Speaker 1: You're listening to Unexplained Season five, episode five, when Love
Speaker 1: Breaks Down, Part two. Please note the following episodes contain
Speaker 1: details of events that some may find disturbing and are
Speaker 1: not suitable for children. Things had been steadily sliding for
Speaker 1: Susan after the death of her mother from cancer when
Speaker 1: Susan was only fourteen, though in truth they'd been sliding
Speaker 1: for some time before that. Susan Atkins was born in
Speaker 1: nineteen forty eight in San Gabriel, California, with one older
Speaker 1: and one younger brother. Her family moved a number of
Speaker 1: times as she was growing up, but were based mainly
Speaker 1: in San Jose, superficially, at least to sid as they
Speaker 1: seemed normal enough. Later, Susan would claim that as a
Speaker 1: young girl, she was sexually abused by a male relative,
Speaker 1: and that both her parents drank heavily. By twelve years old,
Speaker 1: she was shoplifting regularly. Having been brought up to believe
Speaker 1: in God, Her parents alcoholism, and later her mother's painful
Speaker 1: and premature death left her angry and resentful that any
Speaker 1: God would sanction such things. Being left to effectively take
Speaker 1: over her mother's role in the home and having to
Speaker 1: watch her father drink himself into a drunken stupor every
Speaker 1: night only served to harden her sense of injustice. Before long,
Speaker 1: she would find herself secretly frequenting the bars on the
Speaker 1: quieter edges of town, seeking comfort in the alcohol and
Speaker 1: company she found there. Feeling increasingly restless and trapped by
Speaker 1: her predicament, her grades at school began to suffer, and
Speaker 1: after being told she would have to repeat her junior year,
Speaker 1: she made the decision not to go back and headed
Speaker 1: to San Francisco. Despite quickly picking up a job selling
Speaker 1: subscriptions to magazines, her employer neglected to give her a
Speaker 1: steady wage, and before long she was struggling to pay
Speaker 1: her bills. But something else was beginning to bite, a
Speaker 1: deep and profound sense of loneliness, something she was beginning
Speaker 1: to realize had dogged her her whole life. One night,
Speaker 1: Susan attempted suicide by swallowing a bottle of codeine pills,
Speaker 1: claiming later that it was just a cry for help.
Speaker 1: Soon after, she met a guy and together along with
Speaker 1: a friend of his, they embarked on a road trip
Speaker 1: to Oregon for some business he had to attend to
Speaker 1: the business turned out to be an unspecified heist of
Speaker 1: some sort. Rather than being disturbed by the revelation, what
Speaker 1: Susan felt most of all as they sped toward their
Speaker 1: destination was an intense sense of freedom and the sheer
Speaker 1: thrill of it. Not long their journey, however, after holding
Speaker 1: up a number of gas stations, the group were caught
Speaker 1: by highway patrol officers on the lookout for their vehicle, which,
Speaker 1: unbeknownst to Susan, had been stolen. Susan was given three
Speaker 1: months in jail for her part in the operation, and
Speaker 1: afterwards returned to San Jose. A month later, she was
Speaker 1: back in San Francisco, still searching for somewhere to belong,
Speaker 1: and then she discovered lysurgic acid diethylamite, also known as LSD.
Speaker 1: It is a mode of all new generations to examine
Speaker 1: and reevaluate the world left to them by their forebears.
Speaker 1: For nineteen sixties youth in the West, that was a
Speaker 1: world partly characterized by war and control. With its innate
Speaker 1: ability to unravel the mind, LSD provided the perfect tool
Speaker 1: to deconstruct this press reality. Though hallucinogenic drugs were nothing new,
Speaker 1: having long been used by many ancient cultures throughout the world.
