The cult leader who sent his followers to a house on Cielo Drive — and the word left in blood
The door at 10050 Cielo Drive held a word written in blood.
Five people were dead inside the Benedict Canyon house on the morning of August 9, 1969.
The victims included actress Sharon Tate, eight and a half months pregnant.
Also dead were coffee heiress Abigail Folger, her boyfriend, celebrity hairstylist Jay Sebring, and a young man visiting the property's caretaker.
The case record states the killers wrote the word "PIG" on the front door.
Who wrote it, and why?
The motive behind that word is not established by the record.
It is a matter of later prosecution argument, not documented fact.
A theory circulating online suggests the word was a deliberate taunt tied to a larger conspiracy.
That theory is not a fact established by the record.
It would require evidence.
The case initially baffled police.
There was no obvious motive.
No robbery, no sexual assault, no apparent connection between the victims and their killers.
The house sat silent in the California heat.
The word remained on the door.
She was on the ground below.
The investigation notes record the confusion.
Detectives had names, but no reasons.
They had a word, but no author.
Not because the word was unclear.
Because the record does not say why it was written.
THE MAN AND THE FAMILY
Charles Manson was 34 years old, an aspiring musician and a cult leader.
He had gathered a group of mostly young followers.
They called themselves the Family.
The record says he ordered the murders of the people at Cielo Drive.
It does not say how he gave that order.
The record says only that he ordered them, and that he was not there that night.
The killers were Tex Watson, Susan Atkins, and Patricia Krenwinkel.
Linda Kasabian drove the car.
She did not enter the houses.
The case record places her in the car.
The following night, August 10, 1969, Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary were murdered in their Los Feliz home.
The words "Death to Pigs" and "Helter Skelter" were carved or written in blood.
Those murders were committed by Watson, Atkins, Krenwinkel, and Leslie Van Houten.
Manson was present at that scene.
He did not enter the house.
Two nights.
Two sets of victims.
One word from the first scene, two phrases from the second.
The escalation is in the record.
The exact process of the order is not.
That would require evidence the case file does not contain.
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It is clear who acted.
It is less clear, from the record alone, how the command travelled from the leader to the hands.
The Family followed him.
That much the case record establishes.
How he directed them, precisely, remains unstated.
THE BREAKING CASE
The Tate murders initially baffled police.
No obvious motive, no clear suspects, no thread to pull.
The case record describes weeks of dead ends.
Then, in October 1969, the break came in a jail cell.
Susan Atkins, jailed on an unrelated charge, began talking.
She told her cellmate, Virginia Graham, about the murders.
Graham testified about that conversation later.
She reported it to authorities.
Atkins also gave a statement to Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies.
The exact content of that statement is not specified in the record.
That remains unstated.
The investigation was led by Lieutenant Earl Deemer.
He connected the Tate murders to the LaBianca murders.
Witness statements did part of the work.
Physical evidence did the rest.
A pair of eyeglasses found at the Tate scene was traced to a Family associate.
That was a key piece.
The glasses gave the investigation a name to follow.
From that name, the circle widened.
From the circle, the Family emerged.
From the Family, Manson.
Not because the motive was clear.
But because the evidence finally pointed somewhere.
What did Atkins say in that cell?
What did she tell the deputies?
The record says she spoke.
The record does not say everything she spoke.
That would require evidence.
The grinding turn had begun.
Bafflement gave way to a jailhouse confession.
A confession that would not stay in the cell.
TWO STORIES OF THE SAME NIGHT
The trial began in June 1970.
Manson, Atkins, Krenwinkel, and Van Houten were charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy.
The prosecution’s case relied heavily on Linda Kasabian’s testimony.
She was granted immunity.
She described both nights of murders from the driver’s seat of the car.
Prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi argued that the word “Helter Skelter” written at the LaBianca scene was the motive.
It was, he argued, Manson’s apocalyptic doctrine of racial war.
The defense argued the defendants were not the killers.
The defense argued the prosecution’s case was circumstantial.
Two stories of the same night.
One story: a cult leader sent his followers out to start a race war, and the blood spelled out his prophecy.
The other story: a grudge, a drug deal, a panic in a house on Cielo Drive.
Which one holds up?
The record does not establish Manson’s personal motive beyond the prosecution’s argument.
The defense’s denial is also part of the record.
Kasabian testified that Manson ordered the killings.
She testified that he stood by while others talked about it.
She testified that he told the women to leave a sign.
The defense called her a liar with immunity to protect her.
In January 1971, all four were convicted.
They were sentenced to death.
The California Supreme Court abolished the death penalty in 1972.
The sentences were commuted to life.
The word “PIG” was a fact from the crime scene.
The word “Helter Skelter” was a fact from the crime scene.
The meaning of those words was an argument.
The argument won.
The argument remains an argument.
AND THE STORY STILL ISN'T OVER
Charles Manson died in prison on November 19, 2017, at age 83, according to correctional records.
Susan Atkins died in prison in 2009, according to correctional records.
Patricia Krenwinkel remains incarcerated, repeatedly denied parole, according to parole board records.
Tex Watson remains incarcerated, repeatedly denied parole, according to parole board records.
Leslie Van Houten was granted parole in 2023 and released after 53 years in prison, according to parole board records.
Linda Kasabian, granted immunity for her testimony, died in 2023, according to public records.
The house at 10050 Cielo Drive was demolished in 1994, according to property records.
The ground was cleared.
The argument continues.
Krenwinkel and Watson still sit in prison, their parole hearings recurring like a clock that keeps no time.
The current status of any pending parole hearings for either is not specified in the record.
That would require evidence.
That would require a decision.
The word "PIG" is a fact from the crime scene.
The motive behind it remains a matter of prosecution argument, not established fact.
Manson is gone.
Atkins is gone.
Kasabian is gone.
The house is gone.
What remains is a stack of parole denials, a demolished address, and a word that still carries its weight in blood.
Not because the case is closed.
But because the record only goes so far.
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