Susan Atkins Tells of Slaying Orgy (Dec. 20, 1969)-1

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WINNIPEG F R E E P R E S S ,S AT U R D AY,

S U S A NA T K I N ST H I S O FS L AY I N GO R G Y

H o w D o I F e e l ? ...I F e e l D e a d !World Copyright 1969 by Susan

Atkins and Lawrence Schiller. AMRights Reserved. Publication with-out written permission prohibited.)

By S U S A N ATKINS

One day alittle ma n c a m einwith a guitar an d startedsingingfor a groupof us intha t

to target practice without onth e r a n c h .

I know i t was a h e a v y gun.Like a western gu n. I don't seea picture in my mind rightn o w .

W e drove up to the house ,turned the car around andparked i tbetweenth e gate an d

Mdhere."

So I took out my knife and Iwent in andstood by Abiga i lFolger'sbed, and said: "Go out

them ° Ut Then She began be ^»>S me to : "Tex, I can't killher. I 'vegotlet he r go so she couldh a v eher j hera r m s .You do it.baby and wow I realized shewa s pregnant . A flash in themidst of alltha t ! . '

,, i. . r *, , • iivuii. .-viju again, aim dgajl

the hyingt room. D on tas k j Kat ie wa s calling for me to! I th rew another towel

Katie couldn't kili her either.So Tex stabbed her — in the

[hear t . Andaga in ,an d aga in .an y ques t ions ."

I went into SliaronTate ' sroom an d told her and the man

place wherewe were living,in I a neighbor's house.We got out I o go out in thel i v ingroomHaight-Ashbury in San Fran-1 of th ?, car and got the boltcut-cisco. And as he saing, the songtha t h i t me hardes t was TheShadow ofYour Smile. Evenbefore I saw h im,while I wasstill in the kitchen, his voicejust hypnotized me —mes-merized me.. Then when I sawh i m , I fell absolutely inlove

ter. Tex climbed up the tele-phone pole and snipped twowires, hoping thatthey weretelephone wires.I guess theywere. Th e lights in the housestayed on .

Then we gotb n c k in thecar,drove down the hill and parked" car at thebase of the h U I ,with him. I found o ut later h i s , , . .....

n a m e was Char les Manson .B u t | b u t a , ll . ttle . wa J' s

he had other names , too ,and so would nt look

ivouldI.

"P so it

guess the th ree ofwent a long so eas i ly becausethey were pre t ty much te r r i fiedby w h a twa s goingon .

Af te r tha t every th ing jus tgo twild. I 'm no tsure of the order

he lp her becauseAbiga i l w asbigger than Kat ie , and Kat ieha d long hair which she was

pulling.So I called to Tex to dosomething.

Te x came back in tothe housean d reached up to s tabFolger,

overSharon's head. I think it couldhave fallen over Jay Sebr ing ' shead. too.I didn't even look— I

just threw it.B ut Sharon Tate wa s lying

wri te on the door by Tex was

So I proceeded to take myhand an d write "Pig" with th etowel, and I threw th e towelback into the house, and ranouts ide .I was thelast to leavethe house .

I ran to thef ron t gate . Te xan d Katie already were stand-ing on theother side. Then, the

in which it all happened. I cansaid:an d she looked at him and

curled up near thecouch , and |next thing I k n e w, Ihi s and her heads probably s tanding there , too .were close together. We walke d toward the car

He gave me nothing but love,complete love, gave me theanswers to all myquestionsI'veever had in my mind. Thiswhole world and everybo dy andeverything in it has been God'sg a m e , an d tha t game is jus tabout to come to anend.Judgment Day fo re v e ry h u m a nbeing on the face of theearth iscoming.

But that night I met Charliein tha t house on Lime Streets, Ihad no idea Iwould' be therewhen God's game ended forSharon Tate, with me holdingher in myarms.

An w when it was all over, Ididn't want to goback in thathouse ,bu t something mademego. I went over to Sharon Tate ,an d I flashed, wow,there's aliving being in there. I wantedto, but I couldn't bring myse l fto cut her open an d take the

there in the neighborhood.W e walked up thehill to tha t

W e didn't touch thegate be -cause we didn ' tk n o wif it waselectrified ornot. Whethertherewa s an a la rm system that wedid 'n t want to set off.

