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On This Day: Sharon Tate stabbed to death by Charles Manson gang
The heavily-pregnant wife of movie director Roman Polanski had been due to give birth to son Paul only two weeks after she was stabbed to death
AUGUST 9, 1969
: The heavily pregnant wife of movie director Roman Polanski was killed and lost her baby after a frenzied knife attack by the Charles Manson gang on this day in 1969.
Sharon Tate, who had been due to give birth to son Paul only two weeks later, was stabbed 16 times in a bid to trigger an apocalyptic race war.
Musician Manson , also persuaded his mostly female followers to kill six other wealthy black and white Americans in order to “show blacks how to do it”.
The charismatic ex-convict, now 78 and languishing in jail, believed that in a race war blacks would exterminate whites but be incapable of running the world.
Meanwhile, the all-white Manson Family - whose members included Tex Watson, Steve Grogan, Patty Krenwinkel, ‘Sexy’ Sadie Atkins, Leslie Van Houten and Linda Kasabian - would hide under the desert and then be on hand to rule when the slaughter was over.
Tate, a glamorous blonde actress whose wedding to Polanski was covered by a British Pathé newsreel, was among four victims killed at her Los Angeles home while the director of movies such as Chinatown was working in England.
Tate’s former boyfriend and hair stylist Jay Sebring, Polanski’s friend and screenwriter Wojciech Frykowski and Frykowski’s lover and coffee heiress Abigail Folger were also murdered.
Sebring died first after being shot and then stabbed seven times by Watson when he complained while being tied to Tate.
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Frykowski was then bludgeoned with a gun butt and shot twice by Watson and stabbed repeatedly by Atkins after freeing himself from towels binding his hands.
It left him dazed but not dead.
Folger also managed to escape through a bedroom door and was tackled on the front lawn by Krenwinkel, who along with Watson stabbed her 28 times.
Frykowski made another attempt to escape after regaining consciousness – but was stabbed 51 times within view of his murdered lover after reaching the lawn.
Back inside the house, Tate pleaded with the killers to spare the life of her unborn child, but they refused.
Watson, who only confessed to being responsible for her death after being jailed, claims she screamed “Mother… mother” as she was slaughtered.
After being arrested, none of the group took personal responsibility for any of the murders.
Manson, who named his race war after Beatles song Helter Skelter, was convicted along with five other gang members through the joint responsibility rule in 1970.
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During trial, Kasabian, who had stood guard during the Tate murders, was granted immunity after she became the main witness against the others.
All, except Grogan, remain in prison after being given life sentences.
