On August 9th, 1969, four young people—Tex Watson, Patricia Krenwinkel, Susan Atkins, and Linda Kasabian—who were all followers of the cult leader, criminal, and wannabee rock-musician Charles Manson, entered the house at 10050 Cielo Drive in Los Angeles and violently murdered its five inhabitants—the actress and model Sharon Tate (who was eight-and-a-half months pregnant), the hairstylist Jay Sebring, the heiress Abigail Folger, the screenwriter Voytek Frykowski, and a young man coincidentally there at the time, Steven Parent. The following night, the four killers plus Manson himself and another follower named Leslie van Houten randomly entered the home of businessman Leno LaBianca and gruesomely murdered him and his wife Rosemary.
All the victims had no connection to Manson’s family—though Tate and her husband, the director Roman Polanski, were renting the home that had previously belonged to record executive Terry Melcher, who had passed on giving Manson a record deal. The seven grisly murders, and their youthful perpetrators, hypnotically captivated by the lawless Manson, came to emblematize the underlying turmoil of the wild hippie counterculture of the decade. Fifty years later, the shocking story has been immortalized in numerous adaptations and dramatic interpretations, all seeking to analyze the trajectory from sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll to brutal violence, mayhem, and tragedy. Below are a few of the best analyses and presentations of the Manson murders.
What to Read (Books)
Helter-Skelter, by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry
Manson, by Jeff Guinn
Manson in His Own Words: The Shocking Confession, ed. Nuel Emmons
Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA and the Secret History of the Sixties, by Tom O’Neil
Savage Appetites, by Rachel Monroe
Sharon Tate: Recollection, ed. Debra Tate (anthology)
What to Read (Essays)
“My Father: Charles Manson’s Right Hand Man,” by Claire Vaye Watkins, The Guardian, 2012
“Charles Manson’s Home on the Range,” by Gay Talese, Esquire, 1970
“The White Album,” by Joan Didion, The White Album, 1979
“Charles Manson: The Incredible Story of the Most Dangerous Man Alive,” by David Felton and David Dalton, Rolling Stone, 1970
What to Watch
Helter Skelter, 1974 (available on Amazon Prime)
“My Life After Manson,” dir. Olivia Klaus, NyTimes Op-Docs (available NYTimes), 2014
Mindhunter, Season 2 (available on Netflix August 16th*)
Truth and Lies: The Family Manson, 20/20 ABC, (available on Hulu)
What to Listen To
“Charles Manson’s Hollywood” Parts 1-12, You Must Remember This, by Karina Longworth, 2015
“The Manson Girls” Parts 1 & 2, Parcast Presents: Summer of ‘69, 2019
“Young Charlie,” Hollywood and Crime, by Larry Brand, 2107
