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The Manson Family: Inside One of History’s Most Infamous Cult Cases · The conspiracy

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: On two hot August nights in 1969, a series of
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: brutal murders in Los Angeles shocked the world and shattered
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: an era's innocence. And at the center of it all
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: was Charles Manson, an ex-convict turned cult leader. who had
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: dispatched a group of devoted followers to do his dirty work.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: And by the time all the bloodshed was over, seven
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: people were dead. The savagery of the Manson family crimes,
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: coupled with their eerie ritualistic elements, ensured the case would
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: sear itself into the hearts and minds of those who
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: heard it. And more than half a century later, the
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Manson family murders remain a cultural touchstone. They marked in
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: many eyes the moment the 1960s died, bringing an abrupt
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: end to the decade's character of peace and love. And
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: the idea that a roving band of hippies could become
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: an instrument in apocalyptic-type violence struck deep chords of fear.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: And even today, news of Manson or his followers, from
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: parole hearings to rumors, still command attention. So this enduring
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: cultural and psychological significance begs the question, why are we
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: still talking about Charles Manson? Crime! conspiracy, cults, serial killers,
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: and murder, all things that I love to consume, and
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: I know you do too, you sick, twisted, intellectually beautiful-minded freak!
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: And today I have a little buddy, since we're talking
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: about a little tiny man, a little evil tiny man,
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: I brought with me another tiny man, but he's not evil,
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: he is a sweet baby. He's a sweet baby, and
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: he's my true crime pal. And for those of you
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: who are just listening, I'm holding Rupert, my little... doxing
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: up to the camera. So ready to talk about the
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: Charles Manson cult. So let's do it. All right, so
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: without further ado, let's unbuckle our seatbelts, go Mach 5
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: down the highway, slam on the brakes, and bust through
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: this windshield into one of the most infamous cults together.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: So Charles Manson was not born to be a cult leader,
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: believe it or not. But he was shaped into one
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: by a life of chaos and rejection, like most cult leaders.
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  Speaker 1: He was born on November 12th, 1934, Scorpio, to a
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: 16-year-old mother in Cincinnati, Ohio. And Manson would enter the
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: world unwanted and unnamed. Ouch. and his birth certificate would
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: simply list him as Manson. And his mother, Kathleen Maddox,
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  Speaker 1: was a troubled teenager who drunk heavily and spent time
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: in prison for robbery when Charles was just a small boy.
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  Speaker 1: So not a good start. Apple didn't fall far from
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  Speaker 1: the tree. So young Charles would be passed among relatives
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: and guardians. And at one point in 1939, after his
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  Speaker 1: mother was incarcerated, he was sent to live with an
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  Speaker 1: aunt and uncle in rural West Virginia. Although Kathleen was
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: paroled briefly when he was seven years old and she
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: was reunited with him. But that stability did not last.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: Though Manson would later describe this period of his life
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: the happiest he had ever been. But soon his mother
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: would be back to her old ways of neglect and
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: petty crimes. And Charles would unfortunately be left feeling abandoned
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: yet again. So by nine years old, Manson began exhibiting
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  Speaker 1: some disturbing behavior. And by disturbing, I mean batshit crazy.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: Because at nine years old, he would set his school
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: on fire. fire, just foreshadowing a pattern of crime yet
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  Speaker 1: to come. And with a childhood just tainted by neglect, transience,
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  Speaker 1: and abuse, he became a part of the juvenile justice
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: system pretty early on. So at 13 years old, Manson
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  Speaker 1: would be sent to Gibalt School for Boys, a strict
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: reform school where beatings and harsh punishments were routine. And
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: as you can imagine, this didn't do much for rehabilitating him.
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  Speaker 1: If anything, it just hardened him even more. Different times.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: And a psychologist who actually evaluated a teenage Manson noted his,
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: quote unquote, he was aggressively antisocial and he had a
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: persecution complex, attributing these traits to an unfavorable family life,
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: if it can be called family at all. In other words,
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  Speaker 1: Charles Manson basically just grew up feeling unwanted and unloved.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: And learning early on that violence and deceit could serve
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: as survival tools in a very hostile world. So Manson's
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: childhood and early adult years were a revolving door of
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  Speaker 1: correctional institutions. Because if he wasn't running away from a
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: reform school, he was committing new offenses that landed him
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  Speaker 1: in juvenile halls and eventually federal prison. And at the
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  Speaker 1: age of 17, after escaping a minimum security facility, Manson
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  Speaker 1: would be caught driving a stolen car across state lines.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know much about law, but I think that's illegal.
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  Speaker 1: And it was. It was a federal crime, in fact.
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  Speaker 1: And this is when he would start his first prison stint.
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  Speaker 1: And over the next 15 years, he would be incarcerated
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  Speaker 1: for a number of offenses, including, but not limited to,
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: car theft, armed robbery, pimping, check fraud, and others. So
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: by the time he reached his early 30s, Manson had
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: spent over half of his life behind bars. And for
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: someone who was unwanted and unloved and really didn't have
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  Speaker 1: a place in the world, prison kind of became his home.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: In fact, when he was due to be released from
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: Terminal Island Prison in March of 1967, Manson begged not
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: to be let out. And we actually know that this
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: is a thing that happens to prisoners. They spend so
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: much of their time in jail. That's the only place
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  Speaker 1: they know, so it's the only place they're comfortable. And
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: if they get out, they actually really struggle with real life.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: And sometimes they even take their life. But oftentimes they
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: fall back into crime just to end up in the
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: same place that they already were. But there are some
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: that are rehabilitated and can enter society. But it is
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: not as common as you'd like to think after requesting
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: permission to stay incarcerated. But of course, that request was denied.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: And at 32 years old, Manson was thrust back into
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  Speaker 1: society during the Summer of Love. And this was a
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  Speaker 1: period during the late 1960s. And it was a time
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: of radical culture upheaval, especially in California. Yet for Manson,
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: the world outside of prison was just overwhelming and confusing.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: So Manson would get out of prison and he would
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: slowly drift over to San Francisco's hippie neighborhood of Hyatt-Ashbury.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: And upon release, Manson initially actually reported to a transitional
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: clinic in the Hyatt run by researchers studying the effects
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: of LSD on youth culture. Sign me up. Just kidding.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: I'm so, I'm, I'm kidding. And I'm definitely kidding because
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: it was covertly funded by agencies like the CIA. Let
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: me know if you want me to deep dive into
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: the CIA and MKUltra and all that fun stuff because
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: it's up and I would love to cover it. So
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: let me know down below if you want me to
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: do that. If you want me to cover that, put
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: the alien emoji down in the comments. But anyway, in Hyatt,
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  Speaker 1: Manson found himself in the epicenter of free love, psychedelic drugs,
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  Speaker 1: and anti-establishment politics, along with spiritual experimentation. So it was
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  Speaker 1: just a perfect breeding ground for someone with his particular
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: skill set. And that skill set was... manipulation. So Manson
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  Speaker 1: quickly learned how to take advantage of this hippie subculture
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  Speaker 1: by adopting its look and its lingo. With his long hair,
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: scraggly beard, and intense eyes, insanely intense eyes, he's like,
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  Speaker 1: it's terrifying. He's like... Little freaky freak. And some said
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  Speaker 1: he even resembled Jesus Christ, which that's a bit blasphemous,
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  Speaker 1: but all right. And as Vincent Bugliosi, the prosecutor who
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: put Manson on trial, observed, plenty of con men and
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: criminals had committed worse crimes. So why are we still
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: talking about Charles Manson? But Pelosi would say that Manson,
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  Speaker 1: quote unquote, had an aura 1,000th of 1% of people have.
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  Speaker 1: A near mystical charisma that drew people in. I don't
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  Speaker 1: know exactly what people are talking about, because you hear
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  Speaker 1: him talk in interviews and everything, and it's just whack nonsense,
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  Speaker 1: you know? But I guess most people were on drugs
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: and stuff, so it might make sense, I guess.
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  Speaker 2: Joe!
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  Speaker 1: How'd you run? But anyway, behind bars, Manson had been
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: a student of human behavior and extreme ideas. And he
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: would actually study Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: Influence People, learning tactics to charm and manipulate others. And
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: prison records show that he actually explored Scientology. And he
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: would absorb concepts from occultish groups like Process Church of
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: Final Judgment, whose prophecy of reconciliation between Satan and Jesus
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  Speaker 1: Christ at the end of the world intrigued him a lot.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: And Manson was also deeply impressed by literature, notably Robert A. Hindley,
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  Speaker 1: and specifically a science fiction novel that was named Stranger
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: in Strange Land, which features a charismatic figure who found
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  Speaker 1: a spiritual movement of shared women and communal living. So
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: this combination of self-help, Scientology, science fiction, and apocalyptic religion
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  Speaker 1: blended Manson's mind. And so he began crafting his own
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: personal philosophies. And perhaps the most significant influence on Manson
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: was music, and he actually fancied himself an aspiring singer-songwriter,
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: and music became both his passion and tool for evangelism.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: Because in prison, he actually learned guitar from a seasoned
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: bank robber, and he would just cultivate his dreams of
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: pop stardom. And after release, he would constantly talk about
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: the Beatles, whose 1968 white album he believed contained hidden
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: messages that were meant just for him. This is where
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: the crazy is starting to brew. And the song Helter
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  Speaker 1: Skelter in particular took on a prophetic meaning in Manson's mind.
