Sharon Tate and the Manson Murders

by Greg King

  The comments made headlines across the nation the next day, and the President was roundly criticized for offering this opinion which seemed to ignore the fact that the defendants had not yet been proven guilty. Manson somehow got hold of a copy of the Los Angeles Times whose headline declared the Nixon verdict and flashed it to the jury before being dragged from the courtroom. It nearly caused a mistrial, and each juror had to be individually polled to ensure that it would not influence his or her decision.

  At times, it all seemed to be a game. Paul Fitzgerald commented: “The girls manifest no sense of guilt in prison. They laugh and sing and are generally happy; they drive the matrons crazy. People up on murder charges, especially if they have seven counts like Patricia [Krenwinkel] has, tend to be morose and filled with remorse or foreboding. These girls are not like that. It’s not a put-on. They genuinely do not feel a sense of guilt.”21

  Manson himself created a few headlines during the course of the trial. At one point, after much protesting that he was not being allowed to make any statements in his defense, Judge Older let him speak to the court at length, albeit with the jurors removed from the scene. As he spoke, he turned from a soft-spoken, humble man to an angry, black-eyed criminal, denouncing society and the establishment:

  I never went to school, so I never growed up in the respect to learn to read and write too good, so I have stayed in jail and I have stayed stupid, and I have stayed a child.… I have nothing against none of you. I can’t judge any of you. But I think it is high time that you all started looking at yourselves, and judging the lie that you live in.… Helter Skelter is a nightclub. Helter Skelter means confusion. Literally. It doesn’t mean any war with anyone. It doesn’t mean that those people are going to kill other people. It only means what it means. Helter Skelter is confusion. Confusion is coming down fast. If you don’t see the confusion coming down fast around you, you can call it what you wish. It is not my conspiracy. It is not my music. I hear what it relates. It says, “Rise!” It says, “Kill!” Why blame it on me? I didn’t write the music. I am not the person who projected it into your social consciousness.… To be honest with you, I don’t ever recall saying, “Get a knife and change of clothes and go do what Tex said.” I am not saying that I didn’t say it, but if I said it, at that time, I may have thought it was a good idea. Whether I said it in jest and whether I said it in joking, I can’t recall and reach back into my memory. I could say either way. I could say, “Oh, I was just joking.” Or I could say I was curious.… These children that come at you with knives, they are your own children. You taught them. I didn’t teach them. These children, everything they have done, they have done for love of their brother.… I have killed no one and I have ordered no one to be killed. I don’t place myself in the seat of judgment. I may have implied on several occasions that I may have been Jesus Christ, but I haven’t decided yet who I am or what I am. I was given a name and a number and I was put in a cell, and I have lived in a cell with a name and a number.… You see, you can send me to a penitentiary; it’s not a big thing. I’ve been there all my life anyway. What about your children, just a few, there is many, many more coming in the same direction; they are running in the streets and they are coming right at you!22

  Eventually the frequent disruptions became too much for the court to bear. Manson, although he was allowed to make his long, rambling statement, continually stood up in the middle of a witness’s testimony and began to question the bench. Once, when he did this, Judge Older angrily told him, “If you don’t stop, I will have to have you removed.”

  “I will have to have you removed if you don’t stop!” Manson shot back. “I have a little system of my own!”

  When Older ignored him and turned back to the prosecuting attorney, Manson shouted, “Do you think I’m kidding?”

  “Mr. Manson,” Older finally declared, “I’m going to have you removed if you don’t stop it immediately.”

  In answer to this, Manson simply jumped up, across the defense table, a sharpened pencil in one of his raised hands, and ran toward the bench. A bailiff tackled him to the floor and, with the assistance of some other wardens, handcuffed him and led him from the court as a shaken Older looked on. As Manson was led from the courtroom, he snarled, “In the name of Christian justice, someone should cut off your head!”23 Eventually, the behavior of both Manson and the female defendants was such that Older barred them from the courtroom during the remainder of the guilt phase of the trial.

  Finally, after nearly four months of testimony, Vincent Bugliosi drew the State’s case to a close on November 16, 1970, and rested the prosecution. The following day was day one-hundred fifty-eight in the trial. At first, as the court convened that day, the collective defense argued that all charges against their clients be dropped. When Older refused this request, Paul Fitzgerald, speaking on behalf of the other attorneys, rose and said simply, “The defense rests.”24

  The decision to offer no defense was not only a recognition of the lack of a cohesive strategy but also an acknowledgment that everyone thought the case was lost. Older called all the attorneys into his chambers to discuss the move, but the defense, other than making a few selected statements to the jury, would not be pushed. Older realized the potential ground being laid for an appeal based on inadequate defense, and did all in his power to thwart the measure. In the end, however, no defense strategy was formed, and there was nothing left to do but sum up the case.

