Manson Family Murders

Date: August 9, 1969 • Location: Westwood, United States

Members of the Manson Family invaded a house and murdered American actress Sharon Tate (pictured) and four guests in Los Angeles, before killing two more people the following night.

The Manson Family was a commune, gang and cult led by criminal Charles Manson that was active in California in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The description of the group as a "Family" was figurative, rather than literal; the group was not known to contain any members of Charles Manson’s actual family. At its peak the group consisted of approximately 100 followers who lived an unconventional lifestyle, frequently using psychoactive drugs, including amphetamine and hallucinogens such as LSD. Most were young women from middle-class backgrounds, many of whom had been attracted to the hippie counterculture and communal living, and then radicalized by Manson's teachings. The group murdered at least nine people, and may have killed as many as twenty-four.