Crime
By Joal Ryan
/ CBS News
In the United States, the summer of 1969 was highlighted by the Apollo 11 moon landing, marked by the "peace and music" festival Woodstock -- and marred by a gruesome killing spree that claimed the lives of actress Sharon Tate and eight others, if not more.
At the center of this maelstrom was Charles Manson, a cult leader to a group of disaffected young people. Here's a timeline of the terror inflicted by Manson and his "family" -- a crime re-imagined in the Quentin Tarantino film, "Once Upon A Time in Hollywood."
Fateful move
In February 1969, a pregnant Sharon Tate and her husband, director Roman Polanski, rent a house in Los Angeles' Benedict Canyon, at 10050 Cielo Drive.
Chance meeting
In March 1969, a "creepy-looking guy," as Tate would put it, shows up at 10050 Cielo Drive looking for the home's previous occupant, record producer Terry Melcher. The man is Charles Manson.
Dreams of fame
Around this time, Manson, seen in a 1968 mugshot, is a near-lifelong inmate and frustrated musician who'd partied with the Beach Boys' Dennis Wilson -- and feels spurned by Terry Melcher.
Music man
Terry Melcher, the son of movie star Doris Day, comes into Manson's orbit via Dennis Wilson. He gives Manson's music a listen, but passes on getting involved with the ex-con.
Ghost town
Rejected in Los Angeles proper, the itinerant Manson becomes a self-styled guru who lives with his followers at Spahn Ranch, a 500-acre property and sometime movie set location on the northern edge of L.A. County.
Deep cuts
Manson becomes consumed with the Beatles' "White Album," released on Nov. 22, 1968, the fifth anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy. The 30-track collection includes "Piggies" and "Helter Skelter."
Turning point
In July 1969, Manson seemingly transfers his ire to another L.A. musician, Gary Hinman. Manson will be found guilty of ordering his followers, including Robert "Bobby" Beausoleil, pictured in 1970, to kill Hinman.
The family's first
Manson Family members Robert Beausoleil, 21, pictured, Bruce Davis, 26, and Susan Atkins, 21, torture and kill Gary Hinman in the musician's Topanga, California, home. At the crime scene, the words "political piggy" are scrawled on the wall in Hinman's blood. Beausoleil is busted after being found asleep in Hinman's stolen car. His booking date: Aug. 7, 1969.
Heating up
Los Angeles swelters in a summer of '69 heat wave. Making matters steamier, the forecast for Aug. 8, 1969, a Friday, calls for clouds.
Night out
Jay Sebring is a star hair stylist and former flame of Sharon Tate who remains friendly with the actress and Polanski. On Aug. 8, 1969, he meets Tate at 10050 Cielo Drive, and makes dinner plans for himself, Tate and her house guests, Abigail Folger and her boyfriend, Voytek Frykowski.
Last meal
On Aug. 8, 1969, Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger and Voytek Frykowski dine at the L.A. landmark El Coyote. The group leaves the restaurant around 10 p.m., and departs for 10050 Cielo Drive.
Warped vision
Obsessed with the notion that white Americans will be overthrown by black Americans, Manson initiates "Helter Skelter," a convoluted, twisted plan to kick-start a race war by causing mayhem. On Aug. 8, 1969, he orders a pack of his followers to go to Terry Melcher's old house -- and kill everyone inside.
The day after
On Aug. 9, 1969, housekeeper Winifred Chapman reports to work at 10050 Cielo Drive. She finds a gruesome scene.
Crime scene
After Winifred Chapman alerts neighbors, police arrive at 10050 Cielo Drive. Three bodies are found outside (one body can be seen, covered up, on the lawn); two bodies are found inside. In an echo of the Gary Hinman case, the word "pig" is written in blood on the front door.
Wrong place, wrong time
Police stand near the AMC Rambler containing the body of Steven Parent, who worked at a stereo shop. The 18-year-old had driven to 10050 Cielo Drive on Aug. 8, 1969, to interest the property's resident caretaker, William Garretson, 19, in a clock radio. Authorities conclude Parent was departing the property as the killers were arriving. He was shot four times.
Crime-scene investigation
The shrouded bodies of Abigail Folger and Voytek Frykowski are looked over by Los Angeles County medical examiners. Folger, two days shy of her 26th birthday, was beaten and stabbed 28 times. Frykowski, 32, was beaten, shot twice and stabbed 51 times.
The damage done
The body of Sharon Tate is removed from 10050 Cielo Drive. The actress had been found in her living room along with Jay Sebring, who is also dead. Tate and Sebring had been yolked together at their necks with a rope.
Grisly details
The Los Angeles County coroner's office run by Dr. Thomas Nogouchi, right, determines that Sebring was shot and stabbed 7 times, and that the 8-months-pregnant Tate was stabbed 16 times.
Innocent man
William Garretson, the caretaker, and the only survivor at 10050 Cielo Drive, is taken into custody, and named the prime suspect in the Tate slayings. But he'll pass a lie-detector test and be released -- because he didn't do it.
"The devil"
Charles "Tex" Watson, 21, is one of the Manson Family members sent to 10050 Cielo Drive. He cuts the telephone wires, shoots Steven Parent, shoots and stabs Jay Sebring, stabs Abigail Folger, stabs Voytek Frykowski, and ties up Sebring and Sharon Tate. "I'm the devil," he reportedly tells Frykowski.