  Bugliosi began his summation on January 13, 1971. It was a moment of intense, effective theatre. “Charles Manson is not a defendant in this trial,” he observed, “because he is some long-haired vagabond who made love to young girls and was a virulent dissenter. He is on trial because he is a vicious, diabolical murderer who gave the order that caused seven human beings to end up in the cold earth. That is why he is on trial.” After running through the lengthy list of evidence and witnesses to support his case, he began to wind up his case in dramatic fashion:

  On the hot summer night of August 8, 1969, Charles Manson, the Mephistophelean gum who raped and bastardized the minds of all those who gave themselves so totally to him, sent out from the fires of hell at Spahn Ranch three heartless, bloodthirsty robots and—unfortunately for him—one human being, the little hippie girl Linda Kasabian. The photographs of the victims show how very well Watson, Atkins, and Krenwinkel carried out their master Charles Manson’s mission of murder.… What resulted was perhaps the most inhuman, nightmarish, horror-filled hour of savage murder and human slaughter in the recorded annals of crime. As the helpless victims begged and screamed out into the night for their lives, their lives, their lifeblood gushed out of their bodies, forming rivers of gore. If they could have, I am sure Watson, Atkins and Krenwinkel would gladly have swum in that river of blood, and with orgasmic ecstasy on their faces. Susan Atkins, the vampira, actually tasted Sharon Tate’s blood.… The very next night, Leslie Van Houten joined the group of murderers, and it was poor Leno and Rosemary LaBianca who were brutally butchered to death to satisfy Charles Manson’s homicidal madness.… Ladies and gentlemen of the jury … Sharon Tate Polanski … Abigail Folger … Voyteck Frykowski … Jay Sebring … Steven Parent … Leno LaBianca … and Rosemary LaBianca … are not here with us now in this courtroom, but from their graves they cry out for justice! Justice can only be served by coming back to this courtroom with a verdict of guilty.25

  Monday, January 25, 1971 was the day after what would have been Sharon’s twenty-eighth birthday and ironically her parents 29th wedding anniversary. On this day, the courtroom was packed, the press on the edges of their seats, the defendants looking uninterested, the spectators silent. Word had come back that the jury had reached their verdicts. As the jurors filed into the room and took their seats, there was little doubt as to what their decision would be. Nevertheless, when the foreman handed the verdicts to the clerk to read, the sense of anticipation was real.

  The first charge was the death of Abigail Folger; Sharon and the other victi
ms were listed alphabetically. Each of the defendants was also listed in the different charges of murder. The clerk grimly announced, “We, the jury in the above suited action find the defendant, Charles Manson, guilty of the crime of murder, in violation of the penal code 187, a felony, and we further find it to be murder in the first degree.”26

  On and on the list went, Manson guilty of the deaths of all seven victims in the first degree and of conspiracy to commit murder; Susan Atkins, guilty of seven counts of murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder; Patricia Krenwinkel, guilty of seven counts of murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder; and Leslie Van Houten, guilty of two counts of murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder. The defendants were led from the courtroom, Manson shouting at the top of his lungs at Older, “You’re all guilty! We weren’t allowed to put on a defense, old man! And you won’t forget it for a long time!”27

  The sense of relief was palpable. For over seventeen months, Paul and Doris Tate had awaited justice for the murder of their daughter and unborn grandson. Amidst the media celebration of Manson and his murderous band of followers, Sharon and the other victims had been all but forgotten. The guilty verdicts, recalled Doris Tate, were “handed down on our [wedding] anniversary like a gift.”28 “For the first time,” she later said, “I slept in peace that night.”29

  The first phase of the trials was over. The defendants’ guilt had been proven. Now came the penalty phase, with Bugliosi seeking the death penalty in all cases. This was a relatively short process compared to the actual prosecution of the case. The girls took the stand, and each testified that she felt no remorse or guilt for the murders. It did not take the jury long to reach a decision. On Monday, March 29, they announced that the penalty for all defendants had been set at death. Manson and the female defendants, with shaved heads and large Xs carved into their foreheads, responded by shouting at Judge Older and the jury. “Better lock your doors and watch your own kids!” Atkins warned before being led from the court.30

  “I hope this verdict will be a lesson to the young people of this country that you just can’t go into a person’s house and butcher them up,” said Juror Marie Mesmer. Seventy-four-year-old retired deputy sheriff Juror Alva Dawson told reporters: “I just hope this will teach all these other young people not to make trouble, not to go out and kill people.” Jury Foreman Herman C. Tubick added that the death sentences were “retribution” for the crimes, and that he would be disappointed if they were not carried out.31

  Even this was not the end. Charles “Tex” Watson had resisted extradition so that he could stand trial separately. He sat in jail in the Collin County Sheriff’s Office in Texas, provided with a TV, radio, record player, a cooler, and food provided by his mother who also did his laundry.32 He was finally extradited to California in September, 1970, too late to be included with the other defendent in their trial. Instead, Watson stood trial alone.

