Bill Cosby's fall from grace was swift. While few will shed tears for a man who allegedly
assaulted nearly 60 women over multiple decades, Bill Cosby's life has been filled with tragedy.
Here is the real-life story of this once-beloved entertainer.
Bill Cosby's behavior with women allegedly goes all the way back to his early days as
a stand-up comedian, according to his first accuser, Kristina Ruehli. In 2014, the then-71-year
old opened up to Philadelphia magazine about her time working at Cosby's Los Angeles talent
agency in her early twenties.
She explained the comedian approached her at work and invited her to a party. But when
Ruehli arrived, she was the only guest — and Cosby's wife was conveniently out of town.
Ruehli said she had only two drinks, but somehow blacked out, alleging that Cosby drugged her,
and when she came to, she claimed Cosby was naked and assaulting her.
Two years later, Cosby allegedly made a move on the future wife of The Incredible Hulk
himself, Lou Ferrigno. Carla Ferrigno was only 19, then single, and working as a Playboy
Bunny in Los Angeles. Cosby invited Carla to the movies, awkwardly, alongside his wife,
Camille. When Camille vanished, Carla claimed that Cosby made a move, telling the Daily
Mail -
"And then kissed me so hard, right in the mouth. No one has ever been that physically
violent with me. I was stunned. I was frozen. I took all my body strength and used both
of my arms to stop him and push him away from me. He was so forceful."
"He GRABBED me, like, like just - it -it was like an attack."
Modern comedic icons like Chris Rock grew up idolizing Bill Cosby. The accusations have
however made Rock, and others, rethink their reverence with the star telling Vulture of
the allegations in 2014 -
"It's a weird year for comedy. We lost Robin [Williams], we lost Joan [Rivers], and we
kind of lost Cosby."
But it was another comedian who brought Cosby's alleged transgressions into the spotlight.
Hannibal Burress was doing a set in Philadelphia in 2014 when he commented on the allegations
against Cosby, and encouraged the audience to look them up online.
A reporter filmed the comment and the video went viral, somewhat proving Burress' point
that these allegations were out there, just not in the public consciousness. That would
quickly change.
Burress has been slow to take credit though. He's also rejected the notion that he's some
kind of feminist hero telling GQ In 2015 -
"People are going to put on you whatever they want to put on you. It is conflicting because
people think I'm like this amazing guy or something. I'm a decent guy."
Whatever Burress thinks, he did kick-start Cosby's public downfall using the same medium,
stand-up, that made Cosby a star in the first place.
After Hannibal Burress ignited public interest in the allegations against Bill Cosby in 2014,
lawsuit depositions from 2005 and 2006 were obtained by The New York Times in 2015, where
the increasingly infamous TV dad admitted to drugging women for sexual encounters.
Cosby used all the power at his disposal to lure in and assault young women, according
to the Times' summary of the recordings -
"He was not above seducing a young model by showing interest in her father's cancer. He
promised other women his mentorship and career advice before pushing them for sex acts. And
he tried to use financial sleight of hand to keep his wife from finding out about his
serial philandering."
The tapes stemmed from a lawsuit where Cosby had been accused of quote, "drugging and molesting"
a young girl. The comedian spoke to attorneys at length in a Philadelphia hotel room. Cosby
denied that he was a predator in the tapes, but still painted himself as quote "someone
who used a combination of fame, apparent concern, and powerful sedatives in a calculated pursuit
of young women." Perhaps most damning, though, Cosby said he stopped drinking when he was
16 and didn't use the powerful drugs he allegedly often had on hand because they make him tired
— but he also admitted to buying powerful sedatives called Quaaludes as quote, "part
of his effort to have sex with women," claiming the drugs were taken by the women consensually.
"'Because I used them' he replied. 'For what?' 'The same as a person would say 'Have a drink.'"
Once the public became aware of the allegations against Bill Cosby, the floodgates truly opened.
In February 2015, two former models came forward to the Los Angeles Times, as one, Linda Brown
recounted -
"I felt like a rag doll and like a real-life blow-up doll for him."
She said she met Cosby through a modeling agency in the late 1960s and then was assaulted
in a hotel room. She claimed that Cosby made a drink for her and she soon blacked out as
Cosby assaulted her.
In July of 2015, at least 46 women had made allegations, 35 simultaneously to The Cut,
all posing for somber black-and-white photos. Their stories are frighteningly similar. To
pick one at random, former model Heidi Thomas claimed Cosby reached out because he was interested
in, quote, "mentoring promising young talent." Cosby allegedly poured a drink as they ran
lines, with her recalling -
"He said, use this as a prop — now, that means you're going to have to sip on it, of
course."
She claims that she doesn't remember much after, except that she woke up in Cosby's
bedroom and he was molesting her.
In 2017, only three years after the infamous Hannibal Burress stand-up set, Cosby stood
trial for the assault of Andrea Constand, which occurred in his home in 2004. Initially,
the jury was deadlocked and couldn't reach a verdict, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Prosecutors vowed to retry the case and, in 2018, things were different, as a jury found
Cosby guilty of
"...assault with lack of consent, penetration while the victim was unconscious, and assault
after impairing the victim with an intoxicant."
When asked if these accusations had to do with race by Sirius XM host Michael Smerconish,
Cosby took the opportunity, saying -
"I just truly believe that some of it may very well be that".
