‘House of Hammer’: From Cannibalism to the Kremlin, the 11 Most Shocking Revelations from the Discovery+ Series

Though most of House of Hammer focuses on the misdeeds of Armie, his grandfather Julian, and his great grandfather Armand, this strange family history actually goes back even further than that. Julius Hammer was Armie’s great-great grandfather, and he was a cofounder of the the American Communist Party. In fact, according to Casey Hammer, his son Armand’s name was inspired by the sickle, or “arm”, and hammer that serve as the symbol for the party.

This close alliance extended to capitalist Armand Hammer. After obtaining Occidental Petroleum, Armand transformed it into a $16 billion company (in 2019, the company was worth a staggering $50 billion). According to the New York Times, he was involved in schemes to launder money for American Communist activities. Even more disturbingly, Casey Hammer claims that her grandfather could see the Kremlin at will. “I remember asking my grandfather why he wasn’t President of the United States and he laughed and said there wasn’t enough power in it,” Casey says in the series.

Armand was caught making illegal campaign contributions to re-elect President Richard Nixon. He pled guilty to the charges in 1976 but was pardoned by President Bush in 1989. That’s just the beginning of Armand’s shadier dealings. House of Hammer claims that there’s audio proof of Armand bribing the President of Venezuela.

In July of 1988, Occidental Petroleum’s Piper Alpha offshore production platform was destroyed due to a gas leak. The explosion and fire resulted in the deaths of 167 people. To this day, it remains the world’s deadliest offshore disaster. According to journalist Neil Lyndon, this particular platform had a “deplorable” safety reputation long before the disaster. One accident prior to 1988 resulted in the death of a worker, and at one point there was a mass evacuation. But between a perfectly calibrated story that was fed to the media and the optics of Armand’s friendship with Prince Charles, the disaster wasn’t looked into further.

Prince Charles allegedly told Armand, “You mustn’t blame yourself.” After this show of support, Armand allegedly celebrated with champagne and caviar and reportedly showed little remorse for this tragedy.

Though the accusations against Armand Hammer have more to do with political corruption, those against his son are more sexual in nature. After Julian’s separation from his wife, he became unofficially known as the “Hugh Hefner of Pacific Palisades.” He would throw giant parties at all hours of the day and night, complete with a giant self-serve bowl of cocaine.

He would also surround himself with 16 to 17 year old girls he claimed he had hired but were understood to be his girlfriends. At one point, Casey found a photo of one of these underaged girls performing oral sex on a man while Julian can be seen watching in the background. Casey was so young when she saw these photos that she initially thought the woman was eating an ice cream cone.

That was far from all. At one point, Julian’s son Michael came to one of his parties with his girlfriend. Casey claims that Julian offered to buy Michael’s girlfriend for $1,000, which led to a fight between father and son. By the end of the night the girlfriend left with Julian and wound up living with him for eight months.

These rank among the most disturbing allegations in House of Hammer. In the docuseries, Casey recalls her father hitting her mother so violently that there was blood and being woken up to the barrel of a gun being pressed against her face. During her father’s benders, he would sometimes accuse her of being possessed.

She also has memories of being choked and suffocated and directly says that her father sexually abused her. “Things happened to me that shouldn’t have ever happened to a child,” Casey says in the docuseries.

In 1955, Bruce Whitlock was murdered by Julian Hammer after being shot two times with a revolver. The gunshots were the culmination of an argument about 10-year-old gambling debt, which came out to $400. According to Casey Hammer, Armand paid off a judge, ensuring that his son did not have to serve prison time for his crime.

The allegations of sexual assault, violence, and a fascination with cannibalism are undoubtably the most disturbing parts of Armie Hammer’s chapter in House of Hammer. But the less severe allegations are also deeply unsettling. Hammer first met Courtney Vucekovich in a bar in Texas. Their relationship grew on Instagram, but the red flags first appeared when Armie was driving through Texas and demanded to see Vucekovich. When she said no because she was out of town, he sent her photos of where she lived, prompting her to reply with “LEAVE” and “WHY ARE YOU THERE.” Armie responded, “Trying to find you scent.” At this point in their relationship, they had never spent a significant amount of time together. When she returned, he had left her a note saying, “I am going to bite the fuck out of you.”

The two later dated. At one point, Vucekovich broke up with the actor. He then used her location to find her while she was going on a walk, and she ended up taking him back.

This is one of the odder details in this increasingly strange docuseries. A former coworker of Armie’s who refused to be identified claimed that Armie once told him to pick up his friend at the airport with a sign that said the f-word. When that coworker refused, Armie threatened to hold a poll to see if Armie should fire him. This same coworker also claims that Armie would brag about drinking and driving and would go 100 miles in residential areas while intoxicated. While this exact claim hasn’t been proven, posts from Armie’s finsta (fake Instagram) repeatedly show him drinking and taking drugs while driving. He’s also spoken on multiple talk shows about his adventurous streak.

Armie and Vucekovich got to know each other on Instagram before they finally met each other in LA. Durign their first date he first took her out to the desert. They then spent almost every day of the next three weeks together. During that time, Armie showed her his favorite movie — the BDSM-focused The Secretary — and played a specific album for her.

Later, when Paige Lorenze, another one of Amrie’s former girlfriends, spoke out about Armie, Vucekovich and Lorenzez compared notes. According to Vucekovich, their courtships with Armie were nearly identical, down to the desert trip and the movies and music he shared.

When it comes to possible assault, House of Hammer is at its murkiest. Multiple women who have dated Armie say that he wanted to tie them up and that he was interested in BDSM. In most cases, it seems as though consent wasn’t fully given rather than explicitly ignored. For example, Vucekovich says that at one point she did everything except say “no.” It’s a distinction that makes the accusations against Armie Hammer incredibly tricky.

There is one woman who outright claims that Armie sexually assaulted her. Effie alleges that Armie repeatedly and violently raped her over the course of more than four hours in a hotel room in Los Angeles. Effie has said, “I thought that he was going to kill me.” At this point in time, she is the only woman on record who has accused Hammer of rape.

Paige Lorenze has claimed that Armie branded her with the letter “A.” As it was bleeding, he reportedly licked her blood. Lorenze also claims that Armie said he wanted to eat her ribs and smoke them. “I brushed them off, but I do believe he was serious,” Lorenze says in the docuseries.

Armie also left visible bit marks on Vucekovich and told her to get a tattoo of the mark. She refused.

As shocking as this alleged interest in cannibalism may be, some of Armie’s exes have been frustrated that the media has focused on this aspect of the story. By turning the cannibalism claims into a joke, they argue, the more serious allegations against Armie have been ignored.