On 3 June 1968, Valerie Solanas shot Andy Warhol and art critic Mario Amaya at Warhol’s studio.
Solanas met Warhol in the mid-60s and wanted him to produce a play she had written. Warhol did not produce the play (in fact, he lost her script) but had her appear in his film I, a Man in 1967.
Solanas became convinced that Warhol (and others) were trying to steal her writing. She then confronted Warhol in his studio, where he was meeting with Amaya.
Amaya was wounded but released from the hospital the same day, Warhol, however, was critically wounded. His chest was opened and his heart manually massaged. His injuries lasted the rest of his life.
Solanas turned herself into the police the day after the shooting and explained the assault by stating “it’s not often that I shoot somebody. I didn’t do it for nothing. Warhol had tied me up, lock, stock, and barrel. He [Warhol] was going to do something to me which would have ruined me.” Solanas was charged with attempted murder, assault, and illegal possession of a gun. She was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic and served a 3-year sentence, which included time in a psychiatric hospital.
I own a copy of her S.C.U.M. Manifesto (The Society for Cutting Up Men) and it is a psychotic read as evidenced by her diagnosis and yet now, much like there are ‘serious’ followers of the unspeakable vainglorious psychopath Charlie Manson, there are people who think she nailed it and that men should be eradicated! The photograph of Andy’s chest (by Richard Avedon) became legendary and yet as implied here the injuries plagued him for the rest of his life and though lucky to survive the shooting it is almost certainly responsible for his dying when he did (too young! at 58)
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