WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.319 Welcome back to The Deep Dive. You know, usually 00:00:03.319 --> 00:00:05.559 when we sit down to do one of these, we are looking 00:00:05.559 --> 00:00:09.179 at something, well, something functional. We're 00:00:09.179 --> 00:00:11.580 unpacking tech trends or digging into historical 00:00:11.580 --> 00:00:14.599 battles or analyzing economic shifts. Trying 00:00:14.599 --> 00:00:16.739 to make sense of the world. Exactly. We're trying 00:00:16.739 --> 00:00:18.480 to make you smarter for your next dinner party. 00:00:18.579 --> 00:00:22.699 But today, today we are staring directly into 00:00:22.699 --> 00:00:26.000 the abyss. Yeah, this is a heavy one. There is 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:29.559 no way around that. We are tackling a subject 00:00:29.559 --> 00:00:32.159 that is arguably the most dissected, discussed, 00:00:32.500 --> 00:00:36.340 and just disturbing chapter in American pop culture 00:00:36.340 --> 00:00:38.159 history. We are talking about Charles Manson 00:00:38.159 --> 00:00:40.939 and the Manson family. But, and I want to be 00:00:40.939 --> 00:00:43.429 really clear about this right off the bat. We 00:00:43.429 --> 00:00:45.729 are not here to retell the bedtime story you 00:00:45.729 --> 00:00:48.530 think you know. No. We aren't here to just gawk 00:00:48.530 --> 00:00:50.729 at the mugshot with the crazy eyes or replay 00:00:50.729 --> 00:00:53.109 the sensational headlines. This is different. 00:00:53.310 --> 00:00:55.450 Exactly. Everyone knows the ending. Everyone 00:00:55.450 --> 00:00:57.729 knows about the Tate -LaBianca murders. But what 00:00:57.729 --> 00:01:00.090 we have here, this massive stack of source material 00:01:00.090 --> 00:01:01.929 you've pulled together, it tells a different 00:01:01.929 --> 00:01:04.090 story. It really does. We've got detailed Wikipedia 00:01:04.090 --> 00:01:06.969 records on discographies. We've got the specific 00:01:06.969 --> 00:01:09.469 theological breakdown of the Helter Skelter scenario, 00:01:09.829 --> 00:01:12.769 the history of Spahn Ranch, documents on this 00:01:12.769 --> 00:01:14.750 group called the Process Church, and even some 00:01:14.750 --> 00:01:17.790 very active, very current Reddit discussions 00:01:17.790 --> 00:01:19.609 about where these people are today. And when 00:01:19.609 --> 00:01:21.549 you overlay all the sources, the picture just, 00:01:21.609 --> 00:01:24.730 it changes completely. It stops being just a 00:01:24.730 --> 00:01:26.769 true crime story about a monster. It becomes 00:01:26.769 --> 00:01:28.930 a mechanics manual. That's a perfect way to put 00:01:28.930 --> 00:01:31.920 it. That's the mission today. We want to understand 00:01:31.920 --> 00:01:35.079 the mechanics of this cult. How does a failed 00:01:35.079 --> 00:01:38.200 musician, a guy who was essentially a drifter, 00:01:38.299 --> 00:01:42.439 convinces a group of middle -class kids to commit 00:01:42.439 --> 00:01:45.859 acts of unspeakable violence? Because the sources 00:01:45.859 --> 00:01:48.180 suggest this wasn't just magic or hypnosis. Not 00:01:48.180 --> 00:01:50.379 at all. It was a perfect storm of the music industry, 00:01:50.500 --> 00:01:53.260 the counterculture, and a very specific, twisted 00:01:53.260 --> 00:01:55.859 interpretation of prophecy. It's really a study 00:01:55.859 --> 00:01:58.400 in manipulation. It is. And frankly, it's a study 00:01:58.400 --> 00:02:00.760 in the death of the 1960s. It's where the whole 00:02:00.760 --> 00:02:03.340 summer of love thing just, it hits a brick wall. 00:02:03.719 --> 00:02:05.879 So let's start with the thing that I think surprises 00:02:05.879 --> 00:02:09.020 people the most, the music. I think we forget, 00:02:09.180 --> 00:02:11.780 or maybe we just don't realize, that before he 00:02:11.780 --> 00:02:14.520 was a cult leader, Charles Manson was desperately, 00:02:14.780 --> 00:02:17.819 passionately trying to be a rock star. Oh, absolutely. 00:02:18.159 --> 00:02:21.199 And looking at these files, he wasn't just delusional. 00:02:21.219 --> 00:02:23.719 He was actually brushing shoulders with legitimate 00:02:23.719 --> 00:02:26.259 royalty of the era. He was incredibly close. 00:02:26.460 --> 00:02:28.360 And to understand the violence that comes later, 00:02:28.419 --> 00:02:30.240 you have to understand the rejection that happened 00:02:30.240 --> 00:02:33.500 first. But let's rewind even further. The source 00:02:33.500 --> 00:02:35.599 material mentions that Manson didn't just pick 00:02:35.599 --> 00:02:38.460 up a guitar at a campfire. He learned to play 00:02:38.460 --> 00:02:41.099 in prison. Right. And this detail blew my mind. 00:02:41.389 --> 00:02:43.870 He didn't learn from a music teacher or a chaplain. 00:02:43.949 --> 00:02:47.930 He learned from Alvin Karpis. Alvin Creepy Karpis. 00:02:47.949 --> 00:02:49.750 From a listener who doesn't have a Rolodex of 00:02:49.750 --> 00:02:53.990 1930s gangsters. Who is that? Karpis was a legend 00:02:53.990 --> 00:02:55.969 in the criminal underworld. He was part of the 00:02:55.969 --> 00:02:58.810 Barker Karpis game, you know, Depression era 00:02:58.810 --> 00:03:01.990 bank robbers. He was J. Edgar Hoover's public 00:03:01.990 --> 00:03:04.389 enemy number one at one point. So picture this. 00:03:04.509 --> 00:03:07.830 You have. young Charles Manson in federal prison 00:03:07.830 --> 00:03:10.590 in the early 60s. And he's getting steel guitar 00:03:10.590 --> 00:03:13.129 lessons from one of the most notorious outlaws 00:03:13.129 --> 00:03:15.550 of the 20th century. It sets the stage perfectly, 00:03:15.689 --> 00:03:18.050 doesn't it? It's this fusion of criminality and 00:03:18.050 --> 00:03:21.069 artistic ambition right from the root. He's learning 00:03:21.069 --> 00:03:23.289 art from a man who made his living through violence. 00:03:23.490 --> 00:03:25.710 Exactly. And Manson took that lesson to heart. 00:03:25.849 --> 00:03:28.669 He comes out of prison in 1967. He heads to the 00:03:28.669 --> 00:03:31.090 West Coast and he lands right in the middle of 00:03:31.090 --> 00:03:33.909 the Summer of Love, Haight -Ashbury, San Francisco, 00:03:34.110 --> 00:03:36.819 then down to LA. Right in the thick of it. But 00:03:36.819 --> 00:03:38.800 unlike the flower children who were there for 00:03:38.800 --> 00:03:42.340 peace and, you know, expansion, Manson has this 00:03:42.340 --> 00:03:45.680 hardened prison yard survival instinct and he 00:03:45.680 --> 00:03:48.259 manages to hustle his way into the life of Dennis 00:03:48.259 --> 00:03:51.060 Wilson. The Dennis Wilson. The drummer for the 00:03:51.060 --> 00:03:53.180 Beach Boys. The very same. The quintessential 00:03:53.180 --> 00:03:56.009 California surfer boy. Yep. This feels like a 00:03:56.009 --> 00:03:58.349 fiction writer's contrivance. Yeah. How does 00:03:58.349 --> 00:04:00.669 an ex -con end up living in a Beach Boys mansion? 