Start Here. About paigeyoung1968.com Updated 1/07/2026.

It’s now been 51 years since the woman once known as a “Playboy Playmate,” named Paige Young, committed suicide on April 7, 1974.

(On http://paigeyoung1968.com Click on a chapter title you want to read and scroll way down.)

There is a lot more information I learned about the life of a real human being, long-forgotten, if ever known beyond a certain audience.

I learned much more than you saw in Secrets of Playboy, an A&E series first shown in January and February of 2022.

I was interviewed about Paige Young; the segment covered the sad ending to her short life.

And discussed her connection to Bill Cosby and Hugh Hefner. (I have been researching her entire life since 2015.)

My research started a few months after I read an article about Paige Young on the Dailymail.com December 2014.

The Daily Mail published this “exclusive” story.

It came after the public learned that comic legend Bill Cosby was a serial rapist with a long history.

The shocking (to most but not all of us) revelation started with the Hannibal Buress video, if you recall.

Probably the majority of readers are interested in Paige Young’s suicide, her connection to celebrities and any connection celebrities played in her suicide.

All of that information can be found about halfway down on the main page list of chapters. paigeyoung1968.com

Click on a chapter and scroll down until you see the title.

This is partly a story about fame and infamy.

And what some in the media have called a “Playmate Curse.”

I’ll go over a few of these women now and add more in the upcoming months. 

There are several Playmates who had a tragic end and go unacknowledged.

One of the prominent members of this Playmate Curse is Playmate who found fame way beyond Playboy.

Jayne Mansfield. 

In the 1950s and 1960s, Jayne was convincing at what she played: a dumb /seemingly dumb and very sexy Blonde.

I think Jayne’s modern day counterpart is another famous-beyond-Playboy, Playmate Anna Nicole Smith.

Playmate in 1955

Half way through 1967, Jayne Mansfield was dead at only 34 years old.

Claudia Jennings is not as famous as Jayne Mansfield and Anna Nicole Smith. But she was famous for being a

Playmate of the Year 1970.

Like Jayne Mansfield and Anna Nicole Smith, Playmates famous beyond Playboy, Claudia Jennings is a famous cult actress known as one of Hollywood’s “Queen of the Bs.“

For her roles in 1970s “exploitation” and “sexploitation” films: Deathsport (a Roger Corman film,) Moonshine County Express, Truck Stop Women and Sisters of Death, to name only a few.

The kinds of movies Quentin Tarantino enjoys and champions.

Mimi Chesterton originally, Claudia was an aspiring actress since her days growing up in Illinois. Her proximity to Playboy Headquarters in Chicago led Mimi to a job there after high school, as a receptionist and tour guide; I have read both in newspaper articles.

PlPlaymates of the Year winners were often invited on the Tonight Show.

A photographer at the Chicago Playboy building, noticed Mimi’s potential for the magazine.

The next thing you know her Playmate appearance is November of 1969.

Exactly one year after Paige Young appeared as a the November Playmate.

Jennings then won Playmate of the Year 1970.

She replaced Connie Kreski.( I have a chapter dedicated to this other tragic and ignored Playmate story.)

Claudia was on her way to becoming an actress and had several films to promote on the show.

Just like Jayne Mansfield, Claudia died in a horrific car accident.

Claudia’s happened on the Pacific Coast Highway near Topanga Canyon Rd. (And very near where Paige Young lived for a time.)

It was October of 1979 and Claudia was only 29 years old.

The crash location is a notoriously deadly stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway.

Most Playmates went on to live normal, middle-class (or higher or lower) lives with careers and children.

But Unfortunately, there are more than a few Playmates who have died tragic and young deaths, like Jayne Mansfield and Claudia Jennings, which gets mentioned in the media from time to time.

From the headlines, one can see that one of these times was the death of Anna Nicole Smith in 2007.

The origin of the term “Playmate curse” started with Anna Nicole’s death.

Anna Nicole Smith and Dorothy Stratten are most famously linked with the “Playmate Curse.”

Notice Paige Young is in this article with a remembrance by her photographer, Peter Gowland.

Anna Nicole Smith was famous beyond her Playmate of the Year status and Dorothy Stratten seemed to be on her way there before her murder at age 20.

Anna Nicole was a Playmate of the month in 1992 and of the year 1993. In that same time frame she became an instant sensation as a Guess model.

