Sounds Like Weird
This is a mirror of Stephen Goldin’s pages from SFF.net about Marion Zimmer Bradley. More notes at bottom.
Here is a timeline of some of the major events that are relevant to this discussion. We hope this will let you put the timing of what happened into perspective.
| Date | Event | Source of Information |
|---|---|---|
| 1954 | Walter Breen first convicted for child molestation | New York Probation Dept; Walter’s 1989 sentencing report |
| 1962 | SeaCon–the first “fannish” scandal involving Walter Breen | Breendoggle fanzines |
| 1964 | Second fannish scandal–Walter having sex with 10-year-old [Victim X] | Breendoggle & Breenagain fanzines |
| Marion knew of and defended Walter’s behavior | MZB’s depositions | |
| Marion & Walter get married | MZB’s depositions | |
| 1970s | Stephen Goldin met various Greyhaven members at SCA events | |
| 1984 | Stephen Goldin, Mary Mason & Ken Smith move to Northern California (Sacramento); Mary joins Westercon 38 committee | |
| Jul. 1985 WesterCon 38 | Mary & Ken meet Walter Breen for the first time; Breen spends much of the Con chasing Ken (“babysitting to help Mary out,” as he put it) | Court record & Walter’s confession |
| Oct. 1985 | Ken invited to visit Walter’s house. Mary checks with Elisabeth Waters, Tracy Blackstone, MZB, Diana Paxson & Don Studebaker about safety, etc. They all say it’s okay. | |
| Nov. 1985 | Ken travels to Berkeley to spend weekend at Walter’s & to attend a Greyhaven event. Molested for the first time. | Walter’s confession |
| 1985- 1989 | Ken and Walter see each other several times a year–mostly at sf conventions we all attended. Walter continued to molest Ken and also found his next victim (Johnny Doe 5) at con | Walter’s confession |
| Jul. 1989 | Moira tells her psychiatrist that Walter is molesting Ken. Ken tells police of molestation when questioned. | |
| 1989 | Out of concern for Ken, Mary resigns as Chair of SF in ’93 bid committee | |
| Walter arrested, pleads guilty | ||
| Oct. 1989 | Walter sentenced to 3 years probation | |
| Nov. 1989 | Mary first files suit on Ken’s behalf | |
| Xmas 1989 | Walter visits and begins molesting his next victim, Johnny Doe 5 | |
| 1990 | Walter arrested for molesting Johnny Doe 5; eventually dies in prison while serving his sentence | |
| 1997 | Ken turns 21 and hires a new attorney for his case, Chritopher Dolan. Ken agrees to let details of his case be made public. Since Ken is now of legal age, Mary’s name is dropped from the suit as guardian ad litem. | |
| MZB & Elizabeth Waters added as defendants for negligence | ||
| MZB & Waters countersue Mary, claiming she knew about the molestation all along | ||
| 1998-1999 | Depositions taken in the case | |
| Aug. 1999 | Settlement reached in favor of Ken & entered in court. Countersuit by MZB & Lisa Waters against Mary is dropped permanently. | |
| Aug. 18 1999 | Stephen reserves this Web site for publishing these details | |
| Sept. 25, 1999 | MZB dies of heart attack |
Copyright © 1999-2000 by Stephen Goldin. All rights reserved.
Note: This page originally appeared at http://sff.net/people/stephen.goldin/mzb/timeline.html, but that subsite is permanently offline. Stephen Goldin’s new site is here, but it does not contain the MZB tree (that I found). Apart from bringing the code up to HTML5, adjusting URLs to my own naming system, and fixing a couple of typos, what precedes the rule above this paragraph is entirely Stephen Goldin’s work.