Tuesday, March 22, 2022

Abigail Folger: L.A. Woman


Until just a few years ago, photos of Abigail Folger in life were few in number. Recently, the yearbooks from her high school, Santa Catalina, in Monterey, CA have been digitized, offering several photos of Abigail during her teen years. Photos of Abigail during the last twelve months of her life in Los Angeles are even more rare. Occasionally, I revisit sources of possible research leads, with the hopes of discovering new information on the background of her life. To be sure, more is known about her passing—on her status as a victim—than is known about the nearly 26 years she was alive. Then I returned to the website and Facebook page of another well-known individual in this story, artist Witold Kaczanowski, or Witold-K, as he is known professionally. It is here that I discovered some additional photos of his art on display at Cielo Drive. I also discovered, for the first time, two photos of Abigail, in what I call her "L.A. period", from August 1968 to August 1969. Witold-K does not provide context for these photos of Abigail on his Facebook page, but after a little sleuthing I was able to determine where these photos were taken. The photo of Abigail standing is at the Los Angeles Airport(LAX). The second photo is of Abigail on the backyard patio at the home of Cass Elliot in Laurel Canyon. It was on this patio and in this backyard that many a famous musician had been photographed, while visiting with Cass.

Abigail at Los Angeles Airport. Photo by Witold-K, Facebook

Abigail on the patio at Cass Elliot's house, Laurel Canyon Los Angeles. Photo by Witold-K, Facebook



Abigail and Voytek in happier times

THE WORLD AROUND HER

As was her custom during her New York period(August 1967-August 1968), Abigail developed a network of friends within her sphere of influence in L.A. Although she would have socialized with friends of Sharon and Roman Polanski, like Roger Vadim, Mia Farrow, and many others, she arguably moved within a sub- network of people more or less exclusive to both she and Voytek. Many of these people were within the orbit of Cass Elliot, meaning that at some point Abigail and Voytek met Cass, and developed a friendship. Where and when that meeting took place is unknown, but this could have happened thru a mutual association with Sharon and Roman, and may have been at a party given by them. To that end, I was able to contact Cass’ daughter, Owen, and asked her if she had additional information on either Abigail and Voytek. She said she did not, so certain finer details will for now remain a mystery.

Cass Elliot

Roman and Sharon Polanski

Roger Vadim

It is known, of course, that Abigail and Voytek spent much time in the company of Witold-K, Michael Sarne, Thomas Harrigan, Ben Carruthers, Mark Fine, Pic Dawson, Charles Tacot, Billy Doyle, and, to some extent, John and Michelle Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas. However, Michelle Phillips would later admit that she and John would distance themselves and their own inner circle of friends from Voytek. Because of her relationship with Voytek, this distancing evidently included Abigail.

Witold-K

Michael Sarne

Thomas Harrigan all smiles with Paul Caruso

Ben Carruthers

Pic Dawson


John Phillips at his home


John Phillips

Michelle Phillips

“Voytek,” recalls Michelle Phillips, “had a kind of weird vibe about him, a hustler-like feeling. No one really wanted to be around him that much. I never really got to know Abigail very well. She was considered a sort of ‘little rich girl,’  and at least among our circle, there was a great snobbery which kept them both at arm’s length.”(Michelle Phillips quoted in Greg King, Sharon Tate and the Manson Murders, Barricade Books, Inc. 2000. p. 172). I have subsequently contacted Michelle’s publicist, requesting an interview with Michelle prior to this post, hoping she might be able to offer clarity to her previous comments, and possibly additional thoughts on this time in L.A. At the time of this writing I have not received a response.

Yet in the taped interview with LAPD, conducted in Toronto on August 30, 1969, see https://www.Cielo drive.com/updates/William-Billy-Doyle-interviewed-by-LAPD-lt-earl-deeper-83069-part-one/. Billy Doyle offered up a counterpoint to Michelle Phillips’ above statement. To Doyle, anyone who attempted to paint Voytek as a bad guy, probably had something to gain from it. In fact, palpable tension existed between Doyle and John and Michelle. That Abigail and Voytek were friends with Doyle, therefore, probably did not factor well in their favor.

So how did Abigail fit into this social scene in Los Angeles? Writer Greg King contends that, like Voytek, Abigail “was just lost in this milieu...” Some of the individuals in both she and Voytek’s closer circle were strange bedfellows indeed. Yet Abigail, as an educated, wealthy civil rights and social worker, would have stood out remarkably from this bunch. I am reminded of a quote by Abigail’s former boss at the Berkeley Art Museum, Peter Selz, who said, “[s]he may not have lived the most traditional type of existence, but she wasn’t a hippie type at all. She didn’t look, dress, or act like a hippie.” Looking at the two photos of Abigail at the beginning of this post, and how she was dressed in them, her look may be perceived as stylish, or perhaps even conservative. I would not be surprised if it were ever learned that Abigail did not have a pair of blue jeans in her wardrobe.

Abigail was employed by L.A. County as a volunteer social worker

Abigail's place of employment during her L.A. period


A yellow 1968 Pontiac Firebird like this on was Abigail's cruising vessel during her L.A. period

Abigail Folger came to Los Angeles with Voytek Frykowski(and possibly also Witold-K)in August 1968, driving a rental car from New York. She chose to work, and offered her passion to aid others thru employment with the county welfare department. Additionally she would volunteer in the campaign of Tom Bradley for mayor of Los Angeles, who was running against incumbent Sam Yorty in May 1969. The move to Los Angeles, and the reason(s) for it were undoubtedly well thought out, as Andreas Brown, her former boss at the Gotham Book Mart in New York said, “she finally hit on something” that would truly satisfy her ambitions.


