April 7, 1974.

March 16, 1974 is Paige's 30th birthday.

April 7^th 1974 is a Palm Sunday.

In her garage apartment, Paige Young commits suicide with a gunshot to her head.

During the weeks and months leading up to her suicide, Paige confided in Melanie that she was fearful of a “sex tape” that “a relative of a major celebrity had made of her.”

Below is the account neighbor Melanie gave to reporter Ryan Parry of the Daily Mail.

“She was terrified of it coming out, in that day you knew your career was going to be over once it got ‘round.”

“For weeks all she could think about was getting hold of that tape, she thought it was going to ruin her.”

Melanie

"Paige had the whole thing planned down to the last detail…  It was Palm Sunday and she came to tell me she was going to kill herself. She stayed in the back of the house where we (B.J.) lived and I was at the bathroom window. She comes up to the window and calls out to me “I want to show you something.” I couldn’t be bothered by any more of her drama. But she was like, “No, you’ve gotta come and see it.” So I go to her apartment and she gave me a guided tour …of her suicide scene in her bedroom….It was chilling..there was a large American flag draped across her bed and there was a pentagram laid out on the wooden floor…I remember her showing me around it because it was somehow important, but I didn’t know what it meant.”

But it was the bedroom was that shocked Myers the most.

“It was covered floor to ceiling with photos of Hugh Hefner, there were news clippings, magazine articles, everything you could think of. Written across it was something like "Hugh Hefner is the devil.” The whole wall was a shrine saying, ‘I hate Hugh Hefner,’ the crux of her anger was against him. That was the message she wanted to get across to me. She was pointing up at things, showing me around it.  She’s put a lot of work into this, it must have taken her days.

Myers said that Young then calmly explained that she planned to kill herself.

She produced a gun and put it into her mouth…lay back on her bed and said, ‘this is how I’m going to do it.’

"It was chilling. We were friends but not the best of friends, I was always bitching about her and her dog, so I was scared.  I thought maybe she could shoot me, you know, take me with her, it was all so weird.  I thought, I’ve got to get out of here.”

"Myers quickly retreated to her apartment and called the police. LAPD officers arrived soon afterwards and cordoned of the whole of Eastbourne Ave."

Myers said, “The cops didn’t want to go in her apartment first, so they asked me to go check on her, so I did.”

"I walked into her apartment and they were behind me. I walked into her bedroom and she was lying dead on the bed. She had shot herself in the head as she told me she would. There was a huge mass of blood, her whole bed was soaked red, it was shocking. But she looked happy and very peaceful, she didn’t look in distress.” 

“The cops had Paige’s suicide note and read some of it to me…the whole thing was about her anger towards the men who she believed had chewed her up and spat her out.  The two men who got the most attention were Hugh Hefner and the director John Huston. I know she dated Huston for a while and had just gotten back from a trip to Ireland with him.”

Paige expressed anger to other Hollywood stars who had used her.

"I believe Paige was making a huge statement in a bid to get at the elite of Hollywood…She thought the story of her death would spark a big scandal, but it didn’t. Sadly no one cared.”

In the documentary Secrets of Playboy, Melanie says she was told by Paige Young that a member of Hefner's entourage filmed her in a sexual situation at the Playboy mansion. And she was very afraid of it "getting out."

Below is a photo of the death certificate copy I obtained. A partial autopsy/police report copy is included in the Daily Mail story, but not the death certificate.

Reporter Ryan Parry of the Daily Mail discovered that Paige did not die of a drug overdose as is stated in "The Playmate Book" and several websites, but actually committed suicide from a gunshot wound to the head, per an autopsy report and death certificate as one can see.

On April 9 Price-Daniel Mortuary handles Paige's death services. Her cremation takes place at Roosevelt Memorial Park in Gardena. Burial of her ashes to take place at sea near Santa Monica shoreline.

Mother Donna Holroyd signs of with a shaky signature as "Donna Cotterell."

It is unknown how the false story of Paige overdosing on drugs started to be written and repeated on the internet so much that it became her "official" means of suicide.

