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In her five-page suicide note, Arnstein backed up her boss's claims. "I don't suppose it matters that I say it," she wrote, "but Hugh M. Hefner is —though few will ever realize it—a staunchly upright, rigorously moral man and I know him well and he has never been involved in the criminal activity which is being attributed to him now." Though the motive for her suicide remained open to speculation, she had tried to kill herself in a similar way twice before, and Hefner described her as an "already emotionally troubled young woman" even before her prosecution.
Adding to her difficulties may have been a fact that the federal investigators acknowledge: last December they told Arnstein that they had information that a "contract" had been taken out on her life. Hefner heatedly charged that no such contract ever existed, and that federal officials had been using invented "threats" to coerce testimony from Arnstein about Hefner's own drug use.
Given the freewheeling Playboy lifestyle practiced at both mansions, and the trooping through of all sorts of guests, including rock groups and movie stars, it would be naive indeed for Hefner or anyone to assert that drugs have never been used on his premises (Adrienne Pollack, once a Playboy Bunny, died of an overdose of the drug methaqualone in September 1973). The question is whether Hefner or his staff provided drugs along with the soap and towels. Hefner's associates say that it is highly doubtful that hard drug or even marijuana consumption took place "under Hefner's eyes—or with his approval. In the past, Hefner has been a heavy user only of amphetamines—mostly to keep himself awake during his marathon editorial conferences.
Less Need. But even this practice of Hefner's is said to have changed in recent years. More and more leaving the day-to-day running of his enterprises to others, Hefner, working less, apparently has less need for stimulants. As for use of hard drugs by those around him, the former security chief for Playboy Enterprises, Inc., Allen Crawford, 50, said in an interview in the Chicago Tribune that he was aware of drugs, including marijuana and cocaine, being used in the Chicago mansion. When he warned senior Playboy officials about the drugs and they took no action, he resigned. But even Crawford was careful to point out in the interview that he had never discussed the matter directly with Hefner, and he underscored his belief that whatever illicit drug activity may take place in Hefner's mansion, "that doesn't mean Hefner has knowledge of it, or condones it, or distributes."