"..trying to assuage his own guilt?"

On May 5, 2019, Ms. Cindy Martin addressed briefly the subject of Tracy Terhune's continued attacks on Rudolph Valentino's closest friend and trusted business manager, S. George Ullman. I excerpt a longer message which she sent that day to share the following:

“Then there is George Ullman. If that man was truly a friend to Rudy, then why is Tracy trying to cut him down? Well. Perhaps because Tracy now owns many things Ullman once owned and Tracy is trying to assuage his own guilt? Tracy has no business with many of those things.”

I have to say in hindsight it would have been interesting to pursue that train of thought a  bit more then. But I still find it interesting in that Ms. Martin supports what I posted a few days ago. These artifacts should be housed in a museum where they are handled by and preserved by conservators. They should be made available to the public for study and review and this conservation should be maintained under the ownership and auspices of the Valentino family. Not only are these historical treasures not being housed in an appropriate facility where they are preserved by professionals, but they are sold off to the highest bidder and lost into oblivion. What a disgrace and a great loss for Rudolph Valentino's legacy.

On the subject of Valentino's Nobility

Posting the link to the great podcast interview with Professor Aurelio Miccoli of Castellaneta in which this great historian shares his research and knowledge of Rudolph Valentino's nobility. Enjoy!

https://soundcloud.com/user-346379988/rudolph-valentino-his-noble-ancestry-the-castles-more

For the Record - Some Numbers

Alberto Valentino stated many times over the years after his brother Rudolph's death, how he and his sister Maria received nothing but a “few” items of sentimental value from his brother's estate. In examining the data contained within the court records on the actual dispensation of Valentino's estate which I discovered in 2003, we find this is a false statement indeed.

As the originals of those probate records were stolen and are now in the hands of the collectors and some allege the Valentino family, it was for decades impossible to fact check Alberto's statements. Well I am able to do so now and share the following as clarification.

Before Valentino's death, as itemized under the “Baskerville Audits”, subtitle, 1926 “Gray Book” Household Expenses #3:

During the last four months of Rudolph Valentino's life, Alberto receives a total of $6050.00 dating from the first entry on April 7, 1926 until July 6, 1926. (by today's monetary value as calculated x 13, this would be today $78,650.) As the average annual income at the time in the U.S. was 1500-2000$ this was almost six times what most Americans would make in a year. 

After Valentino's death in August of 1926, Ullman, as executor, dispersed the following to Maria and Alberto, while acting in good faith believing they were the rightful heirs. As itemized in the court records under the heading of “The Matter of Heirship and Distribution” we find the following:

Maria Guglielmi Strada receives, in cash and personal property, $21,616.33. (today's value, $281,012.29) With the personal property alone Ullman advanced to her totaling, $3,428.00 (today's value, $44,564)

Alberto received during the same time frame from Ullman, $36,949.71 (today's value, $480,366.33) I do not have access to a specific itemization of the personal property advanced to Alberto but do know from various newspaper reports and collector Bill Self that Alberto had possession of various cars, Valentino's dog Kabar, clothing and jewelry.

Contrary to Alberto saying he and his sister only received a “few items of sentimental value”, from 1926 until 1930, Rudolph Valentino's siblings received from the executor of their brother's estate, a total of $59,027.33 (today's value, $767,355.29)

**This total reflects only information entered in the extracts which I had access to in the court of appeals records covering a time frame from 1926 until 1930.

Contrary to the story given by Alberto and his life long effort to falsely impugn Ullman.. he and his sister lived extremely well from Ullman's generosity in the days before that second page of Valentino's will was discovered. If Alberto found himself broke by 1930 it was certainly not due to George Ullman or any lack of cash from his brother's estate. It is my opinion Alberto squandered the money he received, living far beyond his means and hiring lawyers for years in a vendetta to “get” Ullman. That vendetta is incredibly still being carried out today.

The story of what happened to Ullman as a result of his accommodating Valentino's siblings is covered fully in Affairs Valentino. Refer to Affairs Valentino and The Companion Guide for more about the missing page of Valentino's will and the false narrative which was subsequently purported by Alberto Valentino; this made possible as no one could fact check the records. Not much of a mystery why those court records turned up missing.

Tracy Ryan Terhune Whines Again

Tracy Terhune's continued smearing of George Ullman is as always a slurry of half truths and lies. Selling through an agent does not mean it is the black market. It means retaining someone to act as an agent for you. And if Terhune believes these items were not legally obtained... then how is he any better being in possession of them now? It is a crime to own stolen merchandise and that is what he is claiming these things are.  Good grief most of Self's collection would have a dubious provenance Mr. Terhune.  

