By The Manson Family, a sect led by Charles Manson, went to the exclusive Cielo Drive neighborhood (Beverly Hills) to murder Sharon Tate, the 8-month pregnant wife of director Roman Polanski, and four other people.
On August 9, 1969, Los Angeles woke up to the terrible news: Sharon Tate, the wife of director Roman Polanski, and four other people had been murdered in the couple’s home. It took the police almost a year to find and arrest the culprits, five young people who belonged to a sect known as the “Manson Family.”
The leader of this sect was a certain Charles Manson , who had not personally participated in the events, but who was considered the instigator of the events. The Manson Family was the dark side of the hippie counterculture that was beginning to reign in those years.
Charles Manson, the leader of the Manson Family
When Charles Manson was released from prison in the late 1960s , he found the hippie movement in full bloom and expansion.
During that time he managed to recruit some members of the Manson Family , who in the future would end up staining their hands with blood for him, such as Susan Atkins or Patricia Krenwinkle.
Charles Manson, the inducer
Charles Manson knew how to manipulate and dominate vulnerable young people. Many experts on the case have highlighted Manson’s great ability to detect the weaknesses of the people around him and thus manipulate them.
Perhaps many of these abilities were related to the dysfunctional childhood and adolescence that Charles Manson suffered, creating a very characteristic personality negatively influenced by the context in which he grew up.
He did not want to be a preacher for his personal cult. Charles Manson wanted fame and wanted to succeed in the Los Angeles music industry. His failure would be one of the triggers of the so-called Bloody Summer of 1969.
The Manson Family, their followers
Manson moved with his disciples to the Spahn Ranch in the Simi Hills and Santa Susana Mountains. In total he gathered thirty-nine adults and seven children, who lived in isolation, free from any outside influence.
Charles controlled what was happening at all times , the main objective was always to have control and power. To test the loyalty of the members of the Manson Family, he imposed small missions on his acolytes.
He came to dominate their minds so much that he convinced them that the world was ending and that there was going to be a war between the races.
The truth is that he was going to create the war. The time had come to start .
The 10050 Cielo Drive Murders
Charles “Tex” Watson, Susan “Sadie” Atkins, Linda Kasabian and Patricia “Katie” Krenwinkle were the people chosen to carry out the mission entrusted by Charles Manson. The target was the mansion of the married couple Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate.
Shortly before midnight on August 8, 1969, Charles gave Tex the instructions, and that night they carried several knives, a rope and a gun . The Manson Family was going to spread panic.
The plan was a quiet evening
On the night of August 8-9, Sharon Tate, 26, had invited several friends to her house to relieve the loneliness caused by her husband, the filmmaker Roman Polanski, who was in Europe preparing for his next filming. Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger and Voytek Frykowski had stayed overnight with her.
The first to die was Steve Parent , an 18-year-old who had gone to visit his friend, who was staying next door to the main house and also did maintenance on the property. Tex approached Steve as he was driving down the driveway and shot him four times at point-blank range.
Tex, Sadie and Katie then entered the house through an unlocked window, and panic and horror ensued.
Horror is unleashed
The Manson Family gathered Sharon Tate and her guests in the living room. Once there, they tied Sharon, Abigail and Jay by the neck. Jay tried to protect Sharon, but Tex shot him and hit him in the face with the revolver.
Voytek, who had been restrained by Sadie with a towel, managed to free himself and tried to flee. After being stabbed in the legs by the girl, Tex approached and shot him in the back. Meanwhile, Abigail had also managed to escape and made it to the garden, but Katie caught up with her and stabbed her repeatedly.
Sharon was the only one left. After pleading for her life to give birth to her child, they showed no mercy and she was stabbed to death.
Sentences
When Susan Atkins was convicted of another murder, she confessed to being involved in the murders at 10050 Cielo Drive. On December 5, 1969, she gave her full account of what had happened in exchange for a deal with the prosecution: the death penalty would not be sought for her.
Arrest warrants were subsequently issued for Patricia Krenwinkle, Leslie van Houten, Charles Watson, Charles Manson and Linda Kasabian . The latter became the prosecution’s star witness, testifying and providing evidence against Charles Manson and the Family in exchange for immunity. To this day, she is the only one who remains at large.
Finally, on January 25, 1971, the jury returned its verdict: all four were guilty of conspiracy and murder. On March 29, the death sentence was handed down to all , including Susan Atkins, who decided to retract her initial statement, thus breaking the deal made with the prosecution.
However, the state of California abolished the death penalty in 1972. Thus, all sentences became life imprisonment.
The end of the Manson Family
Convicted Manson Family members were held in separate prisons, where they were denied parole at periodic sentencing reviews.
Susan Atkins died in prison in 2009 from brain cancer. Charles Manson died in 2017 at the age of 83, in prison , where he had been serving a life sentence since 1971.
As for the only two people still alive and in prison, it should be noted that Tex converted to evangelical Christianity, married and had four children. Patricia Krenwinkle, on the other hand, lives a very private life.
The public was horrified to discover that the murders had been committed by young people, some of whom had barely left their teens, and who came mostly from normal middle-class families. They kept asking themselves the question: how did they get their hands dirty with blood by blindly obeying Charles Manson’s orders?
So many years later, and despite the many explanations offered, this question continues to motivate reflection.
The mansion at 10050 Cielo Drive was demolished . Nothing has been rebuilt in its place.