The Manson Family Tate Murders remain one of the most gruesome and infamous crimes in American history. On the night of August 8–9, 1969, actress Sharon Tate and four others were brutally murdered at her home in Los Angeles by followers of cult leader Charles Manson. This horrific event, followed by another double murder the next night, sent shockwaves through Hollywood and beyond, forever altering the perception of safety and innocence in the late 1960s.
Sharon Tate, star of Valley of the Dolls, pictured in 1967.
Sharon Tate, a rising star best known for her role in Valley of the Dolls (1967), was married to acclaimed film director Roman Polanski and eight and a half months pregnant in the summer of 1969. The couple was renting a home at 10050 Cielo Drive in Benedict Canyon, an affluent area of Los Angeles. Polanski was away in Europe for a film project, and Tate was staying at the residence with friends Wojciech Frykowski, a friend of Polanski, and Frykowski’s girlfriend, Abigail Folger, heiress to the Folger coffee fortune. Celebrity hairstylist Jay Sebring, a former boyfriend of Tate and still a close friend, was also visiting that fateful night.
Charles Manson, the charismatic leader of a communal cult known as the Manson Family, had a twisted motive for targeting the Cielo Drive home. The previous resident, music producer Terry Melcher, had rejected Manson’s aspirations for a recording contract, fueling Manson’s resentment and desire for revenge. On August 8, Manson instructed his follower Charles “Tex” Watson to take several Family members – Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Linda Kasabian – to the Cielo Drive address and commit murder, instructing them to make it “as gruesome as you can.”
Watson and the women arrived at the Cielo Drive property late on August 8. As they approached the main house, they encountered 18-year-old Steven Parent, who was visiting the property’s caretaker in the guest house. In a tragic case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, Watson fatally shot Parent. Watson, Atkins, and Krenwinkel then proceeded to break into the main residence, leaving Kasabian outside as a lookout.
Inside the house, the horror unfolded. The intruders gathered Tate, Sebring, Frykowski, and Folger in the living room. Tate and Sebring were bound together with rope around their necks. Sebring was then shot and stabbed to death. Frykowski and Folger attempted to escape, but were brutally chased down and murdered by Krenwinkel and Watson on the lawn and in the surrounding areas. Finally, either Atkins or Watson, or both, stabbed Sharon Tate multiple times, ending her life and that of her unborn child. Before leaving the scene of unimaginable carnage, Atkins used Tate’s blood to write the word “PIG” on the front door, a chilling and senseless act of defilement.
Charles Manson 1969 Court Transport
Charles Manson escorted to court in Independence, California, in 1969.
The terror orchestrated by Manson and his followers did not end with the Cielo Drive massacre. The following night, August 10, Manson led Watson, Atkins, Krenwinkel, Kasabian, Leslie Van Houten, and Steven “Clem” Grogan in search of more victims. They targeted the Los Angeles home of Leno LaBianca, a grocery store executive, and his wife Rosemary. Manson and Watson initially entered the home, tied up the LaBiancas, and robbed them before Manson departed with Atkins, Kasabian, and Grogan. Watson, Krenwinkel, and Van Houten remained and, acting under Manson’s orders, stabbed Leno and Rosemary LaBianca to death in their own home, further terrorizing the city. Similar to the previous night, words written in blood were left at the scene.
The Tate-LaBianca murders plunged Los Angeles into a state of fear and paranoia. The sheer brutality of the crimes, particularly the multiple stab wounds inflicted upon Frykowski, baffled investigators. Initially, police struggled to connect the two crime scenes. Detectives theorized that the Tate murders might have been drug-related, failing to immediately grasp the scope and bizarre nature of the Manson Family’s motives.
However, the investigation took a crucial turn in October 1969 when members of the Manson Family were arrested at their Spahn Ranch base in Death Valley on charges of vehicle theft and arson. During this period, Susan Atkins implicated herself in another murder, and while incarcerated, she chillingly boasted about the Tate murders to her fellow inmates. By the end of 1969, all the key perpetrators of the Manson Family Tate murders and LaBianca murders were in custody.
The trial, consolidating both the Tate and LaBianca cases, commenced in June 1970. Linda Kasabian, granted immunity for her testimony, became the prosecution’s primary witness, providing crucial insights into the Manson Family’s operations and the horrific events. Despite disruptive courtroom antics by Manson and the defendants, Manson, Atkins, Van Houten, and Krenwinkel were found guilty in January 1971. Watson was tried and convicted separately later that year. All were initially sentenced to death, but this was commuted to life imprisonment after California abolished capital punishment in 1972.
While eligible for parole, their requests were repeatedly denied for decades, reflecting the enduring public revulsion at their crimes. However, in a controversial decision in 2023, Leslie Van Houten, at 73 years old, was granted parole and released from prison, sparking renewed debate and pain for the victims’ families and the wider public. The definitive account of these events remains Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders (1974), co-authored by Vincent Bugliosi, the prosecuting attorney in the Manson trial, providing a chilling and detailed narrative of the Manson Family Tate murders and their aftermath.
