The jailhouse confession that broke the Manson Family case open

It began with a report from a cell.

In November 1969, a jailhouse informant — Susan Atkins's cellmate — told authorities that Atkins had confessed to the murders.

Atkins was in custody at the time, arrested on an unrelated charge.

The case had sat unsolved for months.

The initial LAPD investigation had found few leads.

Then a cellmate's words changed the direction of everything.

It was the first documented link between the murders and members of a commune led by Charles Manson.

What exactly was said in that cell?

What did Atkins tell her cellmate, and how much of it was true?

What did the informant actually hear, and what did she merely repeat?

That would require evidence.

The record does not detail the exact content of the cellmate's tip.

It notes only that she reported Atkins's confessions.

A stalled investigation. A sudden break. A name that would not let go.

The report did not solve the case by itself.

It opened a door — and the prosecution walked through it.

AUGUST 9–10, 1969: TWO NIGHTS OF MURDER

The first night came on August 9, 1969.

Five people were murdered at 10050 Cielo Drive in Benedict Canyon.

Actress Sharon Tate, eight and a half months pregnant, was among the dead.

Coffee heiress Abigail Folger was killed, along with her boyfriend, celebrity hairstylist Jay Sebring, and a young man visiting the property's caretaker.

The killers wrote "PIG" in blood on the front door.

The following night, August 10, supermarket executive Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary were murdered in their Los Feliz home.

"Death to Pigs" and "Helter Skelter" were written in blood at that scene.

Housekeepers and relatives discovered the crimes the following mornings.

The killers on the Tate night were Tex Watson, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Linda Kasabian, who drove the car.

On the LaBianca night, the killers were Watson, Krenwinkel, and Leslie Van Houten.

The motive at the time of the murders was not established.

Not because no one guessed. But because nothing in the record tied the killings to a cause yet.

The "Helter Skelter" race-war theory emerged later, in the prosecution's case.

That would require evidence.

For months, the investigation found few leads.

Two nights. Nine dead. A word in blood.

The case had no name and no direction.

That is what the jailhouse informant's tip changed in November 1969.

It gave the stalled investigation a door.

THE STALLED INVESTIGATION AND THE NOVEMBER BREAK

The case had no name and no direction.

That is what the jailhouse informant's tip changed in November 1969.

It gave the stalled investigation a door.