Doris Tate; Mother of Slain Actress Crusaded for Victims

Doris G. Tate, who helped forge the crime victims’ movement after her daughter Sharon was murdered by the Charles Manson clan in 1969, died Friday.

Tate, 68, died at her Rancho Palos Verdes home Friday morning with family members by her side, said her daughter Patti. Tate was found to have a brain tumor in January.

Actress Sharon Tate, then eight months pregnant, was one of seven victims in the Manson cult slayings in August, 1969. In the years after her daughter’s death, Doris Tate took a leading role in lobbying for the rights of crime victims and frequently testified at parole hearings to keep Manson and his followers in prison.

“Before she came along the victims were the forgotten people in the criminal justice system,” Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Stephen Kay said. “She really was the leader of the victims’ rights movement.”