Yahoo News Charles Manson dead: The leering, scruffy ex-convict who became the face of evil
Charles Manson, the hippie cult leader who instructed his followers to commit a string of gruesome murders in the summer of 1969, has died aged 83.
The head of the notorious ‘Family’ cult became a symbol of the darker side of the counterculture movement, rewriting the history of the era of peace, love and flower power.
Manson, who died of natural causes on Sunday aged 83 after nearly half a century behind bars, orchestrated the killings of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and six other people in California as the 1960s came to an end.
His victims were butchered at two homes on successive August nights by intruders who scrawled “Pigs” and “Healter Skelter” (sic) in the victims’ blood.
The slaughter horrified the world, with Manson, who held a magnetic hold over the young women of his cult, became of the most notorious figures of the 20th century.
Most popular on Yahoo News UK
Gaia Pope death ‘not being treated as murder’ as three people arrested are released without charge
World’s longest aircraft the ‘Flying Bum’ seriously damaged after it crashes AGAIN
Here’s how to see messages someone has ‘deleted’ on WhatsApp
Fugitive taunts police by posting sightseeing pictures on Facebook while on the run
The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh’s 70 years of marriage in pictures
“Many people I know in Los Angeles believe that the 60s ended abruptly on August 9, 1969,” author Joan Didion wrote in her 1979 book The White Album.
Short and shaggy-haired, the ex-convict had hypnotic eyes, and was a charismatic figure who was able to turn middle-class youngsters into willing killers.
At a former movie ranch outside Los Angeles, he and his devotees, many of them young runaways who likened him to Jesus Christ, lived commune-style, using drugs and taking part in orgies.
Tate, who lived with her husband, Rosemary’s Baby director Roman Polanski, was eight and a half months pregnant when she was stabbed and hanged from a rafter in her living room.
Also killed were Abigail Folger, heiress to a coffee fortune; Polish film director Voityck Frykowksi; Steven Parent, a friend of the estate’s caretaker; and celebrity hairdresser Jay Sebring, killed by Manson follower Charles “Tex” Watson, who announced his arrival by saying: “I am the devil, and I’m here to do the devil’s work.”
The next night, wealthy grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary, were stabbed to death in their home in another neighbourhood.
Prosecutors said Manson wanted to foment a race war, an idea he supposedly got from a twisted reading of the hard-rocking Beatles’ song Helter Skelter.
Manson was born in Cincinnati on November 12 1934, to a teenager, possibly a prostitute.
When he was five, his mother went to prison for armed robbery. By the time he was eight, he was in reform school. He spent years in and out of penal institutions.
“My father is the jailhouse. My father is your system,” he said in a monologue on the witness stand. “I am only what you made me. I am only a reflection of you.”
He and three female followers, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten, sang and chanted, and Manson at one point launched himself across the counsel table at the judge.
Many of his followers camped outside the courthouse, threatening to immolate themselves if he was convicted.
When Manson carved an “X” in his forehead, his co-defendants did the same, saying they were “Xed out of society.” He later changed his “X” to a swastika.
Despite the overwhelming evidence, he maintained his innocence. “I have killed no-one, and I have ordered no-one to be killed,” Manson said.
He and the three women were found guilty of murder and sentenced to death. Another defendant, Charles “Tex” Watson, was convicted later.
All were spared execution and given life sentences after the California Supreme Court struck down the death penalty in 1972.
Manson also was convicted in the killings of stuntman Donald “Shorty” Shea and musician Gary Hinman.
At a 2012 parole hearing Manson boycotted, he was quoted as telling a prison psychiatrist: “I’m special. I’m not like the average inmate. I have put five people in the grave. I am a very dangerous man.”
The parole board decided he should stay behind bars for at least 15 more years.
