Latest / DISGRACELAND / Mama Cass Elliot (Pt. 2): Rape, Murder, and Taking Secrets to the Grave

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Mama Cass Elliot (Pt. 2): Rape, Murder, and Taking Secrets to the Grave · DISGRACELAND

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: This episode contains content that may be disturbing to some listeners.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Please check the show notes for more information. Disgraceland is
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: a production of Double Elvis. Mama Cass Elliot's life career,
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: both with and without the Mamas and the papas. Her
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: complex relationship with both the victims of the Manson family
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: murders and with the murderers themselves, both alleged and convicted,
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: is so complex that we needed two episodes to properly
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: tell this story. If you're just getting hip to this now,
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: I suggest you hip pause and go back to the
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: previous episode of Disgraceland, part one of the Mama cass
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: Elliot story, where we get into Cassa's skyrocketing fame and
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: mold breaking pop stardom, her challenging solo career, her romantic
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: relationship with not one but two international drug dealers, her
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: role as Hollywood's hippie den mother, her connections to the
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: Manson family, and her arrest in Hollywood. In this episode,
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: we further explore Cass's entanglement with Charles Manson, her close
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: friend Sharon Tate, and Sharon's husband, filmmaker Roman Polanski, as
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: well as Cass's alleged involvement in some of the long
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: rumored hedonistic events at Sharon and Roman's home on Ciello Drive,
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: events that put Mama Cass at the center of a
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: counter narrative that explosively disrupts the supposed motive for the
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: Manson family murders. And we debunked the silly fat shaming
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: myth surrounding cass Elliott's own death that has persisted for
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: nearly fifty years. We of course hit upon Cass's solo
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: music career, great music made by one of the last
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: century's most unique stars. Unlike that music I played for
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: you at the top of the show that wasn't great music.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: That was a preset loop from my mellotron called play
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: You Play Me MK two. I played you that loop
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: because I can't afford the rights to any song by
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: John Denver. And why would I play you that specific
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: slice of senses filling Cheese? Could I afford it? Because
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: that was the number one song in America on July
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: twenty ninth, nineteen seventy four, And that was the day
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: that Mama Cass Elliot died, kicking off one of the
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: more ridiculous myths in rock and roll history and burying
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: perhaps forever one of Hollywood's darkest secrets. On this episode,
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: Sharon T Charles manson the help their Skelter motive in
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: flames and Mama Cass's secret dead next to a Ham sandwich.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: I'm Jake Brennan and this is Disgraceland. Voy Tech Freikowski,
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: the big Polish dude Michael Caine had met at Cass
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: Elliott's house turned j C brings black Porsche nine to
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: eleven onto Hollywood Boulevard and dropped the German engineered sports
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: card down a gear. The engine sounded barely containable. It
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: hummed low, almost a growl. The sound was an attention getter,
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: for sure. Young hustlers on the corner of Vine took notice.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: Voytech cruised. He was looking for a particular type, young, clean,
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: almost pretty. That's how she liked them. How he liked
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: them too, Not unlike Jay, not unlike Roman. Voytek spotted
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: what he was looking for, kerbed the Porsche, proffered, popped
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: the passenger side door. The strange hopped in, and voy
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: Tech headed back up into the Hollywood Hills. Not Laurel Canyon.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: Tonight's action wasn't at Cass Elliott's place. It was at
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: Roman Polanski's Colo Drive home, but Cass would be there
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: because Sharon, Roman's wife would be there, and Sharon and
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: Cass were thicke as thieves, especially when Roman was out
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: of town. Cass kept Sharon company. Cass was the one,
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: of course, who introduced her boyfriend's Pick and Billy to
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: Sharon and Roman, and to Voytech for that matter. Pick
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: and Billy made sure the parties at one zero zero
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: five zero Cillo Drive never ran out of steam. Pick
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: and Billy supplied Sharon and Roman's friends with whatever drugs
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: they needed. Pick and Billy were bringing more than party favors, though.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: Pick and Billy were supposedly setting Voytech up with enough
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: product to keep him going well beyond the summer, and
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: to make sure he would not to subsist on the
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: allowance his tight wade American heiress girlfriend Abigail Gibby Folger
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: kept him on. Gibby wasn't going to be there tonight.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: She was too straight for tonight. Tonight was for professionals.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: Tonight was black hoods. Tonight was young strange. Tonight was whips, chains,
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: wax and whatever was freaky tonight. The dancing would be
