The Huffington Post has published a harrowing, deeply revealing cover story that details the story of a previously untold rape of Runaways bassist Jackie Fuchs by her now-deceased former band manager, Kim Fowley. According to the graphic account, the alleged rape occurred on New Year’s Eve 1976 when Fuchs, referred to then as “Jackie Fox,” was only 16.
That night the Runaways — the successful ’70s teen-rock group that famously launched the careers of Joan Jett and Lita Ford — played a set at an Orange County club called Wild Man Sam’s. The story details how the rest of the night went down:
After the final set, at around 1 a.m., Fowley took the band to a drab motel near the club, where they started celebrating with friends. Jackie had thought of herself at the time as only a provisional member of the Runaways. Getting through the marathon show felt like a triumph. She’d seen so many kids her own age in the audience staring up at her. “It was an amazing feeling,” she says. “It was empowering.”
The story then recounts how Fuchs was reportedly given Quaaludes by a man who thought she was a roadie. A party took place at the motel, where vocalist Cherie Currie and Jett were also present and reportedly witnessed the rape. It continues:
At some point, Jackie says she had to lie down on a bed to rest. She was having trouble staying upright. When a roadie checked to see if she was OK, Fowley asked him if he was interested in having sex with her. “She doesn’t mind,” Fowley said. “Do you?”
Jackie tried to protest, but she was frozen. “You don’t know what terror is until you realize something bad is about to happen to you and you can’t move a muscle,” she says. “I can’t move. I can’t speak. All I can do is look him in the eye and do the best I can do to communicate: Please say no. … I don’t know what it looked like from the outside. But I know what was going on inside and it was horror.” The roadie declined Fowley’s offer, and soon after, Jackie says she started to slip in and out of consciousness.
What follows is a painful read:
Fowley invited other guys to have sex with Jackie before removing his own pants and climbing on top of her. “Kim’s f—king someone!” a voice shouted from the door of the motel room to the partygoers outside, calling them in to watch. Arguelles returned to the room to see if this was all a big joke.
On the bed, Fowley played to the crowd, gnashing his teeth and growling like a dog as he raped Jackie. He got up at one point to strut around the room before returning to Jackie’s body.
“I remember opening my eyes, Kim Fowley was raping me, and there were people watching me,” Jackie says. She looked out from the bed and noticed Currie and Jett staring at her. She says this was her last memory of the night. Jett, through a representative, denied witnessing the event as it has been described here. Her representative referred all further questions to Jackie “as it’s a matter involving her and she can speak for herself.”
You can read the entire story, titled The Lost Girls, here.
