Latest / History Dark / A Match Made In Hell_ Deadly Duos and Partner Killers _ Manson Murders and the Lonely Hearts Killers

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A Match Made In Hell_ Deadly Duos and Partner Killers _ Manson Murders and the Lonely Hearts Killers · History Dark

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  Speaker 1: Not a real family, the Charles Manson family was one
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  Speaker 1: of the more psychologically interesting cases of a group of
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  Speaker 1: people teaming up for serial murder. No one personified the
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  Speaker 1: dark side of the 60s clash of values more than
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  Speaker 1: the sex and drug crazed demon hippie Charles Manson. He
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  Speaker 1: added a new element to the overall violence of the
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  Speaker 1: period and opened the floodgates to a new wave of
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  Speaker 1: serial killing. Manson's perversion of life included an apocalyptic race
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  Speaker 1: war he named Helter Skelter after the Beatles' hit song
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  Speaker 1: by the same name. The race war never materialized. Instead,
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  Speaker 1: the demented Manson and his equally demented family launched America
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  Speaker 1: onto the path of a serial killing spree that would
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  Speaker 1: last for decades.
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  Speaker 2: Well, Manson certainly got people interested in crime and homicide.
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  Speaker 2: They got interested because of the semi-celebrities that were killed.
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  Speaker 2: I say semi because they weren't that well-known yet. I
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  Speaker 2: think they were on their way to becoming well-known. and
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  Speaker 2: the way the media treated some of the crime scenes
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  Speaker 2: that the Sheriff's Department allowed them to. The media basically
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  Speaker 2: walked all over the law enforcement community during part of
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  Speaker 2: that case, and they got a lot of information they
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  Speaker 2: shouldn't have had. And a lot of that information came
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  Speaker 2: out in the press and in television. Consequently, it just
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  Speaker 2: generated more interest on the part of the public. And
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  Speaker 2: it's almost as if that was the start of an
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  Speaker 2: era of serial killers as well as mass killing, killing
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  Speaker 2: done all at one time.
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  Speaker 1: Manson was born in 1934 to a 16-year-old unwed mother,
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  Speaker 1: Kathleen Maddox. Named Charles Miles Maddox, he took the name
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  Speaker 1: of Manson from a man his mother later married. From
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  Speaker 1: the start, Manson's life was a litany of brutality. At
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  Speaker 1: age five, his mother, an alcoholic, sold him to a
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  Speaker 1: woman for a pitcher of beer. As a young boy,
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  Speaker 1: Manson turned to crime and was in and out of
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  Speaker 1: juvenile centers, even escaping from Boys Town in Nebraska. By 1967...
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  Speaker 1: When he began to form his infamous family, he had
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  Speaker 1: spent half of his 32 years in jails and prisons.
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  Speaker 1: 1967 was the summer of love. And Manson set himself
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  Speaker 1: up as a self-styled guru in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury, America's
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  Speaker 1: center of the counterculture. He attracted followers. mostly women. Together,
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  Speaker 1: his family traveled the western U.S. in a hippie-styled VW van,
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  Speaker 1: ending up in Los Angeles. Manson controlled his family, loving
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  Speaker 1: the sense of power over other human beings. On August 8, 1969,
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  Speaker 1: that sense of power turned deadly. with the brutal assault
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  Speaker 1: at actress Sharon Tate's home. Manson sent members of his
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  Speaker 1: family to kill everyone at the house. The victims, Tate,
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  Speaker 1: eight and a half months pregnant, her friend Jay Sebring,
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  Speaker 1: Abigail Folger, heiress to the Folger coffee fortune, and her lover,
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  Speaker 1: were butchered, slashed and stabbed as many as 51 times.
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  Speaker 1: When the Manson family members left, they wrote the word
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  Speaker 1: pig on the front door in Sharon Tate's blood. Two
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  Speaker 1: nights later, the family struck again. This time, led by Manson,
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  Speaker 1: They entered the home of Leno Labianca and his wife, Rosemary.
