Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Inside cult of Manson
Unseen footage reveals life in murderous Family
MANSON Family members cavort naked and play with weapons in unseen footage of the killer cult.
Producer Simon Andreae found the shocking scenes among 100 hours of tapes of the Family made 50 years ago.
Now digitally remastered, the footage forms the basis of two-part ITV documentary, Manson: The Lost Tapes.
Twisted Manson promised followers drugs and free love before coercing them to murder seven people in 1969.
Their victims included heavily pregnant actress Sharon Tate, who was married to film director Roman Polanski.
Surviving Family members recall why they joined his Helter Skelter cult.
Brooks Poston says: “He looked like, acted like, said the right words at the right time, so to me he was JC, or Christ.”
Manson, who died last year aged 83, wanted to start an apocalyptic race war when he was freed from prison after seven years in 1967. He named his plan after a song by The Beatles, which he interpreted as a call to arms.
The cult lived on sex, food scavenged from skips, and drugs. But they were also trained to attack.
Catherine “Gypsy” Share recalls: “He taught us to hold a knife so it was, like, part of our fist, and that’s how you do it with a shiv in prison.”
Dianne “Snake” Lake joined when she was just 14.
She says: “My mom and dad were not the warm, fuzzy, hugging variety, and I think I needed to feel that.”
Free love reigned at the Los Angeles ranch where they lived but Lake says Manson sexually assaulted her when she asked him to make love to her.
She says: “It was more than just a rejection, he abused me, he hurt me. It was like, ‘Don’t you dare ask me for sex.’”
Paul Watkins says Manson positioned himself as a sex symbol to his followers.
“He said the whole universe is one great big f***,” Watkins says. “He said it was everything... All they ever did was try to get Charlie to make love to them.”
But he used that power to make them fear him. Watkins says: “Charlie said fear, love and awareness were the same thing. The more fear you had, the more awareness you had, the more love you had.”
He also used LSD to control them, while remaining clear-headed himself, according to Catherine “Gypsy” Share.
“I wasn’t aware he was taking less or none at all. I was aware he always seemed like he was in control,” she says.
Such was Manson’s hold on the group, Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme says: “Every girl ought to have a daddy like Charles – someone that treasures them.”
Robert Hendrickson, who died in 2016, shot the footage from 1969 to 1973 but his own film was banned and his tapes have only emerged now.
ITV’S Crime & Punishment season continues with Manson: The Lost Tapes starting tonight on ITV at 9pm.