Charlie Manson and his cult of killers   (Part 3)

In the previous two articles about this man, I gave you information about this evil man’s background and the backgrounds of his followers. 

If you read part two of this four-part part series, you will come to the same conclusion as I have that they were losers who were gullible enough to follow anyone no matter who that person was. Unfortunately, they chose to follow a man who was a real screwball who believed that he was both Jesus Christ and Satan. Their devotion to him led them to commit or participate in murders which resulted in them serving the remainder of their lives in prison.   Now I will tell you about the murders of their victims.

Donald Shorty Shea      

Donald Jerome Shea (also called Shorty) was born in Massachusetts on September 18, 1933. He moved to California to pursue a career in acting, but ended up spending most of his time working at Spahn's Movie Ranch. George Spahn hired Shea to help with the horses at the ranch, however he continued to purse his dream of working in Hollywood. A bunch of friends let him use their phone numbers as an answering service; when acting opportunities came up, he would leave the ranch, returning weeks later, after filming was complete.

Shea, who was big and stocky, worked long days at the ranch, got along well with the other ranch hands, and always looked after George Spahn's interests. He didn't mind Charlie and the girls when they first moved onto the ranch since Manson let him have sex with some of Manson’s girls, but as time went by, Shea grew to dislike Charlie immensely.

Shea had married a black stripper he met in Las Vegas. Although they had separated, they still got along, and Charlie, who detested black people, looked down on She because he married a black woman.

Shea knew that the family, and specifically Charlie, were up to no good and wanted to get them off the ranch. Early on the morning of Saturday, August 16, 1969, police raided Spahn's Movie Ranch to arrest the family on auto theft charges. Charlie was convinced that Shorty had snitched to the police and helped set-up the raid. For Charlie, this was the last straw.

Sometime around August 28, 1969, family members Charles Tex Watson, Bruce Davis, Steve Grogan, Bill Vance, Larry Bailey, and Charles Manson took Donald Shea for a ride. From the backseat Grogan struck Shea with a pipe wrench while Tex Watson began stabbing their victim. The group pulled their victim out of the car, brought him down a hill behind Spahn's Movie Ranch and stabbed him to death. Davis later bragged about how Shea's body had been dismembered and decapitated. Davis and the others surrounded and viciously attacked Shea. Davis stated that he sliced Mr. Shea from his armpit to his collarbone while his crime partners repeatedly stabbed and clubbed their victim.

Shea's body wasn't found until December of 1977. From prison, Steve Grogan drew a map leading authorities to Shea’s remains in an effort to prove to them that Shea hadn't been, as previously rumored, cut into nine pieces.

Shea's skeletal remains were discovered on a nondescript hillside near Santa Susana Road next to Spahn Ranch in December 1977.  According to the autopsy report, his body suffered multiple stab and chopping wounds to the chest and blunt force trauma to the head.

Shea was 35 years old when he was murdered. He was buried in a community plot in Angeles Abbey Memorial Park in Los Angeles, California

Gary Hinman

In July 1969, Gary Hinman was murdered by Manson follower Bobby Beausoleil, accompanied by Manson Family members Mary Brunner and Susan Atkins. The murder was committed at the behest of Manson.

Gary Hinman had some sort of falling-out with the Manson family, the exact nature of which remains unclear even 48 years later. Drugs may have been involved, but on July 25, 1969, Beausoleil, accompanied by Manson Family members Mary Brunner and Susan Atkins came to Hinmam’s house demanding that Hinman give them certain things, including title to his cars that were parked in the driveway of his house. When he refused, Beausoliel stabbed Hinman in the chest, and ordered his girlfriends–including Susan Atkins, who spent the rest of her life in prison to torture Hinman until he relented.          

There victim lingered for two days, lying on the floor of this house, bleeding, crying for mercy and reciting Buddhist prayers. When the Manson gang got impatient that he hadn’t died yet, they phoned Charlie Manson who then showed up at their request, carrying a Samurai sword. When Manson arrived at Hinman’s home, he slashed the flesh of Hinman’s body with the sword,  badly cutting his ear–a wound that one of the girls sewed up with dental floss. Manson’s torture was no more effective than Beausoliel’s attempt and the attempts of the other women because Hinman still refused to give them anything. In the afternoon–forty-eight years ago, on July 27, 1969, the women finally killed him.

If he had given them what they wanted, he would have been spared all that torture but he still would have been murdered.

                

But they weren’t done yet. Hoping to frame militant Black Panthers for the crime, the girls wrote on a door panel in blood with the words “POLITICAL PIGGY.” These words were similar to those that would be left in blood at the home of movie director Roman Polanski less than two weeks later–a horrific crime that was, at least arguably one that met the definition of mass murder.

