to I Shot Andy Warhol, xxiv.
192. Kaufman and Griffin, Outlaw Bible, 204.
193. Harron and Minahan, introduction to I Shot Andy Warhol, xxv.
194. Between 9:43 and 9:51 p.m. on June 3, 1968, Valerie had a conversation with Lankler. See “Statement of Valerie Jean Solanas to Lankler.”
195. This copy, with a 1965 copyright and spanning twenty-nine single-spaced pages, was written after Margo Feiden’s partially complete thirty-plus double-spaced version that contained Valerie’s early notes for the play. This raises questions about the timing of how Valerie distributed her copies of the play, as Valerie had only earlier copies on her person when approaching Margo Feiden and Lee Strasberg on the morning of June 3. Nevertheless, Valerie’s relationship to Up Your Ass—whether motivated by seeking fame, subversiveness, a relentless desire to promote the goals of SCUM, or the value she placed on textual integrity—likely contributed to her shooting Andy.
196. Coburn, “Valerie’s Gang,” 9.
197. Taubin, “Shooting Andy Warhol,” 36.
198. Margo Feiden still believes that Warhol did not possess a copy of Up Your Ass and that Valerie did not shoot him because of the play. In an exchange with Glenn O’Brien, she said, “She did that shooting as a publicity stunt to be famous, so that I would produce her play. Why should Andy Warhol’s name, in any way, be sullied? Why should people think that she had any justification for what she did? He gave her none.” O’Brien replied, rather lamely, “That’s what upset me about that film, I Shot Andy Warhol [1996]. I knew the woman who made that film, and I felt it was really unconscionable and exploitative, that it represented that she had some justification, when obviously there was none.” In the same interview Feiden indicated that the play she possessed was called The Society for Cutting Up Men, when it was in fact a partial copy of an earlier draft of Up Your Ass. Feiden further said that the women’s movement “had nothing to do with why she shot him. Nothing! Are you sure there was a play that she had given him and that he lost it? Are you sure of that?” See O’Brien, “History Rewire”; see also Feiden, interview by Fahs, March 15, 2010.
199. Smith, DWAN Solanas Supplement no. 3.
200. Coburn, “Valerie’s Gang,” 11.
201. “New York: Felled by SCUM.”
202. Bockris, Life and Death of Andy Warhol, 1998 edition, 235.
203. Michaelson, “Valerie.”
204. Dunbar-Ortiz, “From the Cradle to the Boat.”
205. An acquaintance at the Chelsea Hotel quoted in “Andy and a Girl Who Hates Men.”
206. Smith and Van der Horst, “Valerie Solanas Interview,” 32.
Provocation
1. Coutros, “Offbeat Artist/Producer.”
2. Dunbar-Ortiz, Outlaw Woman, 138.
3. Smith, “To Live with a Man.”
4. Atkinson, interview by Fahs, February 1, 2008. Unless stated otherwise, all quotes from Atkinson in this chapter are from this interview.
5. Atkinson, Amazon Odyssey, 41.
6. Dana Densmore, interview by Breanne Fahs, Santa Fe, NM, October 24, 2009.
7. Bernadine Dohrn, quoted in the epigraph above, was then the interorganizational secretary of Students for a Democratic Society. See Morgan, “Do You Remember La Pasionaria?”
8. Dunbar-Ortiz, Outlaw Woman, 119.
9. Dunbar-Ortiz, interview by Fahs, December 11, 2008.
10. Kate Millett, interview by Mary Harron, New York, circa 1992. Further quotes from Millett are from this interview.
11. Florynce Kennedy, as quoted in Coutros, “Offbeat Artist/Producer.”
12. Valerie Solanas, letter to Ti-Grace Atkinson, June 11, 1968, Ti-Grace Atkinson personal collection, Cambridge, MA.
13. Solanas, letter to Atkinson, June 16, 1968.
14. Ti-Grace Atkinson, letter to Maurice Girodias, June 27, 1968, Ti-Grace Atkinson personal collection, Cambridge, MA.
15. Ti-Grace Atkinson, letter to Valerie Solanas, June 27, 1968, Ti-Grace Atkinson personal collection, Cambridge, MA.
16. Atkinson, letter to Girodias, June 27, 1968.
17. Valerie Solanas, letter to Ti-Grace Atkinson, June 26, 1968, Ti-Grace Atkinson personal collection, Cambridge, MA.
18. Solanas, letter to Atkinson, July 5, 1968.
19. Valerie Solanas, letter to Ti-Grace Atkinson, August 5, 1968, Ti-Grace Atkinson personal collection, Cambridge, MA.
20. Valerie Solanas, letter to Ti-Grace Atkinson, August 27, 1968, Ti-Grace Atkinson personal collection, Cambridge, MA.
21. Dunbar-Ortiz, interview by Fahs, December 11, 2008.
22. Dunbar-Ortiz, interview by Fahs, December 11, 2008.
23. Dunbar-Ortiz, “From the Cradle to the Boat.”
24. Dunbar-Ortiz, “From the Cradle to the Boat.”
25. Dunbar-Ortiz, interview by Fahs, December 11, 2008.
26. Dunbar-Ortiz, interview by Fahs, December 11, 2008.
27. Coutros, “Offbeat Artist/Producer.”
28. Ti-Grace Atkinson, letter to Guy Gravesen at Rampart magazine, July 28, 1968, Ti-Grace Atkinson personal collection, Cambridge, MA.
