Susan would confide how her mind "reeled with pictures . . ." How she was impelled to drink of the spilled blood - to take her fill of it like a vampire. She would later describe the feeling of beautiful Sharon Tate's blood on her hands. "It was slick and I brought my hand to my face and I could smell the blood. I opened my mouth and I licked it on my fingers . . ." Again she thought of cutting the baby from the dead woman's body - of wrapping the unborn in the same towel and taking it to Charlie. "How proud Charlie would be if I presented him with the baby cut from the womb of the woman . . ." She thought of cutting Sharon Tate's heart - of cutting it from the wounded chest cavity, and how it could be eaten - as the hearts of enemies were eaten by the Indians. She thought of eating the baby - of skewering it at one of the family's bonfires - each eats of the flesh of the unborn and are reborn themselves.

During the early part of 1969, Terry Melcher moved out of the house on Cielo Drive after arranging to sublease it. The new tenant was movie actress Sharon Tate and her director husband Roman Polanski. They took occupancy of the house in March. Coincidentally, astrologer Robert Aiken had visited the house on Cielo Drive the year before. He says, "I knew some people who were friendly with the persons that had leased it, and I drew up a horoscope on the house. It was very badly aspected in a certain area — friends, or a group, or a gathering, could run into bad situations there. It was like an airplane, a group of people on it, and there is an accident..."                                                                                                                    

Polanski had a film commitment in Europe and Sharon Tate joined him in London that summer. When she returned to the States in mid-July, she was eight months pregnant. She planned to remain at home to await the arrival of her first baby, with close friends nearby such as Abigail Folger, daughter of the president of Folger Coffee Co. Another friend, Voityck Frykowski, a Polish writer, was working on a project for Polanski, and remained at the Cielo Drive house.

The estate forms the dead end of Cielo Drive. A fence stretches across the secluded road, and beyond it several clustered buildings sprawl along the graded property. It was once the home of Cary Grant, and had since been rented often on short-term leases to celebrities of the movie colony.

A gate is opened electrically by pressing a silver button on a waist-high length of pipe extending up from the shrubbery. Though the estate has been valued at more than $200,000, there are signs of neglect: a wood fence along the drive has been shattered by bumpers, paint on the main building is cracked and flaking away in patches. An old buckboard, once a movie prop, that serves as a decoration near the gate, has been chipped and splintered by motorists maneuvering around on the asphalt parking area.

At the opposite end of the property is a smaller guest house, and during the summer it was occupied by nineteen-year-old William Garretson. He had been hired as a caretaker by the landowner of the estate.

On August 8, 1969, Mrs. Winifred Chapman, housekeeper for the Polanskis, washed the front door of the house "because of the finger marks and the paw prints from the dogs, and I also washed the windows," she recalled. "I had cleaned the door with soap and water . . .

"There had been a carpenter working on Friday morning, and there had been men in and out all week. The room was being done over . . . making a nursery out of it. There had been a lot of work in there."

The housekeeper finished her work and left for the day between four and four-thirty. "It was still daylight," she said. "I left with two of the gardeners who drove me down to the bus stop."

About 8 o'clock that evening, Garretson left his guest house and walked across the property to the gate. By the time he had hitched a ride down to Sunset Boulevard to buy some groceries it was shortly after nine. He talked to a couple of friends on the Strip, then headed back to Benedict Canyon.

He saw Sharon Tates car in the garage when he returned, and Abigail Folgers Pontiac near the old buckboard.

Everything was quiet inside the house. Well-known hair stylist Jay Sebring, an old friend, was visiting.

Garretson didn't remember what time it was when his friend, Steve Parent, came to visit him. The boy parked his Rambler on the property and carried a new clock radio to Garretson's guest house.

After visiting Garretson, Steve made a telephone cal to another friend he wanted to see that night. Garretson walked him to the door and said "goodnight." Outside, Parent got into his car and released the brake.

About an hour earlier, at Spahn ranch, Susan gathered up her "creepy-crawl" clothes and a knife. She says Charlie "told me the type of clothing I should wear should be dark clothing that I would take along with me — didn't matter, just a change of clothing. Wear dark clothes."

