After 30 years of silence, Barbara Bowman is revealing just how serious things were. According to her, “’I’m finally revealing all of my full story in hopes that others will learn to read the tell-tale signs of abuse and not wait as long as I did. No one believed me for years. They said Bill would never do that. That it was preposterous. But I’m putting my name out there and standing behind these words, just like Burress. No more code of silence.”
What made Barbara come forward now?
Well a few days ago a comedian Hannibal Burress attacked the image of Bill Cosby and asked why he is still a much loved American figure even after being accused of rape by 13 women. Barbara credits her courage to Hannibal Buress and says, “I thank Hannibal Burress for speaking out over and over again, despite the threats from the Industry that it could ruin his career. He is standing up for me and the other women who are too afraid to speak out.”
Barbara Bowsman described a particular time at his New York house:
We ate in the kitchen. I had one glass of red wine with dinner. My next recollection is me, coming to, slumped over the toilet bowl, throwing up. I was wearing a man’s white t-shirt and my panties. The t-shirt was not mine. Bill was standing over me, holding my hair out of my face as I threw up. I had no idea how I’d gotten there. I’d had one glass of wine with dinner. He was trying to soothe me with his words, “It will be okay. It’s okay.”
By the time I came to, the staff was gone. No one in the house but us. And as the fogginess lifted, he escorted me to the couch where I recovered. I then got dressed and he called me a cab. I was mystified. It was a sick pit in my stomach, knowing that I was out of control over the last undetermined amount of time. And that I was undressed, while he was in a white robe, and how had I gotten there.
Barbara Bowsman shares, “Maybe he should also teach his fictitious TV family how to escape the talons of sexual predators. Bill used to tell me that he was my father figure and that I needed to trust him as a father, 100 percent. Then he’d drug me and attack me. I was too afraid to talk back. He told me over and over again, “Trust me like I was your father.” He zeroed in on that like a laser beam.”
She describes another time in Reno, Nevada, in 1986:
He turned out all the lights. It was completely pitch black. He laid me down on the couch and started caressing and touching me all over. Then he put my hand on his penis, covering it with his hand. He had me masturbate him. I couldn’t see what was going on. When it was over, I ran out of the room and threw up.
‘It was so invasive and frightening and humiliating. There was no way I could tell my mother. I couldn’t even admit it to myself. I tried to convince myself that I’d imagined it. That it was a one-time thing, that it wouldn’t happen again. And I was paralyzed with fear.
Thyblackman.com shares three reasons why Barbara Bowsman’s story is believeable even though there has been quite a backlash of her being financially motivated. According to thyblackman.com, “Despite money being passed around, the notion that the allegations were all financially-motivated is highly questionable for at least three reasons: 1) The massive number of women who’ve come forward (which might mean there are others who were afraid to speak up), 2) the consistency of their stories, and 3) the fact that Barbara Bowman couldn’t receive a dime from her interview in Newsweek, since the statute of limitations had passed and she couldn’t be financially compensated in a lawsuit.”
This is a really sad moment for a lot of people who have Bill Cosby etched in their childhood memories and hopefully Bill Cosby releases a statement soon to address these issue.
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