The Road To Heaven

 Back when I was researching something related to all this, I stole this image from Cielodrive. 

The photograph immediately intrigued me. The intrigue had nothing to do with that guy on the ladder reaching for the phone wires and wearing a short sleaved white business shirt like my father used to wear in the sixties. It also wasn’t because of the wall where Atkins, Krenwinkel and probably Kasabian hid while Watson murdered Steven Parent. It is behind the uniformed officer. It wasn’t the really nice striped pants on the guy pointing at the camera or even the question why one guy showed up in a tee shirt. It wasn’t the cat, either. It was the wagon in the junk pile. Why was there a wagon at Cielo Drive? 

A Bit About JF Watkins

 

We all know Michele Morgan (Simone Renée Roussel) built the house. Well, it is actually more accurate to say she had it built and then bought it but that’s a technicality. She bought the house from “M.M. Landon”. That would be Minnie M. Landon. Minnie had been married to Arthur Landon who was a contractor. He bought the lot several years before. He passed away sometime in the 1930s. They had a daughter named Opal who married a guy named John F. Watkins. He’s the guy who built the house.

 

Far from being a small-time operator, the J. F. Wadkins Company appears repeatedly in real estate advertisements in the LA Times in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s. Several have him advertising multi-home subdivisions. In fact, in 1942 he got in trouble for violating the regulations that limited production at the start of World War II by starting a 36-home subdivision without authorization. 

Wadkins passed away in 1943 after a horseback riding accident. Ed Sanders might add an oo-ee-oo, here: horses…Wadkins…Spahn Ranch. I was not able to find the location where Wadkins was injured. It obviously was not at Spahn Ranch.

 

 

The Michele Morgan Ghost Story

I don’t think Michele Morgan actually sold the home because of the creepy factor as she claimed in her autobiography. That story can be found, here. 

 

https://www.mansonblog.com/2013/08/jeepers-original-cielo-owner-was-scared.html

 

Later in her autobiography, she seems to contradict her own claim. She says that she sold 10050 Cielo Drive because her new husband, William Marshall, refused to live in a home owned by his wife. Obviously, Mr. Marshall was a modern, open minded and progressive male. Ok, he wasn't. However, apparently, he wasn’t above using the money from the sale of his wife's home to buy a home in his name. A home he was awarded in their divorce.

 

Bill Marshall never lived at Cielo Drive. However, Michele Morgan’s good friend, Madeleine LeBeau, was her roommate at Cielo for a time before Michele married. You might recognize her. She had a small role in the film, Casablanca. 

 

Morgan was supposed to get the role of Ilsa Lund in Casablanca, but RKO, her studio, wouldn't release her for the amount of money Warner Bros. was offering and Ingrid Bergman was cast instead. That is a bit of a shame because Morgan’s flight from occupied France is straight out of the movie. She escaped occupied France (Normandy) and first crossed Vichy France to Spain. She crossed Spain and left Europe from Lisbon, Portugal. 

 

Rudolfh Altobelli bought the house in 1963. There are several deeds changing ownership in the 1950's. But the various deeds all involve a guy named Louis Clyde Griffith (“LC”). Griffith was a theater tycoon in Oklahoma in the 1930’s and 1940’s and from what I could tell he was a pioneer of drive-in movie theaters. Everyone on the deeds from 1949 to 1963 (and there are several) are either business associates of Griffith, his attorney, or his stepson. I believe the transfers are related to a debilitating stroke he suffered in 1946 which led to him relocating to LA in 1949. Eventually the house landed with LC and LC Griffith sold it to Altobelli. The deed is dated October 17, 1963.

 

Despite the various deeds LC Griffith lived in the home throughout the 1950s. The available Los Angeles city directories consistently show LC Griffith as the occupant of Cielo Drive during this time period. The 1950 census places him at Cielo Drive with a nurse. 

______

The Tenants

Here, in order, is everyone I could confirm rented Cielo Drive or the guest house after Altobelli purchased the home until Terry Melcher and Mark Lindsay. 

 

Henry Fonda rented the guest house for a couple of months in 1964.

______

 

"One of the houses I sublet and lived in with Shirlee for a couple of months was on Benedict Canyon in Bel Air," Fonda says. "Does that street name ring a bell? Remember the place where Sharon Tate and her friends were massacred? Remember the guest house? That's where we stayed during the summer of sixty-four. It was a pleasant place. I did a lot of painting there. I had to drive in and park in the area where those violent people parked that night. I'd walk down the same path below the main house to the guest house. That's where the young guy was murdered when he made an exit at the wrong time.”

"My God, timing is everything, even outside the theater."

 

My Life by Henry Fonda and Howard Teichmann, Book Club Assoc., page 295, 1982.

______

 

For two years after Henry Fonda George Chakiris rented first the guest house and then the main house. 

 

"By now [1964]I was renting a charming guest house at the end of a pretty little tree-lined cul-de-sac off of Benedict Canyon in Beverly Hills. The guest house and the main house, which I eventually moved into, were owned by a talent manager named Rudi Altobelli. One of his clients, Henry Fonda, had preceded me in the guest house. Henry Fonda was a talented artist, and a painting he’d been working on was still there on an easel.

******

 

I didn’t want to leave Paris. No one ever wants to leave Paris. But I had some packing and moving to take care of back in L.A. The lease was up on the Rudi Altobelli house I was renting off of Benedict Canyon. I’d lived in the two-thousand-square-foot guest house for a year, and then in the thirty-two-hundred-square-foot main house for another year. I’d loved it there. It was quiet and just secluded enough, very French Country, on three acres, with a pool, lots of pine and cherry trees, and a private driveway. I knew I’d miss it, but it was way more space than I needed, and I had too much traveling ahead to justify staying there anyway. Sadly, I’d see that house again, a few years later, on the news. So would the rest of the world.

