What Happened To Helen Hennessy?

Special thanks to PixieCat for providing research and info. I could not have made this blog post without her.

Stop by Find A Grave and give Helen Hennessy some Love.

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I didn’t know Helen, but I know the time when she was growing up ….. people like to look back at time nostalgically or, as the opposite, forget what it was like to grow up during that period and make crass generalizations about a person’s life. I look at it from the point that we all have a story to share.

Helen’s story was repeated in every state throughout the country in the seventies. The anti-romanticizing of “Dazed and Confused”. Growing up during this era was bittersweet, when one thinks back to what it was really like. And two of the best examples in film are the movies “Foxes” with Jodie Foster and “Over The Edge” starring Matt Dillon. Some kids would die, and some would live to somehow move on with their lives.

Now, let’s get into the story of finding out the truth about Helen.

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Last year, I did a blog post on the death of Anissa Jones. She was a child star on the late 60s, early 70s show, A Family Affair. She died at 18 of a drug overdose in 1976. You can read that blog post here.

When Anissa died, nearly every news article published the name of 14 year-old Helen Hennessy, whose house Jones had overdosed at in Oceanside, CA. This type of thing would not happen today, where the news media publishes the name of a minor, and also includes her age and address. Helen even did an interview with National Enquirer.

The two girls hardly new each other and had only met a few weeks ago. The police report and the ensuing investigation was also a circus. There were a dozen kids at the house the next day, most of them showed up after Anissa’s body was found. Due to this frenzy of not knowing what to do, the cops were not called for some time, so whether they knew or did not know she was dead, that is because these were just kids, in over their heads, indulging in a lifestyle they should not even be close to.

Helen’s old house at 2312 Littler Lane in Oceanside, CA. Four beds/3 baths, built in 1974. 2,500 sq ft. Last sold in 1994.

What happened to Helen Hennessy?

It is hard to track down and piece together exactly what happened to Helen later in her life. Internet rumors abound. Some say she worked in the restaurant industry, was a self-employed entrepreneur, while others say that she was a stripper, drug addict and porn star. Rubbish. From what I found, she led a normal life and even ran a few of her own businesses. However, I did hear that she was quite the party animal as an adult. Helen was into sports cars, nightlife and fast living.

People on message boards who are from Oceanside, CA offer their eyewitness testimony that Helen attended Ocean Shores High School. It’s not a regular high school like Oceanside, but more of a smaller continuation school for kids with academic, drug or other issues. There is zero tolerance there for absences, behavioral issues, etc. It just goes to show you how messed up that area was with drugs, teen discipline, single parent homes and stuff like that in the 1970s. Ocean Shores also does not have a yearbook, at least not in the 70s. I had to do some digging on my own to find a photo of this forgotten tragic figure from the Anissa Jones story.

Finding Helen.

In my research, I find that a Helen Hennessy attended Fallbrook High School as a freshman in 1976. Fallbrook is 17 miles from Helen’s house in Oceanside. I am told by a former classmate, Lisa, that Helen’s extended family had a home or ranch in Bonsall, just down the street from Fallbrook on Highway 76. Lisa was in Helen’s homeroom class. She says Helen was pretty and kind and just a regular girl.

16.8 miles. Helen’s father was also a fireman at Camp Pendleton.

Anissa Jones died in August of ’76 and Helen was to be a freshman at Oceanside High the next month. However, one would think that her single-parent father transferred her up there to Fallbrook to avoid the scrutiny and treatment by the teachers and kids at school. And to get her away from some bad seeds that sprang up in her life. What else could he do? She was 14! I can imagine him being quite protective of his daughter, like most would, especially during the drug riddled teen culture boom of the 1970s. It was a big reality check. Her dad, Frank, also twice sued individuals in San Diego County for fender benders that occurred while Helen was driving her car in the late seventies.

Take a video tour of Fallbrook High School. It has a beautiful outdoor campus.

