THE GHOST OF SHARON TATE

 

 I wrote this several years ago on my old blog Lone Star Concerto and decided to post it again - -  this month marks the 53rd anniversary of actress Sharon Tate's murder (August, 1969).

It has nothing to do with ghosts - -  but I still think it's fairly interesting and worthy of a "rerun" post, for those who've never read it.

 

 The house on Benedict Canyon in Beverly Hills where
I lived as a young musician. It was located very near
the house where Sharon Tate was murdered.

Everybody has heard about the Sharon Tate murders. If you haven't, look it up and you'll find plenty to read. Here's a quick recap:

On the night of August 8/9, 1969, fledgling actress Sharon Tate was savagely murdered in her rented Beverly Hills house, along with four other people. Tate was twenty-six years old and nine months pregnant. She was due to give birth in two weeks.

Her husband, movie director Roman Polanski, was in London at the time and expected to arrive back in L.A. within a few days. Since Sharon didn't want to be alone during her husband's extended absence, she had invited three friends to stay with her:
Abigail Folger (the coffee heiress), Voytek Frykowski (Folger's lover), and hairdresser Jay Sebring.

A nineteen-year-old boy named Steven Parent was also murdered that night, simply because he happened to be visiting the caretaker of the house, who lived in a guest house on the premises. Steven Parent didn't know Sharon Tate.

The murders were committed by the  hippie cult "family" members of Charles Manson.
To say that the murders caused a mega media frenzy would be a gross understatement. Sharon Tate and Charles Manson became household names and the L.A. news media feasted on the subject for years. The Manson murder trial was undoubtedly the biggest media event in Los Angeles history.

Ill- fated Sharon Tate

So why am I writing this? Because, about a decade after the murders occurred, I lived in a Beverly Hills house that was extremely close to the house where Sharon Tate was murdered.

Sharon Tate and her husband Roman Polanski

I lived on Benedict Canyon Rd. The house where the murders took place was on Cielo Drive, which was only a stone's throw away. Cielo Drive was a narrow road just off of Benedict Canyon, which wound into the nearby hills. The house where Tate and Polanski lived was secretly nestled in the hills. If you didn't know it was there, you'd never notice it.

I knew it was there, of course. I'd even heard   rumors about resident ghosts and bad things that happened to people who lived in the vicinity of the murder house.

It might have only been a freak coincidence that I had an auto accident on Benedict Canyon - - directly in front of the cut-off to Cielo Drive and within walking distance to the Tate-Polanski house.
And it happened  on the 9th of August - -  the anniversary of Sharon Tate's death.

The exact spot on Benedict Canyon 
where my accident took place.

The 30 MPH sign is in plain view.

I'm pulling out of my driveway on Benedict Canyon late one afternoon. There's a curve in the road and the view is blocked by large juniper trees. As I slowly emerge I'm immediately hit by a speeding Ferrari. The speed limit on the Benedict Canyon curve is 30 MPH. The Ferrari was going at least 65 MPH. The force of the crash was enough to send my modest Ford spinning. 

Major damage to my car, but miraculously I'm not seriously hurt.
Substantial damage to the Ferrari. The driver gets out. To my surprise, it's an elderly lady with a long cigarette dangling from her Max Factor red lips. Her face-lift was dragged down with a ferocious frown.

Long story short - -
the old buzzard tried to sue me. I had to make an appearance at the Beverly Hills Courthouse. I politely (and timidly) presented my case, then Miz Ferrari presented hers. The judge couldn't decide what to do. After thoughtful consideration he announced that he thought we were both very nice people and he called it a "draw". Nobody won anything. To this day I still maintain that the lady was sailing at a reckless speed.

At the time I was only twenty. I was a musician. I wasn't Perry Mason. I probably didn't present my case with enough passion or conviction.

A few months later, Miz Ferrari attempted to sue me again, but her efforts were denied.

In time I put the unpleasant incident in the distant realm of my memories - - but I always had the strange feeling that being near the Sharon Tate murder house had something to do with my accident and bad luck.
Especially since it happened on the anniversary of the murder.
Who knows..........?

The Tate-Polanski murder house on 10050 Cielo Drive was eventually purchased and subsequently torn down. A new mansion presently stands on the spot. The infamous address has also been changed. I think it was wise to expunge the old address and the horrible ghosts of memories.


A side note:
At the time of the Tate murders, Charles Manson and his drug-crazed cronies lived at the abandoned Spahn Movie Ranch in the Simi Hills near Chatsworth.

Years later, I was at the Spahn Movie Ranch, on location, to watch a movie being filmed (it was a gay porn flick). 
All the movie sets had been destroyed in a 1970 wildfire, but the surrounding area was still intriguing enough to be used for "location" shots.

The area is now an historic park.


So much for my adventurous Beverly Hills days.........

The house on Cielo Drive in Beverly Hills where the murders occurred in August, 1969.

It has since been torn down.