- Claudia Draper: Now, you talk to me and pretend I'm sane, okay?
- Aaron Levinsky: Okay.
- Claudia Draper: And I'll do the same for you.
- Francis MacMillan: Did your husband leave you when you got pregnant?
- Claudia Draper: No, I had an abortion.
- Francis MacMillan: Why?
- Claudia Draper: [long pause] I don't believe in childhood.
- Aaron Levinsky: You look wonderful.
- Claudia Draper: You know what I use this dress for? For the ones who want to sit on Mommy's lap.
- Aaron Levinsky: Mr. Kirk, you said that among the many fatherly duties that you assumed when Claudia entered your life was bathing her. Do you remember saying that?
- Arthur Kirk: Uh-huh. -
- [the court recorder asks for a verbal response]
- Arthur Kirk: - Yes, I did say that.
- Aaron Levinsky: How long did you practice this particular fatherly duty?
- Francis MacMillan: Objection, Your Honor!
- Judge Stanley Murdoch: Overruled. Answer the question, Mr. Kirk.
- Arthur Kirk: I don't remember.
- Aaron Levinsky: Did it stop when she was five? Did it go on a year and stop when she was six?
- Arthur Kirk: What are you suggesting?
- Aaron Levinsky: Did it go for two years and stop when she was seven? I remind you you're under oath.
- Arthur Kirk: Well, I don't know. It didn't last long. Claudia liked me to do it.
- Aaron Levinsky: Liked you to do what?
- Arthur Kirk: To bathe her.
- Aaron Levinsky: To bathe her?
- [pausing, reflectively]
- Aaron Levinsky: To bathe her.
- Arthur Kirk: [angrily] It was nothing! And I object to your insinuations!
- Aaron Levinsky: My daughter locked me out of the bathroom when she was four. Now, how old was Claudia?
- Arthur Kirk: Claudia, please.
- Aaron Levinsky: How old was she? Was she ten? Was she twelve? How old were you, Claudia? How old was she, Mr. Kirk? Was she thirteen years old when you stopped bathing your step-daughter?
- [intensely]
- Aaron Levinsky: Was she fourteen?
- Arthur Kirk: She was a child. She couldn't have been...
- Aaron Levinsky: [more intensely] How old? -
- [Pandemonium breaks out in the courtroom]
- Aaron Levinsky: -
- [shouting]
- Aaron Levinsky: How old?
- Judge Stanley Murdoch: Order!
- Francis MacMillan: He's harassing the witness.
- Judge Stanley Murdoch: I'd like to hear an answer.
- Aaron Levinsky: How old?
- Arthur Kirk: [shouting, pleading] I don't remember.
- Claudia Draper: [sobbing] I was sixteen.
- Francis MacMillan: What did you live on?
- Claudia Draper: [pausing, glancing at Levinsky] Gifts.
- Francis MacMillan: [with relish] Gifts. Gifts from whom?
- Claudia Draper: Friends.
- Francis MacMillan: Men friends?
- Claudia Draper: Uh-huh.
- Francis MacMillan: And what did these men friends give you? Jewelry?
- Claudia Draper: Sometimes.
- Francis MacMillan: Furs?
- Claudia Draper: [grinning] I got a fox boa once.
- Francis MacMillan: Did they give you food?
- Claudia Draper: Food? One guy used to bring caviar. Is that what you mean?
- Francis MacMillan: Did you exchange your jewels and furs for food at the supermarket?
- Claudia Draper: Now isn't that silly?
- Francis MacMillan: Well, did you?
- Claudia Draper: No.
- Francis MacMillan: Well, then how'd you pay for your food? I assume you didn't live on caviar.
- Claudia Draper: Hardy.
- Francis MacMillan: Or did you use those gifts to pay your rent?
- Claudia Draper: [to the judge] Um, excuse me. Is it legal to take cash gifts?
- Judge Stanley Murdoch: I beg your pardon?
- Claudia Draper: I mean, if I say to you, "Stanley, here's, um, five hundred dollars just because I like you," is that legal?
- Judge Stanley Murdoch: Yes, that's legal.
- Claudia Draper: Thank you.
- [to MacMillan]
- Claudia Draper: A lot of the gifts were cash.
- Claudia Draper: I know women who marry men they despise so they can drive a Mercedes and spend summers in the Hamptons.