Speaker 1: The nature of LST, a synthesized compound of lysurgic acid
Speaker 1: invented in a lab in nineteen thirty eight, made it
Speaker 1: perfect for cheap mass production and consumption. Susan's first trip
Speaker 1: was a nightmare ride, taking it in the company of
Speaker 1: the stranger she had procured it from all sense of
Speaker 1: the world around her quickly dissolved into wild, kaleidoscopic patterns
Speaker 1: and explosions of color. But before long, all sense of
Speaker 1: herself began to dissolve too. As Susan battled the terror
Speaker 1: that she might lose herself forever. The stranger did what
Speaker 1: he could to reassure her, reminding her over and over
Speaker 1: again that she was still Susan and that she was
Speaker 1: not going to disappear. A few weeks after this experience,
Speaker 1: Susan fell in with Barbara and her commune on the
Speaker 1: corner of Oak and Lyons Street. Though warmly accepted by
Speaker 1: the group, Susan continued to be plagued by that abject
Speaker 1: sense of loneliness until the day she met Charlie. After
Speaker 1: listening to him play guitar for the first time. The
Speaker 1: pair had spent the night together a few days later,
Speaker 1: while sat on the curb in hate Ashbury, Charlie attempted
Speaker 1: to explain to her the importance of living in the now.
Speaker 1: To live in the now was to be cleansed of
Speaker 1: the baggage of the past and the expectations of the future.
Speaker 1: It was as pure estate as you could reach. And
Speaker 1: should you ever want for anything, he explained, all you
Speaker 1: have to do is think it and it will be so.
Speaker 1: If you want a quarter, for example, just visualize a quarter.
Speaker 1: A moment later, Susan watched with utter amazement as a
Speaker 1: stranger approached, holding out a quarter and placed it in
Speaker 1: Charlie's hand. When he asked her later that day to
Speaker 1: go with him to Los Angeles, it was as if
Speaker 1: he already knew what she was going to say. Sharon
Speaker 1: and Roman had returned to Los Angeles in early nineteen
Speaker 1: sixty seven after Sharon was offered a part in an
Speaker 1: adaptation of the nineteen sixty six novel Valley of the Dolls,
Speaker 1: while Roman secured a three picture agreement with Paramount Pictures
Speaker 1: in Hollywood. In August, Roman left for New York to
Speaker 1: begin principal photography on the first of these three films,
Speaker 1: an adaptation of the Irah Levin book Rosemary's Baby. The film,
Speaker 1: now regarded as one of the finest psychological horror films
Speaker 1: of all time, follows the story of Rosemary and her
Speaker 1: husband Guy as they prepare for the birth of their
Speaker 1: first child. When their eccentric neighbors take an unusually keen interest,
Speaker 1: Rosemary becomes convinced they are part of a Satanic coven
Speaker 1: intent on stealing it. Without wanting to give too much
Speaker 1: away for those who haven't seen it, the tortured Rosemary
Speaker 1: isn't entirely wrong in her assumptions. At one point, Sharon
Speaker 1: was considered for the lead role of Rosemary, which was
Speaker 1: offered in the end to Mia Pharaoh. Though she was disappointed,
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty seven was still set to be a big
Speaker 1: year for her, with no less than three movies due
Speaker 1: for release at the end of the year. Much to
Speaker 1: Sharon's further disappointment. However, or three films, The Fearless Vampire Killers,
Speaker 1: I of the Devil, and finally, Valley of the Dolls,
Speaker 1: were poorly received, both commercially and critically. The response left Sharon,
Speaker 1: who already felt insecure about her acting abilities, deeply despondent
Speaker 1: and questioning the state of her career prospects. Meanwhile, Roman
Speaker 1: was glowing after wrapping up Rosemary's baby in December, convinced
Speaker 1: he'd captured something special with Sharon, turning her thoughts to
Speaker 1: settling down and perhaps having a baby of their own.
Speaker 1: The couple were married in January the following year, and
Speaker 1: traveled back to Europe to spend a honeymoon. A few
Speaker 1: months previously, Susan, Charlie, and five other young women were
Speaker 1: speeding down Route One inside a black painted bus heading
Speaker 1: toward Los Angeles. Halfway down, the group pulled over to
Speaker 1: admire the golden Californian coastline and dropped acid together. Doing
Speaker 1: it with Charlie was an altogether different experience from Susan's
Speaker 1: first time in San Francisco. Whereas before she'd resisted the
Speaker 1: assault on her sense of self, Charlie urged her to
Speaker 1: embrace it, telling her you must die to self in
Speaker 1: order to become one with the world. Arriving in La
Speaker 1: later that day, the group settled into Panga Canyon, an
Speaker 1: area of rugged country northwest of Santa Monica and home
Speaker 1: to a slew of artists and musicians keen to escape
Speaker 1: the city. Over the next few months, living off the
Speaker 1: charity of others, their lives centered around LSD and marijuana
Speaker 1: and the ceaseless teachings of Charlie, imploring them to shed
Speaker 1: all inhibitions and to forget about yesterday and to morrow,
Speaker 1: and to live only in the eternal now. Sometimes it
Speaker 1: would be the odd lines uttered throughout the day. Other
Speaker 1: times Charlie would give long, intense lectures to drive home
Speaker 1: his point, urging anyone willing to listen, to throw off
Speaker 1: the shackles of the plastic world, even to reject all
Speaker 1: concept of time, since it too was just another meaningless construct.