29. Solanas, letter to Atkinson, August 27, 1968.
30. Valerie Solanas, letter to Judith Brown, October 1968, quoted in Judith Brown and Carol Giardina, letter to Kathie Amatniek, October 6, 1968 (microfilm), part 2, series 7A, Redstockings Organizational Collection, Redstockings’ Women’s Liberation Archives for Action, Gainesville, FL. Note that Kathie Amatniek changed her name to Kathie Sarachild.
31. Coutros, “Offbeat Artist/Producer.”
32. Valerie Solanas, letter to Maurice Girodias, September 27, 1969, Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY.
33. Solanas, letter to Girodias, September 27, 1969.
34. Dunbar-Ortiz also remembers sending long letters to her husband, Jean-Louis, trying to transform him into the leader of a male feminist movement. “I did not succeed,” she writes. One such letter included the following: “Jean-Louis, I haven’t rejected Che [Guevara] in admiring Valerie Solanas. For me, Che will always be a saint, and I learn from him, try to be like him. Yet I know he did not mean what I have made of his message. He was dedicated to patria o muerte, and for me it’s humanidad o muerte. Che, in using an old symbol and an inherently oppressive fixture, the nation-state, did not deal with patriarchy and how the state reproduces it and requires it. . . .Women are not taken seriously even when they die bravely for a cause. It is the same with Valerie. She is viewed as a psychopath even by radicals, the same ones who call Che a great revolutionary and Billy the Kid a social bandit, but a female rebel is neither—she is surely either a spy or a seductress, or at best a helpmate.” Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, letter to Jean-Louis, July 5, 1968, as cited in Dunbar-Ortiz, “From the Cradle to the Boat.”
35. Dunbar-Ortiz, “From the Cradle to the Boat.”
36. The quotes are from Echols, Daring to Be Bad: Sara Evans, 209; Ti-Grace Atkinson, 107.
37. Dunbar-Ortiz, letter to Jean-Louis, July 5, 1968.
38. Dunbar-Ortiz, interview by Fahs, December 11, 2008.
39. Baxandall, interview by Fahs, April 8, 2011.
40. Laura X, interview by Mary Harron, location unknown, circa 1992.
41. Carol Hanisch, interview by Mary Harron, location unknown, circa 1992.
42. Koedt, interview by Harron, circa 1992.
43. Valerie Lives!, pamphlet (Redstockings Women’s Liberation Archives for Action), 3. This group recommended SCUM Manifesto as “mind food” and in the pamphlet chided Maurice Girodias and Paul Krassner for frequently referring to Valerie’s clothing: “Our nomination for the award in the flippy yippy artsie fartsie ‘radical’ left category is Paul Krassner whose commentary is published along with the Manifesto, and whose hipness is revealed by such phrases as: ‘Didn’t pluck out the stray hairs between her eyebrows.’” See bibliography in the pamphlet.
44. Coutros, “Offbeat Artist/Producer.”
45. Valerie Solanas, letter to Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, September 13, 1968, Ti-Grace Atkinson personal collection, Cambridge, MA.
46. Jacqueline Ceballos, interview by Breanne Fahs, Phoenix, AZ, September 27, 2009.
47. Mary Eastwood, open memo to Betty Friedan, June 29, 1968, Ti-Grace Atkinson personal collection, Cambridge, MA.
48. Morgan, Saturday’s Child, 315.
49. Dunbar-Ortiz, interview by Fahs, December 11, 2008.
50. Atkinson wrote to Jo Benson at 25 magazine of the profound impact Valerie’s actions and words had on the women’s movement: “I have thought of writing a quite separate piece on the response with the Women’s Movement to the Manifesto, which, if you can believe it, has been at least as interesting and certainly more violent than Valerie’s work.” Ti-Grace remained a hinge between the two worlds—the world of Valerie and that of her interpreters. See Ti-Grace Atkinson, letter to Jo Benson, July 14, 1968, Ti-Grace Atkinson personal collection, Cambridge, MA.
