Five Down on Cielo Drive

While on the way to the Santa Monica Mountains to take an acid trip, Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson and a friend picked up two ‘Manson girls’ who were hitchhiking. Wilson told them about his involvement with the Maharishi and they told him they too had a guru, a guy named Charlie.

When Wilson was introduced to Manson, he was immediately captivated by his charisma, and he let Manson and the girls stay at his home located at Sunset Boulevard for most of the summer. Wilson had no complaints. The girls cleaned his house, ran errands, and prepared dinner every night. The girls even did garbage runs in Wilson’s Rolls-Royce.

Dean Moorehouse, a former minister who introduced his teenage daughter to Charles Manson, lived in Wilson’s guesthouse, doing chores around the home.

One day, Dennis Wilson was hitchhiking—both of his cars were wrecked—when a young man named Charles ‘Tex’ Watson gave him a ride. Out of appreciation, Wilson invited Tex Watson back to his mansion, where he met Charles Manson. The two quickly became friends. Little did Wilson know that Tex Watson would later become infamous for the mass murder of Sharon Tate and her house-guests.

Through his relationship with Dennis Wilson, Manson was able to network with prominent figures in the music business, including producer Terry Melcher and singer/songwriter Neil Young, who had several jamming sessions with Manson. The Beach Boys recorded and released one of Manson’s songs, ‘Cease to Exist,’ which was reworked into ‘Never Learn Not to Love.’

The track was recorded in 1968 and released as the B-side to the Beach Boys’ single ‘Bluebirds over the Mountain.’ Wilson made minor changes to the lyrics and added his own backing vocals. The song was not a commercial success, but it has since become a cult classic – pun intended. According to Wilson, Manson voluntarily traded his songwriting credit for a wad of cash and a motorcycle.

Gregg Jakobson, a close friend of Melcher, met Charles Manson and Tex Watson at Dennis Wilson’s home. He became a regular guest at Spahn Ranch, which served as the hub of activity for Manson. He spent so much time around Manson and the girls that he almost felt like part of the family. Jakobson engaged in drug use with them, stayed overnight at Spahn Ranch and even in Death Valley.

Jakobson ventured to the ‘bottomless pit’ in the desert, a place Manson often preached about. They would drop rocks down the deep hole, yet the sound of the rock hitting the bottom never reached their ears.

“Well, I saw the bottomless pit, or I saw what was, you know, I was there. That was one of the far-out fascinating things about this. I wanted to film it. That was one of my goals, you know. That’s why I involved some people.”

Jakobson observed notable changes among some of the ‘family members.’ During his court testimony, he recounted his initial impression of Tex Watson, who appeared happy and carefree.

However, around the time of the Tate-LaBianca murders, Watson transformed into a mere shell of himself. Describing Watson as vacant and robotic, Jakobson noted that Watson would leave for periods and return drastically altered—almost unrecognizable.

Jakobson’s perception of Manson also shifted over time. During the initial stages of their friendship, he regarded Manson as eclectic. However, by the end of the summer of ’69, he began likening him to a caged animal – a wild creature captured and confined – with energy pouring out of his eyes.

The following is a timeline of August 8, 1969, Sharon Tate’s last day alive. For more details see the Tate Homicide Report. If you prefer a non-PDF version, scroll down to the section: Tate Murders Police Report, or click here to access it directly.

On the morning of August 8, 1969, at around 11 am, the eight-and-a-half-month pregnant actress received a phone call from her husband, Roman Polanski, who had been overseas for the last four months working on a movie.

At around 12:30 pm, Sharon Tate had lunch by the pool with her actress colleagues, Joanna Pettet and Barbara Lewis. Her friends left around 3:30 pm, and shortly thereafter, Tate went inside to take a nap.

In the evening, approximately at 6 pm, Jay Sebring, Sharon Tate’s ex-boyfriend, arrived to check on the pregnant actress.

Earlier in the afternoon, Abigail Folger had purchased a new bicycle. Between 6:30 and 7 pm, Dennis Hearst, the son of the bike shop owner, delivered it to the Cielo Drive residence.

Interesting detail: Dennis Hearst was Marina Habe’s lab partner during biology class. Marina Habe was found murdered off of Mulholland Drive in January 1969, and the Manson family were suspects in her death. The murder of Marina Habe and the Manson family connection.

Later that evening, Tate, Sebring, Folger, and Frykowski reportedly went out for a late dinner at El Coyote.

Around 10 pm, Abigail Folger’s mother called to confirm that Abigail would be flying to San Francisco the following day; her mother had planned a birthday party for her on August 11th.

July 1969. Looking for cash, Charles ‘Tex’ Watson contacted his former girlfriend, Rosina Kroner, also known as Luella, and proposed a plan. He informed her that he had $100 and wanted to buy a kilo of marijuana. However, his supplier was only willing to sell him 25 kilos for $2,500. Watson proposed to Luella that if she provided the money upfront, she could sell the extra 24 kilos at $125 per kilo, thus making a profit.

However, Watson had no intention of actually purchasing the marijuana. He planned to take her to an apartment under the pretense of a transaction, grab her money, instruct her to wait outside, exit through the back door, where his buddy, Thomas Walleman, aka TJ, would be waiting in a running car. They would then escape with the money. But things didn’t go according to plan.

Luella arrived at the scene accompanied by Bernard “Lotsapoppa” Crowe, a black drug dealer who was reportedly linked to the Black Panthers, and two associates. Crowe supplied the funds for the deal and insisted on coming along.

They all drove to the apartment. After negotiating, Watson managed to persuade Luella and the men to remain outside. Watson took Crowe’s money, entered the apartment, and swiftly exited through the back door. He joined TJ in a car, and they sped away.

When they returned to Spahn Ranch, Watson revealed the money to Manson. Just then, the phone rang. It was Crowe, furious and demanding his money back. He threatened to kill everyone at the ranch. Manson tried to convince Crowe that Watson had left the ranch weeks earlier and denied any involvement in the drug transaction. Crowe, however, remained unconvinced.

Manson sent Watson up into the hills with a sleeping bag, and told him he would take care of it. Manson and TJ went to Crowe’s apartment to smooth things over, but it ended with Manson shooting Crowe. Manson believed he had killed Crowe, but Crowe had actually played dead. It was only during the Tate/LaBianca trial that Manson learned Crowe was still alive.

Several weeks later, the first “Manson Family murder” took place. Bobby Beausoleil murdered Gary Hinman and left a bloody pawprint on the wall alongside the words “Political Piggy” written in Hinman’s blood. This was an attempt to mislead authorities into believing that the Black Panthers were responsible.

On July 25, 1969, Bobby Beausoleil, Susan Atkins, and Mary Brunner paid Gary Hinman a visit. Beausoleil alleged that Hinman had sold him bad drugs and demanded a refund. Beausoleil asked Hinman for money, to which Hinman responded that he had none to offer.

The trio kept Hinman captive, subjecting him to severe beatings and torture over the next several days. When they couldn’t convince Hinman to hand over the money, Beausoleil called Charles Manson, who arrived at Hinman’s home with Bruce Davis. Manson wielded a sword, striking Hinman’s head, slicing his face and left ear, while Davis aimed a gun at him.

Hinman, who was bleeding heavily, asked Manson and the others why they were doing this to him. Manson and Davis left, leaving Hinman with his captors.

Atkins went shopping for medical supplies. She bought bandages, hydrogen peroxide, and dental floss. They discussed using dental floss to stitch Hinman’s face, but the plan didn’t materialize.

When Hinman still didn’t cooperate or provide them with money, Beausoleil stabbed him twice in the chest. Hinman began to make gurgling sounds, prompting his attackers to suffocate him with a pillow.

Beausoleil wrote the words ‘Political Piggy’ and a paw print on the wall in Hinman’s blood, attempting to make authorities believe that the Black Panthers had committed the murder. They took Hinman’s cars and bagpipes and left.

Mike Irwin, a close friend of Hinman, went to check on him after not seeing or hearing from him for over a week. Upon climbing the stairs to Hinman’s home, he was overwhelmed by a stench and noticed through the windows that there were many flies.

After opening a window and briefly going inside, he left due to the overwhelming stench and contacted the sheriff’s department. Deputy Sheriff Paul Piet arrived 20 minutes later and discovered Hinman’s decomposing body.

The medical examiner, David Katsuyama, later testified that Hinman’s body was severely decomposed and infested with flies and maggots. He also testified that Hinman’s ear was almost severed.

The wound, caused when Manson struck him with a sword, started at the jawbone close to the mouth, ending in Hinman’s upper ear, and was about an inch deep. He testified that this wound alone could have been fatal if left untreated.

A couple of days after the murder, the California Highway Patrol found Beausoleil asleep in Hinman’s Fiat station wagon. Beausoleil told the police officer, Forrest Humphrey, that his car had broken down and provided a fake name, Jason Lee Daniels, which was Beausoleil’s stage name.

Beausoleil informed the police officer that he had purchased the car from three African-American men. Running the license plate, the officer was alerted by the dispatcher that the car had been reported stolen.

Beausoleil was booked for suspected car theft on August 6, 1969, at the San Luis Obispo Sheriff’s Office. A search of the vehicle uncovered the murder weapon used in Hinman’s homicide, a hunting knife, hidden in the tire well. It didn’t take long before Beausoleil was charged with murder.

Within four days of Beausoleil’s arrest, Sharon Tate, her guests, Steven Parent, and the LaBiancas were murdered. A common element among all the murder scenes was that the victims had all been stabbed, and the words “Pig,” “Piggy,” and “Pigs” were written in the victims’ blood.

Nevertheless, the homicide detectives failed to recognize the connection between the murders. They initially believed the LaBianca murders to be copycat killings because of the similarities to the Tate murders.

“On the night of the LaBianca murders he was asked by a television reporter if the Tate and LaBianca murders were related and regretted his answer. “I told him, ‘I think it’s more of a copycat case.’” (Danny Galindo Dies at 88; LAPD Detective in Tate-LaBianca Murder Cases, 2010, latimes.com)

Two Nights of Murder

By Susan Atkins

December 14, 1969

One day a little man came in with a guitar and started singing for a group of us in that place where we were living, in Haight-Asbury in San Francisco.

Even before I saw him, while I was still in the kitchen, his voice just hypnotized me — mesmerized me. Then when I saw him, I fell absolutely in love with him. I found out later his name was Charles Manson. But he had other names, too, and so would I.

He gave me nothing but love, complete love, gave me the answers to all the questions I’ve ever had in my mind. This whole world and everybody and everything in it has been God’s game, and that game is just about to come to an end. Judgment Day for every human being on the face of the earth is coming.

But that night I met Charlie in that house on Lime Street, I had no idea I would be there when God’s game ended for Sharon Tate, with me holding her in my arms.

And when it was all over, I didn’t want to go back in that house but something made me go. I went over to Sharon Tate, and I flashed, wow, there’s a living being in there. I wanted to, but I couldn’t bring myself to cut her open and take the baby. I knew it was living, I knew it wouldn’t live…

That night Charlie instructed us to go to Sharon’s, we were still living up at the Spahn Ranch in Chatsworth. We hadn’t moved out to Death Valley yet.

Charlies instructed me and Tex (Charles ‘Tex’ Watson), a girl by the name of Linda (Kasabian) and Katie — that’s Patricia Krenwinkel.

Well, Charlie instructed us to go to this particular house and gave us a car, a 1958 or ’59 black Chevy, and told us to get two changes of clothes, basically black.

We had been buying black clothes for what we call creepy-crawlies. We’d go around and creepy-crawlie people’s houses. We wouldn’t take anything. Just for the experience of getting the fear and bringing ourselves out of it.

Actually, he instructed us in the details through Tex. He just told me to do everything Tex said to do. Charlie had control over everybody.

I never questioned what Charlie said. I just did it.

And he instructed us to get the clothes and our knives, and such and such, and the four of us got in the car and started going to this place.

Then Tex explained the situation to us, but honestly, I had no knowledge of what was happening until we got there.

Tex told me that he and Charlie had been up to that house before — that’s why they chose the house. Tex told me the house used to belong to Mr. Melcher. That’s Terry Melcher, Doris Day’s son. But he said that Mr. Melcher didn’t live there any more.

But the reason Charlie picked the house was to instill fear into Terry Melcher because Terry had given his word on a few things and never came through with them. So Charlie wanted to put some fear into him, let him know that what Charlie said was the way it is.

I had no idea who lived in the house when we were driving up there not when we got there, and not after it was all over. I don’t guess anyone else did either. Not Charlie, not Tex. No one. Not ’til the next day when it came over TV. When I saw the faces again—it blew my mind.

As we drove, Tex began explaining the setup of the house for us. We had a set of bolt cutters with us and rope, and Tex had a gun. Each one of us had a knife. I’m not sure whether the gun Tex had was Charlie’s or not. All I know is that the gun was used in previous killings and that it was the gun he used to target practice with out on the ranch.

We drove up to the house, turned the car around and parked it between the gate and a neighbor’s house. We got out of the car and got the bolt cutter. Tex climbed up the telephone pole and snipped two wires, hoping that they were telephone wires. I guess they were. The lights in the house stayed on.

Then we got back in the car, drove down the hill and parked the car at the base of the hill, but a little ways up so it wouldn’t look too suspicious, so it would look like it belonged there in the neighborhood.

We walked back up the hill to that metal gate, which was closed. We didn’t touch the gate because we didn’t know if it was electrified or not, whether there was an alarm system that we didn’t want to set off.

We saw a fence up a slope from the roadway, and we decided to try that. Well, we climbed up the hill and there was a place where we could climb over the fence.

So we went over the fence, the four of us. And all of a sudden we saw a light coming out along the driveway inside the grounds.

We knew it was a car. Tex told us to lie down and be still. So we all just did exactly what he said. Just laid down and kept quiet.

And just as the car drove into our sight — I couldn’t actually see what happened — but I heard Tex say:

“Stop. Halt!”

Then Tex had a gun on this young boy (Steven Parent), and I heard the boy say:

“Please, don’t hurt me. I won’t say anything.”

Then the gun went off four times, and Tex came back and said:

“Come on.”

And we proceeded to go, but the young boy who was killed in the car—his death, I felt very bad about it when I saw it had happened.

And all of a sudden I found I was at the front door… Well, there’s a window right next to it.

Tex, he lifted up and opened the window, climbed inside and went around and opened the front door.

We had no idea how many people were in the house. When we got into the living room, there was a man (Wojciech Frykowski ) sleeping on the couch. The back of his head was facing me. He had on kind of a “mod” outfit; the pants fitted low.

Tex went up to the couch, and the man woke up, thinking — I guess — that it was a friend of his. He said:

“What time is it?”

And Tex stood in front with the gun and said:

“Don’t move or you’re dead.”

Then Tex motioned for us to come and stand behind the couch. Just Katie and I had gone in. We left Linda outside to listen for sounds. It surprised me that nobody heard the gunshots that killed the young boy. But they weren’t that loud. It was a quiet gun.

And, anyway, Tex told me to go down the hall and check the other rooms.

So I went down the hall and found a bedroom.

