Westbury Music Fair

   She Tells the Details!
CNN LARRY KING LIVE
Interview With Connie Francis
Aired March 11, 2002 - 21:00 ET
http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0203/11/lkl.00.html

FRANCIS: No. I just had a miscarriage that year before I went back to work.

KING: You were married then too?

FRANCIS: Yes, I was married then. And my husband said to me, you know, go sing some pretty songs. You're walking around the house. You're mopey. Go sing some pretty songs. You'll feel better.

KING: This was what year?

FRANCIS: This was in 1974. So I got a new act. I got a press agent and I started, and then on the fourth night of the engagement is when the rape occurred.

KING: Where was this?

FRANCIS: This was at the Westbury Music Fair on Long Island.

KING: And how did this happen?

FRANCIS: Well, it is the reason why I finally sued them.

KING: Sued Westbury?

FRANCIS: No, sued the Howard Johnson's motor lodge chain.

KING: Tell me what happened.

FRANCIS: Well, my attorney -- I wouldn't sue because I said how can I go up on the stand and bare the most intimate details of my life? It is out of the question. And then six months later, he came to me and he showed me a report on the Howard Johnson's motor lodge, that there had been 11 previous break-ins.

KING: Now what happened? You went into your room after your show?

FRANCIS: Right. I went into my room.

KING: So it's like 11:30 at night?

FRANCIS: It's later than that because I received a letter that very night about a baby that was available for adoption. And so, I was trying to get my husband or my attorney friend, Dick Frank, on the phone, until 3:00 in the morning. And I was there with a married couple who was my bodyguard and my secretary.

KING: And they were in another room?

FRANCIS: They were in a connecting room. And my husband said don't leave her for a minute. I want you to be in that room. But I said, no, it is not necessary, Michael. I said you got all your clothes down at the other end of the hotel. I said, forget about it. I'm fine. About one hour after I fell asleep, a black man with a knife was at my bed, pulling my hair....

KING: You opened your eyes to this?

FRANCIS: I opened my eyes to this. I was lying on my tummy and he just pulled my hair back and said, scream and I'll kill you. And I said I won't even whisper. You know? And I did what really should be done. I never showed fear. I never showed anger. I just tried to negotiate for my life really.

KING: So you talked to him?

FRANCIS: I talked to him and I said, you're a young boy. And I said, well, can't you get a job? Isn't there a job available for you? He said why should I get a job when I can do this for nothing? I said, well I'm not going anywhere in that direction. Let me try this.

KING: Was he after Connie Francis or was it just any woman in a room he could find?

FRANCIS: Any person in a room. Two other men -- men were in the hotel that night that were also robbed.

KING: And did he take jewelry and stuff?

FRANCIS: I didn't have anything. I had a strand of pearls, all my jewelry, and I never carry more than $100, Larry. I had $100 in my pocket, but I didn't have it there. I had given it to my secretary. And he couldn't believe that I didn't have any money. He wouldn't buy that. But there was no money in the room to give him.

KING: So, you think the rape was an afterthought?

FRANCIS: No. As soon as he saw it was a single woman alone with no one there, I think that's when he decided that he was going to do it.

KING: How long was he in the room?

FRANCIS: Two hours. And it was a battle for my life.

KING: Did you think after he raped you he would kill you?

FRANCIS: Yes, I did. He made a mark on my neck with the knife and he said I'm going to count to 20, and if you don't give me your money by the time you get to 20, you're going to be dead. And I said, look, I earn a lot of money. I said maybe you don't like rich white ladies, I really don't know. But I -- I wouldn't give up my life for $100, which is all I ever have with me. And it is down the hall with my secretary and her husband.

KING: The rape had to be horrible for you, right?

FRANCIS: The rape was horrendous for me. I couldn't mention the word rape until I went back to work in 1981 and did the "David Hartman Show." I couldn't even mention the word. And every week, I would receive hundreds and hundreds of letters from rape victims. And I wanted to do something for them and I went on a real crusade.

KING: How long before you worked?

FRANCIS: It was seven years until I worked again.

KING: Seven years until you stood on the stage again?

FRANCIS: Yes. Yes.

KING: How many years before you stayed alone in a room again?

FRANCIS: I never do.

KING: You never stay in a room alone?

FRANCIS: No. I always have to have someone there with me.

KING: My guest is Connie Francis, extraordinary story and we're just scraping the surface. This is LARRY KING LIVE. Don't go away.

(MUSIC)


COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: We're back with Connie Francis on this edition of LARRY KING LIVE. Why didn't he kill you, do you think?

FRANCIS: Because I think he thought, well, she's a -- if she's a famous person, they may look harder for me. I don't know.

KING: He wasn't masked?

FRANCIS: He came in with a towel around his face, but then that dropped and I said, oh, my God. Now he thinks I can recognize him. Now it is all over.

KING: Was he ever caught?

FRANCIS: No. Absolutely -- very few of them are.

KING: The world knew you were raped?

FRANCIS: I know that. I mean, in German, it was in headlines and everywhere. It was a terrible thing.

KING: How long before you could lie down in bed with a man?

FRANCIS: Well, I was married at that time.

KING: Was it difficult to get back...

FRANCIS: I didn't have sex for six months.

KING: How did your husband handle it?

At the beginning, very, very well. But after that -- the trial really tore us a part.

KING: What trial? The trial against Howard Johnson?

FRANCIS: Howard Johnson. Connie has the sex blahs, all kinds of things like that. It will never be the same. He was an Italian man, very proud. And there was something that he was turned off by the whole thing.

KING: He got divorced?

