 |
 |
| Case file: Charles Manson On August 10, 1969, officers from the Los Angeles Police Department were summoned to the home of famous film director Roman Polanski and his actress wife, Sharon Tate. They found the bloodied bodies of three men and two women, one of them Tate. Apart from one man, all the vicitms had multiple stab wounds; all the men had been shot. On the front door, the word "PIG" had been daubed in blood. Investigators also discovered a broken pistol grip and unusual clasp knife. Robbery clearly had not been the motive for the crime, since no valuable items were stolen, and detectives concluded that the bloobath had resulted from a drug deal that had gone wrong. Polanski, who was in Europe at the time of killings, was devastated. Similarities were drawn with two other recent murder cases, which also involved multiple stabbings and words written in blood at the scene. The L.A. Sheriff's Office already had a man and a woman in custody for one of the crimes, Bobby Beausoleil and Susan Atkins, who were both members of a hippy group headed by Charles Manson. While awaiting trial, Atkins had told other prisoners that she and members of Manson's group had carried out the murders at Polanski's house, and that they had plans for undertakings further high-profile killings. Meanwhile, a long-barreled revolver with a broken grip had been found and handed to the police. Members of Manson's group confirmed that it had been used at the ranch where they lived, and bullets were discovered there that matched those recovered from the bodies. It turned out that the murders had been part of Manson's plan to spark a race war that he hoped would lead to a breakdown in society, allowing his group to take over. Although Manson was present at only one of the murder scenes, the prosecution convinced the jury that all the crimes had been carried out on his orders. He and eight of his followers are serving life sentences. |
| Back to Crime Page > |
 |