I have made 2 chapters into 1 long chapter for now.

It includes critical context, documents and some of my theories/opinions.

March 16, 1974 is Paige Young’s 30th birthday.

On April 7^th 1974, a Palm Sunday, Paige Young commits suicide with a gunshot to her head. The location was her residence, pictured below.

“She was terrified of it coming out, in that day you knew your career was going to be over once it got “round.”

“For weeks all she could think about was getting hold of that tape, she thought it was going to ruin her.”

Melanie, Paige’s neighbor quoted in the Daily Mail about an alleged sex tape of Paige. Melanie talked to Paige on the day of her suicide and shortly before she shot herself in the head.

Below is the account neighbor Melanie Myers gave to reporter Ryan Parry of the Daily Mail Dec. 2014 issue.

“Paige had the whole thing planned down to the last detail…  It was a Palm Sunday and she came to tell me she was going to kill herself. She stayed in the back of the house where we (B.J.) lived and I was at the bathroom window. She comes up to the window and calls out to me “I want to show you something.” I couldn’t be bothered by any more of her drama. But she was like, “No, you’ve gotta come and see it.” So I go to her apartment and she gave me a guided tour …of her suicide scene in her bedroom….It was chilling..there was a large American flag draped across her bed and there was a pentagram laid out on the wooden floor…I remember her showing me around it because it was somehow important, but I didn’t know what it meant.”

But it was the bedroom was that shocked Myers the most.

“It was covered floor to ceiling with photos of Hugh Hefner, there were news clippings, magazine articles, everything you could think of. Written across it was something like “Hugh Hefner is the devil.” The whole wall was a shrine saying, ‘I hate Hugh Hefner,’ the crux of her anger was against him. That was the message she wanted to get across to me. She was pointing up at things, showing me around it.  She’s put a lot of work into this, it must have taken her days.

Myers said that Young then calmly explained that she planned to kill herself.

She produced a gun and put it into her mouth…lay back on her bed and said, ‘this is how I’m going to do it.’

“It was chilling. We were friends but not the best of friends, I was always bitching about her and her dog, so I was scared.  I thought maybe she could shoot me, you know, take me with her, it was all so weird.  I thought, I’ve got to get out of here.”

“Myers quickly retreated to her apartment and called the police. LAPD officers arrived soon afterwards and cordoned of the whole of Eastbourne Ave.”

Myers said, “The cops didn’t want to go in her apartment first, so they asked me to go check on her, so I did.”

“I walked into her apartment and they were behind me. I walked into her bedroom and she was lying dead on the bed. She had shot herself in the head as she told me she would. There was a huge mass of blood, her whole bed was soaked red, it was shocking. But she looked happy and very peaceful, she didn’t look in distress.” 

“The cops had Paige’s suicide note and read some of it to me…the whole thing was about her anger towards the men who she believed had chewed her up and spat her out.  The two men who got the most attention were Hugh Hefner and the director John Huston. I know she dated Huston for a while and had just gotten back from a trip to Ireland with him.”

Paige expressed anger to other Hollywood stars who had used her.

“I believe Paige was making a huge statement in a bid to get at the elite of Hollywood…She thought the story of her death would spark a big scandal, but it didn’t. Sadly no one cared.”

END

Melanie Myers gives the same account in the Secrets of Playboy documentary first shown 2022.

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 review of Secrets of Playboy

This person in the entourage sounds like David Shane.

Shane was not a celebrity but the brother of the woman married to John Huston in the 1970s. Paige’s friend CiCi Shane Huston.

David Shane was known on the Sunset Strip scene; he owned two businesses there from the 1950s to the 1980s. Alfie’s and Hav-A-Kar.

Hav-A -Kar is captured in Ed Ruscha’s renowned photo series Every Building on the Sunset Strip, 1966 version.

And apparently, David Shane was a never-known or little-known Playboy mansion regular in that era.

David Shane seems an ideal candidate for a person involved with a sex tape in the Hugh Hefner party scene as you will see.

Would he have any reason to blackmail Paige with this tape?

