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,
and leslie van houten as key participants in the tate and labianca murders, all under manson s direction. what susan atkins said was so important, that the prosecution at the time made a deal with her to testify. reporter: the leader of the hippie clan, charles manson, is being returned to los angeles today from the desert town where he s been in jail on other charges. when the trial begins, the state will attempt to prove that he gave the orders to his followers to kill. that sent a tremor through this country at the time. my god, how is this possible? has the hippie movement gone that awry that it s starting to murder people? sidner: the los angeles district attorney appoints vincent bugliosi lead prosecutor on the case against manson. the prosecutor considers these murders to be perhaps the most heinous in modern history.
the savagery of them, the mind control. sidner: charles manson and some of his closest followers face seven counts of murder, and one count conspiracy to commit murder. guinn: we now look back at it and think it was a foregone conclusion that they were gonna be convicted. they re guilty as hell. and yet it never was that certain. dr. jordan: you re trying a man for multiple counts of murder, and he wasn t there and he didn t even pick up any of the murder weapons. guinn: vincent bugliosi he could always be certain that he would eventually convict tex watson, and patricia krenwinkel, susan atkins, leslie van houten. there was evidence linking them to the crimes that any jury would see. but charles manson, that was the hard one. his defense was, i had nothing to do with it, they were doing what they wanted to. how can you blame me?
the jury hearing the charges against charles manson and three girl members of his so-called family brought in its verdict this afternoon. wiehl: they found him guilty of all the crimes, all the conspiracy counts, all the murder counts. they were all sentenced to death. and then watson, in his trial, was sentenced to death. aren t we all born to die? shelley: charlie manson shaved his head, and the followers shaved their heads in solidarity. this city is going to be burning very soon. this city is coming down. this city is falling. babylon is going to fall. sidner: manson and the others are placed on death row. bugliosi: but, the very next year, the california supreme court
wiehl: roman polanski was a very famous director at that time, sharon tate, an up-and-coming young actress. sidner: sharon tate and roman polanski had met three years earlier, on polanski s film, the fearless vampire killers, in london. i i m going to save you. we ll go away together. she was a stunningly beautiful young woman. as one person said to me, she literally turned heads when she walked down the street. sharon and roman were married in london in january 1968. the newlyweds had moved into 10050 cielo drive just a year after they had gotten married. one of the main reasons why they rented a house was because they were about to have a baby. kay: sharon was just so looking forward to being a mom and having the child. sidner: but for his film projects, roman often needs to travel.