There are no known photos of Helen on the web. Until today. She was said to be pretty and blonde. It’s true. I found a photo of Helen Hennessy in the 1976 Fallbrook yearbook. Most school photos are taken shortly after the school year begins. Yes, this is her, and you can almost see the sadness in her eyes. None of the other kids have that forlorn look in their eye. What happened to Anissa was a traumatic experience for any kid to go through. She doesn’t look very happy here to me.

The reason I know it is her, is because Helen does not show up in subsequent yearbooks at Fallbrook, and how many Helens could there be in a 20-mile radius of Oceanside. One. And thus, after this school year, Helen pretty much drops off the face of the Earth until her marriage and death… 20 years later.

Her parents divorced in 1970 and her father died in 1985. He was 62 years old.

Helen Kathleen Hennessy. She was only at Fallbrook for freshman year. Then, did she go to Ocean Shores Continuation School? Post here if you know.

Post here if you know anything about her.

She was married in 1994 – Las Vegas:

Helen Kathleen Hennessy Marriage in Nevada

Helen’s Last Years.

In about 1993, Helen and Kenneth Brown moved to the big island of Hawaii, where it is unknown exactly what the couple did there, but they used P.O. boxes and an LLC was filed using her name in 1993-94… the “Hennessy Sports Bar”. Calling around and asking local business owners in the town of Keaau, provided no leads. The Chamber of Commerce also could not help me. That’s not surprising, as it was a long ass time ago. In the 90s, there was an anticipated real estate “boom” on the big island of Hawaii, but it never materialized and many investors lost money.

Helen died three years later in a tragic auto accident, apparently while she and a girlfriend were T-boned at 55 mph while making a U-turn on the very dangerous Keaau-Pahoa Road, which leads south from the larger city, Hilo, into the semi-rural suburbs of Keaau and Pahoa. Google that road, it’s very treacherous and there are a lot of DUIs and fatalities there per capita. This wreck was alcohol related, as this particular accident is listed in Hawaii’s drunk driving statistics for that year (stating that alcohol was involved, and that these two women had been drinking). The 38 year-old woman with her, Cynthia Painter, is listed as Person #1 (driver) and she also died. In 1996, there was an increase in DUI fatalities in Hawaii. The DUI limit in Hawaii in 1996 was .08 BAC.

Hwy 130, or Keaau-Pahoa Road on the windward and less touristy side of Hawaii’s big island.

The two women crashed and died on a Saturday at about noon. Conditions were dry on that two-way blacktop highway. It looks like the 73 year-old man that hit them was with two other people, either friends or family, but none of them were seriously injured. Had the girls really been out bar hopping and drinking that early in the day? Blood-alcohol levels taken from the pair must have told the real truth. Lots of questions, few answers.

I attempted to track down Painter’s husband, Craig Painter, but the attorney I found who represented him in a separate case, did not return my inquiries. I cannot obtain the police accident report because Hawaii only releases info like that to next of kin, and you would be lucky to get it even then. There is a really antiquated civic infrastructure on the big island, even when I called agencies and businesses, it seemed like I was waking them from their slumber. Almost nothing is online. I read that this is because the state and local governments have little money to put things like this online for citizens. It’s not like here on the mainland, where every Sheriff’s Department or obscure state agency has a big fancy web site. It is the same way with the cemeteries in Hawaii, so I cannot even find out if these two women were buried there.

So then, why was Helen living there?

Did Helen have her own money? Did her husband’s family have money? There is a legacy family of “Browns” that live in Hawaii. Was Kenneth related? But again, I had trouble finding relatives connected to him. Ken is still alive, and I think that he lives in Florida these days, but I have not been able to make contact. Interestingly, there is a man with the same name from San Diego County, CA who had quite a long rap sheet in the 80s and 90s. The last arrest being before they appear on public record in Hawaii. The windward side of the big island of Hawaii is a good place to hide out, if you had to. Nobody would find you there.

