CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 10/31/2021

Halloween inspiration in 'California Infernal'

Featured photograph—of Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey and 50s B-movie sex-pot/acolyte Jayne Mansfield at her over-the-top Mediterranean-style Hollywood mansion, the Pink Palace, in 1966 (the year they met) or 1967 (the year she died in one of the most notorious celebrity car crashes of all time)—is reproduced from California Infernal, Trapart’s Halloween staff favorite. According to LaVey, Mansfield thought the Church of Satan was “the greatest thing going.” He gave her instructions, made her a priestess and tutored her especially in witchcraft and love charms. According to paparazzi photographer Walter Fischer, whose photographs are collected here, Mansfield thought LaVey was a genius, but considered herself a Catholic to the end, telling him, “I am not a member of the black circle.”