What Happened on August 9th – Helter Skelter

I was just a child on August 9, 1969, when members of Charles Manson’s cult kill five people in movie director Roman Polanski’s Beverly Hills, California, home, including Polanski’s pregnant wife, actress Sharon Tate.

The Manson Family Cult

Growing up in the 1970s, I knew the Charles Manson story but I supposed just the highlights.  I hadn’t known who Sharon Tate was and I didn’t know that Roman Polanski had been her husband.  He of course had his own share of trouble with the law.

Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate’s Rented Home

from left, Voytech, Frykowski, Tate, Stephen Parent, Jay Sebring and Abigail Folger. Polanski was in London at the time of the murders.

Less than two days later, the group killed again, murdering supermarket executive Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary in their home. The savage crimes shocked the nation and, strangely, turned Charles Manson into a criminal icon.

Rosemary and Leno LaBianca

LaBianca Home 1969

Manson was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1934 to an unwed 16-year-old mother. He spent much of his childhood in juvenile reformatories and his early adulthood in prison. After his release in 1967, Manson moved to California and used his unlikely magnetism to attract a group of hippies and set up a commune, where drugs and orgies were common, on the outskirts of Los Angeles.

Manson preached his own blend of eccentric religious teachings to his acolytes, who called themselves his “Family.” He told them a race war between blacks and whites was imminent and would result in great power for the Family. Manson said they should instigate the war by killing rich white people and trying to make it look like the work of blacks.

Roman Polanski (Rosemary’s Baby, Chinatown, The Pianist), was not the cult leader’s intended target. Manson, an aspiring musician, chose the Polanski house because he had once unsuccessfully tried to get a recording deal from a producer who used to live there. Polanski was out of town at the time of the murders, but his wife and her friends, including coffee heiress Abigail Folger, were shot or stabbed to death. Manson stayed out of the Polanski house on the night of the crime and didn’t take part in the LaBianca killings either. However, he would later be charged with murder on the grounds he had influenced his followers and masterminded the crimes.

After initially eluding police suspicion, Manson was arrested only after one of his followers, already in jail on a different charge, started bragging about what had happened. Manson’s subsequent trial became a national spectacle, in which he exhibited bizarre and violent behavior. In 1971, he was convicted and given the death penalty; however, that sentence became life behind bars when the California Supreme Court overturned the death penalty in 1972.

Charles Manson Through the Years

Manson has been the subject of numerous movies and books, including the best-seller Helter Skelter (the title is a reference to a Beatles’ song of the same name, through which Manson believed the group was sending secret messages to start a race war). Manson remains in a California prison.  Here is a website that details how the Beatles various songs on the White Album influenced Charles Manson’s ideaologies.  The Influence of the Beatles on Charles Manson

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Born Today in History:

Michael Kors (August 9, 1959 – ) an American fashion designer best known for serving as a judge on the popular television show Project Runway. He’s also known for designing Michelle Obama’s dress for her first official portrait.

Died Today in History:

Jerry Garcia (August 1, 1942 – August 9, 1995) was the lead guitarist and one of the principal vocalists and songwriters of the psychedelic jam band the Grateful Dead.