Possessing a tall, curvy body, she resembled a glamazon version of bombshells and Playboy connected-Jayne Mansfield and Marilyn Monroe.

Article by Jessica Gresko was published by 100s of US newspapers via AP wire service.

Arrow points to the name, Peter Gowland, Paige’s photographer for Playboy. He also photographed Jayne Mansfield outside of Playboy. Drug overdose it says next to Paige Young. This is incorrect.

I do believe Gowland was told by someone at Playboy that it was a drug overdose.

Like fellow Playmate Jayne Mansfield, Anna Nicole’s personal life became a tabloid staple. Both women lived larger than life with romances, children and marriages. Both were naturals at posing it up for the press and both abused alcohol and substances.

In Anna’s case, her marriage to very old and wealthy Texas oilman J. Howard Marshall in 1994, provided tabloid coverage. The couple met in 1991 through Anna Nicole’s job in a Houston strip club.

After Marshall’s death, Anna Nicole was involved in a complicated legal battle. She wasn’t named in her husband’s will. Neither was one of his sons!

Tabloids and mainstream media had covered her court appearances over the will. However, her death by overdose overshadowed all other news on February 7, 2007 and continued for several days/weeks.

Newspapers, magazines and cable TV, covered her death as it would a major political event.

There was even media coverage about the about the 24/7 media coverage of Anna Nicole’s death, seen in You Don’t Know Me, the Netflix documentary.

END.

You can see Paige Young in bold in this article.

In October of 2014, the entertainment icon Bill Cosby had his long history of drugging and raping women made public and it actually “caught on.”

There are many sources online for details about this cultural moment. This text will only serve as a brief refresher for context.

The video of comic Hannibal Buress making a joke about “Bill Cosby and rape” went viral in October of 2014. This event led to an immediate backlash on Twitter when Cosby asked the Twitter audience to post memes about him.

Dozens of former victims of Bill Cosby came forward in the media over a several month period 2014-2015.

Barbara Bowman is one of the Cosby survivors. She wrote an influential article published in the Washington Post on Nov. 11, 2014 titled: “Bill Cosby raped me. Why did it take 30 years for people to believe my story?“

Apparently, many in Hollywood the Industry knew about Cosby’s history. However, the general public in middle America, like myself, certainly did not.

As I mentioned, in Dec. 05, 2014, the Daily Mail online published a long and “exclusive” piece of reportage.

It was about long forgotten 1968 Playmate Paige Young and the day of her suicide in 1974. The piece also covered her association with Bill Cosby and other Hollywood elite, including Hugh Hefner and director John Huston.

The reporter of the piece is Ryan Parry.

The article includes an account from Tamara Green about an encounter she experienced with Paige and Bill in El Paso, 1970.

(See chapter on Tamara Green/El Paso)

Green had already publicly claimed since 2005 that Bill Cosby drugged and assaulted her in the early 1970s. She discussed it in a now infamous interview conducted by Matt Lauer of the Today Show.

The Daily Mail article quotes Tamara saying she knew Paige Young from modeling auditions in LA.

If it were not for Paige Young’s connection to celebrity, Paige may have remained relegated to these articles about Playboy Playmates who committed suicide or died in other tragic ways, made even more tragic by their young ages: murders, car wrecks, cancer and accidental drug overdoses.

I’ve already mentioned a few.

It’s my opinion that Ryan Parry thought he may have had a lead on a direct link between Cosby and the suicide of Paige Young.

And this is the reason he pursued Paige’s backstory.

Parry follows this lead and interviews a few people who knew Paige Young in the 1960s and early 1970s.

One of them was Richard Sample, whom I interviewed in May of 2021.

Parry’s reporting does not establish a direct link between Cosby and Young’s suicide in 1974. I am shown saying this in Episode 8 of the Secrets of Playboy documentary series.

However, Parry’s reporting does uncover several previous unknowns, like the fact that Paige died by a gunshot to the head and not a drug overdose.

Another was that she was dating Bill Cosby.

What I learned in 2021 was that Bill Cosby actually did drug and rape Paige Young and “paid her off,” which was the same tactic he used on several women for decades. (According to a friend of Paige’s I interviewed.)

Another unknown fact was the staged suicide scene with a pentagram drawn on the floor, a suicide note mentioning John Huston, and “mural”with pinned up images of Hugh Hefner, all created by Paige Young.

