The Short Life and Tragic Death of Steven Parent

(photo source: Find A Grave) 

Other than Sharon Tate's unborn child, Steven Parent was the youngest victim of the Manson Family's August 8-9, 1969 slaughter and undisputedly the least known.  Up until his connection with the notorious crimes, he had a very ordinary, middle class upbringing. 

Steven Earl Parent was born on February 12, 1951, the firstborn child of Wilfred and Juanita Parent.  The Parent family moved to the Los Angeles suburb of El Monte - known as "Friendly El Monte" and "The End of the Santa Fe Trail" - roughly thirty miles from Beverly Hills but a world away around 1958.  Their three bedroom, two bath rambler on East Bryant Street, built in 1956, was soon bursting as Steven was joined by a sister, Janet, and two brothers, Greg and Dale.  

Steven attended high school at Arroyo High, beginning in 1965.  It was in 1966, halfway through his freshman year, that he was arrested for petty theft.  It's generally accepted that he stole several radios  - he was known to be a hi-fi bug and enthusiast and reportedly took those items apart to see how they operated.  There is, however, a February 2, 1966 Los Angeles Times article that mentions a 14-year-old El Monte teen who was arrested for committing one to six burglaries at area schools.  As the offender was a juvenile, no name was given.  Whether the teen mentioned in the Times article was Steven or not, he spent the next two years in juvenile detention.  While there, he was reportedly tested at near-genius level for electronics.  

(photo source: charlesmanson.com)

By the time he graduated from Arroyo in June of 1969, Steven stood just a whisper over six feet tall, with red hair that earned him the nickname "Carrot Top."  According to Vincent Bugliosi, the author of Helter Skelter and prosecutor of Steven's killer(s), Steven had dated a few girls in school but no one in particular.   He enjoyed listening to folk music and playing the guitar but his main passion continued to be electronics.  Planning to attend Citrus Junior College in Azusa, to the north of El Monte, in September, he was holding down two jobs to save up money for his tuition.    During the day he worked as a delivery boy for Valley Cities Plumbing Company on Rush Street in South El Monte.  In the evenings, he was a salesman at Jonas Miller Stereo on Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills. 

In late July, Steven picked up a hitchhiker named William Garretson.  This seemingly innocuous act would set the wheels in motion to alter the course of his life.  Garretson, an Ohio native, was the summer caretaker for the property located at 10050 Cielo Drive in Benedict Canyon.  The home, owned by Rudi Altobelli, a manager and producer, was being rented out to director Roman Polanski and his wife, actress Sharon Tate.  Altobelli normally resided in the guesthouse but had hired Garretson on during the months he was in Europe.   After dropping Garretson off at the property, the caretaker told Steven to feel free to drop by anytime he should be in the area.

On Friday, August 8, 1969, Steven left home around 7:50 in the morning to begin work at Valley City Plumbing.  He came home for lunch and asked his mother Juanita to iron and lay out clothing for him so when he returned home after finishing his day at Valley City, he could quickly change and be on the way to Jonas Miller Stereo.  The day progressed normally, with Steven working his shift at Valley City, followed by Jonas Miller.  After clocking out at the stereo store, he stopped by Dales (a service station) in El Monte around 11 p.m. to chat with the brother of a girl he dated.  He asked the boy if he wanted to go for a ride; the boy declined.  From there, he made an innocent decision that would result in tragic consequences for him - he headed to 10050 Cielo Drive.  

Steve had a Sony AM-FM Digimatic clock radio he wanted to try to sell to William Garretson.  He arrived on the property around 11:45 p.m., noticing Abigail Folger and Sharon Tate in the main house as he made his way to the guesthouse.  Upon arrival, he asked Garretson who the pretty ladies were in the house and then showed Garretson the radio.  Garretson passed on the purchase but offered his guest a can of beer, which Steven accepted.  Steven also used the guesthouse phone to call a UCLA student by the name of John Friedman - he was building Friedman a stereo.  It was roughly around 12:15 a.m. when Steven bid Garretson farewell and left the guesthouse, headed for his car, his father's white 1966 Nash Ambassador, in the driveway.

Just over eight hours later, his body was found behind the steering wheel, slumped over toward the front passenger side, the clock radio beside him.  

The official story was that as Steven was leaving the property and had rolled his window down to access the button to open the gate, he was accosted by Charles "Tex" Watson, who, with Patricia "Katie" Krenwinkel, Susan "Sadie" Atkins, and Linda Kasabian, were entering the property to slaughter everyone present as part of Charles Manson's ludicrous Helter Skelter motive.  As Tex ordered the boy to stop, Steven pleaded with him, "Please don't hurt me.  I won't say anything."  Armed with a bayonet and a gun, Watson at first slashed at Steven, who instinctively held up his left hand to protect himself, causing a gash on his wrist that severed his wristband and caused it to fly into the backseat, where it was found later that morning by police.  Watson then took out his gun and fired three times, hitting Steven in the left cheek and twice in the chest, the latter two wounds of which were fatal.  Watson then pushed the car back up the drive, away from the gate.  This recounting has Steven Parent being the first victim of the Manson Family that night.

