The New Hugh Hefner Docuseries Claims He was a Rapist Monster Who Was Into Snuff Films and Bestiality

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In August, Pat wrote about the trailer that had just been released for a 10-part documentary series on A&E. And he correctly summed up that it's subject, Playboy founder and American icon Hugh Hefner, was a scumbag:

Episode 1 of the series comes out today. And if what people who have seen it are saying is even remotely correct, calling Hef a scumbag is an insult both to scum, and to the bags in which it is carried. 

Source - Hugh Hefner founded his Playboy empire on a supposed ethos of pro-female sexual freedom and liberation, but Secrets of Playboy paints a far uglier picture of the culture he created, and the behavior he encouraged—and participated in—during his reign. A&E’s 10-part docuseries is a no-holds-barred censure of the pipe-smoking, silk pajama-wearing mogul, casting him as a predator who personally raped, coerced, and dominated Playmates, allowed his friends and celebrities (among them Bill Cosby) to do likewise, and fashioned a cult-like environment to satisfy his incessant appetite for sex and power. Damning evidence and accusations abound in this exposé, made all the more believable by talking heads who say they experienced Hefner’s abuse first-hand. …

To them, Hefner was a “monster” who used drugs both for his own pleasure and to victimize women; forced himself on anyone he coveted and pimped out whoever he pleased to his male acquaintances; and fed upon the young and innocent like a “vampire” until their bright light had been fully extinguished. …

As [ex-Playmate Sondra] Theodore remarks, this led to all manner of disgusting and criminal behavior, from miserable mass orgies to outright sexual assault—something also alleged by Playmate Susie Krabacher, and about his trysts with murdered 1980 Playmate of the Year Dorothy Stratten. Theodore, who dated Hefner from 1976-1981, believes that as time wore on, Hefner’s carnal appetites grew more extreme and transgressive (i.e. he needed crazier kinks to get himself excited), culminating in his admitted interest in snuff films and sex with dogs (via an allegedly notorious Mansion episode involving Deep Throat star Linda Lovelace and a German Shepherd). In Theodore’s mind, the thrill Hefner received from such domination and violence was directly related to the control he exerted over Playmates. …

That Playboy had literal “clean-up crews” on call to make unpleasant incidents (overdoses, deaths, rapes, etc.) disappear is, in this context, a far from surprising revelation.

And so the image of yet another of our culture's great paragons is exposed as a sham. Just a fiction. A public relations creation, invented to make powerful men richer and get them laid more. Whether or not (see Bill Cosby or everyone Jeffrey Epstein did "business" with) the other party was a consenting adult.

To most of the generation reading this, Hefner was the doddering old pervy hologram walking around in his pajamas and captain's hat on "Girls Next Door," pretending that he was having sex with three women who were 25% his age. But who were all mostly built with man-made parts that were 5% his age. 

To my generation, he was a raconteur who would go on talk shows and tell stories to Johnny Carson or whomever. But mostly he was seen as a business mogul who built an empire with much more attractive models than his competition, not showing all their lady parts like his competition, and by getting celebrities to pose semi-nude for him. 

To the generation that came before though, he was more than an icon; he was an iconoclast. A symbol of the cultural revolution. Someone who was not only taking sex mainstream, he was making it cool. And turning it into a commodity he could sell. He had his own jets and clubs and hotel-casinos. Pinball machines, coffee mugs and keychains. Be seen walking around wearing a Hustler logo on your t-shirt and you'd be asking for a pepper spraying. But the Playboy logo on a shirt just meant you were stylish and hip. The tales of famous people going to the parties, hanging out in the hot tub at the Grotto with Playmates, NFL cheerleaders and half the guest stars on "The Love Boat" were the stuff of legend. 

But according to this A&E series at least, like so many other legends, it was all just an illusion. The lies told by a dirty, cruel, sadistic old fuck to make himself the hero of every story. The way Cosby passed himself off as America's Dad to sell us cameras and Jello, while he was really jizzing on women he drugged, according to these witnesses, Hef wasn't the fun-loving hedonist he made himself out to be, empowering women to be open about their sexuality. His idea of conquering our sexual repression was Manson family snuff films, forcing tragic figures like Linda Lovelace do it with animals and paying Winston Wolf-types to clean up crime scenes. Allegedly.

I'm going to try and not let this destroy my faith in the integrity of creepy old pornographers. But another great American dream is dead.