W e saw a fence up a slopef rom th e r o a d w a y, and wedecided to try that. Well,wec l imbed up the hill andtherewas a place where we couldclimb over the fence.

Over FenceSo we went over the fence ,

the four of us. And all of asudden we saw a light comingou t a long th e dr iveway insideth e grounds.

We knew it was a car. Te xtold us to laydown and bestill.So we alljus t did exactly whathe said.Just laid down andkeptquiet.

only see it inf lashes .Bu t it seems that Tex tied the

three of them — Sebring,Sharon and Miss Folger —toge ther. W oundth e r o p earound and around them, thenthrew it over a beam so I couldpull it tight.

A nd then, the way it f lashesn o w , i t was allpanic .

Te x Shot Hi m

"You 've go t me. I giveup."

Bu t he stabbed he r a n y w a y,an d sh e fell to the floor. fthinkhe s tabbed her in thes tomachbecause I saw her grab downthere .

Then Tex went back outside,because theother man w as on

"Get out," Te x ye l l ed . Jus tl ike tha t .

How longwere we in there?Ti m e ? W h oknows t ime? F iveminutes :Twenty minutes : Timehas no meaning. (Police esti-mate thes layersspent ab out 25minutes inside the man sion.

A f t e r Tex yelled, we,Kat iean d I, went runn ingoutside

,but we couldn'tse e Linda . Wet h o u g h t she had disappeared.W e didn ' t know where shewas.W e called forher. But not tooloudly.

Char l i e — I guess th roughTex — had instructed us to goto the neighbors' houseand dothe same th ing , what we had

looking fo r Linda becausewe ; ]cft .lone in th e place we had just

th e lawn, still runningca l l ing fo r help, an d

an dTe x

' •What ' sgoing on?" Ja y Seb- ih i m ., proceeded to con t inue killing

baby. I knew it was living, I i And . J ust as ihe car drove into-- - -- our sight — I couldn't actually

sec what happened — but Iheard Te x say:

"Stop. Halt."Then Tex had a gun onthis

youngboy (S tevenParent ) ,an d1 heard the boysay:

"Please, don't hurt m e . Iwon ' tsay anyth ing ."

Then the gunw e n t of f fourt imes , and Tex came back andsaid:

"Comeon."An d we proceededto go, but

Linda 1 hard ly knew. She 'di th e >' oun g boy who was killed in

k n e wit wouldn ' tlive . . .That night that C harlie in-

structed us to go to Sharon's,we were still l iving up at theSpahn ranchin Cha tswor th . Wehadn ' moved out to D e a t hValley yet.

Char l i einstructedme and Tex(Char lesWatson) ,a girl byth en a m e of Linda (Kasabian)an dKat ie — that's Patricia Kren-winkel.

Hardly Knew He r

ring sa id , and proceeded toadvance onTex. I don ' t knowhow he gotloose. And Texshoth i m . and he fell on the floor. I

| think hefell on his side, becauseI saw him lying on his side.

An d then Sharon went througha few "changes ,"quite a few"changes." f mean, her fac ia lexpressions.Wo w !

"Oh, m y God, no," sh e said.Miss Folgerdidn ' t say anyth ing .Sh e jus t stood there,just stoodthere .

The man on the couch — Ihadn't done a very good job oftying him up with tha t towel Ifound in thebathroom— and hekept workingto get it loose.Eviden t lyI w a n t e dthe man to

I still must have had theheadlockon Sharon whenTe xcame back. And he told me itlooked like she wanted to sitdown.

So I took he r over and sa tdown on the couch. Shesa id :"All I w a n t to do is h a v e m ybaby."

I knew I had to saysomething

to he r beforeshe got hysterical.Ar.d while I was talking to her,I knew everythingI was say ing— I was saying to mysel f . Iwasn't talking to her, bu tmyself.

"Woman, I have no mercy foryou," I told her, an d that wa smyself talking onlyto me.

Then the Folger girl started

couldn't seeher, but we d idn ' tyell too loud for fear of beingheard by neighbors .