******

 

Some time after the horror on Cielo Drive, I mustered up the courage to finally visit Rudi Altobelli, who’d cleaned up the house and the grounds and moved back in with a couple of guard dogs. It was eerie and uncomfortable. I didn’t stay long, and I never went back again. I’ve been told that Rudi finally sold the property, the structures there were demolished and replaced by a 12,000-square-foot mansion, and the street address has been changed to discourage the nonstop stream of trespassers, tour buses, and curiosity seekers. Some part of me likes knowing that nothing that was there in August of 1969 is there anymore, not even a single brick or stick of wood or blade of grass.

******

 

I also became socially acquainted with the extraordinary film actress Michèle Morgan. She has too many acting credentials to even try to list them here, including a Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival, and she was utterly charming. One night Michèle told the story of how she moved to Hollywood during World War II. She designed a French Country-style home to be built there, fairly private and only a short distance away from the heart of Beverly Hills where most other movie stars were living. But in time she was frightened to live there because she kept hearing what she described as “sinister noises,” and she eventually sold the property. 

 

The house Michèle Morgan built, the house full of “sinister noises” that frightened her, was 10050 Cielo Drive, my former residence and, of course, the house where the murders occurred. What are the odds that I would just happen to become acquainted with her, through a chance encounter with a Greek singer at an Athens I?"

 

Chakiris, George. My West Side Story (p. 118, 133, 149 and 151). Lyons Press. Kindle Edition.

______

 

I believe Samantha Eggar was next. That’s her on the cover of the April 2, 1966, edition of Hola magazine near the pool.  Here’s a couple more blurry images from that magazine. 

 

By the way, that’s Samantha Eggar in the top right photo, not Candice Bergen as most online sources claim. 

This is Candice Bergen and the source claims that it was taken at Cielo Drive.

 

I left out Cary Grant. I don’t think he ever lived at Cielo Drive. The source of the ‘Cary Grant had a bad acid trip while renting Cielo Drive’ story, as far as I can tell, originates from this gossip column I pulled from the Miami Herald (September 1, 1969). It cites Dyan Cannon as the source. 

I have five Cary Grant biographies. I am kind of a fan. Now you listen to me, I’m an advertising man, not a red herring. I’ve got a job, a secretary, a mother, two ex-wives and several bartenders that depend upon me, and I don’t intend to disappoint them all by getting myself “slightly” killed.

One of the biographies places Grant at Cielo Drive in 1940. That, of course, is not possible. The rest do not mention Cielo Drive. They mention the murders either in connection with Grant hiring a full time bodyguard for his daughter after the murders or to mention Grant being on Manson’s Hollywood Hit List.  

 

Dyan Cannon says this. Again, no mention of Cielo Drive.

"And so, Cary left for Tokyo, and I was left with the task of finding us a house to live in as fast as possible. I spent weeks looking at houses with Cary’s real estate agent. I airmailed photos to Tokyo for Cary to see. We wound up renting a home off Benedict Canyon recently vacated by the Beatles."

 

Cannon, Dyan. Dear Cary (pp. 225-226). It Books. Kindle Edition.

______

 

The Beatles House is located at 2850 Benedict Canyon. When it is listed for sale the Beatles and Grant are usually mentioned. The Beatles rented the house in August 1965. George Chakiris was renting Cielo Drive during that time-frame. 

The Newlywed Murder-Suicide 

The Melcher-Lindsay period gives us the murder-suicide myth. I am sure everyone has read this. 

______

 

"Rudy said that one of the first couples to occupy the house had been newlyweds, and on their wedding night the bride somehow learned that the groom had cheated on her in the recent past. Supposedly after the marriage was consummated and he was asleep, the new lady of the house took a large knife from the kitchen and stabbed him to death in bed. She then put a bullet in her brain using the small "lady's pistol" that he had given her for protection as one of her wedding gifts.

 

Rudy told us the whole affair had been hushed up and was never talked about because it would reflect negatively on the real estate value. He said that although the femme fatale's spirit still lingered, she probably wouldn't bother two guys -- although he warned that she didn't seem to tolerate beautiful women very well. "As long as you don't let your girlfriends stay over too long, you should be okay," he warned. And then he went back to his residence, leaving us to ponder."

 

https://www.mansonblog.com/2020/10/a-little-something-for-halloween.html

 

______

 

It never happened. No newlyweds ever lived in the home and there were only three owners prior to Altobelli. All three lived in the house and/or the guesthouse the whole time they owned the home. 

The Wagon

I am sure most of you know most of the above information. This post is about that wagon but if I had not added the other stuff the post would be really short which would be out of keeping with my post history. 

And that brings us back to Doctor Hartley Dewey and his wife, Louise. Hartley was this guy’s cousin. 

 

The Deweys bought the house from Michele Morgan in June 1943. They had three sons all of whom served in World War II. One, a bomber pilot over Europe, was missing in action for several months. 

The Deweys came to LA from Yosemite National Park. 

"Doctor Hartley G. Dewey opened the new W. B. Lewis Memorial Hospital during Christmas week 1929. The services to Yosemite rendered in this fine hospital were much needed as the increase in visitors, as well as permanent and seasonal employees, had doubled during the past decade. Dr. Dewey needed additional help so another doctor and more nurses were added to the staff. A permanent Dentist Office was also established for full time work, with Doctor Raleigh Davies in charge.

