Original subtitles

[techno music playing]

[Holly] Playboy in the '90s was a huge part of popular culture.

It was a mainstream, acceptable presentation

of nudity and female sexuality.

Just everything they do is

wow.

You have all kinds of things at your fingertips.

You know, the sky is the limit.

[sinister music playing]

[Holly] But Playboy handles tragedies by burying them

and not acknowledging them.

[Lucia] It's just this downward spiral.

And that's when his behavior

really starts to get out of control.

I remember telling her, "You really should not do this.

I don't think it's a good idea."

Several witness who were later identified

as hearing what they thought was a loud argument.

All the dreams

aren't necessarily what's really important.

All that glitters isn't gold.

[Corinna] It was very scary.

If someone is capable of murder,

they could murder you.

[gunshot]

October 29th of 1991,

I was in a gun shop.

And, uh, an individual came down

and yelled that there was a gun fight going on outside in the street

next to our building.

Myself and another off-duty officer ran out.

We found two bodies lying in the street

with pools of blood around them

and spent casings from the .22 revolver.

This was in the middle of the day in public

so it was a bewildering moment

because it involves a celebrity, uh, Playboy model.

Stacy Arthur.

[indistinct chatter]

[techno music playing]

Stacy Arthur was Playmate of the Month

in January, 1991.

When you thought of Playboy,

you thought of beautiful women,

you thought of nude photography.

[cheering]

A lot of women in the '90s and 2000s, myself included,

saw Playboy as a stepping stone to a career.

[Corinna] Oh, my gosh,

I remember the first time driving through those gates.

And I remember the first time

I ever laid eyes on the mansion.

I thought, "Oh, this place is spectacular."

Just everything they do is wow.

It's just wow.

It's kind of like that like the stars in their eyes.

And you have celebrities wanting you,

you have all kinds of things at your fingertips.

You know, the sky is the limit.

And I think Stacy kind of had that

and she... she thought, "Wait a minute here.

This is everything."

[Holly] The beginning of Stacy's story was so incredibly wholesome.

But there were things

that allowed this to take a much darker turn.

Stacy graduated from high school in 1986.

She was rather quiet.

Uh, beautiful girl.

Very talented in crafts and... and ceramic work.

And then by the spring of '88,

she was the manager of a crafts store in Bellefontaine.

My brother Jim opened a tanning salon on the second floor.

And that's where he met Stacy.

He and Stacy hit it off

and were soon inseparable.

She was 19 at the time and he was 34.

This would've been when Stacy and Dad first got together.

She has sort of this woven romance

uh, with Jim Arthur.

She had been previously married,

had a child from her previous marriage.

Jim, he had been married before as well.

She meets Jim

and is very smitten with him.

[Danielle] I think they...

they both were really happy together

and that they found each other.

[Jana] On June 4th, 1988,

they got married.

And that started it all.

[Stacy] Wait till everybody gets in here. Get your hair... Get your head back.

[Danielle] She was the only mom I ever knew for a long time.

My mom and dad separated when I was young

and Stacy adopted me in 1989.

Like when she came into my life,

I was still very little.

Like, it was no feat for me to call her "Mom."

Because she was there.

I don't ever remember not calling her "Mom."

I think the biggest change for me was

not that there was a new woman in the... in the house,

as much as Stacy brought her daughter with her.

And that was a change

'cause I had just always had an older brother.

- [boy speaking indistinctly] - [woman] Okay.

[Danielle] Her hair was always pretty,

and she had high heels like, the really high heels.

And you know, as a little girl,

those are so much fun to go in the closet

and try on and attempt to walk in them

and fail terribly. [chuckles]

[Jana] She was very photogenic.

She took some great pictures.

And then when they got married,

she decided she'd like to go into modelling.

So Jim became her manager and her support staff.

She started out in a pageant.

She did win 32 different pageants.

She had all kinds of trophies

and things to show what she had accomplished.

[Lucia] He had put her up for more and more pageants.

And as she kept winning, she gained more confidence,

uh, over time.