Speaker 1: And whenever Susan threatened to dip into one of her
Speaker 1: familiar lows, whenever that sense of loneliness gan knocking at
Speaker 1: the door, there was Charlie to remind her. You are beautiful,
Speaker 1: you are perfect, and you must learn to love yourself.
Speaker 1: By the spring of nineteen sixty eight, the tide was
Speaker 1: already turning against the Summer of Love and the optimism
Speaker 1: of the Flower Power generation, as their dreams of bringing
Speaker 1: an expanded consciousness to the wider population was already beginning
Speaker 1: to fade. The war in Vietnam continued to drag on,
Speaker 1: and as the opposition to it became increasingly hostile, so
Speaker 1: too did the government's response to that opposition, metering out
Speaker 1: violent retribution to many who rallied and protested against it.
Speaker 1: In April nineteen sixty eight, after all the gains of
Speaker 1: the civil rights movement, the assassination of Martin Luther King
Speaker 1: Junior was a brutal reminder of the segregationist attitude that
Speaker 1: continued to underpin much of the nation. Then, in June,
Speaker 1: presidential hopeful Robert Kennedy, a long time supporter of civil
Speaker 1: rights who also recognized the folly of persisting with the
Speaker 1: American Vietnam War, was also assassinated, effectively handing that year's
Speaker 1: presidential election to Richard Nixon. Sharon and Roman had dinner
Speaker 1: with Kennedy a few nights before he was murdered. A
Speaker 1: few days later, Roman received the distressing news that Christoph Commoda,
Speaker 1: who composed the score for Rosemary's Baby, had been involved
Speaker 1: in an altercation at a house party and fallen off
Speaker 1: the edge of the property. Commoda was knocked unconscious, sending
Speaker 1: him into a coma from which he would never wake up,
Speaker 1: dying four months later. Some noticed similarities with the accident
Speaker 1: and the fate of a character in Rosemary's Baby, leading
Speaker 1: some to suggest that perhaps the film was cursed. The
Speaker 1: couple's marriage was struggling too, not helped by the discovery
Speaker 1: one night by Sharon and her friends of a set
Speaker 1: of unmarked video tapes belonging to Roman. Putting one on
Speaker 1: out of curiosity, they watched with horror when it became
Speaker 1: clear that they were tapes of Roman having sex with
Speaker 1: another woman. Sharon turned increasingly to her ex boyfriend Jay
Speaker 1: for support, with the pair having remained close since Sharon
Speaker 1: and Roman got together. It was that year also that
Speaker 1: Sharon began work on the Wrecking Crew, during which she
Speaker 1: was interviewed by Hollywood correspondent de Kliner and reminded of
Speaker 1: that horrifying night she'd spent at Jay's house On eastern
Speaker 1: drive back into Panga Canyon. Susan's new family was growing
Speaker 1: larger by the week to include a number of men
Speaker 1: to add to the six women that originally traveled to
Speaker 1: La with Charlie. Sparn Ranch was the perfect solution. Nestled
Speaker 1: in the Santa Susanna Mountains just fifteen kilometers to the north,
Speaker 1: the ranch dressed up to look like an old Western
Speaker 1: film set, had previously been hired out by a number
Speaker 1: of films and TV shows. By nineteen sixty eight, however,
Speaker 1: much like the paint on the various outhouses dotted about
Speaker 1: the place, its glory days had long since faded. When
Speaker 1: Charlie approached branch owner George Sparne, offering to look after
Speaker 1: the maintenance of the property in return for his group
Speaker 1: living there rent free. Sparne, who was eighty years old
Speaker 1: at the time and almost completely blind, was more than
Speaker 1: happy to agree. That he was apparently offered occasional intimate
Speaker 1: time with some of the young women who would be
Speaker 1: living there, only served to sweeten the deal. Shortly before arriving,
Speaker 1: Susan discovered she was pregnant, fearing it might jeopardize her
Speaker 1: position in the group. She was relieved to find that
Speaker 1: Charlie was overjoyed at the prospect, insisting that children were
Speaker 1: the best of them since they were completely pure and
Speaker 1: uncorrupted by the plastic world. Likely due to her drug use,
Speaker 1: Susan gave birth two months premature in October. The baby,
Speaker 1: weighing only two pounds at the time, was named Zeso
Speaker 1: zes sad Frack. Life at the ranch was a fairly
Speaker 1: languid affair, consisting mostly of the group sitting around smoking pot,
