I liked this well-produced video on Abigail and decided to start the Laurel Canyon series from the beginning after watching Episode 9.
Truth be told, I was leery going in. A long time ago back when I was an innocent who took people on the Internet at their word, a man named McGowan fooled me. Since then, I've left the Canyon alone.
Tell me what you think down below if you watch.
*We're awaiting articles from other writers. If no one finishes first, I'll be back to review the new Stimson.
I watched this video on Abigail, but no other installments on the series. A few items here:
ReplyDeleteIt is generally accepted that Abigail was introduced to Voytek in December 1968 or January 1969, at at literary party, by writer Jerzy Kosinski. If I'm not mistaken, this video claims Abigail met Voytek a mere one month after he landed in America, which cannot be true, as Tom O'Neil learned of Voytek's arrival in America in early 1967.
Indeed Abigail had a keen interest in art and music, but she was in the honors program in the department of English. She wrote her undergrad thesis, titled, "Politics in the Plays of Christopher Marlowe," and submitted it for her A.B. degree requirements on March 1, 1965. (I obtained a copy of this thesis by request from the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.)
The video claims Abigail completely supported Voytek financially. I have not seen any proof of this. In fact, Billy Doyle told police that Roman was supporting Voytek, and that Voytek had intimated this to Doyle.
At present, Abigail's relationship with her father is unknown, even though the video claims otherwise. As David said in his series on Abigail, there is also no factual proof that Peter Folger investigated anything after the murders, or paid anyone to keep quiet. The video says that we knew basically nothing about Abigail from 1969 to 1980. This is of course false, as Bugliosi, Sanders, and countless articles were written about the crime and its victims.
The video also claims that Abigail went on to earn a M.A. in art history from Harvard. This has been repeated elsewhere by some, but again, I have not seen any evidence for this.
The video claims that Abigail used some narcotics, and generates a long list of what she may have taken. Ultimately this is unsubstantiated, but certainly she smoked weed, used mescaline and MDA. The narrator asks aloud if she were a drug addict. My answer to this would be no. There is absolutely no evidence for this.
Additionally the video does not provide the proper full name for Abigail's mother. Her name actually was Inez Mejia Folger.
My take on this video is that it paints with a very broad brush, covering a few well known elements in Abigail's(and Voytek's)lives, but would do well to do more research and fill in the picture with the all-important finer brush strokes, thrreby cleaning up some factual errors.
I do salute the narrator for wishing to discuss Abigail as a person with a life before her untimely death. Certainly there is a story to be told. She, like all of those who died with her, need to be remembered for their lives, and not merely as victims.
Torque - excellent feedback. I noticed some obvious errors but a revisit to David's excellent series and, with some of the interesting things you state (what a couple getting a copy of Abigail's thesis!) I feel similarly as you do. The narrator humanizes Abigail with some background and personal information but may have not really dug deeply enough to make factual accounts backed by credible sources.
DeleteI haven't viewed other episodes either but, I intend to.This seems to be one of three "extras" to the actual series.
I forwarded the link because I thought that some would be interested in giving it a view...seems to have not been linked here before.
Thanks again!
Cheers!!
Wow! Thanks, Torque.
ReplyDeleteOff topic but we should have a Krenwinkel hearing in the next week or so I think.
ReplyDeleteShe's all healed up and healthy now?
DeleteAnybody have any intel on why Krenny and Lulu fell out as friends (fairly recently) after all these years?
My understanding is you gotta distance yourself from the man, the gang and show deep understanding of why you got it so wrong.
DeleteImagine yourself at a hearing and everyone asks you why you still besties with your crime partner?
Plus for LVH every book speaks of her as ready to go and Krenwinkel as not quite passing herself off as Ms Normal.
Always interesting to see more info on Folger. Her being chased by a knife wielding Krenwinkle across the lawn is probably one of the more chilling images that sticks with me.
ReplyDeleteJay, I always think about her giving up in the kitchen before Tex stabs her.
ReplyDeleteYou're certainly right about Dave McGowan, he's full of mis/dis-information.
ReplyDeleteElectric Pyramid...bwahahaha
DeleteWhat happened to her bike that never got its first ride?
ReplyDeleteDan, good question on the bike. I did not see it appear as a line item in Abigail's estate breakdown(see David's posts on Abigail), but it may have wound up as a miscellaneous item.
ReplyDeleteToo, it may have been returned by the family to the bike shop for a full or partial refund.
At some point early after the murders, the belongings of Sharon, Roman, Abigail and Voytek had to have been cleared out of the property. I suppose this may have occurred between the day Roman visited Cielo for the Life Magazine shoot and Rudi Altobelli moving back in a couple of weeks later.
