Story highlights
New York magazine cover sparks a discussion about the culture surrounding sexual assault
Cover featured 35 of the women who have accused Bill Cosby of rape
The discussion used the hashtag #TheEmptyChair
(CNN) —
The striking cover of the latest issue of New York magazine features 35 women who have accused Bill Cosby of rape. In four rows, they sit side by side in what the magazine calls an “unwelcome sisterhood.”
But a 36th seat is left empty. It is a placeholder, the magazine said, representing the sexual-assault victims who are unable to come forward, out of shame or in fear of a culture that won’t believe them.
The comedian has never been criminally charged and has vehemently denied wrongdoing.

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More than 50 women have spoken out to various media outlets about allegations of sexual misconduct by Bill Cosby. Here are 25, in chronological order, who have spoken with CNN, spoken on camera about their allegations or been the subject of responses from Cosby's attorneys. Read more on the allegations and Cosby's denials.

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In January 2004, Andrea Constand, then a 31-year-old staffer for the women's basketball team at Temple University -- Cosby's alma mater -- was at the comedian's Cheltenham, Pennsylvania, home when Cosby provided her medication that made her dizzy, she alleged the next year. She later woke up to find her bra undone and her clothes in disarray, she further alleged to police in her home province of Ontario, Canada, in January 2005. She was the first person to publicly allege sexual assault by Cosby. The comedian settled a civil suit with Constand that alleged 13 Jane Does had similar stories of sexual abuse. On December 30, 2015, Cosby was charged with sexual assault in relation to the 2004 accusation, Costand's attorney Dolores Troiani confirmed to CNN. That ended in a mistrial after the jury deadlocked in June 2017, but prosecutors immediately announced they would retry the case.

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Janice Dickinson alleged she and Cosby had dinner in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, in 1982 and he gave her a glass of red wine and a pill she believed was for menstrual cramps. "The last thing I remember was Bill Cosby in a patchwork robe, dropping his robe and getting on top of me. And I remember a lot of pain," she told "Entertainment Tonight." Cosby's attorney said in a statement that Dickinson's allegation was a "fabricated lie" that contradicted what she wrote in her autobiography and what she said during a 2002 New York Observer interview.

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Heidi Thomas says she met Cosby in 1984 and visited him at a house outside of Reno, Nevada, for "coaching." At the time, she was a 24-year-old aspiring actress and model known as Heidi Johnson. Thomas says Cosby offered her a glass of Chablis, and she later woke up with Cosby next to her in bed, naked, and "forcing himself in my mouth." A representative of Cosby did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thomas' allegation.

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Cindra Ladd, longtime wife of Oscar-winning film producer Alan Ladd Jr., alleges Bill Cosby sexually assaulted her in 1969 when she was single and 21. Cosby's representatives did not respond to CNN's repeated requests for comment.

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The now-wife of "The Incredible Hulk" star Lou Ferrigno, Carla Ferrigno, told CNN that Cosby forcibly kissed her at his home in 1967. Carla Ferrigno said she told her husband, whom she married in 1980, about the incident about five years ago and he advised her to stay silent.

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Kristina Ruehli was a secretary for a talent agency in 1965 that had Cosby as a client. She said she was invited to a party to celebrate a taping of "Hollywood Palace." Ruehli said she and an actress were the only attendees at the party. She said she became unconscious after consuming drinks and later woke up to find Cosby attempting to force her mouth onto his pubic area. She said she pulled away to vomit and drove herself home. It was the last time she would see Cosby, she told CNN.

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Linda Brown was a 21-year-old model in 1969 when, she alleges, Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her in Canada near her hometown. She says she was introduced to the comedian by her then-manager, had dinner with Cosby and was later served a soft drink by Cosby at an apartment. "I took a sip and blacked out," Brown said at a press conference with her attorney in February. "When I awakened, I was naked in the bed beside him."

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Joan Tarshis was a 19-year-old actress in 1969 when, she said, she met Cosby in Los Angeles. The two became friendly. One night after taping his sitcom, he invited her back to his bungalow and fixed her a "redeye" (a Bloody Mary topped with beer), she alleged. "The next thing I remember was coming to on his couch while being undressed," she told Hollywood Elsewhere. "I was sickened by what was happening to me and shocked that this man I had idolized was now raping me. Of course I told no one." It was the first of two similar incidents, said Tarshis, who is now a journalist and publicist.

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Linda Joy Traitz said Cosby offered her a ride home while she was working as a waitress at a restaurant in Los Angeles that he co-owned in 1969. On the way, they detoured to the beach. They parked and he offered her drugs "to relax," she alleged. After refusing "he kept offering me the pills," she alleged, and it made her feel uncomfortable. She claimed he then groped her chest, pushing her down in the seat and toward the door, and tried to lie on top of her. She got out of the car and ran, she said. She added that she was "absolutely not" raped. He tried to calm her, she said, then drove her home in silence. Traitz has a criminal record in Florida and spent time in prison on a conviction for drug trafficking, according to state records. Cosby's lawyer passed on her lengthy rap sheet. Traitz spoke openly about her record to CNN.

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Playboy bunny Victoria Valentino said her friend Francesca Emerson first introduced her to Cosby hoping to help her get work on his show "I Spy" in the late '60s. Valentino said after an interview in his trailer, Cosby invited her and a different friend to dinner, where they drank red wine and Cosby offered her pills to "cheer up," she said. She said she felt "stoned," slurring her words. They then went with him to what she described as a "ballers pad," an office-like space in an apartment building, with two loveseats and no working phone. Valentino said she was feeling "totally out of it" when she saw Cosby attempting to advance on her passed-out friend. She said she began reaching out to Cosby to pull him off her friend when he pushed her down, first pushing himself near her mouth, before turning her around and raping her.

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Famed model Beverly Johnson alleged that Bill Cosby drugged her in the 1980s at his Manhattan brownstone, where she'd gone to rehearse lines. During the meeting, Johnson said, Cosby was "very insistent" she drink a cup of cappuccino he had made for her. "After that second sip, I knew I had been drugged," she alleged. "It was very powerful, it came on very quickly." Johnson said she then confronted and cursed at the comedian, claiming, "I wanted him to know he had drugged me." She alleged that Cosby got angry, grabbed her, took her outside and flagged down a