Speaker 1: playing cards, and making love to each other. Everything was shared,
Speaker 1: from clothes to food, with dinner often involving the group
Speaker 1: sitting round a large pot of stew and rice and
Speaker 1: taking it in turns to eat from it and throughout
Speaker 1: it all. Charlie continued his teachings. Then in November, with
Speaker 1: the release of the Beatles White album, the Teachings took
Speaker 1: a darker tone with their new album. Charlie believed the
Speaker 1: Beatles were trying to communicate with him directly, and it
Speaker 1: was in one song in particular that their message was
Speaker 1: most abundantly clear. Helter Skelter, according to some, is a
Speaker 1: brilliantly frenetic, sexually charged blast of proto heavy rock. To Charlie, however,
Speaker 1: it was nothing less than a coded prophecy signaling the
Speaker 1: oncoming of an apocalypse. Charlie had already begun discussing the
Speaker 1: potential for apocalypse prior to the album's release, putting his
Speaker 1: own spin on the stories contained in the Book of Revelations.
Speaker 1: At some point, Charlie, a confirmed white supremacist, became convinced
Speaker 1: that a race war was going to take place in America,
Speaker 1: whereby white Americans would fight each other over the treatment
Speaker 1: of Black Americans. What was left of the white population
Speaker 1: would then be slaughtered by black militants. Charlie's plan was
Speaker 1: to find somewhere for their group to hide until it
Speaker 1: was over, after which they would emerge and subjugate the
Speaker 1: black population, since, according to him, they would be incapable
Speaker 1: of running the country. The Book of Revelations speaks of
Speaker 1: a bottomless pit from which the fifth angel Abadon will
Speaker 1: release a plague of locusts on to the world. Charlie,
Speaker 1: who believed himself to be Abodon, surmised that the group
Speaker 1: would have to find this bottomless pit in order to
Speaker 1: survive the apocalypse and fulfill his prophecy. Helter Skelter would
Speaker 1: quickly become Charlie's shorthand for this racist vision, and one
Speaker 1: that began increasingly to consume him and in turn seep
Speaker 1: into his followers. Do you ever have trouble sleeping? One
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Speaker 1: dot com slash unexplained. In February nineteen sixty nine, Sharon
Speaker 1: fell pregnant and with Patty Duke neading her home back,
Speaker 1: she decided with Roman to find somewhere a little more
Speaker 1: permanent to raise the baby. It was around this time
Speaker 1: that Sharon heard her friends Terry Melcher and Candy's Bergen's
Speaker 1: house was going on the market. The house, located at
Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty Clo Drive in Benedict Canyon, was
Speaker 1: built in nineteen forty four with previous residents including Carrie
Speaker 1: Grant and Henry Fonder. Located at the furthest end of
Speaker 1: the road, the long, one story house was surrounded by
Speaker 1: tall pines and cherry blossom, with a much prized view
Speaker 1: overlooking the canyon down cross to Beverly Hills and all
Speaker 1: the way to the sparkling waters of the Pacific Ocean
Speaker 1: about ten miles away. Sharon and Roman knew the place well,
Speaker 1: having attended numerous parties there before, and needed little convincing
Speaker 1: to take it off the market. Sharon was especially taken
Speaker 1: with the line of Christmas lights that former owner Candies,
Speaker 1: had strung up across the front of the property, lending
Speaker 1: it a perennial air of festive spirit. Presently, it was
Speaker 1: occupied by a young man who'd been staying there temporarily,
Speaker 1: having been living previously with a group of hippies out
Speaker 1: on an old Western movie set called Spahn Ranch. In
Speaker 1: late February, Sharon and Roman signed the lease and promptly
Speaker 1: moved in, before both taking jobs in Europe while they
Speaker 1: were away. The couple offered the place to their friends
Speaker 1: Abigail Fulgier and Voychek Vraikovsky. In late March, the day
Speaker 1: before Susan was due to travel to Italy to begin
Speaker 1: work on her latest film, she invited her friend photographer
Speaker 1: shiroc Hertamy to the property to take some publicity stills
Speaker 1: of her. Later that afternoon, they were joined for dinner
Speaker 1: by j Voytek and Abigail. At some point, Sharroc noticed
Speaker 1: a shortish looking man with long dark hair and an
Speaker 1: intense look on his face making his way across the
Speaker 1: front lawn. Moments later, the man drew up to the porch.