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: as they said different Tonight was inspired by the satanic
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: dream sequence from Roman's Rosemary's Baby. Roman would approve, and
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: they were going to film it to show Roman when
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: he returned from London. He'd dig it the most sick
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: fuck that he was. Roman loved his tapes. Roman loved
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: young girls, and there would be plenty. Charlie was bringing
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: his dirty desert hippie harm. Charlie would share as long
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: as there was an angle. Arlie liked to share, so
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: did Roman. Roman shared his home, his drugs, his money
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: word was Roman even shared share it. The tan skin
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: on the blonde glistened in the candlelight. She moved in
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: motion with the ray mensaric organ. It blasted from the
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: home stereo system at ear shattering volume. She was the
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: only one not in a black hood or a mask.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: She wore red panties and that was it. Bodies were everywhere,
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: all twisted up together on the furniture, the carpeted floor,
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: up against the walls. The blonde worked on the broad
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: shouldered bad dude with the Zoro mask behind him. A
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: handsome young man waited his turn patiently. His beautiful brown
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: quaw needlessly hidden under the hood of his open robe.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: The pro noticed. The pro thought it a waste. How
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: hard we work for things only to squander them in
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: the heat of the moment. It proved what mattered in life?
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: What was Colonel? That was it? The rest was just
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: window dressing when you got right down to it. This
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: whole hippie Hollywood dream was about one thing, and one
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: thing only getting off All roads led to here hedonism,
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: and the chanting grew louder in rhythm with raised venice pump.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: It forced a sort of mass come on. The room
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: itself seemed to elevate everywhere anyone looked. There was nothing
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: but beautiful hedonism, all of it orchestrated for mass satisfaction.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: Young old male, female, ball, blonde, skinny fat. Yes, even
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: the big girl was in on the action. Though if
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: one looked closer, beyond the half assed pomp and fainted
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: satanic circumstance, one could tell that the big Girl's heart
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: wasn't in it. Her heart was with another, and he
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: was lost, gone in the wind. Pick Dawson wasn't due
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: at Yellow Drive that night, so cass Elliott would have
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: to do with Pick's friend, her other love, Billy Doyle,
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: and if Billy wouldn't show, the word was Cowboy was
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: on her way, and Cowboy would most definitely entertain Cass
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: if her two loves weren't around to do so. Cowboy
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: was like that. It was the post party at Colo Drive.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: Everyone was invited, but again Pick wouldn't be there. Pick
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: knew Voytech was too pissed, pissed that he caught a
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: bad stash off Pick, a stash he couldn't sell. Voy
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: Tech would handle Pick eventually, and in the meantime, if
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: his shitty had little friend, cass Elliot's other boyfriend, Billy
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: Doyle had the balls to show up, then voy Tech
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: would take care of him too. But to voy Tech,
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: in Cass's dismay for different reasons like Pick, Billy never
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: showed either, not that night anyway. But for Billy Doyle,
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: Colo Drive was a hard call not to heat. There
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: were too many parties, too many women, too many customers
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: to lay off his MDA, his LSD, his coke Grass.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: Months passed during that summer of sixty nine, and Cass
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: Elliot's boyfriend Billy Doyle eventually found his way back to
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: Roman Polanski's house. Roman was still out of town. Roman's friend,
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: voy Tech and Voytech's girlfriend had the run of the place,
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: even with Roman's pregnant wife, Sharon there. Sharon was no
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: match for voy Tech. Voy Tech ran the show. It
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: was still the celebrity haunt. It always was, Sharon made
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: sure of that. But the home was also a catch
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: all for sunset strip seekers, sixty Charlatan's Hollywood Hill's hippie rabble,
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: and of course, lots and lots of underage sexual action,
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: young girls, young men. They were practically busting in some cases.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: They literally were by Charlie from his place up in
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: the desert and his barely operable school bus painted all black.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: Billy nearly salivated at the thought Cass wouldn't be there,
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: not tonight. She was back in the hospital, her crash
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: diet had crashed, and Mamma Cat was in need of
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: an IV, some rest and a short spell off the
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: drugs in the drink. But Billy was a freeborn man
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: in a world gone mad and set to shake some
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: action at Cielo Drive on that night. It was a risk.
