It was the Summer of '69...Part 3

Thus far I have examined the Stonewall Riots and man going to moon during the summer of 1969. In early August, the country would get a great shock during a relatively celebratory summer. During the later part of the 1960s, the hippy movement and love, peace, and happiness was the counterculture's response to the ongoing war and apathy towards politics. However, underneath all that, there were others who represented the complete opposite; mostly behind the scenes. One such man was the infamous criminal, Charles Manson. Forty years after he orchestrated multiple murders and was sentenced to life in prison, people are still at a loss for words and reasoning for the madness behind the man. What is the greatness inquiry all these years? I would probably say, as would most, is how did he get other individuals to not only follow and believe him, but more importantly; kill for him. It was a summer that many saw as "the summer of love", but Charles Manson gave it an evil twist.

Mansion Family Murders (August 9-10, 1969)

Worth reading: http://www.lamag.com/featuredarticle.aspx?id=16882&page=1

It goes without saying that the man we know as Charles Manson is quite possibly one the most unstable men of the 20th century. However, unbeknownst to people in 1969, Manson was far from a first time criminal and threat to others. He had much of the previous two decade and roughly half of his life behind bars and shown that he was not truly reformed when he was paroled. As the 1960s progressed, Manson began to lure in young followers. The bulk of which were women and he utilized the hippie movement and their weaknesses to gain their trust. It would be about a year before the murders that Manson and his Family members would begin to plot and set up their plans from developments. These developments would spurt from Manson and his women and their relationship with Beach Boys member Brian Wilson and would stay with him until he was forced to move. In August 1968, Manson and the Family members relocated to a base at Spahn's Movie Ranch, an abandoned area and former movie lot. It would be at the ranch that Manson would come up with Helter Skelter as a mindset that there would be a rebellion by the suppressed and the White Album by the Beatles was sending them messages of how to prevent it.

In June 1969, Manson was getting impatient for Helter Skelter to occur and in early July Manson would shoot a black drug dealer named Bernard Crowe, a man who threatened him and the family. Later on in July, Manson and the Family targeted Gary Hinman, an acquaintance of Manson. Manson along with Family members Bobby Beausoleil, Mary Brunner, and Susan Atkins invaded Hinman's home and held him hostage before Manson slashed his ear off with a sword and Beausoleil stabbed him to death. They would leave their first message for their two killings. With Hinman's blood they wrote "political piggy" across the wall and drew a panther paw for Crowe's possible connection to the Black Panthers. A mere couple days before Manson and the family would embark on their most remembered murders, Beausoleil was arrested after being caught driving Hinman's car and the murder weapon was found in the car. On the 8th of August, Manson conveyed his plans to unleash Helter Skelter and with Family members Susan Atkins, Linda Kasabian, and Patricia Krenwinkel would return to the home of where a man named Melcher used to live; the current residence of Sharon Tate. This was a home he had visited just a few weeks earlier. They then set out for the house and began to orchestrate their plan shortly after midnight. It was now August 9th.



As they approached the front gate, the women hid in the bushes when Family member, Tex Watson noticed headlights. Watson approached the car and shot the driver, an eighteen year old named Steven Parent. The group of four approached the home and Watson directed Kasabian to watch out near the front gate. Noticeably missing is Manson himself. Tate's husband was Roman Polanski, a well-known director and producer who happened to not be home or in the country at the time. His friend, Wojciech Frykowski, woke up to voices and was soon kicked in the head by Watson, who told Frykowski that he was the devil and doing the devil's business. Following this, Atkins and Krenwinkel wrangled up the rest of the house's inhabitants. These were: Sharon Tate, who was a model/actress and was over eight months pregnant; Jay Sebring, a friend and former lover who was a known hairstylist; and Abigail Folger, Frykowski's lover and the heiress to the Folger coffee fortune.

Watson was tying together Tate and Sebring when Sebring spoke out against the treatment of a pregnant Tate, which prompted Watson to shoot him. Folger was out of the room while Watson proceeded to stab Sebring seven times. Frykowski, then, whose was tied up; freed himself and got into a struggle with Atkins. Atkins stabbed him in the legs and he crawled to the front door and outside, but Watson stopped him by striking him multiple times over the head with a gun, stabbing him multiple times, and shooting him twice. All this prompted Kasabian to be taken away from her guard post by the sounds she heard from the home and to hopefully halt the massacre, she lied that she saw something or someone. During this inside the house, Folger had escaped from Krenwinkel and fled outside to the front before she was tackled and stabbed. Watson and Krenwinkel then proceeded to stab Folger 28 times. Somehow Frykowski was still alive after all that Watson had done to him, however Watson would stab him one more time ending his life. Watson had stabbed him a total of 51 times overall. Back inside, Watson and Atkins would kill Tate by stabbing her 16 times. Before they killed her, Tate pleaded with them for the life of her unborn child. Before leaving, the Family members left a sign as Manson had directed to. Atkins wrote "pig" on the front door with Tate's blood.



