Believe me, if I started murdering people, they’d be none of you left. Charles Manson
There’s a time for livin’
The time keeps on flying’
Think you’re loving, baby,
And all you’re doing is cryin’
Can’t feel aw the feeling’s real
Look at your game, girl
Look at your game, girl. Charles Manson, song ‘Look at Your Game, Girl’
From the world of darkness I did loose demons and devils in the power of scorpions to torment. Charles Manson
Cult leader Charles Manson used a systematic program of drug use and sexual violation to break down his young recruits’ resistance, rendering them vulnerable to Manson’s bizarre re-education ... Manson gave his girls LDS perhaps two or three times a week. Soon he held power over their minds and bodies, commanding them to have sex with men he wanted to recruit. Like many cult leaders, Manson was able to sexually exploit his followers because of the strength of his indoctrination. He had convinced the girls he was Christ incarnate. Using the girls as bait, Manson lured more and more men into the cult. With their addition to the Family, Manson could start enacting his great plan: Helter Skelter. Decoding the Past: Cults: Dangerous Devotion, History 2007
What you have in gurus like Manson is a charismatic person with a certain brilliance – it’s a sort of superficial brilliance, but it’s part of that charisma and on the edge of madness. Professor Robert Lifton, Harvard University
Twenty-six of the Manson family as they called themselves were arrested in the raid. Their arrest was unconnected to the Tate or LaBianca murders. Manson appeared in court for a preliminary hearing on a charge of auto-theft. Some of the girls from the camp were there as spectators. Great Crimes and Trials: The Manson Family Murders
Charles Manson, father unknown, had been born thirty-four years before, the unwanted son of a prostitute. With his mother often in jail, Charles lived in a series of orphanages, then reformatories and finally jails, where he was sent for burglary, stealing cars, forging and pimping. ibid.
The trial of Charles Manson and followers lasted over nine-and-a half months, breaking the records for the longest and most expensive murder trial ever held in the USA. Most of the Manson family stayed solidly behind their leader. Tripping into court with him every day like three innocents were twenty-one-year old Susan Atkins, Lesley van Houten aged twenty, and Patricia Krenwinkel twenty-one. The defence had its problems. Sometimes the three girls sang like schoolgirls on their way into court to show their solidarity with Manson ... shaving their heads and cutting crosses and swastikas into their foreheads, but nothing they could do could hide their depravity. It emerged that Manson believed that he could ferment racial hatred by murdering rich people at random and putting the blame on black activists. So he trained his disciples in breaking and entering, and sent them out with instructions to kill, using the most revolting methods possible ... How Manson could have achieved this domination was a major question, as was his sanity. The issue of Manson’s sanity dominated the trial ... The jury took ten days to reach their verdicts. Then they found Manson, Atkins, Krenwinkel and van Houten guilty. They were sentenced to death. In a later trial, Manson, Bruce Davis, Bobby Beausoleil and Steven Grogan were found guilty of other murders. Tex Watson was tried separately and found guilty. Despite all the revelations, Manson’s followers stayed loyal. ibid.
It was a crime that took LA by surprise. A Hollywood murder that shocked a city and America. It was the first time an underground family entered the spotlight: a brutal killer leading his cult. Charles Manson and his followers struck fear in the hearts of Hollywood’s elites and ordinary residents of LA. The anarchy they created made them deranged killers. Deranged Killers: Charles Manson, Discovery 2008
Charles Manson and a band of misfits he called his family moved to the Spahn Ranch. He helped owner George Spahn run his riding stable. Mason had the ability to attract many women into his family. Then followed Charlie as they called him from San Francisco to LA. There he met Patricia Krenwinkel and a former beauty queen Leslie van Houten. There were men in Manson’s family too, including Tex Watson. Violence was in the air at the ranch. ibid.
Manson had musical aspirations. He knew the house where Sharon and Roman lived. ibid.
This was the first death in Charles Manson’s master plan that was supposed to lead to race riots and the overthrow of the American way of life. ibid.
The killers revelled in their success. ibid.
In 1969 LA was far from peaceful. ibid.
There were two separate investigations. ibid.
An unbelievable tale of murder and manipulation ... Helter Skelter. ibid.
