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51 Years Ago Today / Tomorrow; The Tate-LaBianca Murders (Warning: GRAPHIC descriptions)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tate%E2%80%93LaBianca_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.
Sharon Tate in a still from a trailer for the 1966 film Eye of the Devil; she was murdered by the Manson Family.
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], as gruesome as you can". Manson had told the women to do as Watson would instruct them. Krenwinkel was one of the early Family members and had allegedly been picked up by Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys while hitchhiking.
The occupants of the house at 10050 Cielo Drive that evening, all of whom were strangers to the Manson followers, were movie actress and fashion model Sharon Tate, who was eight-and-a half 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 Folger coffee fortune, and daughter of Peter Folger. Polanski was in Europe working on a film project; Tate had accompanied him, but returned home three weeks earlier. Music producer Quincy Jones, a friend of Sebring, had planned to join him that evening, but did not go.
When the group arrived at the entrance to the property, Watson, who had been to the house on at least one other occasion, climbed a telephone pole near the entrance gate and cut the phone line to the house.
The group backed their car to the bottom of the hill that led to the estate, parked, and walked back up to the house. Thinking the gate might be electrified or equipped with an alarm, they climbed a brushy embankment to the right of the gate and entered the grounds.
Just then, headlights approached them from farther within the angled property. Watson ordered the women to lie in the bushes. He stepped out and ordered the approaching driver to halt. Eighteen-year-old student Steven Parent had been visiting the property's caretaker, William Garretson, who lived in the property's guest house. As Watson leveled a .22-caliber revolver at Parent, the frightened youth begged Watson 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 (severing tendons and tearing the boy's watch off his wrist), then shot him four times in the chest and abdomen, killing him. Watson ordered the women to help push the car further up the driveway.
After traversing the front lawn and having Kasabian search for an open window to the main house, Watson cut the screen of a window. Watson told Kasabian to keep watch down by the gate; she walked over to Parent's AMC Ambassador and waited. Watson removed the screen, entered through the window, and let Atkins and Krenwinkel in through the front door.
As Watson whispered to Atkins, a sleeping Frykowski awoke on the living room couch; Watson kicked him in the head. When 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 and, with Krenwinkel's help, forced them to the living room. Watson began to tie Tate and Sebring together by their necks with rope he had brought and slung up over one of the living room's ceiling beams. Sebring's protest – his second – of rough treatment of the pregnant Tate prompted Watson to shoot him. Folger was taken momentarily back to her bedroom for her purse, out of which she gave the intruders $70. After that, Watson stabbed the groaning Sebring seven times.
Frykowski's hands had been bound with a towel. Freeing himself, Frykowski began struggling with Atkins, who stabbed at his legs with the knife with which she had been guarding him. As he fought his way toward and out the front door, onto the porch, Watson caught up with Frykowski and struck him over the head with the gun multiple times, stabbed him repeatedly, and shot him twice.
Around this time, Kasabian was drawn up from the driveway by "horrifying sounds". She arrived outside the door. In a vain effort to halt the massacre, she falsely told Atkins that someone was coming.
Inside the house, Folger had escaped from Krenwinkel and fled out a bedroom door to the pool area. Folger was pursued to the front lawn by Krenwinkel, who caught her, stabbed her, and finally tackled her to the ground. She was killed by Watson, who stabbed her 28 times. As Frykowski struggled across the lawn, Watson murdered him with a final flurry of stabbings. Frykowski was stabbed a total of 51 times.
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 fetus. At this point either Atkins, Watson, or both killed Tate, who was stabbed 16 times. Watson later wrote that as she was being killed, Tate cried: "Mother ... mother ..."
Earlier, as the four Family members had been heading out from Spahn Ranch, Manson had told the women to "leave a sign ... something witchy". Using the towel that had bound Frykowski's hands, Atkins wrote "pig" on the house's front door in Tate's blood. En route home, the killers changed out of their bloody clothes, which they disposed of in the hills along with their weapons.
LaBianca murders
Manson took the four murderers plus Leslie Van Houten and Steve "Clem" Grogan for a drive the following night. He was displeased with the panic and flight of the victims in the previous night's murders, and he was taking those six followers out "to show them how to do it". He considered a number of murders during the next few hours' ride and attempted one, then told Kasabian to drive to 3301 Waverly Drive. This was the home of supermarket executive Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, co-owner of a dress shop, located in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles next door to a house where Manson and Family members had attended a party the previous year.
