cielo drive murders

The Tate–LaBianca murders were perpetrated by members of the Manson Family in Los Angeles, California who murdered five people on August 9–10, 1969, and two more the following evening.

On the night of August 8–9, four members of the Manson Family invaded the rented home of actress Sharon Tate and movie director Roman Polanski at 10050 Cielo Drive in Los Angeles. They murdered Tate, who was 8½ months pregnant, along with three friends and an 18-year-old visitor who was slain as he was leaving the home. Polanski was not present on the night of the murders, as he was working on a film in Europe.

The murders were committed by Tex Watson, Susan Atkins, and Patricia Krenwinkel under the direction of Charles Manson. Watson drove Atkins, Krenwinkel, and Linda Kasabian from Spahn Ranch to the residence on Cielo Drive. Manson was a would-be musician who had tried to get a recording contract with record producer Terry Melcher, who was a previous renter of the house with musician Mark Lindsay and Melcher's girlfriend Candice Bergen. Melcher had snubbed Manson, leaving him disgruntled.

Manson was allegedly displeased with the panic of the murder victims, so he took the four murderers plus Leslie Van Houten and Steve "Clem" Grogan on a drive the following night "to show them how to do it". He considered a number of murders and attempted one over the course of the next few hours, then he ordered Kasabian to drive the group to 3301 Waverly Drive. This was the home of supermarket executive Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary, co-owner of a dress shop. The house was located in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles next door to a house at which Manson and Family members had attended a party the previous year. Manson and his followers murdered both Leno and Rosemary LaBianca in the early morning hours of August 10.

 

Location 10050 Cielo Drive Los Angeles, California Coordinates  34°05′38″N 118°25′57″WCoordinates: 34°05′38″N 118°25′57″W Date  August 8–9, 1969 (50 years, 11 months Ago) Target  Home invasion Attack type Serial killing, stabbing Weapons  .22 caliber Hi-Standard "Buntline Special" revolver, pocketknife Deaths 5 Victims  Abigail Folger Wojciech Frykowski Steven Parent Jay Sebring Sharon Tate Perpetrators  Susan Atkins Patricia Krenwinkel Charles "Tex" Watson

 

Tate murders

On the night of August 8, 1969, Tex Watson took Susan Atkins, Linda Kasabian, and Patricia Krenwinkel to "that house where Melcher used to live", as Manson had instructed him, to "totally destroy" everyone in it, and to do it "as gruesome as you can". Manson told the women to do as Watson instructed them. Krenwinkel was one of the early Family members and had met Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys when he picked her up hitchhiking.

The occupants of the house at 10050 Cielo Drive that evening were movie actress Sharon Tate, who was 8½ months pregnant and the wife of film director Roman Polanski; her friend and former lover Jay Sebring, a noted hairstylist; Polanski's friend and aspiring screenwriter Wojciech Frykowski; and Frykowski's lover Abigail Folger, heiress to the Folgers coffee fortune and daughter of Peter Folger. Polanski was in Europe working on a film project. Music producer Quincy Jones was a friend of Sebring; he had planned to join him that evening but did not go. Sebring had invited Steve McQueen to the party at Tate's house on the night of the murders; McQueen said that he invited a girlfriend to come along but she suggested an intimate night at home. This specific house was chosen because both Watson and Manson had been there on at least one other occasion, and Watson was familiar with the layout.

The murder team arrived at Cielo Drive just past midnight on August 9, 1969. Watson climbed a telephone pole near the entrance gate and cut the phone line to the house. The murderers backed their car to the bottom of the hill that led to the estate and walked back up to the house. They thought that the gate might be electrified or equipped with an alarm, so they climbed a brushy embankment to the right of the gate and entered the grounds. Headlights approached them from within the angled property, and Watson ordered the women to lie in the bushes. He stepped out and ordered the approaching driver to halt. Steven Parent had been visiting the property's caretaker William Garretson, who lived in the guest house. Watson leveled a .22-caliber revolver at Parent, and the frightened youth begged him not to hurt him, claiming that he would not say anything. Watson lunged at Parent with a knife, giving him a defensive slash wound on the palm of his hand that severed tendons and tore the boy's watch off his wrist, then he shot him four times in the chest and abdomen, killing him. Watson ordered the women to help push the car farther up the driveway.

Watson next cut the screen of a window, then told Kasabian to keep watch down by the gate; she walked over to Parent's car and waited. Watson removed the screen, entered through the window, and let Atkins and Krenwinkel in through the front door. He whispered to Atkins and awoke Frykowski who was sleeping on the living room couch. Watson kicked him in the head, and Frykowski asked him who he was and what he was doing there. Watson replied, "I'm the devil, and I'm here to do the devil's business."

