Polanski Believes Wife Was Asleep When Slayings Began
Condition Of Bed And That The Blood Was Found In Bedroom Cited
As Reasons In Interview Given By Miss Tate's Mate
August 25, 1969
Film director Roman Polanski thinks that his wife, actress
Sharon Tate, was asleep when the killing started at the Benedict Canyon home, it
was reported Sunday.
Polanski was quoted as saying in this week's Life magazine that when he
inspected the home August 17 the condition of her bed-slept in on one side,
pillows piled alongside-suggested she had retired August 8 when someone awakened
her.
"She must’ve been awakened by a sound and got up," Polanski was quoted as
saying. He based his opinion on the fact that there were blood stains in the
door leading from the bedroom to the living room, "they hit her here," he
said-and others leading back through the bedroom toward a door leading outside.
"She tried to get out of the door, they dragged her into the living room, and
killed her there," Polanski said.
Miss Tate and Jay Sebring were killed in the living room of the home. Voyteck
Frykowski and Abigail Folger were found dead on a lawn outside, and a young
friend of the estate's caretaker was found dead in his car in the driveway.
Police believe the slayings took place early August 9.
The Life magazine article quoted Polanski as saying of Frykowski "I should
have thrown him out when he ran over Sharon's dog." Frykowski, a known drug-user
who some feel attracted the killer to the Tate home, ran over Miss Tate's
Yorkshire terrier in the driveway of the home a few weeks before the murders.
Polanski made a 15-minute statement to newsmen before he left Los
Angeles-reportedly for Florida and the Bahamas-but he did not speak of his
theories of the murders. He said the Life magazine writer, Thomas Thompson,
accompanied him to his home because he was a personal friend. Thompson wrote the
Life peace, which was accompanied by photographs of Polanski and the scene of
the crime.
Polanski was in Europe at the time of the murders. Frykowski and Miss Folger
had been staying at the home while Polanski and Miss Tate were away. They
remained there after Miss Tate returned home to await the birth of a child.
Miss Folger, a 26-year old Radcliffe graduate, left an estate of $530,000; it
was disclosed in a petition for probate filed in San Francisco. She was the
heiress to the Folger coffee fortune. She left no will.
