Did Manson order his people to kill, or were these depraved acts the work of alienated young people desperate to belong? ibid.
Manson and his followers were convinced a bloody race war was imminent. ibid.
Manson and his followers fled to the Death Valley hideout to prepare for war. ibid.
The longest and most costly trial of its time. ibid.
When I left [my husband] I was searching for love and freedom. I was searching for God. Linda Kasabian
We were like his children. We were his children. Linda Kasabian
Everybody was like one. There was a harmony amongst all of us. It was actually beautiful. Linda Kasabian
For me having sex on LSD was actually a very spiritual feeling. Linda Kasabian
When we arrived at the Tate residence there were lights on outside. The driveway was lit up ... I felt like an empty shell; my body was there but I wasn’t. The screams that I heard coming from the house were blood-curdling, chilling screams, screaming for your life. And I couldn’t tell if they were male of female; they were just screams ... And I saw a man and he had blood all over his face, and he looked into my eyes. And he was dying. [sobs] Linda Kasabian
And I remember thinking in my head, what does remorse mean? What’s the word remorse? Linda Kasabian
It was wrong. And it hurt a lot of people. Still now today always and for ever. Linda Kasabian
Sometimes he exuded all this love from his face. Catherine Share aka Gypsy
When The Beatles’ White album came out Charlie listened to it over and over and over and over again. He was quite certain The Beatles had tapped into his spirit, the truth. Catherine Share
It wasn’t peace and love and hippies any more. It was almost like an army. Catherine Share
Charlie was kicking me, and I rolled over in a ball trying to protect my body. I didn’t know why he beat me. He instilled terror towards the end there in every single person around him to have total control over them. The main reason why we all stayed was a deep-seated belief that what Charlie was saying was true: that the cities were going to burn, people were going to shoot each other, and the only way to survive was to band together with this group of people. The music was not happening any more. Everyone knew we needed money to survive. Catherine Share
I’m the devil. And I’m here to do the devil’s business. Tex Watson to victim
The more you do it, the more you like it. Susan Atkins on murder
This was a definition of Helter Skelter that Charlie gave. Now this is the the White album; it’s a Beatle’s album ... There’s also a song called Piggies. Rozzers’ press conference
The homicides are not connected. We’ve had many cases before when the suspect wrote in blood or lipstick or things of that nature. Rozzers’ press conference
Charles Manson was born in Cincinnati Ohio November 1934 and he took to a life of crime very early ... Seventeen of those thirty-two years were spent in reformatories and prisons. Vincent Bugliosi, prosecutor Tate/Labianca murders
When Manson gets out of prison in 67 it was the height of the Summer of Love. And he ends up in San Francisco. Vincent Bugliosi
It was a timeless existence in an isolated setting. Manson had all the sex he wanted, food and music. He became a whole guru up there. Vincent Bugliosi
The subversion of sexuality was one way he [Charles Manson] broke down the ego. He realised that they would do whatever he wanted them to do if they had no ego. Manson got them to creep into people’s homes at night and rearrange the furniture ... He had this phenomenal ability to gain control over other people. To get them to do terrible things. Eventually, he convinced them that he was the second coming of Christ and the devil all wrapped up in the same person. Vincent Bugliosi
It was an orgy of murder. Vincent Bugliosi
They were average American kids. And that’s what was so shocking. You would never dream that these people would be mass murderers. So it shocked the entire country. Only Manson had a motive for these murders. And that motive was Helter Skelter. To ignite a war between blacks and whites. Vincent Bugliosi
Good evening, you are about to see a dramatisation of actual facts. In which some of the names have been changed ... For it surely one of the most bizarre chapters in the history of crime. Helter Skelter 1976 starring George DiCenzo & Steve Railsback & Nancy Wolfe & Marilyn Burns & Christina Hart & Cathey Paine et al, director Tom Gries; viz also novel Vincent Bugliosi
The foothills and canyons above Beverley Hills California in the early morning hours of Saturday August 9 1979. It was so quiet, one of the killers would later say, you could almost hear the sound of ice rattling in the cocktail shakers in the houses down the canyon. ibid. prologue
Charles Manson and his so-called Family would become the most infamous killers of the twentieth century, committing a series of brutal and seemingly senseless crimes that would spell the end of the 1960s hippy dream. But what made Manson the man he was? How did so many young people fall under his spell? And were Manson and his followers born to kill? Born to Kill? The Manson Family, Channel 5 2012
Three months after the murders, detectives got word that a young Californian girl had made an extraordinary jailhouse confession. ibid.
These seemingly all-American kids had become unrecognisable to the families. Controlled by an unlikely but powerful puppet-master. ibid.
The name Charles Manson would become synonymous with evil. ibid.
From the mid-1940s onwards a raft of thefts and armed robberies would see the young Manson pass through several institutions where he was said to be sexually brutalised. ibid.
The 32-year-old guitar-playing ex-con headed to the eye of the storm – San Francisco, California. ibid.
Manson hoped to get a major recording contract and introduce his songs to the world. ibid.
As a child Manson had been rejected by his mother. Now the LA music industry would do the same. ibid.
An Armageddon gospel he [Manson] called Helter Skelter. ibid.
In July 1969 Manson and his followers attempted to extort money and property from Hinman; when he refused to cooperate, a Manson Family associate Bobby Beausoleil took action. ibid.
Headed to the former home of record produced Terry Melcher, now being rented by director Roman Polanski and his actress wife Sharon Tate. ibid.
Those eventually chosen to die were 44-year-old supermarket executive Leno Labianca and his 38-year-old wife Rosemary. ibid.
Among words written in the victims’ blood was the phrase Helter Skelter [sic]. ibid.
Manson’s followers had taken the lives of seven unsuspecting victims seemingly without conscience. ibid.
By 1971 Charles Manson, Susan Atkins, Charles Tex Watson, Patricia Krenwinkel, Leslie Van Houtoen and Bobby Beausoleil had all been sentenced to death for their crimes. The sentences were later reduced to life imprisonment. ibid. caption