I went in, and this girl (Abigail Folger) put down the book she was reading and looked at me. I smiled and waved.

I knew they “turned on,” just looking at the house. They hide it from society, by just looking at them, I knew they used narcotics. I guess she thought I was a friend.

So then I looked in the other bedroom, and saw Sharon Tate and the younger man, the shorter man — Jay Sebring. She was in a see-through shortie nightgown, wearing a kind of halter underneath it.

But they were just talking and didn’t see me.

I came back out to the living room and told Tex:

“There’s three more in there.”

And so he told me to go look for the bathroom and get a towel and tie up the man on the couch. I couldn’t find it at first, but I finally did. It was a big house.

I was shaking so bad I couldn’t tie his hands. But I got the towel around, even though I couldn’t pull it tight.

And he was just — he was just so petrified he just laid down there and didn’t say a word. And he kept asking Tex:

“What do you want? What do you want? Who are you?”

And Tex said:

“I’m the devil. I’m here to do the devil’s business. We want all your money, Where’s your money?”

He said:

“My money’s in the wallet on the desk.”

Tex told me to go over and look at the desk, and I said:

“Tex, it’s not there.”

And then Tex said:

“Go in and get the other people and bring them out here.”

So I took out my knife and I went in and stood by Abigail Folger’s bed, and said: “Go out in the living room. Don’t ask any questions.”

I went into Sharon Tate’s room and told her and the man to go out in the living room.

I guess the three of them went along so easily because they were pretty much terrified by what was going on.

After that everything just got wild. I’m not sure of the order in which it all happened. I can only see it in flashes.

But it seems that Tex tied the three of them — Sebring, Sharon and Miss Folger — together. Wound the rope around and around them, then threw it over a beam so I could pull it tight.

And then, the way it flashes now, it was all panic.

“What’s going on?” Jay Sebring said, and proceeded to advance on Tex. I don’t know how he got loose. And Tex shot him, and he fell on the floor. I think he fell on his side, because I saw him lying on his side.

And then Sharon went through a few “changes,” quite a few “changes.” I mean, her facial expressions. Wow!

“Oh, my God, no!” she said. Miss Folger didn’t say anything. She just stood there, just stood there.

The man on the couch — I hadn’t done a very good job of tying him up with that towel I found in the bathroom — he kept working to get it loose.

But Tex said to him again:

“Where’s your money?”

Then Sharon or Abigail, I can’t get a picture of which now, said:

“My money’s in my wallet.”

Tex instructed me to go get it out of her wallet. And I untied her and she led me back to the bedroom, and I told her:

“You get it out.”

She handed me $72 or $73, and said that’s all she had, and asked:

“Do you want my credit cards?”

I said no. Then I proceeded to lead her back into the living room and tied her back up and put the rope back over the beam.

One of the ladies cried:

“What are you going to do with us?”
Tex said:

“You’re all going to die.”

This caused immediate panic. And Tex ordered me to kill the big man on the couch. Well, I went over to him and I raised my knife — and I hesitated.

And, as I hesitated, he reached up and grabbed my hair and started pulling my hair. So I had to fight for my life, as far as I was concerned.

We fell against a chair that was next to the couch. He was fighting and I was kicking him. I was all of a sudden fighting for my life. Wow!

Then I proceeded to stab him five or six times in the leg — but I would say it was in self-defense. I luckily enough had the knife in my hand, because the man was big and with one whack, he could have — wow!

And then while this was going on, Abigail was getting loose and fighting with Katie. And Linda, we found out later, heard some noise and went back down and sat in the car, so we had no watch for the outside.

Well, as this went on, all this confusion, I just don’t remember what happened. Except — I remember seeing the man I had stabbed, trying to go outside. He was yelling — he was yelling for his life.

I was hanging onto him, I think, and I yelled:

“Tex, help me. Do something.”

Then, in the excitement, Tex must have shot him in the back as he was running out, then followed him and hit him over the head with the butt of the gun. It broke the gun handle and the gun wouldn’t work any more. So he began stabbing the man.

While he was stabbing, the man was still screaming. I’m surprised no one heard anything.

The man was pretty much half dead on the porch — that’s where all the blood was, I imagine — before he ever got to the lawn.

Well, Sharon was starting to get loose from the rope, and the Folger girl already had broken loose and was fighting with Katie. I was just standing there watching. There wasn’t much I could do because I couldn’t find my knife.

I couldn’t find it when we left, so I figured that I had lost it in the house, which threw a paranoia into me as we left.

But anyway, I went over and got Sharon and put her in a headlock. She didn’t fight me, I just held her. At times it seemed so easy.

When she began begging me to let her go so she could have her baby, and wow! – I realized she was pregnant. A flash in the midst of all that! Katie was calling for me to help her because Abigail was bigger than Katie, and Katie had long hair which she was pulling.

So I called to Tex to do something.

Tex came back into the house and reached up to stab Folger, and she looked at him and said:

“You’ve got me. I give up.”

But he stabbed her anyway, and she fell to the floor. I think he stabbed her in the stomach because I saw her grab down there.

Then Tex went back outside, because the other man was on the lawn, still running and calling for help, and Tex proceeded to continue killing him.

I still must have had the headlock on Sharon when Tex came back. And he told me it looked like she wanted to sit down.

So I took her over and sat her down on the couch. She said: “All I want to do is have my baby.”

I knew I had to say something to her. before she got hysterical. And while I was talking to her, I knew everything I was saying—I was saying to myself. I wasn’t talking to her, but myself.

“Woman, I have no mercy for you,” I told her, and that was myself talking only to me.

Then the Folger girl started staggering outside, and Tex and Katie went after her. But I’m not sure that Katie went outside, either.

I just stayed there with Sharon. She was so quiet. And Tex came back in and said:

“Kill her.” Just like that he said, “Kill her.”

Then Katie, like an echo, said:

“Kill her.”

I reached to grab hold of Sharon’s arms, but I didn’t want to kill her. I held onto her arms, and said:

“Tex, I can’t kill her. I’ve got her arms. You do it.”

Katie couldn’t kill her either.

So Tex stabbed her—in the heart. And again, and again.

I threw another towel over Sharon’s head. I think it could have fallen over Jay Sebring’s head, too. I didn’t even look—I just threw it.

But Sharon Tate was lying curled up near the couch, and his and her heads probably were close together.

“Get out,” Tex yelled. Just like that.

How long were we in there: Time? Who knows time? Five minutes? Twenty minutes? Time has no meaning. (Police estimate the slayers spent about 25 minutes inside the mansion.)

After Tex yelled, we — Katie and I — went running outside looking for Linda because we couldn’t see her, but we didn’t yell too loud for fear of being heard by neighbors.

When Tex came out, I said:

“Tex, do you have my knife?”

He said no. I asked Katie:

“Do you have my knife?”

She said no, and the paranoia got big, and I tried to shush it by saying to myself: “Linda must have my knife. I think I gave it to her.”

Then Tex ordered me. (She was sometimes known to members of the group as Sadie Glutz.)

“Sadie. Go back and write something on the door.”

I didn’t want to go back into that house. I didn’t want to go back, but something made me.

I got the towel that I had tied the man’s hands with, and I went over to Sharon Tate.

And I flashed, wow, there’s a living being in there. I wanted to, but I couldn’t bring myself to cut her open and take the baby. I knew it was living, I knew it wouldn’t live. . .

And I reached down and turned my head away from her. Then I touched her chest with the towel to get some blood, and I proceeded to go to the door, and the only thing I remember being instructed to write on the door by Tex was “Pig.”

So I proceeded to take my hand and write “Pig” with the towel, and I threw the towel back into the house, and ran outside. I was the last to leave the house.

I ran to the front gate. Tex and Katie already were standing on the other side. Then, the next thing I knew, I was standing there too.

We walked toward the car, but we couldn’t see Linda. We thought she had disappeared. We didn’t know where she was. We called for her. But not too loudly.

Charlie — I guess through Tex — had instructed us to go to the neighbors’ house and do the same thing, what we had done in the place we had just left.

We want to push the button that opens the neighbors’ gate. Tex pushed the button, but I don’t think he used his fingers. I think he used his arm or something. I just can’t tell why we didn’t go through with it. I can’t see it now, can’t flash it into my mind.

But we picked up our clothes which we had stashed by the gate—we knelt down and picked up our second change of clothes. Then we walked down the road to where the car was, walked not too conspicuous.

And when we got to the car, there was Linda in it already, with her second clothes. She had begun to start the car, and Tex told her to get over.

We all got into the car, and there was nothing but just…exhaustion.

And we all had blood on us. So we changed our clothes in the car as we were driving. I was in the right rear seat, and Tex was driving.

We went for a ride to look for a place to dump the bloody black clothes. We drove along a steep embankment. I’ve got a picture in my mind and all it shows me is the side of a mountain and a road. I just sat in the back seat, slumped down. I don’t remember where we were—and I didn’t pay any attention.

Linda had all the weapons — all but my knife — up in the front seat.

We stopped, and Linda got out of the car, I’m sure of that, and threw all the clothes, all drippy with blood, and Tex’s gun and the knives — as far as she could — over the side of the embankment, down a ravine, I guess you’d call it.

We continued to drive until we got down to a residential area — I know it was close to Sunset Boulevard. We flipped down a couple of side streets to look for a dark house, and we found one.

We got out of the car, walked up the street, and we found a big house. We were looking for a place to wash the blood off our hands and faces.

All I remember is that the big house had a lot of shrubbery around it, around the front. We began looking for the water hose, and when we found it we turned it on, went right out into the street and proceeded to wash ourselves off. How about that? Right there in the street.

All this happened spontaneously. We didn’t plan any of it. It was all spontaneous.

Then, all of a sudden, we heard an old man and old woman coming out, out of the house.

“What are you people doing?” they yelled. And they went on like that — blah, blah, blah.

The old woman began screeching: “My houseman belongs to the sheriff’s reserve, and I’m going to have him report this. What are you doing?”

Tex just looked at the old man and old woman. He just looked at them and smiled, and then he said, cool as you please — wow — so cool:

“We’re just getting a drink of water. Sorry we disturbed you.”

The old man said, “Is that your car down the street there?”

“No. We’re walking,” Tex told him. Like cool, man.

“He said real low to us, “Okay, girls, get in the car,” and we double-fast walked to the car.

The old man and woman kept walking behind us, and when we got it, the old woman still was jabbering away.

“Take down their license number.”

But the old man said he didn’t have anything to write it down with.

Tex got in the car and started it, and the man came up and reached in to take the keys, evidently knowing something suspicious was going on.

Tex flooded the motor, but then got it going, put it in low and took off. Practically broke the old man’s hand, from what I could tell.

I just flashed, wow, that was a strange house to pick, out of all the houses — and then we drove down the road and made a couple of turns and stopped at a gas station.

The purpose was — we were almost out of gas.

We bought some gas, and the three of us girls took turns going into the bathroom, checking for blood spots and making sure we were clean. Tex did the same.

But as we drove off and all the way out to the ranch, I noticed there was blood on the car, and I hoped nobody had seen it.

When we got back to the ranch, I went in the kitchen of our hangout (an abandoned Western movie set), and got a rag and proceeded to wipe down the whole car for blood.

I didn’t know where it was, really, but I knew if there was any, like I thought I’d seen, it would be on the steering wheel, and on the door handles as well.

Then Charlie came up and said:

“What are you doing home so early?”

We girls went down to what we call the bunkhouse and went in, and there was Brenda (Nancy Pitman). Pretty soon, along came Charlie and Tex, and we all sat back.

I almost passed out. It was like I wasn’t there. It was like a seance.

I was sitting there, trying to pay attention to what Charlie was saying, and I just couldn’t handle it. I laid back on the floor. And I felt as though I was being killed.

And Charlie and Tex told me that I would be killed if I betrayed their trust. Charlie, he told me many times: “Sadie, you’ve been with me two years now. For a long time. If you ever decide to leave, I’ll take you and hang you upside down, and slit your throat and use you as an example for everybody else.”

But it made no difference to me. Charlie was me, and I was Charlie, and all of us were one at the ranch.

And when we got back from Sharon’s that night, he just acted as though it never happened. Charlie is the type that lives for each second, and pays no mind to what may happen two seconds later. That’s how much he is with it.

So Charlie said nothing about what happened at Sharon’s, and I went in and slept for a while, but first I think I made love with Clem (Gary Tufts). I’m not sure who I made love with—or if I even made love that night.

And when I woke up, it just hit me.

I wanted to go and look at the television news reports because I knew it would be in the news. I went into what I call the trailer, an area located next to the Spahn house, and there was this little TV in there.

I turned on the news and that was the first thing that hit.

I went wild, and, quick-like, ran out and got Katie and told her to come watch television with me, it was on the news. I called Linda in and I called Tex in and I called Clem in, because Clem knew about it—he had been in the bunkhouse when we got back.

Charlie wasn’t awake.

We watched the newscast, and it kind of — it really helped me to know that the people were as important as they were. It blew my mind.

And all of us watching made a few comments, like — well, the Soul (Manson) really picked a good one this time.

Just happened to have been Sharon Tate, a movie actress, and it happened to have made nationwide and worldwide news, which we had no knowledge that that’s what it would do.

There was a comment made by one of us that what had happened had served its purpose.

That was to instill fear in Man himself. Man, the establishment.

That’s what it was done for. To instill fear — to cause paranoia. To also show the black man how to go about taking over white man.

Then I just put what had happened out of my mind, the best I could. But I couldn’t. I just had nothing but pictures and flashes. It was so vivid I just accepted it, and sat and watched the pictures in my mind.

I tried to appear normal, and did my work on the ranch. But I would look at Katie, and Katie would look at me, and we both knew that was the utmost thing in our minds, that we couldn’t put it out of our minds — it was right there.

And I’d look at Charlie, and he’d wink at me and give me reassurance that everything was okay, was going to be all right. Not that he said it aloud. He didn’t have to say it—I just felt it. That’s the way Charlie was. He didn’t need to speak, he just came on.

Tex seemed his normal self, just as happy and go-lucky as could be. But everybody on the ranch was pretty quiet. Everybody on the ranch — and there might have been 25 or 30 of us, though people came and went—knew by then there had been a killing.

But they didn’t know who had done it.

That night we all got together, smoked some grass and sang some songs.

And then it started all over.

I forget — but I believe that night Charlie told me to get two changes of clothes, and a knife, and we were going to do it again.

Only this time, he said, we were going to do it right, without panic and mess, and he was going to show us how.

He told the others. They sighed, and he said:

“Do you have remorse?”

They said no, knowing that all the time inside they did. And he knew it. I felt remorse, too, and he knew it. Because he knows me inside out.

In fact — he knows what I’m doing right now, as I tell this.

We all got our things together, knives, and I think there were two guns, or one gun, and we got in the car and we just drove around. All over. Linda and Katie, Clem and Tex and Leslie. With Charlie driving. Seven of us.

We went out toward the ocean, then we drove over to Pasadena (Calif.).

Charlie was talking the whole time. I forget what he was telling us. He was just talking, to keep us so we wouldn’t be thinking about what we were doing. To keep our nerve up, to chase out the fear.