FRANCIS: Yes.

KING: Did the jury rule for you or did they finally just settle?

FRANCIS: No, they ruled for me. The jury of six men, no women, just six men.

KING: And what did they hold Howard Johnson's responsible for, not correct locks on the doors?

FRANCIS: Not correct locks on the door, just The fact that the place was unguarded. There were no patrols, there were no...

KING: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) motor lodges.

FRANCIS: Right. There were no lights in the parking area. They just did everything wrong.

KING: How do you recover from rape?

FRANCIS: Well, it ain't easy, Larry. Gee, I don't even know. No one has ever asked me that question before. And I don't think you ever really get over it.

KING: You still...

FRANCIS: Oh, yes.

KING: ... bearing the...

FRANCIS: I mean, I will get up in the middle of the night and I'll be crying and I'll be in hysterics and I still remember bits and pieces of that whole event.

KING: It is more than a sexual act, right?

FRANCIS: It is an act of violence.

KING: Against one...

FRANCIS: It is not a sexual act at all.

KING: It's one person against another and the other is under the fear of the knife. Did you ever think you could get away or something or push?

FRANCIS: Oh, I just said, just let him drop that knife for two seconds and I'll take a chance.

KING: But you weren't going scream or anything?

FRANCIS: No, I wasn't going to scream. I did what the -- the girl from the rape crisis center said that it was as if I had taken a course in what to do in a situation like that.

KING: Now, some people, knowing show business as it is today, could have had this event and have their career catapult. Come see Connie Francis, victim returns. Yours went down.

FRANCIS: Because I didn't do anything. I mean...

KING: You didn't do anything?

FRANCIS: I raised my little boy. I was telling you about Joey.

KING: You wound up adopting him?

FRANCIS: Yes, I wound up adopting him. And he came to my house one month exactly after the rape. It was a cold night and there was a blizzard outside. And I opened the door and there was my friend, Dick Frank, the attorney I was mentioning, and with a bundle -- with a big red ribbon around him and he handed the baby to me. And wow, I mean, that was cosmic.




KING: We're with Connie Francis. Now it's seven years after the rape. It is 1981 and your brother George Frank Canaro -- pronouncing -- is gunned down outside his home in North Caldwell, New Jersey, a gangland style killing. Was it a Mafia killing?

FRANCIS: Yes.

KING: Was why was he in trouble with the --

FRANCIS: Because he talked too much. He talked too much to the authorities and they were afraid he was going to talk again. And --

KING: He was -- was in the --

FRANCIS: No, he wasn't in the Mafia. No.

KING: Well, how did he know so much?

FRANCIS: How did he know so much?

KING: Yes. To be killed?

FRANCIS: Because he was used in the worst possible way, Larry. I can't go into the intricacies, unless I want to find myself in the Hudson River with a Nickelodeon around my neck.

(LAUGHTER)

KING: Good way to put it, Connie. The direct Italian way. Bam, bam, bam. Still -- Even though it is 1981, you reveal something here tonight they're still going to get to you.

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KING: Where was the first place you went back on stage?

FRANCIS: Westbury Music Fair.

KING: You're kidding?

FRANCIS: I wanted to put all my demons to rest.

KING: You didn't stay at the Howard Johnson's, though?

FRANCIS: No. I went home every night.

KING: OK. When they introduced you, what was that...

FRANCIS: They didn't introduce me.

KING: Tell me what happened.

FRANCIS: That's not the way it works with me. The orchestra plays an overture, a medley of my hits, and then I walk in from the back of the audience and I just walk right down the aisle...

KING: Singing while walking?

FRANCIS: No, just walking to "Who's Sorry Now", which is playing at that point, and getting on stage and just that was it.

KING: What was that like for you to walk down?

FRANCIS: It was cosmic. I mean, I couldn't believe people still remembered me.

KING: Big crowd?

FRANCIS: It was packed. All the cities, it was packed.

KING: Did you have an easy time getting through it?

FRANCIS: The first show, I forgot all the words. I was fumfering (ph). I was, you know, I was just like -- real bad. But the newspapers were very kind to me, you know by saying I was...

KING: Didn't you always get pretty good press?

FRANCIS: I always had good press, Larry, except, of course, in a couple of magazines. Oh, this was unbelievable. In "Globe" magazine, about three or four months ago, they had a picture of me -- they said I weighed 180 pounds, that I was so fat that I went to a Red Cross dinner ball and I was the guest of honor that night. And that I had to be carried in on a wheelchair because I was too fat to walk was implied. And they had a picture of me -- I don't know. It wasn't of me. It was just distorted, you know, with the five chins distorted. And I put that picture on the refrigerator and I went on a diet. That was a shocker.

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KING: Your father lived to what year?

FRANCIS: Until four years ago.

KING: So he knew of the rape?

FRANCIS: Oh, yes.

KING: How he did handle it?

FRANCIS: He came to pick me up at the police station with my Aunt Marie.

KING: How did he handle all that?

FRANCIS: He said, quote, tell her, Marie to my aunt -- I was on the back of the -- I was on the back of the car sitting on the floor from the -- after the rape and after leaving the police station. And I was rocking back and forth you know, like praying and just thinking of what had happened and he said to my Aunt Marie, Marie, tell her it is not that bad. She's lucky she's married to a guy like Joe. In other words, Joe was more urbane, more modern, he would be able to accept this thing, something that my father could never accept but Joe could accept.

KING: So your reaction when he died was what?

FRANCIS: We became very close in the last few years of his life. I took him from doctor to doctor to hospital to hospital for operations and I did everything I possibly could to help him.