W h e n Tex cameout, I said:"Tex, do you have my knife?"He said no. I asked Katie:"Do you have my kni fe?"She said no, and the paranoia

go t big, and I tried to shush itby saying to myself: "Lindamust have my knife. I think Igaveit toher."

Then Te x ordered m e:"Sadie. (She was somet imes

known to members of the groupas Sadie Glutz) Go back andwrite somethingon the door."

I didn ' t wantto go backintothat house.I didn't wantto goback , but someth ing madem e.

I got the towe l that I had tiedth e man ' s hands wi th ,and Iw e n tover to Sharon Tate.

And I flashed.Wow, there ' sa

only been at theranch a littlewhile, and I never di d find ou the r las t name. But names meannoth ing .We change them, jus tlike we change who we arefrom one day toanother. W echange our expressions, ourclothes. If you don ' t change ,you ' renothing.Katie has go tlong, beautiful,th ick brown hai r, an d it comesdown almost to her waist . . .themiddle of her back, and it justcovers he r whole head. She ' sgo t blue eyes, pretty blue eyes,very a t t rac tive ,an d large ears.Sh e has hair growing down herneck , and very ha i ry arms andlegs.full .

Bu t Katie's very grace-

Well, Charlie instructedus togo to this particular house andgave us a car, a 1958 or '59Chevy, and told us toge t tw ochanges of clothes, basicallyblack.

We had been buying black'clothes for what we call creepy

the car — his death, Ifelt veryba d about it when I saw it hadhappened .

An d all of a sudden I found Iwa s at the f ron tdoor . . . well,there's a window right next toit.

Tex, he lifted up and opened

the window,climbed inside an dw e n t around an d opened th efront door.

W e had no idea ho w m a n ypeoplewere in the house. Whe nwe go t into the living room,there was a man (WociechTrykowski ) sleeping on thecouch. The back o f hishead wa sfac ing me. He had on a kind ofa "mod" outfit; th e pants fittedl o w.

Te x went up to thecouch an dthe manwoke up , thinking — Iguess — that it was a friend ofhis. He said :

crawlies. We'd go around andereepy-crawliepeople's houses.W e wouldnt take anything.Justfor theexperience of gettingthefear an d bringing ourselvesou tof it.

Acturallly, heinstructedus inth e details throughTex. H e jus ttold me to doeverything Te xsaid to do. Charlie had controlover everybody,bu t usually, infac t all the time, he said, "Youpeople arc not mypeople.Y oubelongto yourse lvesand you dow h a tyou want to do."

I neverquestionedw h a t Char-lie sa id .I just did it.

And he ins t ruc tedus to get

"What timeis t?"An d Tex stood in front with

: the gun andsaid:"Don ' tmove or you ' re dead ."Then Tex motioned for us to

come an d stand behind thecouch. Just Katie and I hadgone in. Weleft Lindaoutsidetolisten for sounds. It surprisedm e that nobody heard thegunshots that killed theyoungboy. B ut they weren ' t tha tloud.It was aquiet gun.

A n d , anyway, Tex told me togo down the hall andcheck th eo therrooms.

So I went downthe hall an dfound a bedroom. I went in, andt h i s girl (AbigailFolger) pu tdown the book she was reading,an d looked at me. I smiled andwaved .

I k n e w t h e y " turnedon," us t

ge t a w a y. I don't know— 11 staggeringoutside,and Tex and living beingin there . I w a n t e dguess I was th ink ing t h a t| Katle went a , fter hcr - B "t I'm to, but I couldn ' t b r ingmyse l f

' ' t o cu t her open and taketh ebaby, I knew it was living, Iknew it wouldn't l ive.. .

I could h e a r th e blood insidehe r body gurg l ing . It wasn ' t avery pre t ty sound.I k n o wno wthat 's called the deathra t t le .

A nd I readhed down andtu rned my head awayf romher.Then I touched her chest with

the clothes and ourkn ives ,an d : Cokingat the house. They hidesuch an d such , and the four of : n from society,bu t just lookingus got in the car and started ; at them ' l knew they used nar-

cotics. I guess sh e thought Iwas a f r i end .

So, then, 1 looked in the otherbedroom and saw SharonTatean d th e younger man, theshorter m an — JaySebring.Sh ewa s in a see-throughshortienigh tgown,wear ing a kind ofhal te r unde rnea th i t.

Just TalkingBut theywere jus tt a lk ing and

didn ' tsee me.

going to this place.Then Te x explained th e situ-

a t ion to us, but honestly, I hadno knowledgeof w h a t wa s hap-pening untilwe gotthere .

Tex told me tha t he andChar l i e had beer, up tot h a thouse before —tha t ' s wh y theychose the house.Te x toid methe house used to belong to Mr.Melcher. That's Terry MelcherDoris Day'sson. Bu t he saidtha t Mr. Melcher d idn ' tl ivethere an y more .

But the reason Char l i epickedj room and told Tex:th e house was toinsti l lf e a r into ' 'There ' s t h r e eTerry Me lcher because Ter ry there . "ht 'd given his word on a f e w ; ' And so hetold me to golookth ings and never cam eth roughj for the ba throom and ge t a

t owe land t i e up the man on thecouch. I couldn ' t find it at

firsl , but I finally did. It was abig house.

I came back outto the living

more in

with them.So Charlie wanted to put some

fear into him, let him know thatvdiat Charlie said was the wayit is.

Blew MindI had no idea whol ived in the

house when we weredr iv inguhere , not when we got there,an d no t a f t e r it was all over.I ; theredon ' t

subconsc ious ly.I wasn ' t t h ink-in g co sciouslyat all .

But Tex said to him a g a i n :"Where ' s your money?"Then Sharon orAbiga i l , I

c a n ' t pet a picture of whichnew, sa id :

"My m oney ' s in my wal le t . "Tex instructedme to go get it j

out of her wallet. And I untiedher and she led me back to thebedroom,and I told her:

"You get it out."Sh e handedme $ 72 or $73, and

said that's all she had, an da s k e d :

"Do you w a n t m y creditcards?"

I said no . Then I proceededtolead he r back into th e livingroom and tied her back up andpu t the rope back over th eb e a m .

One of theladiescr ied:"Wha t are yo u going to do

withus?"Te x said:"Youre all goingto die."This caused immediate panic.

An d Tex ordered me to kill thebig man on the couch.Well , Iw e n t over to h im and I ra i sedmy kn i fe— and Ihesitated.

A n d , as I hesitated, hereached up and grabbed myhai r and started pulling myhair. So I had to fight for myl ife, as fa r as I wasconcerned.

W e fell agains t a chair thatwa s next to the couch. He wasfightingand I waskicking him.I was all of a sudden fightingfor mylife. Wow!

Self-DefenceThen I proceeded to stab him

five or six times in the leg —but I would say it was inself-defence . I luckily enough had

th e kn i f e in my hand, becausethe man was b ig andwith on ewhack , he could have— wow.-

A nd then whi le this wa s goingon , Abiga i l wa s getting losean d f igh t ing with Kat ie : an dLinda , wefound out l a te r,h e a r dson ic noise an d went backdownan d sat in th e c a r, so we had nowatch fo r theoutside.

Wel l , as this went on, all thisconfusion, I jus t don ' t remem-be r what happened . Except— Iremember see ing the man I hads tabbed , trying to go outside.He was yelling — he wasye l l ingfor hi s life.

I was ha nging onto h im, It h ink , and I yelled:

"Tex , he lp me. Do some-thin.?."

Then , in the exc i tement . Texm u s t have shothim in theb a c k ,as he wa s r u n n i n g out, thenfollowed him and hit himo v e rthe head wi th th e but t of theg u n . It broke t he - gu n hand lean d th e gu n wouldn ' t work an ymore . So he began s tabbingH iem a n .

Whi le he was s tabbing , th e

m;m was sti l l screaming . I' mno one h e a r d any-

i.ot sure tha t Kat ie wentoutside,either.

I jus t s tayed there withSharon , she was soquie t , an dTe x came back in and sa id :

"Kill her." Jus t like that,hesa id : "Killher."

