Sharon Tate: A Life

by Ed Sanders

  In the early days of August, Sharon was spotted in local department stores purchasing baby supplies, books on child care, and supplies for the nursery, which was being outfitted in the north wing of the house. She was utterly delighted about the impending birth of the baby, and she was keeping in shape, watching her diet, preparing for the resumption of her film career.

  Meanwhile, living at Falcon’s Lair, a mansion on Angelo Drive (on a property contiguous to 10050 Cielo Drive), was ultrawealthy and eccentric heiress Doris Duke. According to a book called Too Rich—The Family Secrets of Doris Duke, “Doris (Duke) would take the young actress (Sharon Tate) on expensive shopping trips on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills where she would spend thousands of dollars buying mother-and-daughter designer ensembles.”

  Joanna Pettet also gave Sharon some maternity attire, as she told the author in a 2010 interview: “I gave off all my maternity clothes to Sharon, because I had some really sweet things from London. Another friend of mine, Sheilah Wells, and I bought her an old-fashioned wicker crib for the baby.” Wells lived next door to Pettet and her husband on Woodrow Wilson Drive.

  An Italian journalist named Enrico di Pompeo asked Tate in a late July interview (for the European release of The Thirteen Chairs) if she believed in fate, to which she replied, “Certainly. My whole life has been decided by fate. I think something more powerful than we are decides our fates for us. I know one thing—I’ve never planned anything that ever happened to me.”

  During those days Jay Sebring visited with Sharon often, whenever he wasn’t overseeing his far-flung business interests. Paul Newman, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, said that Sebring’s method prevented him from losing his hair. Actor George Peppard allegedly spent $2,500 to fly Sebring to a movie location to trim his locks. Frank Sinatra used to fly Sebring to Las Vegas to cut his hair. “He was a legendary name in hair styling,” commented his friend, public relations executive Art Blum.

  The corporate offices for Sebring International were located above the hair shop at 725 North Fairfax in Hollywood. In partnership with his friend Art Blum, Sebring opened another shop in the summer of 1969 in San Francisco at 629 Commercial Street. Shortly afterward Sebring rented a houseboat in Sausalito, California, just north of San Francisco. Throughout the summer, he frequently flew north to check on his new enterprises. On several occasions he visited Colonel Tate and family at Fort Barry. Mr. and Mrs. Tate would stay at Sebring’s houseboat in Sausalito when they came to San Francisco. (Fort Barry lies in the coastal hills of Marin County. It was the home of very powerful Nike-Hercules missiles, capable of carrying nuclear warheads in order to destroy formations of approaching enemy planes. The Nike-Hercules missile batteries at Fort Barry joined more than three hundred identical missile batteries that once guarded US cities and military installations. Eleven missile sites ringed San Francisco Bay during those years. As we have noted, it is believed that Colonel Paul Tate, as an intelligence officer, was involved in protecting these missile facilities.)

  Toward the end of July or maybe August 1, Jay Sebring held an afternoon publicity party at his hair shop in San Francisco that was attended by Paul Newman, Abigail Folger, and many others. After that, during early August, Jay was back in Los Angeles spending much time with Sharon Tate.

  He still owned, and possibly kept on his person, Sharon’s high school class ring, which she had given him back in 1965. Twenty years later, in early 1989, Doris Tate told the author that Sebring’s parents, who lived in Michigan, had recently sent her the ring.

  The Question of The Story of O

  Writing about what Sharon might do with her “troubled” marriage with Polanski, one biography of her states: “Sharon apparently decided to wait until the baby was born, perhaps to see if fatherhood altered her husband’s extra-marital activities. If there was no change, she would institute divorce proceedings” and begin a new path with her life.

  Weighing against the theme that Sharon was prepared for a total focus on motherhood is the assertion that she was considering starring in a movie adaptation of the novel The Story of O. “Sharon was excited about plans to star for Just Jaecklin for his next project, The Story of O, dealing with erotic sex and sadism. An announcement from Allied Artists was planned after the birth of her baby.” So writes Kirk Crivello in his 1988 book, Fallen Angels: The Glamorous Lives and Tragic Deaths of Hollywood’s Doomed Beauties.