And she won Mrs. Ohio in, uh, June 1990.

She was the youngest competitor,

uh, and she swept the competition.

Um, so that was obviously a huge highlight for her career.

[Jana] Usually, people did not win that pageant

on their first time.

She was...

shocked.

Absolutely shocked at when they announced that she had won.

This would be her Mrs. Ohio crown. [laughs]

Every little girl's dream is to have a tiara this big

that's not made of plastic. [laughs]

[Jana] Jim saw beyond what was happening right in front of her

and he wanted to help her reach for the stars.

He wanted to help her achieve

and be the best that she could be.

Which led her to Playboy.

[Holly] A husband wanting his wife to be a Playmate

might seem weird at first.

Like, why does he want his wife to be naked for everybody else to see?

But based on my experience,

I've seen husbands be really excited to have their wives pose

and, you know, to them, it's like a trophy.

There can definitely be another side, too.

It would take a really secure partner

to be able to deal with that

and be confident and supportive.

[Jana] So after she won Mrs. Ohio,

she continued to model.

That led her to a gig in Chicago.

And while they were out there,

they stopped in at the Playboy headquarters.

Jim said, "Let's do it while we're here."

And she said, "Sure, let's go."

I think to outsiders looking in,

Playboy looked like a really glamourous, upscale world.

Playboy was such a huge magazine in the '90s.

And it was very, very mainstream.

I mean, you would see Playboy have a presence in like, family movies.

It was something that was, yeah, it's a little bit racy,

but it was so mainstream at the same time.

ForPlayboy to have a pageant queen as a centerfold

was a really big deal.

That was another thing that kind of legitimized the magazine more.

It's like, oh, this Miss America type person could be a centerfold, too.

[Jana] Jim made arrangements to get a photoshoot

and some videotaping done.

They saw something in her that they really liked.

[Holly] Just a month later,

Stacy was flown out to LA for her Playmate shoot

and that's unheard of.

She was definitely fast tracked.

[Corinna] It's your first taste of celebrity.

A lot of girls do go on to become household names.

I think Stacy wanted that really badly.

All of a sudden, you're the hometown hero.

And everybody, you know, wants to meet the Playmate.

And, "Oh, my gosh, she did Playboy."

[Holly] This must've been a whirlwind for Stacy

to go from being from a small town in Ohio

and just a month later you're being flown out to LA,

you're staying at the Playboy mansion,

you're doing this shoot for a huge magazine.

They used to put the Playmates in the bungalows

if we were doing photoshoots,

sometimes making appearances there in LA.

And have just let the Playmates stay there.

It was '91.

They had me rooming with Stacy Arthur.

Probably because we both came out of Chicago.

And Stacy asked me if I wanted to go into the grotto.

And I said, "Yeah."

You know, I may as well.

It's like a hot tub and cave.

It was really spectacular. [laughs]

[Holly] It's right next to the pool

and the pool kind of flows into it.

So there's all these hot tubs

and then there's like, a little you know, stream you can swim through

and like, tunnels you can swim under.

It's really cool

and, of course, it's also, you know,

the famous place

where supposedly everybody goes to have sex.

And certainly, many people did. [laughs]

[Lucia] It's December of 1990.

Stacy goes to the USSR

to compete in the Mrs. America pageant.

And that's when the story breaks

that she's gonna be a Playboycover model.

As they finished up the Mrs. America pageant,

which she was in the top ten,

Stacy was on the cover ofPlayboy and the centerfold

for the January 1991.

She was one of the few that were ever selected

to be on the cover and the centerfold.

Marilyn Monroe was one other.

In the '90s, the cover of Playboy

was usually reserved for a celebrity pictorial.

Pamela Anderson is the only other example I can think of

who was a Playmate of the month

who was on the cover immediately.

And that was a big celebration.

She was really excited to be this January 1991.

It is unusual to have beauty pageant winners

pose for Playboy.

Stacy was the trendsetter.

She was the first one of that stature to do it.