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  Speaker 1: While Manson watched, the family members used knives to hack
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  Speaker 1: their helpless victims to death. The word war was carved
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  Speaker 1: into Leno Labianca's stomach, while the couple's blood was used
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  Speaker 1: to write the words rise up. death to pigs, and
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  Speaker 1: helter-skelter on the walls of their home. When the Manson
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  Speaker 1: family was finally brought to justice, their horrific acts defied understanding. Yet,
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  Speaker 1: at the same time, they fascinated the public. And the
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  Speaker 1: cause of the killings was hotly debated. Some felt it
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  Speaker 1: was a political statement. Others do not agree.
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  Speaker 3: I'm not sure the degree to which I buy into
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  Speaker 3: how much Charles Manson really believed in helter-skelter and the
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  Speaker 3: creation of a race war. For example, if you're going
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  Speaker 3: to create a race war by killing white people, don't
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  Speaker 3: you write things on the walls like, you know, die
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  Speaker 3: white motherfuckers or something like that. And they did not
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  Speaker 3: do that. These were people who death became part of
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  Speaker 3: their day-to-day vibe. Charles Manson liked creating an atmosphere of
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  Speaker 3: fear and of that kind of consciousness that fear brings back.
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  Speaker 3: And certainly the killing of people and killing of the
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  Speaker 3: people that they disagreed with, you know, the pigs, so
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  Speaker 3: to speak, became common talk around their family and around
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  Speaker 3: their group until it became actualized.
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  Speaker 1: After numerous attempts at parole, Charles Manson died in prison
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  Speaker 1: on November 19, 2017 from cardiac arrest, respiratory failure, and
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  Speaker 1: colon cancer. team up to serial kill came to light
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  Speaker 1: with a couple known as the Lonely Hearts Killers, the
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  Speaker 1: first of a sequence of buddy male-female serial killers.
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  Speaker 4: You find this kind of circle the wagons mentality where
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  Speaker 4: you have a very influential offender and a very impressionable
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  Speaker 4: offender The latter taken under the tutelage of the former,
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  Speaker 4: for example. Often somebody who's very needy, who wants or
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  Speaker 4: needs a father figure. And you find these two individuals
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  Speaker 4: who view the world from the perspective of their own
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  Speaker 4: little bubble. And they seem to have convinced each other
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  Speaker 4: that they need to kill, that they want people to
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  Speaker 4: suffer more. And they feed each other's twisted perception and
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  Speaker 4: rationalize the murders.
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  Speaker 1: They, Martha and Raymond, also known as the Lonely Hearts Killers,
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  Speaker 1: because they met their unsuspecting victims through Lonely Hearts ads.
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  Speaker 1: From 1947 to 1951, the year of their executions, they
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  Speaker 1: were a media sensation. Martha Beck died at the age
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  Speaker 1: of 31, executed in the electric chair at Sing Sing Prison,
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  Speaker 1: the same day as her live-in lover, Raymond Fernandez, 36,
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  Speaker 1: who was executed a few hours before her. She said,
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  Speaker 1: What does it matter who is to blame? She continued.
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  Speaker 1: My story is a love story, but only those tortured
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  Speaker 1: with love can understand what I mean. I was pictured
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  Speaker 1: as a fat, unfeeling woman, I am not unfeeling, stupid,
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  Speaker 1: or moronic. In the history of the world, how many
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  Speaker 1: crimes have been attributed to love? Born on May 6, 1920,
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  Speaker 1: in Milton, Florida, Martha had a tragic, difficult childhood. She
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  Speaker 1: had an overbearing, domineering mother who ridiculed her because of
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  Speaker 1: her looks and weight. She was also mercilessly teased and
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  Speaker 1: tormented by classmates. Reportedly, she was also sexually molested by
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  Speaker 1: her brother at the age of 10. Always plagued by
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  Speaker 1: being overweight, after Martha finished school, she studied nursing, moved
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  Speaker 1: to California where she worked in an army hospital as
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  Speaker 1: a nurse. She engaged in sexually promiscuous behavior and eventually
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  Speaker 1: became pregnant. She tried to convince the father to marry her,
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  Speaker 1: but he refused. Single and pregnant, she returned to Florida.
