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Home , 10050 Cielo Drive, Bobby Beausoleil, Charles Manson, Helter Skelter (book), Jay Sebring, Leslie Van Houten

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COLUMN ONE THE MANSON : 50 YEARS LATER Officer slain in Lincoln Heights

Off-duty LAPD cop was shot near a taco stand. Police are on the hunt for his killer.

By Richard Winton, Alene Tchekmedyian and Angel Jennings

The young off-duty offi- cer was eating with friends near a Lincoln Heights taco stand after midnight Sat- urday when he saw someone tagging a wall. He called out for the per- son to stop, setting off a chain of events that left Police Department officers mourning the death of one of their own while si- multaneously trying to find THE BODY OF actress is taken from her Benedict Canyon home Aug. 9, 1969. She had been stabbed 16 times. his killer. According to law enforce- ment sources, a group of young men approached Offi- cer Juan Jose Diaz some- time after the tagging ex- change and began threat- ening the 24-year-old, his A ‘curse’ that does not fade girlfriend and her two broth- ers. One of the men lifted his shirt to reveal a handgun. Other killers have since made headlines, but it’s the murderous Diaz and his group tried to hurry to their car and drive away to avoid a violent Manson ‘family’ that remains seared into L.A.’s collective memory confrontation, a source said. As they got into the vehicle, By Maria L. La Ganga and Erik Himmelsbach-Weinstein the gunman opened fire, fa- tally wounding Diaz and in- juring one of his girlfriend’s earing the retired pros- says. He leans forward, hands splayed brothers. ecutor recount the on knees, his voice rising like a terrified A witness flagged down bloody crimes that woman’s. “ ‘Leno! Leno!’ ” an LAPD motorcycle officer, scarred Los Angeles, it Kay is slender, avid and 76. His who found the two men with H is easy to forget that white hair fluffs out above his tanned gunshot wounds about 1 the savage murders face. He helped put a.m. at Avenue 26 and Hum- happened half a century ago. members behind bars for the 1969 boldt Street, police said. Di- Stephen Kay runs one hand slowly slayings of nine people and has since [See Shooting, A13] down his cheek, describing the mark a attended 60 parole hearings to make thick rope scraped along actress sure they stayed there. He still recalls Sharon Tate’s face. The rope was every awful detail of the murders, tied around her neck and looped over at times closing his eyes as if to block ELECTION 2020 a living room beam in her rented the images. ■■■■■■ Benedict Canyon home. She was 8½ The slaughter and its aftermath months pregnant. Clad in just a white “left the biggest imprint on Los Ange- bra and panties. Still alive, though not les, [on] all of Southern ,” for long. Kay says. And also, it seems, on the Sanders is He recounts, as if it were yesterday, prosecutor himself. “It’s the case that how Leno and Rosemary LaBianca just never goes away.” were tied up and dragged into sepa- The Tate-LaBianca murders same, but rate rooms in their Los Feliz home, rocked California, drew international where they too died at the hands of attention and came to symbolize the ’s brutal “family.” Associated Press city of Los Angeles. And they continue this race is “When Rosemary heard Leno CHARLES MANSON and follower , to fascinate to this day, as their 50th getting stabbed, she cried out,” Kay seated, appear in court in Santa Monica in 1970. anniversary nears. [See Manson, A8] different

Can the 2016 phenom keep standing out in a Backlash crowded field with his targets Puerto Rico’s misery revisited consistent message? By Mark Z. Barabak

Syrians Scandal stirs anger and memories from Hurricane Maria COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa — After breakfast on a recent Saturday, Robert in Turkey By Marisa Gerber Fraass crossed the river from Omaha to this south- CAROLINA, Puerto Rico west corner of Iowa to catch Government cracks — Every night for a week af- Bernie Sanders at the open- ter Hurricane Maria, David ing of his newest campaign down on refugees, Adames sat in the dark in- office. whom many blame for side his funeral home here He sat in the fourth row, on the outskirts of San Juan cheering and clapping with the battered economy. in case another family about 200 others as the sen- needed him. ator from Vermont delivered By Umar