Kristina Ruehli Says Bill Cosby Drugged and Tried to Sexually Assault Her in 1965
In an exclusive interview, his tenth public accuser details the earliest-known allegation against the comedian.
These days, Kristina Ruehli is a 71-year-old New Hampshire woman who spends her leisure time skiing and being a grandmother to eight. But back in 1965, she was a 22-year-old woman trying to make ends meet in California, working as a secretary at a talent agency in Beverly Hills. And that is where she met Bill Cosby.
How did you come to know Bill Cosby?
I worked for a talent agency called Artists Agency Corp. They had big clients like Bob Culp, Richard Crenna and George Burns, and these people were always around. And that is the way that I met Bill Cosby.
He was a client?
Yes, well, he came into the office. There were always all these contracts going around from the studio lawyer to the artist’s lawyer, and I’m assuming he was there to talk to a lawyer about a contract.
Cosby came back to where the secretaries were and said, “I’m going to be on Hollywood Palace tonight, and I’m going to have a party at my home afterwards.” So he invited me, and I went.
Did you think it was unusual for him to invite you to his house?
No, it was supposed to be a party, and the agency was a very social place. And I was quite an attractive young woman with an A-plus figure and natural blonde hair, blue eyes. I was always compared to Barbara Eden in I Dream of Jeannie. I was frequently invited to parties. At an agency like that, back in those days, being attractive was one of the reasons you got hired. Like stewardesses.
What happened when you got to the house?
When I arrived at his house — it was probably around 10 p.m. — I was surprised that there was no one else there. He was very well liked at the agency, and so I expected others to be there. But no one else arrived.
But you went in.
Yes, I remember the front of the house was brick and it had a slight Tudor design. It was in Brentwood or Bel Air — they all start with a “B.”
He said that his wife was out of town, but he brought me in and into one bedroom where there was an infant child in the crib. He actually showed me, a very young baby. The child was fast asleep. He seemed so proud of it. He wanted to show me his little baby. I don’t know where the nanny or maid was, but someone had to be there, because he had come from Hollywood Palace.
We went out into the kitchen. He proceeded to pour some bourbon. I drank a bourbon-and-7 at the time. I could really hold my liquor. I’m Irish. And I had a couple of those — just two — and then I just don’t remember much.
What do you remember?
Well, off his kitchen was a pool, and I somehow ended up around that pool for a while.
Was it supposed to be a pool party? Were you in a bathing suit?
No, no. I was wearing nylon stockings and high heels and a dress. This was 1965, and that’s what you wore to a party. So, I ended up by the pool, and, well, I was in quite a foggy state. I have vague memories of someone walking next to me at the pool, and the next day, I realized that the bottoms of my nylons were completely tore up. Not just a run, but tore up. So I must have been walking around the pool for quite a while.
Off the pool in one direction was a bedroom. Whether it was his bedroom or a guest bedroom, I really don’t know, but I think it was not the master bedroom, because there really wasn’t much to it.
And somehow, I wound up in that bed.
Did you lose consciousness at some point?
Yes, I completely passed out. At that age, two bourbon-and-7s would not have knocked me out cold, believe me. In those days, I could drink most men under the table. It was a standard eight-ounce glass, and they were not overly strong, or I would have noticed it.
He must have drugged me. There is just one point at which I was having a drink and feeling normal and the next I was somehow passed out completely. He must have slipped something into my drink. It’s the only way to go lights-out like that.
When did you wake up?
It was all foggy, and I woke up in the bed. I found myself on the bed, and he had his shirt off. He had unzipped his pants. I was just coming to.
He was attempting to force me into oral sex. He had his hand on my head. He had his cock out, and he had my head pushed close enough to it — I just remember looking at his stomach hair. And the hair on his chest. I had never seen a black man naked before.
And it never went past that. I immediately came to and was immediately very sick. I pushed myself away and ran to the bathroom and threw up. I was feeling really ill. And I never got sick like that from alcohol, at least not that small of an amount.
Once I threw up — it was five in the morning by now, I think — I left the bathroom and he wasn’t there. I don’t know where he went. But I left right away. I was able to drive myself home. I didn’t live that far away.
And what did you do the next day?
I showed up at work at 9 a.m., actually. I asked two of my girlfriends in the office why no one came to the house.
