The carving fork used to repeatedly stab Leno LiBianca during the 1969 Manson murders
I was so wrapped up in Alice week last week that I failed to notice a special exhibit featuring evidence from some of the most notorious crimes in Los Angeles history. Connected to the 2010 conference of the California Homicide Investigators held last week at the Palms in Las Vegas, the exhibit was free to the public for two days and had more than 10,000 visitors. Items included charts, photos, weapons and more from cases including the Black Dahlia, Marilyn Monroe, OJ Simpson and Charles Manson.
The first photos of Charles Manson in custody dated December 9, 1969
The ropes used to tie up slain actress Sharon Tate by the Manson family
Police photo of LaBianca home from the 1969 Manson murders
Manson's Ford Farlaine, loaned to Tex Watson to drive killers to and from crime scenes
Machine gun used by Patty Hearst in a Symbionese Liberation Army bank robbery
Infamous gloves of OJ Simpson
The exhibit garnered controversy when Maxwell Kennedy complained that including the shirt his father Robert F. Kennedy was wearing when he was assassinated was an insensitive publicity stunt. Items from the Kennedy case were subsequently removed from the exhibit.
The tattered shirt worn by Senator Robert Kennedy when he was shot on June 5, 1968
Debra Tate, sister of Manson murder victim Sharon Tate, echoed Maxwell’s displeasure and said: “From my perspective it’s very disturbing. Number one, I didn’t get any notice that this was going to occur. These are very personal artefacts to me. These are things that bring back horrible memories, not only for myself, but other Manson family victims.”
The LAPD defended the exhibit as offering a rare and invaluable educational experience. LAPD homicide detective Dennis Kilcoyne said: “Homicide investigators very rarely invite people under the crime scene tape and into the murder scene. This may be as close as some will ever get. Seeing an actual gun or blood stained suit or bullet hole will tell a story that no book can match.”
As long as the exhibit is presented in a respectful manner (as opposed to sensational entertainment Ripley’s Believe it or not style) I think it’s worthwhile. It makes the crimes real in a way that reading about them alone cannot. Maybe it’s just my morbid curiosity, but I would love to see a similar exhibit in Los Angeles.
Pictures from Ohnoytheydidnt quotes from Telegraph.
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I am a true fan of forensics- but I side with the relatives on this one. A member of the public really has no reason to go to this type of exhibit except morbid curiousity – I share that curiousity but I would not defend this as a learning experience. People are sick and like this stuff- simple enough. If relatives object- should come off exhibit.
I agree that the relatives should have input. But I don’t think there’s much of a difference between publishing images of the evidence in a non-fiction book for public consumption and exhibiting them in a museum. Both can be entertainment and teaching tools.
The published version is a little different since fewer people read- more discrete audience. Also even in published form unless you are a forensic professional of some kind- its not educational really. Its interesting but do you learn from seeing a picture of a bloody shirt as opposed to understanding the science of blood spatter or whatever- I don’t think so. To learn anything of real value you need the science applied to the picture.