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HELTER SKELTER
When police arrived at the LaBianca murder scene, they found various words written in blood. On the living room walls, there was "rise" and "death to pigs." Carved into Leno LaBianca's stomach was "war." Alone these seem to give no clue, but another writing on the refrigerator did. It was the incorrectly spelt "healter skelter." This led some investigators to believe the writings may have been influenced by the so-called "White Album" by the Beatles which included the song "Helter Skelter." Another song on the album, "Blackbird," used the word "arise" which may have inspired the bloody use of "rise." The phase "death to pigs" was likely inspired by the Beatles' song "Piggies." Had police made the connection, they would have realized that "pig" was used in the previous murders at the Gary Hinman and Sharon Tate houses. At Hinman's, bloody writing said "political piggie" while "pig" was written at the Tate house. Perhaps the vast size of Los Angeles kept police from making a strong connection. Maybe it was the multiple police departments involved along with their jurisdictional conflicts. Whatever the reason, in early November 1969, Susan Atkins began talking to fellow prisoners about the murders. It wasn't long before a couple of inmates went to authorities with her bizarre story. Susan Atkins told of her and three friends going to the Tate house on Cielo Drive and slaughtering five people under instructions from Charles Manson. She also confessed to being part of the group that traveled to Waverly Drive the following night for two additional murders. As for the Cielo house, it was supposedly chosen because it was remote and had previously been occupied by Terry Melcher, whom Susan expressed a dislike for. Atkins seemed to have no explanation for choosing the LaBianca home but it was later learned that the Manson group had previously been to the house next door for parties. Atkins seemed unclear on what the motive was but the prosecutors said it was a race war by the name of "Helter Skelter." Supposedly, the black population was going to rise up and wipe out everyone else. The Manson Family would be hiding out in the desert and escape the carnage, though. Once blacks found they couldn't run the world on their own, the Manson Family would be in position to take over. The Family supposedly thought the Beatles' song "Helter Skelter" (and the rest of the album) was about the apocalyptic war. Prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi wrote a book about the cased entitled "Helter Skelter." Later, a made-for-TV movie about the case used the same title. It has now been released on DVD.
Trivia: Virginia Graham, one of the inmates that Atkins confessed to, had known Jay Sebring. She had also been to the Tate murder house at 10050 Cielo Drive in 1962. The other inmate was Ronnie Howard (also known as Veronica Lopez). Graham and Howard had previously known each other and been involved with the same man. Howard was murdered in 1979. |
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