Two Hippies Arrested, Third Sought In Hollywood Slayings
December 2, 1969
LOS ANGELES - Two members of a wandering band of hippies were under arrest
today and a third was being sought in the slaying of actress Sharon Tate and six
others here last August.
Police said they would seek murder indictments against "four or five" other
persons.
The honey blonde actress and four others were murdered at Miss Tate's Bel Air
mansion Aug. 9. The following day, several miles away, a wealthy merchant
and his wife were killed in a so-called "copycat" slaying.
Under arrest were Charles D. Watson, 24, of Copeville, Tex., and Patricia
Kernwinkel (sic), 21, of Los Angeles. Being sought was Linda Louise Kasabian,
19, also of Los Angeles.
The Los Angeles Times said members of a hate oriented cult band of hippies
were suspected of the seven slayings, as well as at least four other "grotesque"
murders in the Los Angeles area.
The Times said police believe the victims were killed both to "punish" them
for their affluent life style and to "liberate" them from it.
The newspaper said the police break in the case came two weeks ago when a
young woman member of the hippie band told a police informer of the mass
murders, recounting details which police said could be known only by the
killers.
The arrests, the search for Miss Kasabian and the indictments to be sought
culminate an intensive investigation by 19 detectives, Police Chief Edward M.
Davis told a news conference Monday.
Detectives have concluded, Davis said, that the nomadic hippies "who
committed the Tate murders" also stabbed the owners of a chain of markets, Leno
and Rosemary LaBianca, to death.
The Los Angeles County grand jury is being asked for indictments against "all
of the suspects, those we have named in warrants and four or five others, in all
seven of the killings," said Police Inspector Peter Hagan.
State troopers hunted through hippie colonies in the Taos area of
north-central New Mexico for Miss Kasabian. She is accused in Los Angeles
murder warrants of killing Miss Tate, three of her jet-set companions and a
friend of the teen-age caretaker on Miss Tate's estate.
Miss Kernwinkel (sic), who pulled a hat over her head as police approached, was
arrested Monday in Mobile, Ala., on a warrant almost identical to Miss Kasabian's.
Watson, accused in a warrant of killing only the caretaker's friend, Steven
Parent, was arrested Sunday in McKinney, Tex., by his sheriff cousin, who
summoned him to jail from Copeville by telephone.
The bodies of Parent, 18, and Miss Tate's jet-set companions -
Hollywood hair stylist Jay Sebring, coffee heiress Abigail Folger and Polish
playboy Voityck Frokowsky (sic) - were found scattered in and around the actress'
home.
In both the Tate and LaBianca cases, police said, some of the victims were
hooded and the word "Pig" was scrawled in blood. Police termed the
killings "bizarre" and "ritualistic."
"The suspects," Davis said Monday, "appeared to live together in what might
be described as a commune... It could have had some religious connotations
connected with it."
"The indication at this time is that none of the suspects... have personally
known any of the victims," he said.
Davis also said some weapons used in the slayings have been found, but "there
are some weapons outstanding." He wouldn't describe them or say where they
were discovered.
(*) Some spellings have been corrected.
