The Sharon Tate Murderers Who Did The Killing?
The Sharon Tate Murderers
Who Did The Killing?
People under the age of forty may have heard the name “Charles Manson” in passing on some cable channel, but many have no idea what the Sharon Tate Murders are or who committed them. While the question of who actually committed them is still in debate, it's obvious that the Manson Family was somehow involved.
I was thirteen and living in New York when Sharon Tate and her house guests were brutally murdered early in the morning on August 9, 1969. The guests were there because Sharon had a dinner party earlier that night.
Sharon Tate
Among those invited were action hero film star Steve McQueen and legendary music producer Quincy Jones. They both cancelled at the last minute because of work. The crime occurred in a rented luxury home at 10050 Cielo Drive in Benedict Canyon, a part of Beverly Crest, north of Beverly Hills, California.
I remember my mom saying that the murders had to be the work of a madman. She was right. Charles Manson was a career criminal that spent half his life in jail, then ended up in San Francisco where he became a self appointed guru to runaways and throwaways in their late teens and early twenties. His group, later called the Manson Family, lived rent free on the Spahn Movie Ranch near Los Angeles, California.
The owner was legally blind and needed people to help maintain and fix up his property. The Family got cash by stealing cars and selling drugs.
Manson was in his full blown Messiah mode telling his followers that he was the son of God. After hearing the Beatles’ White Album he became convinced that they wrote and recorded it for the Family. The song 'Helter Skelter’ was a message to Charlie that a race war was necessary. Blacks would defeat whites, then turn to him and his followers to run things. All he had to do was kickstart the war. His warped mind came up with a diabolical plan to kill some famous white people, then have blacks shoulder the blame.
On August 8, 1969 he sent a kill team made up of Charles 'Tex’ Watson, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel and Linda Kasabian to the Cielo Drive house. They stabbed and shot five people. Sharon Tate was eight and a half months pregnant when she and her unborn baby were murdered in the living room, along with famous hairstylist Jay Sebring. Wojciech Frykowski (friend of Roman Polanski, Tate’s husband) and coffee heiress Abigail Folger made a break for it and were killed outside the house. Eighteen year old Steven Parent, a visitor to the guest house, was shot dead in his car. A maid discovered the bodies later that morning.
Even as the media descended on the Cielo Drive house and seventeen police investigators were assigned to work the crime scene, Charlie Manson was already planning his next kill. Telling his hit squad that they did a sloppy job and hadn't left things gruesome enough, Manson announced that he would personally supervise the next attack. On August 10, 1969, Manson headed towards Los Angeles with Charles ‘Tex’ Watson, Leslie Van Houten, Susan Atkins and Patricia Krenwinkel. Charlie chose an expensive home he saw on Waverly Drive in Los Angeles. Susan Atkins stayed outside as a lookout, while the others broke in.
The home was occupied by supermarket executive Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary. Although Charlie Manson was present, he probably did not take part in the actual murders. Leno LaBianca was murdered in the living room. A fork was used to carve the word WAR on Leno's belly and was left sticking out of his corpse. Rosemary LaBianca was killed in their bedroom. Various slogans were left at the crime scene written in blood including HELTER SKELTER which was scrawled on their refrigerator door. Despite leaving behind two messy crime scenes, none of the Manson Family members were even on the police radar until Susan Atkins was arrested on unrelated charges.
Susan bragged about her part in the Tate and LaBianca murders while in a cell with another woman. That prisoner reported their conversation to her lawyer and the police. Atkins was known as a member of the Manson Family, so it didn't take police long to figure out that Charlie and some of his cult members had something to do with both sets of murders.
Finding Charlie and the others wasn't easy. The Family moved around between several ranches in the middle of nowhere and could not be located. After vandalising part of the Death Valley National Park while they were hiding out in the Mojave Desert, a local county sheriff found and arrested them all on a number of charges including car thefts. He had no idea that the authorities in Los Angeles had just filed murder charges against Manson, Watson and some of the girls. Atkins was already being held on charges that she was involved in the killing of Gary Hinman.
