Debra Tate has spent more than five decades reliving one of the most infamous crimes in American history – the murder of her sister, actress Sharon Tate – in her tireless campaign to keep the remaining members of the Manson Family behind bars. RadarOnline.com can reveal she is determined they stay locked up after her first and only horrifying encounter with Charles Manson.
It came in December 1969, when she was just 17. Days earlier, the now-notorious mugshot of Manson – wild hair framing his cold black eyes – had shocked the world, identifying him as the cult leader who ordered the murder of Sharon, 26, when she was eight months pregnant with her first child by husband Roman Polanski, then 36.
Sharon, her unborn son, and four others – Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger, Voytek Frykowski, and 18-year-old Steven Parent – were brutally slaughtered at her Los Angeles home on August 9, 1969.
The Chilling Encounter With Charles Manson
Debra Tate met Charles Manson face to face in 1969.
Determined to see the man responsible for herself, Debra Tate managed to gain entry to Los Angeles’ Men’s Central Jail, where Manson was awaiting trial. “All I wanted was to look in his eyes,” she said. “Because I felt I would get a true sense of who he was.”
Sitting opposite him under guard, she recalled about his eyes: “They were dark and they were still. And you could not see a freaking thing. Nothing in there. Deep black pools of nothingness.”
More than half a century later, Tate continues to fight against what she calls “a political push to release killers who are beyond rehabilitation.”
She said: “These people have all had the word ‘psychopath’ in their mental evaluations. Every single one of them.”
Fighting to Keep the Killers Locked Up
Tate devoted her life to keeping the Manson killers behind bars.
Earlier this year, Patricia Krenwinkel and Bobby Beausoleil were granted parole and Leslie Van Houten was freed last year after serving over five decades in prison. Only Tex Watson and Bruce Davis remain incarcerated.
“Rehabilitation is not in their nature,” Tate warned.
Tate’s long campaign began with her late mother, Doris Tate, who received a call in 1982 from Los Angeles prosecutor Stephen Kay, urging her to oppose parole for Van Houten.
Tate recalled: “That’s the first time I saw the light come back in my mother’s eyes. She had a purpose.”
Together, they launched a petition drive that quickly collected around 10,000 signatures opposing Van Houten’s parole. Doris went on to champion victims’ rights in California and was honored by President George HW Bush in 1992 for her work.
Continuing Her Mother’s Mission
Tate fought against the release of aging Manson Family members.
Today, Tate continues her mother’s mission, attending parole hearings and confronting the murderers face to face. Her presence is about keeping her sister’s voice alive.
There are fears the state’s “California Model” of prison reform – aimed at reducing costs by releasing aging inmates – is now being used to justify freeing the Manson killers.
A source said: “Prison life keeps inmates under constant structure and surveillance. Once that control is gone, many of them slip back into the same dangerous patterns that put them there in the first place.”
Turning Tragedy Into Purpose
More than fifty years later, Tate still sought justice for Sharon.
Despite the emotional toll of her campaign, Tate clearly sees her work as a duty.
A source said: “Debra went through her trauma without any real support and taught herself how to cope. Now she sees her purpose as giving others hope – showing that if she could endure something so horrific, they can find the strength to keep going too.”
