The late Don Cornelius, the producer and host of the television show Soul Train, was accused of raping two women at the Playboy mansion in the new documentary, Secrets of Playboy.
Cornelius passed away in 2012.
According to former Playboy bunny P.J. Masten, the Soul Train host was a regular Playboy VIP member known by all the bunnies. She alleged that Cornelius was at a dance club in Hollywood frequented by Playboy bunnies when he invited two rookie bunnies, who were also siblings, to the VIP area. He asked them to his house party afterward.
“It was probably the most horrific story I’ve ever heard at Playboy,” Masten continued. “This story is the story of a massive cleanup that never hit the press.”
Masten claimed that the sisters went to Cornelius’ house and disappeared for three days. She claimed he beat, drugged and raped the sisters repeatedly.
“These two young girls got in his Rolls-Royce, went up to his house and we didn’t hear from them for three days,” alleged Masten. “We couldn’t figure out where they were.”
On the third day, one of the sisters escaped and called the Playboy Mansion, where she asked a bunny mother for help. The head of security at the mansion, Joe Piastro, reportedly found the women “bloodied, battered and drugged,” she said.
The sisters alleged that they were held in different rooms at Cornelius’ mansion and locked in. They also said they had been sodomized with wooden objects.
“They were tied up and bound,” said Masten. “There were wooden objects that they were sodomized with and one sister could hear the other sister being brutalized. It was horrible, horrible.”
Masten said that they never called the police because it was against Playboy’s policy. The security team allegedly told the women to be quiet and not speak to the press.
Not only did Playboy cover up the crime, claimed Masten, but Cornelius was back at the Playboy mansion the following week and never lost his VIP status.
The producer’s son Tony Cornelius said the revelation is an “unbelievable story without real proof.” He also called the accusation “salaciousness.”
