Timeline: The day Andy Warhol was shot by Valerie Solanas
Andy Warhol claimed to not be afraid of death. He said, “I always thought I’d like my own tombstone to be blank. No epitaph, and no name. Well, actually, I’d like it to say ‘figment’”, hoping that his death would be treated with the same whimsical mystery as he handled his life.
He also declared, “Dying is the most embarrassing thing that can ever happen to you because someone’s got to take care of all your details.” But that latter quote feels like a more vulnerable one as in 1968, Warhol faced up to death, finding himself in the most vulnerable position of all when he was shot, and his Factory circle nearly lost their leader.
But Warhol didn’t die then, luckily. Instead, his shooting utterly reshaped his career and work. His enduring interest in commercial images turned into a desire not to be a weak, mortal person and to be a business. He started making what he called “business art” and handled himself more like a machine than a man, as if to block out the trauma of being confronted with just how human he was.
For anyone, being shot and having a near-death experience would be a life-altering event, especially given the chilling circumstances that surrounded the crime. As is the case with the majority of murders, Warhol knew his almost-killer. Writer Valerie Solanas had been skulking around The Factory scene for a while, desperately trying to get Warhol to produce a film of one of her stories and then turning on him, violently and sinisterly, when he refused.
She shot Warhol on June 3rd, 1968, but she first met him back in 1967 when she waited outside his studio to ask him to produce her film, Up Your Ass. By all accounts, Warhol didn’t think the script was bad, but he’d recently been the target of a lot of police operations claiming his work was too pornographic for public display, so he didn’t want to take on any more risky projects, which he saw Solanas’ as. When she asked for her script back, Warhol said he’d lost it, and that’s where the spiral started.
She then met Maurice Girodias, the founder of Olympia Press. In August of 1967, the two signed an informal contract, stating that she would give Girodias her “next writing, and other writings”. Suddenly, this, combined with Warhol misplacing her work, was twisted in her mind into a plot against her. She thought the two men were trying to steal her work, so in her eyes, it was time for retaliation.
A timeline of the day Andy Warhol was shot:
9:00am
Solanas’ first movements
The first reported whereabouts of Solanas on the day of the attempted assassination are contested. One source said that she went to the Hotel Chelsea and demanded to see Girodias at reception, waiting there for hours even though she was told he was away.
But Breanne Fahs, who wrote Solanas’ biography, said that she might have actually been at the Actors Studio at 432 West Forty-Fourth Street, trying to give another copy of Up Your Ass to Lee Strasberg, but the studio felt uneasy about her presence. Actor Sylvia Miles, who was there, said, “I knew she was trouble. I didn’t know what sort of trouble, but I knew she was trouble.”
First mention of the plan
From there, Solanas travelled to producer Margo Feiden’s place in Brooklyn, thinking she might work on the project. But quickly, the conversation spiralled into a worrying rant about the writer’s belief that the world would be better without men and about her theory that Warhol and Girodias were working against her.
When Feiden refused to produce the project, she pulled out a gun and said, “Yes, you will produce the play because I’ll shoot Andy Warhol, and that will make me famous and the play famous, and then you’ll produce it.”
Alerting the authorities
When Solanas left, Feiden was terrified. She frantically called the police in her precinct, Andy Warhol’s precinct, the police headquarters in Lower Manhattan, and even the mayor and governor’s offices to report what had just happened and inform them that right now, the crazed writer was on her way to kill Warhol.
She was shrugged off with one police officer saying, “You can’t arrest someone because you believe she is going to kill Andy Warhol,” and another reportedly remarking, “Listen, lady, how would you know what a real gun looked like?”
Solanas arrives at The Factory
When Solanas got to Warhol’s studio at 33 Union Square West, she waited outside.
Filmmaker and Factory regular Paul Morrissey asked what she was doing, and she said, “I’m waiting for Andy to get money.”
He felt uneasy about her presence, so he told her that the artist wouldn’t be coming in today, but she still waited.
2:00pm
Solanas goes inside
At 2pm, she entered the building with Morrissey again telling her Warhol wouldn’t be there and asking her to leave.
Solanas pretended to go, but instead, she rode the elevator up and down until the artist arrived.
4:14pm
Warhol arrives
When Warhol walked into the Factory, with Solanas trailing him as he politely complimented her appearance to make small talk, Morrissey snapped.
He told Solanas again to get out, threatening to “beat the hell” out of her if she didn’t leave. But she refused.
He then went to the bathroom to cool off, leaving Warhol alone with her while a few other people mill about the room.
The shooting
A phone rang, and while Warhol was distracted, Solanas pulled out her gun and fired at him three times. The first two shots missed, but the third went through his spleen, stomach, liver, oesophagus, and lungs.
She also shot art critic Mario Amaya and tried to fire at Warhol’s manager, Fred Hughes, but her gun jammed. Hughes screamed at her to leave.
4:35pm
Warhol is taken to hospital
An ambulance arrived, and Warhol was rushed to Columbus–Mother Cabrini Hospital. The operation to save his life took over five hours. At one point, he was announced clinically dead as his heart stopped beating for one and a half minutes before he was revived.
Luckily, he made it through but was left with physical and psychological impacts for the rest of his life, affecting his health long-term as well as forever altering his career.
8:00pm
Valerie Solanas turned herself in
Later that day, Valerie Solanas turned herself into a traffic cop, “The police are looking for me and want me.” At the police station, she confessed to the shooting and handed over her gun. A judge later had her admitted to Bellevue Hospital for psychiatric observation, and in her trial in 1969, she was diagnosed with chronic paranoid schizophrenia and sentenced to three years in jail.
She served one year and was released in 1971, after which she was arrested again for stalking Warhol and his friends.
