Welcome back to The Deep Dive. You know, usually
when we sit down to do one of these, we are looking
at something, well, something functional. We're
unpacking tech trends or digging into historical
battles or analyzing economic shifts. Trying
to make sense of the world. Exactly. We're trying
to make you smarter for your next dinner party.
But today, today we are staring directly into
the abyss. Yeah, this is a heavy one. There is
no way around that. We are tackling a subject
that is arguably the most dissected, discussed,
and just disturbing chapter in American pop culture
history. We are talking about Charles Manson
and the Manson family. But, and I want to be
really clear about this right off the bat. We
are not here to retell the bedtime story you
think you know. No. We aren't here to just gawk
at the mugshot with the crazy eyes or replay
the sensational headlines. This is different.
Exactly. Everyone knows the ending. Everyone
knows about the Tate -LaBianca murders. But what
we have here, this massive stack of source material
you've pulled together, it tells a different
story. It really does. We've got detailed Wikipedia
records on discographies. We've got the specific
theological breakdown of the Helter Skelter scenario,
the history of Spahn Ranch, documents on this
group called the Process Church, and even some
very active, very current Reddit discussions
about where these people are today. And when
you overlay all the sources, the picture just,
it changes completely. It stops being just a
true crime story about a monster. It becomes
a mechanics manual. That's a perfect way to put
it. That's the mission today. We want to understand
the mechanics of this cult. How does a failed
musician, a guy who was essentially a drifter,
convinces a group of middle -class kids to commit
acts of unspeakable violence? Because the sources
suggest this wasn't just magic or hypnosis. Not
at all. It was a perfect storm of the music industry,
the counterculture, and a very specific, twisted
interpretation of prophecy. It's really a study
in manipulation. It is. And frankly, it's a study
in the death of the 1960s. It's where the whole
summer of love thing just, it hits a brick wall.
So let's start with the thing that I think surprises
people the most, the music. I think we forget,
or maybe we just don't realize, that before he
was a cult leader, Charles Manson was desperately,
passionately trying to be a rock star. Oh, absolutely.
And looking at these files, he wasn't just delusional.
He was actually brushing shoulders with legitimate
royalty of the era. He was incredibly close.
And to understand the violence that comes later,
you have to understand the rejection that happened
first. But let's rewind even further. The source
material mentions that Manson didn't just pick
up a guitar at a campfire. He learned to play
in prison. Right. And this detail blew my mind.
He didn't learn from a music teacher or a chaplain.
He learned from Alvin Karpis. Alvin Creepy Karpis.
From a listener who doesn't have a Rolodex of
1930s gangsters. Who is that? Karpis was a legend
in the criminal underworld. He was part of the
Barker Karpis game, you know, Depression era
bank robbers. He was J. Edgar Hoover's public
enemy number one at one point. So picture this.
You have. young Charles Manson in federal prison
in the early 60s. And he's getting steel guitar
lessons from one of the most notorious outlaws
of the 20th century. It sets the stage perfectly,
doesn't it? It's this fusion of criminality and
artistic ambition right from the root. He's learning
art from a man who made his living through violence.
Exactly. And Manson took that lesson to heart.
He comes out of prison in 1967. He heads to the
West Coast and he lands right in the middle of
the Summer of Love, Haight -Ashbury, San Francisco,
then down to LA. Right in the thick of it. But
unlike the flower children who were there for
peace and, you know, expansion, Manson has this
hardened prison yard survival instinct and he
manages to hustle his way into the life of Dennis
Wilson. The Dennis Wilson. The drummer for the
Beach Boys. The very same. The quintessential
California surfer boy. Yep. This feels like a
fiction writer's contrivance. Yeah. How does
an ex -con end up living in a Beach Boys mansion?