Yes, I would point out that dubious provenance of most of the collector's items and as one example...the court records which these collectors have all had their grubby little hands on. How about Michael Morris' archival materials... those two wicker baskets of Ullman's archive... I could go on and on.

It is a sleezy business and because Ullman gave it to Bill Self kind of proves Ullman had no financial interest in these things. Self sure did. Terhune sure does. Self took Ullman for a real ride to amass his collection as he did with most all the players in that sad scenario. And why did Self not return these items to the Valentino family or bequeath them to the family? Why were they sold off at auction? 

In my opinion...Tracy Terhune is obsessed with bashing Ullman, probably does so in his sleep... and this because it puts him in good stead with the Valentino family. It is baseless and boring and oh brother so very obvious. 

He neglects to add all of the things that Ullman, in good faith, dispersed to Valentino's sister and brother which ultimately they had no right to own at all... I cover this in Affairs Valentino... the book Tracy Ryan Terhune does not want anyone to ever read. 

It is also curious Tracy Terhune does not mention how the handyman Lou Mahoney drove off with a van full of items from Falcon Lair and guess where that all ended up... in Tracy Terhune's stockpile of Rudy loot. Did Mahoney have legal possession of all of that loot? How did he prove the provenance.. His word? Which we know is ridiculous grandstanding and total bs.

Terhune's latest smear on Ullman speaks more about him than Ullman in that he includes his dig in his caption? ..that he would use that opportunity to smear a man who was utterly persecuted and tortured for 30 years despite his being fully exonerated by the court. Ullman was an honest man. 

Alberto and Maria .. Valentino's siblings, as I mentioned.. had no legal right to a thing they took. None as they were not heirs. All of these things should be in a museum or given back to the Valentino family...and not passed about like some currency by small minded people who use them to try and elevate their own sorry selves and pretend to care about Valentino's history and memory. For them is it $$$ on the table and nothing more. Ullman declared personal bankruptcy in 1947 and still he did not sell off these items.  They had meaning for him and he believed Self would care for them as he did for decades. 

Tracy Terhune is a man who has bullied me and my husband for years, calling us vicious and cruel and agist names and conducting a campaign to ruin us which has now been forcefully revealed by Cindy Martin. 

Shameful behavior which is especially reprehensible in these tough times... and if Terhune is so outraged that these things belonged to the Valentino family why is he not demanding the return of all of those items? Why does he not give them back to the family? He is guilty of exactly what he is accusing Ullman of doing. But then if he did the right thing and gave it back to the family he would be powerless to get those oohs and ahhs in his Facebook group. Maybe some of his followers are impressed but me... knowing what I do? I am disgusted. 

Thank You, Sincerely!

This was sent to me on the day Michael Morris passed away, July 16, 2016. I have been accused of writing my own reviews. I never have and never would as some other desperate authors have done. I posted exactly one review on Amazon for a book and that was for the book written by Hala Pickford... some book where she fictionally had Valentino living until 100 I think. I wrote that review as a favor. If I post something such as an email, it is preserved precisely as it is on the server. In fact as it is preserved on two servers.

"He Gave a Rather Nice, Though Very Nervous Little Speech..."

Recovering the 1975, S. George Ullman Memoir

In 2003, I located the two surviving children of Rudolph Valentino's close friend and trusted business manager, S. George Ullman. They were both in their late 70's and both eager to meet with me. Bunny and Bob Ullman wanted not only to have their father's story told but to know their father's story. He told his family next to nothing about his travails as Valentino's executor and the prolonged legal issues with Valentino's brother Alberto.

Over a period of a couple of years I worked with Bob and Bunny and visited them periodically while writing Affairs Valentino. Bob was gravely ill at the time and I knew time was of the essence. He was determined I find the court records of Valentino's estate to know the truth about what happened to his father. I did find those records... enough of them for him to know his father was exonerated, praised by the court and also persecuted by a cruel and woefully unjust collection process waged against him for 30 years by Alberto Valentino.

In my first visit with Bunny she told me her father was writing a book when he died in 1975. But the only copy they had she loaned to a gentleman in southern California, a local historian, paranormal investigator and ghost hunter who conducts tours and can be booked to give lectures on a variety of local historical subjects.

