Blood In The Hills Part 2

10050 Cielo Dr was a secluded house. It is at the end of a long and winding road that ends in a dead end. The grounds of the property are perfect for any couple wanting a ''love nest''. There is a protective gate at the entrance. A simple push of the remote control button next to it allows the visitor to drive up a fair-sized driveway. At the end of this driveway is the main residence. It is mostly a ranch style home, but, does boast a spiral staircase when you are in the residence. These stairs take you up to the attic. So, most of the house is one level. There is a main door, along with a side entrance. Twenty yards behind the main house is a guesthouse. This small shack is little more than a walk in closet. But, it does do the job of lodging a single visitor comfortably. Behind the guesthouse is a breathtaking view of Los Angeles. The hills swoops out to a steep drop. Perhaps, the main attraction to this property, aside from its nice layout, is the feeling of privacy. When you are in the house, you feel safe and secluded, as if the outside world cannot intrude......... Around 9pm, Sharon Tate and her friends, Jay Sebring, Wojciech Frykowski, and Abigail Folger, decide to get something to eat. They drove a short distance to a favorite Mexican restaurant, El Coyote, where Sharon is well-known. The group grabs a table in the corner and are soon enjoying the fine Mexican food. Witnesses later reported that the party did seem happy that night, enjoying a Friday Night outing like many in the city. Around 10;30, the group finished their dinner and headed back to Cielo......... Somewhere, in the city, Charles Manson's minions were zooming towards the destination that Charlie had picked out for them. There was much excited chatter in the car about what might happen. Above all, the occupants in the car had one common goal: to fulfill Charles Manson's prophecy of ''Helter Skelter''........ At 11pm, Sharon Tate and her friends were back safely at home. Jay Sebring had a private conversation to share with Sharon, so, the two of them settled in Sharon's bedroom. Sharon was lying on the bed, clad in her bra and panties because of the heat. Jay was sitting at the foot of the bed. Meanwhile, Frykowski had stretched out on a couch in the living room, while Folger went to read in her bed.........Around 11:30pm, a car approached the front gate. The driver of the car was Steven Parent, age 18. He had come to see the caretaker of the residence, William Garrettson, who was staying in the guesthouse behind the main house. Garrettson had met Parent the previous night at a party. They both discovered that they shared a love of stereos. Garrettson told Parent that he should come up to the residence and take a look at a clock radio that Garrettson was ready to sell. So, with nothing to do on a Friday Night, Steven Parent drove up to Cielo to talk to the caretaker. He was unknown to everyone in the main residence. Had fate been different, he would have stayed unknown....... Midnight. August 9, 1969. The property was quiet. Most of the neighborhood was in bed. It was families that surrounded the area, not the fast-moving Hollywood crowd that Roman and Sharon were used to. One thing about the area: It was strange for its acoustics. Some sounds fifty feet away might not be heard at the shortest distance, but, might be heard hundreds of feet away by someone. The air was hot that night, still simmering from the heat wave. Many neighbors slept with the windows open........ Shortly after midnight, another car approached the gate. It turned off its lights and parked to the side. Its occupants got out of the car. Charles ''Tex'' Watson climbed the gate at the entrance. He cut the phone wires. Then, he slowly opened the gate to let the others in. The group was armed with several knives and a gun and a rope. Soon, the Manson Family was quietly walking up the driveway towards the main residence...... At about this time, a car came from the backway. Steven Parent had just finished talking to William Garrettson about the radio. Steven had decided to not buy the radio and made a quick exit out of the guesthouse. When Parent was driving towards the gate, he was stopped by one man and three girls blocking his way out. Curious, most likely, he rolled down his window to ask what was wrong. At that moment, ''Tex'' Watson placed a gun next to his head. Not knowing what was going on, Steven Parent, nonetheless, started pleading, ''Don't hurt me! I won't say a thing!'' Watson then tried to stab him with a butcher knife. Parent, out of reflex, held up his arm defensively, and, the knife slashed his wristwatch. Watson then fired two quick shots into the head of Steven Parent, killing him....... All of this happened in mere seconds. And, no one in the house heard a thing....... ''Tex'' decided to not go in the main door, thinking it was locked. Therefore, he decided to climb in a side window. He cut the screen and climbed into the house. He walked around to the front door and let Susan Atkins and Patricia Krenwinkel in. Linda Kasabian stayed outside. She had developed a phobia about going in and wanted nothing to do with what was gonna happen........ ''Tex'' Watkins approached a man lying on the couch, who was dozing. He kicked the couch and awoke the man. When Wojciech Frykowski came to consciousness, he was told by this stranger, ''I am the Devil and I am here to do the Devil's work!'' While Frykowski was trying to figure out what was happening, Krenwinkel and Atkins went around the house looking for other people. Krenwinkel found Abigail Folger lying on her bed reading. Folger saw this visitor and smiled a friendly smile. Soon, the smile turned into fear as she was led knifepoint into the living room. Susan Atkins found Sharon and Jay in the other bedroom and ordered them at knifepoint to the living room also........ At first, there was more confusion from the residents than actual fear. They must have assumed that they were about to be robbed. They soon found out otherwise. Watson ordered Tate, Sebring, Frykowski, and Folger onto their knees. The girls were loosely tied up with the rope, along with Frykowski. When Sharon was ordered to lie on the ground, Jay Sebring protested that she could not do so because she was heavily pregnant. When Watson made a move towards Sharon, Sebring stepped in the way to protect her. It would be his last act of love for Sharon because he was immediately shot by Watson in the chest. Sebring went down as Sharon and Abigail started screaming........ Pandemonium....... As the women screamed, somehow, Frykowski freed himself from the rope and ran outside screaming for help. He was quickly followed by ''Tex'', who shot him twice. Frykowski fell to the grass on the lawn, right in front of Linda Kasabian, and kept crawling. Watson then took his butcher knife and proceeded to stab Frykowski dozens of times. Police later stated that Wojciech fought hard for his life as he tried to defend himself against the stabbings. Finally, the life went out of him and he laid still. All told, his wounds numbered: stabbed 51 times, bludgeoned in the head 13 times  [most likely, with the head of the gun] and he was shot twice. Rarely had such savagery been inflicted on a human being...... In the house, Abigail Folger also freed herself from the rope. She ran for her life out the side door of the house, pursued by Patricia Krenwinkel. Running past the pool---- which, was near the guesthouse--- she finally got caught by Krenwinkel under a tree. She then was viciously stabbed. At some point, Linda Kasabian, who also witnessed this slaughter, heard Abigail ask her killer, ''Why are you stabbing me? I'm already dead!!'' Soon, she would be. Police would count her stab wounds as being 28 inflicted. She had been wearing a white nightgown to bed. Now, it looked like the nightgown had been dyed red in blood........ Meanwhile, in the guesthouse, William Garrettson heard nothing, he was later to tell the police. He was playing his music very loud and heard no screaming or any other disturbance. This seems odd. If the music was blasting, as Garrettson claimed, surely, the murderers would have heard it and investigated it. In fact, Krenwinkel was ordered by Watson to check out the guesthouse but she only got to the front door of the guesthouse before she turned around and went back to report no one was there. William Garrettson was lucky. Had she gone in, he would have been another casualty......... Sharon Tate was the only one left alive. ''Tex'' Watson, Susan Atkins, and Patricia Krenwinkel were around here. Linda Kasabian had retreated towards the car waiting for the others. Sharon started crying and begging for her life. And, she begged for the life of her unborn child. She asked them not to kill her and to take her hostage instead. Susan Atkins looked her right in the eye and said, ''Look, bitch, I don't care about you or your baby at all. You are going to die''........... Then, Sharon was held down by the others as Susan stabbed her repeatedly. Soon, the others would stab her. Sharon screamed in agony until she could scream no more. Her last word was, ''Mother''......... The murder of Sharon Tate did not involve her having her baby being cut out, or, her breasts being amputated, as rumors have stated. She was lying in the fetal position, protecting her baby until the end. The baby, a boy, did not survive........ All of this had happened inside of a half-hour. The killings had gone smoothly, the killers thought. But, on the way out of the Tate house, they thought of what Charlie said about leaving a message to the world. Susan Atkins went back into the house and found a towel. She dipped the towel into the bloody body of Sharon Tate and took it towards the front door. In Sharon's blood, she smeared the word ''PIG''....... The killers left the property and drove back to Spahn Ranch and Charles Manson. When Charlie saw them arrive, he asked them why they were back so early. Then he asked each of them how they felt about the murders. Each one, except Kasabian, said they felt ok about it. There was no remorse in them....... The next day, the bodies at the house of Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate were found by the housekeeper. The police were called, and, searching the property, they came across the caretaker, William Garrettson. He was handcuffed and brought in for questioning. He told the police that he heard nothing. He played some loud music and went to bed. The police were skeptical about this alibi. How could he have not heard anything? Neighbors down the canyon---- but, not next door because of the bizarre acoustics in the area---- had heard sounds of screaming and gunshots. How could Garrettson not hear anything? William Garrettson stuck to his story and the police, since they had no evidence to charge him with anything, released him. It wasn't until thirty years later, in a television show about the murders, that Garrettson changed his story. He admitted in 1999 that he had heard screaming and carrying on. But, he chalked it up to the party frolics of those in the main house. He thought nothing but fun was coming from within less than a hundred feet from him. This new story was also thought of with skepticism. Still, he was not involved with the actual murders. He must have been in fear of his life, which is understandable. He was probably hiding until the coast was clear. Again, this is understandable but, if he had made some kind of move to help, he might have saved one or more lives in the main house........ The following night, August 10, 1969, the killers would go out again. This time it was a couple named LaBianca. I have written about this night in a March, 2012 blog called, ''Giving Out Justice''......... In time, the murders would be solved. Susan Atkins was arrested on another charge of disturbing the peace, and, in prison, she would tell fellow inmates about the Sharon Tate murders. The inmates told the police about what Susan said, and, soon, Charles Manson and his ''Family'' would be arrested and tried for murder. Linda Kasabian, who did not murder at all in any of the killings, was the star witness for the prosecution. The whole theory about ''Helter Skelter'' and the coming race war was spelled out to the jury in the trial by the brilliant prosecutor against the Manson Family, Vincent Bugliosi. In the nine month trial, all the world got to see the bizarre and frightening story of these hippies who dabbled in murder. The killers, Charles, ''Tex'' Watson, Suasn Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Leslie Van Houton --- who had helped murder the LaBiancas the following night----- were all found guilty and sentenced to death in early 1971, along with Charles Manson. The following year, the State Of California overturned the death penalty and all of the killers, and their guru, Charles Manson, were given life sentences. Susan Atkins would die of cancer in 2009 in prison. The others are still in prison to this day.......... It has been said repeatedly that the spirit of the Sixties, the ''peace and love'' movement, died on those nights in August, 1969. The feeling of hope and desire for a better world thru the hippie mantra died when the first wounds went into the bodies at the Tate house. Maybe. But, the human condition is powered by hope and love. Most people live their lives preaching to themselves the idea of not hurting anyone. We may not be all love, but, it does flow thru most human beings......... And, in some, there is no love. There is hate and murder. For an example of this, visit the grave of Sharon Tate........ And, her unborn son........