by Greg King
A week after the murders, an article in Newsweek strongly hinted that there were serious problems in the Polanskis’ eighteen-month-old-marriage.20 There was much speculation as to Jay Sebring’s presence that evening in his former girlfriend’s house during her husband’s absence. “The reporting about Sharon and the murders was virtually criminal,” Roman said in 1971. “Reading the papers, I could not believe my eyes. I could not believe my eyes! They blamed the victims for their own murders. I really despise the press. I didn’t always. The press made me despise it.… The victims were assassinated two times: once by the murderers, the second time by the press.”21
Two weeks after the murders, an article in Newsweek declared:
“Nearly as enchanting as the mystery was the glimpse the murders yielded into the surprising Hollywood subculture in which the cast of characters played. All week long the Hollywood gossip about the case was of drugs, mysticism and offbeat sex—and, for once, there may be more truth than fantasy in the flashy talk of the town. The theme of the melodrama was drugs. Some suspect that the group was amusing itself with some sort of black magic rites as well as drugs that night, and they mention a native Jamaican hip to voodoo who had recently been brought into Frykowski’s drug operation. Some such parlor rites might account for the hood found over Sebring’s head and the rope binding him to Miss Tate. Indeed, a group of friends speculates that the murders resulted from a ritual mock execution that got out of hand in the glare of hallucinogens.”22
A curiously consistent pattern, right up to and even through the murder trials themselves, was the mention of Roman Polanski’s sometimes bizarre and gruesome films. The implication was obvious: Polanski had sunk to such levels of depravity in his career that now the deaths of his wife and his friends not only echoed his penchant for the macabre but may have been influenced or inspired by his on-screen images of terror. Referring to Sharon, Newsweek wrote that, “In the end, she took the lead role in a murder mystery far more tragic and macabre than Polanski could ever have crafted for her on the screen.”23 It was a statement repeated by such respectable periodicals as Life, Newsweek and Time.
The latter magazine, in fact, was singularly responsible for promoting a wealth of inaccuracies. A week after the murders, Time reported: “Police said that every room in the house showed signs of a struggle.”24
The following week, an article titled “The Night of Horror” devoted much space to a grisly retelling of what they claimed to be the truth of the matter:
“There was evidence of a wild struggle with the killer or killers as Sharon and another victim, hair stylist Jay Sebring, 35, were slashed repeatedly while they fought for their lives. A large number of pistol bullets were embedded in the walls and ceiling.… Sharon’s body was found nude, not clad in bikini pants and a bra, as had first been reported. Sebring was wearing only the torn remnants of a pair of boxer shorts. One of Miss Tate’s breasts had been cut off, apparently as a result of indiscriminate slashing. She was nine months pregnant and there was an X cut on her stomach. What appeared to be the bloody handle of a paring knife was found next to her leg, the blade broken off. Sebring had been sexually mutilated, and his body also bore X marks.”
Not content to stop here, the writer went on to include some groundless speculation: “Sharon and Sebring were the prime objects of the mayhem: the deaths of the other three victims seemed almost incidental.… Frokowski’s [sic] trousers were down around his ankles.”25
On Sunday afternoon, August 17, Roman drove to 10050 Cielo Drive to look at his house. The estate was still under constant LAPD guard. With him, he took a writer and friend who worked for Life magazine, Thomas Thompson, who he had agreed could do a story. Thompson had brought a photographer. At the front gate, they were met by famous Dutch psychic Peter Hurkos, who had been sent by friends of Jay Sebring to see if he could gather any information from the scene. Roman reluctantly allowed him inside.
“This must be the world-famous orgy house,” Roman declared angrily to Thompson as they drove through the front gate and down the driveway.
On the front lawn, the blood-stained blue bedsheet with which the police had covered Abigail Folger lay in a heap.26 The blood on the walkway and the front porch had dried into a dark brown stain, but the letters “PIG” in Sharon’s blood on the front door were still visible. The living room was a mess—cushions piled end on end, drawers opened, papers sorted through, black smears from the fingerprint powder on every surface. Before the couch, Roman paused at the crimson spot where Sharon had fallen, overwhelmed.
