It's only been 49 years since it was published and I finally got around to reading Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi. I thought I knew a little about those murders but that book is amazing in its details and still pretty damned scary. I pick it up and pretty soon start going through my mind where my Glocks and shotguns are positioned in the house.

I was 3 years old when those murders occurred - too young to remember them. But I do recall the craziness on TV in the years afterwards, and my older sisters talking about them. That guy was a household name in the early 70s. Charles Manson scared the [bleep] out of me back then. And even though he's dead, that sort of type still scares me. He may be gone but a lot of his freaky followers are still alive: Tex Watson, Patricia Krenwinkel, Leslie Van Houten, Sqweaky Fromme among them. Fromme is still bat [bleep] crazy and living in NY, I think. And Van Houten, who did some of the stabbing, is out of prison now as of this year.

54 years ago yesterday, the Raid on Spahn Ranch, the family arrested as an auto theft ring, and before authoritiews knew they were involved in the Tate /LaBianca murders. What a crazy time in history.

About the picture: Is that old nazi-head and his followers all cuffed and sitting down. Looks like a very unsecured crime scene.

That's Manson sitting by the dog. August 16, 1969.

That book details the investigations into the various murders. You can see what a clusterfuck it was back then. LAPD investigating, LA Sheriffs investigating, both separately and independently, with next to no communication or coordination. Even in the LAPD the LaBianca and Tate cases were investigated by two different teams that didn't communicate. There were three separate stabbing murders in a row where someone wrote "Pig" or some variation on the wall in the victims blood and it took months before the various teams knew about all of them and made any connection between them.

It is appalling that the entire gang was not executed.

^ ^ ^ ^ this ^ ^ ^ ^

There's a good many useless pinheads that
need to be put down, but the country's lost
it's b*lls to deal with useless trash.

When a varmint kills the hens that supply
you with eggs and meat, or destroys your
vegetables, you don't catch it and turn it
out somewhere else so it can continue to
ruin valuable goods, you put it down so
it can't destroy anything else again

i read the book in Jr high, mid 70's... hard to believe they paroled Lulu... 1st degree murderer... but ain't it funny(not really!) how some of Crazy Charlie's predictions now appear to be coming true!...

The main ones were sentenced to die and then California changed its law and commuted the sentences to life. Then let some of them out.

This chick got out in April. How'd you like to be living next to her? She's one that actaully stabbed the LaBiancas.

https://www.npr.org/2023/07/12/1187225790/leslie-van-houten-manson-murder-freed-prison-parole

Everyone you see standing around in the picture is a Deputy Sheriff, Los Angeles Sheriff's Dept. Some are detectives, plain clothes, but they are all cops. Spahn Ranch was in the jurisdiction of LASD.

There was a run on gun stores after the murders. Lots of people, especially the "swells" in the exclusive areas of Los Angeles, were scared and wanted some "protection."

I was living in Laurel Canyon not too far from the Tate killings, but I did not need to go to a gun store, I already had plenty of "protection."

FWIW.

L.W.

I remember that, cause I’m old.

Charlie killed the Hippie movement... i carried the torch to the beginning of the eighties... teachers called me "The Last Hippie"... looked like Spicoli lol...

The book says LA was going nuts over the killings. You probably have some good stories from that era.

I was 11-12 when that was going on. People were having to close and lock all their windows at night and it was sweltering. There was a lot of fear floating around back then.

Definitely, some sick MF's. On another note, what's the car in the pic? I got an idea, but, not sure.

The government doesn't usually smash its own toys, at least not where people can see.

Mk Ultra

L.W. - I was in Burbank during that era, just a kid at the time. When 5:00 rolled around, everyone in the house was expected to shut the hell up when George Putnam came on to report.


"And that's the up-to-the-minute news..."

An FD classmate of mine used to sneak around there when he was in jr. high because he and his friends heard there were nekkid wimmins walking around there. He said they got chased out a few times by crazy hippies. He was pretty sketched out when he heard what was going on out there.

A couple of FD old timers have stories from that place, a lot of odd shidte going on. Fire Station 75's jurisdiction. FS75 is a small unicorporated island surrounded by Los Angeles and borders Ventura County to the west.

Looks like a mid sixties Ford fairlane...

Shorty Shea was a Manson family victim after the Tate murders. His body, or body parts rather, have never been found and they are supposedly buried on the grounds of that ranch near some train tracks. Enough "family members" told the same tale - that he was behead, dismembered, and buried - that police think it's credible that he's still there undiscovered. The buildings on that ranch burned down in a natural fire in 1974 (I think) but there is still a lot of junk, like old car bodies, still there from the Manson days. It would be interesting to go explore it.

63 Ford fairlane 2 dr sedan... chopper in the backround looks like Captain America lol...