Tom Bradley


Sam Yorty


Bradley and Yorty at election debate

Roman Polanski has indicated in at least one interview, that Abigail took a speed reading course in the evening, following a long day working to better the lives of underprivileged people in Los Angeles, and campaigning hard for Tom Bradley. Added to this workload was the fact that Abigail attended Monday thru Friday psychoanalysis sessions in Beverly Hills with Dr Marvin Flicker, M.D. (Dr Flicker recently passed away on July 16, 2021. He was 86. His brother, Ted, co-created the TV sitcom, Barney Miller). What strikes me as unique about Abigail is that she had the presence of mind to seek professional help in dealing with her issues. What precipitated her seeking help from Dr Flicker is not known exactly. But Bugliosi’s book does hint at depression over her perceived view of her personal life, use of narcotics, and her failing relationship with Voytek. Unlike many in her generation, she approached the medical establishment for help, and according to Dr Flicker, evidenced the emotional wherewithal to leave the situation she found herself in while living in L.A.


Abigail's therapist, Dr Flicker in a recent photo


Abigail attended therapy sessions with Dr Flicker in the three-story building in the middle

Abigail and Voytek rented a house in Laurel Canyon at 2774 Woodstock Road. As David points out in his excellent post on this blog, this house was not directly across the street from Cass Elliot’s house, but was rather about two blocks away. Witold-K also lived with the couple, and transformed one part of  the house into his painting studio. Pic Dawson would later be invited by Voytek to live in the Woodstock house, but at some point got into a fight with roommate Witold-K, going so far as pulling a gun on the artist. Voytek thereupon threw Dawson out of the house, which would forever color the relationship between the two men. Interestingly, according to Zillow.com, 2774 Woodstock recently sold for $1,350,000.

2774 Woodstock. All photos: Zillow.com







While Abigail and Voytek moved into Woodstock, Sharon and Roman Polanski were renting the house of actress Patty Duke at 1600 Summit Ridge Drive. Abigail and Voytek would certainly have spent time here, likely in the company of Sharon and Roman’s friends, lingering over dinner, and according to Roman’s autobiography, whiling away the evenings in the backyard, discussing the important events of the times.

Home of Patty Duke 1600 Summit Ridge Drive


Although it is sometimes contested, this has mainly been accepted as a photo of Sharon Tate with Voytek and Abigail

In addition to socializing with the Polanski’s friends, Abigail and Voytek enjoyed the company of several Polish expatriates, then living in L.A. Foremost among these, again, would be Witold-K, but also in this group would be writer Marek Hlasko, musician and composer Krzysztof Komeda, who wrote the music for Polanski’s film, Rosemary’s Baby, and many others. If this group of polish writers, composers, and artists had one thing in common it was this: to see Poland again—an economically strong, culturally vibrant, and communist-free Poland. Some of these people would find great success in America, such as Roman Polanski, writer Jerzy Kosinski, and ultimately Witold-K, whose new gallery in Beverly Hills paved the way for him to branch out and settle in Denver, CO for many years. He recently moved back to Poland to live after residing and working in America for a half century. It is this success that Voytek Frykowski craved, but of course could never realize. During a night of drinking in L.A. in December 1968,  Hlasko engaged in some rough horseplay with Komeda, causing Komeda to tumble down a hill and sustain a brain injury, from which he died about four months later. Shortly thereafter, Hlasko returned to Europe and died himself in Wiesbaden on June 14, 1969. He was 35.

Marek Hlasko and Krzysztof Komeda

This Polish group of Abigail and Voytek’s friends enjoyed  heavy drinking, and some of them liked fighting. Like Hlasko, they were romantic and tough, and like Hlasko’s writing, they were invested with a sense of distrust and cynicism. The America of the late 1960s must have been a strange place for them.

Meanwhile, Abigail socialized within a circle of people in Cass Elliot’s orbit. This would have no doubt included several musicians, as Abigail and Voytek were often at Cass’ house. Ben Carruthers and his wife also lived in that house, and many people came to visit them. Also, as previously stated, this group included the likes of Billy Doyle, Pic Dawson, and the very interesting Charles Tacot, who was described in detail by musician Billy Rinehart, in his September 30, 1969 interview with LAPD, at https://Vimeo.com/46262144. A transcript of this tape is viewable at scribd.com/document/3830. Rinehart said, “...I have never even met Roman Polanski or Sharon Tate, or Voytek, or Jay Sebring. Ive Never even met them. I’ve never talked to those people in my whole life. The only one that I know is Billy Doyle and Charles. This one time there was a phone call, and it was Voytek supposedly and he said he had a gun on Billy and that if somebody didn’t come over and pick up Billy right then and there he was going to do him in. When Charles came back with Billy he was lying in the backseat and his face was all cut up and everything and Charles then chained him to the tree in the backyard at Cass’ house.” Rinehart would go on to say that Pic and Billy Doyle were close, not Pic and Voytek.

TESTIMONY OF THE THREE BILLIES

What Bill Rinehart describes here is the much-discussed story of Billy Doyle being drugged by Voytek, who allegedly put mescaline in Doyle’s champagne. But when one hears the entire tape or reads the entire transcript of the interview, it becomes apparent that Rinehart had much more to say about the various “scenes” surrounding Abigail during that time in L.A. To obtain a balanced understanding of the world around Abigail, and best follow along with this post,  I recommend the reader read or listen to what I call, “the testimony of the three Billies”: Billy Doyle, and  Bill Rinehart, and Bill Garretson. Links to Doyle and Rinehart are provided above.  The Garretson transcript may be found at https://qdoc.tips/william-Garretson-polygraph-pdf-free.html. Reading the Garretson interview, it becomes apparent that he had more exposure to Abigail than, say, Sharon or Voytek, and is able to provide at least a modicum of detail of the atmosphere at Cielo. Whereas Pic Dawson would simply later describe Cielo to police as a constant party scene. 


Billy Rinehart


Bill Garretson poolside at Cielo

Indeed, to Rinehart, it was the house of John and Michelle Phillips that played host to the drug craziness of that time—not Cielo, not Woodstock, and not the home of Cass Elliot. In many ways, the Rinehart and Doyle interviews, like Bill Garretson’s, are important to establishing at least part of the environment surrounding Abigail in L.A.: one at Cielo Drive, the other two in the wider social milieu outside of Cielo. Concerning drug use within this culture, Rinehart adds, “...everybody knows everybody else. I don’t care what anybody says, these people everybody knows everybody else. Everybody at one time or another has sold a little dope that they’ve got to a friend. Which make all of them a drug dealer in actual reality. The way the law stands it makes us all dealers.” This summation is probably the best way to understand the drug actions of Jay Sebring and Voytek Frykowski. If they obtained drugs, it was most likely to be given or sold to trusted friends.  When asked if Voytek was a dealer, actor Jim Mitchum remarked, “Nah, man, he was the Robin Hood of dope.” The reference here meaning Voytek would distribute to his circle, but to no one else. Billy Doyle balked at the idea of Voytek being a dealer in the wider use of the word—he simply could not imagine it. To Doyle, Voytek lived a “purely social lifestyle,” and this meant sharing drugs with friends.


Voytek Frykowski


Jim Mitchum

There exist small snippets of recollection of Abigail by established figures in the “scene,” during this L.A. period. Dave Mason is one of them. Mason said, “one of the freakiest parts was that at Cass’s I saw a lot of Abbie Folger and Wojciech Frykowski until the Manson crew slaughtered them.” Celebrity hairstylist Carrie White was another who crossed the path of Abigail in L.A. Carrie styled both Sharon Tate and Abigail. I was able to contact Carrie, asking if she could add another dimension to this time period. She told me she remembered Abigail well, but basically did not think to chronicle her association with Abigail with anything written. Carrie told me that since there were no smart phone cameras at the time, the idea of taking serial photos would be a thing reserved for the future, hence no photos of Abigail there. However, she did submit that Abigail was an avid reader of books during her appointments, basically confirming the theme of the ambulatory bookworm that has always attached itself to her. Another recollection is to be found in The Ed Sanders book,  The Family, who recounted stories told by Layne Wooten of Topanga Canyon. Wooten told Sanders that Abigail had hung out in Topanga with actor Brandon DeWilde and the “English crowd”(Ed Sanders, The Family. Da Capo Press, 2002. p. 389).

Dave Mason

Carrie White at her salon

Pickwick Bookstore, a favorite haunt of Abigail in Los Angeles

Site of the I Magnin Department Store, Los Angeles. This and the Beverly Hills location were another shopping destination of Abigail

It is Witold-K, in his Facebook page, who illuminates more of the “scene” during the L.A. period. The artist recalls this time as a member of that tight-knit Polish group, who so badly wanted to succeed in America. This group was not comprised of hippies, but of Eastern Europeans, many in their mid to late thirties, whose main drug of choice was alcohol. Here the artist shares some stories that I had not heard previously. He also confirms that Debra Tate was a visitor to Cielo. Debra’s visiting there was no doubt in the summer of 1969, during which time she would have been on summer break, and Sharon and Roman would have been out of the country. Debra has also subsequently indicated in an interview that Abigail drove her around L.A., looking for schools for her to attend for the 1969-1970 school year. It should be remembered that Sharon’s family was in the process of settling into their new home in the L.A. suburb of Palos Verdes in the summer of ‘69.

10050 Cielo Drive at night


Debra Tate


Debra Tate at Cielo


Witold-K displaying his art at Cielo. Photo: Witold-K, Facebook

Witold-K and Abigail's Dalmatian puppy, the illusive and mysterious Tom Folger. Photo: Witold-K, Facebook

Painting by Witold-K over the piano in the living room of 10050 Cielo Drive. Photo: Witold-K, Facebook

One interesting member of the group surrounding Abigail, as here indicated by Witold-K, is a member of the Hormel family. This is the same Hormel family of the packaged meat and other food products fame of Austin, MN. There were three Hormel brothers, but the one the artist is referring to here is no doubt George “Geordie” Hormel, who was a musician and recording studio owner. He founded the indie Village Recording Studio in Los Angeles in 1968. He also sang on Frank Zappa’s album Joe’s Garage in 1979. As a side note, in addition to hanging out with an heir to the Spam fortune in L.A., Abigail, as heiress to the Folger Coffee fortune, was also in the circle surrounding Mary Hayward-Weir, wealthy steel heiress and wife of writer Jerzy Kosinski during her New York period. 


George "Geordie" Hormel

"My adventure with drugs would probably require writing an entire book and it had good sides as well as bad and even dangerous. The loss of life was literally at the rivers fingertips. If it wasn't for Wojtek Frykowski, I wouldn't have the opportunity to talk about it today. It was the end of 1968, in Los Angeles we found ourselves again: Wojtek, Marek Hlasko and me. After our last meeting in Paris which ended in a fight with Sorbonne students, never the three of us haven't met anymore...Romek Polanski was in Brazil and flew straight from Rio to London, Abigail Folger, the coffee princess, just like in New York her apartment, she gave me her house on Woodstock Drive to live in Los Angeles. Wojtek and Gibi temporarily lived with Romek and Sharon Tate.