- Claudia Draper: [responding to MacMillan's grilling about her professional life] Why don't we stop all the bullshit and get to the point? Now, you want to know what I do for a living? Ask me. My time is very expensive, Mr. MacMillan. Probably more than yours. I get 500 dollars an hour. How much do you get? I get four-hundred dollars for a straight lay, three-hundred for a hand job, and five-hundred for head. If you want to wear my panties, that's another hundred. You take them home, Mr. MacMillan, that's another hundred. No whips, no ropes, no spikes. I've got liquor and grass. Anything else, you bring your own. It works like this: You call me up, we make a date. I look you over, and IF I like you, we make a deal. And, darling, I am worth the trouble. Take my word for it, if you want the best. Do you want the best, Mr. MacMillan?
- [softly]
- Claudia Draper: I am talking about taking your body to heaven and sending your mind south. I'm talking about spoiling you so bad you'll hate every other woman you touch. I'm talking about my mouth on your mouth, and my tongue anywhere you want it. I'm talking about indulging your every fantasy, and then giving you those fantasies one by one. Just for you. All for you. Nobody but you. You get all that, darling? Would you like that, baby? You get what I'm telling you?
- Claudia Draper: [to the courtroom, firmly and with emphasis] Do you all GET what I'm telling you?
- Dr. Herbert A. Morrison: Would you like a cup of coffee?
- Claudia Draper: Not unless there's Thorazine in it.
- Dr. Herbert A. Morrison: Sorry, only milk and sugar.
- Claudia Draper: Pass.
- Aaron Levinsky: Mrs. Draper, could you tell me your understanding of the legal concept of justifiable force?
- Claudia Draper: That's when someone's beating your brains out the back of your head, you're allowed to stop them any way you can.
- Aaron Levinsky: Thank you. Now, would you tell us your understanding of the provisions of the 730 process?
- Claudia Draper: Yeah. If I lose today, they can commit me for a year. Sixty days before the year is up, the hospital can ask to retain me. If I lose again, I'm gone for another year. And from then on, it's two-thirds of the maximum sentence, which comes out to be 16 or 17 years, and that's without a trial.
- Francis MacMillan: Now, Your Honor...
- Judge Stanley Murdoch: Mr. MacMillan, you'll have ample time to cross-exam. Let her finish.
- [pause]
- Judge Stanley Murdoch: Mrs. Draper, what does all that mean to you?
- Claudia Draper: Well, it means if they do it right, they can lock me up in a hospital for the criminally insane forever.
- Francis MacMillan: Do you trust His Honor, the court?
- Claudia Draper: More than I trust you.
- Francis MacMillan: Do you trust your own attorney, Mr. Levinsky?
- Claudia Draper: As lawyers go, he's all right.
- Francis MacMillan: Do you trust your mother, Mrs. Kirk?
- Claudia Draper: My mother?
- Francis MacMillan: Yes. Do you trust your mother?
- Claudia Draper: No.
- Francis MacMillan: Well, is there anyone in this courtroom you do trust?
- Claudia Draper: [looks around the courtroom and points at the bailiff] Him.
- Francis MacMillan: You're pointing at Officer Harrison?
- Claudia Draper: Uh-huh.
- Francis MacMillan: Officer Harrison is the only person in this room you trust?
- Claudia Draper: He can't hurt me. You can. The judge can. Morrison can. She can. I don't trust people who can hurt me, not anymore.
- Francis MacMillan: You believe that your mother wants to hurt you?
- Claudia Draper: She doesn't want to, but...
- Francis MacMillan: You don't believe she wants to help you?
- Claudia Draper: Sure she wants to help me.
- [shouting]
- Claudia Draper: You ALL want to "help" me. Except for Harry. Harry doesn't give a shit.
- Dr. Hebert A. Morrison: Do you think I'm one of the guys trying to put you away?
- Claudia Draper: They don't pay you to turn me loose, do they?
- Allen Green: Do you have certain questions that you ask?
- Claudia Draper: No. I just go by the seat of my pants.
- Allen Green: Well how am I doing?
- Claudia Draper: I'm about to slide off my chair.
- Claudia Draper: Are you married?
- Aaron Levinsky: Pardon me?
- Claudia Draper: You got a missus?
- Aaron Levinsky: Uh-huh.
