March 2, 2023 • 34 mins
20-year-old Dorothy Stratten was a model and actress who was killed by her estranged husband in 1980. The case revealed a relationship rife with power imbalance, manipulation, and domestic abuse. We sit down to discuss the issue of intimate partner violence with Dr. Joe Hyunkag Cho, an Associate Professor at Michigan State University’s College of Social Science.
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
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Speaker 2 (00:26):
Hi, everyone, welcome back to Facing Evil. I'm Roscha Pacerrero.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
And I'm Yvette Genteeley, and today we're talking about the
case of Dorothy Stratton. Y'all might know about this one
because it was a big story when it happened back
in the eighties.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Yes, I remember this case. Dorothy's case even inspired multiple movies,
including the nineteen eighty one movie Death of a Centerfold
The Dorothy Stratton Story, starring Jamie Lee Curtis, and there
were also numerous songs that were written about the case,
including Californication by the Hot Chili Pepper's personal favorite of
(01:01):
mine and the Best Was Yet to Come by Brian Adams.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
I so remember all those songs. But we also have
to remember that Dorothy, she was an actress and a
playboy motto who dealt with abuse at the hands of
her controlling husband, who she was estranged from at the time,
and sadly, the story ends in her tragic murder.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Yeah, heartbreaking. And today we want to use Dorothy's story
as a jumping off point to talk about intimate partner
violence and why it's so prevalent. But first our producer
Trevor is going to take us through today's case.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
After catching the eye of iconic mogul Hugh Hefner, she
was crowned nineteen eighty Playmate of the Year.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
She never felt that there was any danger in anything
with Paul Sneyer. He pushed her to marry him. She
I don't think really wanted to.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
She was the meal ticket, but he was afraid that
he could lose her.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
She did.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Dorothy Stratton was a twenty year old actress and playboy
model who was killed by her husband in nineteen eighty
in Los Angeles. Dorothy grew up in Vancouver, British Columbia,
and while in high school, she met a man named
Paul Snyder. Snyder was a successful promoter for car shows,
but he soon took to less than legitimate ways to
(02:22):
make money, namely pimping. In the summer of nineteen seventy eight,
Snyder had a professional photographer take nude photos of then
eighteen year old Dorothy and send them to Playboy for
the Great Playmate Hunt of nineteen seventy eight. Dorothy was
chosen as a finalist, and so she and Paul Snyder
moved together to Los Angeles, California. The following year, they
(02:45):
got married in Las Vegas. At the time, she was
nineteen and he was twenty eight. Dorothy eventually became Playboy's
Miss August nineteen seventy nine and started to work as
a Playboy bunny. Hugh Hefner decided that Dorothy should act
and got her roles in episodes of Fantasy Island and
Buck Rogers. Meanwhile, Snyder became her chauffeur, manager, and acting coach.
(03:10):
The two reportedly argued daily, often leading to verbal and
physical escalation. Roseanne Cayton, a fellow playmate, warned Dorothy to
leave Snyder. Hefner also tried to get Dorothy away from Snyder,
calling him quote a hustler and a pimp. In March
of nineteen eighty, Dorothy landed a role in the film
They All Laughed, a romantic comedy written and directed by
(03:33):
Peter Bogdanovitch, and then Dorothy began an affair with Bogdanovich
while filming in New York. She wrote to Snyder asking
him for more freedom in their marriage, but Snyder called
her and flew into a rage. And then, when Dorothy
was on a tour stop in Vancouver, Snyder flew into
town and convinced Dorothy to make nightclub appearances instead of
(03:56):
fulfilling her playboy duties. Snyder then pocketed all the money
she made from the appearances and disappeared. In June of
nineteen eighty, Dorothy sent Snyder a letter announcing they were separating.
In response, Snyder emptied their bank account and started an
affair with an old girlfriend. He also sold off Dorothy's
Playmate of the Year prizes. In July, Snyder obtained a
(04:20):
gun and he camped outside Bogdanovitch's house with the goal
of confronting Dorothy and the director when they came home,
But after hours of waiting, he finally gave up and left.
And then on August fourteenth, Dorothy told Snyder she would
come by his house to give him some settlement money.
Her business manager had told her she should let her
(04:41):
lawyer deal with Snyder, but Dorothy refused the advice and
insisted that she'd deal with him personally, saying quote, I'd
like to remain his friend. When Dorothy arrived at Snyder's house,
his roommates had left for the day. The two spent
some time in the living room before they went back
to the bedroom. About an hour lefe Snyder shot Dorothy,
(05:02):
and an hour after that he shot himself. The story
was a major tabloid sensation. When interviewed, Hefner said, quote,
a very sick guy saw his meal ticket and his
connection to power or whatever slipping away, and it was
that that made him kill her end quote. And So,
how does the case of Dorothy Stratton reveal a bigger
(05:25):
issue of intimate partner violence and its prevalence in American culture?
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Well, welcome back to Facing Evil.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
So the issue of intimate partner abuse, of course, is
a huge issue that we've talked about many times on
our podcast, and Dorothy Stratton is just one of millions
of people who have dealt with violence at the hands
of a partner. So today we are so honored and
(05:57):
humbled to welcome an amazing expert on this issue and
that is doctor Junkog Cho, and doctor Cho is an
associate professor at Michigan State University's College of Social Science.
He's published numerous studies and journals on the issues of
intimate partner violence. So doctor Cho, welcome a Komo may
(06:21):
to Facing Evil.
Speaker 4 (06:22):
Thanks for having me. It's my great pleasure.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
N thank you so much, doctor Choe for being here.
