Sharon Tate and the Manson Murders

by Greg King

  Chapter 27

  The Last Day

  Friday, August 8, 1969 dawned hot and muggy in Los Angeles. The city was in the middle of a heat wave, and over the past few days, the temperatures had remained consistently in the unbearable nineties. At 10050 Cielo Drive, high above the sweltering city, the heat was less oppressive, and there was the additional relief of a breeze sweeping fresh, cooling air to the privileged residents of the canyons. Even so, it promised to be a warm and miserably humid day.

  Around eight that morning, Mrs. Chapman arrived at 10050 Cielo Drive. She normally worked full days on Friday and Saturday, a half day on Sunday, and full days again on Mondays and Tuesdays. She took the key to the back door from above the rafters of the rear porch, and entered the kitchen, where she found a few dishes left over from the previous evening. After washing these, she went on to begin her regular work for the day.1

  About half an hour later, Frank Guerrero arrived to paint the intended nursery at the northern corner of the main house. Before he began, he removed all of the screens from the exterior windows. He was to return a day later to give the room another coat of paint. Sharon had hired interior decorator Peter Shore to come the following week and begin furnishing the room; the weekend would give the paint the opportunity to dry.2

  Sharon awoke that day around nine. When it was hot, she preferred to be as comfortable as possible. This morning, she dressed in a bikini panties and bra, decorated in a small, blue and yellow floral print. After greeting Mrs. Chapman, she took an early morning swim. She was still lounging near the pool when, at eleven that morning, Roman called from London. According to Roman, she sounded nervous and edgy, suffering from the intense heat. He also gathered from the broad hints she dropped that she was rapidly becoming irritated with Voyteck and his constant drug use.

  Roman informed Sharon that he was in the process of packing his things and would return shortly; two steamer trunks, containing his and Sharon’s wardrobes, had already been sent from London. He had to get a U.S. Visa, and, although this was a mere formality, he had to wait until Monday, when the consulate would be open. He told Sharon to expect him home on Tuesday, August 12. Before hanging up, Sharon told Roman that a stray kitten had wandered on to the property; she was feeding it with an eye-dropper.3

  Just as Sharon finished her telephone call with Roman, Mrs. Chapman noticed that one of the dogs had left paw prints on the front door of the main house. She washed the Dutch door with a solution of vinegar and water. A few days earlier, on Tuesday, she had done the same thing to the set of French doors leading from Sharon’s bedroom to the pool area at the side of the house.4

  Just after noon, two of Sharon’s friends, actress Joanna Pettit and Barbara Lewis, arrived for lunch. There was a small group of wrought iron lawn furniture beneath a pine tree near the swimming pool, and the three women sat in the shade, talking, as the two visitors later recalled, mostly about the expected arrival of the baby, which was due late the following week.5

  Sharon seemed disillusioned, worn out. She allegedly complained “that Roman was a bastard for leaving her alone with Frykowski,” adding that, without Jay’s support, she “would have gone out of her mind.” Roman’s apparent disinterest in their baby hurt her deeply. Above all, she clearly felt that he was deliberately avoiding her, unwilling to put aside his own schedule to accommodate her feelings. “That’s probably why the little rat is still in London,” she added sadly.6

  Abigail Folger had left the property earlier that morning with Voyteck. She purchased a bicycle from a shop on Santa Monica Boulevard and arranged for it to be delivered to 10050 Cielo Drive later that afternoon. She and Voyteck then drove back to the house, where they joined Sharon and her guests as Mrs. Chapman served luncheon. Pettit and Lewis left just after three.7

  Two of the gardeners from the landscaping service Altobelli used were scheduled to trim the lawns, weed the flower beds, clip the hedges and water the plants. One of the men, Dave Martinez, walked over to the guest house and asked William Garretson to water the lawns over the weekend. Tom Vargas, Martinez’s partner, arrived around half-past three that afternoon. As he drove through the gates, he saw Abigail Folger climb into Sharon’s rented yellow Camaro and drive out. She was going to keep her regular 4:30 PM appointment with her psychiatrist, Dr. Marvin Flicker. A few minutes later, Voyteck also left, in Abigail’s red Firebird.8