I painted in both houses: Gibi's and Romek's, in the meantime looking for studio and gallery rentals...In the evenings, on the other hand, I used to come to Romek on Cielo Drive, where Wojtek, dying of boredom, was constantly looking for company. On that memorable evening when as usual, I reached for the bottle, Wojtek, who drank every day in Poland for years, simply screamed: You won't be cold anymore! And tried to take my bottle I tried to push him back to reach for the chalice. Romek and Sharon had beautiful thick blue Mexican goblets. Wojtek was faster, he pulled out the bottle from me and hit me with his fist. Hit the back of my head against a wall and slide all the way to the ground...Blood is already on two shirts...Wojtek put in a lot of effort to convince me to take marijuana and when I lit it up after a few glasses, I kept repeating the same thing: it doesn't do anything to me. Of course it didn't work, because you need to smoke it...to sober up. With a swollen nose, a plum-colored eye, and sober, I lit for the first time as my professor's instructions, breathing directly together with air into my lungs. Without holding smoke in your mouth--Wojtek warned and continued holding my hand in his hands. This was the first step that allowed me to cross a line I didn't know existed for 37 years of my life. Marijuana didn't cause addiction and need to experience further hallucinations...

Following Wojtek's prompt, the next step was a mescaline pastyl. This was a revelation and a revolution for my visual imagination. Green was greener, black was more black, and red burned so that it would burn--it seemed to me. Those who know my red period in painting should know that if it weren't for this crayon, perhaps this revolution would never have happened, especially since I hated the flag red color for known reasons.

Experiences under the eye of Wojtek, then John Phillips(from Mamas and Papas), and then on Malibu with Roger Vadim and his young friend Hormel the son of the potent American ham and sausage, at a point enriched me and I think my attitude to life was widened as if and deepened my admiration for existence itself...Alcohol won't provoke anything like this in the long run.

And now for the tragic accident that didn't happen. One evening I come to Roman's house,(sometimes I didn't have to come, because on the so-called bunker was a pile of pillows and I lefty it for the night). Wojtek offers me mescaline, and when I learned that you have to wait for about an hour for the effect, I started a conversation after French with Gibi Folger, who constantly urged me to do it. After a while he appeared at my place mild headache and to rest this French lesson, I started complaining. Like this one she served a glass of Perrier water and crayon. Unfortunately it was not an aspirin. This was the second mescaline pill given to me before the first one took on. Well? An hour and a half later I had a panic attack more severe than I've ever experienced even with the Gestapo holding my hair. It was simply "OD". I swam from one room to another, my body felt no weight. I was a cloud, a foot above the floor above the big ones, with beautiful Mexican or Italian tiles. Gibi's bedroom was opposite Sharon's bedroom and further away was the door leading to the pool. I went through the house twice, from the pool to the kitchen, completely "sober", aware of what's happening and why its happening...

legs touching the air, the space between me and real, physical existence. The panic attack was intensifying and was caused by the fear that I would never walk on earth again or return to "ME". In the kitchen there was a door that went out to some cell phone and further to the yard, to the wall of a high mountain. I found a string there, lured the stool that Winnie the cleaning lady used to reach the dishes on the top shelf. Above the cell phone door, outside, there were three hooks. I put a noose on my hook and head and when I stepped on a stool. Suddenly Wojtek came in and grabbed me half above my knees, calling Gibi. To top it all off, Gibi just had a swim in the pool. Wojtek has ordered: take out that lip....y string. Panic subsided as he took his hand away.--What am I doing? Am I crazy? Dear God....And what did Wojtek do? He poured a glass of Vodka and told me to drink."(Witold-K, translation from Polish, on his Facebook page).

Perhaps most significantly, for students of TLB, is Witold-K’s story of the origin of the American flag, draped famously over the couch at Cielo: it was a birthday gift, along with a bottle of Dom Perignon, for the artist’s birthday in May 1969. It is at this time that Abigail worked together with the other campaign volunteers so passionately for Tom Bradley. The opposing side of Mayor Yorty mounted a bitter campaign against Bradley, and, despite the Bradley team’ s best efforts, lost the election. This no doubt had a lasting impact on Abigail, and was arguably one of the topics of her therapy sessions with Dr Flicker. Had Abigail lived, she would have been proud to see Bradley elected in July 1973, serving as mayor until 1993. A trip to Abigail Folger’s Facebook page reveals a few nuggets about the election, and at least one inclusion from Dr Flicker himself. Apparently, one of the women who worked alongside Abigail in the Bradley election recalled those times. She said she remembered Abigail saying, essentially, “you either like me or you don’t like me. There is no in- between.” Dr Flicker submitted that Abigail had “no skeletons in her closet,” and that she was preparing herself for an eventual run at the Senate.

American flag over sofa in living room at Cielo


American flag over sofa at Cielo. Photo courtesy of Cielodrive.com

"Sharon Tate was murdered in Bel-Air, California. Wojtek Frykowski was also there, with whom in Warsaw, when I was young I played a lot and raced in swimming at the Legia pool. There was Gibi Folger who let me turn her New York apartment and her home in Los Angeles into a studio. I drove between Gibi's house and Romek Polanski's house on Cielo Drive. At Romek and Sharon's, I had the best time painting in the garden, where the panorama of the city stretched. Slept mostly on a mellow mezzanine overlooking the city. There was room for plenty of people. Sister Sharon came from San Francisco once and the third person to spend the night with us was her mascot, a large iguana, the size of a small alligator, who for some reason liked to climb on my back. May 15, 1969, for my birthday I received a bottle of Dom Perignon champagne and an American flag rom Gibi. The flag was so big that Wojtek Frykowski covered the entire large sofa standing in front of the fireplace in the living room with it. He fell asleep on this couch afterwards and received the first of 51 stab wounds..." (Witold-K, translation from Polish, on his Facebook page).