[Jana] It wasn't against the rules

'cause nothing was stated at the time.

But some of the pageant people were shocked.

[Lucia] She really relishes the attention

she says, you know, there's nothing wrong with it.

The beauty queen should be sensual,

beauty queen should be out there.

And, um, that's something that really resonates.

[Holly] It's interesting how people react sometimes

to a woman posing nude.

All of a sudden it becomes everyone else's problem.

Some of them think

it grants them some kind of ownership of you.

And there's also a dark underbelly.

Then you're not really prepared for that,

and you don't really see that dark side

until you're already in it.

I definitely think that Jim had big aspirations for her.

Well, it wasn't just that Jim was her husband.

He was also her manager.

He was the one who was booking all her appearances.

He was the one, um,

who was kind of making her into this star.

[Danielle] I think in a way she was a trophy for him.

If you look at this,

they look like different people in a way.

I mean, really like, I'm living life in the fast lane.

[Holly] It's a lot to deal with you know,

when you have someone coming from a small town

and one of them is all of a sudden making it big.

And not only are they making it big,

but they're posing nude in a magazine for everyone to see.

So if you get the wrong type of person

or somebody who has the wrong idea about what's appropriate,

it can be really dangerous.

[Corinna] And maybe when you're younger, you don't know that.

You just don't.

You think you're being kind,

you think everybody's being nice.

You don't wanna believe there's monsters out there

or people that snap.

From my understanding,

my dad always wanted her to be a Playboy Bunny.

And that's how we ended up where we are.

I think she did it out of respect for him.

Really.

Wow, a sling for your room!

She, um, was very modest I... I believe.

And we would tell her how beautiful she was

and... and she would think no.

You know, she wasn't good... good enough.

She was trying to get a music career started

in country music.

And she was trying to get established in Nashville at the time.

And Playboy had backed her on that.

So they were trying to help her

with the connections in Nashville.

It was about 18 months timeframe

that they went from Stacy's first pageant

to Mrs. Ohio,

to Playboy.

It was all very... very, very quickly.

But to me, she was my mom.

Looky here!

This is Whisky.

Can you say hi to Whisky?

Yes, this is your new puppy.

She never came off like,

she was, "Oh, I'm all that and a bag of chips."

Like it just never... never came off that way to me.

[in high-pitched voice] ...and I want to give you a kiss.

[Danielle] I saw her as what she was.

You know, a human being who had to get ready like everybody else,

and put one shoe on in front of the other

just like everybody else.

[Corinna] When I met Stacy,

I felt like she was very well spoken.

I felt like she was much more accomplished than I was.

Especially that you know, I was just out of high school.

So I thought, "Wow."

And she was Mrs. Ohio and I looked up to that.

Stacy was on a really clear trajectory.

And I know she was probably thinking about

Playmate of the Year next.

And then on into the entertainment industry.

[Jana] Jim was pretty excited.

He was proud of her.

And proud of the work that she'd done

and was ready to continue.

[Danielle] My dad would do her hair

and her nails and her makeup.

And he just made sure that everything was perfect.

Picture perfect.

[Corinna] It was always about taking care of her.

He would call, "Oh, I understand you're...

you and Stacy are rooming together."

He was so nice

and just very concerned about Stacy.

[Holly] It seemed like he was incredibly supportive,

very secure.

Wanted Stacy to go on to be Playmate of the Year,

and have a country music career,

and all those things.

In the '90s,

when Playmates were competing for Playmate of the Year,

the magazine always wanted to know who the readers wanted.

So they would have this 1-900 number

people could call to cast a vote.

Like, they would press a number for whatever month.

But also there was this component of it where

callers could elect to have a conversation with the actual Playmates.

And actually speaking to the Playmate over the 1-900 number

would make the Playmate seem so much more accessible.

[Holly] "This is news.

This year as in the past,

callers can go on record by nominating their choices for Playmate of the Year,

but they can also hear messages from their favorite

and leave messages for the ladies.

