There were 5 key women who helped Charles Manson with his murders. Here's where they are now.

On August 8, 1969, Charles Manson ordered Susan Atkins, Tex Watson, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Linda Kasabian to invade the rented home of actress Sharon Tate and director Roman Polanski.

The house, located at 10050 Cielo Drive in Los Angeles, was previously home to Terry Melcher – a record producer who had snubbed would-be musician and cult leader Manson.

Manson's intention was revenge – to kill whoever was home on that hot summer night.

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"Totally destroy everyone in it," Manson instructed. "As gruesome as you can."

Roman Polanski wasn't home at the time, but actress and model Sharon Tate, who was eight and a half months pregnant, was, along with her friends Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger and Abigail's boyfriend, Wojceich Frykowski.

When they arrived at the home, headlights approached from within the property. When the car pulled up outside the property, Watson shot and killed the driver, Steven Parent – an 18-year-old student who had been visiting the property’s caretaker, William Garretson.

After pushing the car up the driveway, Kasabian remained outside and stood by Parent's car as Watson, Atkins and Krenwinkel entered the house through a window and killed Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger, Wojceich Frykowski, and Sharon Tate. When they were done, they wrote 'Pig' on the door in blood.

Kasabian, who stood guard outside, later testified that she heard the "horrible screams" of the victims and attempted to stop them by claiming that someone was coming.

"I started to run toward the house, I wanted them to stop. I knew what they had done to that man [Parent], that they were killing these people. I wanted them to stop," she later said.

However, the very next night, the same group of Manson Family members set out to kill again, with Kasabian in tow as a getaway driver.

This time, Charles Manson himself, as well as fellow Family member Leslie Van Houten joined the group.

That night, the group snuck into the home of Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary. Although Manson participated in binding the couple, as he promised them they wouldn't be hurt or killed, he left the home and waited with Kasabian in a getaway vehicle as the other members of the group murdered the couple.

Once again, the Family members wrote messages on the walls in blood, including 'Helter Skelter'.

At the end of August, Manson's followers also murdered Donald 'Shorty' Shea, a ranch hand at Spahn Ranch, where the Family had lived.

But it wasn't until October 1969 that several members of the Family, including Manson, were arrested.

Charles Manson. Image: Getty.

Leslie Van Houten, Susan Atkins, and Patricia Krenwinkel. Image: Getty.

Although the group were just arrested for stealing RV equipment, by December, police had linked the cult to the Tate-LaBianca murders and a warrant was issued for Manson, Watson, Atkins, Krenwinkel, and Van Houten.

In 1971, a highly-sensationalised trial began, as Manson's supporters gathered in and outside the courtroom.

In the end, Manson, Watson, Atkins, Krenwinkel, and Van Houten were all sentenced to death for their involvement in the Tate-LaBianca killings. Their penalties were later changed to life sentences as the death penalty was abolished in California the following year.

Here's what's happened to the women behind the Manson Family cult since. 

Susie Atkins.

Susie Atkins was partly responsible for the murder of Sharon Tate, and it's believed she wrote on the walls in Tate's blood.

She was reportedly a model prisoner who married twice, taught other inmates and launched several parole requests. At the time of her death from a brain tumour in 2009, she’d been in prison longer than any woman in California history.

Susie Atkins. Image: Twitter.

Leslie Van Houten.

Leslie Van Houten joined Manson and his followers after falling into drugs in high school and running away from home at just 17 years old.

Van Houten, who was vocally remorseless during her trial, was sentenced to death. But the death penalty was overturned and her sentence was changed to life in prison.  

In June 2023, Van Houten was released on parole after serving 53 years of a life sentence, aged 73. 

She will have a "three-year maximum parole term" the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation says.

Leslie Van Houten. Image: Twitter.

Patricia Krenwinkel.

Patricia Krenwinkel worshipped Manson and later described her life with the Family as idyllic.

She boasted about murdering Abigail Folger and was sentenced to life in prison, where she remains to this day despite repeated attempts at securing parole.

Following Atkins' death, Krenwinkel had been in prison longer than any woman in California history.

Patricia Krenwinkel. Image: Twitter.

Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme.

Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme became a part of the Manson Family when she was kicked out of her father's home.

Although she wasn't involved in the Manson murders, Fromme became one of the most well-known members of the Manson Family after leading a group of members, who'd shaved their heads and had Xs carved into their foreheads, to camp outside the courthouse everyday.

Many years later, in 1975, Fromme attempted to assassinate President Gerald Ford. She was later released on parole on August 14, 2009, after serving nearly 34 years, and is reportedly now working as a real estate agent.

In 2019, The Mirror reported she now lives in upstate New York with her boyfriend, who is a former convict himself.

Fox News has described her boyfriend as "Manson-obsessed" and when speaking to ABC News in 2019, Fromme said she was still in love with Charles Manson.

"Charlie was misunderstood. Was I in love with Charlie? Yeah, oh yeah, oh, I still am, still am. I don't think you fall out of love."

Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme. Image: Twitter.

Linda Kasabian.

Linda Kasabian was a twice-divorced young mum who joined the Manson Family just a few weeks before the Tate-LaBianca killings. Kasabian did not take part in the murders themselves, but was involved in the serious crimes. 

Once arrested, she was granted immunity by prosecutors to testify against Manson and four of his followers at the 1970 trial in Los Angeles. All five were convicted.

Kasabian was hailed a "star witness" for her role in the trial by lead prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi. 

He later said that without her testimony, "it would have been extremely difficult for me to convict Manson and his co-defendants."

Linda Kasabian. Image: Twitter.

Kasabian continued to have run-ins with the law for drug possession. She raised four children, including a son who was born while she was in prison awaiting the start of the Manson trial. 

She later changed her name and slipped from the public's view until she appeared on CNN's Larry King Live in 2009 wearing a disguise.

That same year she said: "I could never accept the fact that I was not punished for my involvement in this tragedy. I felt then what I feel now, always and forever, that it was a waste of life that had no reason, no rhyme. It was wrong. And it hurt a lot of people."

In January 2023, Kasabian died at age 73. 

She had been living in Washington State when she died and had changed her surname to "Chiochios" to protect her identity, The Guardian reported. 

No cause of death was cited on a death certificate from Tacoma-Pierce County.

This article was originally published in August 2019, and has been updated with new information.

Feature Image: Getty.

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