A New Look at Cielo Drive:
Front Porch Part I
“The madman is a dreamer awake” — Sigmund Freud
“Even if I have never been in the Gotham Bank!” — Charles Manson*
Being fortunate enough to have found the brightest and most persevering minds on the subject of the Tate killings, I feel compelled to bring our findings to a broader audience. Having had so many theories and themes explored, the appeal of sharing what has turned into a life quest for so many is irresistible.
So, first things first, and the first place that Bugliosi and Gentry describe blood in the book, “Helter Skelter” is the front porch. There was a lot of blood and the evidence that it belonged to Sharon Tate and Jay Sebring seems irrefutable. Given the amounts of blood or lack thereof, inside the house, we can surmise that Sebring bled out on the front porch. Sharon seems to have been bleeding next to the outside wall, possibly keeling or leaning on it. Given the close proximity to the wall and the manner of distribution of droplets, it appears reasonable to conclude that she was either pushed or held there while bleeding profusely.
This, of course, is never fully investigated in Helter Skelter. In fact, the authors go out of their way to muddy the waters, writing: “(W)e called Joe Granado of SID. Joe was to testify to the blood samples he had taken. Joe wasn’t on the stand very long. He’d forgotten his notes and had to go get them… Although I liked Joe as a person, as a witness he left much to be desired. He appeared very disorganized; couldn’t pronounce many of the technical terms of his trade; often gave vague, inconclusive answers. Granado’s failure to take samples from many of the spots, as well as his failure to run subtypes on many of the samples he had taken, didn’t exactly add to his impressiveness. I was particularly concerned about his having taken so few samples from the two pools of blood outside the front door (“I took a random sampling; then I assumed the rest of it was the same”) and his failure to test the blood on the bushes next to the porch (“At the time, I guess, I assumed all of the blood was of similar origin”). My concern here was that those samples he had taken matched in type and subtype the blood of Sharon Tate and Jay Sebring, although there was no evidence that either had run out the front door. While I could argue to the jury that the killers, or Frykowski himself, had tracked out the blood, I could foresee the defense using this to cast doubt on Linda’s story, so I asked Joe: “You don’t know if the random sampling is representative of the blood type of the whole area here?” A. “That is correct. I would have had to scoop everything up.” Helter Skelter pg. 43.
Nice scapegoating, Vince. Let’s just dismiss the evidence, shall we? i don’t think so…
A simple glance at the blood where Sebring was found reveals a decidedly insufficient quantity of blood to have caused his demise. His, or Sharon’s “O” type blood must have been the spots on the steamer trunks. Always debatable, of course, but the crime scene pictures show clear proof that Sebring was not laying in a pool of blood large enough to warrant the assumption that he exsanguinated there.
“I have a question for our group. Why would Bugs (Bugliosi) have to invent such a b.s. narrative when the truth could have won the case just as well? I’m talking about the scene on the front porch again.” Claire, member and moderator of our Facebook group, Advanced Helter Skelter Forum.
This is an extremely pertinent question that goes right to the heart of the matter. Why go through the trouble of picking up or dragging Sharon and Jay from the front porch? Here is a modern “Blood Map”, which I have altered by placing the two bodies over the front porch bloodstains. This is not to scale, of course, and very open to some debate, but it’s an example of the obstacle course it must have been to carry or drag Sharon and Jay through the front door and into the neatly staged living room rope-and-towel scene we know so well.
I wrote to the group: The bootprints! It just came to me as I had my eyes closed. The 3 bloody footprints and half a heel print…Why? Why would there be a “boot heel print in blood”, if the prints lead into the house?
Just a heel?
Because he was walking backwards! If that was the guy that was pulling Sharon up, he must have been going back, rocked on his heel, and then took her into the house…My contention is that she was trying to help Jay get up and someone came up behind her and stabbed her. I never thought of the heelprint being a backstep but I see a whole different scenario now…
Carl, mod and member of the group:” Wow, Steve…that’s great stuff about the heel prints!
Does anyone have a cleaner version of that top doorway blood pic than the one I’m posting? THIS one is a scan of an old photograph. See the giant staple in the upper right? I toyed with the color a bit, but it’s still blurry.”
This picture took us on a whole different trail. More about that soon. Why do I suggest that Jay was laying on the front porch and Sharon helping him up? there is a bloody handprint there. IF it was Sebring’s right hand, I could make a 3D model of the body to fit within it and show the most likely anatomical position visually. This is what I came up with:
From another perspective, the spot where this would have taken place would be to the lower right. Compare the men on the left. It would have been a tight squeeze. Sharon’s blood was found under the lamp on the left, her bloodied hair ribbon nearby, Jay’s near the last beam:
The killers had no fear and apparently in no hurry at the scene. When did this take place? It was, by all accounts a hot, humid, and quiet night. And there seems to be a lot to be accounted for between 9:45 pm, Friday, August 8, 1969, when the foursome was seen leaving the El Coyote restaurant and 8:30 am the next morning when Winnie Chapman, the maid found the bodies.
Tom O’Neill writes in his book, “CHAOS: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties”: For a year, I’d been hearing a rumor from people inside and outside the case: that Manson had visited the Cielo house after the murders, that he’d gone back with someone unknown to rearrange the scene. This would’ve accounted for discrepancies in the positions of the bodies: the killers left them one way, and the police found them in another. There were pools of Tate’s and Sebring’s blood on the front porch, splatters on the walkway and the bushes. But according to the killers, neither Tate nor Sebring had ever left the living room, where they died. The coroner described blood smears on Tate’s body, as if she’d been dragged — again, never mentioned by the killers.”
Something wasn’t adding up. Manson had no control of the coroner, but someone pulled the strings on the killings and had been manipulating the narrative for a long time. And still does.
What if there was a smoking gun right before our eyes? Clues that, because of the graphic nature of the crimes, no one had observed before. Why are the files being altered in the strangest ways? Carl from the group found many odd discrepancies in the pictures. Courtney and I have also made some major discoveries that point in the direction of who could have scripted the scene from beginning to post-trial.
And recently, we have strange tampering with photographs. Observe the one below. One of our members has a link to the real picture, to be revealed in Part II of our series. The handling of the picture is clumsy at best. But wait, there’s more.
Look at her face closely. It’s been “demonized”. Given a sublime, creepy, and evil look. I was pretty shocked when scrutinizing this picture and seeing the close up:
There are still far more questions than answers to this case and there is a lot of ground to cover. In Part II we will continue the porch analysis as well as continue down other mysterious paths in this puzzling case.
At the end of the trial, as the defense, who had no opening or closing statements, never having called a single witness was called to rest, Bugliosi began his summation. This prompted Manson his utter his famous remark: “The defense never rested…”. But what he went on to say next is something that I hope someone will explain to me. It’s weird, even by Manson standards:
DEFENDANT MANSON: Even if I have never been in the Gotham Bank!
Now, that is just strange. I’d be grateful for anyone who deciphers it for me. I’ll leave you with the “giraffe” picture, shown to me by Courtney a moderator, which I broke down. It’s really bad photoshop, actually kind of funny, in a bittersweet way.
*Addendum: Barb made a good connection: Batman. Manson may have been referring to the infamous Batman show, and the episode “The Bat’s Kow Tow” where Jay Sebring aka Mr.Oceanbring made a brief appearance.
The porch scene has many more pictures and threads to come. Stay tuned for more analysis, here, on Facebook and Youtube. On behalf of the group and myself, I hope we passed the audition…Cheers! Steve Sumner
