Manson link probed in unsolved cases
LAPD believes Watson tapes would help investigation
LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Police Department disclosed Thursday that it has open investigations on a dozen unsolved homicides that occurred near places where the Manson family operated during its slew of murders four decades ago.
The Police Department made the revelation amid a legal battle to obtain hours of audio tapes recorded in 1969 between Charles Manson follower Charles “Tex” Watson and his attorney. The LAPD has said detectives believe tapes could shed more light on the activities of Manson’s group.
Watson has been fighting to limit the LAPD’s access to the tapes.
LAPD officials did not disclose details of the cases and said the department is examining the murders because they occurred near known Manson hangouts around the city.
“These cases have circumstances that are similar to some of the Manson killings,” Cmdr. Andy Smith said. “We are hoping that these Tex Watson tapes can provide us further clues on these cases. We are doing this for the families of these victims.”
Manson and his followers were convicted of killing eight people in a notorious plot to incite a race war that he believed was prophesied in the Beatles song “Helter Skelter.”
Sharon Tate, the wife of director Roman Polanski, was 8 1/2 months’ pregnant when she was killed at the couple’s hilltop home in the Benedict Canyon neighborhood of L.A. on Aug. 9, 1969. Polanski was out of the country working on a film. Besides Tate, four others were stabbed and shot to death: Jay Sebring, 35; Voytek Frykowski, 32; coffee heiress Abigail Folger, 25; and Steven Parent, 18, a friend of Tate’s caretaker.
The next night, Manson rode with his cohorts to the L.A. home of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, then left three of them to commit the murders.
They also killed Gary Hinman, 34, a musician, and Donald “Shorty” Shea, a stuntman and a ranch hand at the San Fernando Valley ranch where Manson and his followers lived.
Some authors and former prosecutors who studied the case have long suspected that the Manson family was responsible for more killings.