On August 8, 1969, Charles Manson ordered Susan Atkins, Tex Watson, Patricia Krenwinkel and Linda Kasabian to break into a house rented by actress Sharon Tate and her husband, director Roman Polanski.
They were to cause as much destruction and misery as possible.
Sharon and her friends
Most people know what happened next. Polanski was abroad, but Sharon was at home with her friends Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger and Abigail’s boyfriend Wojceich Frykowski.
Sharon Tate.
They were all killed in an extremely brutal way, although they begged to be given their lives. Sharon was eight and a half months pregnant with the couple’s first child.
Tex Watson also killed an 18-year-old boy, Steven Parent, whom he met in the park. Steven had visited the caretaker of the property and he lived in a small house behind the mansion that Sharon was renting.
Wojceich Frykowski Sharon Tate, Steven Parent, Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger
The LaBianco Murders and Arrests
The following night, Manson sent them to kill again, now with Lesley van Houten. The house was chosen at random, as long as it was in a wealthy neighborhood. Leon and Rosemary LaBianco met the same fate as Sharon Tate and her friends.
In October 1969, Charles Manson and his sect were arrested.
The trial began in 1971. Manson and Watson received death sentences that were commuted to life imprisonment when the state of California abolished the death penalty a year later.
But what happened to the women? These young girls who had revered Charles Manson as a god and obeyed his every word.
The LaBiancos
Suzanne Atkins
Susan was the middle of three siblings, born in 1948, and her parents must have been heavy drinkers. But Susan looked like a normal child and teenager, doing well in school and singing in the church choir. She also treated her mother who had cancer.
But after her mother died, when Susan was 15, things went downhill. She dropped out of school, her father disappeared, and Susan moved to San Francisco, where she saw herself as a clothes trap, doing all sorts of scams and running around with criminals.
She was 19 when she met Charles Manson and became fascinated with him. She was among the first to join Manson and his favorites.
Susan Atkins at trial and in an interview 30 years later.
“He gave me confidence as a woman and I gave him my heart and soul. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for the healthiest, most perfect person I’ve ever had. met. He was my Jesus Christ.”
It was actually Susan who made up the murders because she was in jail for other crimes when she started bragging about the murders and her fellow inmates were quick to notify the authorities.
During interrogation, Susan confessed to stabbing Sharon Tate. She later changed her story and said she only had it, but Watson stabbed Sharon to death. Susan said she also stabbed Sharon, but was already dead by then.
She also confessed to writing on the walls of the house with Sharon’s blood.
Susan also received a commuted death sentence to life. She showed no emotion other than laughing and singing. She showed no remorse during the trial.
Susan is on her deathbed.
She later said that she took so many drugs during this time that she lost sight of reality.
Susan finally disowned Manson in 1974. She had come back to her faith by then after seeing Jesus Christ appear to her in her cell, according to her own account. She was a model prisoner, taught her fellow inmates to read and write, and held regular prayer times. She received two recognitions from the authorities, one for saving a fellow prisoner from suicide.
She married twice and asked for parole seventeen times, but was always refused.
When she died of a brain tumor in 2009, no woman in California had been incarcerated longer.
Leslie Van Houten
Leslie Van Houten was born in 1949. She had loving parents, her father ran an auction house and her mother was a teacher. Lesley’s parents left everything to her and her younger brother, and even adopted two orphaned children from Korea.
But her parents divorced when she was a teenager and Lesley took it very badly.
She was only 14 when she started having sex and taking drugs. Lesley ran away from home at 17 and wandered around California with various boyfriends. Her drug use quickly spiraled out of control and when she heard about Charles Manson she walked up to him and immediately felt sure that in him she had found release.
Lesley Van Houten at trial and in an interview a few years ago.
Lesley was extremely beautiful but never managed to become one of Manson’s favorite mistresses. So she tried even harder to please him.
She confessed to beating Rosemary LaBianco, putting a pillowcase over her head and wrapping an electrical cord around her neck. She held Rosemary down, along with Patricia Krenwinkel, while Watson stabbed Rosemary. He then handed the knife to Lesley and told her to finish the deal. Lesley stabbed Rosemary multiple times, but later said Rosemary may have already died.