00:04:01.129 --> 00:04:03.389 It sounds like a bad movie plot, but according 00:04:03.389 --> 00:04:05.969 to the files, it started with hitchhiking. Hitchhiking 00:04:05.969 --> 00:04:08.750 was the social networking of the 1960s. It was 00:04:08.750 --> 00:04:11.169 how you met people. Sure. Dennis Wilson was driving 00:04:11.169 --> 00:04:13.909 down Sunset Boulevard, and he picked up two women 00:04:13.909 --> 00:04:16.829 hitchhiking, Patricia Krenwinkel and Ella Jo 00:04:16.829 --> 00:04:19.810 Bailey. He brings them back to his place on Sunset 00:04:19.810 --> 00:04:21.990 Boulevard. Okay, so far that sounds like a typical 00:04:21.990 --> 00:04:25.029 rock star anecdote. Right. But later that night, 00:04:25.339 --> 00:04:28.360 or early the next morning, Wilson comes home 00:04:28.360 --> 00:04:30.000 from a recording session. It's the middle of 00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:32.980 the night. He pulls into his driveway and there's 00:04:32.980 --> 00:04:35.639 a stranger standing there. It's Charles Manson. 00:04:35.699 --> 00:04:37.699 Most people would call the police. I mean, a 00:04:37.699 --> 00:04:39.740 stranger in your driveway at 3 a .m.? Most people 00:04:39.740 --> 00:04:42.779 would. But Manson... He knew how to play the 00:04:42.779 --> 00:04:45.000 submissive role when he needed to. The records 00:04:45.000 --> 00:04:47.579 say he actually knelt down and kissed Dennis 00:04:47.579 --> 00:04:49.839 Wilson's feet. He kissed his feet? Kissed his 00:04:49.839 --> 00:04:52.660 feet. He immediately played the role of the humble 00:04:52.660 --> 00:04:55.660 guru, the servant. And Wilson, who was dealing 00:04:55.660 --> 00:04:57.620 with his own issues and was caught up in the 00:04:57.620 --> 00:05:00.220 openness of the era, the idea that everyone is 00:05:00.220 --> 00:05:02.620 a brother, just let it happen. He invited him 00:05:02.620 --> 00:05:06.839 in. Before long, Manson moves in. And he doesn't 00:05:06.839 --> 00:05:10.360 come alone. He brings the family. We're talking 00:05:10.360 --> 00:05:13.560 about a dozen women, plus Manson, living in Dennis 00:05:13.560 --> 00:05:16.240 Wilson's house. And this wasn't a cheap guess 00:05:16.240 --> 00:05:18.540 situation. The source material puts a dollar 00:05:18.540 --> 00:05:20.980 figure on this that made my jaw drop. It says 00:05:20.980 --> 00:05:24.240 Wilson spent roughly $100 ,000 on the family. 00:05:24.420 --> 00:05:28.399 In 1968 money. Which is astronomical. That's 00:05:28.399 --> 00:05:30.420 like nearly a million dollars a day when you 00:05:30.420 --> 00:05:32.660 adjust for inflation and purchasing power. It's 00:05:32.660 --> 00:05:34.860 unbelievable. What on earth were they spending 00:05:34.860 --> 00:05:37.959 it on? It was a total parasitic takeover. They 00:05:37.959 --> 00:05:40.819 were wrecking his uninsured cars. Wilson had 00:05:40.819 --> 00:05:43.019 these expensive cars and the family members would 00:05:43.019 --> 00:05:45.319 take them and crash them. Oh, my God. They were 00:05:45.319 --> 00:05:48.339 eating all his food. And there's a specific detail 00:05:48.339 --> 00:05:50.459 in the medical records that really paints a picture 00:05:50.459 --> 00:05:52.540 of the high juice levels Wilson was paying for 00:05:52.540 --> 00:05:54.800 their gonorrhea treatments. Apparently, it was 00:05:54.800 --> 00:05:57.300 rampant in the group. So they're bleeding him 00:05:57.300 --> 00:06:01.180 dry financially and physically. Wilson tolerates 00:06:01.180 --> 00:06:02.759 it because he's interested in the music, right? 00:06:02.860 --> 00:06:05.620 He thinks Manson has talent. He did. He actually 00:06:05.620 --> 00:06:09.079 saw potential in Charlie. Manson had this folk 00:06:09.079 --> 00:06:12.740 troubadour style that was becoming popular. Wilson 00:06:12.740 --> 00:06:15.399 set up recording time for him. He introduced 00:06:15.399 --> 00:06:18.540 him to industry contacts. And this leads to the 00:06:18.540 --> 00:06:21.680 song theft. This is a huge friction point in 00:06:21.680 --> 00:06:24.540 the timeline that explains Manson's growing rage. 00:06:24.800 --> 00:06:26.959 I had heard rumors of this, but the discography 00:06:26.959 --> 00:06:30.180 notes break it down clearly. The Beach Boys released 00:06:30.180 --> 00:06:33.220 a song called Never Learn Not to Love. Released 00:06:33.220 --> 00:06:36.319 as a B -side in December 1968. If you listen 00:06:36.319 --> 00:06:38.319 to it, it sounds like a Beach Boys song. But 00:06:38.319 --> 00:06:41.399 they didn't write it. No. Manson wrote it. The 00:06:41.399 --> 00:06:44.279 original title was Cease to Exist. Cease to Exist 00:06:44.279 --> 00:06:46.540 is a dramatically different vibe than Never Learn 00:06:46.540 --> 00:06:49.379 Not to Love. It is. Cease to Exist was darker, 00:06:49.579 --> 00:06:52.680 more bluesy, more threatening. The lyrics were 00:06:52.680 --> 00:06:55.060 about submission. Cease to Exist, come say you 00:06:55.060 --> 00:06:57.279 love me. Right. The Beach Boys, specifically 00:06:57.279 --> 00:07:00.000 Dennis, take the song, change the lyrics to be 00:07:00.000 --> 00:07:01.899 more pop friendly, change the arrangement to 00:07:01.899 --> 00:07:05.329 fit their sound, and the fatal error. They didn't 00:07:05.329 --> 00:07:07.170 credit Manson. They ghosted him in the liner 00:07:07.170 --> 00:07:10.769 notes. Completely. And Manson was furious. You 00:07:10.769 --> 00:07:13.029 have to remember for Manson, the music wasn't 00:07:13.029 --> 00:07:15.329 just a career path. It was his message to the 00:07:15.329 --> 00:07:18.410 world. It was his identity. Of course. When Wilson 00:07:18.410 --> 00:07:21.350 stole that, the relationship deteriorated rapidly. 00:07:21.670 --> 00:07:24.290 The sources say Manson actually threatened Wilson. 00:07:24.370 --> 00:07:26.750 He showed him a bullet and said he could hurt 00:07:26.750 --> 00:07:29.569 his children. Wilson was terrified. He eventually 00:07:29.569 --> 00:07:31.689 just moved out of his own house and left the 00:07:31.689 --> 00:07:35.069 lease just to escape the family. So Manson burns 00:07:35.069 --> 00:07:38.329 the bridge with the Beach Boys. But he hasn't 00:07:38.329 --> 00:07:40.689 given up on the dream. And this brings us to 00:07:40.689 --> 00:07:43.110 the most important name in the geography of the 00:07:43.110 --> 00:07:46.670 murders. Terry Melcher. Terry Melcher, a big 00:07:46.670 --> 00:07:48.769 -time producer, the son of Doris Day. He was 00:07:48.769 --> 00:07:51.610 the golden ticket. Okay. Through Wilson, Manson 00:07:51.610 --> 00:07:53.589 managed to get an audition with Melcher. And 00:07:53.589 --> 00:07:56.290 where did that audition take place? At 1050 Cielo 00:07:56.290 --> 00:07:58.990 Drive. Exactly, the house. Melcher was living 00:07:58.990 --> 00:08:00.709 there at the time with his girlfriend, Candace 00:08:00.709 --> 00:08:03.410 Bergen. Manson went there. He played for Melcher 00:08:03.410 --> 00:08:06.720 in that living room. And Melcher passed. He declined 00:08:06.720 --> 00:08:09.060 to sign him. He thought Manson was interesting, 00:08:09.220 --> 00:08:11.939 maybe suitable for a documentary, but not a rock 00:08:11.939 --> 00:08:14.860 star. It's the ultimate rejection. He's standing 00:08:14.860 --> 00:08:18.399 in the castle, and the king says no. It is. And 00:08:18.399 --> 00:08:20.279 here's a detail from the files that destroys 00:08:20.279 --> 00:08:23.420 a common myth. A lot of people think the family 00:08:23.420 --> 00:08:26.040 went to Cielo Drive that night in August to kill 00:08:26.040 --> 00:08:28.639 Melcher, not knowing he had moved. Right, that's 00:08:28.639 --> 00:08:30.579 what I'd always heard. But the records say otherwise. 