Y’all know I’ve long been obsessed about the Tate-LaBianca murders. But let’s be clear: All those stories about the spirits of Sharon Tate and Jay Sebring haunting a house a few doors down from where the murders took place? I don’t buy any of it.
Mood music:
http://youtu.be/5fvJEpdq8a8
The claim has been made by David Oman, whose home has been the subject of a Ghost Hunters episode and several other news reports.
Oman has been all too eager to invite people to his “haunted house” and those who’ve been there claim to have seen and heard strange things. But when you put someone in the spotlight, they’re bound to tell the world anything. They may even want to believe it so badly that they end up thinking they saw things that weren’t really there.
Now the house is in an episode of Ghost Adventures. People talk about having been being overcome with depression as they drove up the private way to Oman’s house. And Oman and others say the strange happenings are about more than the Tate hauntings. The site is also a Native American burial ground and a hotbed of paranormal activity, they say.
I remain skeptical. First of all, I drove up and down that street three times and never experienced any weird feelings. Secondly, Oman produced a movie loosely based on the murders called House at the End of the Drive, and I can’t help but suspect all the ghost stories are publicity to pump up the film.
There is also the fact that a lot of other residents in that neighborhood have never experienced anything abnormal.
It annoys me how people continue to exploit five murder victims who didn’t deserve the cards they were dealt. It seems we refuse to let them rest in peace.
If Oman ever invited me into his house — and I doubt he ever would — I’d go in. I’d even spend the night. One, because I’m curious. Two, because I’m always open to the possibility that I’m wrong. If I were proven wrong, I’d write about it.
But I’m not holding my breath.
Photo by Bill Brenner. The big mansion on the left is where Sharon Tate’s house once stood. Oman’s house is on the far right.