Kellie Everts had settled down. She was nineteen years old, her baby Vivian was in the crib, and her schoolteacher husband, Stanley Everts, wanted her to stay home. But Kellie didn't want to stay home. One of her hobbies was reading bodybuilding magazines, like Strength and Health, admiring the pictures and wishing she could be in the "big time."
After all, she had run away from home at 16, came to Hollywood to be a model (which to her meant star) and had already posed for some photos. Her husband ripped all the photos up, but Kellie believed she could be a somebody.
Another hobby was beauty contests. She'd been scouring the earth searching for ones she could be in, to prove she was beautiful. Coming from an abusive home, Kellie had to PROVE she was beautiful, because they made her feel ugly.
AHA! A MS BODY BEAUTIFUL PHOTO CONTEST IN STRENGTH AND HEALTH!
The 1965 Strength & Health photo which Vern Weaver, Mr. Amercia, saw. came to New York to introduce Kellie to to Bill McArdle and his photographer. This led to the dire consequences in this chapter.
Kellie sends in one of those photos recently taken in Hollywood, in an translucent pink suit with spaghetti straps. The picture, when printed, makes the other ladies look sort of... amateurish. After all, her photographer, Keith Bernard, had photographed Jayne Mansfield! The other lady's photos looked like snapshots husbands and friends had taken.
She gets a letter. It's a soppy fan letter from, of all people, A MR AMERICA! He's in New York but says he's coming to L.A. He says,
'YOU ARE THE MOST BEAUTIFUL WOMAN I'VE EVER SEEN!'
Kellie is on cloud 9. Mr. America,(was it "61?) VERN WEAVER is now in town, and he has INVITED KELLIE TO A BODYBUILDING SHOW! All the stars will be there. (Is it Mr California?) Kellie tells Stanley Everts SHE IS GOING whether he likes it or not. This is business, career - not a date. She wants to be a model and this could open doors. The husband, who is recovering from a cancer operation, can't do much but sit around. He does not like what is going on, but Kellie has her way. She tells Vern Weaver to pick her up in front of the apartment building, 16525 Sunset Blvd., Pacific Palisades, and he does.
Kellie was dressed to the nine's. She had begged her husband for money to buy a new outfit, and it was gorgeous: a body-hugging light blue knitted dress with scoop neck and 3/4 sleeves, with its own, (believe it or nor) magnificent light blue marabou feather stole. She spent two hours on her makeup and hair and of course, wore high heels.
She watched the show with Vern Weaver, and to this day, cannot recall a thing of it. She only remembers after, when she was introduced to Bill Pearl, and then, TO A PHOTOGRAPHER AND THE NEWLY (was it "62-"63?") CHOSEN MR CALIFORNIA.
And here was the best part: The photographer asked her IF SHE'D LIKE TO POSE FOR THE COVER OF STRENGTH AND HEALTH WITH BILL MCARDLE, MR CALIFORNIA, standing right before her. WOW.
This was it! This was the opportunity she'd been waiting for, and at 19, life as a model would begin.
She lifted her weights with more than usual enthusiasm. Her husband told her not to go, but she insisted. She left him there, totally morose, and took off with the two men.
It was a long trip, like 45 minutes, and the first mistake (in retrospect) was letting them park her in the front middle seat, where they were too close for comfort. Kellie was extremely nervous and insecure, giggling at everything, and they probably took her for naive. Naive was her.
Right away, Bill McArdle gets a hard on. He keeps pushing it down but it won't listen. This makes Kellie even more nervous. They finally get the the whatever studio to the God-knows-where Valley and settle in for picture taking. Kellie has never done photos with a bodybuilder before and they tell her this and that, and she does it perfectly. She keeps picturing herself on the cover of the magazine.
But there is one problem: McArdle has a perpetual hard on. The photographer finally gives up, and does something only a man would do, in sympathy for another man. He decides to leave the two of them there alone, so McArdle can RELIEVE HIMSELF OF HIS PROBLEM.
Hey Pal! Did you think about the lady? Did you think about how she would feel or whether she'd be safe with this hulk? Whether she wanted to be alone? No, you only thought of him, because you put yourself in his trunks and understood his feelings, but not hers. As an older man, you should have thought of her safety. Couldn't you have thought of this 19 year old girl as your daughter, rather than as a sex object?