She does not recall getting any actual instructions from Charlie, "other than getting the clothes and knife," and was told to "do exactly what Tex cold me to do."

Susan got into a car at the ranch with Tex, Katie and Linda. The car belonged to the hired ranch foreman. "It was a four-door Ford, yellow and white," Susan says. "Johnny frequently let us use his car. He had no knowledge of what we ever used the car for ... It was an older car and it didn't have a back seat, just the floorboard ... I just remember sitting in the back of the car and waving goodbye as we left the ranch — to Charlie and there were other people out there . . . There was a rope in the back of the car when I got in there. There was a set of bolt cutters . . . Tex had a gun. I had a knife. Linda had a knife. Katie had a knife, and to the best of my knowledge, I believe Tex had a knife . . . "I couldn't wear shoes. I had a few sores on my feet from infection." Tex drove the car, Susan said. "He told us that we were going to a house up on the hill that used to belong to Terry Melcher, and the only reason we were going to that house was because Tex knew the outline of the house. He told us about it as we were traveling." According to Susan, Tex described the house and said "He and Charlie had been there once talking to Terry and I think he said, with [Wilson]." She said Tex mentioned that Melcher no longer lived in the house.

There were movie stars there — Charlie had visited the house after Melcher had moved out. He'd said they'd treated him like a piece of garbage. Charlie'd told Tex, "They looked at me not like I was a human being, but like I was a piece of scum to be sucked into a toilet . . ."

"We sort of got lost on the way," Susan says. "I think we took a wrong turn and ended up somewhere in Mulholland and we went directly there . . . Tex did most of the talking in the car. In fact, to my recall, he did all of the talking. He told us we were going there to get all of their money and to kill whoever was there ... it didn't make any difference who was there, we were told to kill them. It was late at night and it was kind of like we were all confused.

For Katie the auto ride was "like you're driving into a monstrous, like it was a monstrous stomach, and you watched like veins and arteries .. ." Susan says, "There was a lot of confusion at that time because I didn't know what was going on, but I know that Tex got out of the car ... got the bolt cutter, went to the power pole. He climbed back down, told all of us to get into the car, put the bolt cutter back in the car, and drove back down the hill and parked on a side street. Then he told us to get our changes of clothes, and we all walked back up the hill and walked to this fence . . . We walked up to the gate but didn't want to touch it or go over it because we thought there may be an alarm system or electricity running through it. We looked for a way to get over the gate and we noticed that — we walked over this way — there is a hill that goes up like this next to the fence. We walked up the side of the hill and could see that we could get over the fence easier there than getting over the fence where the gate is. I was told to go over first. So I threw my change of clothes over the fence and held the knife between my teeth, and climbed over and got my pants caught on part of the fence and had to kind of boost myself up and lift from where I was caught, off of the fence and fell into the bushes on the other side. I was followed by the three others, Katie, Linda, and Tex. Then we were going to move forward toward the residence, and saw lights coming from, apparently a car ... I didn't actually see the car, just saw the headlights. Tex told us girls to lie down and be still and not make a sound. He went out of sight I heard him say, 'Halt!'"

The car had been coming down the driveway as the four were climbing over the front gate, Linda recalls, and "Tex Jumped forward and stuck the gun to the mans head. The man pleaded, 'Please don't hurt me ...'"

Susan also heard him say, "Please don't hurt me, I won't say anything." Then,  she said, "I heard a gunshot and I heard another gunshot and another one and another one. Four gunshots. Tex came back to us and cold us to come on. I saw him go to the car ... He reached inside, turned off the lights, and then proceeded to push the car to where it stopped. Then we walked. I walked past the car — could see someone inside the car — I couldn't see the face, I just saw the head and it was leaning with the face toward the right to the passenger side. I didn't pay too much attention to it," Susan says. "We walked toward the residence, past the garage . . . We walked past that, came down to the walk but got off the walk. We came and walked over to this window — to the right of the front door . . . Tex opened up the window, crawled inside and the next thing I knew he was at the front door opening the front door — only two of us entered — Linda Kasabian stayed outside. Tex was already inside . . .

