May 8, 2024 • 20 mins
Unfold the dark narrative of one of history's most notorious crime figures, Charles Manson. This exciting episode delves into Manson's life journey - from his beleaguered childhood haunted by a dysfunctional family to his transformation into the sinister cult leader.
Commencing with his birth as Charles Miles Maddox on November 12, 1934 to a teen mother and an absentee father, the story paints a vivid picture of Manson's difficult early years. Get an inside look into his turbulent adolescence epitomized by constant brushes with law enforcement, delinquent behavior, and reform schools.
Follow Manson's evolution from a troubled teenager embroiled in serious offenses to a dangerous cult figurehead. Explore his brief encounter with music, failed marriages, and the beginning of the notorious Manson Family's formation.
Gain unique insights into Manson's potent manipulative personality and the paranoia fed by his fears of an impending apocalyptic war, and how he used this paranoia to control his followers, leading them on a path of horrendous violence.
Discover the grisly details of the crimes committed by Manson and his Manson Family, including the harrowing event at the Polanski house and the brutal murder of Sharon Tate. Learn about the aftermath of these heinous acts - investigative blunders, the sensational trial, and the eventual unraveling of the Manson Family's terror reign.
Ending with Manson's life behind bars, prison time to his eventual death, we bring to light details of his failed parole pleas, court appearances, and the story of his last days. Tune in to this chilling chapter in criminal history and scrutinize the enigmatic life and crimes of Charles Manson and the Manson Family.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Music.
(00:08):
Who was Charles Manson? Born Charles Miles Maddox on November 12,
1934, in Cincinnati, Ohio, his mother Kathleen Maddox was only 16 when she had him.
His father was believed to be Colonel Walker Henderson Scott,
who was known as a con artist, and when he found out that she was pregnant,
he told her he had been called away on Army business, but really just left to avoid being a father.
(00:32):
She realized he was never coming back, so she married William Eugene Manson
right before having Charles.
William was a laborer at a dry cleaner's. Kathleen would go on drinking binges
with her brother, Luther, leaving Charles to be raised by babysitters.
She soon divorced William in 1937, though Charles kept the last name Manson.
In 1939, Kathleen and her brother were arrested for assault and robbery.
(00:55):
She was sentenced to five years in prison, during which Charles stayed with
an aunt and uncle in West Virginia.
Kathleen was paroled in 1942, and Charles said the first few weeks of having
her home were the happiest of his life.
They soon moved to Charleston, West Virginia, where he would get into trouble
and his mother continued her drinking.
She was arrested again, this time for grand larceny, but wasn't convicted.
(01:17):
They then moved to Indianapolis, where Kathleen met Louis Cavender Jr.
In an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting and married him in August 1943.
At the age of 13, Charles was sent to live at the Gibbold School for Boys in
Indiana, a school for male delinquents that was run by Catholic priests.
It was known as a strict school where even small infractions would be punished
(01:39):
with a beating by either a wooded paddle or leather strap.
Charles went away, sleeping in the woods or wherever he could find shelter.
He made his way back to West Virginia and spent Christmas of 47 with his mother,
but after she took him back to the school.
Ten months later, he ran away again, this time going to Indianapolis.
It was there in 1948 he committed his first documented crime.
(02:01):
He robbed a grocery store for food but noticed a box with just a little over
a hundred dollars in it so he took it to get food and rent a room on Skid Row.
He soon found a job delivering messages for Western Union however it wasn't
enough money so he began stealing.
He was caught and sent to the boys town a juvenile facility in Omaha Nebraska.
(02:21):
Charles was only there for four days before he and another boy,
Blackie Nielsen, got their hands on a gun and stole a car.
They committed two armed robberies on their way to Illinois,
where Blackie's uncle lived.
He was apparently a professional thief that took the boys on as apprentices.
Two weeks later, Charles was arrested during a raid. He was again sent to a
boys' school, this one in Plainfield, Indiana.
(02:43):
While there, other students allegedly raped and beat him with the staff doing
nothing to stop it. He ran away 18 times but was always brought back.
He made a self-defense technique he called an insane game, to which he would
act insane to convince the stronger kids to leave him alone.
He finally escaped with two other boys in 1951, robbing stores along their way
(03:03):
to California. They were finally caught in Utah.
Charles was sent to Washington, D.C.'s National Training School for Boys.
He was given an aptitude test while there that determined he was illiterate,
but had an above-average IQ of 109.
He was deemed aggressively antisocial. In October 1951, he was transferred to
Natural Bridge Honor Camp, a minimum security institution in Virginia.
(03:27):
His aunt told administrators she would let him live with her and help him get back on his feet.
His parole hearing was scheduled for February 1952, but in January he was found
raping a boy at knife point.
