The 10050 Cielo Drive Murders: The Manson Family

On August 9, 1969, the city of Los Angeles woke up with the terrible news: Sharon Tate, the wife of director Roman Polanski, and four other people had been murdered in the marriage residence. It took the police almost a year to find and arrest the guilty people, five young people who belonged to a sect known as “the Manson Family.”

The leader of that sect was a certain Charles Manson, who had not participated in them in person, but who was considered the instigator of the events. The Manson Family was the dark face of the counterculture hippie that began to reign in those years.

Charles Manson, leader of the Manson Family

When Charles Manson was released from prison in the late 1960s.met the movement hippie in full birth and expansion.

During that time he managed to recruit some members of the Manson Familywho in the future would end up getting blood on their hands for him, like Susan Atkins or Patricia Krenwinkle.

Charles Manson, the inducer

Charles Manson knew how to manipulate and dominate vulnerable young people. Many of the experts in the case have highlighted the great Manson’s ability to detect people’s weaknesses that were around them and thus manipulate them.

Perhaps many of these abilities were related to the dysfunctional childhood and adolescence that Charles Manson suffered, creating a very characteristic personality negatively influenced by the context in which he grew up.

He did not want to be a preacher of his personal cult. Charles Manson wanted fame and wanted to make it in the Los Angeles music industry. Precisely his failure would be one of the triggers for what is known as the bloody summer of ’69.

The Manson Family, their followers

Manson moved to the Spahn ranch with his disciples, in Simi Hills and Santa Susana Mountains. In total it brought together thirty-nine adults and seven children, who lived isolated, outside of any outside influence.

Charles controlled what was happening at all times, the main objective was always to have control and power. To test the loyalty of the members of the Manson Family, he imposed small missions on his acolytes.

The truth is that he was going to create the war. The time had come to start.

The murders at 10050 Cielo Drive

Charles “Tex” Watson, Susan “Sadie” Atkins, Linda Kasabian and Patricia “Katie” Krenwinkle were the people chosen to carry out the mission entrusted by Charles Manson. The objective was the mansion of the couple formed by Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate.

Shortly before midnight on August 8, 1969, Charles gave Tex the necessary instructions, and that night They had several knives, a rope and a gun.. The Manson Family was going to spread panic.

The plan was a quiet evening

On the night of August 8 to 9, Sharon Tate, 26, had invited several friends to her house to alleviate loneliness because her husband, filmmaker Roman Polanski, was in Europe preparing his next filming. Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger and Voytek Frykowski had stayed the night with her.

The first to die was Steve Parent, an 18-year-old young man who had come to visit his friend, who was in the building adjacent to the main house, and was also in charge of maintaining the property. Tex approached Steve while he was driving out the door in his car, and shot him four times at point-blank range.

Next, Tex, Sadie and Katie entered the house through an unlocked window, at which point panic and horror broke out.

Horror is unleashed

The Manson Family gathered Sharon Tate and her guests in the living room. Once there, They tied Sharon, Abigail and Jay by the neck. The latter tried to protect Sharon, but Tex shot him and hit him in the face with the revolver.

Voytek, who had been restrained by Sadie with a towel, managed to free himself and tried to flee. After being stabbed in the legs by the girl, Tex walked up and shot her in the back. Meanwhile, Abigail had also managed to escape from her and reached the garden, but Katie hunted her down and stabbed her repeatedly.

Only Sharon remained. After begging for her life to be able to give birth to her son, they had no compassion and died stabbed.

Convictions

When Susan Atkins was convicted of another murder, she confessed to being involved in the murders at 10050 Cielo Drive. In this way, on December 5, 1969, she recounted everything that happened in exchange for a deal with her prosecution: the death penalty would not be requested for her.

Subsequently, arrest warrants were issued for Patricia Krenwinkle, Leslie van Houten, Charles Watson, Charles Manson and Linda Kasabian. The latter became the main witness for the prosecution, testifying and providing evidence against Charles Manson and the Family in exchange for immunity. To this day, she is the only one who remains free.

Finally, on January 25, 1971, the jury returned its verdict: all four were guilty of conspiracy and murder. On March 29 death penalty sentence was issued for allincluding Susan Atkins, as she decided to retract her initial statement, so the deal made with the prosecution was broken.

However, The state of California abolished the death penalty in 1972. In this way, all sentences became life sentences.

The end of the Manson Family

Convicted members of the Manson Family remained in different prisons, where they were denied parole in periodic sentencing reviews.

Susan Atkins died in prison in 2009 due to brain cancer. For her part, Charles Manson passed away in 2017 at the age of 83, in prisonwhere he had been serving a life sentence since 1971.

Regarding the only two people who are still alive and in prison, it should be noted that Tex converted to evangelical Christianity, married and had four children. For her part, Patricia Krenwinkle lives a very secretive life.

The public was horrified to discover that the murders had been committed by young people, some of whom had just left their teens, and mostly came from normal middle-class families. They kept asking themselves the question: How did they get blood on their hands blindly obeying Charles Manson’s orders?

So many years later, and despite the many explanations offered for it, this question continues to motivate reflection.

The mansion at 10050 Cielo Drive was demolished. Nothing has been built again in its place.

Main image creative commons licensed ( BY-SA ) flickr photo shared by georgie56

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