Epix
With the Tate-LaBianca murders behind them, life for the Manson family goes on, but a few feel a noticeable shift in the wind. The episode opens first, though, with recording of people who knew the victims, delivering some very emotional epitaphs to their lives. The hardest to watch it Tate’s husband, Roman Polanski, visibly shaken to his core, particularly later in the episode when he addresses the press to notify them that the house on Cielo Drive, which had been locked down by police searching for clues to who committed the murders, was now open. Polanski also came to Tate’s defense, lambasting the media for painting a picture of wild partying and drug use at the house, pushing a theory that a drug deal gone wrong led to the murders, when in fact Sharon, who was nearly nine months pregnant, didn’t drink, do drugs or smoke. His description of how devoted she was to being a mother is just heartbreaking, and it makes one wonder how much psychological damage this did to Polanski that led to his own legal difficulties many years later.
The title of the episode, ‘Some Bad Mistakes’, immediately assumes some connection to members of the Manson family being careless, which led to their arrest. It actually refers to how the Los Angeles police truly bungled the case. In hindsight, they had a ton of evidence that connected the Tate and LaBianca murders, as well as a connection to the Hinman murder by Bobby Beausoleil … but they ignored it all, assuming the LaBianca murders were a copycat to throw police off, and didn’t even consider the Hinman murder because that one happened in LA County while the others happened within city limits. For a time, they believed Tate and her friends knew the killer, perhaps someone who was with them that night. Even Polanski believed that, secretly working with the police, and doing his own investigations into their friends, looking for blood or weapons in their cars. After the Manson clan were arrested, a reporter asked Polanski if he thought maybe he’s been a little mentally unbalanced at that time to suspect their friends and he said he probably was. The killings had a chilling effect on the residents of Los Angeles, who had really embraced the attitude of the ‘Swinging Sixties’ and suddenly became more guarded and isolated because no one knew who could be the next victim.
At the Spahn Movie Ranch, some of the family members like Catherine Share and Dianne Lake, noticed the mood change with more preparations for the group to head out and hide out in the desert while the apocalypse raged around them, and the motorcycle group the Straight Satans providing protection and stolen vehicle parts to convert the old cars at the ranch into dune buggies for the trek to the Barker Ranch deep in Death Valley, as well as to scout the location of the Bottomless Pit. The group had previously been arrested for the stolen auto parts but the police still had not connected them to the murders because why would peace-loving hippies do such a thing?
While some of the women did manage to escape after the group began their move to the desert, it was the words of Susan Atkins that sealed their fate. While she was incarcerated for the theft charges, she told another inmate that she committed the murders. The woman didn’t believe her but she’d actually been to the Cielo house and when Atkins described the interior, she knew Atkins wasn’t just some kook who got ideas in her head from the news. That was enough to get everyone arrested again. At one point as Dianne Lake was being taken into court with two others, she was asked her name and age and, according to her, it was like she woke up and said, ‘I’m 16 years old and I want my mommy!’ She was immediately made a ward of the court and held for psychological observation for 90 days, which she admitted was a good thing because it helped clear her mind and it offered her protection. We don’t know yet how Catherine Share got out but she apparently wasn’t one of those charged as she’s seen in footage among the Family members who were spectators at the courthouse.
With the arrest of the Manson family, there were still questions about evidence that tied them to the murders. Even with the word ‘pig’ written on the walls in blood at both the Hinman and Tate murders, the police didn’t tie them together. The police also didn’t realize they already had a gun in their possession that had been used at the Cielo Drive house that a young boy and his father had found months earlier. The biggest question was what happened to the clothes? Manson had instructed the killers to bring a change of clothing, knowing they’d be covered in blood so what happened to them? Reporter Al Wiman decided to perform a test of changing his clothes in the back of a moving car to see how long it took and where the car was at when he was done. It took just over six minutes to make the change and when the car stopped there was an area for a car to pull off the road … and looking over the edge of the roadway he spotted clothing strewn about. Wiman called the police, made the commissioner promise not to announce the find over the radio frequencies that the press routinely monitored so no one else would show up, and when the police did arrive they gathered the apparently bloodstained clothing (ignoring any kind of measures to protect forensic evidence like wearing gloves!) and Wiman had an exclusive.
With all the pieces of the puzzle finally in place and key persons facing trial, it took a full month and 150 prospective jurors before the trial was ready to proceed. All of the accused had their own lawyers — Manson, Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, Leslie Van Houten — with Tex Watson seeking his trial be moved to Texas under the complaint that he’d never get a fair trial in Los Angeles (he may have been right judging from man on the street interviews asking people if they’d want to be on that jury). But as the jury was selected and set, Manson was defiant as ever, saying he didn’t do anything to seek forgiveness for, and that he rejected the whole idea of a trial.
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