He was sent to the federal reformatory where he committed eight serious disciplinary
offenses, three of which involved homosexual acts. They moved him to a maximum
(03:48):
security reformatory in Ohio, where he was to stay until his 21st birthday.
With good behavior, he was released a year early and went to stay with his aunt.
Charles married Rosalie Jean Willis in January of 1955, and in October,
he stole a car to drive to Los Angeles while she was three months pregnant.
He was arrested for stealing a car and driving it over state lines after a psychiatric
(04:12):
evaluation he was given five years of probation.
After failing to show up to a court hearing, he was arrested and his probation
revoked. He was sentenced to three years at Terminal Island.
While in prison, Rosalie gave birth to their son, Charles Manson Jr.
Rosalie and his mother visited him during his first year in prison,
but soon Rosalie stopped showing up and his mother told him she had met another
(04:35):
man and was living with him.
Right before a parole hearing, Charles attempted to escape but was unsuccessful.
He was given five years probation and his parole was denied.
In 1958, he was released on parole and filed for divorce from Rosalie.
He then married Leona Ray Stevens, a known sex worker who went by the name Candy.
They then went to New Mexico with another woman for the purpose of Charles using
(04:58):
both women to do sex work.
He was arrested but released and went into hiding, which was a violation of
his parole, so a bench warrant was issued.
He was arrested in June and given a 10-year sentence.
He tried to have it appealed but was denied. In July 1961, he was transferred
from Los Angeles County Jail to the United States Penitentiary in Washington.
(05:19):
While there, he learned how to play the guitar and got contact information for
a producer in Hollywood.
His mother soon moved to Washington to be able to visit him.
In September of 61, his annual review noted he had a tremendous drive to call
attention to himself, a statement made again in his 64 review.
In 1963, Leona was granted a divorce and tried to claim they had a son.
(05:41):
Charles was finally released on May 21st, 1967. However, by that time,
he had spent so much of his life behind bars...
That it felt like home to him. He asked if he could stay but was denied.
After his release, he moved to Berkeley, where the probation officer transferred
him to the supervision of a criminology
doctoral researcher and federal probation officer, Roger Smith.
(06:03):
Charles and his family began to frequent his test study into the effects that
LSD and methamphetamines had on the counterculture movement in San Francisco.
During this time, Charles started to get a following of females that would also
join the test study. Charles soon moved to the hot Ashbury district and started using LSD regularly.
He read Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Hyland and was inspired by the
(06:28):
free love philosophy in Hite Ashbury during the Summer of Love.
He soon began preaching his own philosophy based on Stranger in a Strange Land,
the Bible, Scientology, Dale Carnegie, and the Beatles. He soon had his own following.
He then met Mary Brunner, a 23-year-old who was working as a library assistant
at the University of California.
(06:49):
Charles, who was panhandling at the time to make money, soon moved in with Mary.
He then met a young teenage runaway, Lynette Frum, who was nicknamed Squeaky,
and convinced her to move in with them and Mary.
Before long, they had 18 other women living in the house.
Charles' followers were later named the Manson family.
Charles told them they were the reincarnation of the original Christians.
(07:12):
Around 1967, he and some of his followers traveled in an old school bus that
they redid with colored rugs and pillows, removing some of the seats.
They settled around Malibu and Venice.
Mary soon became pregnant by Charles and had a son whom she'd named Valentine
Michael that was delivered by some of the women in the following.
Charles had some close calls with authorities, but managed not to be sent back to prison.
(07:35):
In April 68, Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys was driving in Malibu when he noticed
two female hitchhikers and stopped to give them a ride. A few days later,
he saw them again and took them back to his house before going to the recording studio.
When he returned home, he found Charles in his driveway, and inside his house
were about a dozen people, mostly women, that he didn't know.
(07:56):
Dennis was fascinated at first by Charles and his following,
and over the next six months he allowed the family to live in his house,
even when more followers started to join.
During their time together, Dennis introduced Charles to a couple people in
the music business and let him record some stuff as a favor,
none of which was released to the public.
There was one song by Charles that Dennis recorded for the Beach Boys called Never Learn Not to Love.
(08:19):
Charles didn't receive any credit for the song due to an arrangement made with
Dennis that he would relinquish rights to the song in exchange for about $100,000
worth of stuff since the Manson family had destroyed two of Dennis' luxury cars.
Dennis started to distance himself from them and even left them his home while
he moved into a basement apartment.
The Manson family stole almost all of Dennis' stuff and destroyed the house
(08:43):
before receiving an eviction notice.
Charles left a bullet with the housekeeper to be delivered to Dennis with a threatening message.
In August of 1968, Charles settled the family on Spahn Ranch.
The ranch had been a movie set for old westerns and the buildings were falling apart.
He had the female members do chores around the ranch to make it nicer and would
also make them take care of and have sex with the owner, George Spahn,
(09:06):
who was 80 at the time and nearly blind.
