by Jeff Guinn
It was a restless time for the Family. To harness their nervous energy, and to hone survival skills, Charlie assembled small squads of followers and took them out nights “creepy-crawling.” The object was to silently enter houses without alerting the people sleeping inside. The Family members stealthily moved furniture and other items from one place to another, and then left as quietly as they had come. In the morning, victims would wake up and realize from their rearranged possessions that someone had broken into their homes and gotten away. Their consternation would be even greater when they discovered nothing had been stolen—so why had these mystery intruders come at all? Most of the Family’s creepy-crawls took place near Spahn Ranch, but sometimes they ranged all the way into upscale neighborhoods, once even creepy-crawling the Bel Air home of the Mamas and the Papas’ John and Michelle Phillips. It was a great mind game to play on people, and the Family enjoyed it. They were also proving to themselves that they could get into any house, anywhere, anytime.
In mid-March, Charlie received word that Terry Melcher would finally come to hear him perform some of his songs. Charlie had been keeping everyone busy preparing for Helter Skelter, but a cataclysmic race war paled compared to Charlie finally getting a record deal. All of his followers were ordered to drop everything else and prepare for Melcher’s visit. Because most of them still did not realize how much Charlie was obsessed with becoming the most famous rock star ever, they were puzzled why he was making such a big deal out of a Melcher drop-in. After all, he’d been there before, though not lately. But the men spiffed up the movie set and scraped away the mounds of horse manure and rotting hay that might offend the nose of their visitor. The women were ordered to bake cookies and cakes and other special non-garbage-run treats in case Melcher felt hungry. Charlie personally prepared as never before—this was it, the moment when it was going to happen for him. He bathed, and washed and trimmed his hair. Then he dressed in his special clothes. A few weeks earlier, Charlie had informed the women that he wanted a shirt and pants fashioned from deer skins and held together with leather lacings. The buckskin outfit would represent the Family’s commitment to going back to the land. Nobody else was to have deerskin clothing yet—maybe everyone else could when they were sufficiently enlightened. Because Charlie refused to allow animals to be killed, the deerskins were bought from a supplier at considerable cost, but the clothes were going to be Charlie’s so expense was not a factor. That deer still had to die for their skins to be available for purchase was one of those apparent contradictions between what Charlie preached and practiced, but he’d taught everyone that in these cases it was their mistake, not his. When the deerskins arrived at Spahn, the women discovered that they had to be softened and stretched before they could be sewn. They went through a laborious process of rubbing in oils and then stretching the skins along the sides of ranch buildings before fashioning serviceable, even attractive, buckskins for Charlie. He put them on before Melcher was scheduled to arrive; they would be one more reminder to the somewhat jaded producer that in Charlie he had a charismatic original. Charlie had everything planned down to the smallest detail: When the time came for the audition, Charlie would be with his guitar here, the women who would provide backup vocals would stand here, Melcher would be seated in just the right place to appreciate the performance. Once everything was ready everyone gathered at the ranch gate to greet Melcher, but he never showed up.
• • •
Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate loved living at Cielo. They did some redecorating but left a lot of things in place, including a string of Christmas lights that Candy Bergen had wound around the rail fence that circled the property. At night the colorful bulbs twinkled against a background of black sky, bright stars, and even brighter lights from the massive city below.
The new tenants threw a memorable housewarming party. John Phillips remembered it as “one of those everyone-is-here-tonight affairs.” If Tate’s credentials as an actress were thin, she was such a nice person that even the snobbiest show business celebrities were charmed by her. Many other parties followed, some formal and many impromptu. Polanski was away a lot, and Tate would spontaneously invite friends to come for dinner or just to sit and talk. Much of her conversation concerned her pregnancy; Tate couldn’t wait to be a mother.
Roman Polanski’s reputation for wild living soon lent itself to innuendo about activities at Cielo. But the effect wasn’t negative. If anything, the widespread, but unsubstantiated, gossip added to the reputation of Polanski and Tate as one of Hollywood’s most glamorous, trendy couples.