Somewhere along the way, we stopped at two houses, One I don’t remember, I was so tired, and, off and on, I slept.

We stopped at this one house. Charlie got out of the car to look in the window, we went around the block and Charlie came back. We picked up Charlie, and he said:

“Man, there were pictures of children in that house. I just couldn’t do that.”

He said there might come a time when he might have to kill some children, but “we mustn’t go in that house in order to save the children.”

And so I accepted that. And we kept driving. I fell asleep. I slept. I was thoroughly exhausted. And when I woke up, we were parked.

I looked around. I recognized the neighborhood as being one where I had taken an acid trip with Charlie and the girls, and some people who lived in a house there, a few months before. I didn’t mention it to Charlie right at that time. But I did later.

Charlie got out of the car and went into a house (the residence of Leno and Rosemary La Bianca) with a gun and we all just sat there very quiet, didn’t make a sound.

Then I dozed off, and after I dozed off, I had a dream. It was so visual, it was actually what was happening in the house.

I could see Charlie tying the man up, and talking to him. Tying the woman up.

Then Charlie came back to the car and I woke up.

He had crept into the house with the gun — that’s what he told me when he came back to the car. And later, he told me, here’s what he related to me, he said he told the man and woman:

“I’m not here to hurt you. Just be calm. It’ll be okay. Just sit down and be still.”

Then he tied them up with pieces of leather he wore around his neck.

Then when he came back to the car, and I woke up, he told Tex, he said:

“Now the last time you blew it. You panicked the people. Don’t panic the people this time. Let them think it’s going to be okay — so they’ll at least go in peace.”

It was Charlie directing the scene right there this time, very coolly. Very coolly. Charlie said the last time Tex had told the people, the people at the Tate house:

“You are going to die.”

And this caused the panic.

“This time,” he said, “it’s going to be okay. Be nice to them. Don’t cause them to panic, to put more fear in them than they already have.

“Let them live in peace to infinity. Let them live in peace to infinity.”

Charlie was directing me and the others.

So he instructed Katie and Leslie, told Katie and Leslie to go into the house with Tex. I hoped he wouldn’t ask me to do it—and he didn’t, because he picked up on those vibrations.

Katie and Tex and Leslie went into the house. Which left Linda, Clem and me and Charlie.

Charlie instructed the three who went in to hitchhike home when they were through. Charlie said he wasn’t going to stay because he was going to take Clem and Linda and me to another house. And we drove off. But we didn’t go to another house. I guess he couldn’t find one that suited him. But, mmmnn, I fell asleep because I was tired.

But before I did, I said:

“Charlie, isn’t that the house we took the acid trip in?”

And he said, “No, it was the house next door.”

We knew the people next door, but we didn’t know if they still were living there or not. And if they were, Charlie would have picked it, to instill a lot of fear in them, because they had just totally blanked out on us — they were people who had given us their word, then backed out on it, like Terry Melcher. But I don’t have any opinion at all, whether he picked it for that reason or because we just happened to pass it.

Anyway, when we drove into the gas station. Linda got out and went into the women’s restroom and left the wallet there. It was the man’s wallet, with credit cards in it, that Charlie had taken from the house after he tied the couple up. We were hoping that a black woman would find it and pick it up and use the credit cards, which would direct the police to black people, so that it would instill more fear into white people. Charlie reacts to black people, digs them, because he spent most of his life in jail, about 20 years.

Then we drove around, just kept driving around, and ended up back at the ranch.

And when the people, the three – Katie, Tex and Leslie – who were left at the La Bianca house got back to the ranch, I got Katie to tell me what had happened. I got Katie to tell me, because Katie and are close. Katie was the only one of the three that said anything to me.

None of the three had a gun, only knives this time. Charlie had had the only gun, and he had long gone.

Katie said when they got into the house, they found the couple tied up, and they took the woman into a bedroom. Katie and Leslie took her into a bedroom, and tied her some more and put her on a bed and put a bag or cloth, or something, over her head.

Then they proceeded to tell her everything was going to be okay, that she wasn’t going to be hurt, it was all going to be all right.

Katie told me she knew she was talking to herself, not to the woman — just like me with Sharon Tate. She was talking to herself through the woman just to reassure herself that every-thing was going to be okay. That all was going to be perfect, was going to be good.

Tex was in the living room with the man.

She said the woman heard her man, her husband being killed.

And she said the woman panicked, started fighting and knocked over a lamp. Fought and screamed:

“What are you doing to my husband? What are you doing to my husband?”

All the time Katie was stabbing her, and Leslie was trying to hold her, and Katie just kept stabbing. I forget how many times Katie said she stabbed her. I don’t even think she knows.

Up to the time she was dead, the woman kept saying:

“What are you doing to my husband?”

And Katie told me that’s what the woman was going to live with, the thought she’s going to carry through infinity. And I said:

“Yes, you’re right there.”

Katie said after they were through they went in and wiped oil all the Fingerprints — at least that’s what she said they did.

Then they wrote helter skelter in the peoples’ blood on the refrigerator: “Death to all pigs” — or something to that effect.

They went in and took showers in the people’s bathroom, changed their clothes, went into the refrigerator and had something to eat. Katie said she saw a fork. I can’t remember whether she said it was a kitchen fork or one of those long forks — a carving fork.

She said she saw it and she flashed, who-eee — that will scare somebody. And she picked up the fork and went over and left the fork in the man’s stomach.

Tex, she said, carved “War” on the man’s chest. When Katie told me that, I flashed and said:

“Wow. Pretty far out.”

I thought it was pretty far out.

Then she said it was almost dawn, and they changed from their black creepy-crawl clothes and creepy-crawled in their change of clothes out of the house and away from it.

They took their creepy-crawl clothes with them, and threw them away in somebody’s garbage can. Not near there, but quite far away.

I think Katie said they walked quite a few blocks, maybe a mile, and then they hitchhiked a ride.

I remember something else now. It’s a flash, a new picture in my head.

Katie said there was a dog there in the house. She said the dog just sat and watched the whole thing.

It couldn’t have been much of a watchdog. The dog came up to them and wagged its tail, and Katie reached down and patted its head before they left.

Katie said she had gotten the impression from the woman before they killed her that she and the man had children who would be coming over to the house the next day. She said they would find their bodies and that would blow their minds.

I never did know the names of the people they killed until a long time later.

I didn’t read about it in the paper. Or watch it on TV the next day, like I had before.

I was tired of listening to the news. All I heard on the news was Tate, Tate, Tate. I just shut it off.

Now, I’m exhausted again. The flashes and the pictures have stopped coming.

I can’t tell about it any more.

Anyway, I haven’t time. My lawyer is coming soon, and he’s bringing me a dish of vanilla ice cream. Vanilla ice cream really blows my mind.

Deceased

FOLGER, Abigail Anne, CC No. 69-8794
FRYKOWSKI, Wojciech, CC No. 69-8793
PARENT, Steven Earl, CC No. 69-8792
POLANSKI, Sharon Marie, CC No. 69-8796
SEBRING, Thomas John CC No. 69-8795

DATE AND TIME OCCURRED: August 9, 1969, 2400-0415 hours
LOCATION OF OCCURRENCE: 10050 Cielo Drive
DIVISION OF OCCURRENCE: West Los Angeles Division

Resume Of The Crime

On the evening of August 8, 1969, Sharon Polanski called friends she had previously invited for the evening and stated that she was not feeling well and was going to remain home with Abigail Folger and Wojciech Frykowski, two friends that had been living in her home since March, 1969. She also stated that Jay Sebring, her one-time fiance, would probably drop over later in the evening. She cancelled the above invitation.

Sharon Polanski had been with her husband, film producer-director, Roman Polanski, in London, England from March 1969, until approximately July 21, 1969, when she returned home to the property they leased at 10050 Cielo Drive. Her husband was to remain in Europe and return to California on August 12, 1969.

In addition to the house that the Polanskis leased, which is located at the center of the Cielo property (Addendum 1), the owner of the property, Rudy Altobelli, had his home at the very southernmost portion of the grounds (Addendum 1 and 1B). Altobelli had left his house (Addendum 1 and 1C) and several dogs in the care of William Garretson, his houseboy. Garretson’s only duties were to care for the dogs and keep Altobelli’s home (Addendum 1C) in good order. The main house leased by the Polanskis was their own responsibility as to maintenance and domestic help. Garretson was at home at the time of the murders and was visited by Steven Parent from 2345 on 8-8-69, until 0015 hours, 8-9-69.

Sometime after midnight, August 9, 1969, an unknown suspect or suspects entered the Cielo property via the front gate which is operated by an electronic push button that can be operated from outside the gate. From this point there are three possible theories which have been reached after analyzing the physical evidence.

Theories

The first theory is that the killers climbed a telephone pole (Addendum 1 and 1A) located just north of the above-described electronic button which opens the gate to the Cielo property. The phone wire at the top of this pole had been cut in such a manner that it stopped phone service to the Cielo property; however, did not allow the phone wire that runs from the pole to the house to fall to the ground. The killer(s) also cut a small piece of two-strand wire which runs from the Cielo home to the telephone pole near the top and then down to where the button for the gate is located. At one time, this wire was connected to two speakers which were used for communications between the house and the gate opener. This had not been in use since the Polanskis leased the property in February of 1969. This wire was cut and had fallen across the ground in a north/south direction across Cielo Drive.

The killers then entered the gate at approximately 0030 hours and were observed by the first victim, Steven Parent, as he was leaving the guest house which was occupied by a houseboy, William Garretson. The killers, having been hired to kill Sharon Polanski, Jay Sebring, Wojciech Frykowski and Abigail Folger, shot Parent three times as he attempted to drive his vehicle from the Cielo property. The killers continued to the main house, the Polanski residence, where they proceeded to kill the four intended victims.

Second theory:

The killers went to the Polanski home sometime after midnight on 8-9-69, to either deliver or collect for various types and amounts of narcotics; that an argument ensued either over the money or the possibility of bad drugs, and the suspect, or suspects, armed with a knife and gun, proceeded to kill Frykowski, Folger, Sebring and Polanski. As they left the Polanski home, they were observed by the fifth victim, Steven Parent, who was leaving William Garretson’s house. As the suspect(s) left, they climbed the power pole and cut both the telephone wire and the communications wire hoping that their crime would remain undetected for a long period of time in order to make good their escape.

Third theory:

That suspect or suspects went to the Polanski home to commit a residential robbery. Once at the location, a fight ensued between the suspects and victims. The occupants of the house were all killed, and as the suspects were leaving they observed Parent, the fifth victim, leaving the location. They caught Parent and shot him before he could make good his exit. The possibility also exists that Parent could have been involved in the setting up and participation of the above-described attempt robbery, as he did have one knife wound in the palm of his left hand, indicative of a defensive wound. His fatal wounds were the result of gunshots. The killers then cut the phone wire and communication wire to make good their escape and give them more time before the discovery of the crime.

The Crime Scene

On 8-9-69, at approximately 0940, West Los Angeles Detectives were notified that five persons had been killed at 10050 Cielo Drive, the home of Roman Polanski. The following West Los Angeles Detectives responded to the scene over a period of approximately one hour:

Lieutenant R. C. Madlock, Commander
Lieutenant J. J. Gregoire
Sergeant F. Gravante, 5342
Sergeant T. L. Rogers, 4639.

Lieutenant Madlock phoned Inspector K. J. McCauley and requested that the investigation be assigned to Homicide Division. Inspector McCauley assigned the responsibility for the investigation to Robbery-Homicide Division. Lieutenant R. J. Helder, Supervisor of Investigations, Robbery-Homicide Division, was contacted and notified of the above crime and decision as to the responsibility for the investigation. He assigned the case to Sergeants M. J. McGann, and J. Buckles. He also called three additional investigators to assist in a crime scene search and investigation. Sergeants E. Henderson, D. Varney and D. Galindo were assigned this responsibility. Lieutenant Helder and the assigned investigators responded to the scene, arriving at various times between 1330 and 1430 hours.

When investigating officers from Robbery-Homicide Division arrived at the scene, they found Steven Parent seated in the driver’s position of his Rambler vehicle, MPK 308. The center arm rest of the front seat was down and Parent’s right side was resting against the arm rest, his head leaning back and to the right in the opening between the bucket seats. His right arm was resting on the arm rest and his forearm and right hand were resting on the right passenger seat.

An examination of the vehicle revealed that the lights were off; the hood was cool and engine off. The ignition switch was in the vertical, or off, position and the automatic gearshift lever indicated the car was in second gear. The emergency brake was off and a later check revealed that the battery was charged. A later check also revealed slightly over one-half tank of gasoline.

Parent was wearing a red, white and blue plaid shirt, blue denim pants, white socks and black shoes. Parent’s left wrist was bare; however, a wrist watch, later identified as his, was found in the left rear passenger seat. The band was severed. Parent had a laceration, indicative of a defense wound, on the palm of his left hand between the little and ring fingers. The wound runs vertical with his arm and the band on the wrist watch was undoubtedly severed when Parent received this wound. This was the only laceration that was apparent on Parent’s body. It appeared that Parent had been shot in the face, left arm and chest.

At 1400 hours, Deputy Coroner Finken checked Parent’s liver temperature and found it to be 92 degrees. The environment temperature was 94 degrees. At that time an extreme degree of rigor mortis was evident throughout all parts of the body. Post-mortem lividity was evident in the buttocks area of Parent’s body, the back of his neck and the calves of his legs, which is consistent with the position that the body was discovered in.

The next body observed was that of Wojciech Frykowski. He was lying on his right side, his head resting on his right arm, his forearm and right hand running parallel with his body. His left arm was at his side, with the left forearm running perpendicular with the ground and his left hand clutched the grass where he was lying. His body was in a north/south direction, the head to the southwest and the lower body to the northeast. (For the position of the body in relation to the Polanski residence, see Addendum 1 and 1B.) Frykowski was attired in a purple shirt, multi-colored pants and brown high-top shoes and socks. Both his shirt and pants were drenched in blood. Numerous stab wounds were noted about his body with most of them on his left side. He also had stab wounds on his back and defense wounds to his right hand.

At 1410 hours, Deputy Coroner Finken found that Frykowski’s liver temperature was 90 degrees. Rigor mortis was evident in an extreme degree throughout all parts of the body. Post-mortem lividity was noted all along the right side of the victim, which is consistent with the position that he was found in.

Abigail Folger was the next victim observed lying in the front yard in front of the Polanski home. She was lying in an east/west direction in a supine position. Her head was to the east and feet to the west. She was attired in a white, full-length nightgown which was completely drenched in blood from the breast area downward. Numerous stab wounds were noted in the upper anterior torso of Folger. She also had several severe lacerations to the left side of her face. Defense wounds were noted on both her right and left hands. (For the exact location of the body, see Addendum 1 and 1B.)

At 1400 hours, Deputy Coroner Finken found that her liver temperature was 92 degrees. The environment temperature was 88 degrees. Rigor mortis in an extreme degree was noted throughout the entire body. Post-mortem lividity was noted on the posterior of the deceased consistent with the position in which she was found.

