It was in the early hours of August 9, 1969-49 years ago today. One of the most infamous nights in history.
At the behest of a career criminal and cult leader named Charles Manson, four members of his so-called "family"-Tex Watson, Susan Atkins, Linda Kasabian and Patricia Krenwinkel-descended on a house on Cielo Drive in Benedict Canyon, north of Beverly Hills, Calif. There, they brutally slaughtered five people, including pregnant actress Sharon Tate.
The very next night, seven family members-all four from the Tate murders along with Leslie Van Houten, Steve Grogan and Manson himself-went to the residence of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles and killed them both.
The crimes made national headlines and struck fear in the hearts of Los Angeles-area residents. That fear spread across the nation-even to the Twin Cities. You didn't know where these killers would strike next.
The investigation took several months, but by December police arrested the suspects.
Manson, Krenwinkel, Atkins and Van Houten went on trial in June 1970. They were convicted and sentenced to death. Kasabian took a deal, testified and was granted immunity. Watkins was tried later and got death. Grogan was sentenced to death in another Manson family killing, but a judge resentenced him to life in 1971.
In 1972 the California Supreme Court ruled capital punishment unconstitutional. All the remaining death sentences were reduced to life-with the possibility of parole.
Tex Watson remains in prison, as do Steve Grogan and Patricia Krenwinkel. Susan Atkins died in 2009, still incarcerated. Linda Kasabian is 69 now and has mostly tried to get on with her life, rarely granting interviews.
Leslie Van Houten has been in the headlines over the past few years. She was granted parole in 2016 but California Gov. Jerry Brown overturned that decision. The parole board ruled in her favor again in 2017 and again Brown blocked her release.
As for Charles Manson, the all-too-real boogeyman of the 20th century, he lived on in prison for decades, dying in November of last year at the age of 83. For nearly 50 years, the Tate-LaBianca murders have lived on in our collective nightmares. And they will as long as anyone who was alive that day still breathes.