Charles Manson is being escorted by police officers from court. — Manson is escorted from Superior Court, where he entered pleas in the Sharon Tate and Leno and Rosemary LaBianca murders.

Mapping 13 key locations in the 1969 Manson family murders

From the Tate house to Corcoran State Prison

By Bianca Barragan Oct 22, 2014, 2:57pm PDT

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Manson is escorted from Superior Court, where he entered pleas in the Sharon Tate and Leno and Rosemary LaBianca murders.

| Los Angeles Public Library photo collection

By Bianca Barragan Oct 22, 2014, 2:57pm PDT

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As Joan Didion wrote in her 1979 essay collection The White Album, the sixties "ended abruptly” on August 9, 1969, the night the Manson Family committed the brutal and infamous murders of five people at the home of actress Sharon Tate and director Roman Polanski. The following night, in Los Feliz, the "family” murdered two more innocent people, chosen randomly. The authorities were stumped; their main suspect, a groundskeeper at the Tate house, was released after passing a polygraph test.

Seven murders in two days was horrible, and without any idea of who did it, the city was on edge: "A Beverly Hills sporting goods store sold 200 firearms in two days. The price of guard dogs rose from $500 to $1,500," according to Los Angeles magazine.

Eventually the world would learn about the Manson Family, a cult in thrall to a man named Charles Manson, living together at the remote and abandoned Spahn movie ranch deep in the Valley. Below we've mapped all those and more important locations in the history of the cult that changed Los Angeles forever.

The Story of the Abandoned Movie Ranch Where the Manson Family Launched Helter Skelter [Curbed LA]

Dennis Wilson's House

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Dennis Wilson got involved with the Manson Family when he picked up two Family girls hitchhiking by the side of the road; he brought them to his Rustic Canyon house, they hung out, everyone left. He returned home late that night to find Charles Manson in his house with about a dozen, mostly female guests. Manson and the guests stayed for a few months, at a cost of $100,000 to Wilson.

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14400 Sunset Boulevard, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272

An aerial view of a house surrounded by trees. The house is white with multiple chimneys.

The "Yellow Submarine"

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The former site of a pre-Spahn-Ranch hangout for the Family.

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21019 Gresham Street, Canoga Park, CA 91304

A building with a tan facade and multiple windows. There is a street with cars in the foreground.

28 Clubhouse Avenue

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Another pre-Spahn-Ranch home base for the Manson Family. The November following the Tate/LaBianca murders, police responded to a possible lead at this address, where they found their potential witness dead from "suicide."

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28 Clubhouse Avenue, Venice, CA 90291

An aerial view of houses and street in Venice, California.

Hinman House

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On July 31, police investigated the murder of music teacher Gary Hinman at his Topanga Canyon house. There were several similarities between Hinman's murder and those at the Tate house that pointed to Manson and his Family.

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964 Old Topanga Canyon Road, Topanga, CA 90290

The exterior of a house with trees in the front of it.

Tate House

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Valley of the Dolls actress Sharon Tate (married to director Roman Polanski) was eight months pregnant at the time she was murdered on August 9, 1969, along with Folgers coffee heiress Abigail Folger, her lover Voytek Frykowski, hairstylist Jay Sebring, and teen Steven Parent. The house at 10055 Cieldo Drive was demolished in the 1990s; the new house on the property has a different house number and is owned by Full House creator Jeff Franklin.

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10066 Cielo Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90210

An aerial view of a large house in Beverly Hills, California.

LaBianca house

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Leno LaBianca, owner of a chain of supermarkets, and his wife Rosemary, who ran a successful clothing business, were murdered one night after the murders at the Tate house, on August 10, 1969. The house is still standing but the house number has been changed.

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3311 Waverly Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90027

An aerial view of the LaBianca house in Los Angeles.

Gun found

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According to Helter Skelter, a gun used in the Tate murders was found here, "lying next to the sprinkler, under a bush," by a 10-year-old boy.

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3627 Longview Valley Road, Sherman Oaks, CA 91423

An aerial view of houses in Sherman Oaks, California.

Blood-covered clothes found

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Clothes disposed of after the murders at Tate's house were found thrown off a hillside across from 2901 Benedict Canyon by a TV crew and a reporter from the LA Times attempting to trace the steps of the perpetrators on the night of the murders.

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2901 Benedict Canyon Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90210

An aerial view of a road, hills, and houses in Beverly Hills.

Spahn Ranch

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Charles Manson and 27 members of his Family were arrested here in an early morning raid on August 16, 1969, but for charges related to stolen vehicles. Prior to housing the Family, the property had been a popular movie ranch and horse-riding spot.

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23000 Santa Susana Pass Road, Chatsworth, CA 91311

An aerial view of Spahn Ranch in California.

Barker Ranch

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Raided in October 1969, Manson's group was using this Death Valley ranch as a shelter after leaving Spahn. (Some members of the Family were also living at the nearby Myers Ranch.) He and 23 of his followers were arrested in what Helter Skelter describes as a three-day-long raid. (This raid was also largely related to stolen cars found on the property.) The ranch suffered a fire in the spring of 2009, but many of the stone structures are still standing, according to Atlas Obscura.

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Death Valley National Park, United States

An aerial view of Barker Ranch in California.

Inyo County Courthouse

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Charles Manson was officially indicted here for the Tate and LaBianca murders. He was then transported to the Hall of Justice Downtown, where his trial later took place.

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168 North Edwards Street, Independence, CA 93526

The exterior of Inyo County Courthouse. The facade is white with columns near the entrance.

Hall of Justice

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Charles Manson was held in jail here. Eventually, he and Family members Patricia Krenwinkel, Susan Atkins, and Leslie Van Houten were found guilty of the murders. Another Family member, Tex Watson, was tried separately and also convicted.