Inside the courtroom Manson held centre stage. ibid.
Tex Watson was also found guilty. ibid.
Lynette Squeaky Fromme was sentenced to life imprisonment for trying to kill the president. ibid.
The late 1960s were years of unprecedented emergence for American youth. A time of freedom and awareness. A Summer of Love and a call to action. The birth of group consciousness and the sharing of a vision. By 1969 the burgeoning youth movement was at its zenith. Yet sociologists agree that it took but one man – in fact one image – to bring the free-spirited psychedelic era to its knees. Charles Manson: Then and Now, 1992
Suddenly he was thrust into a world of pills and peyote. ibid.
Manson’s dispensing of honest hobo logic and his unfettered lifestyle would prove remarkably enticing to the many young girls he would encounter in his travels. ibid.
Drug experiments and open sexuality became the chief entertainments of the group. Hence, many births would occur in the months that followed including yet another son for Manson himself by way of Sandra Good. Manson took exceptional pride in his rag-tag band of outcasts. ibid.
Sharon [Tate] would soon marry the film’s eccentric Polish director Roman Polanski who had created an cinematic sensation with his eerie satanic film Rosemary’s Baby. ibid.
Upon arriving they gave Manson a full report of the night’s activities, and all retired to a sound sleep. All except Manson, the haunted Manson, who thought this was a too sloppy mission to suit the purposes. ibid.
Manson would now put their hearty pioneer spirits to the ultimate test and move them to the hostile barren environment of the Death Valley desert. ibid.
Kasabian who had acted as a lookout on the night of the Tate slayings was granted immunity in exchange for her testimony against her former associates. ibid.
In 1975 in Sacramento Fromme would capture national attention by pointing a hand-gun at President Gerald Ford. ibid.
Linda Kasabian was the lookout on the night of the Sharon Tate murders. She has been in hiding for forty years. For the first time she tells her full story. Her identity has been obscured to maintain her anonymity. Manson, Cineflix 2009
Spahn Ranch was a former movie set owned by 71 year old George Spahn. In the summer of 1969, 32 adults and 7 children lived here. ibid.
Bobby Beausoleil was arrested driving Gary Hinman’s car. Police discovered a knife in the car and blood on Beausoleil’s clothes. ibid.
While the LaBiancas were being murdered, Manson was searching for another victim. ibid.
Linda fled to New Mexico and went into hiding. She left her daughter Tanya with The Family. ibid.
A week after the murders, Police raided Spahn Ranch in connection with auto theft and illegal weapons. ibid.
Linda returned to Los Angeles. She reclaimed her daughter and went back into hiding. ibid.
Two months after the murders Susan Atkins was arrested in connection with the Hinman murder. In November 1969 she bragged to a cellmate that the Family had committed the Tate/LaBianca murders. This information broke the case. On December 1st 1969 the LAPD issued arrest warrants for Patricia Krenwinkel, Leslie van Houten, Tex Watson, Charles Manson and Linda Kasabian. The Manson trial began on July 15th 1970. Vincent Bugliosi was the Chief Prosecutor. Linda Kasabian agreed to testify against the Family. ibid.
Manson and four Family members were convicted of murder and conspiracy to murder. Tex Watson age 21 – Life in Prison; Susan Atkins age 20 - Life in Prison; Patricia Krenwinkel age 21 – Life in Prison; Leslie van Houten age 20 – Life in Prison; Charles Manson age 33 – Life in Prison. In return for her testimony Linda Kasabian was given immunity. ibid.
They were murders that shocked the world. Four months after the brutal killings Evil had a new face. And Charles Manson became one of the most infamous killers in history. He’s been called a monster, a cult leader, even the most evil man alive. But when seven people were brutally killed over two nights in Los Angeles Charles Manson wasn’t there. Did Charles Manson brainwash his followers to kill? Manson: Kill for Me
The killers stabbed their victims more than one hundred times. The word Pig was daubed on the front door. ibid.
In the days after their arrest they were branded as members of a religious cult with Charles Manson as their spiritual leader. ibid.
According to Dr David Smith there were more than a hundred communes outside the Los Angeles area in the late 60s, each with their own philosophy and leadership. ibid.