Crime Wave Part 9

A psychic named Hans Holzer jumps in. He hypnotizes a woman named Maxine Bell. Mrs. Bell a.s.sumes the soul of Karyn Kupcinet. She zooms back to her last night on earth.

Karyn's guests split. Andy comes over. He gets mad at Karyn. He hits her. He bombs out of the apartment.

Karyn takes a shower. She towels herself off. A white male sneaks into her pad. He calls Karyn a b.i.t.c.h. He chokes her and places her on the couch.

The man was years old. He stood five-six to five-eight. He had silver-gray hair and blue eyes.

1/26/66:.

Boss psychic Peter Hurkos weighs in. He groks Andy Prine as the killer. He groks David Lange as the backup suspect. Hurkos met Prine and Lange at Glenn Ford's house. Karyn said she'd flick up Andy's career if he left her. Hurkos calls that the murder motive.

1/31/66:.

A female psychic fondles Karyn's jewelry. She gets a brainstorm.

It was a contract hit out of Chicago. The killer looked Jewish or Italian. He had dark hair and a broad forehead.

The psychic s.h.i.+t went nowhere. They discontinued it. They reinterviewed most of the key witnesses. They pressed the case all the way through '66.

They went at Andy Prine. They braced him on 11/2/66. Bobby Chapman and Lieutenant Norm Hamilton went at him hard.

Prine stuck to his story. Chapman tried to shoot it down. He pressed one theory--hard.

It's 11/27/63. Andy drops off the actress chick. He doesn't try to flick the actress chick. He wants to break it off with Karyn--for keeps. He goes to her pad. Things escalate. Karyn dies in the process.

Prine stuck to his story. He didn't try to f.u.c.k the actress chick. He wasn't that hard up for cooze. He didn't want to cut off Karyn. He dug her as a sometime thing. She never said she'd f.u.c.k up his career. The bad publicity f.u.c.ked him. That was the only way he got f.u.c.ked.

11/14/66:.

Edward Rubin calls Sheriff's Homicide. He changes his story substantially.

It's 11/27/63. He leaves Karyn's place. He's with Bob Hathaway.

They go to the Raincheck Room. Bob takes off alone. Rubin meets two chicks. He can't remember their names. They drive him home. They've got a '57 Austin-Healey. He asks one chick for a date. She turns him down. She's leaving for New Mexico U in the morning.

Bobby Chapman tried to verify the story. He couldn't get a line on the chicks.

Strange: Rubin did not recall the chicks three days after the crime. He recalled them three years later.

12/7/66:.

Chapman braces Bob Hathaway. He refutes Rubin's revised statement. He revises his own statement substantially.

He said the big bull session was a big non sequitur. Andy never dropped by and stayed that long.

12/14/66:.

Chapman braces Edward Rubin. He dittoes Hathaway. It did seem strange that Andy stayed that long.

The case dragged on. A lot of the cops thought it wasn't even a murder. Bobby Chapman transferred out. Bobby Morck and Vince Bogdanich got the case. Morck thought it wasn't a murder. Bogdanich wasn't sure. They checked out leads anyway.

Bogdanich braced David Lange on 7/2 3/68. Lange stuck by his '63 story. He refused to take a second polygraph test--on advice of legal counsel. Bogdanich thought he was a viable suspect.

The leads trickled out. They worked other jobs. They worked the Kupcinet job as tips materialized. They braced David Lange on 9/I 7/69.

Lange had a gig at Paramount. Morck and Bogdanich braced him at his office. He cooperated. They asked him if he'd take another polygraph. Lange said he'd talk to his lawyer.

His lawyer called the boss at Sheriff's Homicide. He said: Mr. Lange would not take another polygraph test.

The Karyn Kupcinet case was five years, nine months, and twenty-three days old. It was a freak show and a heartache. A woman got lost in the uproar.

2.

The Victim It was Kup's town. The funeral was Kup's Show.

The heavies turned out. Governor Kerner, aldermen, Mayor Richard J. Daley. They rode at the front of the car-line. Karyn's friends rode at the back.

12/4/63:.

Temple Sholom on the Gold Coast. Adios, Karyn--it was too d.a.m.n brief.

Fifteen hundred people. Major coverage. A big egalitarian spin.

Ward heelers weep. Hoodlums hurl tears into their hankies. Hipsters hobn.o.b with hackles and schvartze waiters from the Pump Room.

It's a mob scene. It's a mitzvah for a media man and his moviemad daughter. It plays nine days after the JFK entombment.