I do not recall exactly how he came to have their only copy of the memoir but I believe Bunny told me she spoke about her father and shared the memoir with a book club she belonged to and this was how she came to loan her only copy of the memoir. That was some two years prior and she had yet to convince the gentleman to return the manuscript. 

At the time I lived in San Francisco and I knew my ex-husband had a business trip planned in Los Angeles and asked Bunny if she could write a letter granting him authority to retrieve her father's memoir. She did just that. 

When my ex-husband presented Bunny's letter, the gentleman handed over an open, worn US Priority mail envelope containing about an inch of loose papers.

My ex-husband then delivered this precious parcel to Bunny. About a week later I visited her and it was then she gave me the memoir. The memoir consisted of faded photocopies, was not bound but she made an attempt to organize it for me.

Now at the time I was also interviewing collector Bill Self and as I was then ridiculously unaware and naive...I told him, excitedly... about my find. He turned to me and said he had read George's memoir because George “loaned” it to him and he then asked me, “How many pages do you have?” I did not actually know but I answered, “All of them??” That was the end of that discussion. I am sure at that point Self quickly distracted me with another Rudy relic to change the topic.

Bob and Bunny Ullman were not surprised to hear Bill Self read the memoir. Neither of them held much respect for Self and both felt he took advantage of their father and they both felt he masterminded the theft of their father's Valentino archive he kept in those wicker baskets in his garage. (More about that in Affairs Valentino) For Bunny... Self never rose past an exchange with him which took place in 1979 at her brother Dan's funeral. She told me Self made a joke to her that day at the funeral which she found inappropriate. She did not laugh and he said, “What's the matter, Bunny? Don't you have a sense of humor?” She told him it was her brother's funeral.

For Bob it was about those court records. He was dying and he knew it and wanted to know. And as I began to vet George's memoir, I began to piece the story together. But it would not be until 2008, that I would realize Self made a copy of George's manuscript. He most probably told George he would help find him a publisher or some such thing and gave him back that stack of copies. Why else would the family have a copy? Where was the original. Knowing what I do now about Self and collectors... I am sure he held on to George's original.

I learned about this when the L.A. Times was conducting interviews for an article on Valentino in 2008-2009. I add this article was inspired by Micheal Morris as he knew the reporter. The reporter called me at my work place one day to tell me he just met with Valentino family spokeswoman, Jeanine Villalobos and she told him the family had a copy of the 1975 memoir. I knew immediately how that came about... Bill Self.

Bob and Bunny were upset obviously and Bob never really believed they had a copy. Bunny was more worried they had created some false document and it was on her suggestion I made my statement on her behalf before my speech in Turin in 2009.

After my speech, Jeanine Villalobos rose from the audience during a question and answer session to imply George Ullman was “shopping” the manuscript. I have always regretted I did not ask her why the family, who admitted to having access to a copy never mentioned its existence nor shared all of those great anecdotes publicly.

Bob and Bunny granted me non-transferrable, exclusive rights to the memoir and authorized not only Affairs Valentino but the publication of the memoir with a biography of their father.

The last they heard from Bill Self was when their mother asked him to intervene on her behalf when she applied for residency in a retirement home in Beverly Hills. According to Bunny, Self refused and her mother came to live the remainder of her life with her. There was no love between the Ullmans and Self.

In all the interviews I had with Self during 2003, he knew I was also interviewing Bob and Bunny and never once asked for me to give them his best regards, a tiny hello, and he never asked where they were or how they were. There was no attempt to contact them at all.

I made my copy of the memoir and returned the stack of faded pages to Bunny and have told the story. And today again I call out those who knew about this remarkable document and said nothing all those years. How many more historically important documents are they hiding, selling off into oblivion, tossing into the wind for some to cash? How far they have gone to control their false narrative.

Godspeed!

Everyone just focus on this for a while and stay the hell home. Stop thinking up reasons to go out at all. It is the only way this will end. Leeloo knows. Tuck yourself in and chill out. 

God bless. More from my bottomless archive manana! 

Rambova was Not Mentioned

I am not sure who began to tell the lie that Natacha Rambova was named specifically in her husband, Rudolph Valentino's first contract with United Artists; banished by name. When I was first researching Affairs Valentino I wanted to read the contract and collector Bill Self said he had a copy. He told me in every interview he would have it ready for me the next time we got together but he never did; always saying he could not find it. Well.... eventually I did find it.