It sounds like a bad movie plot, but according
to the files, it started with hitchhiking. Hitchhiking
was the social networking of the 1960s. It was
how you met people. Sure. Dennis Wilson was driving
down Sunset Boulevard, and he picked up two women
hitchhiking, Patricia Krenwinkel and Ella Jo
Bailey. He brings them back to his place on Sunset
Boulevard. Okay, so far that sounds like a typical
rock star anecdote. Right. But later that night,
or early the next morning, Wilson comes home
from a recording session. It's the middle of
the night. He pulls into his driveway and there's
a stranger standing there. It's Charles Manson.
Most people would call the police. I mean, a
stranger in your driveway at 3 a .m.? Most people
would. But Manson... He knew how to play the
submissive role when he needed to. The records
say he actually knelt down and kissed Dennis
Wilson's feet. He kissed his feet? Kissed his
feet. He immediately played the role of the humble
guru, the servant. And Wilson, who was dealing
with his own issues and was caught up in the
openness of the era, the idea that everyone is
a brother, just let it happen. He invited him
in. Before long, Manson moves in. And he doesn't
come alone. He brings the family. We're talking
about a dozen women, plus Manson, living in Dennis
Wilson's house. And this wasn't a cheap guess
situation. The source material puts a dollar
figure on this that made my jaw drop. It says
Wilson spent roughly $100 ,000 on the family.
In 1968 money. Which is astronomical. That's
like nearly a million dollars a day when you
adjust for inflation and purchasing power. It's
unbelievable. What on earth were they spending
it on? It was a total parasitic takeover. They
were wrecking his uninsured cars. Wilson had
these expensive cars and the family members would
take them and crash them. Oh, my God. They were
eating all his food. And there's a specific detail
in the medical records that really paints a picture
of the high juice levels Wilson was paying for
their gonorrhea treatments. Apparently, it was
rampant in the group. So they're bleeding him
dry financially and physically. Wilson tolerates
it because he's interested in the music, right?
He thinks Manson has talent. He did. He actually
saw potential in Charlie. Manson had this folk
troubadour style that was becoming popular. Wilson
set up recording time for him. He introduced
him to industry contacts. And this leads to the
song theft. This is a huge friction point in
the timeline that explains Manson's growing rage.
I had heard rumors of this, but the discography
notes break it down clearly. The Beach Boys released
a song called Never Learn Not to Love. Released
as a B -side in December 1968. If you listen
to it, it sounds like a Beach Boys song. But
they didn't write it. No. Manson wrote it. The
original title was Cease to Exist. Cease to Exist
is a dramatically different vibe than Never Learn
Not to Love. It is. Cease to Exist was darker,
more bluesy, more threatening. The lyrics were
about submission. Cease to Exist, come say you
love me. Right. The Beach Boys, specifically
Dennis, take the song, change the lyrics to be
more pop friendly, change the arrangement to
fit their sound, and the fatal error. They didn't
credit Manson. They ghosted him in the liner
notes. Completely. And Manson was furious. You
have to remember for Manson, the music wasn't
just a career path. It was his message to the
world. It was his identity. Of course. When Wilson
stole that, the relationship deteriorated rapidly.
The sources say Manson actually threatened Wilson.
He showed him a bullet and said he could hurt
his children. Wilson was terrified. He eventually
just moved out of his own house and left the
lease just to escape the family. So Manson burns
the bridge with the Beach Boys. But he hasn't
given up on the dream. And this brings us to
the most important name in the geography of the
murders. Terry Melcher. Terry Melcher, a big
-time producer, the son of Doris Day. He was
the golden ticket. Okay. Through Wilson, Manson
managed to get an audition with Melcher. And
where did that audition take place? At 1050 Cielo
Drive. Exactly, the house. Melcher was living
there at the time with his girlfriend, Candace
Bergen. Manson went there. He played for Melcher
in that living room. And Melcher passed. He declined
to sign him. He thought Manson was interesting,
maybe suitable for a documentary, but not a rock
star. It's the ultimate rejection. He's standing
in the castle, and the king says no. It is. And
here's a detail from the files that destroys
a common myth. A lot of people think the family
went to Cielo Drive that night in August to kill
Melcher, not knowing he had moved. Right, that's
what I'd always heard. But the records say otherwise.
