Chapter 10   I Work for a Murderer – Was it He Who Called the Theater & Threatened My Life?   9-11-21

 

          It was around 1985 that I got a coveted job at the O’Farrell Theater in San Francisco – because they paid top money.  It was 3,500k plus room & board, being put up in a luxury hotel.  They were loaded as I read the Wikipedia article below, big bucks from the sex trade was theirs.

          As usual, I pulled out all the stops contacting the media before my arrival & got plenty coverage.  But not the mainstream – that needed more work, & the management wasn’t helping.

          I sat in the office of the brothers with their female promotional director.  We went back & forth regarding press – I explained myself & how I was with God.  I felt the TV News & local papers could cover me, as they usually did – but believe it or not, Jim Mitchell cancelled any such media.

          It was the mention of God that changed the atmosphere of that office from normal to pure demonic hate.  As I looked at Jim Mitchell his face turned to Satan.  It was scary; the vibes of the place became black.  The promotional lady folded up her briefcase & headed out – I saw her outside, asked what was happening, she answered in an ambiguous way – I knew for some reason Jim didn’t want me publicized. It was weird & the only time that happened.  I couldn’t figure it out but let it go as my salary was not affected & what could I do?

          I was saying a few words before my shows, & all went well until one day.

          Looking back I now know possibly God saved my life from Jim Mitchell by making me so sick I could not get to work.  I ate a spoiled egg that was on the shelf of a convenient store.  A local Jewish lawyer was courting me; he was with me when I started vomiting & shitting back & forth, in my fancy digs at the hotel.  He patiently waited as we didn’t know if I’d be dying any minute, but I had to call the theater & cancel that night {which is only one of two times in my entire career that ever happened, I would mostly work even when I was ill – ‘the show must go on’ they say – but why?}

          The next day I was fine & got to work.  The manager comes in white as a ghost.  He says,

          “Kellie, you can’t work.  Someone called the theater & said if you keep working & preaching he will shoot you down in the street & burn down the theater.

          We’ll give you your full salary; you can stay at the hotel ‘till the end of the week, but no work.”

          Wow, there were 4 days left to work, I got a paid vacation & it was Easter.  I had friends who loved me; there was the Jewish lawyer & another nice man.  I was going to Church every day {a remarkable glass triangular Cathedral}, I even took the lawyer with me to one service {which ended our relationship} & I remember them passing out white candles to everyone.  Being fanatical at the time about my religion, I just ate up the services.

          I do have a strange memory considering Jim Mitchell would not publicize me.  I would give money for Masses for the Souls in Purgatory every week I worked – sometimes $500 or 1k {that was not often I gave 1k as at the end of the year, I only made about 35k tops.}

          A TV station was doing a documentary on me & followed me as I took my donation to a Priest.  The Priest was intimidated & said he would not accept the donation – probably because I was wearing a low-cut sweater, he might have thought I was a sex therapist & this was some sort of set up.  But I argued with him it was wrong to deny my wish to help Souls in Purgatory, so he finally accepted.  The news also showed me in the Gothic Cathedral receiving Holy Communion, in that same low-cut sweater.  So that could have been part of the reason Jim Mitchell went crazy & was planning to kill me that night, as I think he was insane.

          I will channel Jim Mitchell if I can.  He might be in Hell, but I’ll try.  OK.

          ME:   Jim Mitchell, was it you who was planning to shoot me in the street & said you would burn down the theater if I continued working?

          JM:   Of course it was me.  Who else?

          ME:   What was your reason, & why did you kill your brother?

          JM:   The reason is I hated God & I hated you, I was possessed by Satan.  I was planning to kill you but God did not allow it.  The thought of you preaching in my theater & using the job to do God’s work filled me with rage, I had to get rid of you, & that phone call was how.

          ME:  Are you now in Hell? 

JM:   Of course I’m in Hell, where else would I be?

ME:   Sometimes people repent.

JM:   I didn’t.

ME:   Why did so many officials stand up for you in the quest for leniency?  I find it astounding that you only served three years for murder – cold blooded, pre meditated murder.

JM:   It was political.  So many big shots were on my side it swayed the jury.

ME:   I’m afraid to ask, why these big shots pleaded for you.

JM:   Don’t ask.  What everyone is guessing is true.

ME:   Did you all imagine you were doing important work with your sex movies & selling sex? 

JM:   We imagined ourselves to be big businessmen, wise, intelligent, forward thinking, inventive, successful, living the American dream.  We were all that, so we thought.

ME:   Now you are in Hell – you can see reality, where were you or what were you guys actually?

JM:   We were cursed.  We were living out the lowest desires of the flesh with no desire for redemption of any kind.  We just wanted to live to serve our flesh, die & go wherever the devil would take us – we didn’t care.

ME:   Your brother was the same as you?

JM:   I think so.  We were like twins.

ME:   You say you were cursed.  Who or what cursed you? 

