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STARLETS - SHARON TATE

STARLETS

Dominique
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Peg
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Virginia
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Sharon
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Sharon Tate

1943 -1969

Beautiful actress Sharon Tate attained success in Hollywood, married the love of her life, and was about to become a mother. Charles Manson, a living abortion, would engineer her demise, delivering death to her Bel Air doorstep.

Sharon Marie Tate was born January 24, 1943 in Dallas, Texas to her mother Doris and her father Paul James, a Lt. Colonel in the U.S. Army.

She attended Vicenza American High School in Vicenza, Italy from 1960 to 1961. A gorgeous young woman, she was a cheerleader, baton twirler, star basketball player, and actress, playing "Juliet" in the school production of Romeo and Juliet. She was also voted Homecoming Queen and Senior Prom Queen.

Sharon's talent and beauty led her into a successful career as a model and actress. She was originally cast in the role of "Billie Jo" on the television series Petticoat Junction, but her manager Martin Ransohoff didn't feel it was a good launching pad for her career, so she turned the role down. "Malibu Barbie" was modeled on her character "Malibu" in the film Don't Make Waves (1967).

In 1968, she was nominated for the Golden Globe "Best Promising Newcomer - Female" for her work in the motion picture Valley of the Dolls.

"There was the perfection of her face-of course.
And a radiance more usually found in children.
There was a capacity for delight.
And a directness to her comments.
She was not a chatterbox.
There was a kindness at the core.
She somehow made her friends feel necessary.
And they loved her."
- Mia Farrow, actress

Along the way, Sharon met the brilliant film director Roman Polanski (Chinatown, Macbeth, Tess).

Sharon and Roman fell in love.

They were married on January 20, 1968. Later that year, Sharon learned she was pregnant. She and Roman found a larger house to live in with the baby at 10050 Cielo Drive in Bel Air, a beautiful ranch style home with a pool and guesthouse.

The previous tenants had been Terry Melcher, son of Doris Day, and his girlfriend Candice Bergen.

In February 1969, Sharon and Roman moved in.

Sharon called the home her "love house."

"The imperfect couple.
They were the Douglas Fairbanks - Mary Pickford of our time
- cool, nomadic, talented and nicely shocking."
- Peter Evans, photographer

In March, Sharon flew to Italy to work in a film with Orson Welles and Vittorio Gassman. Her pregnancy complicated the filming, but Gassman respectfully befriended her through to the end. After filming, she joined Roman in London where she posed for a photo shoot with Terry O'Neil. Posing on the stairwell of her London home, Sharon wore a short flowing yellow dress, cradling her belly, lying on the floor surrounded by baby clothes, opening baby shower gifts, and in her Rolls Royce holding up baby clothes. Smiling and laughing, she was the picture of contentment and happiness.

Roman said she never looked more beautiful.

Sharon boarded the luxury liner Queen Elizabeth II and sailed home to the United States. Roman stayed behind in Europe to work on a picture. She had been reading the book Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy and left it behind for Roman to read, suggesting it would make an excellent film.

They would never see one another again in this life.

Charles Manson

After spending time in reform schools and prisons, pimp and forger Charles Manson came to Los Angeles to become a rock musician. But he sucked.

Instead, he used his guitar and drugs to seduce young innocent hippie girls into his bed and into his cult "family."

Manson set up a commune at the Spahn Ranch, a onetime Hollywood filming location.

Manson became a "Christ-like" figure whom his followers worshipped. He had his disciples learn "guerilla tactics," preparing them to kill at his order. He spoke in apocalyptic terms and raged about the coming revolution.

On the evening of August 9, 1969, Sharon Tate and friends had their last meal at El Coyote, a popular Mexican restaurant on Beverly Boulevard near La Brea.

Afterwards, Sharon, heiress Abigail Folger, writer/producer Voyteck Frykowski, hair stylist Jay Sebring, and 18-year-old Steven Earl Parent gathered at her Cielo Drive home.

Later that night, Manson's disciples: Charles "Tex" Watson, Patricia Krenwinkel, Susan Atkins, and Leslie Van Houten raided the estate, shooting, stabbing, and even clubbing the five friends to death.

Sharon begged for the life of her unborn child, but the killers showed no mercy.

The murderers used their victim's blood to scrawl the words "Pig" and "War" on the walls of the house.

"I am the devil and I have come to do the devil's work."
- Charles "Tex" Watson

Two nights later, the Manson followers butchered Leno and Rosemary La Bianca in the same manner.

The police traced the killings to the Manson family and they were arrested.

During their trial, several of Manson's female followers shaved their heads and held a daily vigil outside the courthouse.

Manson and the murderers showed no sign of remorse.

"I have done my best to get along in your world,
and now you want to kill me.
I say to myself, 'Ha, I'm already dead, have been all my life.'
I don't care anything about any of you."
- Charles Manson on trial

"One of the most evil, satanic men
who ever walked the face of the earth."
- Prosecutor describing Manson

All were found guilty and sentenced to death, but when the Supreme Court ruled against capital punishment, their sentences were changed to life imprisonment.

The killers have been eligible for parole since 1978. They have been denied at every opportunity to date.

Championing Victims Rights

In the years following Sharon's murder, her mother Doris began to fight her depression by fighting for victim's rights. She spoke to other family members of crime victims. She attended the parole hearings of the members of the Manson Family who had murdered her daughter. She was the first member of a victim's family to ever speak out a parole hearing and make a victims impact statement in the State of California. Doris actively campaigned to help see a law make it on the books. The rest of the States would soon follow suit.

Doris spoke to prisoners who she felt could be rehabilitated, telling them of her loss and the years of depression that followed in the hopes that they would not, upon release, go on to commit more, and increasingly violent crimes. When Doris Tate died on July 10th, 1992, Sharon's youngest sister Patti took up the fight that Doris began, starting a foundation, The Doris Tate Crime Victim's Bureau.

On June 3rd, 2000, Patti Tate passed away at the age of 42, from breast cancer. Sharon's last remaining sister, Debra, continues to fight in Sharon's name for all victims of crime and their families.

"I hate it.
I hate that her beautiful name is linked to Charles Manson."
- Patti Tate, sister

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