Abigail graduated from Radcliffe in 1965, and returned to San Francisco, where she worked at Berkeley. In August of 1967 she and Andreas Brown drove to New York, where she lived until she left for Los Angeles in August of 1968. Of course it is while in New York that she was introduced to Voytek, and by extension Witold-K. However, before this meeting she had already been a part of a literary circle of friends in Manhattan. According to Brown, Abigail fell “madly in love” with Voytek, and he moved in with Abigail into her apartment. Witold-K would share the space as well, using it as his painting studio. The thinking here is that Abigail was attracted to an intelligent group of people, wherever she happened to be. Yet there emerged a bohemian spirit in her, which would embrace Voytek, but also his entire group of Polish friends now living in America. Some of these had already made the move to Los Angeles when Abigail and Voytek were living in New York. Abigail found in Voytek the kind of man she could not find in an American man, and she says as much in the personal letter I included in my last post on her. Voytek helped Abigail to become adventuresome, and probably more open minded. This attitude would become solidified in L.A. as she encountered the zeitgeist of the late 1960s on the West coast.

This brings us back to the remarks of Greg King, who said both Voytek and Abigail were just “lost” in this environment. Indeed, if New York was literary and “old money,” Los Angeles was the center of a very youthful and vibrant music and acting scene, and was very much creating a culture of “new money”. It was here that Abigail found herself in a world, the likes of which she had not experienced before. Thru all of Abigail’s years after college, she maintained a sense of noblesse oblige, which she certainly carried with her to L.A. Here she cultivated a social life with popular musicians and actors, while maintaining closer ties with Voytek’s group of Polish expatriates. The third part of this social life included people like Dawson and Doyle, the latter of which she was probably helping to clean up.



Eric Clapton, Joni Mitchell, David Crosby, and Cass Elliot at her home in L.A.


Lunch on the patio of Cass Elliot. Pic Dawson seated next to Eric Clapton

Eric Clapton and Cass

Home of Cass Elliot

In my last post, Abigail declared in her letter that, “my head has been very messed up for a long time, and although I have known it all along, I have never done much about it. It is the time - worn case of feeling that I let everything happen to me instead of making it happen...” By the  summer of 1969 Abigail appeared ready to “make it happen,” by entering therapy and finally making a choice to combine her education and interests and embrace the future. If that future did not include Voytek, then unfortunately that would have be the way it was. Abigail and Sharon Tate were close, and Abigail saw in Sharon her love for Roman, but also Sharon’s own resolve and strength as a woman to move forward professionally, even if it meant possibly leaving Roman. But even though Abigail loved Voytek, he would not marry her, on account of her being wealthy. Try as he might, Voytek had not found his place among his successful friends in America, and no doubt felt bad about it. The idea of marrying a woman with wealth, while he was basically broke, was probably a difficult position for him to be in. By August of 1969 Abigail was 26, and the new year of 1970 was only four months away, and with it a brand new decade of possibility. I have always thought that Sharon Tate’s best work was still ahead of her, and I feel the same about Abigail, especially if it meant her making a run for the Senate.


The Los Angeles period of Abigail was a year of hard work for her, but arguably also a coming of age, so to speak. As I have said elsewhere, due to her financial status, Abigail had before her the dizzying anxiety of possibilities, but found it difficult to focus on one, and go with it. Thru all of this period, I cannot help but think that she kept journals of her experiences after college, and especially in L.A. It is well known that Voytek kept highly detailed notebooks of his life in America. That being said, I find Abigail similar in some ways to Joan Didion, who’s 1968 book of exquisite prose,  Slouching Towards Bethlehem, chronicles Didion’s experiences in California. I am not saying that Abigail was preparing a book of her own experiences, as there is no evidence of this. But what I am saying can be summed up when one looks  at the photo of Didion with the hippies in San Francisco. Didion, like Abigail, was to be sure, not a hippie. But looking at the photo of Didion, I see her as being aloof from that very interesting group of people, yet drawn to study them, to write about them, among other experiences. To that end, I see Abigail in much the same way in her own social circumstances among the hippie world: in it but not of it.

Joan Didion chronicling the scenes

Abigail was to depart Los Angeles on the morning of Saturday August 9, 1969 for San  Francisco. Her recorded purpose in doing so was to unite with her family for her birthday. I would add that it was a precursor trip to her ultimate withdrawal from the circumstances around her in L.A.: the psychic letdowns of the losing Bradley campaign, the immense challenges of providing social services for the poor in a massive city, the drug craziness surrounding the music scene, her strained relationship with Voytek, and on and on. The sad irony of all this, is that she was literally hours away from realizing it thru that flight. This thought has been with me since I first learned about this case. The funeral of Abigail took place in Portola Valley on August 13, 1969. TV coverage of her funeral has been preserved at the Bay Area Television Archive at https://diva.sfsu.edu.  In interviewing Witold-K for his book, Chaos, Tom O’Neill asked the artist what one question he would ask Voytek Frykowski if he could. If I could ask Abigail Folger one question, it would be: was there any particular reason why you decided not to book your flight to San Francisco for the morning of Friday August 8th?

Friday, March 18, 2022

Wednesday, March 16, 2022

Take the Back Alley to Langley - Part Three

Hippie Reeve via Chaos

Part One Introduction

Part Two Backstory

Houston, we have a problem. 

Our friend inside the government, these days known online as Montana Sun, ran an earnings report on Reeve Whitson. They found:

- No government earnings were ever posted for Whitson

- No government pension existed for Whitson

- No government retirement insurance existed from that nonexistent pension 

- No record of Whitson paying taxes after 1962

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

People who work for Uncle Sam have insurance. Former service members have VA records. Everyone pays taxes. 

As Montana Sun pointed out, even Lee Harvey Oswald left a paper trail, and he helped kill a President of the United States. 

Is it possible Whitson was nothing more than a well-connected PI? His life is straight out of James Bond. We'll wrap this up in Part Four. +ggw

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

Edit: You can catch me on The Paulcast tonight at 10 pm EST talking all things Whitson! 

Edit #2: Whitson's gal Joan Weldon. 


