Charles Manson is one of the world's most notorious serial killers. He is best known for the Tate-LaBianca murders, although there were others. The story behind this is a strange one. It goes deep into one mans sick and twisted mind, that was determined to make his odd fantasy world a reality. Beware, for this tale is not for the weak at heart. The beginning of this story starts with a simple cult known as 'The Manson Family'.

A man with name of Charles Manson created the Manson Family in 1967. He had a great technique with women and would make everyone feel loved. Two of his first members were Fromme and Krenwinkel (Burns 1). Fromme was the most loyal to Manson and became his main girl. . She joined The Family at the age of 18 after her father threw her out of the house (1). Krenwinkel was a 21-year-old collage dropout and was living with her sister. She depended on her sister for diet pills because she was overweight due to a medical condition. She met Manson at a friend's house and devoted her life to him after he called her pretty and lavished her in compliments (1). As time passed The Family continued to grow. The strange thing about a majority of the young people whom became involved with the family is that they used to be pretty good kids. Tex was a track star, played basketball and football, and always got straight A's. Leslie was homecoming princess. Patricia had wanted to become a nun (Jicha). Then they got mixed up with Manson.

People always say if these young people were so great and smart, why in the world did they get mixed up with Manson? There are many answers to this including problems at home and low self-esteem, but one of the major ones is he was a very hypnotic and persuasive speaker. He demonstrated this when two reporters, one male one female, interviewed him one day (Burns 1).

At first he ignored the female, but as the interview progressed he slowly paid her compliments and would rub her shoulders (1), this continued for most of the interview. Then suddenly, he grabbed the cord with which the tape recorder was connected and wrapped it around her throat (1), causing her to fear for her life. As he was taken away, he said while laughing that that is one of the reasons that she shouldn't just trust anybody.

Another one of the main reasons is that he believed that he was Jesus Christ reincarnate. He would ask his followers if they would die for him. If one of them started to argue and fight or disagree with him, he would say, do you know whom I am (1)? This, of course, was implying that he was their messiah and they should not, therefore, be arguing with him because he knew what was best for them.

The Family lived like children of nature. They walked around bare foot, ate from the garbage, and danced and sang to the songs that Charles wrote. He made it a requirement for both men and women to have sex with him. He had nude women serve him. Women were generally naked, and men were held in high regard merely because they were men.

Manson was a huge Beatles fan. It was one of their songs from their The White album that inspired Helter Skelter (Layman 296-297). Manson believed that they were communicating telepathically with him through their music and that they were telling him that he needed to start a racial war (296). In order to do this he decided to murder wealthy white people and blame it on a black political party known as The Black Panthers. After being falsely accused the blacks would rise up and kill almost all of the whites. They would then go find The Family, who would be in a safe place in the desert, so that they could start a new race (296).

The chosen victims were Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring, Voytek Frykowski, and Abigail Folger (Koopmans 53). Also killed at the Tate residence were the grounds keeper William Garretson and his friend Steve Parent (56). Also killed were Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary (56) They owned a small ring of grocery stores and were chosen merely because they had money, not as much as Tate and friends, but enough to subject them to a violent death at the hands of a select few of The Family.

These killings caused widespread panic. Movie stars and celebrities started buying up all means of security that they could get their hands on (Steffens, Bradley, and Staples 18). Soon rumors started to fly that a celebrity hit list had been formed.

On the morning of August 9, 1969 there was a horrific discovery (Burns 1). The mangled and bloodied bodies of Sharon Tate and her friends and groundskeeper were found by the maid. She was so horrified about what she had seen that she could barely gasp out " blood….bodies…death", as she ran frantically for help (1). Later they found the LaBiancas, whose bodies were also mangled.

The police working on the case did not believe them to be related. Even after a young boy found the gun used at the murders they didn't compare it to the evidence because it was found so far away from the crime scene (Steffens, Bradley, and Staples 47-48). Another thing that hindered the investigation was that the two police forces working on the cases refused to work together because they were so competitive (22-23). They were also delayed because of their short sightedness and inflexibility. When they finally made the connection it was only a matter of time before they went after The Family.

