Mike Conley's Tales of the Weird: Helter Skelter still creepy 40 years later

In the early morning hours of Aug. 9, 1969, the stillness and security of the affluent Benedict Canyon hills above Los Angeles would be forever shattered with the horrific sounds of gunshots, stabbings and innocent, helpless people begging for their lives.
Forty years ago this weekend, followers of cult leader Charles Manson invaded the home of actress Sharon Tate, located at 10050 Cielo Drive. The beautiful 26-year-old Tate, who was eight and half months pregnant, was brutally murdered at her own home that night, along with her friends Jay Sebring, Wojciech Frykowski and Abigail Folger. Tate's husband, director Roman Polanski, was in London working on a film at that time.
By daybreak, police found the bodies of Tate and Sebring in the blood-soaked living room tied together with a long rope. One of the killers had written the word "pig" in Tate's blood on the front door. Frykowski and Folger, who had been dating, were found stabbed, beaten and shot to death on the front lawn. Many of the stab wounds were inflicted on these people after they had died.
Another victim of the Manson "family" was 18-year-old Steven Parent who had visited a friend in the nearby guesthouse and happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. His body, with four gunshot wounds, was found in his father's 1966 Rambler. He was the first to be slain.
On the night of Aug. 10, 1969, the Manson "family" struck again. They invaded the quiet modest home of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca on Waverly Drive. Manson, who thought the murders at 10050 Cielo Drive were too messy, had the middle-aged couple bound and instructed his followers to kill them and show no mercy. Later, the misspelled words "healter skelter" were found scrawled in their blood on the refrigerator door in the kitchen.
What became known as the Tate-LaBianca murders would shock and horrify Hollywood like nothing else before or since. It is truly one of the most bizarre and bloody episodes in the history of American crime. The lengthy and costly trial of Manson and his hippie cult followers would reveal to the world their weird and perverted plans for an apocalyptic race war or what they called helter skelter.
As if this bloody episode was not bizarre enough, many weird legends have circulated about the Manson killings and their victims. Some believe that Sharon Tate had an eerie premonition of her own death and even saw her own ghost.
A few years before bloody events of Aug. 9, 1969, Tate was staying alone at Sebring's house. She and Sebring had dated and at one point even planned to get married. Instead, Tate would marry Polanski.
Sebring, a famous men's hairstylist, lived in Benedict Canyon in the former home of legendary movie star Jean Harlow. Her husband Paul Bern had allegedly committed suicide in the house many years before Sebring took ownership of it.
One night, Tate stayed along at Sebring's house. Unable to sleep, she lay awake in the bedroom with all the lights on. She had a strange feeling of being watched and later stated she was frightened by every little sound she heard.
While lying on the bed, Tate supposedly saw the ghost of what she later described as a "creepy little man." She recognized the ghost immediately as that of Paul Bern, who had killed himself in that house back in 1932, according to a Web site.
The frightened actress then started down the stairs but was frozen in shock by what she saw next. She supposedly saw the figure of a beautiful young woman tied to the staircase posts at the bottom of the steps. She could clearly see that the woman's throat had been cut. Then, the ghostly figure vanished.
Many believe that she had been given a glimpse of her own death at the hands of Manson's gang. Her body was reportedly found in this same position following the attack on Aug. 9, 1969.
That is one of only numerous eerie stories associated with the gruesome murders from the summer of '69. I remember watching a TV documentary many years ago that showed these two men who believed to have captured Tate's ghostly voice on a tape recorder. More recent paranormal investigators have claimed to do the same thing. Psychics have also visited the murder scene at 10050 Cielo Drive in an attempt to contact the spirits of the victims.
Those seven individuals were good people who didn't harm anyone. But their lives were ended too soon in a brutal and senseless manner. Forty years later, their killers are still alive and enjoy three hot meals and a place to sleep at the expense of California taxpayers.
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Last week's column about the legend of the Wampus Cat resulted in an interesting response from one of my readers.
Johnny Ayers writes he too has seen a large wild cat roaming through our mountains.
On Monday, July 20, Ayers was returning home from Spruce Pine at around 12:30 p.m. in broad daylight. He was traveling on N.C. 226 toward Bakersville when a big brown and light gray cat crossed the road in front of him about 25 yards away.
"The cat was large, heavy, five feet or more in length," he writes.
Ayers said it had a very large head (the size of an adult boxer dog) and a tail about 4 feet long or longer.
"The cat came across the road from the woods on the north side of the road, leaped twice and was out of sight," he writes. "I saw this cat in sight of the trash pick-up center on the left. It was not a bobcat; they don't reach the size of this animal. I would swear in court that what I have written is 100 percent the truth."
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