It may sound farfetched at first blush—why would Roman Polanski suspect martial arts icon Bruce Lee of brutally murdering five people, including the mother of his unborn child, Sharon Tate? A new docuseries on EPIX, Helter Skelter: An American Myth, digs into Polanski’s suspicions.
Although Polanski would later describe himself as “unbalanced” in the aftermath of the killings, his basic assumption—that the killer was someone he knew—was not unsound thinking. 80% of murder victims know their murderer, and the vicious, emotional nature of the slayings only reinforced this idea.
Lee had met Tate on the set of The Wrecking Crew (1968), where Lee served as fight choreographer and trained Tate on various stunts.