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  Speaker 1: And Manson's musical ambitions were not entirely delusional. Because through
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: a chance encounter, he befriended Dennis Wilson of the Beach
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  Speaker 1: Boys in 1968. You know, I'm picking up a good vibration.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: He's picking up a good vibration. I like the Beach Boys,
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  Speaker 1: don't judge me. And Wilson was actually charmed enough by
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: Manson and his entourage of free loving girls that he
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  Speaker 1: let them crash at his mansion for a time. Like,
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  Speaker 1: I just want to know exactly what he's saying to
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: these people, because it's crazy. And the Beach Boys even
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  Speaker 1: recorded one of Manson's songs and released it. Unfortunately for Manson,
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: it was uncredited, but it was a B-side to a
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: single in 1968. And it was called Cease to Exist,
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  Speaker 1: and then retitled to Never Learn Not to Love. So
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: Manson would see this as just the beginning. And through
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: Dennis Wilson, he met a music producer, Terry Melcher. And
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  Speaker 1: he would harbor hopes of actually landing a record deal.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: But when those hopes fizzled, it was a crushing blow
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  Speaker 1: to Manson. And rejection by the music industry would soon
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: fester into one of many resentments driving his dark fantasies.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: Guy holds a grudge. So to understand how Manson could
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: attract followers and convince them of wild ideas, one must
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: understand the climate of the 1960s. The era was ripe
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: with cult formation, as we know if you watch this channel,
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  Speaker 1: because the youth were rebelling against mainstream authority, spurning traditional
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: religion and square society in favor of spiritual exploration, psychedelic drugs,
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: and communal living. Free spirit, hippie life, you know? And
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: San Francisco in 1967 to 1968 was the heart of
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: this counterculture. And it was just a place where runaways, dropouts,
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  Speaker 1: and seekers converged. all just desiring connection in alternative families.
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  Speaker 1: And into the scene stepped Charles Manson, a man with
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: nowhere to go and nothing to lose, armed with a
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  Speaker 1: career criminal's cunning and an amateur guru's patter. And he
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: would just package himself as this guru prophet figure, just
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: borrowing liberally from decades symbols. And as one cultural scholar observed, Manson,
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: quote unquote, took on all those signs, LSD, music, free love,
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  Speaker 1: communal lifestyles, and reframed them as tools for apocalyptic mass murder.
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  Speaker 1: Totally bizarre, totally evil, and very, very seductive. Oh. And ironically,
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  Speaker 1: while Manson did appropriate the hippie image, he was never
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: a true believer in peace and love. And he would
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  Speaker 1: just present himself as this kind of messiah. A messiah
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  Speaker 1: of love, but beneath that facade, he nursed hatred towards
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: society and towards racial minorities and towards the establishment. Like
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: that one uncle at Thanksgiving that nobody likes. Still, at
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  Speaker 1: a time when so many people were desperate for meaning
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  Speaker 1: and belonging, Manson's mix of flower child outward vibes and
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: doomsday intermessage struck a chord with people. And this was
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: the era of Vietnam War protests, racial conflict, and political assassinations.
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  Speaker 1: So chaos and uncertainty were just filled in the air.
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  Speaker 1: And to souls drifting through the Hyatt or Los Angeles,
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  Speaker 1: his certainty and charisma were just magnetic. So before long,
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  Speaker 1: Charles Manson had gathered around him a very devoted circle
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: of followers who would come to be known as the
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: Manson family. So the Manson family did not form overnight,
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  Speaker 1: and it grew gradually as he roamed California from 1967
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: to 1968. just picking up the young and seemingly voiceless
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: along the way. And his earliest recruits would be vulnerable
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: young women. Classic, classic cult leader stuff. Who found in
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: Manson the acceptance and attention that they so desperately craved.
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: And his former family member, Diane Lake, recalls, quote-unquote, they
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: all instantly loved Bomb Me. It was so emotionally fulfilling
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: to feel so loved and accepted. And Lake was only
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: 14 at the time she met Manson. She was a
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: literal child. And like many others, she saw him as
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: a caring father figure that she never had. I would
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: have been f * * * ed. I would have been,
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: I got way too many daddy issues, man. I would
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: have been, I would have been in it. I'm kidding.
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: I'm kidding. But like, you know, also not. So Manson
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: deliberately targeted such people. So mostly women, often in their
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: late teens or early 20s, and many from middle-class backgrounds,
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: but with very troubling pasts. Either family issues, insecurities, or
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: just a hunger for belonging. And with each new follower,
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: Manson employed the same tactics. Flattery, affection, and a sense
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: of adventure. And he would often invite a girl to
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: join the circle, sitting cross-legged on the floor while singing
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: her a song and telling her she's the most beautiful
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: girl in the world. I would have been sucked. I
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: was like Play-Doh back then, my Lord. I always think about,
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: you know, how could these people, you know, how could
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: these people be so silly and so dumb and like
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: be so, this, are you kidding me? You get me
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: at like 17 years old, just wanting to rebel from
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: my family, let alone in the 60s. You don't have
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: a phone, you don't know anything about the world. Dude,
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: it's like 80% of us would have been in this
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: guy's hand, all right? Well, at least me. At least me, probably.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: I would have said no, obviously, the murder part, but
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: I think I would have been strumming an acoustic guitar
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: and doing some LSD back in the 60s, probably, for sure.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: But anyway, he just had this uncanny ability to probe
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: someone's insecurities and just manipulate their vulnerabilities. And in the
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: euphoric summer of love atmosphere, young runaways and hippies were
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: just primed to embrace a man preaching free love and
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: utopian ideals. So from the Hyatt Ashbury scene, Manson's entourage
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: just swelled. And by 1968, Charles Manson had gathered a
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: core group of two dozen or so followers who believed
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: that he was no ordinary man. To them, Charlie was
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: a guru, even Jesus or the devil incarnate, depending on
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: the day. And though Manson portrayed the family of a
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: tribe of equals, in truth, it operated just like a
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: cult hierarchy with Manson at the apex. And we see
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: the same thing over and over again with Jim Jones
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: and Heaven's Gate and all these, the children of God.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: They all act like it's all super even, this commune,
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: but there's always a hierarchy and it's always a.
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: F * * * ing.
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: Douchebag with a weird stare. So one of the first
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: to join Manson was Mary. She was a 23-year-old librarian
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: who Manson charmed and convinced to let him move into
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: her apartment in Berkeley. And Mary would soon quit her
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: job and hit the road with Charlie, becoming a mother
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: of sorts to the family. No, not RuPaul. although RuPaul
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: is mother. And she would actually fall pregnant with Manson's
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: child in the summer of 1967. And Valentine Michael, nicknamed
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: Pooh Bear, was born April 15th, 1968. Not gonna lie,
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: kind of a cool name. And then there was Tex.
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: And Tex was born an athlete. He's 6'3, and Tex
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: was Manson's chief enforcer, and ultimately the lead killer in
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: the family's most heinous crimes. And Manson used to say
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: that Tex was his right hand when it came to
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: getting things done. And it was Tex whom Manson would
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: later task in initiating the murder spree. In unquestioning and
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: very efficient, Tex became the family's instrument of death on
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: those infamous nights. And then there was Bobby. Bobby Beausoleil.
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: A former member of several rock bands, his love for
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: music was a deep connecting factor for him and Manson.
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: And he was a key member in the Gary Hinman
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: murder who Bobby was living with when he met Manson.
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: And he was intensely loyal to Manson. He even stated
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: at a sanity hearing along four other Manson associates, quote unquote,'.
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: I' m at war with everyone in this courtroom. It's nothing personal,
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: but the world has been getting at my brothers and
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: sisters as long as they are ripping off our world,
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: our friends, and our children. You better pray I never
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: get out.
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: Okay, and then we have Susan Sadie Atkins. Sadie was
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: known to be street smart and deeply devoted to Manson.
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: And she also had a wild, impulsive streak and desperately
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: sought Manson's approval. And Atkins would take part in the
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: first murder the family committed. And she would later brag
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: about her crimes while in jail. Next, we have Patricia
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: Katie Krenwinkel. And she was quiet and seemingly gentle in
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: the early days. But Katie underwent a very dark transformation
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: under Manson's influence, as most of them did. But she
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: had been a church-going teenager before she met Charlie. And afterwards,
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: she became one of the most obedient disciples. And Katie
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: would participate directly in the murders on Manson's orders as well.
