One of These Days

Helter Skelter

On this day in 1969, American actress Sharon Tate and four others were murdered by followers of Charles Manson, leader of a communal religious cult known as the “Family.” What do you recall about this heinous crime ? Thinking about the media coverage of that time compared to today's media coverage of violent crimes, which do you prefer?

The crime itself was well before my time, but I've watched quite a few videos that have gone over it, whether it be just the murder or a documentary that talked about Charles Manson and included his time with the Family and the murder. Hearing a lot about what allegedly went on during his childhood, I feel bad for the boy and not all surprised by who he would become. I had always heard of the murders through a conversational type of way. Through shows or people talking about it. Knew of Helter Skelter both because of the murders and because of the Beatles, but I didn't know the importance until much later. It's the first thing I think of when "it was a different time" is ever said. Roman Polanski was someone very well known in Hollywood, as well as his wife Sharon Tate, and anyone could just walk up to their door (so much different than today it feels like). One of those weird things that sticks.

The crime itself was horrible, especially since it was all just a set up. They were killed just to get white people angry at black people by making it seem as though black people committed the murders. It felt so...soulless. Ended up being done for absolutely no reason because no "race war" ever happened because of the murders.

The media coverage, I'd prefer the media coverage of that time, I think. Even though it was sensationalized because of Sharon Tate and the Hollywood connection (and unfortunately, lesser coverage of the murders that happened the following night), a lot of the information was very open and laid out which is refreshing? Everything feels so neutered now with the media. I don't necessarily need to know intimate details, but they just tell you what happened. There's not a sob story, you don't have a documentary on the murderer by the evening news, there's not the 24/7 nonsense either. Which is probably the worst part of current news coverage. There also isn't "everyone's opinion" being used as news in news articles either. As much as I'm glad that it didn't become a "race war", there was questions of "weird religious rites", aka Satanic Panic, so I can imagine there was probably some of that, especially once Charles Manson was mentioned and his Family cult was brought to light. I could see something similar happening today, maybe not so much directly on the news (maybe some stations), but I could see it running through social media (been seeing some Satanic Panic type stuff off and on with certain things and I don't know how that cyclical nonsense keeps happening).

Granted, I was born 16 years after the murders, so a lot of what I've seen is really just snippets. I didn't experience it nor have the real understanding of the time. If I'd learned about it before my parents had passed, it would've been an interesting question to ask my mom. She was 18 (would turn 19 that October), freshly graduated from high school. It would've been interesting to hear her thoughts and what people said, what they thought. What she thought.

It will be interesting to see the opinions of those who lived through it, to hear what their opinions are. Especially at least with the news portion. Today's news coverage is so exhausting. They will scrape the bottom of the barrel, talking about things maybe only tangibly connected to the story because well, everything is 24/7 now. We have to hear opinions by 647 different people, find some random schmuck who knew the killer(s) or one of the victims and barrage them with questions for an hour. I just want to know what happened, told to me by journalists, not personalities.