The big New York magazine feature involving interviews with 35 of the 46 women who say Bill Cosby sexual assaulted them is offline for now, possibly due to an NYC-hating hacker, but you can still read much of it here. In the feature, Cosby's accusers reveal in often graphic detail how the legendary comedian preyed upon them in strikingly similar ways. Update: You can read the feature on Tumblr.
The victims say Cosby would meet with them, under the guise of furthering their acting careers, and then slip them drugs. They would then would wake up in a stupor to find him raping them or discover, as supermodel Janice Dickinson wrenchingly described, semen dripping from her vagina and rectum. Helen Thomas's agent set her up with Cosby, who claimed to be interested "in mentoring promising young talent." Thomas says he made her rehearse a scene that required her to drink wine: "I really don’t remember much, except waking up in his bedroom. He was naked, and he was forcing himself into my mouth."
The women also lament how it took Hannibal Burress's stand-up mention of Cosby's sexual assault allegations for people to believe them. Victoria Valentino told New York, "I went online one morning, just to check my email. The Yahoo page came up, and there was something about Cosby, this thing with Hannibal Buress. And all of a sudden, something just hit me. Anger. Son of a bitch! You know, a woman can be not believed for 30 years. But it takes one man? To make a joke about it? That fucking pissed me off so bad. Suddenly I’m thinking, Who do I contact?"
Lawyer Tamara Green had gone public with her story in 2005, after Andrea Constand claimed that Cosby assaulted her. Green said at the time in an interview with the Today Show:
I heard that there had been a sexual assault, and that by itself didn't prompt me to come forward, but then I heard that this woman had been given pills, was in a position of trust and friendship with this man, and that behind the pills he took her clothes off and groped her and what have you. I thought, you know, after all these years, it's the same M.O. The same old story, and I still didn't come forward.
But when I heard it reported that the district attorney had said that the story was weak, that she had not come forward in a timely fashion, that was for me them saying that they were not going to file the case. That they didn’t believe her. It was at that time I decided that if there were only two us, one a long time ago and one right now, then that's two too many.
New Yorkhas posted excerpts of some interviews on its Instagram page; there are six videos all together:
Last week, the NY Times released details from the deposition Cosby gave in 2005, before he eventually settled with Constand. In it, Cosby claimed, "I think I’m a pretty decent reader of people and their emotions in these romantic sexual things, whatever you want to call them." Spelman College has now terminated a professorship for Cosby. Today, the Daily News's front page calls Cosby "America's Rapist."
Cosby has also failed to get a lawsuit accusing him of assaulting a 15-year-old girl, Judy Huth, at the Playboy Mansion dismissed. Huth's lawyer, Gloria Allred, who is representing many other victims, said, "We are looking forward to Mr. Cosby answering questions under oath at his deposition and we will continue to seek justice for our courageous client, Judy Huth."
Read the entire New York feature here when the magazine's website returns, or pick up the print edition!