00:08:31.040 --> 00:08:34.179 Manson knew Melcher was gone. How do we know 00:08:34.179 --> 00:08:37.009 that? Because Manson went back to the house after 00:08:37.009 --> 00:08:39.570 Melcher moved out. He was looking for him. And 00:08:39.570 --> 00:08:41.850 the new owner, a man named Rudy Altabelli, told 00:08:41.850 --> 00:08:45.830 Manson directly. Melcher moved to Malibu. So 00:08:45.830 --> 00:08:48.190 he knew. He saw the movers. He knew the connection 00:08:48.190 --> 00:08:50.769 was severed. So when he sent Tex Watson and the 00:08:50.769 --> 00:08:53.830 women to that house on August 8th. He wasn't 00:08:53.830 --> 00:08:56.690 looking for a person. He was attacking a symbol. 00:08:56.830 --> 00:08:59.049 He was attacking the establishment that had shut 00:08:59.049 --> 00:09:01.230 the door on his dreams. He picked that house 00:09:01.230 --> 00:09:03.190 because it represented the pig establishment 00:09:03.190 --> 00:09:06.470 that had rejected him. Exactly. Despite all this, 00:09:06.490 --> 00:09:08.509 the rejection, the bridge burning, he actually 00:09:08.509 --> 00:09:11.769 did get an album made. Lie. The Love and Terror 00:09:11.769 --> 00:09:14.570 Cult. It's one of the strangest artifacts in 00:09:14.570 --> 00:09:17.110 music history. It was released in March 1970. 00:09:17.610 --> 00:09:19.990 Right. 1970. That's during the murder trial. 00:09:20.129 --> 00:09:22.480 Right in the middle of it. A friend he met in 00:09:22.480 --> 00:09:25.000 prison, Phil Kaufman, pushed to get it released. 00:09:25.679 --> 00:09:27.740 Manson was calling him from jail five days a 00:09:27.740 --> 00:09:29.799 week to organize it. He was obsessed. He was 00:09:29.799 --> 00:09:32.100 obsessed with his image even while facing the 00:09:32.100 --> 00:09:34.919 gas chamber. The cover is a parody of a Life 00:09:34.919 --> 00:09:37.200 magazine cover. But it didn't chart. It sold 00:09:37.200 --> 00:09:40.159 maybe 300 copies initially. It was a total commercial 00:09:40.159 --> 00:09:44.059 failure. But it cements the idea that in Manson's 00:09:44.059 --> 00:09:47.139 mind until the very end, he was an artist first 00:09:47.139 --> 00:09:49.820 and a criminal second. So. The Hollywood dream 00:09:49.820 --> 00:09:52.679 collapses. Yeah. The money dries up. Wilson kicks 00:09:52.679 --> 00:09:55.100 them out. They need a place to go. And they end 00:09:55.100 --> 00:09:57.620 up at Spahn Ranch. Now, looking at the description 00:09:57.620 --> 00:10:00.139 of this place in the notes. It sounds like a 00:10:00.139 --> 00:10:03.039 post -apocalyptic movie set. It effectively was. 00:10:03.259 --> 00:10:06.100 Spahn Ranch was a 55 -acre property in L .A. 00:10:06.120 --> 00:10:08.639 County, up in the Chatsworth area. It had been 00:10:08.639 --> 00:10:10.879 used to film westerns for decades, shows like 00:10:10.879 --> 00:10:13.879 The Lone Ranger, Bonanza, Zorro. Classic stuff. 00:10:14.080 --> 00:10:16.960 But by 1968, the western genre is dying out. 00:10:17.059 --> 00:10:19.799 The ranch is dilapidated. It's dusty. The buildings 00:10:19.799 --> 00:10:22.179 are fake facades falling apart. It's a ghost 00:10:22.179 --> 00:10:25.570 town. And the owner, George Spahn, is 80 years 00:10:25.570 --> 00:10:28.509 old and going blind. Right. He's living in this 00:10:28.509 --> 00:10:31.070 decay trying to run a horse rental business that 00:10:31.070 --> 00:10:34.629 is barely staying afloat. Manson spots an opportunity. 00:10:34.889 --> 00:10:37.889 He strikes a deal. The family can live there 00:10:37.889 --> 00:10:40.629 rent free if they do the labor. OK. They clear 00:10:40.629 --> 00:10:43.129 brush. They tend the horses. They run the pony 00:10:43.129 --> 00:10:45.750 rides for tourists. But there was a much darker 00:10:45.750 --> 00:10:48.830 form of rent being paid. The sexual manipulation. 00:10:49.169 --> 00:10:51.210 Yeah. The sources are blunt about this. Very 00:10:51.210 --> 00:10:53.809 blunt. Manson ordered the female family members 00:10:53.809 --> 00:10:57.210 to sleep with George Spahn. He used them to keep 00:10:57.210 --> 00:10:59.809 the old man happy and compliant. It was purely 00:10:59.809 --> 00:11:02.169 transactional. Completely. Manson would say, 00:11:02.190 --> 00:11:03.899 go. take care of George and they would do it. 00:11:03.940 --> 00:11:05.659 Is this where the nickname Squeaky comes from? 00:11:05.879 --> 00:11:09.299 For Lynette Fromm? It is. George Spahn gave her 00:11:09.299 --> 00:11:11.220 the nickname because she made a squeaking noise 00:11:11.220 --> 00:11:13.980 when he pinched her thigh. It's framed as this 00:11:13.980 --> 00:11:16.639 cute anecdote in some retellings. Oh, Squeaky 00:11:16.639 --> 00:11:18.940 Fromm. But when you look at the power dynamics, 00:11:19.340 --> 00:11:22.840 it's incredibly gross. It's exploitation. Pure 00:11:22.840 --> 00:11:25.419 and simple. Manson was pimping these women out 00:11:25.419 --> 00:11:28.139 to secure a base of operations. So paint the 00:11:28.139 --> 00:11:30.539 picture of daily life here. You've got this crumbling 00:11:30.539 --> 00:11:33.500 set, a blind landlord, and this group of dropouts. 00:11:33.559 --> 00:11:35.919 What do they do all day? It's a mix of rigorous 00:11:35.919 --> 00:11:38.139 chores and absolute hedonism. They're dropping 00:11:38.139 --> 00:11:40.100 acid, they're having orgies, but they're also, 00:11:40.200 --> 00:11:42.159 you know, clearing brush and dumpster diving 00:11:42.159 --> 00:11:46.279 for food behind grocery stores. But as 1969 wears 00:11:46.279 --> 00:11:49.500 on, the mood shifts. Manson is tightening his 00:11:49.500 --> 00:11:52.379 grip. He's starting to recruit muscle. This is 00:11:52.379 --> 00:11:54.940 where the straight Satans come in. Straight Satans. 00:11:54.940 --> 00:11:57.059 That sounds like a B -movie gang. They were a 00:11:57.059 --> 00:12:00.340 very real outlaw motorcycle club. Mance realized 00:12:00.340 --> 00:12:02.320 that hippies weren't enough. He needed protection. 00:12:02.519 --> 00:12:04.940 He felt vulnerable. So he courted the straight 00:12:04.940 --> 00:12:07.840 Satans. And again, his currency was women. He 00:12:07.840 --> 00:12:10.039 offered up the family women to the bikers to 00:12:10.039 --> 00:12:12.179 entice them to hang around the ranch. He was 00:12:12.179 --> 00:12:14.539 turning Spahn Ranch into a fortress. There's 00:12:14.539 --> 00:12:16.779 a detail in the timeline here that confuses a 00:12:16.779 --> 00:12:19.929 lot of people. The raid. There was a massive 00:12:19.929 --> 00:12:23.250 police raid on Spahn Ranch on August 16th, 1969. 