 

On Watson's direction, Atkins found the house's three other occupants with Krenwinkel's help and forced them to the living room. Watson began to tie Tate and Sebring together by their necks with rope which he had brought, and he slung it over one of the living room's ceiling beams. Sebring protested the murderers' rough treatment of the pregnant Tate, so Watson shot him. Folger was taken momentarily back to her bedroom for her purse, and she gave the murderers $70. Watson then stabbed Sebring seven times.

Frykowski's hands had been bound with a towel, but he freed himself and began struggling with Atkins, who stabbed at his legs with a knife. He fought his way out the front door and onto the porch, but Watson caught up with him, struck him over the head with the gun multiple times, stabbed him repeatedly, and shot him twice.

Kasabian had heard "horrifying sounds" and moved toward the house from her position in the driveway. She told Atkins that someone was coming in an attempt to stop the murders. Inside the house, Folger escaped from Krenwinkel and fled out a bedroom door to the pool area. Krenwinkel pursued her and caught her on the front lawn where she stabbed her and tackled her to the ground. Watson then helped finish her off; her assailants stabbed her a total of 28 times. Frykowski struggled across the lawn, but Watson murdered him with a final flurry of stabbing. Frykowski suffered 51 stab wounds, and had also been struck 13 times in the head with the butt of Watson’s gun, which bent the barrel and broke off one side of the gun grip, which was recovered at the scene. In the house, Tate pleaded to be allowed to live long enough to give birth, and offered herself as a hostage in an attempt to save the life of her unborn child, but Atkins or Watson or both murdered her, stabbing her 16 times. Manson had told the women to "leave a sign—something witchy", so Atkins wrote "pig" on the front door in Tate's blood.

Investigation

The Tate murders became national news on August 9, 1969. The Polanskis' housekeeper, Winifred Chapman, had arrived for work that morning and discovered the murder scene. On August 10, detectives of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, which had jurisdiction in the Hinman case, informed Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) detectives assigned to the Tate case of the bloody writing at the Hinman house. Thinking the Tate murders were a consequence of a drug transaction, the Tate team ignored this and the crimes' other similarities. The Tate autopsies were under way and the LaBianca bodies were yet to be discovered.

Steven Parent, the shooting victim in the Tate driveway, was determined to have been an acquaintance of William Garretson, who lived in the guest house. Garretson was a young man hired by Rudi Altobelli to take care of the property while Altobelli was away. As the killers arrived, Parent had been leaving Cielo Drive, after a visit to Garretson.

Held briefly as a Tate suspect, Garretson told police he had neither seen nor heard anything on the murder night. He was released on August 11, 1969, after undergoing a polygraph examination that indicated he had not been involved in the crimes. Interviewed decades later, he stated he had, in fact, witnessed a portion of the murders, as the examination suggested. Garretson died in August 2016.

The LaBianca crime scene was discovered at about 10:30 p.m. on August 10, approximately 19 hours after the murders were committed. Fifteen-year-old Frank Struthers—Rosemary's son from a prior marriage and Leno's stepson—returned from a camping trip and was disturbed by seeing all of the window shades of his home drawn and by the fact that his stepfather's speedboat was still attached to the family car, which was parked in the driveway. He called his older sister and her boyfriend. The boyfriend, Joe Dorgan, accompanied the younger Struthers into the home and discovered Leno's body. Rosemary's body was found by investigating police officers.

On August 12, 1969, the LAPD told the press it had ruled out any connection between the Tate and LaBianca homicides. On August 16, the sheriff's office raided Spahn Ranch and arrested Manson and 25 others, as "suspects in a major auto theft ring" that had been stealing Volkswagen Beetles and converting them into dune buggies. Weapons were seized, but, because the warrant had been misdated, the group was released a few days later.

In a report at the end of August when virtually all leads had gone nowhere, the LaBianca detectives noted a possible connection between the bloody writings at the LaBianca house and "the singing group the Beatles' most recent album."

 

Breakthrough

Still working separately from the Tate team, the LaBianca team checked with the sheriff's office in mid-October about possible similar crimes. They learned of the Hinman case. They also learned that the Hinman detectives had spoken with Beausoleil's girlfriend, Kitty Lutesinger. She had been arrested a few days earlier with members of "the Manson Family".

The arrests, for car thefts, had taken place at the desert ranches to which the Family had moved and where, unknown to authorities, its members had been searching Death Valley for a hole in the ground—access to the Bottomless Pit. A joint force of National Park Service Rangers and officers from the California Highway Patrol and the Inyo County Sheriff's Office—federal, state, and county personnel—had raided both Myers Ranch and Barker Ranch after following clues unwittingly left when Family members burned an earthmover owned by Death Valley National Monument. The raiders had found stolen dune buggies and other vehicles and had arrested two dozen people, including Manson. A Highway Patrol officer found Manson hiding in a cabinet beneath Barker's bathroom sink. The officers had no idea that the people they were arresting were involved with the murders.