Playmates will answer some calls personally."

Stacy was very, very serious about getting Playmate of the Year,

and very serious about Playboy

and it being a catapult in her career.

So she took that phoneline very, very seriously

and thought that that was gonna get her

better standing with Playboy.

[phone beeping]

Fans would call in and the operator would punch you in.

And they would pick who they wanna speak to

and, um, and put you through.

Mostly young men that had seen the magazine

and wanted to talk to the girl in the magazine.

And they would really ask,

"Is this really you? Why did you pose for Playboy?"

Simple questions.

So these women were talking to all these anonymous callers

that they don't know

and they're not trained to handle these conversations.

So they could've been asking these women

for any kinds of subtle hints as to where they lived

or where they might be during a certain period of time.

We were all told, "You don't engage.

You've got to be very careful with the...

the things that you say and how you say it."

And they'd get disconnected if they started trying to talk dirty

or... or, you know,

anything inappropriate.

The operator would listen in

and disconnect if anything went wrong.

We made $150 for three hours of...

of being on the phone lines.

And fans paid $3 a minute

to... to speak to the girls.

It was interesting [chuckles softly]

and it was kind of fun.

You could really make a nice extra chunk of change.

So their finances are always very variable,

the Arthurs.

They have big expenses, a lot of travel.

So they start having money troubles around this time

where it's not as steady as they would like.

This was a way, uh, to keep money coming in

and to keep all the lights on

and all the businesses running.

[Holly] The centerfold was always trying to accomplish

not only beauty and sexuality,

but a sense of intimacy with the subject.

So the reader could feel like they really know this woman.

And on the back of the centerfold,

they would have this data sheet.

So this is in her handwriting

and it would tell you all kinds of things about her,

from her favorite foods to what her perfect date would be

and there are pictures of her from when she was a teenager.

So the goal was really for this to be a fantasy woman.

And they could feel like, "Oh, this is the girl next door.

This is somebody I have a chance with but she's stunning."

I think it was a bad idea to have the Playmates be that accessible.

I'm sure so many men called

and then felt like they really knew these people

and it's kind of shocking to me

that the Playmates were asked to do that.

I feel like that's kind of crossing a line.

In March of 1991,

a fan had began to call Stacy.

His name was James Lindberg...

[phone ringing]

...and he loved to talk to the Playmates.

He would call regularly

and stay on the phone for long periods of time.

James Lindberg is a 32-year-old man who lives in California.

He's really a loner.

He doesn't seem to go out that often.

He you know, starts calling this line.

[Corinna] I remember talking to James.

He talked about his grandma.

He's... he's you know,

You know missed his grandma and loved his grandma.

He wasn't inappropriate.

You know, he didn't say anything sexual.

It was just the way he was so emotionally

like serious.

He would you know didn't have a sense of humor.

I noticed that right away

and I thought, "That's not right."

He was the only one that made me feel kind of sad and bad.

In my Playmate issue,

they write up things for the girls in the magazine.

And the writer mentioned we used water balloon tourists

in Las Vegas.

And it would make us laugh.

He would say, "Why would you do that?

I don't understand.

Why would you have done that to people?"

And I said, "I'm so sorry.

[chuckles] I'm sorry.

Yeah, I feel bad about it.

I feel really bad."

He would get very upset...

and mad, like turn on a dime.

[telephone ringing]

That's when he started talking to Stacy more.

They had become friends in his mind for certain.

[Lucia] James Lindberg actually set the record

for the most amount of phone calls.

He had spent over $15,000.

Just on this phone line

and keep in mind, this guy was not making a lot of money.

He worked as a trucker and he was out of work for a while.

So this was a huge amount of cash to him.

And that should have been a red flag right there.

It's almost like if somebody was drinking too much at a bar they might get cut off.

I think with Playboy, profit was coming first

in that situation for sure.

[Corinna] Stacy said, "It's okay.

I'm fine. He's fine. He's harmless."

[Jana] None of us knew the road that she was going

would lead to the dead end that it did.