Sharon Tate and others

On the evening of August 8^th, 1969, a very pregnant Sharon, awaiting the return from Europe of her husband and father of their child, Roman Polanski, would decline an invitation to a small celebratory dinner party, deciding instead to go out for a quick meal at her favorite restaurant, El Coyote, with her friends Jay Sebring (hairdresser to the stars), Wojtek Frykowski (playboy), and Abigail Folger (coffee empire heiress). The group would then return to her home at 10050 Cielo Drive at about 10:30 p.m.

Sometime during the night, Tex Watson, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel and Linda Kasabian (who was earlier introduced to Charles Manson by Beach Boy Dennis Wilson) would drive out to Sharon's estate Kasabian would remain outside the security gate to keep watch.

The three killers scaled the embankment to bypass the locked security gate, and one of them climbed the telephone pole to cut the phone lines and then they headed down the dimly lit driveway towards the house.

As the bloodthirsty killers; Charles Tex Watson, Susan Atkins and Patricia Krenwinkel headed towards the house, the first person they would encounter was Steve Parent, a friend of the housekeeper, who was exiting the property in his car. Watson slashed Parent was slashed with a knife by Watson, who then shot him four times in the chest and abdomen.  It's fairly safe to say that Parent died almost instantly. Unfortunately for him, he was just at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Once they reached the house, they slit a screen and Tex crawled inside after helping the girls to enter the house.

Wojciech Frykowski was asleep on the living room couch. He woke up after hearing Watson whisper to Atkins, after which Watson kicked him in the head. When asked by Frykowski who he was, Watson reportedly replied, “I’m the Devil. And I’m here to do the Devil’s business.” Atkins and Krenwinkel then rounded up the other three victims and brought them to the living room.

Inside they herded all the occupants into the living room and lined them up like a firing line in front of the fireplace. A tussle broke out during which Jay Sebring was shot dead. The other victims then began to struggle and run to escape the killers.

Wojciech Frykowski ran out the front door but was soon caught and subsequently shot twice, stabbed 51 times and was bludgeoned over the head with more than a dozen strikes with a pistol butt. Though he certainly died fairly quickly, he probably suffered greatly before finally succumbing.

Frykowski, whose hands had been bound, was eventually able to free himself. Despite being stabbed in the legs by Atkins, he managed to fight his way past the front door and out onto the porch. Watson then joined the fight, stabbing Frykowski repeatedly, shooting him twice, and striking him over the head so forcefully that he broke the grip of the gun he was using as a club.

Nearby, Folger attempted to flee out the back bedroom door but was caught by Krenwinkel who followed her and tackled her in the lawn. Watson joined the frenzy. By the time she died, Folger had been stabbed 51 times. and left in a white dress that appeared crimson due to the massive loss of her own blood.

Inside the house, Sharon and Jay Sebring were tied together around their necks with a white cord that stretched over a high ceiling beam between them.

Watson shot Jay Sebring after the latter complained of the rough way the pregnant Tate was being abused. Watson subsequently stabbed Sebring seven times and shot him in the face. He died from loss of blood.

Sharon was stabbed sixteen times in the back and chest. As Sharon was being stabbed, she reportedly begged Watson and Atkins  to spare the life of her unborn child who was expected in a month’s time.  But her pleas were met with Atkins’ cold, calloused response as Atkins screamed back to her, “I don't care about you or your baby.”  Sharon Tate was the last victim to die that night.

Scrawled in Sharon's blood on the outside of the front door was the word "pig." An obvious reference to the white establishment that Charles Manson clearly thought was represented by Sharon Tate

Linda Kasabian didn’t enter the property but instead waited near the car to keep watch. She was obviously aware of what was going in the house and the lawn because of the screams of the victims and the gunshots. Kasabian, who had been standing guard down the lane, was drawn to the house by “horrifying sounds.” In an unsuccessful attempt to stop the carnage, she lied to Atkins, saying that she thought someone was coming.

During this horrific slaughter, alone in the caretaker's quarters separate from the main house was William Garretson, the caretaker of the estate who not only failed to hear the screams because of the loud music blaring on his stereo, but was also spared the carnage of that night. Garretson was initially arrested for questioning, but was later released. Garretson had briefly met with Steve Parent to discuss the sale of a radio, before Parent was killed near the security gate as he attempted to exit the property to go home.

The next morning, upon arrival for housecleaning duties, the maid would find the terrifying sight. Dead bodies were strewn about the house and areas of the lawn that was a bloody mess. The police were called and soon after, the entire world heard of the slaughter of the victims in Tate’s and Polanski’s home.

