Murders
On the night of August 9, 1969, Manson drove Van Houten, Tex Watson, Patricia Krenwinkel, Susan Atkins, Steve Grogan, and Linda Kasabian to 3301 Waverly Drive in Los Feliz, the home of Rosemary and Leno LaBianca. Manson entered the house with Watson and handed him the leather thongs from around his neck telling the LaBiancas that it was a robbery and no harm would come to them; he then left the house, instructing Krenwinkel and Van Houten to go inside and join Watson. The house had previously been cased in a process they called "creepy-crawling."
Krenwinkel and Van Houten found Rosemary LaBianca in a bedroom, to which she had retired while her husband had fallen asleep while reading in the living room. Watson put a pillowcase over Leno and Rosemary LaBianca's heads, and then tied the electrical cord from a lamp around their necks. Rosemary LaBianca started struggling; meanwhile, her husband, who had been tied up in the living room, started screaming as Watson began stabbing him. Rosemary grabbed the lamp and swung it at Leslie, who fought with her and knocked the lamp away. Van Houten then held LaBianca down while Krenwinkel tried to stab her in the chest, but the blade bent on LaBianca's clavicle. Van Houten called for assistance from Watson, who entered the bedroom and took charge. Van Houten exited the room and stood in the hallway, staring into an adjacent empty room.
Watson then stabbed Rosemary LaBianca several times, found Van Houten, handed her the knife, and told her to "do something" since Manson had instructed Watson to make sure everyone got their hands dirty. Leslie proceeded to stab Rosemary 16 times in the lower torso. The autopsy showed that several of the wounds had been inflicted post-mortem. Van Houten then wiped the premises down for fingerprints, changed into clothes from Mrs. LaBianca's closet, and took food from the refrigerator before leaving the house.
Read more about this topic: Leslie Van Houten
Famous quotes containing the word murders:
“Many people I know in Los Angeles believe that the Sixties ended abruptly on August 9, 1969, ended at the exact moment when word of the murders on Cielo Drive traveled like brushfire through the community, and in a sense this is true. The tension broke that day. The paranoia was fulfilled.”
—Joan Didion (b. 1935)
“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”
—John Adams (1735–1826)