Doctor Avery Sturm joined Doctor Dewey at the Lewis Memorial Hospital in 1935. This team practiced until 1942 when Doctor Sturm entered Military Service during World War 2. Doctor Dewey’s contract was up in April 1943, so he, too, left the Park."

https://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/guardians_of_the_yosemite/hospital.html

After they purchased Cielo Drive, the Deweys converted the barbeque pavilion into the guest house. They added a dressing room for the pool off the back of the house and redecorated the home. 

Their friend, Walt Disney, hand rendered images of Mickey Mouse on the walls of the bar. I don’t know if the drawings were still there in 1969. I couldn't find anything about them after the Deweys. I find that sort of surreal if they were there in August 1969.

 

The Deweys make multiple appearances on the society pages of the LA Times in the 1940s. I believe Louise was good friends with Lucille Lambert who wrote the column Confidentially. Here is an example. 

 

Ms. Lambert even wrote an article about the remodel for the Times. 

 

Lillian Gish rented the main house from the Deweys in 1945. 

She later sued the Deweys for over $11,000 for violating the wartime rent restrictions. She won. 

 

The Deweys moved to Carmel in 1949 and sold the house to Henry Griffing. Griffing worked for LC Griffith at the time. Later he attempted to launch what we would now call cable (pay) TV. In theory you could drop coins in a box on the TV and watch movies that had recently been in the theater. It didn’t catch on. Griffing died in a plane crash in 1960. 

I periodically stop at antique malls looking to replace the vinyl I sold to fund one of my obsessions when I was in college. I later married her, but I digress. 

On one such trip I wandered into a stall filled, in part, with sixties memorabilia. They wanted too much money for the 1964 GI Joe and they didn’t have any Moby Grape albums. 

 

They had a whole section of magazines dating back to the 1920s including the Manson Life magazine. I already have that one. They had several Look and Life magazines from the sixties including the walk on the moon, the assassination of Robert Kennedy and even the Mets 1969 World Series win. 

My eye, however, was drawn to another magazine less prominently displayed and sort of tossed aside with some other obscure pre-sixties titles. 

 

Here was the August 1945 edition of American Home. There on the cover, in full color, stood Louise Dewey. She was standing in front of the garage at 10050 Cielo Drive and there in the background of that photo.... was the wagon. 

 

August 1945. Ed Sanders might add an oo-ee-oo here too. Here is the whole American Home article. The text on the last page is not about Cielo Drive. In fact, aside from the image captions, there is no text.  Louise took the photographs. I also included the LA Times article about the remodel which mentions the Disney characters and, oddly, a garage 'at the foot of the hill'.  

 

https://wvw.mansonblog.com/pdf/American_Home.pdf

______

 

One more thing. 

I think most people have seen this image. It originally appeared in the November 15, 1969, edition of Paris Match magazine. 

 

The photograph was likely taken in October 1969. The photographer was standing off the north end of the porch, to the right of the walk, just about in front of the window Watson entered that night. Kasabian would have been standing about five feet to his left that night according to the trial exhibit. This is as close as we will ever get to seeing what she saw that night. How many still think she saw the pool from here? 

______

 

Pax Vobiscum

 

Dreath

 

 

 

The Cielo Mansion

 

 

 

10050 Cielo and the Twin House: Are they related?

There has been much discussion about who designed and built 10050 Cielo, and to a lesser degree, who was the first owner/occupant. The questions then often spill over onto a similar, but smaller, house located at 10048 Cielo, commonly referred to as "the twin house".

Using the  Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety website, it's possible to get some definitive information on the date of the initial application for both houses, which includes a very broad description of the project, its estimated cost, the name of the owner, the architect, the engineering firm, and the general contractor. You can also see what buildings, if any, were on the lot at the time the permit was issued. Using this information you can work up a decent framework, and based on that, do a reasonable job of filling in the blanks and drawing some informed conclusions.

Here's the master application for 10050.

Now it gets a bit odd. Everyone agrees that there's a strong resemblance, stylistically--and it appears structurally and technically, as well--between the two houses. But the first construction, the twin house, lists no architect, while 10050 Cielo does--although it's not the architect to whom it's often attributed, Robert Byrd, but to another well-known So Cal architect, Arthur W. Hawes.

Master application for twin house:

Interestingly, when most of the permits were issued, the owner listed for both properties is the same, M. M. Landon, and his/her address, 9012 Olympic Blvd., is the same as the address for the general contractor, J. F. Wadkins Corp. Since Wadkins' mother-in-law was named Minnie May Landon, this implies that the contracting company had some form of insider interest in the two lots at the time of construction; notation on the application for the twin says that it's the first house in Section 10.

Michele Morgan, the French film star for whom the house was supposedly built, appears as "owner" on only one document, the permit for the swimming pool, which was done by a separate contractor. I think it's reasonable to consider that she may have become interested in the lot, possibly before the twin house was built, and consulted with Hawes, the architect, for a design. She may have then committed to the purchase conditional on construction. Alternatively, the twin was built from the contractor's design (it's a simple house), and Morgan liked something about the twin and commissioned Hawes to design a larger, more fully-featured house up on the view lot, using the style of the twin as an inspiration.

But the sequence may more likely have been as described, below.

Arthur W. Hawes, the architect of record, may have been approached by Wadkins, the builder/developer, to design a house for the 10050 site. This was to have been the showcase and main profit center. This design was unofficially adopted as the basis for the scaled-down version at 10048. There are some sound, though not definitive, reasons for this. The contractor had not apparently built much of anything else, and hence would not have had much design experience to draw upon. By working with an established architect on the main project, 10050, he could then freely "copy" the design and leverage Hawes' experience. (Incidentally, Wadkins died at age 48, two years the after 10050 was built.)