Farooq The 46-year-old embalm- his familiar tirade against and Nabih Bulos er posts his cellphone num- the oligarchs and plutocrats ber on a placard near the and greedy corporations ISTANBUL, Turkey — front door with instructions that he said are choking the When Amjad Tablieh went to call at any hour. But the life from America’s middle out to buy some groceries Category 4 hurricane had and working classes. one night last week, he knocked out power and cel- Fraass voted for Sanders thought it would be a quick lular service on much of the in the 2016 Democratic pri- trip. But when police island, so people would just mary when the candidate stopped him to ask for his walk into Funeraria Adames ran as the left-leaning, fist- identification card, known Memorial and tell him where shaking alternative to estab- as a kimlik, all he had in his to pick up the dead. lishment favorite Hillary pocket was about $5 in cash. He embalmed 20 bodies Clinton. He’s still a fan. But The 18-year-old student that month — more than this time, with more than from Damascus is one of a twice the usual number — two dozen presidential can- half-million Syrian refugees and worked at a frantic pace didates to choose from, officially registered to live in to avoid burning out his gas- Fraass is shopping around. Istanbul. But increasingly, oline-powered generator or Carolyn Cole He worries that Sanders, he and others are finding wasting precious fuel. When MANY ARE outraged at leaders’ remarks that made light of post-storm suffer- 77, is too old and too far left to that their welcome is fray- a nearby hospital fried its ing. A week after Maria in 2017, Heydee Perez and her son endured without a roof. win a general election. “Real- ing, and Turks want them to generator, it couldn’t keep politik,” said Fraass, 53, a go back to the war-ravaged its mortuary cold and project manager who works country they fled. corpses started to rot. in the credit card industry. “I “I told the police officer He said families pleaded [See Sanders, A11] Weather: my kimlik is at home, it’s a with him: “Is there anything Trump stirs new Baseball brings 15-minute walk away and I you can do so we can see her racism charge back memories Mostly sunny. L.A. Basin: 88/66. B10 can go get it, but he didn’t one more time?” President’s tweets assail The magic of America’s GM plant to close want to listen,” Tablieh said Like Adames — who can Rep. Elijah Cummings pastime makes for fine in key voting state in an interview. close his eyes and flash back and his “disgusting” and therapy for the ravages Shoved onto a waiting to those memories — most “rodent infested” dis- of dementia, writes Bill As Democrats arrive for bus, Tablieh said, he Puerto Ricans clearly recall debate, lives are upended trict. NATION, A6 Plaschke. SPORTS, D1 [See Syrians, A4] [See Puerto Rico, A14] in Michigan. NATION, A12 A8 SUNDAY, JULY 28, 2019 S LATIMES.COM

Associated Press MANSON “FAMILY” MEMBERS Susan Atkins, left, and laugh as they are escorted into court Aug. 11, 1970, in Los Angeles. A dark cap on the free-loving ’60s

[Manson, from A1] recent summer morning, Scott “” tours that Michaels, founder of - follow the family’s bloody foot- based Dearly Departed Tours, steps regularly sell out. Quentin prepares his passengers as he Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time … heads toward Cielo Drive in Bene- in Hollywood” — fiction wound dict Canyon. around Manson family fact — “This is the story of the Tate opened Thursday night. Chief murders told by the killers.” prosecutor Vincent T. Bugliosi’s But it is still unsettling to hear 1974 book, “Helter Skelter,” has the disembodied voices of Charles never gone out of print; it is joined “Tex” Watson, Linda , on a regular basis by new entries Patricia Krenwinkel and Susan into the Manson canon, at least Atkins describe that awful night 50 two this summer alone. years ago — Aug. 9, 1969. They were Other killers have come and Manson family stalwarts, 20 to 23 gone. Other crimes since have years old at the time. The record- accounted for more deaths. People ings were taken from parole hear- more famous than Tate, hair- ings and old media interviews. dresser-to-the-stars Watson, with a slight twang, and coffee heiress Abigail Folger describing Manson’s instructions: have been slain. Still, the memory “ ‘I want you all to go together and of Manson and the men and wom- go up to ’s old house. en he persuaded his followers to And I want you to kill everyone in has not faded. there.’ Terry Melcher was Doris The question, which persists to Day’s son. And we had previously this day, is why? met him and had been in that “It’s a story that still baffles,” house before.” says Linda Deutsch, who covered Kasabian: “I was told to get a the Manson case for the Associ- change of clothing and a knife and ated Press. “Manson had a streak my driver’s license.” of pure evil…. It persists now that Atkins, sounding like a breathy he’s dead — finally. It’s as if the Albert Foster Mirrorpix/Getty Images Los Angeles Herald Examiner little girl: “We drove to the house curse has not disappeared; it CHARLES MANSON, seen in 1980, arrived PRODUCER Terry Melcher declined to sign with instructions to kill everyone hangs over everyone who was ever in L.A. with designs on fame as a musician. Manson. Sharon Tate lived in his old house. in the house, and not just that, but involved with him.” we were instructed to go all the way down, every house, hit every b street and kill all the people.” A trail of terror in Los Angeles Michaels has christened this ’ San Fer- the Helter Skelter Tour, which nando Valley home is a shrine to takes the curious around various 10050 Cielo Dr. Clothes worn by Manson the 1950s and ’60s — to rock ’n’ roll, Spahn , 1 Angeles Manson family landmarks — spiritual quests and her life as a where the Manson (later named family members during the National Park minus the Spahn Movie Ranch “family” lived at the 10066 Cielo Dr.), Tate murders were proud and prolific groupie. An oil and , where the family time of the murders. the home where discarded across the street painting of Walt Whitman (“my Sharon Tate and from this house. lived at various times — and regu- God,” she calls him) shares wall four others were larly sells out, even now, 50 years Thousand space with a portrait of Elvis. murdered. Home where Leno after the murders. There’s a picture of James Dean, Oaks It’s four hours long, costs $85 and Rosemary 210 all leather jacket and motorcycle, LaBianca a head and touches on each victim 5 on the hearth behind a bust of 7 were murdered. killed in the summer of 1969: . Gary Hinman’s house, 3 Steven Parent, 18, who was visiting where he was killed 405 6 “Sixty-nine was my year,” says El Monte a resident of the guesthouse on by . Topanga 4 Los Angeles the author of “I’m With the Band” State Park 8 the grounds of the Cielo Drive 2 Hall of Justice, and member of the GTOs (Girls where the Manson estate that Tate and her husband, Together Outrageously). “That’s Malibu , had rented after 's house, El Coyote restaurant, trial was held. when the GTOs’ album came out. I Santa Melcher moved out; Folger; her where Manson and Monica where four of the was dating Mick Jagger, Jimmy some of his followers Tate murder victims boyfriend, Voytek Frykowski; Page, Waylon Jennings.… It was stayed for a time. ate their last meal. Sebring; Tate; the LaBiancas; like anything could happen, and it 605 Donald “Shorty” Shea; and Gary was all good.” 110 Hinman. LAX The “greatest music was being Michaels cues up the killers Maria La Ganga, Erik Himmelsbach-Weinstein Swetha Kannan Los Angeles Times made” in Los Angeles, says the Source: Times reporting. Graphics reporting by again, talking about the Tate onetime flower child from Reseda, murders. who sports blond braids and an Atkins: “The people in the off-the-shoulder peasant blouse Rona Barrett says the entertain- where he took a four-month Dale director and his actress wife. house were all bound. And Voytek that shows off her tattoos — Elvis’ ment industry and those in its Carnegie course, with “How to Win It helped that Manson had a Frykowski, I believe was his name, signature snuggling up against orbit operated under “a caste Friends and Influence People” as certain strange charm and at least I tied his hands with a towel. And I Jesus’ face. She is 70. “Pre-Alta- system” — until they didn’t. In the required reading. a little musical talent. Jakobson was instructed to kill him.” mont and pre-Manson, it really felt late ’60s, the change was swift and And it was where he met a says he could strum his guitar and Kasabian: “I was told to stay like the most magical place to equalizing. fellow prisoner named Phil Kauf- make up a song on the spot about there and just kind of wait. Listen live.” That’s when Manson showed man, who had