If you're looking for clues, I think the toxicology reports should go a long way. Raise your hand if you've ever known anyone who is a drug user or dealer who got a big delivery and didn't partake. Unless the recipient (and we have that to be someone who was in the house that night) was one of those rare sorts of I-sell-drugs-but-I-never-use-them type dealer (and there's no indication anyone there was a straight-edge dealer), doesn't it stand to reason that there would be evidence in the postmortems that would show a fairly significant amount of drugs in their systems -- beyond what did show up? I mean, if you're living in a house where people come by and bring or use drugs all the time, is a stash huge enough to send by the trunkful really going to be an off-limits proposition. There's also this: Sharon Tate was taking a nap at the time the trunks arrive. Vargas, the friggin' gardener, signed for them. So obviously there was no "I'm expecting two trunks to get here and I need you to wake me up if they arrive" communication -- which I would expect there to be if such an important and illegal shipment was expected. Folger and Frykowski left before the trunks arrived, which makes me think they weren't expecting any major shipment. To me these facts lend a lot of credence to the idea that the trunks weren't a drug shipment.
Maybe it wasn't the first time they had shipped drugs in trunks (not specifically to Cielo, they did move around a lot ) and as has been stated elswhere in this forum, Airports and ports were not as rigorously checked back then and these were pretty laid back individuals who maybe because of there status felt they were bulletproof,( Circles they moved in ), and it was no big deal. Parties at the house sometimes catered for up to 100 people thats a lot people to cater for and i'm not talking food, and it would have to be top notch considering the guest list. We are not talking small potatoes here. and big time smugglers are pretty smart people and very imaginative in how they exploited import/ export security. For an insight, if your interested read a book called "MR NICE" by Howard Marks (maybe you already have ) who smuggled drugs all round the world in vast quantities even started his own touring band to get them into the US via the amps and speakers, eventually caught and sent to one of Charlie's Hotels , Terra Haute, Indiana. I digress, C
Just a thought here. You say: Maybe it wasn't the first time they had shipped drugs in trunks; these were pretty laid back individuals ; because of there status felt they were bulletproof, ( Circles they moved in ). Who are the 'they' and 'these' here? 'They' is a much used word on this blog - can I ask you (politely, I hope) to narrow it down? In the event you might be speaking here of RP and VF, Roman's movements are clear to track by following his production schedules and I'm not aware of VF's having left the States in the year or so before his murder (in fact I have the idea - dunno where from - that he couldn't leave because of his immigrant status). Furthermore, Roman had money and Hollywood contacts, and if he wanted drugs would surely have had no trouble in getting them or paying (for) a mule. I would think also that he would make more money making films than transporting and/or dealing drugs, with increased self-esteem and less danger of exposure. All this aside, I still don't know why the trunks can\t simply be what on the surface they would seem to be: trunks containing Roman's and Sharon's personal effects back from a trip to Londo, which had not yet been (fully) unpacked. Seems easy enough to accept to me. And - lest someone want to remind me - yes, I am aware that the police were tipped off about a drugs shipment or arrival, but there is to my mind no obvious connection to the trunks. Maybe trunks should be compared here with my family and relatives: if it walks like a trunk and talks like a trunk ... Jem
Sharp as usual Jem. Just speculating ( I know its TRUTH on TLB ) but plenty theorising goes on. VF/RP/JS are friends and friends help each other out. VF was not wealthy but was surrounded by wealth, may be he wanted a level playing surface and none of aforementioned were wallflowers. The Hollywood connection would perhaps give them an air of security and the fact RP was travelling all over the globe ,good cover, for deals to be made. VF could use the telephone (kiosk) for contact ,no need to leave country, if that was impossible for him. If it was VF/JS shipment and RP was unaware it is a good question why the trunks were adressed to Cielo and not too VF/AF or JS abodes. Polce/FBI interest in trunks with possibility of narcotics being in them. Why? But as I said purely speculation and food for thought. IT is just as plausible, there is no connection to drug importation, and the trunks were knocked about in a struggle/chase or moved by the police The material protruding from lid , just simply rummaging for something , closing lid and not noticing during a hot humid heatwave.
Sure. Just out of interest, everyone talks of 'material protruding from lid' or whatever similar description as if it was significant. Why wouldn't there be stuff hanging half out if, as is perfectly reasonable to presuppose, Sharon or someone else was in the process of unpacking? And if Sharon alone, well we know it was hot and sticky and she was coming to term - maybe she just got exhausted. Jem
I think the trunks are looked at as a possible source of drug importation because of the 1st TLB Police Report's emphasis on a possible Drug burn motive and the FBI memo. Maybe the "dumpster divers" fancied the Hollywood Glamour Girl look for a change and had a peek as you do after a massacre.
Again, tell me please what you think happened to the drugs. Tell me why the people expecting these drugs were absent or taking a nap when they were delivered -- you gonna let someone else accept shipment of a stash big enough to smuggle in trunks from Europe? You going to let them arrive and not sample them or have a party with them (back to the blood/toxicology tests). Why would no family member ever mention Tex or someone searching through the trunks or elsewhere in the house for drugs? If the killers found them, where's the money from the sale? Or why weren't they too doped out to go killing again the next night? And multiple murders on back-to-back nights for unrelated motives? Drug stealing one night, then what about the LaBiancas? And the biggest question of all -- what the f--- does it really matter? Are these killers less dangerous, less evil, if there were looking for drugs and stabbed a pregnant lady and her friends to death and wrote in blood on the walls? And if they are, why the heck have they kept it secret for so long? Wouldn't a drug motive be easier for a parole board to understand and ... if not forgive, at least feel more comfortable with in weighing whether to release the killers ... than hippie-ish thrill kill cult trying to start a race war? So if indeed these were drug killings, help me understand why that's something to keep secret for more than 40 years.