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: And then we have Leslie Lulu Van Houten. She would
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: be the youngest of Manson's women at 19 years old.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: And Leslie was drawn in by the free love lifestyle
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: and LSD trips. She was in it for the drugs,
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: at least at first. And though not present for the
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: first night killings, she was one of the killers on
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: the second night. And then there was Lynette Squeaky Fromm.
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: And though not involved in the 1969 murders, Squeaky was
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: one of Manson's most fanatically loyal followers. And in 1975,
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: Squeaky proved her radical devotion by attempting to assassinate U.S.
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: President Gerald Ford. But thankfully, her gun did not fire.
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: But she did claim it was in service of environmental causes.
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: and Manson's teachings. But each played a part in the
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: family's functioning. But all revolved around the singular figure of
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: Charlie Manson. And his girls would do anything for him.
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: They would cook, they would have s * * *
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: on command, and they would beg on the streets for
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: money for him. Yet his male followers provided muscle and
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: petty crime skills. So it was a cult of personality
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: in the truest sense. With Manson's whims dictating the family's
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: every single move. So how the f * * *
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: Did Manson transform these young, ordinary-like people into blindly obedient
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: extensions of will? I'll teach you. I'm just gonna teach you.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna teach you. I'm just gonna tell you what
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: went down, all right? But the answer lies in classic
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: cult brainwashing techniques that Manson intuitively employed. And you guys
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: should already know this if you watch my videos. We
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: cover a lot of cults and we know how to
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: make them, right? You're in my cult. Did you know that?
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: We're a good cult though. We don't do anything. We
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: just have fun, eat snacks, and listen to true crime, right?
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: Fist bump me. Awesome. All right, anyway. So first, Manson
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: would break down their identities. His new members were typically
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: high on psychedelics, often supplied by Charlie, and encouraged to
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: abandon their egos and inhibitions. Much easier to keep people
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: in line when they're literal drug zombies. And in group
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: LSD sessions, Manson acted like a high priest, administering acid
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: like a sacrament, placing tabs on each person's tongues. If
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: you've ever been to Catholic church, you do the body
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: of Christ, you get the little cracker, kind of the
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: same thing, except, you know, drugs. And he would guide
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: their trips with his own narration of cosmic visions. And
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: Diane Lake would say, An acid trip in the Manson
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: family was more of a spiritual awakening. Describing how Charlie
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: molded minds in these vulnerable moments. And Manson also exploited
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: sex and affection as weapons of control. Because he would
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: sleep with new female recruits almost immediately. Even... Which is
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: so f * * * ing disgusting. And he would
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: just frame it as liberating or a sacred experience. And
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: one 14-year-old member recalled that Charlie made love to her
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: in a way that made her feel, quote-unquote, like she
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: was a woman, not just a little child. And she...
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: felt wonderful, only years later recognizing it as predatory, obviously.
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: But by establishing this sexual dominance and fatherly intimacy, Manson
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: bound the women to him. And they would compete for
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: his favor and saw him as a source of love
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: that they desperately wanted. And he similarly flattered male followers
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: or bonded through music and philosophical talk to make them
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: feel included in this grand mission. But crucially, Manson fostered
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: this us versus them mentality, and he would preach that
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: the outside world was corrupt and that parents and society
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: had failed his followers and only Charlie truly cared for them.
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: In group gatherings around the campfire or in their makeshift homes,
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: he spun elaborate sermons mixing Bible verses with Beatle lyrics.
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: And he would mourn of a coming apocalypse and assure
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: the family that they alone would survive it. Does it
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: sound familiar, kids? Can you think of anyone else that
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: said that before? Exactly. So under his guidance, everyday life
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: for the family became a process of continuous indoctrination. So
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: members would renounce their possessions and Manson insisted they give
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: up any money that they had or belongings to the
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: communal pot, just increasing dependency on him. They would also
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: dress similarly often in dirty jeans or buckskin imitating Charlie.
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: And they would even move or speak in unison at times.
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: They were really creepy and weird. They were just slowly
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: all morphing into Charlie. They were losing themselves completely. And
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: any sort of original thought or questioning was just not
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: tolerated by Manson. If anyone questioned Manson, he would just
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: belittle them or make them feel like the butt of
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: the group and ridiculed them until they conformed. And over time,
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: Manson's tactics would grow harsher. And what started as love
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: bombing and drugs later incorporated fear and violence. And once
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: the core members were hooked on his approval, Manson would
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: test their loyalty by commanding ever more extreme behavior. And
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: he would have the family perform nighttime creepy crawlies, which
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: is horrible. horrifying. And these would be missions where they
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: would break into random houses while occupants slept and it
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: wasn't to steal anything, no no, nay nay, but simply
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: to rearrange furniture and creep out unseen. Basically just psychologically
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: torturing people and just to see if they were capable
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: of doing it, you know? Can you imagine waking up
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: in the morning and just seeing Your f * *
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: * ing chase lounge in your kitchen? What do you
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: do with that? I don't know. I don't know. I
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: think I would go mad, which I think is what
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: was the point of it. But it was just this
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: bizarre training of law-breaking and daring intended to numb the
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: group to the fear of invading homes. And it would
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: just be a rehearsal for the later murders. So he
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: began enforcing discipline through physical s * * t as well.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: And several female followers, including Diane Lake and Catherine Sher,
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: later recounted that Manson beat or s * * t
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: them to control them. And Sher described being beaten, quote unquote,
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: within an inch of her life over a trivial mistake.
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: So Manson really understood the power of power. terror. And
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: Charlie himself boasted in a recorded interview, I never lose control.
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: I take control. Just a little, little man, devil freak.
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: And by mid 1969, the family was effectively under Manson's
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: total domination. They lived together. They isolated from outsiders, reinforcing
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: each other's beliefs in Manson's vision. So the stage was
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: set for these indoctrinated followers to follow Manson straight into
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: the abyss when he decided the time for Helter Skelter
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: had come. So in July 1968, after drifting up and
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: down the California coast, the Manson family found a semi-permanent
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: home at Spahn Movie Ranch. And Spahn Ranch was a
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: run-down 500-acre horse ranch and former Western movie set in
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: the Rocky Hills northwest of LA. And its owner, George Spahn,
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: was an elderly blind man and allowed Manson and his
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: motley crew to stay on the property in exchange for
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: odd jobs and And those f * * * ing
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: favors would come from the Manson girls. And a gross,
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: not-so-fun fact is that young Lynette Squeaky Fromm got her
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: nickname from the squeaking sounds she made to entertain George Spahn,
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: which is just so... So the setting was rustic and
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: removed from civilization, just how Manson liked it. Because here
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: he could play the role of frontier patriarch, ruling over
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: his kingdom without much interference at all. And daily life
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: at Spahn Ranch outwardly resembled a hippie commune. And the
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: family forged food from dumpsters or made runs into the
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: town to collect discarded produce. And if you've ever seen
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood by Quentin Tarantino, very
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: good movie, I suggest you go watch it. It's a
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: spinoff from this, but he really gets that cult feeling,
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: I feel, really well, because I was so uncomfortable watching
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: the Manson family operate in Spahn Ranch. It was so weird,
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: but I think he got it pretty on point. But anyway,
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: they would hold campfire songs, sing-alongs with Manson strumming his
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: guitar and singing his original folk songs while everyone joined
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: in the chorus. All while dropping acid on a frequent
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: basis and just practicing free love. And new children were
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: born into the Manson family, including Manson's own son, with
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: Mary Brunner, and they were raised in the commune. Yet
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: there was an undeniable dark side to Spahn Ranch. And
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: family members carried knives and even guns, considering themselves a
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: self-defense tribe preparing for end times. And Manson and the
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: men just stockpiled stolen cars and converted them into dune buggies,
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: just ready for desert warfare or escape. And target practice
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: became a form of recreation. And they would stage bizarre
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: military-style drills at Manson's whim. And all of it was
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: just training for what Manson warmed was imminent. And that
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: was the Great Race War of Helter Skelter. And Spahn
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: Ranch also became the backdrop for the family's earlier crimes.
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: Because in 1969, Manson became increasingly more erratic and paranoid.
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: And Tex had been doing some small-time drug dealing, and
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: he was hanging around rock circles. And in July 1969,
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: a botched drug transaction between Tex and a dealer named
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: Bernard Lotsapapa Crow led Manson to shoot Crow to protect Tex.