51. Ti-Grace Atkinson, letter to Valerie Solanas, July 9, 1968, Ti-Grace Atkinson personal collection, Cambridge, MA.
52. Valerie Solanas, letter to Ti-Grace Atkinson, September 27, 1968, Ti-Grace Atkinson personal collection, Cambridge, MA.
53. Dunbar-Ortiz, “From the Cradle to the Boat.” See also Dunbar-Ortiz, interview by Fahs, December 11, 2008.
54. Dunbar-Ortiz, interview by Fahs, December 11, 2008.
55. Press release from Ti-Grace Atkinson, October 21, 1968, Ti-Grace Atkinson personal collection, Cambridge, MA; Atkinson, letter to Solanas, June 27, 1968.
56. Kennedy, Color Me Flo, 62.
57. Ti-Grace Atkinson, letter to Valerie Solanas, November 10, 1968, Ti-Grace Atkinson personal collection, Cambridge, MA.
58. According to Peter Moritz Pickshaus, Rosetta Reitz, an art and music critic, radical feminist, and close friend of Valerie, was asked by the criminal court to keep Valerie’s papers and writing. See Pickshaus, letter to Mary Harron, March 12, 1993.
59. Newton, interview by Harron, circa 1994.
60. Valerie Solanas, letter to Ti-Grace Atkinson, February 27, 1969, Ti-Grace Atkinson personal collection, Cambridge, MA.
61. Valerie Solanas, letter to Robin Morgan, October 10, 1970, Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture, Duke University Archives, Durham, NC.
62. Robin Morgan, letter to Valerie Solanas, June 9, 1969, Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture, Duke University Archives Durham, NC. Robin mailed the letter to the Women’s House of Detention; her check registers from 1973 note that a seventy-five-dollar payment was stopped and that Valerie never received it.
63. Morgan, Saturday’s Child, 315. This was also mentioned in Valerie Solanas, letter to Robin Morgan, undated, Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture, Duke University Archives, Durham, NC,.
64. Brown and Giardina, letter to Sarachild, October 6, 1968.
65. Morea, interview by Fahs, March 10, 2011.
66. Ben Morea, as quoted in Hahne and Morea, Black Mask, 158.
67. Morea, interview by Fahs, March 10, 2011.
Madness
1. The quote is from Moore, “Bag Lady of Feminism.”
2. Valerie Solanas, “Indictment Paperwork,” June 3, 1968, Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY. Valerie’s name was misspelled as Valarie Solanas in the court documents, and her age was given as twenty-eight, four years younger than she was.
3. Roderick Lankler, interview by Mary Harron, New York, circa 1992.
4. Shad Polier, memo to Barney Rosset and Fred Jordan, January 24, 1972, Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY.
5. Dr. Ruth Cooper, Psychological Report, June 13, 1968, Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY. Unless otherwise noted, all subsequent quotes from Cooper are from this report.
6. The Rorschach has received much criticism for its diagnostic capacity; many critics have noted that it is not reliable for diagnosis and should never be used in psychiatric settings for that purpose. Its ability to detect psychosis, however, has been a strong point of the Rorschach for many decades, though few psychologists and psychiatrists receive full training on how to administer and score the test now. I received formal training in both the Rorschach and the Thematic Apperception Test while getting a PhD in clinical psychology and women’s studies at the University of Michigan. Though psychologists occasionally use these tests today, most rely on more quantitative and less projective methodologies. As a practicing clinical psychologist, I can attest that projective tests are still sometimes used today to assess psychotic thinking and unconscious desires.
7. Cooper.
8. Harron and Minahan, introduction to I Shot Andy Warhol, xxvi.
9. Sternberg and Mannucci, Psychological Report, Elmhurst Hospital, June 26, 1968. Note also that Valerie had requested that a copy of SCUM Manifesto be sent to Dr. Sternberg. Girodias complied with this request on June 17, 1968, and sent Dr. Sternberg a letter with the SCUM Manifesto included; see Maurice Girodias, letter to Dr. Arthur Sternberg, June 17, 1968, Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY.
10. Valerie Solanas Indictment Paperwork Filed by Florynce Kennedy, June 7, 1968, Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY.
11. Sternberg and Mannucci, Psychological Report, Elmhurst Hospital, June 12, 1968, Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY.
12. Valerie Solanas, letter to Maurice Girodias, June 1968 (exact date illegible), Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY.
13. Bender, “Valeria Solanis,” 52.
14. Bockris, Life and Death of Andy Warhol, 2003 edition, 307.
15. Don Engel, interview by Mary Harron, New York, circa 1992.
16. This also suggests that Girodias may have wanted the publicity arising from the shooting and that he himself circulated the rumor that Valerie first wanted to shoot him but ultimately decided on Andy Warhol.