Manson knew Melcher was gone. How do we know
that? Because Manson went back to the house after
Melcher moved out. He was looking for him. And
the new owner, a man named Rudy Altabelli, told
Manson directly. Melcher moved to Malibu. So
he knew. He saw the movers. He knew the connection
was severed. So when he sent Tex Watson and the
women to that house on August 8th. He wasn't
looking for a person. He was attacking a symbol.
He was attacking the establishment that had shut
the door on his dreams. He picked that house
because it represented the pig establishment
that had rejected him. Exactly. Despite all this,
the rejection, the bridge burning, he actually
did get an album made. Lie. The Love and Terror
Cult. It's one of the strangest artifacts in
music history. It was released in March 1970.
Right. 1970. That's during the murder trial.
Right in the middle of it. A friend he met in
prison, Phil Kaufman, pushed to get it released.
Manson was calling him from jail five days a
week to organize it. He was obsessed. He was
obsessed with his image even while facing the
gas chamber. The cover is a parody of a Life
magazine cover. But it didn't chart. It sold
maybe 300 copies initially. It was a total commercial
failure. But it cements the idea that in Manson's
mind until the very end, he was an artist first
and a criminal second. So. The Hollywood dream
collapses. Yeah. The money dries up. Wilson kicks
them out. They need a place to go. And they end
up at Spahn Ranch. Now, looking at the description
of this place in the notes. It sounds like a
post -apocalyptic movie set. It effectively was.
Spahn Ranch was a 55 -acre property in L .A.
County, up in the Chatsworth area. It had been
used to film westerns for decades, shows like
The Lone Ranger, Bonanza, Zorro. Classic stuff.
But by 1968, the western genre is dying out.
The ranch is dilapidated. It's dusty. The buildings
are fake facades falling apart. It's a ghost
town. And the owner, George Spahn, is 80 years
old and going blind. Right. He's living in this
decay trying to run a horse rental business that
is barely staying afloat. Manson spots an opportunity.
He strikes a deal. The family can live there
rent free if they do the labor. OK. They clear
brush. They tend the horses. They run the pony
rides for tourists. But there was a much darker
form of rent being paid. The sexual manipulation.
Yeah. The sources are blunt about this. Very
blunt. Manson ordered the female family members
to sleep with George Spahn. He used them to keep
the old man happy and compliant. It was purely
transactional. Completely. Manson would say,
go. take care of George and they would do it.
Is this where the nickname Squeaky comes from?
For Lynette Fromm? It is. George Spahn gave her
the nickname because she made a squeaking noise
when he pinched her thigh. It's framed as this
cute anecdote in some retellings. Oh, Squeaky
Fromm. But when you look at the power dynamics,
it's incredibly gross. It's exploitation. Pure
and simple. Manson was pimping these women out
to secure a base of operations. So paint the
picture of daily life here. You've got this crumbling
set, a blind landlord, and this group of dropouts.
What do they do all day? It's a mix of rigorous
chores and absolute hedonism. They're dropping
acid, they're having orgies, but they're also,
you know, clearing brush and dumpster diving
for food behind grocery stores. But as 1969 wears
on, the mood shifts. Manson is tightening his
grip. He's starting to recruit muscle. This is
where the straight Satans come in. Straight Satans.
That sounds like a B -movie gang. They were a
very real outlaw motorcycle club. Mance realized
that hippies weren't enough. He needed protection.
He felt vulnerable. So he courted the straight
Satans. And again, his currency was women. He
offered up the family women to the bikers to
entice them to hang around the ranch. He was
turning Spahn Ranch into a fortress. There's
a detail in the timeline here that confuses a
lot of people. The raid. There was a massive
police raid on Spahn Ranch on August 16th, 1969.