The master application for the twin house pre-dates the master application for 10050 Cielo. All related building applications for the twin also pre-date the corresponding building applications for 10050 Cielo. It's reasonable to assume that the twin house was built first. 

Here follows a timeline of applications:

• Twin - master app submitted 12/26/40; permit issued 1/2/41
  
• Twin - garage; permit issued 1/2/41
  
• Twin - tile work; permit issued 4/12/41
• Twin - BBQ shelter; permit issued 5/2/41

NOTE: Given the above timeline, the twin house was likely completed ~6/1/41.

• 10050 - master app submitted ~8/29/41; approved 9/2/41; permit issued date illegible (architect Arthur W. Hawes)
• 10050 - BBQ shelter; permit issued 10/14/41
• 10050 - swimming pool; permit issued 10/17/41 (Michele Morgan appears as "owner")
  (This is revealing; on the BBQ shelter application, dated 10/14/41, both the residence and the garage are identified as being in existence at the time--and a sketch of the relative location of the house and garage shows the garage as betting attached. )
• 10050 - garage;  permit issued 12/19/41 (This garage permit notes that it is to detach the garage from the main house.)
• 10050 - "playhouse" (BBQ shelter?) converted to "guest house";  permit issued 10/23/44 (Dr. & Mrs. Hartley(?) G. Dewey appear as "owner")
• 10050 - dressing room added; permit issued 10/23/44 (Dr. & Mrs Hartley(?) G. Dewey appear as "owner")

So far as the attribution of Hawes as the listed architect of 10050, there is to my eye, at least, supporting evidence in some of the design features for the McClintock-Swedlow house, built from a Hawes design in 1940, the year before both 10050 Cielo and the twin were built. In particular, the LR has some close similarities in exposed beams, location of the fireplace, type of windows used, and relationship to the entryway.

There is some level of similarity in the use of windows in one of the BRs; it's similar to the 10050 guest BR.

My best guess at this point is that Wadkins was relatively new to residential construction, having worked for the telephone company for a number of years.  Wadkins resumé. He may have ambitiously raised money to purchase at least two lots in a new tract, and foresaw exploiting the better one, 10050, as the main profit opportunity, and engaged Hawes to create a marketable design. Wadkins may then have scaled down the design himself and built the twin--mainly in hopes of selling it first so as to be in a more solid cash position to proceed on 10050. This apparently did not happen, because it looks as if Morgan saw the 10050 lot, or even the early stages of construction, and committed to it in some fashion, ordering a swimming pool, a BBQ shelter, and detaching the garage before she took ownership, or just after, paying $32K for the property.

It was reported in the LA Times of 11/23/1941:

Those wishing to drill deeper into the building/repair history of the two houses can use the LADBS website and request additional documents. 

You Can Do The Devil's Business For $85 Million Bucks

A gaudy monstrosity complete with a couch for your American flag. "PIG" door not included. 

A Little Something for Halloween

This is a post from Mark Lindsay's (Paul Revere and the Raiders) fan page. I am not the Deb in the first part of the story!  All the pictures were taken at Cielo.  Happy Halloween

THE HOUSE ON CIELO DRIVE – A GHOST STORY

Do I believe in ghosts? Well, if you're talking about spiritual manifestations in the physical world that remain after the body is dead and buried, the answer is yes.

In the 1990s, we were living in Maui but the bi-weekly commute to the east coast to do gigs was time-consuming and expensive, so my wife Deb and I decided on a second residence. We found a grand old (circa 1830) Federal in upstate New York.

The house had a great deal of character, and we soon found out that at least one of the earlier householders was still in residence, so to speak. On many occasions when we were in the dining room or kitchen, we would hear what sounded like footsteps coming from above us on the second story. I'd fling open the door to the second story servants' quarters and dash up the steep, winding staircase, but as soon as I got to the top landing, the sounds would cease.

Several times I saw the legs – just the legs – of a woman dressed in heavy skirts moving swiftly ahead of me up the stairs. This was quite a shock the first time I observed her, and Deb and I soon came to the realization that our new old house might be haunted, but the spirit or whatever was benign and seemed to pose no threat. And after we assured a electrician working on our renovation who had also seen her that she was friendly, we all peacefully co-existed with our “guest” until we sold the place several years later. 

This experience was in stark contrast to the first haunted house where I lived for two years, in 1966 and 1967, at 10050 Cielo Drive. Yes, the place that would soon be known as the infamous "Manson Murder House."

Terry Melcher was a staff producer at CBS Records in Hollywood. His mother, Doris Day, had been a staple at CBS for years, but the new era of rock and roll was exploding and Paul Revere and the Raiders was signed to the label as its first rock act. It seemed natural that Terry, as the youngest producer and the same age as me, should be assigned to produce my group.

Terry and I soon became friends, and he told me he had just leased a house in Benedict Canyon. When he asked if I wanted to move in, share the rent, and write songs together, I jumped at the chance.

The house had a million dollar view, a pool, and peaceful, well-sculpted grounds with a rose garden. The interior at first seemed ideal. There was plenty of room with a master and guest bedroom, as well as a spacious living room with a grand piano and a loft. Across a small entry hall was the kitchen, dining room, and a maid's quarters.

But a couple of weeks after I moved in, I began to sense two areas in this idyllic setting that seemed, well, not quite right. The two bedrooms were in the back of the house and although there was a door from the master to the pool, I always took the long way to the pool, out the front door and around to the back.

The master bedroom just felt "wrong" to me somehow. Although it was much larger than my room, it always seemed cold and a little creepy. I know Terry had a hard time feeling comfortable in his room, and took sleeping pills nightly.