The next victim found was Sharon Polanski. She was inside the living room of the Polanski home, lying on her left side directly in front of a sofa which faces the fireplace. (For the exact location, see Addendum 1 and 18.) Her head was to the south and her legs , which were tucked up towards her body in a fetal position, were to the north. Numerous stab wounds were noted about her breasts, a wound in the upper abdominal region and one stab wound in the right leg. She was obviously several months pregnant. There was dried blood smeared over the entire body. It appeared to investigating officers that someone had handled the victim, as in moving her from one location to another and the blood from the stab wounds had been smeared over other parts of the body.

A nylon rope, approximately 3/4 inches in diameter, was wrapped around Polanski’s neck two turns. The two ends of the rope then went in a southerly direction, running parallel with Polanski’s body. One end of this rope was wrapped around Sebring’s neck, the remainder of this rope going underneath Sebring, parallel with the body. The remaining end which came from Sharon Polanski’s body went up and over a ceiling beam, the loose end hanging on the other side of the beam, touching the floor.

Polanski was attired in a bikini-type nightgown consisting of bra and pants. They were multi-colored and blood drenched.

Deputy Coroner Finken checked the deceased’s liver temperature and found it to be 82 degrees. The environment temperature was 83 degrees at 1410 hours. There was an extreme degree of rigor mortis evident in all parts of the body. Post-mortem lividity was noted in the posterior portion of the body consistent with the position in which the body was found.

The fifth victim, Jay Sebring, was also located in the living room area of the Polanski home. Approximately 4 feet separated him from Sharon Polanski. He was on his right side in an east/west direction. His head was to the east and his lower upper torso was to the west. His legs went out at an angle perpendicular to the body, the feet in a northerly direction. A light colored towel, blood drenched, covered his head and face in a manner similar to that of a hood. The above-described rope which was wound around Polanski’s neck was also wrapped around Sebring. The one end of the rope which came from Polanski was wrapped around Sebring’s neck 1 1/2 times. The loose end went underneath the body, running parallel with the upper torso and continuing toward the fire hearth in a westerly direction. Stab wounds were noted on Sebring’s body and a large abrasion appeared on the left side of his face at the bridge of the nose. His left eye was bruised and swollen. His clothing was blood drenched and consisted of a blue shirt, white pants with black vertical stripes and black high-top boots.

Deputy Coroner Finken checked the liver temperature at 1400 hours and found it to be 83 degrees. The environment temperature was 83 degrees. An extreme degree of rigor mortis was evident in all parts of the body. Post-mortem lividity was apparent on the right side of the deceased, which is consistent with the position in which he was found.

The above-described rope, three strand (G28), was 43 feet 8 inches in length. A complete description of the rope and manner in which it was tied is found in the Evidence portion of this report.

A gun grip from a Longhorn model .22-caliber, Hi-standard revolver was found in the living room of the Polanski home. At the time of this report, investigating officers have been unable to pinpoint the exact location where this grip was located. They were apparently kicked by either the uniform officers or West Los Angeles detectives after they arrived on the scene. (For a complete description of the grips and a resume on efforts to check out this weapon, see the Evidence portion of this report.)

The following is a brief list of the victims’ blood type and sub types. Also included is a list of blood which was taken from various locations within the house and front porch area which has been typed. Officer Granado, Scientific Investigation Division, is attempting to sub type these additional blood samples. (For a complete list of the types of blood and location and type of blood samples, see Addendum No. 2).

1. Steven ParentBlood type B-MN
2. Wojciech FrykowskiBlood type B-MN
3. Abigail FolgerBlood type B-MN
4. Jay SebringBlood Type 0-MN
5. Sharon PolanskiBlood Type O-M

The following blood samples were taken from various locations within the Polanski house and front porch area:

• Large blood spot north portion of front porch near entryway, type O-MN
• Blood spot approximately 3 feet southwest of the above-described spot, type O-M
• Blood spot on block wall which separates entry hall from living room, type O-M
• Blood spot on trunks which blocked living room entrance from entry hall, type O
• Blood around area of Polanski’s body and Sebring’s body and rope which they were tied with, type O
• Blood spots near southern portion of living room which leads to bedroom, type B.
• Blood drops in hallway which leads to master bedroom exit, type B.
• Blood smears on shutters of master bedroom door which leads to pool area of residence, also blood drops on floor beneath the shutter, both type B. Blood spot on walkway which leads from master bedroom exit toward area where Abigail Folger was found, type B
• Bloody footprints and one shoe heel print found on walkway which leads onto front porch and into the entry of Polanski residence, type O.

These blood spots are also identified in Addendums 1 and 1B of this report. Additional blood smears were found on the electric button and housing inside the gate separating the Polanski property from Cielo Drive, blood type O. (This button and housing is depicted in Addendum 1 and 1A.)

Entrance to the Polanski property by car can be gained from only one entrance. This entrance is located at the northwestern edge of the property and is protected by a wrought iron fence and gate. The gate is 12 feet wide and is in the center portion of the fence. It is 6′ high an electrically controlled from both inside the property and outside. The outside electric button and housing has a key slot which can be locked, thus preventing the button when pushed from activating the gate. At the time of investigating officers’ arrival, this lock was in an open position and the button activated the gate. The gate button and housing inside the Polanski property operate in a similar manner to the outside device.

After entering the gate for an area of approximately 130 feet there is paved parking area and a two-story, three-car garage. There is a steep hill to the south of the entrance and a cliff to the north. (For a detailed description of this area, see Addendum 1 and 1A.)

There are four entrances to the Polanski residence; No. 1 is the front door which is entered from the east and opens into the entry hall which leads to the dining room or to the living room on the south. The second entry is from the service area porch which leads into the service area and then into the kitchen. It is located on the west side of the house, northern portion. The third entrance is located on the west side of the house near the center and opens into the living room. The fourth entrance is located at the south end of the house and opens into the master bedroom. (The house and entrances are depicted in Addendum 1 and 1B.)

There are four entrances into the guest house; No. 1 is located on the east side of the house and is reached by walking through a screened porch area and then into the living room. The second entry is located on the north side of the house and leads into a pantry and kitchen. The third entrance is located on the west side of the house and leads into a large room where several dogs are kept. The fourth entrance is located on the south end of the house and opens into an enclosed patio area. (The house and entrances are depicted in Addendum 1 and 1C of this report.)

There were no indications of ransacking noted in either the Polanski home or the guest house.

Suspect or suspects cut phone wire and additional communications outlet outside of properties in order to cut off outside communications with the house. Suspect(s) entered the house. One of the suspects shot two of the persons in the house, while a probable second suspect stabbed other victims. At the conclusion of the murders, the suspect(s) used either a rag or towel, wiped blood from the front porch and wrote “PIG” on the lower portion of the front door. They shot and killed a fifth victim who had been visiting the houseboy, William Garretson, as he attempted to leave the location.

Probable weapons used by the suspects were a .22-caliber revolver and a bayonet. For additional description of weapons used, see Weapons portion of this report.

Chronological Narrative

On 2-12-69, Mr. and Mrs. Roman Polanski entered into a lease with a Mr. Rudy Altobelli. The lease was for the main house, pool and garage area of 10050 Cielo Drive, Los Angeles, California (Addendum 1 and 1B). The lease was to be for one year with a one-year option, and was prepared by Mr. Altobelli’s attorney, Berry L. Hirsch,.

A small guest house which Altobelli used as his home when he was in Los Angeles was not part of this lease and he left William Garretson in charge of this residence. (This is referred to in Addendum 1 and 1C.)

Roman and Sharon Polanski moved into the house on -15-69. They had been living approximately one mile from this location at 1600 Summit Ridge Drive.

In mid March of this year, the Polanskis had .a large catered party which included over 100 invited guests. The persons invited included actors, actresses, film directors and producers, business agents for the above-described people, and the Polanskis’ attorneys. Most of the people invited came to the party along with several people who were uninvited. The list of uninvited guests included William Doyle, Thomas Harrigan and Harrison Pickens Dawson. They came to the party accompanied by an invited guest, Ben Carruthers and an unidentified male.

During the party, a verbal altercation ensued involving William Tennant, Roman Polanski’s business agent, and William Doyle. Doyle apparently stepped on Tennant’s foot during this altercation. Dawson and Harrigan joined in the verbal altercation, siding with Doyle. Roman Polanski became very irritated and ordered Doyle, Harrigan and Dawson ejected from the party. Ben Carruthers and the unidentified male that had accompanied him to the party escorted the three men from the property.

The above-described party was held as a bon voyage party for the Polanskis who were leaving for a film festival in Rio de Janeiro and then to Europe where Roman Polanski was to direct a film. The Polanskis left Los Angeles at the end of March. Prior to leaving, they invited Wojciech Frykowski and Abigail Folger to live in their,house. In addition to Frykowski and Folger, the Polanski maid, Winifred Chapman, stayed on at the Polanski residence. She did not live on the premises, but commuted five days a week; her regular days off being Saturday and Sunday.

Frykowski and Folger had shared a residence at 2774 Woodstock Road, living at this location in a common-law relationship. They met in New York during the early part of 1968, and had moved to the Woodstock address in Los Angeles the latter part of 1968. Frykowski was a very close friend of Roman Polanski, both of them growing ,up in a small town in Poland. One apparent reason for their close relationship is the fact that Frykowski’s father, who was quite well-to-do in Poland, financed Polanski’s first film. Since that time, Roman Polanski, who has become quite successful in the movie industry; has felt indebted to the Frykowski family. Frykowski was a writer; however, up until the time of his death, apparently none of his stories had been pur-chased. He lived on the money which was provided by Folger through her inheritance.

Frykowski and Folger accepted the Polanski invitation to stay at their home until their estimated return sometime in early August of 1969. They moved into the Polanski home on the 1st of April and used the east bedroom located in the main part of the house (Addendum 1B). When Frykowski and Folger moved into the Polanski home, they invited Witold Kaczanowski to live at their house on Woodstock Road. Kaczanowski accepted their invitation as he was an artist and at that time was unemployed. Kaczanowski was a friend of Frykowski. They had met in New York some years prior.

During April, May, June and the first part of July, Frykowski and Folger had many impromptu parties. An open invitation policy existed at the house. Drug use was prevalent. They used hashish, marijuana, mescaline, cocaine and MDA.

William Doyle, Tom Harrigan, Pic Dawson, John Deturo, Charles Tacot, Ben Carruthers, Cass Elliot, Witold Kaczanowski, along with several other narcotics users, were frequent visitors and party goers at the Polanski residence.

William Doyle and Tom Harrigan came to Los Angeles in January of 1969, from Toronto, Canada. Doyle arrived first via commercial airline, arriving with an estimated two pounds of cocaine. ,After his arrival, he•took up residence at Cass Elliot’s, 7708 Woodrow Wilson Drive, Los Angeles. Doyle and Elliot had met while Elliot was making a film in Toronto,. Canada, Doyle’s and Harrigan’s hometown. When Doyle arrived, it was obvious to Elliot that he was high on drugs and When he produced the two pounds of cocaine, Elliot told him he would have to leave.. It was at this time. that Harrigan arrived and the two of them took up residence at 1459 North Kings Road, Los Angeles. From this location, Doyle and Harrigan began to solicit and make friends among various persons in the movie industry. They did this in order to make contacts for the sale of the smuggled cocaine.

Harrigan and Doyle, after moving to Kings Road, sold at least $6,000 worth of cocaine during their first month.

Terrance Cooksley, an 18-year-old houseboy at the Kings Road address remained high for at least the month of February on cocaine supplied by Harrigan and Doyle. Sometime in March, he stole the $6,000 that Doyle and Harrigan had made. He frequented miscellaneous discotheques in the Los Angeles area and spent the money freely or gave it away in the form of large tips to various waiters. Doyle and Harrigan followed him to Stockton, California where they knocked him around and threatened him. They told him to keep his mouth shut and left. Cooksley returned to Los Angeles, and in mid March, Doyle and Harrigan took Cooksley, bodily, from the Whiskey-A-Go Go. They rode around in the Hollywood hills, with Harrigan driving. Doyle was in the back seat beating Cooksley with a hammer handle. Harrigan stated it appeared that Cooksley liked the beating and, therefore, they stopped. A crime report was taken; however, Cooksley gave misleading statements and information and there was no prosecution. He did describe Harrigan and Doyle to his father as vicious persons rand probably hired killers.

Doyle and Harrigan became quite friendly with Frykowski and Folger. This was mainly due to the fact that Frykowski, as interested in the known drugs on the market, in addition to future synthetic drugs that were being made in eastern Canada. Doyle and Harrigan told Frykowski that they would obtain the new synthetic drug, MDA, from Canada and allow him to be one of the first to try it. This conversation or agreement apparently took place sometime in the early part of July, 1969, at the Polanski home.

In mid July, Doyle left for Jamaica with Charles Tacot to make an underground film about the effects of marijuana, Harrigan made a trip to Toronto, Canada and brought back a supply of MDA and possibly other drugs via commercial airlines. It is known that he supplied at least a portion of this MDA to Frykowski. It is possible that Frykowski was given this drug by some other emissary two or three days prior to the murder.

Kaczanowski was present at the Polanski home in the early part of July and overheard Doyle and Harrigan tell Frykowski they were going to get him the drug known as MDA. Kaczanowski did not see Doyle and Harrigan after this meeting.

The first of June, 1969, Mark Fine, an actor friend of Frykowski, came into the city from New York. He was due to make a movie in Hollywood. The first part of July, Frykowski offered Fine,a room at his Woodstock house. Fine accepted and moved in the first of July Approximately one week later, Frykowski learned that Sharon Polanski was coming home from Europe the 21st of July. He and Folger intended to move back into their Woodstock house and began moving clothing into the house.

Frykowski told Fine that he would have to find another place to live. Fine agreed and moved from the house. Fine had agreed the latter part of July to introduce Frykowski to a director friend of his in an attempt for Frykowski to sell a story to this director. Fine arranged a meeting for Frykowski on August 6, 1969. On August 4, Fine called Frykowski and told him of the arranged meeting. Frykowski told Fine that some friends were coming in from Canada on August 6 and that he would have to pick them up at the airport in the afternoon. Fine stated he would arrange a meeting for some other day and the conversation was terminated. Fine did not see Frykowski again.

Investigating officers have been unable to establish if Frykowski did in fact pick friends up from the airport as he had told Mark Fine. Abigail Folger did keep her appointment with Doctor Marvin Flicker, her psychiatrist, on 8-6-69, at 1630 hours. She made no mention of an expected arrival of friends from Canada.

On July 21, 1969, Sharon Polanski returned to Los Angeles. She arrived before her husband Roman due to the fact she was 7 1/2 months pregnant and travel was becoming difficult. Roman Polanski was due to arrive in Los Angeles on August 12, 1969.

Sharon Polanski asked Folger and Frykowski to remain on at her home until Roman returned from Europe. They agreed and remained in the bedroom they had been occupying during her absence.