When I first read the Daily Mail 2014 article, I was left with several questions.

Among them:

Why did Paige “blame” her suicide on Hugh Hefner by painstakingly creating an entire mural of his image and splashed with words of hatred.

In one phone call with Melanie Myers, she emphasized to me how large the mural was, filling up a long hallway wall from top to bottom.

Melanie thought of how many hours it would have taken cutting out Hugh Hefner’s image and her own Playboy memorabilia. These items were then pinned to the wall. Melanie said the depiction of the wall in Episode 8 of Secrets of Playboy greatly resembles the scene she remembers in Paige’s apartment the day of her suicide.

I have questions about the suicide note. It mentioned Hugh Hefner, John Huston, and other Hollywood men Paige felt had used and abused her. The suicide note is mentioned in the LAPD report, but not in the records.

Other witnesses would have been the LAPD, the I.D. and the Coroner’s office.

Some critics will say it was my motivation to prove Hugh Hefner was an evil abuser of women or that he was directly responsible for the suicide of a vulnerable young woman or that I want to avenge her suicide in the name of equality or feminism.  

That was not and is not my motivation.

I always say “Let the facts speak for themselves.”

The reader or viewer can decide. I do believe the stories the women who have had experiences of abuse and manipulative behavior (and more serious accusations) on the part of Hugh Hefner.

I believe certain (or most) celebrities got a “pass” to abuse women when they were on the grounds of the Playboy Mansion. (And maybe elsewhere.)If abuse or grooming or manipulation or brutality and rape happened to be what “turned them on,” Hef wasn’t going to forbid or judge his friends.

In 2015, I began researching the answers to my questions with an open mind.

Perhaps Paige Young wrongly, mistakenly, or inappropriately blamed Hugh Hefner for her suicidal thoughts. If so, it didn’t and doesn’t matter to me; Paige’s story is allegorical of time, place, people and national and world events.

Paige did have other problems in her life.

Lack of a consistent income was a problem for Paige, one of her friend’s wrote to me. This was recently verified by Melanie.

Still, evidence points to at least one factor of Paige’s depression: the aforementioned sex tape and its connection to Hugh Hefner and his Mansion scene. There were witnesses of Paige at the Playboy mansion about 2 months before her suicide.

Death certificate copy I obtained.

A partial autopsy/police report copy is included in the Daily Mail story, but not the death certificate.

Reporter Ryan Parry of the Daily Mail discovered that Paige did not die of a drug overdose. This contradicts what is stated in “The Playmate Book,” and several websites. Paige actually committed suicide from a gunshot wound to the head. This information is based on an autopsy report and death certificate, as one can clearly see.

This caught my attention when I first read the article because Paige Young is always listed as an overdose on internet lists and such.

On April 9, Price-Daniel Mortuary handles Paige’s death services. Her cremation takes place at Roosevelt Memorial Park in Gardena. Burial of her ashes to take place at sea near Santa Monica shoreline.

Scan of cremation record follows.

It is unknown how the false story of Paige overdosing on drugs started on the internet. This has been written as the official cause of her early death.

Is the Playmate Book the original source?

A Playboy published book, it’s compendium of all the Playmates named in the magazine, beginning from the first issue of Playboy in 1953, continuing up to the date of publication.

The book was updated every 10 years or so.

Each entry tells us briefly what the woman did with her life post-Playboy. The entries are sometimes newsy, sometimes scant with information.

Marilyn Monroe, famously on the cover of the first issue of Playboy. December 1. 1953 and named “Sweetheart of the Month.”

There is a now well-known story about this first issue of Playboy and what was inside it. Marilyn from an old nude calendar photo shoot when she was broke.

 It’s part of both Marilyn Monroe’s and Playboy Magazine’s Myth.

Marilyn is often cited in the “Playmate Curse” articles. (See Start Here chapter)

Paige Young’s entry in the Playmate Book says she died of a drug overdose in 1974.

In the early days of the internet, people were compiling lists of famous people /celebrities, who experienced a tragically young death.

It’s probable that The Playmate Book was the original source for the first individuals who included it on their websites.