Then Katie, like an echo,sa id :

"Killher."I reached to grab hold of j the towel to get sonVe blood

Sharon's arms but I didn ' t- and I proceeded to go to thew a n t to kill her. I held ontohe r door, and the only thing Ia r m s ,and sa id : remember be ing ins t ruc tedto

Here's CastIn Drama

W e w e n t to push the buttont h a t opens the neighbors' gate.Tex pushed the but ton , but Idon't thinkhe used hisfingers.Ith ink he used his arm orsomething. I just can't tell whywe didn ' t go through withit. Ican't see it now,can ' t flash itin to mymind.

But we-p ickedup our clotheswhich we had stashed by theg ; > t e — we knelt down an dpicked up our second changeofclothes. Then we walked downto where the car was, walkednot tooconspicuous.

An d when we got to the carthere was Linda in it already,with her second clothes. She hadbegun to start the car, and Textold her to getover. He said,excuse the express ion:

"What the — do you thinkyou ' redoing?"

W e all got into th e car, an dthere was nothingbut just . . .exhaus t ion .

Changed ClothesAn d we all had blood on us.

S U S A N ATKINS

go t iii. the oldw o m a n still was I went into w h a t I call th ejabber ing a w a y to the old, t ra i le r, ah area loca ted next toma " : Hie Spahn house ,an d there w as

Take down their l icense, this l i t t leTV inthere ,n u m b e r. " | i tu rnedon then e w s an d tha t

But the old mansaid he d idn ' tSo we changed ou r clothes in have any th ing to wri te it down

'

o n e . No t 'til th e n e x t da y when yo u w a n t ?Who arey o u ? "it came overTV . When I sawIh e f aces aga in— i t b lew m y j

surpr i sedI was shaking so bad It h ing ,

couldn ' tt i e h i s hands . But I go t| T h e m a n w a spre t ty m u c hthe towel around, even thoughI ; hr l f dead on the porch — tha t ' s

where a l l the blond was, Iimagine—before heever got tothe l awn.

Wel l , Sharon wa s s ta r t ing toge t loosefrom th e rope, an d th eFolger girl already had brokenloose and was f igh t ing withKat ie . I was jus t s tanding therew a t c h i n g .There wasn ' t much

couldn ' tpull ittight.A nd he wasjus t— he was jus t

so petrified he just laid downan d didn ' t sav a word .

" What d ° y° U want?

. ,An d Te x sa id :"I 'm th e dev i l . I 'm here to do

mmd - - : t he dev i l ' sbus iness .We w a n ta l l ; i could°do b e c a u s e ' TcouTdn'iA s ue drove Te x began e x - j > o u r m o n e y. Where ' s yourf i n d m v k n i f e

f o r Tw ^ h SHet"UPf°

f M 6 ,h ° USe ! moncy? " T cou ' dn ' t find il " h e n «-e l e f tfo i us We had a set ofbolt cut- He sa id : ; so I figured tha t I had lost it in

f"urVach%Tof ndT ^ ad ! , " M> ' m ° ney ' S " he Wa " et ° n i lh e ^ which t eV 'akn i fe I' m not Tr i, *, , V ' th e dcsk "'" P aranoia ">to me as we l e f t .-u n Te x had u/s Ph 6 •'•' th ° , T" 'Old " e '° g ° over and ! Bllt an>'wa>" . I ™ n t o v e rand*un lex na d was Char l i es o r. look at th e desk ,an d 1 sa id : go t Sharon and put her in a

" l e x . i t 's no t there . " l ieadlock. She didn'tfight me. IA n dt hen Texsa id : ! us t he ld her. A t t imes it

Go in and ge t t he o the ri s e e m e dso easv.

": ^ I know Is that « " • ?^as used in previous kill ingsand that il was the gun he used

(World Copyright 1969 by Susan Atkins andLawrence Schiller. A ll Bights Reserved. Pub-

lication Without Written Permission Prohibited)These are the principals involved in the story

related here by Susan Atkins.

CHARLES 31. MANSOX, 35 — Fierce-eyed pied-piper of an occult hippie tribe connected with theslaughter last August of actress Sharon Tate and sixothers. Born out of wedlock and the product of awretched childhood, he has spent most of his l ife inreformatory, prison or jail . Members of the nomadicclan he began gathering around him upon his releasefrom a California penitentiary almost three years agospeak of him as "Jesus," "God" and "satan," andslavishly do his bidding. He is under indictment for theTate and La B ianca murders.

