When Sharon Tates sister Debra heard Quentin Tarantino was making a film about the Manson murders, she had concerns. “Was he going to glorify the Manson family members, as a lot of other film directors have done?” Debra told Vanity Fair this week, recalling her primary worry. In the five decades since her sister was brutally murdered while eight and a half months pregnant—along with Jay Sebring, Wojciech Frykowski, Abigail Folger, and Steven Parent—Debra has watched as countless film and television projects revisit he savage killings. With Tarantinos film Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood though, Tate is hopeful that audiences will realize that her sisters murderers “were not hippies…. they were people with an agenda for murder. They werent there because Charles Manson coerced them or [threatened them]….These people were there by choice.”
Charles “Tex” Watson (played by Austin Butler), who described himself as Mansons right-hand man, was 23 at the time of the murders. Before entering the home belonging to Polanski and Tate on August 8, 1969, Watson cut the telephone wires outside and shot Parent—who had been visiting a friend on the estate. Upon entering the house, Watson—reportedly the leader of the killings—announced to his victims, “I am the devil. I am here to do the devils business.” The next night, Watson and several other Manson family members killed Rosemary and Leno LaBianca at their Los Angeles home.
Watson and his accomplices Susan Atkins and Patricia Krenwinkel were later found guilty and sentenced to death. But, in 1972, the California Supreme Court invalidated the states death penalty statutes and they were given life in prison sentences with the potential for parole.
During a 2011 hearing, Watson told the family members of his victims,“My heart is filled with remorse for the tragedy I caused so many people. Im so deeply sorry that I allowed myself to get to the place of not valuing life.”
In 2016, Watson was denied parole for the 17th time. “These were some of the most horrific crimes in California history, and we believe he continues to exhibit a lack of remorse and remains a public safety risk,” Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey said. Watson remains in Mule Creek prison near Sacramento, and will be eligible for parole again in two years.
Susan Atkins (played by Mikey Madison) was 21 at the time of the savage killings. After dropping out of high school, the Carlifornia native met Manson and lived at Spahn Ranch, the 55-acre Western movie set where Manson and his so-cRead More – Source
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