George was letting the family stay there for free. The Manson family soon evolved
into a doomsday cult when Charles became fixated on the idea that an imminent
apocalyptic race war between Americans, black minorities, and the larger white
population was starting.
Charles told his followers that black people would rise up and kill the entire
(09:27):
white population, except for the Manson family.
He said they were not intelligent enough to survive, so they would need him to be their master.
He soon adopted the term helter-skelter from a Beatles song,
using it when he referred to the upcoming war. Charles went to 150 Celo Drive
on March 23, 1969, believing it was the home of Terry Melcher, a record producer.
(09:50):
When he arrived, he was met by Hatami, an Iranian photographer who was a friend
of Roman Polanski and his wife Sharon Tate.
Hatami was there to take photos of Sharon before she left to go to Rome the next day.
Hatami asked Charles what he wanted, which he responded saying he was looking
for Terry, but Hatami didn't know who that was and informed him that the house
belonged to Roman Polanski, but he could try the guest house for the person he was looking for.
(10:14):
Sharon came outside just as Charles was walking towards the guest house.
He then turned around and just left. He returned later that night and went to
the guest house to speak with Altebelli, who was the owner, asking if he knew where Terry was.
He was told that he had moved to Malibu, and Altebelli lied,
saying he didn't know where the new address was.
He then informed Charles that he was leaving the country the next day when Charles
(10:37):
asked if they could talk when he returned. He told him he would be gone for a year.
The next day, when Altebelli and Sharon were on the plane to Rome,
she asked if he had spoken to that creepy-looking guy.
Tex Watson was a member of the Manson family.
And had become involved in a drug deal, which ended in him robbing a rival named Bernard Crowe.
Allegedly in response, Bernard threatened to kill anyone at Spahn Ranch.
(11:01):
Charles shot him on July 1, 1969, and when the news reported a member of the
Black Panther's body had been found, Charles assumed it was Bernard's,
even though he was not a Black Panther.
Charles took this as a threat and assumed that the Panthers were going to come
after them, so he turned the ranch into a defensive camp, even hiring members
of the Straight Satan's Motorcycle Club to act as security.
(11:24):
Gary Hyman, a 34-year-old music teacher, had befriended the Manson family,
even sometimes letting them stay at his home in Topanga Canyon.
According to Susan Atkins, Charles believed that Gary was wealthy, so he sent her.
Mary Brunner, and Bobby Beausoleil to his house to convince him to join the
family and turn over his inheritance to Charles.
(11:45):
They held him hostage for two days, but Gary said there was no money.
Charles showed up with a sword and cut his face and ear to try and convince
him to tell them where the money was, but when he still denied it,
Bobby stabbed him to death, allegedly on Charles' orders.
Before leaving, one of them wrote political piggy on the wall with Gary's blood,
along with a panther paw.
(12:05):
Bobby was arrested on August 6, 1969, after being caught driving Gary's car
and the police found the murder weapon in the tire well.
On August 8, 1969, texts took Susan, Patricia, and Linda to the Polanski house
where Sharon Tate, who was 26 and eight and a half months pregnant at the time,
was entertaining guest.
35-year-old Jay Sebring, 32-year-old Frykowski, and his girlfriend,
(12:30):
25-year-old Abigail Folger.
The 19-year-old caretaker, William Gerritsen, also had a friend over,
18-year-old Stephen Parent.
Tex and the women arrived around midnight, where Tex climbed up the telephone
pole to cut the phone line to the house.
They then made their way onto the property. As they were walking,
they saw Stephen leaving in his car, so Tex stopped him with a gun.
(12:51):
As Stephen begged to be let go and promised not to say anything.
Tex shot him four times, killing him. The group then pushed the car with Stephen's
body to the top of the driveway.
Tex then broke into the home through a window. Having Linda stand watch outside,
he let Susan and Patricia into the house.
They came across Frykowski sleeping on the couch, who awoke when he heard them.
(13:12):
Tex proceeded to kick him in the head, and then they tied him up.
They then found the other three occupants and forced them into the living room
where Tex tied Sharon and Jay together by their necks and attached the other end to a ceiling beam.
When Jay got angry at how rough they were being with Sharon, Tex shot him.
Abigail was taken to a bedroom where she gave the $70 out of her purse to them,
(13:33):
thinking they were just there for money.
Jay was then stabbed seven times by Tex. During this, Frykowski was able to
get out of his bindings and ran for the door but Tex caught him hitting him
multiple times with a gun before stabbing him and finally shooting him twice.
Then Abigail was able to run out towards the pool where Patricia caught her.
Abigail was stabbed 28 times.
(13:55):
They then all went back into the house where Sharon pleaded that they take her
hostage so she could live long enough to give birth.