  The Story of O is about a beauteous French fashion photographer, O, who is willingly blindfolded, whipped, branded, chained, and, wearing a mask, conditioned to be available for all kinds of intercourse. O gives permission in advance to those who desire her. O undergoes further training at a mansion dwelled in by women, where at novel’s close, O appears enslaved, nude except for a bird-like mask, in front of a group of guests. Maybe it was enticing to Ms. Tate, who had long complained of being an object of physical attraction, and not admired for herself.

  Founded in the 1940s, Allied Artists Picture Corporation, as it became known in the 1950s, was an established producer of fairly high-budget films, but then fell for a few years. Allied Artists ceased production in 1966 and became a distributor of foreign films, but restarted production with the 1972 release of Cabaret and followed it the next year with Papillon. Allied Artists in 1975 wound up distributing the French import film version of The Story of O.

  I asked Sheilah Wells if she had heard that Sharon was thinking of appearing, after she gave birth, in a film version of The Story of O. “No,” Wells replied. “At that point, she was being offered a lot of different things, or at least had mentioned them.”

  “I think,” Sheilah Wells added, “that Sharon was really on the brink. And I think that if she had had one more comedy role, I think that would have been an amazing thing for her career, because she was very funny.”

  Do you know anything about Sharon’s putative intention to do The Story of O? I asked Sharmagne Leland-St. John. “No,” she answered, “But it was the hot book around at the time with our circle. Richard (Sylbert) gave it to me to read in ’68. I still have it here by the bed. In a way it mirrored her life. Jay liked to tie his lovers up and pretend to whip them. He liked to blindfold them. He liked to do all sorts of dominating things to make you sort of prove your love.”

  Quicksand.

  Chapter 9

  A Cult at the Spahn Ranch Kills

  Out on the western edge of the San Fernando Valley was the Spahn Ranch, which was the site for Western-themed TV and low-budget films. People also could rent horses for rides along nearby trails. The ranch, located at 12000 Santa Susanna Pass Road, had once belonged to silent movie actor William S. Hart, but a man named George Spahn had purchased it in 1948. Over the years, George Spahn became blind. He had a longtime partner named Ruby Pearl who managed the ranch. Ruby was a former animal trainer and dancer and was in her late forties during the Manson era when she tended to ranch business, attired in a cowboy hat and riding clothes. She had an up and down relationship with the Family. Ruby was constantly reporting to blind George what Manson’s group was doing, except at night when she went home.

  The Family desperately sought to keep on George’s good side, so Manson took care that a nubile female was on hand to take care of the blind Mr. Spahn, who was very fond of friendly physical communication with the young women. Lynnette Fromme, who seven years later would try to assassinate President Gerald Ford, was responsible for much of the taking care of George Spahn. Family member Paul Watkins recalled that Fromme had picked up the name Squeaky from the “eeks” she made when George Spahn ran his hand up her leg and pinch/caressed the inside of her thigh. During the murder trial of 1970, a defense attorney told me that Squeaky claimed she had performed fellatio on Mr. Spahn.

  The Spahn Ranch was located about halfway between the wilderness and the city; it was just a thirty-five-minute ride to Sharon Tate’s house in Benedict Canyon, but also it was a fairly quick dune-buggy ride up Devil Canyon into the Santa Susanna Mountains.

  The ranch was
situated just in front of a creek that cuts down from the northwest and oozes and trickles down along Santa Susanna Pass Road, which is behind the ranch. There are waterfalls in the creek, which were the bathing spas of Helter Skelter. The Spahn Ranch is backed up by bouldery hills that climb sharply north and south. It is grade B Western movie turf from the 1950s. The ghosts of Tim Holt and the Durango Kid yodel in the mountain crags.

  The Western set, where movies were made, was located just off Santa Susanna Pass Road. It was a ramshackle collection of buildings in a straight row. A boardwalk extended the length of the set. Sleazy awnings held up by crooked posts ran the length of the mockup cowboy main street. There was a mockup restaurant called the Rock City Café; a jailhouse with a wooden-barred cell; the Longhorn Saloon, complete with mirrors and room-length bar and juke box; a carriagehouse full of old carriages; an undertaking parlor; and several other buildings, including George Spahn’s small house, which lay perpendicular to the right of the movie set. All these were built in the manner of a Kansas town of early America. A dirt driveway connected the movie set with the reality of Santa Susanna Pass Road. Painted movie props often were strewn about, leaning against the haystack or corral.

