Two murderous nights in August 1969 not only shocked America but marked the veritable end of an era, changing the image of peace-loving hippies that had dominated the 1960s and replacing it with a fear-inspiring, drug-addled band of killers. The Manson Family’s crimes simultaneously horrified and fascinated the public, because the crazier-than-fiction story had everything: sex, drugs, music, celebrity, beauty and grisly murder, roping in some of the most famous names and faces of the time – including some who were simply ill-fated victims of chance.
The murders shattered the nation’s sense of security as the gruesome details emerged of quiet residents being killed in their own homes – including beautiful, eight-months-pregnant actress Sharon Tate – with messages smeared in their blood on the walls. The brutal crimes – and the fact that young, attractive women were among the perpetrators – would become seared into America’s collective consciousness, not only at the time of the murders but continuing to this day.
Arguably no other mass killing has attained as high a level of notoriety in pop culture as the Manson Family crimes. Countless films have examined and depicted the murders, and Manson merchandise is easy to find – whether it’s Charles Manson’s face staring back from t-shirts and coffee mugs or even playing cards depicting Family members. Despite the viciousness of his crimes, many people for decades have romanticized Manson and continue to idolize him; he received unprecedented fan mail in prison.
‘If there was a Mount Rushmore of evil, Manson would be up there with Adolf Hitler, Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer,’ says Dr Scott Bonn, criminologist and author of Why We Love Serial Killers: The Curious Appeal of the World’s Most Savage Murderers.
Charles Manson was a charismatic ex-con just released from prison in 1967, when he began gathering followers – mostly young women – and pursuing a career in music in California
Actress Sharon Tate, 26, was married to film director Roman Polanski and eight months pregnant with the couple’s first child when she was brutally murdered in her rented home by members of the Manson Family in August 1969
Tate’s body is wheeled out of the scene of the crime; Manson’s followers also killed four other people at the home north of Beverly Hills which had previously been the residence of record producer Terry Melcher – who declined to sign Charles Manson
The killers wrote ‘PIG’ on the door of the home in Sharon Tate’s blood; Manson’s plan was to incite a race war which he called ‘helter skelter,’ a reference to a Beatles song
The murders terrified the nation and grabbed headlines not only for their brutality and apparently randomness but also for the fame of victim Sharon Tate
‘I think there’s a number of factors that led to that,’ he tells DailyMail.com. ‘One, is Manson himself; he was this really bizarre yet very charismatic, in a strange way, individual. He was just compelling to listen to and observe and just so over the top in his demeanor.
‘You had his followers, who were, many of them, these young, seemingly very sweet and innocent girls who were doing these horrible, absolutely horrible crimes at his behest … Then there were the victims themselves, the rich and famous, beautiful people of Hollywood. So that was compelling.’
He adds: ‘People would say, “If Sharon Tate can be murdered, then anybody can be murdered in their own home.” So it’s terrifying.
‘It was also against the backdrop of the late 60s, the peace and love movement; it was such a contradiction to what was happening at the time.’
Certainly Sharon Tate, who was heavily pregnant while relaxing at her rented home near Beverly Hills on a Friday night in August 1969, had no way of knowing that the house would soon be besieged by a group of youths hell-bent on homicide – because the location had previously been the residence of a record producer who had fallen afoul of their leader, Charles Manson.
The charismatic Manson had spent most of his life behind bars and was released on the eve of 1967’s Summer of Love in San Francisco; he had taught himself how to play guitar while he was in prison and, while amassing a gang of mostly female young followers, set his sights upon becoming a famous musician. He struck up a friendship with Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson after the star picked up two of Manson’s hitchhiking Family members; soon the group moved into Wilson’s home on Sunset Boulevard, and Manson began pursuing a recording career in earnest. Wilson introduced him to producer Terry Melcher – the son of actress Doris Day – who initially expressed interest in Manson’s music but declined to sign him after witnessing the ex-con’s volatile behavior.
The seeds were sown for the killing spree that would immortalize the Manson Family. Not long after Melcher declined to support Manson’s career, the producer moved out of the home at 10050 Cielo Drive, and it was rented out to director Roman Polanski and his wife, Sharon Tate. According to some reports, Manson was aware of the move; he allegedly turned up at the address but was told Melcher had left, and the producer’s former roommate later said that either Manson or one of his followers left a note on Melcher’s porch at his new home in Malibu. But many have theorized that Manson picked the Cielo Drive location for mass murder as revenge on Melcher.
‘This residence – 10050 Cielo Drive – where Tate and Polanski now lived, came to symbolize the establishment to Charles Manson, particularly the establishment’s rejection of him,’ prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi said in one interview.
Beach Boys singer Mike Love – Wilson’s first cousin – wrote in his 2016 memoir Good Vibrations that Melcher was encouraged to leave 10050 Cielo Drive by his famous mother.
‘The move was no accident,’ Love wrote. ‘Terry, Doris’ only child, was extremely close to his mom. He had told her about Manson – and about some of his scary antics, his brandishing of knives, his zombie followers – and that Manson had been to the house on Cielo and she insisted he move out.’
Love called Day’s involvement ‘a mother’s intuition, perhaps, and it may have saved his life.’