Thursday morning, August 7, 1969, Mrs. Winifred Chapman, housekeeper, can recall no unusual occurrences in the household. Investigating officers have established that Tom Harrigan visited the Polanski residence at about 1600 and that he had a bottle of wine with Frykowski, a short conversation with Abigail Folger, and that his visit was generally directed to Frykowski, concerning a delivery of MDA in the near future. Harrigan departed at approximately 1800 hours. It is also established that Abigail Folger made hpr regular visit to Doctor Flicker, her psychiatrist. From conversation with Harrigan, it is believed that Jay Sebring had been at the Polanski house sometime during the day.

Mrs. Chapman, the Polanski housekeeper, arrived at the house 8-8-69, at about 0800. She has been employed as a housekeeper.for the past year and one-half, both at the Cielo address and a previous leased house on Summit Ridge Drive. Mrs. Chapman went about:her regular household chores.

At about 0830, a Mr. Frank Guerrero arrived at the house. He was painting a room located at the far north end of the residence (Addendum 1B) that was to be converted into a nursery. He was employed for the job by a decorator, Mr. Peter Shore. Guerrero went about fits painting duties in the bedroom.

At 1100 hours, Chapman answered the phone and received a call from Roman Polanski. The call originated in Europe. Polanski asked about Chapman’s well-being and the general condition of the household. He asked to have his wife, Sharon, come to the phone. Sharon and Polanski conversed for some time. The substance of the conversation was not heard. One or two other telephone calls were received, but were routine household calls and not noted.

At 1230 hours, two guests arrived at the Polanski home, Joanna Pettit (Mrs. Alex Cord) and Barbara Lewis. They are established friends of Sharon’s and the general conversation was concerning Sharon’s pregnancy and the expected baby. They had lunch with Sharon, served by Winifred, and departed about 1530 hours. While Mrs. Pettit and Lewis were dining, Abigail Folger and Wojciech Frykowski returned to the house and conversed with Sharon and her guests (a general household conversation).

Frank Guerrero (the painter) had spoken to Sharon Tate and observed the two guests arrive as well as Frykowski and Folger. At this time Frykowski, Folger, Pettit, Lewis and Polanski were at the house and he had not noticed any signs of tension or worry expressed by any of the concerned. He departed about. 1330,.hours.

At 1400 hours, David Martinez, a gardener, arrived at the Polanski home. He went about his gardening work and observed Frykowski, Folger, Polanski, Pettit and Lewis in general conversation about the house.

At 1500 hours, Joe Vargas (brother of Martinez) also arrived at the address. As Vargas entered the premises, he observed Abigail Folger driving out in a yellow Camarro. About five minutes later, Frykowski departed in a Firebird. While attending to his gardening duties, Vargas observed Sharon Polanski, dressed in a bikini, taking a nap in the back bedroom. He saw William Garretson at the guest house and asked him to do some watering over the weekend as the weather was extremely hot and dry.

At 1545 hours, Martinez left the location and drove Chapman to the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and Canon Drive. Vargas remained at the scene and at 1630 signed for two steamer trunks that were delivered. Vargas signed for the trunks as he did not wish to awaken Sharon Polanski.

At 1645, Vargas departed, and to his knowledge, Sharon Polanski was the only person remaining in the large house. William Garretson was still in the guest house.

Between 1730 and 1800, Mrs. Terry Kay was backing out of her driveway at 9845 Easton Drive. She observed Jay Sebring driving down the road at that address. Her car blocked his progress and she noted that Sebring appeared to be in a hurry and did not acknowledge her in his normal genial way. Another unidentified sports car was following Sebring and both cars drove away rapidly when she cleared the road.

William Garretson states that he walked from the guest house to Benedict Canyon Road at 1800 hours and hitchhiked down to a store on Sunset Boulevard. He purchased a TV dinner and some cigarettes and returned to the guest house about 2000, walking and hitchhiking as rides were available. He said he walked from Benedict Canyon up to the Cielo address. Garretson said that when he returned he did not see anyone moving around in the Polanski house.

Between 1830 and 1900 hours, Dennis Herst delivered a lightweight bicycle to the Cielo address. The bike was purchased at his father’s store earlier in the afternoon by Abigail Folger. When Herst delivered the bicycle, Jay Sebring answered the door. He had a wine bottle in his hand and it appeared that he had been eating dinner.

Between 2145 and 2200 hours, John DelGaudio, manager of the El Coyote Restaurant at 7312 Beverly Boulevard, noted Jay Sebring’s name on the waiting list at his restaurant. The slip called for a party of four. Kathy Palmer, waitress at the El Coyote, recalls the Sebring party on the waiting list and states that the party waited in the bar for 15 or 20 minutes, then were served dinner and departed between 2145 and 2200 hours. Kathy is not acquainted with any of the party. She was unable to positively identify persons in the party from photos of Sebring, Frykowski, Folger and Polanski.

At 2200 hours, Abigail Folger’s mother telephoned Abigail from San Francisco. She called to verify the fact that Abigail was flying to San Francisco to see her on the 1000 flight on 8-9-69. The visit was to unite the two for Abigail’s birthday. During the telephone conversation, Abigail sounded a little “high” but did not express any alarm or anxiety as to her personal safety or the situation at the Polanski house.

Investigation disclosed that when Frykowski departed from the Polanski residence at approximately 1505 he drove directly to the Jay Sebring residence. At that location he picked up a Miss Suzan Peterson, who had been Jay Sebring’s companion for the preceeding night,. Frykowski drove Suzan to the art gallery operated by Kaczanowski at 9406 Wilshire Boulevard. The purpose of this trip was to obtain a key for the Woodstock house; Abigail Folger had Frykowski’s key at the time.

At the gallery there was a short conversation between Frykowski. and Kaczanowski and Kaczanowski was invited by Frykowski to cbme up to the Polanski residence that night. It was ascertained that Kaczanowski did not have the key to the Woodstock house in his immediate possession, but the key was at his girl friend’s, Christina Lerewskes, house.

While Frykowski and Kaczanowski were conversing at the gallery, Suzan Peterson was browsing in a dress shop adjacent to and connected with the gallery. During this time, she conversed with Christina’s mother, and during the conversation it was ascertained that,auzan Peterson spoke French and that she intimated that she Ips going tdAtie Polanski house that night.

Kaczanowski and Suzan were driven to Christina’s house by Frykowski. The key to the Woodstock house was obtained from Christina and Kaczanowski was returned to the gallery.

Peterson and Frykowski went to the Woodstock house. As they entered the house, Frykowski obtained the mail, among which was a music album. They played the album and looked around the house, Frykowski explaining to Suzan that Kaczanowski was an artist but not a businessman and there were some disparaging statements made by Frykowski about Kaczanowski as to the key to the house not being readily available. He then drove Suzan to her residence on Horn Street in Hollywood and Frykowski departed.

Suzan had a tentative appointment to call Sebring at 1900 hours, but after Frykowski deposited her at the Horn address, she became lonesome or impatient, called a cab, was taken to the Versailles apartments on Hollywood Boulevard and kept company with a Mr. Rick Steven. Suzan engaged in some sort of a domestic scene and was probably under the influence of one or more types of drugs and did not awaken until 2300 hours. At this time she recalled her tentative date with Jay Sebring and called his residence. She was informed by Amos, the butler, that Sebring had gone out.

At a time (estimated about midnight) Friday night, Frykowski called, presumably from the Polanski residence, to Kaczanowski’s art gallery and asked Kaczanowski why he was not up to the house. Frykowski in the conversation admonished Kaczanowski that he was spending too much time at the gallery, working too hard, etc. Kaczanowski declined the second invitation and stayed on at the gallery. He returned to the Woodstock house at approximately 0300 hours, 8-9-69. At that time, the key to the house was secreted in its regular hiding place.

At 2345, as reported by William Garretson, Steve Parent arrived, unsolicited and unannounced, at the guest house. Parent had a new clock radio with him and demonstrated it to Garretson. At approximately 2400 hours, Parent used Garretson’s telephone to place a call. Parent told Garretson that he had to meet a friend down on Santa Monica Boulevard. Parent picked up his radio and departed from the guest house at approximately 0015 hours, 8-9-69.

Between 0430 and 0500 hours, Steven B, Shannen, deliveryman for the Times newspaper, delivered the paper to the gate of the Cielo property. As he approached the gate he noticed that there was a wire down and draped across the gate. He observed the yellow bug light on the north side of the garage to be on. He also stated that on Wednesday, August 6, at about the same time of day, he had noted a white Dodge Dart or Rambler sedan parked on the west side of Cielo just outside the gate. He was not sure of the make of the vehicle, but stated that it did have black-wall tires.

The housekeeper, Winifred Chapman, arrived from her home to the intersection of Santa Monica Boulevard and Canon Drive at approximately 0800 on 8-9-69. She saw a male acquaintance, “Jerry”, last name unknown, and asked him to drive her to the Polanski residence as she was a little late for work. She arrived at the front gate of the Cielo address at approximately 0830. Upon her arrival she noticed an electrical wire hanging loosely on the ground going from the telephone pole near the push button for the gate onto the Cielo property and hanging across the gate. She pressed the electric button which operates the gate and entered the driveway. She picked up the morning,newspaper, walked to the garage (Addendum 1A) and turned off the overhead lights.

She went to the west side of the Polanski home, service porch entrance, (Addendum 1B) and obtained a back door key which was secreted on a rafter above the door. After opening the door, she placed the key back on the rafter in its original position. It is unknown if this door was locked or unlocked, as she did not try the door without the key. She was concerned over the fact that the wire was down and was going to check the living room phone to make sure it was operational. After entering the house, she walked in a southerly direction through the kitchen and dining room to the entry hall. When she reached the entry hall, she noted that the front door was wide open. She also noted two trunks just inside the living room which were not there when she left the residence on the evening of 8-8-69. She looked in an easterly direction out the front door and noticed Frykowski’s blood-soaked body lying on the front lawn. She then looked down at the front porch and entry hall and saw pools of blood and a blood-spattered yellow towel. She ran from the house, using the same route that she had taken when entering, toward the gate. As she ran down the driveway, she noticed Parent’s white Ambassador sedan and his apparent lifeless body inside the car.

Mrs. Chapman ran to the first house west of the property and rang the doorbell. She did not receive an instant reply and ran to the second house west of the Cielo property. At this location she aroused the owner, explained the situation and he called the police.

At 0914 hours, West Los Angeles Units 8L5 and 8L62, were given a radio call,”Code 2, possible homicide, 10050 Cielo Drive.” Officer W. T. Whisenhunt was assigned to unit 8L62, and Officer J. J. De Rosa was assigned to unit 8L5.

Numerous other patrol officers who will be listed in Personnel at the Scene portion of this report arrived and assisted. Also arriving at various intervals in the early stages of the preliminary investigation and crime scene protection were investigators from West Los Angeles Detective Division. The following information regarding the evidence found at the scene is a condensed opinion of the officers and detectives from West Los Angeles Patrol and Detective Divisions. At the time of this report, Homicide Division investigators are in the process of scheduling a meeting with all personnel at the scene, including S.I.D. personnel, in an attempt to place the exact sequence of the events at the time of their arrival and to place the pertinent evidence in the location that it was in at the conclusion of the crime. (For statements of first officers on scene, see Addendum 3.)

Upon entering the gate to the Cielo property, officers observed telephone wires down, crossing Cielo diagonally and hanging over the gate separating Cielo Drive from the Polanski property.

The officers proceeded onto the Polanski property and found Steven Parent in the front seat of his Ambassador sedan. The car lights were off; the engine was cool and not running. The ignition switch was in a vertical, or off position. The gearshift selector was in a horizontal position in second gear; the doors were closed and the driver’s window was down. None of the officers noticed the wrist watch which was lying on the back seat of the vehicle; however, this is probably just an oversight as it was there when investigators from Homicide Division arrived.

The patrol officers continued toward the main house using various methods and routes in gaining entry to the main house. The officers found the remaining four victims in the positions as described in the resume portion of this report. Two large trunks were in the living room near the north wall (Addendum 1B). The trunks were just inside the living room to the left, or south of the entry way. The trunks were parallel with the north wall of the living room with the east end of the west trunk sitting on top of the west edge of the east trunk. A blood stain was found on each of the trunks. (This was blood type O.) The stain runs from left to right from the upper trunk to the lower trunk and appeared to be from the same drop. They continued from upper trunk to lower trunk in a direct path. A pair of horn-rimmed eye glasses were just east of the east edge of the lower trunk. The glasses were on the floor, glass down, ear frames up, top portion of the frame to the west. Two wooden pieces of gun grips were found near a dining room chair which was located against the east wall of the living room, just north of a living room desk (Addendum 1B).

These grips were first observed either on the flagstone entryway or on the wooden portion of the floor at the north end of the living room under the archway which separates the entryway from the living room. They were just northeast of the trunks.

The grips were next observed under the chair in the living room. They were apparently kicked under the chair by one of the original officers on the scene; however, no one is copping out. When the two pieces were placed together they formed the right portion of a gun grip with the exception that one very small piece was broken and missing. This small piece was found by Officer Granado, S.I.D., on the front porch just north of the front door. Blood type 0 was found on the grips.

The lights inside the house were out with the exception of the desk light in the living room which was on and the hall light which leads to south bedrooms. There was no music or other sounds from the house. Whisenhunt, DeRosa and Officer R. E. Burbridge, unit 8U5, heard noises emanating at the rear of the property near the guest house (Addendum 1C). The officers heard the sound of barking dogs and heard a male voice state, “Be quiet.” The officers entered the rear house via the front entrance and observed William Garretson in the living room of the house. He was placed under arrest and transported to West Los Angeles Detective Division.

When Homicide investigating officers arrived, they noticed only one wire down, which is not a telephone wire but the wire which has been previously described as a communications wire from the Polanski home to the electric gate-opening device.

Continuing through the gate, investigating officers discovered blood smears on the housing for the electric button which opens the gate from inside the Polanski property. This has been identified as blood type 0.

The officers continued onto the property and observed a white Ambassador, two-door sedan, MPK 308, angle-parked in the center of the driveway (Addendum 1A). The front wheels were turned at an extreme angle to the left, as if the driver had intended to exit via the above-described gate. Steven Parent was observed as described in the resume portion of this report. The lights were off; the engine was cool; the ignition switch was in the off, or vertical position, and the keys were in the switch. The gearshift indicator was in second gear; the doors were closed and the driver’s window was down. A wrist watch with a broken band was lying on the rear seat, left side, approximately 6 inches from the left arm rest.

Officers continued in a southeasterly direction toward the garage area of the property. Two lights located on the north side of the garage were not on. Officers noted that the split-rail fence which runs to the north of the garage area was broken, and that scrape marks appeared on the curb directly in front of the split-rail fence. The’ scrape marks and the break in the split-rail fence appeared fresh. A search of the undercarriage of Parent’s car revealed similar scrape marks and concrete transfer. The rear bumper of the car also showed white paint transfer similar to that as on the split-rail fence.

