The Mammoth Book of Celebrity Murders (45 page)

On 27 July 1969, Manson dispatched Mary Brunner, Susan Atkins and Bobby Beausoleil to Hinman’s house at 964 Old Topanga Canyon Road. Their mission was to extract the $20,000 that Manson
had become aware of earlier. Although it has never been fully proven it is thought that he also instructed the team to murder Hinman for not helping his musical career. The three
“family” members managed to gain entrance to Hinman’s residence and Beausoleil immediately took the lead. He tried initially to persuade Hinman to simply hand over the money, but
was told that it was not in the house. For around two hours Beausoleil kept up the pressure before finally losing patience and produced a Radom 9mm pistol. Threatening the now terrified Hinman,
Beausoleil handed the gun to Atkins whilst he ransacked the house looking for the money. Whilst Beausoleil was pulling the house apart upstairs Hinman attempted the first of his escapes, but was
persuaded back when Atkins let loose a shot which ricocheted around the kitchen before embedding itself in one of the kitchen cupboards. On hearing the shot Beausoleil ran back into the room and
grabbed the gun off Atkins, hitting Hinman around the head with the butt to subdue him. With little progress being made in finding the money Beausoleil phoned Manson to get advice. Expecting more
after the three had been gone so long, and now angry at the lack of progress, Manson decided to call in himself. Entering the house he sought to terrify Hinman into submission; taking a sword he
cut a slice out of his ear and again ordered the others to check the house for the money. Having been there only a short while he instructed Brunner to clean up Hinman’s wound and to bring
him out to the ranch after they had completed the search, following which Manson disappeared into the night once more. Hinman had his ear stitched with dental floss and was then bound hand and
foot, and laid out on the hearthrug. With Hinman now pretty much under control the gang proceeded to check every drawer and cupboard in the house, but there was no money to be had. What they did
discover were the two pink registration forms belonging to the two vehicles on the drive. As morning approached Hinman was untied solely for the purpose of signing over the vehicles. His final
mistake was a second attempt to escape – as the ropes loosened he made a dash to the window and began screaming for help. Panicked by this sudden turn of events, Beausoleil pursued Hinman,
plunging a knife twice into his chest. Not yet dead the others let him slump to the floor in a pool of blood. As Hinman’s life ebbed away Atkins ran her fingers through the still warm blood
and daubed messages on the walls. The words “Political Piggies” were discovered later, along with a crude drawing of a panther’s paw, an attempt at laying the blame for the
killings at the door of the militant black separatist movement, the Black Panthers. A scene of pure destruction was now cleaned up by the gang, the blood-soaked clothes were removed and the
surfaces wiped clean of fingerprints, before they left, locking the door behind them. As they were hot-wiring one of Hinman’s cars it occurred to them that no one had checked to make sure he
was dead. With the door locked they gained access again through a window at the back and smothered him. With the task now fully complete and the scene set up to lay the blame elsewhere, they
stopped off at the Topanga kitchen cafe and enjoyed coffee and cherry cakes, before returning to the ranch to give Manson the details.

All in all it was a job poorly carried out and with a bit more luck the crimes for which Manson and his “family” were to become infamous might never have happened. Just four days
after the murder Hinman’s body was discovered by friends and the LA police department were informed. Sergeant Whiteley and deputy Charles Guenther of the Sheriff’s Office were
dispatched to the bloody scene and were easily able to identify a number of strange fingerprints, one of which was quickly confirmed to be that of Bobby Beausoleil. A few days later when Beausoliel
was picked up the police found the knife that had been used on Hinman and a blood-soaked T-shirt in the back of his car. Beausoleil was charged and subsequently convicted of murder – if only
he had implicated the others that would have been the end of the story, but instead he went to prison leaving the others in the clear.

Emboldened by the loyalty of his followers Manson now wished to pursue his murderous activities further and began to plan more shocking crimes. The new occupants on Cielo Drive would be the next
targets, their deaths sounding a wake-up call to the overindulgent, rich and famous residents who occupied the big houses around LA and Hollywood. And this one would set the US on the path to the
race wars Manson had predicted; this one would be “Helter Skelter”.

On 8 August 1969 Manson assembled his chosen gang for the evening’s work – Charles “Tex” Watson, Susan “Sadie” Atkins, Pat “Katie” Krenwinkle and
Linda Kasabian. Instructing them to get knives and a change of clothes, he announced, “Now is the time for Helter Skelter.” Sending them on their way his final piece of advice was to
“leave a sign . . . something witchy”, and with this the death squad headed away from the Spahn ranch towards Benedict Canyon.

