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Sharon Tate saw the Man who Ordered Her Murder

H Allegra Lansing
4 min readJan 29, 2023

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Five months before, she saw Charles Manson at her home

In February 1969, actress Sharon Tate and her husband, Polish film director Roman Polanski, rented a three bedroom luxury home in the Hollywood Hills at 10050 Cielo Drive. Sharon had just learned that she was pregnant with her first child. Six months later, she was dead at the hands of several killers who were part of the cult known as the Manson Family.

Sharon Tate, photographed by Terry O’Neill

Two weeks after Roman and Sharon moved in, they threw a housewarming party. Several celebrities were in attendance including Warren Beatty and Tony Curtis. And an old Polish friend of Roman’s was also there. His name was Wojciech Frykowski and he and his girlfriend, Abigail Folger (a social worker and heir to the Folgers coffee fortune) were living in the Laurel Canyon area. But Roman, concerned about his wife while he was leaving on a film shoot, asked Wojciech and Abigail (known as Gibbie) to stay at the Cielo Drive home. They would keep an eye on Sharon while she was there, and after she left in March for her own film shoot, they would keep an eye on the property.

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H Allegra Lansing
H Allegra Lansing

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