Can it be proven otherwise?

Of course many other websites picked this up and it became Paige’s “official” means of suicide for decades.

A question I had was:

Why would it serve Playboy editors or Hugh Hefner to choose “drug overdose” as her means of death? Why would they publish this in their own book of record?

It’s an odd choice.

Hugh Hefner had some legal and public pressure on him. There were charges of drug dealings or trafficking occurring at both his mansions, in the early 1970s. This involved his Chicago secretary Bobbie Arnstein.

And most oddly, Bobbie Arnstein did commit suicide by a massive drug overdose in 1975 less than one year after Paige Young’s suicide.

More on this below.

I think drug overdose was chosen for the book because it sounds ambiguous. The reader won’t know if it was a purposeful or accidental overdose.

It seems the perception is that it was a purposeful suicide. But I may be wrong.

Paige’s suicide appears to have never been reported in the Los Angeles media, in 1974 or since.

I have not yet found any death, obituary or memorial announcement.

UPDATE: 5/12/2023 I spoke with one friend of Paige’s. She told me she heard an announcement on a radio station about Paige’s death. She was driving to her home in Malibu. She doesn’t remember much more but that it was shocking and saddening. It caused her to pull over to stop by the side of the road.

 In the weeks and months after the Daily Mail article was published in 2014, no one spoke out publicly or mentioned knowing or having met Paige Young.

What about the alleged sex tape that caused Paige so much anguish?

“Numerous women say Hefner filmed all of the sex he had in his bedroom at the Playboy Mansion — often without consent — and kept the tapes.”

LAT Review of Secrets of Playboy 2/28/22

It makes sense. A well known part of Hefner’s biography is his fascination with audio and video technology.

Hefner purchased and collected cutting edge home video, film cameras, projectors, and stereo equipment and owned these before they were available to the mass consumer.

In the early decades of the magazine, Playboy often featured an ideal “bachelor pad,” decked out with the finest stereo equipment and other electronic gadgets,sure to impress the ladies and men, like a Cadillac or Picasso painting might. In fact Playboy magazine in the 1950s formed the template for the influx of “Bachelor” magazines of the 1950s. 

A shapely young woman would make a great companion or accessory to your lifestyle. Your bachelor pad will entice her.

Chicago newspaper in 1966. Hugh Hefner a nerd of his era.

One of the clips in the opening of Secrets of Playboy features an early 1970s Hugh Hefner. He is seen speaking to reporters at a press conference. He talks about his “electronic equipment in the mansion,””including cameras” and says that “sometimes stuff happens in the bedroom.”

Secrets…shows an interview with former head of Playmate Promotions Miki Garcia. At one point she is reading from work notes she had saved.

One note is about famous actor and Mansion regular Tony Curtis.

Curtis and his lawyer, were upset about Tony’s appearance in sex tapes filmed at the mansion.

Secrets of Playboy revealed accounts of sexual acts being filmed by Hugh Hefner, or others, at his mansion in Holmby Hills. (See interviews with Sondra Theodore, Stefan Tetenbaum and others.)

The last paragraph is right out of a novel. Poignant.

Stories of sex tapes or films go back to the Chicago mansion days.

An ex-girlfriend of Hefner’s, with help from one of his secretaries, snuck into the mansion to retrieve “her” tape. This incident was told to Russell Miller and published in his book Bunny: The Real Story of Playboy.

Miller appears in Secrets of Playboy but doesn’t tell this story.

I am shown in Secrets of Playboy reading a brief excerpt from his book Bunny, which I read for the first time in 1985. The whole passage was explicit and embarrasing g to read in front of an all male crew I had just met.

Melanie’s interview indicates that Paige was likely filmed at the Playboy mansion. She was fearful that this tape or film would be shown to an audience that would recognize her. She worried her reputation would be damaged or ruined.