The entire contract was included in the appeals case filed by George Ullman which I discovered in 2003. So I was able to read the contract and learn Natacha Rambova had zero mention. As I have stated many times, George Ullman wrote she was prohibited from stepping foot on the United Artists' lot via a memo he received from Joe Schenck.

And this has contributed to, and has become part of the tired old lie that Rambova married Valentino for his name to advance her career. How ridiculous... if one has the slightest knowledge of both of their career situations when they met it is easy to see this is 100% false. Rambova had the greater career when they met and at her tender age she was a sought-after set and costume designed working with Cecil B. DeMille and Nazimova. Valentino was still making a name for himself.

And fact: Rambova's career would be destroyed completely by her marriage to Valentino and she would leave Hollywood in ruins professionally. So much blame has been heaped on her and if one reads the rhetoric churned out over the decades it is nothing more than malicious misogyny.

In Astral Affairs Rambova, I included an interview she gave to journalist Herb Howe in which she tells all and is candid about what happened to her in Hollywood. It is sadly obvious that portraying Rambova as the enemy.. has become an important element in the false narrative claiming Valentino was a hapless victim to everyone in his life.

Her name was not mentioned in the United Artists contract. I was the first person to share that one change in the history and I posted the contract online @ https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Bh5Mc0vGGjItipY9uabh9sQ14MxAaQ7w/view

A Memorable Connection

I found the document below an interesting point in time. Michael Morris receives written permission from Natacha Rambova's former love and financé, Svetoslav Roerich, to reproduce the painting of her on the back cover of Madam Valentino. It is, in a way, a direct connection between Michael Morris and his great subject and although Svetoslav was a very elderly gentleman at the time, he lived long enough to grant the permission. 

There are some interesting videos of the elderly "Svetie" on Youtube; a fascinating and an iconic life.

What Happens When You Write A Book on Valentino – Part 2

Well I will qualify that and say it is more about “What Happens When You Write A Book on Valentino Without The Censor's Approval”... because if I had written Affairs Valentino under the “guidelines” and line by line approval of that “team” of “experts”... the following might never have happened to me. Alas I did not and this took place.

In 2006, my friend Wayne went to Sri Lanka. He went there because he was then addicted to prescription drugs with morphine being the biggest problem. He was prescribed these medications because he was the victim of an horrific beating in Southern Illinois. He was there taking care of his mother and while jogging one day he was attacked and left for dead. He suffered a traumatic head injury from which he never truly recovered.

I knew Wayne for 40 years and at the time I lived in Los Angeles and we saw each other often. Of course I, and all of Wayne's loved ones, thought his decision to travel to an Ayurvedic treatment center in the jungles of Sri Lanka to be a terrible one. It was a do or die effort for him.

When he returned, he set to writing the story of what happened to him in Sri Lanka which without spoiling the story I will say surpassed anything he had experienced in his long life. It was a mind-boggling story. He asked me to help him write his book which he initially titled Scar (his nickname) and then changed to, Buddha's Tooth and Morphine. At some point while Wayne was writing (and he was a fabulously entertaining writer) he had a weekend affair with a young man who thought he was being written into the book (he was) and he deleted Wayne's entire manuscript.

All that was left of his book was what he sent me. Wayne was so distraught he had no interest in recovering the project and told me to do what I wanted with it. Instead we took to leaving our Skype cams on for days on end (between Italy and Wayne in California) and I wrote the end of his story by watching his life as he was then in a facility for the insane. I wrote the book and sent him a draft in 2012. He said he could never read it and a few days later he suffered a massive stroke and has been in a nursing home ever since.

I changed the names and locations in the book and we put it out. Now as I was then under such brutal cyber-bullying attack by David Bret and the “team”, I used a pen name of Lord Wilde in the hopes Bret et al would not find Wayne's book and it could be safe. But Bret did find it. Now bear in mind this book is a story of a gay man and the victim of a hate crime and his struggle to recover. And I add that Wayne did write Bret a letter once defending me and calling him out.

Upon finding that we published this little book..Bret then seized the new angle and wrote many spoofs, blogs and even a book about “Lord Wilde” and Wayne.. and of course all laden with shockingly homophobic jokes and plot lines; i.e. how Wayne went to Sri Lanka because he was a pedophile and worse. Of course Wayne never knew about this because by then he had lost his consciousness forever.