Speaker 1: Angered by the stranger's sudden appearance, Shiroc went over to
Speaker 1: meet him and asked him what he was doing there.
Speaker 1: When the man said he was looking for Terry Melcher,
Speaker 1: Shirac informed him that he no longer lived there and
Speaker 1: promptly sent him on his way. As the man walked away,
Speaker 1: Sharon arrived suddenly to inquire who he was. It's nobody,
Speaker 1: explained Sharroc. He's just looking for someone who wasn't here.
Speaker 1: Aside from impending apocalypse, Charlie's other obsession was music, specifically
Speaker 1: becoming a verified recording artist in his own right. Convinced
Speaker 1: he was just as talented as any of the other
Speaker 1: bands clogging up the air waves, he made numerous efforts
Speaker 1: during his time at sparn Ranch to secure a record deal.
Speaker 1: At some point, Charlie had worked himself into the orbit
Speaker 1: of Beach Boy Dennis Wilson and spent many hours accompanied
Speaker 1: by Susan and other members of the group, hanging at
Speaker 1: Wilson's house. Wilson was sufficiently impressed by Charlie's songwriting that
Speaker 1: he even appropriated one of his songs called Ceased to Exist,
Speaker 1: to use as a B side on the Beach Boy's
Speaker 1: single Blue Birds Over the Mountain, released in December nineteen
Speaker 1: sixty eight. Wilson recommended Charlie to his friend and producer
Speaker 1: Terry Melcher, suggesting that he worked with him on a
Speaker 1: few tracks. After spending a few sessions with him in
Speaker 1: the spring of nineteen sixty nine, however, Melcher was unconvinced
Speaker 1: of his talent. About the same time, Charlie was becoming
Speaker 1: more and more convinced of his own prophecies and moved
Speaker 1: the group to another ranch in Death Valley, the place
Speaker 1: where he believed they would find the bottomless pit that
Speaker 1: was going to save them from the end of the world.
Speaker 1: The group, now leaning increasingly on new arrival, Tex, turned
Speaker 1: to dealing drugs in order to pay for the move. Techs,
Speaker 1: a former honor student and athlete, had been studying at
Speaker 1: the University of North Texas before he dropped out and
Speaker 1: found his way to Los Angeles and eventually Span Ranch.
Speaker 1: One night, Tex claimed he was ripped off in a
Speaker 1: drug deal with a man named Bernard Crow, prompting Charlie
Speaker 1: to drive out to Crow's home and shoot him. Returning
Speaker 1: to Span Ranch, it was clear something had shifted in him.
Speaker 1: He was convinced the crow was a black panther and
Speaker 1: that the organization would come looking for retribution. In short,
Speaker 1: this was the beginning of the race war. He had foreseen.
Speaker 1: Time was fast running out and they would need money
Speaker 1: and protection to survive. Charlie ordered his followers to keep
Speaker 1: a knife on them at all times, and so began
Speaker 1: the creepy crawling. For Susan, it was nothing more than
Speaker 1: utilizing the shoplifting skills she had procured ever since she
Speaker 1: was ten years old, and so it was that in
Speaker 1: the dead of night or even in the middle of
Speaker 1: the day, she and the others began to tiptoe silently
Speaker 1: in bare feet into the homes of the rich and famous,
Speaker 1: armed with knives as they cautiously hunted for things to steal.
Speaker 1: Everything was justified because possession was just a state of mind.