I have seen a photo of the Cielo garage area with a Bekins moving box in front of it. I can't cite the source right now, but it may have been on Pinterest. This could been indicative of items being moved out of the house.
I read an obscure passage once claiming Rudi Altobelli kept the zebra rug from the living room, as well as the American flag that was draped over the sofa.
Although I don't know what became of the 1968 carrot calendar poster and the 1965 Renaissance Pleasure Fair poster which hung on the Cielo living room wall, I have learned through corresponding with a friend of Rudi's about the living room furniture. It seems it(including the couch)was stored in a backyard shed in Rudi's declining years. At some point the roof of the shed rotted away, and rain, mildew, and the elements ruined all of the furniture. It was removed from the shed, and left for trash collection out on the boulevard.
"Off topic but we should have a Krenwinkel hearing in the next week or so I think."
ReplyDeleteKrenwinkel's date is 26 May - so one week from this reply.
I imagine you could begin composing your Friday post right now, with very little correction needed;)
If all proceeds as it usually does, we should have a transcript in hand around the 4th of July. Will prove to be interesting reading - how much does Big Patty remember/admit this time? Perhaps we should plan to meet over tacos after all . . .
"Anybody have any intel on why Krenny and Lulu fell out as friends (fairly recently) after all these years?"
ReplyDeleteNothing new, and this 5-6-7ish year-old split remains a topic of keen interest for me.
Perhaps Krenny will speak of this in her hearing a week from now. Last time around, she merely told the parole board that the two are "polite with each other" and that they cannot avoid each other completely because they are both involved in some of the same prison programming.
In one of HER most-recent hearings, LVH said that the two had stopped speaking over a "disagreement over our shared past" - not a direct quote, but quite close to her actual words. One can only imagine, and I'm sure we all have our ideas.
I sure wish a prison guard or someone would author a blog post on the matter, how fascinating would it be to have been a fly on the prison wall during some of these disagreement conversations!
Totally!
DeleteAs Chris B stated above, my feeling is that Leslie has distanced herself because Pat is the brontosaurus in the room during Leslie's hearings.
Halfway thru the video, will watch the rest later.
ReplyDeleteWhy am I more interested in this dude's seemingly endless man cave than I am on his take on Ms. Folger? He seems quite the rock god action figure/shitty framed poster collecting kinda guy.
I excuse the relatively minor errors. He seems well-intentioned and seems not to be a Mason "scholar" type.
Still, he presents some cool pics of Abigail, a couple I've never seen. She wasn't quite the looker, was she? I do feel sure she'd have ended up an admirable old broad, though - if only . . .
Folger and Frykowski drove across the country in August 1968 to settle in California. I'm pretty sure they met some time in 1967.
ReplyDeleteWhat did McG get wrong about the Canyon? You could at least mention one or two fraudulent factoids since you flagrantly called him out of bounds. Drop some facts on us GGW
ReplyDeleteI'm going to pass on debating McGowan, Gene. I did love his writing style and still think about his Moondoggie series a lot.
ReplyDeleteI thought the video was very well done and sensitive to the memory of Folger. Does he get everything right? probably not. But on his other videos he does come back and correct when he can. Good effort on his part.
ReplyDeleteThe Laurel Canyon series has been very interesting. His deo, #8, part 3, had a great segment on Steven Parent. I highly recommend that as well.
Thanks, Utah. Your comment motivated me to begin watching this series from episode one, which is devoted to Mama Cass. Quite excellent so far, this is gonna be fun.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of Folger, did you see that Krenwinkel was actually granted parole this time around? THAT is a shocker!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI was totally shocked too...
ReplyDeleteEnter Gavvie...
(Door slams shut)
"Not so fast there Krenny...bwahahaha"
(Pulls wings off of fly)
Thanks to this post, I went back to Episode One of this all-too-brief podcast on Laurel Canyon and this has yielded several evenings' worth of really pleasurable viewing. The Manson stuff toward the end seems pretty rudimentary (having only watched the first of the three Manson-related add-on episodes), but the core podcasts are awesome! This guy knows his stuff, he gives us great views of REALLY great homes - many captured by drone - and this was just great fun. I just got a Sonos "Move" (an incredible speaker) just in time for summer and I have been enjoying more than a week's worth of Joni Mitchell, Byrds, CSN&Y and others from this era & area whist soaking in the rays and cooking out. Is Frank Zappa next . . . ? I wonder how the neighbors might react?
ReplyDeleteTruly though, this podcast is well worth the time and bother.