On 9 August 1969, actress Sharon Tate and four other people were found murdered at her home in Los Angeles.
Tate was 26 years old, more than eight months pregnant and one of Hollywood’s most recognisable young stars. Her unborn son also died.
The other victims were celebrity hairstylist Jay Sebring, writer Wojciech Frykowski, coffee heiress and social worker Abigail Folger, and 18-year-old Steven Parent.
The apparently inexplicable killings shocked the United States. Months later, investigators connected them to followers of Charles Manson.
A rising film star
Sharon Tate had worked as a model and appeared in television programmes before establishing a film career during the 1960s.
Her credits included Eye of the Devil, The Fearless Vampire Killers and Valley of the Dolls. The latter brought her a Golden Globe nomination and made her an internationally recognised performer.
She married film director Roman Polanski in January 1968. By August 1969, the couple were expecting their first child and living at 10050 Cielo Drive in Benedict Canyon, Los Angeles.
Polanski was working in Europe when the murders took place.
The victims at Cielo Drive
On the evening of 8 August, Tate was at home with three friends.
Jay Sebring was a pioneering men’s hairstylist whose clients included prominent actors and musicians. He had previously been in a relationship with Tate, and they remained close friends.
Wojciech Frykowski was a Polish writer and friend of Polanski. Abigail Folger, his partner, was a member of the Folger coffee family who had worked as a social worker and supported charitable projects.
Steven Parent was not part of the gathering. He had been visiting William Garretson, the young caretaker living in the property’s guest house, and was leaving the estate when the assailants arrived.
Remembering all five victims is important. The case became inseparably associated with Tate and Manson, but four other people also lost their lives that night.
The attack
Shortly after midnight, Charles “Tex” Watson, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel and Linda Kasabian arrived at the property.
Evidence presented in court established that Watson, Atkins and Krenwinkel entered the estate and participated in the violence. Kasabian remained principally outside and later became the prosecution’s central witness.
Steven Parent was killed in his car as he attempted to leave. Tate, Sebring, Frykowski and Folger were attacked in and around the main house.
The victims were shot or stabbed. A word was written on the front door using blood, contributing to contemporary descriptions of the scene as “ritualistic”. That description reflected the appearance encountered by investigators; it did not establish a religious ritual or independently prove the killers’ motive.
The article avoids reproducing further graphic details. The essential fact is that five unarmed people were killed in a planned and sustained attack.
The bodies are discovered
Housekeeper Winifred Chapman arrived at Cielo Drive on the morning of 9 August and discovered the crime scene. Police were called to the property.
The scale and apparent strangeness of the killings generated immediate international attention. Reporters gathered outside the house while detectives began interviewing friends, employees and associates of the victims.
There was initially no clear public explanation for why Tate and her companions had been targeted. The absence of an obvious motive intensified fear across Hollywood, where many celebrities increased their personal security.
Two more murders
On the following night, Los Angeles couple Leno and Rosemary LaBianca were murdered at their home in the Los Feliz district.
Investigators did not immediately establish that the LaBianca murders and the Cielo Drive killings were connected. Different police teams initially handled the cases.
Evidence later showed that Watson and Krenwinkel participated in both sets of murders. Leslie Van Houten took part in the LaBianca killings but was not present at Cielo Drive.
The crimes became collectively known as the Tate–LaBianca murders.
The connection to Charles Manson
Charles Manson was a career criminal who had gathered a group of mainly young followers around himself after his release from prison in 1967. The group lived communally at locations including Spahn Ranch outside Los Angeles and became known as the “Manson Family”.
Manson was not physically present during the Cielo Drive murders. Prosecutors alleged—and a jury accepted—that he had directed the killings and exercised control over the participants.
The investigation developed after Susan Atkins, while detained in connection with another case, spoke to fellow prisoners about the murders. Information from those conversations reached the authorities.
Linda Kasabian was granted immunity from prosecution in exchange for truthful testimony. Her account placed the defendants within the planning and execution of the crimes and became an important part of the prosecution case.
The “Helter Skelter” prosecution theory
At trial, prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi argued that Manson expected an apocalyptic race war, which he called “Helter Skelter” after the Beatles song, and intended the killings to help provoke it.
That was the prosecution’s explanation of motive and became the best-known account through Bugliosi’s later book. Subsequent writers and people connected to the case have disputed whether it provides a complete explanation.
The precise motive is therefore still discussed. The convictions did not depend upon every later interpretation of Manson’s thinking being accepted as historical fact.
The California Court of Appeal concluded that the totality of the evidence supported the jury’s findings that Manson was criminally responsible for the murders and conspiracy.
Convictions and sentences
In January 1971, a jury convicted Manson, Susan Atkins and Patricia Krenwinkel of first-degree murder and conspiracy in connection with the Tate–LaBianca killings. Leslie Van Houten was convicted for her role in the LaBianca murders.
Charles Watson was tried separately after being extradited from Texas and was also convicted.
The defendants initially received death sentences. In 1972, the California Supreme Court invalidated the state’s then-existing death-penalty law, and their sentences were changed to life imprisonment.
Manson remained in prison until his death in 2017. Atkins died in prison in 2009. Later parole decisions concerning surviving participants have involved separate legal proceedings and assessments extending across decades.
Sharon Tate’s legacy
The murders have generated an enormous body of books, documentaries, films and dramatic retellings. That attention has sometimes allowed Manson’s image to eclipse the people who were killed.
Sharon Tate was more than the victim of a notorious crime. She was a working actress, wife, daughter and sister preparing for the birth of her first child.
Her mother, Doris Tate, became a prominent advocate for victims’ rights and for the participation of victims’ families in the parole process.
On 9 August, the most important names are those of Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring, Wojciech Frykowski, Abigail Folger and Steven Parent—not the man whose notoriety grew from their deaths.