So apparently the assaults on me because I dared to say publicly I thought Valentino was not gay extended far beyond any books on Valentino. Did any one of that unholy, “team” voice a public protest about Bret's attacks on Wayne? Did they distance themselves from his disgusting homophobic posts and those “spoofs” mocking Wayne's tragic story? No, they did not. In this I hold them all complicit. 100%.

Bret et al have attacked anyone I support, anyone who supports me, all books we have published and their authors. It is a sweeping and comprehensive hate campaign and one they should all remedy today post haste. Without their complete and immediate statements deploring these actions, they are all guilty of hate crimes and certainly continue to add to the one inflicted on my friend Wayne... who I called Ethan in the book.

Buddha's Tooth and Morphine is a small book, but not a small story at all... it is a true story and one I feel is so important today. A day when kindness should be the absolute rule, when tolerance should be the order of everyone's day and when a book written to inspire others and a book which exposes actual homophobia and the problems of prescription drug addiction...should be rewarded and praised for its courage and contribution! 

Even today I Googled the book's title and found Bret's ungodly crap calling me the "Queen of Homophobia" and there it was... all of his shameful, spoof garbage about this book and Wayne. How is that possible? And yes I call out all of you who have stood by silently while this has happened. You know who you are. Fix this now.  How can you permit someone, namely David Bret, who claims to be a champion of the LGBT community, to continue to attack this work? 

Affairs Valentino? Buddha's Tooth and Morphine was sure one of them! I am very proud of this book. Very!

"She Had A Great And Wholesome Influence"

A bit of commentary on the subject from columnist O.O. McIntyre who knew Rudolph Valentino, Natacha Rambova and George Ullman very well. McIntyre was a highly respected and articulate man and I think he would be writing the truth.

For the "Cowards and Jackals"

This letter written by Natacha Rambova's cousin, Ann Wollen to Michael Morris is so articulate about the issues facing Natacha, I feel it must be shared. She expressed her awareness of the “cowards and jackals” who make their “dimes feeding off the dead”. How apt is that? And it seems so little has changed.

I have always been mystified why Natacha is so vilified. People marry, they divorce for various and personal reasons and they go on with their lives. It is absurd to lay blame on Natacha in light of all she contributed to the image and career of one Rudolph Valentino. Michael Morris was adamant she was the “Woman Behind the Myth” and George Ullman wrote how Valentino owed Natacha a great deal. I think this tired bashing is just part of the false narrative portraying Valentino as everyone's victim. I dispute that 100%. 

It is sexism, misogyny and ignorance to continue to bash this great woman who contributed so much to this story. Whatever their personal issues were there is no doubt Rudolph Valentino and Natacha Rambova loved each other deeply. And as I learned while writing Astral Affairs Rambova, those who were there with Natacha in France during the last week of Valentino's life, report they reconciled and were exchanging loving cablegrams. This is confirmed by a second source in The True Rudolph Valentino by Baltazar Cue.

I often wonder what happened to those cablegrams. Did they end up being tossed to the wind like the letters to Bruno? Did the censor sell them off to anyone, anywhere so they would vanish forever? For surely proof of Valentino and Natacha's reconciliation would not be a comfortable fit in the false narrative espoused by the, “cowards and jackals.”

Times are so tough right now... I say give Natacha Rambova her moment and let up on the bashing which is unfounded, idiotic and cruel. 

Here follows:

"I Just Wanted To Sit On The Floor!"

A page nine from a ten page letter from Mark Hasselriis to Michael Morris dated September 11, 1990.

On the Subject of Anonymous

One of the more absurd claims David Bret repeats in his bullshit version of events... is his stating that I sent the online group Anonymous to, I guess, attack him. First of all they attacked no one but more about that in a minute. It went like this:

I received an email some time in 2013 I believe, from Anonymous. They told me they had been watching David Bret's vicious blogs against me, wanted to help and told me that they had already contacted him.

Well at that point anyone, and I mean anyone... offering to help felt like a gift from heaven. But I had no idea who they were and had to Google “Anonymous”. I am still somewhat confused as to what they actually do but until that day I never heard of them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonymous_(group)

Well apparently Bret was intimidated because he instantly removed his many blogs, I think he was running about five or six about me at the time. I wrote the Anonymous contact back asking all sorts of questions and obviously was so very hopeful they might actually bring an end to the daily torture being churned out by Bret and the “team”.

