He was certain Black people would win but wouldn't know how to govern themselves. That's when he would emerge and take over. His followers bought into it and agreed to commit acts of unparalleled barbarity on their leader's behalf. The group became known as the Manson Family. Just after midnight on Aug.

Polanski was out of town. Tate, eight months pregnant, was enjoying the company of several friends, including hairdresser Jay Sebring, coffee heiress Abigail Folger and Folger's boyfriend, Wojciech Frykowski. Every one of them was killed, as well as year-old Stephen Parent, a friend of the home's caretaker. The Manson Family showed no mercy as Tate begged them to spare the life of her unborn child.

The following night, a group of Manson followers broke into the Los Feliz home of supermarket executive Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary, killing them both. The Manson Family was also responsible for the death of musician Gary Hinman, which occurred in July , and the death of stuntman Donald Shea in late August. Shea was a ranch hand at Spahn Ranch in Chatsworth, where the transient Manson Family had been known to crash. Although Manson himself was not a proven participant in any of the murders, he was convicted on seven counts of first-degree murder for his role in orchestrating the Tate and LaBianca murders.

Manson's followers were in their late teens or early 20s when they encountered him, altering the course of their lives as well as those of their victims. Charles Manson was born in to a teenage mother in Ohio who, by all accounts, never wanted him. He was prone to stealing and had spent most of his life in jail by the time he met Mary Brunner, essentially the first member of his "family," in Berkeley in He successfully recruited many people into his commune, although several of them were never directly involved in any of the murders and most would eventually move on or renounce him.

Jeff Guinn, who interviewed several of Manson's relatives about for his book, Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson , wrote that Manson was deceitful even as a child. Little Charlie was a disagreeable child. Beyond his doting grandmother, who still recognized his many faults, few who knew him then or in his ensuing teenage years found much to admire about him beyond his looks. Charlie's dimpled smile could light up rooms, and his eyes were dark and expressive. But even at such a young age, he lied about everything and, when he got in trouble for telling fibs of breaking things or any of the other innumerable misdeeds he committed on a daily basis, Charlie always blamed somebody else.

As a child, he was obsessed with being the center of attention. If he couldn't get noticed for doing something right, he was happy to do misbehave. You couldn't relax when Charlie was around. It was only a matter of time before he got into some sort of trouble.

Manson was found guilty of seven counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to death in That sentence was commuted to life in prison in , as was the case with all inmates who had been sentenced to death in the state of California at that time, after the state's Supreme Court ruled capital punishment unconstitutional. Prior to his death on Nov. He was denied parole repeatedly over the years. Not long before Manson's death, his grandson, Jason Freeman, told the L.

Times : "Old age is setting in. Nature is taking its course. There will be a day where [Manson] doesn't wake up again," Freeman said. His mother was Manson's wife, Rosalie Willis, who Manson married in , years before his cult leader days.

White killed himself in Manson was not a model prisoner, and was cited numerous times for contraband and other violations. In , one of his fellow inmates lit him on fire after Manson allegedly threatened the man. Not long before his death, Manson was engaged to a decades younger woman named Afton Burton , although the betrothal was, at one point, threatened by allegations that Burton only wanted him so that she could set up his corpse as a tourist attraction.

Burton's mother called these allegations "tabloid crap" and asserted that the engagement was still on in an interview with Rolling Stone in February of Bruce Davis grew up in the South, eventually moving to the West Coast in Prior to his involvement with the Manson Family, he worked for the Church of Scientology. He is currently in prison at the California Men's Colony in San Luis Obispo where he acts as a minister in the prison chapel.

He has also gotten married and fathered one child. Like many other convicted Manson Family members, Davis has been recommended for parole multiple times only to have those recommendations reversed.

In early , Gov. Jerry Brown elected to block his release , saying, "As I've discussed twice before, Davis' own actions demonstrate that he had fully bought into the depraved Manson Family beliefs. He not only watched as Manson cut Mr.

