Evil Manson Family's key players and victims during cult's brutal murder spree
Despite being carried out over 50 years ago, the Manson Family murders are once again in the headlines.
The reason behind this renewed interest is the release of Leslie Van Houten, one of those convicted over the killings.
Since those fateful days in August 1969, the story behind the murders have rarely been far from the public consciousness.
Members of the now-notorious cult arrived at the Hollywood Hills home of actress Sharon Tate, where they stabbed, beat and shot to death the young actress and her friends — celebrity hairstylist Jay Sebring, coffee heiress Abigail Folger and aspiring screenwriter Wojciech Frykowski.
As they made their way to the house, they encountered a teenager, Steven Parent, who had been visiting an acquaintance at the estate’s guesthouse, and shot him to death.
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Charles Manson is escorted to his arraignment on conspiracy-murder charges in connection with the Sharon Tate murder case in Los Angeles in 1969 (AP)The next night, Manson led a handful of followers, including Van Houten, to the home of wealthy grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary. Manson tied up the couple and left the others to kill them.
Manson and his followers also killed two others — musician Gary Hinman and Hollywood stuntman Donald “Shorty” Shea — in separate, unrelated attacks
But who were the key cult members behind the brutal slayings? And more importantly, who were their victims?
Charles Manson
Manson was a petty criminal who had been in and out of jail since childhood. In the late 1960s he reinvented himself as a guru-philosopher. He targeted teenage runaways and other lost souls, particularly attractive young women he used and bartered to others for sex.
Holing up at Spahn Movie Ranch in suburban Los Angeles, he fabricated an apocalyptic vision he called 'Helter Skelter', named after the Beatles' song.
Charles Manson in 2017 (L) and on December 22, 1969 (R) (AP)He foretold a coming race war, which the Family would hide from in an underground city before emerging and ruling over the survivors.
To kick start this war, he sent his followers out to slaughter famous LA residents.
Decades after his conviction, Manson would continue to taunt prosecutors, parole agents and others, sometimes denying any role in the killings and other times boasting of them. He told a 2012 parole hearing: “I have put five people in the grave. I am a very dangerous man.”
He died in 2017 after spending nearly 50 years in prison. He was 83.
Susan Atkins
Atkins, convicted of the Tate, LaBianca and Hinman murders, was a teenage runaway working as a topless dancer in a San Francisco bar when she met Manson in 1967.
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The Tate-LaBianca murders went unsolved for months until Atkins, who was in jail on unrelated charges, boasted to a cellmate about her involvement.
Susan Atkins, left, during a parole hearing at the California Institution for Women in Corona, Calif., on December 20, 1989, and right in 1970 following her arrest (AP)At trial, she testified she was “stoned on acid” and didn’t know how many times she stabbed Ms Tate as the actress begged for her life. Atkins, who became a born-again Christian in prison and denounced Manson, tearfully recounted that confrontation during a parole hearing years later.
She died in prison of cancer in 2009. She was 61.
Leslie Van Houten
The former high school cheerleader and homecoming princess, saw her life spiral out of control at 14 following her parents’ divorce.
She turned to drugs and became pregnant but said her mother forced her to abort the fetus and bury it in the family’s backyard.
Van Houten met Manson at an old movie ranch on the outskirts of Los Angeles where he had established his so-called “family” of followers.
Leslie Van Houten is shown in a Los Angeles lockup on March 29, 1971, in the years after the killing (AP)She didn’t take part in the Tate killings but accompanied Manson and others to the LaBianca home the next night. She has described holding down Rosemary LaBianca with a pillowcase over her head as others stabbed Ms LaBianca dozens of times. Then, ordered by Manson follower Charles “Tex” Watson to “do something,” she said she picked up a knife and stabbed the woman more than a dozen times.
Van Houten, 71, earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in counselling while in prison and led several prison programs to help rehabilitate fellow inmates. She was repeatedly recommended for parole, but two governors — first Jerry Brown and then Gavin Newsom — blocked her release.
Leslie Van Houten attends a parole hearing at the California Institution for Women in 2017 (AP)However, she was finally freed after Newsom announced last week that he wouldn't pursue efforts to keep her behind bars.