We're going to start. First of all, if you could
tell us how you got into this work, you know,
and in particularly what brought you to the issue of
intimate partner violence.
Speaker 4 (06:42):
Yes, I can share some of my stories. So probably
my first memory of witnessing patterner of violence was when
I was very leader in Korea, so where I came from,
So probably I was like five years old or six,
and at the time is nineteen sixties or early seventies, so
(07:03):
it was not that uncommon in Korea at the time,
Like seeing like a drunken, angry man dragging around seeing
me their wives on street and beating them and yelling
at them. So I felt very bad, But I don't
remember like any person actually stepped in to stop it.
(07:26):
Either they were afraid of being harassed themselves or I
don't know. But that's rebot the memory, but a little
more reasten to one is like them. A couple of
my friends, female friends from my college, shared with me
their experiences of their like hit by their partners or
(07:47):
actually their husbands. So they are highly educated and intelligent
and very capable, but stir they were victimized. So I
was very perplexed and I wanted to know more. So
it's about the same time I plan to go into
a PhD program in the social work, so it's kind
(08:08):
of the good match for me to be interested in
the topic. And I wrote my destination about it.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
Wow, so it was very personal to you, starting from
the time you were a child and then as you
started to grow up.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
Yes, yes it is.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
I'm thankful for you because I've never had the opportunity
to speak to an expert on intimate partner violence or
expert of any kind on abuse. And I know that
intimate partner violence doesn't only happen between couples, right like
it happens whether you know a parent is abusing a
(08:47):
child or even adults you know sadly abusing their elderly parents.
But can you tell us a little bit more like
how diverse this issue really is like it's not you know,
between a man and a woman, right.
Speaker 4 (09:03):
Right, right, So you are correct when you mentioned like
a lot of different types of violence happening between family
members as well as like the caregivers, even for like
elderly abuse, or even children can be abused or militreated
by their teachers like that. So it's very diverse, and
(09:24):
the many research consistently shows that itp is observed from
every group, every community, every place of imaginable so legardilis
of gender or sexual orientation or age or race and
ethnicity and community types. Also, like the pattern of virons
(09:45):
doesn't happen only against women, so men also serve from
pattern of virons. But the numbers and the characteristics of
violence experience are somewhat different between men and women. So
for instance, like the Russia, you just mentioned a lot
of different forms of violence including physical abuse, emotional abuse
(10:09):
or psychological aggression or manuperation, controlling behaviors, obsessively limiting where
you are and whom to talk to, and of course
sexual assault and ray. All different types of violence are
out there, and among those types of violence, women are
(10:30):
deported more like sexual assault and severe revels of physical
violence for instance, like beating up or like the lipiditid
hit by weapons like that, and sexual assault is predominantly
against women. Men deported a little bit comparable number and
(10:52):
percentages of psychological aggressions, so it can be called emotional
abuse or manuperation. Controlling behaviors, they seem to be comparitive
between men and women. And one significant difference between men
and women is the negative consequences of virns on their health.
(11:16):
So women reported way severe levels of injury like broken
bones or fracture or heavy bruises compared to men. So
they are like certain differences between men and women. But
still we cannot argue against that. So they are out.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
There right, can't discount it, right, So you know another question,
(12:02):
doctor Choe, I mean, what are the most common stories
that you hear about you know, for instance, we are
talking about Dorothy Stratton who was a very famous model,
you know, playboo model in.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
The eighties and she was killed by her controlling, abusive husband.
Do you think there's a difference between fame and power money.
What are the most common stories that you hear about
these behaviors?
Speaker 4 (12:37):
Yeah, I believe there's a hot casion to answer, because
we're just discuss how diverse I PV is, so like
picking a very common story among all those diversities hot cusion.
But at this time we can share like a couple
of different types of stories that we consistently watch. So
(12:59):
we're talking about server groups of all different types of experience.
So like that, there are many scholars try hard to
create some manager number of server groups. Two or three
types of old IPD based on their similarities. So one
of them was created by doctor Johnson. I believe he
(13:24):
was a sociology professor at Penn State. So he created
like three different types of pattern of violence. First one
is probably similar to the case you just lifered. He
called it as a domestic terrorism. So one partner having
an more power and resources compared to other partner, and
(13:48):
they use their enormous advantage in terms of power to
control another partner, including violence. So he observed like that
kind of virons predominantly committed by men against the women
I see. So about according to his observation, about fifteen
(14:11):
to twenty percent of patterner virolens maybe classified into that
form of domestic terrorism. Okay, okay, that might be one
story may be very close to the case we are
talking about today. Yeah. Another form is he called it
like a situational partner violence or situational couple of violence.
(14:33):
So in terms of severity or frequency or consequences, it's
a reader. Let's a severe compared to domestic terrorism, which
is discussed, So let's severe levels of physical violence, like
so instead of like a using knife or weapon, or beating,
like pushing like it's frequently used, or like throwing a
(14:57):
pillow against your partner over some disagreement or dispute or
some conflict.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
Less severe.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
So men and women can use such violence occasionally, not frequently.
So that's why it's called the situational. So if they
are intoxicated or under like the some heavy stress from
like childcare or like employment or COVID, then under the
(15:27):
high pressure, they might rely on violence to reserve or
express their discomfort or frustration. So they're called a situation
a couple of violence. So in terms of a number,
about half or more of a pattern of violence may
be built as a dead type, so embolving lesser severe
(15:48):
violence of still very serious in terms of consequences, but
men and women may evolve in a little pretty even percentages.
