Excerpts from
"Son of Andy Warhol"
by Taylor Mead

The Shooting of Andy:
An Account by Paul Morrissey

I can't remember the details but, I think, she said she wanted to redress a grevience or something like that... So she went at 9 o'clock in the morning to the Chelsea Hotel where Viva was staying, and Maurice Girodias lived -- He had no money, Girodias had no money. He was just getting by. So she waited at the desk, and the desk clerk told her he was gone. He was gone away for the wekend, to the Hamptons...and she sat there for three hours.

Around twelve o'clock when I went into The Factory Studio on Union Square Valerie was sitting out in the front. I said: "Oh, Valerie -- where you been? You been out of town. How are you?" She said "I'm waiting for Andy." And she always has a pan-handle. She was waiting for Andy to get money. He'd always give her ten dollars or fifteen dollars. She was a pan-handler. That was the only way she supported herself. The five hundred dollars Girodias gave her she took off for San Francisco the year before. I mean it's all so petty, this stuff, but when you know the details you see how stupid they are.

I said: "Andy's not coming today." Just saying that to get rid of her, because I thought: "Oh Andy doesn't want to give her fifteen dollars, poor guy, she's always pan-handling. She said, "Well, that's alright. I'll wait." I said : "OK ..."

Then about an hour later she came up in the elevator by herself, looking for Andy -- and she came right off the elevator, and I said: "Valerie, what are you still doing?" She said: "I'm waiting for Andy". I said: "He's not coming in today. why did you come? Go home. He's not coming in." It was 2 o'clock. So she went back down. She came up like seven times.

Around 4 o'clock, Andy came in...with her! You know, she'd been waiting all that time. She waited all day! All morning to see Girodias -- then she starts waiting for Andy! And Andy says: "Look -- doesn't Valerie look good! She had combed her hair, and she had like a dress on which we'd never seen before, and a coat...I said: "Yes. Valerie you look very good, but listen...ahh...you gotta go now, cause we got some business, and if you don't go I'm gonna beat the hell out of you and throw you out." Because I don't tease people much like that, but I just said this funny thing to her -- that I was going to throw her out...and she has her raincoat on, and she had a funny look in her eye...and I said: "Come on now, Valerie, Go! The elevator is there!"

And she went like this...with her hands in her pocket...and she backed away from me like this, and I didn't pay attention, because I didn't know she had a gun! Just then, the phone rang. I said: "Oh, excuse me Valerie," and I went and I answered the phone. It was Viva.

Valerie is standing like this...and...ahh...I said .. "Oh,yes -- well Viva, listen..." I had to go to the bathroom so I gave the phone to Andy. "Here,talk to Andy." And I put Andy on the phone and I went to the back. And suddenly Bang! Bang! Bang! And I looked and she had this gun and was running up...and somebody's holding the door to keep her out,and then she runs up to Fred Hughs and puts the gun next to his head and says: "I'm gonna shoot you!" And he says: "Oh, Valerie, don't shoot. She says: "I have to." And the elevator door opened...right...and she was about to shoot Fred! Like that ! You know? But...no reason why it opened! Nobody was on the elevator. And Fred said "Oh,there's the elevator. Why don't you get on Valerie?" That was great of him to say that, because he was about to have his head blown off. And she said: "Oh...that's a good idea." And she went on the elevator.

That's the exact sequence of events when Valerie shot Andy.