Friday, March 11, 2022

Take the Back Alley to Langley - Part Two

Reeve Whitson - Junior Year of High School 

Part One Introduction 

This is a quick section. Just a little fact check on O'Neill's version of Whitson's early years and we'll be out the door.

Whenever I decide I've discovered the most interesting person in this study, a new rabbit hole opens in front of my fingertips, and down I go. Without fail, I search every time for a starting point long before the subject enters our realm. I need to see them as people. 

I look for the usual stuff. Hopes. Dreams. Were they loved? 

Truth be told, love isn't something I always find on these dark roads. Imagine if some connection existed between unloved children and bad outcomes. Talk about possibilities. 

I'll stop there. Bootstraps arguments are pointless. We've already had them and it's not like monsters and heroes appear fully formed the first time they emerge from the shadows anyway. That stuff only happens in movies. In real life, monsters and heroes walk beside us every step of the way. 

Online, I followed Tom O'Neill's research team to Reeve Whitson's relatives. Figuring out who's who isn't super hard. Crime dogs always stop when they discover someone they can call. Paper trails only need to stretch that far. 

Here are the things I found while attempting to confirm O'Neill's backstory on Whitson. Thankfully, my ride through history was easy this time. None of the snow was unplowed. 

Reeve's father was a circus performer in a successful family business. He had representation in the Big Apple. 


Reeve's mother took him to London while she worked. I thought she was an actress but O'Neill says she's a dancer. He's probably correct. 


Whitson took part in school activities you might expect from the son of performers. Drama. Singing. Instruments. He also stayed fit. All in all, Reeve was a handsome overachiever. I found an honest smile in almost every photo. 


Basketball team manager.


This one will make Tobias happy. Whitson ran Track! 


O'Neill tells us in Chaos that Whitson went to Indiana University after high school but I couldn't find anything. Someone has locked down several Whitson photos online. That cruelty knows no bounds.  

Buntline, where for art thou? An ROTC type photo would be fantastic right about now. 

My research into Whitson's backstory made me feel like O'Neill didn't fudge anything. I didn't expect any funny business but found myself pleasantly surprised nevertheless. I'll be back with more screen caps from Whitson's public life in subsequent sections. For now, let's leave Whitson in the stands of an early 1950's Hoosier basketball game and jump to 1969. 

At least this time, the person actually exists. See you in Part Three. 

Take the Back Alley to Langley - Part One

Reeve Whitson - Freshman Year of High School 

Did photographer Shahrokh Hatami doom Sharon Tate and her friends one March morning in 1969 after a confrontation with Charles Manson at the Cielo front door? Were Rudi Altobelli's tenants cursed that evening when the Rudi told Charlie he'd be in Italy for a year after Charlie stood in front of the guesthouse and said he'd like to talk more in the future? 

Was Manson even there that day? Hatami wasn't sure. Mighty Max Frost, I am reaching out with my mind. Beep boop tell me what Rudi said. 

Today, we're exploring Tom O'Neill's claim that a possible CIA agent named Reeve Whitson has been left out of the Manson study history. According to O'Neill, after hearing Hatami's story, Whitson delivered his friend Hatomi (and his Ides of March tale) to Prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi, and then sat in on the unrecorded interview.  

-  Here is Hatami's backstory in case you think he's some hanger-on with a fancy camera who took a two year degree at Santa Monica College after UCLA laughed at his high school GPA and asked him to jump through hoops before achieving main campus status. Hatami was no state school guy. 

 - Here is Bugliosi's closing argument in the Manson, et al, trial. Photographer Hatami is mentioned fourteen times. 

During the trial, Bugliosi argued that Hatami's high-handed dismissal at the Cielo  to the guesthouse sent Charlie over the edge. Bugs asked about Hatami's aggressive posture, tone, and had him describe how he jabbed an index finger toward the guesthouse when dismissing Manson. 

- Here's a newspaper article from a courtroom reporter (via the almighty) if you are new to our study or desire a quick refresh on Hatami's testimony.  

Others weren't so sure about the encounters. Filmmaker and author Robert Hendrickson smelled a rat and believed Bugliosi needed those March 1969 confrontations to convince the jury Charlie visited Cielo before the murders took place and had an axe to grind after the Hatami and Altobelli brush offs. Hendrickson was so passionate about about Bugliosi's duplicity that he continued his argument across two Hatami posts in our blog library. 

- This video in Matt's post from 2014 shows Sharon and Hatami in better days. Hatami is the shirtless hunk. Sharon is as pretty as pretty gets. Hatami's girlfriend is hanging around because she's no fool. 

That fateful day in March, Hatami takes the chivalry route when an uninvited man reaches the Cielo front door. Not shocking. Manly man exhibitions in front of attractive women have always been a thing, even if sometimes it's only pretend. 

According to author Tom O'Neill, Hatami first shared his Charlie encounter story with possible CIA agent Reeve Whitson. The son of an actress and a circus acrobat, Whitson enters our story when Tom O'Neill has Whitson phone Hatami early that Saturday morning we all know so well before anyone else discovered the bodies up on Cielo. 

In O'Neill's Chaos, Whitson claims to friends he was the CIA surveillance team watching the Cielo house. He was supposedly on the scene early that fateful Friday but didn't stick around. According to his friends, Whitson forever lamented his inability to prevent the killings.  

We need to back up a bit because things are already not making sense. How does Reeve Whitson, a rumored CIA super spook, find his way to the Cielo crowd? 

Bugliosi never mentions Whitson in his book, but Chaos provides insight. According to O'Neill, Whitson might've bonded with Sebring over race cars. And Whitson's mom was good buds with Doris Tate. Third, O'Neill writes, Paul Tate told him Whitson was a friend to himself, Sharon, and Roman.   

