CHAPTER 1 Editor’s Office
Editor’s Office, Monday, 9 a.m.
“The first time I saw her I remember thinking that she was the most beautiful person I had ever seen. We were at a pool party at her mother’s house. She was enchanting. Yet she was totally cool about it. It was as if she didn’t know how beautiful she was.”
With my manuscript in hand, my editor, Russ Sullivan, said, “I presume that these are the first few lines from the article you are writing?”
“Yes.”
“Don’t you think it’s a little over the top?” Russ replied.
“You never saw her.”
My name is Rick Miller. I’m a staff writer for Cold Case Mysteries magazine. It was Monday morning, and I was in my editor’s office pitching my next article.
“Well, I’ll try to tone it down.” I said.
I’ve been a staff writer for many years. I’ve been at Cold Case Mysteries for the past 20 years. Before that, I went to law school, passed the bar, practiced for a few years, and didn’t like it. I left the law practice for crime writing, and it turned out to be a great decision.
At our magazine, rather than reporting solved cases, we specialize in unsolved cases. This allows our readers a chance to put on their crime fighting hats and chime in with comments and opinions, along with whatever information they might have or wish to contribute. They might even get a chance to see their names in print.
The staff writers have regular meetings with our editor. Most writers hate these meetings. In the industry, editorial meetings are typically used to push the writers to include material which is more commercially acceptable, in line with the editorial policies of the publication, or, more accurately, the advertisers, as magazines are all about advertising.
I, on the other hand, have always been ok with these meetings. They give me an opportunity to bounce ideas off my boss. Sometimes, though rarely, he even has a good idea or two.
At Cold Case, we are not just reporting the facts. We are providing the circumstances of a case. This allows a wide range of opinions.
Russ started, “So I’ve seen the first few proposed lines. I don’t really approve. We don’t write romance novels here. You know that.”
“That is true, but this is different. I actually knew her, the victim, that is, I knew her in junior high school. I didn’t know her well, but I did have some minor amount of contact with her. I remember speaking to her on only one occasion, over 50 years ago.
“Tell me more.” Russ replied.
“I lost track of her early in junior high school. Four or five years later, she was the victim of a heinous crime, when she was a freshman in college.
“This year was my 50-year high school reunion. Though I went to Hollywood, most of my friends went to Fairfax. I signed up on Facebook for reunion information from both schools.”
One day, I opened Facebook and saw a memorial post from Fairfax with photos of two girls who died around the time we were all in high school. I knew both girls. One died from a serious disease. The other, Marina Habe, was murdered. She’s the subject of my story.
“Though I knew her in junior high school, we went off to different high schools. I didn’t remember that she died, and I didn’t know how she died. I googled her name and found the horrible story of her vicious murder, which is the subject of this article.
“Just to keep the coincidences coming, her death came around the time that Charles Manson was engaged in his reign of terror in Los Angeles. Some writers, bloggers, and even the DA seemingly worked to connect Marina’s murder to Charles Manson.
“When I first started practicing law, my first job was with Gary Fleischman, now Gary Fields. He was one of Linda Kasabian’s attorneys in the Manson case. In fact, he had her turn State’s Witness, which helped break the case. Also, the DA trying the case, Vincent Bugliosi, taught criminal law at my law school. I didn’t have him for class, but I heard he was quite entertaining.”
“Sounds promising. Let’s see it without the over the top stuff,” Russ replied.
I wrote the article as most the articles at Cold Case were written: Just the facts.
CHAPTER 2 The Victim
Her name was Marina Habe. The first time I saw her I was struck by how beautiful she was, even though she was only 13 years old. I can say this because I was only 14 years old at the time. She seemed so intelligent and worldly compared to the rest of us. We were kids. She was like a miniature adult. She was truly amazing but very nice about it.
I met her at a pool party at her mother’s house on Cynthia Street in West Hollywood. I don’t know how I wound up there. I presume that her mother reached out to my parents as we were not driving in those days and had little control over our social schedules.
I remember the house was on a quiet street with a pool. I don’t recall meeting either her mother or her father. I would find out much later that her father was not living in the home at the time. He and her mother divorced years earlier, when Martina was an infant.
I was not one of those 14-year old boys who was afraid of girls. I had three or four girlfriends by this time and considered myself pretty advanced in that area.
I was so desperate to say something that the best I could come up with was this:
“You have such a nice nose.” (Pretty weak.)
Interestingly enough, she went into an extensive soliloquy on the subject saying, “The people in my family were known for having large noses. My father told me that when I was a baby he would massage and shape my nose so that it would not look large or poorly shaped when I got older.”
I was a little taken aback by all the detail but maintained my composure coming back with this lame comment, “Well, he did a good job as your nose is beautiful.” Give me a break; I was only 14.
At this time, I presumed that she had a mother and a father living at home. It was the 1960’s, and almost all of kids our age and in our social circle had two parents living at home.
Single parenthood would not become acceptable for several more years. Most of the parents would have married just after World War II. Divorce was not commonplace.
I came to find out later that her father divorced her mother in 1954, when Martina was only three years old and that he was living is Switzerland with his sixth wife.
There were three other kids at the pool party that I remember, two girls and a boy. One of the girls would later become my girlfriend.
The boy’s name was Craig Chaffee. He and I went to the same elementary school and played Little League on the same team. We were what I would call friendly competitors in baseball, sports, and with girls. He was a good-looking kid.
During the pool party, I decided that I would like to pursue Marina as my girlfriend. Unfortunately, she liked Craig. I was heartbroken.
But I took my lumps and moved on.
Years later, preparing for this article, I learned about Marina’s father, Hans Habe. He was born in Hungary and was moved by his parents to Vienna. He studied in Germany and returned to Vienna in the 1930’s, around the time that the Nazis were coming to power.
Though initially pro-Nazi, he changed. In Vienna, he wrote a book critical of a German plan to enslave and sell Austrian Jews. He is also credited with discovering the true name of Hitler himself. When Hitler came to power in Austria, he was on Hitler’s radar as an undesirable, so he fled to France. Too late. The Vichy government had