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Q Plank? A Yes. Q Is he still in the service now? A Yes, he's still in the service. Q As far as you know, where is he? A In the brig, probably. Q Where? A I don't know. He might not even be in the brig; he might be in the hospital because he had a pin in his leg from his knee to his hip from a motorcycle accident (*) in Ohio. Q Have you been to a doctor for anything in the last month? A No. Q As far as you know, how is your health? A Perfect. It's in excellent condition. Q Did you take any medications, tranquilizers, cold tablets, or anything like this in the last day or so? A Well, Thursday, the last time I had was four cans of beer. I had, you know, I had the gardener buy it for me because I'm not of age. In Ohio you could be 18, you know, and out here you've got to be 21 to buy it. Q Who is the gardener? A Tom and Dave, they're brothers. Q Tom and Dave what? A I can't remember their last name. Page 12 Q They're brothers? A Yes. Q And they're the gardeners. How often do they come up to work? A They just visit about twice a week. Q When was the last time they were there? A Well, the last time, see Tom came up, he brought some girl up with him, you know, and that was Thursday. That was when I had him buy the beer. It was last Wednesday, Thursday. Q Did they use your pad? A Yes. Yes, they did, and I drank some beer while they made out. Q You ever been to or referred to a psychiatrist? A No. Q You been arrested for Possession? A Yes. Q What else? A Well, back in Ohio, I got--I don't know if it would be a misdemeanor or what; it was, uh, Contributing to the Delinquency of a Minor. That was when I just turned 18; and, well what the story was, I was with this one kid that, you know, I knew, and he went and bought these girls a beer, and I happened to be with him when he was in the store, so I was charged for it. Q How long you been in California now, Bill? Page 13 A Since about the later part of October. Q '68? A Yes. Q Ten months, huh? A Ten months, uh huh. Q Been in the Los Angeles area the same time? A Yes. Q Now, one gardener came up Thursday; is that right? A Yes. Q Who was the girl? A Uh, what's her name--I can't even think of her name. She lived on--I don't know her name. I can't think of it right now. Karen or something like that; I'm not sure But she lives way on the other side of Benedict, you know, in the Valley or something. Q While they used your pad, what did you do? A I drank some beer. Q Where? A In the living room. Q You make out with her, too? A No. Q Huh? A No. Q Did he do any gardening that day? A I don't know. He came out about, see, you know, in the afternoon; but I mean he also came up at night, and he Page 14 brought up his girl friend. Q He had been up there Thursday afternoon, then he came back again Thursday night? A Thursday night with his girl. Q With his girl? A Yeah. Q Did you know they were coming? A Well, they usually--well, you know, that's--I don't know if I should even tell you, but he's married, you know. Q Uh huh. A And he brought her up there several other times, you know, on Thursday when his wife lets him go out. Q How about his brother? A Well, his brother has never-been up there. Q He doesn't use your pad? A Well, he parked on the side of that gate and, you know, I came out and I see him parked outside of the gate before with a girl or something; that's it. Q Why does he come up there to park? A Well, he only did a few times. About twice. Q Why? A I don't know. It's quiet there and everything. Q You have seen him there? A Yeah, I seen him there once--well, I seen him there once, and he said he's been up there before; and he's also married. Page 15 Q What kind of a car does he have? A A Mustang. Q He was in his Mustang with a girl out by the gate? A Well, no, nothing--not that night. Q No, but he has; that's when you saw him? A Yes. Q He's never asked to use your pad? A No. Q But his brother has? Has used it? A Well, he asked me if he could bring his girl up, you know, and I said, "Yeah." And I had him buy me some beer, you know, and I just sat in the living room and drank beer and listened to the stereo. Q How long were they there? A They were there for about--maybe two hours. Q Okay, now what's brought you here today. Now, tell me what you know, what you heard, what you believe, what has occurred; and you know that what you tell me, I'm going to in effect determine whether or not you're truthful. A Yes. Q With this test. A Yes. Q I hope you are truthful with me. A Yes. Q Tell me everything you can think of, even something Page 16 like this bit here, well, one guy's married and he brings his girl friend up to your pad. It may or may not fit in. I don't know. All I'm saying is tell me and don't hold things back like that because they're going to bother you, and then we re going to have to dig them out. A Yes. Q You know what I mean, they're just going to create some problems, and I'm--I can say that when they create problems, it makes my job more difficult and I like to work as less as--as little as possible; so if you tell me a truthful story now, then this is going to show you're truthful and that's about the end of it. But if you hold things back, then it's going to make my job more difficult. So tell me what you know, what you've heard, what you suspect what's happened. A You mean what happened the night