SHARON TATE'S SISTER SPEAKS

"They're not supernatural, they're not the devil, they're nothing special, they're just little creeps." - Debra Tate

Not long ago, my sister and I were chatting on the phone as we do occasionally. It doesn't take much for our conversations to be steered onto the road of Nostalgia and remembering the many things from our past.

I can't remember how we got on the subject, but we were talking about the time in the late 60's, when we were living at the far west end of the San Fernando Valley; We were just a few houses away from where "civilization" ended and the Santa Susana Mountains began. Just over the small mountain range was Simi Valley and Santa Susana.

One day, I came home from school and my Mom and a couple of neighbors were on the front lawn. I didn't pay much attention and made my way to the front door, thinking they were just socializing. That is, until my Mom said, "Don't go in the house!"

Our house had been burglarized. I laugh today, but the first thing that came out of my mouth was, "What about my monster magazines?" That right there tells you a lot about what I valued at the time.

Well, the bastards took some of my Mom's jewelry and a number of other things. The rooms (except mine) were pretty well ransacked, but not vandalized. Oddly enough, the method seemed to have an order to it. They even took time out to eat some food and guzzle some of the Codeine-laced cough syrup we had in the bathroom medicine cabinet (which indicated the burglars were drug addicts).

After going over the unpleasantness of this event one more time, my sister mentioned something to me that stopped me in my tracks. She said, "I always thought that it was the Manson Family that broke into our house."

I was momentarily nonplussed, but then manage to reply that, yes, I guess it was possible. We were "just over the hill" and within striking distance of Manson's marauding band of thieves who were living at the Spahn Ranch in the Santa Susana mountains at the time. But no midnight creepy crawling here -- this was done in broad daylight. The use of the medicine cabinet drugs adds to the veracity, but I guess it's possible it could have been any run-of-the-mill hop head. Still, it becomes yet another reason to be affected by the taint of Manson and his followers.

Tonight is the 49th anniversary of the infamous Tate Murders. It's hard to imagine that nearly a half a century has gone by since the heinous act was committed and left its stain on the consciousness of American culture.

In the September 8, 2017 issue of PEOPLE magazine, Sharon Tate's sister, Debra spoke out about how the death of her older sibling's has haunted her life since that day of the phone call that nobody ever wants to get. Not surprisingly, she mentions that she has read no books or any other published account about the murders. Another interesting fact is that Sharon and Debra's father spent some time investigating the crime on his own, but to my knowledge, nothing came of it -- that has been publicized anyway.

Well, at long last, Charlie's dead now. It would be interesting to hear what Debra has to say today. Let's hope that maybe she can finally turn at least that one page in her book of memories about the monster that took her sister.