Valerie Solanas: The Defiant Life of the Woman Who Wrote SCUM (25 page)

Drs. Sternberg and Mannucci gathered an extensive childhood history from Valerie, noting that she described herself as a “hell raiser” and that she and her friends would often shoplift and commit other petty thefts. When asked about her whereabouts for the past five years, Valerie related that she had traveled through various parts of the country and had lived with several men, none of whom she liked. She expressed particularly hostile sentiments toward Andy Warhol and explained that he had too much control over her life and had stolen her literary work and that he and his crowd had been sending information to the newspapers with the intent of ruining her reputation. She also believed that Andy had biased her psychiatric testing results and had frequently asked the evaluators if they could say she was “crazy” and should be locked up. Interestingly, though the report concluded with the diagnosis of schizophrenia, it states that “there is no evidence of hallucinations, depersonalization, or derealization.” (These three facets of schizophrenia still inform the diagnosis today; Valerie apparently never experienced frank hallucinations or an overwhelming sense of unreality in her identity or her environment.) The psychiatrists concluded that Valerie had been deteriorating for some time and that, because of her impulsivity and antisocial behavior, she constituted a serious risk of being homicidal, could not stand trial because of mental illness, and should be transferred to a state psychiatric health facility.

While in Elmhurst Hospital, Valerie refused to allow Maurice Girodias’s lawyer, Don Engel, to represent her, insisting on having Flo’s legal counsel. Flo filed a petition on June 7 to officially declare herself Valerie’s attorney and on June 11 she argued in a formal appeal, “Valerie Solanis [
sic
] has been confined against her will at Elmhurst General Hospital from June 5, 1968 to the present. Since she is a newsworthy personality she has been the subject of supposed news articles. These articles (see exhibits marked P-Q) are extremely prejudiced, but because Miss Solanis [
sic
] is not allowed to see copies of her press coverage at Elmhurst General Hospital, she is unable to refute the trial and conviction which the press has already conducted.
”
9

Flo argued her case on the basis of several criteria: Valerie did not receive adequate representation, the court’s evaluation was based on hearsay, she had not been advised of her constitutional rights, she did not receive a proper physical or psychiatric examination, no bail was offered, and no date for a preliminary hearing was set. The courts largely ignored Flo’s report and proceeded with Valerie’s transfer without acknowledging any relevance of the procedural aspects of Valerie’s case. It mattered little that she had been mistreated or misrepresented, and they frankly could not understand her insistence on representing herself rather than accepting legal aid.

The following day, June 12, Elmhurst Hospital filed a full psychological report with the courts—this was prior to Dr. Cooper’s more comprehensive evaluation—declaring Valerie mentally ill. The report from Drs. Sternberg and Mannucci advised that the court should send Valerie to a mental hospital such as Matteawan, as “the patient is extremely psychiatrically disturbed. Her condition is due to a long-standing paranoid psychosis and it is felt that, at this time, she is a definite homicidal threat to the community.
”
10
Valerie internalized this news by feeling an even deeper commitment to rebel, writing Maurice, “Keeping me in jail or in Elmhurst will not wear me down. I’ve fought too long & too hard already for my work—not just against you since Nov. 1967, but for two years before & I should most certainly not give up now.
”
11

On June 13, Valerie appeared before state supreme court justice Thomas Dickens. She was represented by Flo, who called her “one of the most important spokes-women of the feminist movement.” Flo asked for a writ of habeas corpus because Valerie was inappropriately held at Elmhurst, but the judge denied the motion and sent Valerie back to the hospital. At the arraignment, Valerie had two supporters aside from Flo: Ti-Grace Atkinson and Wilda Holt. The
New York Times
declared the next day, “She has been called a female Genet, but she has not been taken seriously.” Answering questions the next day from behind a locked gate back at Elmhurst, Valerie denounced comparisons between herself and Genet, saying, “Genet just reports, despite what Sartre and De Beauvoir, two overrated windbags, say about the existential implications of his work. I, on the other hand, am a social propagandist.
”
12
Valerie called herself a “superfeminist” and “revolutionary” and promised that
SCUM Manifesto
would be submitted as her legal brief at her trial.

