Charles Manson & The Manson Family
Charles Manson is best known for his series of criminal acts and being the leader of the cult dubbed ‘The Manson Family’. ‘The Family’ was a commune based in California during the 6os and 70s. Many of Manson’s followers were attracted by the ‘hippie’ style of living and were known for their heavy habitual use of drugs, such as LSD. A vast majority of the cult were young middle-class women who were brainwashed by Manson’s teaching. Some claimed they thought he was Jesus. Many of Manson’s prophecies revolved around the ‘apocalyptic race war’ which he believed was imminent.
Manson also believed that he wasn’t the only one planning for the ‘inevitable doom’. He became fixated on The Beatles album ‘The White Album’ which apparently spoke in code about the racial tension that would soon erupt. Many of the songs became synonymous to Manson and ‘The Family’ such as ‘Helter Skelter’, which became the infamous title of the book written about their trial(s) by lead prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi.
After a brief and somewhat bizarre relationship with Beach Boy Dennis Wilson, the band released a song called ‘Never Learn Not To Love’ which was written by Manson himself.
Supposedly ‘The Family’ killed as many as 35 people but are undoubtedly known for the murder of pregnant actress Sharon Tate in her Hollywood home in August 1969. Tate alongside 4 others were brutally murdered, creating a nationwide shock. Manson didn’t actually take part in this crime but guided his 4 most obedient followers, Watson, Atkins, Krenwinkel and Kasabian, to do so. They also carried out a similar brutal murder the following night, killing the LaBianca couple. In 1969, after initially being taken into custody for vandalism in the Death Valley National Park, ‘The Family’ was linked to many other heinous crimes including the Tate and LaBianca’s murders. Apparently the cult had many other A-List celebrities on their kill list. Atkins admitted that they wanted to shock the people with their murders.
On January 25, 1971, Charles Manson was convicted of 7 counts of 1st-degree murder including the direction of the Tata and LaBianca killings. He was given the death penalty but this was reduced to life in prison where he spent the next 4 decades of his life until his death of cardiac arrest in 2017. Alongside Manson, 7 of his disciples were also prosecuted, 5 of which are still serving their life sentences.
Obviously, there are many conspiracies surrounding this infamous case. The main ones being that the Manson Family murders were part of a CIA program to produce mind-controlled assassins, that ‘The Family’ were satanic killers-for-hire or how the Manson Family has strange coincidences linked with the movie ‘Rosemary’s Baby’, the death of John Lennon and The Beatles themselves.
Many movies and tv shows have used Manson and ‘The Family’ as inspiration. Most recently in Quentin Tarantino’s film ‘Once Upon A Time In Hollywood’. The two most notable books about the Manson Family are the previously mentioned ‘Helter Skelter’ by Vincent Bugliosi and ‘Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties’ by Tom O’Neill which I own both of.
