Abigail Folger

Abigail Anne Folger (born August 11, 1943 in San Francisco , California ; † August 9, 1969 in Los Angeles , California) was the great-great-granddaughter of the coffee company founder JA Folger ("Folgers Coffee" today also known as "Folgers Flavors") and heiress of the coffee empire of the same name. Folger became known as one of the victims in the Tate murders committed by members of the Manson Family .

Life

Abigail Anne Folger, known as "Gibby", was the daughter of Peter Folger, President of the Folger Coffee Company , and Inez Mejia, the daughter of a large California landowning family. The parents divorced early. Folger grew up in San Francisco and was soon an established member of the Californian "upper class". As a teenager she was already very interested in art, music and drama. After graduating from Santa Catalina School in Monterey and Radcliffe College in Cambridge , Massachusetts , she intensified her acting ambitions.

In 1961 Folger became a member of a music and theater group and went on tour with the ensemble. After graduating from Radcliffe College, she studied art history at Harvard and graduated with a diploma. After graduating in 1967, she moved back to California to work at the University of California's Art Museum as a press officer and public relations director.

Due to a crisis of meaning, Folger left California in September 1967 and commuted across the United States. She worked for various publishers and was a welcome guest on the New York party scene . In 1968, through a book presentation, she met the young Polish writer and bon vivant Wojciech Frykowski , who had just been in the States for a month and did not yet speak English. Both first communicated in French and fell in love. The author Frykowski was an acquaintance of the Polish director Roman Polański .

In 1968, Folger became Robert F. Kennedy's campaign assistant and also supported the senator at the time financially. In August 1968, Folger and Frykowski moved back to Los Angeles. Through the acquaintance of Sharon Tate and Roman Polański, new acquaintances arose, for example with the renowned hairstylist Jay Sebring , who was Sharon Tate's former fiancé. Frykowski devoted himself to his book projects, while Folger was committed to charitable projects. As a result of the growing friendship between Folger and Frykowski, the Polański-Tate and Sebring couple, a friendly family relationship soon developed.

Folger was - like her mother Inez - intensely involved in welfare projects; she supported the Haight-Ashbury Free Medical Clinic and worked as a social worker for children in need in the Los Angeles ghettos; She also supported Sebring with investments. In addition, due to his acquaintance with Tate, Folger had a large circle of celebrities such as B. Warren Beatty , Tony Curtis , Jane and Peter Fonda gathered around them.

The murder

On the evening of August 8, 1969, Abigail Folger, Wojciech Frykowski, Jay Sebring, and Sharon Tate returned to Tate and Polanski's property on Cielo Drive in Bel Air after a meal in a Mexican restaurant . Folger retired to her bed to read, where she was surprised by Susan Atkins around midnight and brought into the living room. Her partner Wojciech Frykowski was already kept in check by the other perpetrators Patricia Krenwinkel and Charles Watson . Tate and Sebring, who had been talking in Tate's room, were also forced into the living room.

Shortly before, the perpetrators had already shot Steven Parent , who happened to be on the property, in his car in the driveway. Folger wanted to flee into the front yard, but was stabbed in the hallway of the house. In an unobserved moment, she managed to get up again and run outside, followed by Krenwinkel and Watson. There she was killed by both of them with 28 stab wounds.

Abigail Folger was buried on August 13, 1969 in Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma , California.

Web links

• Abigail Folger at Cielodrive.com (English)