THE TROUBLED LIFE AND TRAGIC DEATH OF SUSAN CABOT (PART 2)

In preparing the following case history, I have relied predominantly on newspaper accounts, the original police incident investigation report, the coroner's report and courtroom testimony.

On the night of Wednesday, December 10, 1986 sometime after 10:00 p.m., police from the West Valley Division responded to a call to 4601 Charmion Lane, Encino, located in the San Fernando Valley in the City of Los Angeles. The call was made by Timothy Scott Roman, who said that a robber had killed his mother, according to Detective Joe Diglio. Paramedics arrived at 10:46 p.m. to assess the incident. Roman was waiting to let them in through a security gate in front of the house. He had also secured four large Akita dogs in his room so that they were out of the way and would not interfere with the investigation. Animal control personnel would later remove the animals from the premises.

4601 Charmion Lane, now demolished and a new home built.

When police arrived shortly thereafter, they observed "signs of a struggle", but no property had apparently been taken. The condition of the household was in a considerable state of disarray, with newspapers and magazines either stacked or strewn around, and spoiled food present. In short, the interior of the home appeared to have been ransacked. It is interesting to note that in the postscript of Tom Weaver's interview as referenced in yesterday's post, he states: "None of the above [the unkempt state of the house] was even faintly evident to this frequent visitor to the Cabot home".

The murder scene.

Roman, a 22-year-old art student at Pierce College in Woodland Hills, claimed the robber was dressed in a Japanese Ninja's costume and stole $70,000 in cash during the attack. Roman also claimed he was injured while trying to fight the man off.

The victim, a female believed to be Timothy Roman's mother, Susan Roman, , was found in the master bedroom lying prone on the bed wearing a purple nightgown. Extensive injuries to her head indicated she was bludgeoned to death. There was considerable blood spatter on the bedroom mirror, wall and floor with instances of hair and brain matter exposed on and around the body. Cranial bone fragments were also visible. Her face had been covered with a piece of the bed linen and presumed placed there premortem. Ten Polaroid camera shots were taken at the scene by a police photographer. The victim was pronounced dead at 10:46 p.m. before she was removed from her home and transported to the county morgue.

During questioning, Timothy Roman revealed that he and his mother argued frequently and at the time of the murder they had had "a long-running feud between mother and son", although he [Detective Diglio] didn't know what exactly what the argument was about. "Basically, he said a burglar did it," Detective Diglio recounted in a statement. "He gave a complete description of the burglar, who looked like a Ninja warrior. I guess he's into that kind of stuff."After further questioning, police concluded that his answers were becoming less and less credible. As a result, on the morning of December 11th, he was transported to the West Valley Station where he was interrogated for approximately three hours. 

Susan Cabot-Roman and son, Timothy.

Excerpt from the police investigation report:

According to Det. Diglio, when Timothy Roman was questioned about the incident, his statements became increasingly inconsistent. Mr. Roman reportedly told police that he heard his mother being being 'hit with a hammer', which awoke him at approximately 2130 hours on the evening of the incident. Mr. Roman told police, that after awaking, he went into the kitchen. In the kitchen, Mr. Roman reported confronting the 'burglar', and was cut with an unknown object and hit on the head. After his confrontation with the 'burglar' Mr. Roman stated that he went to his mother's room, did not enter, but knew something had happened to her and called paramedics.

The decedent [sic] was taken to LAPD, West Valley Station where he was interviewed by Det. Conmay. Reportedly, the son, Timothy Roman, told police he and his mother were very close, and that they would talk about anything, including intimate sexual matters.

Due to the inconsistent statements, and the observations made at the crime scene, Timothy Roman, was placed under arrest for investigation in this incident.

Roman requested that he return home and retrieve his medication. The police obliged and when they arrived, Roman broke down and confessed to the crime. He led the officers to his room where a box of laundry detergent was recovered from his clothes hamper. The box was found to contain the bar from a weight-lifting dumbbell and a scalpel (which he claimed later his mother had attacked him with). The bar was recovered into evidence as being the murder weapon.

An autopsy on Susan Roman was conducted by Los Angeles County Deputy Medical Examiner James V. Wegner, M.D., Pathologist at 11:30 a.m. on December 12, 1986, during which time she was officially identified as 59-year-old Susan Cabot-Roman (aka actress Susan Cabot). The cause of death was ruled a homicide as the result of "bludgeoning head injuries". One a side note, Dr. Wegner was working under the often controversial Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner Dr. Thomas T. Noguchi, M.D.