It was easier now for outsiders to get past Cielo’s electronic gate than it had been when Terry Melcher lived there. Tate simply wasn’t as guarded; besides, she was seldom home alone. Even when Polanski was away, there were friends with her all the time, quite often celebrity hair stylist Jay Sebring, who had been Tate’s boyfriend before she left him for Polanski. After the breakup they stayed close. Voytek Frykowski, who’d known Polanski back in their native Poland, was a frequent Cielo visitor, too. He would bring along his girlfriend, Abigail Folger, known to her friends as Gibby. With her personal fortune assured—the Folger family owned the coffee company of the same name—Gibby served as a volunteer social worker for the Los Angeles County Welfare Department. She was one of the investors in Jay Sebring’s salons. Frykowski was less well heeled and certainly less philanthropic than Folger. It appeared that he lived off his girlfriend, and according to subsequent police reports “he used cocaine, mescaline, LSD, marijuana [and] hashish in large amounts.” But Frykowski was Polanski’s oldest friend, and that made him Sharon Tate’s friend, too. Rudi Altobelli was very fond of Tate, and liked spending time with her. So did Iranian native Shahrokh Hatami, Tate’s personal photographer. Hatami, Sebring, Frykowski, and Folger were with Sharon at the main house and Altobelli was out in the guest cottage on Sunday, March 23, when an uninvited visitor arrived.
Charlie was furious when Terry Melcher failed to audition him at Spahn as promised. The insult was bad enough—Charlie was a huge talent, so how dare some producer, even a famous one like Melcher, treat him like that? But beyond the blow to Charlie’s ego, Melcher’s no-show embarrassed him in front of the Family. Charlie’s power over his followers depended in large part on them believing him to be the wisest person anywhere, probably Jesus reincarnated and, according to Charlie’s sermons to them, the future ruler of the post–Helter Skelter world. It was always a matter of Charlie’s Will Be Done; whatever he wanted to happen, had to. He could not be seen to fail, and Charlie slipped when he allowed everyone to see how important Melcher’s promised audition was to him. His iron control of the Family might diminish or even disappear as a result. The solution was to find Terry Melcher and make him get out to Spahn right away, so the Family could see for themselves that nobody reneged on a promise to Charlie Manson. So Charlie went out to find him.
Charlie didn’t have time to set up an appointment with Melcher at Columbia. That might take weeks, even if Charlie could somehow talk his way past snippy secretaries and assistants. He couldn’t hope to run into Melcher at some A-list party and ask what had happened. Charlie wasn’t invited to those kinds of parties anymore. The best, quickest way for Charlie to confront Melcher was to go to Cielo. Sure, the guy had made it clear that he didn’t want Charlie at his house, but so what? For Charlie, everything hung in the balance—the record deal he craved, the ongoing obedience of the Family. He’d risk Melcher’s wrath by coming to his home uninvited. Melcher might be so angry that he’d turn his back on Charlie forever, but the risk was worth it. Besides, Charlie had great faith in his ability to convince anyone to do anything he wanted.
On March 23, Shahrokh Hatami looked out of a main house window at Cielo and saw someone walking in the yard. Hatami went out onto the porch for a better look. The fellow was short with long hair. He didn’t look very special, but Hatami was annoyed because he acted like he owned the place. Hatami asked what he wanted and the interloper said that he was
looking for someone. He mentioned a name that Hatami didn’t recognize—the photographer wasn’t part of the Terry Melcher–Dennis Wilson rock ’n’ roll crowd. Hatami wanted the man gone, but there was always a chance that he was one of Rudi’s friends, and Altobelli was in the guesthouse just down a small dirt pathway. “This is the Polanski residence,” Hatami said. He said maybe whoever the man was looking for was at the guesthouse, and gestured toward it, adding that he should take “the back alley” or dirt path. Sharon Tate heard the voices and stepped out onto the porch, asking, “Who is it, Hatami?” From a distance of about six feet, she and Charlie Manson stared at each other. Then Charlie went down the dirt path to the cottage and Hatami and Tate went back inside the main house.
