Photos: Charles Manson, his ‘family’ and his crimes
Charles Manson became the first of many people and events to end the peace-loving 1960s. To stay in the limelight, he played the madman role to epic effect.
Manson and members of his “family” of followers were convicted of killing actress Sharon Tate and six other people during a bloody rampage in the Los Angeles area in August 1969. Prosecutors said Manson and his followers were trying to incite a race war he dubbed “Helter Skelter,” taken from the Beatles song of the same name.
Tate, the wife of director Roman Polanski, was 8 1/2 months pregnant when she was killed at her hilltop home in Benedict Canyon on Aug. 9, 1969.
Four others were stabbed and shot to death the same night: Jay Sebring, 35; Voytek Frykowski, 32; Abigail Folger, 25, a coffee heiress; and Steven Parent, 18, a friend of Tate's caretaker. The word “pig” was written on the front door in blood.
The next night, Manson rode with his followers to the Los Feliz home of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, then left three members to kill the couple.
Manson, who ordered the Tate-LaBianca killings but was not present for any of them, was found guilty of murder and initially was sentenced to death. But a 1972 ruling by the California Supreme Court found the state’s death penalty law at the time unconstitutional, and his sentence was changed to life in prison with the possibility of parole.
From left: Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten are shown en route to court in Los Angeles in August 1970. The three women, displaying the symbol X on their foreheads as followers of the Manson cult family, were convicted for killings that included actress Sharon Tate.
The 500-acre Spahn Movie Ranch in the Santa Susana Mountains is where Charles Manson and his "family" lived at the time of the Tate-LaBianca murders in 1969.
Members of Charles Manson's "family" are shown outside the courtroom in the Los Angeles Hall of Justice after a hearing on Jan. 27, 1970. Identifiable are Lynette Fromme, foreground left, and Catherine "Gypsy" Share, far right.
Filmmaker Roman Polanski and his wife, actress Sharon Tate, are seen after their London wedding in 1968.
The body of actress Sharon Tate is taken from her Benedict Canyon estate where she and four other people were killed the night of Aug. 9, 1969, in Los Angeles.
Charles Manson walks into the courtroom in Santa Monica on Oct. 13, 1970. Susan Atkins, seated, a member of Manson's "family" of followers, pleaded guilty to charges of murdering Malibu musician Gary Hinman.
Four young female members of the Charles Manson "family" kneel outside the Los Angeles Hall of Justice on March 29, 1971, with their heads shaved. The women kept a vigil at the building throughout the long trial in which Manson and three others were convicted of murdering actress Sharon Tate and six others.
When asked by a newsman, "Are you insane, Charlie?" during a March 19, 1970, interview in Los Angeles, Manson answered: "It all depends on your point of view."
An original booking mug, left, shows Charles Manson at the Ventura County Sheriff's Department in 1968. The most recent California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation photo shows Manson on Aug. 14, 2017.