This Week in History: The Manson Family Murders

From August 8-10 1969, the Manson Family brutally murdered six people in Los Angeles, California. The sheer depravity of the killings cemented the Manson Family in infamy, with actress Sharon Tate becoming a cultural icon.

During the summer of 1968, Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys lived in the home. Members of the Manson Family were once picked up as hitchhikers by Wilson on Sunset Boulevard. Wilson introduced Manson to Terry Melcher, a successful music producer, and son of actress Doris Day.

Desperate to start his own music career, Manson believed meeting Melcher could launch him into stardom. Manson was in the car when Wilson dropped Melcher off at the home he shared with actress Candice Bergen-10050 Cielo Drive.

On March 23, 1969, Manson returned to the home to find Melcher. Instead, he found the owner of the home, Rudolph Altobelli, who told Manson that he moved away. One of the new residents, Sharon Tate, came to the door to ask what was going on. Tate and Manson reportedly saw each other.

On the evening of August 8, 1969, Manson Family members Tex Watson, Patricia Krenwinkel, Susan Atkins, and Linda Kasabian drove to 10050 Cielo Drive in Los Angeles with the intent of killing whoever was inside. By this time, Tate was eight-and-a-half months pregnant. Her husband, director Roman Polanski, was working on the film The Day of the Dolphin in London. She made sure to have friends nearby at all times.

Alongside Tate, coffee heiress Abigail Folger, her boyfriend Wojciech Frykowski, and Tate’s ex-boyfriend Jay Sebring were in the house together having dinner later in the evening. Two others were on the property. Altobelli hired William Garretson as a groundskeeper. Garretson lived in the guesthouse on the property. Steven Parent was the final person on the property. The 18-year-old drove there to see if Garretson wanted to buy audio equipment. Kasabian stood to watch at the front gate while the others proceeded towards the house.

When Watson, Krenwinkel, Atkins, and Kasabian arrived at the property, they climbed telephone poles to cut the wires. When they spotted Parent idling in his car, they shot him four times and then cut his body. When they entered the house, Watson began whispering in Folger’s ear, causing Fryowski to wake.

Watson gathered everyone in the living room where he tied Sebring and Tate together by their necks. Fryowski was bludgeoned in the head, stabbed 51 times, and managed to run outside to scream for help before he was shot twice. Sebring was then stabbed seven times and shot once. Folger was stabbed 28 times, reportedly telling Watson “I’m already dead” as he continued on his rampage.

Tate pleaded with the Manson Family before she was killed, asking to be kept alive long enough to give birth to her baby. They stabbed her 15 times. Wanting to make the murders as gruesome as possible, Atkins used Tate’s blood to write the word PIG on the front door.

The following morning, their bodies were found by housekeeper Winifred Chapman. Garretson was the only survivor on the property. He explained to the police that he left the property at 11:30 and had no involvement in the murders. Polanski returned to Los Angeles and posthumously named their baby Paul.

The next evening Manson took Watson, Krenwinkel, Atkins, Kasabian, Leslie Van Houten, and Steven “Clem” Grogan to the home of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca. Leno LaBianca was a grocery store executive, Upon entering the home, Manson and Watson tried to assure the LaBiancas that they would not be hurt or killed, only robbed. Manson then went outside, allowing some of the girls to go inside to kill them.

Van Houten and Krenwinkel searched for Rosemary while Watson stood over Leno. Watson stabbed Leno in the neck with a bayonet. As she heard her husband's screams, Rosemary pleaded with the women that she would not call the police and fought against them. Van Houten ran to the kitchen and grabbed a knife. At the end of the struggle, Rosemary was stabbed 41 times.

Using both Leno and Rosemary’s blood, the group wrote “Rise," “Death to Pigs,” and a misspelled “Helter Skelter” on the walls and refrigerator. The killers showered, then played with the LaBianca’s dogs before leaving. The following day, the LaBianca’s bodies were found by their children Frank and Suzan.

While Manson was in the car with Kasabian, he told her to drop Rosemary’s wallet onto a sidewalk as they entered a predominantly black neighborhood. Manson wanted a black person to take the wallet and use the LaBianca’s credit cards so they would be blamed for the crime, not the Manson Family. That plan derailed when Kasabian left the wallet in the toilet tank of a gas station bathroom where it wouldn’t be found for another four months.

In October 1969, Manson was arrested for grand theft auto and taken to prison. While imprisoned for other charges in Los Angeles, Susan Atkins told her cellmate that she participated in the Tate murder. She goes on to tell her cellmate, Virginia Castro, of other celebrities they wanted to target such as Elizabeth Taylor.

Eventually, on January 25, 1971, each member of the Manson Family who participated in the murders was convicted of first-degree murder. In March, four were sentenced to death. All four were taken off of death row when California outlawed the death penalty in 1972.

In the fifty-three years since the Tate-LaBianca murders, the world has become fascinated with the Manson Family and their crimes. Countless documentaries, movies, books, and television episodes have been made dedicated to the topic of the Manson Family. The notoriety the Manson Family was searching for was found through the murders.