Hinman's face open with a sword, but held him at gunpoint while Manson was doing so. The state parole board recommended Davis for release in June but Gov. Gavin Newsom reversed that decision.

Davis was again recommended for in but Newsom also denied that request , saying Davis "currently poses an unreasonable danger to society if released from prison at this time. Leslie Van Houten grew up in a middle-class family in Altadena. Following the divorce of her parents when she was 14, Van Houten began using drugs. According to her testimony in her parole hearing , her mother forced her to have an abortion at 17, which deeply affected her relationship with her family.

Still, she was a popular prom queen in high school, and she briefly attended classes to become a secretary. However, Van Houten favored the hippie lifestyle over school and dropped out. On Aug. She has maintained that of the 47 stab wounds found on Rosemary's body, she only inflicted ones that occurred after Rosemary's death.

She was convicted of murder in and was sentenced to death but in her sentence was commuted to life in prison. Van Houten currently resides in the California Institution for Women in Corona, where she is considered a model prisoner. She has earned a bachelor's and a master's degree while incarcerated and leads self-help groups for her fellow inmates.

She has long since renounced Manson. Van Houten has been up for parole more than 20 times. She was most recently recommended for parole on Nov. Four previous recommendations were rejected by California governors. In April , the state parole board recommended Van Houten for parole. Sharon Tate's sister, Debra Tate, as well as L. Then Gov. Jerry Brown blocked her release , saying , "Both [Van Houten's] role in these extraordinarily brutal crimes and her inability to explain her willing participation in such horrific violence cannot be overlooked and lead me to believe she remains an unreasonable risk to society if released.

By then, Van Houten had been recommended for release again, in January , only to stay behind bars when Gov. Gavin Newsom overruled a new parole recommendation in June A court declined to reverse Newsom's decision. On July 23, , the Associated Press reported a panel had once again recommended Van Houten for parole, the fourth time in four years.

In November , Newsom denied the recommendation for parole. On November 9, , a California parole panel recommended for the fifth time that Van Houten be freed from prison. Governor Newsom will probably deny the recommendation. Charles "Tex" Watson was arguably the most vicious member of the Manson Family.

Manson may have orchestrated the killings, but Watson was, more often than not, the hand that carried them out. He participated in the Cielo Drive murders, personally shooting Steven Parent and Jay Sebring, and assisted in the other slayings. He was also active in the LaBianca murders. Watson grew up in Texas, hence his nickname.

In the s, he worked for Braniff Airlines as a baggage handler. This gave him access to free airline tickets, which he used to visit an old college friend in Los Angeles. He eventually decided to move to the L. According to his parole hearing , Watson was renting a house in Malibu with a friend. He one day picked up a hitchhiker who turned out to be Beach Boys' drummer Dennis Wilson. Wilson invited Watson to his home, where he met Charles Manson and ultimately joined Manson's followers.

Watson was sentenced to death in , which was commuted to life in prison the following year. Since his incarceration, he has converted to Christianity and became an ordained minister in In , he married Kristin Joan Svege, with whom he fathered four children via conjugal visits.

The state of California got rid of those visits for prisoners serving life sentences in the late s. At the time, Sharon Tate's mother, Doris Tate, was one of the biggest advocates for eliminating such visits for violent felons.

She was enraged that Watson murdered her daughter and grandchild, yet was allowed to father children of his own. Svege amicably divorced Watson in Watson apparently reads his Wikipedia page and seems to have submitted requests to have it edited. In those requests, he named Manson prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi's book Helter Skelter as his preferred source for Manson-related research. He was most recently eligible for parole in October He was denied for the seventeenth time in 47 years.

County District Attorney Jackie Lacey said in a statement. Sharon Tate's sister Debra Tate also spoke out, calling him a sociopath who is "incapable of having insight or empathy for anything.

