by Greg King
In the early 1990s, the music industry’s fascination with Manson achieved a new prominence. In September of 1988, Rudolph Altobelli sold the estate at 10050 Cielo Drive where Sharon had been murdered for $1,999,000. Ironically, the agent assigned to the sale was twenty-four-year-old Adam Jakobson, son of Manson Family associate Gregg Jakobson.
After the murders, security around the estate had been reinforced. A new gate was placed across the driveway, video cameras set up, and the number of the property changed from 10050 to 10066 Cielo Drive in an attempt to throw curious tourists off-track. Following the twentieth anniversary of the murders in 1989, when television crews crowded the end of the cul-de-sac, the new owner erected a ten foot high batten-board fence and gate, cutting off all views of the property from the end of the roadway.
The house was often leased on a short-term basis. One of the tenants was Trent Reznor, lead singer for the industrial rock group Nine Inch Nails. Reznor later claimed that he had not known it was the Tate house until he moved in. “It’s a coincidence,” he explained. “When I found out what it was, it was even cooler. But it’s a cool house anyway and on top of that has a very interesting story behind it. The whole thing about living here, I didn’t even think of. I didn’t go on a press campaign saying, ‘I live in Sharon Tate’s house, and I’m really spooky.’”14
Reznor turned the living room of the main house into a studio which he dubbed “Le Pig.” Here, in the same room in which Sharon had been killed, he recorded songs for his album The Downward Spiral, including “Piggy” and “March of the Pigs.” Brian Warner, the recording artist known as Marilyn Manson, also used “Le Pig” to work on his first album. “If you thought about what happened there,” Warner said, “it was disturbing late at night, but it wasn’t exactly a haunted house. No rattling chains or anything, but it did bring across some darkness on the record.”15
At the time of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the crimes, a new furor erupted involving Manson’s music and folk-hero status. Rock band Guns N’ Roses, led by singer Axel Rose, released their album called The Spaghetti Incident? which included a cover of Manson’s song, “Look at Your Game, Girl.” During their tour in support of the album, Rose often sported shirts from Zooport Riot Gear of Newport Beach, California which featured Manson’s face and slogans such as “Charlie Don’t Surf,” and “Support Family Values.” Rose’s promotion of the shirts made them popular items, and the Lemmons Brothers, who owned Zooport, reportedly sold over 50,000. Manson had himself agreed to the promotion: “I Charles Manson, grant permission for my likeness to be used on a T-shirt created by Dan Lemmons,” read his hand-written contract. “I agree to accept the .10 cents/T-shirt royalty to be paid to me on a quarterly basis.” At the bottom, Manson added: “I don’t know about stuff like this, you take care of this.”16 The brothers, in turn, dispatched $600 in royalties to Manson in prison.17
Word of this financial windfall came as the public learned that Manson himself was set to earn $62,000 in royalties for every million copies sold of The Spaghetti Incident?18 In 1971, Voyteck Frykowski’s son Bartek had brought a civil suit against Manson, Watson, Atkins and Krenwinkel; he was awarded a $500,000 Federal Court judgment against the Manson Family, which, with interest, had grown to $1.5 million by 1994.