  Spahn Ranch, “Longhorn Saloon,” and “Rock City Café,” August 1969

  Aerial photo of Spahn Ranch, with Santa Susanna Pass Road on left

  The ranch was a bit of a fantasy land, though the era of the formula Western was over, and George and Ruby needed horse rentals to keep it afloat. On holiday weekends the ranch sometimes earned up to $1,000. In addition, the coffers were enhanced by an occasional TV commercial (one or more of the famous Marlboro Man ads reportedly was filmed there), plus an occasional beaver, sci-fi, or monster movie.

  Salary for the ranch hands was a place to sleep, some food, and a pack of cigarettes a day. A few of the ranch hands, such as the one known as Randy Starr, worked as movie stunt men. Starr’s stunts involved horse falls and neck drags, and he considered himself a high-quality performer. Other hands worked in rodeos. One hand, Shorty Shea, whom the Family would later murder, was an actor who avidly pursued a career in the movies in addition to doing stunt work. The stunt men utilized the ranch as a business address.

  The Death of Gary Hinman

  Thirty-two-year-old Gary Hinman, who lived in Topanga Canyon, was close to getting his PhD in sociology from UCLA. For several years Hinman had befriended the Manson Family. His house was known in Topanga Canyon as a place where people could crash for a night or two. For the previous year, Gary had been devoted to Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism, a sect with Los Angeles headquarters located on the Coast Highway by the beach in Santa Monica.

  Sheriff’s detectives told me that Hinman made quantities of synthetic mescaline at his house on Old Topanga Canyon Road. A young couple, who had lived with Gary up to several days before his death, partnered with him in the manufacture of the mescaline. The husband told me in an interview, “We were making mescaline. It was a really long, long process but the advantage was that it was really cheap. You bought things and no one would ever connect the things you bought with what you were going to do. You could order zillions of them from the chemical supply houses and they’d never get hip, not unless somebody really did some thinking. Gary had a degree in chemistry.”

  Eric, the mescaline partner, visited Hinman’s house about four days before Gary was murdered. He told me later that when he entered the small hillside house he found Hinman hassling on the phone with Manson: “When I came into the house they were arguing. Like, Gary was really into Nichiren Shoshu and the concept of leadership and the concept that people needed to be directed, which was something that Charlie was very opposed to, and so they were in a heated discussion about that and then it was like there was a response: it was pretty together and I talked to Gary afterwards to verify what Charlie said—He said, you know, like it’s your last chance, Gary. And Gary responded to that: ‘I’m sorry, Charlie. I’m not going to sell all my things and come and follow you.’ Those were his exact words.

  “And so Charlie said, in response to that, that he couldn’t be responsible then for the karma that Gary was going to incur. He then reiterated that it was his last chance. And Gary said, ‘I’ll decide . . . I’ll take care of my own karma.’”

  On July 24, Manson sent disciple Ella Bailey, aka Ella Sinder, formerly a close friend of Hinman, from the Spahn Ranch to Hinman’s house to obtain Hinman’s money and then to kill him. Although Ella was a longtime Manson devotee, she was not willing to kill for him. Another Family associate named Bill Vance loved Ella and tried to argue with Charlie, but Charlie was very angry. The result was that Ella and Bill split for Texas. The Mansonites talked among themselves how they were going to kill Bill and Ella if the two should dare to return.

  Formed in the year of Flowers, 1967, now everything, just two years later, was murder. Murder and control. Around this time, another Manson disciple, Cathy Gillies Myers, went off by herself without telling anyone. Upon return, Tex Watson threatened her. “Don’t you ever leave here without telling someone where you’re going, next time I’ll kill you, your life means nothing to me.”

  The next day, July 25, pregnant Kitty Lutesinger asked her boyfriend, Robert Beausoleil, if she could depart. She was very tired of the constant hassles, the raids, and the general atmosphere of apocalypse and impending race war. So Bobby said that he would ask Charlie for her, and his reply was that she absolutely could not leave the ranch.

  Because Charlie felt that Kitty looked too much like his mother, also a thin, short redhead, he and Kitty never got along. Manson accused her of trying to cajole Bobby into leaving the Family, threatening to torture and kill her. That afternoon Manson paced up and down the Spahn Ranch boardwalk, jabbing his sword at bales of hay, very angry.