  During her appointment with Dr. Flicker that afternoon, Abigail confided that she had reached her limit with Frykowski. As Flicker listened, she declared that his various affairs and wild drug use had finally become too much to bear. She left his office early that evening, having decided to leave Voyteck the following week.9

  Shortly before four, Jay Sebring called Sharon. He was at home, having spent most of the day in bed with his current girlfriend, Susan Peterson. He told Sharon that he would be over to see her in a few hours. He then called his business manager, John Madden, to discuss details of a trip to San Francisco he was to make the following day to do some work at his salon there.10

  A few minutes later, Voyteck arrived at Jay’s house on Easton Drive. He picked up Peterson and drove downtown to see Witold Kaczankowski at the latter’s Beverly Wilshire Hotel gallery, which was set to open the following week.11 On seeing his friend, Kaczankowski burst out laughing. Frykowski was attired in a pair of purple bell bottom pants with tiny flowers on them, a purple shirt, a dark vest and black boots. Voyteck pointed out his pants as being his latest purchase, but Kaczankowski was not impressed, finding Frykowski’s choices too effeminate for his taste. “If you want to be a fag, go ahead,” he told Voyteck. “But the fags are going to be after you.” Unflustered, Voyteck asked his friend to have dinner with him, Abigail, Sharon and Jay. Kaczankowski refused the invitation, however, saying that he had too much work to do at his gallery. Frykowski later called him from Cielo Drive, again inviting him to stop by. Kaczankowski told Voyteck that he and his girlfriend might stop by the house later that evening.

  Voyteck then called another Polish friend, Professor Stanislav Wohl, one of his former teachers at Lodz, and asked him to dinner. Wohl, saying that he had a previous dinner engagement with friends, also declined.12

  After leaving Kaczankowski’s gallery, Frykowski and Peterson drove to the house Voyteck shared with Abigail on Woodstock Road, where he unloaded a few boxes of clothes. They stayed at the Woodstock Road house for around an hour, listening to records.

  Back at 10050 Cielo Drive, gardener Dave Martinez was getting ready to leave. Mrs. Chapman told Sharon that she had finished her work for the day, and that, unless there was something else she wanted done, she was going to leave. Sharon, thinking how hot it might be in Mrs. Chapman’s central Los Angeles apartment, asked if she would like to stay over at 10050 Cielo Drive for the night, especially as she was due to work the following morning. After a few seconds of thought, however, Mrs. Chapman declined Sharon’s offer. She picked up her purse, and Martinez drove her to her bus stop down Benedict Canyon Road.13

  Sharon decided to lie down for a short nap before Jay arrived. She was still asleep when, around 4:30 PM, a delivery truck from the Air Dispatch Company arrived at 10050 Cielo Drive with the two blue steamer trunks containing both Sharon’s and Roman’s belongings from London. Gardener Tom Vargas, knowing that Sharon was asleep, did not want to disturb her, and signed for the trunks himself. Vargas placed them in the living room, just to the side of the wide opening into the entrance hall. A few minutes later, Vargas left the property.14

  At half-past five, a neighbor saw Jay Sebring leave his house on Easton Drive. He sped down Benedict Canyon Road in his black Porsche, turned right at Cielo Drive, and drove up the hill to 10050.15 Neither Voyteck nor Abigail were in when he arrived.

  Sharon’s sixteen-year old sister Debra telephoned shortly after Jay’s arrival. Since her return from London, Sharon had usually tried to spend a part of the weekend at her parents’ house in Palos Verdes Estates, or have her mother and sisters up to 10050 Cielo Dr
ive for a night. She had not done so the previous weekend, however, because both her mother and father had been in San Francisco, packing up their belongings for the final move when Major Tate retired in two weeks. This weekend, her mother Doris was in Los Angeles but her father was at his base in San Francisco. Sharon, physically tired at the end of the week, decided not to stay with her mother that Friday night. Instead, Debra had earlier discussed the possibility of coming to stay with Sharon at 10050 Cielo Drive. When she called, however, Sharon told her that she was tired, and asked if they could make it another time.16

