Opinionated Thought

DEATH of SHARON TATE 40th ANNIVERSARY

Entertainment - Celebrity News

I am very critical of news stories, documentaries and accounts on the Tate/LaBianca case. I can't stand the way programs such as the one E! television produces that emphasize the sensational aspects of this story and often get their facts wrong. Poor produced documentaries that play up the horror angle for all it's worth, as if the events weren't bad enough? After 40 years, some insight and understanding should be provided, not horror.

It's been said that the 60's officially ended on August 9, 1969. The Manson cased was America's first "cult" or what the media coined as being a cult. We, as a society are actually fortunate that for a short period of time California overturned capital punishment in the early 70's. The killers sentences were reduced to life with a possibility of parol. Over the years we have been able to see the changes that have taken place. There are so many "players" associated with it. It's the first multi killing in America to which there is this much footage documenting it and over time even. It's culturally significant in the fact that we as a society have been able to witness how all the people involved, the criminals, the attorney's and families of the victims and the criminals have changed over time and how this crime affected them over decades. It's quite unusual to have all the footage and interviews on a case the way this one does.

The Manson case will be written about for decades. Long after everyone is gone, this case will be surmised, analyzed, conjectured and played out in some form or another.

At this point, I think the important thing is to focus on the families of the victims. To see how this case has had not only an affect on them but on the next generation in their families. That's truly something that needs to be explored and reported. Children of the victims families that weren't even alive at the time and how this crime has an affect on them.

The Jonestown cult followers are often written about in the same columns as the followers of Charles Manson. Big difference between Jonestown and the Manson tragedy. The people in Jonestown allowed themselves to be followed by Jim Jones. It was their choosing to be there. Tate/LaBianca was a home invasion upon innocent people who had nothing to do with the people who killed them. Doesn't make one better or worse than the other, it just makes more sense why one happened as opposed to another.

Of course there has been tragedy's with bigger numbers of innocent people killed. They're ALL horrible but for me, the McDonald's massacre that involved so many children killed seems the worst. In contrast, both the Jonestown and Waco case, it was the parents of these children that allowed that to happen. It didn't have the senselessness of the Tate/LaBianca killings or the McDonald's massacre, because those people where just doing what they normally do with no connection to the killer or killers at all.

Even the Columbine school massacre made more sense in the way that the killers had a vendetta against the school and the students and faculty who went there. They knew their victims in some way or another.

Type in the name Sharon Tate on You tube and see some of the wonderful tribute videos to this extraordinarily beautiful and sensitive woman. I, for one had forgotten how Sharon and "her look" really did define the free spiritedness of the 60's. For the first time in my life, I've actually been able to get past the murder and see Sharon Tate for the person she was. That woman really did have a look that defined a decade better than anyone else did, including Twiggy. Her look is timeless. It's been said by some that Sharon's sister Debra is "pimping" her sisters image by providing a website that sells Sharon Tate memorabilia. I disagree with this. Debra Tate is reminding us that there was a woman who existed apart from Charles Manson. I think Debra IS honoring her sister. She attends yearly parol hearings of all the criminals involved and she's extremely passionate about her sister.

I guess this case will always stir up emotion in people. It's the type of thing that gets to everybody . . . where they live and down deep. It hits low and hard because after everything is explained and written, there still isn't any rhyme, reason or sense to it. Why and how is it that some people happen to be in a certain place where something this horrific can happen to them? These answers may be explained after we die. As it is now, it just is what it is. Yes, we understand why it all came about. Manson with his jealousy of the rich and the rejection he felt from them over his music. The idiot followers, Tex Watson, Susan Atkins and the rest who were impressed with this 35 year old little man's rhetoric. The ex con who had experienced most of his life in and out of correctional institutions. His followers bought into his big talk about life. Beggars logic, what kind of backgrounds did they (Krenwinkel, Watson, Atkins, etc) come from that lead them into thinking Manson had the answers?

Patricia Krenwinkel, Atkins, Leslie Van Houten, Watson? Look at them now? Do they not all feel stupid for being so easily lead by a convict? They've all denounced Manson. They KNOW they were duped. What is the real thing that eats away at these killers after all these years? Not that they murdered those people, oh no, not so much so. Perhaps some, but I think the real thing that is REALLY eating away at these killers is they can't stand living with the memory of being SUCKERED. They carried out Manson's plan and forfeited their lives for HIM! He made them into killers or drew out the desire that they already had inside of them to kill. That's what they can't stand.

Okay, people are murdered and die horribly every day and for no reason except for the killers own jealousy and petty vengeance. We hate that because it goes against everything that being human and peace loving is about. We hate the killers, because they were young and dumb and their stupidity changed how society viewed peace loving hippies and some of the good feeling of the 60's movement. It's one of those things that one has to accept as never making sense.

What happened to all the Tate/LaBianca victims were equally horrible, but for some reason Sharon Tate is the one we focus on. Why? I think it has to do with the fact that for some reason her murder is the one that reaches down deep and gets us the most. Yes, she was beautiful, but there was a vulnerability about her that speaks to our protective side. Why does her murder still affect so many people the way it does? She was young, beautiful, sweet and pregnant. Something about Sharon makes us want to reach out and protect her. Our basic instincts want to protect and guard her, to stop what happened from happening. Also, the fact that she had to witness all the mayhem and was the last to die is haunting. Sharon begged, Atkins held her, Watson hesitated for a moment until Krenwinkel egged him on and then Watson stabbed a screaming Sharon until she was silent. I shutter to think that Watson pulled the rope around Sharon's neck and pulled her up until her body dangled and fell. The details, so lurid and unforgivable that we, who are still living and remembering should probably not focus on it the way we do. Sharon keeps us remembering. Why? Because we don't want to forget her. We want to keep her memory alive and remember her for the person she was before all this happened.

More and more people are discovering Sharon Tate and being reminded that one doesn't have to be frightened of her because of how she died. Okay, perhaps how she was killed has made her more intriguing to people. Of course you can't look at her without thinking about that night. But for better or for worse and for some strange reason it's made Sharon all the more intriguing and interesting. She doesn't disappoint. Sharon has become a real enigma. She's just fascinating to look at.