And another line, the type of violence conjured by doctor
Johnson is called the violent resistance, which means like involving
(16:10):
self defense. So, for instance, police was called into the
domestic violence scene and they found both partners embolved in
some kind of physical confrontation and use of violence, so
they arrested the both of them. But later on they
found actually one partner reacted against like the violence physical
(16:32):
force p pictured by another partner. But police didn't have
much time to tell difference between whomever like initiate the
violence and who defend themselves against the violence. So they
are the types of violence, and in terms of a number,
about twenty percent twenty five percent or partner violence probably
(16:56):
classify the them. But still Legardi I saw forms of
pattern of vironce condgative consequences in terms of health and
social function onto survivors or victims very severe, very serious.
So we have to treat all forms of patternal violence
very seriously.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Yeah, it's all trauma, right, like it's yeah, it's all trauma, yeah,
in whatever form. Speaking along those lines with psychology, this
is something it's interesting, right, Like I think hurt people.
Hurt people, right, and that's the term you know we've
been told and hear it facing evil or much more
about the like how do you heal from that? And
(17:38):
like I thankfully have never repeated any of the abuse
that has been done to me. You know, our mom
never repeated it to us. And you know, but that
didn't happen for my dad in particular, or I don't
know what Dorothy Stratton's a strange husband, what he went
through before he you know, did horrible things to Dorothy
or anyone.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
But why do you.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Think sociologically or psychologically, like why do these people feel
the need these abusers, like why do they need to control,
manipulate or.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Harm these people that they love?
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Like I know again, I'm sure it's a wide variety
of answers, But from a scientific standpoint, what do you think, If.
Speaker 4 (18:23):
I can be overly simplistic, then the answer is because
they can, right, they can use violence without any restriction
either like their partner being abused didn't have much power
then them, so they feel free to do whatever they
want and society or neighbors or even authorities didn't see
(18:44):
them as a serious right or even like use some
form of violence and conceive that as some kind of
expression of love or another form of some loving relationship,
different but private matter, and we don't have it to
step in. So because of such like a little bit
(19:05):
leniency in terms of social acceptance of a violence. Also
like the victim shaming culture. So when we are in pain,
then it's natural for us to talk to somebody to
feel better and to seek for some health. And but
if I share something, then what if my friend or
(19:26):
parents or teachers say no, no, no, no, so what did
you do and where are you there? And if they
have a repeated experience like that, then we internalize the
process of shaming as if we actually embolve in very
shame for activity, so we just never sick help ever. Again,
(19:48):
so because of such a social environment, perpetrator may feel free. Wow,
that's like one interpretation and explanation. Another one is like
like a feminist take is like power and control mechanism
what they call. So it's very similar to again the
(20:10):
case we are talking about. So if one partner have
enormous fame and power not comparably to the other partner,
then this partner used their power to control another partner's
behavior perception for their gain, to their advantage. Yeah, Historically,
(20:31):
like a man seemed to progest much more power compared
to women. So that's why, like the most of very
severe virons actually porpetraed by men because they had a
more power over women. Right. At the same time, we
cannot ignore like the presence of other types of partner violence.
(20:55):
Men also suffer the from a partner violence. And some
famous like a male egg actually sexually assorted another malectoral
or actors allegedly, So it can happen to whatever a relationship,
not only for men and women or a heterosexual or
same sex. It can happen there. Then probably like power
(21:18):
and control can be or cannot be applied.
Speaker 5 (21:21):
I feel like this is a therapy session, doctor Joe,
I love it.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
Another theory may be based on like the some gruel
people and they don't have like a good conflicted resolution skills, right,
So conflict isn't natural, so it can happen between any
patterns because we are different from each other. But some
persons or some group people do not have a good
exposure to the healthy way of conflicted resolution. So either
(21:51):
they were raised in very violent community, then the only
bio option for them to achieve something is use of violence. Right,
and when they observe the dead like kind of gang affiliation,
like some motivation for youth in the public community as
a very few way to go up to the like
(22:14):
hierarchical social structure. So there might be another theory. So
it's very hard to choose one or two. But I'm
just giving you some choices of theory.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
Right, which we appreciate. Yeah, we're learning, yeah, very much. So,
I mean, we know how prevalent, you know, intimate partner
violence is, especially here in America, and we know the
numbers are quite high. Do you know, is it higher
in other countries compared to here?
Speaker 4 (22:45):
May or may not. So it depends on which country
are we are comparing us with. So like United Nations
released like the formerly port about pattern of violence prevalence
across the glove and according to recent the port, United
States shows like comparable numbers across like the developed countries.
(23:10):
So I mentioned I came from Korea, so I know
the numbers are pretty pretty similar between Korea and United States.
But compared to like the like underdeveloped countries or far
remote countries like for instance, un identify the ten countries
(23:32):
that show the highest prevalence of a pattern of violence.
So a couple of African countries, for instance a Congo
or Iberia included in the RIST and couple of Pacific
island nations including Papua New Guinea or Solomon Islands also
show like about half of the population the party some
(23:55):
form of violence.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (23:58):
So we don't know for sure why. It may be
because like the Mail patriarchy, maybe stronger there, or there
may be some religious influence if any religion or social
loans or community values, socialized community members into certain expectations,
(24:18):
certain growth of people can use violence. Whyas another groups
of people just have to suffer for some something. The
United States not the worst, or we cannot say worse
than most of the countries, but very severe in terms
of number percentage. So let me give you a number. Okay,
So annually we know that about six percent of or
(24:43):
other two women, so in terms of number is about
seven million the party the experienced some form of sexual
violence fishical views and starking. Wow. And a little smaller
number four men, but still about six million. Other men
aged eighteen or over also reported the physical violence and
(25:07):
starking victimization. Again, there are differences, right, So women deported
the more sexual violence starking whyas men deported the similar
levels of psychological abuse.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
But still very high.