I did not get an immediate answer and sure enough within a few hours all of Bret's sickening blogs were back online and he was on an hysterical rampage. I wrote again to Anonymous asking them exactly what was their plan. When I heard back they replied they would have a meeting and let me know. Well of course this all incited Bret and he ramped up his attacks and opened more blogs. I grew increasingly disgusted with Anonymous because all in all they had just handed him fodder and made my situation worse.

I think I heard two more times from some person unnamed to tell me they were going to have their mythical meeting which apparently never happened. The entire subject faded away except for Bret's whining about it.

And oh hell yes...If I thought they would have helped me and if I even knew about them I would have contacted them. I did contact police several times in three countries, lawyers, Google, any possible venue in the hopes of making the Bret horror stop.

Meanwhile Bret has accused me of absurdities which are too numerous to list here today from drug abuse to incest to homophobia to being a nazi. He has accused me of trying to kill him, plotting with Anonymous, and blah blah blah. I have addressed the identities of his cohorts and “the team” (and yes they called themselves that proudly for years).. It is not rocket science to figure how the why and who of their "organization"..And on this I share this item from my files which was forwarded to me from someone on a site called, Nitrateville...

 And yes for the record, Bret lost the lawsuit I filed against him in 2016, and now must pay the damages due plus all of our legal fees. I share one page of the Italian judge's verdict where she reviews the type of abuse Bret levied against me.

For the record I did not contact Anonymous and somehow they found Bret all on their own. This has become such a huge theme for him and he has gotten so much mileage out of it that I now think he was behind it all. He sent that original e-mail to me for God knows why but perhaps to make himself look like the victim as this is his only theme; such as his poorly orchestrated Chris A. Wagenti, Christina Wagenti scam which I will address here soon.

On a lighter note I found this image in my files while sorting; Johnny Depp as Valentino's Sheik. I apologize for the poor quality of the image but still find it interesting.

And to those who have found this blog and may be reading I say thank you and stay safe. Stay indoors and God Bless!

Baby Bob Ullman

An image which disappeared for a while; Baby Bob Ullman with Douglas Fairbanks. George Ullman can be see wearing the hat on the other side of the horse. This would have been taken around 1925. 

With All Due Respect

This is an extremely rare e-mail from Valentino collector William (Bill) Self to me. (see below)  I say rare because he was careful not to have anything he said in writing. As I have mentioned he did not even like me taking notes during our visits. I did so discreetly. He sent this e-mail to me to inform me he was no longer communicating with Campbell's Funeral Home regarding the purchase of Valentino's shipping case or sarcophagus. I would discover soon after this e-mail that he had already contacted the owner, Dick Cunningham and the case was already gone.

Self also responds to me in this e-mail about my request to view the probate court records. He told me collector Jim Craig had them and I asked if I could in the least read them and he said he would ask. As I have mentioned Self told me the entire case file of the stolen court documents were returned to the family/Jeanine Villalobos. I would learn later from Donna Hill that this was in exchange for one of Valentino's shirts.

Now this is not new information but the shocking remark in this e-mail for me was that Self believed that case file "belonged" with the family. No, with all due respect Mr. Self, they are public documents and the property of the state of California. They are by law required to be housed in the Hall of Records and are certainly not private property. As mentioned I did manage to find the Appeals Court copies of some 1000 pages of the file about one year later. As always this print out could be verified because it would be, as an e-mail, preserved on the servers of sender and recipient. I find it interesting he was careful not to mention Jim Craig's name in this e-mail but did mention the Valentino family spokeswoman by name.

From the Foxlair History

Here follows a few pages from the Foxlair history and these concern some of the biographical information of Natacha Rambova's step-father Richard Hudnut.

When You Write A Book On Rudolph Valentino....

One of the more bizarre things that happened to me because I wrote Affairs Valentino, was being accused of kidnapping a child. Here is how that happened.

In the fall of 2011, we decided to retreat to a friend's familiar place in Morocco for a few months. Despite the distance, the daily attacks against me, my work, my family continued everyday online and there was no escaping that even in Africa. For a while I did my best to respond but that would come to an end. As I have mentioned in some of our podcast episodes, when David Bret threatened to open a blog against my ex-husband, I panicked and closed my blog. This is the blog Tracy Terhune has run ever since to divert web traffic and inspire hatred and scorn about me and my husband.

Now in the fall of 2011, it seemed David Bret was involved in another online furor. This was the disappearance of the British child Madeleine McCann. I knew next to nothing then about the case but as Bret was involved in an aggressive assault on me and also heavily engaged with the McCann situation, it was not long before some of them contacted me. I am still not sure of the details of that mess but I believe Bret was against the child's parents saying they were involved in her disappearance. In any case, it was a heated battle about a tragic situation and one I wished to have no involvement with at all.

