Highlighted Crime
Story of the Week -
On August 9, 1969, members of the Manson Family murdered five
people at movie director Roman Polanski’s Benedict Canyon, California, home,
including Polanski’s pregnant wife, actress Sharon Tate. Two days later, the
group killed again, murdering supermarket executive Leno LaBianca and his wife
Rosemary in their home. The brutal killings shocked the nation and turned
Charles Manson into a criminal icon.
Manson was born on November 12, 1934 in Cincinnati, Ohio,
to an unwed 16-year-old mother. He spent much of his childhood in juvenile
reformatories and his early adulthood in prison. After his release in 1967,
Manson moved to the outskirts of Los Angeles and used his charisma to attract young
girls and misfits to his commune, where drugs and orgies were common. Manson
preached his own blend of eccentric religious teachings to his followers, who
called themselves his “Family.” He told them a race war between blacks and
whites was imminent and would result in great power for the Family. Manson said
they should instigate the war by killing rich white people and trying to make
it look like the work of blacks.
Roman Polanski was not the intended target on the night
of the slayings. Manson, an aspiring musician, chose the Polanski house because
he had once unsuccessfully tried to get a recording deal from a producer who
used to live there. Polanski was out of town at the time of the murders, but
his wife and her friends, including coffee heiress Abigail Folger, were shot or
stabbed to death. Manson stayed out of the Polanski house on the night of the
crime and didn’t take part in the LaBianca killings either. However, he would
later be charged with murder on the grounds he had influenced his followers and
masterminded the crimes.
After initially eluding police suspicion, Manson was
arrested only after one of his followers, already in jail on a different
charge, started bragging about what had happened. Manson’s subsequent trial
became a national spectacle, in which he exhibited bizarre behavior. In 1971,
he was convicted and given the death penalty; however, that sentence became
life behind bars when the California Supreme Court overturned the death penalty
in 1972 and remains in a California prison.
Check back every
Monday for a new installment of “This Week in Crime History.”
Michael Thomas Barry is a columnist for www.crimemagazine.com and is the author
of six nonfiction books that includes the award winning Murder and Mayhem 52 Crimes that Shocked Early California, 1849-1949.
Visit Michael’s website www.michaelthomasbarry.com
for more information. His book can be purchased from Amazon through the
following link:
