The blood-written word that turned a mother into a voice for victims
The housekeeper arrived that morning and found the front door marked with a word written in blood.
The word was "PIG."
On the night of August 8–9, 1969, members of Charles Manson's "Family" had murdered actress Sharon Tate, eight-and-a-half months pregnant, and four others at 10050 Cielo Drive in Benedict Canyon, Los Angeles.
The victims included Tate; Jay Sebring, a celebrity hairstylist; and Abigail Folger, heiress to the Folger coffee fortune.
The killers left that single word on the front door.
Who wrote it?
What was it meant to say?
That would require evidence.
The word "PIG" is documented in the record, but its meaning and the identity of who wrote it are not established.
The housekeeper saw it first.
She had to walk past the door to find the bodies.
It is a word that has been repeated in every retelling of the case.
It is a word that still carries no certain answer.
The record shows the killings.
The record shows the word.
The record does not show the hand that wrote it, nor the intention behind it.
Four people were dead inside, and one more outside.
Sharon Tate was eight-and-a-half months pregnant.
Jay Sebring, the celebrity hairstylist, was among the dead.
Abigail Folger, the coffee heiress, was among the dead.
The housekeeper found them the following morning.
The front door held the word in blood.
It remains a fact of the scene, and nothing more.
THE NIGHT AT CIELO DRIVE
She was eight and a half months pregnant.
The house at 10050 Cielo Drive held five people that night: Sharon Tate, the actress; Jay Sebring, the celebrity hairstylist; Abigail Folger, the coffee heiress; and two others, a writer and an 18-year-old visitor.
The killers were Tex Watson, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Linda Kasabian, who drove the car.
They came with a .22-caliber pistol and a knife.
Those weapons were never recovered.
The exact sequence of events inside the house is not detailed in the record.
What is documented is the scene the housekeeper found the following morning.
The victims were dead.
The word "PIG" was written in blood on the front door.
It is a fact of the scene, and nothing more.
Sharon Tate's mother, Doris Tate, would later become a victims' rights advocate.
She spoke for her daughter, and then for others.
The night after Cielo Drive, the same group murdered Leno LaBianca and Rosemary LaBianca in their Los Feliz home.
They wrote "Helter Skelter" and other phrases in blood there.
Two nights.
Seven dead.
One word on a door, and a mother left to carry it.
THE CASE BREAKS
The LAPD initially chased a drug deal theory.
It was the wrong lead, and the investigation stalled.
Then the case broke from inside a jail cell.
Susan Atkins, jailed on unrelated charges, confessed to her cellmate.
The cellmate, Virginia Graham, told authorities what she had heard.
Atkins's confession implicated Manson and the others.
The specific content of that confession is not detailed in the record.
What the record does show is what happened next.
Linda Kasabian, who had been present but did not participate, was granted immunity.
She testified against the group.
The prosecution built its case around the "Helter Skelter" motive.
Vincent Bugliosi argued that Manson believed a race war was imminent.
The physical evidence mounted.
Fingerprints were found.
Blood evidence was collected.
The murder weapons were never recovered.
A .22-caliber pistol and a knife, gone.
The investigation shifted to the Sheriff's Department, which coordinated the case after the LAPD's missteps.
The relief of a breakthrough followed a bungled start.
The weight of evidence grew against the killers.
But for the victims' families, the word on the door remained.
PIG, scrawled in blood.
Its meaning was never established.
Who wrote it was never established.
The mother carried that word with her into the trial.
THE TRIAL AND THE MOTHER
The trial began in June 1970.
It lasted over nine months.
Manson sat with his co-defendants, each charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy.
Prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi built the case on the testimony of Linda Kasabian, who had been granted immunity.
The defense attorneys argued across the courtroom, and Judge Charles Older presided.
Tex Watson was tried separately.
He was also convicted and sentenced to death.
In 1971, Manson, Atkins, Krenwinkel, and Van Houten were all sentenced to death.
The California Supreme Court abolished the death penalty in 1972.
Their sentences were commuted to life in prison.
Doris Tate sat in the gallery.
She was Sharon Tate's mother.
She watched the men and women accused of killing her daughter.
The specific words Doris Tate spoke at trial are not in the record.
No one recorded her testimony, and no transcript preserves her exact phrasing.
But she was there.
She became a leading victims' rights advocate.
After the trial, she spoke publicly about the case.
She attended parole hearings.
She pushed for laws that gave victims a voice in the justice system.
The other families did the same.
Jay Sebring's sister spoke publicly.
Abigail Folger's family spoke publicly.
They returned to the courtroom again and again.
The lead detective coordinated the investigation after the LAPD's initial missteps.
He worked the case from the Sheriff's Department.
The trial ended, but the families did not stop.
They carried the word with them.
They carried what was written on the door.
The word was never established as theirs.
Who wrote it was never established.
AND THE STORY STILL ISN'T OVER
Charles Manson died in prison in November 2017 at age 83.
Susan Atkins died in prison in 2009.
Tex Watson remains incarcerated at Mule Creek State Prison.
Patricia Krenwinkel remains incarcerated.
Leslie Van Houten was granted parole multiple times, but was released in 2023 after a California appeals court upheld her parole.
Linda Kasabian died in 2020.
Doris Tate died in 1992.
She was Sharon Tate's mother.
She became a leading victims' rights advocate.
She spoke at parole hearings.
She spoke for her daughter.
The story continues through the families.
It continues through the parole hearings.
It continues through the questions that remain.
The word on the door was "PIG."
Its meaning was never established.
Who wrote it was never established.
The record does not resolve it.
The record does not say.
The killers are named in the convictions.
The word is named in the record.
The connection between them is not.
That would require evidence.
The families have continued to speak publicly about the case.
They have continued to speak at the parole hearings of the convicted killers.
They have continued to ask what the word meant.
They have continued to ask who wrote it.
They have continued to ask why.
The answers are not in the record.
The story is not over.
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