Is the Playmate Book the original source?

Paige's suicide appears to have never been reported in the Los Angeles media, in 1974 or since.

I haven't found any death, obituary or memorial announcement.

 In the weeks and months after the Daily Mail article was published, no one spoke out publicly about knowing or having met Paige Young. No one came forward on social or entertainment media to shed any more light on what could have driven or influenced her to take her own life.

This is one reason I was motivated to research more about Paige Young.

Back to 1974

And what about the alleged sex tape? Was Hugh Hefner or those close to him involved somehow?

It is well known that Hugh Hefner was fascinated by audio and video technology. He collected home video, film cameras and cutting edge stereo equipment before they were available to the mass consumer.

In the early decades of the magazine, Playboy magazine often featured a "bachelor pad" decked out with the finest stereo equipment and other electronic gadgets, sure to impress the ladies, like a Cadillac or Picasso might.

The A&E series Secrets of Playboy has revealed accounts of sex being filmed by Hugh Hefner at his mansion in Holmby Hills. See accounts by Sondra Theodore and Stefan Tetenbaum in Episode 8.

There are reports of video tapes of sexual encounters over the decades, with some involving celebrities.

Secrets of Playboy; see interview with former head of Playmate Promotions Miki Garcia showing notes about Tony Curtis. He and his lawyers were highly upset about Tony's appearance in sex tapes filmed at Hefner's mansion.

And there are reports of Hefner having the tapes and films destroyed before his death by sinking them in the ocean; he had become more fearful after friend and Playboy favorite Pamela Anderson had her and Tommy Lee's sex tape stolen and released to the public.

Former Playboy employee Lisa Loving Barrett says in the documentary Secrets of Playboy, that she heard the the ocean burial story and has reason to believe it is true.

These stories of "sex tapes" going back to the Chicago Playboy mansion days: an ex- girlfriend of Hefner's, with help from one of his secretaries, snuck in the mansion and retrieved "her" tape. This story is in the book Bunny, by Russell Miller.

One of the Secrets of Playboy series opening also shows a clip of Hugh Hefner talking about all the "electronic equipment in the mansion," including cameras and that "sometimes stuff happens in the bedroom."

Mother Mrs. Donna Holroyd signature.

Math figures determine Paige's age.

3 stories about Playboy Playmate Paige Young and Bill Cosby. 1 sighting story is unpublished.

Some context: One of the women who had spoken out about her drugging and assault by Cosby back in 2005 is Tamara Green. She testified behind closed doors on behalf of Andrea Constand in her case against Cosby. Green also gave a few media interviews at the time.

One of Green's interviews took place on the Today Show by host Matt Lauer. It made the social media rounds in more recent times after Lauer had his own sexual harassment/abuse of power "scandal." Currently unable to find this interview on youtube.

For much more detail on the 2005 Constand case, see the book Chasing Cosby by Nicole Weisensee Egan.

The accusations against Cosby in 2005 that received some media attention were quickly forgotten and did not harm his reputation in the slightest.

Until..

The fall of 2014, the Hannibal Buress video went viral and in the subsequent fall out, dozens of Cosby's victims spoke out publicly for the first (or second ) time and many of these women were receiving media interview requests.

Tamara was interviewed by Daily Mail reporter Ryan Parry in Oct./Nov. 2014 She told him about an encounter with Paige Young and Bill Cosby that happened in El Paso in 1970.

Tamara says she was acquainted with Paige from modeling auditions around LA in the late 60s/early 70s.  

"I was there (El Paso) seeing my boyfriend and Paige called me and said Bill was on tour and she was travelling with him.

El Paso Times, Feb. 22, 1970

They picked me up at my friend’s house and I remember sitting in the back of a stretched limo with them both and Bill wanted to score some drugs.  I called around and found a bag of pot some place on the edge of El Paso. Paige was into her drugs and Bill wanted to get her some, she was along on the trip like his pet dog, she was a very subdued person, more like moon on the water in terms of her personality.  They were clearly acquainted with each other; it didn’t seem like a new thing.  As far as I know they dated for a while."