Officers continued onto the property and observed the four remaining victims as previously described in the resume portion of this report. The following pools of blood, blood spots, and blood splatters were noted. Blood type and sub group will be noted when known. As the officers approached the front porch, using the walk (Addendum 1B) they noted the following stains: On the left side of the walk, approximately 4 feet east of the porch, they noted the bloody print of a shoe heel. Continuing toward the porch, three bloody footprints were noted. All four of these prints are blood type O and indicated the person was moving east from the porch. Continuing onto the porch in a westerly direction, two bloody barefoot prints are noted. Both of these prints are blood type O and are also pointing in an easterly direction. At the time of this report, Scientific Investigation Division is attempting to further identify these prints with persons at the scene. The results of their progress will be noted in future reports.

Just after stepping onto the porch looking to the north, approximately 6 inches south of the north edge of the porch, a large pool of blood, type O-MN, was found. Continuing in a westerly direction toward the front door, officers noted another large pool of blood on the porch approximately 6 inches east of the east wall of the house at the left edge of the threshold. This blood is type O-M. Continuing into the entry hall, various blood stains were noted in the hall and near the base of a large block wall which separates the entry hall from the living room. These blood spots were identified as O-M.

Two trunks were observed in the same position as described in an earlier portion of this report by the first officers on the scene. No glasses were observed, however, as described by original officers. The broken gun grips were observed in the position described by first officers on the scene and previously described in this report.

Continuing into the living room area of the house, the pools of blood beneath the bodies of Sebring and Polanski have been typed as O. Blood on the rope has also been typed as O. Investigating officers did not observe blood on this rope other than that portion which was in contact with the bodies. Officers observed a yellow towel with blood splatters near the hearth in the living room. This has been typed as O blood.

Continuing in a southerly direction inside the house, officers observed blood spots in front of a chair which was located in the living room just to the right of the hallway which leads to the bedroom area of the house. These blood spots have been identified as blood type B. Directly to the rear of this chair on the wall and door jamb are several splatters of blood which appear to have come from someone shaking a hand or arm quite rapidly in a downward motion while seated in the chair. These have been identified as blood type B.

As you enter the hallway, a blood drop is noted in the center of the hallway at the threshold. Continuing in a southerly direction in the hallway, another blood drop is noted and has been identified as blood type B. Continuing in a southerly direction through the master bedroom to the rear exit of that room, another blood drop is found just inside the door. This is also identified as blood type B. Blood smears were found on the louvered shutters inside the door as if someone had been trying to open the door. These smears were blood type B. Continuing out the door towards the area of the pool, two additional blood spots were noted, one on the sidewalk and one on a green garden hose, which was on the lawn. Both of these spots were identified as blood type B. Continuing in an easterly direction from where the last two blood drops were noted, the body of Abigail Folger was found (see Addendum 1B).

Going in a northwesterly direction from where Frykowski’s body was found (Addendum 1B) two large blood spots were found. Scientific Investigation Division has been unable to type this blood; however, it is the opinion of the investigating officers that these two large pools of blood are areas where Frykowski lay for moments in his attempt to escape from his assailants. It is possible that a struggle with the assailants occurred at these two locations. Just west of one of these blood spots, a purple scarf was found. This scarf was drenched with blood, which has been identified as blood type 0. This concludes the blood spots that investigating officers observed when they arrived.

Report on Strange Sounds

(0030 hours to 0100 hours)
Mr. and Mrs. Seymour Kott, temporary residence at 10170 Cielo Drive, a house located approximately 100 yards north of the Polanski house. The Kotts entertained guests at their house until approximately 2400 hours (midnight). The guests departed and the Kotts retired. Between 0030 and 0100 hours, Mrs. Kott, while in her bedroom located at the northeast corner of the house, heard what she described as four shots fired in close sequence. In her opinion, the shots originated east of her home. No action was taken regarding the shots at this time. At 0730 hours, 8-9-69, Mr. Kott stepped out of his house and observed the phone line draped over the fence and the Polanski gate. He also noted that the outside lights were on.

(0100 hours to 0130 hours)
Mr. Tim Ireland, one of five counselors supervising a sleepout for 70 male and female children at the Westlake School for Girls, located at 700 North Faring Road which is down the hill and directly south of the Polanski residence. Between 0100 and 0130, Mr. Ireland was awake, alert and watching the sleeping children. He heard a male voice from what seemed to him a long distance away to the north or northeast shout, “Oh, God, no. Stop. Stop. Oh, God, no, don’t.” Ireland said that the scream persisted for approximately 10 seconds. The male voice was clear and he did not notice an accent. The screams so disturbed Ireland that he checked the area of the sleeping children on foot, then went inside the school and informed Mr. Rich Sparks of the occurrence and requested permission to check the area himself in his own personal vehicle. Permission was granted, and Ireland drove southbound on Benedict Canyon Road to Sunset Boulevard, westbound to Beverly Glenn, and northbound back to the Westlake school. He did not observe anything unusual on his circuitous trip, but did hear numerous dogs barking in the immediate vicinity of the school. Mr. Ireland then checked the other counselors at the school but all had been sleeping and were not aware of the incident. Mr. Ireland does not recall hearing any sounds that he believes to be gunshots. (In investigating officers’ opinion, this is an accurate report of the incident, made by a competent person, alert and in full command of his faculties.)

(0200 hours to 0300 hours)
Mr. Emmett Steele, 9951 Beverly Grove Drive. Mr. Steele maintains two trained hunting dogs at his residence. These dogs do not generally respond to ordinary traffic or house noises in the vicinity, but become highly excited and bark and howl when they hear gunshots. On 8-9-69, between 0200 and 0300, both dogs became highly excited, barking and howling. Mr. Steele went out and calmed the dogs, checked the area but could see nothing. Mr. Steele did not hear any gunshots himself, but was concerned about a lavendar Volkswagen-type dunebuggy, XSP 193, and a black foreigh-type motorcycle, possibly a Triumph, that have been seen and reported driving about the area for the past six weeks in the late night and early morning hours. These two vehicles have not been connected with the incident at this time.

(Approximately 0330 hours)
Mr. Marceau Mounton, an employee of the Bel Air Patrol, works 2130 to 0530. Mr. Mounton was on a fixed post assignment at 10231 Charing Cross on 8-8/9-69, from 2130 to 0530. At approximately 0330, Mr. Mounton heard what he first believed to be three backfires, but on reflection, felt the reports were too sharp and short to be backfires. He said the reports were two close together, and then one shortly thereafter. Mr. Mounton was positioned on the south side of the residence and could not be sure from what direction the sound came. This location is approximately 1/4 mile south of the location of occurrence and below the mouth of the canyon. When Mr. Mounton went off duty at 0530 he mentioned this occurrence to Mr. Karlson (1-3), the desk man at Bel Air Patrol.

(0400 hours)
At 0400, Mr. Bullington was stopped in front of 2175 Summit Ridge Drive. He was parked facing northbound with the driver’s window down and heard what he believed to be three shots. They sounded as if they came from some distance to the west. The sequence was one shot, a 2/3-second pause, another shot, a 4/5-second pause, and a-final shot. Mr. Bullington contacted Bel Air Patrol by radio (Mr. Karlson, 1-3, states time was 0411) and reported this.

(0411 hours)
Mr. Karlson was on duty on 8-9-69, and at 0411 was contacted by radio by patrolman Bullington of Bel Air Patrol who had stopped at 2175 Summit Ridge. Officer Bullington reported to Karlton he had heard three shots spaced several seconds apart. Karlton called West Los Angeles desk at 0412 and reported this to an unknown officer who stated, “I hope we don’t have a murder. We just had a woman-screaming call in that area.”

(0400 hours)
Carlos Gill, 9955 Beverly Grove Drive. Carlos is a Mexican national, 14 years of age. He had been asleep, awoke at 2300 hours and began writing letters in his room. From his bedroom located on the opposite side of Benedict Canyon, it is possible to look directly across the canyon at approximately the same elevation and view the front of the Polanski residence. The distance is estimated as approximately 1/4 to 1/2 mile. At approximately 0400 hours he heard the sound of voices arguing. He believed it was three or four persons. The argument increased in volume and became more heated. It lasted approximately one minute and then subsided abruptly. He indicated that in his opinion the sounds originated from the direction of the Polanski residence. At the time of the occurrence he stood by the window in his lighted room and looked in that direction but could see nothing. He said that the severity of the argument so frightened him that he went immediately to bed after closing the window.

Possible reasons for the murder

From the location of the victims, the physical evidence, which includes the various blood stains, gun grips, and the rope tied around Sebring’s and Polanski’s necks, several theories exist as to the reason for the murder. Possible reasons for the murder are as follows:

1. A narcotics party in which one or two of the participants freaked out and in their wild frenzy killed one of the.victims and then killed the remaining victims in order to protect himself against identification.
2. Another theory is that one or two persons delivering or collecting for a delivery of various types and amounts of narcotics was turned away empty handed, due to either bad narcotics, or the lack of cash funds.
3. There is also the possibility that the persons delivering the narcotics decided to take both the money, and the narcotics after killing the victims.
4. An additional theory is that one or more suspects went to the Polanski home to commit a residential robbery. Their attempt was met with resistance, and after killing one person they decided to kill all of the persons on the property in order to avoid detection.
5. An additional theory exists that the suspect or suspects were hired killers sent there by an adversary of either one or all of the four logical victims (Folger, Frykowski, Sebring, Polanski) and that Parent was killed simply to avoid detection.

From the physical evidence and positions of the bodies, investigating officers feel that regardless of the theory as to the motive of the killing, the sequence of events occurred in the following manner. Investigating officers feel that at least two suspects are involved due to the fact that the weapons used to kill the victims were a .22-caliber revolver and probably a bayonet. The suspects entered the property via the front gate by pushing the electronic gate-opening device which is kept unlocked. They proceeded in a southeasterly direction down the driveway and to the front walk of the Polanski home. As they arrived at the front porch, they were either met by or summoned by Sebring, Polanski and Frykowski.

If we assume they went there to transact some type of business, the possibility exists that they were invited into the house. Due to the clothing that Folger was wearing (long nightgown) and the fact that her bed appeared to have been slept in, investigating officers are assuming that Folger was in her bedroom either asleep or reading. An argument between the suspects and Polanski, Sebring and Frykowski probably aroused Folger. Prior to her getting out of bed and walking from her bedroom, up the hall into the living room, it is the investigating officers’ opinion that Frykowski, Polanski and Sebring accompanied one of the suspects to the front door. Folger entered the front room and was either struck or stabbed by one of the suspects. The other suspect remained with the main group armed with the .22-caliber revolver.

Folger was probably attacked near the entrance to the hall which leads to the two bedrooms at the south end of the house. Folger is blood type B, and this is consistent with the B blood that is located at this position. Folger ran south down the hall in an attempt to escape from her assailant. She arrived at the rear door of the master bedroom, and in her attempt to open the door her blood is smeared on the louvered portion of the door. After getting the door open, she exited and ran screaming in an easterly direction toward the split rail fence (Addendum 1B). She was ultimately caught and killed by her assailant.

Frykowski, who was being held at the front door by the suspect armed with the .22-caliber revolver, ran in a southeasterly direction from the front porch in an effort to assist Folger as she is screaming for help prior to being killed. The suspect fired one round, striking Frykowski in the back. Frykowski fell and this would be the first large blood spot southeast of the porch. Frykowski continued in his attempt to assist Folger and fell again accounting for the second large blood spot. He regained his feet and continued in a southeasterly direction where he was met by the killer of Folger, who is wielding the knife in a frenzy. He attacks and kills Frykowski, stabbing him numerous times in the side as he lay mortally wounded.

At sometime prior to Frykowski being killed, possibly in one of the above-described positions (large blood spots), one of the assailants struck Frykowski with either the butt or the barrel of a weapon, indicated by the numerous lacerations on the scalp.

The two suspects now turn their attention to Sebring and Polanski who are still on the front porch. It is possible that the suspects rendered Sebring and Polanski unconscious before going after Frykowski. This would be consistent with the fact that Sebring had a large abrasion to the bridge of his nose and when discovered had a large hematoma swelling and bruising of the left eye. The large pool of blood which is described as on the front porch, approximately 6 inches south of the north edge of the porch is Sebring’s type, O-MN.Directly north-east and just off of the porch is a small hedge which was broken down as if someone had lain there for some time. The large pool of blood described as 6 inches east of the east wall of the house and even with the door jamb to the front door is type O-M, the same as Sharon Polanski’s. From the amount of blood there it would appear that she remained there for at least minutes prior to movement. This also holds true for Sebring. Sebring and Polanski were then ordered or taken into the living room. At this point, it is conjecture as to whether they were tied with the rope before being murdered or after the murder. The rope was undoubtedly brought there by the killers as no one can place this rope at the Polanski home prior to the murder, nor has this type of rope been seen at either Sebring’s home or in his car. Although he has been known to tie women up by the arms at his home and then whip them prior to some type of sex act, he has always used small sash rope.

The killers, after taking Polanski and Sebring into the living room, stabbed them to death at this point. Sebring was shot in the abdominal region sometime during the assault. Investigating officers are unable to determine whether this occurred on the front porch or after he was taken into the living room.

Before leaving the location, one of the killers took some type of cloth, wiped it across the blood on the front porch, probably from that which had been described as Sharon Polanski’s blood, type O-M, and printed the letters, “PIG” on the lower portion of the front door.

The killers then left the location without ransacking the house. Paper money was in plain view throughout the house and Sebring had a wrist watch on his wrist, in plain view, valued at $1,500.

Two theories exist as to when Parent, the fifth victim, was killed. The possibility exists that as the killers entered the property, Parent observed them as he was leaving the Garretson residence. The killers, in order to avoid detection, shot Parent before he could leave. Parent also had one defense wound in his left hand. This was a long laceration to the palm between the ring and the little finger, which severed the tendons. It is investigating officers’ opinion that Parent would not have been killed simply because he saw someone enter the gate, unless the assailants went there with the express purpose of killing everyone in the Polanski home.

The second theory is that as Parent left the Garretson residence he observed either part or all of the above-described crimes. He ran for his car, which was parked somewhere in the paved parking area of the property. He entered the car, backed it up at a high rate of speed, struck the curb and knocked down the split-rail fence previously described. He then turned the car in a westerly direction, and in an attempt to evade his pursuers turned the car at an odd angle toward the gate. At this point, he was caught and killed.

If we assume that the killers went there to kill all the persons at the Polanski home, then we can also assume that they cult the phone wires and all other means of communications before entering the property.If we assume that they went there merely to conduct some type of business, such as a narcotics sale, or to enjoy a narcotics party and the killing occurred, then investigators are of the opinion that the suspects cut the wires in an effort to gain as much time as possible before the crimes were discovered.

Most of the polygraph keys which could have been used were released to the press by patrol personnel prior to investigating officers’ arrival on the scene, or at least without their knowledge.