If Helen was a stripper, as these foolish internet rumors persist, then there aren’t and never were many, if any strip joints in Hilo. I could find nothing. Hilo is also quite small. If Hilo was on the mainland, it would not be anything to get excited about. Further south where they lived, there really isn’t much in Keaau or Pahoa either, just rustic looking homes and a few stores and restaurants. There is no porn or adult industry there, so those porn star rumors about Helen make no sense. There are a lot of drugs in that area however, and that part of the island is known as the Wild West. Except for the resort area of Kona on the leeward side, the economy on the big island was never booming, and you can tell from Google Street View. It’s almost like you are in a small Louisiana town or any rural place in the southern United States. It’s very remote. There is a lot of petty crime there, drug use and unemployment. Crystal meth is very popular, just as it is in many parts of mainland USA. I read an article recently where kids growing up there say they feel trapped and they feel they are living in the middle of nowhere. It appears that Hawaii is not all that it is cracked up to be.

Please post a comment to this article if you know anything about Helen Kathleen Hennessy-Brown.

Thank you.

This is the same Helen Hennessy from the Anissa Jones story. RIP.

This is the same Helen Hennessy from the Anissa Jones story. RIP.

The House on Littler Lane – The Death of Anissa Jones

Blog Note:  Go HERE to read the police report.

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They say that the weather in southern California is awesome, quite possibly the best anywhere on Earth. But, when the sun goes down and movie stars and celebrities begin to play, anything can happen. There is simply no place for the dirty laundry or hard truths to hide, for they are right out in the open at daybreak. That goes for washed up actors and former child stars as well. It happens all too often. This case, though, is a bit different. It was one of the first shocking deaths of a former child star. This was Buffy.

Photo credit – Kathy Garver’s book “Surviving Cissy”

The story of Anissa Jones, former star of the series “Family Affair” is no less strange or bizarre than anything that has ever happened to Hollywood. This sad episode occurred in 1976 and is still being discussed on internet forums and discussion boards by her die hard fans and admirers. The tale is wrought with mystery, who-dun-its, and cries of foul play. The authorities called it an accidental death, and it looked like a case of teens partying too much, and a young girl overdosed. Case closed…sounds simple enough. Or was it? Let’s take a look at the evidence, societal issues and the drug culture of the 1970s.

Anissa (pron. uh-NEE-sa) was 18 when she died of a massive drug overdose at a female friend’s house party in Oceanside, CA in 1976. The 2,500 square foot, four bedroom home was newly built in 1974. It was last on the market in 1994, so no interior photos are available.

There are many questions, and few answers in Anissa’s passing. It was this story that shocked Americans most during the year of our Bicentennial. I was 7 years old, and I still remember my mother telling me about it. I remember feeling really confused. I guess I thought the girl in that show was still a little kid. She was and she wasn’t.

The only recent publicity this story has received was on E’s True Hollywood Story in the mid-90s. That said, it was an episode some say was marred with errors and needless accusations. The mother was blamed, the father got off the hook, whatever. The show was poorly researched and relied on few witnesses as to the home life of Anissa and her brother, Paul. We cannot look at “E” to solve this for they had their chance.

The real answers lay with what people who lived in her neighborhood had seen, people who knew Anissa, her friends, acquaintances, classmates, kids in her beach and L.A. subculture, local area druggies, etc. After that data is gleaned and filtered, everything comes out in the wash, believe me. It was a simple drug overdose by a girl that lived fast and died tragically. But first, let’s look at the rest of the story.

This donut shop used to be Winchells, and Anissa worked here in 1975. 8139 W. Manchester, Playa Del Rey.

SUICIDE?

Anissa had recently bought birth control pills, was with friends non-stop, rented a beach house in San Diego, and she had made some long-term business and financial arrangements. That is hardly the premeditated behavior of a person about to commit suicide. Suicide is out as cause of death as far as I am concerned.

A YOUNG DRUG CULTURE AND RAMPANT DIVORCE

Let’s face it. The seventies were the golden age of divorce and a massive increase in single-parent families. My parents divorced in 1975. Few families on our street had both parents. It’s pretty sad, and it tore me up at age 5.