This was witnessed by her neighbor Melanie Myers and accounted for in the Daily Mail and Secrets of Playboy.

Drug overdose…..

as the reason for Paige’s death has been published in the “Playmate Book” for decades. It is probably the source of the original “death lists” made on the internet.

The Playmate Book is a collection of all the women named “Playmates” since Playboy Magazine began in 1953. It includes listings up to the publication date. The entries include a brief life update on each woman.

Parry’s 2014 article about Paige Young was completely ignored by every media outlet.

This surprised me. I eventually realized that the Daily Mail is tainted with a “tabloid” reputation

Daily Mail. was in legal hot water some years back for harassing celebrities and recording them illegally.

Many media outlets, including other tabloids, are wary of quoting the Daily Mail. As they are in the US of the National Enquirer.

Still, I did find it a bit odd that no independent journalist was interested enough to look into Paige’s story any further.

This is surprising given the major celebrities named in the story.

And pop culture interest in 1960s/70s Hollywood and LA.

Only one named Mark Ebner has ever mentioned Paige Young, that I have seen or read.

Where did Playboy get the information that it was a drug overdose that killed Paige?

Certainly not from Melanie Myers who saw Paige both alive and dead the day she committed suicide, according to her accounts in the Daily Mail, Secrets of Playboy and me personally.

As did the police who were called to the scene which is recorded on Paige Young’s death certificate and police report.

Claim: “Paige [Young] told me that a person that was a member of this Playboy Mansion entourage, or whatever it was, had filmed her having sex. Paige was so over-the-top upset about that tape. This was the end of the world for her. She didn’t seem that shy, you know, about sex, and it made me wonder, What was on that tape? What I actually keep thinking is there’s more on that than just sex. … When I knew her, Paige was into clean living. I think more likely is that Bill [Cosby] drugged her.”
Who Said It: Melanie Myers, celebrity astrologer and neighbor of November 1968 Playmate of the Month, who found the 30-year-old dead under a collage of photos and news clippings which featured the words “HUGH HEFNER IS THE DEVIL” 

People.com April 4, 2022.

As a Playboy Playmate, Paige Young experienced a minor type of celebrity status for a brief portion of her short life.

She was an actual human with a life and a history, besides her association with Playboy.

At times, Paige connected with people who were much more famous than she. Some are well known to the mass public, including Hugh Hefner, John Huston, Andy Warhol, Bill Cosby; men who lived with massive fame which outlives them.

Others were and are famous to a smaller audience like Playboy photographer Peter Gowland and architect Harry Gesner.

These men will be introduced to you on this website.

Paige Young and her family’s journey encompass both the industry and town of Hollywood/LA. The family lived through WW2 Los Angeles and post-war Los Angeles.

Paige grew up in the San Fernando Valley in the 1950s. During that time, you lived in the same neighborhoods and went to school with peers like 1950s icons Annette Funicello and Tony Dow and the singing King family 2nd generation.

It’s the old story of time and place and people and events.

Research Methods

My (ongoing) research consisted of obtaining various LA County public records like birth and death certificates, viewing City of LA building permit documents, (online), perusing telephone directories in the DTLA public library, voting records, marriage, divorce, and military records on ancestry.com.

I have spoken with a few first hand sources, there were several who refuse to speak with me, most I couldn’t locate. At this point, many are dead. The living people who know aren’t talking. Only a few exceptions exist. They are the ones I have quoted on this blog.

• #Paige Young
• 1940s
• 1950s
• 1960s
• 1970s
• 1970s
• Jane Harker
• LA Locations
• Peoria, Illinois
• Playboy
• PMOM
• Popular Culture
• Radio City, CBS, NBC
• Robert Morgan Cotterell
• Samson De Brier archives

• Mary Jane Harker. Warner Brothers Actress & Model. 2nd Cousin to Paige Young. Bio. & Photos. Under Construction. 11/10/2025
• Samson De Brier #2 February 2025
• **NEW** Samson De Brier & Friends Part 1. More Info. About Paige Young. Feb. 2025
• Permanently Incomplete Character List. 10/19/2025
• Names in Paige’s Phone Book: Desmond & Jonathan Guinness, Michael Butler of “Hair,” Hef & Joni, Cosby, Feminist Women’s Health Care Center, Samson DeBrier. Last Home. 12/10/2025.* Very LONG.