ROMAN POLANSKI/JERZY KOSINSKI

“One day he trapped a large raven, whose wings he painted red, the breast green, and the tail blue. When a flock of ravens appeared over our hut, Lekh freed the painted bird. As soon as it joined the flock a desperate battle began. The changeling was attacked from all sides. Black, red, green, blue feathers began to drop at our feet. The ravens ran amuck in the skies, and suddenly the painted raven plummeted to the freshly-plowed soil. It was still alive, opening its beak and vainly trying to move its wings. Its eyes had been pecked out, and fresh blood streamed over its painted feathers. It made yet another attempt to flutter up from the sticky earth, but its strength was gone.” 

― Jerzy Kosiński, The Painted Bird


Polanski and Kosinski were life long friends and my following Roman's work and reading all the Kosinski books was interrupted by the most violent of events in the death of his pregnant partner the incandescently beautiful intelligent actor Sharon Tate who was slaughtered (no other word seem apposite really) with her house guests by the Charlie Manson gang in 1969. 


The murder hit my generation with a venomous dark impact beyond belief. Those of us who were of an age to be starting to buy into the Hippie dream, this event alone was enough to shatter all illusions and whilst there were others (the deaths of Janis, Jimi and later Jim Morrison and  the shooting of students at Kent State) this singular barbaric murder of our own counter culture heroes  or prime examples of the 'beautiful people' was a full stop and sent us all scrabbling to hide back down in the Underground and stay indoors awaiting the armchair revolution rather than go outside as the streets clearly were no longer safe. 

It has haunted me ever since that Roman and Jerzy Kosinski (the author of another favourite film in 'Being There' with Peter Sellars' acting swan song) were scheduled to fly back to the USA from Europe but their  flight was delayed and they had to postpone otherwise they would have been there in the house in Cielo Drive when Manson's brainwashed acid freak gang came a creepy crawling. So perverse was this influence they had no compunction when stabbing Sharon who was clearly several months pregnant they hung a rope around her neck and stuck a fork in her stomach and wiped their bloody hands upon the wall. I am not sure if the unborn child of hers with Polanski was counted amongst the victims but certainly should have been. 

Amongst the worst and most horrific of crimes and the sole reason Manson is still incarcerated and deserves to die in prison in my humble opinion. I use this as reason to justify my support for Roman in his later trials and tribulations although the accusation needs inquiry for sure.  The accusation of under age sex and child abuse requires some understanding and exploration as to the context but the plain fact of the event is challenged even by his supposed victim but that's another story. Kosinski committed suicide some years later for reasons of ill health and being hounded by several writers accusing him of plagiarism but I have a tendency to forgive Polanki anything. How do you survive that? I am not sure . . . . .