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: With Roman out of town. The parties were always a
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: bit rougher when Roman was away, and when voy Tech
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: was left in charge, but Billy bet Voytech would welcome
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: him and forget about the bad stash Picket sold him,
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: because Billy had a brand new bag of the good stuff.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: Billy bet bygones would be bygones, but voy Tech wasn't having.
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: Any of it.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: Billy entered the pristine, white paneled door at Coello Drive
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: into a party in full swing. The boy Tech spied
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: him immediately. He could practically smell the sleeves on him.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: The voy Tech played nice, at least he seemed to.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: He welcomed Billy with open arms and a drink laced
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: into an evil cocktail of vodka, punch, Mescaline, LSD and speed.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: Billy gulped it down. Billy's head went blowed up. The
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: party swung. Where was Cass? Billy wondered she'd sent her him,
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: she always did, but Cass wasn't there. Billy felt his
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: heart jump into his throat and his stomach turned upside down.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: He fumbled to the bathroom to vomit, but nothing came up.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: He stood stumbled into the living room. Someone placed a
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: lip join into his lips. He drew from him, coughed
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: up a mouthful of smoke, and the room closed in
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: on him, the walls squeezed. Billy knew it. He was
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: about to be fucked, revenge fucked. Voytec appeared flat in
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: front of him and placed his big polish mits on
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: Billy's shoulders. Voytec smiled, Billy swore. Voytech's eyes went black.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: The next thing Billy knew he was sucking on carpet,
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: face down, his wrists bound behind his back. The pain
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: was unbelievable. Where was that coming from? In blunt thrust
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: over and over again, Billy heard the partygers laughing, cheering,
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: egging on someone something, someone from behind him. The pain
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: it hit him in time with the cheering from the backside,
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: over and over again. Billy's head ballooned, the pain burst,
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: and Billy blacked out. When Billy Doyle came to, his
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: pants were around his ankles, his head was woozy, and
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: his asshole throbbed with a hurt he'd never felt before.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: The looks from the celebrity and seens, their partygoers burned,
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: the smirks, the outright laughter, the fucking judgment. Billy stood
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: in a rage with one thing on his mind, killing
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: Voytek Frakowski. But just then, before he could Pounce himself
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: was wrapped up in a bear hug and physically speeded
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: outside of the Seattle Drive home. The embrace was tight,
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: but not angry. It was that of a friend. It
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: was Cowboy. Still, Billy fumed. He screamed, bloody murder. He's
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: going to fucking end the big pole who did this
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: to him. But Billy was no match for Cowboy, who
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: was physically much bigger and stronger than he. For the
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: second time that night, Billy Doyle was tied up, Cowboy
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: threw him in her car and tore us away from
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: Sharon Tate's home in the Hollywood Hills and straight towards
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: Sharon's friend's home in Laurel Canyon, straight toward Mama Cass's house.
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: What happened next Cass Elliott would never forget. She wasn't
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: there per se, not in person. But once Cowboys safely
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: chained and irate Billy Doyle to the tree outside Cass's home,
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: Cowboy led herself into Cass's place and phone casts in
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: the hospital. Cowboy wanted cast to know what was going
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: on at her place in case any of the neighbors
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: were to complain. Freaked out by the dangerous hippie chained
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: to the tree in the front yard, screaming bloody murder.
