Ghost Adventures Star Zak Bagans Buys Charles Manson Family Murder House
The Los Angeles home where Charles Manson’s cult followers murdered two people in 1969 has been sold to Ghost Adventures star Zak Bagans.
“When I walked onto the property I was blown away by the panoramic views in the front and backyards … it’s breathtaking,” says Bagans, who on his Travel Channel show leads a team of paranormal investigators on hunts to track down evidence of the supernatural.
“Yes the house has a very dark and gruesome history, but I was also intrigued by the energy I felt while there … It was mysterious and palpable.”
The property was listed at $1,988,800.
The 1920’s home on Waverly Drive in the neighborhood of Los Feliz was the scene of unimaginable horror 50 years ago when Manson followers slaughtered grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary on August 10, 1969.
Leno was found with an ivory-handled carving fork protruding from his stomach. One of his killers had written the word WAR on his abdomen. Rosemary was found in the bedroom, the victim of multiple stab wounds.
On two walls of their home were written the words “Death to Pigs” and “Rise.” On the couple’s refrigerator door was written “Healter [sic] Skelter,” after the Beatles song, a term Manson adopted for his plan to start war arising from racial tensions.
The LaBianca killings were part of Manson’s plan to instigate a race war.
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The couple was killed the day after Manson’s cult followers entered the Los Angeles home of film director Roman Polanski and savagely stabbed to death his pregnant wife, actress Sharon Tate, and shot and stabbed four others. (That house was demolished in 1994, reports Rolling Stone.)
The bloody Tate-LaBianca murders came to define an era in L.A. history.
Manson and his followers were convicted in 1971 and ultimately given life sentences, being spared execution after California temporarily banned the death penalty.
But the horrific nature of the crimes lingered in collective memory because of their viciousness, the notoriety of those who died and the cult-like influence Manson exerted over his “family,” outwardly laid-back hippies and flower children who became killers under his influence.
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Manson died in prison in 2017 at the age of 83.
According to CNN, multiple people have owned the 1,655-square-foot house. The house went up for sale on July 10 and was listed at $1,988,800, CNN reports.
The two-bedroom and two-bath home, located near Griffith Park, boasts views of the Silver Lake hills and Downtown Los Angeles as well as a backyard pool.