So there's three hows. Whitson maybe became a family friend after meeting Sebring at the track. Unfortunately, answering my first question created a second. Why was Whitson surveilling his good friends? 

Reeve Whitson was an archconservative on an anti-drug mission. By some accounts, an ounce of blow was found in Jay Sebring's Porsche the morning following the murders. That's more than a personal stash, Idgaf who you are. An ounce was enough to get half the houses on the block trembling while searching for the man through their bedroom blinds the night of August 8th. Was Sebring doing deals out of the Cielo parking lot? 

English Major Math time: 

* In 1969, one gram of cocaine cost $100-$150 dollars in Los Angeles

* We know Jay sold little baggies out of his briefcase

* Sebring would be a fool to give rich people his lowest price - let's err on the bigger side this time 

* Twenty-eight grams come out of an ounce - more if Sebring stepped on his dope 

* $150 x 28 = $4200

* $4200 in 1969 money is more than $32000 today 

** Let's pause for reader corrections on the amount of cocaine found in Sebring's car, and also to give others a chance to describe how much blow they snorted some random Friday night in the 80's at a Huey Lewis concert. 

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Discussion Materials: 

In addition to what is linked above, we're using newspapers articles, Helter Skelter, and Tom O'Neill's Chaos. Feel free to add links to any supporting or counterarguments in the comments below the posts. 

Most of O'Neill's research we're discussing in this piece is found in Chapter Six of Chaos, titled Who Was Reeve Whitson? I'm using the Kindle version. You should explore digital searching if you don't already. Yes, chopped down trees feel great in my hands, but they are garbage when I wonder how many times Whitson is printed in the text (150). 

Or Hatami (43). Btw, O'Neill doesn't care which version you buy. Both cost about the same. 

Continues in Part 2...

Monday, March 7, 2022

James VanBebber's Manson Family

James VanBebber's Manson Family is not for the squeamish. Consider that your trigger warning. 

Roger Ebert titled his review, "Disgusting but undeniably powerful." I don't know how to say it better. This film is gory art. I expected to watch ninety minutes of nonsense, make a few screen caps, type a bit of gallows humor, and move on. I could not have been more mistaken. 

Patti Smith lyrics rushed through my mind during the parts of this movie my eyes refused to watch. 

"I'm an American artist and I have no guilt. I seek pleasure. I seek the nerves under your skin." 

You will find the film online in two seconds. I tried to buy a copy on Amazon but was unsuccessful. Van Bebber began the project in 1988. Ebert's review was published in 2004. 

Links to a few VanBebber interviews are located below my screen caps. His great sense of humor comes through in his work. Severin Films released a DVD/Blu Ray combo in 2003. I've also included a few pages from a book on the film. 







Let's go to the screen caps. First up, Brenda McCann. VanBebber plays Bobby and maybe steals his own show. Maureen Allisse as Sadie also maybe steals the show. The cast definitely works. I could list most of them as show stealers. 


Let's Go George!


Clem and Bruce are combined into Clem Davis lol.  


Leave. Something. Witchy. Marcelo Games is a memorable Charlie. 


VanBebber takes Hendrickson, Helter Skelter, and other well-known interviews with the inmates, etc, runs it through a Pettibon Book of Manson filter, and adds an Olympic-size swimming pool amount of blood to his exploration of young people and their continuing infatuation with Charles Manson. The result is pop culture at its darkest. 

Film club, tell me what you think. 

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VanBebber interviews:

dvdtalk.com

Decibel Magazine part one and part two.

birthmoviesdeath.com


* Thanks to my homie, Al, for the page photos. Secret agent Deb also helped with this post. I'm grateful to both of them. Jimmy VB, if you Google yourself and end up here, that's me in your inbox begging for an interview.  

** We have a couple of new writers joining the blog and experienced a little mixup over who was posting today. I was holding this post back for Friday but hopped in when I discovered the confusion. Real writers will be back with actual research next Monday, although I might return first this Friday with more of my nonsense. 

I'm your kind. I'm your brother. 

And I claim weekends as my own. +ggw

Friday, March 4, 2022

Bobby Beausoliel Parole Hearing - 28 Jan 2022

Almighty cielodrive.com carries the Manson research scene through another winter. We are lucky readers. Buy that man a cup of coffee if you can. 

*Thanks to Tobias for sending this along. 

Wednesday, February 23, 2022

Charles Manson Estate Battle Paused

Yesterday, a new judge in the Charles Manson probate case asked attorneys to file court papers detailing their recommendations by March 18th for a final status conference June 1st. 

Highlights: 

- Jason Freeman is representing himself this time around 

- Michael Channels' lawyer, Timothy Lyons, wants a ruling on a 2002 Charles Manson will that named Channels executor of Manson's estate

- Manson's half-sister Nancy Claassen asserts she is the "sole heir-at-law" 


Tuesday, February 22, 2022

Tuesday Supplement - Fla$h and Honey Bear



Donald Lee Laisure and Susan Atkins by artist Kelly Hutchison

Someone please commission me a piece. My vision is Brenda McCann surfing in a bikini except the surf board is a dune buggy and the desert is the ocean. I'm also nothing but collaborative at my core if the same goes for you. No Willetts' baby, por favor.  

Brenda can say she loves me unless you think that's weird or too much. 

How's your week going? We're discussing Sadie Mae Glutz a lot recently and I wanted to sneak Donald Lee Laisure onto the blog for his second appearance before we move on. Click through to the page of origin and tell me if you think Susan's dress cost $6000 in 1981 money. I think Flash sewed it himself. 

Last Sunday, Laisure's claim he was married thirty-four times popped into my brain uninvited. You'll see the number of his marriages bump up to forty-five on the Maury tv show if you watch my homie Myra Elvira's 2021 update on his life and times. Thanks for aggregating that footage, Myra. 