Instead, she was stabbed 16 times before being hanged by the rope around her
neck. The word pig was written on the front door in Sharon's blood before the
group left the brutal crime scene.
The next night, Charles took the group, plus Leslie Van Houten and Clem Grogan,
(14:16):
to another home, allegedly displeased with how the previous night's murders went.
The home they went to belonged to 44-year-old Leno Labianca and his wife Rosemary.
According to text, he and Charles then went up to the house and saw Leno sleeping
on the couch, so they entered through the back door and woke him at gunpoint before tying his hands.
Then brought rosemary to the living room where their
(14:38):
heads were covered by pillowcases and tied with a
lamp cord charles then left as patricia and
leslie came in text and had the women move rosemary
to the bedroom and then look for weapons he stabbed leno with a chrome plated
bayonet before hearing noises coming from the bedroom he found rosemary swinging
a lamp at the women he stabbed her before returning to the living room and continuing
(15:00):
his attack on leno who he stabbed 12 twelve times and carved the word war into his stomach.
Tex then went back to the bedroom where the women had stabbed Rosemary 41 times.
Tex cleaned the weapons and showered while Patricia wrote Rise and Death to
Pigs and Blood on the walls, then wrote Helter Skelter on the fridge.
During this time, Charles had driven the others to the home of Saladin Nadar,
(15:23):
who was an actor, wanting them to kill him, but Linda said she intentionally
knocked on the wrong door to draw attention so they didn't have to kill him.
They then all hitchhiked back to Spahn Ranch. On August 26th,
Charles had Donald Shea, Bruce Davis, Tex, and Stephen go on a ride with him
to a car parts yard near the ranch.
As they were driving, Stephen hit Donald with a pipe wrench and Tex stabbed him.
(15:47):
They then took him to a hill behind the ranch where they tortured and stabbed him to death.
His body wasn't discovered until December 1977 when Stephen told the police
where it was. The investigation into all the murders were kept separate when
no one made the connection that they were made by the same people.
The Tate murders became national news and when detectives in the Hyman case
(16:08):
told the Tate detectives about the writing on the wall thinking they were connected,
the Tate detectives dismissed it thinking that their case was drug-related.
During the autopsies, there were similarities between the stab wounds in the cases.
On August 12, 1969, the LAPD told the press they ruled out any connections between
the Tate murders and the LaBiancas.
(16:29):
On a separate note, Spahn Ranch was raided on August 16th for an auto theft ring.
Charles and 25 followers were arrested, but due to a misdate on the warrant,
they were all released a few days later.
They were arrested again for the auto theft ring, and while in custody,
Susan admitted to being involved in the Hyman murder.
Soon, authorities started making the connections and found fingerprints at the
(16:51):
scenes that tied Text and Patricia to the Tate murders. The trial for the Tate
murder started on June 15, 1970.
Linda, Charles, Susan, and Patricia were being charged with seven counts of
murder and one conspiracy.
Linda was given immunity for her testimony and not participating in the killings.
Judge William Keene originally granted Charles permission to represent himself,
(17:14):
but due to his conduct, which included violations of a gag order and submissions
of outlandish and nonsensical pre-trial motions, it was withdrawn.
Charles filed an affidavit of prejudice against the judge who was replaced by Judge Charles Older.
His trial began July 24th and he showed up with an X carved into his forehead,
(17:34):
stating he was considered inadequate and incompetent to speak or defend himself and had X'd himself.
Most of the Manson family followed this action and placed X's on their foreheads.
The family loitered near the entrance of the courthouse during trial,
and to keep them out of the courtroom, the prosecution subpoenaed them as witnesses,
so they wouldn't be allowed in the courtroom during other testimonies.
(17:57):
Some witnesses were threatened by the family, so they would not testify.
On August 4th, Charles was able to sneak in a newspaper that read,
Manson Guilty, Nixon Declares, and showed it to the jury.
After the judge determined the jury was not influenced by the news article,
female defendants stood and together said in light of the article,
there was no point in going on with the trial.
(18:19):
October 5th, Charles was denied when he was asked to cross-examine a witness
which made him angry that he leapt at the judge and had to be removed from the courtroom. room.
November 16th, the prosecution rested, and three days later,
so did the defense team, without calling a single witness,
which enraged the Manson family, who wanted their right to speak on Charles'
(18:39):
behalf and for them to confess to the murders, saying Charles had no involvement.
The next day, Charles testified, but the jury was removed so he could not pin
the crimes on other members.
As the trial concluded, it was delayed when the defense attorney disappeared,
appeared and a new one had to be brought in and caught up on the transcripts.
Charles was sentenced to death on April 22, 1971 for seven counts of first-degree
(19:04):
murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder.
In 1972, the death penalty was ruled unconstitutional, so he was resentenced
to life in prison with the possibility for parole in seven years.