Watson is currently He was denied parole at a hearing on Oct. Patricia Krenwinkel grew up in Los Angeles as the quiet daughter of an insurance salesman and a stay-at-home mom.

While living with her sister in Manhattan Beach in , she met Manson and became enamored with him. According to the Los Angeles County district attorney, Manson plotted to start a race war, though he and others disputed this motive. What happened to Manson Family member Tex? Charles Denton Watson Jr. Farmersville, Texas, U. Charles Denton "Tex" Watson Jr. Watson was found guilty of murder and imprisoned in Why did the Manson family kill Tate?

He died in prison on November 19, , at the age of The cause of death was cardiac arrest resulting from respiratory failure and colon cancer. While in prison, Manson had been denied parole 12 times. Beginning in , he refused to attend any of his parole hearings. Is Squeaky Fromme still alive? Fromme was paroled from prison on August 14, , after serving approximately 34 years.

Since , Fromme has lived in Marcy, New York. What is a Manson girl? The Manson Family was a desert commune and cult active in California in the late s and early s which was led by Charles Manson. Most of the group members were young women from middle-class backgrounds, many of whom were radicalized by Manson's teachings and drawn by hippie culture and communal living. In June of , Steve was arrested for exposing his penis to a group of school children. He was sentenced to a day observation period at Camarillo State Mental Hospital, but walked out and returned to Spahn's Ranch 2 days later.

Grogan was along for the ride on the night of the Labianca murders. The latter three were dropped off with orders to kill an actor that once gave Linda Kasabian a ride. After Linda brought the would-be killers to the wrong apartment, the three decided to abort the mission and head back to Spahn's. It was rumored that Shea was cut up into 9 pieces, and buried behind Spahn's Ranch. Clem was arrested in the October 10, Barker Ranch raid.

When police realized the family's involvement in the Tate murders, Grogan became an early suspect. In , Steve went on trial for the Shea murder, was convicted, and sentenced to death by the jury. However, on December 23, , judge James Kolts changed the sentence to Life imprisonment, stating "Grogan was too stupid and too hopped up on drugs to deicide anything on his own.

In prison, Clem transformed from a drugged-out zombie to a mature, remorseful young man. In , Clem drew a map to help authorities finally locate the body of Donald Shea. When Shea's remains were found, they were in one piece. On November 18, , Grogan was released from prison. To date, he is the only Manson family member convicted of murder to be released from prison. The location of his body was not discovered until , nearly a decade after his death.

Shea was a former stuntman whose dream was to pursue a film career in Hollywood, a dream, that according to many friends, on which he never gave up. Donald Shea was a very tall man, standing at almost 6'5". He worked as a bouncer, a ranch hand at Spahn Ranch, an old Hollywood movie set that had become a horse riding stables. Shea reportedly got along with the other ranch employees. When the Manson family moved into Spahn Ranch, Shea initially co-existed with them peacefully, but in time, Charles Manson began to look down on Shorty because he had married a black woman by the name of Magdalena.

Manson had a well documented hatred and mistrust of black people and had been particularly disgusted when Magdalena's friends had shown up at the ranch. Eventually Shorty planned to help George Spahn remove the Family from the Spahn Ranch when their brushes with the law grew out of control.

Shea was murdered in on around August Manson had decided to have Shea killed because they believed he had turned them into the police resulting in a raid on the ranch on August 16 where the family were taken into custody on suspicion of car theft. Family member Bruce Davis, claimed that the decision to kill Shea came from Manson because he considered Shorty to be a "snitch".

Manson told Davis, Tex Watson and Steve Grogan to ask for a ride to a nearby car parts yard on the ranch. According to Davis, he sat in the back seat with Grogan, who then hit Shea with a pipe wrench and Watson stabbed him. They brought Shea down a hill behind the ranch and stabbed and brutally tortured him to death. Bruce Davis recalled at his parole hearings:. Charles Watson stabbed him. I was in the backseat with They took Shorty out.