THE LOS ANGELES YEARS

“I did not feel that she was reckless. I really thought she had it all under control.”

- childhood friend Darlene Thoresen”

“When she lived in California, I went to visit her for a whole summer one time,” says Christa’s daughter Nicole. “It was right around my birthday. She had a surprise birthday party for me that night.”

Nicole’s memories of her mother from this time glisten with the residue of Hollywood glamour. Like the time she found herself unknowingly seated next to Mick Jagger at a party, or learning how to swim in Englebert Humperdink’s pool. “She was just a movie star in every sense of the word,” Nicole recalls.

“I stayed with her in L.A. also,” says Christa’s childhood friend Darlene Thoresen. “She took me to a Hollywood party. At that time, I thought the difference between us was apparent. I felt like a fish out of water. But she was always very good to me.”

When she first arrived in Los Angeles, we’ve been told that she was put up in a lavishly furnished home by Stuart Duncan in either Westwood or Bel Air. She left to go to L.A. with her friend Lennie. He promised her he would introduce her to Hollywood players who could advance her career ambitions.

The hopes of a widespread theatrical release for Let’s Go for Broke were waning, but she still managed to find a little luck securing small roles on television. In 1976, she was featured as a carhop waitress in an episode of Starsky & Hutch titled Silence (air date: January 21. 1976), and enjoyed a more prominent role in the fourth episode of the first season of Wonder Woman titled Beauty on Parade (air date: October 13. 1976).

She continued to nab her fair share of celebrity mates as well. In fact, keeping track of her timeline of famous lovers is quite the chore.

Her diary/rating system was said to contain entries for the likes of Warren Beatty, Jack Nicholson, Mick Jagger, Joe Namath, Johnny Rivers, Desi Arnaz, Jr. and many others. Christa admitted to being intimate with many of these figures in the press she generated for herself.

In a 1994 interview with journalist Katie Couric on Dateline NBC, Burt Reynolds recalled an encounter he shared with a beautiful blonde woman during the mid-70’s, At the conclusion of their tryst, he says the woman pulled out a notebook and began writing. She told him she was ranking their lovemaking in her journal of past lovers. “Well, how do I rate?” he asked. Reynolds didn’t name Christa in this anecdote, but it stands to reason that she was likely his fling that evening.

In an Earl Wilson column from August of 1975, Christa claimed to have been dating actor Michael Sarrazin for the past eight months. It’s been speculated that out of all of Christa’s many conquests, Sarrazin was the closest she came to falling in love. They met at a hotel pool and lived together for a brief time in his hillside home. Mr. Sarrazin passed away in 2011, but we reached out to his siblings. They were unable to recall any memories of Christa from this time period.

She was also connected to Bernie Cornfeld during this period. A social worker turned controversial international financier, Cornfeld was a notorious womanizer who kept four or five women at his beck and call at all times. He lived in Grayhall, a luxurious 40-room mansion in Beverly Hills that he purchased from actor George Hamilton.

Hamilton also dated Christa for a brief time, and would later figure prominently in the investigation of her murder. They dated for a significant stretch of time in 1976. They were reported to have met while Christa was waitressing at Sergio’s le Club. Hamilton claims they were introduced by The Godfather producer Gray Frederickson. She and Hamilton were frequently spotted around town together (including a sighting at the restaurant Ah Fongs in Beverly Hills). But by the end of the year, their relationship was kaput.

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She was also said to have had a relationship with Frankie Crocker, the famed New York disc jockey who first coined the phrase ‘urban contemporary’. He was contending with payola charges in a New York court at the time, but he kept a residence in Beverly Hills nonetheless. Supposedly enamored with Christa, he agreed to produce a disco album for her.

The recording sessions took place at the now defunct Larrabee Studios in West Hollywood (down the street from Christa’s last apartment), and they contained a hodge-podge of fledging and amateur musicians who were all intertwined through family relations or romantic affairs.

That same year, veteran director Tom Gries had brought the controversial true crime novel Helter Skelter to the small screen. The Beatles covers in the film were performed in part by Blair Aaronson and Gries’ own son Stephen. Both Aaronson and Gries collaborated with Christa on her album (ironically, Gries’ youngest son Jon would be an earwitness to her murder).

“Christa was a very sweet, beautiful girl,” says one member of the band who declined to be identified. “One night I sat beside her and held her hand as she stood at the mic to sing. She was so nervous.”

Also included in these sessions were back-up singers Debbie Danilow and Christa’s then-roommate Patty Collins.

Patty Collins remains one of the key suspects in Christa’s murder, but little is known about her either before or since the events of February 12, 1977. Collins disappeared without a trace directly on the heels of her murder and has never been found or questioned.

