The Victims:
Sharon Tate, a 26-year-old model and emerging film actress known for her role in the 1966 movie “Valley of the Dolls,” was brutally attacked while eight and a half months pregnant.
She made a heart-wrenching plea to spare her unborn child from her assailants.
Jay Sebring, a renowned Hollywood hairdresser who had previously dated Tate, also implored the attackers to spare her baby.
Sebring, famous for revolutionizing male hair care, was shot, kicked, and stabbed viciously.
His clientele included iconic figures like Warren Beatty, Steve McQueen, Frank Sinatra, and Sammy Davis Jr.
Wojciech Frykowski and Abigail Folger were also victims of this heinous crime.
Frykowski, a 32-year-old aspiring screenwriter and friend of Roman Polanski (Tate's husband), was brutally stabbed over 50 times and shot twice.
His 25-year-old girlfriend, heiress to the Folger coffee fortune, managed to escape briefly before being tackled and stabbed 28 times on the front lawn.
The couple had shared a meal with Tate and Sebring earlier on the tragic night.
Steven Parent, a recent high school graduate planning his college future, was visiting the Polanski estate when he encountered the intruders.
Sadly, he was confronted and fatally shot while leaving the property by the gate.
Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, owners of a chain of grocery stores in Los Angeles, were randomly chosen by Manson for his followers to kill.
The LaBiancas had no connection to Tate or her circle of friends.
They were bound and brutally murdered before Manson left, using a chrome-plated bayonet among other weapons.
The Prosecutors:
Vincent Bugliosi, initially an ambitious but relatively unknown deputy district attorney, took charge of the Manson family murder trial after another prosecutor was dismissed for mocking a defendant.
Bugliosi vehemently denounced Manson as a “dictatorial maharajah” and his followers as “robots” and “zombies.”
Following their convictions, Bugliosi penned “Helter Skelter,” a best-selling true-crime book.
Despite leaving the District Attorney's office in 1972, Bugliosi authored 11 more books before his passing in 2015 at the age of 80.
Stephen Kay, a 27-year-old deputy district attorney, joined Bugliosi as co-lead prosecutor during Tex Watson's trial.
He later successfully prosecuted Van Houten after securing a retrial.
Over the years, Kay has been a staunch advocate against releasing the convicted killers, attending numerous parole hearings.
Presently, he is 76 years old.
The Killers:
Charles Manson, once a petty criminal with a history of incarceration, transformed into a self-proclaimed guru targeting vulnerable youths, specifically young women, whom he exploited for s=x.
Under Manson's influence, his followers carried out violent acts, including the murders of unsuspecting victims, in a twisted attempt to incite a race war inspired by the Beatles' song “Helter Skelter.”
Susan Atkins, a teenage runaway turned t0pless dancer, played a significant role in the Tate, LaBianca, and Hinman murders.
After boasting about her involvement in the crimes while in jail on unrelated charges, Atkins was implicated in the brutal killings.
Despite initially claiming to be under the influence of drugs during the murders, she later expressed remorse as a born-again Christian before succumbing to cancer in prison in 2009 at the age of 61.
Leslie Van Houten, once a cheerleader and homecoming princess whose life spiraled following her parents' divorce, became entangled with Manson's “family.”
While not directly participating in the Tate murders, Van Houten was present at the LaBianca residence the following night.
She assisted in the brutal killing of Rosemary LaBianca, following orders from Manson's disciple Charles “Tex” Watson.
Van Houten, now 69, has pursued education and rehabilitation programs while incarcerated, facing multiple parole denials by former Governor Jerry Brown.
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