Abigail Anne Folger (August 11, 1943 - August 8, 1969) was a victim of the Charles Manson murders.
Born in California, her parents were Peter Folger, chairman of the Folger Coffee Company, and Inez Mejia. Her parents divorced when Abigail was still young.
Growing up in San Francisco, Abigail was interested in art - spending time painting when she was had the time to do so. Besides painting, Abigail was very talented in playing the piano. She attended the Catalina School for Girls in Carmel, California, moving on to Radcliffe College where she graduated with honors, finally ending up at Harvard University where she did graduate work and received a degree in Art History. In 1967 she took a job at the University of California art museum in Berkeley, California.
Abigail didn't stay in Berkeley long; she soon decided to move to New York City, where she got a job working for a magazine publisher, which she eventually left for a job at the Gotham Book Mart on 47th Street. It was at a bookstore party where she met Polish author Jerzy Kosinski who in-turn introduced her to Wojciech Frykowski.
Wojciech was not good at speaking english, but like Abigail, he was fluent in French. Abigail gave him tour of New York, and a romance soon blossomed. They began sharing an apartment, and finally in 1968 they both decided to move to California.
In Los Angeles Abigail and Wojciech found a house on Woodstock Road in Laurel Canyon. Like her mother Inez, who was active doing charity work with the Haight-Asbury Medical Clinic in San Francisco, Abigail got involved with volunteer work. She registered as a volunteer social worker for the Los Angeles County Welfare Department. In 1968, Abigail attended fundraisers set up by her mother to aid the Haight-Asbury Medical Clinic around the same time many of the Manson family women were being treated there. Back in Los Angeles, Abigail spent her days in the ghettos doing volunteer work with children. She was very involved with the civil rights cause, contributing large amounts of money to the campaign of Tom Bradley, a black councilman running for mayor.
Her work soon began to take a toll on her and she became depressed. Adding to her depression was the campaign loss of Bradley due to a racial smear campaign.
On April 1, while Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski were away in Europe filming movies, Abigail and Wojciech moved into the Polanski's Cielo Drive home in Benedict Canyon. It was at this time that Abigail quit her job and her relationship with Wojciech began to crumble. Constantly fighting, the pair began to sink lower into drugs.
On August 8, 1969, Abigail, Wojciech, Jay Sebring, and Sharon Tate went out to El Coyote retaurant to have a meal. Returning home, Wojciech fell asleep on the couch while Abigail was in her room reading. The Charles Manson followers then broke into the house and killed everyone inside.
Abigail was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Coma, California on Wednesday, August 13, 1969.
