Connecticut native Cassie Ventura, the singer who brought initial charges against Sean “Diddy” Combs, told prosecutors through documents that she was afraid Combs would “come after me and my family” after she testified against the rapper and producer who was sentenced to four years and two months in prison on Oct. 3.
Combs, who was acquitted of more serious charges, was charged under the Mann Act, named after Rep. James R. Mann, (R.-Ill). The Mann Act, also known as the “the White-Slave Traffic Act of 1910,” was a 1910 federal law criminalizing the transportation of women across state lines for “prostitution, debauchery, or any other immoral purpose.”
Mann used the Commerce Clause of the Constitution to use interstate or foreign commerce to transport women for these immoral purposes, according to Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute. “The Act was aimed at prostitution, immorality, and human trafficking,” according to Cornell. In 1907, Congress appointed a commission to investigate immigrant sex workers, which today we would call sex trafficking. Then, as now, federal officials claimed that immigrant women were brought to America for sexual slavery. Today, the Department of Homeland Security investigates charges of sex and labor trafficking, which it calls human trafficking and defines as “the crime of compelling a person to provide labor or services, or to engage in commercial sex acts.”
In the last fiscal year, Homeland Security reported it initiated 1,686 criminal investigations related to sex trafficking and forced labor, leading to more than 2,500 arrests.
Among the celebrities apprehended through the Mann Act were boxer Jack Johnson, convicted and posthumously pardoned by Donald Trump in 2018; singer Chuck Berry, convicted in 1962 for transporting an underage Indigenous girl across state lines; actor Charlie Chaplin, the target of an investigation in 1944 but acquitted; and Frank Lloyd Wright, who was with his future (and pregnant) wife, Olgivanna Lazovich Hinzenburg, while he was still legally married to his previous wife, Miriam Noel. Although the charges were dropped, it created quite a scandal for the architect. More recently British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell was prosecuted and convicted under the Mann Act for her role conspiring with Jeffrey Epstein to traffic and sexually abuse underage girls.
The problem was that the Mann Act “drew its power from its vagueness,” according to The New York Times. In 1986, Congress excised the immorality clause and replaced it with “any sexual activity for which any person can be charged with a criminal offense.”
‘Psycho’ based on notorious crime
Westport Country Playhouse’s classic film series, which recently presented Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho,” the landmark psychological horror film, serves as a reminder of how many of us still shudder at the “shower scene” from the 1960 suspense film. So did star Janet Leigh. In 1984, Leigh told Women’s World that after infamous shower scene, she stopped taking showers. “I only take baths,” Leigh told the magazine. “And when I’m someplace where I can only take a bath, I make sure the doors and windows of the house are locked. I also leave the bathroom door open and shower curtain open. I’m always facing the door, watching, no matter where the shower head is.”
Trivia Question
Of his movie Hitchcock later said, “33% of the effect of ‘Psycho’ was due to the music.” Who was the composer of the iconic “Psycho” music?
Netflix new series
If you are in the mood, of course, “Psycho” makes for a great Halloween treat. It becomes a bit less (or more, depending on your predilection for ghoulishness) so when you realize the film was based on a true story. Robert Bloch’s 1959 novel “Psycho,” fictionalized the ghastly murders committed by the infamous serial killer Ed Gein, a Wisconsin recluse who lived in a farmhouse with his mother. His grisly methods included the whole repertoire of horror: Grave robbing, necrophilia and the recycling of body parts for upholstery and clothing. Yes, the monstrosities in which Gein indulged inspired many a horror film.
Though he was referred to as the “Butcher of Plainfield,” he was convicted of only two murders -those of body of Bernice Worden and Mary Hogan. He was apprehended on Nov. 16, 1957, after the disappearance of Worden, who owned a hardware story. Investigators searching the property revealed a plethora of macabre evidence, including some related to the killing of Hogan, a tavern owner missing since 1954.
The investigation that followed led authorities to Gein’s secluded farmhouse. Upon searching the property, they made a shocking discovery related to the disappearance of Worden. Further searching of the house revealed disturbing items. Investigators also found evidence related to the disappearance of Hogan, a tavern owner who had been missing since 1954. Police arrested Gein later that night. He confessed but pled not guilty by reason of insanity. Diagnosed as schizophrenic, he was deemed unfit for trial. He spent much of the remainder of his life in mental hospitals, including the Mendota Mental Health Institute in Madison, Wisconsin, where he died at 77 in 1984.
Netflix released “Monster: The Ed Gein Story” Oct. 3.
Trivia Answer
Bernard Hermann wrote the music for “Psycho.” One of the most prolific film composers of the 20th century, he is also responsible for “Citizen Kane” and “Taxi Driver.”
This article originally published at CT Culture Corner: A look a celebrities tied to the Mann Act, also the true story behind ‘Psycho’.