Polanski’s home at 10050 Cielo Drive was the perfect location for him and his new bride Sharon Tate. Hidden away in the canyons above Hollywood, the property provided the right mix of
privacy and distance from the mayhem of Hollywood. Not a fortress by modern Hollywood standards, the house was entered via big heavy gates and past guest quarters in which a fairly well-built
caretaker lived. Polanski was away filming in Europe on this particular night, but Sharon had the company of her young sophisticated friends, Abigail Folger, the coffee heiress and her boyfriend,
Voytek Frykowski, and international hair stylist Jay Sebring, who was himself Tate’s ex-boyfriend. Eight months pregnant by Polanski, Sharon and her guests were enjoying a low-key evening,
not an uncommon event at this particular address. A real looker, Sharon had won beauty competitions both as a child and as a young adult, but really harboured a desire to become a movie actress. In
1963, aged just 22, this goal was finally realized when she landed a part in the US TV series
The Beverley Hillbillies
, which was quickly followed by other TV parts. In 1965 the switch to
movie-making was established when she played opposite David Niven in the film
The Eye of the Devil
. She met Polanski in London in 1966, at which time she was dating Jay Sebring; Polanski
offered her the lead role in the comedy horror film,
The Fearless Vampire Hunters
. It was during the shooting of this film that Polanski and Sharon became lovers, causing her to break off
the romance with Sebring; they were subsequently married in early 1969 after Polanski concluded the shooting of
Rosemary’s Baby
, taking the house at Cielo Drive when Terry Melcher
moved out. Although Sharon missed Polanski when he was away filming, especially at this late stage of her pregnancy, she was by all accounts deliriously happy. Abigail Folger hailed from a very
privileged background, being the heir to the Folger coffee fortune. Aged just 25 she was very much a woman of the era. Having graduated from Radcliffe and with money at her disposal she looked for
a meaningful occupation with which to spend her time, much of it involving social work. Along with her boyfriend Voytek Frykowski however, she had become quite heavily dependent on drugs, which had
started to cause her some concern. It was through Frykowski that she was introduced to Sharon and Polanski and eventually invested money in Jay Sebring’s hairstyling business. Sebring, an
internationally renowned hairstylist, had a string of Hollywood customers including Frank Sinatra, Paul Newman and Steve McQueen. He was a known ladies’ man who had escorted Sharon for a
while before she broke it off to move in with Polanski. They were a close group and a good mix, but above all they all enjoyed Tate’s company – she was so different to the normal
Hollywood starlet types who were shallow and insincere.

The four gang members sat in the heady atmosphere of the white and yellow Ford, high on marijuana and excitement. After the Hinman killing they knew what to expect and were now thoroughly ready
for anything that might lie ahead of them; only Linda Kasabian had feelings of doubt. She had heard the stories of how Hinman had finally met his end – the sheer bloody mess – and it
was not lost on her that Bobby Beausoleil was now likely to serve a life sentence because of it. As the Ford slowly turned into Cielo Drive Kasabian had just a little time to consider these facts,
before Watson switched off the lights and let the engine idle as he let the car roll along to the end of the road. He pulled into the shadows of a large oak tree and killed the engine. They sat
there for a few moments making sure there was no one around. The time was just after midnight on the night of 8/9 August and it was dark and quiet. Watson and the others climbed out of the car and
stood in the shadows for a moment; when they were sure there was no one around they spread out along the pavement while Watson climbed up a nearby telephone pole and cut the wires. Before the
advent of mobile phones, this act now effectively cut the household off from the outside world. Pushing open the heavy wrought-iron gates, the gang were immediately surprised by the approaching
headlights of an oncoming car. While the girls lingered in the shadows, Watson positioned himself in the road and aimed his .22 Bluntline Special revolver directly at the driver. Eighteen-year old
Steven Parent, who was driving a sporty two-seater Nash Ambassador, hit the brakes as a feeling of panic embraced him. He had been at the gatehouse visiting the caretaker and had not expected to
see anyone at that time of the night, especially someone with a gun. Parent had just graduated from school in the summer and was working several jobs in preparation for starting college in the
fall. He had everything to live for when Watson motioned him to open the side window of the driver’s door. Parent may have been aware of others moving in the shadows as Watson thrust the gun
through the window at his face. As he asked for his life to be spared he was shot at point-blank range four times in the chest. The time was now around 12.30 a.m. At Tate’s neighbour’s
house about a hundred yards away, the Knotts thought they heard the sound of gunfire, but after listening intently for a few more moments decided to go to bed.

