S8, E6: One Dynasty From Murder

One Dynasty From Murder There is an actor that has been in the news for some pretty crazy stuff lately…. Do you know Armie Hammer? His breakout role was playing the Winklevoss Twins, Cameron and Tyler, in the movie The Social Network in 2010. Over the past few years, he’s become more infamous for his personal life. In 2021 some serious and disturbing allegations were made, involving assault, rape, BDSM and cannibalistic fetish. He was dismissed from several movies that were in the works. Just a few days ago there were reports that he is now totally broke and selling timeshares in the Cayman Islands. But it turns out Armie Hammer comes from 5 generations of men with a dark history of sordid affairs and scandals. Our story starts waaaay back with Armie’s great-great grandfather, Julius Hammer. Julius was born in Russia and came to the New York as an infant when his Jewish Russian parents immigrated. He worked his way through Columbia University medical school and graduated in 1902. He set up a successful medical practice in the Brox, and eventually expanded into wholesale drug sales, forming a company called Allied Drug and Chemical, and owned 5 retail drug stores. Julius and his wife, Rose, had 3 sons. Their middle son, (Armie’s great-grandfather) was born in 1898 and was named Armand Hammer. Dr. Julius Hammer was a leader in the Socialist Labor Party of America, until he and several others split off to become the founders of the Communist Party USA. Because of his socialist and communist activities, he was under federal surveillance. In 1919, federal agents saw the wife of a Russian diplomat, Marie Oganesoff visit Dr. Julius Hammer. She had asked him to give her an abortion – illegal of course. She died 6 days later. Julius claimed she died from pneumonia. But 4 weeks later he was indicted for first-degree manslaughter. It’s important to point out that at this time, the country was in the midst of the great flu pandemic. The prosecution claimed that Marie had not died from complications due to influenza, but that Julius had left her to die after performing a botched abortion and then used the excuse of flu complications as a cover up. He was found guilty and served 3 and 1/2 years in Sing Sing prison. American investigative journalist, Edward Jay Epstein, wrote a book in 1996 titled, Dossier: The Secret History of Armand Hammer, claims that it was actually Julius’s 21 year old son – Armand – that performed the abortion on Marie Oganesoff. Since Armand had just graduated from Columbia College and was a just a medical student at the time, Julius took the fall for the Marie’s death. Armand Hammer Armand received his MD from the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1921. But after his father went to jail for the abortion, Julius put him in charge of his company, Allied Drug and Chemical. Armand gave up medicine and spent the next 10 years travelling back and forth to Russia. In 1927, he married a Russian actress & singer named Olga Vadimovna Von Root, and together they had a son named they named Julian Armand Hammer—Armie’s grandfather. Armand and his brothers made Allied Drug very successful by purchasing equipment at rock bottom prices at the end of World War I and then reselling it for a profit. Armand told people his first big success came 1919, by manufacturing and selling a ginger extract which legally contained high levels of alcohol. The product was extremely popular during Prohibition, and the company had $1 million in sales that year. Armand and Olga divorced and In 1943, he married Angela Zevely. That marriage was also short-lived. He moved to Los Angeles and married a very wealthy widow named Frances Barrett Tolman in 1956. He invested her money in a failing company called Occidental Petroleum, and in 1961 it hit one of the largest oil reserves in California and became extremely successful. (Armie was quoted saying it was a fluke that they found that oil reserve, which is funny because of the name Occidental, but that word actually means “relating to the countries of the West”) Armand Hammer was the epitome of a Tycoon. He had a private Boeing 727; was friends with Prince Charles and high-powered US politicians. He attended the inaugurations of several presidents including, FDR, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush. He collected expensive artwork; and was responsible for convincing Chinese leaders to lend two pandas to Los Angeles for the 1984 Olympics. But behind closed doors… He