His first parole hearing was on November 16, 1978, and it was rejected.
He was imprisoned at the California Medical Facility. While there in 1984.
(19:27):
Another inmate poured paint thinner on him and lit him on fire.
He got second and third degree burns on 20% of his body and was soon put in
the protective housing unit.
He moved around to a few different prisons, doing interviews here and there.
It is believed he may have had bipolar disorder and psychopathy.
He stopped attending his parole hearings in 1997.
(19:48):
On November 19, 2017, Charles Manson died of cardiac arrest resulting from respiratory
failure due to colon cancer.
His remains were given to his grandson, who had him cremated.
Thank you for listening.
If you enjoyed the podcast, please like and share it with your friends.
Stay safe, and I'll be talking to you next week.
Music.
(00:08):
Who was Charles Manson? Born Charles Miles Maddox on November 12,
1934, in Cincinnati, Ohio, his mother Kathleen Maddox was only 16 when she had him.
His father was believed to be Colonel Walker Henderson Scott,
who was known as a con artist, and when he found out that she was pregnant,
he told her he had been called away on Army business, but really just left to avoid being a father.
(00:32):
She realized he was never coming back, so she married William Eugene Manson
right before having Charles.
William was a laborer at a dry cleaner's. Kathleen would go on drinking binges
with her brother, Luther, leaving Charles to be raised by babysitters.
She soon divorced William in 1937, though Charles kept the last name Manson.
In 1939, Kathleen and her brother were arrested for assault and robbery.
(00:55):
She was sentenced to five years in prison, during which Charles stayed with
an aunt and uncle in West Virginia.
Kathleen was paroled in 1942, and Charles said the first few weeks of having
her home were the happiest of his life.
They soon moved to Charleston, West Virginia, where he would get into trouble
and his mother continued her drinking.
She was arrested again, this time for grand larceny, but wasn't convicted.
(01:17):
They then moved to Indianapolis, where Kathleen met Louis Cavender Jr.
In an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting and married him in August 1943.
At the age of 13, Charles was sent to live at the Gibbold School for Boys in
Indiana, a school for male delinquents that was run by Catholic priests.
It was known as a strict school where even small infractions would be punished
(01:39):
with a beating by either a wooded paddle or leather strap.
Charles went away, sleeping in the woods or wherever he could find shelter.
He made his way back to West Virginia and spent Christmas of 47 with his mother,
but after she took him back to the school.
Ten months later, he ran away again, this time going to Indianapolis.
It was there in 1948 he committed his first documented crime.
(02:01):
He robbed a grocery store for food but noticed a box with just a little over
a hundred dollars in it so he took it to get food and rent a room on Skid Row.
He soon found a job delivering messages for Western Union however it wasn't
enough money so he began stealing.
He was caught and sent to the boys town a juvenile facility in Omaha Nebraska.
(02:21):
Charles was only there for four days before he and another boy,
Blackie Nielsen, got their hands on a gun and stole a car.
They committed two armed robberies on their way to Illinois,
where Blackie's uncle lived.
He was apparently a professional thief that took the boys on as apprentices.
Two weeks later, Charles was arrested during a raid. He was again sent to a
boys' school, this one in Plainfield, Indiana.
(02:43):
While there, other students allegedly raped and beat him with the staff doing
nothing to stop it. He ran away 18 times but was always brought back.
He made a self-defense technique he called an insane game, to which he would
act insane to convince the stronger kids to leave him alone.
He finally escaped with two other boys in 1951, robbing stores along their way
(03:03):
to California. They were finally caught in Utah.
Charles was sent to Washington, D.C.'s National Training School for Boys.
He was given an aptitude test while there that determined he was illiterate,
but had an above-average IQ of 109.
He was deemed aggressively antisocial. In October 1951, he was transferred to
Natural Bridge Honor Camp, a minimum security institution in Virginia.
(03:27):
His aunt told administrators she would let him live with her and help him get back on his feet.
His parole hearing was scheduled for February 1952, but in January he was found
raping a boy at knife point.
He was sent to the federal reformatory where he committed eight serious disciplinary
offenses, three of which involved homosexual acts. They moved him to a maximum
(03:48):
security reformatory in Ohio, where he was to stay until his 21st birthday.
With good behavior, he was released a year early and went to stay with his aunt.
Charles married Rosalie Jean Willis in January of 1955, and in October,
he stole a car to drive to Los Angeles while she was three months pregnant.
He was arrested for stealing a car and driving it over state lines after a psychiatric
(04:12):
evaluation he was given five years of probation.
After failing to show up to a court hearing, he was arrested and his probation
revoked. He was sentenced to three years at Terminal Island.
While in prison, Rosalie gave birth to their son, Charles Manson Jr.
Rosalie and his mother visited him during his first year in prison,
but soon Rosalie stopped showing up and his mother told him she had met another
(04:35):
man and was living with him.
