On this day, Aug. 9, in 1969, Charles Manson and his “Family” murdered pregnant actress Sharon Tate and four others in her California home, hoping to inspire the racial war that Manson named Helter Skelter after the Beatles song. Manson believed The Beatles’ “White Album” held a secret message predicting the slaughter of whites at the hands of blacks. At the end of the racial war, he and his Family of young followers would rise to power after hiding out in a secret city hidden in the desert. By August 1969, however, Manson had become frustrated that Helter Skelter had not yet started and began convincing the members of the Family that they had to help it along by murdering high-profile white people. On Aug. 8, 1969 a group of Family members went to the Los Angeles house that Tate shared with her husband, Roman Polanski. A little after midnight, they cut the phone line and then murdered everyone inside. The next day, other members killed grocery store heir Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary. – Freeman Klopott
