Mapping 13 key locations in the 1969

Manson family murders

From the Tate house to Corcoran State Prison

Manson is escorted from Superior Court, where he entered pleas in the Sharon Tate and Leno and Rosemary LaBianca murders. Los
Angeles Public Library photo collection

As Joan Didion wrote in her 1979 essay collection The White Album, the sixties ended
abruptly on August 9, 1969, the night the Manson Family committed the brutal and infamous
murders of five people at the home of actress Sharon Tate and director Roman Polanski. The
following night, in Los Feliz, the family murdered two more innocent people, chosen
randomly. The authorities were stumped; their main suspect, a groundskeeper at the Tate
house, was released after passing a polygraph test.

Seven murders in two days was horrible, and without any idea of who did it, the city was on
edge: A Beverly Hills sporting goods store sold 200 firearms in two days. The price of guard
dogs rose from $500 to $1,500, according to Los Angeles magazine.

Eventually the world would learn about the Manson Family, a cult in thrall to a man named
Charles Manson, living together at the remote and abandoned Spahn movie ranch deep in the
Valley. Below we've mapped all those and more important locations in the history of the cult
that changed Los Angeles forever.
1 Dennis Wilson's House
Dennis Wilson got involved with the Manson Family when he picked up two Family girls
hitchhiking by the side of the road; he brought them to his Rustic Canyon house, they hung
out, everyone left. He returned home late that night to find Charles Manson in his house with
about a dozen, mostly female guests. Manson and the guests stayed for a few months, at a cost
of $100,000 to Wilson.

14400 Sunset Boulevard

Pacific Palisades, CA 90272
2 The "Yellow Submarine"
The former site of a pre-Spahn-Ranch hangout for the Family.

21019 Gresham Street

Canoga Park, CA 91304
3 28 Clubhouse Avenue
Another pre-Spahn-Ranch home base for the Manson Family. The November following the
Tate/LaBianca murders, police responded to a possible lead at this address, where they found
their potential witness dead from "suicide."

28 Clubhouse Avenue
Venice, CA 90291

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4 Hinman House
On July 31, police investigated the murder of music teacher Gary Hinman at his Topanga
Canyon house. There were several similarities between Hinman's murder and those at the
Tate house that pointed to Manson and his Family.

964 Old Topanga Canyon Road

Topanga, CA 90290
5 Tate House
Valley of the Dolls actress Sharon Tate (married to director Roman Polanski) was eight
months pregnant at the time she was murdered on August 9, 1969, along with Folgers coffee
heiress Abigail Folger, her lover Voytek Frykowski, hairstylist Jay Sebring, and teen Steven
Parent. The house at 10055 Cieldo Drive was demolished in the 1990s; the new house on the
property has a different house number and is owned by Full House creator Jeff Franklin.

10066 Cielo Drive

Beverly Hills, CA 90210
6 LaBianca house
Leno LaBianca, owner of a chain of supermarkets, and his wife Rosemary, who ran a
successful clothing business, were murdered one night after the murders at the Tate house,
on August 10, 1969. The house is still standing but the house number has been changed.

3311 Waverly Drive

Los Angeles, CA 90027
7 Gun found
According to Helter Skelter, a gun used in the Tate murders was found here, "lying next to the
sprinkler, under a bush," by a 10-year-old boy.

3627 Longview Valley Road

Sherman Oaks, CA 91423
8 Blood-covered clothes found
Clothes disposed of after the murders at Tate's house were found thrown off a hillside across
from 2901 Benedict Canyon by a TV crew and a reporter from the LA Times attempting to
trace the steps of the perpetrators on the night of the murders.

2901 Benedict Canyon Drive

Beverly Hills, CA 90210

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9 Spahn Ranch
Charles Manson and 27 members of his Family were arrested here in an early morning raid
on August 16, 1969, but for charges related to stolen vehicles. Prior to housing the Family, the
property had been a popular movie ranch and horse-riding spot.

23000 Santa Susana Pass Road

Chatsworth, CA 91311
10 Barker Ranch
Raided in October 1969, Manson's group was using this Death Valley ranch as a shelter after
leaving Spahn. (Some members of the Family were also living at the nearby Myers Ranch.) He
and 23 of his followers were arrested in what Helter Skelter describes as a three-day-long
raid. (This raid was also largely related to stolen cars found on the property.) The ranch
suffered a fire in the spring of 2009, but many of the stone structures are still standing,
according to Atlas Obscura.

Death Valley National Park

United States
11 Inyo County Courthouse
Charles Manson was officially indicted here for the Tate and LaBianca murders. He was then
transported to the Hall of Justice Downtown, where his trial later took place.

168 North Edwards Street

Independence, CA 93526
12 Hall of Justice
Charles Manson was held in jail here. Eventually, he and Family members Patricia
Krenwinkel, Susan Atkins, and Leslie Van Houten were found guilty of the murders. Another
Family member, Tex Watson, was tried separately and also convicted.

211 West Temple Street

Los Angeles, CA 90012
13 Corcoran State Prison
Charles Manson is serving out his sentences here, in a special section of the prison that's
apart from the general population.

4001 King Avenue

Corcoran, CA 93212