The other area in the house that felt weird to me was the entry hall. It always seemed several degrees colder than the main part of the house, even in the summer's heat, and no one ever lingered there.

A month or so after moving in, I learned that there was perhaps a reason for my odd feelings. Rudy Altobelli owned the property and lived in the guest house that was slightly down the hill. He dropped by one afternoon to visit with Terry and me.

After we'd had a glass or two of wine, Rudy asked if we were superstitious, and we both responded, "No." And then he proceeded to tell us the history of the house. It seemed that several Hollywood luminaries had lived there over the years, but the story of some of the early residents really got our attention.

Rudy said that one of the first couples to occupy the house had been newlyweds, and on their wedding night the bride somehow learned that the groom had cheated on her in the recent past. Supposedly after the marriage was consummated and he was asleep, the new lady of the house took a large knife from the kitchen and stabbed him to death in bed. She then put a bullet in her brain using the small "lady's pistol" that he had given her for protection as one of her wedding gifts.

Rudy told us the whole affair had been hushed up and was never talked about because it would reflect negatively on the real estate value. He said that although the femme fatale's spirit still lingered, she probably wouldn't bother two guys -- although he warned that she didn't seem to tolerate beautiful women very well. "As long as you don't let your girlfriends stay over too long, you should be okay," he warned. And then he went back to his residence, leaving us to ponder.

Over the next few months, I began to believe that Rudy was telling the truth, and that the bride was not only still with us, but quite angry, because strange things began to happen.

Except for the odd feeling in Terry's bedroom and the unexplained temperature drop in the front entry, the house seemed fairly neutral most of the time. However, unless we were writing at the piano or listening to music (which we played at ear-splitting levels), Terry and I felt most comfortable hanging out in the rose garden, which was on the opposite side of the house from the master bedroom.

More and more often, I noticed that Terry was taking downers, Valium and Tuinals, during the day and not just to sleep. The 44 magnum I usually kept in a suitcase in my closet, I now slept with under my pillow. I couldn't put my finger on it, but in the back of my mind I felt like I might need protection.

When I had moved into the house, I brought my studio sound system, including Mcintosh amps and JBL monitor speakers, which I installed in the loft. I also brought my telescope, mounted on a tripod, which we placed in the front entryway. The idea was that if we opened one of the front Dutch doors, we could then use the telescope to check out the view of Beverly Hills and the Pacific Ocean in the distance. I think we did this once, and then the scope just became a fixture in the entrance.

One day, about a month after I'd moved in, Terry and I were both seated on the piano bench, working on a tune. We were kicking some lyrics around when, all of a sudden, there was a loud crash from the vicinity of the front door. We both jumped up and found that the telescope had been knocked over.

The tripod was still open and locked in place, no one else was in the house, we had no pets at the time, and the door was shut tight. We talked about it and agreed there was no way it could have fallen over by itself, but somehow it had!

A few weeks later, when I was sound asleep, the stereo system came on at full volume in the middle of the night. I jumped out of bed and ran into the living room to tell Terry to turn it down, but no one was in the room. I shut it off and went to bed.

The next morning, Terry was upset. It seemed he had picked up one of the go-go girls at The Whiskey, and was at a "critical point in the relationship" when the stereo suddenly started blasting at full volume. I told him I thought he had turned it on, but he vehemently denied it, so we were left with another mystery.

This "stereo in the night thing" happened at least two other times that I remember, and since I was on tour about half the time, I might have missed more of the unwelcome events.

One hot summer day at the end of a series of tour dates, I returned to the house when there was a meeting going on in the living room. Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys was there, and he, Terry, and a prominent attorney were discussing some kind of deal. 

So as not to interrupt, I went into the kitchen to get a cold drink. There was a guy I didn't recognize squatting on the slate floor, leaning against the refrigerator. He was dressed in a blue work shirt and jeans and did not seem too happy.

I tried to open the refrigerator door but the guy wouldn't budge. "Excuse me," I said, but he totally ignored me. I tried again. “Sorry, man, but I'm trying to get in the frig!” He didn't move or even look at me. I walked into the living room and asked, "What's with the weird guy in the kitchen?" 

Dennis said, "Oh, that's just Charlie...he's okay." But he didn't seem very "okay" to me at the time.

This of course turned out to be Charlie Manson, and he was at the house on at least one other occasion. When I was driving up to the house a couple of weeks later, he was just getting into a limo, which then left. Charlie didn't look like the kind of guy who could or would hire a limousine, so I figured Terry or Dennis must have sent one for him.

When I walked into the house, the vibes were not good, so I figured that particular meeting must not have one well. Supposedly, Manson was at least at one other meeting at Cielo, but these are the only two times I saw him there. As I came and went from my trips, I would never know who I might encounter when I returned. I met Hendrix there, Mama Cass, John and Michelle, and a lot of "folkies" and blues musicians.

On one return trip, I walked into the house to discover Terry and Candice Bergen making out on the couch like a couple of teenagers. As time went on, I would find Candy there more and more often. It became obvious that this was becoming somewhat serious and I began to feel like the odd man out in my own house.

The lease was up for renewal in a couple of months, so I told Terry that I would feel more comfortable renting my own place, leaving Candy free to move in. In retrospect, this might not have been such a great idea for their relationship. As soon as I moved out and Miss Bergen moved in, she and Terry began having more and more disagreements and fights, which ultimately culminated in Candy moving out.

This left Terry alone in the house, which I don't think he liked very much. Shortly thereafter he sublet the property to Roman Polanski, and moved to his mom's beach house in Malibu.

