March 2020 - These Curious Times

Tammye McDuff
Win two free tickets to this once in a lifetime event!
Send your name, contact information and why you would like to join the investigation to
thesecurioustimesnewspaper@gmail.com with “David Oman House” in the subject line.
Winner will receive two tickets and will be notified Wednesday, March 11, 2020. Good luck!
David Oman’s Creepy House in Beverly Hills
David Oman with Frankie Fronk of All Things Paranormal, Katie Burr of
World’s Greatest Ghost Hunt and Cody & Shawn of The New Reality with
David Oman on Cielo Drive, Hollywood.
All good stories begin with ‘Once
Upon A Time’ … As a matter of fact
a 2019 comedy-drama film written
and directed by Quentin Tarantino
received ten nominations at the 92nd
Academy Awards and grossed over
$374 million worldwide. The film lightly
dances around the many tall tales that
surround the life styles of the rich and
famous and spins a web of intrigue
regarding the Sharon Tate / La Bianca
murders. But did you know that there
really is a story of a family whose lives
intersected the Manson family on more
than one occasion spanning decades?
If you are a paranormal fan then
you have heard of the David Oman
house at least in passing. But what
you are probably not aware of is the
history of his family, the coincidences
surrounding the purchase of the
property and the numerous spirits that
reside on Cielo Drive in Hollywood.
Long before there was a ‘Once Upon
A time …in Hollywood’ ~ before there
were Ghost Adventures or any number
of ghost hunters or the Oman House,
even before there were people named
Sharon Tate or Charles Manson, there
were Native American Tribes that
traversed California. The Tongva, later
known as Gabrielinos lived a peaceful
existence fully utilizing the mild
Southern California weather, what the
land yielded and abundance of wildlife.
This area was a self sustaining paradise,
the people worshiped the gods of
nature and nature supplied them with
a good life.
As the story is told, there were three
tributaries of fresh water that were
referred to as ‘the three sisters’. These
three rivers came together to form
a marshland which the Gabrielinos
considered to be a sacred site. When the
Spanish came to conquer the tribe, they
brought disease and chaos. In return a
tribal elder, a Shaman, cursed the land
…. And that is how it all began.
Fast forward to the 1960’s, Beverly
Hills and Benedict Canyon. It was a place
of dreams, and nearly everyone who
9
was there was, at one time or another,
stoned.
Legends like Joni Mitchell, Neil
Young, the Mamas and the Papas, Carole
King, and it is said that the haunting
guitar of Jimmy Hendrix could be heard
echoing through the hills at all hours of
the day and night. Many of the houses
were cottages with stained-glass
windows, and fireplaces that warmed
the living rooms in the chilly L.A. nights.
They made music together, played
songs for one another in all-night jam
sessions. They took drugs together;
formed bands together, broke up those
bands, and formed other bands. If you
wanted to be somebody, this was the
place to be seen. It was a scene that
Charles Manson wanted to part of.
The Oman family lived in Beverly
Hills. They were a normal family,
working hard and succeeding in life. In
the newly released book ‘Ghosts of Cielo
Drive: the Afterlife of Sharon Tate and
the Spirits of the Oman House’ written
by David Oman, he recalls “I remember,
when I was a young child, my mother
would often pick up three young
women who were hitchhiking through
the canyon. She would take them only as
far as our house, which she would point
out, and say to the girls it was time to
travel on. I always thought the girls had
an odd, vapid stare in their eyes.”
On more than one occasion the
Oman house had been marked by the
‘creepy crawl’. This was a practice of the
Manson family. They would secretly
enter someone’s home and, without
harming anyone, leave only a trace
of evidence that they had been there,
some reminder that the sanctity of the
private home had been breached.
In the book, Oman tells of the
synchronicities of his father finding an
empty lot in Beverly Hills, the unusual
activity that had some contractors
leave and never return, the many
celebrities that lived in the Tate house,
just yards away from where David was
to build his home and the deaths that
are still an open case.
From a murdered Native Warrior
to Rudolph Valentino, Mae West and
finally to Sharon Tate, the Oman house
is alive with the reverberation of many
spirits over hundreds of years. It is truly
the most haunted place in Hollywood.
While the original Tate house no
longer exists, filmmaker David Oman
built his house a mere 150 feet from the
site where the grisly murders took place.
Oman is convinced that the murder
victims still haunt his residence. You
can purchase this most engaging book
by visiting ghostsofcielodrive.com
David Oman, writer and producer.