  Also that afternoon, Bobby rode with Charlie in his “command” dune buggy up Devil Canyon. They looked at an abandoned mine, whereupon Manson noted that it would be a good place to hide a body. Manson was well armed; his magic sword was sheathed in a metal tube on the steering column, a pistol was in a holster between Charlie’s legs, and a knife was strapped to his ankle.

  Several weeks previous, M had ordered all female followers to shear their hair, leaving only a thin dangle of hair down their backs. Apparently the long hair swatches from the girls were tied together and were attached to his dune-buggy roll bar. There was an ocelot fur canopy stretched across the buggy’s rear deck by the machine-gun mounts. Manson shifted in his seat toward Beausoleil and asked if Bobby was thinking of leaving. Bob said yes, and Charlie replied, “Maybe I ought to slit your motherfuckin’ throat.”

  Beausoleil was a rival to Manson. He composed his own songs, and recorded them. He had attracted his own female followers. He was well-known in certain parts of the American counterculture for his relationship with the filmmaker Kenneth Anger. Back in 1967, Beausoleil had dwelled with Anger in an old house in San Francisco called the Russian Embassy, where Anger introduced him to the universe of magic, not to mention the cruelty-tinged world of Aleister Crowley. Beausoleil has said that at that time he was on an all-meat diet and believed himself to be the devil. Anger was involved in making an occult movie called Lucifer Rising, in which Beausoleil played the role of Lucifer. Beausoleil was also the lead guitarist and sitarist for The Magick Power-house of Oz, an eleven-piece rock ensemble formed by Anger to perform the music for Lucifer Rising.

  In 1967, around the time that Beausoleil met Manson, The Magick Powerhouse of Oz played at a gathering at the Straight Theater on Haight Street to celebrate the so-called “Equinox of the Gods.” The film Lucifer Rising was supposed to be nearly completed so the night was one of celebration. Anger filmed the event that night but Beausoleil remembered later that Mr. Anger flipped out during the proceedings and smashed a priceless caduceus-headed cane that had once belonged the king of sex-magic himself, Aleister Crowley.

  Things went awry between Beausoleil and his mentor Kenneth Anger shortly after the Equinox of the Gods gat
hering at the Straight Theater. Beausoleil seems to have ripped off Anger’s car, some camera equipment and, more importantly, some of the footage of Lucifer Rising. Then he split. When he discovered that Beausoleil had ripped him off, Anger thereupon fashioned a locket, the face of which bore the likeness of Bob Beausoleil. The obverse contained the likeness of a toad, with the inscription “Bob Beausoleil—who was turned into a toad by Kenneth Anger.”

  Beausoleil moved down to Topanga Canyon in the fall of 1967 following his break with Anger, where he became friends with Gary Hinman. When he met Manson, Beausoleil and a girlfriend were living at Hinman’s small hillside house on Old Topanga Canyon Road.

  In July of 1969, after Manson threatened Beausoleil against trying to leave, Manson quickly changed the subject to Hinman and asked Bobby if he would be willing to go over to Gary’s house and try to get some money out of him.

  Beausoleil later testified that the main reason for asking Hinman for money was to assist the Family to move to the desert. “I was supposed to tell Gary about the idea of making the desert a place for a lot of people. Gary is the type of person who would be interested in something like that, making a place for people where they could express themselves in music.”

  M disciple Linda Kasabian recounted that one early evening she was standing by the ranch boardwalk while Bobby and Charlie were chatting in the bunkhouse. Sadie Glutz (Susan Atkins) and Mary Brunner were standing obediently outside the bunkhouse, waiting for Bobby to come out so that they could go someplace. Sadie told Linda Kasabian that they were off to get some money, plus that she and Mary had been selected for the chore in order to work out a “personality conflict.”

  Manson later admitted several times that the Hinman murder was about a botched dope deal. Sixteen years later, in his autobiography, he told what may possibly be the truth. He reaffirmed that Hinman was making mescaline, slowly, in his home lab. “For several weeks,” he states, “Bobby had been moving Gary’s stuff off on a group of bikers, without any problems. But one morning three of the bikers came riding into the ranch and wanted to see Bobby. The bikers said the latest batch of stuff he had sold them was bad, laced with poison. Some of their own group had gotten deathly ill and some of the people they sold to were also sick. They wanted their money back.”