laundered money; used artwork to fund Soviet espionage; bribed his way into the oil business; and was known to make knock-off Fabergé eggs. Armand bugged his office, home, AND his cuff links, to record decades’ worth of conversations for later use. He employed a “fixer” to take came of “issues for him”. He did a lot business with a briefcase full of cash. He also made an illegal contribution to the Nixon reelection campaign which, according to The New York Times, “went to help pay for the Watergate cover-up.” He faced a felony charge for obstructing justice, he plead guilty to misdemeanor charges, and President George H. W. Bush later pardoned him. Armand also had multiple mistresses, one of whom was Martha Kaufman—a mother of two who divorced her husband after meeting Armand. He put on his company’s payroll as an art consultant. But when his wife, Frances, grew suspicious, Armand had Martha legally change her name to Hilary Gibson and insisted she wear wigs, glasses, and makeup to change her appearance. Their affair lasted over a decade. She told biographer Edward Jay Epstein that Armand had her drive a car with a homing device and tapped her phone. He promised to take care of her and her children after he died. She admitted to Epstein that she submitted to his sexual demands even when they were “extremely humiliating.” When Armand died in 1990 at the age of 92, he left her out of his will. Armand’s 2nd wife Angela once said about him that due to his time in Russia and his medical training, “[it] causes him no pain to see the sufferings of others.” His granddaughter, Casey Hammer, had this to say about Armand: “Everything he did was public, God forbid you did anything wrong in front of his friends. You couldn’t wear the same dress twice to his gala parties. On the outside, we had to be the perfect family.” But behind the scenes, Armand required his son, Julian, daughter-in-law Sue, and three grandchildren to make appointments to see him. Fun facts: Julius named his son “Armand Hammer” after the logo of the Socialist Labor Party, an image of a muscular arm holding a mallet-type hammer. A very similar “arm and hammer” image is used in the logo of Arm and Hammer brand baking soda. The baking soda brand began more than 30 years before Armand was born, so he is NOT named after the baking soda. HOWEVER, Armand was asked so often if that was the origin of his name, that he attempted to buy the company. He wasn’t successful, but his company, Occidental Petroleum, eventually acquired enough stock for him to join the board of directors in 1986 and he remained on the board until his death in 1990. Armand Hammer made a guest appearance on a 1988 episode of The Cosby Show, as the grandfather of a friend of Theo Huxtable. ALSO: There is an underground rap duo named Armand Hammer. They formed in 2013, they have 6 studio albums. I’m not sure how exactly they get away with that as their name. Julian Hammer Julian was Armand’s only child, who he had with his first wife, Olga. This would be Armie’s grandfather. He was born in 1929 in Moscow. Unfortunately, Julian didn’t have a great relationship with his father – as I said before, he had to make an appointment to see his father. His daughter Casey would later say that she believed that Julian caused too much trouble and didn’t fit with Armand’s desire to appear as the perfect family. Casey said, “he could never get my grandfather’s attention unless he resorted to really, really bad behavior.” In the morning hours of Julian’s 26th birthday, in 1955, he killed a man inside his Los Angeles home. It was front page news: “Millionaire’s Son Kills GI” “Millionaire’s Son Held on Murder Charge”. In a May 12th 1955 an article was published in THE STARTS AND STRIPES that read: Bruce Whitlock, 28, was slain with 2 shots from a .45-calibur revolver at Hammer’s home early Sunday after a celebration of Hammer’s birthday. Hammer told police he shot in self-defense. He said the quarrel started over a 10 yr old gambling debt that was raised to $400 during the dispute by a double-or-nothing toss of a coin. Police say Whitlock and young Hammer roomed together in Huntington West Virginia about 10 years ago. Armand immediately had $50 thousand in cash delivered to a lawyer in Los Angeles. The charges against him were later dropped. So although Julian was reportedly very intelligent, his father, Armand felt he was unreliable, too over the top with his drug and alcohol use. So he did not bring him into the family business. Julian married Glenna