The photographer exits and Bill McArdle starts fondling Kellie. She runs off, and he keeps following. She runs into the bathroom and locks the door, and waits....and waits and waits. Twenty minutes go by, no photographer. McArdle goes to the door and begs her to come out - he won't touch her. Finally, she comes out. He grabs her again, and throws her down on the couch. As they wrestle, it has not even occurred to her she's getting raped. She's never been raped before. In about one minute McArdle pulls aside the crotch of that infamous translucent suit aside, puts in his penis and shoots his load. It takes ONE MINUTE.
They must have had it timed, because within another minute, the photographer walks in. Maybe he was in another room where he could watch and listen. Who knows. It just seems strange he walked in only when it was over, and exactly when it was over.
End of photo shoot. No more photos. Kellie is whining like,
"Why me?.....why are men so brutal to me?...I went on an appointment for a part in a movie, and the casting director threw me on this bed and I had to wrestle with him, and now this!"
As they drive her home, they use this against her,
"So...you go on appointments where men throw you on couches... don't accuse us of doing anything."
They had her trapped. With no experience, no one to turn to or confide in, Kellie was lost. She decided never to mention the incident again, to anyone, ever.
But that wasn't possible.
Three months went by and no menstrual period. With a husband that's been rendered sterile by the last operation, it can't be his. Kellie's been made pregnant by Bill McArdle! Pure hysteria now takes over. She's all alone in a new area, with no family and friends, just a jealous husband that will say,
"I told you so."
She calls a local doctor and visits him. She tells him the story. He's a poor, old man who seems genuinely concerned. He looks inside and with gravity says,
"I'm afraid you ARE pregnant."
She cries. He says,
"Don't tell anyone I told you this, but take a large amount of your birth control pills and that could terminate it."
Kellie is too scared to try that. She is not thinking straight. She begins to call that studio, which also has a gym, daily to talk to McArdle, and finally gets him. She blurts out,
"I'm pregnant and you did it!"
He says,
"Weren't you taking anything for it?"
She says no. ( She had been taking birth control pills but stopped after her husband's operation. That's the time, she later reads, a woman's most susceptible to pregnancy, when she's been taking the pills and stops. The body tries to make up for what the pill prevented, or something.)
As she is talking to THE BEAST, her husband walks right in the door. She screams,
"This man raped me and got me pregnant!"
The husband gets on the phone with him and McArdle persuades him Kellie did it willingly. The husband believes him!
You wonder why people believe liars. It's because they WANT to believe. It's because they have evil minds and judge and condemn because they want to believe the worst of you.
Next case scenario. First, Kellie calls all the bodybuilding organizations to try and get help. What kind of help? She doesn't even know herself. She's having a nervous breakdown or something. She gets some office that knows him, and screams and cries. A sympathetic lady gives her his home address. She tells Kellie that BILL MCARDLE HAS A WIFE AND SMALL CHILD.
Kellie thinks,
"I'll go out there and tell his wife what he did to me."
She plans for days but can't do it, thinking,
"OK. That would be a bad idea. I don't want to hurt his wife. His wife didn't do anything and that would traumatize her...and her with a small child."
This is the Kellie Everts' pattern. No matter how badly she's been abused, she is slow to retaliate. She knows enough about God, through her Catholic upbringing, that forgiveness is best.
Finally, she decides, she just has to get an abortion. Abortions are illegal and she does not search for a kitchen-table deal. She decides to go to Mexico, alone, and not Tijuana, because it's sleazy, but Acapulco, because it's probably safer. She has no idea that Acapulco is a great distance away, but that is where she goes.
The evil affair ended the marriage of Kellie and Stanley Everts. He always believed Bill McArdle's side of the story. Kellie then tried to leave him and he jumped on her, crushed down her chest with his knees chest and tried to strangle her. She got away, grabbed her baby and ran. She stayed in a motel, signed up with an agency and supported themselves by modeling. She returned to him to take care of him as his cancer was terminal. He had called every motel till he found her, and begged for help. She nursed him till he died. After his death, she learned his small life insurance was cancelled (he did not even procure it. An older, wiser crippled teacher made him get this insurance because they all knew he had cancer..and with a wife and baby...and it was one of those you don't need a checkup for,) leaving herself and the baby destitute. This all stemmed from the McArdle affair. Bill McArdle, with his uncontrollable desire to have one orgasm in Kellie, had pushed her life onto a road of hardship of many years. If Bill McArdle had not raped her, and if her husband had not been an asshole, Kellie would have had $20,000. to tide her over till she got her bearings. But as it was, she had BUT $5. TO HER NAME AFTER STANLEY WAS BURIED.
His own mother - Vivian Everts - did have money, but did not help at all. Kellie did not know how to ask for help because she had been seriously abused and could not CONCEIVE of anyone helping her. It took her many years to get used to the idea that OTHER PEOPLE COULD AND SHOULD HELP HER.