- Claudia Draper: She give good head?
- Aaron Levinsky: You want to talk about your situation here or what? You've been indicted for manslaughter first degree.
- Claudia Draper: I know all that. Tell me why you're here.
- Aaron Levinsky: [chuckles] The truth?
- Claudia Draper: No, the bullshit, Levinsky. I love listening to bullshit, especially when I'm drowning in it!
- Dr. Herbert A. Morrison: You need treatment in order to control yourself.
- Claudia Draper: I'm in control, because right now I would like to ring your fucking neck! But I'm not going to.
- Dr. Herbert A. Morrison: Good. That's a step in the right direction. I would like to help you put your life back in order.
- Claudia Draper: Oh Herbie, there is no order in life. Maybe you need order. Maybe that's why you're here. Behind bars. Makes you feel safe doesn't it?
- Dr. Hebert A. Morrison: Do you think this is productive?
- Claudia Draper: I know you. You see I know you better than you know me. Because I've seen you with your pants down. You drop your pants and talk about your troubles or how you couldn't make it on 5th Avenue or better yet Columbus. So you're stuck in the shitiest and crumbiest joint in town. Right Herbie?
- Aaron Levinsky: Doctor Morrison, before your examination of Mrs. Draper were you aware of why she had been arrested?
- Dr. Herbert A. Morrison: Yes. First-degree manslaughter.
- Claudia Draper: [interrupting] Well, actually, it was more like womanslaughter, only I finished first.
- Francis MacMillan: You don't trust me, do you?
- Claudia Draper: [scoffs] Are you crazy? Oh, I'm sorry. That's YOUR question, isn't it?
- Francis MacMillan: Well, have I ever done anything to harm you?
- Claudia Draper: I don't believe this. You're trying to put me away.
- Francis MacMillan: You don't believe that I have no personal motive, that I'm just simply doing my job?
- Claudia Draper: Your job is to "get" me. Your job is to put me in a hospital. Now, I don't know, maybe I'm dumb, but I take that personally!
- Francis MacMillan: You also believe that Dr. Morrison is acting out of personal motive, too, don't you?
- Claudia Draper: No, I don't. I'm sure he believes what he believes. He thinks whores are girls who hang out on 8th Avenue and stick needles in their arms. Whores aren't nice white girls from nice white homes. He knows that as sure as he knows his wife is home cleaning the oven.
- [to Dr. Morrison]
- Claudia Draper: Isn't that right, Herbie?
- Claudia Draper: But what if he's wrong? What if his wife is out balling the insurance salesman? What if he doesn't know his ass from his elbow? What if he's just an asshole with the power to lock me up? What if that's all he is? An asshole with power.
- Francis MacMillan: You don't believe your mother loves you?
- Claudia Draper: God, of course, she loves me. She told you that. Didn't you hear her? He wrote it down. Now you stand up there asking, "Do you love your daughter?" And she says, "Yes, I love my daughter." And you think you've asked something real? And she thinks she said something real? You think because you toss this word "love" around like a Frisbee we're all gonna get warm and runny. No. Sometimes people love you so much their love is like a goddamn gun that keeps firing straight into your head. They love you so much you go right into a hospital. Right, Mama?
- Rose Kirk: I didn't know. I didn't know.
- Claudia Draper: No, you didn't want to know.
- Francis MacMillan: Mrs. Draper, I'm a little confused. Do you love your mother?
- Claudia Draper: Sure, I love her. So what?
- Aaron Levinsky: Mrs. Draper. Do you want me to represent you in this competency hearing?
- Claudia Draper: I don't know. Are you any good?
- Aaron Levinsky: You had good. Now you got me.
- Claudia Draper: I could do worse.
- Aaron Levinsky: Don't be so sure.
- Francis MacMillan: Do you believe Dr. Morrison is acting out of a personal motive?
- Claudia Draper: No, I'm sure he believes what he believes. He thinks whores are girls who hang out on 8th Avenue and stick needles in their arms. He knows whores aren't nice white girls from nice white families. He knows that just as sure as he knows his wife is at home cleaning the oven. Isn't that right Herbie? But what if he's wrong? What if his wife is out balling the insurance salesman? What if he doesn't know his ass from his elbow? What if he's just an asshole with power to lock me up? What if that's all he is? An asshole with power.
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