Journalist. Mother. Bunny enthusiast. Pop culture junkie.

Journalist. Mother. Bunny enthusiast. Pop culture junkie.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Sex, chains, & religion

Is it rape if a guy says no to a woman, but his body says yes?

That is the million dollar question in a recent documentary I saw, Tabloid.



The documentary is based on an international scandal that rocked the world 30 years ago. It involves sex, religion, and chains. It was a dream-come-true for the tabloids in 1977.



The story revolves around Joyce McKinney, a beauty queen from Wyoming, who paints herself as a sugary sweet virgin. The blonde-haired, blue-eyed doll fell in love with Kirk Anderson, an all-American boy from Salt Lake City. He was Mormon.



Joyce claims that Kirk's family and friends despised her because she was not Mormon and because she was too pretty. So, after the couple became engaged, Joyce said his church made him disappear. She woke up one day and he was nowhere to be found! And nobody would tell her anything!



Joyce was devastated and hired a private investigator to hunt him down. The detective discovered Kirk had been sent to England by his church, on a missionary trip.



Joyce flew to England and said she coaxed a "brainwashed Kirk" into her car and the two shared a wonderful, romantic weekend in a rented cottage in Devon. She said it was the best three days of her life. But then Kirk left her, scared his church would find out, breaking her heart once more.



Well, Kirk had a different story.

After their three days together, Kirk immediately went to the police and told them an astonishing tale.

A frazzled Kirk told police that Joyce had abducted him at the church. He said she had taken him to the cottage, where she chained him to a bed, spread-eagle, and raped him for three days straight.



Evidence suggested the distraught Kirk was telling the truth, and the police arrested Joyce, even though she adamantly denied the charges. Frustrated by her treatment, Joyce jumped bail and fled the country with a friend.



Tabloids all over the world relished in the absurd sexual tale. They dubbed the incident the "The Case of the Manacled Mormon." The gossip rags competed vigorously to see who could come up with the most dirt about the apple pie blonde from America.



It was discovered that Joyce was not as sweet and virginal as she had claimed to be.



There were several nude photos of Joyce circulating all over Los Angeles and details of a shady sex life started to emerge. The public was delighted.



By the early 1980s, Joyce moved back home with her parents, exhausted by the media circus and paranoid by the attention. She became a recluse, never marrying or venturing out much.

In 2008, she made international headlines again for having her beloved pet dog cloned in Korea.



The revived interest in Joyce prompted documentary filmmakers to produce Tabloid.

Today, Joyce is a real-estate agent living in the North Carolina mountains.

36 comments:

Laura Sherriffs said...

That was so interesting! I doubt anyone will ever know what truly happened! Im such a sucker for old scandals!

http://lapetiteplumes.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

wow interesting. i will def have to look this up. thanks for sharing.

A Very Sweet Blog said...

What a wild story! That's why when something doesn't work out you leave it alone.
http://www.averysweetblog.com/

Tanvi said...

What roller coaster life some people lead!

♡ from © tanvii.com

Angela said...

No means no for both men and women. It is a rather interesting and shocking story.

Arielle-HumblePieVintage said...

haha wow, I love these posts! Your blog is so unique and you find the most interesting stories to tell. This is so crazy. Poor Kirk!

btd. said...

Wow, that is soo crazy! And a little scary!

Andrés Corella said...

Incredible story..is truly one of those unsolved mysteries..while it might sound ficticious what happened to him...it could still happened.

hugs
Andy
The Black Label

Alex Byer said...

What the what? I need to Wikipedia her. NOW.

Couture Carrie said...

Crazy story!
Love how you tell it!

xoxox,
CC

Anonymous said...

that's really the craziest story.

David Macaulay said...

what a weird and intersting tale -it stands to reason that she should end up in real estate in North Carolina..

Meri said...

That poor guy! That story would surely still make headlines today, even though we're a bit more desensitized to sex scandals now, I think.

Gayatri said...

Wow! Where do you find these gems? I have to have to have to watch this documentary.

Josie said...

... NO WORDS.
xo Josie
www.winksmilestyle.com

azu said...

OMG!

This woman is psycho. End of story. Anybody that clones their pet has issues. Not that I needed to learn that she cloned her pet in order for me to think that she has issues, it just adds to it.

I want to say this is an awesome story, but the fact that she took advantage of this man is sooo not cool. It's just weird when a woman is the accused and not the other way around. The media always makes it seem "ok" or sexy when a woman does the raping.

Thanks for sharing, Jennifaaaahbulous!

<3

Swarnali said...

You always manage to come up with the most interesting tales of the past...this one was really wild!!

Oh to Be a Muse said...

wait, did she not go to prison? i'm a little confused on that part.

you always find the best stories. i actually saw an episode of a show where 3 different people had their dogs cloned. i would have my dog cloned if it didn't automatically make me a weirdo.

Unknown said...

No meanx no no matter what!

Amber Lucas A Mused Blog said...

I remember this story...I remember hearing about it and thinking "WTF??!!" It's true - we probably never will know what happened. It probably was a mixture of both with a heavy dose of Mormon shame.

So insane.

Chyrel Gomez said...

This is pretty interesting. Thank you so much for sharing.

Sherin said...

Oh! What a story. The documentary must have been really amazing to watch!

NaNa said...

a truly engaging post, gives me chills. Thanks for sharing hun =)


love from the NANA girls xoxo
http://feedmenana.blogspot.com

cricketfreak said...

That was extremely interesting.

Cafe Fashionista said...

Gah! Her life truly came full-circle didn't it? From tabloid star to real estate agent...random. :/

Marie said...

Wow, this was interesting and shocking. How wild, thanks for sharing!

***** Marie *****
allthingsmarie.com

Anonymous said...

WOW! I literally just dropped everything to read this post. So interesting!

Thank you for sharing! :)

Anonymous said...

I've never heard of her before. It's the kind of story The Daily Mail would love to cover in the UK.

Bhav x

Tights Lover said...

Wow. What a story! I think I need to see this documentary.

While she sounds a bit insane, I'm not buying this guy's story. I think he hung her out to dry...but that's just my opinion.

June said...

Wow Jennifer! that was so super cool! I have tagged you in a post!
http://junebiswas.blogspot.com

Becky Tjandera said...

I never knew about this story, but it's so interesting! No one actually knows the true story. Thanks for posting, Jen! Another information I get from reading your blog ;)

Bonnie said...

sexsexsexsexsexxxxxx.
I remember when a pastor came to my high school during chapel, and he approached the front and yelled out, "SEXXXXX."
That was awesome -- and totally off-topic.

http://www.glamkittenslitterbox.com/
Twitter: @GlamKitten88

Audrey Allure said...

Sounds like an interesting film!

Sierra said...

That's just crazy...yet so intriguing! I grew up in UT around mormons so this was all the more interesting. I have nothing against Mormons but I do believe that some become brain washed. I have a hard time believing that Joyce raped Kirk but crazier things have happened. Who knows but cloning her dog is rather odd.

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