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♪ dr. jordan: charles manson may not have been there, but he had given them very specific instructions, "before you leave, leave a sign." susan atkins picks up a towel and dips it in the blood of sharon tate, and on the front door of the house writes the word, "pig." reporter: in a scene described by one investigator as reminiscent of a weird religious rite, five persons including actress sharon tate, were found dead. sidner: incredibly, 19-year-old william garretson, the fill-in caretaker, had been just 25 yards away, in the guesthouse, when these five people were murdered the night before. wiehl: the police take william garretson into custody, and he becomes suspect number one. shelley: as l.a. homicide detectives are looking, one of the strangest things was a statement written in blood.
he wanted a blood bath. kay: and manson told the women, "do whatever tex tells you to do." do you know why they picked sharon tate? -no. -was that purely bad luck? i know now that it had something to do with terry melcher. kay: manson knew that terry melcher and candice bergen didn't live there anymore, but he wanted to send a message to them. "there but for the grace of god go you." ♪ [ insects chirping ] [ dog barks in distance ] ♪ sidner: at 10050 cielo drive, sharon tate and her friends, jay sebring, abigail folger, and wojciech frykowski, are settled in for the night. ♪ 25 yards away from the main house, in the separate guesthouse, the fill-in caretaker, william garretson, has decided to stay in.
sidner: virginia and another inmate, who also heard this story from susan atkins, both decided to report the manson follower's stunning admission to police. kay: they came forward at about the same time, calling independently of each other, calling hollywood homicide. sidner: virginia says that one thing in particular susan told her compelled her to talk to police. susan had told virginia graham that the plan of the family was to seek out celebrities to murder them. and the one i recall in particular was, they were going to murder frank sinatra. graham: they were going to skin him alive and make purses out of it and sell it on hollywood boulevard. and elizabeth taylor, they were going to remove her eyes. sidner: this hit list of stars susan atkins tells virginia about also includes singer tom jones and steve mcqueen.
"are you going to ask me questions like," and he put his hand around my neck, "is this where i hold the knife to women's throats?" it was really creepy. these murders would never have taken place if it had not been for charles manson. but i also think you have to realize that these murders would probably have not taken place if the actual killers did not want to kill. and he was like the catalyst that brought that hostility to the surface. sidner: susan atkins died of brain cancer in prison in 2009. but five of his former followers are still behind bars in california -- charles "tex" watson, leslie van houten, patty krenwinkel, bruce davis, and bobby beausoleil. they are struggling to get out to be on parole, and that's the sad part of it. we're still all this time later, and we're now having to fight to keep them in prison.
♪ sidner: former family member barbara hoyt is torn about whether she should testify against manson. his followers try to keep her from talking. they threatened my family that what had happened at sharon tate's house would happen at mine. she was overdosed with lsd by another manson follower, who was trying to keep her from testifying. it gave her a bad trip but didn't kill her. i knew what to do then. she testified and was a great witness. dr. jordan: during the presentation of evidence, october 5, 1970, the prosecution is presenting testimony of a detective, and charles manson takes it upon himself to stand up and demand of the judge that he wants to cross-examine the witness. and before you knew it -- bingo -- he was leaping toward the judge. a bailiff tackled him in midair. he had a pencil in his hand, like a knife. and he yells at the judge,
it was hard to tell his facial features at all. wiehl: when the police look in the driveway, they see a car. in the car, there is a body of a young man who has been both shot and stabbed. roberts: it was inexplicable because there was no apparent motive. ♪ sidner: as lapd investigators attempt to make sense of all this death, they suddenly hear a sign of life. [ dog barks ] they hear a dog barking. [ barking continues ] so that alerts them to the guesthouse. ibly19-year-old [william garretson, ] the fill-in caretaker, had been just 25 yards away in the guesthouse when these five people were murdered the night before.
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but he had a reason to laugh. he was relieved. no one had any idea that they had anything to do with tate and labianca. and they've got the wrong date on the search warrant. so all of them are now released. sidner: what some of his followers don't realize is that charlie had groomed a violent hit squad within the family. lake: leslie and susan and patty were telling me how they participated. leslie said she stabbed somebody over and over again, even though they were already dead. when i found out that tex had murdered, it was like the rug had been pulled out from under me. i had no idea that i was sitting amongst the murderers. charlie was getting threatening, and he was quite -- he was mean.
graham: supposing she had gotten out and then did the terrible things that she was saying. i just had to speak up. well, that broke the case. davis: information from the two separate investigations of the tate and labianca cases led detectives to the conclusion that the crimes in both cases were committed by the same group of people. shelley: susan atkins is now hauled before a grand jury. but when she took the stand, she actually denied that she stabbed sharon tate and said she held sharon tate while tex did the stabbing. nobody really knows which version is true. saying that i had killed sharon tate, i tried to take some of the blame and put it on myself because i thought that was my part. sidner: atkins also names fellow manson family members patricia krenwinkel, linda kasabian,