The summer of love came to an abrupt and ferocious halt in 1969 with the LA-area killing spree that took the lives of seven victims including pregnant actress Sharon Tate. Charles Manson, the charismatic ringleader who led the “family” of followers, masterminded the killings in an apparent attempt to start a race war. He died of apparent internal bleeding issues.
According to the Washington Post:
“The sheer incomprehensibility of the acts — mutilation and ritual stabbings of seven victims — left the public aghast and police investigators stumped for months. The slayings — known collectively as the Tate-LaBianca murders — led to the arrest and conviction of Manson and four of his followers in 1971. All were sentenced to death in the California gas chamber, but the sentences were reduced to life in 1972 when the state Supreme Court abolished the death penalty.” Read full article >>>
According to TMZ:
“Manson has been locked up since his arrest in December 1969 for the Tate-LaBianca murders. He was convicted of conspiracy to commit the slayings, which occurred one day after the next in August 1969.
“Manson was not present, but members of the so-called Manson Family slaughtered 5 people, including actress Sharon Tate, at her home in the Beverly Hills area. Manson’s goal was to start a race war he called “helter skelter” … from the Beatles song.” Full article here >>>
According to Hollywood Reporter:
“After attracting a few dozen followers from San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district, many of them young women, runaways or other lost souls, the Cincinnati native took them to the old Spahn Movie Ranch, where David O. Selznick’s Duel in the Sun was filmed years earlier. He had transformed the site, located along the L.A.-Ventura county line, into a commune of sex, drugs and music…
On Aug. 9, 1969, Manson sent his devotees to a home at 10050 Cielo Drive in Benedict Canyon that was being rented by Tate, 26, and her husband, director Roman Polanski. (French actress Michele Morgan once owned the house). The Valley of the Dolls actress, who was 8 1/2 months pregnant, was stabbed 16 times, and an ‘X’ was carved into her stomach. Polanski, her husband of 20 months, was in London scouting film locations.” Read full article >>>
MORE READING ON CHARLES MANSON
Charles Manson On Wikipedia
Charles Manson Dies, VARIETY
Charles Manson, the Rolling Stone Interview
