In the early hours of August 9, 1969, Valley of the Dolls actress Sharon Tate, along with celebrity hairstylist Jay Sebring, writer Wojciech Frykowski, and heiress Abigail Folger, tragically lost their lives at Tate’s Los Angeles home.

Tate, who was eight months pregnant, was awaiting the arrival of her first child with filmmaker Roman Polanski.

Roman Polanski, the director of Rosemary’s Baby, was away during the murders, leaving Tate in the care of Frykowski and Folger.

Charles Manson, the leader of the Manson Family cult, was familiar with the house on Cielo Drive, having been rejected a recording contract by its former tenant, music producer Terry Melcher.

Manson’s cult, consisting of around 100 followers, lived an unconventional lifestyle fueled by drugs like Benzedrine and LSD.

Many young women from affluent backgrounds were drawn to Manson’s preachings about an impending race war, believing him to be a divine figure.

On the night of the murders, Manson instructed his followers, including Charles “Tex” Watson, Susan Atkins, and Patricia Krenwinkel, to carry out heinous acts at Tate’s residence.

The group brutally killed everyone present, including Tate, Sebring, Frykowski, and Folger.

Tate, pleading for the life of her unborn child, was mercilessly stabbed multiple times.

The murderers left a chilling message scrawled in Tate’s blood on the front door.

The following night, the Manson Family struck again, this time targeting Leno and Rosemary LaBianca in Los Angeles.

The gruesome crimes sent shockwaves through Los Angeles, marking the end of the carefree era of the Swinging Sixties.

It also sparked the rise of Satanic panic.

Despite initial confusion, investigators eventually connected the two murder scenes and apprehended the culprits.

The trial, which commenced in June 1970, brought justice for the victims.

Manson, Atkins, Krenwinkel, and Van Houten were found guilty in 1971, while Watson was convicted later that year.

All received death sentences, later commuted to life imprisonment.

Years later, Leslie Van Houten, after numerous failed parole attempts, was released from prison in July 2023, after spending over five decades behind bars.

Sharon Tate, buried alongside her unborn child, Paul Richard Polanski, continues to be remembered for the tragic events that unfolded on that fateful August night in 1969.