Читать книгу The Tragic Death of Marina Habe - Tighe Taylor - Страница 3

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 taken over. Hans was interned in a camp but was able to escape through Spain and Lisbon and reach the United States.

Once in the United States, in 1942, he was drafted into the US Army. He was sent to Germany to work with the newspapers which would be used during the American occupation of Germany after the war.

In 1948, he married Marina’s mother, Eloise Hardt. Marina was born in 1951. Her parents divorced in 1954.

In addition to his anti-Nazi writings, Hans was also the writer of other books. Her mother was a fairly well known television and movie actress, landing roles on early television sit-coms and in some major movies including Kentucky Fried Movie, Looker, and Winter Kills. She was a very beautiful woman.

Editor’s Office – Monday, 12 noon

“So far so good. But where does the crime come in?”, he asked.

The crime would come in next. It happened approximately four years after my first and only conversation with Marina. The story went on.