Four polygraph keys that have not been released are as follows:

1. The weapon used to inflict the stab wounds was probably a bayonet. The blade portion of the bayonet was extremely sharp on both sides for at least 3 inches with one side becoming flat at this point, having a blade length of at least 6 inches. There was undoubtedly a guard on the weapon; however, there were no signs on the bodies that the blade ever went in far enough for the guard to come in contact with the body.
2. The revolver used was a caliber 22, Hi-standard, “Double Nine” “Longhorn”. The weapon has a 9 1/2-inch barrel and is 15 inches in overall length. It has a blue steel finish and a 9-shot capacity. It has walnut grips. The right grip from this weapon was broken at the scene and is in police custody. The weapon has a catalogue number of 9399.
3. A white, nylon type, three strand rope (G28) with an overall length of 43 feet, 8 inches, was used to tie Sebring and Polanski. The rope was double looped around Polanski’s neck and draped over a beam in the living room with two overhand knots on the standing end on either side of the beam. The first knot was 5 feet from the end, and the second knot was 16 feet, 4 inches from the end. A frayed area was between the two knots, 11 feet, 8 inches from the end. The rope around Sebring had a double loop, with the second loop going into an overhand knot around the neck.
4. A pair of horn-rimmed prescription type reading glasses, found next to the trunk between the living room and the entrance archway. To date the owner has not been identified and it is presumed that the glasses were lost by a suspect.

Personnel At The Scene

Lieutenant R. Madlock contacted Inspector K. J. McCauley and requested that investigation be assigned to Homicide Division. Inspector McCauley agreed that the homicide should be handled by Homicide Division personnel and contacted Lieutenant R. J. Helder, Supervisor of Investigations, Homicide Division, informing him of his decision. Lieutenant Helder assigned the case to Sergeants M. J. McGann and J. Buckles, and assigned additional investigators to assist in the crime scene search. Additional investigators called and responding to the scene were Sergeants E. Henderson, D. Varney, D. Galindo. Homicide Division personnel responded to the scene arriving at various times between 1330 and 1430 hours.

West Los Angeles Division

*Sgt. S. Klorman, 10204
Sgt. G. C. Rivera, 11544

*First uniformed supervisor at the scene

Day Watch

D. L. Gossman, 13221
J. C. Murawski, 13022
R. L. Gingras, 7387
W. T. Whisenhunt, 12397
R. E. Burbridge, 12294
W. R. Szczucki, 13960
R. W. Ferguson, 13523
B. C. Laetszch, 14386
J. J. DeRosa, 12986
D. W. Graham, 13098
S. M. Osti, 14398

P.M. Watch

T. R. Blaire, 12720
J. J. Choquette, 14818
B. L. Levin, 15055
A. P. Cordova, 14197
D. B. Watstein, 13631
T. J. Mascot, 14229
G. E. Anderson, 13820
W. R. Walley, 13627

A. M. Watch

R. A. Muldrew, 14569
R. L. Treutlein, 12389
T.Chamousis, 13904
R. Bishop, 12717

West Los Angeles Detectives

Lt. R. C. Madlock, Commander
Lt. J. J. Gregoire, 140
Sgt. F. Gravante, 5342
Sgt. T. L. Rogers, 4639

Scientific Investigation Division

Ofcr. M. J. Granado, 7692, Comparative Analysis Section
D. H. Hale, J-8438, Comparative Analysis Section

Ofcr. J. E. Boen, 7780, Latent Prints Section
Ofcr. D. L. Girt, 12530, Latent Prints Section
Ofcr. D. E. Dorman, 10247, Latent Prints Section
W. W. Clements, J-8054, Latent Prints Section

S. Barrette, L-8631, Photo Section

Beverly Hills Police Department

Captain B. L. Cork

County Coroner’s Office

Doctor T. Noguchi, Medical Examiner, Coroner, County of Los Angeles
Doctor R. C. Henry, Deputy Medical Examiner, County of Los Angeles
Doctor J. Finken, Deputy Coroner, County of Los Angeles

Victims

Sharon Marie Polanski, 10050 Cielo Drive, female Caucasian, 26 years, 5-3, 135, hazel eyes and blond hair. Victim’s occupation is actress and for the last two years had been married to Roman Polanski, director-producer for Paramount Studios. At the time of her death, she was eight months pregnant with her first child. Prior to her marriage to Roman Polanski, she was engaged to one of the other victims, Thomas John Sebring.

Thomas John Sebring, 9810 Easton Drive, Los Angeles, male Caucasian, 35 years of age, 5-6, 120 pounds, black hair, brown eyes. The victim was a hair stylist and had a corporation known as Sebring International with a statewide distributorship featuring male cosmetics, hair sprays, etc. He was unmarried and had been engaged to the previous victim, Sharon (Tate) Polanski. He was considered a lady’s man and took numerous women to his residence in the Hollywood Hills. He would tie the women up with a small sash cord and if they agreed, would whip them, after which he would undress them and have sexual relations. He was a well-known user of cocaine, staying high on the drug most of the time.

Sebring put on a big front, living in a large house with a butler, an expensive foreign car and at times hosting expensive parties. It is believed that all of these actions were to impress potential backers of his corporation in his financial worth, while in fact his capital resources were very limited.

Abigail Anne Folger, female Caucasian, 25, 5-5, 120, hazel eyes, brown hair, residence since the first of April, 10050 Cielo Drive. Prior to that she lived at 2774 Woodstock Road. She is an heiress to the Folger coffee fortune and has a financial statement of somewhere in the neighborhood of $500,000. She has been living in a common-law relationship with another of the victims, Wojciech Frykowski, for the past two years. Folger supported Frykowski, paying for the rent at the Woodstock address and supplying him with money for his drug habit which included marijuana, hashish, mescalene, MDA and cocaine. Folger also used these drugs in large quantities.

Folger saw her psychiatrist, Marvin Flicker, M.D., for one hour a day, five days a week. Her standing appointment was 1630 each day. She discussed her use of drugs and her disappointment with Frykowski. Doctor Flicker stated that he thought she was almost ready to leave Frykowski. She was building up enough nerve in her own mind to go it alone. This, of course, is Doctor Flicker’s opinion. In the past year, Abigail had been an active participant in Negro social work. She sponsored and attended rallies in the Watts area and is reported to have been an active participant in civil rights activities in the San Francisco bay area. This contention is borne out by several civil rights placards found at the Cielo address.

Wojciech Frykowski, male Caucasian, 32, 5-10, 165, blond hair, blue eyes. Frykowski was a writer; however, he has been unable to sell any of his work in the past years. He has been living in a common-law relationship with Abigail Folger at both 2774 Woodstock Road, prior to April of 1969, and since April of 1969, at 10050 Cielo Drive. Frykowski was a native of Poland and had lived in England, France, New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. He met Abigail Folger in New York and accompanied her to San Francisco and then to Los Angeles. He had no means of support and lived off of Folgers’ fortune. He used cocaine, mescaline, LSD, marijuana, hashish and MDA in large amounts. He was an extrovert and gave invitations to almost everyone he met to come visit him at his residence. Narcotic parties were the order of the day, and the parties continued on into the early morning hours.

Frykowski was a boyhood friend of Roman Polanski. The two of them growing up together in a small town in Poland. Frykowski’s father financed Polanski’s first film and Roman felt indebted to him. This was the reason Roman Polanski invited him to stay at his home during his and Sharon’s trip to England.

Steven Earl Parent, male Caucasian, 18 years, 6-0, 175, red hair, brown eyes. He lived with his parents at 11214 East Bryant Road, El Monte. His main occupation was that of a delivery boy for Valley City Plumbing Supply Company in Rosemead, California. He also worked part time at night for Jonas Miller Stereo, 8719 Wilshire Boulevard. On Friday morning, 8-8-69, he told his mother to have a clean change of clothes for him when he came home for lunch from his job at the plumbing supply company. He told her he was going to work at his second job and didn’t want to come home after work before going to Hollywood for his second job. Parent has an arrest record as a juvenile for burglary. The chief object of attack during the five burglaries he was caught at was electronic equipment. He served two years in the California Youth Authority program. He was described as having both sadistic and homosexual tendencies by a probation officer.

Suspects

GARRETSON, William Etson, male Caucasian, 20, 5-7, 154, brown hair and brown eyes, LA 974 580-G

Garretson was arrested in the guest house at 10050 Cielo Drive. He gave vague, unrealistic answers to questions about his observations and recollections of events occurring in the Polanski house between 8-8-69, 0200 hours and 8-9-69, 0930 hours. He was questioned at West Los Angeles jail at approximately 1600 hours, 8-9-69, by investigators. He was advised of his rights and agreed to speak freely without counsel but gave stuperous and non responsive answers to pertinent questions. He retained the services of attorney Barry Tarlow, shortly after the first unproductive interview. He was transported to Parker Center where investigating officers, in the presence of attorney Tarlow, had another fruitless but short interview with the suspect. At this time, it was agreed that Garretson would submit to a polygraph examination on Monday, August 10, 1969, with his attorney representing him at the interview.

On 8-10-69, at 1600 hours, in the company of his attorney and upon his attorney’s advice, Garretson submitted to a lengthy polygraph examination conducted by Lieutenant Burdick, S.I.D. Polygraph Section. At the time of this examination, Garretson was more responsive to questions, but gave vague and unsatisfactory responses on questions pertinent to the crime that were asked him at the polygraph interview, prior to the questions being presented to him on the machine.

In the opinion of Lieutenant Burdick, Garretson’s answers were generally considered truthful; however, there was an underlying belief by Burdick and the investigating officers that due to some narcotics sedation or other mental incapacity, the subject was not sensitive to all of the monitoring devices employed on the machine.

Investigating officers went back to the crime scene and reviewed the physical and acoustical aspects of the scene as related to what Garretson, who claimed to have been awake all night in the guest house writing letters, claimed he heard or saw.

In the opinion of the investigating officers and by scientific research by S.I.D., it is highly unlikely that Garretson was not aware of the screams, gunshots and other turmoil that would result from a multiple homicide such as took place in his near proximity. These findings, however, did not absolutely preclude the fact that Garretson did not hear or see any of the events connected with the homicide.

Garretson related to the investigators that Parent had come to the guest house at approximately 2345, 8-8-69; that he displayed a clock radio to Garretson. They talked About it a short time and that Garretson made a telephone call from the guest house at midnight and then said to Garretson that he was going to meet a friend at Santa Monica Boulevard and Doheny; that Parent left the guest house approximately 0015 hours, 8-9-69, and at that time was last seen alive by Garretson. The telephone call was verified. There was a clock radio in the passenger side of Parent’s car when he was killed.

Winifred Chapman, the housekeeper at the Polanski house, stated that Garretson made very infrequent contacts with any of the people or their guests occupying the Polanski house, and that he was retained by Mr. Altobelli, the owner of the property, to care for his dogs and that he had complete use of the guest house while the owner was in Europe. Garretson confirmed this statement.

It is the investigators’ opinion that Garretson was under the residual effects of some type of narcotic during the entire time he was in police custody. It is possible, but not probable, that Garretson had no real knowledge of the crime. Garretson was released from custody on 8-11-69 at 1400 hours. His attorney was present, with television and newspaper coverage in abundance. In all probability, this newspaper coverage was prearranged by Mr. Tarlow.

Garretson’s arrest record shows Sheriff’s Office, Los Angeles, California, 12-6-68, Possession of Marijuana, no dispo indicated; however, Garretson said he had been arrested in Monterey Park and was given three years probation upon conviction of the charge. Garretson also admits a 1967 conviction of Contributing to the Delinquency of a Minor in Lancaster, Ohio. He received a suspended sentence.

As Sebring, Frykowski and Folger were confirmed narcotics users on a daily basis, the following mentioned suspects were checked and interviewed by members of the Los Angeles Police Department as they are either confirmed narcotics users and peddlers, or have the reputation as suppliers of narcotics to the particular group of entertainers and the like who have habitually associated with Frykowski and Folger and to a lesser extent the Polanskis.

The following persons were suspect in this case;however, they have been eliminated at the time of this report:

1. Thomas Michael Harrigan, Toronto, Canada, Police No. FPS 2958 82-A, male Caucasian, 27 years, 5-10, 163, brown hair and brown eyes. This suspect has one arrest in Canada for Illegal Possession of Narcotics. The disposition indicates that he was discharged with no apparent filing. The suspect is a native of Toronto, Canada and a user and smuggler of drugs to the United States.
2. William J. Doyle, Toronto, Canada, No. FPS 230 203-A, male Caucasian, 27, 5-8, 180, brown hair and brown eyes. This suspect has one arrest for Uttering Prescription for Narcotic Drug, two charges. Disposition indicates that he was sentenced to 12 months, case suspended, case appealed. The appeal was allowed, the conviction was squashed and the verdict of acquittal entered. Doyle is a native of Toronto, Canada and a user and smuggler of drugs to the United States.
3. Charles Tacot, male Caucasian, 38 years, 6-2, 160, blond hair, balding, blue eyes. This suspect has no known police record, no permanent address in Los Angeles. Returned from Jamaica in order to talk with investigating officers. He is a producer, director of underground films and is apparently not too successful at this. He is an admitted narcotics user, using such drugs as cocaine and marijuana.
4. Harrison Pickens Dawson, male Caucasian, 27 years, 5-9, 150 brown hair, brown eyes. No permanent Los Angeles address, travels between Los Angeles, New York, Massachusetts and Virginia. He is known user of various narcotics including heroin, cocaine, methardine, mescaline, hashish, marijuana, LSD, and MDA.

The above four persons traveled in the same circles and knew Wojciech Frykowski and Abigail Folger. Harrigan and Doyle supplied Frykowski and Folger with some cocaine and mescaline and probably most all of the MDA they used. MDA is a synthetic drug manufactured in Toronto, Canada.

Tacot and Harrigan have been interviewed at great length by investigating officers and voluntarily took a polygraph examination administered by Lieutenant Earl Deemer, Rampart Detective Division. Investigating officers and Deemer were satisfied that Tacot and Harrigan had nothing to do with the homicides.

At the time of this report, Deemer is in the process of interviewing Dawson in Virginia and Doyle in Toronto, Canada. Preliminary indications are that neither Dawson or Doyle are involved in the homicides. Polygraph examinations are being administered.

A complete report and polygraph examination results will be a part of future progress reports.

Weapons

After a close examination of the victim’s wounds and conferring with the medical examiners that performed the post mortums, examinations on the bodies, Dr. Nuguchi, Dr. Henry, and Dr. Herrera, investigating officers have come to the following conclusions, #1 the knife that inflicted the stab wounds was probably a bayonet. The bayonet being extremely sharp for at least a distance of three inches. One edge becoming flat at that point. The blade length is at least six inches long and there is probably a guard on the weapon. Although the blade entered the most of the bodies six inches no imprint from the guard was left on the bodies.

#2, Parent, Frykowski and Sebring were shot with a caliber 22 long rifle bullet. The probable weapon used was a high standard “Double nine long horn” revolver. It has a 91/2″ barrel and a 15″ overall length. It has a nine shot capacity and has a blue steel finish, the catalogue number is 9399. The manufacturer has been contacted and states this weapon has been in production since February of 1967. He has contacted thirty-three west coast jobbers for sale numbers and sales information on all 9399 models. A complete list of all 9399 models sold in Los Angeles since 1967 has been received and is included as addendum number 5 in this report.

