Frat Boy Jon Hamm Allegedly Set a Pledge on Fire

He's earned six Emmy nominations for playing charismatic jerk Don Draper on Mad Men, but if court documents from his time as a frat boy at the University of Texas-Austin are to be believed, Jon Hamm's greatest performance may be as a charismatic exemplar.

The Associated Press has obtained court documents which chronicle some truly disturbing hazing that led to the arrest of seven brothers in UT's Sigma Nu chapter, including Hamm, who was 19 at the time.

The New York Times wrote about the incident shortly after it happened in November 1990. They, of course, don't mention the pre-fame Jon Hamm by name, but the story says that it was the pledge's mother who reported the hazing to police. 

It gets worse. The documents also state that Hamm took the pledge to "the pit" in the fraternity house's basement where he allegedly pushed the man's face into the ground while he was doing push-ups, stood on his spine "with his full weight" and, as the Daily Mail puts it, "hooked the claw of a hammer underneath his genitals and led him by the hammer around the room."

The UT chapter of Sigma Nu was shut down after the attack and never reopened on campus.

In the aftermath, three of Hamm's frat brothers were sentenced to 30 days in prison. An arrest warrant was issued for Hamm in 1992, but according to the AP, the hazing charges against him were dismissed and he received probation.

In the lawsuit, the pledge said Hamm participated "till the very end," and university records show the actor left the school the same semester as the hazing. Hamm eventually transferred to the University of Missouri — in his home state — after his father died in 1991. He was also in the Sigma Nu chapter at Mizzou. Source: happy girl