Nonetheless, the then-81-year old entertainer was sentenced to three to ten years behind
bars, which could have potentially accounted for the rest of his life. The senior citizen
was also classified as a quote, "sexually violent predator," according to CNN. Constand's
attorney, Gloria Allred, said -
"We're glad that judgment day has finally come for Mr. Cosby."
Bill Cosby has shown no interest in repentance in any venue.
"I just wanted to ask if you wanted to respond at all about whether any of that was true."
"There's no response."
In a 2019 interview from behind bars with blackpressUSA, the legendary comic remained
utterly defiant, still painting himself as the victim of a witch hunt, saying -
"When I come up for parole, they're not going to hear me say that I have remorse. I was
there. I don't care what group of people come along and talk about this when they weren't
there. They don't know."
He also railed against the justice system that put him behind bars, claiming -
"It's all a setup. That whole jury thing. They were imposters."
Blaming the jury for pre-trial bias, Cosby went on to allege some kind of conspiracy:
"This is political. I can see the whole thing."
Cosby also wanted the public to know he was not broken by the process claiming to be quote,
"a privileged man in prison. "
Bill Cosby will likely never face charges stemming from the vast majority of his nearly
60 accusations of sexual assault since the statute of limitations has long since expired
on his earliest criminal proceedings — though Cosby's case has moved legislators to change
those laws in some states. But even his one conviction was thrown out in June 2021. A
ruling by the state's supreme court revealed that a previous prosecutor had promised not
to charge Cosby based on his own statements given in a related civil case. The courts
said subsequent District Attorneys, including the one who brought charges, were bound by
this pledge — even though it was not put in writing. Cosby had served just three years
of his ten-year sentence, and at age 83, was once again a free man.
His TV wife on "The Cosby Show," actor Phylicia Rashad, rejoiced in the news, tweeting her
support for Cosby.
However, the sexual assault survivor's advocacy group TIME'S UP had a very different take,
condemning the news with a statement saying -
"The semblance of justice these women had in knowing Cosby was convicted has been completely
erased with his release today."
If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit
the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline
at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
Let's go back to tragedies experienced in Bill Cosby's pre-fame life. Born in 1937,
he was raised in Philadelphia, and was first forced into a proto-patriarchal role at only
age eight. Cosby was the oldest of four boys, and his younger brother, James, was sickly
and died of rheumatic fever at the tender age of six. That tragedy, as well as his father's
drinking problem, thrust Bill into a role that forced him to be more responsible.
The future comedian shined shoes and worked in a supermarket to help his family get by.
His parents divorced and the comic later told his biographer that it was only his single
mother's steadfast moral presence that saved him from a life on the streets.
Bill Cosby's only son, Ennis William Cosby, was an incredibly promising young man. He
overcame dyslexia, according to The Hollywood Reporter, to become a graduate of Columbia
University. In his mid-20s, he was studying for his second master's degree, per Variety.
In 1997, Ennis was driving his father's Mercedes Benz near the Skirball Museum on Mulholland
Drive when the most mundane of things happened: he got a flat tire. That's when a witness
who stopped to help said a man with a gun tapped on her window with the weapon. She
drove off in fear, and Ennis was fatally shot. Both President Bill Clinton and VP Al Gore
called Cosby personally to offer condolences, according to the Daily Mail.
A 19-year old Ukrainian immigrant named Mikhail Markhasev was eventually caught and sentenced
to life in prison for the crime, per The New York Times. Police suspected the killing was
an impulsive robbery gone wrong, but when Ennis' body was found, he still had a Rolex
on his wrist and three $20 bills in his pocket.
One of Bill Cosby's fiercest defenders was one of his five children, daughter Ensa. The
yoga instructor went on the widely-heard Breakfast Club interview in 2017, just before her famous
father would go on trial and declared -
"The man portrayed in the media today is not who my father is. The accusations against
my father have been one-sided since the beginning."
She went on to claim that bigotry was to blame for her father's legal troubles, and also
vented her frustrations about the young members of her family having to see the accusations
against Cosby in the media.
Approaching middle age, Ensa began experiencing kidney issues and died suddenly in 2018 of
renal failure. She would be buried next to her brother at Bill Cosby's Massachusetts
compound, according to the Daily Mail.
One of the strangest episodes in Bill Cosby's twisted life's tale is the time a woman named
Autumn Jackson, his alleged love child, attempted to extort the comedian for millions.
In 1997, at the peak of Cosby's fame, Jackson went on trial with two men involved in the
plot and was convicted on federal charges of conspiracy to extract $40 million from
Cosby. But interestingly, she might actually be his daughter. Cosby admitted in the trial
that he had sex with Jackson's mother, a woman named Shawn Thompson. Autumn Jackson had concocted
this scheme to expose the actor as a quote "deadbeat dad," she wrote in one incriminating
letter. However, the court found the issue of paternity irrelevant to the case.
Jackson served only 14 months of her 26-month sentence, per The New York Times. A three-judge
Second Circuit appeals panel ruled that the original judge had improperly instructed the
jury and thus tossed out the conviction. Jackson's defense attorney, Robert M. Baum, claimed
the extortionist genuinely believes herself to be Cosby's legitimate daughter.
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