Valerie’s indictment and the ruling of insanity came through on June 27, listing the charges of attempted murder, assault, and illegal possession of a gun. In contrast to the mood of this event, Mario Amaya would joke later, “Andy and I always used to say that we were the first feminist casualties.
”
13
(Whether he meant to slam feminism, or just cope with his pain, is unclear. Mario had a reputation for outlandish comments, and once said he felt more upset with Valerie for ruining his white linen suit than for shooting him.)

The “Lowly Toad”

Valerie spent most of the following month directing her hostilities toward Maurice Girodias, whom she continued to portray as manipulative, cruel, self-serving, and the epitome of why SCUM should exist. In the midst of vitriolic letters she sent to him, Maurice put up money for Valerie to retain a lawyer—something he did for many of his writers who found themselves in legal trouble. This lawyer, Don Engel, who Valerie wanted nothing to do with, who had represented Terry Southern in his
Candy
dispute, recalled in a later interview that he would have happily represented Valerie if she had been declared competent to stand trial. Instead, she was ruled insane and Engel never got the chance to defend her in court. Valerie was, by then, “off the rails.
”
14

In an interview following the publication of
SCUM Manifesto
in summer 1968, Maurice told the
Village Voice
that he both supported the manifesto and felt rage toward
women
: “I’m happy to be alive and I’m a publisher. I still feel she has a very good point. I have no argument with it. But I feel a similar case can be made about females, only women are worse. I will write one about women someday. Then I’ll shoot one and get published myself.”

Maurice visited Valerie in prison; he stated that she looked “very happy to be there” and was “extremely confused.” He added, “I’m sure that her manifesto will convince the judges that she’s not legally responsible—unless there’s a woman judge.” During his visit, Maurice asked, “Why didn’t you shoot me? Why Warhol and not me?” She replied, “Oh, I wouldn’t do that to you.
”
15
Maurice felt that Valerie was “not entirely in her normal mind” and “not in very good shape” and “still doesn’t realize what she’s done.” Angry that Flo, “that woman,” wanted to represent Valerie, he said the hospital “doesn’t want any more freaks. . . . It would be disastrous if she represented Valerie at the trial. . . . Paranoid authors are no great authority.
”
16

During her incarceration at the hospital, Valerie grew increasingly angry and paranoid about Maurice, believing that he had self-serving intentions and compulsively lied to her. She told Wilda Holt, “If I trusted G, I’d have something like
inverse paranoia
.
”
17
Calling him “The Great Operator, The Great Manipulator” but inviting him for a visit shortly after she arrived at Elmhurst, she accused him of failing to follow through on his commitments to her.
18
For example, after he claimed to send her $5.00 that she never received, she wrote, “Why don’t you fuck the authorities and the system for a while instead of your authors?”(June 28, 1968).

She sent letters demanding stamps (July 9, 1968) and many other letters accusing Maurice of sabotaging the goals of SCUM: “I formulated SCUM & wrote the ‘SCUM Manifesto’ to create a better world. It’s ironic & pathetic that it’s fallen into such hands as yours & Warhol’s. If you want to be aligned with me, cultivate goals beyond being able to say, ‘I have more money than J. Paul Getty’; you must strive to transcend your sniveling self & immerse yourself in the betterment of the community; you must learn to work
with
people, not against them; you must learn to pretend you’re human, & not a toad, become an expert human impersonator you must have as your sole constant goal the happiness of women, both in the mass and those you’re personally associated with. I’m convinced the rewards you reap from doing so will be enormous” (July 18, 1968). In another letter that same day, Valerie described her goals for SCUM: “There are 2 aspects to SCUM—the
de
structive and the
con
structive, destroying the old world through sabotage and beginning to create a swinging, groovy, out-of-sight female world, both aspects to operate simultaneously. Ironically, you’re best suited to contributing to the
con
structive end—you’re just not the saboteur type: you’re strictly a contract & finance man.”