Lesley received the same sentence. Like Susan, she showed no remorse at the trial and both said they would never leave or stop believing in Manson.
The girls laughed during the trial and when Manson cut a cross on his forehead, they did the same.
Like Susan, Lesley was a model prisoner and completely disowned Manson. She married once or this marriage was short-lived. Lesley worked hard to get an education and wrote a number of short stories. She was willing to give interviews where she emphasized how much she regretted the atrocities, she had been young, brainwashed and confused by drug use. She has also always said that she always takes full responsibility for her actions.
Lesley applied for parole 23 times and three times the parole board recommended that Leysley be released on parole. The governors of California, however, refused to sign and Lesly Van Houten is still in office.
She is 73 years old.
Linda Kasabian
Linda Kasabian was born in 1949. Her parents were struggling financially and had a lot of arguments and violence at home. Her father abandoned the family when she was a child. Her mother remarried, but Linda did not get along well with her stepfather. She was an exemplary student, but left home at 16 to “seek God.”
Linda with witness leads.
She married the same year, aged just 16, but the marriage was short-lived. She soon remarried a man named Robert Kasabian and had a daughter, but the marriage was stormy and Linda left her husband and returned to live with her mother.
But soon after, Robert contacted her and asked her to come to California because he was planning a trip to South America and wanted Linda to come with him. Linda sued her husband, became pregnant with another child, but Robert fled to South America without her.
Linda heard from a friend about a wonderful group living on a ranch in complete freedom and preparing a new paradise on earth.
Linda decided to investigate the case further and, like the other girls, became fascinated with Manson. She did everything to fit in.
Manson didn’t think Linda was fit for “ops”, but since she was the only one with a driver’s license, she drove the group both nights.
Linda waited in the car both times. She did not approach the murders but knew what was going on and did not inform the police.
She made a deal with prosecutors and testified against the others in exchange for not being punished. She was pregnant and had a son in prison awaiting trial.
The girls shaved their hair to show their support for Manson.
She was interrogated for 18 straight days with regular interruptions and threats from Manson and his daughters, but seemed to be doing well under the pressure.
Linda Kasabian changed her name and disappeared after the trial. She had four children but had occasional run-ins with the law over drugs.
She appeared in a TV interview with Larry King in 2009 but was in disguise. She said she believed she deserved to be punished and therefore her life had been full of self-loathing.
“It was so wrong, there was no reason to hurt these people and make so many people suffer. I will never forget the screams I heard in the street. I wanted to stop them but I could not.”
Linda died in January this year, aged 73.
Charles Manson was like a god in the girls’ minds.
Patricia Krenwinkel.
Patricia Krenwinkel was born in 1947 into a very ordinary family, the daughter of an insurance salesman and a housewife. She was a chubby kid and gained even more weight during her teenage years. So she started taking diet pills and became addicted to them.
But even though Patricia lost weight, she was unhappy, had low self-esteem, and felt unloved and alone. It did not improve the situation that her parents divorced when she was 17 years old.
She dropped out in her freshman year of college, got a job as a secretary, but was searching in life.
When she met Charles Manson, she felt she had finally found the answer.
Patricia at the trial and then in an interview a few years ago.
At trial, she bragged about killing Abigail Folger and showed no remorse, nor did her sister-in-law.
Patricia received the same sentence as the others.
She was devoted to Manson for many years before finally turning her back on him, and in a 1994 interview with Diane Sawyer said she woke up each day knowing she had taken the most precious thing. all; human life “I killed a young woman who had her whole life ahead of her and who left behind grieving parents. I deserve to be in prison.”
She still applied for parole fourteen times and her application was always denied until last year when the governor of California again refused to sign her.
Patricia Krenwinkel has been in prison for over half a century. She is 75 years old.
Charles Manson died in 2017
Charles Manson died in prison in 2017. He never showed remorse and maintained his innocence until his death.