contacts in Holly- the flies that happened to land on for sounds. And I did that. And That was before the Tate- up. wood. Kaufman told the aspiring his arm. He could talk for hours then I started hearing, like, just LaBianca murders began grab- musician that, when he was re- about his odd philosophies. And horrible screaming. So I started bing headlines that August. Be- b leased from federal prison on he had drugs and girls to spare. running toward the house.... And fore a member of the Hells Angels Terminal Island, he should polish Manson saw Wilson, Jakobson that’s when I saw Voytek stabbed a man to death at a free Charles Milles Maddox, who up some songs and go play for a and Melcher as his tickets to fame Frykowski being murdered, concert headlined by the Rolling would later take his stepfather’s guy he knew at Universal Studios. and fortune. He auditioned for slaughtered, knifed.” Stones at the Altamont Speedway last name, was born in 1934 to a That meeting, in late 1967, did Melcher. He made several demos. Krenwinkel: “Abigail Folger in in Decem- desperately poor single mother in not go well, but Manson was not recorded his song started to get herself undone. She ber. Before everything changed. who cycled in and out of deterred. “Cease to Exist,” but they changed took off. At that point in time, I left Los Angeles in the late prison. She dragged her son Soon he was seeking a musical the title and the words and didn’t and followed her.… We went out a was a place where someone like around the Midwest and sent him sponsor to help him get a record- give him a writing credit. Melcher back door. And I ran her down. Manson could share a table at the off to reform school because he ing contract. The “girls” of Man- eventually told Manson, “I don’t And I began to stab her.... I re- Whisky a Go Go with someone like was out of control and her new son’s family were deputized to aid know what to do with you in the member her saying, ‘I’m already record producer Terry Melcher, husband didn’t like him. He was in the search, scouring the Sunset studio.” dead.’ ” ’s son. Where members 12 years old and would go on to Strip and Topanga Canyon. They Manson did not respond well. One night later, Manson’s of the Beach Boys could hang with spend most of his life in one insti- came through with Beach Boy He had told the family that a con- recruits stabbed the LaBiancas to members of the “family,” who, in tution or another. Dennis Wilson, who picked a pair tract was imminent. His future death and mutilated their corpses. turn, rubbed shoulders with the Prison was where Manson of them up while hitchhiking. and his pride were riding on it. “Up until this time, we all knew Straight Satans biker gang. Where learned to play guitar. He was Wilson introduced Manson to what the bad guys looked like,” beautiful people could throw obsessed with and his songwriting partner Gregg b Michaels says. “They wore black parties and have no idea who was their emerging fame, which Jakobson and Melcher, who lived and they hid out in shadows, and taking LSD by the pool. Where prompted him to try songwriting for a time with girlfriend Candice The voices are spectral and they had shady expressions. They everyone was looking for a , so he too could become an interna- Bergen at in chilling, broadcast from speakers were predictable. Now these mur- no background checks required. tional star. Prison was also where Benedict Canyon, a house that inside the white van with the black derers were kids, and these kids Hollywood gossip queen he learned the art of pimping and was later rented to a prominent funeral wreath on its grille. On a [See Manson, A9] LATIMES.COM S . SUNDAY, JULY 28, 2019 A9

[Manson, from A8] became known as the Manson From 1967 family.” to the present b Charles Manson was born In the aftermath of the slay- Nov. 12, 1934, to an impoverished ings, Hollywood and environs 16-year-old single mother named went on lockdown. Four months Kathleen Maddox, who, when would pass between the grisly she wasn’t in prison, lived a peri- deaths and Manson’s indictment patetic life, traveling through the on murder charges. In that empty Midwest with her son in tow. He space, headlines screamed and spent years in foster and group fear blossomed. homes, reform schools and, even- “Ritualistic murders.” “EXTRA — SECOND RITUAL KILLINGS tually, prison, which hastened his HERE.” “Drugs Found Near Tate