Heartless
Susan Atkins, seen being led to jail in 1969, is the killer who plunges the knife into Sharon Tate, and the Manson Family member who writes "pig" -- in Tate's blood -- on the door. She'll brag to future cellmates that Tate begged for the life of her unborn child.
Killer
The 21-year-old Patricia Krenwinkle, pictured, at left, in 1970, assists Tex Watson in wrangling the victims at 10050 Cielo Drive. She pursues and stabs Abigail Folger as the woman tries to flee the slaughter.
Front-page news
Arrests in the Sharon Tate case won't be made for months. In the immediate aftermath, the press focuses on the bizarre, gruesome crime-scene details.
False lead
A popular thread at the time is that the Sharon Tate slaying is somehow connected to the dark, occult visions of her husband Roman Polanski's films, including the 1968 hit, "Rosemary's Baby."
Stricken
Roman Polanski, right, prepares to fly back to Los Angeles from London on Aug. 10, 1969. He was in Europe working on a film at the time of his wife's slaying.
Another day, another crime scene
A police officer keeps watch outside 3301 Waverly Drive in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Los Feliz. It's Aug. 10, 1969. Inside are the bodies of Leno LaBianca, 44, and his wife, Rosemary LaBianca, 38. They are the latest victims of the Manson Family's rampage.
Sad discovery
Frank Struthers Jr., the 14-year-old son of Rosemary LaBianca, is pictured being helped to a car by his father, Frank Struthers. The younger Struthers found his mother and stepfather stabbed in their Waverly Drive home.
No mercy
Along with Tex Watson and Susan Atkins, Leslie Van Houten, seen being led to jail in 1969, is a member of the Manson kill team at the LaBianca house. After Rosemary LaBianca is stabbed repeatedly by Tex Watson, Van Houten stabs the woman 14 more times.
Follow the leader
Manson, seen in 1969, ordered the Waverly Drive killings because he felt the Tate slayings had proved too disorderly. This time, he primed the scene himself by helping tie up the victims before leaving for another potential (and eventually aborted) kill scene in Venice, California.
Star witness
Manson Family member Linda Kasabian stays in the car at Cielo Drive, and drives off with Manson and others before the Waverly Drive killings. She will be granted immunity from prosecution for her testimony at the Manson Family murder trials.
Mourners
Roman Polanski is seen alongside Sharon Tate's mother, Doris Tate, and one of Sharon Tate's sisters at the Aug. 13, 1969 funeral for the actress.
Two victims
The grave marker for Sharon Tate at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California, memorializes both the actress and the son she and Polanski never met.
Not over
Not long after the Tate and LaBianca killings, Spahn Ranch is raided, but police are looking for stolen dune buggies, not murderers. Still, Manson is unhappy, and he orders the killing of ranch hand Donald "Shorty" Shea.
In custody
Donald "Shorty" Shea, 35, is believed to have been beaten and stabbed to death on Aug. 25, 1969. Though his body isn't found for nearly a decade, prosecutors use witness testimony, including that of Manson Family member Barbara Hoyt, to win convictions of Manson and two followers, Steve "Clem" Grogan, left, and Bruce Davis, right, in the early 1970s. Davis is also convicted in the Hinman case.
Endgame
Authorities link the Manson Family to the Tate and LaBianca cases largely thanks to one of its own, Susan Atkins, who, while in custody for the Hinman killing, tells her cellmates about the Family's murderous exploits. The first indictments are handed down in December 1969.
Nowhere to run
In the fall of 1969, Charles "Tex" Watson leaves Spahn Ranch for his native Texas, but after a protracted extradition fight he's returned to California to stand trial. In 1971, he's convicted of the murders of Sharon Tate, Steven Parent, Abigail Folger, VoytekFrykowski, Jay Sebring, Leno LaBianca and Rosemary LaBianca.
Laughing at death
Susan Atkins, left, Patricia Krenwinkel, center, and Leslie Van Houten, right, emerge from court in 1971 after receiving death sentences for their convictions in the Tate and LaBianca murders.
Ringleader
In 1971, Manson, a swastika carved into his forehead, is convicted of murder in the deaths of nine people -- all the victims in the Tate and LaBianca cases, plus Gary Hinman and Donald "Shorty" Shea.
Behind bars
In 1972, all death-row sentences in California, including the Manson Family's, are commuted to life sentences, per a state supreme court ruling. Manson, seen here in 1980, dies an inmate (but at a civilian hospital) in 2017.
Prosecutor
Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Vincent Bugliosi, center, prosecutes the Manson Family members for the Tate and LaBianca killings, and reveals all the terrifying details in his landmark 1974 true-crime book, "Helter Skelter."
Reminders of long-ago crimes
These mannequins, used by the prosecution in the Manson Family murder trials, are seen in a Los Angeles evidence vault in 2017.
Mystery death?
During a break in the Manson Family trial, Manson defense attorney Ronald Hughes, left, goes on a camping trip -- and never returns. His body is found months later. In "Helter Skelter," Bugliosi espouses the theory that Hughes was killed by members of the Manson Family: "the first of the retaliation murders."
Dark fame
After his and his followers' summer of '69 rampage, Manson, denied fame as a rock star, finds infamy as one of the world's most notorious killers.