The move inadvertently, however, signed the death warrant for Sharon Tate, who was eight months pregnant at the time – as well as four others at the house. Manson wasn’t present at the time of the murders, but he ordered four of his followers to the address, where they brutally killed – through a mixture of stabbing, beating, shooting and hanging – Tate, aged 26; hairstylist Jay Sebring; screenwriter Wojcjech Frykowski; coffee heiress Abigail Folger; and 18-year-old student Steven Parent, who had been visiting the home’s caretaker. In his book about the case, prosecutor Bugliosi – who died in 2015 – wrote that Manson had instructed his followers to ‘totally destroy everyone’ in the house ‘as gruesome as you can.’
They diligently carried out his orders, with Tate particularly brutalized; an X was carved into her stomach and one of her breasts was cut off, according to a 1969 Time article. The word ‘PIG’ was written in her blood on the door of the home.
Terry Melcher, right, with his actress mother, Doris Day; Beach Boys singer Mike Love wrote in his 2016 memoir that a worried Day urged Melcher to leave his home after hearing about Manson’s behavior
Manson became acquainted with the Beach Boys after drummer Dennis Wilson, center, picked up two of his hitchhiking followers; the entire Family moved into the musician’s home before he eventually became disenchanted with Manson and the group
Tate and Roman Polanski were a high-profile show business couple at the time of her murder; he was filming in Europe and was not in the home on the night of the killings
The five victims slain at Roman Polanski’s home were, from left, Wojcjech Frykowski, Sharon Tate, Stephen Parent, Jay Sebring, and Abigail Folger
The Manson Family killers were not done, however; the next night, they targeted and killed Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, wealthy owners of a grocery chain who were selected seemingly at random. The murders, in Manson’s twisted logic, would be blamed on black killers and would lead to a race war that he called helter skelter; Manson theorized the black side would win but would be unable to govern, at which point they would turn to the Manson Family, who would ride out the war in the desert only to eventually take power.
‘Helter-skelter was the motive for the murders,’ Bugliosi said in a 2009 question-and-answer session. ‘Manson borrowed that term from a Beatles song on the White Album. In England, helter-skelter is a playground ride. To Manson, helter-skelter meant a war between whites and blacks … When the album first came out, in December of ’68, he got a copy, and he came racing back to the ranch all excited and said, “The Beatles are telling it like it is! The s___ is coming down!” It was this war that he felt he could ignite by killing white people and blaming black militants, this war called helter-skelter.’
The murders were unsolved until one of Manson’s followers, imprisoned on a separate charge, began bragging about the killings. Manson was eventually revealed as the mastermind and convicted of conspiracy of murder, then given the death penalty – but the sentence was changed to nine consecutive life sentences when California abolished capital punishment.
Bugliosi told Time in 2009: ‘I’m not aware of any other murder case in American history, other than the assassination of President Kennedy, where [anniversaries] are marked by television specials, news reports and articles. Before the murders, no one associated hippies with violence and murder, just drugs, peace, free love, etc. Then the Manson Family comes along, looking like hippies, but what they were all about was murder.
‘That was their religion, their credo. That shocked a lot of people and definitely hurt the counterculture movement. I think the main reason for the continuing fascination is that the murder case is almost assuredly the most bizarre mass-murder case in the recorded annals of American crime. The Beatles were somehow involved. The killers were young kids from average American homes.’
Leno LaBianca, 44, and his wife Rosemary, 38, owned a chain of supermarkets and were killed by the Manson Family the night after Sharon Tate in August 1969
Manson Family members Susan Atkins, Patricka Krenwinkle and Leslie van Houton were all imprisoned for the murders; Manson attracted young women, many from middle class homes
Prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi, left, wrote a book about the Manson murders titled Helter Skelter; Manson, right, died Sunday at the age of 83
He added: ‘His moral values were completely twisted and warped, but let’s not confuse that with insanity. He was crazy in the way that Hitler was crazy. In fact, Hitler was Manson’s greatest hero — he spoke about Hitler all the time. He said that Hitler had the right answer for everything, that he was a tuned-in guy. So he’s not crazy — he’s an evil, sophisticated con man. We’re talking about evil here, as opposed to mental illness. Manson wanted to kill as many people as he could.’
Up until his death this weekend, Manson continued attracting followers and fan mail, and the Manson Family’s infamy will undoubtedly remain firmly entrenched in pop culture. From behind bars – where authorities said he could not ‘be described as a model prisoner’ – he also continued spouting his convoluted logic, giving a series of rambling interviews in which he professed no regrets and denied any wrongdoing.
‘There is no wrong,’ he said in a televised 1986 interview with journalist Charlie Rose. ‘I wouldn’t do anything that was wrong. If I did something that I would regret, then I would punish myself for it, and I wouldn’t stand here and beat myself with a hammer. That wouldn’t make much sense.
‘According to anybody else, I’ve never done anything right … in the world that I live in, I’ve never made a bad decision in my whole life.’
He said the murders ‘happened in your world, not mine.’
‘I’m inside of you, man,’ he said. ‘I live inside of you. I’m inside of every one of you.’
And Dr Bonn is certain that the Manson’s death will only further add to his infamy and the legacy of the gruesome murders.
‘In a weird way, this is like a paid advertisement for all things Manson – the fact that he died,’ he tells DailyMail.com. ‘I think you’re going to see a spike in sales of DVDs, books, anything to do with Manson.
‘Even though they’re very different things, as pop culture icons, Charles Manson is there with Mickey Mouse, Marilyn Monroe and Elvis. They are huge iconic individuals. I’m not comparing their actions … I’m not comparing Elvis and Manson, but I’m saying in terms of the pop culture fascination with them.’