By now Linda Kasabian had lost her nerve and would not enter the grounds, electing instead to stay by the car and keep watch, knowing that the shots she heard heralded the start of a bloody
massacre that evening and she for one could not face it. She could have left the scene at any time but for reasons best known to herself she stayed and waited for the others to return.

The three remaining “family” members now fanned out across the lawn and stealthily skirted the perimeter of the Polanski house looking for an entry point. When it became obvious that
there would be no easy route into the house Watson started to cut through one of the window screens which guarded an unused room at the front. Working quickly but quietly he soon opened the screen
and had forced the window ajar. One by one the three of them slid in through the window and stood silently in the dark room, listening for any signs of life. When they were sure they had not been
detected they moved along the corridor and into the main living area where they found Frykowski asleep on the couch. Watson nudged Frykowski and he awoke to find the barrel of the gun just inches
from his face. Asking what the intruders wanted, Watson responded somewhat poetically, “I am the devil. I am here to do the devil’s business. Give me your money.” With this Watson
sent Atkins off to find some towels with which to tie Frykowski up. As she was returning from the bathroom she passed a bedroom and could hear Sharon, Abigail Folger and Jay Sebring talking. She
reported her find to Watson who sent her back to bring them into the front room and to tell them it was a robbery. When Atkins returned with them she set about tying them up but Sebring managed to
break free and launched himself at the gun hand of Watson – he was not fast enough and was shot once through the armpit and stabbed four times. With the blood-letting now underway, Frykowski
became convinced they would all die; the intruders had already used the gun and a knife on Sebring, so he too made an attempt to pull the gun off Watson. Watson beat Frykowski with the butt of his
gun so severely that one of the handle grips broke off. With blood streaming down his face he staggered to the door and screamed for help but it was too late – Atkins and Krenwinkle raced
across the room and stabbed at him ferociously. As he fell to the floor they continued to puncture his body with stab wounds. The room was now in chaos as fear and panic spread into the other two
captives and it was now Abigail Folger’s chance to make an escape bid. She too had wriggled free and headed past Krenwinkle and Atkins onto the lawn where she ran into the darkness, pursued
by the much faster Watson who caught her before she got halfway, knocking her to the ground and plunging a knife deep into her chest. Folger now lay dead on the lawn. The terror was now in full
flow and could not be stopped, adrenaline pumping through the killers as they began a frenzied attack on Frykowski’s dead body, stabbing him a pointless 51 times, although he had already
suffered numerous blows to the head and two gunshot wounds. The house was a scene of pure carnage and Sharon Tate had endured watching it unfold mercilessly in front of her. As Atkins and
Krenwinkle turned their attention to her she must have known that nothing she could say or do would prevent them from killing her, except perhaps her pregnancy, which at nearly full term was clear
for all to see.

From evidence to emerge after the group’s arrest. Tate’s murder was particularly awful. Pregnant as she was, she had been tied up and had watched the blood flowing all around her.
When Krenwinkle pinned her to the floor and Atkins positioned herself next to her, Sharon could only beg for mercy. Atkins later reported to a cell mate whilst on remand that Sharon had indeed
begged, “Please don’t kill me, please don’t kill me. I don’t want to die, I want to have my baby.” Atkins now high and beyond mercy, looked directly at Tate.
“Look bitch, I don’t care about you. I don’t care if you are going to have a baby. You had better be ready, you’re going to die and I don’t feel anything about
it.” With that Atkins thrust the knife into Tate’s heart killing her, and continued to stab her a further fifteen times. When the frenzy was over they dragged Sharon’s body over
to lie next to Sebring’s and tied them together, looping a bloodied rope around their necks and throwing it over a rafter on the ceiling. Watson wandered amongst the bodies and kicked at
them, whilst Atkins and Krenwinkle spread a flag across the couch. Atkins had run her fingers through Tate’s blood and had tasted it, saying afterwards, “It was such a high.” With
her bloodied fingers she daubed the word “Pig” on the front door. Later Atkins would say that she had wanted to cut out the baby, remove the victims’ eyeballs and mutilate their
fingers, but thankfully they were running out of time. As instructed by Manson they now quickly changed out of their soiled clothes and collected their weapons before making their way back to the
Spahn ranch, throwing a number of weapons out onto the Hollywood hillside as they went.