California 1969
Charles Manson was a badly disturbed, but charismatic, man who inspired a cult group to commit a series of brutal murders in the late 1960s. Manson called the cult his “Family”, and their killing spree shocked the world as well as marking the end of innocence for hippies.
Charles Manson was the illegitimate son of a young prostitute, born in 1934 to Kathy Maddox. He was given the surname Manson after one of the Maddox’s boyfriends shortly after he was born. But after his mother was jailed for robbery, Manson moved to a Christian fundamentalist grandmother, then an aunt and uncle who tormented him. His uncle wanted to “toughen him up” so sent him to school dressed as a girl – inevitably, Manson learned to be a strong fighter. Manson then returned to his mother, then an alcoholic uncle, and finally a brutal Catholic Brothers house.
He turned to crime aged 14, and spent almost all of the next 20 years in custody, being released aged 32 in March 1967 into flower power-dominated San Francisco.
He quickly started taking LSD and getting involved in black magic. By 1969, he had concocted a strange apocalyptic philosophy based on religion and the lyrics of the Beatles. Misinterpreting Helter Skelter as a call for Black Americans to rise up. Manson’s family were taught they should foster violence between black and white races, to bring an apocalypse that would end with the Family ruling the USA.
Gary Hinman
25 July 1969
Hinman was a musician friend of Manson, who had inherited $20,000. Manson needed money to finance his family to arm themselves, so he sent family members Mary Brunner, Bobby Beausoleil and Susan Atkins, to Hinman’s house. When Hinman refused to hand over the money, he was killed and the words ‘Political Piggie’ scrawled on the walls in his blood. They also drew a panther’s claw to try to pass the blame to the Black Panthers.
Sharon Tate and four others
9 August 1969
Manson sent 4 cult members to the secluded mansion owned by Roman Polanski. They found Polanski’s pregnant wife, actress Sharon Tate, plus four friends. All 5 were murdered and butchered, slashed, stabbed and shot. The word ‘pig’ was written on the front door of the house in blood.
Manson was at this killing, and became angry at the mess the 4 members had made, so he decided to do the next killing himself, to show the Family how to kill cleanly.
Leno and Rosemary La Bianca
11 August 1969
This businessman and his wife was selected at random, and the family killed them both after breaking into their home at 1am. Again they wrote slogans in blood.
The Investigation and Trial
After the La Bianca murders, the Family went into hiding. But Susan Atkins was arrested on a prostitution charge and confessed to a cell-mate her part in the Tate murder. Prison authorities soon heard, and on December 1, 1969, the Family was arrested.
In April 1971, Manson and 3 others were convicted of the Sharon Tate and La Bianca murders, and all sentenced to death. Manson and the others were later convicted of the Hinman murder. As California had suspended executions, all of the convicted Family members and Manson were jailed for life instead.
There were probably other Manson murders too, including murders of Family members, but no changes have ever been made. Charles Manson himself claimed 35 murders in his book Helter Skelter, and said later they had killed even more.
Charles Manson was jailed in San Quentin, and applied for parole every year since he was eligible. In 2012 a court ruled he could not apply again for 15 years. He died in 2017.