Two Infamous Murder Houses

The LaBianca house then.

The LaBianca Murders. The house at 3311 Waverly Drive in Los Angeles had a different number 46 years ago when a charismatic madman led three of his minions on a second killing spree because they had botched the previous night’s slaughter. Almost everyone knows the story of the Manson Family murders that ended the life of beautiful blonde and very pregnant Sharon Tate at a home she and husband Roman Polansky were renting at 10050 Cielo Drive in Benedict Canyon. In addition to Tate, Abigail Folger, the coffee heiress; celebrity hairstylist Jay Sebring; writer Voy Frykowski; and Steven Parent, a friend of the Tate gardener who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, were also butchered. When the five bodies were discovered on the morning of Saturday, August 9, 1969, the scene was worse than anything Polansky – who had directed Rosemary’s Baby – or just about anyone else, could have imagined. Manson had sent Charles “Tex” Watson, Susan Atkins and Patricia Krenwinkel to do the “job,” along with Linda Kasabian, who was supposed to act as lookout. Once the frenzied massacre was over, Watson reminded Atkins that Charlie had insisted they leave something “witchy” at the scene and she dipped a towel in Tate’s blood and wrote “Pig” on the outside door.

The LaBianca house now.

Because he considered the Tate murders sloppy, Manson decided the group would strike again that very night (August 9) and chose the LaBianca home, located at 3301Waverly Drive, because it was next door to a house where he had once attended a party. By the time he and his gang arrived at the residence that sat well back from the street, it was after midnight. Charlie climbed in through a back window and entered the house, where grocery store owner Leno LaBianca, 44, had fallen asleep in the livingroom while reading the paper. The intruder awakened the man and assured him everyone would be fine if they cooperated, and proceeded to tie his hands behind his back with a leather shoelace. Rosemary LaBianca, 39, was in the bedroom and Manson ordered her to the livingroom and tied her hands. During his search for loot, he led the frightened woman back to the bedroom. He then left the house and returned to the yellow and white ‘59 Ford, where Watson, Krenwinkle and Leslie Van Houten were waiting. At this point, the LaBiancas could have fled through the back door, but, apparently believing they would not be harmed if they followed instructions, failed to do so. Charlie declared he had done his part and drove back to the Spahn Ranch, leaving the other three to take care of business.

Either Watson or Van Houten placed a pillowcase over Leno’s head, then wrapped a lamp cord around his head and mouth. Rosemary, who had also been tied with a lamp cord, was again removed to the bedroom. She panicked on hearing her husband being stabbed to death and proceeded to blindly swing the lamp attached to the cord. When she was subdued, Krenwinkle stabbed her in the neck, but the knife hit the collarbone and bent. The woman was stabbed at least 30 times before Watson insisted Van Houten – whom he considered somewhat prissy – to do her part. Van Houten subsequently stabbed Rosemary in the lower back 16 times. Leno LaBianca was stabbed a total of 26 times and the word “WAR” was carved on his stomach. On this occasion, the killers wrote “Death to Pigs” on a wall and Krenwinkle scribbled “Healter [sic] Skelter” on the refrigerator.

Once their work was done, the killers showered, raided the refrigerator and sat behind the bushes in front of the house eating cheese and watermelon and drinking chocolate milk before hitchhiking back to the Spahn Ranch. They discarded the rinds from the melon in the kitchen sink, believing this would convince authorities the crime was committed by blacks, presumably because they knew blacks love watermelon, and it was Charlie’s intention to start a race war between blacks and whites. The bodies (above) of Mr. and Mrs. LaBianca were discovered around 8 p.m. Sunday evening by their son, Frank.

Following the murders, tourists with a morbid bent flocked to both sites. In 1993, Trent Reznor recorded his album, The Downward Spiral, at the former Tate residence and it was razed shortly thereafter. However, the LaBianca house still stands. The first to purchase the home following the murders was a Filipino couple, who were rumored to be friends of Imelda Marcos. The house was extensively renovated with additions of both a carport and pool, a lot of what was the front yard was paved, a massive iron gate was installed and to discourage morbid sightseers, the house number was changed from 3301 to 3311. The two-bedroom, two-bath residence was sold again in 1998 for $375,000. It is currently valued at approximately $964,000. There are no reports 3311 Waverly is haunted, however, an acquaintance of one former resident said Rosemary and Leno LaBianca’s blood soaked into the floor and the stains are still there beneath the carpets.

Some nearby neighbors, including entertainer George Burns, thought they heard what sounded like gunshots around 10 p.m., but no one was alarmed. After all, this was Beverly Hills – zip code 90210 – one of the swankiest neighborhoods in the country, not the sort of place where people shoot people on a quiet Sunday evening.