“…..And I’d recently discovered little spy holes on either side of the big televisions at the foot of the bed, where one might set up cameras. When I asked him about them, he just shrugged. ‘But what are they for?’ I asked. ‘I used to do a lot of filming,’ he said proudly. ‘VHS. I had hours of videos, hundreds of sexy tapes.’ ’Did people know you were filming?’ I could only imagine what, and who, was on those tapes. ‘It’s my bedroom. My house.’ He said this dismissively. When I didn’t say anything back, he got a little defensive. ‘I destroyed them all. After the Pam and Tommy thing…..’

Only Say Good Things by Crystal Hefner

What happened to Hefner’s collection of sex tapes?

There are reports of Hefner ordering the tapes and films destroyed before his death, by sinking them in the ocean.

Allegedly, Hefner became more paranoid when his friend, Playmate and actress Pamela Anderson, had her and husband Tommy Lee’s private sex tapes stolen.

And Crystal Hefner confirms this.

The stolen tapes were then released to the public through a video porn company.

Paige Young would have been an early victim of what later became a sex tape scandal or even revenge porn.

Especially the David Shane angle in the tape.

Long Article From Page Six, Nov. 23, 2018 quoted below:

“Hugh Hefner dumped a casket full of his private sex tapes into the sea before he passed away, insiders have revealedThe Playboy founder chucked his collection of sex tapes into the Pacific ocean because he feared that his most famous and secret conquests would be exposed, sources told The Sun.

It comes as the Playboy founder’s most personal belongings are being auctioned off later this month. But while his signature pipe, dressing gowns and other items are currently on show to the public before they go under the hammer, paranoid Hefner made sure his dirtiest secrets would never be found.The veteran Hollywood lothario, who passed away in 2017 at the age of 91, gathered up his entire hidden collection of tapes, X-rated photos and even intimate notes from superstars.

He then threw them all in a specially-made casket lined with cement and had his aides dump them in the sea.Hefner’s trusted head of security at the Playboy Mansion Joe Piastro – who died in 2011 – is believed to have overseen the burial.

“Hugh was terrified of the world finding out everything about his past,” a source revealed. “He had kept a treasure chest of memories of his life with all these beautiful women dating back from the 1950s to the mid-1990s.” “He only shared a few of the stories with his aides, but kept his personal items of his time with many famous beauties a secret.

“There was a batch of tapes, shot on 8 mm and cinefilm, which were filmed during some of the orgies he enjoyed in the 70s. “Some famous male movie stars too were in those videos and had that come out it would have been a huge scandal.

“Hef also had thousands of photographs taken at photo shoots or given to him by the girls over the years. Marilyn [Monroe] was definitely in them as well as many superstars who graced the pages of his magazine.Some of the women were in relationships and others never even made the magazine, but simply were partying with him.

“What actually sparked his concern was when Pamela had her tape with Brett Michaels aired and then Tommy Lee.“He got so upset and paranoid that he decided it was best to have them disappear. He didn’t trust people to burn them in case they got stolen, so he charged Joe with getting rid of them in the ocean.

“Joe had been his trusted head of security for years and had saved Hugh from many embarrassing situations in the past.

“He had hundreds of other photographs of women who were not famous, but he had enjoyed one nights stands with or even short relationships. There were also audio tapes too.“In the 1990s, he had concerns about these personal items being stolen and sold around the world … it filled him with dread.

“So he decided that Joe should go out in the middle of the ocean with the cask and dump it all. “Hugh explained that he didn’t want anyone’s lives, marriages or careers to be destroyed by what he had In his library. Joe did it and never told anyone.”Hefner decided to take action in the late 90s as parties at the Playboy mansion were becoming wilder.

“The parties at the mansion were becoming grander affairs and it was difficult to control where guests were going,” the source added.“He was terrified that some of this material would be stolen and the leaked out.

“He even worried that if anything happened to him it could get in the wrongs hands and hurt those who were still alive.”

“After what [Anderson] had told him, he was certain that this material was best lost rather than locked away. ” END.

Former Playboy employee Lisa Loving Barrett says in Secrets of Playboy she had heard the ocean burial story and that she has reasons to believe it is true.

My opinion is that Paige Young’s case is an early example of a “sex tape scandal.”

Much like Pam and Tommy, Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton.

