Morbid Tourism in Los Angeles: The Manson Family

By GillianS
updated 3 months ago

If there is one thing you should know about me - among the many weird and trivial things that you don't know - it should be that there was a time in my life when I was more or less obsessed with serial killers and mass murderers. Though I would no longer call myself obsessed, these kinds of sociopaths and wackjobs still hold great, if morbid, interest to me. So beginning here is a guidespot series that will take you to the eerie, spooky, gross, gawky and morbid locales made famous by psycho killers. First up, Charlie Manson and his Family.

On March 21, 1967, Charles Manson was released from prison after having spent over half of the 32 years of his life behind bars for various crimes including grand theft auto and forgery. He was permitted to move to San Francisco and settled in Berkeley. After amassing a number of followers in the college town as well as San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury neighborhood where the Summer of Love was being felt in full force. Before long, Manson and some of his female “family” piled in a bus and drove down the coast to Los Angeles, alternately living in Topanga Canyon, Malibu and Venice.

Berkeley, CA

Berkeley is a city on the east shore of San Francisco Bay in northern California, in the United States. Its neighbors...

Berkeley is a city on the east shore of San Francisco Bay in northern California, in the United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland, California and Emeryville, California. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated Kensington. The eastern city limits coincide with the county line (bordering on Contra Costa County) which generally follows the ridgeline of the Berkeley Hills. Berkeley is located in Alameda County.Berkeley is the site of the University of California, Berkeley, the flagship campus of the University of California, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Lawrence Hall of Science, Space Sciences Laboratory, and Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, which are on the campus grounds. Adjacent to the University campus is the Graduate Theological Union.

Malibu, CA

Malibu is a city located in western Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2000 census, the city po...

Malibu is a city located in western Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 12,575.The City of Malibu is a 27-mile strip of Pacific coastline; a beachfront community famous for its warm, sandy beaches, and for being the home of countless movie stars and others associated with the Southern California motion picture and recording industries. Most Malibu residents live within a few hundred yards of Pacific Coast Highway (California State Route 1) which traverses the city; the city is also bounded (more or less) by Topanga and Pacific Palisades to the east, the Santa Monica Mountains to the north, the Pacific Ocean to the south, and Ventura County to the north and west. Its other beaches include Malibu State Beach and Topanga State Beach; its parks include Malibu Creek State Park and the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.A popular bumper sticker reads, "Malibu: A Way of Life." Other slogans: "Where the mountains meet the sea", "27 miles of scenic beauty", "Malibu - life is too short to live it elsewhere".90265 is an actual ZIP code in Malibu. Although, most of 90265 actually lies outside incorporated area of the city, the U.S. Postal Service considers all addresses in that ZIP code to be Malibu addresses. Real estate agents designate these adjoining areas "Malibu Post Office".

In 1968, Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys picked up 2 hitchhikers and took them home to his house on Sunset Blvd. He left the girls there when he left for a recording session and returned home to find Charles Manson in the driveway. Mason assured Wilson that he wasn’t going to hurt him and by all accounts proceeded to kiss Wilson’s feet. Wilson and Manson became friends, even recording songs together while girls from the “family” waited on them. Manson was introduced to many of WIlson’s entertainment industry friends, including Rudi Altobelli who rented a house to Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski.

After about 4 months of this arrangement, Wilson had his manager remove Manson and his followers form his house. They transitioned easily to the Spahn Movie Ranch, a former set for Westerns in Chatsworth where other Family members were already living.

After a few months at the Spahn Ranch, Manson and the family moved again, this time to a yellow house (dubbed the Yellow Submarine) in Canoga Park where they prepared to start a race war.

After a number of uninvited and unexplained visits to the Tate/Polanski residence, Manson decided that the Family would need money and the best way to get it that was in line with their goals would be to steal from African-Americans. In June 1968, Manson sent Tex Watson to defraud Bernard “Lotsapoppa” Crowe, who responded with violent threats to the Manson family. Before he could make good on any of them, Manson shot Crowe at his Hollywood apartment.

On August 9, 1969, after Beausoleil was arrested for the Hinman murder, Manson announced to the Family that Helter Skelter was upon them. As such, he sent Watson, Atkins, Linda Kasabian and Patricia Krenwikel to the Tate/Polanski residence on Cielo Drive where they cut the phone lines and brutally murdered 18 year old Steven Parent, Polanski friend Wojciech Frykowski, 8-month pregnant Sharon Tate, her friend and hairstylist Jay Sebring and Frykowski’s lover and coffee heiress Abigail Folger.