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: It was for Billy's own good, Cass. Cowboy explained in
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: that throaty rasp of a drawl she had, Billy's gonna
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: kill him unless I force him to cool out. Cass
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: at the time found it all to be hysterical, knowing
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: full well the reason Billy was enraged because he was
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: just forcibly sodomized in front of a party of cheering onlookers,
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: and now with her b team boyfriend chained to a
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: tree outside of her house to keep him from killing
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: his attacker, Cass screamed through her laughter into the phone
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: at Cowboy to get the polaroid. Get the polaroid. It
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: seemed to be all fun and games at the time,
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: but for Cass Elliott, remembering it all now as she
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: was on stage motioning through her latest set of solo
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: material years later, it all seemed sad in addition to
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: the sick and horrible sexual assault that it was. But
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: still sad, just sad. Sadder than her falling out with
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: the Mamas and the Patas, sadder than her bombing in Vegas,
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: sadder than her relationship with Billy and sadder than her
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: relationship with Billy's friend, the real love of her life, Pick,
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: the way he just seemed to take and never give,
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: to show up and then disappear. Cass loved Pick. Pick
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: didn't love cast Back. Sometimes that's how it all felt.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: Cass loved, but the world didn't love Back. Of course,
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: that wasn't entirely true. Mama Cass was one of the
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: most beloved personalities of the late sixties and early seventies,
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: but that wasn't enough. Cass didn't want to just be
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: a personality. Cass wanted to be accepted as an artist
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: on the level with her buddy Crosby, with Joni, with Jimmy,
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: and as much as she hated to admit it, with
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: Papa John. But that acceptance was hard to come by
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: when you didn't write your own material, and even if
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: you packed him in. At the London Palladium, as Cass
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: currently was July twenty sixth, nineteen seventy four, five years
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: almost to the day from the Manson murders, half a
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: decade from losing her friend, Cass couldn't help but think
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: about Sharon a lot. Sharon lit up the room and
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: now now that light was forever burned out, And for
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: what and why? Those rumors that wormed their way through
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: Hollywood's lead circles after Sharon's death got to the truth
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: of it all, and it was enough to make anyone
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: remotely connected to Sharon Tate sick with fear. But again, why,
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: the how and the who? The movie stars, the rock stars,
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: the so called helter skelter motive, the fucking beals, and
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: the ghoulish nature of the killings. That was for newspaper stands.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: But the why of it all, that was the stuff
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: that kept you up at night. Some came right out
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: and pointed their fingers at Sharon and at Cass's boyfriends,
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: at Billy and at Pick. In an interview with the
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: Los Angeles Free Press, Dennis Hopper said the following about
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: the inhabitants of Colo Drive, Sharon Tate included they had
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: fallen into sadism and masochism and bestiality, and they recorded
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: it all on videotape too. The LA police told me this.
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: I know that three days before they were killed, twenty
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: five people were invited to that house for a mass
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: whipping of a dealer from Sunset Strip who'd given them
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: bad dough unquote. Even Candice Bergen, who with her boyfriend,
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: music producer Terry Melcher, lived in Sharon and Roman's house
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: at Colo Drive prior to the two of them, said
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: in an interview with LAPD two weeks after the murders
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: that the motive was because quote it was a rape
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: unquote a less than reputable source Manson family member, the
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: imprisoned Bobby Boselet. In a jailhouse interview to Truman Capoti said,
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: quote who says they were innocent? They burned people on
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: drug deals. Sharon Tate in that gang. They picked up
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: kids on the strip and took them home and whipped them,
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: made movies of it, asked the cops, they found the movies,
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: not that they tell you the truth. We'll be right
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: back after this. We're were were the movies? The videos,
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: the goddamn videos. Perhaps that's the part that frightened Hollywood
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: the most, not the motives, but the movies made for
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: Roman and made by Roman. Those rumors never quit. Those
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: rumors were hard. The stories about what Roman for Sharon
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: to do on video with what some called quote quite
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: a few recognizable Hollywood faces unquote, along with a supposed
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: constant flow of underage girls who'd fallen into the cracks
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: of the City of Angels. Sharon's friend, photographer Sharak Katami,
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: is on record saying of Roman Pelanski, quote, he was
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: bringing other girls to have threesomes with Sharon, and Sharon
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: didn't like it when he was picking up girls on
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: the Sunset Strip and bringing them home to have sex
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: with her. Unquote. Sex tapes orgies say it is in pedophilia,
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: the rape of a duplicitous drug dealing boyfriend of Mama Cass.
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: What consequence could any or all of this have. Who
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: would have benefited from the gruesome murders at Cielo Drive?