17. Coutros, “Offbeat Artist/Producer.”
18. Valerie Solanas, as quoted in Wilda Holt, letter to Ti-Grace Atkinson, undated, Ti-Grace Atkinson personal collection, Cambridge, MA.
19. Valerie Solanas, letter to Maurice Girodias, June 7, 1968, Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY. Further dates of letters, all in this collection, appear in the text.
20. Maurice Girodias, letter to Valerie Solanas, July 26, 1968; August 2, 1968; July 9, 1968, Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY.
21. Maurice Girodias, letter to attorneys Shriver and Brooke, October 30, 1968, Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY.
22. Valerie Solanas, letter to Maurice Girodias, undated (likely April or May 1968), Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY.
23. Maurice Girodias, letter to Woodrow A. Shriver, October 25, 1968, Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY.
24. Vivian Gornick, interview by Mary Harron, New York, circa 1992.
25. LeGear, letter to Girodias, December 1, 1968.
26. Valerie Solanas, letter to Maurice Girodias, August 25, 1968, Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY. Several documents described Valerie’s distaste for the periods in the abbreviation S.C.U.M. that Girodias had used in the title. LeGear wrote, “She also objects to the periods of abbreviation in the title. She is a true writer in all this, but every detail in the Manifesto has its reason, its meaning—and therefore its effect on the content. Valerie is as careful a thinker as a writer.” LeGear, letter to Girodias, December 1, 1968. “Auntie Wahoo” is a name Valerie used for Andy in her letters; for example, a letter of May 8, 1969, is addressed “Auntie Wahoo, 1342 Lexington Ave, NYC 10028” (Andy Warhol Museum Archive, Pittsburgh, PA).
27. LeGear, letter to Girodias, December 1, 1968. This same letter indicates that Valerie believed that Girodias may have sensed the power of her words as “the seed, if not the fruition, of a new order. Yeats’ ‘beast slouching towards Bethlehem to be born,’ the 21st century, two thousand years of a new, a really new order.”
28. LeGear, letter to Girodias, December 1, 1968.
29. See Harron and Minahan, introduction to I Shot Andy Warhol, xxvii.
30. Maurice Girodias, interview by Mary Harron, New York, circa 1992.
31. Iris Owens, interview by Mary Harron, New York, circa 1992.
32. Maurice Girodias, letter to Valerie Solanas, January 7, 1969, Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY.
33. Maurice Girodias, letter to unknown recipient, undated, Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY.
34. Valerie Solanas, letter to Maurice Girodias, January 5, 1970, Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY.
35. Valerie Solanas, letter to Maurice Girodias, March 2, 1969, Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY.
36. Solanas, letter to Girodias, March 2, 1969.
37. Girodias, interview by Harron, circa 1992.
38. LeGear, letter to Warhol, December 3, 1968.
39. LeGear, letter to Warhol, December 3, 1968.
40. Valerie Solanas, letter to Andy Warhol, September 20, 1968, Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY.
41. Ultra Violet, interview by Fahs, April 17, 2012.
42. Valerie Solanas, letter to Andy Warhol, September 24, 1968, Andy Warhol Museum Archive, Pittsburgh, PA.
43. Solanas, letter to Warhol, September 24, 1968.
44. Valerie Solanas, letter to Andy Warhol, October 25, 1968, Andy Warhol Museum Archive, Pittsburgh, PA.
45. Robert Spoor, interview by Mary Harron, New York, circa 1992.
46. Tolchin, “Lawmakers Irate over Matteawan,” 1; Tomasson, “Ex-Mental Patient Given $300,000,” 49; Williams, “Matteawan”; “Petitions”; “Ex-Matteawan Patient Dies”; “Death Ends Woman’s Bid”; “2 Hospital Guards at Matteawan Held in Death of Patient.”
47. Ultra Violet, Famous for 15 Minutes, 212.
48. Warhol and Hackett, POPism, 361.
49. LeGear, letter to Warhol, December 3, 1968.
50. Watson, Factory Made, 395.
51. Judge Brust, letter to W. C. Johnston, M.D., December 9, 1968, Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY.
52. The bail slip reads, “12/12/68, $10,000 cash (ten thousand), Geoffrey LeGear—1131 Lake Street, San Francisco, Calif, #150270.” See also Louis Zwiren, interview by Breanne Fahs, Phone, October 23, 2012.
53. Mead quote from “June 3, 1968.”
54. Goldsmith, I’ll Be Your Mirror, 96.
55. Newton, interview by Fahs, March 14, 2010.
56. Valerie Solanas, letter to Andy Warhol, December 21, 1968, Andy Warhol Museum Archive, Pittsburgh, PA.
57. Valerie Solanas, letter to Maurice Girodias, December 24, 1968 (letter 1), Andy Warhol Museum Archive, Pittsburgh, PA.