Sue Ervin, who had a daughter named Jan. Together they had 2 children, Michael (Armie’s father) and Casey (Armie’s aunt). I couldn’t find much more information on Julian except that as an adult, his daughter Casey would accuse him of sexually abusing her, and her half-sister Jan, as children. Michael Hammer (Armie’s father) Michael Armand Hammer was born in September 1955 in Los Angeles. He graduated from the University of San Diego with a degree in business administration in 1978, and then from New York University's Stern School of Business in 1982 with a Master of Business Administration. He joined his grandfather Armand’s company Occidental Petroleum and became a Vice President by 1985. Michael struggled with drugs and alcohol and has been far more interested in being a playboy than a successful businessman. Also in 1985, Michael met Dru Ann Mobley. Armie told Vulture magazine that Michael was supposed to be on a flight, went to the airport, got drunk, passed out and missed his flight. But he had a meeting to get to, so he booked a new flight, had to switch seats due to claustrophobia and ended up sitting next to Dru. They got married that same year. Together they had 2 children: Armie born in 1986 and Viktor in 1988. When Armand Hammer passed away in 1990, he was estimated to be worth 1 hundred and 80 million dollars. Within hours of his death, police officers who were called to the house – which had been owned by Armand’s late wife Frances. Upon Armand’s death the house was to be turned over to Frances’s niece. Police found Michael trying to remove belongings and load them into five waiting cars. Armand had made promises that his estate would take care of his family. But at the will reading, his son Julian and granddaughter Casey each received just $250,000. His step-granddaughter, Jan was to have no claim to his estate. He left the rest to his grandson, Michael who inherited 2 art galleries, 2 foundations and a sizable chunk of his multi-million dollar fortune and shares in his oil company. In a Vanity Fair article Casey talked about the chaos after the reading of the will. “My father is worried about why Michael got the Rolls-Royce. And I’m like, ‘Dad, you don’t understand. You’re going to be out on the street, no one’s paying for your house, no one’s paying for anything.’” The next day, Casey said that she sat with Julian “so he doesn’t blow his brains out because now he’s threatening to kill me, he’s threatening to kill Michael, he’s threatening to kill everybody.” About 100 claims and lawsuits were filed against Armand Hammer’s estate by family members, former mistresses, charities that alleged Armand owed them. Casey settled for 1.4 million. His former mistress Hilary Gibson (who had changed her name from Marth Kaufman) settled for 4.2 million. It waws believed that Armand had stockpiled large sums in cash lockboxes and secret overseas bank accounts. Michael appointed a college friend named Scott Deitrick as vice president of the Armand Hammer Foundation. Scott was arrested after returning from London with $60,000 in undeclared cash. His passport recorded 12 trips abroad lasting, each lasting less than 36 hours. But Michael posted the $250,000 bail and Scott was later acquitted of cash-smuggling. Michael’s mother told The Washington Post that after getting his grandfather’s inheritance, he forgot about his family. He did not financially support his parents or his sister. Casey Hammer told Vanity Fair last year “If you would have told me in my 20s that I would end up financially challenged, single, and working at Home Depot, I would have bet you a million dollars that wouldn’t have happened.” The inheritance settlement lasted her 18 years, and she’s been getting by on her own since then, she said, eating Progresso soup and bologna sandwiches. If her brother, Michael, had given her even one of the family paintings, she said, she’d be set for life. “I never was taught to save money or to think ahead. I never thought it would end. It’s okay, though. Because I broke the cycle, if that makes sense, and got away from the Hammer genetic trail.” After Julien died in 1996, Michael moved his wife Dru and 2 songs to the Cayman Islands, a tax haven, where they lived for 10 years before moving back to California. Part of Michael’s inheritance from his grandfather was the Knoedler Gallery, and one of the oldest New York galleries. In 2011, the gallery and its former director Ann Freedman were sued for selling him a forged Pollock painting for $17 million. But