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: Perhaps someone seeking revenge for being humiliated in public, for
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: being sodomized, raped, for burning Sharon's friends on a bad
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: dope deal. But Cass knew Billy Doyle and Pick Dawson
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: and even Cowboy were out of the country when the
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: murders took place. But Hollywood knew better. The word was
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: Billy and Pick were too smart to do the deed themselves.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: And that's where the weird little dude from the desert
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: with the harem of crazy underage girls came back into
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: the picture. Charlie Manson Charles Manson hated the elite Hollywood
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: scum up at Coelo Drive as much as Mama Cass's
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: boyfriend's Billy Doyle and Pick Dawson now did, and it
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: wasn't because of any public sodomization beef. Charlie had his
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: own humiliation to contend with Sharon Tate, Roman fucking Polanski,
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: the whole lot of them, especially the herd on music
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: biz hancho, Terry Melcher and his hoity toity girlfriend Candice
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: Bergen who lived at Coelo prior. All of them, Voy
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: Tech and his rich bitch girlfriend included, had what was
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: coming to them. They looked down at Charlie, sneered at Charlie,
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: dismissed Charlie. All Charlie was good for was his girls.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: At first they loved Charlie. Charlie was on a different
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: trip man. Charlie took four hits of acid. His eyes
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: went all googly in that weird way of his. He
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: opened up his mouth and an entirely new dimension seemed
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: to open up to anyone around him. Charlie had it
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: where it mattered, He had soul. Man. Wait till Charlie
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: got it. Down on record. That's what they said. Charlie
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: was going to be a star, no, a prophet like Dylan.
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: That's what Neil Young thought. Neil went as far as
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: to tell Moo Austin had a Warner Brothers records the
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: same Neil gave Charlie a motorcycle to help him get
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: around town to replace that broke down jealopy of a
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: school bus he had. Dennis Wilson thought similarly of Charlie
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: as well. Dennis recorded one of Charlie's songs with his band,
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: The Beach Boys. Dennis couldn't do anything right that didn't
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: involve either a cock or an American made engine, and
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: both sort of the same thing when you think about it.
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: But I digress. So Dennis fucked up the recording of
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: Charlie's song in a big way, butchered the title, changed
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: it thoughts, the lyrics didn't even credit Charlie. It was
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: supposed to be Charlie's big break because Dennis's friend dars
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: Day's dope smoking dollfaced Son the music industry golden boy,
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: penetrating along with Dennis, whichever Charl's girls they could get
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: their slip music industry hands on that dude, Terry Melcher,
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: the one who lived up at the Seattle Drive house
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: before Roman. He wanted nothing to do with Charlie as
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: a musician. Charlie auditioned for him. Charlie blew it. Terry
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: blew Charlie off, Charlie burned, dist dismissed, heavily dosed. Charlie
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: had murder on the mind, a drug burn, the rape
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: of a drug dealer in retaliation, a revenge plot, and
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: a grieved cult leader with acid induced scrambled eggs for brains.
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: The fact that Charlie and his girls could get paid
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: for killing them piggies that did him wrong like they
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: did billion pick made the whole trip all the more sweeter.
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: Murder for hire and a world gone mad was righteous
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: work if you could get it, particularly if you were
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: offering rich establishment pigs in the process. Wasn't that what
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: Charlie's girls, Susan Atkins wrote on the door of Colo
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: Drive and Sharon Tate's blood pig or was it something else?
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: The word pig was hardly written. Clearly, it was blurry, bloodied.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: Say it didn't say pig at all. Some, including Mama
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: Cass Elliot's former Mamas and the Papa's bandleader, John Phillips,
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: told Lapd that no, it didn't say pig, It said
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: pick p I c Pick, not pig. John was crazy
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: not to mention an asshole, but so too was most
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: of Hollywood. On both accounts. Cass knew this then and
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: she knew it now on stage, trying her best to
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: focus on the task at hand, entertaining the dwindling crowd
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: of the London Palladium. But it was hard, too hard.
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: It was all still a fresh wound. Pick and Billy,
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: Billy and Pick. Cass introduced them to Sharon Mama. Cass
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: brought both boyfriends, both criminals, into Sharon Tate and Roman
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: Polanski's world. This is recent, well documented, thoroughly sourced information
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: for the excellent twenty nineteen book by Tom O'Neil and
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: Dan Pipenbring entitled Chaos Charles Manson, The CIA and the
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: Secret History of the Sixties. But back in the days
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: after the death of Sharon Tate, even though all this
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: information was nothing more than whispers, it was enough to
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: keep you up at night, to make your stomach turn.