JM:   That’s just a figure of speech, I don’t mean someone put a legal or formal curse on us, we were just cursed in the sense we didn’t give a shyt about anyone or anything except following the dictates of ego & flesh.

ME:   So I must have seemed wholly frightening to you, the way the demons were scared when Jesus appeared lol.  They ranted & raved & Jesus told them to be silent.  Why did you not just say we are firing you, Kellie.  Why did you make that weird phone call & make it as if someone else did it?

JM:   Because Satan wanted me to do it that way.  They don’t call him Sleufoot for nothing.  He wanted it to be a dramatic thingy, not an ordinary one.  He wanted me to vent some evil demonic shit, like murdering you & burning down the theater, scaring all the management.

ME:   OK I’ve had enough of you; I can’t even pity you as this is what you chose.

Before I go on to the Wikipedia account, let me just say that the rest of the week in San Francisco was one of the most wonderful I’ve ever had.  Two men wined & dined me.  The lawyer took me to Muir woods & also the finest Chinese restaurant in San Francisco.  The other friend, who worked in a Ritsy clothing store, took me to art galleries & all the tourist attractions.  I felt like a Queen – it was a Heavenly Gift from above.

The story of this man killing his brother & what came out of it on Wikipedia:

Killing of Artie and trial

On February 27, 1991, Jim, in response to demands by friends and associates to "do something" about alcoholic, cocaine-addled Artie, drove to Artie's house with a .22 rifle that he had inherited from his father^{[citation needed]} and fatally shot the younger Mitchell. O'Farrell dancer Julie Bajo (Artie's lover at the time) immediately called 911 and the police arrested Jim minutes later. Marilyn Chambers spoke at Artie's funeral,^[8] and he was then buried at Cherokee Memorial Park in Lodi.

After a highly publicized trial in which Jim was represented by an old friend, Michael Kennedy (by then a prominent attorney), the jury rejected a murder charge and found him guilty of voluntary manslaughter. Before Jim's sentencing, numerous people spoke on his behalf (presumably appealing for clemency), including former Mayor Frank Jordan, Sheriff Michael Hennessey and former Police Chief Richard Hongisto.^[2] Mitchell was sentenced to six years in prison.^[23]

One of the outcomes of Jim's trial was that the California Courts allowed, in a precedent-setting decision, a computer-animation reenactment of the murder to be entered into evidence. The animation was produced by Alexander Jason, a crime scene analyst who had first planned to make a video to show the complex series of events that ended with Artie's fatal shooting. The animation showed the positions of Jim, Artie, the bullet impact points, and the path taken by bullets as they entered Artie's body. This was the first use of a 3D computer animation in a criminal trial.^[24][25] In his final argument before the jury, Michael Kennedy had attempted to mock the virtual-reality reenactment. However, the success of the method led to its use in other trials.

After release from prison

After he served three years in San Quentin, Jim was released in 1997 and returned to run the O'Farrell Theatre.^{[citation needed]} Jim established the "Artie Fund" to collect money for a local drug rehabilitation center and for the Surf Rescue Squad of the San Francisco Fire Department. (In 1990, Artie had been caught in a riptide off Ocean Beach in San Francisco, Jim had paddled out to help, and the Surf Rescue Squad had aided in the rescue of both of them; the Mitchells, out of gratitude, issued lifetime O'Farrell passes to the squad members.)^[2] Artie's children have denounced the fund, claiming that it is intended to whitewash Artie's murder. On their website, they describe their father's murder as premeditated and motivated by greed and jealousy, and claim that the depictions of Artie in the books and movie are inaccurate.^[26] Shortly before his death, Jim wanted to change California's nickname to "the Prison State" and design a license plate saying so. He intended to protest the efforts of law enforcement officers and prison guards to lobby for longer prison sentences.^[11]

Death of Jim[edit]

Jim Mitchell died at his ranch in Sonoma County, California on July 12, 2007 from an apparent heart attack. The funeral in Jim's boyhood town of Antioch, California on July 19 was attended by around 300 people, including Mayor Willie Brown, former District Attorney Terence Hallinan, and many O'Farrell ecdysiasts. He was buried next to his brother.^[27]

Books and movies[edit]

Biographies of the brothers are X-Rated by David McCumber (1992, ISBN 0-671-75156-5) and Bottom Feeders: From Free Love to Hard Core by John Hubner (1993, ISBN 0-385-42261-X).

In 2000, their story was dramatized in the movie Rated X starring real-life brothers Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez as Artie and Jim, with Estevez directing. The film was shot in Toronto, Ontario, although the entire story occurred in the San Francisco Bay Area.

In 2001, the TV series Forensic Files aired an episode titled "Sibling Rivalry", which documented Artie's murder and the use of forensic animation and sound analysis at Jim's trial.

The 2007 book 9½ Years Behind the Green Door (ISBN 1934248622) by Simone Corday describes the brothers from the perspective of a dancer at the O'Farrell and girlfriend of Artie.

          {End Chapter 10}