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B. Dwaine
Tinsley, Hustler magazine
cartoon editor since 1975 and creator of Chester the Molester, has
died of a heart attack at age fifty-five. Almost a year ago, to the day!
In addition to being a pioneer of the “shit” cartoon in which
cognizant, critical turds and their ilk walk around on two legs, Tinsley
satirized the lives of niggers, faggots, dykes, kikes, fat people, rednecks,
and Jerry Falwell. Chester the Molester was attacked by feminist
activists, Hustler advertisers - even the National Institute of Health,
which claimed Chester served “as a disservice to a serious social problem.”
“Chester was always standing there with a baseball
bat, trying to trick a little girl behind a bush or a fence,”
recalls Hustler cartoonist and colleague George Trosley. “I
used to say to Dwaine, ‘What's the baseball bat for? To knock her out
so he could sexually abuse her?' I always had a little problem with
that. But Chester wasn't Chester without his baseball bat.” |
In 1984, Tinsley himself was accused of molesting his 13-year-old
daughter Allison during a five-year period. Over three thousand of
his cartoons were introduced in evidence at trial. Allison spun absurd,
lurid scenarios between herself and her father, usually centering around
oral or vaginal sex, and being forced to take birth control pills.
Defense attorney George Eskin artfully demonstrated Allison's reputation
was beyond unreliable. In addition to being a suicidal cocaine addict, she
had already falsely accused a former boyfriend of rape. Her claims about
Tinsley grew more outlandish throughout the case: |
|
ESKIN
The court asked how many times all these events occurred, and you
indicated, I thought I heard-
ALLISON
About at least 100,000
ESKIN
At
least 100,000.
ALLISON
Yes.
ESKIN
Did you have math in school?
ALLISON
No, I hated math.
|
|
TINSLEY
FUN FACTS |
| Growing
up, his family had a cow. The cow used to eat onion grass. When they
milked the cow, the milk tasted like onions. He hated that. |
| In
his youth, Dwaine was arrested around 18 times, for various offenses
ranging from breaking and entering to grand theft auto. |
| In
prison, it was a priest who bought him books and art supplies,
encouraging him to write and draw. |
| He
filled notebooks with sketches of hot rods, doodles of faces, and
pastel drawings of seascapes. |
|
Source:
Hustler
|
|
|
The prosecution team included courtroom groupie and children's
activist Dr. Judith Reisman, whose credits include helping to remove
Playboy and Penthouse from 7-11 stores across the
country - as well as regular condemnations of Mapplethorpe.
Regardless, it was the Hustler cartoons - not Allison or
Reisman - which proved the most damaging. A jury found him guilty,
and Tinsley was sentenced to six years in prison. The conviction
was later overturned due to the district attorney's extreme prejudice.
“I hope it was all a cartoon,”
recalls Bruce David, Hustler cartoon editor. “Dwaine
always said he was innocent. Of course, being the creator of Chester
the Molester, when he went into the courtroom he was already
convicted.”
In all, Dwaine served 23 months, regularly producing new artwork
for Hustler from his jail cell.
Again, George Trosley: “If I did a drawing
[of] someone with their guts ripped out, Dwaine would appreciate
it if there were little veins and other things that had come out
with the spleen. He would always say, ‘Hey, that's good. Do
more of that. Let's see her kidney bouncing off the wall.'
He managed to see the sick part of you, and bring it out.”
|
|
When publishing emperor Larry Flynt converted to evangelical Christianity,
Chester was toned down. He became Chester the Protector. His bat
was reserved for clobbering abusive parents or drug dealers. Flynt was visibly
emotional as he eulogized Tinsley's funeral in Beverly Hills.
“Dwaine spoke out of contempt for the life he
had to live,” Flynt said. “Thinking
of Dwaine being gone is just tough to deal with. Maybe it's reminding myself
of my own mortality.”
Dwaine Tinsley was a black-coffee drinking, Marlboro-smoking motor mouth with intense,
penetrating eye contact learned in prison. Before he was buried, his wife
Ellen donated his eyes to an organ bank. If he were alive today, there'd
be a great punchline for all this. |
|
( Posted by Rotten Staff )
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