Did the spirit who Rudy had said didn't like pretty women stir up the tension to evict Candy?

And did that same spirit inspire Susan Atkins or Tex Watson to take a large knife from the kitchen and brutally stab Sharon Tate?

I guess we'll never know for sure, but I can testify to the fact that strange, unexplained events occurred when I was living there. And at it times, I did sense an undeniable foreboding and a feeling of pervasive darkness emanating from the house at 10050 Cielo Drive.

Missing 911

Anomalies in the 911 Police Response Time at the Tate Crime Scene



There is a huge oddity in this case that appears in the first few pages of Bugliosi's Helter Skelter, though I've never seen it commented on anywhere.  That is the curious, lengthy delay in the arrival of police first responders after getting the first 911 calls from the Asin residence at 10090 Cielo Drive (next door to the Kott residence, which was itself next door to 10050 Cielo) that reported a suspected homicide(or multiple homicides) on the morning of August 9nth.


Helter Skelter, pg5
Winifred Chapman sees two bodies--one on the lawn and another in the white Rambler.

pg6
Neighbor Jim Asin, 15, called 911. 

"While they were trying to calm the hysterical Mrs. Chapman, Jim dialed the police emergency number.  Trained by the scouts to be exact, he noted the time: 8:33am."

"Jim called the police a second time, and some minutes later, a third."

Was he, too, wondering at the delay in the police response?

 Jim Asin

pg6
"There is some confusion as to exactly what happened to the (911)calls.  The official police report only states, "At 9:14 hours, West Los Angeles Units 8L5(DeRosa) and 8L62(Whisenhunt) were given a radio call, 'Code 2, possible homicide, 10050 Cielo Drive.' " "

"The confusion extends to the arrival time of the units.  Officer DeRosa would later testify he arrived about 9:05am, which was before he supposedly received the Code 2.  Officer Whisenhunt, who came next, set the time of his arrival between 9:15am and 9:25am, while officer Burbridge, who arrived after both men, testified he was there at 8:40am."

You would think Asin's 911 calls would have been logged in somewhere with the times the calls were made, to help clear up this 'confusion.'  But that 911 information is missing.


So the official timeline says patrol units got their first radio alert at 9:14am.  If the first 911 call came in at 8:33am, and if you add a couple of minutes for the police to drive to the crime scene, then you've got about 45 minutes between the first 911 call and when the cops showed up.

45 minutes?  On a suspected multiple homicide call...  in Bel-Air...  on a quiet Saturday morning? 

 
What's wrong with this picture?  If you don't think that is unusual, ask yourself this:  'If I called 911 to report a suspected homicide(s), how long before police show up at my door?'  Where I live, the response time in minutes would probably be in the single digits.  And I don't live in Bel-Air.
So what is your theory on this bizarre and unexplained delay in the 911 response time? 


 *In comparison, at the LaBianca crime scene, it was at most 15 minutes from the 911 call to when the cops showed up.

-------------------------

Another curious delay:

pg11
"It was 9:40am.  DeRosa called in, reporting five deaths and a suspect in custody."

pg16
"It was 1:30pm before the first homicide detectives arrived."

Almost four hours between the report of five homicides in a rich part of town and the arrival of a single homicide detective?*  Normally you would expect the homicide detectives to respond as quickly as possible, as they know how a crime scene can become adulterated by officers and responders tromping all over the scene--which is what happened at Cielo Drive.

*In comparison, at the LaBianca crime scene, it took about two hours for the homicide detectives to show up.

MansonBlog Tour 2018: Cielo Drive Killer Walk

This post was written by George who was unable to attend. We only shot the video and a few pictures:

Academic study of crimes goes by the wayside when you visit the locations where events actually occurred. The physical layouts of crime scenes can often give the interested observer valuable insights into how those crimes went down, often even providing glimpses into the minds of the perpetrators. The walk that the killers took to the Roman Polanski residence on the night of August 8-9, 1969 is a good example of this.

After driving from Spahn's Movie Ranch to Cielo Drive that night the car containing Charles "Tex" Watson, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Linda Kasabian initially drove up the spur roadway up to the cul-de-sac ending at the gate of 10050. There, Watson got out of of  car and shimmied up the utility pole supporting the phone lines into the property and cut those lines before backing the car back down to Cielo Drive proper and parking on the downhill side of the turnoff. Then the group walked back up the gate and around it to enter the property and kill everybody there except caretaker William Garretson.

I've been to Cielo Drive on several occasions, but I've always driven up to the top. Although I was unable to attend this year's MF Blog Tour I suggested to Matt that a reprise of the walk up the hill to the gate at the former 10050 address might make for an interesting post.

The walk video shows how narrow the roadway leading up to Cielo really is. (The last time I visited the gate, on the 2015 MF Blog Tour, I had to back my own vehicle down the hill as there was no room at the top to turn around.) It also shows how dark and isolated the area is still today, even though there are now more lit-up residences on the street and there was a fuller moon on the Tour walk than on the night of the murders. It is dark and lonely, and occasional glimpses of the lights shining down in Los Angeles only serve to accentuate the remoteness and isolation. The repetitive call of a bird emphasizes the indifference of nature to the madness of man.

What was going through the minds of the Tate assailants on the night of their visit as they made that same walk up the hill? Pumped up on adrenaline and (for some) speed, the heat of the night, the paranoia and awareness of violence brought on by the knowledge of the previous weeks' incidents involving the murder of Gary Hinman and the presumed murder of Bernard Crowe, the pandemonium and pressure of getting ready to flee the city and go to the desert -- not to mention the uncertainty of not knowing what they would have to do once they go onto the property -- it must have been an intense experience indeed.