Speaker 5 (25:21):
Yeah, doctor Chol, like you spoke earlier about shame, right,
(25:45):
and just sharing from my own experience, Like I didn't
tell a soul that I was.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
Physically, verbally and emotionally abused until I was twenty one
years old, and that was because that last time I
almost died, And I think I kind of like flipped
and I'm like, oh, I can't not tell everyone, you know,
but I didn't press charges.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
I didn't report it out of shame.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Just by you saying all that, Like, I can only
imagine what it's like in all these other countries where
culturally maybe they're not supposed to report it.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
Right, and probably there they don't have the resources as well. Right,
I think this is probably the most important question. How
do we break the cycle?
Speaker 4 (26:29):
I believe like making our society egalitarian and more diverse
and inclusive and equitable is the probably the most important
thing we have to pursue. But it's a wrong term goal, right.
We cannot expect like our society is a change overnight. Okay,
all women are like equal to and we have to
(26:51):
pay equal amount of money to regard it with their
gender sexual orientation, we cannot expect that, but still we
have to try hard. So and another area that we
can make it for this education, so let them know.
So it's much better if we can start early because
(27:11):
the norms values about healthy relationship or like the how
bad it is to rely on violence. It can be
educated or it can be socialized very early on. Then
we can keep that ressent and valuus all our lifetime.
So like the about the nature of violence, or what
(27:34):
would be the healthy relationship look like? And what can
be done if your witness something going on or your
friend share this thing is going on, or your friend
said nothing but you felt something different. Not not questioning
them or not intimidating them, not overly charged the way,
(27:55):
so that that kind of education training can be done
very early on, because like repetition is the key also
education because we can be forgetful and as we live
on we are exposed to all different types of environment
and probably one lesson we took from early education may
(28:16):
not be suitable for another situation, like workplace harassment is
very different from like dating violence at school or tempus.
So we need like a continuous education of training, and
of course we need a resource to keep that education
going on. Yes, some of you mentioned like the nobody
(28:37):
did anything or I mentioned that right, so I witnessed
the pattern of violence. Most of us that don't know
how to embolve in that situation. Either we are very
afraid of we can be another victim, or we know
both partners so we don't know how to tell them.
So I stand the intervention is one of the most
(29:01):
effective way to come back everging present pattern of violence.
We shouldn't know how to intervene into a pattern of violence,
either share the one or happening in front of us.
So that kind of education training also the key. And
(29:22):
probably like the every of us should know something about
pattern of violence, how to talk to or if your friend,
share them, how to listen to, how to respect and
that question that challenging, just the trust and believe and
how to support shaming, yeah, not shaming, and let them
feel supported.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
So so beautiful, you have laid it all out for us,
doctor Chow. We so appreciate your expertise, your knowledge, your wisdom.
Thank you for sharing your story, you know, from when
you were younger, because a lot of times it's so
personal to us, you know why we end up where
we are and Russia and I you know here on
(30:06):
facing evil. It is very personal story of how we
got here, and we just want to share with people,
you know, resources on how you can overcome and move
onward and upward. Mahalo nuiloa from the bottom of our heart.
Speaker 4 (30:22):
Yeah, it is my honor and pleasure to be here.
So and I'm really thankful for Lasha for sharing the
painful story and let us let us just the part
of your story and listen to some of you the podcast.
So I really appreciate your evil to make this kind
(30:44):
of like a violence victimization, like insightful stories about it.
So let us know, let the public know about the
stories about it, the sufferings, and some potential ways to
fight against it. Are really grateful for you to do
this job.
Speaker 5 (31:02):
Oh exactly why we're doing this.
Speaker 3 (31:07):
Yes, Oh my gosh, thank you so much, Thank you
so much.
Speaker 4 (31:12):
It's a mygret pleasure. I hope to see you again.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
For today's message of hope and healing. Our eymore goes
out to the right shining light of a human that
Dorothy Stratton was. Dorothy was kind, talented, loving, and a
self proclaimed curious soul.
Speaker 3 (31:35):
We never got to see Dorothy blossom into her full potential,
but the beauty and the raw talent she shared with
the world will linger on forever.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
The light in the darkness of Dorothy's story has inspired
so many other survivors of domestic violence to finally break free.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
We want all who are suffering to be heard. We
should all follow the advice of the National Domestic Violence
Hot Life. If you see something, say something. Domestic violence
thrives in silence, and if you or someone you know
needs help, please call them at one eight hundred seven
(32:13):
ninety nine seven two three three, Onward and upward, Emua emua. Well,
that's our show for today.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
We'd love to hear what you thought about today's discussion
and if there's a case you'd like for us to.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
Cover, find us on social media or email us at
Facingevil pod at tenderfoot dot tv.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
And one small request if you haven't already, please find
us on iTunes and give us a good rating and
a good review. If you like what we do, your
support is always cherished.
Speaker 3 (32:51):
Until next time. Aloha.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
Facing Evil is a production of iHeartRadio and Tenderfoot TV.
The show is hosted by Russia, Paccuerero and Avet Gentile.
Matt Frederick and Alex Williams our executive producers on behalf
of iHeartRadio, with producers Trevor Young and Jesse Funk, Donald
albright In Payne Lindsay our executive producers on behalf of
(33:29):
Tenderfoot TV, alongside producer Tracy Kaplan. Our researcher is Carolyn Talmadge.