00:12:23.629 --> 00:12:26.730 A huge raid. This is after the Tate -LaBianca 00:12:26.730 --> 00:12:29.809 murders. Over a hundred officers, helicopters, 00:12:30.210 --> 00:12:33.169 the works. It was a massive operation. But they 00:12:33.169 --> 00:12:35.419 weren't there for the murders. No. That is the 00:12:35.419 --> 00:12:38.840 great irony of the investigation. The L .A. Sheriff's 00:12:38.840 --> 00:12:41.379 Department raided the ranch because they suspected 00:12:41.379 --> 00:12:43.860 the family was running an auto theft ring. An 00:12:43.860 --> 00:12:46.539 auto theft ring? They were stealing Volkswagens, 00:12:46.539 --> 00:12:50.820 specifically VW Beetles, and chopping them up 00:12:50.820 --> 00:12:53.139 to turn them into dune buggies for the desert. 00:12:53.240 --> 00:12:56.700 So they had them. They had Manson in cuffs. They 00:12:56.700 --> 00:12:58.580 had the killers in custody. They had them all. 00:12:58.639 --> 00:13:00.779 They rounded up everyone on the ranch, and they 00:13:00.779 --> 00:13:05.240 had to let them go. Why? A paperwork error. The 00:13:05.240 --> 00:13:07.320 warrant had the wrong date or was missigned. 00:13:07.440 --> 00:13:09.679 The sources vary slightly on the technicality, 00:13:09.679 --> 00:13:12.919 but a judge ruled the raid invalid. So they walked 00:13:12.919 --> 00:13:14.799 free. They walked free. And because the auto 00:13:14.799 --> 00:13:16.940 theft unit wasn't talking to the homicide unit, 00:13:17.100 --> 00:13:19.600 nobody connected the dots to the bodies found 00:13:19.600 --> 00:13:22.340 just a week earlier on Cielo Drive. The disconnection 00:13:22.340 --> 00:13:25.039 in law enforcement. Yeah. It's terrifying. It 00:13:25.039 --> 00:13:27.909 allowed the cult to... persist it did and it 00:13:27.909 --> 00:13:31.350 validated manson's feeling of invincibility when 00:13:31.350 --> 00:13:32.970 they were released he told the family it was 00:13:32.970 --> 00:13:34.809 a miracle he probably thought he really was a 00:13:34.809 --> 00:13:37.009 messiah at that point let's talk about that messiah 00:13:37.009 --> 00:13:39.470 complex because manson wasn't just telling these 00:13:39.470 --> 00:13:41.889 kids to steal cars he was feeling them a theology 00:13:41.889 --> 00:13:45.159 we need to decode helter skelter This is the 00:13:45.159 --> 00:13:47.139 engine of the madness. Without this, they're 00:13:47.139 --> 00:13:49.779 just car thieves. Now, most people know Helter 00:13:49.779 --> 00:13:52.899 Skelter as a Beatles song, a loud, raucous rock 00:13:52.899 --> 00:13:55.379 song about a slide in an amusement park. Right. 00:13:55.500 --> 00:13:58.539 But Manson's interpretation, this is what psychologists 00:13:58.539 --> 00:14:01.120 call apophenia, right? Seeing patterns where 00:14:01.120 --> 00:14:05.149 none exist. Textbook apophenia. Manson was obsessed 00:14:05.149 --> 00:14:08.049 with the Beatles white album released in 1968. 00:14:08.590 --> 00:14:11.990 He believed, genuinely believed, that the Beatles 00:14:11.990 --> 00:14:14.970 were four angels sending him coded messages through 00:14:14.970 --> 00:14:18.169 the lyrics. He constructed an entire apocalyptic 00:14:18.169 --> 00:14:21.269 timeline based on this one pop album. So break 00:14:21.269 --> 00:14:22.929 it down. What was the helter skelter scenario? 00:14:23.370 --> 00:14:26.190 Manson predicted a racial apocalypse. He believed 00:14:26.190 --> 00:14:28.289 that black people, specifically the black power 00:14:28.289 --> 00:14:30.269 movement, were going to rise up and violently 00:14:30.269 --> 00:14:32.629 overthrow the white establishment. A race war. 00:14:32.730 --> 00:14:35.360 A race war. war. He believed the tension in American 00:14:35.360 --> 00:14:37.639 cities was going to boil over. He called this 00:14:37.639 --> 00:14:40.759 war Helter Skelter. Okay, so a race war. But 00:14:40.759 --> 00:14:43.320 where does the family fit in? Well, Manson was 00:14:43.320 --> 00:14:45.799 a white supremacist, but he also thought black 00:14:45.799 --> 00:14:48.399 people were incapable of governing themselves. 00:14:48.879 --> 00:14:51.679 His theory was that after the black population 00:14:51.679 --> 00:14:54.019 won the war and wiped out the white establishment, 00:14:54.320 --> 00:14:56.559 they wouldn't know what to do. They would need 00:14:56.559 --> 00:14:58.779 a leader. And let me guess who that leader was. 00:14:59.139 --> 00:15:02.429 Charlie. The plan was for the Manson family to 00:15:02.429 --> 00:15:05.789 hide in a secret city under Death Valley. He 00:15:05.789 --> 00:15:08.750 called it the Bottomless Pit. The Bottomless 00:15:08.750 --> 00:15:11.429 Pit. He literally believed there was a hole in 00:15:11.429 --> 00:15:14.009 the desert floor leading to a subterranean paradise 00:15:14.009 --> 00:15:16.830 with chocolate fountains and gold. They would 00:15:16.830 --> 00:15:19.129 wait out the war in luxury, and when the dust 00:15:19.129 --> 00:15:21.909 settled, they would emerge to rule over the world. 00:15:22.090 --> 00:15:25.509 It's so fantastical. But he rooted it in specific 00:15:25.509 --> 00:15:28.850 songs. The source material lists a few. Blackbird, 00:15:28.950 --> 00:15:30.750 for instance. Paul McCartney wrote that about 00:15:30.750 --> 00:15:32.889 the civil rights movement, loosely. Right, but 00:15:32.889 --> 00:15:35.269 Manson took it literally. Blackbirds singing 00:15:35.269 --> 00:15:37.710 in the dead of night, take these broken wings 00:15:37.710 --> 00:15:40.330 and learn to fly. He told his followers this 00:15:40.330 --> 00:15:42.269 was a command for black people to rise up and 00:15:42.269 --> 00:15:44.669 kill whites. Unbelievable. He thought the Beatles 00:15:44.669 --> 00:15:46.250 were blowing the trumpet for the apocalypse. 00:15:46.509 --> 00:15:49.820 And biggies. George Harrison's song, it's a satire 00:15:49.820 --> 00:15:51.919 of the upper class clutching forks and knives 00:15:51.919 --> 00:15:54.799 to eat their bacon. Okay. Manson turned that 00:15:54.799 --> 00:15:57.379 into an instruction manual. That's why at the 00:15:57.379 --> 00:15:59.659 crime scenes you see forks and knives used in 00:15:59.659 --> 00:16:01.620 such gruesome ways. They were acting out the 00:16:01.620 --> 00:16:03.600 lyrics. They called the establishment piggies. 00:16:03.759 --> 00:16:06.379 The one that always baffled me was Rocky Raccoon. 00:16:06.679 --> 00:16:09.080 It's a cowboy ballad. It's almost a comedy song. 00:16:09.259 --> 00:16:12.480 It is, but Manson latched onto the word coon. 00:16:12.919 --> 00:16:16.000 He interpreted it as a racial slur. And the line 00:16:16.000 --> 00:16:19.360 about Gideon's Bible, he decided that meant the 00:16:19.360 --> 00:16:22.120 book of Revelation. He was weaving Beatles lyrics 00:16:22.120 --> 00:16:25.179 and biblical prophecy into this toxic tapestry. 00:16:25.320 --> 00:16:28.419 And Revolution 9, that avant -garde sound collage. 