Without proper supervision, kids and young teens ran wild. After the failed summer of love and all the promise of a new world, hippie madness, the only thing leftover was Rock-n-Roll and the bitter taste of broken families, street drugs, and this was everywhere. Watch the movie, Foxes, starring Jodie Foster to get the idea. It came out 3 years after Anissa’s death, but you’ll definitely pick up the vibe. That movie is hauntingly familiar to me.

In the early seventies, Richard Nixon had just ramped up his big drug campaign and this was just a few years before Anissa’s death. Things were bad and it would get worse before it got better. Young adults, teens and kids could get drugs just about anyplace. Anissa’s place to get prescription drugs, Quaaludes, Seconals (uppers/downers) was from an elderly Dr. Feelgood in Torrance, California.

September 26, 1976. He was also cited for speeding once in 1951: Going 45 in a 30 mph zone. LOL. I stumbled across that while searching for this.

Enter one Dr. Don Carlos Moshos. He had but a short time to live due to a terminal illness and he wanted to leave a bigger nest egg for his family. Cops said he generated something like $500,000 in less than a year peddling his prescription dope. Since his office ran their own pharmacy or dispensary it was easy, he was selling anything to anyone over 18 who could pay the $15 fee. You pay for the doctor’s visit and you get some pills. It was similar to today’s pill mills I am sure. Anissa would also get cocaine and PCP from the local drug dealers in her neighborhood in Playa Del Rey.

Dr. Moshos office at 1617 Cravens Ave in Torrance, CA. The kids would actually line up outside to get their pills.

THE NIGHT ANISSA DIED AND THE AFTERMATH

Ten or twelve kids were at the house at various times during the party or after Anissa’s body was found. That is in the police report. What is also there, is that one of the girls was 12 years old. Talk about starting to party at a young age- that will just about do it! Here are some facts from the police report:

• Although a bizarre end, the cops ruled this an accidental death due to overdose. I agree.
• The party goers or those present (guys and girls) ranged in age from 12 to 22 years old.
• A few neighborhood kids showed up after she was dead but before the EMTs, just to gawk or check out the scene. They were in the house.
• One boy gave a false name, only to fess up later saying he was just scared.
• One girl’s parents came over right away and whisked away their daughter, only to have to explain this later to the cops.
• The 22-year-old man was not at the party. He was a drug dealer in Anaheim. The kids called him to find out what to do. He allegedly drives the 2 or so hours to Oceanside. This is quite bizarre.
• One boy borrowed Anissa’s car to go back to Anissa’s apartment in Playa Del Rey to get the rest of the drugs before they were confiscated. He said he was going to breakfast.
• The host of the party was a 14-year-old girl who lived at the house with her divorced father. This girl died at age 34 in a car accident collision in Keaau, Hawaii in 1996. Another woman died in the car with her. The people in the other car survived. Keaau-Pahoa Road is a short but dangerous highway, south of Hilo on the big island. Helen was married in 1994. She was survived by her husband who now lives on the mainland. You can read more about Helen here.

Helen Hennessy. Fallbrook High School, CA. 1976. It is the only year she attended that school. After that… nobody knows.

One of the last known photos of Anissa

Anissa died between 2-4am, was found nude by her friend, but was found wearing boxer shorts and no shirt when the emergency crew arrived. The police/fire crew were not called until about noon the next day. Death photos have never surfaced online and I hope they never do. Anissa’s body was found so full of drugs that the coroner called it “the most massive overdose I have ever seen”. Anissa was 18-years-old, barely 5’ tall and weighed 90 lbs, and she had been doing drugs all day.

Anissa was survived by her mother and her beloved brother, Paul. Paul later died in 1984 of a drug overdose, likely from a heart attack due to cocaine abuse. His mother, now all alone, kept his last empty pack of Marlboro Red cigarettes as a keepsake. Her babies were all gone. And now, Anissa’s immediate family are all dead and gone too. Anissa would have been in her mid-50’s today in 2012. She had no funeral and her body was cremated, her ashes were spread at sea. She left her family over $150,000 in cash and assets.

Rest in Peace. The End.