Killer cult leader Charles Manson dies after decades in prison
Charles Man son, the hippie cult leader who became the hypnotic- eyed face of evil across America after orchestrating the gruesome murders of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and six others in Los Angeles during the summer of 1969, has died in prison.
Man son ,83, whose name to this day is synonymous with unspeakable violence and madness, died of natural causes at Kern County hospital, according to a California Department of Corrections statement.
A petty criminal who had been in and out of jail since childhood, the charismatic, guru- like Manson surrounded himself in the 1960s with runaways and other lost souls and then sent his disciples to butcher some of LA’S rich and famous in what prosecutors said was a bid to trigger a race war–an idea he got from a twisted reading of the Beatles song Helter Skelter.
The slayings horrified the world and, together with the deadly violence that erupted later in 1969 during a Rolling Stones concert at California’s Altamont Speedway, exposed the dangerous, drugged- out underside of the countercul- ture movement and seemed to mark the death of the era of peace and love.
Despite the over whelming evidence against him, Manson maintained during his tumultuous trial in 1970 that he was innocent and that society itself was guilty.
“These children that come at you with knives, they are your children.
“You taught them; I didn’ t teach them. I just tried to help them stand up ,” he said in a courtroom soliloquy.
The Manson Family, as his followers were called, slaughtered five of its victims on 9 August 19 69 at Tate’s home: the actress, who wasp regnant, coffee heiress Abigail Folger, celebrity hair dresser Jay Sebring, Polish movie director Voi ty ck Fryk ow ski and Steven Parent, a friend of the estate’s caretaker.
Tate’s husband, Rosemary’s Baby director Roman Polanski, was out of the country at the time.
The next night, a wealthy grocer and his wife, Leno and Rosemary La B ian ca, were stabbed to death in their home across town.
The killers scrawled such phrases as “Pigs” in blood at the crime scenes.