00:16:28.679 --> 00:16:30.940 That was the Holy Grail for him. He heard machine 00:16:30.940 --> 00:16:33.039 gun fire. He heard pigs grunting. He heard the 00:16:33.039 --> 00:16:35.519 sounds of chaos. He thought it was an auditory 00:16:35.519 --> 00:16:37.759 recording of the coming war. He linked it to 00:16:37.759 --> 00:16:40.080 Revelation chapter 9 in the Bible. It's terrifying 00:16:40.080 --> 00:16:42.139 how he could twist anything to fit his narrative. 00:16:42.840 --> 00:16:45.519 But here is the problem Manson faced. The war 00:16:45.519 --> 00:16:48.559 wasn't starting. Exactly. He's preaching this 00:16:48.559 --> 00:16:50.379 apocalypse. He's moved everyone to the desert 00:16:50.379 --> 00:16:53.159 and back. But the summer of 69 is rolling along 00:16:53.159 --> 00:16:55.600 and the revolution isn't happening. He's losing 00:16:55.600 --> 00:16:58.019 credibility. His credibility is on the line. 00:16:58.120 --> 00:17:00.820 And this is where we shift from crazy theories 00:17:00.820 --> 00:17:04.660 to actual violence. The timeline and the sources 00:17:04.660 --> 00:17:07.759 shows a clear escalation. It didn't start with 00:17:07.759 --> 00:17:10.380 Sharon Tate. No. The violence kicks off in July 00:17:10.380 --> 00:17:14.400 1969. and it starts with a drug deal. We need 00:17:14.400 --> 00:17:17.220 to talk about Bernard Crowe. Lotsa Papa. Bernard 00:17:17.220 --> 00:17:20.059 Lotsa Papa Crowe. He was a drug dealer. Tex Watson 00:17:20.059 --> 00:17:22.880 Manson's right -hand man had burned Crowe on 00:17:22.880 --> 00:17:25.420 a transaction. He took the money for drugs but 00:17:25.420 --> 00:17:28.119 didn't deliver the goods. Crowe called Spahn 00:17:28.119 --> 00:17:30.079 Ranch and threatened to come down and wipe everyone 00:17:30.079 --> 00:17:32.599 out. So Manson takes preemptive action. He goes 00:17:32.599 --> 00:17:34.640 to Crowe's apartment in Hollywood and shoots 00:17:34.640 --> 00:17:37.299 him. And Manson leaves thinking he's committed 00:17:37.299 --> 00:17:40.220 murder. He thinks Crowe is dead. In reality, 00:17:40.420 --> 00:17:43.460 Crow survived the shooting. But here's the critical 00:17:43.460 --> 00:17:46.180 mistake. Manson thought Crow was a member of 00:17:46.180 --> 00:17:49.579 the Black Panthers. Was he? No. Not at all. But 00:17:49.579 --> 00:17:52.880 Manson was convinced. So now he's paranoid. He 00:17:52.880 --> 00:17:54.660 thinks the entire Black Panther organization 00:17:54.660 --> 00:17:57.859 is going to descend on Spahn Ranch for revenge. 00:17:58.059 --> 00:18:00.700 Right. This is what militarized the family. They 00:18:00.700 --> 00:18:03.339 started doing armed patrols at night. They practiced 00:18:03.339 --> 00:18:06.579 tactical maneuvers. The vibe shifted from peace 00:18:06.579 --> 00:18:10.559 and love to kill or be killed. So the pressure 00:18:10.559 --> 00:18:14.619 cooker is sealed. Then comes Gary Hinman. This 00:18:14.619 --> 00:18:17.250 is late July. Why Gary Hinman? He was a music 00:18:17.250 --> 00:18:19.589 teacher, a friend of the family. The motive here 00:18:19.589 --> 00:18:22.710 was money and maybe bad drugs. The family believed 00:18:22.710 --> 00:18:24.829 Hinman had an inheritance coming to him, stocks 00:18:24.829 --> 00:18:27.369 and bonds. They also blamed him for a bad batch 00:18:27.369 --> 00:18:29.329 of mescaline that had been sold to the straight 00:18:29.329 --> 00:18:32.009 Satans. So they needed cash. Manson needed cash 00:18:32.009 --> 00:18:33.990 to pay back the bikers to keep his protection 00:18:33.990 --> 00:18:37.349 squad happy. So Bobby Beausoleil, Susan Atkins 00:18:37.349 --> 00:18:40.089 and Mary Brunner go to Hinman's house. It turns 00:18:40.089 --> 00:18:42.430 into a hostage situation. It lasts for days. 00:18:42.650 --> 00:18:44.650 They are trying to get him to sign over his cars. 00:18:45.069 --> 00:18:47.029 Manson actually shows up at one point with a 00:18:47.029 --> 00:18:49.630 sword. A sword, like a katana. A cutlass -style 00:18:49.630 --> 00:18:52.990 sword. He slashes Hinman's ear, literally cuts 00:18:52.990 --> 00:18:55.250 part of it off, and then leaves. Tells Bobby 00:18:55.250 --> 00:18:58.529 to finish it. Eventually, Bobby Beausoleil stabs 00:18:58.529 --> 00:19:00.349 Hinman to death, and this is where we see the 00:19:00.349 --> 00:19:03.170 first signature. Writing on the wall. They write 00:19:03.170 --> 00:19:05.529 political piggy on the wall in Hinman's blood. 00:19:05.789 --> 00:19:08.230 Great. And they draw a panther paw print. They 00:19:08.230 --> 00:19:10.170 were trying to frame the Black Panthers. Exactly. 00:19:10.329 --> 00:19:12.470 They were trying to jumpstart the race war. Look, 00:19:12.569 --> 00:19:15.009 the Black militants are killing white liberals. 00:19:15.569 --> 00:19:18.369 But it backfired. Also. It didn't start a war. 00:19:18.509 --> 00:19:21.170 Instead, Bobby Beauchelet got arrested for the 00:19:21.170 --> 00:19:23.630 murder a few days later because he was caught 00:19:23.630 --> 00:19:26.750 driving Inman's car. So now Manson is desperate. 00:19:27.150 --> 00:19:30.750 His guy is in jail. The police are sniffing around. 00:19:31.170 --> 00:19:33.690 The race war hasn't started. Right. He decides 00:19:33.690 --> 00:19:36.119 he needs to do something bigger. Something so 00:19:36.119 --> 00:19:38.960 horrific it can't be ignored. And that brings 00:19:38.960 --> 00:19:41.980 us to August 8th, the night of the Tate murders. 00:19:42.319 --> 00:19:45.859 The target is 1712 TCLO Drive, the house where 00:19:45.859 --> 00:19:48.119 he was rejected by Terry Melcher. Who went that 00:19:48.119 --> 00:19:51.099 night? Tex Watson led the group. With him were 00:19:51.099 --> 00:19:53.940 Susan Actins, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Linda 00:19:53.940 --> 00:19:57.440 Kasabian. Kasabian acted as the lookout. She 00:19:57.440 --> 00:19:59.299 didn't physically participate in the killings, 00:19:59.299 --> 00:20:01.019 which is why she became the star witness later. 00:20:01.450 --> 00:20:03.430 She was the only one who didn't have blood on 00:20:03.430 --> 00:20:05.490 her hands. Pretty much, yeah. The details of 00:20:05.490 --> 00:20:08.569 this night are, they're hard to read, even 50 00:20:08.569 --> 00:20:12.009 years later. The victims were Sharon Tate, who 00:20:12.009 --> 00:20:13.869 was eight and a half months pregnant. Two weeks 00:20:13.869 --> 00:20:15.930 from her due date. Jay Sebring, the celebrity 00:20:15.930 --> 00:20:19.150 hairstylist. Abigail Folger, the coffee heiress. 00:20:19.569 --> 00:20:22.450 Whoa, Jerry Frykowski. Yeah. And Stephen Parent. 00:20:22.880 --> 00:20:24.900 An 18 -year -old kid who just happened to be 00:20:24.900 --> 00:20:26.940 visiting the caretaker. Parent was the first 00:20:26.940 --> 00:20:29.619 one killed. He was just in his car, in the driveway, 00:20:29.839 --> 00:20:32.440 leaving. Tex Watson walked up to the window and 00:20:32.440 --> 00:20:35.720 shot him four times. Just wrong place, wrong 00:20:35.720 --> 00:20:38.480 time. What chills me is the ideology driving 00:20:38.480 --> 00:20:41.619 it. Tex Watson's line to the victims. The source 00:20:41.619 --> 00:20:44.119 quotes him saying, I am the devil and I'm here 00:20:44.119 --> 00:20:47.269 to do the devil's business. That line. It shows 00:20:47.269 --> 00:20:49.970 how fully indoctrinated Watson was. He wasn't 00:20:49.970 --> 00:20:51.789 just robbing them. He was enacting a ritual. 