Manson Family still haunted by murders

LOS ANGELES - Forty years ago, they were kids. Vulnerable, alienated, running away from a world wracked by war and rebellion. They turned to a cult leader for love and wound up tied to a web of unimaginable evil.

They were part of Charles Manson's "family" and now, on the brink of old age, they are the haunted.

"I never have a day go by that I don't think about it, especially about the victims," says Barbara Hoyt who was 17 the summer of the Sharon Tate-LaBianca murders. "I've long ago accepted the fact it will never go away."

The ones who aren't in prison are scattered across the country. Some live under assumed names to hide their past from friends and business associates. Some have undergone surgery to remove the "X" that Manson ordered them to carve on their foreheads, showing they were "X-ed" out of society. Some live with endless regret.

Those who escaped taking part in the terror that snuffed out at least nine lives would seem to be lucky. But their lives have been linked forever to one of the craziest mass murders in history. "Manson made a lot of victims besides the ones he killed," said Catherine Share, who once lived with the Manson Family with the nickname Gypsy. "He destroyed lives."

It was 1969, the summer of the first moon landing. War was raging in Vietnam. Hippies were in the streets of San Francisco, the last bastion of the waning counterculture movement. For many, that summer is remembered for one thing: the most shocking celebrity murders ever to hit Los Angeles.

On the morning of Aug. 9, a housekeeper ran screaming from a home in lush Benedict Canyon. She had discovered a scene of carnage. Five people were dead, their bodies scattered around the estate. The most famous, actress Sharon Tate, 26, the pregnant wife of director Roman Polanski, had been stabbed multiple times.

The city was thrown into a state of fear.

There were four other murders that day and two more the next. Abigail Folger, 25, heiress to a coffee fortune; hairstylist Jay Sebring, 35; film director Voyteck Frykowski, 32, and friend Steven Parent, 18, were killed in a bloody scene. "Death to Pigs" was scrawled in blood on the front door.

A similar murder scene was discovered the next night. Wealthy grocer Leno LaBianca, 44, and his wife, Rosemary, 38, were found stabbed to death in their home across town. The word "WAR" was carved on Leno LaBianca's body. The words "Helter Skelter" were written in blood on the refrigerator.

"These murders were probably the most bizarre in the recorded annals of American crime," said Vincent Bugliosi, the former deputy district attorney who prosecuted the killers and wrote the book Helter Skelter.

It would be more than three months before the name Charles Manson was linked to the crimes. The discovery of Manson's clan living in a high desert commune opened up the astounding story of an ex-convict who had gathered young people into a cult and ordered them to kill. His reasons still remain a subject of debate. Some say he wanted to foment a race war; others say it was senseless.

"It was a real-life horror story," recalled Stephen Kay, who also prosecuted the Manson Family. "Manson is the real-life Freddie Kruger."

Cult members lucky enough not to have killed for Manson on Aug. 9-10, 1969, have spent decades trying to bury their past and free themselves from his grasp. Some never succeeded.

Sandra Good and Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme committed crimes later that they said were for Manson and went to federal prison. When Good, 65, was paroled she moved near the maximum-security prison that holds Manson, reportedly so she could "feel his vibes." Fromme, 60, is due for parole this summer after serving 33 years for the attempted assassination of President Gerald Ford.

Others now out of jail are still trying to sort out how they fell under his spell and became part of one of the worst crimes of the 20th century. "We were just a bunch of kids looking for love and attention and a different way to live," recalls Share, 66. "He was everything to us. He was a con, a manipulator of the worst kind."

Hoyt and Share struggled back to normalcy. Share became pregnant at Spahn Ranch and has a son who served in the Marines. She declines to identify the father but said it was not Manson. She spent time in prison for robbery and credit-card fraud, and has become a Christian. She just finished a book on her experiences with the Manson Family.

Hoyt went to college and became a nurse and is proud of her accomplishments. "I raised my daughter; I have my own home and I've had some vacations," she said. She keeps track of the Manson Family members in prison and writes letters urging that they never be released.

Of those who helped Manson kill, Susan Atkins, 61, who is dying of brain cancer, has been turned down for compassionate release and faces a parole hearing in September.

Leslie Van Houten, 59, and Patricia Krenwinkel, 61, remain in prison for life, as does Charles "Tex" Watson, 63, another of the killers.

"Everyone wants to make them monsters," said Share. "They weren't monsters. They did a monstrous thing and now they're older people and they're not monsters anymore. None of those people ever would have been violent if it weren't for Manson."

The former prosecutors worry that Manson, 74 - who still wears an X on his forehead and still gets mail - is becoming a folk hero to a new generation. He is the subject of several Web sites, and Manson souvenirs are sold online.

"Evil has its lure," said Bugliosi, "and Manson has become a metaphor for evil."