Speaker 1: Nothing belonged to anyone and nothing was real, and if
Speaker 1: they had to exist in a plastic world that they
Speaker 1: didn't choose, this was the only way to survive. The
Speaker 1: next step seemed almost inevitable. Gary Hinman had befriended Susan
Speaker 1: and the rest of the group during their time into
Speaker 1: Panga Canyon. He'd even helped them out, often giving them
Speaker 1: food and money. It was late one afternoon when Charlie
Speaker 1: approached Susan and told her that if she wanted to
Speaker 1: do something important for the group and their mission, she
Speaker 1: should go to Gary's house and steal the twenty one
Speaker 1: thousand dollars he'd recently inherited, and if she really wanted
Speaker 1: to prove her commitment to the mission, she should kill
Speaker 1: him too. That night, Susan, along with two other of
Speaker 1: Charlie's accolytes, Bobby and Mary, drove out to to Panga Canyon,
Speaker 1: and demanded that Gary give them the money or suffer
Speaker 1: the consequences, but Gary refused, insisting that he didn't have
Speaker 1: the money. Taking the lead, Bobby pulled out a gun
Speaker 1: and tried to shoot him, only for Gary to fight
Speaker 1: back and eventually wrestle the gun away from Bobby. But
Speaker 1: Gary wasn't a violent man. He offered the gun back
Speaker 1: to Bobby, saying he didn't want any trouble and that
Speaker 1: they should take it and leave. Knowing they couldn't possibly
Speaker 1: return to Charlie empty handed, Susan and Mary were told
Speaker 1: to watch Gary while Bobby went to call Charlie. When
Speaker 1: he arrived an hour later, he brought a sword with
Speaker 1: him and used it to slash the right side of
Speaker 1: Gary's face. As Gary ride about in agony, Charlie asked
Speaker 1: the others to make him comfortable, but keep him prisoner
Speaker 1: until he gave up the money. By the third day
Speaker 1: of keeping him hostage, Bobby had had enough. After getting
Speaker 1: Garry ownership of his car over to the group, Bobby
Speaker 1: stabbed him in the stomach, then smothered him to ensure
Speaker 1: he was dead. In a panic, the group tried to
Speaker 1: make it look as though the murder had been committed
Speaker 1: by political revolutionaries by writing political Piggy on the wall
Speaker 1: in Gary's blood. By then, Charlie's group, often referred to
Speaker 1: now as the Family, had become scattered between Spahn Ranch,
Speaker 1: Death Valley, and a house in Canoga Park known as
Speaker 1: the Yellow Submarine. When news of Gary's murder began filtering
Speaker 1: back to them all, many were shocked and immediately ended
Speaker 1: their association with the group. Many of the others who
Speaker 1: chose to stay, like Susan, only became more and more
Speaker 1: convinced by Charlie's teachings, Helter Skelter was coming and there
Speaker 1: was nothing any of them could do about it. Nor
Speaker 1: was there any reason to fear what was happening. Guilt,
Speaker 1: like everything else, was just an illusion, And when even
Speaker 1: you are an illusion, there is only one and everything
Speaker 1: is part of it. On Friday, August eighth, nineteen sixty nine,
Speaker 1: La was in the middle of an intense heat wave.
Speaker 1: Up at Sharon and Roman's home at one hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty Yellow Drive, Sharon, by now eight months pregnant, was
Speaker 1: overseeing the painting of what was to be her baby's nursery.
Speaker 1: At the time, Sharon was sharing the house with Abigail
Speaker 1: and Voytek, who Roman had asked to stay on and
Speaker 1: watch out for her while he was away in London.
