Dean Martin Daughter Testifies for Prosecution at Watson Trial
Monday, August 23rd, 1971
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 23 – Actress Deana Martin, 22-year-old daughter of actor Dean Martin, was a state witness Monday in the trial of Charles (Tex) Watson, 25, for the seven Tate-LaBianca murders.
She was followed on the witness stand by Terrence Melcher, a recording executive and son of actress Doris Day.
Their testimony was to support the prosecution’s contention that Watson was familiar with actress Sharon Tate’s mansion months before the August, 1969, murders.
Miss Martin, wearing a billowing, floor-length cotton frock, recalled that in July or October, 1968, she and Melcher attended a party at the home of Dennis Wilson, a drummer with the Beach Boys, a recording group.
About dusk, she said, the party moved to the home then occupied by Melcher — the same residence which, under lease to Roman Polanski, was to be the setting for the slaying of Polanski’s wife and the others.
“Did you ever see this man?” asked Dep. Dist. Vincent T. Bugliosi, pointing to Watson.
“I can’t be sure,” Miss Martin replied.
Bugliosi then showed her a photograph of Watson taken shortly after his arrest.
“That looks more like him,” she said.
“Was Mr. Watson at that party you described?” Bugliosi asked.
“I can’t be sure,” she said. “It seems like he was.”
Under further examination, Miss Martin said she remembered that Watson’s hair was longer at that time and that he was thinner now.
Miss Martin said she had known “two Charlies — Charles Manson and the other, just as Charlie.”
Manson, leader of a hippie cult and three of his women followers, have been convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death for the same homicides for which Watson is now being tried.
She said she particularly remembered Manson for the way he and a girlfriend “put down” her escort at the Wilson home in the summer of 1968.
“I didn’t like the things Manson and his girl were saying,” she testified, and added she had advised her escort to leave and they did.
Melcher testified he met Watson In December, 1965, at Wilson’s home and at his own home a number of times.
“He was a friend of Wilson and Gregg Jakobson, who worked for me as a talent scout,” Melcher said, “and he was always tagging around with them when they came to see me.”
By ED MEAGHER
I seem to recall,
yes, I do, that:
Deana’s brother, one long gone fella, after the unfortunate jet aircraft he was piloting with the National Guard, California
crashed in the hills there, was married for some time to an actress that lived in the Tate house for a while, after the murders, of course.
The girl was in the movie Romeo and Juliet.
Is the world a small place or what?
Now, for a bit of fun, did you lay a bouts know that Paul McCartney had turned down the role to play Romeo?
Don’t blame him, they were already making fun of him if he did that. After all, he was a or let’s say, The musical Genius, with Lennon of the world.
Ah, but guess what? I could have played Romeo, but I wasn’t asked cause the movie producers hadn’t met me. Oh well, you say,
okay.
While I think that some characters coming and going to places like our famous house on Cielo Drive and some in creepy Laurel Canyon, that were showbiz people, were’nt bad people, Melcher and his friends were creepy weasels. That included Peter Fonda, Warren Beatty, Jack Nicholson and more. The few honest people were Sharon Tate and Abby Folger.
What’s the deal with grubby Charlie Manson and others like him doing at Dennis Wilson’s, a member of the group the Bitch Boys
and at the Melcher house before Sharon moved in and Tex Watson even going there?
It was all bad news.
But I know. I was there, in the mid-late 60s. It was ‘cool’ and tolerant to just let people ‘crash’ your party, so to speak, generally.
Many didn’t wanna appear to be ‘uptight’ or ‘old snob fashioned,’ some were cheap grubby personalities themselves. Like the so called rock bands that lived in Laurel and Topanga. Actually, all of those ‘musicians were pop or folk, not even rock n roll.
Just wanna give a more of an open view of those days and the mentality of many people there, the all right and the phony ones.
I could tell you stories about those days and they were not just happy good time rock and roll and a lot of damage came from these phonies, including the low like Watson and the other killers and Charlie was no prince, plenty of damage.
Last time I was in L.A. with friends driving us around, I said, at one point: go ther other way, I don’t wanna see Laurel Canyon, I feel creepy already, from thinking about that place from the late 60s early 70s. Especiall the ‘four on the floor murders.’ There.
So many horrific crimes in the L.A. areas in the 60’s, I dread thinking about some we read in the news back then. Some, even more so today, don’t bother reading the news. Popular culture happens and many don’t know the roads they lead us to. Can you relate
Can you dig what I’m saying?