But Paige Young’s sex tape scandal is one that never went public through a formal media channel.

Perhaps Paige was blackmailed with this “sex tape.”

I don’t imagine we’ll ever know for sure.

The whole incident seems to have remained firmly swept under the rug by people at Playboy. Both at the time it happened and in following decades.

“Masten is one of about 60 women who accused Cosby of sexual assault. She says Cosby drugged and raped her in a Chicago hotel in 1979, when she was a Playboy bunny. She says she was told she’d better keep quiet because no one would believe her, because Cosby was one of Hefner’s best friends. Cosby has denied her allegations.

“In the 10 years that I worked for Playboy, I would venture to say that there were probably 40 to 50 young women that were silenced by Playboy because of sexual abuse,” she says. Hefner knew about these episodes, Masten says, because he read the daily security reports.” Review of Secrets of Playboy USA TODAY Feb. 7, 2022

I suspect decades rolled by without Paige’s name ever coming up in the Playboy universe. And if it did, they were told the “drug overdose” story.

Female Fixer and the bobbie Arnstein Problem

During a phone conversation, an individual working on Secrets of Playboy mentioned to me that he/she had learned of the existence of a “female fixer” who worked for Hugh Hefner in LA during Paige’s era the early and mid-1970s. In the next sentence, this person named Joni Mattis as a close assistant of Hef’s at that time.

This information of a female fixer, much less named as Joni Mattis, was not mentioned in the Secrets of Playboy.

Joni’s name was found in Paige Young’s phone book (copied from) I obtained a part of.

https://paigeyoung1968.com/2023/10/06/names-in-paiges-phone-book-joni-mattis-hef-desmond-guinness-michael-butler-of-hair-fwhc-new-painting-expect-updates-10-05-2023/

And it so happens that Paige’s suicide scene with mural, and notes naming Hefner, his friends, and other Hollywood players/Mansion guests.

And there was was a chance it could go public….

Certainly this would have presented a problem that desperately needed to be “fixed.”

April of 1974 was an especially awful time for Unflattering publicity to come out about Hefner and Playboy.

The arrest happened in front of her work place: Chicago Playboy Mansion.

Bobbie Arnstein was Hefner’s long time “Girl Friday” in Chicago.

The arrest happened only two weeks before Paige’s suicide. (Secrets of Playboy has an episode about Bobbie Arnstein.)

Background for context:

Hugh Hefner had been spending more and more time in Los Angeles ever since meeting 18-year-old Barbi Benton in 1968 on the set of his TV show: Playboy After Dark. Filming took place at CBS Studio on Fairfax St.

Paige Young may or may not have appeared on the syndicated show.

Hugh Hefner was looking for a property in LA.

One day in 1971, while driving around by herself, Barbi Benton spied an interesting looking mansion in Holmby Hills.

She scaled a fence to get a closer look and quickly knew it would be a perfect fit for a “Playboy Mansion West.”

Back at the Chicago mansion, Bobbie Arnstein held down the fort during Hefner’s increasingly frequent times away.

Bobbie was feeling left out and let down by Hefner around this time.

She told a few friends that she was frustrated by not receiving more public credit or at least a higher salary, for her years of dedication to Playboy the corporation, and to her boss and mentor Hugh Hefner.

Bobbie was struggling with drug abuse and an eating disorder. She was suffering with unacknowledged grief from her boyfriend’s death in a car accident. The accident happened a few years previous and Bobbie was the driver. Bobbie’s boyfriend Tom, was the younger brother of Victor Lownes, head of Playboy Club and Casino in London.

Apparently she never drove after the fatal crash.

Bobbie was very loyal to Hef and despite any conflicted feelings, there was a plan for Bobbie to relocate to LA and continue as Hefner’s secretary.

I’ve read she was concerned about the inevitable need to drive in LA.

Unfortunately, Bobbie killed herself shortly before that scheduled date arrived.

What happened after Bobbie’s very public arrest 2 weeks before Paige’s suicide?

Months after Paige Young’s suicide in Los Angeles, in the fall of 1974, Bobbie was given a 15-year provisional jail sentence. She was accused of a drug trafficking crime that she did not commit. A witness provided false testimony after making a deal with prosecutors.