CHARLES (TEX) WATSON, 24 — A former highschool honor student and star athlete now in jail toMcKinney, Texas. He is under indictment for the mur-ders, but is resisting extradition to Los Angeles.

PATRICIA KRENWINKEL, 21 — An attractivebrune t te whose mother and father are divorced. She gotinvolved with th e Manson cult in San Francisco'sHaight-Ashbury District not long a f t e r graduatingfrom a Los Angeles high school three years ago. Herfa ther is an insurance agent in the Los Ange les suburbof Inglewood. He r mother resides in Alabama whereMiss Krenwinkc l was seized. Jailed in Mobile, Alabama,she, too, is resisting extradition and i s under ind ic tmen tfor the murders. She was known to cult members as"Katie."

LINDA K A S A B I A N , 20 — Also the product of abroken home. She spent an unhappy New Englandchildhood under the wing of her stepfather and thendropped out of high school at 16 to marry. Tha t unionsoured in just a few months . A second marriage led herto California and, after separation from hc r husband,brought he r into contact with th e Manson band. No wfive months pregnant, she was seized in her hometownof Milford, Ne w Hampshire, an d voluntarily returned toLos AngeJes where she is under indictment fo r themurders.

SHARON TATE, 2(i — B eau t i fu l b londe f i lmactress who died in the August 9 murder orgy at theBenedict Canyon estate which she and her husband,Polish f i lm director Koman Polanski, had rented sev-era l months earlier. Th e f i lm-maker was in London atthe t ime. She was 8'i months p regnan t when slain.

A B I G A I L (GIBBV) FOLGER, 26 — Heiress toth e Folger coffee fortune, jet-setter and Miss Tate'shouse guest.

JA Y SEBRING, 35 — Once Miss Tate's fiance, helater became a close friend of the actress' directorhusband. A Hol lywood ha i r stylist, he was credited wi thlaunching th e trend tov/ard hair s ty l ing fo r men.

WOCIECH (VOI1YCK) FRYKOWSKI , 37 — Po-l ish playboy who was Miss Folger's lover. A boyhoodf r i end of Po lansk i , he ass i s ted th e famed d i rec to rdur ing his early f i lm-making .

STEVE PARENT, 18 — A resident o f the u n d i s t i n -gu i shed Lo s Angeles suburb of El Monte, who exper-ienced the mis fo r tune of v i s i t ing the young caretaker ofth e Tate -Po lansk i estate the night of the butchery. j

LENO, 44, AND ROSEMARY LABIANCA, 38 —He was a wealthy supermarke t owner ; she was hiswife . They were slain one night a f t e r the Tate murdersin the i r home in a fashionable mid-Los Angeles ne igh-borhood.

th e car as we were dr iving. 1wa s in the rightr e a r seat, andTex was dr iv ing .

W e went for aride to look fora place to d u m p th e bloodyblack clothes. We drove along as teep embankment .I've got apicture in my mind and all i tshows me is the side of amounta inand a road. I jus t satin the backseat, slumped down.

i I don't r e m e m b e r where wewere — and Ididn ' t pay anya t ten t ion .

Linda had all theweapons—all but my knife — up in th ef ron tsea t ,and Texasked:

"Does anyb ody have a white

Tex got in the car and startedi t , and the man came up andreached in to t ake th e keys ,ev ident ly knowingsometh ingsuspiciouswas going on.

Te x flooded th e motor, bu tt h e n got it going, put it in lowan d took off. Practically broke

was thefirst thing that hit.I went wi ld ,and. quick- l ike ,

ran out and gotKat ie an d toldher to come watch televisionwith me, i t was on the news . Icalled Lindain and Icalled Te xin and I called Clemin , becauseClem k n e w a b o u ti t — he hadbeen in the bimkhousewhen wegot back.

Char l i ewasn ' t awake .the oldman 's hand ,f rom w h a tI j Wewatchedth e newscas t ,an dr c - i i l f lt p l l n 1.I..J _ .• ! , _ i . , . .ould tell . it kind of — it really helpedme

to know that the people were asimpor tan t as they were. It

The idea wastha t we wouldth row the rag out theroad sideo f th e car, whi le we werethrowing the stuff out the

| window downthe e m b a n k m e n t .Then , if anybody c a m e by ,they'd just be distracted bytha twhi te rag and notnotice th estuff going downth e e m b a n k -ment .