[camera shutter clicking]

[Jana] Stacy's life really became quite busy

because she was going places to sign autographs,

she was still modeling,

she was doing some PR work for Playboy,

where Playmates would go to car shows or whatever.

So things got a little crazy there for a while.

I can relate to Stacy's experience a little bit,

but I didn't have it happen as fast as she did.

I mean, she was literally going

from a small town in middle America

to overnight in LA,

shooting her Playmate layout.

Probably only a few months later,

you know the magazine was on news stands

and it's one of the hugest magazines in the world, like...

Even I can't imagine how head spinning that would be.

[Jana] She flew to the mansion

or she then would fly to Nashville

and then back home.

And trying to be a mom at the same time.

But she would still sit for hours

talking on the 900 number

where people would call in.

[telephone ringing]

In March, James Lindberg starts calling more and more often

and for longer and longer.

They ended up putting in a time limit

because he spent so long on the phone to her.

When you wanna be Playmate of the Year,

you wanna show you're the hardest worker

and you have the most positive attitude.

She wanted people to keep calling

and asking for her

and this person on the other end of the line

might be getting the wrong idea.

As long as things didn't get too inappropriate,

the Playmates were instructed to just go along with whatever went on on the phone.

But one time, James Lindberg got mad.

Don't know how the conversation started

but he didn't like where it was going and he got mad

and he hung up.

[telephone ringing]

But then he called back like a week or so later

and he apologized to Stacy for his behavior

and then he started calling her again.

He finds out her favorite color is pink

and he sends her 70 pink balloons.

He would kind of latch on to these little details

and then show his love with sort of an over abundance.

He knew about her children,

she told him about her marriage.

They have this pseudo-friendship

and he thinks that this is giving him access

that this is his way of showing his love.

[Holly] It can definitely get dangerous

to make people feel like they know a Playmate.

These are her real interests

and it's her real name usually and...

she's telling people where she's from,

so it's not like the public is even connecting

with like a character in a movie.

Like this is a real person.

I just think it's a really weird line that gets blurred with some people.

In late September 1991,

he didn't call.

And she actually finds his number and calls him

and says, "Are you okay?

Did something happen to you?"

So you're getting these mixed messages back and forth.

She considers it a fan-star relationship,

but to him, it's something more.

To him, it's, "She really cares about me."

She gave him her personal number,

she accepted gifts from him.

She wasn't supposed to do that

as a Playboy centerfold.

She meant it as a way to just kind of check in on him.

But she unwittingly makes this huge error

where she gives him her personal number

and now you know he has sort of direct access.

[Stacy speaking]

Lindberg knew that Stacy and Jim were headed out to the Playboy mansion in September

and he requested that Stacy meet up with him

while she was there.

I remember telling her, "You really should not do this.

You should not go meet with this guy.

I don't think it's a good idea."

But she may have really made a connection with him.

[Holly] I definitely think it's dangerous

to put yourself in a position

where you're never gonna know who you're gonna meet

or what the boundaries are gonna be.

She agreed to it

but once she got to California,

her schedule was too busy.

So it just didn't work out.

[Lucia] They ended up not meeting

and that was devastating to him

and he couldn't handle that.

And it starts this, you know, vicious spiral.

[dramatic music playing]

[James speaking]

It's really this grey line between

healthy and unhealthy behavior.

Some people just naturally

can't stop these thoughts from coming.

[James speaking]

[sighs]

I think Stacy started to realize that James Lindberg may have had some...

unhealthy tendencies.

I think every woman who is in a professional role,

who has a public facing persona

has had this problem.

And she decides, "You know what?

I'm gonna put a stop to this."

[Stacy speaking]

I think Stacy was always kind to people.

She always saw the good in people.

And believed that people were good deep down.

The way Stacy worded that message

makes me think of how women are always taught to be people pleasers

and not offend men

and let people down gently.

And I think that's what she was trying to do.

[Stacy speaking]

[Jana] Jim was always very protective of Stacy.