transformation from prey into Murder Site, Pills, Marijuana predator. Located in Slain Hair Stylist’s Car During his stays in prison, Outside Estate.” “Police Seek Link Manson honed his quasi-spiritual in New Killings.” philosophy and his music. He also Barrett, whose job it was to took courses based on Dale Car- chronicle the lives of the rich and negie’s “How to Win Friends and famous, says, “Everyone went Influence People,” which “seemed crazy for a moment.” Everyone to formally codify all the instinc- was frightened, no one wanted to tive ways Charlie had manipulated go out, and everyone wanted pro- people since childhood,” according tection. Gun sales jumped. There Bettmann Archive/Getty Images to “Manson: The Life and Times of was a run on security services and CHARLES MANSON is led into jail before a throng of news media. Reporter Linda Deutsch Charles Manson” by Jeff Guinn. guard dogs. said the scene was “crazy ... and I didn’t know how crazy it was going to be for the entire trial.” When he was released from “I think it changed everyone’s feelings about protecting them- prison on Terminal Island in selves, and especially those who March 1967, Manson was 32 and had important names and had looking at an empty future. That’s made some success,” says Barrett, when he made his way to the who is now 82. Haight-Ashbury district in San Kay was a district attorney in Francisco and started to assemble Los Angeles County for 37 years his notorious “family.” Mary and nine months. Only twice dur- Brunner, whom he met in the ing that long career, he says, has spring, was his first recruit. In the he seen people “so frightened in next couple of years, the family L.A. First with the Manson case, expanded with the addition of and the second one was with the several women, including Lynette Night Stalker.” “Squeaky” Fromme, Patricia Kren- Barrett felt that fear firsthand. winkel, , Leslie Van She lived not far from Tate and considered the beautiful young Houten and Susan Atkins. actress a friend. The morning after the murders, she got a phone tip, NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1967: raced over to the house on Cielo The family travels to Los Angeles, Drive and was the first journalist living for a time in Topanga Can- on the scene. yon while Manson tries to make On that morning, she saw connections in the music world. Parent slumped over the wheel of His first studio session is a failure. his car, bodies covered in blankets on the lawn. Not long after, rumors SPRING/SUMMER 1968: Manson swirled about a hit list. Her broad- continues to pursue a music career cast company hired a private and continues to fail. The family guard for her. An editor friend who lives at the home of Beach Boys worked on Barrett’s movie maga- drummer Dennis Wilson for a zines came to stay with her. Bettmann Archive/Getty Images while and later finds a home at “In the middle of the night, AN OFFICER blocks the driveway while police search the Los Feliz home where Leno and the Spahn Movie Ranch near there was a gunshot sound,” Bar- Rosemary LaBianca were killed Aug. 10, 1969, the day after the Tate murders across town. Chatsworth. rett recalls. The guard had been hit. “I never knew what the final NOVEMBER 1968: The Beatles outcome was. But he was taken release “,” with away, and the next thing I knew is, a track titled “Helter Skelter.” I had three major police people Manson becomes obsessed with come to my house, set up big guns, the album and co-opts the title of everything. I mean, it was like a the song for his own purposes. scene from a movie.” “Something called Helter Skelter There were also death threats, would set off a battle,” Guinn she says. They were “short little wrote, and Manson told his follow- letters.” They said, “you are next.” ers that he would save them from “I’ll never be able to say that the worldwide chaos. threats were really linked to the Sharon Tate murder,” Barrett JULY 1969: Accompanied by says. “But I can’t say that they family members, Manson follower were not.” Bobby Beausoleil kills acquaint- ance Gary Hinman and writes b “POLITICAL PIGGY” on a wall with Hinman’s blood. About two Manson was formally charged weeks later, Beausoleil is booked with seven counts of murder on on murder charges. Dec. 9, 1969, while in police custody in Inyo County. The big break in AUG. 8-9, 1969: Atkins, Kren- the case had come a month earlier winkel, Kasabian