11.28.2008

SHARON TATE MURDERS AT 10050 CIELO DRIVE AUGUST 1969


10050 Cielo Drive (now changed to 10066), Beverly Hills: the house where the Manson Family cult slaughtered actress Sharon Tate and five others (including her unborn child, Paul Richard Polanski) on August 9, 1969. The murders were the basis of the 1976 movie, "Helter Skelter."

Before the murders, this house had been the home of Henry Fonda and was the site where Cary Grant & Dyan Cannon honeymooned in 1965. (Since new buyers were reluctant to live there, in 1994, the owners tore down the original home and built a new 17,000 square foot Mediterranean villa on the same site.) See the map Here


This was a fascinating headline for long after the actual crime in 1969. Vincent Bugliosi the prosecutor of Charles Manson, wrote a really great book about it called Helter Skelter. Hollywood made their movie Helter Skelter from his book.


In February 1976 I was in Santa Monica and had the opportunity to visit 10050 Cielo Drive in Beverly Hills. The house was up a narrow curvy road and I wondered how those scruffy hippies made it up there without a wealthy neighbor calling the police.


There are homes close by. I didn't want to invade the new tenants and there was someone definitely living there then. The home looked smaller in person than in the newspapers. I climbed up on top of a terra cotta type wall near the drive way and took pictures as the neighbor's Doberman was dying to chew me to pieces. I lost my photos from back then but it looked like this up Benedict Canyon


It was fascinating up there and creepy too. This was the first thing on my list of things to do when I got to California. Up closer looked like this



Jay Sebring is buried here in Southfield Michigan read his bio here on Find a Grave.

5 comments:

Jim R said...

Hi Kim,
I was reading your bit about Helter Skelter.

True story:
I have an actor friend named Mike (I won't reveal his last name here) who is older than me by 10+ yrs. Mike appeared in several "B" movies, TV series, and some Italian films from the 60's.

One night we were having drinks at our friends bar in Inkster, and Mike was telling me he was at the Tate house the night Charlie Manson killed everyone.

He said he met a beautiful young starlet at the party and left early to get laid.

The next morning when he read the papers and watched the news on TV..he said he almost had a nervous breakdown.

He could have been one of the victims had he stayed.

Also, the shock of losing close friends like Sharon, and the others.

He was freaked just talking about it.

I haven't seen Mike since the early 70's and not sure if he's still alive... as he would be at least 70 yrs. old today.

It's a small world and a scary one.
Jim :-0

Anonymous said...

"Mike" was not telling the truth. There was NO party scheduled at the Tate Home on August 8/9, 1969. It was very hot and Sharon was 8 1/2 months pregnant and did not want company. It was a quiet evening spent with her close friend Jay Sebring and two houseguests. Her sister called wanting to come over, and Sharon declined her an invitation. They had a quiet dinner at El Coyote Mexican Restaurant at 9:00pm and retired to the estate. Manson's insane posse entered the premises just after midnight.

Fast Film said...

Perhaps both are telling versions of the truth, but as a local I'll add that "I was at the Polanski-Tate house earlier that night" has entered our showbiz apocrypha like "the check's in the mail" or "we love your project, we'll get back to you"(showbiz for fuck you.)

Anonymous said...

billy doyle who is 70 aka mike, lives in toronto and was well known dealer who visited the tate house frequently, he was interviewed in canada by lapd....and was found not responsible for the murders, the lapd could care less about the drugs

UncleBaire said...

Who is the Black Man that no one seems to mention?

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