58. Valerie Solanas, letter to Maurice Girodias, December 24, 1968 (letter 2), Andy Warhol Museum Archive, Pittsburgh, PA.
59. Valerie Solanas, letter to Maurice Girodias, undated, Andy Warhol Museum Archive, Pittsburgh, PA.
60. Warhol and Hackett, POPism, 360; Ultra Violet, Famous for 15 Minutes, 187.
61. Feiden, interview by Fahs, March 15, 2010.
62. Paul Morrissey, as quoted in “June 3, 1968.”
63. Warhol and Hackett, POPism, 361.
64. Ultra Violet, Famous for 15 Minutes, 187.
65. Loschiavo, “From Activists and Authors“; Mead, “Setting It Straight.” The House of Detention also caused controversy in the Village when the area was gentrifying. The New School put in a bid to buy the building but later reneged on the deal. New York City officials decided to demolish the building and relocated its residents to Rikers Island. See “Creating Digital History.”
66. Davis, “Prison Memoirs.”
67. Jeffrey, “Feminist Icon Andrea Dworkin Dies.”
68. Kross, “Program for Women.”
69. Lorraine Miller, interview by Breanne Fahs, phone, May 23, 2013.
70. Lorraine Miller, interview by Mary Harron, New York, circa 1992.
71. Miller, interview by Harron, circa 1992; Miller, interview by Fahs, May 23, 2013.
72. Miller, interview by Fahs, May 23, 2013.
73. Dr. Emanuel Messinger, Psychological Report, Women’s House of Detention, January 17, 1969, Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY.
74. Valerie Solanas indictment as covered by the Daily News, February 26, 1969.
75. Sternberg and Rubenstein, Psychological Report, May 28, 1969.
76. Maurice Girodias, letter to Valerie Solanas, April 28, 1969, Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY.
77. “Warhol’s Assailant Gets Up to 3 Years.”
78. Gaither, “Andy Warhol’s Feminist Nightmare,” 35.
79. John Warhola, as quoted in Bockris, Life and Death of Andy Warhol, 1989 edition, 248.
80. “Warhol’s Assailant Gets up to 3 Years.”
81. Valerie Solanas, letter to Maurice Girodias, January 2, 1970, Andy Warhol Museum Archive, Pittsburgh, PA.
82. Valerie Solanas, letter to Maurice Girodias, April 26, 1969, Andy Warhol Museum Archive, Pittsburgh, PA.
83. Solanas, letter to Girodias, January 2, 1970.
84. Valerie Solanas, unpublished letter to Village Voice, April 5, 1969, included in Jonas Mekas, letter to Mary Harron, July 26, 1993, Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY.
85. Official Prison Records, Bedford Hills Prison, Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY. The Bedford Hills Prison was known as Westfield State Farm until 1901.
86. “Before Casey Anthony, There Was Alice Crimmins . . .”
87. Newton, interview by Fahs, March 10, 2011. Ti-Grace Atkinson noted the male composition of the jury. See Coutros, “Offbeat Artist/Producer.”
88. Valerie Solanas, letter to Louis Solanas, May 23, 1970, Breanne Fahs personal collection, Phoenix, AZ. The return address was “Beacon, New York” and the sender identified as “V. Solanas #13878.”
89. Thompson, interview by Harron, circa 1992.
90. Feiden, interview by Fahs, March 15, 2010.
91. Newton, interview by Fahs, March 14, 2010. Despite its name, the Brooklyn Commune was located in Manhattan, perhaps at 186 Spring Street. It later became a gay commune, known for its early organizing around gay and lesbian rights in New York City. See Andrew Berman, letter to Robert Tierney, July 16, 2012, Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation Archive, New York.
92. Diaman, “The Baltic Street Collective,” 241.
93. Spottiswood, interview by Mary Harron, circa 1992.
94. “Newborn Baby Girl Is Found in a Welfare Hotel’s Garbage.” The building is now a boutique hotel called the Gem.
95. Newton, letter to Harron, June 25, 1993.
96. Valerie Solanas, letter to the Mob, August 1, 1971, Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY.
97. Mark Zussman, letter to Ultra Violet, November 24, 1987, Ultra Violet personal collection, New York.
98. Fred Jordan, Memo to Grove Press, November 2, 1971; November 3, 1971, both Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY.
99. Shad Polier, Memo to Naomi Goldstein and the Criminal Court Clinic of New York City, November 9, 1971, Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY.
100. Shad Polier, letter to Fred Jordan and Barney Rosset, January 6, 1972, Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY. Valerie was originally sent to Matteawan by the corrections department. After three years, she was discharged from the corrections department but she seemed to need involuntary psychiatric care, so she was placed in the custody of the mental health department in 1971. Once they felt she was no longer dangerous, they subsequently discharged her, but she got involved with the criminal court system again based on aggravated assault. This is detailed in Spoor, interview by Harron, circa 1992.