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: And Manson believed that he had actually killed a Black Panther,
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: just heightening his paranoia that the Black Panthers were now
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: after the family. But little did Manson know that Crow
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: was not actually a Black Panther, and Crow survived the
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: attempt of his life. But this incident just fed Manson's
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: race war delusions and added a sense of urgency to
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: his helter-skelter timeline. In one family acquaintance, a musician named
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: Gary Hinman was brutally murdered in his home in late
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: July of 1969 after Manson sent Bobby, Susan, and Mary
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: to rough him up over a dispute. And Hinman had
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: allegedly received an inheritance of around $ 20, 000. And Manson instructed
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: his family to go and get it. And Manson himself
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: had actually sliced Hinman's face with a sword during the incident.
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: And Bobby later him to death while the terrified man
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: begged for his life. And at the crime scene, one
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: of the family members wrote, political piggy in Hinman's blood
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: on the wall. And they also drew a panther paw
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: attempting to pin the blame on the militant Black Panthers
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: because it was one of their symbols. And for those
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: of you who don't know, the Black Panther Party was
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: founded in 1966 by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: in Oakland, California. And it was as a response to
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: police brutality and the failures of nonviolent tactics. And the
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: party advocated for Black nationalism, armed self-defense, and and socialist ideals,
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: positioning itself as a revolutionary force within the Black Power movement.
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: So after they killed Hinman, they would head back to
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: Spahn Ranch. And shortly after, Bobby would actually be arrested
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: for Hinman's murder on August 6, 1969, and Manson became
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: furious and desperate. So this was the turning point. And
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: he told his family that they now might need to
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: stage copycat murders to make it look like real killers
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: were still at large, and thus get Bobby out of jail.
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: And this plan just joined with Manson's helter-skelter prophecy, which
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: he had been preaching, as we know, for months at
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: this point. So the lazy, laid-back summer days at Spahn
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: Ranch were about to erupt in a stormy, of violence.
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: So throughout the family's formation, Manson never relinquished his dreams
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: of musical success. Guy was determined. Guys was determined to
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: be the Beatles. But the stream had major consequences. His
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: connection to the L.A. music scene was weak but tantalizing.
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: And through Dennis Wilson and other contacts, Manson occasionally mingled
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: on society's fringes with entertainers and producers. And as briefly
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: mentioned earlier, Wilson introduced Manson to Terry Melcher, who was
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: an influential producer for acts like The Birds. But despite
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: hints of interest, Melcher ultimately decided not to sign Manson
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: to any record deal. And Manson would be devastated by
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: this rejection. And it would bruise that little man's ego deeply.
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: And making matters worse, in Manson's mind at least, Melcher
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: had been renting out a house at 150 Cielo Drive
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: in Benedict Canyon, which was a very secluded luxury home.
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: But by mid-1969, Melcher had moved out. And the house
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: was then leased to Roman Polanski and his wife, Sharon Tate.
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: So Manson was very aware of the house and had
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: actually been there before when it was Melcher's residence. But
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: this address would soon become the site of unspeakable violence.
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: And it was a choice of location that was not
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: at all coincidental. But then, of course, there was the Beatles.
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: Manson just saw them as angelic harborers of the coming
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: apocalyptic war, and he would just dissect their songs for
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: secret messages all the time, one of them being Helter Skelter.
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: And this was the obvious one, because he took the
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: title for his overall prophecy. And then there was Piggies,
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: which spoke of the downfalls of the establishment, inspiring the
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: family to later scrawl Death to Pigs in Blood on
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: the Wall. And then there was Revolution 9, which Manson
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: interpreted as coding to start the race war and reference
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: to Chapter 9 of the Book of Revelation and to
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: call for black people to rise up. And then there
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: was Blackbird, which he thought was also a call for
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: black people to take power. So in essence, Manson twisted
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: the music industry's output into a soundtrack for his music. madness.
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: And when his direct bid for stardom failed, he redirected
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: his energies into making Helter Skelter a reality. And tragically,
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: it worked. And Manson would achieve a dark immortality, but
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: at the cost of innocent lives and his own soul.
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: So Helter Skelter, two seemingly harmless words that Charlie Manson
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: fused with terrifying significance. referred to a spiral slide at
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: a playground or fair. And Paul McCartney's lyrics allegedly used
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: it as a metaphor for the rise and fall of
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: the Roman Empire. But to Manson, Helter Skelter meant something
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: completely different. It was the impending apocalyptic race war that
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: he believed would destroy American society. And Manson claimed Helter
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: Skelter was a message about chaos and revolution. But Manson
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: himself did not come up with this concept in a vacuum,
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: because the late 1960s were marked by civil unrest, including
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: riots in cities and militant groups like the Black Panthers
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: advocating armed self-defense against racial injustice. And newscasts about these
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: events would filter into Spahn Ranch. And Manson, a lifelong
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: white supremacist at heart, seized on the racial tensions of
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: the time and spun them into a grandiose prophecy. And
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: it was a ludicrous, self-serving fantasy, but the family accepted it.
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: And ultimately, a full-on conflict between black and white people
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: would erupt. And this was The Helter Skelter. And as
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: bizarre as it sounds, this was the ideology that Manson
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: drilled into his followers day after day in 1968 to 1969.
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: He so frequently spoke of Helter Skelter as a coming
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: reality that it became sort of a cult mantra. And
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: family members would scrawl the words Helter Skelter on the
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: walls of Spahn Ranch because it was their great commission
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: and it was the violent purpose that justified their entire existence.
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: So in Manson's apocalyptic vision, the family itself had a
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: very special role. They wouldn't actively participate in the race
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: war at first. Rather, they would go into hiding in
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: the underground paradise. Because Manson told his followers that somewhere
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: out in the desert, specifically beneath California's Death Valley, you know,
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: the hottest place in the f * * * ing world,
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: was a hidden city. Like Atlantis. And it was a
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: bottomless pit described in the Book of Revelation, where the
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: family could wait out the coming conflict and safety. And
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: the family actually spent time searching for this entrance to
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: the pit in Death Valley, guided by Manson's hunches of
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: biblical references, with some Beatles references thrown in there too. Alas,
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: they never found such a place. Who could have thunk?
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: But that did not dampen their belief. And while hiding,
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: Manson said the family would multiply and be ready to
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: emerge when Helter Skelter had run its course. And once
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: the dust settled topside, where most white people would just
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: be exterminated by black people, the victors would just be
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: unable to govern, as they had been subject to control
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: for too long and wouldn't know how. So the family
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: would come back to the surface. And at this point,
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: Manson prophesized black people would turn over the power to
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: Charles Manson. Recognizing him as the rightful ruler of the world.
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: Guy was. Nuts, dude. So in essence, Helter Skelter was
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: just a convoluted route for Manson to become king of
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: the world. And it's important to stress how incredibly grandiose
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: and racially warped this vision was. Because it combined Manson's
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: personal megalomania, because he genuinely saw himself as destined for
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: messiah-like greatness, with severe racism. With the idea that black
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: people could win this war, but would still be inferior
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: and need him to rule over them, which.
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: Is just f * * * ed.
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: Up beyond so many levels. But the family would accept
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: this gospel, whether out of sincere belief or simply because
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: Manson would allow no disagreement. So to the outside observer,
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: Manson's helter-skelter doctrine was pure insanity. But inside the cult,
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: it was sincerely held faith. reinforced by what they saw
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: in the world. Because throughout 1968 and 1969, current events
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: seemed to validate Manson's predictions, including the assassination of Dr.
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: Martin Luther King Jr. in April of 1968, which had
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: ignited a lot of riots. And news of the Black
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: Panthers arming themselves in clashes with police were very common.
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: And Manson would just point to these headlines as signs
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: that Helter Skelter was brewing. And he deliberately excited the
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: family's fears by claiming that the Black Panthers were on
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: their way to Spahn Ranch to get revenge for the
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: black man Manson believed he'd killed, which was Bernard Crowe.
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: So the family would do things like guard Spahn Ranch
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: at night, convinced that they might be attacked at any
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: given moment. And Manson also role-played biblical scenarios to cement
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: his status. And sometimes he would speak as Jesus, preaching
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: love and salvation. And other times he ranted as Satan,
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: promising chaos and demanding obedience. And he'd say that in him,
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: opposite met, Christ and the devil were one being. And
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: it just gave a semi-spiritual weight to all of his commands.
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: Because if the family feared what they were about to do,
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: Manson assured them it was predestined. And on occasion, he
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: cited the book of Revelations imagery, saying that they were
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: living in the end times. And additionally, Manson drew on
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: occult and fringe beliefs to justify brutality. And then by mid-1969,
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: Manson's preaching had reached a fever pitch. And the group
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: was on edge, believing any day now the race war
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: would erupt. And if it didn't start on their own,
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: they may have to teach black people how to do it.
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: And this was the final logical leap. The idea that
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: the Manson family could ignite Helter Skelter themselves by committing
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: murders so shocking, they would be blamed on black revolutionaries,
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: thus accelerating the chaos. Just a horrific, racially motivated, racist crime.