Speaker 1: After going for a swim in the morning, Sharon received
Speaker 1: a call from Roman, who had been delayed coming back
Speaker 1: to La, to let her know that he would be
Speaker 1: returning the following Tuesday. Around five thirty that afternoon, Sharon's
Speaker 1: ex boyfriend Jay left his home on Eastern Drive and
Speaker 1: arrived at Sharon's house a short time later. The pair
Speaker 1: had been due to attend at dinner party at Sharon's
Speaker 1: friend Sheila Wells's house that night, but when Sheila called
Speaker 1: about it that afternoon, Sharon tied out from the heat,
Speaker 1: declined the invitation. Instead, When Abigail and Foytech, having been
Speaker 1: out all day, returned home at seven, Jay suggested the
Speaker 1: four of them go to El Coyote for dinner, a
Speaker 1: trendy restaurant at the time located on Beverly Boulevard. It
Speaker 1: had just gone ten when the group arrived home, a
Speaker 1: little high and drunk with the exception of the pregnant Sharon,
Speaker 1: and tired from the long hot day. As they approached
Speaker 1: the property, all was dark save for a light by
Speaker 1: the side of the garage and those bright colorful Christmas
Speaker 1: lights strung out across the front of the house, and
Speaker 1: then the four of them made their way inside. Earlier
Speaker 1: that day, Susan was lounging around the board walk at
Speaker 1: sparn Ranch when Charlie appeared, calling for Linda, pat Tex
Speaker 1: and Susan. He asked to speak to them individually. Susan
Speaker 1: watched as he spoke quietly to the others until finally
Speaker 1: he approached her. It was a simple request to go
Speaker 1: with Techs and do whatever he did. The four of them,
Speaker 1: each carrying a knife and dressed all in black as
Speaker 1: per Charlie's request, piled into a beat up forward galaxy,
Speaker 1: where Susan noticed a rope and a pair of bolt
Speaker 1: cutters on the back seat, Asking Techs where they were heading,
Speaker 1: he replied to Terry Melcher's house, and with that they
Speaker 1: pulled out of the ranch and headed off on their way.
Speaker 1: After getting lost en route, the four finally arrived at
Speaker 1: the base of the steep private road that led toward
Speaker 1: the house, turning into it. Text then parked up close
Speaker 1: to an electricity pole and ordered the others out of
Speaker 1: the car. The women watched as he took the bolt cutters,
Speaker 1: climbed up the pole and cut two wires that led
Speaker 1: out toward the house at the end of the drive,
Speaker 1: Ordering everyone back into the car. They then parked it
Speaker 1: at the bottom of the road before getting out and
Speaker 1: making their way barefoot toward the house. As they approached,
Speaker 1: Susan caught sight of a long line of Christmas lights
Speaker 1: stretched out across the front of the property and wandered
Speaker 1: for a moment what kind of people might live there.
Speaker 1: At the front gate in case it was alarmed, Susan
Speaker 1: headed toward the fence just to the right, put her
Speaker 1: knife between her teeth, and shunted up over it, falling
Speaker 1: heavily into an ivy bush on the other side. Dusting
Speaker 1: herself down, she waited for the others, after which they
Speaker 1: dropped to their hands and knees and had just begun
Speaker 1: crawling toward the house when a pair of lights flashed
Speaker 1: across the ground. A car was approaching. Text told them
Speaker 1: to lie down and stay quiet, then disappeared into the
Speaker 1: night halt. The voice was Texts and had come from
Speaker 1: somewhere out of the darkness in front of them. Then
Speaker 1: another voice was heard, Please don't hurt me. I won't
Speaker 1: say anything. Then there was a brief pause followed by
Speaker 1: the sound of four gunshots. Text returned a few moments
Speaker 1: later and told the others to follow him. As they
Speaker 1: neared the house, Susan could see the rambler car now
Speaker 1: parked up in the middle of the drive and the
Speaker 1: young man slumped dead in the front seat. Text reached
Speaker 1: in and turned off the lights, and together they quietly
Speaker 1: pushed the car off the driveway, Turning their attention back
Speaker 1: to the house. The group continued silently toward it, Arriving
Speaker 1: at a window, Tex opened it and crawled inside, telling
Speaker 1: the others to wait where they were. A moment later,
Speaker 1: hearing the front door open, they turned to see Tex
Speaker 1: standing there, ushering them inside. Susan and Pat stepped softly
Speaker 1: into the house, while Linda was told to wait outside.
Speaker 1: Continuing further in, the two women stopped suddenly at the
Speaker 1: sight of Techs standing over a couch on which a
Speaker 1: man was lying fast asleep. Just then the man began
Speaker 1: to stir, stretched out his arms and slowly opened his eyes.
Speaker 1: What time is it, he asked sleepily. Tex jumped in
Speaker 1: front of him and held out his gun. Be quiet,
Speaker 1: don't move, or you're dead, he said. Who are you?
Speaker 1: What are you doing here, said the man, terrified. I
Speaker 1: am the devil, replied Tex, and I'm here to do
Speaker 1: the devil's business. If you enjoy Unexplained and would like
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Speaker 1: book and audiobook, featuring ten stories that have never before
Speaker 1: been covered on the show, is now available to buy worldwide.
Speaker 1: You can purchase through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Waterstones,
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