40 Years Ago Today Sharon Tate Was Murdered!

[romantico]

Posted: 8/9/09 at 12:26pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFr4zSA_EhI

Few months ago I saw some kids down at the mall and one was wearing a Charles Manson t-Shirt.I swear,I wanted to smack that kid.He could not have been more than 14 years old but it's just a novelty to him I bet. Kids today!

Updated On: 8/9/09 at 12:26 PM

[iflitifloat]

Posted: 8/9/09 at 12:58pm

Not to be over-analytical, but the impact of the murders and thetheir aftermath on the innocence of the "hippie movement" can't be overstated. It became indisputatble that the counter-culture had a very scary underbelly. And that a group as iconic as the Beatles served as inspiration for Manson just altered the order of the world as many of us knew it.

[nmartin]

Posted: 8/9/09 at 1:03pm

To that 14 year old boy, Manson isn't even a real person.
I'm old enough to remember when all of this happened. It was one damn big story.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 8/9/09 at 1:07pm

And Disney's Haunted Mansion opened 40 years ago this week.

Co-inky-dink?

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 8/9/09 at 1:08pm

Romantico, you might benefit from reading John Waters's series on Huffington Post about his friendship with one of the imprisoned Manson followers. In it, Waters cops to the wrong-headedness of dedicating some of his earlier movies to Mansonites. He recognizes how flippant and awful it was to do that.

Somehow, I think wanting to smack somebody for wearing a Manson t-shirt is exactly the wrong thing to do if you were against Manson and everything he stands for.
Leslie van Houten: A Friendship

[PalJoey]

Posted: 8/9/09 at 1:22pm

What does it mean if sometimes I want to smack FindingNamo?

[iflitifloat]

Posted: 8/9/09 at 1:25pm

You know, I've thought a lot about Leslie Van Houton over the past decade or so. I'd seen a documetary/interview with/about her somewhere or another. It struck me what an intelligent, articulate and likable woman she had become and it was difficult to reconcile, in my mind, that she was the same person who had been so influenced by Manson that she committed atrocities under his orders. I'd imagine that it's even more difficult for her to come to terms with that.

While I'm not quite ready to exonerate her, I can't help but see her as a victim who, at an early age got swept up in drugs and Manson's call to war. Some things just can't be undone, and there will likely be no chance for her to reinvent her life, no matter how rehabilitated. And she, arguably, IS rehabilitated and has found ways to contribute to society while in prison.

Updated On: 8/9/09 at 01:25 PM

[Pgenre]

Posted: 8/9/09 at 1:25pm

If Waters takes something back, I think we all should take it back... that is, if we participated in the late 90s Mansonmania.

Some of you may remember the actual event, but I remember the late 90s jaded, contemptible near-messianic adoration he received at the time due to the popularity he gained thanks to Marilyn Manson, Korn and other metal/goth acts that were oh-so-popular then and their material "inpsired" by him or homage.

The 90s REALLY sucked.

And Sharon Tate is the most beautiful angel in heaven. How I would have loved to see her in that red dress at the top of the stairs in DOTV like in my avatar... she and Roman fell in love on the set of the film version of DANCE OF THE VAMPIRES, which he wrote and directed, after all. Sharon WAS Sarah and the similarity of the two names is not a coincidence.

I think this event is something this generation needs to be more aware of. Manson has become "cuddly" to many of them, much like Scarface, which is dangerous and scary.

If you have any curiosity about how this event affected the artist, check out Polanski's unbelievably macabre and bloody MACBETH made within a year of the killings. Roman certainly exorcised some demons with that. I wonder if he signed on to the project before or after the event, with The Scottish Play Curse and all that? Not to be deductive or disrespectful, but I would be interested to know, particularly since the curse of the play is still supposedly seen to play out even today. If you believe in that sort of thing, that is.

For Sarah,
P

[BwayTday]

Posted: 8/9/09 at 2:03pm

heck, I'm younger, but I would NEVER wear a shirt with Manson on it.

[romantico]

Posted: 8/9/09 at 2:29pm

Finding Namo, I agree however it was a knee jerk response.I think you are right,but my point is glamorizing a murderer is sick.I see where Water's is coming from though.

Yes, The Fearless Vampire Killers is one of my all time favorite movies and Sharon was beautiful in it.

Let's not forget Susan Atkins,the woman who actually killed Sharon and laughed as she begged for her life.These people always get to me. They find God and feel everything has changed all of a sudden and all is well. Karma is a bitch and now she is terminally ill.This interview makes my blood boil.She talks about how it is difficult FOR HER TO FORGIVE Manson for what she did.So,to her Manson is the one to blame not her.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwqooUe0wC0

[Q]

Posted: 8/9/09 at 3:45pm

A friend of ours is Jay Sebring's nephew, who is working on a documentary about his uncle (who was murdered along with Ms. Tate that evening.) I've thought about and talked more about this incident recently than I ever have. What has struck me most is how, underneath all the very public effect of this tragedy, there was and is a very painful personal horror that exists for many.

[Eris0303]

Posted: 8/9/09 at 3:49pm

I wonder what sort of guilt Melcher has lived with all this time.

Son of Doris Day and her first husband, musician Al Jorden. He was adopted by her third husband, Martin Melcher, when he was 10 years old in 1952.

