The Errol Flynn Blog

January 26, 1943

archives.chicagotribune.com…

TELLS OF FLYNN ACCUSER’S HOPE FOR MOVIE ROLE

Witness Testifies of Girl’s
Plan to Meet Actor.

Los Angeles, Cal., Jan. 25 (M)

A brunette soda fountain girl, Mons Mervyn, today told the jury trying Errol Flynn on statutory rape charges that one of the complaining witnesses, Betty Hansen, informed her she hoped to meet Flynn and get into the movies with his help.

Miss Mervyn said she worked at a drug store where Miss Hansen, a Lincoln, Neb., girl was employed
for two weeks. She said Betty told her she considered Flynn good looking.

Yacht Employee Questioned.

The defense switched to testimony about Miss Hansen after summoning as its first witness Corp. Hubert L. Oliver of Glendale, Cal., now stationed at a Texas army camp. Oliver said he was employed by Flynn as a seaman on his yacht, the Sirocco, that he was aboard the vessel the night 17-year old Peggy La Rue Satterlee, the other complaining witness, contends she was seduced by the screen star.

Oliver testified he heard no disturbance or outcry and that Flynn, to his knowledge, was not below deck at the time of the alleged attack.

Flynn, Oliver said, was at the wheel of the yacht all the way home.

Says Door Won’t Lock.

Mrs. Helga Brabon, former caretaker at the Bel Air home of Fred McEvoy, where Miss Hansen alleged Flynn seduced her, Betty was wrong in saying Flynn locked the door after taking her to the bedroom. She said the door of the room In question has a lock “but it never worked, that I know of, and it still won t work.”

Mrs. Addle E. Odell, operator of a
Hollywood apartment house, said Miss Hansen rented one of her apartments Oct. 1, 1942, as Mrs. Betty Gray. Mrs. Mary Ross, juvenile division policewoman, that Miss Hansen told her Flynn seduced her In a double bad In a large bedroom. This contrasted to Betty’s direct testimony that the alleged seduction occurred In an alcove off the large bedroom.

Jerry Giesler, Flynn’s attorney, said Flynn, himself, will take the stand, probably tomorrow or Wednesday.

Satterlee & Hansen with LA District Attorney Thomas Cochran:

05 Nov 1942, Los Angeles, California, USA — Peggy Satterlee shows a photo of herself and Errol Flynn on his yacht during his trial at a Los Angeles courthouse. Satterlee accused Flynn of committing statutory rape against her on the yacht. — Image by © Bettmann/CORBIS

— Tim