What Happens After Once Upon A Time In Hollywood

One of the most pivotal by-products of the Manson murders was the absolute terror it instilled within wealthy people residing in Los Angeles. At once believing themselves to be untouchable, there was now a fast-spreading fear that any notable person living in the area could be targeted.

Reporter Steve Oney said of the mood shift, "Manson's cohorts butchered people in their homes and [Los Angeles] is a city of homes. Until then, this was a very open city, a very porous city, and people weren't necessarily guarded."

According to Oney, the murders "changed everything. L.A. went from being an embracing place to a more cautious and paranoid place. It went from being a place where you went and rang a doorbell any time of day or night to an era of gated communities."

Indeed, the Manson murders are associated with a major uptick in gated houses and larger gated communities in Los Angeles, with the fearful wealthy battening down the hatches to protect themselves from any unwanted intrusion. If L.A. was once upon a time a seemingly trusting and laid-back metropolis, the senseless murders totally changed that.

But if they never happened, even accepting that an attempt was made, it's likely that the gated communities never would've sprung up in quite the same way that they did.

An actor and his stuntman defending their home isn't nearly as horrifying as the reality of the Tate-LaBianca murders, of course, and so it's tough to imagine it galvanising the rich to start gating off their houses.

All in all, Hollywood likely would've been a more welcoming, less hermetically sealed place.