  At first, it seemed that Watson’s defense would portray him as a clean-cut, all-American boy, who had been influenced through drugs and Charles Manson to commit unspeakable crimes which never would have come about otherwise. When it appeared that this would not work, Watson suddenly regressed, perhaps in genuine shock, perhaps in an effort to simulate insanity. His weight dropped dramatically and at one point he had to be fed by tubes inserted through his nose. “These physical symptoms Tex experienced were, in part, a reaction to the stress he was experiencing,” writes psychiatrist Ronald Markman, who examined Watson at the court’s order. “I suggested that he was also exaggerating in order to develop a psychiatric defense.”33

  Watson was examined by nearly a dozen psychiatrists. “When asked what should be done with him,” noted Dr. John M. Suarez, “he at first considered that he should be killed for what he has done, but then alluded to the fact that the killings had really been done not by himself. In other words, he says that his body had carried out the deeds but that he had not been a person at that time.”34 In discussing the actual crimes with Dr. Ira Frank, he declared: “I had no feelings then or now. It doesn’t affect me, although I can see how others can feel it is wrong.”35

  Watson was eventually confined at the Atascadero State Hospital for psychiatric observation, where, in the opinion of those in charge, he tried to “feign amnesia.”36 He conveniently claimed to have forgotten most of the details of the murder nights and insisted that the girls had been in charge. “He indicates that the girls gave him a wire cutter and told him to cut all the telephone wires,” noted Dr. Vernon Bohr. “He attempted to climb up the fence but because of intoxication, he fell backwards. However, they aided him in pushing him up onto the fence. At that time a car was coming out. One of the girls said, ‘Get it’.… He states: ‘When the girls said to do something, I would do it. They would call me from one person to another. I would start stabbing. I didn’t have any control.’”37

  “He was very sensitive to discussion of the act of killing,” writes Dr. Markman, “and became angry when pushed to talk about it. ‘I could kill you easily,’ he once retorted to an examiner.”38 Another report, by Dr. Keith Ditman, declared that, while he spoke of his crimes, “This is not to say he did not evade somewhat, talking of intimate personal details, and of attempting to avoid accepting responsibility and blame for the crimes in question. I felt he consciously and unconsciously attempted to present himself as a ‘good boy,’ who had fallen into evil hands, been duped and taken advantage of by Manson.”39

  On 10 May, 1971, Watson pled not guilty by reason of insanity before Superior Court Judge Adolph Alexander. His trial began on 2 August, 1971, two years to the week of Sharon’s murder. Vincent Bugliosi and Stephen Kay again acted as prosecutors. Watson’s trial was largely a rehash of the Manson proceedings: Sharon’s father was again called as one of the first witnesses. Kasabian again appeared to give her description of the two fatal nights. Paul Tate and Steven Parent’s father Wilfred were the first witnesses. The most notable difference, however, was that, unlike Manson and the female defendants, Watson took the stand in his own defense.

  On the stand, Watson clung to his defense that he had been a mindless zombie, under Manson’s total control. “I had no feelings,” he told one psychiatrist. “I did exactly what I was told. No more than I was told.”40 Bugliosi carefully destroyed this defense, showing that Watson had been perfectly willing to commit the killings; that he had been involved with drugs prior to meeting Manson; and that he had left the Family after the murders of his own accord, not on Manson’s instructions. Although Watson tried to later claim that he had been suffering from paranoid schizophrenia at the time, on the stand, he had enough self-possession to lie about his participation in the crimes, and hide certain details which would further implicate his guilt.41

  On 12 October, 1971, Watson was found guilty on seven counts of murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder. The question of his sanity was addressed by Dr. Joel Fort, who reported: “I conclude he was sane at the time of the offenses. In knowing what he was doing and understanding that society considers it wrong to kill. Although his specific and general behavior and life style are not such that they would be considered normal, mature, or healthy in terms of psychiatric standards, Watson probably had no mental illness at the time of the crimes that would prevent him from forming a specific intent to perform murder. He demonstrated the mental capacity to deliberate, to premeditate, to hyper-malice and to meaningfully reflect upon the gravity of his actions to the extent that he knew what the result would be for his victims, and what it could be for himself if caught. The killings showed malice aforethought in that the defendant showed an intention to kill his victims and this intention preceded the act of killing.”42 Jurors took only two-and-a-half hours to weigh the psychological evidence and find Watson sane. Two days later, on 21 October, 1971, he was sentenced to death.

  The trials were over; justice had been served. The judgments brought an end to the reign of the notorious Manson Family, as well as a sense of grim sati
sfaction. The death penalty verdicts promised closure. Sharon’s father Paul told a reporter after they had been delivered: “That’s what we wanted. That’s what we expected. But there’s no jubilation in something like this, no sense of satisfaction. It’s more a feeling that justice has been done. Naturally I wanted the death penalty. They took my daughter and my grandchild.”43

  Chapter 35

  The End of the Manson Family

  The ultimate fates of the Manson Family have yet to be completely played out. Although Manson, Watson, Atkins, Krenwinkel, Van Houten, Beausoleil and Davis were all found guilty and condemned to death, the United States Supreme Court voted in February 1972 to abolish capital punishment. The convicted killers were thus spared the gas chamber.

  Immediately after the Tate-LaBianca verdicts, Manson, Bruce Davis and Steve Grogan were tried for the murder of ranch hand Donald Jerome “Shorty” Shea. All three were found guilty of first degree murder, and sentenced to death. After reviewing his psychiatric evaluations, however, the presiding judge reduced Grogan’s sentence owing to his admittedly diminished mental capacity. Charles “Tex” Watson, who had also assisted in Shea’s murder, was never tried for his participation.