00:20:52.029 --> 00:20:55.150 He truly believed he was an agent of chaos. And 00:20:55.150 --> 00:20:57.589 again, the writing. Yeah. Pig written in blood 00:20:57.589 --> 00:20:59.490 on the front door. A direct reference to the 00:20:59.490 --> 00:21:01.569 Piggy song. They wanted the world to think the 00:21:01.569 --> 00:21:03.809 Black Panthers did it. But Manson wasn't there 00:21:03.809 --> 00:21:06.809 that night. No. He stayed at the ranch. But when 00:21:06.809 --> 00:21:09.130 the killers came back, Manson was annoyed. He 00:21:09.130 --> 00:21:11.869 felt the job was messy. Messy. He felt they panicked. 00:21:11.910 --> 00:21:14.970 So the next night, August 9th, he decided to 00:21:14.970 --> 00:21:17.279 go with them. He wanted to show them how to do 00:21:17.279 --> 00:21:20.240 it. This leads to the LaBianca murders, Leno 00:21:20.240 --> 00:21:23.880 and Rosemary LaBianca. Now, were these people 00:21:23.880 --> 00:21:26.140 famous? Were they connected to the music industry? 00:21:26.319 --> 00:21:28.579 No, they were just people. They owned a grocery 00:21:28.579 --> 00:21:30.980 chain. They lived in Las Feliz. It was completely 00:21:30.980 --> 00:21:33.539 random. So how did he pick them? Manson drove 00:21:33.539 --> 00:21:35.799 around for a while before settling on their house, 00:21:35.940 --> 00:21:38.319 simply because it was next door to a house he 00:21:38.319 --> 00:21:40.799 had partied at the year before. It was familiar 00:21:40.799 --> 00:21:43.359 territory. Manson's involvement here is strange. 00:21:43.480 --> 00:21:46.099 She goes in, ties him up, and then leaves. Correct. 00:21:46.259 --> 00:21:49.140 He enters the house, binds them with lamp cords, 00:21:49.359 --> 00:21:51.819 assures them they won't be hurt, takes their 00:21:51.819 --> 00:21:54.900 wallets, and then he walks out of the car and 00:21:54.900 --> 00:21:58.599 sends in Tex Watson, Patricia Krenwinkel, and 00:21:58.599 --> 00:22:00.900 Leslie Van Houten. And this was Leslie Van Houten's 00:22:00.900 --> 00:22:03.380 first participation. Yes. She wasn't at the Tate 00:22:03.380 --> 00:22:05.980 house, but she participated in the killing of 00:22:05.980 --> 00:22:08.400 Rosemary LaBianca. The scene they left behind 00:22:08.400 --> 00:22:10.819 was even more grotesque than the Tate house. 00:22:10.980 --> 00:22:14.720 It was overkill. They carved the word war into 00:22:14.720 --> 00:22:17.740 Lena LaBianca's abdomen. They left a carving 00:22:17.740 --> 00:22:19.940 fork protruding from his stomach, and they wrote 00:22:19.940 --> 00:22:24.019 on the walls again, rise, death to pigs, and 00:22:24.019 --> 00:22:26.460 helter -skelter on the refrigerator. But they 00:22:26.460 --> 00:22:29.400 misspelled Helter Skelter. They did. H -E -A 00:22:29.400 --> 00:22:33.019 -L -T -E -R. It's a pathetic detail in the middle 00:22:33.019 --> 00:22:35.599 of such horror, but it highlights the chaotic, 00:22:35.799 --> 00:22:38.619 uneducated nature of the group. They were zealots, 00:22:38.660 --> 00:22:41.099 but they weren't masterminds. Not even close. 00:22:41.420 --> 00:22:43.000 There's one more murder in the timeline that 00:22:43.000 --> 00:22:45.599 often gets overlooked in the documentaries. Donald 00:22:45.599 --> 00:22:49.519 Shorty Shea. Right. Shorty Shea. He was a ranch 00:22:49.519 --> 00:22:52.099 hand at Spahn Ranch, a former stuntman, a bouncer. 00:22:52.319 --> 00:22:54.740 He was a tough guy, and he knew Manson was bad 00:22:54.740 --> 00:22:57.000 news. He didn't buy into the Guru Act. Not for 00:22:57.000 --> 00:22:58.960 a second. He was trying to get George Spahn to 00:22:58.960 --> 00:23:00.720 kick the family out. Why did they turn on him? 00:23:00.920 --> 00:23:03.420 A few reasons. Manson suspected him of being 00:23:03.420 --> 00:23:05.940 a snitch, especially after that auto theft raid. 00:23:06.240 --> 00:23:08.980 He thought Shay tipped off the cops. But there 00:23:08.980 --> 00:23:11.480 was also the racial element. She had married 00:23:11.480 --> 00:23:13.980 a black woman. And Manson was a virulent racist. 00:23:14.339 --> 00:23:17.609 He hated that. So sometime in late August, they 00:23:17.609 --> 00:23:20.150 lured him away and killed him. There was a rumor 00:23:20.150 --> 00:23:23.230 for years that they dismembered him and scattered 00:23:23.230 --> 00:23:25.529 him in the desert. That was a rumor Manson spread 00:23:25.529 --> 00:23:28.029 to scare the other family members into submission. 00:23:29.009 --> 00:23:32.490 Cross me and you'll end up like Shorty. But the 00:23:32.490 --> 00:23:34.309 source material confirms that when they finally 00:23:34.309 --> 00:23:38.210 found his body in 1977, eight years later, he 00:23:38.210 --> 00:23:40.829 was buried intact near the ranch. So we have 00:23:40.829 --> 00:23:42.349 this spree of violence, but the big question 00:23:42.349 --> 00:23:45.069 is always why. We touched on Helter Skelter. 00:23:45.500 --> 00:23:48.380 That was the prosecution's theory. Right. Vincent 00:23:48.380 --> 00:23:51.039 Bugliosi, the prosecutor. He argued that the 00:23:51.039 --> 00:23:54.019 sole motive was to trigger this race war. And 00:23:54.019 --> 00:23:56.700 that was the narratives that won the case. It 00:23:56.700 --> 00:23:59.599 was clean. It was terrifying. And it used Manson's 00:23:59.599 --> 00:24:01.960 own prophecy against him. It made Manson look 00:24:01.960 --> 00:24:03.960 like a wizard. It captured the public imagination. 00:24:04.420 --> 00:24:07.380 But when you look at the sources, there are alternative 00:24:07.380 --> 00:24:09.599 theories that honestly make a lot of sense. Theories 00:24:09.599 --> 00:24:11.740 that are less supernatural and more, you know, 00:24:11.759 --> 00:24:14.299 just criminal. Like the copycat theory. Right. 00:24:14.680 --> 00:24:16.819 This is the theory that some of the family members, 00:24:16.900 --> 00:24:19.079 like Susan Atkins and Leslie Van Houten, supported 00:24:19.079 --> 00:24:23.619 in later years. The idea is simple. Bobby Beausoleil 00:24:23.619 --> 00:24:25.880 is sitting in jail for the Hinman murder. The 00:24:25.880 --> 00:24:30.019 family thinks, if we commit copycat murders with 00:24:30.019 --> 00:24:33.119 the same pig writing and knife wounds while Bobby 00:24:33.119 --> 00:24:35.440 is locked up, the police will think the real 00:24:35.440 --> 00:24:38.400 killer is still on the loose. So the Tate murders 00:24:38.400 --> 00:24:40.640 weren't about starting a war. They were about 00:24:40.640 --> 00:24:43.380 creating reasonable doubt for Bobby. Free Bobby. 