I made a post expressing my dismay that Bret would have anything to do with missing children because the nature of what he was posting about me then was highly sexual and twisted beyond belief. This said my blog, before I closed it, was soon being read by Bret's McCann enemies as they were all hoping for some way to shut him up.

At one point I did begin to check their sites and blogs to see what was going on. And it was then I read a post one morning which reported how Scotland Yard had been contacted because apparently the author of that blog had some form of tracker on it to see who was reading. They went on to say that they believed the McCann child had been taken to Morroco and since I was logging on from my home in Morroco, they called authorities and gave them my IP address. I guess they believed the kidnappers were reading their blogs.

I remember looking at my laptop reading that... thinking it was some sort of homing device and I was about to be arrested by Interpol for the abduction of Madeleine McCann. I sent an urgent message to the blog administrator and waited to hear back. It was a long 24 hours before this was remedied.

Shortly after that I was forced into closing the blog and went offline for almost one year hoping this would stop the attacks. It did not and in fact made them worse.

I will add on this McCann subject that David Bret has accused me of having his blog shut down then when he was running some kind of petition; and I still have no idea what the purpose of that was. I never had any of his blogs shut down, although god knows I sure tried.

I think David Bret underestimated the force and fury of his McCann enemies and over the next couple of years they continued sporadically to contact me, send me images and screenshots and keep me updated. I sent them a minimal response and had little involvement with them because honestly I felt the case was one for the authorities and not to be debated in some hysterical online battle. Both sides in my opinion should have shut up.

I also add that at that time the attacks against me from Bret were so vicious and unstoppable I was trying anything I could for help. Some things I did were naive and some frantic, desperate... but there was no manual as to how to deal with such a thing. I did the best I could at the time and all in all to no avail.

The McCann people faded away and I have not heard from them in many years. They used to call me the “Valentino Woman” and for a while we had something in common. And for a little while they accused me of kidnapping.

In November of 2011, Renato and I sailed home on the Grandi Navi Veloci and it was cold... see below:

The Love Child Theory

Of all the research discoveries I made over the years, I think the most intriguing was my theory that Jean Valentino was Rudolph Valentino's love child. This was something first suggested to me by my literary agent some time in 2003 and I then began trying to prove or disprove it and see what the facts were.

I discovered a decades-long cover-up, with many documents missing.. with the surviving bits and pieces creating a story which became more coherent and obvious over time. To date not one piece of evidence I have uncovered disputes the theory. I was perhaps the most skeptical of all and it took me years to be convinced Jean was Rudolph's biological child. I presented the story as a circumstantial case in Affairs Valentino and included in the book's Special Edition, our follow-up research and analysis.

I ask today what would you conclude from the following?

Why would a loving mother send her favorite son to America knowing she would most probably never see him again and do this in the dead of winter a few weeks before Christmas? This was long before ships had stabilizers and at a time when the North Atlantic Sea was bitterly cold and rough.

Why did Rudolph's brother Alberto tell Spanish journalist Baltazar Cue, he did not see Rudolph before he left for America because his brother had to go first to Turin to see a woman he considered his great love?

Why did Alberto appear to be employed as a City Clerk in a town where he and his wife Ada held no official residence and where Alberto would be able to register Jean's birth? And I add a job he would leave shortly after this.

Why.. under the address of the baby Jean's birth and residence did Alberto pencil in an address in Turin; hundreds of miles from where he was registering the birth?

Why was this address that of Alberto's wife Ada's family, the Del Mazzones who moved to Turin just weeks prior to the birth?

Why did Gabrielle, Rudolph's mother, leave with her daughter Maria when baby Jean would have been but a couple of months old to move to France and an active and deadly war zone? Why would she leave a peaceful city of Taranto, her son Alberto and her new and only grandson to flee so far and into conflict?

Why are there no baby pictures of Jean and the first we see are the ones taken in Campobasso in 1923 when he was nine years old?

Why was Jean given the French version of the name Giovanni?

Why are all of the Guglielmi family forms missing from Turin, Campobasso, Santeramo en Colle?

Why is there no registry evidence of Alberto or Ada as having ever lived in Turin when they cite this as residence on American immigration papers?

Why did Rudolph send regular funds to Alberto to support Jean?