Was a producer for Columbia Records who once auditioned and turned down Charles Manson for a recording contract. Initially, Melcher was believed to have been the original intended victim of the grisly Manson murders on Aug 9, 1969 at a house at 10050 Cielo Drive, Beverly Hills, where Melcher had previously lived with then-girlfriend Candice Bergen. Manson had previously visited Melcher there, and on a subsequent visit had learned that Melcher had moved. Nevertheless, Manson told his followers to kill anyone they found in the house on the night Sharon Tate and her house guests died, to send Melcher a "message". The house has now been demolished.
Biography for Terry Melcher

Posted: 8/9/09 at 4:44pm

"I remember the late 90s jaded, contemptible near-messianic adoration he received at the time due to the popularity he gained thanks to Marilyn Manson, Korn and other metal/goth acts that were oh-so-popular then and their material "inpsired" by him or homage. "

HUH? Can you tell me who adored Charles Manson?

[justagirl2]

Posted: 8/9/09 at 6:06pm

This is a bit unrelated, but I wonder what happened to all those children who were conceived at the Manson Family orgies, among other things and removed by CPS? There were a lot of children living at the Spahn and Barker Ranch's.

I imagine nearly all of them were placed in foster care and later adopted. Do you think any of them know who and what their parents were? I know Charles Manson Jr. killed himself in '93, but other than that...

Fascinating and tragic story, and one that I can't read up enough on.

[romantico]

Posted: 8/9/09 at 6:45pm

LOS ANGELES -- Forty years ago, they were kids. Vulnerable, alienated, running away from a world wracked by war and rebellion. They turned to a cult leader for love and wound up tied to a web of unimaginable evil.

They were part of Charles Manson's "Family" and now, on the brink of old age, they are the haunted.

"I never have a day go by that I don't think about it, especially about the victims," says Barbara Hoyt who was 17 the summer of the Sharon Tate-LaBianca murders. "I've long ago accepted the fact it will never go away."

The ones who aren't in prison are scattered across the country. Some live under assumed names to hide their past from friends and business associates. Some have undergone surgery to remove the "X" that Manson ordered them to carve on their foreheads, showing they were "X"ed out of society. Some live with endless regret.

Those who escaped taking part in the spasm of terror that snuffed out at least nine lives would seem to be lucky. But their lives have been linked forever to one of the craziest mass murders in history.

"Manson made a lot of victims besides the ones he killed," said Catherine Share, who once lived with the Manson Family under the nickname "Gypsy." "He destroyed lives. There are people sitting in prison who wouldn't be there except for him. He took all of our lives

http://www.rr.com/news/news/article/9009/8586853/Free_Manson_family_members_haunted_by_horror

Updated On: 8/9/09 at 06:45 PM

[Q]

Posted: 8/10/09 at 12:08am

A rather in-depth look back, published in Los Angeles Magazine.
LA Magazine link.

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 8/10/09 at 1:50am

They make Charles Manson T-Shirts? What has the world come to?

I'm 23, I didn't live through the summer of 69, but having met Squeaky Fromme, and hearing the horror stories of Manson I can't imagine wanting his face on anything I own, aside from the book Helter Skelter.

[romantico]

Posted: 8/10/09 at 6:30am

I'm not sure, but wouldn't Manson profit off of any merchandise with his likeness? Yeah,it's a black shirt with his face and it said Helter Skelter.

[TulitaPepsi]

Posted: 8/10/09 at 8:44am

Why would Melcher feel guilty? He probably gives thanks every day that he wasn't killed.

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 8/10/09 at 10:38am

Wait, the shirt doesn't have his face on it?

If so, it could just be a reference to the Beatles song (granted the bigger connotation is to Manson, but to most of my age group, I'd place my bet on the Beatles reference)

[romantico]

Posted: 8/10/09 at 11:03am

No, it had his face on it. That's why I was curious if he actually gets money for merchandise. Looked it up and here it is:



Nice,huh? I discovered there is an entire line of Charles Manson merchandise.I wonder what the victim's family think when they see so many wearing shirts showing off their idol.Guess it's fashionable nowadays to worship serial killers.

















More can be found here,at his fan club. DISGUSTING!

http://charliemansonfanclub.com/NOVELTY/pages/A6010.htm

[JohnPopa]

Posted: 8/10/09 at 7:33pm

Hideous crimes of course that remind me to this day that there is pure evil in this world, pure, uncompromising evil.

The further lives of the Manson family also showed me that I do NOT believe in Christian concepts of forgiveness -- I do not believe that sins can be wiped away by embracing the teachings of Christianity (or any religion) and I do not remotely believe in a Heaven where someone like Tex Watson can apologize for his crimes and find himself in the same eternal paradise as the rest of us.

If I'm going to get strength from Faith; it's going to be because it lets me believe that in the afterlife, men like Tex Watson will atone for their crimes during their life.

[Eris0303]

Posted: 8/10/09 at 8:32pm

Why would Melcher feel guilty? He probably gives thanks every day that he wasn't killed.

While I'm sure he's glad to be alive but there has to be a part that blames himself for the murders that took place in the house he once lived in. Manson had no reason to even know of that house outside of Melcher. By all accounts the killings were meant to send him a message. It's called survivor's guilt.