that was just the beginning. More lawsuits followed. The Knoedler was accused of selling 63 forged pieces, about $70 million worth—all painted by a little-known artist in Queens. The con allegedly started back in 1994 (just a few years after Michael inherited the gallery) and is considered New York City’s biggest art scandal. All of the 10 lawsuits filed were settled, one midway through a high-profile trial in 2016. During the trial, an accountant testified that Michael Hammer used the gallery’s credit card as his personal piggy bank, to buy two luxury cars and a trip to Paris for a little over $1 million. About an hour before Michael was scheduled to testify both parties reached a settlement. But that’s not the most interesting thing about Michael Hammer. Multiple people claim that Michael has boasted about having a sex throne. He calls it the “naughty chair,” and it is allegedly kept at Armand Hammer Foundation headquarters in California, which is a warehouse. Two people claim Michael lived at the warehouse for several years after his divorce from Dru in 2012. The Naughty Chair is said to be about seven feet high with a chair with a hole in the seat, a cage underneath, and a hook. And the Hammer coat of arms is painted on the seat. There is apparently a photo where Michael sits on the throne smiling, while holding the head of a blonde woman who is sitting in the cage below and also smiling. In 2017, Michael proposed to a woman named Misty Millward with a 7 and 1/2 carat diamond ring and they live in the Cayman Islands. So that brings us to Armie Hammer. Armand Douglas Hammer was born August 18, 1986 in California. For the earliest part of his life his family lived in a suburb of Dallas, until his father saw The Firm in 1993 and they moved to the Cayman Islands, until he was about 14 when they moved back to Los Angeles. He dropped out of HS to peruse acting, against his parents’ wishes. He began acting with guest appearances in several television shows like Arrested Development, Veronica Mars, Gossip Girl, Reaper and Desperate Housewives. But his breakout role was in the 2010 film The Social Network. This opened the door for more roles in movies like J. Edgar, Mirror Mirror, and The Lone Ranger. In 2010 he also married television personality, Elizabeth Chambers. In 2014 they had a daughter named Harper Grace Hammer and in 2017 a son named Ford Douglas Armand Hammer. Like his father and grandfather, Armie has had a string of illicit affairs. He confessed to being unfaithful shortly after his son’s birth. Years later, his wife Elizabeth found evidence of an affair Armie was having with a costar. During the 2020 lockdown, Armie, Elizabeth, and their children quarantined at a luxury villa in the Cayman Islands with his father and his new wife Misty. Armie was quoted saying “It was a very complicated, intense situation, with big personalities all locked in a little tiny place. I don’t think I handled it very well. I think, to be quite frank, I came very close to completely losing my mind.” He even compared himself to a trapped wolf who wants to “chew his own foot off.” He and his father apparently came close to physical blows and Armie took off on a plane to the US. When he landed he mistakenly sent a raunchy text message meant for someone else to his wife. It was the last straw and Elizabeth filed for divorce shortly after. That’s when several women took to social media to accuse the Armie of emotional abuse, manipulation, and violence. Screengrabs of text messages circulated where he described sexual fantasies involving rape and cannibalism. He was also linked to a possible secret Instagram account named, @el_destructo_86. On it there’s a photo, of him taking a drug test, with the caption: “All negative, bitches. My body is a finely tuned toxicant processing unit. To be fair I had THC and benzos in my piss. But who doesn’t.” Another post of a photo of a mannequin tied up, with the caption, “If quarantine doesn’t start moving more quickly I’m going to fuck this thing.” Speaking of mannequins… there was an article I posted on our FB page a while back about Armie Hammer moving out of his LA home leaving behind a female mannequin torso tied up with rope poking out of his trashcan on the street. It was revealed that one of his hobbies was “shibari,” a Japanese bondage art form in which people are tied up in intricate patterns, and that he practiced on mannequins. Ok, so back to the allegations. In 2021 an Instagram page called @houseofeffie posted dozens of