Diane Linkletter, as we all know, sailed out the window of her Shoreham Towers apartment because, in her LSD-addled state, she thought she could fly, or some such thing. We know this because her father Art Linkletter himself told us that it was so, and because the story was retold throughout the 1970s as a cautionary tale about the dangers of drugs. What we weren’t told, however, is that Diane (born, curiously enough, on Halloween day, 1948) wasn’t alone when she plunged six stories to her death on the morning of October 4, 1969. Au contraire, she was with a gent by the name of Edward Durston, who, in a completely unexpected turn of events, accompanied actress Carol Wayne to Mexico some 15 years later. Carol, alas, perhaps weighed down by her enormous breasts, managed to drown in barely a foot of water, while Mr. Durston promptly disappeared. As would be expected, he was never questioned by authorities about Wayne’s curious death. After all, it is quite common for the same guy to be the sole witness to two separate ‘accidental’ deaths.
Contemporary LAPD report:
On Saturday, 10-4-69, Dianna Linkletter committed suicide at her residence by jumping from the 6th floor kitchen window at her apartment. At the time she jumped, Edward Durston (LA 978 312D) was in the apartment. This occurred in County territory. As result of previous information from an unreliable informant, Durston had come up as a possible suspect in this case. With Sheriff's homicide investigators cooperating completely (supervised by Lieutenant Norman Hamilton), Durston was given polygraph examinations on the 4th at 2200 and on the 5th at 1100. Included in the examinations were some keys in the Tate homicides. The polygraph operator (LACSO) Sergeant Ben Luvon, and the investigators are convinced Durston was not involved in the Linkletter death or the Tate case. Also connected with Durston in the original information received were three other hippies, all users of drugs and car thieves: Harvey F. Dareff (LA 978 313D), is the boy friend of Dianna Linkletter, and had lived with her for several months and was substantially supported by her. He is presently in New York as of approximately 9-25-69. He has not been eliminated as a suspect.