What we’ve been told is this: Apparently, Christa moved out of her lavish home that was financed by Stuart Duncan by 1976, and began living in a two-story loft on Franklin Ave. and Kings Rd. Known as the Red House (for its predominantly red interior décor), she shared the space with Patty Collins. She and Collins apparently began a sexual relationship. Collins is thought to have been the same age or slightly younger than Christa (25 or 26 years of age).

Accounts of Patty vary among the people who met and knew her.

“I dated Patty for a little while,” says the band mate who wishes to remain anonymous. “We even visited her parents one time at their home somewhere east of Los Angeles.” This source has no memory of Patty’s background or any other identifiable details. “The first time we had sex,” the source continues, “we were downstairs and we could hear Christa [being intimate with other bandmates] upstairs in her room. This didn’t seem to affect Patty in the least. Contrary to later reports, there seemed to be no jealousy at all between Patty and Christa.“

Another source we spoke with - a popular music agent at the time - remembers Patty differently. By the time he began a fling with Christa, she had moved out of the Red House with Patty, but their complicated relationship continued.

“I met Christa at Bernie Cornfeld’s house,” says the popular music agent who also wishes to remain anonymous. “We had a brief relationship for a couple of weeks, and she stayed in my house for another six weeks after that.”

One of the acts this agent managed was Booker T and the MG's. During a photo shoot at the agent’s house, a topless Christa intruded upon the photo shoot. Legendary rock photographer Henry Diltz managed to capture a few images of Christa with the stunned band members.

”I could tell she wasn’t really into me, because she was more into the lesbian thing with Patty,” continues our music agent source. “That was ok. But I always got bad vibes from Patty. She always seemed very jealous and unpleasant. When the investigators questioned me after Christa’s murder, I told them Patty was the one they should be looking at.”

Actor George Hamilton testified to similar suspicions when he was questioned by police.

Christa recorded many of her sexual conquests in both her diary and on audio tape. Following her murder, detectives were able to recover a handful of the recordings. One of these featured a three-way sexual encounter with Hamilton, Christa and Patty Collins.

According to author Fred Rosen, Hamilton observed that he felt a “particular tension between these two women, and there was something involving a control that Patty was exercising over Christa.”

Christa’s roommate in the months before her death - Stephanie - also told us she got a bad vibe from Patty.

Rumors have circulated that the relationship with Patty became so volatile, that Christa made moves to sever ties with her. Christa is also said to have kicked Patty off of the disco record she was recording for Casablanca Records under the tutelage of DJ Frankie Crocker.

But Patty’s disturbing presence wasn’t the only source of tension in the recording studio. Blair Aaronson (the keyboardist) was also sleeping with Christa, as was another band mate we are not permitted to identify publicly at this time. Meanwhile, back-up singer Debbie Danilow was said to have been obsessed with Blair, and jealous of Christa for being the center of Blair’s affections.

Following Christa’s murder, Blair offered investigators a startling observation. The night prior to her murder, Blair claims that he slept with Christa in his apartment. In the midst of their lovemaking, they caught sight of Danilow, who was standing outside the window looking in on them. It was a creepy moment that took on greater resonance once Christa was found dead 24 hours later.

For her part, Danilow denied ever being interested in Blair or Christa (in fact, Danilow claims that Christa propositioned her). In her autobiography titled Finding Life, Danilow contradicts Blair’s assertion by claiming that she saw Christa make out with Patty and another musician at a party the night before her murder.

According to a New York Post article featuring interviews with her friend and make-up artist Ilana Harkavi and attorney David Burstein, Christa made a return visit to New York roughly six months prior to her murder. It is unclear exactly what her business was in the city, or if she looked up sugar daddy Stuart Duncan while she was there. It is believed that by that time, Duncan had stopped bankrolling Christa's efforts to achieve stardom, which left her in a financial pinch. It’s also interesting to note that Christa’s roommate Stephanie says that Stuart Duncan made a trip to L.A. to visit Christa in the final months of her life. Stephanie felt that Duncan’s behavior around Christa was leachy and demeaning.

Around this time, newspapers reported that she was hired for waitress job at a hip night club called Sergio’s de Club. The club opened in February of 1976 and was located at 151 S Doheny near Beverly Hills. Sergio’s was a grand and hedonistic hot spot on the L.A. club scene. We spoke with the cousin of the now deceased owner, and he recalled that the club was host to the biggest celebrities and politicians of the day. They enjoyed the club’s glittery discotek and intimate lounge areas.

"I met Christa through a friend of mine named David Stein,” Stephanie told us in an exclusive interview. “Later, when she was down on her luck because Stuart Duncan had cut her off, I offered to have her move in with me in my apartment rent free.” This would have been towards the end of 1976.

Around this time, Christa’s childhood friend Darlene received a postcard from Christa. It read, “I’m in over my head, and I might need to disappear for a while. If anything happens to me, please take care of Nicole.”

Next chapter: THE MURDER