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: And unfortunately, by July 1969, all of the pieces were
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: in place for Manson to test his theory. And his
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: followers were prepared to kill at his command. So the
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: lead-up to the murders involved deliberate rehearsals and a selection
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: of targets, all under Manson's direction. As mentioned, the family's
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: creepy-crawly exercises were essentially practice runs for home invasions. But
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: these strange night drills served a dual purpose, because they
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: bonded as a group through secret shared crimes, and it
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: desensitized them to violating the sanctity of Strader's homes. So
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: by the time Manson ordered actual killings, waltzing into occupied
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: homes at night already felt eerily familiar to his minions,
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: and Manson's control over the family was near absolute. So
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: this cult of one for all and all for one
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: meant that if Charlie decreed someone must die for the cause,
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: the family members felt It was their duty to make
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: it happen as agents of Helter Skelter. And the family
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: members were so steeped in Manson's beliefs at this point
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: that they didn't even question how insanely crazy the plan was.
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: Because in their acid-fueled worldview, it made sense that butchering
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: innocent people could be a revolutionary act. to save the
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: world and fulfill prophecy. And soon one of the most
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: infamous crimes of the 20th century would occur. A crime
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: that the family believed would be the opening shots of
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: Helter Skelter, but which in reality would mark the beginning
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: of their own end. So late on August 8th, 1969,
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: Charles Manson gathered a group of his most trusted followers
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: and sent them on a mission of death. and their
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: destination was 10050 CLO Drive. But Manson himself did not go,
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: nay nay. Instead, he ordered Tex Watson to, quote unquote,
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: totally destroy everyone in the house as gruesome as you can.
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: And he would be joined by Susan Adkins, Patricia, and Linda.
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: And Manson would instruct the women to obey Texas orders
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: as if they were his own. And shortly past midnight
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: in the early minutes of August 9th, a vehicle driven
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: by Linda quietly approached the secluded property. And the occupants
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: had no personal connection to these intruders. But they were
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: about to become victims of horrifying scene meant to jumpstart
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: Helter Skelter. And when they reached the gate of 10050
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: Cielo Drive, Tex climbed a telephone pole and cut the
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: phone line to prevent any calls for help. So they
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: would park down the hill and snuck back up on foot.
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: And Tex would carry a. 22 caliber revolver and a knife.
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: And the women brought knives and a length of rope.
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: And as they went across the darkened property toward the
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: main house, headlights suddenly swept across them. Because a car
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: was coming down the driveway from the house. And this
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: was an unexpected twist. And it would be 18-year-old Steven Parent,
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: who was actually a visitor that had just said goodbye
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: to the estate's caretaker in a guest house. And Tex
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: would immediately spring into action and leap in front of
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: Parent's car with a gun drawn. And Parent would plead
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: for them not to hurt them, but Tex coldly shot
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: him four times at point-blank range. And he would *
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: * * * the team before he could even exit
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: the car. So the first victim had now fallen. And
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: those in the main house remained completely unaware of the
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: horror creeping toward them. So Tex would order Atkins and
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: Patricia to push the car further up the driveway out
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: of sight. Meanwhile, Linda was assigned as a lookout by
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: the gate. Next, Tex would cut open a window screen
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: and slip into the house. Then let Atkins and Patricia
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: in through the front door. And inside the house would
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: be five unsuspecting people. And the first would be Sharon Tate.
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: And she would be a 26-year-old Hollywood actress who was
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: also eight and a half months pregnant. And then there
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: was Jay Sebring, a 35-year-old celebrity hairdresser and friend of
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: Sharon Tate. And then there was Abigail Folger, a 25-year-old
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: coffee heiress. And then there was Wojciech Frygowski, who was
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: a 32-year-old man and was also Folger's boyfriend. And outside
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: in the guest house was the caretaker, William Gerritsen, whom
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: parents the teen had just visited. And Roman Polanski, Tate's husband,
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: was away in Europe filming a movie. So that night,
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: the friends had spent a casual evening at the house
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: And as midnight passed, some were starting to doze off.
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: But the killers struck quickly. Tex encountered Fryofsky sleeping on
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: the living room couch and kicked him in the head.
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: And this would startle Fryofsky, asking who he was and
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: what he was doing in the house. And in words
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: that could have been scripted from a horror movie, Tex replied, quote-unquote,
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: I'm the devil, and I'm here to do the devil's business.
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: What the? Oh, God, it's so... unnerving and in an
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: instant any illusion that this was a simple robbery or
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: prank evaporated because these intruders were here to kill so
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: under tex's direction susan atkins found the other occupants and
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: rounded them up into the living room and that's when
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: tex would pull out a rope that he'd brought and
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: loop it around tate and sebring's necks and slung it
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: over the ceiling beam effectively tethering the two together by
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: their throats and sebring seeing the rough treatment of the
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: heavily pregnant tate started to protest, begging them to ease
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: up on her. But without hesitation, Tex shot Jay Sebring
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: in the chest, silencing him completely. And he also stabbed
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: him seven times as if he hadn't already done enough.
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: And chaos erupted as the intruders began to take control
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: of the house. Susan Adkins briefly escorted Abigail Folger back
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: to her bedroom to retrieve her purse, from which Folgers
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: would give her $ 70. And this was an attempt to
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: appease the invaders. And Frykovsky's hands were tied with a towel,
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: but in the confusion, he managed to work them free.
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: And that's when he would lunge at Susan Atkins, grappling
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: her neck and receiving several wounds to his legs as
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: Atkins tried to fend him off. So now injured and bleeding,
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: he stumbled out the front door, desperately yelling for anyone
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: to help. But Tex would chase him onto the front
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: porch and pistol whip him with a revolver, cracking Frykovsky's
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: skull so violently that the gun grip broke. Tex would
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: then shoot Frykowski twice and continue him repeatedly. And it
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: only ended when Frykowski finally fell dead on the lawn
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: with 51 wounds and blunt force injuries. And during this mayhem, Linda,
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: standing guard by the cars, heard the horrifying sounds of
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: screams coming from the house. And terrified and regretful, she
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: actually ran toward the house and lied to Susan Atkins
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: that someone was coming, hoping to halt the murders. But
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: at this point, it was too late, and the violence
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: had its own momentum. Now, back in the house, Abigail
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: Folger actually left momentarily unattended after fetching the purse, because
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: she saw her chance and bolted out of the bedroom
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: door to the pool area. But that's when Patricia would
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: pursue her across the lawn. And Folger, dressed in a
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: white nightgown and now splattered with blood, ran. But Patricia
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: would catch up to her and she would tackle her,
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: s * * * ing her ferociously. And Tex would
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: soon join and together they would s * * *
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: Abigail 28 times, leaving her lifeless in the grass. And
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: back inside, Sharon Tate, now the sole survivor, was begging
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: for her and her unborn baby's life. And she pleaded
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: with Susan Adkins and Tex Watson to spare her, sobbing
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: that she wanted to live long enough to have her
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: child and even offering herself as a hostage. But there
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: would be no mercy. And Tex and Adkins stabbed Sharon
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: Tate 16 times, killed both her and her unborn baby.
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: The brutality was... unspeakable. Even the coroner later noted that
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: Tate may have died after being hanged by the rope
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: Tex had tied, though the cause was massive hemorrhage from
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: the stabbings. So in the span of roughly half an hour,
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: the Manson family killers had exterminated five innocent human beings,
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: but their dark work was not even finished. And Susan Atkins,
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: remembering Manson's instructions to leave a sign, specifically something witchy,
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: dipped a towel in Sharon Tate's blood and used it
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: to scrawl a single word on the front door of
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: the house, which was... pig and atkins would later admit
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: that they wrote pig to make it look like the
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: hinman murder and get bobby out of jail shifting the
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: blame and as news of tate's murder spread los angeles
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: was plunged into panic because five people were slaughtered in
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: an upscale neighborhood with no clear motive or any suspects
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: but little did anyone suspect the nightmare was not over
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: And the Manson family was just getting started. So after
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: the savagery of the Tate murders, one might think that
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: the killers would now lay low. But shockingly, the very
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: next night, August 9th, in the early hours of August 10th, 1969,
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: they struck again. Because Manson, allegedly unhappy with the Tate murders,
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: decided to personally supervise the second mission. So in the
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: evening of August 9th, he piled into a car with
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: Tex Watson and Patricia and Leslie, Linda, Susan, and Steve
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: Clem Grogan. And Manson told Linda to drive to 3301
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: Waverly Drive in the Las Villas District. And this was
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: the home of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, a couple in
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: their 40s. And the choice was semi-random. The LaBianca house
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: was next door to a home where Manson and some
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: family members had once attended a party the year before.
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: And Manson remembered the street and decided it would do.
