Restless Souls

Sharon Tate was a promising young actress who received a Golden Globe nomination for her performance in "Valley of the Dolls"; the beautiful wife of famous film director Roman Polanski; an expectant mother eight and a half months pregnant at the time of her murder; and, a loving daughter and sister. Her brutal slaying and the homicides of her friends that same night by members of the Manson Family are still etched in the public consciousness more than four decades later.
What few people know however is: the dramatic role Sharon's father, a retired army intelligence officer, played in finding and prosecuting his daughter's killers; the rage he had to suppress when he came face to face alone with her killer in a holding room during a parole hearing; the threats and menace that extended beyond prison walls, haunting members of even the next generation of the victims' families; the very different choices these three family members made to cope with the realities of this tragedy; the fight Sharon's mother's had to endure to insure that victims' loved ones could make an 'impact statement' at parole hearings; the brushes with danger she repeatedly faced staring down these murderers as she fought to keep them incarcerated; and, the lengths Sharon's sister Patti went through with the entertainment industry to keep artists from glorifying these killers in their music, art and films. Sharon's mother Doris, father Paul and sister Patti, each in their turn, attempted to write memoirs about their ordeal before passing, as they thought it was important to share their side of the story with the world.
Now twenty-year family friend, Alisa Statman, and Sharon's niece Brie Tate, recount the Tate family truths for us here in this rare glimpse at the post-trauma survival of a family. This book proves timely as Manson Family leader, Charles Manson, is scheduled for his next parole hearing in 2012. He is also currently seeking a new trial with the help of Saddam Hussein's former attorney The Devil's Advocate Giovanni Di Stefano. Additionally, "Restless Souls" publishes on Sharon's birthday and the same date the jury reached a guilty verdict in 1971.