Rudi Altobelli was in the shower when his dog began barking. He put on a robe, opened his door, and saw Charlie on his porch. Charlie started to introduce himself, but Altobelli interrupted: “I know who you are, Charlie. What do you want?” Charlie said he was looking for Melcher and Altobelli said that Melcher had moved. Charlie wanted to know where. Altobelli, who hadn’t been impressed with Charlie the few times he’d met him, lied and said that he didn’t know. Altobelli hoped Charlie would go away, but instead he tried to draw Altobelli into further conversation, asking what he did for a living. That annoyed Altobelli even more; Charlie knew very well that he was an agent—he’d tried to get Altobelli to sign him as a client after listening to tapes of some of his songs. The guy was a no-talent and Altobelli had no interest in wasting more time talking to him on the cottage porch. “I’d like to talk to you longer, Charlie,” he said, “but I’m leaving the country tomorrow and have to pack.” It was true—Altobelli and Tate were flying to Rome in the morning. Polanski was working on a movie there.
Charlie still lingered. Altobelli asked why he’d come back to the guest cottage, and Charlie said he’d been sent there by the people in the main house. Altobelli said that he didn’t like his tenants to be disturbed, and Charlie shouldn’t do it in the future. Then Charlie finally stalked off.
During their flight to Rome, Tate asked Altobelli, “Did that creepy-looking guy come back [to see you] yesterday?”
Charlie kept trying to contact Melcher, telling every mutual acquaintance that he was trying to get in touch. He had everyone at Spahn return to preparing for Helter Skelter. The main focus was on getting more dune buggies. The Family was able to barter for or buy some, and they stole others. Charlie, Tex, and a few of the other men brokered drug deals with the bikers. Bobby Beausoleil came around again; he had a new girlfriend named Kitty Lutesinger, who was pregnant. Charlie allowed a few new members to join the Family, notably an old prison pal and master forger currently calling himself Bill Vance, and a teenage girl named Barbara Hoyt, who’d run away from home at nearby Canoga Park. Vance was assigned to craft fake driver’s licenses and other forms of identification, and Hoyt became a baby-sitting mainstay. With Sandy Good expecting, as well as Lutesinger, child care was becoming more of a priority. Charlie kept encouraging all the female Family members to get pregnant. It was the best way to begin expanding the group to the 144,000 foretold in Revelation. When they reached that number, the Family would emerge to take over the world. Every baby counted.
One of Little Paul Watkins’s ongoing responsibilities was to seek out potential donors, and in April he connected with Charles Melton. Melton, who lived hippie-style in Topanga Canyon, had recently inherited a large amount of money and already given half away to various causes. Watkins brought Melton to Spahn and showed him around. Melton didn’t hand over any cash, but he was intrigued by what he saw. Tex Watson wandered over and admired Melton’s beard, saying, “Maybe Charlie will let me grow a beard someday.” Charlie’s word still was law among the Family; his control extended to his male followers’ facial hair.
Rudi Altobelli kept his promise to Polanski and Tate by hiring a fill-in caretaker to stay at Cielo whenever he was away. Nineteen-year-old William Garretson had come to L.A. from Ohio, and he was already planning to return home sometime soon. Altobelli told the kid that if he would be on call to stay in the guest cottage whenever Altobelli was out of town, he’d pay him $35 a week to take care of the dogs and cats and generally keep an eye on things. Sometimes Altobelli’s tenants might be home while Garretson was there, and he shouldn’t bother them. Whenever Garretson decided it was time to return to Ohio, Altobelli would also pay for his plane ticket. It was a good deal for Garretson and he took it.