Oh , vvhee-ee-ee. I can ' t re -m e m b e rif anyonehad a whiterag or not.

But we stopped, and Linda gotout of thecar, I'm sure of that,and threw all the clothes, alldrippy with blood, andTex's

i gun and theknives — as far asI she could — over the side of theembankment , downa ravine, Iguessyou'd call it.

I don't knowho w long it took.Or where we drove then. Or forho w long after that.I have noidea . We drove a round qui te ab i t . I wasn ' t pay ing any a t ten-t ion. I wasjus t s tunned .

But we con t inued to dr iveu n t i l we go t down to ares iden t i a l a r e a — I know itw;is close to Sunse t Boulevard .W n f l i p p e ddown a coup le ofside s t ree t s to look for a d a r khnusc and wef o u n done .

Strange Housejus t Hashed ,wow, thatw as {re'alfy"blew my mind,a strange houseto pick , out ofi And all ofus watching made

all the houses — and then w e! a fe w comments , l ike— well,d rove down the road and made

,the Soul (Charlie)really picked

a couple of turns and stopped at a good onethis t ime .a gas station. j ust happened to have been

The purpose was — we were SharonTate , a movie actress,a lmos tout ofgas.

W e bought somegas, and theth ree of us girls took turnsgoing into the bathroom, check-ing for bloodspots a n d m a k i n g

an d i t happened to have madena t ion-wideand w o r 1 d -w i d en e w s which we had noknow-ledge tha t tha t ' s whati t woulddo .

sure we were clean.Tex did the There was a c o m m e n t m a d esa ™ e- | by one of us tha t w h a t had

But as we drove off ,and all ih a p p e n e dhad served its pur-th e way out to ther a n c h , 1 1pose.noticed therewa s blood on the j T h a t was toinstil fearin Mancar, and I hoped nobodyh a d !himself, Man. th e Estab l i sh -

m e n t .That's what it was donefor.

seen it .When we go tback to the

ranch , I went in the kitchenofour hangout (an abandonedWestern movieset), and got arag an d proceeded to wipe downthe whole car for blood.

I didn't know whereit was,really, but I knew if there wa s

I'd seen,. , , 'ould be on the s teer ingwheel,I and {lashes . It

To instil fear — to causep a r a n o i a . To also show theblack man how to go aboutt ak ingover whi tem a n .

Then I just put what hadhappened ou t o f mymind, thebest I could. But I couldn't. I

had noth ing but, .

on the door handles as I just accepted it , and sat andndw ^/ „. ,. I watched the pictures in m y

Then Char l ie came up ,a n d !n] j n dsa id : i

" W h a tarc you do ing h o m eso ' rl , tr ' ed l appea ,! norm

ual ' and

e a r l y ? " i dld mv work on ' h e ranch . But IWe ' g i r l s went downto w h a t! U'OU!d J°°,k at Kati<? ' and Katie

we ca l l the bunkhouseand w e n ti ,W O U l d ook at nic> and we bo(h' """ "*-"» l.-n nu t!l!lf uc i\1n »*- m n-t 41:.. .*

wa s

We got out of thecar, walkedI and we all satb a c k .| up the street, and we found a i I almost passed out. It \ vasbig house . We werelooking fo r '" "a place to wash the blood offou r h a n d san d faces .

A l lI r e m e m b e ris that the bighouse had a lot ofshrubberyaround i t ,around the front. W ebegan lookingfor the w a t e rhose, andwhen we found it , we

k n e w t h a t was theutmost th ingsoon ' in (1L"' minds ' thal wc couldn ' t

a long c a m e Char l i e" and Tex, ' ' P " L il out of our minds ~ il was

in, and there( N a n c y P i t t m a n ) .Pre t ty

r igh tthere .A nd I' d look at Char l i e , an d_______ _ „ . . „ , . „„ ,

l ike I wasn ' t there .I t waslike a i Ie ' d wir!k af mc ancl S ve

seance . ; reassurancet h a t e v e r y t h i n gwa sthorp , t ry ing to i0 '™ 5 '' was soing to be a l l r igh t .

to v.'hat Charlie fs'0(- tnal llc saici il a loud .Hewa s say ing , a n d I jus t cou ldn ' t '(Jid "' t navc to sa y i t — I j u s th a n d l e it. I laid back on th e I cl1 il ' Tilal ' s the way Charliefloor. A n d Ifelt as though I was wss - He did 'i't need to speak , hebeingk i l l ed . , Just c a m eon.