Original music by Makeup and Vanity Set. Find us on
social media or email us at facingevilpod at tenderfoot dot tv.
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio or Tenderfoot TV, visit the
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(33:53):
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You're listening to Facing Evil, a production of iHeartRadio and
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Speaker 2 (00:26):
Hi, everyone, welcome back to Facing Evil. I'm Roscha Pacerrero.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
And I'm Yvette Genteeley, and today we're talking about the
case of Dorothy Stratton. Y'all might know about this one
because it was a big story when it happened back
in the eighties.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Yes, I remember this case. Dorothy's case even inspired multiple movies,
including the nineteen eighty one movie Death of a Centerfold
The Dorothy Stratton Story, starring Jamie Lee Curtis, and there
were also numerous songs that were written about the case,
including Californication by the Hot Chili Pepper's personal favorite of
(01:01):
mine and the Best Was Yet to Come by Brian Adams.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
I so remember all those songs. But we also have
to remember that Dorothy, she was an actress and a
playboy motto who dealt with abuse at the hands of
her controlling husband, who she was estranged from at the time,
and sadly, the story ends in her tragic murder.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Yeah, heartbreaking. And today we want to use Dorothy's story
as a jumping off point to talk about intimate partner
violence and why it's so prevalent. But first our producer
Trevor is going to take us through today's case.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
After catching the eye of iconic mogul Hugh Hefner, she
was crowned nineteen eighty Playmate of the Year.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
She never felt that there was any danger in anything
with Paul Sneyer. He pushed her to marry him. She
I don't think really wanted to.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
She was the meal ticket, but he was afraid that
he could lose her.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
She did.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Dorothy Stratton was a twenty year old actress and playboy
model who was killed by her husband in nineteen eighty
in Los Angeles. Dorothy grew up in Vancouver, British Columbia,
and while in high school, she met a man named
Paul Snyder. Snyder was a successful promoter for car shows,
but he soon took to less than legitimate ways to
(02:22):
make money, namely pimping. In the summer of nineteen seventy eight,
Snyder had a professional photographer take nude photos of then
eighteen year old Dorothy and send them to Playboy for
the Great Playmate Hunt of nineteen seventy eight. Dorothy was
chosen as a finalist, and so she and Paul Snyder
moved together to Los Angeles, California. The following year, they
(02:45):
got married in Las Vegas. At the time, she was
nineteen and he was twenty eight. Dorothy eventually became Playboy's
Miss August nineteen seventy nine and started to work as
a Playboy bunny. Hugh Hefner decided that Dorothy should act
and got her roles in episodes of Fantasy Island and
Buck Rogers. Meanwhile, Snyder became her chauffeur, manager, and acting coach.
(03:10):
The two reportedly argued daily, often leading to verbal and
physical escalation. Roseanne Cayton, a fellow playmate, warned Dorothy to
leave Snyder. Hefner also tried to get Dorothy away from Snyder,
calling him quote a hustler and a pimp. In March
of nineteen eighty, Dorothy landed a role in the film
They All Laughed, a romantic comedy written and directed by
(03:33):
Peter Bogdanovitch, and then Dorothy began an affair with Bogdanovich
while filming in New York. She wrote to Snyder asking
him for more freedom in their marriage, but Snyder called
her and flew into a rage. And then, when Dorothy
was on a tour stop in Vancouver, Snyder flew into
town and convinced Dorothy to make nightclub appearances instead of
(03:56):
fulfilling her playboy duties. Snyder then pocketed all the money
she made from the appearances and disappeared. In June of
nineteen eighty, Dorothy sent Snyder a letter announcing they were separating.
In response, Snyder emptied their bank account and started an
affair with an old girlfriend. He also sold off Dorothy's
Playmate of the Year prizes. In July, Snyder obtained a
(04:20):
gun and he camped outside Bogdanovitch's house with the goal
of confronting Dorothy and the director when they came home,
But after hours of waiting, he finally gave up and left.
And then on August fourteenth, Dorothy told Snyder she would
come by his house to give him some settlement money.
Her business manager had told her she should let her
(04:41):
lawyer deal with Snyder, but Dorothy refused the advice and
insisted that she'd deal with him personally, saying quote, I'd
like to remain his friend. When Dorothy arrived at Snyder's house,
his roommates had left for the day. The two spent
some time in the living room before they went back
to the bedroom. About an hour lefe Snyder shot Dorothy,
(05:02):
and an hour after that he shot himself. The story
was a major tabloid sensation. When interviewed, Hefner said, quote,
a very sick guy saw his meal ticket and his
connection to power or whatever slipping away, and it was
that that made him kill her end quote. And So,
how does the case of Dorothy Stratton reveal a bigger
(05:25):
issue of intimate partner violence and its prevalence in American culture?
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Well, welcome back to Facing Evil.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
So the issue of intimate partner abuse, of course, is
a huge issue that we've talked about many times on
our podcast, and Dorothy Stratton is just one of millions
of people who have dealt with violence at the hands
of a partner. So today we are so honored and
(05:57):
humbled to welcome an amazing expert on this issue and
that is doctor Junkog Cho, and doctor Cho is an
associate professor at Michigan State University's College of Social Science.
He's published numerous studies and journals on the issues of
intimate partner violence. So doctor Cho, welcome a Komo may
(06:21):
to Facing Evil.
Speaker 4 (06:22):
Thanks for having me. It's my great pleasure.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
N thank you so much, doctor Choe for being here.
We're going to start. First of all, if you could
tell us how you got into this work, you know,
and in particularly what brought you to the issue of
intimate partner violence.