A huge raid. This is after the Tate -LaBianca
murders. Over a hundred officers, helicopters,
the works. It was a massive operation. But they
weren't there for the murders. No. That is the
great irony of the investigation. The L .A. Sheriff's
Department raided the ranch because they suspected
the family was running an auto theft ring. An
auto theft ring? They were stealing Volkswagens,
specifically VW Beetles, and chopping them up
to turn them into dune buggies for the desert.
So they had them. They had Manson in cuffs. They
had the killers in custody. They had them all.
They rounded up everyone on the ranch, and they
had to let them go. Why? A paperwork error. The
warrant had the wrong date or was missigned.
The sources vary slightly on the technicality,
but a judge ruled the raid invalid. So they walked
free. They walked free. And because the auto
theft unit wasn't talking to the homicide unit,
nobody connected the dots to the bodies found
just a week earlier on Cielo Drive. The disconnection
in law enforcement. Yeah. It's terrifying. It
allowed the cult to... persist it did and it
validated manson's feeling of invincibility when
they were released he told the family it was
a miracle he probably thought he really was a
messiah at that point let's talk about that messiah
complex because manson wasn't just telling these
kids to steal cars he was feeling them a theology
we need to decode helter skelter This is the
engine of the madness. Without this, they're
just car thieves. Now, most people know Helter
Skelter as a Beatles song, a loud, raucous rock
song about a slide in an amusement park. Right.
But Manson's interpretation, this is what psychologists
call apophenia, right? Seeing patterns where
none exist. Textbook apophenia. Manson was obsessed
with the Beatles white album released in 1968.
He believed, genuinely believed, that the Beatles
were four angels sending him coded messages through
the lyrics. He constructed an entire apocalyptic
timeline based on this one pop album. So break
it down. What was the helter skelter scenario?
Manson predicted a racial apocalypse. He believed
that black people, specifically the black power
movement, were going to rise up and violently
overthrow the white establishment. A race war.
A race war. war. He believed the tension in American
cities was going to boil over. He called this
war Helter Skelter. Okay, so a race war. But
where does the family fit in? Well, Manson was
a white supremacist, but he also thought black
people were incapable of governing themselves.
His theory was that after the black population
won the war and wiped out the white establishment,
they wouldn't know what to do. They would need
a leader. And let me guess who that leader was.
Charlie. The plan was for the Manson family to
hide in a secret city under Death Valley. He
called it the Bottomless Pit. The Bottomless
Pit. He literally believed there was a hole in
the desert floor leading to a subterranean paradise
with chocolate fountains and gold. They would
wait out the war in luxury, and when the dust
settled, they would emerge to rule over the world.
It's so fantastical. But he rooted it in specific
songs. The source material lists a few. Blackbird,
for instance. Paul McCartney wrote that about
the civil rights movement, loosely. Right, but
Manson took it literally. Blackbirds singing
in the dead of night, take these broken wings
and learn to fly. He told his followers this
was a command for black people to rise up and
kill whites. Unbelievable. He thought the Beatles
were blowing the trumpet for the apocalypse.
And biggies. George Harrison's song, it's a satire
of the upper class clutching forks and knives
to eat their bacon. Okay. Manson turned that
into an instruction manual. That's why at the
crime scenes you see forks and knives used in
such gruesome ways. They were acting out the
lyrics. They called the establishment piggies.
The one that always baffled me was Rocky Raccoon.
It's a cowboy ballad. It's almost a comedy song.
It is, but Manson latched onto the word coon.
He interpreted it as a racial slur. And the line
about Gideon's Bible, he decided that meant the
book of Revelation. He was weaving Beatles lyrics
and biblical prophecy into this toxic tapestry.
And Revolution 9, that avant -garde sound collage.
That was the Holy Grail for him. He heard machine
gun fire. He heard pigs grunting. He heard the
sounds of chaos. He thought it was an auditory
recording of the coming war. He linked it to
Revelation chapter 9 in the Bible. It's terrifying
how he could twist anything to fit his narrative.