A year before me, Myra also went looking for verification on the number of Laisure's marriages. I think we each found nine. Just like criminals, no bullshitter ever expected the Internet. Laisure was both. 

Character actors play an important role in successful productions. Donald Lee Flash Lai$ure was one of the best to cross our stage. He brilliantly promoted himself from the rank of Private to a 4 Star General in the US Marine Corps, and earned a Silver Star, Navy Cross, and Air Medal along the way. Laisure's phony career lasted from Vietnam through the Persian Gulf. 

Fifty-five people have reached the rank of 4 Star General in the US Marine Corps while alive. The number was in the low twenties when Laisure promoted himself to full general. When I searched for an official reaction, I found the Corps more amused than angry. Like everyone else, they thought Flash Laisure was a clown.  




Sunday, February 20, 2022

Time is Irrelevant to Me - December 1969



Susan Atkins served a life sentence. I see how she arrived there but believe she died in the right place at sixty-one years old. She went too far too many times. 

But what about once the killers are locked away? Are they allowed to retain their humanity after taking part in despicable deeds? Is redemption ever possible? Does empathy remain forbidden after they're dead? We're arguing all of that lately on this blog.

Issues pop up before a debate can begin. How do we qualify "despicable?" I'm squeamish and won't touch certain cases on my dark travels. My despicable might arrive sooner than another reader's. Etc.

For a starting point today, let's assume we all consider using a knife to murder a terrified pregnant woman after she watches her friends die and pleads for her unborn child's life a despicable act. 

Calling out for her mother as she passes. Shame on you. 

When I read blog comments during the weeks we talk about the inmates, I notice two groups. First, people advocating across the board transparency and fairness in parole processes. Something that shows a human life is not the possession of some political overlord or overlords. I completely agree with this camp. Every California inmate should live under the same sentences and rules for release. 

The opposition here is like are you nuts? Look what they did. F-them. 

I'd be lying if I said I didn't have a foot on either side of that line. 

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Our reference materials for this discussion are provided by cielodrive.com. Thank you, kindly.  

1 Dec 1969 Susan Atkins Paul Caruso Richard Caballero Interview.

5 Dec 1969 Susan Atkins Grand Jury Testimony.

Tex Watson is arrested November 30th in Texas. Police catch up with Patricia Krenwinkel in Mobile the following day. Back in Los Angeles, Paul Caruso and Richard Caballero are interviewing their new client, Susan Denise Atkins, when the net drops on Krenwinkel two thousand miles away. 

The last part is possibly not accurate but I see it that way when I'm at my storyboard. Starsky and Hutch music plays in the background. "Police! Freeze!" 

 - Here is a link to my blog colleague David's excellent write up on Paul Caruso with a comment from Caruso's son below the post. 

Other writers believe Caruso was a mafia lawyer sent to cement a narrative into place. I'm interested in every side of that argument. What are your thoughts? 

Honkeys like me from Honkeyville possibly needed several decades to realize Caballero isn't an Italian name, and that's okay. There's no judgement when you ride with me. We can be hillbillies together forever. 

Circling back to my original question, let's look at Susan Atkins. She was at Hinman, Cielo, and Waverley (kinda). No one but Charlie visited more murder scenes. 

Reading Sadie's comments and testimony about her time with Sharon before Sharon died made me emotional. The photo of Atkins as a young girl standing in front of her father's car also remains burned into my brain. Maybe that's what keeps me coming back here. So many whys. 

Several statements in the above transcripts are heartbreaking. Other times, I laughed. Stop Talking was an alternative title I considered for this piece. 

"Helter Skelter" is not discussed during the interview with the lawyers, but joins the story four days later in front of the GJ (Grand Jury). 


Susan is speaking the language of her peers at Spahn's while addressing the GJ. She even rhymes her words at one point. Head and dead. Not a lot of smart in that gal at times. Watch Hendrickson on Youtube or any of the courthouse footage for verification on the group speak.  

Let's pause on the creepy crawls for a second. What are your thoughts on their genesis? Who was the first person saying hey let's go creepy crawling? 

Me if fam members asked me to go creepy crawling with them late at night: Omg I just got back from the A&P dumpsters. I wanna watch Clem's fire ritual. 

That's December 5, 1969. Friday. Four days earlier prior to a dinner plus ice cream, Atkins said this:

 

Two somewhat different scenarios. Sustenance and fear games. I spent an afternoon making a list of contradictions I found in the documents but stopped when my friend said: 

"Could be discrepancies or coaching. You would have to have a think about why the latter makes Tex/Manson look more culpable or if that was just her being ditzy." 

Inarguable. Dude should write blog posts.

Let's hop in on some omg and wtf moments from the first week of December 1969. A third title for this episode could be How to Doom Yourself to the Fullest. 

 *Judges scribble deductions on their scorecards 

"The air talked. I was programmed by Charlie but then like I also wasn't programmed by him."

Ah, the Infinite. Please go on. 


I followed up with my secret sources inside the CIA. Within minutes, they verified Sadie missed Climbing Residential Fences (CRF) day at CIA Assassins School. By the time she returned from a nasty bout of stomach flu, the class had jumped forward to Residential Kitchen Infiltration (RKI). 




Not sure why anyone would come clean about the following impulse but she says it in both documents. 


Sadie's second death rattle in three weeks. 


More disembodied voices.


LaBianca instructions overheard from the seatless back seat of Johnny Swartz's car. 


A possible moment of Bugliosi speaking through Sadie's mouth or the infinite or whatever. 


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Bonus:

The famous Clem oopsie. 


Life at Spahn's as told to the GJ.


Richard Caballero courthouse interview

She should've stayed with Caruso and Caballero. Either way, Susan Atkins is gone. Have you forgiven her since she served her sentence, or is forgiveness something that will never happen?