A funeral service was conducted for Susan Cabot-Roman at the Malinow Silverman Mortuary in Westwood, California. Approximately 40 mourners were present, comprised of friends and family members, including her mother, Mildred Shapiro. Miss Cabot-Roman (as she was referred to in newspaper accounts) was interred at Hillside Memorial Park in Culver City, California, in the Sunland Gardens, Wall Crypt C, Space #242.

Timothy Scott Roman at his trial.

Timothy Roman was incarcerated for about two-and-a-half years before his trial, the first of which was declared a mistrial by the judge when Timothy's defense attorney was hospitalized for a "stress-related" heart condition.

On October 6, 1989 Timothy Roman took the stand at the no-jury trial and reversed his previous plea from not guilty for reasons of insanity to not guilty. Thus, the trial continued with accusations of Timothy becoming deranged because of his pituitary gland treatments on one side and his mother descending into the pits of violent madness on the other.

Indeed, while the proceedings were largely focused on Timothy Roman, testimony made it increasingly clear that Susan Cabot-Roman had been displaying a pattern of increasingly disturbing behavior which manifested itself in emotional outbursts and abusive language aimed at her son (no sexual abuse allegations were ever claimed). In addition, there was no outward appearance of malicious behavior or foul play in their home to those who lived nearby.

One of the individuals who was a frequent visitor to the home was Timothy's tutor and testified that Susan was frequently verbally abusive to her son in his presence. A film taken inside the residence was shown at the trial which verified the interior's deplorable state.

Four days later, on October 10, Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Darlene E. Schempp ruled the case involuntary manslaughter. After considering time served, Timothy Roman was released to his grandmother whom he lived with until it was necessary for him to live in a rest home when his health began to decline. He died in Los Angeles on January 22, 2003 at the age of 38 from complications of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. He was cremated and his ashes scattered at sea.

On a final note, Susan Cabot's crypt remained improperly marked for many years with only a small, faded tag from a label maker to identify her. In 2012, Scott Michaels of the now-defunct Hollywood's Dearly Departed Tours and FindaGrave.com petitioned Hillside Memorial Park to have a bronze plaque installed. His request was granted as there were no other living relatives to consult. He subsequently raised the money for its completion. Since then, Mr. Michaels has graciously funded a number of other placards for the unmarked graves of celebrities such as Elsa Lanchester, "Schlitze the Pinhead" from Tod Browning's FREAKS, and Donald Jerome "Shorty" Shea, a murder victim of the Manson Family.

Son Convicted of Killing Actress Mother : Justice: Because there was no evidence of premeditation, Timothy Scott Roman was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter, not murder.

By Patricia Klein Lerner, Times Staff Writer | Oct. 11, 1989 | latimes.com

A judge on Tuesday convicted Timothy Scott Roman of involuntary manslaughter in the 1986 bludgeoning death of his mother, actress Susan Cabot, famed for her roles in B-movies and her romance with Jordan’s King Hussein.

However, Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Darlene E. Schempp declined to find Roman guilty of murder. She said there is no evidence that Roman premeditated bludgeoning Cabot to death with a barbell in the Encino home they shared. Premeditation would have been required to prove murder.

“There is no question that the defendant loved his mother very much,” said Schempp, who presided over Roman’s six-day, non-jury trial. Cabot, 59, was found dead across her bed in a blood-soaked nightgown on the night of Dec. 10, 1986. She had been clubbed repeatedly on the head.

The verdict was delivered just 10 minutes after closing arguments, which lasted less than an hour. One of Roman’s two attorneys ushered him out of the courtroom through a rear exit immediately afterward. His grandmother said she and Roman are “just overjoyed at the verdict.”

“Oh, what we have gone through. Timothy and I are just drained,” said Elizabeth Roman, who sat through her grandson’s trial. “It’s time to start a whole new life. We are taking him away from this area, this town.”

Roman, a 25-year-old former art student, could receive a maximum sentence of four years and a minimum sentence of probation. Since he has already spent about 2 1/2 years in jail, he could conceivably have enough credits for good behavior and jail work to have fulfilled his sentence, officials said. Schempp scheduled sentencing for Nov. 29.

“It was an extremely tough call for the judge to have to make,” said the prosecutor, Deputy Dist. Atty. Bradford E. Stone.

