SHARON TATE AND FRIENDS MURDERED AT 10050 CIELO DRIVE IN 1969

10050 Cielo Drive (now changed to 10066), Beverly Hills: the house where the Manson Family cult slaughtered actress Sharon Tate and five others (including her unborn child, Paul Richard Polanski) on August 9, 1969. The murders were the basis of the 1976 movie, "Helter Skelter."

Before the murders, this house had been the home of Henry Fonda and was the site where Cary Grant & Dyan Cannon honeymooned in 1965. (Since new buyers were reluctant to live there, in 1994, the owners tore down the original home and built a new 17,000 square foot Mediterranean villa on the same site.) See the map Here

This was a fascinating headline for long after the actual crime in 1969. Vincent Bugliosi the prosecutor of Charles Manson, wrote a really great book about it called Helter Skelter. Hollywood made their movie Helter Skelter from his book.

In February 1976 I was in Santa Monica and had the opportunity to visit 10050 Cielo Drive in Beverly Hills. The house was up a narrow curvy road and I wondered how those scruffy hippies made it up there without a wealthy neighbor calling the police.

There are homes close by. I didn't want to invade the new tenants and there was someone definitely living there then. The home looked smaller in person than in the newspapers. I climbed up on top of a terra cotta type wall near the drive way and took pictures as the neighbor's Doberman was dying to chew me to pieces. I lost my photos from back then but it looked like this up Benedict Canyon

Photo Credit

It was fascinating up there and creepy too. This was the first thing on my list of things to do when I got to California. Up closer looked like this

Jay Sebring is buried here in Southfield Michigan read his bio here on Find a Grave.

ARTHUR LEE AND LOVE: THE COOLEST BAND OUT OF SOUTH CENTRAL!!

Arthur Lee in front of Bido Lito's 

Was chatting about music last night with my pal Joe and he mentioned Arthur Lee. Sad to say...I didn't remember Arthur Lee and the band LOVE. So I went to You Tube and got the video of My Little Red Book...

Arthur Taylor Lee (born Arthur Porter Taylor; March 7, 1945 – August 3, 2006) was an American singer-songwriter who rose to fame as the frontman of the Los Angeles rock band Love, widely recognized as one of the most influential rock bands of the sixties.

Lee said when he first heard The Byrds he felt vindicated since he'd already been writing music that had a similar folk rock sound. In 1965 the Grass Roots, his folk rock unit, changed their name to Love because there was already a signed act called The Grass Roots.

Several other names were considered including Bryan MacLean's choice of Summer's Children as well as others, such as the Asylum Choir, Dr Strangelove, Poetic Justice, and the Love.

The name Love was chosen after a club audience voted it the best choice. According to Barney Hoskyns' 2001 book Arthur Lee: Alone Again Or, Manson Family member and sometime Grass Roots guitarist Bobby Beausoleil claimed that Arthur had named the band Love in honor of one of Beausoleil's nicknames, Cupid.

Arthur Lee and Jimi Hendrix

Was about to go hit up Love's lead guitarist and co-founder Johnny Echols on my FB page to see if he would do a short interview for RK. But then I found a really great interview with Johnny on my friend's page It's Psychedelic Baby!

Love's music has been described as a mixture of folk-rock, psychedelic rock, baroque pop, and Spanish-tinged garage rock... I love their version!

The group's cover of the Burt Bacharach/Hal David composition "My Little Red Book" (first recorded by Manfred Mann for the soundtrack of What's New, Pussycat?) received a thumbs-down from Bacharach: Love had altered the song's chord changes.

MANSON FAMILY MEMBER LESLIE VAN HOUTEN STAYS IN PRISON

From left, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten

Sorry a wee bit slow on this news. Governor Jerry Brown refused parole to Manson girl Leslie Van Houten this past January. There were tons of fake news stories about Van Houten being released so I verified it and thought I would share it this in case any of you missed it too. xK

NBC NEWS LOS ANGELES — The governor of California once again denied parole Friday for Leslie Van Houten, the youngest follower of murderous cult leader Charles Manson who blamed herself at her parole hearing for letting him control her life.

Gov. Jerry Brown said in his decision that Van Houten still lays too much of the blame on Manson, who died two months ago at 83.

Brown acknowledged that Van Houten's youth at the time of the crime, her more than four decades as a model prisoner and her abuse at the hands of Manson make it worth considering her release.

"However," he wrote in his decision "these factors are outweighed by negative factors that demonstrate she remains unsuitable for parole."