I was sit t inpay a t t en t ion

turned it on , went rightou t i n to1 A nd Char l iean d Tex told m e ! Te x seemed hi s normal se l f„,„ ,»—» „„., .,., .. that j wou , d b<; kijled .f r just as happy an(] go ]ucky as

be t rayed their trust.Char l i e ,he could be . Buteverybodyon thetold me m a n y t imes : "Sadie , ranchw as pre t ty quie t . Every-you 've been w j t h m e tw o years bodyon the r a n c h— and theren o w . For a l ong t i m e . If you m i g h t h a v e been 25 or 30 of us,ever dec ide to l eave , I'll t a k e! t hough peoplecame and w ent —you and hang you ups ide down,k n r w by ihen t h e r e ha d beenan d s l i t your th roa tand use

the s t ree t and proceeded towash ourselves o f f . Ho w about(ha t? Right therein the street.

A l l th i s happen ed sponta-neous ly.We d idn ' t p l an any o fi t . It was allspontaenouii.

Then, all of a sudden, weheard an old man and an o ldw o m a n coming out ,out of the

y o u

house . !else." W h a tare youpeople do ing?"

t h e y ye l led . Andthey wentonlike tha t — blah ,blah ,blah .T h e old w o m a n b eg an

screeching:"M y houseman be-l ongs to the Sheriff 's Reserve,an d I 'm going to have himrepor t this. Wha t are youdoing?"

Tex just looked at the old

k i l lin x.

i^ari e x a m p l e fo r everybody! Butthey didn ' t knowwho haddone it.

.1 m a d e no d i ffe rencet o, T1 _. had^ ^^ ^

we had gone out thebefo re . B ut everybody

me . Char l iewas me, and I was ICharlie, and all of us were oneat the ranch .

A nd w h e n we got b a c k fromSharon ' s tha t n igh t , he jus tacted as though it neverhap-pened . Char l ie i s the type tha tlives fo r each second,an d p a y s ,no mind to what mayh a p p e n ' Tnat mSnl - w e al l got toge ther,tw o seconds later. Thai 'show; s m o k c d some grass an d sang

cause mos t o f them knew tha tn ight

. ... w e n tth rough the daypre t ty normal ,took careof things thathad tobe taken care of at theranch .

m u c hhe iswith it .

N ° tltl "Z

s e m e songs.An d then it started al l over,

forget — but I believe tha t

man and o ldw o m a n .H e jus tlooked at them an d smi led ,an dt hen he sa id , cool as you please— wow — socool:

' • We ' r ejus t ge t t inga dr ink of what happened"a tS ron's d chtngcT'oVdottes"an" a™

a te r. bor ry we d i s tu rbedyou." 1 w e n t in an d slept for a while, ?n d we were goto" to do itt h ink 1 m a d e love a g a i n .(Gary T u f t s ) .I' m Only ft is t ime , he sa id , w e

w a t e rThe old

y o u r ca r•

S n -bo Char l i esaid no th ing about n i g h tChar l ietold me to get two

m a n sa id , " Is t h a t j b u t first fdown the s t ree ti with Clem .

no t sure who I m a d e love wilh were*"*> ^

to do it r -lit

He said rea l low to us," O k a y,I And when Iwckc up it iu s tgirls, get in thecar," an d we' 1 "'doub le - fas twalked to thecar.

Th e old man andw o m a n k e p twalk ingbehindus, andw h e n we

hit me.I wanted to go u n dlook at the

televisionn e w s repor tsb e c a u s ejI knew itwould be in Ih e news .

was goHe

; s ighed ,and he sa id :They

"Do you haver e m o r s e ? "— C o n / / n u

Please Se c SL 'SANPage13