and Charles when Atkins, who was being held “Tex” Watson go to the Benedict on other charges, bragged to her Canyon home of Sharon Tate cellmates at Sybil Brand Institute and Roman Polanski and kill the for Women about her involvement pregnant 26-year-old actress. in the slayings. Also killed are Abigail Folger, Deutsch was at the Hall of Voytek Frykowski, Jay Sebring Justice in downtown Los Angeles and Steven Parent. Atkins writes when Manson arrived that same the word “PIG” on the front door, day, a tiny figure in buckskin, hair using a towel dipped in Tate’s in scraggly disarray. The hall out- UPI/Bettmann Newsphotos blood. side the courtroom was jammed PROSECUTORS Aaron Stovitz, left, and speak to reporters before a grand with camera crews, packed so jury hearing. Bugliosi’s 1974 book on the case, “Helter Skelter,” has never gone out of print. AUG. 10, 1969: Van Houten, Watson tight it was hard to move. and Krenwinkel are dispatched to They spotted Manson, surged kill Leno and Rosemary LaBianca forward, knocked a drinking foun- at their Los Feliz home. They write tain off the wall. Water flooded the “RISE” and “DEATH TO PIGS” corridor. Deutsch turned to her and a misspelling of the Beatles friend Sandi Gibbons, who cov- song, “HEALTER SKELTER,” in ered the Manson case for City blood on the walls of the house. News Service. “And I said, ‘This is crazy,’ ” FALL 1969: Manson relocates to Deutsch recounts. “And I didn’t Death Valley, where he and some know how crazy it was going to be of his followers are arrested in for the entire trial.” October — on suspicion of auto Gibbons still has a copy of theft. Bugliosi’s opening statement in the trial of Manson, Atkins, Kren- DECEMBER 1969: Manson, winkel and Leslie Van Houten, 13 Watson, Atkins, Kasabian and typewritten pages explaining that Krenwinkel are indicted on “one of Manson’s principal mo- murder and charges tives for the Tate-LaBianca mur- in the Tate killings; they are also ders was to ignite Helter Skelter.” indicted, along with Van Houten, “In other words,” the chief in the LaBianca murders. prosecutor wrote, Manson wanted Kasabian eventually becomes a to “start the black-white revolu- star witness for the prosecution. tion by making it look like the black people had murdered the : Trial starts for five Tate victims and Mr. and Mrs. Manson, Atkins, Krenwinkel and LaBianca, thereby causing the Van Houten. white community to turn against the black man and ultimately lead : A jury finds all of to a civil war between blacks and the defendants guilty. A few weeks whites, a war Manson foresaw the later, Manson, Krenwinkel and black man winning.” Atkins are sentenced to death. Manson had his own opener. Van Houten is sentenced to death He walked in that morning with an Herald Examiner Collection for the LaBianca murders. Watson X gouged into his forehead. Sup- INVESTIGATORS search a canyon in December 1969 for blood-stained clothes and weapons is tried separately in 1971 and is porters outside the courtroom discarded by Manson’s followers. For months after the killings, Angelenos remained on edge. also found guilty and sentenced to distributed a lengthy declaration death. All of the death sentences from the leader. Gibbons are commuted to life in prison copied a single sentence of Man- after California abolishes the son’s statement onto the first page death penalty in 1972. of Bugliosi’s opening remarks: “I have Xed myself from your world.” AUGUST 1976: Van Houten’s During the trial, some of Man- conviction is overturned. She is son’s female followers camped later retried — twice. At the third outside the Hall of Justice, heads trial, she is convicted of two counts shaved, Xs carved into their own of murder and one count of con- foreheads, selling Manson’s album spiracy to commit murder. “Lie: The Love and Terror Cult” for five bucks. Michelle Phillips of the SEPTEMBER 2009: Atkins dies in Mamas and the Papas showed up, prison at 61. along with other celebrity friends of Tate and Polanski. NOVEMBER 2017: Manson dies at An artist calling herself the 83 after decades in prison. Whore of Babylon charged into the courtroom one day during the George Brich Associated Press Ben Olender Los Angeles Times Associated Press PRESENT: Since 1991, Beausoleil, nine-month proceeding and an- BOBBY BEAUSOLEIL was LINDA KASABIAN was “TEX” WATSON said they Krenwinkel, Watson and Van nounced that she had “come to the first Manson acolyte to the key witness against her were told to “kill everyone” Houten have repeatedly been [See Manson, A10] kill in the summer of 1969. fellow “family” members. in Sharon Tate’s home. denied parole. A10 SUNDAY, JULY 28, 2019 . S LATIMES.COM

