Qualla: Tate-LaBianca Murders

Tate-LaBianca Murders: Introduction

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown, Public domain. The address was 10050 Cielo Drive, a secluded property tucked into Benedict Canyon above Beverly Hills. On the night of August 8, 1969, four members of what would become known as the Manson Family drove up from Spahn Ranch with instructions from their leader. By morning, five people lay dead inside the home rented by actress Sharon Tate and her husband, film director Roman Polanski. The following night, the killers struck again in the Los Feliz neighborhood. The Tate-LaBianca murders would become the crime that defined the end of the 1960s, a brutal punctuation mark on the Summer of Love.

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Image: Unknown | Public domain

Tate-LaBianca Murders: Cielo Drive

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rosa Mauro, Public domain. Sharon Tate was eight and a half months pregnant when Tex Watson, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Linda Kasabian arrived at her home that August night. Polanski was working on a film in Europe. Inside were Tate's houseguests: Jay Sebring, a celebrity hairdresser; Abigail F...

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Image: Rosa Mauro | Public domain

Tate-LaBianca Murders: The Second Night

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. On August 9, Manson joined the group for their next killing. He had told his followers he would show them 'how to do it.' They drove to 3301 Waverly Drive in Los Feliz, the home of supermarket executive Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary. Thinking the gate might be electrified, ...

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Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Tate-LaBianca Murders: Trial and Aftermath

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown, Public domain. Prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi argued that Manson had ordered the killings to trigger a race war he called 'Helter Skelter,' borrowing the name from a Beatles song. All five perpetrators received death sentences, but in 1972 the California Supreme Court ruled the state's death penal...

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Image: Unknown | Public domain

Tate-LaBianca Murders: The End of Innocence

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit JGKlein, Public domain. Film critic Erik Morse argues that the murders brought about 'a dark period of film in Hollywood, filled with ultraviolence, gore, satanism and freakouts.' Scholar Ian Cooper coined the term 'Mansonsploitation' to describe the violent genre that emerged in the killings' wake. Eve...

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Image: JGKlein | Public domain