Tate–LaBianca murders

The Tate–LaBianca murders were a series of murders perpetrated by members of the Manson Family during August 9–10, 1969, in Los Angeles, California, United States, under the direction of Tex Watson and Charles Manson. The perpetrators killed six people (including the unborn child of an 8½ month pregnant Sharon Tate) on the night of August 8–9: Sharon Tate and her companions Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger and Wojciech Frykowski, along with Steven Parent. The following evening, the Family murdered supermarket executive Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary, at their home in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles.

On the night of August 8–9, four members of the Family – Tex Watson, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel and Linda Kasabian – drove from Spahn Ranch to 10050 Cielo Drive in Benedict Canyon, the home Tate shared with her husband, film director Roman Polanski. The group murdered Tate, which subsequently killed her 8½ month old fetus. Also killed were her houseguests Sebring, a celebrity hairdresser; Folger, heiress to the Folgers coffee fortune; her boyfriend Frykowski, an aspiring screenwriter; and Parent, an 18-year-old visiting the guest house caretaker. Polanski was not home as he was working on a film in Europe. Manson was a cult leader and would-be musician who had tried to get a contract with record producer Terry Melcher, who had previously rented the house.

The following night, the four participants in the Cielo Drive killings, in addition to Manson, Leslie Van Houten and Steve "Clem" Grogan, committed two more murders. Manson had allegedly said he would show them how to do it. Kasabian drove the group to 3301 Waverly Drive.[5]: 22–25, 42–48  Manson left with Atkins, Grogan and Kasabian in the car and told the others to hitchhike back to the ranch. Watson, Krenwinkel and Van Houten killed the couple in the early morning hours of August 10.

Tate murders

The Tate–LaBianca murders were a series of murders perpetrated by members of the Manson Family during August 9–10, 1969, in Los Angeles, California, United States, under the direction of Tex Watson and Charles Manson. The perpetrators killed six people (including the unborn child of an 8½ month pregnant Sharon Tate) on the night of August 8–9: Sharon Tate and her companions Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger and Wojciech Frykowski, along with Steven Parent. The following evening, the Family murdered supermarket executive Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary, at their home in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles.

On the night of August 8–9, four members of the Family – Tex Watson, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel and Linda Kasabian – drove from Spahn Ranch to 10050 Cielo Drive in Benedict Canyon, the home Tate shared with her husband, film director Roman Polanski. The group murdered Tate, which subsequently killed her 8½ month old fetus. Also killed were her houseguests Sebring, a celebrity hairdresser; Folger, heiress to the Folgers coffee fortune; her boyfriend Frykowski, an aspiring screenwriter; and Parent, an 18-year-old visiting the guest house caretaker. Polanski was not home as he was working on a film in Europe. Manson was a cult leader and would-be musician who had tried to get a contract with record producer Terry Melcher, who had previously rented the house.

The following night, the four participants in the Cielo Drive killings, in addition to Manson, Leslie Van Houten and Steve "Clem" Grogan, committed two more murders. Manson had allegedly said he would show them how to do it. Kasabian drove the group to 3301 Waverly Drive.  Manson left with Atkins, Grogan and Kasabian in the car and told the others to hitchhike back to the ranch. Watson, Krenwinkel and Van Houten killed the couple in the early morning hours of August 10.

Tate murders

On the night of August 8, 1969, Tex Watson took Susan Atkins, Linda Kasabian and Patricia Krenwinkel to 10050 Cielo Drive in Benedict Canyon, Los Angeles, California. Watson claims Charles Manson had instructed him go to the house and "totally destroy" everyone inside, and to do it "as gruesome as you can." Manson told the women to do as Watson instructed them.

The occupants of the house at Cielo Drive that evening were movie actress Sharon Tate, the wife of film director Roman Polanski, who was 81⁄2 months pregnant; her friend and former lover Jay Sebring, a noted celebrity hairstylist; Polanski's friend and aspiring screenwriter Wojciech Frykowski; and Frykowski's girlfriend Abigail Folger, heiress to the Folgers coffee fortune and daughter of Peter Folger. Also present on the property were William Garretson, the caretaker, and his friend Steven Parent. Polanski was in Europe working on a film.

Watson and the three women arrived at Cielo Drive just past midnight on August 9. Watson climbed a telephone pole near the main gate and cut the phone line to the house.the hill that led to the estate and walked back up to the house. Thinking the gate might be electrified or equipped with an alarm, they climbed a brushy embankment to the right of the gate and entered the grounds.

Headlights approached the intruders from within the property, and Watson ordered the women to hide in the bushes. He stepped out and ordered the approaching driver, who turned out to be Parent, to halt. Watson leveled a .22 caliber revolver at Parent, who begged him not to hurt him, claiming that he would not say anything. Watson instead lunged at Parent with a knife, giving him a defensive slash wound on the palm of his hand that severed tendons and tore his watch off his wrist, then shot him four times in the chest and abdomen, killing him in the front seat of his white 1965 AMC Rambler. Watson turned off the ignition and pushed the car away from the gate.

Watson next cut the screen of a window, then told Kasabian to keep watch down by the gate; she walked over to Parent's car and waited. He removed the screen, entered through the window and let Atkins and Krenwinkel in through the front door. He whispered to Atkins and awoke Frykowski, who was sleeping on the living room couch. Watson kicked Frykowski in the head, and Frykowski asked him who he was and what he was doing there. Watson replied, "I'm the devil, and I'm here to do the devil's business."

On Watson's direction, Atkins and Krenwinkel found the house's three other occupants and forced them to the living room. He began to tie Tate and Sebring together by their necks with a long nylon rope which he had brought, then slung it over one of the living room's ceiling beams. Sebring protested the murderers' rough treatment of the pregnant Tate, so Watson shot him. Folger was taken momentarily back to her bedroom for her purse, and she gave the murderers $70. Watson then stabbed Sebring seven times.

Frykowski's hands had been bound with a towel, but he freed himself and began struggling with Atkins, who stabbed at his legs with a knife. He fought his way out the front door and onto the porch, but Watson caught up with him, struck him over the head with the gun multiple times, stabbed him repeatedly, and shot him twice.

Kasabian had heard "horrifying sounds" and moved toward the house from her position in the driveway. She told Atkins that someone was coming in an attempt to stop the murders. Inside the house, Folger escaped from Krenwinkel and fled out a bedroom door to the pool area.  Krenwinkel pursued her and caught her on the front lawn where she stabbed her and tackled her to the ground. Watson then helped kill her; her assailants stabbed her a total of 28 times. Frykowski struggled across the lawn, but Watson continued to stab him, killing him. Frykowski suffered 51 stab wounds, and had also been struck 13 times in the head with the butt of Watson's gun, which bent the barrel and broke off one side of the gun grip, which was recovered at the scene.

In the house, Tate pleaded to be allowed to live long enough to give birth, and offered herself as a hostage in an attempt to save the life of her unborn child, but both Atkins and Watson stabbed Tate 16 times, killing her. The coroner's inquest found that Tate was still alive when she was hanged with the nylon rope, although the cause of her death was determined as a "massive hemorrhage", while in Sebring's murder it was found that he was hanged lifeless.

According to Watson, Manson had told the women to "leave a sign—something witchy". Atkins wrote "pig" on the front door in Tate's blood. Atkins claims she did this to copycat the murder scene of Gary Hinman in order to get Manson Family member Bobby Beausoleil out of jail, who was in custody for the murder;  Beausoleil had written "political piggy" in Hinman's blood on his wall after stabbing him to death.