This is how Kellie Everts dropped all plans about modeling and movies. Her career had just started (she did appear in two movies) but you have to have a cushion to go on auditions. Kellie went straight to "The Ball," a private men's club in Santa Monica, and embarked on what would be her life's profession: a topless dancer, a stripper. Not only was she hired but the owner said she was the best one. A new and different life started that was a challenge every step of the way. A young woman, with a baby, no family support, working in an industry that perceived women as commodities. Financial and emotional hardship followed........
Kellie is extremely sorry for the abortion. She knew it was a boy - because she asked the doctor. She prayed for forgiveness; she prayed for the baby. At that time, she knew you could have a legal abortion if you presented a case of rape - but it was complicated. She didn't have time. She thought that it was also considered legitimate, in the eyes of the Church, to abort if you were raped. But that is not the case.
One futile thing she DID do was go to that valley place (was it San Fernando Valley?) and talk to the police. Her baby screaming in her arms, she tries to explain to detectives how this man raped her and now she is pregnant.
You must understand THIS WAS 1964 or 65. (Kellie did not keep journals in these times. Vivian was born June, 1964 and she was a babe in arms.) The world was ten times more against women than it is today. Women who tried to get justice for the rape and violence of men were looked upon by men in charge - as - "she probably had it coming". And also, men stuck together. If a man hurts a woman,
"I'll get him off, because it'll be me next, and my buddy will get me off."
The baby in her arms was screaming her head off. Nobody could concentrate. The detective asked one of the ladies to take Vivian into another room for the time being. Finally, his judgment:
"We do not believe a 240 pound bodybuilder can rape a 130 pound woman."
THIS IS THE GOD'S TRUTH. THIS IS WHAT THE MAN SAID - AND THAT, WITH A COLD, HARD, LOOK TO HIS FACE. KELLIE WAS BEATEN.
For many years, Kellie had prayed both for her aborted baby. She had found a special book on how to do this.
In the year 2002 Kellie Everts had an experience that topped all. She was dreaming of being in a kind of public place, and she was sitting in a special chair. It was two chairs together, both round with round backs. One part of the chair faced one way, and the other the opposite. In the other chair sat a beautiful young man, kind of husky with maybe goldeny dark blonde hair. Their eyes somehow met and he leaned over to her, close to her face and kissed her in a most loving way. In the dream, she was wondering who this much younger man is, and WHY is he attracted to me? He said, with great feeling,
'I LOVE YOU.'
Kellie returned his warmth with her own,
'I LOVE YOU, TOO.'
This made him extremely happy.
She woke up from the dream, prayed and asked God what it meant, and God said to her, in so many words,
"That was Edmund, your son. He's in Heaven, where he's grown up these past years, and is now just as you saw him."
Tears came to the eyes of Kellie Everts. She had communicated with her long-lost son. She saw him, and what he looked like. HE LOOKED LIKE A COMBINATION OF HER AND BILL MCARDLE BUT HE WAS A TOTAL INDIVIDUAL! Most bodybuilders are short, believe it or not, and her son was rather short - say 5'8" or so, just like McArdle. He was not muscle bound but he had the strong body stock for a muscle champion. He was in Heaven, and he loved her and knew that she loved him! She thought about how a child must feel KNOWING ITS OWN MOTHER KILLED IT! But yet, in the mercy of God, since she repented and prayed and loved, she was granted a RELATIONSHIP with the dead son and actually saw what he would have looked like! This was God's favor upon her!
And what happened to THE BEAST? Some time in the mid-seventies back in New York Kellie was reading a bodybuilding magazine and saw a column that said something like,
"Bill McArdle fell out of a (third?) floor window - nearly every bone in his body was broken."
(Later she thought - how does one break nearly EVERY bone by falling? Wouldn't it be the bones that made contact with the ground, mostly...?)
She showed it to her Dad and Dad said,
"He probably did what he did to you to another lady and someone took care of him."
But Kellie had another theory - it was KARMA.
Days ago she searched for Bill McArdle on the web. It was gossip from that time era. Somebody said that Bill McArdle had passed on a while back - but they didn't know the details.
Kellie Everts knows two things. One, her son is in Heaven. Two, her husband Stanley, who died in 1966 is in Hell. He appeared to her (in 1978 and a few times thereafter) and showed her where he was. But the third thing she does not know: WHERE IS BILL MCARDLE, THE BEAST OF BODYBUILDING?
the bill mcardle story
