Few killers have ever fascinated and horrified the public as much as Charles Manson. Forty years ago this week, on Aug. 9, 1969, Manson’s hippie-styled followers, the Manson Family, murdered actress Sharon Tate, wife of director Roman Polanski, and four other visitors to her Los Angeles estate. The murders were gruesome, with numerous stabbings and shootings, and PIG written on the wall in blood. The next night, the group brutally murdered a married couple, Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, in their Los Angeles home, again leaving messages in blood all over the house. The trial took an unprecedented nine months, hypnotizing the nation. The determined prosecutor, Vincent Bugliosi, won death sentences for Manson and his band. Afterward, Bugliosi wrote Helter Skelter , a spellbinding account of the Manson murders and trial that became the No. 1 true-crime best seller of all time. TIME senior reporter Andrea Sachs reached the author at his home in California.