Bartek Frykowski was the only victims’ relative to have renewed his civil judgment. He finished film school in Lodz, Poland, was living with his wife and two children when his lawyer in Los Angeles, Nathaniel Freidman, informed him of the Guns N’ Roses controversy. Now, Freidman petitioned to have these proceeds diverted from Manson to help pay the award. “Manson ruined my life,” Bartek said. “He has to pay for that.”19
The Lemmons Brothers, who declared themselves to be fundamentalist Christians, refused. “Why should we give money to a drug dealer’s son?” Dan Lemmons said. Instead, he announced that they would donate the money to the anti-abortion organization Operation Rescue.20 Eventually, Bartek Frykowski, living in Germany, received a check for $72,000—money derived from the Guns N’ Roses royalties.21
The media attention and controversy outraged Patti Tate. She instituted a boycott against Geffen Records, Guns N’ Roses recording company, claiming that they were “putting Manson up on a pedestal for young people who don’t know who he is to worship like an idol.”22
Ed Rosenblatt, President of Geffen Records, responded to her public criticism by saying he “would have preferred that the song wasn’t on the album, but given our belief in freedom of speech as well as the clear restraints of our legal agreements with the band, it is not our decision to make. That decision belongs solely to Guns N’Roses. We genuinely regret the distress the situation has caused.”23
Patti eventually had a private meeting with Geffen executives in December, 1993. “Nothing came out of it,” she said, “but it was necessary for me to sit down with them, face to face, and ask them, ‘Do you realize what you are creating here?’ This isn’t about whether or not Manson is making money.… This is about Manson still profiting by becoming a cult hero, an idol to a lot of young kids out there who will buy the album.… I needed to touch them with my story, with my sister’s story, with her memory.”24
Epilogue
On September 26, 1970, the rambling collection of false fronts, movie sets and outbuildings which comprised Spahn Ranch burned to the ground in a mysterious fire. By the following day, when the fires died down, all that remained was the property itself, a barren wasteland littered with the rusting bodies of automobiles stolen and then stripped by the Family. It was, in many ways, a fitting end to the grim place from which Manson had dispatched his legion of killers on their hellish missions of murder.
There are few reminders of those momentous events in the summer of 1969. In Death Valley, Barker Ranch remains much the same as it was when Manson and his Family were captured during the raid of October, 1969; a guestbook, left for the curious to sign, is filled with the thoughts of visitors. “It is always good to have places like this to remind us of what horror goes on in the world,” wrote a visitor from Vancouver, Canada in the spring of 1999. “But we should use this piece of history to remind us of what has happened in the past so it doesn’t happen again. It saddens me to read messages that give sympathy to Manson’s life. If we sympathize with him, that only makes us just as bad. Let’s stop the madness.”1 The famous Manson Family bus has disintegrated with the passage of time, the rusting skeleton of its frame lying in the barren desert the only evidence of its existence. The adjacent Myers Ranch, where the Family also stayed, recently burned to the ground, victim of suspected arson.
The house at 10050 Cielo Drive, after a number of temporary tenants, was finally torn down in 1993. The new owner, weary of the ever-present stream of curious tourists and macabre interest, had the house razed; in its place, he erected an enormous Mediterranean-style mansion, perched atop a wide crescent of concrete. It is the largest house in Benedict Canyon, visible for miles.
Across Los Angeles, only the LaBianca house remains much as it was the night of the murders. A number of changes through the years have transformed the once-sloped green lawn at the front of the house into an underground garage and series of terraces, but the residence itself has been left alone. Until recently, it was owned by a lady from the Philippines, who took great pride in the house’s grim history.
Only fragments, too, remain of Manson’s Family. Although hardcore members of the Family were locked away, for a time it continued to flourish, directed in exile by two of Manson’s most vehement followers, Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme and Sandra Good, christened “Red” and “Blue,” respectively, by Manson himself. Fromme, who had always seemed a more intelligent, gentle member of the Family, achieved her own notoriety on 5 September, 1975, when, dressed in a long red cape, she aimed a gun at President Gerald Ford during a visit to Sacramento.
Had she wished to do so, Fromme could most likely have assassinated the President; while her action was almost certainly no more than a publicity stun
t to draw attention to Manson, she nevertheless received a life sentence without parole on 19 December, 1975.
Fromme disappeared from the headlines for many years, but, on 23 December, 1987, she managed to escape from the Federal Penitentary at Alderson, West Virginia, where she had been incarcerated. Hearing erroneous rumors that Manson was suffering from cancer, she wanted to be near him. Two days later, she was discovered hiding in the woods near the prison, and was transferred to a more secure facility in Kentucky.