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: So Manson and Tex would quietly approach the house while
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: the others waited back in the car. And Manson would
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: enter the home first. waking Leno, who was dozing on
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: the couch. And that's when Tex would tie his hands
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: and Manson would hold him at gunpoint. And Manson would
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: then escort Rosemary from the bedroom into the living room,
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: also at gunpoint. And that's when Tex would then use
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: a pillowcase and lamp cords to cover and bind the
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: victims' heads. And once the LaBiancas were effectively blindfolded and restrained,
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: Manson left the house and Van Houten and Krenwinkel would enter.
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: Because Manson, he never got his hands dirty. He never
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: got blood on his hands. And Manson would take Susan, Linda,
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: and Clem with him to find another target the same night.
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: which was a Lebanese actor named Saladin Nader. And Manson
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: would leave them there at the apartment complex and return
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: to the ranch. And this meant that he dropped his
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: followers off at two locations to commit murders and then
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: left them to hitchhike home on their own. Allegedly, Linda
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: initially knocked on the wrong apartment door, waking a neighbor
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: and preventing the murder from occurring at all. Back at
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: Waverly Drive, Tex was again in charge inside the house,
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: with Krenwinkel and Van Houten as his accomplices. And Tex
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: would send the women back to the bedroom. And without
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: much dialogue, Tex began to s * * * Leno,
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: f * * * ing the bayonet he brought into
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: his throat and b * * * h repeatedly. And
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: in the bedroom, Rosemary sprang up from the bed and
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: started wildly swinging the lamp that was still attached to
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: the cord around her n * * * a. at
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: the intruders. And a chaotic struggle began to ensue in
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: the bedroom. And Van Houten and Krenwinkel tried to subdue
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: Rosemary as this terrified woman fought like an animal for
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: her life. And hearing the commotion, Tex, now done with Leno,
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: and Leno at this point was still alive but gravely wounded,
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: ran over to the bedroom. And Tex would see that
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: Rosemary had managed to keep the woman at bay for
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: a moment, flailing the lamp around as a weapon. But
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: Tex would launch himself at Rosemary still. her several times
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: with the same bayonet he used to her husband. And
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: that's when Rosemary would collapse. And Tex would then return
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: back to Leno and resume his assault, seeing that he
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: was not yet dead. And at the end, he stabbed
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: Leno 12 times with a bayonet and he would call
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: the word. war into Leno's abdomen. And Patricia would grab
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: a kitchen knife and begin stabbing Rosemary as she lay
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: on the floor. And between Krenwinkel and Van Houten, Rosemary
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: LaBianca was stabbed approximately 41 times. So with both the
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: LaBiancas dead, the killers now took time to perform the
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: witchy ritual that Manson so desired. Using Leno's blood, Patricia
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: dipped an old carving fork and worked a message on
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: the walls of the living room saying, rise and death
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: to pigs. And on the refrigerator, she scrawled the misspelled
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: word helter-skelter and bleep. And not content with writing alone,
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: Krenwinkel physically mutilated Leno's body to just drive the point home.
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: And she would take a two-pronged carving fork and stab
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: it into Leno's stomach, leaving it jumping out of the
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: corpse and also planted a steak knife in his throat.
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: Oh my God. Just f * * * ing horrifying.
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: And after cleaning up a bit, Tex even took a
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: shower in the LaBianca bathroom to rinse off the blood. Krenwinkel,
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: Van Houten, and Watson then headed out. And they would
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: meet up as the others as planned, hitchhiking and driving
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: back to Spahn Ranch under the cover of darkness. And
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: the LaBianca's bodies would later be discovered on the evening
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: of the 10th by their children. So in the immediate
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: aftermath of these horrifically brutal murders... law enforcement was scrambling,
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: because the Tate murders were national news. And initially, the
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: Tate and LaBianca cases were investigated separately by Los Angeles
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: Police Department, or the LAPD, and the Los Angeles County
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: Sheriff's Department, respectively. But there was confusion, false leads, and
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: growing public clamor for answers. And for a time, the words,
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: pig and helter-skelter on the walls meant nothing to police
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: beyond bizarre graffiti. And the Manson family, at first, wasn't
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: even on the radar. Because in those early weeks, the
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: killers returned to semi-normal life at Spahn Ranch. But a
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: breakthrough would come in a completely unrelated arrest. Because on
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: August 16th, 1969, just one week after the murders, police
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: raided Spahn Ranch and arrested Charles Manson and about two
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: dozen family members on suspicion of auto theft because the
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: group had been stockpiling stolen Volkswagen Beetles converted into dune
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: buggies on their preparation for a desert escape, which attracted
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: law enforcement attention. However, these charges were mishandled as a
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: warrant was misdated. And within a few days, the entire
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: group was released without anyone connecting them to the high
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: profile murders in L.A. So the family would promptly regroup
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: and actually move out to that Death Valley area. at
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: Barker Ranch, thinking the heat was completely off them now.
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: But unfortunately for Manson, yet another raid was conducted regarding
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: the suspected stolen vehicles, and he would be found hiding
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: under a sink and arrested like the little tiny measly
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: piece of shit he is. And this time, thankfully, the
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: arrest would stick and he would be placed in jail.
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: And for a while, it looked like the Tate and
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: LaBianca murders might become California's great unsolved mystery. But then
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: the dam broke from the inside. In October of 1969,
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: a captured family member started talking. Susan Atkins, who had
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: been implicated by Bobby and arrested in early October for
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: her role in the Gary Hinman murder, ended up in jail,
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: sharing a cell with two other women. And feeling boastful,
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: or perhaps burdened, Atkins confessed in graphic detail to her
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: cellmates about killing people for Charlie. And she told them
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: about stabbing Sharon Tate, tasting her blood, and writing those
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: words on the walls. Like a f * * *
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: ing idiot. But I'm glad she did. And the cellmates
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: reported Atkins' story to the authorities in November of 1969.
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: And at nearly the same time, an LAPD investigation finally
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: put together one of the puzzle pieces. And that was
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: a gang of local bikers told detectives that Manson had
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: been talking about crazy killings and Black Panthers around the
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: time of the murders. And by early December of 1969,
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: the case cracked wide open. Because on December 1st, LAPD
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: announced warrants for the arrest of Tex Watson, Patricia Kranrenkel,
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: and Linda Kasabian in the Tate case. And Charles Manson
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: and Susan Atkins were already in custody, picked up, from
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: the prior raids and thus not named in the initial
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: warrant press release. And Leslie Van Houten's involvement in the
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: LaBianca wasn't immediately known at this point. But she too
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: had been arrested in October Barker Ranch raid of the
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: theft charges. And soon enough, detectives connected Van Houten to
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: the LaBianca murders via evidence and she was also charged.
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: And Tex Watson had fled back to his home state
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: of Texas. Yes, Texas from Texas, not very... Not very, uh, original.
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: But he would be arrested on November 30th of 1969
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: after his fingerprints was matched to one found in the
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: Tate house. And Krenwinkel had run off to Alabama, where
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: she was likewise arrested. And Linda, who had left the
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: family and had gone to New Hampshire, learned of one
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: of the warrants and voluntarily surrendered herself, eager to tell
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: her side of the story. So with the key players
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: in custody by early 1970, the full story of the
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: family Manson's crime spree began to emerge. And Susan Atkins
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: initially cooperated and gave a statement to a grand jury,
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: recounting the details of the Tate murders. But she later
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: recanted and refused to testify at trial. Fortunately for the prosecution,
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: Linda stepped up as a star witness. And Linda, who
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: had not killed anyone technically, was deeply remorseful and was
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: offered immunity in exchange for testimony. And she provided a
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: distressing first-hand narrative of both nights' murders. corroborating physical evidence
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: and confirming Manson's role as the mastermind. And thus, within
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: a few months of the crimes, police and prosecutors had
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: pieced together what had happened exactly. And the links between
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: Manson and the victims, the helter-skelter motive as told by
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: Atkins in Linda, and the identity of all participants. But
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: the challenge ahead would be proving Charles Manson's guilt, since
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: he had not personally stabbed or shot anyone. Nonetheless, the
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: stage was set for what many call the trial of
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: the century, a spectacle that would play out in Los
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: Angeles courtroom over many months during 1970 to 1971. So
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: the trial of Charles Manson and the co-defendants began on
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: June 1970 and quickly became a media circus of unprecedented scale.