  Sharon, in fact, had been expected at a small dinner party being thrown that evening by her friend Sheilah Wells. Sharon would have gone with Jay, and joined Sheilah and her husband Fred Beir, Joanna Pettit, Alex Cord, Stella Stevens and Skip Ward. Just after Sharon’s sister Debra called, Sheilah Wells rang and asked her not to park in her driveway when she arrived because her neighbors had been complaining about the noise. But Sharon told her that she was too tired to go out. She thought that she and Jay might drive down the Canyon to fetch some hamburgers for dinner, but, otherwise, she simply wanted to remain at home. “I tried to persuade her to come afterwards and spend the night,” Sheilah recalled. “It was a very hot summer night—but she said she wanted to wash her hair and get to bed early. This was the last time we ever spoke.”17

  Although Sharon wanted to have a quiet evening at home, shortly after the murders, nearly half of Hollywood would describe how Sharon had called them and invited them to 10050 Cielo Drive that night. Columnist Steve Brandt and Cass Eliott later said that they turned down invitations from Sharon that evening. Author Jacqueline Susann, then staying at the Beverly Hills Hotel, said that Sharon called and asked her to stop by, but Susann had already committed to having dinner that night with friend Rex Reed.18

  Sometime after seven, both Abigail and Voyteck returned from their separate errands. According to the later police investigation, Joel Rostau, boyfriend of one of Sebring’s employees, delivered cocaine and mescaline to 10050 Cielo Drive for either Jay or Voyteck, or both.19 This in itself would not have been an unusual occurance, however. Although Sharon had stopped using any drugs since learning of her pregnancy, she knew Jay and Voyteck continued to do so. Apparently, the amount Rostau brought was minimal, since Sebring and Frykowski asked if he could get more. Rostau was unable to do so, and did not return.

  After some discussion, Jay made dinner reservations for Sharon, Abigail, Voyteck and himself at El Coyote, a fashionable Mexican restaurant on Beverly Boulevard. The four drove down the Canyon to the restaurant, where, after a fifteen minute wait at the bar, they were seated and had dinner. Around a quarter to ten, they finished their meal and left.

  It was dark by the time they returned to 10050 Cielo Drive. The lights on the property were fixed to a timer; as they drove through the gates, the yellow bug light on the side of the garage and the Christmas lights strung across the split-rail fence bordering the lawn glowed in the night. Landscape lights, positioned around the lawn and behind the shrubbery, cast eerie shadows against the house as the foursome followed the flagstone walk across the lawn to the front porch.

  Abigail went off to the bedroom she shared with Voyteck and changed into a mid-length white nightgown, Sometime after returning, she took a fairly large dose of the MDA Voyteck had purchased a few days before.

  Within a few minutes, the telephone rang; it was Abigail’s mother Inez. Abigail was due to catch a 10 AM flight on United Airlines the following morning, to spend the day in San Francisco. The conversation, which lasted for only a few minutes, was unexceptional; Inez Folger did note, however, that her daughter sounded “a little high.”20

  After saying goodnight to her mother, Abigail climbed into the antique, carved bed nestled in a corner of her bedroom. Above her perched a large stuffed rabbit, gazing down from the headboard. Relaxing into a drug-induced euphoria, she settled back into the bed to read before going to sleep.

  Voyteck was in the living room. He, too, had taken MDA on their return to 10050 Cielo Drive, and happily dozed off on the long couch. The only light in the living room came from the small table lamp on the desk.

  At the southern end of the house, Sharon and Jay had retired to her bedroom. After returning from the restaurant, Sharon changed out of her minidress, revealing the bikini panties and bra which she had worn all day. It was still hot outside—eighty degrees at eleven—and she was uncomfortable. She still wore her gold wedding band and a pair of gold stud earrings.21 Sharon kept the refrigerator at 10050 Cielo Drive stocked with Heineken, Jay’s favorite beer, and he had grabbed one on their return. He sat on the edge of the bed, talking with Sharon. Beyond the open windows of the bedroom, the lights of the swimming pool shimmered in the night.

  A hundred feet away, past some low shrubbery, beneath an open, roofed gateway and down a curving flagstone walk, sat the guest house. The previous night, after drinking four cans of beer, smoking two marijuana joints and taking a dexedrine capsule, caretaker William Garretson had been sick.22 He slept late on Friday, cleaned the guesthouse and spoke with Dave Martinez, promising to water the lawn over the weekend.