The 68-year-old Van Houten is serving life for the murders of wealthy grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary, when Van Houten was 19. They were stabbed a day after other Manson followers killed pregnant actress Sharon Tate and four other people in Los Angeles.

MANSON FOLLOWERS DENIED PAROLE AGAIN

ABC NEWS: Officials denied parole Thursday for convicted killer Patricia Krenwinkel — a follower of cult leader Charles Manson — after considering whether battered women's syndrome affected her state of mind at the time of the notorious murders nearly five decades ago in California.

Krenwinkel, 69, was previously denied parole 13 times for the slayings of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and four other people.

The next night, she helped kill grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary in what prosecutors say was an attempt by Manson to ignite a race war.

The decision on parole came six months after commissioners postponed the latest hearing so officials could investigate whether Krenwinkel was battered by Manson.

"They were willing to discount the level of control through the violence, threats, intimidation that was substantiated by their own investigators," Krenwinkel's attorney, Keith Wattley, said after the hearing. READ FULL STORY HERE

This woman is a monster': Sister of Manson murder victim Sharon Tate lashes out at Leslie van Houten after former beauty queen turned killer becomes eligible for parole

This is why Debra has started a petition on Change. org hoping to obtain enough signatures for California Governor Jerry Brown to deny Van Houten's parole.

LOS ANGELES — California Gov. Jerry Brown on Friday night blocked parole for Charles Manson follower and convicted killer Bruce Davis.

Brown’s rejection issued late Friday night is the fifth time Davis has been recommended for parole by a state panel only to see it blocked by a governor, and continues Brown’s unflinching pattern of refusing to allow anyone from Manson’s “family” to be freed.

On Feb. 1, the parole panel recommended release for the 74-year-old Davis, who is serving a life sentence for the 1969 slayings of musician Gary Hinman and stuntman Donald “Shorty” Shea. Davis was not involved in the more notorious killings of actress Sharon Tate and six others by Manson’s group. READ MORE

MANSON PROSECUTOR VINCENT BUGLIOSI HAS DIED

Prosecutor of the Manson family and author of Helter Skelter, Vincent Bugliosi has died at age 80. He was assigned an impossible task in prosecuting Manson and his "family" and emerged the victor to the relief of millions of Americans. 


Bugliosi, who went on to become a best-selling true crime writer, co-authoring the compelling account “Helter Skelter” about the Manson murders and the sensational trial that followed, died Saturday in a Los Angeles hospital.

He had had health issues in recent years and the cancer that he had overcome three years ago had recently returned and metastasized, according to his wife, Gail.

MANSON KILLER PAROLE BLOCKED BY JERRY BROWN

The parole board voted to release this convicted killer.....

Former Manson Family member Bruce Davis, who was sentenced to life in prison for two 1969 murders but was granted parole this year, was ordered on Friday to remain behind bars by California Governor Jerry Brown who rejected the decision to free him.

Governor of California, Jerry Brown has blocked the parole of Manson family killer Bruce Davis, right, in December 1970, and left in 2013. Davis completed a doctorate in religious studies while incarcerated, is active in peer counseling and has a near-spotless prison record. His last disciplinary write-up was in 1980. (Associated Press)

Jerry Brown reversed a parole board's March decision that there would be no danger to the public in releasing Bruce Davis, convicted of two murders as well as conspiracy to commit murder.

Davis has been serving a life sentence in a California state prison since his 1972 conviction for the murders of music teacher Gary Hinman, who was stabbed to death in July 1969, and stunt man Donald “Shorty” Shea, who was killed the following month. read more LA TIMES

CLAUDINE LONGET/TATE/LABIANCA DEFENSE ATTORNEY DEAD AT 86

26, 1971

Attorney Charles Weedman talks with officer 

prior to Grogan trial on August 26, 1971

LOS ANGELES, Calif. - Charles Weedman, a Los Angeles lawyer who gained international fame representing singer Claudine Longet (lahn-ZHAY') in the shooting death of her ski champion lover, has died.

Claudine Longet and Charles Weedman in Aspen, Colo.1976,  (Associated Press)

Read my story on Longet HERE

Charles Weedman was also one of the defense attorneys in the Manson Family/Tate/LaBianca trials.

Weedman's son, Jonathan, says the 86-year-old criminal defence lawyer died Wednesday night after a five-year bout with Parkinson's disease.

Longet was charged with manslaughter in the killing of Olympic skier Vladimir (Spider) Sabich in Aspen, Colorado, in 1976.

Mr. Dominick Dunne spoke about the murder of Spider Sabitch and I quote..."Claudine and Andy Williams got one of the best defense attorneys to defend her, and his name was Charles Weedman from LA."