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  Speaker 1: Shortly after her daughter was born, she became pregnant again
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  Speaker 1: by a Pensacola bus driver named Alfred Beck. They married quickly,
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  Speaker 1: and divorced six months thereafter, and she gave birth to
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  Speaker 1: a son. Unemployed and the single mother of two young children,
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  Speaker 1: Beck escaped into a fantasy world, buying romance magazines and
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  Speaker 1: novels and watching romantic movies. In 1946, she found employment
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  Speaker 1: at the Pensacola Hospital for Children. She placed a Lonely
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  Speaker 1: Hearts ad in 1947, which Raymond Fernandez answered. Raymond Martinez
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  Speaker 1: Fernandez was born on December 17, 1914, in Hawaii, to
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  Speaker 1: Spanish parents. Shortly thereafter, they moved to Connecticut. As an adult,
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  Speaker 1: he moved to Spain, married, and had four children, all
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  Speaker 1: of whom he abandoned later on in life. After serving
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  Speaker 1: in British intelligence during World War II, Fernandez began a
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  Speaker 1: life of petty crime. He once claimed black magic gave
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  Speaker 1: him irresistible power and charm over women. Eventually, Fernandez moved
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  Speaker 1: to New York City and began answering personal ads by
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  Speaker 1: lonely women. He would whine and dine them, then steal
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  Speaker 1: their money and possessions. Most were too embarrassed to report
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  Speaker 1: the crimes. In one case, he traveled with a woman
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  Speaker 1: to Spain, where he visited his wife and introduced the
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  Speaker 1: two women. His female traveling companion then died under suspicious circumstances.
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  Speaker 1: He then took possession of her property with a forged will.
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  Speaker 1: It was probably his first murder. In 1947, he answered
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  Speaker 1: a personal ad placed by Martha Beck. Fernandez visited Beck
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  Speaker 1: and stayed for a short time. A murderous bond was forming.
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  Speaker 1: Martha returned to Florida, but not for long. Shortly, Martha
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  Speaker 1: packed up and arrived on Fernandez's doorstep in New York City.
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  Speaker 1: He enjoyed the way she catered to his every whim,
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  Speaker 1: and when he confessed his criminal enterprises, Martha quickly became
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  Speaker 1: a willing participant and abandoned her children in Florida. She
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  Speaker 1: posed as Fernandez's sister, giving him an air of respectability.
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  Speaker 1: They were constantly writing Lonely Hearts letters with potential candidates
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  Speaker 1: they could bilk. Their Lonely Hearts victims often stayed with
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  Speaker 1: them or with her. She was extremely jealous and would
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  Speaker 1: go to great lengths to make sure he and his
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  Speaker 1: intended never consummated their relationship. When he did have sex
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  Speaker 1: with a woman, both were subjected to Martha's violent temper.
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  Speaker 1: In 1949... the pair committed the three murders of which
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  Speaker 1: they would later be convicted. Janet Fay, 66, became engaged
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  Speaker 1: to Fernandez and went to stay at his Long Island apartment.
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  Speaker 1: When Beck saw her and Fernandez in bed together, she
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  Speaker 1: smashed Fay's head in with a hammer in a murderous rage,
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  Speaker 1: and then Fernandez strangled her. Fay's family became suspicious. and
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  Speaker 1: Martha and Raymond moved on to new victims. They traveled
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  Speaker 1: to Byron Center Road in Wyoming Township, Michigan, a suburb
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  Speaker 1: of Grand Rapids, to meet Delphine Downing, a young widow
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  Speaker 1: with a two-year-old daughter. While they stayed with Downing, Downing
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  Speaker 1: became agitated, and Fernandez gave her sleeping pills. Enraged by
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  Speaker 1: Downing's crying daughter, Beck strangled her, though not killing her.
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  Speaker 1: Fernandez thought Downing would become suspicious if she saw her
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  Speaker 1: bruised daughter, so he shot the unconscious woman. Raymond and
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  Speaker 1: Martha stayed for several days in Downing's house. Again, enraged
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  Speaker 1: by the daughter's crying, Martha drowned her in a basin
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  Speaker 1: of water. They buried the bodies in the basement, but
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  Speaker 1: suspicious neighbors reported their disappearance, and police arrived at their
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  Speaker 1: door on February 28, 1949. Their story was a media sensation,
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  Speaker 1: and eventually Michigan, which had no death penalty, waived their
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  Speaker 1: murder convictions, and they were sent to New York, where
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  Speaker 1: they could be tried and executed. Two of the worst
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  Speaker 1: buddy serial killers