The 'Helter Skelter' life of Jozy Pollock
She escaped the Manson cult killings and is now planning a short trip home to England in October

By Dan Wooding
Founder of ASSIST Ministries

BEVERLY HILLS, CA (ANS) -- Jozy Pollock shouldn't be alive today. She should have been at Sharon Tate's home on that warm summer night of August 8th, 1969, when a terrible murder took place. It was a migraine headache delayed her plans and she consequently escaped a horrible nightmare inflicted on the national psyche by Charles Manson and his followers.

Jozy in her Hula Hoop days

Jozy became the British "Hula-Hoop Queen" in her youth, then married American magician Channing Pollock and moved to the United States, where they performed on the Ed Sullivan Show. Then the two of them went on the road with the flamboyant pianist Liberace.

After divorcing her husband in 1968, she entered a fast-paced world of elite rock'n'roll musicians and dated a number of famous men. She was engaged to Nigel Olson, the drummer for Elton John as John's career began to enter the stratosphere.

In an interview Jozy did with me at the 9th Annual Media Fellowship International Brunch in Beverly Hills for ANS and Safe Worlds Good News IPTV, she recounted the incredible event that changed her life.

"I knew Sharon Tate when she was a teenager," said Jozy who next month will be returning to England for a short visit. "I met her in Italy where my husband was making films and she was an extra in one of them. When she came to Los Angeles we used to hang out. I was in a club one night in August 1969 and I hadn't seen her for a long time and she asked me, "When are you coming over to the house?' I said. 'Well, I'm working day and night but she continued to press me and said, 'Well try and come this weekend because Roman [Polanski, her husband] is still in London."

A recent picture of Jozy Pollock (Photo: Dan Wooding)

Jozy said that this was on a Tuesday and she had to fly to Las Vegas two days later on business. "While I was there I developed a migraine. I finally got back to LA late afternoon-early evening on the Friday, I couldn't find Sharon's phone number and so I went out that night with Judy Carne, the 'Laugh-In' star, who called with an extra ticket to the theater.

"I had Sharon's address so I thought I would drive over there to see her the next morning. Just before I left, I suddenly heard on the news about some bodies being found at Sharon Tate's house."

As the news unfolded, it was discovered that Tate was murdered, along with four others, by followers of Charles Manson at her Benedict Canyon home. She was eight and a half months pregnant. It was an incredible shock for Jozy.

A mugshot of Charles Manson

"When I saw the film Helter Skelter, I realized that the maid had gone in on Saturday to Sharon's home," said Jozy. "Often maids don't come in on a weekend in that area and if she hadn't gone there, I could have been the one to find the bodies." In a previous interview with my ANS colleague, Mark Ellis, Jozy told more of her later conversion to Christ and the time she met one of the Manson gang. Here is what he wrote:

Some time later, after a failed relationship with a man Pollock found through a psychic's predictions, she was at the end of her rope. She called a friend named Mike whose life had been transformed by Jesus Christ. "I said, "I've had enough torment," she recalls.

"He said, 'Jozy, what do you really want?'

"I said, 'All I want is peace.'

"He said, 'With Jesus you can have peace, but you have to pray the sinner's prayer.'

"I said, 'Wait a minute, I'm not a sinner, I'm a good person. I'm always helping people.'

"He said, 'No Jozy, you're a sinner.'

"So I prayed the sinner's prayer through gritted teeth. For six months I rebelled against everything. I said, 'Lord, don't turn me into a Jesus freak. I just want to do a little bit of this.'"

But after six months Pollock sensed she was missing something. Pollock went to her Bible study leader and they prayed together. "Suddenly I had a huge hunger and thirst for God."

"It was hard giving up my will," Pollock says. "But after I gave up my will I had peace." After Pollock's water baptism, she says she had a "feeling of falling in love with Jesus."
 

Nigel Olson, May Pang, John Lennon, Jozy and Neil Sedaka

Surprisingly, the life God spared her for involves prisons--she became the first Protestant female chaplain in L.A. history. "I never thought I would be in ministry," Pollock says. "God has given me boldness to confront people in the jail," she says.

Pollock has ministered to convicted murderer Eric Menendez, who she describes as outwardly a very "charming guy." She has confronted and won over Satanists in the prison, who were initially hostile, and moves easily among thieves, rapists, and other violent offenders.

She prayed the sinner's prayer with Tommy Lee, then married to Pamela Anderson. "He was a very broken man at the time," she says. "He was very open to it, and wanted a copy of the prayer."

Several years after the killings, Pollock spoke at the California Institute of Women, where she saw Susan Atkins, one of the cultists who took part in the crime. "I had all this rage and emotion and I wanted to get in her face, but the Holy Spirit prevented me," she says. "I recognized I have to forgive."

Pollock has been involved in prison ministry since 1984. She also serves at a boy's home and provides counseling to women at a rehab center. Her mission was inspired by Isaiah 42:7, "to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison, and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness."

Note to the British media. Jozy Pollock will be back in England from October 11-16 and says she will be available for interviews during that time. To set up an interview in advance, please send her an e-mail at Haleluiaholywood@aol.com.

Note: I would like to acknowledge Mark Ellis' invaluable contribution to this story and Robin Frost for transcribing the interview.

Dan Wooding, 67, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma of 45 years. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS); and US Bureau Chief for the Missionaries News Service (www.missionariesnews.tv) and Safe Worlds IPTV's Christian News Services. He was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC. Wooding He is also the author of some 42 books, the latest of which is his autobiography, "From Tabloid to Truth", which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, go to www.fromtabloidtotruth.com. E-mail: danjuma1@aol.com.