Special Investigations Unit, Administrative Detective Bur. is in the process of checking all model 9399 sold within a driving radius of two hours of Los Angeles. The results of this investigation will be included in future progress reports.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Toronto, Canada were contacted and a request was made for a similar check on all model 9399 weapons sold in Canada. Fifteen weapons have been sold throughout all of Canada and are included in addendum 6 in this report. The results of their investigation as to the actual whereabouts of these weapons at this time will be listed in future progress reports.

#3, The white nylon type three strand rope (G28) wrapped around victims Sebring’s and Polanski’s necks could have been used to control or limit their activities. There is no evidence however, to indicate this rope was used to choke or otherwise harm these victims. Efforts are being made by SID to identify the manufacturer and distributor of this rope. Progress on their attempts will be reported in future progress reports.

Evidence

The following items are considered of paramount importance to the investigation. #1, the above described gun grips with the blood type O on them.

#2, The above described rope and it’s origin.

#3, The horn rimmed glasses which were found just east of the trunks which were located in the living room near the archway, which separates the entry hall from the living room. Scientific Investigation Division firearms section is attempting to locate the manufacturer of these glasses. Their investigation will be included in future progress reports.

#4, A “Buck”, clasp type knife found under the seat cushion of an overstuffed chair, which was located in the living room seven feet south of the north wall of the living room and four feet east of the west wall of the living room. This chair is marked “C” in addendum number 7.

For a list of fingerprint lifts and eliminations see addendum number 8 of this report.

Witnesses

All witnesses are indexed and given interview numbers, starting with one. Investigating officers have included as a part of this report interview numbers 1 through 191 as addendum number 9. Investigating officers are in the process of checking these statements for inconsistencies. We are also plotting the exact locations of persons hearing either screams or gunfire of the night or morning of either 8-8/9-69. The time of this report this phase of the investigation is incomplete and the results will be included in future progress reports.

Communications

Communications relevant to this incident are on file in Robbery-Homicide Division.

A Tragic Trip to the House on the Hill

Friday, August 29, 1969

Now it was quiet, and the Sunday afternoon washed by the August sun. The police had done their work and gone away and there was an eerie suspension of time and motion at the place in Benedict Canyon where the five were killed.

“This must be the world-famous orgy house,” said Roman Polanski with bitter sarcasm as he parked in his driveway. He pointed to a white rail broken on the fence bordering the drive and speculated that the boy, Steven Parent, had backed his father’s car into the fence in a desperate attempt to flee the bullets that destroyed him.

He walked into his yard, past the fake wishing well with the stone doves and squirrels perched on the rim, past the beds of marigolds and daisies dying from a fortnight of inattention, past the crumpled blue bedsheet which lay on the grass under one of the great pine trees. Someone must have put it there to cover Abigail Folger in her death, and they left it there.

He walked around to the rustic swimming pool, now crowded with leaves and debris, the floats and air mattresses silently bumping into each other as a soft breeze stirred the water. “You see that big tube,” he said, pointing to a transparent plastic ring, “Sharon bought that so she could prop up her big belly and float around.”

The front porch, where Voityck Frokowski’s body had been, was bad – the blood dried and darkened to a mahogany brown and strewn about the flagstones like a Jackson Pollock painting, the blood epitaph “PIG” dimming now on the white Dutch door – but the living room was the dark side of the moon.

Here was a spacious, wonderful room – white walls and white beams, an open loft overhead with a redwood ladder leading to it, big fireplace with novels and scripts strewn on the hearth, baby grand piano, a scattering of chairs to sit in not to look at, a place of warmth and taste and – as the eye looked closer – impossible horror.

In front of the beige velvet couch were the two major smears of blood, the one where hair stylist Jay Sebring fell next to the crumpled zebra rug, the other where Sharon Tate, stabbed a dozen times, slashed so brutally that murder became atrocity, collapsed and died in a jumble of oddities – a yellow candle stub, a teach-yourself-Japanese instruction kit, a mauve bedroom slipper, a book on natural childbirth. Sharon’s first baby would have been born within the mouth. Doctors took it from her body, but the perfectly formed infant son had died with its mother.

Roman speaks English well, even though he learned it just four years ago, but when he is tired the words come out with difficulty, each one separate, each one painfully located, each one punctuated. “Why?” he said, and he said it again and again and again. And, after a long while, “Sharon…was…the supreme moment…of my life… I knew it would not…last.”

The Sudden Stillness of Their Swinging World

Eighteen months ago, in a London registry office, Sharon Tate married Roman Polanski. She wore a taffeta minidress, he a Regency suit with a white cravat. It was the union of two different worlds. Roman’s world until that day had been laced with tragedy and horror. When he was a child in Krakow, Poland, his mother disappeared one day and he learned that she had been taken to the place called Auschwitz, and he never saw her again. One afternoon his father, who wore the yellow Star of David armband, took him to the barbed-wire fence which ringed the ghetto and cut out a small place and told him to run, run for his life, run from the Germans until the war was over and people stopped disappearing.

After he had survived what so few other Polish Jews had, a man attacked him in Warsaw and savagely clubbed his head in a quarrel over a bicycle. Roman survived one more, but his assailant – who, it turned out, had already murdered three people – was hanged.

When Roman became a film director and made it to the West and started building his credits – Repulsion, Cul-de-Sac, Rosemary’s Baby – they all seemed to deal with death and the macabre. Several months ago in London I asked him why he made so many horror films. “What is horror to you,” he answered quietly, “may not be horror to me.”

While Roman was fleeing from the Nazis, Sharon was growing up first in Dallas – where her father, an Army officer, had been stationed in 1943 – then a dozen places around the country. At six months, she won the “Miss Tiny Tot” contest, and two decades later, trailing beauty crowns, began the long climb up to the high place where she would die.

Many thought she was the most beautiful woman in Hollywood. She had almond-shaped eyes and the high cheekbones that go with being photogenic. She had the legs that miniskirts were created for (she would be buried in a Pucci print mini). Her voice was soft, her manner gentle. She smoked a little pot because the others did, and she did not pursue her career with the ravenous ambition indigenous to her business. When she became pregnant this year, she announced the news, said a friend, “as if she had invented having babies.” She was not nor had she ever been promiscuous. “Sharon was out of bounds,” said one of the town’s most successful bachelors. “You just looked, and God it hurt to look, but you couldn’t touch.”

Roman and Sharon – the words quickly went together – became one of the most popular couples on two scenes, Hollywood and London. In London they kept a small mews house sparsely furnished (the living room had two busts, one of Napoleon, one of Roman, side by side), and their mates were the Beatles and the Stones and Victor Lownes of the Playboy Club there and whoever was in town. When Sharon was away for any extended time, Roman was not averse to an evening out with somebody else. “He has the European attitude toward sex,” said a friend. “It’s no big deal, nothing to get nervous about. But there was never any doubt that he loved Sharon and only Sharon.”

In Hollywood they moved smoothly through many layers of film society – dining at Garson Kanin’s house, where Roman was introduced to Artur Rubinstein and fell emotionally into his arms, inventing wild and funny situation comedies to act out at home on Roman’s TV tape machine with French Director Roger Vadim and Jane Fonda, running with the young and sometimes troubled newcomers, the rock singers, the friends of friends whom Roman often found at his table in a nightclub and rarely sent away.

Futile Search For A Missing Thread

Roman walked now through the living room into the master bedroom. “Sharon must have been asleep that night,” he said. “Look, there, the pillows – she always put them that way when I was gone.” The big double bed with the gaily printed lime-green and orange sheets had been slept in on one side only; two big pillows cut it in half, rather like a bundling board. “She hugged the pillows instead of me,” he said shyly.

His eyes caught the shuttered door leading to the pool. There were dried spots of blood there and the black grime left when police dust for fingerprints. “She must have been awakened by the noise and got up…” Roman followed a path through the hall into the living room. “They hit her here…” He went back into the bedroom. “She tried to get out that door…” He returned to the hall and pointed to tiny drops of blood flecking the baseboard. “And they dragged her into the living room and did…it.”

He went into the second bedroom where Frokowski and Miss Folger slept in a magnificent antique bed. “I should have thrown him out when he ran over Sharon’s dog,” he said. Sharon had owned a Yorkshire named Sapirstein (after the sinister obstetrician in Rosemary’s Baby), and several weeks earlier Frokowski had run over the animal in the driveway and killed it.

How long had Voityck and Miss Folger been house guests here? “Too long, I guess,” he answered.

Roman’s success in the West was a beacon to many creative friends in Poland. Several of his generation managed to leave the Communist country and, in most cases, their first letters and calls were to Roman Polanski.

“Roman became sort of a Polish Y.M.H.A. in America,” says a friend. “He loaned them money, he even borrowed money to loan them money, he read their scripts and got them jobs, and it didn’t matter if some of them had no talent and no promise. What was important was that they were Polish. There was this incredible bond.”

Roman prowled through his house as the afternoon wore on. “There is something here,” he said. “I can feel it. Something the police missed. I must find the thread.”

All week long he had tried to put some of the pieces together. He heard the Hollywood gossip: that the killers were devil-worshippers, that it was a Mau-Mau type slaughter. Drugs? “We smoked pot at my house,” said Roman. “But I don’t think I’ve ever been to a Hollywood party where it wasn’t.” (One film figure wryly noted a few days after the crime, “Toilets are flushing all over Beverly Hills; the entire Los Angeles sewer system is stoned.”) Roman learned from John Phillips, the rock composer and co-founder of the now disbanded Mamas and the Papas, that Frokowski was reportedly “into a harder drug scene than just pot.”

Sharon and Roman spent most of this spring in Europe, she doing a film in Rome, he preparing several new films in London. In their absence, Frokowski and Miss Folger had stayed in the house – at Roman’s request. They remained there after Sharon returned, keeping her company until Roman could join her.

“Roman didn’t know what the hell was going on at his house,” says a friend. “All he knew was that one of his beloved Poles was staying there. Sharon probably knew, she had to, but she was too nice or dumb to throw him out. If any creeps and weirdos went up, it wasn’t by Sharon’s invitation.”

Roman found a smashed lantern in the flower bed near the front porch. He held it for a minute, wondering if the police had overlooked it, if it was perhaps a clue. He looked at the nail on the front door where it had once hung. He threw it back to the flower bed.

He was drawn back once again to the bedroom. He opened the door of an armoire, and baby things almost tumbled out. There were stacks of blankets, diapers, formula bottles and warmers, basinet, books – Naming Your Baby, Let’s Have Healthy Children, How To Teach Your Baby To Read. He came across a stack of publicity photos of Sharon, posing in the front yard, the spectacular view behind her, below her. And he cried for quite a long while.

In the driveway, Roman stopped to examine briefly the black Porsche of Jay Sebring and the yellow Firebird of Miss Folger. Then he got into his car and hurried out. The trip down the hill was much quicker than the trip up.

In the photo above, Peter Hurkos is seen kneeling next to Sharon’s dried-up blood, with his wife Stephany in the background. The photo was taken on August 17, 1969.

Dutch clairvoyant Peter Hurkos (born Pieter van der Hurk) was a house painter until an accident in the 1940s changed his life forever. Following a fall from a ladder that resulted in serious brain damage, Hurkos was in a coma for three days.

When he awoke, he reported having developed supernatural powers, including the ability to see into the future and events in the past. With his newfound gifts, Hurkos became a celebrated figure.

Hurkos made headlines for his involvement in the infamous Tate murders, as Roman Polanski had asked for his help in identifying the perpetrators. Famed photographer Julian Wasser accompanied Polanski and Hurkos to the Tate residence and took several photos of the crime scene for a story in Life magazine.

Polanski gave several Polaroids to Hurkos, hoping he could help find the killers. A week before the article ran in Life magazine, the Polaroid photos appeared on the front page of Hollywood Citizen News. It turned out that Hurkos had sold his photos to the press, vibrations and all.

Charles ‘Tex’ Watson, Patricia Krenwinkel, Susan Atkins, Leslie Van Houten, Bruce Davis, Bobby Beausoleil, Steve Grogan, and Charles Manson stood trial and were all found guilty of the nine murders that occurred in California during the summer of 1969.

Initially, those who were convicted of the Tate-LaBianca murders received death sentences. However, when California briefly abolished the death penalty, these sentences were commuted to life imprisonment.

Linda Kasabian and Mary Brunner were granted immunity after becoming witnesses for the prosecution. Throughout the trial, the prosecution asserted that Manson masterminded the ‘Helter Skelter’ murders and that his followers carried out the acts under his influence.

Susan Atkins and Charles Manson died behind bars, while Leslie Van Houten and Steve Grogan were granted parole and released from prison. Krenwinkel, Beausoleil, and Davis are still serving their sentences, although they have all been recommended for parole.

Charles ‘Tex’ Watson, the main perpetrator in the ‘Manson’ murders, has become a born-again Christian and is also still serving his sentence. All of his requests for parole have been denied.

On March 29, 1971, Susan Atkins was found guilty and sentenced to death. Her death sentence was eventually changed to life imprisonment. In 2008, Atkins was diagnosed with brain cancer, leading to the amputation of one of her legs. Atkins’ husband, James Whitehouse, stated that Atkins experienced paralysis in over 85 percent of her body, rendering her unable to sit up or be moved to a wheelchair.

In June 2008, Atkins made an appeal to prison and parole authorities seeking compassionate release; however, her request was denied by the state parole board. On September 2, she was brought to her final parole hearing on a hospital gurney. Her appeal was unanimously rejected by the 12-member California Board of Parole.

Susan Atkins died of brain cancer at the age of 61 on September 24, 2009, at 11:46 p.m. At the time of her death, Atkins held the record as California’s longest-serving female inmate. This distinction now belongs to Patricia Krenwinkel. During her incarceration, Atkins became a born-again Christian. According to her husband, Atkins last whispered word was ‘Amen’.

During his final years, Charles Manson’s health declined significantly. On January 1, 2017, he was taken to Mercy Hospital in Bakersfield, California, due to gastrointestinal bleeding.

Upon his arrival at the hospital, medical professionals assessed Manson’s weakened state and determined that surgery was not an option for him. After spending a few days in the hospital, he was transferred back to Corcoran State Prison on January 6.

On November 15, 2017, he was once again admitted to Mercy Hospital. On November 19, 2017, at the age of 83, Manson passed away in the hospital. His death was a result of complications stemming from colon cancer and respiratory failure.

On December 2, 1969, Linda Darlene Kasabian, born Linda Darlene Drouin and also known as Yana the Witch, faced charges in connection with the brutal Tate-LaBianca murders. However, she was granted immunity after agreeing to serve as a witness for the prosecution. Kasabian’s testimony inflicted significant damage to Manson and his ‘family’.

After the trial, Kasabian attempted to establish a stable life, but she faced subsequent arrests for offenses such as indecent exposure, DUI, and meth possession. Her criminal activities spanned both before and after her involvement with the family. Her daughter Tanya, who she brought with her when she joined Manson, has since acquired the nickname ‘Lady Dangerous’.

Linda Darlene Kasabian, now known as Linda Darlene Chiochios, passed away on January 21, 2023, at 4 pm, at Tacoma General Hospital in Washington. According to her death certificate, her body was cremated on February 1, 2023, at Mountain View Crematory. Her cause of death was not disclosed.