◆ SpookStack

~ THE DEMON OF DEATH VALLEY HAT man has wronged me. Society has wronged me. We'll kill’ whatever pigs are in that house. Go in there and get them.” With those raging orders from their Rasputin-like leader, a band of hippies, clad in black, allegediy broke into a secluded Los Angeles home last August. In the orgy of hacking, stab- bing and shooting that followed, Star- let Sharon Tate, 26, and four other people were killed. It was one of the grisliest, bloodiest, and apparently most senseless crimes of the century. Last week Los Angeles police an- nounced that they had solved the five murders and three others as well. If they are correct, the alleged murderers un Rhee eit KRENWINKEL PUGH & FROMME in the killings himself, but confined him- self to directing them. Miss Atkins said that Manson had or- dered: the Tate murders on Aug. 9, the murder of Musician Gary Hinman on July 25, and those of Mr. and Mrs. Leno LaBianca on Aug. 10. Hinman was allegedly murdered because he would not turn over $20,000 that Man- son thought he had. Miss Atkins and an- other Manson follower are charged in that murder. The LaBiancas were picked at random from among the affluent, she said, the night after the Tate mur- ders, just to prove that the killers had not lost their nerve. The Tate victims did not even know Manson. They died, LOS ANGELES TIMES ATKINS tale in jail, and another prisoner in- formed police. Also, Daniel De Carlo, 25, who heads a motorcycle gang, told police that Manson invited him to join in one of the murder excursions. Commando Forays. Manson is a drifter with a five-page criminal record stretching back 20 years. Born in 1934, to a teen-age mother, he never saw his fa- ther. His prostitute parent was often in jail, and young Manson was shifted around from relatives to foster parents to reformatories. As he grew up, he turned to petty crimes, mainly car theft His education never went beyond the seventh grade. It was during these years that he apparently developed his hatred of the affluent and a loathing for wom- en. In and out of prison, Manson be- came interested in music and the oc- uPt SAKM DOHERTY—-CAMERA & 5 at MANSON Convinced of the insignificance of individual lives. were even stranger and more bizarre than their crimes. The police case was based on the tale of an accused mur- derer, Susan Denise Atkins, 21. She sketched out a weird story of a mys- tical, semi-religious hippie drug-and- murder cult led by a bearded, demonic Mahdi able to dispatch his zombie-like followers, mostly girls wearing hunting knives, to commit at least eight mur- ders and, police say, possibly four others. Murder Sprees. Three members of the gang were arrested last week: Charles Watson, 23, Patricia Krenwinkel, 22, and Linda Kasabian, 20. The police also were seeking murder indictments against two other “family” members. The suspects, as well as the thin, vac- uous Miss Atkins, were all members of a hippie-type gang who styled themselves slaves to their guru-type leader. Miss At- kins, a prosecution witness who hopes to save herself from the gas chamber, claimed that she was present but did not participate in the murders committed by the gang. At least eight members took part in one or another of the mur- ders, say police, although the Jeader, Charles Manson, 35, did not participate 22 she said, because Manson, an aspiring songwriter, nursed a grudge against Dor- is Day’s son, Terry Melcher, who re- fused to have one of Manson's songs recorded. Miss Tate had rented the Melcher house, and Masson ordered ev- eryone in it killed, presumably not even knowing who the tenants at the time were—or caring. According to Miss Atkins, she, Wat- son, Mrs. Kasabian and Miss Krenwinke! entered Miss Tate’s house and stabbed and shot the occupants: Abigail Folger, the coffee heiress: Voityck Frokowski, her boy friend; Hollywood Hair Stylist Jay Sebring and Miss Tate. The starlet, 84 months pregnant, pleaded: “Picase let me have my baby,” but was stabbed 16 times. Steven Parent, 18, who was vis- iting the caretaker’s cottage, was also killed. Manson is presently in custody on car- theft charges in Independence, Calif. Los Angeles police are seeking con- spiracy and murder indictments against him. The case began to break several weeks ago when Miss Atkins, a former acid-dropper and topless dancer, began to blurt out pieces of her gruesome cult, and when he was last released in 1967, he headed for San Francisco as a “roving minstrel.” Manson began to gather followers in Haight-Ashbury in 1966, and in 1968 he moved his retinue by bus to Los An- geles to further his music-writing am- bitions. Last winter, Manson moved his clan to the Spahn Ranch in western Los Angeles County, and it was from there that they made their alleged com- mando forays against their affluent vic- tims. Manson busied himself converting stolen cars into dune buggies, and after the ranch was raided in August, he led his followers to their own hell! in the in- hospitable depths of Death Valley. Among the greasewood and rattle- snakes, they holed up in run-down cab- ins and led an indolent, almost savage existence, singing Manson’s songs, danc- ing, swimming in a smail pool, stealing cars for cash and picking through gar- bage for food. Miners in the area re- ported being chased away by amazons wielding knives. Manson reportedly held an almost hypnotic spell over his fol- lowers, who called him “God” and “Satan.” His women lolled harem-like TIME, DECEMBER 12, 1969