Stephen C. Thompson: Cielo Drive

10050 Cielo Drive, Los Angeles, California

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On the night of August 8, 1969, members of Charles Manson’s cult, known as his “Family,” drove to 10050 Cielo Drive in Benedict Canyon, Los Angeles, California. The occupants of the house that evening were actress Sharon Tate, who was eight and a half months pregnant and the wife of film director Roman Polanski; well known hair stylist Jay Sebring; Polanski's friend Wojciech Frykowski; and Frykowski's girlfriend Abigail Folger, heiress to the Folgers coffee fortune. Also present on the property were William Garretson, the caretaker, and his friend Steven Earl Parent. Sharon Tate’s husband, Roman Polanski, was out of the country at the time.

Sharon Tate

The Manson cult members then proceeded to torture, then kill all of the home’s occupants, and Steven Parent as he was leaving. The following night, Manson and selected cult members drove to 3301 Waverly Drive in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles, where they murdered Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary. The cases quickly became media sensations, first because of the viciousness of the crimes, then because of the shocking testimonies of the murderers. Young female cult members testified under oath that they believed Charles Manson was Jesus Christ reincarnated. They testified that they believed they were actually helping their victims, and committing the murders was pleasurable for them.

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In the early 70s I was able to move from Pennsylvania to Laguna Beach, California. My friend Wayne Gravelle invited me to stay with him for a few weeks while I got settled.

After getting my own apartment on North Coast Highway, I got into the habit of walking along the beach early every morning. One morning I was in front of two women who were walking their dogs and talking. “Yes, we got her (her own dog) for protection while we were still living in Los Angeles. We lived down the street from the LaBiancas. We eventually decided to move down here to Laguna.”

I had never before been around anyone who had actually been directly affected by the Tate/LaBianca murders.

This summer Leslie Van Houghten was released on parole.

Vincent Bugliosi

That got me interested in relearning the details of the case, so I read Vincent Bugliosi's Helter Skelter. Interestingly, Mr. Bugliosi noted that the only person he worked so hard to convict who might possibly be granted parole some time in the future was Leslie Van Houghten.

Personally, I don’t believe that Leslie Van Houghten should have been granted parole. But I respect the decision of California’s Governor, and the Parole Board.

Helter Skelter is the name of a Beatles song on their album entitled The Beatles, commonly known as The White Album. But it’s also the name of Manson’s plan, hence Bugliosi’s book’s title.

Manson believed that the murders would be blamed on black people, which would start a race war, that black people would win. But the black people would soon learn that running America was more complicated than they could imagine. So they would then turn to the Manson Family to run America. Manson believed this so much that at one time, because he respected Bugliosi’s skills as a lawyer, he asked Bugliosi to be his Vice President when he became President. Bugliosi declined.

Although I lived through the events, there were quite a few things that I did not know. 10050 Cielo Drive, the rented Polanski/Tate home, was owned by Rudi Altobelli. He had hired a caretaker named William Garretson, who lived in a guest house at the back of the property.

Steven Parent's Rambler parked next to the cut phone lines in the driveway of the Polanski/Tate residence. Jay Sebring's black Porsche is parked next to Abigail Folger's Firebird.

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Steven Parent had visited William Garretson to show Garretson a clock radio Garretson was interested in buying. Garretson passed, so Parent was leaving the property just as Charles “Tex” Watson was arriving with the three women Manson had sent to the property. Watson stopped Parent’s car, then lunged at him with a knife, cutting him. Watson then shot Parent three times, killing him. Parent had absolutely nothing to do with anyone in the main house, he essentially was just in the wrong place, at the wrong time.

Leno LaBianca owned a chain of grocery stores, and nine thoroughbred racehorses, but at the time of his death he also had some $230,000 in horse race related gambling debts. However, if they had wanted to, his wife Rosemary could have easily paid off his debt as she had approximately $2,600,000 in investments. Abigail Folger, one of the victims at the Tate home, and heiress to the Folgers Coffee fortune, actually had less than one fifth of that.

On the day that the Los Angeles Times published a story on the LaBianca murder victims receiving their last rights, the paper also published a story: Police Arrest 26 Suspects in Auto Theft Ring, but it would be months before police realized both the murderers and the people arrested in connection with the auto theft ring were the Manson Family.

Manson Family members drove the same borrowed Ford to both of the homes where they committed the murders.

The actual borrowed vehicle that the Manson Family drove from the Spahn Ranch to both of the homes where they committed the murders.

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Vincent Bugliosi did not feel that the convictions of Manson and his Family members would be easy. In fact he had to be extremely careful about how he proceeded with the prosecutions, because the defense counsel was constantly making motions for dismissal and retrial, so at any time those motions might have been granted.

Mr. Bugliosi also believed the Manson Family was responsible for many other murders in California, Ohio, and even London.

After the murders, Rudi Altobelli sued Roman Polanksi and Life Magazine for $650,000 and Polanski alone for $198,000, including three months rent at $1500 per month that Altobelli claimed were due him. He charged that Polanski illegally gave Life Magazine permission to photograph the home following the murders. As a result, he said, resale value of the property was damaged. He also started litigation against Tate's parents when they refused to pay huge repair bills on his damaged investment. When that didn't work, he sued Tate's estate for almost a half-million dollars; he was awarded $4,350. Altobelli decided to just live in the home himself, which he did until 1988 when he sold it for $1.6 million.

10066 Cielo Drive, Los Angeles, California

10050 Cielo Drive was torn down in 1994 and replaced by an 18,000-square-foot Mediterranean-style spec house nicknamed “Villa Bella.” The 9-bedroom, 13-bathroom megamansion was an attempt to rid the property of stigma once and for all—the address was even changed to 10066 Cielo Drive for good measure.

It was finally purchased for $6,375,000 in January 2000, by Full House creator Jeff Franklin.

The property is now on the market for $54,995,000.

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cielodrive.com

Helter Skelter on Amazon

Tate/LaBianca Murders on Wikipedia

by Steve Thompson