40 YEARS OF HELTER SKELTER: Inside The Manson Murders

A new prison photo of Charles Manson shows the convicted murderer graying and balding with his forehead swastika ever present. He’s locked away at Corcoran State Prison, about 150 miles northwest of Los Angeles.

Manson turns 75 later this year.

Manson has been denied parole 11 times since 1978. He is next eligible in 2012.

He’ll forever be remembered for what he did in his youth: manipulating a string of murders that terrified Southern California.

Manson, who also fancied himself a musician in the making, visited Doris Day’s son, Terry Melcher, a record producer, at his rented house on 10050 Cielo Drive in the Hollywood Hills.

On the 8th of August, Manson sent Tex Watson, Susan Atkins and Patricia Krenwinkel to the house, telling them to kill anyone there.

By then, Melcher had moved out. Manson didn’t care.

He knew the layout. He figured there were rich and famous people there and killing them would send a message. Film director Roman Polanski was renting the house.

(left to right) Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Leslie Van Houten in 1971 during the Tate-LaBianca trial.

He was out of the country, but his wife, actress Sharon Tate, was home with some guests.

Late at night, the three Manson followers scaled a wall onto the property. First, they shot and killed 18-year old Steve Parent who was just leaving after visiting the groundskeeper.

Then, they went into the house and slaughtered four others: Tate, celebrity hair dresser Jay Sebring, coffee heiress Abigail Folger, and writer Voyteck Frykowski.

Tate was pregnant and begged for the life of her child, but Manson family member Susan Atkins showed no mercy as she stabbed her to death.

Prosecutor Stephen Kay remembers hearing the chilling news.

“I thought ‘five people killed in one home. That’s really tragic’. Then, they mentioned Sharon Tate was one. I knew who she was, that she was eight and a half months pregnant and I thought ‘that’s pretty cold’.”

Sharon Tate, pictured here in 1969, was two weeks from giving birth when she was murdered.

The killers retreated to the Spahn Movie Ranch in the desert outside L.A. where the family was staying. The following night, there was more bloodshed.

Manson led his family across town to the home of grocery store executive Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary. Manson helped tie them up, then left. Leaving Watson, Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten to carry out brutal murders.

Seven gruesome slayings in two nights sent shockwaves through the city.

“People were very much afraid. They started buying guns and making sure their house was locked up air-tight at night,” says Kay.

After the murders, the family used Barker Ranch in Death Valley as a hideout.

That’s where Susan Atkins was arrested on a separate charge and investigators soon got a break when she boasted to cellmates about the killings.

“When they heard about this, they called LAPD and said ‘there’s a crazy woman in here talking about Jesus and these murders’ and that’s how the case was broken,” says Kay.

By that December, the killers were in custody. At trial, Kay was second chair to chief prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi. It wasn’t long before he had a personal showdown with Manson in court.

Manson is taken into custody in December of 1969.

According to Kay, “Manson had the deal if he could out-stare you, make you blink first, that he owned your soul. Manson did the staring game with me and he blinked first. I mean, over the years he’s threatened to kill me three times. From the time he blinked first, he hated my guts.”

During the trial, Manson’s hatred for blacks and jews came out and it was learned he hoped to use the killings to propel a race war he referred to as “helter skelter,” a term lifted from a Beatles’ song.

The trial was a media circus. Up to the time, at nine months and a million dollars, it was the longest and most expensive trial in U.S. history.

In the end, the jury sentenced Manson and family members to death. But soon after, the state supreme court abolished the death penalty. Manson and his followers were off the hook.

Family members have sought freedom during parole hearings, saying they’ve changed. But there have been no such claims from Manson. Not that it would likely do him any good.