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: Charles Manson so called helter Skelter motive so expertly detailed
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: by Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Vincent Bouliosi, a
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: take that kept the public riveted throughout Buliosi's trial of
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: Charles Manson, A take that detailed Manson's fantastical plot to
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: unleash a race war on the world via the murder
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: of Sharon Tate and others. To those in the know,
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: to those who visited Colo Drive before the murders, to
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: those who partied there regularly, the helter skelter motive of
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: Vincent Bugliosi seemed way out of the bounds of reality
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: compared to what was being whispered around town. That Pick
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: and Billy did Sharon's in Roman's buddy Voytech wrong and
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: a drug deal mothers a funer kill us.
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: I swear.
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: That Voytek did Billy drug bound and sodomized him in
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: front of a live audience at CLO Live from Hollywood.
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: It's the public grip and humiliation of Malocasta's.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: Boyfriend Bill that Billy and Pick swore vengeance. Hired Charlie Manson,
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: who in turn cast his spell on his acid arranged
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: followers to conduct the murders on Charlie's command and on
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: pick in Billy's dime Helter skelter helter skelter Buliosi. Bunk
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: cooked up the clamp down, a conviction to sell the public,
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: to sell papers and to eventually sell books, to explain
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: away the dwindling dream of the sixties, and perhaps to
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: cover up something darker did debaucherous hedonism of a blockbuster
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: movie director and his A list movie star friends at
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: the Hollywood studio system, and perhaps other more powerful players
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: had a lot invested in, all of whom were rumored
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: to be captured on video at Colo Drive in horrifying
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: acts of illegal sexual deprivity. Hollywood had a history of
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: covering up worse. In the wake of the murder of
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: Sharon Tate, Hollywood went fully paranoid. Mia Farrow blew off
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: Sharon's funeral, too afraid she was going to be taken
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: out with a sniper's bullet. Frank Sinatra went into hiding.
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: Jerry Lewis dropped boku coin on a state of the
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: art security system. Sammy Davis looked at Anton Leavy for answers.
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: Steve McQueen stashed a gun in his glove box in
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: the two days after the murders, One sporting goods store
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: in Beverly Hills reported selling two hundred guns. Mama Cass's bandmate,
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: Michelle Phillips was one of the Hollywood e lead shopping
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: for firearms, and for good reason. On the piano at
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: Sharon's house after the murders, they found the sheet music
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: to the Mamas and the Papa song Straight Shooter. Creepy
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: thing compared to the worst of it, the death list,
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: the death list from the Manson family, Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton,
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: Tom Jones, Frank Sinatra, and Steve McQueen. They were right
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: to be paranoid. They were all on the list. The
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: ghosts of Errol Flynn, Jack Kennedy, and Marilyn Monroe slouched
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: toward gomorro Joan Diddyon reached for her pen. It was
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: enough to make you bury your memories with alcohol, heroin, cocaine, tranquilizers,
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: and endless amounts of unhealthy food, which is exactly what
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: cass Ellie had had been doing since the murders. But
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: despite it all, here she was in nineteen seventy four,
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: like so many others from those heady days of nineteen
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: sixty nine, still standing for the moment anyway on stage,
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: but going through the motions she was tired. She knew it,
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: and the London crowd knew it too. Cass Elliot couldn't
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: wait to get back to the apartment she was staying
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: in on loan from Harry Nilsen, and to get some rest.
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: This recent crash diet was one of the worst. She
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: was fatigued and these shows were draining. But first after
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: the show, there was Mick Jagger's birthday party to attend
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: in Chelsea. Cass chatted up Pete Townsend and Rod Stewart. They,
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: along with other guests, noticed Cass's condition, constant coughing, trouble
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: with her breathing, but still she kept on drinking and smoking.
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: Morning came and Cass made it back to her borrowed flat.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: She fixed herself a ham sandwich and a glass of
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: Coca cola, placed both on her nightstand, plopped down to
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: sleep and never woke up. Her body was discovered the
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: next afternoon. A doctor who made the scene, Doctor Greenberg,
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: told The Daily Express that Mama Cass Elliot appeared to
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: have died from a case of asphyxia, saying, quote from
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: what I saw when I got to the flat, She
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: appeared to have been eating a ham sandwich and drinking
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: Coca cola while laying down, a very dangerous thing to do.
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: This would be especially dangerous for someone like cass who
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: was overweight. She seemed to have choked on the ham sandwich. Unquote.
