Editing Charles Manson (section)

=== Investigation ===
The Tate murders became national news on August 9, 1969, after the Polanskis' housekeeper, Winifred Chapman, arrived for work that morning.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|5–6, 11–15}} On August 10, detectives of the [[Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department]], which had jurisdiction in the Hinman case, informed [[Los Angeles Police Department]] detectives assigned to the Tate case of the bloody writing at the Hinman house. According to [[Vincent Bugliosi]], because detectives believed the Tate murders were a consequence of a drug transaction, the Tate team initially ignored this and other evidence of similarities between the crimes.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|28–38}}<ref name="Sanders"/>{{rp|243–244}}

During the Tate autopsies, detectives working on the Hinman case noticed similarities in the weapons used, the stab wounds, and the writing in blood on the walls. They brought the information to detectives working on the Tate murders. According to Detective Charlie Guenther, "Vince [Bugliosi] didn't want anything to do with the Hinman case. Hinman was a nothing case. Vince didn't want to prosecute it."<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|28–38}}<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|28–38}}

Held briefly as a Tate suspect, Garretson told police he had neither seen nor heard anything on the murder night. He was released on August 11, 1969, after undergoing a [[polygraph]] examination that indicated he had not been involved in the crimes.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|28–38, 42–48}} The LaBianca crime scene was discovered at 10:30&nbsp;p.m. on August 10, approximately nineteen hours after the murders were committed, when 15-year-old Frank Struthers, Rosemary's son from a prior marriage and Leno's stepson, returned from a camping trip.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|38}}

On August 12, 1969, the LAPD told the press it had ruled out any connection between the Tate and LaBianca homicides.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|42–48}} On August 16, the sheriff's office raided Spahn Ranch and arrested Manson and twenty-five others, as "suspects in a major auto theft ring" that had been stealing [[Volkswagen Beetle]]s and converting them into [[Dune buggy|dune buggies]]. Weapons were seized, but, because the search warrant had been misdated, the group was released a few days later.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|56}} In a report at the end of August, the LaBianca detectives noted a possible connection between the bloody writings at the LaBianca house and "the singing group the Beatles' most recent album."<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|65}}

Still working separately from the Tate team, the LaBianca team checked with the sheriff's office in mid-October about possible similar crimes. They learned of the Hinman case and also learned that the Hinman detectives had spoken with Beausoleil's girlfriend, Kitty Lutesinger. She had been arrested a few days earlier with members of the Manson Family.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|75–77}}

The arrests, for car thefts, had taken place at the desert ranches to which the Family had moved.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|228–233}}<ref name="watson12"/> A joint force of [[National Park Service Ranger]]s and officers from the [[California Highway Patrol]] and the [[Inyo County, California|Inyo County]] Sheriff's Office: federal, state, and county personnel, had raided both the Myers and Barker ranches after following evidence left when Family members had burned an [[Heavy equipment|earthmover]] owned by [[Death Valley National Park|Death Valley National Monument]].<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|125–127}}<ref name="Sanders"/>{{rp|282–283}} The raiders had found stolen dune buggies and other vehicles, and arrested two dozen people, including Manson. A Highway Patrol officer found Manson hiding in a cabinet beneath Barker's bathroom sink.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|75–77, 125–127}}

Following up leads a month after they had spoken with Lutesinger, LaBianca detectives contacted members of a motorcycle gang Manson tried to recruit as bodyguards while the Family was at Spahn Ranch.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|75–77}}<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|84–90, 99–113}} Meanwhile, a dormitory mate of [[Susan Atkins]] informed LAPD of the Family's involvement in the crimes.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|99–113}} Atkins was booked for the Hinman murder after she told sheriff's detectives that she had been involved in it.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|75–77}}<ref>Report on questioning of Katherine Lutesinger and Susan Atkins October 13, 1969, by Los Angeles Sheriff's officers Paul Whiteley and Charles Guenther.</ref> Transferred to [[Sybil Brand Institute]], a detention center in [[Monterey Park, California]], she had begun talking to bunkmates Ronnie Howard and Virginia Graham, to whom she gave accounts of the events in which she had been involved.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|91–96}}