Right before a parole hearing, Charles attempted to escape but was unsuccessful.
He was given five years probation and his parole was denied.
In 1958, he was released on parole and filed for divorce from Rosalie.
He then married Leona Ray Stevens, a known sex worker who went by the name Candy.
They then went to New Mexico with another woman for the purpose of Charles using
(04:58):
both women to do sex work.
He was arrested but released and went into hiding, which was a violation of
his parole, so a bench warrant was issued.
He was arrested in June and given a 10-year sentence.
He tried to have it appealed but was denied. In July 1961, he was transferred
from Los Angeles County Jail to the United States Penitentiary in Washington.
(05:19):
While there, he learned how to play the guitar and got contact information for
a producer in Hollywood.
His mother soon moved to Washington to be able to visit him.
In September of 61, his annual review noted he had a tremendous drive to call
attention to himself, a statement made again in his 64 review.
In 1963, Leona was granted a divorce and tried to claim they had a son.
(05:41):
Charles was finally released on May 21st, 1967. However, by that time,
he had spent so much of his life behind bars...
That it felt like home to him. He asked if he could stay but was denied.
After his release, he moved to Berkeley, where the probation officer transferred
him to the supervision of a criminology
doctoral researcher and federal probation officer, Roger Smith.
(06:03):
Charles and his family began to frequent his test study into the effects that
LSD and methamphetamines had on the counterculture movement in San Francisco.
During this time, Charles started to get a following of females that would also
join the test study. Charles soon moved to the hot Ashbury district and started using LSD regularly.
He read Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Hyland and was inspired by the
(06:28):
free love philosophy in Hite Ashbury during the Summer of Love.
He soon began preaching his own philosophy based on Stranger in a Strange Land,
the Bible, Scientology, Dale Carnegie, and the Beatles. He soon had his own following.
He then met Mary Brunner, a 23-year-old who was working as a library assistant
at the University of California.
(06:49):
Charles, who was panhandling at the time to make money, soon moved in with Mary.
He then met a young teenage runaway, Lynette Frum, who was nicknamed Squeaky,
and convinced her to move in with them and Mary.
Before long, they had 18 other women living in the house.
Charles' followers were later named the Manson family.
Charles told them they were the reincarnation of the original Christians.
(07:12):
Around 1967, he and some of his followers traveled in an old school bus that
they redid with colored rugs and pillows, removing some of the seats.
They settled around Malibu and Venice.
Mary soon became pregnant by Charles and had a son whom she'd named Valentine
Michael that was delivered by some of the women in the following.
Charles had some close calls with authorities, but managed not to be sent back to prison.
(07:35):
In April 68, Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys was driving in Malibu when he noticed
two female hitchhikers and stopped to give them a ride. A few days later,
he saw them again and took them back to his house before going to the recording studio.
When he returned home, he found Charles in his driveway, and inside his house
were about a dozen people, mostly women, that he didn't know.
(07:56):
Dennis was fascinated at first by Charles and his following,
and over the next six months he allowed the family to live in his house,
even when more followers started to join.
During their time together, Dennis introduced Charles to a couple people in
the music business and let him record some stuff as a favor,
none of which was released to the public.
There was one song by Charles that Dennis recorded for the Beach Boys called Never Learn Not to Love.
(08:19):
Charles didn't receive any credit for the song due to an arrangement made with
Dennis that he would relinquish rights to the song in exchange for about $100,000
worth of stuff since the Manson family had destroyed two of Dennis' luxury cars.
Dennis started to distance himself from them and even left them his home while
he moved into a basement apartment.
The Manson family stole almost all of Dennis' stuff and destroyed the house
(08:43):
before receiving an eviction notice.
Charles left a bullet with the housekeeper to be delivered to Dennis with a threatening message.
In August of 1968, Charles settled the family on Spahn Ranch.
The ranch had been a movie set for old westerns and the buildings were falling apart.
He had the female members do chores around the ranch to make it nicer and would
also make them take care of and have sex with the owner, George Spahn,
(09:06):
who was 80 at the time and nearly blind.
George was letting the family stay there for free. The Manson family soon evolved
into a doomsday cult when Charles became fixated on the idea that an imminent
apocalyptic race war between Americans, black minorities, and the larger white
population was starting.
Charles told his followers that black people would rise up and kill the entire
(09:27):
white population, except for the Manson family.
He said they were not intelligent enough to survive, so they would need him to be their master.
He soon adopted the term helter-skelter from a Beatles song,
using it when he referred to the upcoming war. Charles went to 150 Celo Drive
on March 23, 1969, believing it was the home of Terry Melcher, a record producer.
(09:50):
When he arrived, he was met by Hatami, an Iranian photographer who was a friend
of Roman Polanski and his wife Sharon Tate.