At 11:47 p.m., police received a call from a sobbing young man reporting someone had killed his parents. The conversation was taped and another male could be heard shouting in the background. Within a few minutes, officers arrived at the Menendez home and immediately, two young men rushed from the house. The younger of the pair was so distraught that he actually rammed his head into a tree. One neighbor later recalled seeing one of the sons curled up in a ball on the lawn in front of the house screaming hysterically. The two identified themselves as Lyle and Erik Menendez and quickly told officers the shooting had probably been a mob hit resulting from some of their father’s business deals at Live Entertainment (which produced the Rambo movies) where he was CEO. Later, rumors began to circulate that José Mendenez was so hated by those who worked with, and for, him that many Live Entertainment employees scrambled to establish alibis proving they couldn’t have killed him. In the meantime, Lyle and Erik rented a $1,300 per night suite at the Hotel Bel-Air.

A memorial service was held at the Directors Guild Friday, August 25, with many Hollywood heavies in attendance, including Sylvester Stallone, even though it was widely-known that José hated the actor. The service was scheduled for 11 a.m., however, the 200 guests had to wait more than an hour for Lyle – whose hair was thinning – to arrange his toupee. When he finally appeared, he gave an hour-long eulogy. (In the five days they had been at the hotel, the Menendez boys had charged a whopping $2,000 in room service.) The bodies were then flown to New Jersey, where the family had lived before relocating to California, for burial. While in New Jersey, the brothers made arrangements to purchase Chuck’s Spring Street Café, a Buffalo wings restaurant in Princeton. Lyle also treated himself to a Porsche Carrera and an expensive Rolex.

When Lyle and Eric returned to California, instead of occupying the Elm Street mansion, they rented adjoining apartments in Marina del Rey. No one blamed them for not wanting to live in the house where their parents had just been brutally killed, but the boys were spending money like it was going out of style and there was no evidence of the grief they had displaced when police arrived on the night of the murders. In addition to trips to London and the Caribbean, the pair dined at expensive restaurants, went on frequent shopping sprees and Erik even engaged a tennis pro to help him prepare for a series of tournaments in Israel. By March 1990, the two had squandered approximately $1 million of their parents’ estate.

But while the siblings were adept at spending money, it soon became evident they weren’t the sharpest tools in the drawer. Eric told a friend he and his brother had killed their parents and if this wasn’t damaging enough, he also confessed to his psychotherapist, Dr. Jerome Oziel. Unbeknownst to the brothers, following Eric’s admission, Oziel began secretly taping their sessions for his own protection. Unfortunately, Oziel, like his patient, couldn’t keep his mouth shut and bragged to Judalon Smyth, his mistress, that he knew who killed José and Kitty Menendez, and had the boys on tape admitting everything. By this time, it would seem things couldn’t get much worse, but they did. In March 1990, Oziel and Smyth had a parting of the ways, after which she contacted the police, advising them of the confessions and Oziel’s tapes.

Lyle was arrested March 8, 1990, as he exited the driveway of the Elm Street house and Erik, who was in Israel playing tennis, surrendered upon his return to Los Angeles. Both were held without bail in separate cells where they could not communicate.

The brothers were charged with first-degree murder and immediately claimed their mother had been an abusive drunk and that their father physically and sexually abused them. According to Lyle, José made fun of him for wearing a wig and raped him with a toothbrush. He said his father also forced him to perform oral sex and he [Lyle] would put cinnamon in José’s coffee to make it (i.e., semen) taste better. (Following Lyle’s testimony, there were rumors that LA supermarkets sold so much cinnamon it was difficult to keep the shelves stocked.) Though the brothers were tried together, they had separate juries and the young killers were able to convince enough of the men and women what they were saying was at least somewhat true that the jurors could not reach a unanimous verdict.

The pair were tried a second time in 1995 and on March 20, 1996, both were found guilty and sentenced to life without parole. Even though California does not allow conjugal visits and from the beginning there were rumors Lyle was gay, both brothers married while in prison. Lyle’s first prison groupie wife divorced him after discovering he was writing to another woman and he married a second time in 2003. Recently, it was revealed Lyle is living as an openly gay man in prison.

Author: Graveyardbride.
Sources: Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry; Blood Brothers: The Inside story of the Menendez Murders by Ron Soble and John H. Johnson; D. R. Haney, The Nervous Breakdown; Dominick Dunne, Vanity Fair, October 1990; The Los Angeles Times; Lindsay, Iamnotastalker.com, October 3, 2013, and Zillow.