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I RAPED LUCE KID, 13 -- 1967 CONFESSION |
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by Philip Recchia Time Scion Accused in $15M Sex Suit, by Dan Mangan The Luce Family War, by Vicky Ward Luce Family's Secret Shame of "Sex Abuse," by Mark Bulliet An Encounter with Andrew Harvey, by John Palcewski New York Post, 10/2/06
SHOCKING: John Palcewski admits he had sex with a then-13-year-old Victoria Barlow - at her mom's urging. October 2, 2006 -- A former lover of Time magazine heiress Leila Hadley Luce says he bedded the socialite's daughter when she was just 13 - at the urging of the child's mother. John Palcewski
says he "committed statutory rape" by having sex with Victoria Barlow in
1967 after Leila Luce allegedly told him, "Maybe it would be better if
she lost her virginity to someone like you." His confession comes as a pre-emptive strike against "sensationalized media reports" he fears will emerge from the sex-abuse suit against Leila Luce and her late husband, Time magazine scion Henry Luce III, filed by her younger daughter, Caroline Nicholson, and Nicholson's daughter. "I don't want my 15 minutes of fame to be as some perverted child molester," Palcewski, 64, told The Post. "I want to set the record straight." The $20 million suit, which was filed in Manhattan Supreme Court in 2003 and could go to trial this year, alleges sisters Nicholson, 47, and Barlow, 52, were repeatedly molested as kids by their mom. It also alleges Henry Luce III, 81, sexually abused Nicholson's daughter, now 17. Nicholson's claim against her mom was tossed because it exceeded the state's statute of limitations, but the judge allowed her daughter's claim to stand. Palcewski says he was 24 when he met Leila Luce, then 42 and an editor at now-defunct Diplomat magazine. Soon after he pitched her a story idea, he moved into the mother of four's 1160 Fifth Ave. penthouse as they began a three-month affair. At the time, Leila Luce was separated from her then-husband, Yver Hyatt Smitter. In a recent deposition for her sister's suit, Barlow says Leila Luce purposely incited Palcewski's lust for her. One day, while Barlow was in the hallway on her way to her room after taking a shower, Leila Luce "pulled the towel off me in front of John," she says. That incident was part of "a pattern . . . of [Leila] setting up situations in which we children would be abused," Barlow says in her sworn deposition. The night of the towel incident, Barlow says in her deposition, "I walked into the den . . . to talk with him . . . and we had sex . . . He didn't pin me down." Palcewski does not dispute Barlow's account of his single sexual encounter with her. He moved out of the Luce home shortly after and did not have contact with Barlow until 32 years later, when she sent him an e-mail: "You raped me and I would like an apology," she told Palcewski, according to her deposition. "He apologized. And I said, 'I forgive you.' " When asked about her relationship with Palcewski -- and his with Barlow -- Leila Luce said, "I don't deny it, but I have no recollection of it." CALL FOR WITNESSES: Can you corroborate the claims of abuse alleged by the Luce Family children? Do you have recollections or evidence that would help to prove those claims in court? If so, please forward your information to Caroline Nicholson, nicho059@umn.edu and Victoria Barlow, nickyskye@yahoo.com. These links are posted at the request of Victoria and Carolyn, who have already been contacted by various witnesses. If you know anything, you can help.
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