00:24:43.950 --> 00:24:46.349 That was the chant. It makes the murder seem 00:24:46.349 --> 00:24:49.589 more tactical, less mystical. It was a misguided, 00:24:49.589 --> 00:24:52.289 horrific legal strategy. And then there's the 00:24:52.289 --> 00:24:54.569 drug theory. We know Watson was burning drug 00:24:54.569 --> 00:24:57.710 dealers. We know Frykowski and Sebring were involved 00:24:57.710 --> 00:25:00.329 in the Hollywood recreational drug scene. Could 00:25:00.329 --> 00:25:02.910 it have been a drug burn gone nuclear? It's very 00:25:02.910 --> 00:25:05.029 possible that drugs were the catalyst. Maybe 00:25:05.029 --> 00:25:07.690 Frykowski owed money. Maybe Manson was trying 00:25:07.690 --> 00:25:10.230 to send a message to the underworld that he wasn't 00:25:10.230 --> 00:25:13.240 to be messed with. But the brutality. The brutality, 00:25:13.420 --> 00:25:15.980 the sheer overkill, implies it went far beyond 00:25:15.980 --> 00:25:18.700 a simple debt collection. You don't write helter 00:25:18.700 --> 00:25:21.259 -skelter in blood for a drug debt. It likely 00:25:21.259 --> 00:25:24.019 started as a hit or a burn, but the ideology 00:25:24.019 --> 00:25:26.839 took over once the violence started. One source 00:25:26.839 --> 00:25:29.440 in our stack mentions the processed church of 00:25:29.440 --> 00:25:32.720 a final judgment. I've heard this name whispered 00:25:32.720 --> 00:25:35.619 in conspiracy circles. What is the connection 00:25:35.619 --> 00:25:38.240 here? This is a rabbit hole. The Process Church 00:25:38.240 --> 00:25:41.599 was a real group founded in the 60s. Their theology 00:25:41.599 --> 00:25:44.279 was neo -gnostic, essentially. They believed 00:25:44.279 --> 00:25:47.099 that to reach the end times, you had to reconcile 00:25:47.099 --> 00:25:50.019 Christ and Satan. Christ and Satan holding hands. 00:25:50.140 --> 00:25:52.539 Exactly. They operated in London, but they had 00:25:52.539 --> 00:25:55.380 a chapter in L .A. They wore black capes. They 00:25:55.380 --> 00:25:57.079 walked around with German shepherds. They were 00:25:57.079 --> 00:25:59.440 very theatrical. And the connection to Manson? 00:25:59.519 --> 00:26:01.980 The prosecutors suggested links. There were rumors 00:26:01.980 --> 00:26:04.319 Manson visited their headquarters or contributed 00:26:04.319 --> 00:26:06.420 to their magazine. Did they order the murders? 00:26:06.859 --> 00:26:08.779 There's no evidence of that. The sources say 00:26:08.779 --> 00:26:11.619 the connection was never proven. But just the 00:26:11.619 --> 00:26:13.880 association with Manson was enough to effectively 00:26:13.880 --> 00:26:17.000 destroy the church's reputation. It just adds 00:26:17.000 --> 00:26:19.660 another layer of occult weirdness to the story, 00:26:19.819 --> 00:26:23.220 even if it wasn't the driving force. So the murders 00:26:23.220 --> 00:26:25.779 happen. The investigation is botched initially. 00:26:25.980 --> 00:26:29.039 But eventually, the family members start talking. 00:26:29.640 --> 00:26:33.000 Susan Adkins. she bragged about it to a cellmate 00:26:33.000 --> 00:26:35.039 while she was in for another charge that was 00:26:35.039 --> 00:26:37.500 the big break they get caught and we get the 00:26:37.500 --> 00:26:40.259 trial And the trial was a circus. It was unprecedented. 00:26:40.539 --> 00:26:42.500 It was the first trial of the century for the 00:26:42.500 --> 00:26:45.319 TV era. Manson treated the courtroom like a stage. 00:26:45.579 --> 00:26:48.440 He carved an X into his forehead. And the next 00:26:48.440 --> 00:26:50.859 day, his followers on the outside who were camping 00:26:50.859 --> 00:26:53.140 on the corner did the same. Which later turned 00:26:53.140 --> 00:26:55.980 into a swastika. Right. He modified the X into 00:26:55.980 --> 00:26:58.240 a swastika later. He would leap over the desk 00:26:58.240 --> 00:27:00.500 at the judge. He chanted in Latin. And then you 00:27:00.500 --> 00:27:02.319 had the president of the United States, Richard 00:27:02.319 --> 00:27:05.160 Nixon. Oh, yeah. Declaring Manson guilty in the 00:27:05.160 --> 00:27:07.720 press while the trial was ongoing. which is a 00:27:07.720 --> 00:27:11.799 huge legal no -no. Huge. Manson held up a newspaper 00:27:11.799 --> 00:27:15.420 with the headline, Manson Guilty, Nixon Declares, 00:27:15.559 --> 00:27:18.579 to the Jury. He was trying to cause a mistrial. 00:27:19.000 --> 00:27:21.160 He knew the law well enough to try and wreck 00:27:21.160 --> 00:27:23.599 the proceedings. And the defense strategy? Non 00:27:23.599 --> 00:27:26.579 -existent. They arrested without calling a single 00:27:26.579 --> 00:27:29.339 witness. This enraged the female defendants, 00:27:29.420 --> 00:27:31.920 Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, Leslie Van 00:27:31.920 --> 00:27:35.059 Houten. They wanted to testify. To do what? They 00:27:35.059 --> 00:27:36.400 wanted to take the blame. They were going to 00:27:36.400 --> 00:27:38.220 get on the stand and say, we did it. Charlie 00:27:38.220 --> 00:27:40.240 had nothing to do with it. Still protecting him, 00:27:40.319 --> 00:27:43.019 even facing the death penalty. Still indoctrinated. 00:27:43.339 --> 00:27:45.819 But the lawyer stopped them, realizing Manson 00:27:45.819 --> 00:27:48.390 was manipulating them even in court. The lawyers 00:27:48.390 --> 00:27:50.750 arguably saved them from themselves. They were 00:27:50.750 --> 00:27:53.069 all sentenced to death, but they didn't die. 00:27:53.210 --> 00:27:56.670 No. In 1972, the California Supreme Court ruled 00:27:56.670 --> 00:27:59.809 the death penalty unconstitutional. Their sentences 00:27:59.809 --> 00:28:02.309 were automatically commuted to life imprisonment, 00:28:02.329 --> 00:28:05.130 so they sat in prison for decades. Which brings 00:28:05.130 --> 00:28:08.109 us to the where are they now segment. We have 00:28:08.109 --> 00:28:11.069 a Reddit thread in our source deck that synthesizes 00:28:11.069 --> 00:28:13.890 the current status of these people. It's fascinating 00:28:13.890 --> 00:28:17.130 to see how their paths diverged. Let's run through 00:28:17.130 --> 00:28:21.400 it. Manthan. Died in prison in 2017. He never 00:28:21.400 --> 00:28:24.200 showed remorse. He played the role of the boogeyman 00:28:24.200 --> 00:28:26.880 until the end. He loved the attention. He would 00:28:26.880 --> 00:28:29.579 give interviews to Geraldo Rivera or whoever 00:28:29.579 --> 00:28:32.890 speaking in riddles. Susan Atkins. Sexy Sadie. 00:28:32.930 --> 00:28:35.809 She died in prison in 2009 of brain cancer. It 00:28:35.809 --> 00:28:38.569 was a tragic end in a way. She petitioned for 00:28:38.569 --> 00:28:41.289 a compassionate release on her deathbed. She 00:28:41.289 --> 00:28:43.470 was paralyzed, could barely speak. She had be 00:28:43.470 --> 00:28:45.789 wheeled into the hearing. It was denied. Denied. 