Was Harlow house ghost Paul Bern Sharon Tate's death omen?
She saw his specter and a phantom with its neck cut in 1966 and was brutally murdered in 1969.
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Jean Harlow earned stardom when Howard Hughes gave her the leading role in 1930’s Hell’s Angels.
Paul Bern bought her contract from Hughes, brought her to MGM and married her on July 2, 1932.
On September 5, 1932, the butler found Bern’s nude body, with a gunshot wound on his head, sprawled in front of a full-length mirror, reeking from Harlow’s favorite perfume, in her bedroom.
Paul Bern: Day of Death.
After he found Bern’s body, the butler called MGM.
The call was relayed to security chief W.P. Hendry who called MGM executives Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg.
The trio went to the house and found a suicide note.
The Los Angeles police were notified hours later.
Mayer gave the note to the detectives.
Bern wrote that writing the note was the only way to right the terrible wrong he did to Harlow and to erase his humility, he loved her and that she comprehended that the previous night was a farce.
They went to Harlow’s mother’s house to talk to the star.
Her doctor said she was too hysterical to be questioned.
Harlow spoke to the police later, but wasn’t called to testify at the coroner’s inquest.
Paul Bern and the Coroner’s Inquest.
Harlow stayed with her mother Saturday night.
Sunday, Jean returned home and ate dinner with Bern.
He sent her back to her mother’s house.
He wanted to read some scripts and fetch her later.
Jean assumed he feel asleep when he didn’t arrive.
According to the official version of suicide, Bern had a condition that made it impossible for him to consummate their marriage.
The farce was his attempt to do so with a faux phallus.
Bern, previously, lived with another woman for years.
The day after Bern died, she committed suicide.
Paul Bern's Other Woman.
Dorothy Millette and Bern lived together for years.
When she was institutionalized for psychiatric disorders, Bern paid all of her expenses, which continued after his marriage.
Millette moved into New York’s Algonquin Hotel after her discharge.
Bern visited her when he was in the city.
March 17, 1932: Millette wrote to Bern that she was moving to San Francisco.
He said she should live in the Plaza Hotel; he would support her.
When this was revealed, Harlow‘s stepfather, Marino Bello stated that Harlow didn’t know about Millette.
Bern’s brother, Henry, countered by saying his brother told Harlow about Millette before their marriage.
September 6, 1932: Millette checked out of the hotel and boarded the Delta King.
Her coat and shoes were found next to the steamship’s railing.
She was missing when the ship docked.
Fishermen found her body two weeks later.
Was Paul Bern Murdered?
A grand jury was impaneled to investigate DA Buron Fitts who handled the inquest about his expenditures in the case.
Davis, the gardener, believed Bern was murdered.
He testified that the butler lied when he said the couple was affectionate and Bern talked about suicide.
The couple didn’t get along well.
Davis never heard Bern talk about suicide.
Davis said he didn’t believe the suicide note was in Bern’s handwriting.
Irene Harrison, Bern’s secretary, confirmed these.
Winifred Carmichael, Bern’s cook, testified that the staff saw a strange woman, who screamed once, on Sunday evening.
Later Carmichael found a woman’s wet bathing suit by the swimming pool with two empty glasses nearby.
There’s no record of whether or not the police dusted the glasses for fingerprints or if they followed up on Davis’ further testimony saying he told detectives about a puddle of blood near Bern’s favorite poolside chair.
Sharon Tate Encountered Paul Bern’s Ghost
Celebrity hairstylist Jay Sebring bought Harlow’s house in 1963.
He knew about Paul Bern’s death and allegations that two people drowned in the pool. Sebring had a romantic relationship with Tate until 1966 when she fell in love with director Roman Polanski whom she later married.
The duo remained close friends.
In 1966, Tate was alone in Sebring’s house.
Unable to sleep that night, she lay awake in his bedroom with the lights on, feeling uneasy.
Suddenly, a ghostly man, whom she recognized as Bern, entered the room.
He ignored her and roamed around as if he was searching for something.
She donned her robe, rushed out of the bedroom and descended the stairway.
When she was halfway down the steps, she saw a specter tied to the staircase posts at the bottom of the stairs.
She couldn’t ascertain if it was male or female, but she saw that the figure's throat was cut.
Tate went into the living room to make a drink, but couldn’t find liquor.
She felt compelled to press a bookcase part which opened, revealing the bar.
She tore off a piece of wallpaper at its base and made her drink.
Tate ascended the stairs past the specter and Bern’s ghost and went back to bed.
In the morning, Tate convinced herself the incident was a nightmare – until she saw the torn wallpaper.
On August 6, 1969, Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger, Wojciech Frykowski, Steven Parent and unborn baby Paul Richard Polanski were brutally murdered by Charles Manson’s “family” in her house on Cielo Drive.
Paul Bern’s Ghost: Omen of Death?
Many believed Tate’s encounter with Bern’s specter was a warning of her death that happened three years later.
Although Tate identified Bern, some speculated the ghost was Harlow or one of the people who allegedly drowned.
I found no evidence of drowning victims despite an extensive research.
In all of the cases I’ve read about death omens, people died shortly after seeing them.
Did Tate see two ghosts?
Was the sighting a dream in which she sleepwalked and tore the wallpaper?
It’s still a mystery as to what the phenomenon actually was.
GEORGE VREELAND HILL