"As I walked in, Tex was in front of the couch and there was a man lying on the couch and his head — the back of his head was facing me and he was facing the opposite direction. It was — I was standing here and he was lying with his head here and his feet extending that way . . . The man stretched his arms and woke up. I guess he thought some of his friends were coming from somewhere. He said, 'What time is it?' Tex jumped in front of him and held a gun in his face and said, 'Be quiet. Don't move or you're dead.' The man said something like 'Well who are you and what are you doing here?' Tex said, 'I am the Devil and I'm here to do the Devil's business . . . Where is your money?'

"The man said, *My money is in the wallet on the desk.' And Tex told me to go over and look at the desk. I went over and looked at the desk, but I didn't see a wallet and I told Tex I didn't see one. Tex told me to go to the other rooms, go in and see if there was anybody else in the house. I went into two bedrooms, walked past one room and saw a woman sitting wearing glasses reading a book. She looked at me and smiled and I looked at her and smiled — she held her glasses down, and looked. I looked at her and waved my hand and smiled to her and went on to the next room, and saw a man sitting with his back to me and the woman lying on the bed, apparently pregnant, and they were talking. Neither one of them saw me, and I walked back into the living room and acknowledged to Tex that there were three more people ... I had no idea who they were. When I first saw them, my reaction was, 'Wow, they sure are beautiful people.'

"Tex told me to tie up the man on the couch, so I took the rope (this was the rope that was in the car) and very loosely tied the man's hands ... I had put his hands together in a crisscross fashion, and his wrists. I have never been very good at tying knots and I wrapped the rope around his hands a couple of times and I was shaking and everything was happening so fast that I did a very poor job of tying him up. I stood back and Tex instructed me to go back and get the other people."

Susan did not learn until the following day who they were, but uses their names here in recollection: "I walked back to the room and went into Abigail Folger's bedroom, put a knife in front other and said, 'Get up and go into the living room. Don't ask me any questions. Just do what I say.' She then proceeded to get up out of bed and walk down the hall and was met by Katie . . . And I went into the other bedroom and stood to the left of the door and told them both to get up and go into the living room [this was Sharon Tate and Jay Sebring]. "Shock. That was the expression on all their faces. Once he got

into the living room, Sebring said, 'What are you doing here?' and Tex told him to shut up. He told him to go over to the fireplace and lie down — Sharon said something to the effect that she is pregnant. Jay Sebring said, 'Can't you see she is pregnant, let her sit down.' Sebring didn't follow Tex's orders and Tex shot him. Sebring fell in front of the fireplace and Sharon and Abigail screamed.

"Tex asked the two girls if they had any money. Abigail said she did. Tex told me to take her into the bedroom. Abigail Folger walked into the bedroom. She reached into her purse and pulled out a wallet and said, 'I only have seventy-two dollars, I just went to the bank yesterday,' and asked me if I wanted any of her credit cards and I shook my head no. I took the money and put it in my pocket and walked her back to the living room where Tex had me re-tie Frykowski with a towel that I had gotten from the bedroom ... I didn't do a very good job of that either.

"Abigail was standing and Sharon was sitting. Tex went over to Sebring and bent down and viciously stabbed him in the back many times with a knife. Then he told Sharon and Abigail to lie down next to him . . . and told Katie to turn off the lights and all the lights went out . . . There was enough light from the outside lights so that we could see on the inside. I looked over and saw a dog in the window. The dog ran away.

"The people got down on the floor," Susan says, 'And they lied down and they were crying, and they were saying, 'Please don't hurt me.' Each one of them kept saying 'Please don't hurt me, we won't hurt you, we won't call the police, please don't hurt me, we won't call the police.'

"Tex proceeded to tie a rope around Sebring's neck then to Sharon Tates neck, then to Abigail Folger's neck and threw the rope — he threw it over a high beam which he pulled which made Sharon and Abigail stand up so that they wouldn't choke to death, and then — I forget who said it, but one of the victims said 'What are you going to do with us?' Tex said, 'You are all going to die.' And at that time they began to plead for their lives — Frykowski and Sharon and Abigail — Sebring was dying on the floor.