00:28:45.789 --> 00:28:48.710 The parole board and the public couldn't forgive 00:28:48.710 --> 00:28:50.849 the callousness she showed towards Sharon Tate. 00:28:51.079 --> 00:28:53.339 When Tate begged for the life of her unborn baby, 00:28:53.579 --> 00:28:55.299 Atkins told her, look, bitch, I don't care about 00:28:55.299 --> 00:28:58.119 you. That, quote, sealed her fate forever. And 00:28:58.119 --> 00:29:00.400 then we have Leslie Van Houten. This is recent 00:29:00.400 --> 00:29:02.759 news. This is a big development. Leslie Van Houten 00:29:02.759 --> 00:29:05.700 was released on parole in July 2023. She's out. 00:29:05.859 --> 00:29:08.480 She is walking free. The argument was that she 00:29:08.480 --> 00:29:11.369 was the youngest. She was 19 at the time. She 00:29:11.369 --> 00:29:13.509 was only present at the LaBianca murders, not 00:29:13.509 --> 00:29:16.390 Tate. And she had been a model prisoner for 50 00:29:16.390 --> 00:29:19.109 years. Right. She earned degrees. She ran self 00:29:19.109 --> 00:29:21.430 -help groups. She underwent decades of therapy. 00:29:22.069 --> 00:29:24.589 But it was highly controversial. Governor Newsom 00:29:24.589 --> 00:29:27.069 fought it. The courts overruled him. I can't 00:29:27.069 --> 00:29:28.670 imagine the families were devastated. What about 00:29:28.670 --> 00:29:31.569 Patricia Kronwegel? Still incarcerated. She is 00:29:31.569 --> 00:29:34.309 the longest serving female inmate in the California 00:29:34.309 --> 00:29:36.950 Pingal Cerdo. She was denied parole recently. 00:29:37.640 --> 00:29:39.579 Governor Newsom reversed the board's decision, 00:29:39.819 --> 00:29:43.460 citing that she is still dangerous. Why is she 00:29:43.460 --> 00:29:45.920 treated differently than Van Houten? She participated 00:29:45.920 --> 00:29:48.559 in both nights, and her actions were particularly 00:29:48.559 --> 00:29:51.240 brutal. She chased down Abigail Folger on the 00:29:51.240 --> 00:29:53.759 lawn and stabbed her. That level of participation 00:29:53.759 --> 00:29:57.660 is harder to overlook. And Tex Watson, the executioner. 00:29:57.720 --> 00:30:00.480 Still incarcerated, he claims to be born again, 00:30:00.720 --> 00:30:03.420 he runs a ministry from prison, but the Reddit 00:30:03.420 --> 00:30:06.000 discussion brings up a disturbing detail. He 00:30:06.000 --> 00:30:08.319 fathered four children during conjugal visits. 00:30:08.680 --> 00:30:12.099 Wait, the man who killed a pregnant woman was 00:30:12.099 --> 00:30:15.160 allowed to have children in prison? Yes. Before 00:30:15.160 --> 00:30:17.859 California banned conjugal visits for lifers 00:30:17.859 --> 00:30:20.779 in the late 90s, Watson married and started a 00:30:20.779 --> 00:30:24.319 family. It creates a lot of anger in the public 00:30:24.319 --> 00:30:26.640 forum, as you can imagine. Of course. The victims 00:30:26.640 --> 00:30:28.980 didn't get to have families, but the killer did. 00:30:29.099 --> 00:30:32.480 That is tough to process. It really is. There's 00:30:32.480 --> 00:30:35.140 one more layer to the victim count. We listed 00:30:35.140 --> 00:30:37.900 the known victims, but the sources mentioned 00:30:37.900 --> 00:30:40.759 suspected victims. Yeah, there are bodies that 00:30:40.759 --> 00:30:43.039 have never been fully explained. There's John 00:30:43.039 --> 00:30:45.920 Haught, nicknamed Zero. He was a family member. 00:30:46.019 --> 00:30:48.640 He supposedly died playing Russian roulette. 00:30:49.059 --> 00:30:51.460 Supposedly. Well, the gun was found fully loaded. 00:30:51.680 --> 00:30:53.440 You don't play Russian roulette with a fully 00:30:53.440 --> 00:30:55.599 loaded gun. That's just suicide or murder. Right. 00:30:56.170 --> 00:30:58.490 And then Ronald Hughes. He was the attorney for 00:30:58.490 --> 00:31:00.890 Leslie Van Houten during the trial. He was the 00:31:00.890 --> 00:31:02.970 one who advised her not to take the stand and 00:31:02.970 --> 00:31:05.930 lie for Manson. So Manson hated him. Hated him. 00:31:06.349 --> 00:31:09.009 During a recess in the trial, Hughes went camping 00:31:09.009 --> 00:31:11.349 and never came back. His body was found months 00:31:11.349 --> 00:31:14.549 later wedged between rocks in a creek. It's widely 00:31:14.549 --> 00:31:16.529 believed the family killed him for interfering 00:31:16.529 --> 00:31:18.869 with Manson's defense, but it's never been proven. 00:31:19.309 --> 00:31:22.009 It just shows that the blast radius of this group 00:31:22.009 --> 00:31:24.529 was huge. It wasn't just the famous murders. 00:31:24.630 --> 00:31:27.309 It was ranch hands, attorneys, group members. 00:31:27.450 --> 00:31:32.069 It was a machine of destruction. It was. So what 00:31:32.069 --> 00:31:34.559 does this all mean? Why are we still talking 00:31:34.559 --> 00:31:36.579 about this over 50 years later? We have stacks 00:31:36.579 --> 00:31:38.980 of documents, but what is the takeaway? I think 00:31:38.980 --> 00:31:41.559 it's because the Manson story marks a specific 00:31:41.559 --> 00:31:44.700 turning point. Joan Didion famously wrote that 00:31:44.700 --> 00:31:49.240 the 60s ended abruptly on August 9th, 1969. You 00:31:49.240 --> 00:31:52.640 have the elements of peace and love music. communal 00:31:52.640 --> 00:31:55.559 living, liberation curdling into something horrific. 00:31:55.700 --> 00:31:58.019 It's the ultimate bad trip. It killed the vibe. 00:31:58.180 --> 00:32:00.519 It killed the dream. It proved that the counterculture 00:32:00.519 --> 00:32:02.579 wasn't immune to evil. And at the center of it, 00:32:02.660 --> 00:32:04.839 you don't have a mastermind genius. You have 00:32:04.839 --> 00:32:07.740 a petty criminal. A failed musician who used 00:32:07.740 --> 00:32:09.920 the tools of the counterculture, the sex, the 00:32:09.920 --> 00:32:12.700 drugs, the philosophy to feed his own narcissism. 00:32:12.799 --> 00:32:14.619 That's the thing that sticks with me. The fragility 00:32:14.619 --> 00:32:17.099 of it all. If Terry Melcher had just signed Manson 00:32:17.099 --> 00:32:19.759 to a record deal, does any of this happen? That's 00:32:19.759 --> 00:32:22.789 the haunting what if. If Manson gets his fame, 00:32:22.990 --> 00:32:25.470 maybe he doesn't need his infamy. Maybe he just 00:32:25.470 --> 00:32:27.829 becomes a one -hit wonder who tours with the 00:32:27.829 --> 00:32:31.170 Beach Boys, gets rich, and fades away. Or maybe, 00:32:31.509 --> 00:32:34.609 given the personalities and the drugs, the violence 00:32:34.609 --> 00:32:36.829 was inevitable. Maybe the record deal would have 00:32:36.829 --> 00:32:39.069 just given him a bigger platform for his madness. 00:32:39.549 --> 00:32:42.410 It's a chilling thought. We've looked at the 00:32:42.410 --> 00:32:45.369 failed ambition, the twisted lyrics, the desert 00:32:45.369 --> 00:32:48.259 ranch. And the blood on the walls. It's a heavy 00:32:48.259 --> 00:32:50.980 load. It is. But understanding the mechanics, 00:32:51.160 --> 00:32:53.940 the how, strips away some of the mystique. He 00:32:53.940 --> 00:32:56.680 wasn't a wizard. He was a manipulator who found 00:32:56.680 --> 00:32:59.660 vulnerable people and broke them. Well, on that 00:32:59.660 --> 00:33:01.599 note, we are going to wrap up this deep dive. 00:33:01.799 --> 00:33:03.900 It's a lot to process. We want to thank you for 00:33:03.900 --> 00:33:06.279 listening. Stay curious and stay critical. See 00:33:06.279 --> 00:33:07.119 you on the next deep dive.