As Sharon Tate’s only surviving sister and closest living relative,
honor and our family name compels me to make a statement about the new book
Restless Souls: The Sharon Tate Family’s Account of Stardom, the Manson
Murders, and a Crusade for Justice by Alisa Statman with Brie Tate, published
in February 2012 by IT Books for HarperCollins Publishers.
This book publishes accounts of our family story attributed to my mom, my
dad, and to my sister Patti, all deceased. Comparison of the original manuscripts
and papers by my mom, dad, and Patti in my possession with the published
text in this book is currently underway. Ms. Statman says, on page xiv, that
she was “left to fill in the gaps” with her “own personal
interpretation.” If facts in the book are wrong, readers might well
question precisely how much Ms. Statman’s “personal
interpretation” has intruded into this work.
Statements, sentiments, and alleged memories in this book appearing under
Patti’s name, often contradict other known records of Patti. Patti had
few substantial memories of Sharon and could only recall isolated incidents
of our sister Sharon’s life that do not resemble the lengthy saga in
these pages. Sections dealing with my sister Sharon’s life away from
our family circle include verbatim conversations without attribution and
statements whose veracity is in doubt. Just doing a simple overview of this
book, we've found many egregious errors, too numerous to list.
Alisa Statman presents herself in this book as a “close family friend”
and insinuates that she speaks on behalf of my family. Readers should know
that Ms. Statman has a long and troubling history involving my family’s
tragedy. Unfortunately Ms. Statman made the decision to go against Patti's
expressed wishes that her children never be involved in the Manson saga,
by using my impressionable niece’s name to lend credence to the book
that she has long wanted to write.
I reject this book. I regard it as an insult to the memory of my parents
and my two beloved sisters, filled, as it is, with un-attributed conversations,
imagined thoughts, and demonstrably false incidents. It represents merely
the latest in a long string of efforts by Ms. Statman to insinuate herself
into my family’s life and history, present herself as an expert on the
subject, realize her long dream to write about my family’s tragedy,
and diminish my continued role as guardian of our family’s legacy.
Soon I will make the full story of my family and our tragedy public in a
definitive way. Until then, and for as long as I live, I will honor my
family’s memory by continuing to work on behalf of our legacy and other
victims of violent crime.
Debra Tate
March 6, 2012