Why did Alberto tell a reporter in 1977 that Rudolph attempted to legally adopt Jean?

Why did Rudolph bequeath his estate to Jean Valentino?

Why was evidence of this hidden for decades... why did the second page of Valentino's will disappear with Alberto telling the world he, his sister and Natacha's Aunt Teresa were the heirs. They were not. They were to receive designated weekly stipends while George Ullman managed the estate funds to produce movies and invest while only Jean stood to inherit the estate when he turned twenty-five. This was covered up and I have addressed this from many angles in the books and in the podcast episodes.

And why did nearly everyone who saw Jean personally when they visited Rudolph in 1926... including Baltazar Cue and Pola Negri... comment on how Jean looked exactly like Rudolph? And Bill Self told me the same after knowing Jean as an adult.

Why, in her speech in Turin in 2009, did Jeanine Villalobos read a letter Rudolph wrote to Ada...in which he comments, “If Jean grows up to be like me...” How many uncles wonder if their nephews will grow up to be like them and not their fathers?

I guess you see my point and the timing of Jean's birth makes this all possible. This is a compelling circumstantial case and it was never built from one piece of evidence but from the totality of them all.

I think it was a common predicament and for some families it still is. But if Rudolph got a young woman in Taranto pregnant, why did he not stay to marry her? Perhaps because she was already married? And if she was already married then why not just say it was a child of her marriage? I believe something happened which made Rudolph's banishment to America necessary to save two families reputations. Did he have an affair with his sister-in-law? This would sure explain it. But who was the mother? One of Ada's sisters? The Del Mazzone family lived at the address Alberto penciled in as the location of Jean's birth.

I believe... as I have written... that Jean was born in Turin at this address Alberto entered as Via Nizza 9. I believe mother Gabrielle could have arranged the position of City Clerk for Alberto with the sole purpose to register the child there and with a French name. She would then have been able to travel to France with the baby and Maria. If this was the case, when she died, Jean would have then appeared back in Italy only four years old.

Did Gabrielle plan to reunite Jean with Rudolph in France? Were the reports of Ada's fragility and nervous condition a result of living her life with a great secret to bear?

There are so many unanswered questions but it is my belief after studying all the documentation we did uncover that Rudolph left for America as a total banishment. If he had not become rich and famous, the Guglielmi family would probably have never seen him again. Unless you were very wealthy, you did not travel back and forth between New York and Castellaneta. Even today that is a daunting journey and I know because have made it.

I know there are those who find issue with this theory but I stand behind it until something proves it otherwise. And I add I have never stated this as fact despite others claiming I have. But I believe personally Rudolph Valentino could have had a son and made him his sole heir. People do not generally make their nephews sole heirs and try to adopt them. And Alberto's agreeing to a possible adoption is stunning as it meant he and Ada were willing to surrender all paternal and maternal rights to “their” child.

I am extremely proud to have been the person to share this evidence and hope some day this will be confirmed and oddly it might have been... which I mentioned in a previous post and share again here.

Hasselriis Writes Michael Morris

Another page from the Mark Hasselriis letter to Michael Morris written on November 7, 1986, in the margin Michael writes, "Her role as guru or teacher." 

The Orders Are Both Reversed

Well it still blows my mind that after I brought forth all the documentation of S. George Ullman's complete and sweeping exoneration and shared the decision of the Appeals Court and explained it all in Affairs Valentino... that some people continue to deny the facts and whine on about their "opinions". These documents below are the last 2 pages of the appeals court decision (2 pages of one thousand I recovered) and clearly it is not opinion, it is fact. So maybe, just maybe... cease in the calling this much-maligned man a crook and a shyster because that is a lie and false and a convoluted fabrication which is but an obvious residue of a vendetta brought against Ullman by Alberto Valentino. Enough said. Facts are facts.

Mark Hasselriis Writes

Today I share a page from one of the letters from Mark Hasselriis to Michael Morris. Hasselriis has been described as Rambova's "secretary" but that is not accurate. He was her  live-in companion for twenty years, her artist, epigrapher, student and as he said, her "disciple". I wrote about their relationship in Beyond Valentino. While I was completing Michael Morris' posthumous book, I found an address of Mark Hasselriis' nephew in one of the letters. With this lead, I contacted the nephew and all these years later he was still living at this same address and eager to share his Uncle Mark's papers and history. 

This is one page of a twelve page letter, dated November 7, 1986... which are all handwritten. Intense, brilliant and informative, I hope to publish them all at some point.