The zealous prosecutors in Chicago wanted Bobbie to implicate Hugh Hefner in drug trafficking and she refused.

Bobbie was a drug user and abuser. She probably was involved in purchasing drugs from, and distributing drugs to friends, according to Secrets of Playboy.

See Adrienne Pollock‘s story of her fatal overdose, shown in the same episode.

It appears to me that Hefner was innocent, in this case, of formal and organized drug trafficking.

Hefner admitted to having a “laissez-faire” attitude about the behavior of his many guests at the mansion. He certainly wasn’t going to search their luggage or persons for drugs. He said this publicly at the time.

The whole case was dropped after Arnstein’s suicide.

Hefner’s press conference upon the death of close assistant Bobbie: coming soon.

END

More on Joni Mattis:

In 1974 Paige Young’s home was in Westwood. It was only a 10 minute car drive to the location of the Playboy Mansion in Holmby Hills.

Former police were employed by Hef as security guards on many occasions.

The local police in the area were on good terms with Hef. They were welcomed at the mansion. Several former employees of Playboy say this in the Secrets of Playboy.

Police in the Westwood/UCLA area would have attended Paige’s suicide scene and written the report. See chapter LAPD suicide report. And word of this would have made it to the mansion in short order. Probably to the “female fixer,” before even Hefner himself.

.

1974 Part 2 More on David Shane

Melanie Myers from the Daily Mail article told me in 2015 that the “brother of Cici Huston” had Paige’s “sex tape” in his possession. He would not hand it over to Paige, despite her repeated requests.

And that Paige often expressed the serious mental anguish and anger this was causing her.

…..fearful of a “sex tape” that “a relative of a major celebrity had made of her,” is how the Daily Mail phrased it.

One of the Shane brothers, David, is highly likely the one holding on to Paige’s sex tape. He was very active on the Sunset Strip social scene at the time. He owned businesses there. He was considered attractive to women during the 1950s-1960-1970s.

The Daily Mail wasn’t really interested in writing about him as “wasn’t a big enough name,” Melanie said to me.

Bob Shane is the oldest brother. Originally Myron Shane, Jr. I can’t find anything else about him but that he became known as Bob at some point. He was listed in Beverly Hills High yearbooks as Myron Shane Jr.

The youngest Shane brother Stephan, not mentioned in the obituary above, moved out of Beverly Hills. He lived further north in California. He married, divorced and died young in the 1970s.

From David Shane’s obituary:

He started a popular car rental agency, Hav -A -Kar, in the heart of the Sunset Strip. Hav-A-Kar was later sold to Thrifty, and David, as the property owner, saw the space become a Kenneth Cole store for many years before its current iteration, the Eveleigh restaurant. In the early 1960s David, who loved to cook, opened a burger joint called Alfie’s. It was a colorful fixture on the Strip and a veritable celebrity magnet. David decided to eventually lease the space in 1971 to the new owners who created Mirabelle, which remained steadfast on the Strip for over 40 years…… David was a jet setter and an avid outdoorsman. He attended USC for two years before transferring to the University of Mexico, in Mexico City, where he befriended painter Diego Rivera.

LAT Oct. 2016

Myron Shane started Hav-A-Kar in 1959 per newspaper articles and apparently signed it over to his son David L. Shane. Below shows a public record easily found online.

The Shane brothers and sister came from a family of money and social standing.

Their father was Myron Shane, Sr. already a wealthy business owner from Kansas City who moved his young family to Beverly Hills in the 1940s.

Myron Shane owned a yacht named the “Celeste.” He rented it out to wealthy celebrities including Frank Sinatra.

Myron Shane also used his yacht for charitable purposes.

Melanie told the Daily Mail, and me personally, that Paige “went out with” several men. I imagine that David Shane is one of those men. Celeste Shane in a message to me several years ago, said as much.

Paige told Melanie that some of her boyfriends paid her living expenses. These included kitchen appliances and a dog run for her Akitas.

