#manson family
‘THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL’ - NINE INCH NAILS
RESEARCH: 10500 CIELO DRIVE: THE TATE MURDERS
On the night of August 9th 1969, Tex Watson, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Linda Kasabian, forced their way into the home of Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski on the orders of Charles Manson, who instructed them to “totally destroy” everyone in it, and to do it “as gruesome as you can”.
Manson’s motivation was revenge against famous record producer Terry Melcher, with whom Manson had a previous relationship with before being snubbed concerning the possibility of recording his music together. Melcher was the previous resident of the house before Tate and Polanski, and had invited Manson over as a guest on a couple of occasions.
At the time, Polanski was away in Europe working on a film project, and Tate was entertaining guests, among them Abigail Folger (heiress to the Folgers Coffee fortune) her boyfriend, aspiring screen-writer Wojciech Frykowski, and Jay Sebring, Tate’s friend and former lover.
Steven Parent, a friend of the caretaker who lived in the guest house in the back, was the first of the Manson Family’s victims that night, as he was stabbed and shot leaving the residence. Among those invited that night but did not attend were record producer Quincy Jones, and actor Steve McQueen.
After an evening of socialising, Tate and her guests had fallen asleep, only to be awoken by Manson’s followers and brutally murdered in the ensuing struggle. Included in the list of victims was Tates unborn child, Paul Richard Polanski. Tate was 8 ½ months pregnant.
Manson had told his followers to “leave a sign—something witchy” before they left the scene. Susan Atkins took Sharon Tates blood and wrote the word “PIG” on the front door.
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