Speaker 4 (06:42):
Yes, I can share some of my stories. So probably
my first memory of witnessing patterner of violence was when
I was very leader in Korea, so where I came from,
So probably I was like five years old or six,
and at the time is nineteen sixties or early seventies, so
(07:03):
it was not that uncommon in Korea at the time,
Like seeing like a drunken, angry man dragging around seeing
me their wives on street and beating them and yelling
at them. So I felt very bad, But I don't
remember like any person actually stepped in to stop it.
(07:26):
Either they were afraid of being harassed themselves or I
don't know. But that's rebot the memory, but a little
more reasten to one is like them. A couple of
my friends, female friends from my college, shared with me
their experiences of their like hit by their partners or
(07:47):
actually their husbands. So they are highly educated and intelligent
and very capable, but stir they were victimized. So I
was very perplexed and I wanted to know more. So
it's about the same time I plan to go into
a PhD program in the social work, so it's kind
(08:08):
of the good match for me to be interested in
the topic. And I wrote my destination about it.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
Wow, so it was very personal to you, starting from
the time you were a child and then as you
started to grow up.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
Yes, yes it is.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
I'm thankful for you because I've never had the opportunity
to speak to an expert on intimate partner violence or
expert of any kind on abuse. And I know that
intimate partner violence doesn't only happen between couples, right like
it happens whether you know a parent is abusing a
(08:47):
child or even adults you know sadly abusing their elderly parents.
But can you tell us a little bit more like
how diverse this issue really is like it's not you know,
between a man and a woman, right.
Speaker 4 (09:03):
Right, right, So you are correct when you mentioned like
a lot of different types of violence happening between family
members as well as like the caregivers, even for like
elderly abuse, or even children can be abused or militreated
by their teachers like that. So it's very diverse, and
(09:24):
the many research consistently shows that itp is observed from
every group, every community, every place of imaginable so legardilis
of gender or sexual orientation or age or race and
ethnicity and community types. Also, like the pattern of virons
(09:45):
doesn't happen only against women, so men also serve from
pattern of virons. But the numbers and the characteristics of
violence experience are somewhat different between men and women. So
for instance, like the Russia, you just mentioned a lot
of different forms of violence including physical abuse, emotional abuse
(10:09):
or psychological aggression or manuperation, controlling behaviors, obsessively limiting where
you are and whom to talk to, and of course
sexual assault and ray. All different types of violence are
out there, and among those types of violence, women are
(10:30):
deported more like sexual assault and severe revels of physical
violence for instance, like beating up or like the lipiditid
hit by weapons like that, and sexual assault is predominantly
against women. Men deported a little bit comparable number and
(10:52):
percentages of psychological aggressions, so it can be called emotional
abuse or manuperation. Controlling behaviors, they seem to be comparitive
between men and women. And one significant difference between men
and women is the negative consequences of virns on their health.
(11:16):
So women reported way severe levels of injury like broken
bones or fracture or heavy bruises compared to men. So
they are like certain differences between men and women. But
still we cannot argue against that. So they are out.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
There right, can't discount it, right, So you know another question,
(12:02):
doctor Choe, I mean, what are the most common stories
that you hear about you know, for instance, we are
talking about Dorothy Stratton who was a very famous model,
you know, playboo model in.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
The eighties and she was killed by her controlling, abusive husband.
Do you think there's a difference between fame and power money.
What are the most common stories that you hear about
these behaviors?
Speaker 4 (12:37):
Yeah, I believe there's a hot casion to answer, because
we're just discuss how diverse I PV is, so like
picking a very common story among all those diversities hot cusion.
But at this time we can share like a couple
of different types of stories that we consistently watch. So
(12:59):
we're talking about server groups of all different types of experience.
So like that, there are many scholars try hard to
create some manager number of server groups. Two or three
types of old IPD based on their similarities. So one
of them was created by doctor Johnson. I believe he
(13:24):
was a sociology professor at Penn State. So he created
like three different types of pattern of violence. First one
is probably similar to the case you just lifered. He
called it as a domestic terrorism. So one partner having
an more power and resources compared to other partner, and
(13:48):
they use their enormous advantage in terms of power to
control another partner, including violence. So he observed like that
kind of virons predominantly committed by men against the women
I see. So about according to his observation, about fifteen
(14:11):
to twenty percent of patterner virolens maybe classified into that
form of domestic terrorism. Okay, okay, that might be one
story may be very close to the case we are
talking about today. Yeah. Another form is he called it
like a situational partner violence or situational couple of violence.
(14:33):
So in terms of severity or frequency or consequences, it's
a reader. Let's a severe compared to domestic terrorism, which
is discussed, So let's severe levels of physical violence, like
so instead of like a using knife or weapon, or beating,
like pushing like it's frequently used, or like throwing a
(14:57):
pillow against your partner over some disagreement or dispute or
some conflict.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
Less severe.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
So men and women can use such violence occasionally, not frequently.
So that's why it's called the situational. So if they
are intoxicated or under like the some heavy stress from
like childcare or like employment or COVID, then under the
(15:27):
high pressure, they might rely on violence to reserve or
express their discomfort or frustration. So they're called a situation
a couple of violence. So in terms of a number,
about half or more of a pattern of violence may
be built as a dead type, so embolving lesser severe
(15:48):
violence of still very serious in terms of consequences, but
men and women may evolve in a little pretty even percentages.