Andy Prine did not attend the service. Rabbi Louis Binstock emceed. He praised Karyn. He said she was "high above the stage, with her warmth of manner and a glow in her eyes."

An all-star lineup lugged the casket out to the hea.r.s.e. Among them: ex-Chicago Bears quarterback Sid Luckman.

Karyn closed strong. She would have dug the show.

She was Irv and Essee K.'s first child. They named her Roberta Lynn and called her "Cookie." Their son, Jerry, was born three years later.

Essee came from money. Try came from zilch. He played pro football. He called Bears games on radio and TV. He wrote for the Chicago Sun-Times. He hosted Kup's Show--a gabfest with real legs.

Kup lobbed softb.a.l.l.s in his column. People loved him. He loved the Joe Blow Chicagoan impersonally. He loved celebs for real.

Essee loved celebs and culture. She took Cookie and Jerry to ballets and stage shows. She doted on Cookie. She said she should be an actress. She pushed her that way. Cookie bought the program.

Essee stressed beauty and thinness. She got Cookie some childmodel gigs.

Cookie loved drama. She loved to act. She loved Kup's World.

It was glamorous. It was who you knew and who blew who. It was ringside seats and a special guest for dinner every night. Cookie dropped names like most kids dropped vowels.

She went to the Francis Parker School. She excelled at kid theatrics. She got summer-stock gigs in and around Chicago. She played the tomboy role in a boffo rendition of Picnic.

She finished high school. She went to Pine Manor College for a year and a half. She played leads and second leads in school shows. She put on a little weight. She took it off and put it on again. She moved to New York City in '6o.

She gained weight and lost weight. She never got fat. It was all crazy s.h.i.+t in her head.

She changed her name to Lynn Roberts. A plastic surgeon reshaped her chin.

She lived off money from home. She auditioned and got a few gigs. She gained weight and lost weight. She got depressed. She dropped "Lynn Roberts" and renamed herself "Karyn Kupcinet."

Kup was tight with Jerry Lewis. Jerry liked Karyn. He offered her a bit part in his flick The Ladies' Man.

Karyn flew out to L.A. She dug it and decided to stay.

Essee's mother moved out and played chaperone. They found a pad on Hollywood Boulevard. Essee set Karyn up with Mark and Marcia G.o.ddard. Kup set her up with A-list contacts.

Karyn started a new datebook on 3/9/61. She recorded her weight in most entries. She got a nose job on 5/16. She weighed 115 pounds.

"Awake during operation. AGONY. Felt needles, cutting, everything!"

Karyn thought her new nose looked like a pig snout. Other people disagreed.

5/29/61. In Vegas with Kup and Essee: "Nose much better!" "So many compliments!" Warren Beatty: "You're so beautiful." Eddie Fisher: "Thought you were Liz."

5/27/61:.

"I'm pretty! So happy!"

Karyn got a guest shot on Hawaiian Eye. Bob Conrad was "a doll." "Me--so-o complimented!"

Karyn auditioned. Karyn went to brunch, lunch, and dinner. Karyn shopped and got her hair done. Karyn got her weight down to 1131/2.

She got a series gig on 7/2 5. The show starred Gertrude Berg. It was called Mrs. G. Goes to College.

She started work on 8/2. Her weight stood at 1 14. The director said she had a "wild body." Karyn played a kooky college kid.

Karyn worked. Karyn hung out at Pj.'s and the Crescendo. Karyn ate at Linny's and the Hamburger Hamlet. Karyn shopped atJax and Saks.

8/17/61:.

Gertrude thought she wore too much makeup. "Everyone around there makes me nervous."

8/18/61:.

"Gertrude impossible. Finally--got my close-up and took four or five takes. Couldn't get d.a.m.n thing straight."

9/11/61: 113 pounds. 9/12/61: "Hardly ate at all!" 9/15 and 9/16/61: "Ate & ate."

10/4/61: The Mrs. G. pilot airs. 109 pounds, "My hair darling--lots of compliments." 10/ 15/6 1: 116 pounds. "Ate 3 Danish," "Eating too much."

Karyn logged male compliments. Karyn logged male encounters. She met men. She kissed them. They got schizzy and blew her off. 10/22/61: 110 pounds, "No one calls me." 10/28/61: 114 1/2 pounds. "Eating too many sweet rolls."

Karyn worked on the Berg Show and tried out for other gigs. She went out on bad dates and hung out with her girlfriends. She went to twist clubs and movie premieres.