  Around seven that evening, Garretson walked down Cielo and Benedict Canyon to Turner’s Drug Store, where he purchased a TV dinner, a pack of cigarettes and some Coca-Cola. As he walked back up the canyon, he noted the Christmas lights strung across the split-rail fence, sparkling in the distance.23

  Just after eleven-thirty, eighteen-year-old Steven Parent drove his father’s white 1966 Nash Ambassador through the gate at 10050 Cielo Drive. Six feet tall, with short red hair and glasses, Parent lived with his parents, sister and two younger brothers in the Los Angeles suburb of El Monte. Parent had been something of a loner in high school, focusing his attention on choir. His sister Janet recalls that “Steve didn’t date much, and he didn’t have many close friends.”24

  His recent past had been troubled. He had been arrested several times for petty theft, and had spent some time in a youth correctional facility.25 According to Parent’s sister Janet, his trouble stemmed from his passion for electronics: “Steve was fascinated by electronics and mechanics, and he stole several radios, bringing them home and tearing them apart to understand how they worked.” Parent’s interest seems to have been real enough: “When he was at the correctional camp,” his sister recalls, “Steve tested at near-genius level for electronics.”26 Having graduated in June from Arroyo High School, Parent began to prepare for college. To save money, he worked two jobs: as a delivery boy for Valley City Plumbing Company in Rosemead during the day, and, in the evening, at Jonas Miller Stereo on Wilshire Boulevard.

  Two weeks earlier, Parent had stopped for Garretson when the latter was hitchhiking in Beverly Hills. When Garretson warned the young man that he lived up in the hills, Parent replied, “That’s okay, I don’t have anything to do,” and motioned him into his father’s Ambassador. During their ride, the caretaker told Parent of his job, mentioning that he looked after a house in which a famous movie star lived. Garretson directed Parent up Benedict Canyon Road, left on Cielo Drive, and then left again on the cul-de-sac to the gate of 10050. Before saying goodbye, he gave Parent his telephone number, and said that the young man should call him if he was ever coming up to the canyon.27

  Late that Friday night, Parent had indeed rung Garretson, saying that he was in the area and asking if he could drop by. Garretson, who had no plans, said yes, and gave Parent instructions on how to operate the electronically-controlled front gate.28 As he walked down the dirt path in front of the main house, Parent noticed, through the open windows, Abigail Folger sitting in bed reading, and, a little further on, Sharon perched on the edge of her bed.

  He asked Garretson about the identities of the women. Garretson, who had little contact with the residents of the main house, thought that Voyteck Frykowski was Roman Polanski’s younger brother. To Parent, he described Folger as the “younger Polanski’s” girlfriend, while the other lady was Polansk
i’s wife. Parent burst out laughing. “You mean Polanski has a girlfriend and a wife?” he asked in astonishment. After a bit more explaining on Garretson’s part, Parent finally understood.29

  Parent had brought a clock radio, hoping to sell it to the caretaker. Garretson, who had been listening to the stereo, turned it off so that Steve could demonstrate his. Garretson listened, but he had no use for the device. “I don’t need any clocks, man,” he told Parent. “I got clocks all over the place here.”30

  After drinking a beer with Garretson and calling a friend, Parent decided to leave. He unplugged the clock radio, wrapping the cord round it.31 As he got up to leave, Christopher, Altobelli’s Weimaraner, began to bark. When Parent asked if anything was wrong, Garretson dismissed it, saying that the dog always barked. Garretson watched as Parent started his walk up the dirt path toward the parking area and his white Ambassador, before he himself closed the door and returned to the living room, to write letters to friends and family back in Ohio.

  It was late, just after midnight, when the 1959 Ford with its headlights turned off, took a left and climbed the steep cul-de-sac toward the high gate of 10050 Cielo Drive.

  Chapter 28

  “Now Is the Time for Helter Skelter”

  Charles Manson returned to Spahn Ranch on the morning of Friday, August 8. He quickly learned that Bobby Beausoleil had been arrested earlier that week. Manson was furious. If Beausoleil talked, the police would almost certainly come after him as an accessory in Gary Hinman’s murder. The investigation would undoubtedly lead the police straight back to Spahn Ranch. In either case, the situation looked hopeless for Charles Manson.