Apparently the Manson family was not done making their ridiculous Helter Skelter statement since the establishment had not yet gone into chaos.

The very next night, August 10^th, Charles Manson himself, accompanied by Watson as well as Krenewenkel and another willing cohort, Leslie Van Houten drove to the Los Feliz home of supermarket executive, Leno and Rosemary LaBianca.   

First Manson and Watson went inside the LaBianca home and tied up the couple with buckskin thongs.

Manson then instructed Watson, Krenwinkel, and Van Houten to go inside the house and kill the couple. They were told to leave something "witchy." Manson, Kasabian, Atkins and Grogan then drove away, and went hunting for another victim.

Watson, Krenwinkel and Van Houten found Rosemary LaBianca in the couple’s master bedroom, to which she had retired but awake while her husband had fallen asleep while reading in the living room.

Van Houten and Krenwinkel tied an electrical cord around the neck of 38-year-old Rosemary LaBianca. While she was lying on her bed, she could hear her husband, Leon sceaming in agony and pleading for his life while being stabbed by Watson in the other room.

Krenwinkel retrieved a knife from the kitchen drawer. She and Van Houten then went into the master bedroom and tied up Mrs. LaBianca with another lamp cord and after she began to scream, they pulled a pillowcase over her head to muffle her screams.

Mrs. LaBianca could hear the screams and struggling of her husband who was being held in the living room as Watson began stabbing him as his victim pleaded for his life.

As Mr. LaBianca was struggling for his life, Van Houten ran to Watson in the other room and when she arrived, Watson told her "to do something." Krenwinkel got a tw0-pronged fork from the kitchen and stabbed Mr. LaBianca in his throat with it.

Once again while wielding the knife, Krenwinkel went into the master bedroom and stabbed Rosemary LaBianca while Van Houten held her down. However, the knife bent and she was unable to actually stab the screaming and struggling woman.

Krenwinkel and Van Houten then called to Watson telling him they needed another knife.  Watson came into the master bedroom with two knives. He gave Van Houten one of them. Van Houten and Watson then proceeded to stab Mrs. LaBianca to death.

Once again, as the night before, messages were left at the scene that seemed to try to explain Charles Manson's prophecy. The words "rise" and "death to pigs" were written in blood on the walls. The words ‘Healter Skelter’ (Krenwenkel's misspelling) were also scrawled on the front of the refrigerator.

Manson later said in a November 1970 interview, ”Helter Skelter means confusion. Literally. It doesn’t mean any war with anyone,” He was right. The two word`s meaning is an archaic term that means "in confused, disorderly haste". The term was used before the 19^th century.

The word "war" was then carved into Leon’s flesh with a knife. When police arrived, the fork was found still protruding from his throat. Rosemary was found in her bedroom with a bloody pillowcase pulled over her head and a lamp cord tied around her throat.

The autopsy of the two victims indicated that some of the 47 stab wounds Rosemary suffered had been inflicted after she was dead. She was stabbed a total of 41 times in the area of her back and buttocks.

The killers then took a break from the carnage the had created in the LaBianca home and ate a snack of milk and sandwiches.  It is unbelievable that they could eat from the same refrigerator which they had just minutes before was soiled the fridgedoor with the blood of their victims. Van Houten cleaned up traces of fingerprints, ate and then the killers changed clothes and they all hitched hiked back to to Spahn's Ranch.

Items taken from the house included a wallet with a credit card that was discarded on Manson's instructions after him telling the others that leaving it where a black person would pick it up and then implicate him or herself in the murders of the LaBiancas by using the credit card, Manson actually had the wallet left in a woman's rest room.  His plan didn’t work.

I want to quote a member of the California Parole Board when she spoke about being murdered with a knife by Charles Watson.  She described it this way—

“You know even the whole physical part of murdering someone with a knife is so awful and painful. A knife slice cuts through the skin, the fascia, the nerve endings, the muscles, the arteries, the internal organs. It’s an awful way to die. It was so up close and personal. When you were holding those people down they were looking in your eyes. They could smell your breath. You could probably smell their fear. There was not only the physical pain of being sliced with a knife over and over, but the mental terror of knowing you were next. Sharon Tate had it about the worst, because she witnessed the majority of the attacks right up close. She saw them stabbing and stabbing with blood spurting out, and screams and calls for God. She must of been completely out of her mind. The brain almost shuts down in a way when people go into shock I can only hope that she didn’t suffer as much because her brain went into shock which is an only a reasonable conclusion. unquote   I couldn’t have described it better.

In the next and final article, I will describe the arrest of these evil killers, their trials and their sentences and then tell my readers what the current status of these five killers are.