In 2003, I interviewed retired television producer and noted Valentino memorabilia collector William Self. At the time, a visit with Bill Self involved a flight from Oakland to Burbank, a rent-a-car and some sure traffic on the 405 freeway. Even with the flight being only an hour each way, it still made for an arduous day and usually cost me just under five hundred dollars. Needless to say, I came prepared for each interview to maximize the cost and inconvenience of getting there.
I think I went down to Bel Air to visit with Bill Self about four times with the 5th visit, for me, being the most revealing. I have described this visit before but this was when he told me Jeanine Villalobos, the Alberto Valentino family spokeswoman, told him he could no longer speak to me. It was also when he told me abruptly he had “nothing to do with those cartons stolen from George Ullman's garage.” That was pretty much the extent of that visit and I was not so happy that I came that far to hear just that. I would soon realize that brief visit was all too valuable.
At the time I was not yet writing Affairs Valentino, I was still researching. By then I had not yet found the copies of the original stolen file of Valentino's probate court records... which according to Donna Hill and Bill Self, were returned to Jeanine Villalobos by a collector in exchange for one of Valentino's shirts.
At the time, Self did know I located the Ullman family and Ullman's 1975 memoir. I know now the Alberto Valentino family had the memoir in their possession but kept it secret for decades. So at that time, in 2003, I wondered why Self would obey Jeanine Villalobos so blindly when he was extremely interested previously in meeting with me.
Of course it would have been easier for me and less expensive if Bill Self just picked up the phone and called me, or sent an e-mail and canceled the visit. But I think despite all... he had respect for me and did not want to liquidate me like that. He was a well-mannered man and had to tell me to my face.
In doing so, he did me a great favor on two accounts that day. He told me that Jeanine Villalobos even does things like that, revealed she had such power over collectors and he also admitted to knowing about a theft we had yet to discuss at all. All of those documents Ullman had in his files in those cartons in his garage... from his years as Valentino's manager which we now see online and in collector's boastful posts? Those were stolen from Ullman's garage.
I now know why they (those loyal collectors) work so aggressively to discredit me.... calling me “mad”, a “fool”... my books the "writings of a mad woman"...all while claiming the very documentation they have had access to for decades is “fiction”. They did this because they could not control me.
Michael Morris once said I was a “rogue” writer on Valentino. I was so because "they" wanted nothing to do with me and I was shunned and expelled early on. They set out to destroy me and impede my work from the moment I told Bill Self I found the Ullmans and had that 1975 memoir.
Unable to intimidate me into doing what they told me to do, they set out to shut all possible doors on my research and Jeanine Villalobos has remained silent, feigning disinterest... as the brazen bullying of us has gone on for more than a decade.
Its all too obvious any more and I have Bill Self to thank for knowing the true dynamic of what is going on. And now I guess, according to their posts and Tweets...they all await our deaths... which are endlessly mentioned and referred to by them... so our work can be buried finally along with us.
Hardly.
To those who genuflect before the DNA controlled relics I say...Oh for god's sake, what are you people.. mindless drones of the state? Does gaining favor from the Alberto Valentino family mean that much to you that you would be so weak in your obedience?
It is sickening to me personally...because we are the ones they are oppressing, suppressing and lying about. I again by definition have to cry cult because of this level of veneration.
It is not so much the veneration of Rudolph Valentino as it is the veneration of the things he once owned and photographs of him. This is the controlling power which has persecuted innocent people, such as ourselves... and this is the power which maintains the ancient and completely false narrative about all the players in this story and this is the currency by which we have been systematically tortured.
The Cult of the DNA? Not so much... in my opinion it is the cult of the relics....the veneration of those rare and valuable photographs so sweetly bestowed in gratitude. Perhaps if the favor done is of more magnitude...a sacred shirt might be the reward for some trickery and deception.... and ultimately... it is all done to control, oppress and suppress... as best they can... the absolute truths which came tumbling out when I went rogue.