But here is the problem Manson faced. The war
wasn't starting. Exactly. He's preaching this
apocalypse. He's moved everyone to the desert
and back. But the summer of 69 is rolling along
and the revolution isn't happening. He's losing
credibility. His credibility is on the line.
And this is where we shift from crazy theories
to actual violence. The timeline and the sources
shows a clear escalation. It didn't start with
Sharon Tate. No. The violence kicks off in July
1969. and it starts with a drug deal. We need
to talk about Bernard Crowe. Lotsa Papa. Bernard
Lotsa Papa Crowe. He was a drug dealer. Tex Watson
Manson's right -hand man had burned Crowe on
a transaction. He took the money for drugs but
didn't deliver the goods. Crowe called Spahn
Ranch and threatened to come down and wipe everyone
out. So Manson takes preemptive action. He goes
to Crowe's apartment in Hollywood and shoots
him. And Manson leaves thinking he's committed
murder. He thinks Crowe is dead. In reality,
Crow survived the shooting. But here's the critical
mistake. Manson thought Crow was a member of
the Black Panthers. Was he? No. Not at all. But
Manson was convinced. So now he's paranoid. He
thinks the entire Black Panther organization
is going to descend on Spahn Ranch for revenge.
Right. This is what militarized the family. They
started doing armed patrols at night. They practiced
tactical maneuvers. The vibe shifted from peace
and love to kill or be killed. So the pressure
cooker is sealed. Then comes Gary Hinman. This
is late July. Why Gary Hinman? He was a music
teacher, a friend of the family. The motive here
was money and maybe bad drugs. The family believed
Hinman had an inheritance coming to him, stocks
and bonds. They also blamed him for a bad batch
of mescaline that had been sold to the straight
Satans. So they needed cash. Manson needed cash
to pay back the bikers to keep his protection
squad happy. So Bobby Beausoleil, Susan Atkins
and Mary Brunner go to Hinman's house. It turns
into a hostage situation. It lasts for days.
They are trying to get him to sign over his cars.
Manson actually shows up at one point with a
sword. A sword, like a katana. A cutlass -style
sword. He slashes Hinman's ear, literally cuts
part of it off, and then leaves. Tells Bobby
to finish it. Eventually, Bobby Beausoleil stabs
Hinman to death, and this is where we see the
first signature. Writing on the wall. They write
political piggy on the wall in Hinman's blood.
Great. And they draw a panther paw print. They
were trying to frame the Black Panthers. Exactly.
They were trying to jumpstart the race war. Look,
the Black militants are killing white liberals.
But it backfired. Also. It didn't start a war.
Instead, Bobby Beauchelet got arrested for the
murder a few days later because he was caught
driving Inman's car. So now Manson is desperate.
His guy is in jail. The police are sniffing around.
The race war hasn't started. Right. He decides
he needs to do something bigger. Something so
horrific it can't be ignored. And that brings
us to August 8th, the night of the Tate murders.
The target is 1712 TCLO Drive, the house where
he was rejected by Terry Melcher. Who went that
night? Tex Watson led the group. With him were
Susan Actins, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Linda
Kasabian. Kasabian acted as the lookout. She
didn't physically participate in the killings,
which is why she became the star witness later.
She was the only one who didn't have blood on
her hands. Pretty much, yeah. The details of
this night are, they're hard to read, even 50
years later. The victims were Sharon Tate, who
was eight and a half months pregnant. Two weeks
from her due date. Jay Sebring, the celebrity
hairstylist. Abigail Folger, the coffee heiress.
Whoa, Jerry Frykowski. Yeah. And Stephen Parent.