The Tour walk up Cielo could only hint at that experience.

The Tate killers parked at the bottom of the Cielo Drive side cul-de-sac at the location of the arrow at the upper left then walked up the narrow roadway to the gate of the property of their unsuspecting victims, indicated by the arrow on the right.

The moon phases on the night of the Tour walk and the night of the murders.

To views of the current gate on the way up:

The base of Cielo looking up. The car was parked to the left of where I'm (Matt) standing to take the photo:

This is the base of Cielo Dr. Beind the person walking, on the other side of the bush is where the car was parked. The perspective shows how narrow Cielo is:

Who was that kid?

I've always been puzzled & deeply curious as to WHY a child would've been allowed to roam & wander around the area where a horrific, brutal slaughter of multiple people took place, with one laying in a car only a few feet away. Yes, he was outside the gate, with the hordes of cops, reporters, morgue staff, priests & curious onlookers, but WHY. Who was he? Why was he there? Where were his parents/parent? Was he a neighbor? Was he related to one of the reporters? He was just walking around, like nothing while complete & utter pandemonium was all around him, reporters shouting, cops scratching their heads in confusion, helicopters flying overhead, news conferences being filmed, etc. You see him in still photos, and in news clips. He was walking right by one of the hearses while behind the freaking CORONER, and a priest (Peter Sellers-look-alike) who was probably going to give blessings over the bodies. I would've been scared out of my mind! Any clues to who the kid was?

You can see him starting at 6:20 on this video:

Witold K.

Sometimes you just can’t get away from it.

Recently I was at a large organized estate sale held to benefit the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California. Among the offerings in the Art section was a print by an artist named Witold K. The name rang a bell, of course, and examination of K’s Wikipedia entry printed and attached to the print confirmed the reason why, because a highlight of the short entry was “In 1969 he relocated to California and briefly occupied the home of Abigail Folger and Wojciech Frykowski (both later murdered at 10050 Cielo Drive by the followers of Charles Manson), and opened his first studio/gallery in Beverly Hills.”

The print on sale at the estate sale

The name Witold K should be familiar to any serious student of TLB. He was, in fact, Witold Kaczanowski, a Polish artist who moved in the Cielo Drive circle in the summer before the murders there, and he appears in the case literature not only in books about the case but also in the official law enforcement files.

In the earliest stages of the police investigation into the homicides committed at the Roman Polanski residence officers were checking all possibilities, including whether the killers might have been among Polanski’s social and business circles. One possibly relevant incident within those circles was an altercation that occurred at 10050 Cielo Drive just before spring of 1969. According to the First Tate Homicide Investigation Progress Report:

“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 uninvited guest, Ben Carruthers and an uninvited 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 Caruthers and the unidentified male that had accompanied him to the party escorted the three men from the property.”  (First Tate Homicide Investigation Progress Report, page 8)

Vincent Bugliosi recalled this party incident in Helter Skelter (using pseudonyms for some of the individuals involved; thus does the real life Harrison Pickens Dawson become “Jeffrey Pickett”), and this is where Witold K. enters the picture:

“From William Tennant, Roman Polanski’s business manager, LAPD learned that in mid-March the Polanskis had given a catered party at Cielo with over a hundred guests. As at any large Hollywood gathering, there were crashers, among them Herb Wilson, Larry Madigan, and Jeffrey Pickett, nicknamed “Pic.” The trio, all in their late twenties, were reputedly dope dealers. During the party Wilson apparently stepped on Tennant’s foot. An argument ensued, Madigan and Pickett taking Wilson’s side. Irritated, Roman Polanski had the three men evicted.

“It was a minor incident, in and of itself hardly cause for five savage murders, but Tennant had heard something else: ‘Pic’ had once threatened to kill [Voytek] Frykowski. This information had come to him through a friend of Voytek’s, Witold Kaczanowski, an artist professionally known as Witold K.

“Not unmindful or the similarity between ‘Pic’ and the bloody-lettered PIG on the front door of the Tate residence, detectives interviewed Witold K. From him they learned that after the Polanskis had left for Europe, Wilson, Pickett, Madigan, and a fourth man, Gerald Jones [pseudonym], were frequent visitors to the Cielo residence, Wilson and Madigan, according to Witold, supplying Voytek and Gibby [Abigail Folger] with most of their drugs, including the MDA they had taken before they died. As for Jeffrey Pickett, when Gibby and Voytek took over Cielo, he moved into their Woodstock residence. Witold was staying there also. Once, during an argument, Pickett tried to strangle the artist. When Voytek learned of this, he told Pickett to get out. Enraged, Pic swore, ‘I’ll kill them all and Voytek will be the first.’”  (Helter Skelter, pages 65-66, Bantam paperback edition)

A bit more information about Witold K. can be found in Ed Sanders’ The Family:

“A Polish artist named Witold Kaczanowski aka Witold K. had been brought to the United States through the kindness of Roman Polanski. He naturally came to live in Los Angeles where he cultivated the Polanski’s circle of friends. He was staying, during the summer of murder, at the Woodstock Road home of Abigail Folger and Wojtek Frykowski. He was a frequent house guest at 10050 Cielo Drive during the spring and summer of 1969.” (The Family, revised and updated edition, page 200)

Witold K. on August 27, 1969

The “First Tate Homicide Investigation Report” further elaborated on K. and his relationship to the Cielo Drive circle: “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. And 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 Caruthers, Cass Elliot, Witold Kaczanowski, along with several other narcotics users, were frequent visitors and party goers at the Polanski residence.”  (First Tate Homicide Investigation Progress Report, page 9)

