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It's October in San Francisco, and though the burgeoning presence of autumnal rust-colored leaves reminds one that winter is stalking nearby, for now the City's infamous Indian summer still holds sway.
Even here in the Richmond, where the fog gets so thick it resembles a London drizzle, high pressure in the atmosphere keeps the chill vapors at bay, leaving the sky starlit and bible black.
An appropriate backdrop for the home of the Prince of Darkness.
Anton LaVey's Black House stands in stark contrast to the surrounding dwellings, a dark vortex sandwiched between sunny, bright residences. The ebony and purple Victorian is home to the Church of Satan, and looks like it could be the gaping, hungry mouth of hell itself.
LaVey is the Black Pope, High Priest of the church. His shaved head and goatee carve out the image of a demon in the flesh, master of dark magicks belched forth from ages past and long forgotten. His disciples cling to his every word, every incantation, every spell.
Tonight he is hosting a party at the Black House, and although he doesn't know it yet, by the end of the night he will be smitten by a doomed Hollywood starlet at the tail end of her career.
 Jayne Mansfield enters the Black House with boyfriend Sam Brody, at the behest of a mutual acquaintance. Mansfield is more a walking publicity stunt than an actress, her career built on the foundation of her almost impossibly voluptuous body and her will to be noticed for it.
She achieves this goal through her knowledge and shrewd manipulation of men's desires. Her breathy bimbo façade is carefully orchestrated to further her agenda of celebrity status and riches. Her every public appearance, every film role, every publicity still is designed to arouse, to titillate, to dominate the eyes of hungry men.
LaVey notices. His Dark Majesty is bewitched by Mansfield, and pays no heed to her male companion. He spontaneously bestows upon her the title of High Priestess of the Church of Satan. While she accepts graciously, she later says she didn't want to insult LaVey.
Her dominating boyfriend, Brody, however, is not similarly compelled to avoid ridiculing the master of the manor. He balks at the tribute paid to his well-endowed paramour, proclaims LaVey's rituals as ridiculous and brands the Black Pope a sham.
The sinister host doesn't take these insults well, and proclaims Brody "cursed by the devil," and warns that he will be dead within the year. Still, the dark lord is himself under the most potent spell of all, and his obsession with the blonde bombshell leads him to a photo shoot at her Pink Palace in Hollywood, the polar opposite of LaVey's ominous Black House, despite indications that she is toying with him.
Unfortunately for all three, his prediction will prove to be frighteningly accurate. Brody is indeed killed within the year in a car accident. But also in the car was the object of LaVey's affection, Mansfield.
In the end, though, Mansfield's legend and status would grow in the decades following her mysterious death. Was the curse true? Was she really decapitated in the violent crash?
While Mansfield would burgeon as an icon, LaVey's fate would be much different, as his own notoriety would wane and give way to bankruptcy and obscurity. He would die penniless in 1997. With his family unable to stave off efforts by the city, the Black House, gateway to the nether regions, would be bulldozed four years later.
Which begs the question — who cursed whom?
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