Gary Hinman did a drug deal with Manson Family member Bobby Beausoleil. Bobby claimed that Gary sold him some bad mescaline. Bobby passed it on to a motorcycle gang that wanted their money back. On July 25, 1969, Bobby Beausoleil, Susan Atkins, and Mary Brunner went to see Hinman. Manson and the Family believed that Gary had lots of money, stocks and bonds hidden in his house. Hinman to!d the group that he had no money or valuables. They tortured him on and off for two days.
Charles Manson arrived at one point and struck Hinman in the head with a sword slicing Gary's left ear and face. Seeing he was getting nowhere, Manson took one of Hinman’s cars and left. Susan Atkins and Mary Brunner gave him first aid while Bobby searched the house for valuables and kept questioning Hinman. On July 27, 1969, Bobby lost his temper and decided to kill Gary with a pillow. Susan and Mary joined in helping to smother their victim. Bobby wrote "POLITICAL PIGGY" on the wall using Hinman's blood. He also drew a paw print in Hinman's blood to implicate the Black Panthers in the murder. Gary Hinman believed in non-violence. He died on the floor chanting a prayer.
Manson's trial was as serious it gets, but not to him or his followers. Family members that were not arrested shaved their heads, had swastikas on their faces and some slithered around on the sidewalk like snakes. The news media gobbled it all up. Manson loved being the center of attention.
On August 9, 1970, Charlie held up the front page of a newspaper which said that President Nixon believed he was guilty. He obviously hoped to cause a mistrial, but the judge would have none of it and declared that the jury had not been corrupted. On October 5, 1970, Manson suddenly lunged over the defense table at the judge. A large deputy intercepted Manson and knocked him on the floor. Afterward, he looked at the judge and said, “In the name of Christian Justice, someone should cut your head off.”
Manson and other Family members were found guilty of multiple murders and given the death penalty. The death penalty was abolished shortly afterward, so the sentences were changed to life in prison. Charlie escaped the gas chamber, but couldn't escape death. He died in prison on November 29, 2017.
While the Southern California area was being terrorized by the Manson Family, Northern California had its own devil.
The Zodiac Killer committed murders during the 1960s and the 1970s. The killer's identity remains unknown. The Zodiac murdered victims in Benicia, Vallejo, Lake Berryessa, and San Francisco between December 1968 and October 1969. He also killed in the Greater Los Angeles area as early as 1966, which is why I include him on my list of possible suspects. Did he commit the Tate Murders?
The Process Church of the Final Judgment, commonly known as the Process Church, was a religious group established in London in 1966. Its founders were the British couple Mary Ann MacLean and Robert de Grimston. The Process Church spread across parts of the United Kingdom and United States during the latter 1960s and 1970s. MacLean and Moor had met several years previously, when they were both members of the Church of Scientology. The duo were ejected from the Church in 1962 and married the following year. They started a Scientology splinter group called Compulsions Analysis, which gained new religious elements and developed into the Process Church…
THE PROCESS CHURCH OF THE FINAL JUDGEMENT is a cult that began by focusing on Sex and Satanism. It's been loosely connected to animal sacrifices, but over the years there have also been unproven links to murder. Charles Manson was believed to be a member and may have received his revelation about the race war and The Beatles' White Album from this "church" or a member. While in prison Manson listed his religion as Scientology. This cult was started by two former members of the Church of Scientology that were thrown out of that organization. Besides Manson, other famous and infamous members include Mary Tyler Moore and, possibly, David Berkowitz (the Son of Sam killer).
During its existence the Process Church attracted a lot of publicity, most of it was negative. At some point the Process Church came to be associated with ritual murders of both dogs and people. Rumors spread that a number of Alsatians (breed of dog) had been sacrificed around San Francisco. The Process Church kept Alsatians as pets. Baddeley later stated that the Process Church "has become legendary, both in the annals of hippie history and Satanic lore".
Some loosely associated with the church claimed they heard members talking about killing homeless people.In the San Franciso area. These claims were never proven true but the church has obviously been associated with murderers like David Befkowitz and Charles Manson. Did they encourage some of their members to kill? You decide if they were connected to the Manson and Son of Sam murders. Some investigators believe that Berkowitz didn't act alone and may have been part of a cult or group of Satanists.
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