i think garretson was probably scared to death as garretson is hearing those screams as absolute kaar carnage is happening on the lawn and inside >> people were slaughtered, including actor sharon tate. >> what unfolded that night was set in motion by just one man, charles manson. >> according to charlie, he was the son of an unwed teenage prostitute who cared so little about her son, she tried to sell him for a beer. >> i spent the best part of my life in boy schools, prisons and reform schools because i had nobody. nobody would come and sign their name to take me out. i never had no parents to speak of. >> none of that's true. charles manson's mother did go to prison when charlie was 5. she and her brother tried to rob somebody. they were sentenced to two years in prison, but little charlie was taken in by loving relatives, his grandmother, his aunt, his cousin joanne. when his mother was released from prison, she certainly loved him and wanted him. problem was that charlie himself was a rotten little kid from the word go. he would lie about everything. he was sometimes violent. cha

wiehl: the police take william garretson into custody, and he becomes suspect number one.: as l.a. homicide detectives are looking, one of the strangest things was a statement written in blood. on the front door, they saw the word "pig." sidner: but why is it written here, on sharon tate's front door? police at the sharon tate murder get a call from police that were investigating the murder of gary hinman. hinman was the musician who was murdered in his own home a little over a week before. kay: and they said, "look, we have the murder of gary hinman, and there's writing in blood on the wall -- 'political piggy.' and you have the tate murders with 'pig' written in sharon tate's blood on the front door. these murders may well be connected, because it's so unusual to have writing in blood." and -- pbht -- lapd not interested. the lapd should have made that connection. the thing would have been solved in a matter of days. but despite the brutal murders, manson is still not satisfied. i am very mad, and i don't know whether i can control myself. ♪ your best defense against ero

." >> the only suspect, a caretaker, 19-year-old william garretson, was released yesterday for lack of out to orange county airport. to meet president nixon, he landed, i called in, i said, the president has landed, and they said, forget the president. there's a much bigger story going on. >> i was there the day after the killings, covering the story for abc news. >> the latest in the case from abc's dick shoemaker in los angeles. >> police officers say the department already has given -- let me do that again. police officers say the department already has given out too much information about the mass murders. my initial reaction was, basically, this is one weird killing. >> there were a lot of rumors that it was a satanic cult had done this, and all sorts of rumors. and they were focused on polanski. and the fact that he had just done the movie "rosemary's baby," which involved satanism and a woman who was pregnant. it was just eerie. >> insulting, damaging rumors. they said, oh, roman did this because he was jealous of jay. i mean, are you kidding me? >> they called sharon everything