Helter Skelter Tour

My friend and fellow Shirley Temple admirer Melissa’s (aka “The Colonel”) trip to Hollywood wasn’t all about Shirley. No...we took a bit of a detour and checked out the Helter Skelter tour given by Scott Michaels. If you were alive during the 60s, “Helter Skelter” needs no explanation. It was the name of a song by the Beatles and also a term referring to an apocalyptic war arising from racial tensions between blacks and whites used by the criminally brainwashing Charles Manson. The brutal murders committed by Manson’s gang spread fear throughout Los Angeles and caused many a window to be sealed by metal bars.

Our tour began at the Dearly Departed Office/Museum on Santa Monica Boulevard. Candles honoring famous dead legends could be found on the shelf.



A road marker from the site where James Dean fatally crashed his Porsche:



Our tour guide, Scott:



While those who thrived in the 80s may remember this location as the exterior used in “Melrose Place,” those who lived during the 60s might remember it better as the place where Rose LaBianca’s daughter, Suzan Struthers/, lived. Years later, Suzan testified for the parole of Tex Watson, the man who killed her parents. Not for any of the other Manson-zombies...just Tex. BTW: Tex lived about 200 feet away from Suzan’s “Melrose Place” apartment; coincidence?



The wall in front of the LaBianca home where it all happened:



At the time of the murders, photo from The Manson Blog:



Along the way we passed the 1930 Cedars of Lebanon Hospital on Fountain Avenue, located near the Paramount Studios lot. This is the place where Marilyn Monroe had her appendix removed in 1952. Apparently she taped a note to her abdomen asking the doctor to cut as little as possible: "I know it seems vain…please do whatever you can to prevent large scars." Once, when Elizabeth Taylor was staying on the fifth floor, Richard Burton had Chasen's send over dinner as well as a pair of the restaurant's tuxedoed violinists to play. Now THAT’S love!



Cedars is also the birthplace of Manson disciple and murderer Patricia Krenwinkel (thanks Scott for sending this!):



In 1976, The Cedars of Lebanon Hospital moved out of this building into a new hospital complex near Beverly Hills, becoming Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Today the old Cedars of Lebanon building is now the Church of Scientology. Yikes.



The El Coyote Mexican Restaurant, location of Sharon Tate’s last meal before being brutally murdered along with her unborn baby by the Manson gang. At the time of the murders, the restaurant staff could recall very little about Tate’s visit; today they know exactly which booth she sat in.



A rest stop at the Farmers Market located in the Grove Shopping Center on Fairfax.



In the Taschen bookstore, Melissa snapped me next to the recently released Disneyland coffee table book, “Walt Disney's Disneyland” that Taschen published:



See my name in the credits?



The CBS studios are located next door:



Back to the tour. The Chateau Marmont hotel on Sunset; my favorite spot as well as the former home to Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski.



Room 54 is where the couple lived from February 1968 until February 1969, when the pregnant Sharon wanted to move into a house. “If it weren’t for the baby, we would stay. But I want my little boy or girl to be born in a house, not in a hotel.”



The couple posed for photographer Terry O’Neill on November 3, 1968; the photo is not labeled as being shot at the Marmont, but the distinctive window hardware is a match:



Cielo Drive in Benedict Canyon, where Tate was murdered along with her friend and former lover Jay Sebring, a noted hairstylist; Polanski's friend and aspiring screenwriter Wojciech Frykowski; and Frykowski's lover Abigail Folger, heiress to the Folger coffee fortune.



The home that Tate and Polanski rented is no longer there; it was replaced by this monstrosity:



An alternate view of Benedict Canyon:



The tour was pretty damn amazing. The amount of information that Michaels has amassed is incredible. As you can imagine, given the subject, this tour is not for the faint of heart. It does take you back to the 1960s and provides a vivid depiction of what the times were like and how the Manson murders changed things forever. Highly recommended.

See more Helter Skelter tour photos at my main website.