And another line, the type of violence conjured by doctor
Johnson is called the violent resistance, which means like involving
(16:10):
self defense. So, for instance, police was called into the
domestic violence scene and they found both partners embolved in
some kind of physical confrontation and use of violence, so
they arrested the both of them. But later on they
found actually one partner reacted against like the violence physical
(16:32):
force p pictured by another partner. But police didn't have
much time to tell difference between whomever like initiate the
violence and who defend themselves against the violence. So they
are the types of violence, and in terms of a number,
about twenty percent twenty five percent or partner violence probably
(16:56):
classify the them. But still Legardi I saw forms of
pattern of vironce condgative consequences in terms of health and
social function onto survivors or victims very severe, very serious.
So we have to treat all forms of patternal violence
very seriously.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Yeah, it's all trauma, right, like it's yeah, it's all trauma, yeah,
in whatever form. Speaking along those lines with psychology, this
is something it's interesting, right, Like I think hurt people.
Hurt people, right, and that's the term you know we've
been told and hear it facing evil or much more
about the like how do you heal from that? And
(17:38):
like I thankfully have never repeated any of the abuse
that has been done to me. You know, our mom
never repeated it to us. And you know, but that
didn't happen for my dad in particular, or I don't
know what Dorothy Stratton's a strange husband, what he went
through before he you know, did horrible things to Dorothy
or anyone.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
But why do you.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Think sociologically or psychologically, like why do these people feel
the need these abusers, like why do they need to control,
manipulate or.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Harm these people that they love?
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Like I know again, I'm sure it's a wide variety
of answers, But from a scientific standpoint, what do you think, If.
Speaker 4 (18:23):
I can be overly simplistic, then the answer is because
they can, right, they can use violence without any restriction
either like their partner being abused didn't have much power
then them, so they feel free to do whatever they
want and society or neighbors or even authorities didn't see
(18:44):
them as a serious right or even like use some
form of violence and conceive that as some kind of
expression of love or another form of some loving relationship,
different but private matter, and we don't have it to
step in. So because of such like a little bit
(19:05):
leniency in terms of social acceptance of a violence. Also
like the victim shaming culture. So when we are in pain,
then it's natural for us to talk to somebody to
feel better and to seek for some health. And but
if I share something, then what if my friend or
(19:26):
parents or teachers say no, no, no, no, so what did
you do and where are you there? And if they
have a repeated experience like that, then we internalize the
process of shaming as if we actually embolve in very
shame for activity, so we just never sick help ever. Again,
(19:48):
so because of such a social environment, perpetrator may feel free. Wow,
that's like one interpretation and explanation. Another one is like
like a feminist take is like power and control mechanism
what they call. So it's very similar to again the
(20:10):
case we are talking about. So if one partner have
enormous fame and power not comparably to the other partner,
then this partner used their power to control another partner's
behavior perception for their gain, to their advantage. Yeah, Historically,
(20:31):
like a man seemed to progest much more power compared
to women. So that's why, like the most of very
severe virons actually porpetraed by men because they had a
more power over women. Right. At the same time, we
cannot ignore like the presence of other types of partner violence.
(20:55):
Men also suffer the from a partner violence. And some
famous like a male egg actually sexually assorted another malectoral
or actors allegedly, So it can happen to whatever a relationship,
not only for men and women or a heterosexual or
same sex. It can happen there. Then probably like power
(21:18):
and control can be or cannot be applied.
Speaker 5 (21:21):
I feel like this is a therapy session, doctor Joe,
I love it.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
Another theory may be based on like the some gruel
people and they don't have like a good conflicted resolution skills, right,
So conflict isn't natural, so it can happen between any
patterns because we are different from each other. But some
persons or some group people do not have a good
exposure to the healthy way of conflicted resolution. So either
(21:51):
they were raised in very violent community, then the only
bio option for them to achieve something is use of violence. Right,
and when they observe the dead like kind of gang affiliation,
like some motivation for youth in the public community as
a very few way to go up to the like
(22:14):
hierarchical social structure. So there might be another theory. So
it's very hard to choose one or two. But I'm
just giving you some choices of theory.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
Right, which we appreciate. Yeah, we're learning, yeah, very much. So,
I mean, we know how prevalent, you know, intimate partner
violence is, especially here in America, and we know the
numbers are quite high. Do you know, is it higher
in other countries compared to here?
Speaker 4 (22:45):
May or may not. So it depends on which country
are we are comparing us with. So like United Nations
released like the formerly port about pattern of violence prevalence
across the glove and according to recent the port, United
States shows like comparable numbers across like the developed countries.
(23:10):
So I mentioned I came from Korea, so I know
the numbers are pretty pretty similar between Korea and United States.
But compared to like the like underdeveloped countries or far
remote countries like for instance, un identify the ten countries
(23:32):
that show the highest prevalence of a pattern of violence.
So a couple of African countries, for instance a Congo
or Iberia included in the RIST and couple of Pacific
island nations including Papua New Guinea or Solomon Islands also
show like about half of the population the party some
(23:55):
form of violence.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (23:58):
So we don't know for sure why. It may be
because like the Mail patriarchy, maybe stronger there, or there
may be some religious influence if any religion or social
loans or community values, socialized community members into certain expectations,
(24:18):
certain growth of people can use violence. Whyas another groups
of people just have to suffer for some something. The
United States not the worst, or we cannot say worse
than most of the countries, but very severe in terms
of number percentage. So let me give you a number. Okay,
So annually we know that about six percent of or
(24:43):
other two women, so in terms of number is about
seven million the party the experienced some form of sexual
violence fishical views and starking. Wow. And a little smaller
number four men, but still about six million. Other men
aged eighteen or over also reported the physical violence and
(25:07):
starking victimization. Again, there are differences, right, So women deported
the more sexual violence starking whyas men deported the similar
levels of psychological abuse.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
But still very high.
