20-08-2019, 08:51 PM
David Andrews Wrote:When found later by a teenage boy on a hillside, the nine shot revolver had seven empty chambers. We know that Frykowski had two bullet holes, Sebring had one. Perhaps Tex shot Parent once and assumed he was dead. That leaves three shots for the coup de grace to Parent.
As you say, if Tex shot four bullets into Parent, it would be a stretch to assume that the shots did not alarm the people in the house and they come running out. But maybe one shot would not necessarily bring them out of the house.
Could be so, if Watson only had the shells loaded in the gun, and needed to save ammo for the house killings.
A better theory that I have been pondering is that the people in the house had consumed lethargy-inducing drugs. Therefore, Tex could have shot Parent four times before entering the house without having to worry about alarming those inside. A police homicide report said that a drug dealer was at the house the evening prior to the murders. It said:
"Also connected with [Ed] Durston [boy friend of Diane Linkletter] in the original information received were three other hippies, all users of drugs and car thieves: Harvey F. Dareff (LA 978 313D), is the boy friend of Dianna Linkletter, and had lived with her for several months and was substantially supported by her. He is presently in New York as of approximately 9-25-69. He has not been eliminated as a suspect.
Robert Parker MacDonald, aka Bobby Jamison (LA 684-737J), and James Steven Williams (LA 978-318W); these two subjects are presently in the Sunset Strip area and dealing in narcotics. Narcotics Division, LAPD is attempting to build a case on both subjects at this time. Neither has been eliminated positively as suspects.
Investigators feel Dareff is a good suspect as some information has been received indicating he may have gone to the Cielo residence on the evening of 8-8-69, to possibly buy or sell some form of narcotics."
Dareff, Jameson, and Williams were the hippies in the van who gave caretaker William Garretson a ride back to the house from the Sunset Strip. According to Garretson there were hippie women in the van. Jameson, a musician who was the boyfriend of Nancy Harwood (a Playboy Playmate), wrote a bog in which he said he and Dareff were the hippies at or near the Tate house. Jameson also wrote that he and Nancy were in an apartment across the street from where Diane Linkletter fell or was pushed to her death while Jameson's friend Ed Durston stood by in the apartment and another friend Jimmy George watched from the sidewalk.
The drugs that Dareff supplied to the people at the Tate house might have been tainted with a lethargy-inducing ingredient. This would explain why they failed to take action at the sound of Parent's car crashing into the parking lot fence or when four shots were fired into Parent, killing him.
If Diane was among the hippies in the van, this could explain Marie Vigil's statement in her letter that Diane was a witness the night of the Tate murders.