Los Angeles Times SPECTATORS WAIT for seats to the Charles Manson trial at the Hall of Justice. “It was the first big celebrity trial of modern Los Angeles,” one L.A. journalist said. Manson case ‘put the era on trial’

[Manson, from A9] recalls. Then, on Dec. 6, Altamont save my brother Manson.” She was happened. Three days later, Man- arrested. Actor Robert Conrad, set son was charged with murder. to play a hard-nosed district attor- “And then it was over,” Taplin ney in a television drama, showed says. “All that optimism was just up to study Bugliosi in action. deflated and drained out. And “The ultimate was when Man- then, obviously things got worse. son got upset,” Deutsch says, “and Kent State.… All of a sudden we he propelled himself across the saw this dark side of this thing counsel table at the judge with a that was so light.” pencil in his hand, screaming, Jeff McDonald, co-founder of ‘Someone should cut your head the alt-rock band , also off!’ ” doesn’t buy it. McDonald was just All four defendants were found turning 6 when the murders hap- guilty and sentenced to death. pened, grew up seeing Bugliosi’s When the California Supreme “Helter Skelter” on every parent’s Court abolished the death penalty coffee table. If Manson and the in 1972, their sentences were com- family killed anything, McDonald muted to life in prison. They have argues, it’s the 1950s. never been granted parole. Atkins “The postwar people had this died in 2009; Manson in 2017. idea of their newfound middle Deutsch and Gibbons, fast class, and especially white middle friends after their time covering class,” says guitarist McDonald, Manson, get together regularly to who included a cover of Manson’s reminisce. They have covered a song “Cease to Exist” on the long line of celebrity trials since: group’s 1982 debut album “Born O.J. Simpson, Michael Jackson, Innocent.” But then, their kids Patty Hearst. They argue that the were “radicalized” and some “did Manson drama holds a special these horrible things.” place in California jurisprudence “It just destroyed that dream,” and left its mark on Los Angeles. he said. “It was the first big celebrity To McDonald, “Manson was trial of modern Los Angeles,” says kind of like an act of rebellion. Deutsch, whose home office is There was never any kind of wor- filled with grim memorabilia. “It ship of the philosophy of Charles was a trial that put the era on trial, Manson.… It was like the second the entire ’60s culture.” phase of punk rock for us.” The killings, the trial, the court Wally Fong Associated Press Manson’s impact is not the proceedings, she says, “began to THROUGHOUT the nine-month trial, the longest in the U.S. at the time, some of Manson’s only thing that continues to be give Los Angeles a reputation as a followers camped outside the courthouse, heads shaved and Xs carved into their foreheads. debated. As the years pass, books place where violence could hap- publish and movies come out, the pen, senseless violence. There had facts of the case have become a never been killings like this before, little hazier. where people were butchered for Gibbons eventually left City no reason.” The nine victims of the Manson ‘family’ News Service for the Los Angeles Says Gibbons, “It was indeed Daily News. She joined the district the weirdest trial that I’ve ever After midnight Aug. 9, 1969, the nighttime quiet of Benedict Canyon was broken by screams and attorney’s office in 1989 as public covered.” gunshots. When police arrived at a house on Cielo Drive, they found a chilling scene: On the lawn was a information officer. Now, 50 years man’s body, stabbed, bludgeoned and shot; the body of a woman lay nearby. “PIG” was written in blood after the murders, she says she b on the front door. Inside were the bodies of Sharon Tate, the pregnant actress who rented the house with does not believe Bugliosi’s theory husband Roman Polanski, and hairstylist Jay Sebring. A fifth body was found outside. of the case, that Manson heard Five decades later, the Manson The next night, Aug. 10, police encountered another nauseating murder scene: Leno and Rosemary instructions to start a race war in