A later investigative report also included some information from Harrison Pickens “Pic” Dawson as to his recollections of his experiences in the summer of 1969:

“Dawson admitted drug use since a teenager and stated that his worst experience with drugs was during the period he spent in Los Angeles. At that time he was on heroin and “was out of it” most of the time. He indicated that this was the reason he was unable to recall some incidents. Dawson stated the Cielo address was always full with people who were under the influence of narcotics. He gave a videotape to investigators, indicating the tape pictured Abigail Folger, Witold Kaczanowski, Wojiciech Frykowski and an unknown female under the influence of narcotics. (This tape was reviewed at Scientific Investigation Division and does in fact show the above-mentioned people smoking marijuana. The tape is in Evidence, item No. 74).” (Second Tate Homicide Investigation Report, page 14)

(And as an aside, isn’t it interesting how many different ways there are to render the first name of the male Polish victim of the Cielo Drive homicides?)

More information from the official police investigation:

“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 Harrington after this meeting.” (First Tate Homicide Investigation Progress Report, page 10)

The following official summary of Voytek Frykowski’s activities on the afternoon of the day he was murdered shows just how tightly Witold K. was entwined with the Cielo crowd:

“Investigation disclosed that when Frykowski departed from the Polanski residence at approximately 1505 [on August 8, 1969] he drove directly to the Jay Sebring residence. At that location he picked up Miss Suzan Peterson, who had been Sebring’s companion for the preceding 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 come 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 Lerewska’s, 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…. [Then] 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.

"[At the Woodstock house] Frykowski [explained] to Suzan that Kaczanowski was an artist but not a businessman and there were some disparaging statements made by Frykowski as to the key to the house not being readily available….

“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.” (First Tate Homicide Investigation Progress Report, pages 13-14)

Many people have claimed that they were planning to be at the Polanski house on the night of the murders there, but Witold Kaczanowski might be one person whose claim was actually grounded in more than just a desire to bask in a macabre limelight. As such, he became involved in the case after the murders as both a potential target for further violence and as an assistant to the police. Again, from The Family:

“Around this time [just after the murders], artist Witold K., speaking nervously in Polish, called a friend in New York from a phone booth in Los Angeles. He claimed that he knew who the killers were and that he was afraid.

“Friends in New York then called a New York Times reporter in Los Angeles and related the development. The reporter thereupon called the Los Angeles police.

“Since Witold K. expressed fear for his life, the police promised him twenty-four hour protection if he would talk. Then his friends called Witold K. back at the phone booth where he was waiting and he agreed to the guard. Three police cars picked up Witold K. and took him to the apartment at Paramount Studios where Roman Polanski was in seclusion.

“Witold K. told police that Frykowski was offered an exclusive dealership to sell the drug MDA, evidently in the Los Angeles area. Subsequent friction developed, he claimed, and one of the suppliers threatened Frykowski’s life. Witold K. claimed not to know the names of the possible killers but to know them by face only. And that they were Canadian. One close friend claims that Witold K. went around, escorted by police, to many prestigious addresses in Frykowski’s notebooks to try to locate the killer — always leaving behind his business card. Witold K. claimed that the identity of the killers was contained perhaps in these notes and diaries but he seems to have said that ‘it would take two weeks’ for him to decipher the killers’ identities from Frykowski’s notebooks….

“Witold K.’s painting career was enhanced by his revelation. One newspaper account showed a picture of Witold K. posing with several of his paintings on the Polanski front lawn. A friend has claimed that Witold K. even sold a couple of his paintings to two policemen investigating the case.” (The Family, pages 288-289)

From the Los Angeles Times, August 28, 1969

During this tour of duty K. volunteered some evidence he believed might be relevant to the case:

"Officers were working a security detail for homicide division at 2774 Woodstock Lane for Kaczanowski, Witold, who lived at the residence. At approximately 1300 hours 8-15-69, Kaczanowski walked into the living room and handed officer Newell [badge number]11529 the below described brown bag and narco. Kaczanowski stated he found the the bag behind a dresser in the right rear (s/w) bedroom of the house. Kaczanowski further stated that he had never seen the bag before and he did not know who owned it or put it there.
"The bedroom in which the narco was found was formerly occupied by Miss Folger, Abigail, who was a victim of a 187 P.C. under DR# 69-059-593.
"There is an additional property report under the same DR# 69-059-593.
1 Bag, paper, brown, containing item # 2
2 Bag, clear plastic, containing a brn/grn leafy substance resembling marijuana.
Above items were marked “R.D. N. 11529” for ID.”

The police report wherein Witold surrenders a pot stash

Of course none of the information provided by K. was any help in determining the identities of the Cielo Drive killers. Still, it is interesting to examine this aspect of the police investigation into the homicides if for nothing else than that it gives the student of the case a more thorough view of the comings and goings at 10050 Cielo Drive in the months preceding the murders there.

After his exciting brush with “Manson Family” fame Witold K. closed his Beverly Hills gallery and moved to New Mexico where he settled in the Santa Fe area and kept working on his art. Eventually he relocated again to Denver, Colorado where he resides today.

Witold K. in 2013

Back at the estate sale, just as it was closing up I took a friend over the the Art section to show her the print. The price had been reduced by over half, into the affordable range, so I got it. And why not? It was for a good cause. And it was also a good reminder to have of the infinitely layered and complex nature of TLB, a case that is so intertwined with the American experience that even today you can find some kind of link to it just about anywhere.

Signed print, # 46 out of 60, Witold K. 1973, Tesuque, New Mexico 

Witold K.’s web site is here.

Witold K.’s Wikipedia entry is here.

In a 2012 interview K. did not mention his TLB connection.