According to Atkins and Kasabian, Manson disappeared up the driveway and returned to say that he had tied up the house's occupants. He then sent Watson up with Krenwinkel and Van Houten. Watson states in his autobiography that Manson went up alone, then returned to take him up to the house with him. Manson pointed out a sleeping man through a window, and the two entered through the unlocked back door. Watson added at trial that he "went along with" the women's account because it made him "look that much less responsible." As Watson related it, Manson roused the sleeping Leno LaBianca from the couch at gunpoint and had Watson bind his hands with a leather thong. Rosemary was brought into the living room from the bedroom, and Watson followed Manson's instructions to cover the couple's heads with pillowcases which he bound in place with lamp cords. Manson left, sending Krenwinkel and Van Houten into the house with instructions that the couple should be killed.
Watson had complained to Manson earlier of the inadequacy of the previous night's weapons. He sent the women from the kitchen to the bedroom, where Rosemary LaBianca had been returned, while he went to the living room and began stabbing Leno LaBianca with a chrome-plated bayonet. The first thrust went into his throat. Watson heard a scuffle in the bedroom and went in there to discover Rosemary LaBianca keeping the women at bay by swinging the lamp tied to her neck. He stabbed her several times with the bayonet, then returned to the living room and resumed attacking Leno, whom he stabbed a total of 12 times. He then carved the word "WAR" into his abdomen. He then returned to the bedroom and found Krenwinkel stabbing Rosemary LaBianca with a knife from the LaBianca kitchen. Manson had instructed Watson to ensure that each of the women played a part, so he told Van Houten to join in stabbing her. She did, stabbing her approximately 16 times in the back and the exposed buttocks. Van Houten claimed at trial that Rosemary LaBianca was dead when she stabbed her. Evidence showed that many of the 41 stab wounds had, in fact, been inflicted post-mortem. Watson then cleaned off the bayonet and showered, while Krenwinkel wrote "Rise" and "Death to pigs" on the walls and "Healter [sic] Skelter" on the refrigerator door, all in LaBianca's blood. She gave Leno LaBianca 14 puncture wounds with an ivory-handled, two-tined carving fork, which she left jutting out of his stomach. She also planted a steak knife in his throat.
Meanwhile, Manson drove the other three Family members who had departed Spahn with him that evening to the Venice home of an actor. He left them there and drove back to Spahn Ranch, leaving them and the LaBianca killers to hitchhike home. Manson wanted his followers to murder the actor in his apartment, but Kasabian thwarted this murder by deliberately knocking on the wrong apartment door and waking a stranger. The group abandoned the murder plan and left, but Atkins defecated in the stairwell on the way out.
</snip>
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.
Sharon Tate in a still from a trailer for the 1966 film Eye of the Devil; she was murdered by the Manson Family.
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], as gruesome as you can". Manson had told the women to do as Watson would instruct them. Krenwinkel was one of the early Family members and had allegedly been picked up by Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys while hitchhiking.
The occupants of the house at 10050 Cielo Drive that evening, all of whom were strangers to the Manson followers, were movie actress and fashion model Sharon Tate, who was eight-and-a half 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 Folger coffee fortune, and daughter of Peter Folger. Polanski was in Europe working on a film project; Tate had accompanied him, but returned home three weeks earlier. Music producer Quincy Jones, a friend of Sebring, had planned to join him that evening, but did not go.
When the group arrived at the entrance to the property, Watson, who had been to the house on at least one other occasion, climbed a telephone pole near the entrance gate and cut the phone line to the house.
The group backed their car to the bottom of the hill that led to the estate, parked, and walked back up to the house. Thinking the gate might be electrified or equipped with an alarm, they climbed a brushy embankment to the right of the gate and entered the grounds.
Just then, headlights approached them from farther within the angled property. Watson ordered the women to lie in the bushes. He stepped out and ordered the approaching driver to halt. Eighteen-year-old student Steven Parent had been visiting the property's caretaker, William Garretson, who lived in the property's guest house. As Watson leveled a .22-caliber revolver at Parent, the frightened youth begged Watson 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 (severing tendons and tearing the boy's watch off his wrist), then shot him four times in the chest and abdomen, killing him. Watson ordered the women to help push the car further up the driveway.
After traversing the front lawn and having Kasabian search for an open window to the main house, Watson cut the screen of a window. Watson told Kasabian to keep watch down by the gate; she walked over to Parent's AMC Ambassador and waited. Watson removed the screen, entered through the window, and let Atkins and Krenwinkel in through the front door.
As Watson whispered to Atkins, a sleeping Frykowski awoke on the living room couch; Watson kicked him in the head. When 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 and, with Krenwinkel's help, forced them to the living room. Watson began to tie Tate and Sebring together by their necks with rope he had brought and slung up over one of the living room's ceiling beams. Sebring's protest – his second – of rough treatment of the pregnant Tate prompted Watson to shoot him. Folger was taken momentarily back to her bedroom for her purse, out of which she gave the intruders $70. After that, Watson stabbed the groaning Sebring seven times.