"They were pleading, I would have been, too — and Tex ordered me to go over and kill Frykowski. I went over to him and raised the knife in my hand. I looked at him and hesitated. I hesitated long enough for the man to jump up. He knocked me down and I grabbed him as best I could ... I tried to stop him and he kept pulling my hair and I was kicking at him and I was fighting him — it was like I was fighting for my life, it was like I never fought before, something I never experienced. He had hold of my hair and pulled it very hard and I was screaming for Tex to help me, or somebody to help me, and Frykowski, he was also screaming. Somehow he got behind me and I had the knife in my right hand and I was — I was — I don't know where I was at but I was just swinging with the knife and I remember hitting something four, five times repeatedly behind me ... I just kept swinging. I kept swinging the knife, I would swing the knife backwards, it was like ... I didn't see what it was that I was stabbing — I never stabbed a human being before, but I just know it was going into something . . . Then the man — he let go of me, got away from me and started running toward the front door, which was open, and screaming bloody murder, yelling for his life, for somebody to come help him . . . And I went to run after him, and then I looked over and Katie was calling 'Help!' She was fighting with two women. And the dark-haired woman Abigail had hold of Katie s hair and was pulling on it and Katie was fighting and she called for Linda ..."

During it all, Linda "heard a man scream — then just screams. I don't have any words to describe how a scream is. I never heard it before. It was unbelievably, terribly horrible."

Frykowski got to the door, Susan says. "Tex hit him over the head with the gun butt ... I believe the handle of the gun broke ... He was stabbing him as best he could because Frykowski was fighting."

Linda, outside the house, saw "there was a man who had just come out of the door and he had blood all over his face . .. We looked into each other's eyes.

"I said, 'Oh, God, I'm sorry,' and he just fell into the bushes." Soon after, Linda says, "the man had gotten up and moved away. Tex was hitting him and stabbing him and he was on top of him. The man was struggling with him ..."

Inside, Susan says, "Sebring, he was dead I believe, lying on the floor . . . Although I heard moaning, I don't know whether it came from Sebring or not — Abigail had gotten loose from the rope and was in a fight with Katie."

Katie says, "Its all the picture-like motion, reaction, it's hard to explain, trying to describe in detail ... I remember looking up and Sadie was — and Sadie was — was fighting with like with two women, and I —

I guess I just got up and ran — and ran over and started fighting with a woman over there. And I can remember finally like Sadie was fighting over here, or something, and I was fighting."

Susan says, "Tex went over to help Katie, and I saw Katie be released from Abigail s grip, and I saw Tex stab Abigail and just before he stabbed her — maybe an instant before he stabbed her, she looked at him and let her arms go and looked at all of us and said, 'I give up, take me.'

"Tex stabbed her again and she gripped her middle section other body and fell to the floor . . . And then I saw Tex go back outside." Abigail crawled up and tried to run from the house, Katie recalls. Linda says "Katie came running out of the house and I said, 'Please, make it stop — people are coming.' She said it was too late . . . then I saw a girl run and Katie chasing after her with an upraised knife, and I just turned and ran to the car down at the bottom of the hill ..."

Katie remembers: "I had a knife in my hands, and Abigail took off running, and she ran — she ran — she ran out through a back door . . . And I went through that door, and was chasing her on the grass and we started fighting and I stabbed her and I kept stabbing her."

Inside the house, Susan says, "I can remember seeing Sharon struggle with the rope. Tex told me to take care of her, and I ran to the pregnant woman because she was starting to take the rope off her neck. I went over and grabbed her by the hand and put my arm around her neck . . . and I had her head in my arms, and then I saw Tex come back to the man on the floor with the rope around his neck [Sebring] and he was stabbing the man.

"Sharon looked at me and begged to let me have her sit down and I was told, before we got there, no matter what they beg don't give them any leeway," Susan says. "Anyway, I went over and put her down on the couch and looked into her face, knowing that anything that I would say I was saying to myself, in a sense reassuring myself. I looked at her and said, 'Woman, I have no mercy for you.' And I knew at that time I was talking to myself, not to her.

