Abigail Folger - Move To Los Angeles

Move To Los Angeles

In August 1968, both Folger and Frykowski decided to move to Los Angeles. He wanted to pursue his writing career while Folger wanted to get involved with a new welfare project that was currently under way. She rented a car, and she and Frykowski drove across the country.

In Los Angeles, she found a two-story hilltop home to rent at 2774 Woodstock Road for her and Wojciech in Laurel Canyon, and bought a 1968 yellow Firebird. Their neighbor across the road was singer Cass Elliot of the rock group The Mamas & the Papas, whom the couple quickly befriended. Through Frykowski, she met Roman Polanski and his wife, Sharon Tate. Through the Polanskis, Folger and Frykowski were introduced to Jay Sebring. The five quickly began to hang out together and were known to be a part of "the beautiful people crowd" in Hollywood. In a 2006 interview for the History Channel show Our Generation: Death of the Counterculture, Michelle Phillips, also of The Mamas & the Papas, said that she was very good friends with all of the Tate murder victims (presumably excluding Steven Parent) and that it was still hard to talk about the murders.

On March 23, 1969, an incident occurred at 10050 Cielo Drive. That afternoon, Folger and Frykowski went over to the Polanskis' home for a going away dinner party for Tate, who was leaving for Rome the next day. Sebring was there, as well as Tate's friend Shahrokh Hatami, an Iranian photographer. Rudi Altobelli, the owner of the Cielo home, had attended the party briefly, but soon returned to his guest house to pack for his upcoming trip to Europe. The incident involved a strange-looking man who had appeared on the property as the occupants of the house sat in the dining room, which faced the front of the residence. Hatami felt uneasy about this stranger roaming the Polanski estate, so he left the house to confront the man. From the front porch, the party inside could be seen through the large dining room windows. Hatami asked the stranger if he could help him. The stranger said he was looking for someone by the name of Terry Melcher, a name Hatami did not recognize. Hatami made it clear to the stranger that this was the Polanski residence, and suggested that perhaps the person he was looking for lived in the guest house. Later, this stranger was identified as Charles Manson.