1/23/62: 121 pounds. "I look too heavy; yet everyone calls me beautiful." 2/1/62: 117 pounds. "Everyone noticed my weight loss." 2/5/62: 125 pounds. "Stayed in bed. Ate. Feel so draggy & tired." 2/15/62: 121 pounds. "Took pills." "Looked gorgeous." 2/16/62: "Woke up very dopey (after 3 sleeping pills). Groggy." 2/19/62: "Slept late," "Bought 'Leen' tablets."

The Berg Show was cancelled. Karyn went on unemployment. Kup and Essee sent her money. Her grandmother moved back to Chicago.

3/22/62: 123 pounds. "Got to lose at least io lbs. by April 8! Only 17 days."

3/29/62:.

"I'm beginning to discover who I am! My convictions & 'image' are getting clearer. I know I'm happiest following the pattern of sophistication, than one of girlish appeal."

Karyn got a guest shot on The Red Skelton Show. Skelton to Karyn, 4/2/62: "3 people said you were prettier than Liz Taylor."

More auditions. More pills. More brunches, lunches, and dinners.

Two brief love affairs. Summer stock in Chicago--Sunday in New York. The Annie Sullivan role in The Miracle Worker at the Laguna Beach Playhouse. Good reviews and a run below 115.

10/1/62:.

"Woke up feeling slightly nauseous & groggy. Hallucinations, inferiority complex, aching limbs, stiff neck, (surely liver damage) resulted from pills."

10/8/62: "Cried myself to sleep." 10/9 to I 1/10/62: doodles and incomplete notations. 11/11/62: "Continuous hysteria. Deepest depression ever." 1 2/3/62: "Wide Country--6:00 A.M. call (location)." 12/4/62: "Andy Prine--doll!" 12/6/62: 105 pounds. "Andy. 'Raincheck." I 2/9/62: "Andy." 12/1 1/62: "Andy." 12/12/62: "Look thin." 12/13/62: "Andy." 12/i8, 19, 20, 21, 22: "Andy"--and no other notations.

Karyn flew to Chicago for Christmas. 12/28, 12/31 and 1/1/63: "Andy called--'I love you."

It was all Andy now.

1/17/63: "Met Andy for lunch. He was attentive." "Wide Country--Andy was brilliant, I was an EXTRA. Felt depressed." 1/20/63: "Andy--aloof." 2/5/63: "Tense & anxious over Andy's att.i.tude." 2/11/63: "Me tense, blurred vision. To Dr. Getzoff (pills) with Andy." 2/19/63: "Must maintain my own ident.i.ty; not become his door-mat. So useless."

3/25/63: "Andy picked me up 5:3o. Lovely love--ate at DuPar's--Back & lovely love." 4/ 9/6 3: "Eating much too much." 4/11/63: "I love Andy Prine." 5/21/63: "12 P.M.--Dr. Kroger. Gave me weight capsules. Finally get a 'lift.' Appet.i.te's inhibited." 5/30/63: "Andy distant--me terribly possessive and weak."

Karyn tanked auditions. Karyn shopped and ate and saw shrinks.

6/21/63:.

"At his house; found out about Cheryl H. & B. Scott. Awful! 'I don't want to see you tonight either.' I went over. Got in. Came back later--HYSTERICS."

6/27/63: "Getting my self-respect back. I'm stronger." 6/30/63: "Oh Andy, lovely, lovely." 7/1/63: 134 pounds. "Beginning today--I starve!" "Dr. Krohn prescribed Desoxyn." 7/8/63: 124 pounds. "Dr. Krohn, 1:30 p.M. (Figure's looking better.) Andy: 'It excites me to hurt U a little."

Karyn learned she was pregnant. Mark and Marcia took her down to Tj. 7/9/6 3: "Like a nightmare. This can't be happening to me." 7/10/63: "Oh G.o.d--I don't know what to do. Called Dr. Estrada (call back after noon)."

7/11/63: "Called Dr. Estrada again. Getting used to the idea." Karyn got an abortion on 7/12/63. "Traumatic. Glad it's over. Relief after nightmare." She returned to L.A. "Andy considerate & attentive." "Knots, gas--like cramps. Andy made soup."

7/25/63: "I'm so happy. How long can it last?" 7/30/63: "Andy with Anna. Me watched from hedge. Awful. Nightmares."

Karyn stopped auditioning. Karyn cut down her social contacts. 8/15/63: "I must not be possessivesweet."

8/17/63:.