Two days later, she admitted that she wanted to devote every bit of her time to SCUM and pleaded with Maurice to join her goals for SCUM: “You don’t have long to go, Big Daddi-o; so what are you going to do about it? Are you going to be a doddering old contract man with lots and lots of money, or are you going to be a groovy, brawling and battling SCUMmer? Are you going to help yourself and help SCUM get rolling, or are you going to continue to fuck everybody—including yourself?”(July 20, 1968).

Perhaps comically, Valerie also pleaded with Maurice to serve as the head of the men’s auxiliary of SCUM:

I’ve been thinking lately in purely practical terms about SCUM. You would be the most appropriate person to have as head of the Men’s Auxiliary, being you’re the publisher. Warhol very much wanted the position, but you’d be more desirable than him, since you’re much more articulate, & have a flair for writing which he doesn’t have . . . As head of the auxiliary you would work closely with me, go recruiting with SCUM, travel around with SCUM on the Scumnibus, attend all SCUM events (unless you didn’t want to), make personal appearances and give speeches on behalf of the Men’s Auxiliary, & you could, if you wanted, appear as Top Turd at all Turd sessions.
19

Despite this vitriol, Maurice continued to communicate with Valerie, forwarding her reviews and commentary about
SCUM Manifesto
from the
New York Times
,
Newsweek
, and the
East Village Other
. He sent copies of her published book, as well as paper, pencils, envelopes, and a money order. He pleaded with Valerie to have more nuance in her views of men and to celebrate her intellectual gifts:

Even if you refuse to see this [letter], I have always acted as your friend. I cannot condon [
sic
] your claim that you have ‘a mission’ which gives you the right to kill people. But I agree with your idea that people are impossibly selfish and cruel: only I think that this applies to mankind at large, not to a particular group like males or females. And murder will not cure that state of things. I wish therefore that you stopped considering yourself like a small-time Hitler, and came down to more sensible views. You are an intelligent and gifted person, and I see no reason why you should not, one day, accomplish something real for yourself. So—why don’t you start trying to see the good side of things, the fact that no-one (not even men!) is always all bad, the fact that no-one is after you, or wants to harm you. You believe that the whole world conspires against you: at the same time you complain that people do not pay enough attention to what you say and do. Don’t you see the contradiction in those two feelings? Think about it
!
20

Despite clear evidence of her severe paranoia—particularly in her interactions with Andy and Maurice—Valerie also had an uncanny sense of the truth in her dealings with them. On June 6, a mere three days after the shooting, Maurice received a letter from Dell Publishing Company thanking him for submitting Valerie’s work but rejecting
SCUM Manifesto
, revealing that Maurice had,
immediately
following the shooting, submitted her work for publication. Further, in an attorney’s letter of October 30, 1968, Maurice directly specified that he did not follow through on paying Valerie the five hundred dollars he owed her on purpose; because they had never specifically signed a contract for
SCUM Manifesto
, which he published shortly after the shooting, he admitted that he refused to pay her the royalties specified in her earlier contract. Instead, he wrote that he would pay her four and a half cents a copy, a substantially lower amount than her contract had specified back in August 1967.
21

Prior to the shooting, Valerie had written to Maurice, certain that he intended not to pay out her full royalties:

Lowly Toad, I’m now hip to what both of those contracts mean—I sold the novel outright; the only right I have is the right to the royalties, which I’m sure you’ll find a way of beating me out of. The refusal rights clause means you have the right to buy my next 2 book-length works on the same greasy terms as you bought the novel. In the second unsigned contract the phrase “we will retain 50%—” means that
I
won’t get anything; it doesn’t imply, as you said that
I’d
get the other 50%. . . . I will never again, needless to say, ever sign one of your sleazy, greasy contracts.
22

Maurice’s refusal to pay royalties to most of his authors eventually resulted, in 1971, in picketing outside the Olympia Press offices by other authors. Maurice admitted to his lawyers that he took Valerie’s statement that
SCUM Manifesto
was his
, “to have and to hold, forever,” as a representation that Valerie had signed over to him the rights to publish the work.
23
Vivian Gornick, who wrote an introduction for
SCUM Manifesto
and knew Maurice personally, agreed that he ripped off Valerie: “There is no question that he screwed her—none, none, none. He bought her off. He paid her no royalties and was making a lot of money from the
SCUM Manifesto.
”
24