Speaker 5 (25:21):
Yeah, doctor Chol, like you spoke earlier about shame, right,
(25:45):
and just sharing from my own experience, Like I didn't
tell a soul that I was.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
Physically, verbally and emotionally abused until I was twenty one
years old, and that was because that last time I
almost died, And I think I kind of like flipped
and I'm like, oh, I can't not tell everyone, you know,
but I didn't press charges.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
I didn't report it out of shame.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Just by you saying all that, Like, I can only
imagine what it's like in all these other countries where
culturally maybe they're not supposed to report it.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
Right, and probably there they don't have the resources as well. Right,
I think this is probably the most important question. How
do we break the cycle?
Speaker 4 (26:29):
I believe like making our society egalitarian and more diverse
and inclusive and equitable is the probably the most important
thing we have to pursue. But it's a wrong term goal, right.
We cannot expect like our society is a change overnight. Okay,
all women are like equal to and we have to
(26:51):
pay equal amount of money to regard it with their
gender sexual orientation, we cannot expect that, but still we
have to try hard. So and another area that we
can make it for this education, so let them know.
So it's much better if we can start early because
(27:11):
the norms values about healthy relationship or like the how
bad it is to rely on violence. It can be
educated or it can be socialized very early on. Then
we can keep that ressent and valuus all our lifetime.
So like the about the nature of violence, or what
(27:34):
would be the healthy relationship look like? And what can
be done if your witness something going on or your
friend share this thing is going on, or your friend
said nothing but you felt something different. Not not questioning
them or not intimidating them, not overly charged the way,
(27:55):
so that that kind of education training can be done
very early on, because like repetition is the key also
education because we can be forgetful and as we live
on we are exposed to all different types of environment
and probably one lesson we took from early education may
(28:16):
not be suitable for another situation, like workplace harassment is
very different from like dating violence at school or tempus.
So we need like a continuous education of training, and
of course we need a resource to keep that education
going on. Yes, some of you mentioned like the nobody
(28:37):
did anything or I mentioned that right, so I witnessed
the pattern of violence. Most of us that don't know
how to embolve in that situation. Either we are very
afraid of we can be another victim, or we know
both partners so we don't know how to tell them.
So I stand the intervention is one of the most
(29:01):
effective way to come back everging present pattern of violence.
We shouldn't know how to intervene into a pattern of violence,
either share the one or happening in front of us.
So that kind of education training also the key. And
(29:22):
probably like the every of us should know something about
pattern of violence, how to talk to or if your friend,
share them, how to listen to, how to respect and
that question that challenging, just the trust and believe and
how to support shaming, yeah, not shaming, and let them
feel supported.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
So so beautiful, you have laid it all out for us,
doctor Chow. We so appreciate your expertise, your knowledge, your wisdom.
Thank you for sharing your story, you know, from when
you were younger, because a lot of times it's so
personal to us, you know why we end up where
we are and Russia and I you know here on
(30:06):
facing evil. It is very personal story of how we
got here, and we just want to share with people,
you know, resources on how you can overcome and move
onward and upward. Mahalo nuiloa from the bottom of our heart.
Speaker 4 (30:22):
Yeah, it is my honor and pleasure to be here.
So and I'm really thankful for Lasha for sharing the
painful story and let us let us just the part
of your story and listen to some of you the podcast.
So I really appreciate your evil to make this kind
(30:44):
of like a violence victimization, like insightful stories about it.
So let us know, let the public know about the
stories about it, the sufferings, and some potential ways to
fight against it. Are really grateful for you to do
this job.
Speaker 5 (31:02):
Oh exactly why we're doing this.
Speaker 3 (31:07):
Yes, Oh my gosh, thank you so much, Thank you
so much.
Speaker 4 (31:12):
It's a mygret pleasure. I hope to see you again.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
For today's message of hope and healing. Our eymore goes
out to the right shining light of a human that
Dorothy Stratton was. Dorothy was kind, talented, loving, and a
self proclaimed curious soul.
Speaker 3 (31:35):
We never got to see Dorothy blossom into her full potential,
but the beauty and the raw talent she shared with
the world will linger on forever.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
The light in the darkness of Dorothy's story has inspired
so many other survivors of domestic violence to finally break free.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
We want all who are suffering to be heard. We
should all follow the advice of the National Domestic Violence
Hot Life. If you see something, say something. Domestic violence
thrives in silence, and if you or someone you know
needs help, please call them at one eight hundred seven
(32:13):
ninety nine seven two three three, Onward and upward, Emua emua. Well,
that's our show for today.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
We'd love to hear what you thought about today's discussion
and if there's a case you'd like for us to.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
Cover, find us on social media or email us at
Facingevil pod at tenderfoot dot tv.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
And one small request if you haven't already, please find
us on iTunes and give us a good rating and
a good review. If you like what we do, your
support is always cherished.
Speaker 3 (32:51):
Until next time. Aloha.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
Facing Evil is a production of iHeartRadio and Tenderfoot TV.
The show is hosted by Russia, Paccuerero and Avet Gentile.
Matt Frederick and Alex Williams our executive producers on behalf
of iHeartRadio, with producers Trevor Young and Jesse Funk, Donald
albright In Payne Lindsay our executive producers on behalf of
(33:29):
Tenderfoot TV, alongside producer Tracy Kaplan. Our researcher is Carolyn Talmadge.
Original music by Makeup and Vanity Set. Find us on
social media or email us at facingevilpod at tenderfoot dot tv.
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio or Tenderfoot TV, visit the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
(33:53):
favorite shows
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