He wandered through the house all afternoon, picking up objects now and then, fighting back tears at times, searching through the havoc, trying to make sense out of the carnage, re-enacting what he thought must have happened that night.27 The French doors in the master bedroom were still smeared with dark blood and black finger-print powder, the sheets on the bed pulled back as Sharon had left them that night. His eyes wandered from place to place: above the armoire stood the bassinet for the baby, still wrapped in plastic. He stumbled on a cache of Sharon’s publicity photographs, and collapsed in sobs. It was too much for him to take in, too much to understand. “Why, why?” he kept repeating to himself, seeking an answer which was nowhere to be found.28
Hurkos, who had consulted with the police on the Boston Strangler case, immediately held a news conference and declared that he had received vibrations at the house and knew the identity of the killers. “Three men killed Sharon Tate and the other four,” he said, “and I know who they are. I have identified the killers to the police and told them that these men must be stopped soon. Otherwise they will kill again.” Hurkos declared that the killers, “although friends of Sharon,” had become “frenzied, homicidal maniacs” through use of LSD. “The killers were not high on marijuana. They were high on LSD, which is the most unpredictable drug in the world.”29
Truman Capote went on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and announced that only one person had killed the Cielo victims. “The killer was in the Tate house earlier,” he declared, “and something happened to trigger a kind of instant paranoia. So this man leaves the house, and he goes back. He comes back, maybe an hour later, with a gun and a knife.” Capote said he believed the murders were triggered by a real or imagined insult to the killer. “It’s like these men you read about in the papers who are in a bar and having a drink and somebody insults them. They go out and get a gun and shoot everybody in the place. It was that kind of instant paranoia. By the time the killer came back, the house was quiet. Sharon Tate and the other girl had gone to bed. The house was rather dark and the two men, Sebring and Frykowski, were having a drink. The killer cuts the phone lines, then he rings the bell and walks inside with a gun in his hand. He forces the men to go and wake up the two girls and they are brought down into the room. Now the murderer ties Sharon Tate and Jay Sebring together with a rope he brought.” According to Capote, Parent was the last to die.30
Any number of other alleged experts took to the airwaves, giving their versions of events at 10050 Cielo Drive. Louise Huebner, the “officially appointed witch” of Los Angeles County, told reporters: “In my opinion, they were having a sadistic-masochistic orgy. They were innocent victims of someone else’s sadistic-masochistic whims. I believe they were having an orgy that got out of hand.”31 Leader of the Church of Satan Anton LaVey declared: “They were all the objects of a lust murder. The penetration knife wounds duplicate the sex act.” And Jim Slaten, an astrologer, told the media: “My friend and I … said that there would be some kind of bloody murder in Hollywood because of the position of the planet Mars. Sharon Tate was a member of a devil-worship black magic cult, but she was thrown out because she was getting too involved with animal sacrifice and they were afraid that she was going to draw too much attention to them.”32
The day after his thirty-sixth birthday, August 19, Roman held a news conference at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. He was still visibly shaken, but his anger at what was being reported about
his late wife drove him to address the “multitude of slanders” in the press. To Polanski, the real villans were the media, “who for a selfish reason write horrible things about my wife. All of you know how beautiful she was and very often I read and heard statements that she was one of the most, if not the most, beautiful woman of the world, but only a few of you know how good she was. She was vulnerable.” He added that there had been no problems in their marriage. “The last few years I spent with her were the only time of true happiness in my life.…” Referring to the rumors of the wild sexual escapades at 10050 Cielo Drive, he declared, “The house is now open, the police have released it, and you can now go and see the orgy place. You will see innumerable books on natural birth, which she was planning, and I was hurrying home because I had to go to some kind of school with her, I never understood what it was, but apparently I had to be present at this lesson or whatever it was, but I was going along with whatever she said.” The bitterness in his voice barely concealed the tears he choked back throughout the interview.33
Although Roman found it an emotional ordeal, he had to deal with the aftermath of Sharon’s death. She had no will, and her estate went into probate. According to the papers filed, Sharon, at the time of her death, had been worth $45,400; in the probate papers, this was broken down as $37,200 in cash; $5,700 in automobiles; and $500 in personal property—clothes and jewelry. Her annual income was estimated at $2,000 if she did no further film work.34
Roman, as next of kin, had to file claims in a Los Angeles court. William Tennant constantly telephoned him from 10050 Cielo Drive, as he and others went through the Polanskis’ belongings there, but, no matter what the object was—from Sharon’s clothing to their furniture—Roman would always sadly reply, “Give it away. I don’t want it. I wish I had spent more. I wish there had been more dresses,” before collapsing in sobs.35 For probate purposes, Roman had to file a waiver with the Court. On 1 February, 1970, he signed a letter addressed to Sharon’s father: “Dear Paul … I have decided not to accept any benefits derived from the estate of Sharon and I direct them.… to your family.” Paul Tate was duly appointed Executor of his daughter’s estate.36 Roman did not even want his own cars: he gave away the Silver Rolls Royce which had been his birthday present to Sharon, and, to his father-in-law Paul Tate, he sent his own red Ferrari. He wanted nothing to remind him of the past.
With Roman’s cooperation and approval, but without the blessing of the LAPD investigators, several of his friends, including Victor Lownes, Peter Sellers and Warren Beatty, announced that they had formed a reward fund for information leading to the arrest and conviction of any of those responsible for Sharon’s death:
“Reward
“$25,000
“Roman Polanski and friends of the Polanski family offer to pay a $25,000 reward to the person or persons who furnish information leading to the arrest and conviction of the murderer or murderers of Sharon Tate, her unborn child, and the other four victims …”37
Chapter 33
The Investigation
The police investigation into Sharon’s murder was headed by Lieutenant Robert Helder, and was assisted by five sergeants: Michael McGann; J. Buckles; E. Henderson; D. Varney and Danny Galindo. These men had the unenviable task of sorting through the flotsam which had once formed the lives of the victims, trying to find both a motive and a suspect.