Following up leads a month after they had spoken with Lutesinger, LaBianca detectives contacted members of a motorcycle gang Manson tried to enlist as his bodyguards while the Family was at Spahn Ranch. While the gang members were providing information that suggested a link between Manson and the murders, a dormitory mate of Susan Atkins informed LAPD of the Family's involvement in the crimes. Atkins was booked for the Hinman murder after she told sheriff's detectives that she had been involved in it. Transferred to Sybil Brand Institute, a detention center in Monterey Park, California, she had begun talking to bunkmates Ronnie Howard and Virginia Graham, to whom she gave accounts of the events in which she had been involved.

Trial

The People v. Charles Manson et al.

The Hall of Justice, the location of the trial

Court Los Angeles County Court

Full case name The People, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Charles Manson et al., Defendants and Appellants

Decided January 25, 1971

Case history

Appealed to Supreme Court of California

Case opinions

Vogel, J., with Thompson, J., concurring. Separate concurring and dissenting opinion by Wood, P. J

Court membership

Judge sitting Charles H. Older

Case opinions

Decision by Jury

The trial began June 15, 1970. The prosecution's main witness was Kasabian, who, along with Manson, Atkins, and Krenwinkel, had been charged with seven counts of murder and one of conspiracy. Since Kasabian, by all accounts, had not participated in the killings, she was granted immunity in exchange for testimony that detailed the nights of the crimes. Originally, a deal had been made with Atkins in which the prosecution agreed not to seek the death penalty against her in exchange for her grand jury testimony on which the indictments were secured; once Atkins repudiated that testimony, the deal was withdrawn. Because Van Houten had participated only in the LaBianca killings, she was charged with two counts of murder and one of conspiracy.

Originally, Judge William Keene had reluctantly granted Manson permission to act as his own attorney. Because of Manson's conduct, including violations of a gag order and submission of "outlandish" and "nonsensical" pretrial motions, the permission was withdrawn before the trial's start. Manson filed an affidavit of prejudice against Keene, who was replaced by Judge Charles H. Older. On Friday, July 24, the first day of testimony, Manson appeared in court with an X carved into his forehead. He issued a statement that he was "considered inadequate and incompetent to speak or defend [him]self"—and had "X'd [him]self from [the establishment's] world." Over the following weekend, the female defendants duplicated the mark on their own foreheads, as did most Family members within another day or so. (Years later, Manson carved the X into a swastika. See "Remaining in view", below.)

The prosecution argued the triggering of "Helter Skelter" was Manson's main motive.[50] The crime scene's bloody White Album references (pig, rise, helter skelter) were correlated with testimony about Manson predictions that the murders blacks would commit at the outset of Helter Skelter would involve the writing of "pigs" on walls in victims' blood.

Testimony that Manson had said "now is the time for Helter Skelter" was supplemented with Kasabian's testimony that, on the night of the LaBianca murders, Manson considered discarding Rosemary LaBianca's wallet on the street of a black neighborhood. Having obtained the wallet in the LaBianca house, he "wanted a black person to pick it up and use the credit cards so that the people, The Establishment, would think it was some sort of an organized group that killed these people." On his direction, Kasabian had hidden it in the women's restroom of a service station near a black area. "I want to show blackie how to do it," Manson had said as the Family members drove away after leaving the LaBianca house.

Aftermath

1970s–1980s

On the day the verdicts recommending the death penalty were returned, news came that the badly decomposed body of Ronald Hughes had been found wedged between two boulders in Ventura County. It was rumored, although never proven, that Hughes was murdered by the Family, possibly because he had stood up to Manson and refused to allow Van Houten to take the stand and absolve Manson of the crimes. Though he might have perished in flooding, Family member Sandra Good stated that Hughes was "the first of the retaliation murders".

Watson returned to McKinney, Texas after the Tate–LaBianca murders. He was arrested in Texas on November 30, 1969, after local police were notified by California investigators that his fingerprints were found to match a print found on the front door of the Tate home. Watson fought extradition to California long enough that he was not included among the three defendants tried with Manson. The trial commenced in August 1971; by October, he, too, had been found guilty on seven counts of murder and one of conspiracy. Unlike the others, Watson presented a psychiatric defense; prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi made short work of Watson's insanity claims. Like his co-conspirators, Watson was sentenced to death.

In February 1972, the death sentences of all five parties were automatically reduced to life in prison by People v. Anderson, 493 P.2d 880, 6 Cal. 3d 628 (Cal. 1972), in which the California Supreme Court abolished the death penalty in that state. After his return to prison, Manson's rhetoric and hippie speeches held little sway. Though he found temporary acceptance from the Aryan Brotherhood, his role was submissive to a sexually aggressive member of the group at San Quentin.

Before the conclusion of Manson's Tate–LaBianca trial, a reporter for the Los Angeles Times tracked down Manson's mother, remarried and living in the Pacific Northwest. The former Kathleen Maddox claimed that, in childhood, her son had suffered no neglect; he had even been "pampered by all the women who surrounded him."