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: What the doctor didn't tell the press prior to making
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: his fat shaming assessment of cass Elliot's cause of death
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: was that a bottle of tamzapam tranquilizers and a vial
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: of liquid cocaine have been removed from the scene. Furthermore,
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: the doctor neglected to tell the press that the ham sandwich,
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: the supposed cause of death, had not even been touched.
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: Cass Elliot died basically of poor health from a life
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: of near constant drug and alcohol abuse throughout her adulthood,
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: in addition to being overweight and in poor physical shape.
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: Cass Elliott did not die choking on a ham sandwich.
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: It seems false motives and explanations for Hollywood so called
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: innocent Where all the rage in nineteen seventy four, just
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: as they were back in nineteen sixty nine. Such a disgrace.
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: I'm Jake Brennan and this is disgrace. PostScript August nineteen
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: sixty nine. Roman Polanski is back at his home on
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: Ciello Drive, days after the murders. He is wandering through
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: the crime scene where his pregnant wife and friends were
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: just slaughtered. The salty smell of blood still fills the
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: air within the walls of the Hollywood Hills home. Roman
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: wanders dazed amongst the lapd and investigative authorities. He is
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: being trailed by a psychic whom he's hired to help
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: track down the killers, and a photographer from Life magazine,
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: whom he's also hired, presumably to capture the moment for posterity.
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: Roman is in shock. The scene is an unimaginable horror,
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: a horror so realistic the filmmaker never in a million
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: years could ever dream of capturing it in one of
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: his films, Films like the one he was known the
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: world over for Rosemary's Baby, and like a lesser known
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: film like the One in the Box and the homes Loft,
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: the film that was filmed here at Ciello, the film
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: that Hollywood whispered about, the film that witnesses say Roman
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: Polanski quietly stashed away into his pocket and left Siello
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: Drive with on that day. In February of nineteen seventy seven,
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: forty three year old Roman Polanski is charged with the
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: rape of a thirteen year old girl. Nearly a year later,
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy eight, to escape what was believed to
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: be an impending fifty year prison sentence for the rape
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: of a minor, Roman Polanski fled the United States to
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: live in exile in Europe, where he remains to this day.
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety one, behind bars for the Tate LaBianca murders,
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: Charles Manson gives an interview to Ron Reagan Junior in
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: which he says about Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski, quote,
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: they were fucking pedophiles. They weren't innocent.
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: All right, Thanks for hanging out with me and Mama Cass.
• 32:25
  Speaker 3: Apple podcast listeners, make sure you have automatic downloads turned
• 32:29
  Speaker 3: on so you don't miss any episodes, all right. This
• 32:31
  Speaker 3: week's question of the week is do you believe the
• 32:33
  Speaker 3: accepted narrative around Helter Skelter has put forth by Vincent
• 32:38
  Speaker 3: Buliosi six one seven nine oh six six six three
• 32:41
  Speaker 3: eight To let me know via voicemail or text at
• 32:43
  Speaker 3: disgrace lampod to let me know via Instagram, Facebook or
• 32:46
  Speaker 3: ex and you'll be able to hear your answers on
• 32:48
  Speaker 3: the after party bonus episode coming up right after this one.
• 32:51
  Speaker 3: If you want more stories from me like this one,
• 32:53
  Speaker 3: but about actors and actresses and not about musicians, and
• 32:56
  Speaker 3: check out hollywood Land, our Hollywood in True Crime spinoff pod.
• 33:00
  Speaker 3: Right now, we have two episodes on Sharon Tate, Mamacass's Friend,
• 33:03
  Speaker 3: and those episodes tied directly to the episodes on casts
• 33:07
  Speaker 3: that you just heard. Search and follow hollywood Land wherever
• 33:10
  Speaker 3: you get your podcasts. We're releasing episodes every week on
• 33:12
  Speaker 3: John Waters, David Lynch, James Dean, Steve McQueen, Patty Hrsam Moore.
• 33:16
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• 33:19
  Speaker 2: Or work Spotify and win.
• 33:20
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• 33:24
  Speaker 3: Disgraceland was created by Yours Truly and is produced in
• 33:26
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• 33:30
  Speaker 3: found on the show notes page at disgracelampod dot com.
• 33:34
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• 33:37
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• 34:17
  Speaker 2: He's a bad don man.