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Jackie Fuchs Raped By Kim Fowley, Former Runaways Manager And Producer

By Lindsay McCane
Published on: 05:33 PST, Jul 9, 2015

Jackie Funchs is opening up for the first time about Kim Fowley, the Runaways former manager and producer, raping her when she was only 16-years-old.

The former Runaways bassist, who performed with the band from 1975 to 1977 as Jackie Fox, recalled the heartbreaking details of that night in a cover story for the Huffington Post titled “Lost Girls.”

While speaking to the website, Funchs recalled the details of the night Fowley, who is now dead, raped her in front of a room of onlookers. She said the incident took place on December 31, 1975, at a grungy motel following a Runaways performance in Orange County. She explained that she was given a Quaalude sedative by a roadie, and witnesses added that she was given a number of pills.

“At some point, Jackie says she had to lie down on a bed to rest. She was having trouble staying upright. When a roadie checked to see if she was OK, Fowley asked him if he was interested in having sex with her. ‘She doesn’t mind,’ Fowley said. ‘Do you?’

Jackie tried to protest, but she was frozen. ‘You don’t know what terror is until you realize something bad is about to happen to you and you can’t move a muscle,’ she says. ‘I can’t move. I can’t speak. All I can do is look him in the eye and do the best I can do to communicate: Please say no. … I don’t know what it looked like from the outside. But I know what was going on inside and it was horror.’ The roadie declined Fowley’s offer, and soon after, Jackie says she started to slip in and out of consciousness.”

After the roadie declined, Fowley removed his pants and started having sex with her in front of a mostly teenage audience that included her band members, Cherie Currie and Joan Jett. Also present to witness the assault was songwriter Kari Krome, who was 14 at the time, and Runaways vocalist Cherie Currie.

“I remember opening my eyes, Kim Fowley was raping me, and there were people watching me,” Fuchs said.

“I didn’t know what to do,” Krome, who says she was also sexually assaulted by Fowley, admitted. “Like what was I going to do? Go outside and drive and find a pay phone and call the police? I didn’t want to call the police on anyone, but at the same time I knew what was happening was wrong.”

The story also notes that Currie “spoke up and stormed out of the room,” and later said, “I pushed it out of my mind the best I could.”

A representative for Joan Jett denied that she witnessed the incident, according to the way it was told in the Huffington Post story.

Although Jackie wasn’t the first bassist for the Runaways, she is probably the best known. She had planned to attend college at UCLA in 1975, but was approached by Rodney Bingenheimer, a DJ and mayor of the Sunset Strip, at the Starwood Club while she was dancing with her friends. When Jackie told Rodney that she played an instrument, he took her to meet Fowley, according to the Runaways website.

She originally auditioned for lead guitar, playing Kiss’ “Strutter.” However, the performance did not go over well, and she did not make the band. It wasn’t until December, 1975, shortly before the rape took place, that she was contacted by Fowley and asked to join the group as their bassist.

Fowley died this past January from bladder cancer at the age of 75.

[Photo via Shutterstock]

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