Patricia Krenwinkel
Krenwinkel was a 19-year-old secretary when she met Manson at a party. She left everything behind three days later to follow him, believing they had a budding romantic relationship.
After he became abusive and bartered her for sex, she said she twice tried to leave him but followers brought her back, kept a close watch on her and kept her high on drugs.
Patricia Krenwinkel on Feb. 24, 1970, right, and years later at a parole hearing at the California Institution for Women in Corona, Calif., on Jan. 20, 2011 (AP)She testified at a 2016 parole hearing that she repeatedly stabbed Ms Folger, then stabbed Leno LaBianca in the abdomen the following night and wrote “Helter Skelter,” ’’Rise” and “Death to Pigs” on the walls with his blood.
Krenwinkel, 75, remains in prison. Krenwinkel contends she is a changed person but was denied parole more than a dozen times. She was finally recommended for parole last year but Newsom reversed the decision.
Charles “Tex” Watson
Watson was a college dropout from Texas when he arrived in California in 1967 seeking “satisfaction through drugs, sex and rock ‘n’ roll,” as he explains on his website.
He recalled meeting Manson at the house of Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson after seeing Mr Wilson hitchhiking and giving him a ride home.
Charles 'Tex' Watson arrives for his arraignment on charges of conspiracy and murder in the Tate-LaBianca slayings (Bettmann Archive)Watson, 77, led the killers to the Tate estate, shot to death Mr Parent as he was attempting to leave and took part in the killings that night and the next at the LaBianca home.
He became a born-again Christian in prison and formed a prison ministry in 1980 that he continues to lead. Watson, who has authored or co-authored several books while in prison, maintains he has changed and is no longer a danger to anyone. He has repeatedly been denied parole.
Sharon Tate
Sharon Tate, 26, was the most famous fo the Family's victims.
She was a model and rising film star after her breakout role in the 1966 film “Valley of the Dolls.” She was 8 1/2 months pregnant when she was attacked, and she pleaded with her killers to spare her unborn son.
Ms Tate’s mother, Doris, became an advocate for victims’ rights in California and was instrumental in a 1982 law that allows family members to testify about their losses at trials and parole hearings.
Sharon Tate was pregnant when she was murdered in 1969 (Getty Images)Her younger sister, Debra, also dedicated her life to victims’ rights and testified at countless parole hearings for the killers, demanding they never be released.
Ms Tate’s husband, director Roman Polanski, was out of the country the night of the killings and has said it took him years to recover from the grief of losing his wife and baby.
Jay Sebring
Mr Sebring, a hairdresser to Hollywood’s stars, was Tate’s former boyfriend and also begged the killers to spare her unborn child. He was shot, kicked in the face and stabbed multiple times.
Jay Sebring, hairdresser to the stars, was murdered along with Sharon Tate (Bettmann Archive)Sebring had transformed the male haircare industry after graduating from beauty school in Los Angeles, and his clients included Warren Beatty, Steve McQueen, Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr.
He founded Sebring International in 1967 to market hair products and to franchise his salons internationally.
Wojciech Frykowski and Abigail Folger
Wojciech Frykowski had dined with Ms Tate and Mr Sebring earlier that night.
The 32-year-old Frykowski was a friend of Mr Polanski’s from Poland and an aspiring screenwriter. An autopsy found he was stabbed more than 50 times and shot twice.
His 25-year-old girlfriend, Abigail Folger, was the heir to the Folger coffee fortune. She managed to escape the house but was tackled on the front lawn and stabbed 28 times.
Steven Parent
Steven Parent, a recent high school graduate planning to attend college in the fall, had dropped by a guest house on the property to visit the estate’s 19-year-old caretaker, a casual acquaintance named William Garretson.
He was leaving the property when Watson confronted him at the front gate and shot him to death.
Mr Garretson, who was briefly taken into custody, returned to his native Ohio soon after the killings. Except for his testimony during the murder trial, he rarely spoke publicly about that night. He died of cancer in 2016.
Leno and Rosemary LaBianca
Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, who owned a chain of Los Angeles grocery stores, had no connection to Sharon Tate or her glamorous friends.
Their home was chosen at random by Manson, who tied them up and then, before leaving, ordered his followers to kill them. Among the weapons used was a chrome-plated bayonet.
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