Charles Manson

American criminal and ritual cult leader, a psychopath with a band of drug-numbed followers known as the "Manson Family", a quasi-commune he founded in 1967. Manson, a singer-songwriter, mesmerized his gang with liberal sex and drugs while living on the commune-ranch in the desert of southern California. He was no stranger to penal institutions spending 19 of his first 32 years behind bars. In the late '60s, Manson lived in the Haight-Ashbury district in San Francisco, California. He gathered adoring women around him by giving out LSD. Soon he was able to attract young men to his group by promising sex with his "young loves." Manson was befriended by celebrity children like Terry Melcher, Doris Day's son and rock singers like Dennis Wilson of the "Beach Boys." Unable to keep his friendships, Manson began to prophesy chaos to his followers. On 9 August 1969, he directed the ritual grisly killings now known as the Tate-La Bianca murders in Hollywood. The deaths frightened the Hollywood community and the perpetrators of the Manson massacres were tried in 1970-1971. Manson was the illegitimate son of a teen prostitute and an army colonel. He was raised by an aunt and uncle in Charleston, West Virginia. By the age of 11, he developed into a delinquent, shuffling from foster parent to foster parent. Manson spent his youth and adulthood in and out of prison. In 1967, while on parole he went to San Francisco to be a part of the hippie counter-culture in the Height-Ashbury district. After gathering his "family" together, they moved to Chatsworth, California and enjoyed long group LSD sessions listening to the Beatles' "Helter Skelter" song on the White Album. Manson believed in a horrific black and white race war imminent and used interpretations from the book of Revelations to impress his followers. When the war did not occur, he sent his followers to Hollywood to "instill fear into the Establishment." On 9 August 1969, an 8 1/2 month pregnant actress, Sharon Tate was stabbed to death along with her house guests and their blood was smeared along the walls of the kitchen. A few days later, an older couple, the La Biancas, were tied up, carved and stabbed by forks and kitchen knives by Manson's followers. Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, Leslie Van Houten and Charles Watson, along with Charles Manson, were arrested for the Tate-LaBianca murders. Vincent T. Bugliosi was the lead prosecutor in the Manson-gang trials. He would later write the best-selling book, "Helter Skelter" documenting the murders and the trials. Manson held sway in court while his followers tried to exonerate their leader whom they regarded as Jesus and the devil. In the nine months of the trials over 1970-1971, the juries found Manson and the three "Manson girls" guilty of first degree murder and conspiracy. He was convicted and given the death penalty in 1971. In 1972, the California Supreme Court invalidated the then existing capital punishment stature. Manson became a life-termer. In 1976, when found to be mentally deteriorating, he was transferred to Vacaville. Since 1978, he was continually refused parole by the California parole board. On 25 August 1984, he was burned over 13% of his body when a Hare Krishna fanatic inmate threw paint thinner and a match at him. From the California high-security state prison in Corcoran, California, he was denied parole for the ninth time on 27 March 1997. At his hearing he rambled for an hour, insisting that he did not kill seven people in 1969, saying, "I've killed a lot of people in my life, but I was convicted for those I did not kill." The caged Manson's behavior was vicious and demented; inexplicably, every year he received letters and gifts from young people, Satanists, neo-Nazis and skinheads who viewed him as their role model, hoping for one day when he would be released. Manson died of natural causes at a Bakersfield, California hospital at 8:13pm on 19 November 2017, at the age of 83. Link to Wikipedia biography