of-- Q All of it, from the beginning to end as best you know. A Okay, well, I--well, I stayed at home, you see, that whole day. Q I can't--I can't hear you. A I stayed at home that whole day. Q That whole day? A That was Friday. I stayed home. Q Okay, this is Sunday; you're speaking of last Friday? Page 17 A Yes. Q Okay, you stayed around the house all day Friday. This is after what, Dave and his girlfriend had spent the night, part of the night? A They didn't spend the night; they spent two hours there, you know, Thursday night. Q What time did they leave? A About 12:30, one o'clock. Q Early Friday morning they left? A Yes. Q Okay, go on. A Then, well anyway, I got sick that night, Thursday, because I was drinking that beer and I really got sick; and Mr. Altabelli called Thursday night, you know. And so I stayed home all day Friday, and I cleaned up the house a little bit and did the dishes and everything; and they came around about 8:30, nine o'clock, somewhere around there. And I went to go get something to eat, and I went down on the Strip; I had something down there, and I could see her light all the way down from Cielo--not Cielo, but Benedict Canyon, all the way down to the Strip. Then I went to Turner's Drug Store; I got a TV dinner and a coke and a pack of cigarettes, and I don't know if I got any gum or not. I know I got that, and I stayed on the Strip for, you know, I just walked--well, before I got that, I walked down, you know, walked down once and walked back up, you know, and Page 18 usually the same thing, nothing worth saying; so I got that stuff, then I hitchhiked back up to--I hitchhiked back up-all the way up to Benedict, Benedict Canyon from Sunset, and then I stayed on Benedict Canyon. I hitchhiked up to Cielo, then I walked--you know, I had to walk all the way up Cielo to Bella to get to my place, up the hill, and I just went there and I think maybe ten o'clock I got there, maybe later; I don't know. You know, I wasn't paying too much about it. It was around probably more than likely about ten o'clock, and I watched some TV, not very much; and I watched some show about some woman and some lover-- I wasn't paying too much attention to it, and I put the TV dinner in the oven, and then while, you know, that was cooking, you know, I was eating some potato chips and drinking all that pop I was watching TV a little bit. And about a quarter of twelve or something like that, Steve came up and, you know, he brought his radio with him. He had a radio, clock radio; and I didn't expect him or anything, and he came up and asked me how I've been and everything, you know, and I told him all right. And he asked me if I had been living by myself and everything; and I said, "Yeah," and he asked me who the two girls were inside the main house, and I told him, you know, there was Mrs. Polanski and Abigail Folger. And he went into a big thing, you know, who are they and all that bit, and I had to explain to him. And so he called somebody. I gave him a beer--a can of Budweiser. I asked Page 19 him if he wanted a beer and he drank it, and then--then he called somebody--and somebody on Santa Monica and Doheny, and he said that he would be going there, and so then he left and, you know, that's when--after I ate my TV dinner afterwards and everything after he was gone, and then that's, the last time I saw him. Q Huh? A That's the last time I saw him until they came and got me. Q The last time you what? A Saw Steve. Q Steve? A Yes. Q Until when? A Until that morning or next day. About eleven o'clock. Q Go on. A And that was it. Well, I just--I just stayed inside the house and everything; and I was kind of scared that night. I don't know why, you know, I was kind of scared, and I stayed in the house and everything, and I started to write letters, you know. I started to write some letters to Darrell Kistler and ask him when he was going to come down and visit me and everything. And I--I tried to call--I wanted to know what time it was because, you know, I had quite--you know, Christopher had barked that night Page 20 and everything else, and I wanted to know what time it was. And just before, you know, it got daylight, I called the time and then, you know, I found out the phone was dead and then I went to the room and got another phone, and I plugged it into the wall, and then, you know, to--and there was nothing, and so then I really got kind of worried then, you know, what happened and wasn't giving it too much thought. It wasn't daylight yet because, you know, it was still dark. But it was just beginning to get daylight. And I got kind of, you know, I really got kind of scared then, and then I stayed up until it did get daylight; and when it did get daylight, then I went to sleep and the next thing I knew I woke up and there was an officer pointing a gun at me. Q What? A Another officer came with a rifle and he had it pointed at me, and one of them kicked down the door and that's when Christopher started barking and everything, and they grabbed me and took me out, you know, by the patio and took me down against the wall and handcuffed me, and that was when I kept asking them what was the matter, and they said they'd show me. That's when, you know, we crossed the front yard and I seen these bodies. Q You saw what? A These bodies. Q What did you see? |
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