( Don’t know what happened to Joshua the Weimaraner (?) or Hamish the horse)

As much as Paige expressed her distress over David Shane’s refusal to hand over the sex tape, ultimately she made a mural of hatred and blame towards Hugh Hefner.

From the Daily Mail:

“It was covered floor to ceiling with photos of Hugh Hefner, there were news clippings, magazine articles, everything you could think of. Written across it was something like ‘Hugh Hefner is the devil.” The whole wall was a shrine saying, ‘I hate Hugh Hefner,’ the crux of her anger was against him. That was the message she wanted to get across to me. She was pointing up at things, showing me around it.  She’s put a lot of work into this, it must have taken her days.” Daily Mail 2014

According to Melanie, Hefner and John Huston were mentioned in the suicide note as well.

“The cops had Paige’s suicide note and read some of it to me…the whole thing was about her anger towards the men who she believed had chewed her up and spat her out.  The two men who got the most attention were Hugh Hefner and the director John Huston. I know she dated Huston for a while and had just gotten back from a trip to Ireland with him.” Daily Mail Dec. 2014

“Paige also vented against other Hollywood stars who had used her, says Myers.”

This issue of People magazine was released at the end of 1974, 8 months after Paige’s suicide in LA and one month before Bobbie Arnstein’s suicide in Chicago.

LAPD Report Paige Young suicide

I obtained a copy of the LAPD report on Paige Young’s suicide, transcribed below.

The report is difficult to read; it looks like a copy of a copy of a copy and several words are faded almost beyond recognition.

Someone familiar with police codes and reports may understand it better.

When I was interviewed for the docu-series Secrets of Playboy; the crew filmed me opening the envelope containing this report.

The interviewer asked me to read the report on camera and I absolutely struggled.

I can see why that happened. The next day it took me an entire afternoon with a magnifying glass to transcribe what you see below.

Anyway, no footage or mention of the police report made it into Secrets of Playboy.

I have placed ??? for words and codes I can’t decipher.

EDI (PDI?) is witness and neighbor Melanie. I/D is the Investigating Detective.

Police Report Page 1:

I/D responded to a D/5 call at the above location. Upon arrival at 1500 hrs. I/D was met by 8A53 Ofcc’s Sullivan FI5452 and Peckins #15665. Death was pronounced by CA#92 at 1431. 8A53 upon arrival at the scene were met by EDI, who stated that the deceased was upstairs with a gun and was going to shoot herself. 8A53 at this time phoned for a backup unit. 8L/??and 8L10 responded. Ofccs at this time spent approx. 2 hours attempting to contact the deceased via the telephone and by calling ?? HEC? Offcs during this period were informed that a “SWAT” team was enroute and to stand by for their arrival. While Ofccs. were waiting for “SWAT” EDI suddenly ran into deceased’s apt. Ofccs fearing for EDI safety also entered the apt. Offcs. at time obs. the deceased lying on the bed with what appeared to be a gunshot wound to the head. Ofccs at this time phoned for an ambulance.

Page 2

EDI stated that she last saw the Dec. alive on 4-7-74 at approx. 10:30. Deceased stated at this time that she was going to end her life. Dec. at this time placed the barrel of her gun in her mouth. EDI attempted to talk Dec. out of taking her life. Dec. asked EDI to phone the police because she wanted to kill herself in front of the police. EDI at this time left and returned to her apartment and started to call friends of the Dec. Approx. one hr. later (1130) EDI contacted the PD. EDI further stated that deceased had been in a constant state of deep depression for the last two years.

Wit-2 stated that on 4-7-74 at approx. 0930, he rec a phone call from Dec. who requested that he come to her and pick up her (Dec) dogs. Dec. also stated she would leave a note explaining about the dogs. Wit. went to the above location and obs. the dogs in their pen. Wit also obs what appeared to be a note which had been torn up ?? the dogs. Wit took the dogs and the note to his home. Once there Wit pieced the note together. The note instructed Wit. what to do with the dogs. At the bottom it read, “don’t come up call the police.” Wit at this time contacted the LAPD and then returned to the above location.