Stone originally was seeking a murder conviction but asked Schempp in closing arguments to convict Cabot of voluntary manslaughter, an unlawful killing without malice but with intent to kill. Stone said he decided to seek conviction on the lesser offense late last week after hearing the defense case and deciding Roman did not act with premeditation.

Richard P. Lasting and Michael V. White, Roman’s attorneys, did not dispute that Roman killed his mother. However, they asked Schempp to acquit Roman or find him guilty only of involuntary manslaughter, which is unlawful killing without malice or intent. They contended that Cabot provoked the killing with aggressive, irrational behavior and that Roman’s actions were caused by hormones and drugs he took because he did not have a pituitary gland.

Born a dwarf, Roman’s growth to his present height of 5 feet, 4 inches was induced with thrice-weekly injections of a hormone derived from the pituitary glands of cadavers. A former attorney once called him “a failed human experiment.” The attorney claimed the experimental treatments caused aberrant behavior.

Schempp said she was swayed by testimony that Cabot was deeply depressed, suicidal and suffering from increasing mental deterioration in the days before her death.

Schempp particularly cited the testimony of Cabot’s longtime psychologist that his 50-minute sessions with the actress were so emotionally draining that he felt sorry for Roman, whom he surmised constantly lived with Cabot’s fears.

Schempp also noted her shock at a videotape showing the slovenly, unkempt condition of Cabot’s Encino house. The tape and testimony showed the house to be littered with newspapers that were three to four years old and spoiled food.

“It was beyond my imagination that a person of such success and notoriety at one time could live in such indescribable conditions,” Schempp said.

During the trial, Roman testified that his mother seemed not to recognize him and was screaming, talking to herself and calling for her mother on the night of the killing. When Roman tried to call paramedics, he testified, his mother attacked him with a weight bar and scalpel.

Roman said he later found Cabot dead but does not remember killing her. He admitted lying to police, telling them a burglar in a Ninja mask had killed his mother, and said he hid the barbell and scalpel because he didn’t think anyone would believe his story.

Roman, who has been free since June on $25,000 bail and living with his grandmother in Los Angeles, had faced a maximum sentence of life in prison.

In May, Schempp granted Roman a mistrial about a month into the proceedings after his attorney, Chester Leo Smith, was admitted to a hospital with what were said to be stress-related heart problems.

Had he not bowed out, Roman’s family had vowed to fire the attorney for, among other things, revealing to jurors that Roman had confessed to police that he killed his mother. The information otherwise would have been excluded from the jury since Roman had asked to have a lawyer present before confessing.

The CIA memo, now highly-redacted.

CIA files reveal Jordan's King Hussein fathered a child with Jewish Hollywood actress

Their child would grow up to kill Susan Cabot in a violent argument

By Rosa Doherty | January 12, 2018 | TheJC.com

CIA files have revealed that Jordan’s King Hussein fathered a child with the Jewish Hollywood actress Susan Cabot. According to USA Today, which cited newly declassified CIA files, King Hussein was set up with the actress by the American intelligence agency. The CIA memo from 1959 revealed that the 24-year-old king “was especially desirous of female companionship during his Los Angeles visit and it was requested that appropriate arrangements be made through a controlled source of the Office in order to assure a satisfied visit.” The King went on to meet the divorced 32-year-old actress who stared in movies like “Sorority Girl” and “The Wasp Woman.”

Ms Cabot, who was born Harriet Shapiro, spent a lot of time with the King, who was also divorced. According to the memo the CIA arranged for her to meet him in New York later that month. It is believed that Ms Cabot was told by her handler: “We want you to go to bed with him.” “The actress said that she rejected the proposal but finally went to [Hussein’s] party,” the memo stated.

“She became quite taken with the foreign official and found him to be most charming.” The actress dated the King for seven years and gave birth to their son Timothy in 1961. He was adopted by her second husband Michael Roman after they married in 1968 and took his surname.

Timothy Roman, who was born a dwarf, eventually grew to 5’4” due to weekly injections of a hormone derived from the pituitary glands of cadavers.He killed his mother in 1986. She was beaten to death with a weightlifting bar. Her son was charged with involuntary manslaughter and convicted in 1989. During the trial he said that she had attacked him and his reaction was due to the drugs he was forced to take.

Chester Leo Smith, a lawyer in the case wrote in court filings that Ms Cabot was found to have received $1,500 a month from the King. “For better or worse, it looks like child support,” he said. King Hussein married three more times after his relationship with the actress.

“Very special. I loved her very much.”

- Timothy Scott Roman

on the night of his mother's murder.