101. Valerie Solanas, letter to Barney Rosset, January 15, 1973, Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY.
102. Fred Jordan, interview by Mary Harron, New York, circa 1992.
103. Pinkertons Agency, memo to Fred Jordan and Barney Rosset, February 23, 1973, Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY. This memo detailed the call on February 23, 1973 at 10:15 a.m. from Valerie Solanas to Fred Jordan. The interviews and their result are in Pinkertons Agency, memo to Fred Jordan and Barney Rosset, February 15, 1973, Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY.
104. Valerie Solanas, letter to Barney Rosset, March 3, 1973, Ultra Violet personal collection, New York.
105. Valerie Solanas, letter to Barney Rosset and Fred Jordan, March 5, 1973, Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY.
106. Valerie Solanas, letter to Barney Rosset and Fred Jordan, March 27, 1973, Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY.
107. Valerie Solanas, letter to the Mob (aka Fred Jordan and Barney Rosset), March 23, 1973, Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY. Further dates are in the text.
108. Jordan, interview by Harron, circa 1992.
109. Majority Report 5 (April 2–15, 1977); 6, no. 21 (February 19–March 4, 1977). See also Valerie Solanas, unpublished letter to the editor of Esquire, July 1973, 80–81.
110. Harron and Minahan, introduction to I Shot Andy Warhol, xxviii.
111. Louis Zwiren, as quoted in Smith, “The History of Zines.”
112. Newton, interview by Harron, circa 1994.
113. Newton, interview by Fahs, March 14, 2010.
114. Newton, interview by Fahs, March 14, 2010.
115. Andy Warhol, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol, 91.
116. Andy Warhol, as quoted in “Alive & Well,” 37.
117. Ultra Violet, Famous for 15 Minutes, 182.
118. Warhol, interview by Mary Harron for Melody Maker Magazine, February 16, 1980.
119. Leonard, “Return of Andy Warhol.”
120. Warhol and Hackett, POPism, 358.
121. Guiles, Loner at the Ball, 355.
122. Leonard, “Return of Andy Warhol.”
123. “Andy, FAQ”; Boorstin, “Hospital Asserts It Gave Warhol Adequate Care”; Sullivan, “Care Faulted in Death of Warhol.”
124. Ultra Violet, interview by Fahs, April 17, 2012.
125. Warhol and Hackett, POPism, 352.
126. Newton, interview by Fahs, March 14, 2010.
127. Andy Warhol, directed by Burns.
128. Warhol, interview by Fiona Russell; Harron and Minahan, introduction to I Shot Andy Warhol, xxix.
Forgetting
1. Harron and Minahan, introduction to I Shot Andy Warhol, xxviii.
2. Doyle, Sex Objects, 73.
3. Gornick, “Manifesto Destiny,” 70.
4. Gornick, “Manifesto Destiny,” 70.
5. Vivian Gornick, interview by Breanne Fahs, New York, April 9, 2011.
6. Gornick, interview by Harron, circa 1992.
7. Densmore, interview by Fahs, October 24, 2009.
8. “Faded Ad.”
9. Zwiren, interview by Fahs, October 23, 2012.
10. Smith, “To Live with a Man.” See also Zwiren, interview by Fahs, October 23, 2012.
11. Zwiren, interview by Fahs, October 23, 2012.
12. Zwiren, interview by Fahs, October 23, 2012.
13. Smith, “To Live with a Man.”
14. Zwiren, interview by Fahs, October 23, 2012.
15. See Baer, “About Valerie Solanas.” This is also mentioned in Zwiren, interview by Fahs, October 23, 2012. A memo from the medical records department to Ultra Violet dated December 4, 1987, confirmed that her records had been destroyed and also confirmed her admission and discharge dates.