An 18 -year -old kid who just happened to be
visiting the caretaker. Parent was the first
one killed. He was just in his car, in the driveway,
leaving. Tex Watson walked up to the window and
shot him four times. Just wrong place, wrong
time. What chills me is the ideology driving
it. Tex Watson's line to the victims. The source
quotes him saying, I am the devil and I'm here
to do the devil's business. That line. It shows
how fully indoctrinated Watson was. He wasn't
just robbing them. He was enacting a ritual.
He truly believed he was an agent of chaos. And
again, the writing. Yeah. Pig written in blood
on the front door. A direct reference to the
Piggy song. They wanted the world to think the
Black Panthers did it. But Manson wasn't there
that night. No. He stayed at the ranch. But when
the killers came back, Manson was annoyed. He
felt the job was messy. Messy. He felt they panicked.
So the next night, August 9th, he decided to
go with them. He wanted to show them how to do
it. This leads to the LaBianca murders, Leno
and Rosemary LaBianca. Now, were these people
famous? Were they connected to the music industry?
No, they were just people. They owned a grocery
chain. They lived in Las Feliz. It was completely
random. So how did he pick them? Manson drove
around for a while before settling on their house,
simply because it was next door to a house he
had partied at the year before. It was familiar
territory. Manson's involvement here is strange.
She goes in, ties him up, and then leaves. Correct.
He enters the house, binds them with lamp cords,
assures them they won't be hurt, takes their
wallets, and then he walks out of the car and
sends in Tex Watson, Patricia Krenwinkel, and
Leslie Van Houten. And this was Leslie Van Houten's
first participation. Yes. She wasn't at the Tate
house, but she participated in the killing of
Rosemary LaBianca. The scene they left behind
was even more grotesque than the Tate house.
It was overkill. They carved the word war into
Lena LaBianca's abdomen. They left a carving
fork protruding from his stomach, and they wrote
on the walls again, rise, death to pigs, and
helter -skelter on the refrigerator. But they
misspelled Helter Skelter. They did. H -E -A
-L -T -E -R. It's a pathetic detail in the middle
of such horror, but it highlights the chaotic,
uneducated nature of the group. They were zealots,
but they weren't masterminds. Not even close.
There's one more murder in the timeline that
often gets overlooked in the documentaries. Donald
Shorty Shea. Right. Shorty Shea. He was a ranch
hand at Spahn Ranch, a former stuntman, a bouncer.
He was a tough guy, and he knew Manson was bad
news. He didn't buy into the Guru Act. Not for
a second. He was trying to get George Spahn to
kick the family out. Why did they turn on him?
A few reasons. Manson suspected him of being
a snitch, especially after that auto theft raid.
He thought Shay tipped off the cops. But there
was also the racial element. She had married
a black woman. And Manson was a virulent racist.
He hated that. So sometime in late August, they
lured him away and killed him. There was a rumor
for years that they dismembered him and scattered
him in the desert. That was a rumor Manson spread
to scare the other family members into submission.
Cross me and you'll end up like Shorty. But the
source material confirms that when they finally
found his body in 1977, eight years later, he
was buried intact near the ranch. So we have
this spree of violence, but the big question
is always why. We touched on Helter Skelter.
That was the prosecution's theory. Right. Vincent
Bugliosi, the prosecutor. He argued that the
sole motive was to trigger this race war. And
that was the narratives that won the case. It
was clean. It was terrifying. And it used Manson's
own prophecy against him. It made Manson look
like a wizard. It captured the public imagination.
But when you look at the sources, there are alternative
theories that honestly make a lot of sense. Theories
that are less supernatural and more, you know,
just criminal. Like the copycat theory. Right.
This is the theory that some of the family members,
like Susan Atkins and Leslie Van Houten, supported
in later years. The idea is simple. Bobby Beausoleil
is sitting in jail for the Hinman murder. The
family thinks, if we commit copycat murders with
the same pig writing and knife wounds while Bobby
is locked up, the police will think the real
killer is still on the loose. So the Tate murders
weren't about starting a war. They were about
creating reasonable doubt for Bobby. Free Bobby.