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: And the proceedings were held in the Hall of Justice
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: in downtown LA. And from day one, it was clear
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: this was no ordinary trial. So on the prosecution side,
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: it was Vincent Bugliosi, a sharp, unflappable deputy district attorney
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: determined to hold Manson accountable, not only for murder, but
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: for commanding others to murder via an elaborate conspiracy. And
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: the defendants, Charles Manson, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Leslie
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: Van Houten, presented a unified front. And Tex Watson's trial
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: was separated as he delayed extradition from Texas. And Manson,
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: ever theatrical, initially insisted on acting as his own attorney,
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: Ted Bundy style. Although this was before Ted Bundy. And
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: the judge, William Keene, allowed this briefly. But Manson's antics,
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: such as submitting nonsensical motions and attempting to make bizarre
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: opening statements, led to that privilege being revoked. And Keene
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: was replaced by Judge Charles Older after Manson filed an
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: affidavit of prejudice against him. And security at these trials
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: was extremely tight. And the family members who were not
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: on trial, such as Squeaky, Sandy, and others, gathered daily
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: outside the courthouse. And they would just support from the sidewalk.
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: And they would have their heads shaved and X's carved
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: into their foreheads to match the mark Manson had made
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: on himself. And often chanted and sang in the street.
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: You know. like a cult. The prosecution, worried that these
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: devoted family members might try to influence or harm witnesses,
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: took an unusual step, and they subpoenaed many of them
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: as prospective witnesses just so they could be legally barred
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: from the courtroom, as witnesses are excluded until testimony. But
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: despite these efforts, the family found ways to make their
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: presence felt. And at one point, family members attempted to
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: intimidate a key witness, Paul Watkins, a former member who
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: had defected, and another, Juan Flynn, by threatening them. And
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: Watkins even suffered a suspicious fire in a van that
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: burned him, which he believed was a relation to the family.
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: And another member, Barbara Hoyt, who knew incriminating details, was
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: lured to Hawaii by family member Ruth Ann Morehouse. And
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: she was nearly killed when Morehouse slipped her an LSD-laced hamburger.
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: But Hoyt survived, and the attempt only made her determined
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: to testify even more. And inside the courtroom, the defendants
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: engaged in continuous disruptions. And one bizarre episode occurred when
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: Manson dramatically held up a Los Angeles Times front page
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: with the headline, And Judge Older had to individually ask
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: jurors if they could be impartial. And they all said yes,
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: averting as a mistrial. And the female defendants tried to
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: exploit Nixon's comments by standing on saying, Essentially, see, the
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: president says we're guilty, so why go on? But the
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: stunt also failed. Yet one of the most dramatic moments
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: came on October 5th, 1970. Frustrated that he couldn't directly
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: cross-examine a witness, Manson suddenly leaped over the defense table
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: and lunged at Judge Older. And chaos ensued as bailiffs
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: tackled Manson to the ground, which didn't take much because
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: he's really f * * * ing short. And the
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: female defendant stood up and began chanting some kind of gibberish,
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: which was possibly Latin, further freaking out the courtroom. And
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: after this incident, Judge Older started carrying a. 38 revolver
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: under his robes for protection, which like, yeah, rightfully so.
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: So it was that kind of trial, a f *
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: * * ing chaotic shitshow of a trial. And the
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: defense attorneys, for their part, were in a bind. Because
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: each woman had her own lawyer, and Manson had one
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: after his self-representation ended. But the defendants often seemed to
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: be sabotaging their own case on Manson's behest. So the
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: defense team was just like, we can't f * *
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: * ing wrangle these f * * * ing psychos.
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: So the women's lawyers revealed to the judge in a
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: private conference that their clients wanted to testify that Manson
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: had nothing to do with the murders and that they
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: did it all on their own. Brainwashed. Essentially, martyring themselves
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: to save Manson. And one attorney, Ronald Hughes, who was
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: Leslie's counsel, refused to go along with the perjury plan,
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: saying that he would not push a client out of
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: the window by allowing her to take the blame. And
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: this would just create conflict between Manson and the lawyers.
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: And on November 16th, 1970, the prosecution rested after presenting
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: months of evidence. And shockingly, on November 19th, the defense
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: rested without calling a single witness. And the defendants shouted
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: in protest at their own lawyers, demanding the right to testify.
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: And the tensions would just run high as the trial
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: edged toward conclusion. But the courtroom atmosphere was so volatile
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: that one of the defense lawyers, Ronald Hughes, disappeared toward
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: the ends of the trial. And he would actually go
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: missing during a short recess and was later found dead
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: in early 1971 under suspicious circumstances. Possibly a victim of
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: retaliation by remaining family members, because he defied Manson's wishes. Nevertheless,
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: the trial pressed on to the verdict phase. And on
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: January 25th, 1971, after a trial that lasted about nine months,
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: the jury returned its verdict. Guilty on all counts for
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: Charles Manson, Susan Adkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Leslie Van Houten.
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: And specifically, Manson was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: of the killings of seven people, the Tate victims, and
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: the la biancas and the three women were convicted of
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: murder in those cases as well and it was one
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: of the most headline grabbing convictions in u.s history yet
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: there remained a penalty phase to determine their sentences and
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: here more drama unfolded because during the penalty phase the
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: defense actually unleashed a copycat motive story in a last-ditch
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: effort to save Manson from the death penalty. And Atkins, Krenwinkel,
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: and Van Houten took the stand against their lawyer's advice
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: and testified that the murders were solely an idea to
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: copy the Hinman killing and free Bobby. And the plan
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: was supposedly made by the lovestruck Linda, the one who
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: came forward eventually. And they claimed that Manson had nothing
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: to do with ordering it. But... No one really believed this, thankfully.
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: And the prosecutor easily highlighted the obscurities. For instance, Susan
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: Adkins couldn't explain why she had written political piggy in
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: blood at the Hinman House to begin with, if these
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: were all separate copycat actions. And the woman effectively fell
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: on the swords for Manson, but it was too late
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: and not believable at all. And the jury did see
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: it as for what it was, which was a last-ditch
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: effort by three of his brainwashed followers. And then the
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: final act of theater... Charles Manson dramatically altered his appearance mid-trial,
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: and he shaved his head completely and trimmed his beard
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: into forked devilish style, saying to reporters, I am the devil,
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: and the devil always has a bald head. Okay, buddy,
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: lock him up. But it was one of the many
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: surreal visuals of the trial. So Manson glowering with a
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: shaved skull and carved forehead, staring down a jury as
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: if daring them to condemn him. And on March 29th, 1971,
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: that jury did just that. And they returned with a
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: verdict of death for all four defendants. And Judge Older
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: formally sentenced Charles Manson, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Leslie
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: Van Houten to death on April 19th, 1971. However, none
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: of them, as it turns out, would be executed. Because
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: in 1972, the California Supreme Court abolished, temporarily, the death penalty,
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: commuting all existing death sentences to life imprisonments. Thus, Manson
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: and the three women escaped execution and instead faced the
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: prospect of decades behind bars. And Tex Watson, who was
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: tried separately in 1971 after being extradited, was also convicted
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: and sentenced to death. But his sentence also became life
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: in prison after 1972. But the trial's legacy was enormous.
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: It was one of the longest and most expensive trials
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: in American history at that time. And it fundamentally shifted
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: how the public viewed the late 60s, because no longer
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: was it an age of innocence, but one that bred monsters.
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: And it also set legal precedents, affirming that a person
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: could be found guilty of murder for directing others to kill,
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: even if they hadn't personally wielded the knife. And the
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: Manson conspiracy conviction was a key in that regard. And
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: Vincent Bugliosi emerged a bit of a celebrity prosecutor, later
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: writing a best-selling book, Helter Skelter, which further cemented the
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: Helter Skelter motive in popular lore. And as the convicts
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: were shipped off to prison, one might think that that
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: was the end of the Manson family saga.
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 2: Nay nay.
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: Because in many ways, it was just the beginning of
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: this family's strange afterlife and prison cells and crime history.
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: So in the wake of the convictions, the Manson family's
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 1: reign of terror officially ended. But the fates of its
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: members would continue to unfold over decades, often making headlines.
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: And Charles Manson, once again, became an inmate. Initially sent
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: to San Quentin's death row, he was moved into Genpop,
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: which is general prison population, after a sentence was commuted
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: to life. And he would spend the next 46 years
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: behind bars, bouncing between facilities and periodically emerging into public
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: view through interviews or parole hearings. And Manson proved to
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: be a troublesome little prisoner at times. In 1984, a
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: fellow inmate set Manson on fire for allegedly spouting racist remarks,
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: causing burns to a significant portion of his body. Boo hoo.
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: But still, Manson survived and continued to spread his wild
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: ideas from prison. And he would be denied parole at
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: every single hearing, a total of 12 times. And famously,
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: in the 2010s, he had a swastika tattooed on his forehead.
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: How charming. But Charles Manson would fortunately die on November 19th, 2017,
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: at the age of 83. And it would be of
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: natural causes in a California hospital. And he was still
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: an inmate and still extremely notorious. and with him passed
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: one of the most infamous figures of the 20th century.
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: A criminal who, quote-unquote, occupied a unique position in the
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: American cultural imagination, as NPR observed. And in the early
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: years of incarceration, Atkins remained devotely loyal to Manson, even
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: carving an X into her forehead in prison to match him.