I/D obs. the deceased lying on her back in bed with her her feet resting on the ?? Dec. head was pointed in a S/E direction. I/D obs. no evid of foul play. An inspection of weapon showed it to be A 2? .38 caliber S/W B/S bed 5 shot chief. The weapon was fully loaded with one spent gund(?) directly under the hammer. This weapon was BKD? at ???? and rigor mortis were obs. I/D obs. no evid of an exit wound.

Page 3

2H22 of SID was at the scene and took photos.

It is the opinion of the I/D that the Dec. committed suicide by firing a single shot from the above described weapon. This opinion is based of the statement of the EDI, and lack of evid to indicate otherwise. This death will be ???? as a suicide pending the final result of the cor. invest. The shot was fired into Dec. mouth and did not exit.

Since there was noone to ??/Dec. Prod, ???sealed the location.

END.

(Paige is listed as “artist” on her death certificate.)

Officers called to Paige’s suicide scene: Sullivan and Perkins or Peckins.

Investigating Detective I/D : Reddish, Richard M. Reddish who handled at least 2 other suicides in LA in his career per newspapers.com.

Police photographer on scene: Unknown

Coroner: Dr. Mall

Coroner’s office, removed Paige’s body from her home: Tim Gee.

2nd Witness: D DeWitt. Called by Paige on the 7th to take care of her dogs. According to this police report, this witness went to Paige’s house, retrieved the dogs and took the torn up note with with instructions for the dogs(?) Went to his house, pieced the note together. Note said “don’t come up call police.” Witness then returned to Paige’s house.

From there, nothing is said about witness DeWitt.

UPDATE: 7/8/23 I exchanged emails with Paige’s friend Veronica. Veronica suggested that DeWitt may be the individual who supplied Paige with Akita breed dogs. Paige was planning to breed Akitas (for income) in the yard of her Westwood home. She was arranging for him to take the dogs because of her plan to kill herself. I’ve tried to find any leads on this individual with no luck yet.

We can see what is not described in the report by Reddish. The suicide note and mural were created by Paige Young about hatred towards Hugh Hefner. Melanie described this to the Daily Mail in Dec. 2014 and it was dramatized in Secrets of Playboy.

Why not?

And there was a photographer on the scene.

Both witnesses, Melanie and DeWitt, in the 1974 report, corroborate what Melanie said in 2014: Paige wanted to make a statement about these men who abused her.

The fact that a police photographer took photos of Paige’s suicide scene is easy to read in the report. But where are those photos now?

During my interview with the Secrets of Playboy directors, I was asked what I thought about this. The director must have asked me at least three times.

I answered “I’d really like to know!” This was not included in the finished documentary.

The answer is that this photographed evidence was destroyed. The LAPD would say “lost” I’m sure.

Of course, I should have said that to the director.

In fact, there was no mention of this police report at all in Secrets of Playboy.

I found a blog that linked the Daily Mail Paige Young article with a personal comment about it:

oped: I totally believe the accusations…being that I worked for LAPD Van Nuys Division 1971-1974 I remember one of my Sgts. discussing this case…

I remember one of my Sgts discussing this case…it was hushed up at the higher levels of management… speculation being  a cover up on pressure from the entertainment moguls! And I can honestly say after dealing with the bookings of numerous celebrities during this period of time from DUI,Drugs,perversion,disturbing the peace on and on…oh the stories I could tell…maybe another time I will!

From Sharla’s Labyrinth

I can’t confirm independently that this person wrote the truth, but I don’t know why they would make it up. I asked exactly what s/he remembers about the Sargent’s words. H/she responded, “the (police) just said it was very sad.”

Keep in mind, there was absolutely no interest shown in 2014 (and 2015) when the Paige Young suicide and a connection to celebrities Cosby, Hefner and Huston was published in the Daily Mail online.

Part or most of that indifference is undoubtedly is the “tabloid taint” of the Daily Mail.

During 2014 and 2015 dozens of women were coming forward with stories of being drugged and raped or assaulted by Bill Cosby.

Hefner and Cosby were close friends for decades.