The next night, six Family members: the four from the first night as well as Leslie Van Houten and Steve Grogran carried out more of Manson's instructions. This night, Manson followed his Family members in case he needed to show them how to do what needed to be done. The target for the second night was the LaBianca residence; the home of supermarket executive Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary. The house, like the Tate residence, was familiar to Manson. Manson would scope out the outside before returning to the group and took Watson with him. The two entered the house and awoke Leno and bounded his hands together before taking him and his wife in the living room. Watson, then, covered the couple's heads with pillowcases and bounded them with lamp cords. After all this, Manson left the home and ordered Krenwinkel and Van Houten to kill the couple. Watson had told Manson when returning from the previous night's murders that the weapons were not adequate. He then told the two women to take Mrs. LaBianca into the bedroom and he proceeded to stab Mr. LaBianca in the throat with a bayonet. He paused in the middle of his attack on Mr. LaBianca to go to bedroom due to the noise he heard. Mrs. LaBianca was trying to keep the two Family members away from her, but Watson subdued her with several stabs with the bayonet before returning to her wounded husband. Watson would stab Leno LaBianca 12 times.



Once he was finished, he left a message, "WAR", on Leno's stomach. Watson would return to the bedroom to see Krenwinkel stabbing Rosemary with a knife and told Van Houten to also stab Rosemary because Manson wanted everyone to be involved. Van Houten did join in and stabbed Rosemary 16 times out of the 41 total stab wounds; many of which reports showed were inflicted post-mortem. Continuing with their posting of messages, Krenwinkel wrote in blood of the victims "Rise" and "Death to pigs" on the wall as well as "Healter Skelter" (misspelled) on the refrigerator. She followed this with 14 puncture wounds to Leno LaBianca and stabbed and left a fork in his stomach and a steak knife in his throat. All of this was not enough for Manson, who wanted to commit a double crime on the second night. However, after leaving his Family members at a nearby home to hitchhike back to Spahn Ranch; they decided to "accidentally" knock on the wrong door and abandon the murder plan.

The Tate murders were discovered by the Polanskis' housekeeper, Winifred Chapman, when she arrived for work on the 9th and thus the investigation into the murders would begin. The second crime scene was discovered late on the day of the 10th by Rosemary's son, Frank Struthers; close to 24 hours after the murders. On August 12, 1969, the LAPD ruled out any connection between the two crimes. Four days later, the sheriff's office raided Spahn Ranch and arrested Manson along with 25 others as suspects in a major auto theft ring; however they were released a few days later due to a misdated warrant. As the weeks went on, there were no leads, but some detectives for the LaBianca case noted a possible connection between the writings at the house to the Beatles' most recent album. By October, the separate working teams began to try to connect similar cases and used an arrest of some of the Family members as a possible lead. This would lead to Death Valley, where they found multiple stolen cars and returned to the ranch to arrest Manson. It would be during Susan Atkins time in a detention center following that arrest that lead to a possible lead. While there she would tell bunkmates accounts of the events. By December 1969, LAPD had warrants for the arrests of Watson, Krenwinkel, and Kasabian with connection to the Tate case. At this time, the connection between the two homicides had yet to be determined nor was Family member, Leslie Van Houten arrested. Watson and Krenwinkel, like Manson and Atkins, had already been brought into custody at one place or another. The three members had made it to three different states. During all this, investigators were able to recover multiple clues like weapons and bloody clothes.



On June 15, 1970, the trial would begin. Manson, Atkins, and Krenwinkel were all being charged with seven counts of murder and one of conspiracy. Kasabian, however, was being offered immunity due to the fact that she did not participate in the killings for testimony on the crimes. Van Houten was only involved with the second night's killings and was charged with two counts of murder and one of conspiracy. In another act of deviance from establishment, Manson would carve an "X" in his forehead; later changed to a swastika. The three female defendants would duplicate the move as would other Family members. While being questioned, Manson revealed the whole Helter Skelter movement by blacks against the establishment and looked to spark their upheaval by committing these murders. As the trial went on and seemed to be near an end, the three women defendants wanted to take all the blame for the killings to safe Manson. On January 25, 1971, guilty verdicts were given to the four defendants on each of the 27 separate counts against them. After repeated attempts to change the verdicts, the judge in the case, Judge Older, sentenced the four to death penalties based on the jury's verdict on April 19, 1971. In August of 1971, Tex Watson was arrested in Texas and brought on trial, where he would be given the same sentence as the other four by October. In February 1972, a Supreme Court case would revoke the death penalty in California and thus revert the five individuals to life sentences instead.





It has now been approximately 40 years since Manson and his followers committed these horrific murders. We have seen the taped court hearings in 1971 as well as multiple interviews with the five including Manson, all still serving their life sentences. We have seen other Family members in the news since including "Squeaky" Fromme, who attempted to assassinate President Gerald Ford in 1975. Of all the Family members who have been arrested only one was ever paroled up until this year when Fromme was also paroled. Susan Atkins is terminally ill with brain cancer and has pleaded for parole so she could die at home. She is up for parole in a couple weeks. Van Houten is also up for parole this year while Krenwinkel has been denied parole 11 times. Watson will not have a parole hearing for another two years. All four have admitted their errors and misjudgments, but none of their rhetoric will bring back the lives they heinously took in 1969. The ringleader, Manson, has had multiple parole hearings and each time he displays his unstable nature and no sign of being worthy of parole. He is eligible again for parole in 2012 when he will be a couple years shy of 80. I don't see any of them being released anytime soon if ever. Charles Manson has truly become a strange iconic figure in the culture of the 20th century and beyond. The Tate-LaBianca murders took the country by surprise and the whole aura around them has been what has kept us intrigued all these years later.



It was the summer that saw change, innovation, and murder...before August was over it would see one more lasting event.