Canadian Police Named Prime Suspect In Tate Murder Case
Mounties Spread Dragnet
August 18, 1969
Los Angeles Times
By Dial Torgerson
Times Staff Writer
A dragnet spread through Canada Sunday for a red-haired man Los Angeles
police say is "wanted for murder" in the slaying of actress Sharon Tate and four
other persons August 9 in Benedict Canyon.
Named in a Royal Canadian Mounted Police broadcast, as the prime suspect in
the multiple murder was Thomas Steven Harrigan, 23.
Also sought with three men reported to be traveling with Harrigan. Los
Angeles police asked Canadian authorities to hunt for the quartet. No charges
are known to have been filed against them, but the RCMP broadcast said:
"Warrants are available from the Los Angeles Police Department."
Three Los Angeles robbery and homicide squad officers were reported to have
joined the Vancouver narcotics officers in the search, in the Vancouver area
where a roundup of known drug sellers has been under way.
Canadian officials, however, would not say whether they had any reason to
believe the wanted men were in the city. No automobile was listed in the
all-points bulletin, indicating that the man, like the Los Angeles policemen,
might have gone to Canada by air.
Harrigan was identified as a "known narcotics addict"-indicating the police
searched for the mass murderer was moving into an investigation of narcotics
aspects of the case.
At least two close friends of the victims had told police they believed it
was narcotics, which brought the murder to the home Miss Tate shared with her
husband, director Roman Polanski, at the dead end of Cielo Drive.
One man, who said he gave the police the names of at least three persons he
thought could have been suspects, told detectives that underworld types
delivered narcotics to the home for the use of Voyteck Frykowski, 37, and
Abigail Folger, 26, two of the victims.
The Frykowski friend who told police of possible suspects-one of them a
Hollywood actor-not known to have mentioned the names of Harrigan or his
purported traveling companions. Police would not say how their names came into
the case.
The men sought in Canada were described in the police broadcast as
"hippie-narcotics type."
1-Charles Tacot, age unknown. No further description is available.
2-Harris (or Harrison) Dawson, 26, five-foot-ten, 160 lbs., Caucasian, with
light brown hair and green eyes.
3-William Doyle, 26 to 28, five-foot-eight, 165 lbs., with brown hair and eyes.
The "want" broadcast on Harrigan said he was five-foot-seven, with red, curly
hair, freckles and large, prominent teeth.
Canadian authorities said the search was underway for him in the vicinity of
Edmonton, Alta., the Canadian province adjoining British Columbia on the East.
There was no indication what made police believe he was headed in that
direction.
L.A. Police Silent
Los Angeles police continued their refusal to release information about the
case. They asked Canadian authorities to hunt for Harrigan and his three
companions without putting out and all-points bulletin either in Southland or
the United States.
The RCMP also declined to give further details of the manhunt in Canada. What
is known of the pursuit came from the RCMP bulletin.
The bulletin informed Canadian law officers: "If located, advise immediately
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Vancouver subdivision."
There was no indication how the man entered Canada, but the bulletin was
dated August 14-long enough after the murders for them to have driven from the
Los Angeles area. Police in Edmonton said they had had inquiries about the
suspects from the LAPD.
Vancouver has been described as a major illicit narcotics marketplace in
Canada, with large numbers of young people gathered on the beaches and skid row
section providing a profitable clientele. Rich young Canadians mingled there
with vagabond U.S. hippie-types who left San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury when the
crime-rate their soared.
"There are 3,200 known addicts in Canada," a Vancouver authority reported,
"and 2000 are in the Vancouver area."
However, Canadian authorities said they had no records for the four men
listed in the RCMP bulletin. It was considered possible they were Los Angeles
area men with links in the Vancouver narcotics underworld.
Harrigan is the first person listed by police as a suspect in the case since
the release last Monday of William E. Garretson, the nineteen-year-old
caretaker, at the Tate-Polanski home. Police said the youth was arrested because
he was the only survivor of the murders at the secluded estate of the actress
and her director husband.
Garretson, who has returned to his home at Lancaster, Ohio, told the Times by
telephone Sunday, that he did not know any of the four men mentioned in the RCMP
bulletin.
Killed with Miss Tate, Frykowski and Miss Folger were Hollywood hair stylist
Jay Sebring, 35, and eighteen-year-old Steven parent, an acquaintance of
Garretson.
The 26-year-old actress had been in Europe until a month ago, when she
returned to the home to await the birth of her first child. Polanski, who had
asked Frykowski to care for the home while they were away, remained in Europe,
and was in London when he learned of the crime.