That was the chant. It makes the murder seem
more tactical, less mystical. It was a misguided,
horrific legal strategy. And then there's the
drug theory. We know Watson was burning drug
dealers. We know Frykowski and Sebring were involved
in the Hollywood recreational drug scene. Could
it have been a drug burn gone nuclear? It's very
possible that drugs were the catalyst. Maybe
Frykowski owed money. Maybe Manson was trying
to send a message to the underworld that he wasn't
to be messed with. But the brutality. The brutality,
the sheer overkill, implies it went far beyond
a simple debt collection. You don't write helter
-skelter in blood for a drug debt. It likely
started as a hit or a burn, but the ideology
took over once the violence started. One source
in our stack mentions the processed church of
a final judgment. I've heard this name whispered
in conspiracy circles. What is the connection
here? This is a rabbit hole. The Process Church
was a real group founded in the 60s. Their theology
was neo -gnostic, essentially. They believed
that to reach the end times, you had to reconcile
Christ and Satan. Christ and Satan holding hands.
Exactly. They operated in London, but they had
a chapter in L .A. They wore black capes. They
walked around with German shepherds. They were
very theatrical. And the connection to Manson?
The prosecutors suggested links. There were rumors
Manson visited their headquarters or contributed
to their magazine. Did they order the murders?
There's no evidence of that. The sources say
the connection was never proven. But just the
association with Manson was enough to effectively
destroy the church's reputation. It just adds
another layer of occult weirdness to the story,
even if it wasn't the driving force. So the murders
happen. The investigation is botched initially.
But eventually, the family members start talking.
Susan Adkins. she bragged about it to a cellmate
while she was in for another charge that was
the big break they get caught and we get the
trial And the trial was a circus. It was unprecedented.
It was the first trial of the century for the
TV era. Manson treated the courtroom like a stage.
He carved an X into his forehead. And the next
day, his followers on the outside who were camping
on the corner did the same. Which later turned
into a swastika. Right. He modified the X into
a swastika later. He would leap over the desk
at the judge. He chanted in Latin. And then you
had the president of the United States, Richard
Nixon. Oh, yeah. Declaring Manson guilty in the
press while the trial was ongoing. which is a
huge legal no -no. Huge. Manson held up a newspaper
with the headline, Manson Guilty, Nixon Declares,
to the Jury. He was trying to cause a mistrial.
He knew the law well enough to try and wreck
the proceedings. And the defense strategy? Non
-existent. They arrested without calling a single
witness. This enraged the female defendants,
Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, Leslie Van
Houten. They wanted to testify. To do what? They
wanted to take the blame. They were going to
get on the stand and say, we did it. Charlie
had nothing to do with it. Still protecting him,
even facing the death penalty. Still indoctrinated.
But the lawyer stopped them, realizing Manson
was manipulating them even in court. The lawyers
arguably saved them from themselves. They were
all sentenced to death, but they didn't die.
No. In 1972, the California Supreme Court ruled
the death penalty unconstitutional. Their sentences
were automatically commuted to life imprisonment,
so they sat in prison for decades. Which brings
us to the where are they now segment. We have
a Reddit thread in our source deck that synthesizes
the current status of these people. It's fascinating
to see how their paths diverged. Let's run through
it. Manthan. Died in prison in 2017. He never
showed remorse. He played the role of the boogeyman
until the end. He loved the attention. He would
give interviews to Geraldo Rivera or whoever
speaking in riddles. Susan Atkins. Sexy Sadie.
She died in prison in 2009 of brain cancer. It
was a tragic end in a way. She petitioned for
a compassionate release on her deathbed. She
was paralyzed, could barely speak. She had be
wheeled into the hearing. It was denied. Denied.
The parole board and the public couldn't forgive
the callousness she showed towards Sharon Tate.
