Sections of the album were recorded and mixed at 10050 Cielo Drive : the address where members of the Manson Family committed the Tate murders . Reznor purchased the property in 1992 and built a home recording studio inside the residence , which he named ' Pig ' — a reference to that word being written with Sharon Tate 's blood on the front door of the house on the night of the massacre . The studio is credited as ' Le Pig ' in the album 's liner notes . Reznor has denied buying the property in an attempt to have the infamy of the massacre associated with his music , and chastised Manson for doing so , saying : " I was n't trying to create some manufactured spooky thing . Any shock value to what I was doing was about trying to sneak subversive things to a wide audience . With Manson ... he knew exactly what he was doing and exactly what would be shocking . Those were very conscious decisions on his part . What I was doing was n't the same thing . " Following this period of re-recording , '' The Manson Family Album '' was retitled to '' Portrait of an American Family '' . Mosimann was listed in the liner notes as an engineer , with no mention of his original production role
Tate murders
Tate murders
Portrait of an American Family