murders continue to hold sway in the lyrics of the Beatles’ “White LaBianca had been stabbed to death in their Los Feliz home. “DEATH TO PIGS” was scrawled in blood , prompting Album.” competing theories as to why. on the wall; on the refrigerator was the misspelled title of a Beatles song: “HEALTER SKELTER.” The Her view? That Manson sent The crimes did not single- writings eventually helped police link the murders. his minions out to “put the fear of handedly end the 1960s, no matter The Manson “family” was responsible for two other deaths in the summer of 1969, those of Gary death into Terry Melcher.” And what says in “The Hinman and Donald “Shorty” Shea. that he wanted to create a copycat White Album,” her seminal book of murder to confuse authorities essays published in 1979. (“Many about who may have killed Hin- people I know in Los Angeles man and, therefore, free family believe that the Sixties ended member Bobby Beausoleil, who abruptly on , 1969,” Didion was eventually convicted of the wrote.) murder. Yes, Manson, with his family She is not the only doubter of doing the heavy lifting, was re- the official story line. Nikolas sponsible for nine grisly deaths — Schreck, a Berlin-based musician, the Tate-LaBianca victims, stunt- author and filmmaker, is one of the man Shea and musician Hinman, many Manson contrarians. He a friend but not a full-fledged described Manson as a “talented, family member. poetic musician with wisdom and But the cult leader had ample with a strong, powerful philosophy help putting a bayonet — his weap- who got caught up in these tragic on of choice — through the heart of Sharon Tate: Jay Sebring: Voytek Abigail Folger: Steven Parent: crimes. But he was not the sole a much more innocent time. De- A 26-year-old A Hollywood Frykowski: Heir to the Visiting the resi- instigator and responsible for the pending on whom you ask, his actress best hairdresser whose A 32-year-old coffee fortune, the dent of a guest crimes.” accomplice was Altamont, LSD or known for her role clients included friend of Polanski, 25-year-old was house on the Cielo Schreck made the film “Charles the May 4, 1970, massacre of un- Manson Superstar” in 1989 and in “Valley of the , the he came from a romantically Drive estate, the armed college students at Kent will screen the movie at Zebulon State University by members of Dolls,” she was 35-year-old was a wealthy Polish involved with 18-year-old was near Silver Lake on Aug. 10. It is the Ohio National Guard. married to film former boyfriend family and was Frykowski and the first victim of one of many Manson-related Jonathan Taplin, emeritus director Roman of Tate. staying with Po- was an investor in the murderers. events in the works. director of the Annenberg Innova- Polanski. lanski and Tate. Sebring’s salons. By the time the next big Man- tion Lab at USC, fingers Altamont son anniversary rolls around — the as Manson’s chief accessory in Leno LaBianca and Rosemary LaBianca: The owners of a chain of Los Angeles grocery stores. Their 75th in 2044 — most of those di- killing the 1960s. In 1969, Taplin Los Feliz house was targeted by Charles Manson, who tied up Leno, 44, and Rosemary, 38, but left the rectly touched by the murders will was tour manager for Bob Dylan be gone. The big question is killing to others. and the Band. whether Manson will have legs or The Tate-LaBianca murders fade away, just another criminal in Gary Hinman: The 34-year-old musician was stabbed to death in his Old Topanga Canyon Road home happened about a week before a world full of them. Woodstock, but they barely dented in July1969. The phrase “POLITICAL PIGGY” was scrawled in blood on his wall. Manson follower Bobby The cult leader had his own the euphoria of the music festival Beausoleil was arrested while driving Hinman’s Volkswagen bus and was later convicted of the crime. answer, compliments of a lengthy at a muddy dairy farm 2,800 miles interview in Schreck’s movie. away in rural New York, Taplin Donald “Shorty” Shea: A horse wrangler at the Spahn Movie Ranch near Chatsworth, the 35-year-old “I’m gonna survive,” he said. “If says. “It was just a killing, you was killed in August1969, after the Tate-LaBianca murders. It is believed that Manson’s followers killed you do or not, that’s up to you. know, a robbery or whatever,” he him because they feared he was a police informant. His body was found eight years later. “You dig?”