Hollywood Actress Among 'Ritualistic' Killing Victims
Heiress And Hairdresser Also Killed
Bodies Of Two Others Are Found; Youth Is Charged
Associated Press, August 10, 1969
A Hollywood actress, an internationally known male hairdresser and an heiress
to a coffee fortune were found slain along with two other men Saturday in what
one policeman described as a "ritualistic" killing.
The scene was a $200,000, tomato-red home in fashionable Bel Air, rented by
the actress' husband, a Polish producer of suspenseful and macabre films.
A 19-year-old, bare-chested caretaker was arrested in a guest cottage at the
mansion and charged with murder.
Police identified four of the five victims as:
- Sharon Tate, 26, a pregnant honey-blond actress who played sexy parts in
movies, including "Valley of the Dolls" and slapstick comedy on television's
"Beverly Hillbillies."
- Jay Sebring, 26, Miss Tate's former boyfriend and operator of hair stylist
salons in Hollywood, San Francisco, New York and London.
BUSINESS ASSOCIATE
- Abigail Folger, 26, a business associate of Sebring's and a member of
Folger Coffee Co. family of San Francisco.
- A man identified as Voyteck Frykowski, who police said was a friend of Miss
Tate's producer-husband, Roman Polanski.
- The fifth victim was an unidentified man.
The arrested youth was named by police as William Garretson. Officers
said he apparently had just awakened when they seized him and was wearing no
shirt. He offered no resistance, police said.
Investigators said the victims were slain 12 hours before their bodies were
discovered by a maid, who ran screaming to neighbors.
The neighbors called police.
TIED TOGETHER
Officers said the killings appeared methodic and ritualistic because on
victim had a hood over his head and two were tied together by a white nylon
rope.
Miss Tate was discovered with one end of the rope around her neck. She
was dressed in a bikini nightgown, police said.
The cord was looped around Sebring's neck and pulled across a (unreadable)
beam in the living room.
"It (unreadable) of ritualistic," said (unreadable) investigating officer.
"It didn't appear as if the two connected to the rope had been hanged because
there was blood on them," said Lt. James Ehannon.
Investigators said all five victim appeared to have been shot.
SIGNS OF STRUGGLE
Sgt. Stanley Klorman said there were signs of a struggle in a large room and
in a guest room.
"It looked like a battlefield up there," said Sgt. Klorman.
Miss Tate and Sebring were found in the living room, two others- including
Miss Folger -were discovered on the lawn, and the fifth victim was in a car.
Telephones and electricity were cut off, police said, and Miss Tate's husband
was reported in Europe. Polanski produced "Rosemary's Baby," among other
macabre-fantasy films.
Police said the maid, Winifred Chapman, discovered the killings when she came
to work around 9 a.m. PDT. "She ran screaming to a neighbor, who called
police," an officer said.
Investigators arrived to find the five bodies, the two women dressed in
lingerie nightgowns and the three men "appearing in hippie-type clothes," said
an officer.
Miss Tate, a beautiful blonde who had parts in "The Americanization of Emily"
and "The Sandpipers," also starred in the television comedy "Petticoat
Junction." She liked to refer to herself as "sexy little me."
Sebring, the noted hair stylist whose salons drew the famous, opened a new
operation in San Francisco last May. Husband-wife acting team Paul Newman
and Joan Woodward were among those attending his champagne celebration in the
financial district. Miss Folger was one of Sebring's business associates.
Miss Folger, accustomed to high-society living, attended Santa Catalina
School for women near Carmel, Calif., and was graduated from Radcliffe.
Her father, Peter Folger of Woodside, Calif., is president of the Folger Coffee
Col., a subsidiary of Proctor & Gamble.
Folger said Saturday his daughter had become active in social welfare causes
around Los Angeles about six months ago and "more or less commuted" between here
and the family home near San Francisco.
"She always has led a clean life," he said.
The other victim identified by police, Voyteck Frykowski, was a Polish friend
of film director Polanski, officers reported. He was associated with
Polanski in the director's first film, "Night in the Water," police said.
Coroner Thomas Noguchi told newsmen he planned to announce autopsy results
about noon Sunday. He refused to disclose his finding after examining the
bodies in the house.