Fromme was the subject of a recent biography by author Jess Bravin. In a letter to Judge Thomas MacBride, who had presided at her 1975 trial for attempting to assassinate President Gerald Ford, she wrote: “I did not contribute to this book; while I can’t complain that Bravin was out to get me, some of those interviewed for the book gave distorted or fictitious stories.”2 “I’ve never published a book,” Fromme added in a 1998 letter. “Thought the trees were worth more, but I’ve also long considered it.”3
A week after Fromme’s encounter with President Ford in 1975, Sandra Good released a list of government officials and business executives who she declared were enemies of the earth. If they continued to pollute the environment, she warned, they would die. For this thinly-veiled threat, she was put on trial, and found guilty of “conspiring to commit offenses against the United States by causing to be delivered by the Postal Service according to the directions thereon, letters addressed to persons, containing threats to injure the person, addressee, and others.” Having served a ten year sentence, she was released in 1985.
Good remained Manson’s most vocal proponent, residing in California and supervising Manson’s official website, ATWA, an acronym for Air, Trees, Water and Animals. As author Bill Nelson has pointed out, it is one of the great ironies that the same forces behind the promotion of Manson’s ecological vision were the very people who left the areas round the Spahn, Barker and Myers Ranches littered with old car parts, beer bottles and debris from their tenure.4
The website seemed to focus on winning Manson’s freedom, contending that he was denied proper legal representation. The thirtieth anniversary of the crimes, however, did not go unnoticed. “We are not going to participate in the media’s 30th anniversary celebration of the murders,” the site announced. The same article, presumably with the full approval of both Good and Manson, went on to declare “it is true that we do not have sympathy for the victims of these murders.”5 Such a stunning admission, however, is in character for Good. “It’s like a soldier’s reality,” she has said of the murders. “If these people in Hollywood have to go, so be it. That made sense to me, and that made sense to all of us. In war, sometimes killing is needed.”6 She remains defiant, Manson’s “Blue,” unwavering in her devotion.
The reach of the Family continues to be felt. There have been several searches for bodies believed to be buried at Barker Ranch in Death Valley. In 1969, Susan Atkins bragged that the Family had murdered several people at Barker Ranch and buried their remains there. One of those allegedly privy to the intimate details was Larry Melton, known in the Family as White Rabbit. In 1998, Inyo County District Attorney Phil McDowell offered Melton the following immunity agreement in exchange for information: “I, Larry Allen Melton, also known as White Rabbit, agree to fully cooperate with the Inyo County District Attorney’s Office in the investigation of a homicide case involving the death of two adult males and one minor female occurring on or about October 6, 1969, at Barker Ranch in the Panamint Range in the County of Inyo, State of California.”7 The search party was unable to locate any bodies, however, and it remains but one of many open questions which surround the murderous activities of the Family.
Of the others involved in the Family, Barbara Hoyt, who was fed an LSD-laced hamburger during the Tate-LaBianca trials in an attempt to prevent her testimony, lived in Death Valley where she maintained friendships with Paul Watkins, Juan Flynn, Brook Poston, and Paul Crockett. She has since moved away from California and has a successful career. Most of the former members of the Manson Family are now widely scattered: Dianne Lake, Danny De Carlo and Kitty Lutesinger, Bobby Beausoleil’s former girlfriend, all reside in California; Nancy Pitman relocated to the Pacific Northwest; Catherine Share lives in Texas; and Mary Brunner returned to her native Wisconsin.
Linda Kasabian disappeared into obscurity, living under an assumed name near Tacoma, Washington. Bugliosi’s star witness has not had an easy life. A car accident left her with chronic leg and back pain, and made viable employment difficult; she had no resources, no bank account and no marketable job skills. According to a report filed with Pierce County officials, Kasabian, in her own words, “survives however she can.” The court eventually found her indigent.8
On 24 October, 1996, members of the Tacoma, Washington Police Department served a search warrant on the apartment owned by Kasabian’s second daughter Quanau, known to the authorities as “Lady Dangerous.” Kasabian, as well as her two grandchildren, were present when the police arrived. Their report stated: “In the master bedroom (defendant’s bedroom) officers located a small baggie containing suspected rock cocaine and a large bundle of cash in a dresser drawer. On top of the dresser was a box of baggies. Also in the room officers located a .45 caliber semi-automatic handgun, ammunition, electronic scales, a plate with cocaine residue, and another bundle of cash. In a hall closest officers located an A-l Army Rifle. In the children’s closet officers found a loaded 30–30 Remington rifle. Officers also searched Kasabian’s purse and located a small amount of suspected methamphetamine. In the defendant’s vehicle officers located five bags of suspected rock cocaine (43 grams total) and a baggie of powder cocaine (30 grams). The suspected cocaine and methamphetamine field-tested positive.”9
Kasabian’s daughter Quanau, found guilty of possession of controlled substances, was sentenced to a year in state prison. Kasabian, in possession of methamphetamine, was allowed to plea a reduction of her sentence and attended drug counseling classes rather than serve time. Neither the members of the Tacoma Police Department nor the Prosecuting Attorney for Pierce County had any idea that, nearly thirty years earlier, their suspect had, for a time, been one of the most notorious women in America.