"She said, 'Please let me go. All I want to do is have my baby.' She still had the rope around her."

Suddenly, Susan says, she found herself alone in the living room with Sharon. "She kept pleading, 'Please don't kill me, please don't kill me, I'm not going to say anything.' I just looked at her like, 'Shut up!' I told her to shut up, I don't want to hear it. She said, 'Please, let me sit down.'

I said, 'I'm not going to let you do anything, just be quiet!' I threw her down and held my knife at her, and I said, 'Don't move, don't move.' She said, 'Please, all I want to do is have my baby.' I said, 'Don't move, don't talk to me, don't say anything to me. I don't want to hear it . . .'

"Tex came back in and he stood over and he looked at her and he said, 'Kill her!'

"It was just there to do," Susan says. "I didn't relate to Sharon Tate to be anything but a store mannequin . . . She sounded like an IBM machine - words kept coming out of her mouth . . . Begging and pleading, begging and pleading. I got sick of listening to her, so I stabbed her. And I Just stabbed her, and she fell, and I stabbed her again . . . just kept stabbing and stabbing . . ."

Susan says she could feel the knife jab through the skin and strike bone - feel the "razor-sharp honed" blade hit bones and strike past into the deep soft organs. She would later claim it was the most exciting sexual experience she has ever known - that knife driving deeply again and again into Sharon Tale's flesh and body.

"Sharon put her arms up, and then her arms fell... I don't know how many times I stabbed her. I don't know why I stabbed her."

Then, Susan recalls, "Tex came back in, said, 'Hold her!*" And Susan saw "Tex stab her in the heart area around the chest. Sharon fell to the floor off the couch and we went to the front door. I believe Tex said, 'The gun doesn't work anymore. I broke it over his head.'

"Then I ran outside and Katie was just getting up from in front of the woman on the grass." They had gone out the front door, Susan says, "and I saw Abigail on the lawn ... I just saw her nightgown, a see-through nightgown and I saw blood on it, and I saw Tex go over and stab her three or four - I don't know how many times."

Frykowski was laying out in front of the house. Tex was stabbing Abigail, Susan recalls, and "while he was doing that, Katie and I went looking for Linda because she wasn't around anymore. In fact, we started calling for her. We didn't want to call too loud." Tex walked over to where Frykowski was, Susan says. "He was lying with his back to me. Tex kicked him in the head, and the body didn't move very much. I believe it was dead at that time. Then we walked up to the gate. We walked around there, looking for Linda. "Tex was walking toward Katie and me - he told me to go back into the house and write something on the door in one of the victim's blood. He said, 'Write something that will shock the world.'

"I had previously been involved in something similar to this where I saw 'political piggy' written on the wall, so that stuck very heavily in my mind," Susan says. "I didn't want to go back anywhere near the house, so I just blanked my mind and walked into the house. I picked up the same towel that I had tied Frykowski up with and walked over to Sharon Tate's body — she seemed to have been cut up a lot more than when I had last seen her. I never actually saw her face. Her hair was covering her face and there were sounds coming from her body . . . Gurgling sounds like blood flowing into the body out of the heart.

"I picked up the towel and turned my head and touched her chest and at the same time I knew she was pregnant, and I knew there was a living being inside of that body and I wanted to cut it out, but I didn't have the courage to go ahead and take it. And I got the towel with her blood, walked over to the door and with the towel I wrote 'PIG' on the door — outside on the front door — 'PIG' in Sharon Tate's blood. I held the towel in my hand and stood there for a few minutes. I did not know what to do . . ."

But, Susan says, "I turned around and threw the towel toward the living room where the bodies were lying ... I walked out the front door at a very rapid pace up to Tex and Katie . . . We had left the change of clothes at the gate. We picked up these clothes before we left. There was a possibility I had blood all over my body . . . I'm pretty sure Tex had a lot of blood on him. He pushed the button that opened the gate, and we proceeded to walk down the hill to the car."