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Arbuckle continued to do well in his career, and then in 1921, he signed a 3-year, $1 million contract with Paramount. The size of this contract was unheard of in this era. Furthermore, he had just been paid for completing 18 silent films for the studio, and his most recent film, Crazy to Marry, was in theaters across the country. Arbuckle seemed at the top of his career, and his friends planned a party to celebrate his success and let loose on Labor Day weekend.

[[File:Arbuckle Mugshot.jpg||thumbnail|left|250px|San Francisco PD Mugshot of Arbuckle shortly after Rappe's death.]]

At first, Arbuckle didn’t really want to have the party. He was exhausted from work, and when he was getting his car serviced in Los Angeles, he sat on an acid-soaked rag and got 2nd degree burns on his backside. Nevertheless, his friend insisted on the party. On the Saturday of Labor Day weekend, Arbuckle and his friend, Fred Fischbach, drove from Los Angeles to the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco. By the end of the weekend, Arbuckle would be sitting in jail, held without bail, for the murder of 25-year-old Virginia Rappe.

Fischbach had arranged everything. The hotel rooms, the invitations, and the liquor (even though this was during the Prohibition era). They had a suite and two adjoining rooms in the St. Francis Hotel. Not surprisingly, there were a number of uninvited guests—most notably Maude Delmont and Virginia Rappe. Rappe was an aspiring actress, model, and party girl while Delmont was a known blackmailer and purported madam. Arbuckle didn’t care for their presence because he worried they might bring negative attention to the party.

==== Arbuckle’s Version of Events: ====