Manson and The Family fled to Barker Ranch in early September of '69 (Koopmans 62). They were no longer the harmonious group that they had started out as, now they were tense and nervous. Manson was going around telling everyone to fight to the death if necessary before they would allow themselves to be taken by the cops. These conditions, along with the rumors that The Family was involved in murder, caused many people to run away from the Family. Two young girls, both pregnant, ran away and found the police who were on their way to Barker Ranch to arrest the Family before the armed search party that Manson had sent after them did (24).

Police found Manson hiding in a small bathroom cabinet in one of the ranch buildings and arrested 24 Family members (63). They were taken to Inyo County Jail where they were held for many things including grand theft auto, arson, and illegal firearm possession (63). Manson was booked under the alias of Jesus Christ.

The trial was the longest running trial at the time. It lasted 9 ½ months and most of the prosecutions testimony came from members of The Family in exchange for a more lenient sentence (Layman 297). They used the testimony of some members from the gang Straight Satan, who said that some Family members had bragged about killing five piggies and said that Manson had asked how to decompose a body( Lindner). The most incriminating evidence came from what Susan Atkins had told her jail mate Virginia.

Susan had been saying all sorts of stuff about a guy named Charles and how she knew all about the Tate-LaBianca murders and Virginia listened uneasily as Susan proceeded to describe the horrific events. "Sharon was the last to die", said Susan laughing. Susan held Sharon's arms behind her back while she pleaded not only for her life but for that of her unborn child. Susan looked her in the eye and said "Look I don't care about you. I don't care if you're having a baby. You'd better be ready. You're going to die and I don't care." (64).

Afterward she killed her she tasted the blood on her finger and said that she liked it. She said that she had wanted to cut out the baby and mutilate it and the people but there hadn't been enough time(64). When Virginia asked how she felt afterwards, she said happy. She also told of how Krenwinkel stabbed Folger 28 times, she had stabbed Leno 26 times and carved war on his stomach while thinking, 'this is one man who won't send his son to war' (Burns 1). She also told her that they had planned to kill Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Tom Jones, Steve McQueen, and Frank Sinatra (Lindner). Virginia told the guards but they didn't listen so she called the hotline and told them everything that she had heard (Steffens, Bradley, and Staples 34).

Manson refused to testify before a jury and tried to control the courtroom (1). People argued that his followers shouldn't be held responsible because Manson had so much control over them. (Steffens, Bradley, and Staples 42). The prosecution argued that they did it out of love (Karisa 1). During the trial Patricia Krenwinkel, Susan Atkins, and Linda Kasabian visited, chanted, giggled, and sang loudly (Burns 1). The Manson Family tattoed X's on their heads saying they had X'd themselves from the world. Fromme took over the group after Manson was incarcerated and continued to take his orders. They were given a death sentence that was later reversed to a life sentence (1).

Manson is currently living comfortably in Corcoran State Prison. He receives 60,000 pieces of mail a year which is more than any other prisoner on record. He was up for parole in 2002 but was denied. He will be up for parole yet again in the year 2007. He will presumably be denied again, which is more than he deserves. As the years pass, people still remember the tragedy the cut these young peoples lives so short. These young people had much potential and thanks to the Manson Family we will never know what they were capable of.

Works cited

Burns, Kari. “True Crime Book: Charles Manson and Family.” Kari and Associates. 1994-2005. http://www.karisable.com/skazmanson.htm (1 Mar. 2006).

Jicha, Tom. “CBS unveils a sadistic new Manson Family portrait.” South Florida Sun Sentenial. 13 May 2004. 2 Mar. 2006. <http.//access.gale.com/tel1/>

Koopmans, Andy. Charles Manson. Detroit: Lucent Books 2005.