He thought he could keep her safe from anything.

And he definitely wasn't gonna let this person actually see Stacy.

And that's when James Lindberg's behavior

really starts to get out of control.

[Stacy speaking]

Dealing with men could be very tricky as a Playmate.

Because you're taught to not hurt anybody's feelings

and let people down easily

or say, "Why don't we take a break rather than cut it off completely?"

[Jim] I believe that message probably made James Lindberg

feel even more desperate

that may have sparked his impulse

to travel from his home

over to where Stacy Arthur might be.

[Lucia] You have to keep in mind in 1991,

we didn't even have stalking as a crime nationally.

So, you know, you would not be on high alert for this.

[Holly] I've had people come to my home

or somehow they get into the gated community

and they're like knocking at... banging on the door,

like screaming my name and stuff

and it can feel really, really scary.

[Jim] On October 20th,

James Lindberg set off

from Sacramento, California on a train

and then he traveled to Cincinnati

where he rented a car.

And drove to Bellefontaine, Ohio.

And he had checked into a local motel.

It appeared he went looking for Stacy.

[eerie music playing]

James Lindberg has been in this motel for a few days now.

He's come this far, he's been frustrated.

This is a guy who had traveled 2,000 miles to be there.

[Jim] On October 29th,

he went to a local gift shop

and he bought Stacy gifts

and he went downtown looking for Stacy.

But ran into Jim, her husband.

And decided to give him that gift and ask him to give it to Stacy.

Lindberg also wanted to photograph

Stacy and get it autographed.

Lindberg is very set on accessing Stacy Arthur

and James Arthur is essentially trying to swat a fly.

He's like, "Get lost, buddy."

And, you know, things escalate from there.

[Jim] Several witness were later identified

as hearing what they thought was a loud argument.

[Jana] So Lindberg left

and my brother went back in his tanning salon.

And he said,

"If this gentlemen comes looking for me again

or comes in here,

call the police, because he seems agitated."

So then Jim left the salon.

Went out to get in his car

which was parked right out front of the building.

He has some lights for his tanning bed,

he's putting 'em in the trunk of his car.

[dramatic music playing]

James Lindberg is very intent.

His life has culminated up to this point

and this guy is sort of giving him the run around.

[Jim] One witness said

Mr. Lindberg was kind of shifty.

Almost like someone who had been caught with their hand in a cookie jar.

[Jana] And he came running down from the parking lot yelling

and people were starting to come out

and look and see what was going on.

[Jim] Several witnesses witnessed

Mr. Lindberg produce a handgun

and fire multiple times at Mr. Arthur at very close range.

[gunshots]

This shooting happened in broad daylight on a street

in front of tons of witnesses, there's like two dozen witnesses.

Lindberg shot him once in the face,

twice in the chest

and when Mr. Arthur turned away from him,

he shot him three times in the back.

Jim was dead almost immediately.

So James Lindberg runs.

He has had all these shots in the middle of the street,

he runs back to his car.

Mr. Lindberg after shooting Mr. Arthur

ran into a parking lot.

Witness saw him raise the gun,

then he pulled the trigger and shot himself in the head.

I was five.

I had just gotten home from half-day kindergarten.

Had lunch.

I remember there was a car that pulled up.

And two guys got out.

And they said, "Hey, I need to talk to your mom."

Next thing you know,

Stacy goes running out of the house.

[voice shaking] Your daddy's dead. Your daddy's dead.

[sniffles]

[telephone ringing]

[Jana] I remember when I got to the phone

and they said, "Your brother's been fatally shot."

And I remember thinking, "So, is he dead?"

Because the fatal, it didn't register for a minute.

[sniffling]

[sobbing] Nothing can ever prepare you for that.

I remember thinking like...

"How is that possible?"

That my dad's not coming home.

You can't understand the finality of it at five.

When somebody's gunned down in cold blood,

someone that you love...

That's beyond being able to describe

the amount of pain that you go through.

[Jana] I don't believe Stacy ever thought Lindberg was dangerous.