screenshots of messages allegedly sent from Armie Hammer to various women. The person behind the account is a 24 year old woman going by the name Effie, who said she had an affair with Armie for four years, starting in 2016 (while he was married) and that she found 5 other women who all say they were had affairs with the him. "You just live to obey and be my slave. If I wanted to cut off one of your toes and keep it with me in my pocket so I always had a piece of you in my possession?" “Brand you, tattoo you, mark you, shave yur head and keep your hair with me, cut a piece of your skin off and make you cook it for me” and “when I tell you to slit your writsts and use the blood as lube for anal”. “I am 100% a cannibal…. Fuck. That’s scary to admit. I’ve never admitted that before. I’ve cut the heart out of a living animal before and eaten it while still warm.” “I want to see your brain, your blood, your organs, every part of you. I would definitely bite it. 100%. Or try to fuck it. Not sure which. Probably both.” “If I fucked you into a vegetative state id keep you, feed you, watch you, and keep fucking you...Till you are so sore and broken…. I can’t stop thinking of [fucking] your actual brain.” “Brand you, tattoo you, mark you, shave your head and keep your hair with me, cut a piece of your skin off and make you cook it for me…. “Who’s slave/master relationship is the strongest?” We’d win. When I tell you to slit your wrists and use the blood for anal.” “Raping you on your floor with a knife against you. Everything else seemed boring. You crying and screaming, me standing over you. I felt like a god. I’ve never felt such power or intensity.” Other ones that involved him pleasuring himself while fantasizing about breaking her bones, craving her blood and wanted her to feed it to him. Effie has accused Armie of rape and believed that he was going to kill her. Shortly after these screenshots were made public, Armie was asked to leave 2 high-profile projects he was working on, a rom-com with Jennifer Lopez and a Paramount series about the making of The Godfather, called The Offer. And his agency, WME, dropped him. Armie was in some intense but short-lived relationships after separating from his wife. A woman named Courtney Vucekovich dated him briefly in 2020, and in an interview she described being with him was like dating Hannibal Lecter—claiming that “he likes the idea of skin in his teeth”. And he was emotionally abusive. “He said to me he wants to break my rib and barbecue and eat it,” and If she had a little cut on her hand, he’d suck it or lick it. A 22-year-old model, Paige Lorenze, told the Vanity Fair that during her relationship with Armie, he confided in her about some of the 'dark stuff' in his family, and how he seemed 'proud' of it. “He said his grandfather was this kind of very scary person who had these crazy sex parties where there would be guns.” She told a magazine that he carved his initial, a letter "A," on the skin above her pubic bone with a knife. "You can still see it. It was extremely painful and traumatizing. He told me that he bragged about it to his friends," And that he was dead serious about getting a doctor to remove her bottom ribs so that he could "eat” them. "He was telling me you can remove the bottom ribs so he could smoke them, cook them and eat them. He kept saying, 'You don't need them,'" my stomach was constantly in a knot. I knew I had to get out," she said. Paige claimed that when she met Armie's mother, she told Paige that she is worried her son has become lost to 'the devil'. Paige also mentioned that while dating him, Armie was broke. He was getting by on loans from friends. There is a quote he made about the movie 50 Shades of Gray “No one actually offered me the movie, but while I was working on The Lone Ranger (2013), my agent brought it up and I said, "Nope". I mean c'mon - it's just mommy porn. I'm not going to sit on top of the laundry machine in spin cycle, reading about putting a ball gag in someone's mouth. That doesn't do it for me. His lawyer told People Magazine that in 2021 checked into a treatment facillity for drug, alcohol and sex issues. Presently, Armie is back living in the Cayman Islands, supposedly to be near his kids. And just a few days ago People magazine reported that Armie, now 35, is selling timeshares for cash because his father won’t help him anymore. Sources: Wikipedia IMDB .com Vanity Fair .com The Cut .com Insider .com People .com Daily Mail .co .uk E celebrity mirror .com Complex .com