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: But by the late 1970s, she had an apparent change
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: of heart. Oh, how wonderful. Becoming a born-again Christian and
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: renouncing Manson, which, you know, That's good, at least. And
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: she would actually marry twice in prison. Once to a
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: self-proclaimed minister, and later to an attorney, James Whitehouse. And
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: Atkins became California's longest-serving female inmate. And she would be
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 1: repeatedly denied parole. And she would be turned down over
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: a dozen times. And in 2009, terminally ill with brain
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: cancer and partially paralyzed, Atkins made a compassionate release plea.
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: But it would be denied. Ooh. That's karma. And then
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: she would die in prison in September of 2009 at
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: the age of 61. And Krenwinkel also eventually distanced herself
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: from Manson and had been described as a model prisoner.
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: And she earned a degree behind bars and expressed remorse
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: saying in one parole hearing, quote unquote, I wake up
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: every day knowing I'm a destroyer of the most precious thing,
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: But still, the heinous of her crimes had made the
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: parole board unwilling to free her. And for decades, any
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: mention of parole for Krenwinkel was met with public outrage
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: and lobbying by victims' families, especially by Sharon Tate's family.
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: And Patricia Krenwinkel remains incarcerated in California. She's also the
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: state's longest surviving female prisoner after Atkins' death. But Van
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: Houten's story is somewhat different, because many view her as
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: the most redeemable of the trio. Because she was the youngest,
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: 19 at the time of the crimes, and she did
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: not participate in the Tate murders, and by all accounts,
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: reformed herself in prison. Leslie became a model inmate and
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: earned a bachelor's degree and a master's degree and worked
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: in rehabilitative programs. And starting in the 1990s, some parole
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: boards actually recommended her for release. citing her exemplary behavior
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: and apparent genuine remorse. However, California governors repeatedly vetoed those recommendations,
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: partly due to the gravity of her crimes and public sentiment.
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: But finally, after over 20 denials, in July of 2023,
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 1: Leslie Van Houten was released on parole at the age
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: of 73, after she had served 53 years in prison,
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: and her release stirred some controversy, to say the least.
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: Some felt it was justice long overdue from a reformed woman,
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: and others were dismayed that a Manson follower walked free.
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: But Van Houten has since been living under a parole supervision,
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: and she's just a frail, elderly woman whose youth was
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: spent under Manson's stark shadow. And then there's Tex. And
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: after being extradited and convicted separately, Tex initially faced a
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: death sentence like the others, as we know. But when
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: that became life in prison, he underwent a jailhouse conversion
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: to born-again Christianity and even became an ordained minister behind bars.
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: And Watson actually fathered four children via conjugal visits in
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: the 1980s. How is this guy allowed to procreate? What
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: the fuck? And these types of visits were later barred
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: for lifers. But despite religious demeanors, Tex has never been
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 1: granted parole, and he's been denied roughly 18 times. And
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: he remains in California prison now in his 70s. And
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: as mentioned earlier, in 1975, Squeaky Fromm attempted to assassinate
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 1: President Gerald Ford in Sacramento, pointing a Colt. 45 at
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 1: him at close range, but the gun did not fire.
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: But it had a loaded magazine, it just didn't have
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: a round in the chamber, thankfully. So she was tackled
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: and arrested, and she smiled in custody. And Fromm would
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: be convicted of attempted assassination and sentenced to life in
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: federal prison. And she would serve 34 years before being
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: paroled in 2009. And now in her 70s, Fromm moved
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: to upstate New York and lives quietly. But... She never
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 1: renounced Manson. In fact, she repeatedly said after his death
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: in 2017 that she still loved him. And perhaps the
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: single family member who achieved an unexpected mercy was Clem.
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: Because Clem was convicted alongside Manson for the murder of
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: Spahn Ranch stuntman Donald Shorty Shea. He was killed in
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: late August of 1969. But Clem was often described as
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: slow-witted and completely under Manson's sway. And remarkably, in prison,
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: he cooperated and revealed the location of Shea's buried body
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: to authorities in 1977. And partly due to that cooperation
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: and reportedly showing genuine remorse, Clem became the only prisoner
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 1: convicted of Manson-era murders to be paroled. And he would
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: actually be released in 1985. and he has kept a
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: low profile ever since and believed to be currently working
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: as a musician. And then there's Bobby. Convicted of the
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: Hinman murder, Bobby has spent over 50 years in prison.
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: He's a talented musician and artist, and he has composed
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: music and created visual art behind bars. And he has
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: been denied parole multiple times, though in recent years some
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: parole boards recommended him only to be voted out by governors.
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: And as of 2025, Bobby remains incarcerated in California, and
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 1: he's now in his mid-70s. And then there's Mary, Manson's
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: first follower and mother of his child. And Berner was
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: involved in the Hinman robbery, holding him at one point,
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: but made a deal for immunity to testify in the
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 1: early Hinman proceedings. However, she did later participate in the
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 1: 1971 plot to hijack a plane to demand Manson's release.
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: But the plan was foiled. And also of an armed
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: robbery in a surplus store. So she would serve several
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 1: years in prison for those, but be released in the
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: late 1970s. And since then, Mary Brunner has completely withdrawn
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: from public life. And she reportedly lives under a new
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: name in the Midwest. And then there's Diane Lake. She
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: was the youngest family member at age 14 when she joined.
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: Lake was not involved in the murders and eventually testified
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: at the prosecution as a witness. And she just went
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: on to lead a normal life, marrying and raising her children,
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: and later authored a memoir in 2017 called Member of
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: the Family. And Lake just became a symbol of how
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 1: someone could recover from cult indoctrination. And she eventually became
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: a schoolteacher and openly denounced Manson's manipulations, which is f
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: * * * ing metal. So Charles Manson's family effectively
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 1: died as a group when he was arrested. but its
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: individual members carried pieces of that dark legacy with them
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: through the decades. So the Manson murders didn't quietly enter
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: the bowels of true crime. They exploded into the public
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: consciousness and stayed. And media coverage was immediate and overwhelming.
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: And Manson became a cultural symbol referenced in headlines, TV specials,
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: and documentaries for decades. And Vincent Bugliosi's Helter Skelter remains
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: one of the best seller true crime books still, with
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: adaptations and renewed interest surfacing during anniversaries and cultural milestones
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: like Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. But the
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 1: case really marked a symbolic end of the 1960s idealism.
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: A killer cult rising from the hippie movement triggered public fear.
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: And Manson dubbed the most dangerous man alive, became a
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: boogeyman of peace and love generation. And pop culture just
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: leaned into it with songs and shows and even Marilyn
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 1: Manson's stage name echoed this. And the Beatles distanced themselves
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: from Helter Skelter to say the least. While Bono famously declared,
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: we're stealing it back. But this attention just provoked ethical
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: concerns because victims' families, especially Doris and Deborah Tate, pushed
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: back against Manson's infamy, advocating for victims' rights and parole reform.
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: And Manson also sparked debates on brainwashing and cult influence.
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: And in the 70s, fears of mind control and dangerous
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: gurus spurred the rise of deprogrammers and changed how cults
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 1: were viewed legally and psychologically. In Manson's interviews, bizarre, rhetoric,
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: and wild-eyed persona fascinated the public. And some subcultures mythologized him,
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 1: sparking backlash. And parole hearings just became media events, with
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: society often viewing at any potential release as unacceptable. But
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 1: pop culture in and of itself at that time just
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: became darker. Music, films, and public attitudes all reflected just
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: a loss of trust. And as one writer put it,
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: he was the man who killed the 60s. The Manson
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: murders weren't just a crime. They were a rupture. Manson's
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 1: power came not from physical dominance, obviously, because he was
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: really f * * * ing small and weak and stupid,
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: but belief. His followers weren't monsters. They were transformed by manipulation.
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: And the case still resonates because its lessons remain urgent.
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 1: Evil can be seductive. And utopias can mask control and
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: ideology can be weaponized. But so can memory. And Sharon
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: Tate's family turned pain into advocacy. And some family members
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: actually found remorse. And Manson tried to tear society apart.
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 1: But by studying him, we fortify it. The danger isn't gone.
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 1: It's just evolved. But so is our understanding. And in
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: remembering the victims, we reject myth in favor of truth.
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 1: And Manson's story just warns us that belief without question
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: is perilous, and that the line between peace and chaos
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: is far thinner than it seems. And with that, that
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 1: is the end of the video. This was a big one.
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: This was a big one. A lot of people asked
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: for it. I hope this was... I don't want to
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 1: say good, but I hope you got something out of it.
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 1: If you have any other cases you want me to
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: deep dive into, please let me know down below. I
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 1: always read the comments. And until I see you again,
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 1: please stay safe, and I will see you beautiful face
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 1: in the next video. All right, bye.