Hatami was there to take photos of Sharon before she left to go to Rome the next day.
Hatami asked Charles what he wanted, which he responded saying he was looking
for Terry, but Hatami didn't know who that was and informed him that the house
belonged to Roman Polanski, but he could try the guest house for the person he was looking for.
(10:14):
Sharon came outside just as Charles was walking towards the guest house.
He then turned around and just left. He returned later that night and went to
the guest house to speak with Altebelli, who was the owner, asking if he knew where Terry was.
He was told that he had moved to Malibu, and Altebelli lied,
saying he didn't know where the new address was.
He then informed Charles that he was leaving the country the next day when Charles
(10:37):
asked if they could talk when he returned. He told him he would be gone for a year.
The next day, when Altebelli and Sharon were on the plane to Rome,
she asked if he had spoken to that creepy-looking guy.
Tex Watson was a member of the Manson family.
And had become involved in a drug deal, which ended in him robbing a rival named Bernard Crowe.
Allegedly in response, Bernard threatened to kill anyone at Spahn Ranch.
(11:01):
Charles shot him on July 1, 1969, and when the news reported a member of the
Black Panther's body had been found, Charles assumed it was Bernard's,
even though he was not a Black Panther.
Charles took this as a threat and assumed that the Panthers were going to come
after them, so he turned the ranch into a defensive camp, even hiring members
of the Straight Satan's Motorcycle Club to act as security.
(11:24):
Gary Hyman, a 34-year-old music teacher, had befriended the Manson family,
even sometimes letting them stay at his home in Topanga Canyon.
According to Susan Atkins, Charles believed that Gary was wealthy, so he sent her.
Mary Brunner, and Bobby Beausoleil to his house to convince him to join the
family and turn over his inheritance to Charles.
(11:45):
They held him hostage for two days, but Gary said there was no money.
Charles showed up with a sword and cut his face and ear to try and convince
him to tell them where the money was, but when he still denied it,
Bobby stabbed him to death, allegedly on Charles' orders.
Before leaving, one of them wrote political piggy on the wall with Gary's blood,
along with a panther paw.
(12:05):
Bobby was arrested on August 6, 1969, after being caught driving Gary's car
and the police found the murder weapon in the tire well.
On August 8, 1969, texts took Susan, Patricia, and Linda to the Polanski house
where Sharon Tate, who was 26 and eight and a half months pregnant at the time,
was entertaining guest.
35-year-old Jay Sebring, 32-year-old Frykowski, and his girlfriend,
(12:30):
25-year-old Abigail Folger.
The 19-year-old caretaker, William Gerritsen, also had a friend over,
18-year-old Stephen Parent.
Tex and the women arrived around midnight, where Tex climbed up the telephone
pole to cut the phone line to the house.
They then made their way onto the property. As they were walking,
they saw Stephen leaving in his car, so Tex stopped him with a gun.
(12:51):
As Stephen begged to be let go and promised not to say anything.
Tex shot him four times, killing him. The group then pushed the car with Stephen's
body to the top of the driveway.
Tex then broke into the home through a window. Having Linda stand watch outside,
he let Susan and Patricia into the house.
They came across Frykowski sleeping on the couch, who awoke when he heard them.
(13:12):
Tex proceeded to kick him in the head, and then they tied him up.
They then found the other three occupants and forced them into the living room
where Tex tied Sharon and Jay together by their necks and attached the other end to a ceiling beam.
When Jay got angry at how rough they were being with Sharon, Tex shot him.
Abigail was taken to a bedroom where she gave the $70 out of her purse to them,
(13:33):
thinking they were just there for money.
Jay was then stabbed seven times by Tex. During this, Frykowski was able to
get out of his bindings and ran for the door but Tex caught him hitting him
multiple times with a gun before stabbing him and finally shooting him twice.
Then Abigail was able to run out towards the pool where Patricia caught her.
Abigail was stabbed 28 times.
(13:55):
They then all went back into the house where Sharon pleaded that they take her
hostage so she could live long enough to give birth.
Instead, she was stabbed 16 times before being hanged by the rope around her
neck. The word pig was written on the front door in Sharon's blood before the
group left the brutal crime scene.
The next night, Charles took the group, plus Leslie Van Houten and Clem Grogan,
(14:16):
to another home, allegedly displeased with how the previous night's murders went.
The home they went to belonged to 44-year-old Leno Labianca and his wife Rosemary.
According to text, he and Charles then went up to the house and saw Leno sleeping
on the couch, so they entered through the back door and woke him at gunpoint before tying his hands.