Recently, however, there have been theories that Steven was not the first victim and may have been the last, or nearly so.  In these theories, Steven was walking back to his car from the guesthouse and came upon the horrific slaughter going down at the main house.  Panicked, he literally ran for his life, with a hopped up Tex Watson in pursuit, reaching his car and attempting to tear out of the property.  In his desperation, Steve backed into the split rail fence and Watson caught up to him.  It was then that Steven pleaded for his life and that Watson went after him with the knife.  Finding that it was difficult to achieve his goal with the knife while his victim was seated behind the wheel, Tex unloaded his gun three times into the boy.  

Whichever version is the correct one, the split rail fence was broken with chips of paint from the Parent car found on the fence and pieces of the wood found under the back bumper of the car.  It was agreed by the Manson Family members present that Steven did plead for his life with those exact words, leading anyone to wonder what he meant when he said "I won't say anything" if he didn't see anything, as he wouldn't if he had been the first victim. 

For Wilfred and Juanita Parent, that Friday night was long and unnerving for them.  Steven had never stayed out all night and not come home.  The police, upon finding Steven on Saturday morning, did not locate his wallet or driver's license and so he was dubbed John Doe.  A reporter on the scene managed to make out the license plate of the car and had it run, finding out it belonged to a Wilfred Parent in Elm Monte.  That reporter managed to track down the Parents' parish priest and notify him that the dead John Doe might be Steven Parent.  While the priest was headed to the morgue on Saturday evening to possibly make an identification that would spare Wilfred and Juanita, the Parent family headed out to dinner, hoping that Steven would be home when they returned.  Instead, an El Monte police officer appeared and handed Wilfred a business card with a phone number on it and instructed him to call.  Wilfred called the unidentified number and was stunned when he was connected to the L.A. County Morgue.  He was told the morgue had a body they believed was Wilfred's son.  The physical characters and clothing matched; the priest was also able to positively identify the Parents' oldest son.  That night, the Parent family, minus Steven, crawled into one bed and cried until the early hours.

Steven's funeral (photo source: RXSTR) 

Steven Parent was buried at the Queen of Heaven Cemetery in Rowland Heights on Wednesday, August 13.  

Arroyo High School dedicated its 1970 yearbook to four students and a teacher, with Steven being one of the students.  Part of the memorial stated: "Life goes on with all its joy, sorrow, love, pain, and laughter . . . yet death continues."  

His family eventually left California, finding the memories and publicity of the notorious killings too painful.  They relocated in Texas, where Juanita had lived during her later childhood and before her marriage to Wilfred.  

In 1972, the UCLA student Steven had spoken to before leaving the Cielo guesthouse published a sci-fi book under the name David Gerrold.  He dedicated the book to Steven.    

In 2009, Linda Kasabian participated in a documentary where she admitted for the first time that, on Tex Watson's orders, she crawled over Steven's dead body, searching for a wallet and/or money.  This explains why no wallet or identification was found on him (and also further supports a burglary angle or motive.)  

In the decades since his untimely and terrifying death, people who once knew Steven leave memorials for him on the Find a Grave website.  They mention summers past, of swimming together, of playing in fields behind homes, and pretending to be radio announcers and that Steven was always thrilled to share a birthday with Abraham Lincoln.  The girl named Tina - now a woman in her sixties - who had Steven as her prom date only months before he was killed still muses on whether they would have eventually married, had children and grandchildren together.  It can never be known.  

 

Steven's final resting place (photo source: Find a Grave) 

    

 

Remembering Brenda Ball

In the early morning hours of June 1, 1974, Brenda Carol Ball became Ted Bundy's fifth official murder victim when he stole her life from her.

Brenda was considered by all who knew her as a free spirit, a sprite of a girl who had lively brown eyes and long brown hair to match.  She had been a student at Highline Community College until two weeks prior and it sounds like she was in the process of finding herself, as was popularly said during that time.  She shared an apartment in Burien, a working class suburb of King County, with two roommates and at only twenty-two, she had her entire life waiting in front of her.

It was Memorial Day weekend and on that Friday, May 31, 1974, she told her roommates around 2 p.m. that she was planning to go to the Flame Tavern, a neighborhood bar, and then try to catch a ride to Sun Lakes.  Sun Lakes, located east of Seattle, was a popular campground and park area where the friends planned to spend the weekend.  It was the last time her roommates would see Brenda.

The Flame Tavern, while very familiar to Brenda and her friends, was a tough, basically seedy, neighborhood joint that routinely received complaints about the rowdy patrons' noise levels and frequent fistfights that broke out in the parking lot.  Missing persons last seen at the Flame, as the locals dubbed it, was not an uncommon occurrence for local police.

