Too bad the police didn't catch on. That's the ironic thing to me. Manson wanted the police to think that the murders were copycat, but because of the police being so territorial, they couldn't see past their noses. Another one of the many chain of events in this case. However, to be fair, I wouldn't of saw the connection between Hinman and the Tate-LaBianca murders, myself. I'd be more inclined to see a connection between the T-LB murders than a Hinman connection. I guess Manson was giving the police more credit than they deserved. fff:
I'm with you on this one. I don't think the Hinman-Cielo Dr. murders were similar at all. There was blood writing but that was about it. By all accounts, Hinman was killed by two stab wounds to the chest area and no gunshots. All the men who were killed at Cielo Dr. were shot and stabbed. I think (but can't prove it) that Atkins concocted the copy-cat motive after those talks with Manson. Prior to this, she told her Attorney, Atty. Caballero that the writing was associated with Helter Skelter (Helter Skelter, pg. 568). The ulterior motive behind the copycat motive, IMHO, is that the "dude did it" and the women were victimized, coerced, shocked, and innocent bystanders.
One overlooked fact when people ask why the police couldn't connect the Tate and Labianca kilings is on page 42 of Helter Skelter. "The news that there had been 28 murders that weekend (the average being one a day) did nothing to decrease the apprehension." Not only was there limited connection other than a lot of blood and the writings, but there were 28 times as many murders, all similarly bloody and ugly, which would have stretched the police out. We look back and it is so obvious, but unlike the movies where these are the only two murders involved, these were just two more crimes in a busy week, except one had an actress.