I located a friend of Paige's from the Malibu days and we spoke twice on the phone. He said he was "just good friends" with Paige and remembers many hikes with her in Topanga Canyon.

Henry told me about a time they were together where Paige lived and she broke down crying. (Again, around 1970) When he asked her why, she told him Bill Cosby had raped her.

Henry worked in the TV business and "always thought Bill was a nice guy." "No," said Paige, "he's not," And "he is scum." Also a "piece of shit" and a "bastard" and "don't even get me started," were said to Henry by Paige about Bill Cosby.

I asked Henry "did Paige say Cosby drugged her prior to the rape?" Henry said she "implied it" by saying she "came to" and "realized she'd been raped."

Henry also said Paige motioned towards her dresser while telling Henry that Bill had made out a check to her, Henry glanced over and saw a check on the dresser. He said it had "several zeroes."

I don't know if it was during the El Paso trip witnessed by Tamara Green that Cosby drugged and raped Paige.

However I do think it's possible if what Tamara said in Parry's report is true, that Paige acted drugged, "very subdued" and "along like a pet" during the encounter.

I've talked with 2 people who told me they never saw Paige use drugs. Melanie said this to me and on the documentary Secrets of Playboy.

"Occasional grass" and alcohol at most, said Richard Sample. He was quite adamant on this point as I had pressed it; in the 1960s many people did not consider LSD a "drug" but more a mind and spiritual exploration.

1970/71 cont.. In the first and only social media message exchange I had with Henry, he said Paige stayed with him in his house, "right before she left Malibu." And that he thought she was a good person who was traumatized by Bill Cosby.

On the phone Henry told me that Paige moved into his large house with others renters in the Trancas area of Malibu. The house was on Broad Beach. He said he let Paige live there rent free.

Henry said during her stay, he noticed that Paige started to act "antsy." She expressed her feeling to him that this "isolated" location in Malibu was "blocking her ability to paint."

Paige moved out after about 3 months Henry said.

This is very likely the time Paige moved to the Westwood apartment where she lived the 2-3 remaining years of her life and committed suicide. Melanie, witness and neighbor, told me her stay was longer than a few months and more like a few years.

I told Henry about Richard's saying when he first met Paige, "she lived on the edge of Malibu in a converted chicken coop." Henry responded "probably Topanga."

Henry doesn't remember Paige ever living in a converted chicken coop but remembers visiting her in a cabin in Topanga.

Henry saw Paige infrequently the last 2 or so years of her life because she became reclusive, he said.

The account by Richard Sample probably took place approx 1965-67. It was before 70/71 as they were no longer seeing each other by then.

A frequent visitor and performer at many Playboy Clubs was Hugh Hefner's good friend Bill Cosby, in the 60s and 70s. This is recorded in numerous newspapers articles and Playboy's own VIP magazine for Playboy Club key holders.

Richard Sample said he would occasionally pick up Paige after her shift at the Sunset Strip Playboy Club. She worked at the club "for about 3 months." He says he never saw her in a Bunny uniform.

"Bill Cosby was always trying to put the make on Paige. She didn't want anything to do with him, she ignored him."

Richard Sample.

Postcard with Playboy Building on the right with small blurry bunny image.

The Sunset Strip location opened December 31, 1964.

One of these times when Richard was at the club to pick up Paige, he witnessed Bill Cosby get "very angry" at Paige after she rebuffed another one of his advances.

(This account is also included in Richard Sample interview chapter.)

I need more information from another potential witness of Paige and Bill before I write and publish.

To give some context to Paige's story:

There are many women from this particular era, late 60s/early 70s, who have publicly said they were drugged and assaulted by Bill Cosby including: Tamara Green, Sunni Welles (mid-60s), Joan Tarshis, Victoria Valentino, Linda Joy Traitz, Linda Brown, Louisa Moritz, Autumn Burns, Carla Ferrigno and Cindra Ladd.

This era seems to be the start of Cosby's serial rapes which continued to at least 2008.