Frykowski's hands had been bound with a towel. Freeing himself, Frykowski began struggling with Atkins, who stabbed at his legs with the knife with which she had been guarding him. As he fought his way toward and out the front door, onto the porch, Watson caught up with Frykowski and struck him over the head with the gun multiple times, stabbed him repeatedly, and shot him twice.
Around this time, Kasabian was drawn up from the driveway by "horrifying sounds". She arrived outside the door. In a vain effort to halt the massacre, she falsely told Atkins that someone was coming.
Inside the house, Folger had escaped from Krenwinkel and fled out a bedroom door to the pool area. Folger was pursued to the front lawn by Krenwinkel, who caught her, stabbed her, and finally tackled her to the ground. She was killed by Watson, who stabbed her 28 times. As Frykowski struggled across the lawn, Watson murdered him with a final flurry of stabbings. Frykowski was stabbed a total of 51 times.
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 fetus. At this point either Atkins, Watson, or both killed Tate, who was stabbed 16 times. Watson later wrote that as she was being killed, Tate cried: "Mother ... mother ..."
Earlier, as the four Family members had been heading out from Spahn Ranch, Manson had told the women to "leave a sign ... something witchy". Using the towel that had bound Frykowski's hands, Atkins wrote "pig" on the house's front door in Tate's blood. En route home, the killers changed out of their bloody clothes, which they disposed of in the hills along with their weapons.
LaBianca murders
Manson took the four murderers plus Leslie Van Houten and Steve "Clem" Grogan for a drive the following night. He was displeased with the panic and flight of the victims in the previous night's murders, and he was taking those six followers out "to show them how to do it". He considered a number of murders during the next few hours' ride and attempted one, then told Kasabian to drive to 3301 Waverly Drive. This was the home of supermarket executive Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, co-owner of a dress shop, located in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles next door to a house where Manson and Family members had attended a party the previous year.
According to Atkins and Kasabian, Manson disappeared up the driveway and returned to say that he had tied up the house's occupants. He then sent Watson up with Krenwinkel and Van Houten. Watson states in his autobiography that Manson went up alone, then returned to take him up to the house with him. Manson pointed out a sleeping man through a window, and the two entered through the unlocked back door. Watson added at trial that he "went along with" the women's account because it made him "look that much less responsible." As Watson related it, Manson roused the sleeping Leno LaBianca from the couch at gunpoint and had Watson bind his hands with a leather thong. Rosemary was brought into the living room from the bedroom, and Watson followed Manson's instructions to cover the couple's heads with pillowcases which he bound in place with lamp cords. Manson left, sending Krenwinkel and Van Houten into the house with instructions that the couple should be killed.
Watson had complained to Manson earlier of the inadequacy of the previous night's weapons. He sent the women from the kitchen to the bedroom, where Rosemary LaBianca had been returned, while he went to the living room and began stabbing Leno LaBianca with a chrome-plated bayonet. The first thrust went into his throat. Watson heard a scuffle in the bedroom and went in there to discover Rosemary LaBianca keeping the women at bay by swinging the lamp tied to her neck. He stabbed her several times with the bayonet, then returned to the living room and resumed attacking Leno, whom he stabbed a total of 12 times. He then carved the word "WAR" into his abdomen. He then returned to the bedroom and found Krenwinkel stabbing Rosemary LaBianca with a knife from the LaBianca kitchen. Manson had instructed Watson to ensure that each of the women played a part, so he told Van Houten to join in stabbing her. She did, stabbing her approximately 16 times in the back and the exposed buttocks. Van Houten claimed at trial that Rosemary LaBianca was dead when she stabbed her. Evidence showed that many of the 41 stab wounds had, in fact, been inflicted post-mortem. Watson then cleaned off the bayonet and showered, while Krenwinkel wrote "Rise" and "Death to pigs" on the walls and "Healter [sic] Skelter" on the refrigerator door, all in LaBianca's blood. She gave Leno LaBianca 14 puncture wounds with an ivory-handled, two-tined carving fork, which she left jutting out of his stomach. She also planted a steak knife in his throat.
Meanwhile, Manson drove the other three Family members who had departed Spahn with him that evening to the Venice home of an actor. He left them there and drove back to Spahn Ranch, leaving them and the LaBianca killers to hitchhike home. Manson wanted his followers to murder the actor in his apartment, but Kasabian thwarted this murder by deliberately knocking on the wrong apartment door and waking a stranger. The group abandoned the murder plan and left, but Atkins defecated in the stairwell on the way out.
</snip>
10 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
Perhaps we shouldn't remember events except on even years?
Epix Drive-In Channel has been advertising a docuseries called Helter Skelter: An American Myth. I wanted to watch this until I realized that Epix has 3 separate channels and this is only shown on their Epix Original Channel. I only have access to Epix Drive-In Channel.