16. Dunbar-Ortiz, interview by Fahs, December 11, 2008; Zwiren, interview by Fahs, October 23, 2012.
17. Zwiren, interview by Fahs, October 23, 2012.
18. Dunbar-Ortiz, interview by Fahs, December 11, 2008.
19. Zwiren, interview by Fahs, October 23, 2012.
20. Wilma Kuhn, letter to Ultra Violet, December 2, 1987, Ultra Violet personal collection, New York.
21. Zwiren, interview by Fahs, October 23, 2012.
22. Firestone, “I Remember Valerie,” 130–31.
23. Zwiren, interview by Fahs, October 23, 2012.
24. Caputi, interview by Fahs, November 15, 2009.
25. Porges, “Vaginal Hysterectomy at Bellevue.”
26. Caputi, interview by Fahs, November 15, 2009.
27. Gaither, “Andy Warhol’s Feminist Nightmare,” 35.
28. Valerie’s April 1976 letter was mentioned in Majority Report 6 (April 2–15, 1977). “Nancy Borman, who had been involved editorially with the publication since its inception, seemed to provide guidance and consistency throughout the magazine’s decade of transitions with its publishing groups and editorial office locations. Borman was an outspoken member of the New York chapter of the National Organization for Women. It was to her in Jamaica, New York, that correspondence was forwarded when the collective was in transition. Her name appears on the cover of the first issue as one of the ‘sisters who contributed to and helped produce Majority Report,’ the mainstream press identified her as editor when she represented the publication, and she is listed as the publisher during the last year of its operation.” See Endres and Lueck, Women’s Periodicals, 196.
29. Nancy Borman, interview by Mary Harron, New York, circa 1992. Further quotes from Borman are from this interview.
30. Ti-Grace Atkinson, interview by Mary Harron, New York, circa 1992.
31. Julia Mauldin, interview by Mary Harron, New York, circa 1992. The transcriber for this interview was not sure about the spelling of Julia’s name.
32. Joanne Steele, interview by Mary Harron, New York, circa 1992.
33. This copy of SCUM Manifesto is currently held in the New York Public Library Archives.
34. Majority Report 6 (November 27–December 10, 1976). Further citations to Majority Report appear in the text by volume number and date. When asked why Valerie suddenly appeared on the scene to comment on the C.L.I.T. papers, she responded, “It occurred when it did, because I was around, i.e., in circulation, making statements for people to pick up on. Until shortly before then I wasn’t around,” see Majority Report 6 (April 2–15, 1977). Unless otherwise stated, all Majority Report references are from Ti-Grace Atkinson personal collection, Cambridge, MA.
35. Controversies about whether Valerie invented Carolyn or whether she actually existed appeared in several subsequent issues of Majority Report, including vii, no.4; In my opinion, the “voice” of Carolyn eerily mimics Valerie’s tone, style, and rhythm, not to mention humor and the unique qualities of her narcissism.
36. Jo’s bitterness over these words remained in 2010, when she told me, “I wrote the Bitch Manifesto and she wrote the SCUM Manifesto. I think a manifestation of her craziness is that she would see the use of our similar word of the title as somehow a rip off. That’s how crazy she was. If anything, I ripped off the Communist Manifesto and so did she” (October 24, 2010).
37. Freeman, interview by Fahs, October 14, 2010.
38. Borman, interview by Harron, circa 1992.
39. Steele, interview by Harron, circa 1992.
40. Advertisement for SCUM Manifesto placed in Majority Report 7 (1977).
41. Advertisement for SCUM Manifesto placed in Majority Report 7 (May 28–June 10, 1977), Redstockings Women’s Liberation Archives for Action, Gainesville, FL.
42. Valerie Solanas, postcard to Mark Zussman, August 9, 1977, Stephen Edelson Collection, Chicago. Mark Zussman loathed Valerie, telling Howard Smith, “Actually, I’m for putting both Sam [“Son of Sam”] and Valerie away—rather than turning them into folk heroes. I’m henceforth going to make an effort to be amused by psychopaths only when they’re behind bars and under sedation.” Mark Zussman, letter to Howard Smith, August 4, 1977, Dobkin Collection, New York.
43. Valerie Solanas, postcard to the Mob (Mark Zussman), August 1, 1977,; see also Valerie Solanas, letter to the Mob (Mark Zussman), August 1, 1977, both in Dobkin Collection, New York.
44. Solanas, letter to the Mob (Zussman), August 1, 1977.
45. Valerie Solanas, letter to the Mob, September 5, 1977, Dobkin Collection, New York.
46. Valerie Solanas, letter to the Mob, September 2, 1977, Ultra Violet personal collection, New York.
47. Smith, DWAN supplement no. 3, 1.
48. Steele, interview by Harron, circa 1992.
49. Michael Chance, interview by Mary Harron, New York, circa 1992.
50. Chance, interview by Harron, circa 1992.
51. Borman, interview by Harron, circa 1992.
52. Smith and Van der Horst, “Valerie Solanas Interview,” 32. Unless stated otherwise, all quotes from the interview are from this source and this page. Howard Smith had an interest in Valerie, perhaps in part because of his lifelong interest in mood disorders. In the early 1990s, he joined the board and became the chair of the Mood Disorders Support Group, a New York organization that helps those with depression and mania (www.mdsg.org).
53. Howard Smith, “Interview Roughs for Valerie Solanas Interview,” July 29, 1977, Dobkin Collection, New York, 2–3.
54. “Valerie Solanas Replies,” Village Voice, August 1, 1977, 28.