Sometime in April, Voytek Frykowski and Abigail Folger moved into the main house at Cielo. Polanski and Tate were going to be overseas for a while—Tate wanted to spend as much time there with her husband as she could before her pregnancy advanced to the point where her obstetrician would forbid her to fly. Even though Tate trusted Rudi Altobelli implicitly and knew he’d hired a caretaker, she still felt better having friends staying in her home when she wasn’t there. When she was at home and Polanski was away, Frykowski and Folger could keep her company. They were apparently working through a tough time in their relationship. Folger had just given up her volunteer job with the county. They were welcome at Cielo for as long as they wanted to stay.
On April 19, deputies of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office raided Spahn. There had been reports of hippies stealing dune buggies, and dune buggies had been spotted on the ranch. Some of the vehicles the officers impounded were stolen, but the Family had pink slips for several others. The deputies arrested the Family members present at the time—Leslie and a few others; Charlie wasn’t there—and charged them with grand theft auto. It was an empty gesture. There was no way to prove who had actually stolen the dune buggies, or whether the people working on them at the ranch had any knowledge that they were stolen. The charges were dropped a few days later. The Family’s dune buggy fleet was depleted, so they simply stole some more. No one was intimidated by the arrests. Charlie had anticipated all along that there might be raids, and told everyone how to act if they were arrested. No one was to admit to committing any crimes because, after all, there was really no such thing as crime. Above all, they should never mention Helter Skelter or the bottomless pit in the desert, because then the cops would think they were nuts and send them to mental hospitals where people would zap their brains with electricity. None of them, Charlie warned, wanted that.
Charlie also explained to his followers that if he was ever arrested, whether he was in custody for a few days or for years he would act like “Crazy Charlie,” ranting nonsensical things until his captors grew so frustrated that they eventually would just let him go. But the Family shouldn’t be taken in—it was just a trick Charlie would be playing on the Man for however long it took.
Four days after the county raided Spahn Ranch, Tex Watson was arrested in Van Nuys for being under the influence of drugs in public. Somebody at the ranch had a chunk of belladonna root, a potent hallucinogen, and Tex gulped some down. The next thing he knew, he was slithering on his hands and knees on a Van Nuys sidewalk, muttering “Beep, beep.” The police took him to the station, snapped his mug shot and took his fingerprints before locking him in a cell until he was coherent enough to leave. It wasn’t considered a serious crime—in April 1969 people high on drugs in public were common in L.A. and its suburbs. Tex went back to the ranch, but some of the Family thought the belladonna must have had a lingering effect on him. Before, Tex had always been calm and sweet-natured. Now he seemed gruffer, even mean at times, and bossy in a way that he had never been before. He suddenly seemed to consider himself Charlie’s right-hand man and the Family’s surrogate leader whenever Charlie wasn’t at Spahn. Phil Kaufman, encountering post-belladonna Tex, was so irritated by his pushy new attitude that he punched him in the face. Some of the women in the Family felt afraid of Tex. But Charlie wasn’t concerned. A rougher, tougher Tex Watson might come in handy somewhere down the line.
Bobby Beausoleil stayed around much longer than usual. He had his own hopes of becoming a rock star, and if Charlie could get the deal with Terry
Melcher that he kept talking about, maybe he could put in a word to Melcher on Beausoleil’s behalf. So he hung out at the ranch, and Charlie kept sending word that he wanted to hear from Melcher. Finally, around the second week of May, Melcher responded. He’d come to Spahn to hear Charlie perform his songs on May 18. Melcher didn’t apologize for standing Charlie up before, but he promised that this time he’d come without fail. Charlie was finally getting his shot. For the second time he ordered the Family to put aside their Helter Skelter responsibilities and concentrate instead on making certain that everything was perfect for Melcher’s visit. He made the women rehearse with him virtually nonstop; they were instructed not only to sing on the choruses but also to strip and dance provocatively to the music. Melcher would experience not only aural but visual delight. Charlie knew how to set scenes to elicit the response that he wanted. How could Melcher not be overwhelmed? Nothing would go wrong this time. Charlie was about to get the recording deal and then the fame he deserved.