The most obvious suspect, caretaker William Garretson, was given a lie-detector test on the Sunday afternoon following the murders. He was shown to be answering truthfully as to any involvement in the crimes, and apparently he knew nothing as to their causes. Questioned at length about the events of that Friday night, Garretson declared:
Well, I just—I just stayed inside the house and everything; and I was kind of scared that night. I don’t know why, you know, I was kind of scared, and I stayed in the house and everything, and I started to write letters, you know.… And I—I tried to call—I wanted to know what time it was because, you know, I had quite—you know, Christopher had barked that night and everything else, and I wanted to know what time it was. And just before, you know, it got daylight, I called the time and then, you know, I found out the phone was dead, and then I went to the room and got another phone, and I plugged it into the wall, and then, you know, to—and there was nothing, and so then I really got kind of worried then, you know, what happened and wasn’t giving it too much thought. It wasn’t daylight yet because, you know, it was still dark. But it was just beginning to get daylight. And I got kind of, you know, I really got kind of scared then, and then I stayed up until it did get daylight; and when it did get daylight, then I went to sleep and the next thing I knew I woke up and there was an officer pointing a gun at me.1
Garretson’s story that he had remained in the guest house all night, writing letters, however, is open to doubt. In jail, Patricia Krenwinkle declared that, on Watson’s instructions, she had gone to the guest house and found no one there. As they chased both Voyteck Frykowski and Abigail Folger across the front lawn of 10050 Cielo Drive, the killers could not have helped but noticed the lights burning in the little house just a hundred feet away. It was not hidden at all. Conversely, it is nearly impossible that Garretson, sitting in the living room with a stereo whose volume was set between 4 and 5—as he testified—would not have heard the screams and gunshots coming from the lawn just outside his windows.
“How could he have not heard that commotion,” Doris Tate later questioned, “how could he have been in that house?”2 The First Homicide Report, in fact, stated: “In the opinion of the investigating officers and by scientific research … 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.”3
Contrary to this, Prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi writes: “Using a general level sound meter and a .22 caliber revolver, and duplicating as closely as possible the conditions that existed on the night of the murders, Wolfer [an LAPD acoustics expert] and an assistant proved (1) that if Garretson was inside the guest house as he claimed, he couldn’t possibly have heard the shots that killed Steven Parent; and (2) that with the stereo on, with the volume at either 4 or 5, he couldn’t have heard either screams or gunshots coming from in front of or inside the main residence.”4
Under intense questioning, Garretson finally admitted that, at some point during the night, he had looked at the door to the guest house and saw that the handle had been turned.5 He went no further, and does not seem to have been questioned on the point. In the intervening years, Garretson has altered his version of events that night a number of times. In 1997, he told author Bill Nelson: “I did hear a scream. I walked down the hall and into the closet. It had a window facing the pool area and there was a curtain over the window. All the windows in the house were closed that night and the doors were locked. I had lights on everywhere. The whole house was lit up. As I stood there at the window I said to myself, ‘What the fuck is this? What the fuck is going on?’ Something impressed me not to open those curtains. I don’t know why, Then I walked down towards the living room because the three dogs were at the front door barking loudly. I stopped at the bathroom door. I thought, This doesn’t make sense. I heard footsteps running the other way. Something impressed me again not to move. They could not see me because I was in the hall and there was no window right there. When I saw the front door I saw the handle. Someone had moved it and it was turned.”6
In 1999, in his first television interview, he declared that he had not only heard the four shots which killed Steven Parent, but that he had looked out of the guest house window facing the main residence and saw Patricia Krenwinkel chasing Abigail Folger across the side lawn. According to Garretson, he ducked back down, out of sight, but listened as he heard screams followed by a woman saying, “Stop! Stop! I’m already dea
d!” He froze, and within a few minutes saw that the handle to the front door had been turned. He then heard footsteps running in the opposite direction, back toward the main house.7
“The problem with Garretson,” says Prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi, “is that, as a lawyer, you have to look at what he first told the police. I spent a number of hours with him, questioning him at length about what he had seen and heard that night. At that time, he never deviated from the story that he was listening to the stereo. As a prosecutor, you always want to go with the first statement of a witness, which is usually the most accurate and unhindered by time and enhancement. It is possible that he heard something, but highly unlikely, and I would still think his 1969 version of events is most likely to be the truth.”8
Garretson has said that he tried to use the telephone and found it dead. He later admitted to the police that he may have gone out onto the rear lawn, on the far side of the guesthouse. It is possible that he remained there for some time, fearing for his life. Perhaps he did try to leave when enough time had passed and the house was quiet, only to do so at the same time Manson and his friend were coming to or were in the main house. He may have thought the killers were still on the premises, and waited until morning, falling asleep, only to be woken by the barking of the dogs at the approach of the police. As Vincent Bugliosi points out, however, it is highly suspicious that Garretson has continued to alter and enhance his version of events with the passage of time. In the end, we are left with no definitive account of Garretson’s experiences. Despite the contradictory stories, Garretson apparently told the truth to the police when he said he had no part in the murders, and the following day they released him from custody. He quickly returned to his native Ohio.