For those incarcerated members of the Family, December, 1996 saw the end of conjugal visits, a measure which Doris Tate had long worked to pass. She was enraged that Charles Watson, the man who had slain her daughter and unborn grandson, had himself become the father of four children while in prison. “It’s unbelievable,” she said. “That man should never have been allowed to have any children. He gave up his right to have a family when he took Sharon’s away from her. If they want to have sex in prison, fine—make them get vasectomies. No child should have to suffer through knowing that their father is in prison for murdering eight people.”10
In subtle ways, the work which Doris undertook, and the appearances Patti continued to make at parole hearings, seem to have inspired and strengthened the determination of other victims’ families. In 1994, Alice LaBianca, Leno LaBianca’s first wife and mother to his three children, published a novel about their life together, No More Tomorrows. “We have nine grandchildren,” she says, “and none of them knew their grandfather. I wrote the book for them. I wanted to concentrate on Leno as I knew him, and not on the murders.”11
“For twenty-five years,” Alice said in 1994, “we’ve been subjected to this, and we have nine grandchildren, and they’re subjected to it. It’s been a devastating thing, and it goes on, and on, and on. And it’s as if Manson’s some sort of celebrity himself, a god or something, that everyone is so thrilled with what he has to say.”12
In 1998, Alice became the first member of the LaBianca Family to present a formal objection to the parole of Leslie Van Houten. She did so in the form of a letter, written on behalf of her entire family:
“Manson and his minions thrust our family name into public focus when they murdered Sharon Tate and her house guests one night, then they killed my former husband and his wife
in the most brutal manner the next night. Their shocking criminal actions became known as the Tate-LaBianca murders. We lost out privacy and our obscurity.
“My Family never became vocal, we did not become activists, we relied on the justice system to seek and find the justice that was due us. We have never been asked by the District Attorney’s Office to participate in opposing the release of any of the killers. After all, they all received the death penalty, and that was all our family could expect.
“But we can no longer remain silent. Let me preface my remarks with this statement. We do not desire to become activists. We do not desire to be bombarded by the media and have our privacy destroyed. Yet we must make a statement about the parole hearing for convicted murderer Leslie Van Houten.… Sympathy for these killers, and especially this one, is misplaced. Sympathy, understanding and compassion, should be given to the victims of the murders, and not the killers. In all these years, not one of these killers have expressed remorse to our family, not even Leslie Van Houten, who says she did the least in the murders. If she is really ready for parole then amends to the family should have already been done.…
“We emphatically oppose the release of any of the Manson menage.… It’s a sacrilege to Leno’s memory that the family has to be confronted with the parole hearings for these individuals every few years. We are glad for her maturity and her model prisoner status, but that does not equate to freedom. We also want to say that Suzanne LaBerge, daughter of Rosemary, the murdered wife of Leno at the time, does not represent the LaBianca family. She certainly did not represent us at the May 4, 1990 parole hearing for Tex Watson, when she made that pathetic appeal for his release because she “forgave him.” As Ms. Van Houten continues her incarceration, let her continue to remember that what she did that fateful night was forever. The Manson Family mark on this society is deep. As deep as the stab wounds to their helpless victims.”13