55. Smith, “Interview Roughs,” 4.
56. Dunn, “Valerie Charges Back.”
57. Valerie Solanas, letter to Mark Zussman, July 9, 1977, Ultra Violet personal collection, New York; see also Solanas, letter to the Mob (Zussman), August 1, 1977.
58. Valerie Solanas, letter to the Mob, September 22, 1977, Ultra Violet personal collection, New York. In the letter she included Schröder’s address: Marz Verlag, Van Deelen Film Verlag, Am Altenroth 8, D-6406 Hosenfeld 3, West Germany.
59. Valerie Solanas, letter to Mr. Ryan, August 4, 1977, Dobkin Collection, New York.
60. “Valerie Solanas Replies,” 28.
61. Dunn, “Valerie Charges Back.”
62. Steele, interview by Harron, circa 1992.
63. Zwiren, interview by Fahs, October 23, 2012.
64. Steele, interview by Harron, circa 1992.
65. Mary Harron, interview by Donny Smith, “Solanas Supplement,” DWAN no. 2, May 1997.
66. Zwiren, as quoted in Smith, “To Live with a Man.” See also Zwiren, interview by Fahs, October 23, 2012.
67. Zwiren, as quoted in Smith, “To Live with a Man.”
68. Zwiren, as quoted in Smith, “To Live with a Man.”
69. Zwiren, as quoted in Smith, “To Live with a Man.”
70. Zwiren, as quoted in Smith, “To Live with a Man.”
71. Zwiren, DWAN Solanas Supplement 3, 30.
72. Zwiren, interview by Fahs, October 23, 2012.
73. Zwiren, as quoted in Smith, “To Live with a Man.”
74. Firestone, “I Remember Valerie,” 132.
75. Gaither, “Andy Warhol’s Feminist Nightmare,” 35.
76. Bud Vasconcellos, interview by Breanne Fahs, Phone, October 12, 2012. All Vasconcellos quotes are from this interview.
77. The Ninth Street address was listed on Valerie’s Social Security documents. This building is now a western wear clothing shop. Records show that the Social Security Administration terminated her disability (SSI) payments at her Phoenix address in 1986 and she received these payments in San Francisco after that.
78. Evarels, “Spooky Times at the Bristol Hotel.”
79. Harron and Minahan, introduction to I Shot Andy Warhol, xxx.
80. Boone, “‘Look on My Works.’”
81. Smith, “The History of Zines”; Harron and Minahan, introduction to I Shot Andy Warhol, xxxi.
82. Fustero, interview by Fahs, September 20, 2008.
83. Boone, “‘Look on My Works.”
84. Ultra Violet, interview by Fahs, April 17, 2012.
85. Ultra Violet, Famous for 15 Minutes, 187–88.
86. Ultra Violet, interview by Fahs, April 17, 2012.
87. Ultra Violet, letter to Library of Congress Copyright Office, November 1, 1991, Ultra Violet personal collection, New York.
88. Ultra Violet, recorded phone call with Valerie Solanas, November 1987, Breanne Fahs personal collection, Phoenix, AZ. In Ultra’s memory of this call, Valerie called herself Onz Loh, but the name was, in fact, Zno Hol, according to the tape recording.
89. Ultra Violet, Famous for 15 Minutes, 188.
90. Ultra Violet, interview by Fahs, April 17, 2012.
91. Coroner’s Report, Valerie Solanas, San Francisco, April 25, 1988.
92. Heinz Hoffman, “Police Report for the Death of Valerie Solanas,” File 388383170, San Francisco Police Department, April 25, 1988.
93. Letter from Chief Medical Examiner Boyd G. Stephens to Ultra Violet, August 26, 1988, Ultra Violet personal collection, New York, confirms that Valerie did not die of AIDS. Also, according to mortician Christopher Brown, police should identify the date of death as an estimate of the actual date of death, not the date the victim was discovered. Given the weather conditions, presence of maggots, foul odor, likelihood of current drug use (which speeds up decomposition), and the fact that the window was closed, Valerie likely died on April 23, 1988 (see Christopher Brown, interview by Breanne Fahs, Phone, October 31, 2011). Taylor Mead, one of Warhol’s associates, in a style typical of the Warhol crowd, threw a “party-wake” at the Café Bizarre following news of Valerie’s death; see Guiles, Loner at the Ball, 309.
94. Death Certificate, filed November 19, 1991, signed May 9, 1988. Valerie’s grave is located at St. Mary of Sorrows Catholic Church Cemetery, 5612 Ox Road, Fairfax Station, Virginia (number 14927731). For more information about this church, see “About the Church.”
95. Coburn, “Valerie’s Gang,” 16.
96. Solanas, SCUM Manifesto (Self-Published, 1977), 4.