Then brought rosemary to the living room where their
(14:38):
heads were covered by pillowcases and tied with a
lamp cord charles then left as patricia and
leslie came in text and had the women move rosemary
to the bedroom and then look for weapons he stabbed leno with a chrome plated
bayonet before hearing noises coming from the bedroom he found rosemary swinging
a lamp at the women he stabbed her before returning to the living room and continuing
(15:00):
his attack on leno who he stabbed 12 twelve times and carved the word war into his stomach.
Tex then went back to the bedroom where the women had stabbed Rosemary 41 times.
Tex cleaned the weapons and showered while Patricia wrote Rise and Death to
Pigs and Blood on the walls, then wrote Helter Skelter on the fridge.
During this time, Charles had driven the others to the home of Saladin Nadar,
(15:23):
who was an actor, wanting them to kill him, but Linda said she intentionally
knocked on the wrong door to draw attention so they didn't have to kill him.
They then all hitchhiked back to Spahn Ranch. On August 26th,
Charles had Donald Shea, Bruce Davis, Tex, and Stephen go on a ride with him
to a car parts yard near the ranch.
As they were driving, Stephen hit Donald with a pipe wrench and Tex stabbed him.
(15:47):
They then took him to a hill behind the ranch where they tortured and stabbed him to death.
His body wasn't discovered until December 1977 when Stephen told the police
where it was. The investigation into all the murders were kept separate when
no one made the connection that they were made by the same people.
The Tate murders became national news and when detectives in the Hyman case
(16:08):
told the Tate detectives about the writing on the wall thinking they were connected,
the Tate detectives dismissed it thinking that their case was drug-related.
During the autopsies, there were similarities between the stab wounds in the cases.
On August 12, 1969, the LAPD told the press they ruled out any connections between
the Tate murders and the LaBiancas.
(16:29):
On a separate note, Spahn Ranch was raided on August 16th for an auto theft ring.
Charles and 25 followers were arrested, but due to a misdate on the warrant,
they were all released a few days later.
They were arrested again for the auto theft ring, and while in custody,
Susan admitted to being involved in the Hyman murder.
Soon, authorities started making the connections and found fingerprints at the
(16:51):
scenes that tied Text and Patricia to the Tate murders. The trial for the Tate
murder started on June 15, 1970.
Linda, Charles, Susan, and Patricia were being charged with seven counts of
murder and one conspiracy.
Linda was given immunity for her testimony and not participating in the killings.
Judge William Keene originally granted Charles permission to represent himself,
(17:14):
but due to his conduct, which included violations of a gag order and submissions
of outlandish and nonsensical pre-trial motions, it was withdrawn.
Charles filed an affidavit of prejudice against the judge who was replaced by Judge Charles Older.
His trial began July 24th and he showed up with an X carved into his forehead,
(17:34):
stating he was considered inadequate and incompetent to speak or defend himself and had X'd himself.
Most of the Manson family followed this action and placed X's on their foreheads.
The family loitered near the entrance of the courthouse during trial,
and to keep them out of the courtroom, the prosecution subpoenaed them as witnesses,
so they wouldn't be allowed in the courtroom during other testimonies.
(17:57):
Some witnesses were threatened by the family, so they would not testify.
On August 4th, Charles was able to sneak in a newspaper that read,
Manson Guilty, Nixon Declares, and showed it to the jury.
After the judge determined the jury was not influenced by the news article,
female defendants stood and together said in light of the article,
there was no point in going on with the trial.
(18:19):
October 5th, Charles was denied when he was asked to cross-examine a witness
which made him angry that he leapt at the judge and had to be removed from the courtroom. room.
November 16th, the prosecution rested, and three days later,
so did the defense team, without calling a single witness,
which enraged the Manson family, who wanted their right to speak on Charles'
(18:39):
behalf and for them to confess to the murders, saying Charles had no involvement.
The next day, Charles testified, but the jury was removed so he could not pin
the crimes on other members.
As the trial concluded, it was delayed when the defense attorney disappeared,
appeared and a new one had to be brought in and caught up on the transcripts.
Charles was sentenced to death on April 22, 1971 for seven counts of first-degree
(19:04):
murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder.
In 1972, the death penalty was ruled unconstitutional, so he was resentenced
to life in prison with the possibility for parole in seven years.
His first parole hearing was on November 16, 1978, and it was rejected.
He was imprisoned at the California Medical Facility. While there in 1984.
(19:27):
Another inmate poured paint thinner on him and lit him on fire.
He got second and third degree burns on 20% of his body and was soon put in
the protective housing unit.
He moved around to a few different prisons, doing interviews here and there.
It is believed he may have had bipolar disorder and psychopathy.
He stopped attending his parole hearings in 1997.
(19:48):
On November 19, 2017, Charles Manson died of cardiac arrest resulting from respiratory
failure due to colon cancer.
His remains were given to his grandson, who had him cremated.
Thank you for listening.
If you enjoyed the podcast, please like and share it with your friends.
Stay safe, and I'll be talking to you next week.
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