When Tate begged for the life of her unborn baby,
Atkins told her, look, bitch, I don't care about
you. That, quote, sealed her fate forever. And
then we have Leslie Van Houten. This is recent
news. This is a big development. Leslie Van Houten
was released on parole in July 2023. She's out.
She is walking free. The argument was that she
was the youngest. She was 19 at the time. She
was only present at the LaBianca murders, not
Tate. And she had been a model prisoner for 50
years. Right. She earned degrees. She ran self
-help groups. She underwent decades of therapy.
But it was highly controversial. Governor Newsom
fought it. The courts overruled him. I can't
imagine the families were devastated. What about
Patricia Kronwegel? Still incarcerated. She is
the longest serving female inmate in the California
Pingal Cerdo. She was denied parole recently.
Governor Newsom reversed the board's decision,
citing that she is still dangerous. Why is she
treated differently than Van Houten? She participated
in both nights, and her actions were particularly
brutal. She chased down Abigail Folger on the
lawn and stabbed her. That level of participation
is harder to overlook. And Tex Watson, the executioner.
Still incarcerated, he claims to be born again,
he runs a ministry from prison, but the Reddit
discussion brings up a disturbing detail. He
fathered four children during conjugal visits.
Wait, the man who killed a pregnant woman was
allowed to have children in prison? Yes. Before
California banned conjugal visits for lifers
in the late 90s, Watson married and started a
family. It creates a lot of anger in the public
forum, as you can imagine. Of course. The victims
didn't get to have families, but the killer did.
That is tough to process. It really is. There's
one more layer to the victim count. We listed
the known victims, but the sources mentioned
suspected victims. Yeah, there are bodies that
have never been fully explained. There's John
Haught, nicknamed Zero. He was a family member.
He supposedly died playing Russian roulette.
Supposedly. Well, the gun was found fully loaded.
You don't play Russian roulette with a fully
loaded gun. That's just suicide or murder. Right.
And then Ronald Hughes. He was the attorney for
Leslie Van Houten during the trial. He was the
one who advised her not to take the stand and
lie for Manson. So Manson hated him. Hated him.
During a recess in the trial, Hughes went camping
and never came back. His body was found months
later wedged between rocks in a creek. It's widely
believed the family killed him for interfering
with Manson's defense, but it's never been proven.
It just shows that the blast radius of this group
was huge. It wasn't just the famous murders.
It was ranch hands, attorneys, group members.
It was a machine of destruction. It was. So what
does this all mean? Why are we still talking
about this over 50 years later? We have stacks
of documents, but what is the takeaway? I think
it's because the Manson story marks a specific
turning point. Joan Didion famously wrote that
the 60s ended abruptly on August 9th, 1969. You
have the elements of peace and love music. communal
living, liberation curdling into something horrific.
It's the ultimate bad trip. It killed the vibe.
It killed the dream. It proved that the counterculture
wasn't immune to evil. And at the center of it,
you don't have a mastermind genius. You have
a petty criminal. A failed musician who used
the tools of the counterculture, the sex, the
drugs, the philosophy to feed his own narcissism.
That's the thing that sticks with me. The fragility
of it all. If Terry Melcher had just signed Manson
to a record deal, does any of this happen? That's
the haunting what if. If Manson gets his fame,
maybe he doesn't need his infamy. Maybe he just
becomes a one -hit wonder who tours with the
Beach Boys, gets rich, and fades away. Or maybe,
given the personalities and the drugs, the violence
was inevitable. Maybe the record deal would have
just given him a bigger platform for his madness.
It's a chilling thought. We've looked at the
failed ambition, the twisted lyrics, the desert
ranch. And the blood on the walls. It's a heavy
load. It is. But understanding the mechanics,
the how, strips away some of the mystique. He
wasn't a wizard. He was a manipulator who found
vulnerable people and broke them. Well, on that
note, we are going to wrap up this deep dive.
It's a lot to process. We want to thank you for
listening. Stay curious and stay critical. See
you on the next deep dive.