And I do believe that Jim and Stacy both

thought they could handle whatever came their way.

[indistinct chatter]

[Holly] It wasn't until after James Lindberg's death

that people realized just how obsessed with Stacy he was.

He decorated his motel room with photographs of Stacy Arthur.

There was a calendar where he had circled all her photos

and had a lot of that hanging around the room.

We had found in the motel also that he had recorded

many conversations and had many cassettes

of these conversations in his possession.

[Lucia] He had 31 tapes of all of these conversations

that he had with Stacy Arthur.

And they started to get a better picture

of you know, sort of the insane [chuckles]

intense jealousy

that he has against James Arthur.

One of those tapes was transcripted

and it reads, "This message is for Stacy Arthur.

I want her to know that I'm in love with her.

And that's not a good thing

because she happened to be married this time.

Kind of goofs me up totally.

And it hurts that I'm in love with you.

Just know there you are and here I am

and there your husband."

Lindberg quit his job in October of '91.

Almost immediately after Stacy had left him the message

about taking a break.

His neighbors basically reported

that he was acting a little bit unhinged

and getting a little bit less predictable.

It seems to me that he would in his own logic

would think he'd have to kill James Arthur

before he could get to Stacy.

[Corinna] Like that catapult into madness.

A crazy fan goes and kills your friend's husband.

Your sister Playmate or like sisters.

That's like a sisterhood.

It was very scary.

If someone's capable of murder,

they could murder you.

The family and friends of James Alan Arthur.

Deep inside of us,

there is a feeling of loss and bewilderment.

Death has come unexpected and under tragic circumstances.

[Danielle] Everything was taken from me that day.

[sniffles]

My dad physically was taken from me, but...

My brother was never the same.

My sister was never the same.

Stacy was never the same.

[Jana] Stacy was just devastated.

As we all were.

Stacy lost the love of her life.

She lost her confidant, her lover, her supporter.

Her everything.

She was 23 when my dad died.

I can't imagine having three children at 23

and dealing with the trauma that she was dealing with

with all this.

Like I can't even begin to wrap my mind around it.

You think certain things are such a big deal

and in the scheme of things,

especially you know, your husband

or your family.

That is what counts.

That you know, the other things don't count.

And she learned that the hard way.

So, you know, after Jim's death,

it's just this downward spiral.

She says that she was sexually assaulted

by three bodyguards at the mansion.

Those bodyguards say that it was consensual.

She sees Playboy as negligent

and as using women for mooning their business,

but not taking care of their safety.

And obviously the safety of her family around her.

[Corinna] But she was asking for a substantial amount of money

and I remember that there was nothing to stand on.

There was no real clear, you know, evidence.

But she eventually stops going forward with that case

and it's dismissed without prejudice,

but she never refiles.

This is really the beginning of the end

between Stacy and Playboy.

Playboy handles tragedies by burying them

and not acknowledging them.

Playboy cut Stacy Arthur off

and it was as if she had never existed.

When I look at Stacy and how she was positioned,

to me as somebody who worked for Playboy,

I see that as she was a definite frontrunner for Playmate of the Year

and it's shocking that she didn't get it

and that's the only reason I can think of

is they were trying to distance themselves

and not bring any more attention to the tragedy.

[Lucia] She received all this attention

because of this horrible tragedy.

She had essentially given everything to Playboy

and then they spurned her.

All the dreams

aren't necessarily what's really important.

All that glitters isn't gold.

[Jana] You're never okay.

It's just that time...

heals things a little bit.

But the hole's still there.

You can't fill that hole.

In 2019, Stacy passed away after a brief illness.

[Danielle] She told me, "Your dad was the love of my life."

And she spent the rest of her life looking for my dad.

She just searched for that forever.

"Sure. I'm a dreamer," says Stacy.

"I've been dreaming all my life and I love storybook endings."

I just think it's so sad to read about somebody

who had all these dreams

and it all got taken from her.

Stacy wanted that storybook ending

and she never got it.