Brenda may or may not have known that a week earlier, another young woman had a frightening encounter down the street from the Flame, at Brubeck's Topless Bar.

The young woman, Vicky, was similar to Brenda.  She was in her early twenties, petite and with long dark hair she parted in the  middle.  She had left her car in the lot while she went inside to meet friends.  Around midnight, she returned to her only to find that it wouldn't start.  Her friends offered to drive her home and she accepted.  She returned around 4 a.m., not wanting to leave her car -- a convertible -- vulnerable in the now-empty lot and hoped it would start.  A handsome young man walked around from behind Brubeck's as she tried to crank it.  He too tried to start the car, without luck, and then offered to drive her to a friend's place that had the necessary jumper cables that he assured Vicky would start the car.  She never thought to wonder what the man would have been doing at Brubeck's at that hour, long after the bar had closed.

The two went first to a store, where Vicky was told they did not sell jumper cables before heading back out for the friend's place her Good Samaritan had mentioned.  It was then that he pulled a knife on her and ordered her to undress.  Crying, she complied and tried a number of psychological tactics with him.  She pointed out that he was a nice looking guy and surely didn't need to force himself on a woman.  He answered that he wanted "a little variety."  She attempted to grab the knife from him, leading him to grown enraged and yell at her, "Don't do that!"  It was only when she mentioned that her five year old daughter, at home alone, would wake and be scared that his demeanor changed.  He pulled into a neighborhood and ordered her out of his car, keeping her purse and shoes.

When police later examined Vicki's car, the found the distributor cap had been pulled, intentionally disabling the vehicle.  If anyone then made a connection between Vicky's abduction and the missing girls, it was not noted in the police report or any newspaper accounting.  Of course Vicky wasn't a college age girl on or around campus.  She didn't fit the perp's type.  At least not so far as anyone knew.

Brenda had been to the Flame many times and had friends who hung out there.  She lived in the area and knew it like the back of her hand.  She had no cause for concern and, indeed, on that Friday evening, she appeared her usual good-natured self to others at the Flame.

She apparently had a good time, staying until closing time -- 2 a.m.  She asked one of the musicians for a lift but he demurred as he was going in the opposite direction.  It was reported that she was a little worried about finding a ride but Brenda was known to hitchhike on occasion.  Later, patrons of the Flame stated she was both hitchhiking in the early morning of Saturday, June 1 and, in the Flame parking lot, chatting with man wearing his arm in a sling.  Then she disappeared.

When Brenda didn't show up at Sun Lakes, her roommates felt little cause for alarm.  She was known to be an impulsive adventurer; they assumed she had met up with other friends or taken off elsewhere for the weekend.  Because her life was mostly unstructured and largely unconventional, nearly three weeks passed before her roommates reported her missing.  During that time, Brenda had not returned to their shared apartment, collected any of her belongings, touched her bank account or made contact with her parents, who lived nearby.  

Brenda didn't fit the mold of the other missing girls.  She was the oldest to date, she had been out drinking and was known to take off on whims (something that second victim Donna Manson was also subject to do.)  She didn't vanish from a college setting and some felt she did not fall prey to the same malevolent force the other girls had.

It was only the grisly discovery of three human skulls and one lower mandible on Taylor Mountain in March of 1975 that would confirm that Brenda too had fallen victim to the-then unnamed predator that would eventually be identified as Ted Bundy.  Brenda's skull was the first discovered; it had suffered terrible blunt force trauma, resulting in cracks.

Only many years later, as her killer was awaiting execution, would there be some information about what happened to Brenda.

According to Ted, Brenda voluntarily accompanied him from the Flame and back to his Seattle rooming house.  The sex, he said, was "more or less" consensual.  He claimed that it was after Brenda had passed out or gone to sleep that he had given in to his urges and strangled her.  He never mentioned how her skull was cracked.

But Ted was a liar.  He told different stories at different times.  It's possible that Brenda did accompany him willingly to his car and his home, looking for some company that night, not knowing that she had gotten into a vehicle with a cruel, depraved killer.  It's possible that Brenda got into his car, believing she would be dropped off at safely at home.  It's also possible that, like other victims, she was blitzed in the parking lot, hit a devastating blow with a crowbar, and was unconscious or dead as she was driven away from the Flame.  Like the other victims, only her head was taken to Taylor Mountain.  Her body has never been recovered.  

Brenda was a pretty girl and one who friends would later say was sweet and caring.  She hadn't yet found her place in the world, but at only twenty-two, she should have had plenty of time to find it . . . had she not crossed paths with Ted Bundy.

As a postscript, while watching the news more than a year after her attack, Vicki saw the man she claims abducted and assaulted her.  It was Ted Bundy.

Brenda Carol Ball

November 4, 1951 - June 1, 1974