♪♪
Manson: I'll be coming up to your children.
And I'll do whatever it takes
to preserve my life on the planet earth.
Because I am a selfish, bitter, no-account,
vicious snake.
♪♪
[ Whoosh ]
♪♪
Welcome to "very scary people."
I'm Donnie wahlberg.
Charles manson, a twisted cult leader bent on violence,
has led his followers in a series of vicious murders.
His goal?
To start a race war between blacks and whites...
A conflict he calls helter skelter.
His murder weapons are members of his commune...
Impressionable young people, many from good families...
Who he manipulates with mind-control techniques,
turning his group of peaceful hippies
into a devoted death squad.
Police have yet to make the connection
between the carnage at two of manson's bloody crime scenes,
and Charlie is way ahead of them.
He wants more death, and he wants it the very next night.
How will investigators ultimately piece it
all together?
Here's part two of "the devil's work."
[ Ominous chord strikes ]
I spent the best part of my life in boys' schools,
prisons, and reform schools.
Roberts: You can't understand Charlie manson
without understanding his criminal past
and his time in jail.
Rick: In order for him to survive,
he developed skills to manipulate people.
Prison is where manson perfected the art of the con.
He's inspired by a very unlikely source.
His personal guru is none other than Dale carnegie.
Dr. Jordan: "How to win friends and influence people."
And then he used those techniques,
that ability to manipulate,
and eventually get people to kill for him.
Guinn: When he got out of prison,
Charlie reinvents himself as a guru.
He used the hippie ideals as recruitment tools,
but there was always, at the core, manson's attitudes,
which were darker and more violent
and more angry than the hippie ideal.
Charlie believes he is destined to be a rock star.
And it's just going to come down to can he get one break,
one introduction, and he does.
Manson strikes up a friendship
with Dennis Wilson of the beach boys.
Manson, at Dennis Wilson's house,
met Terry Melcher.
He was a famous record producer at the time.
He was living with his girlfriend,
Candice Bergen, at 10050 cielo drive.
Lake: Terry Melcher came to the ranch,
and we did, like, a little recording session.
But it's met with a flat rejection.
Charlie was really upset about that.
Terry Melcher had dashed his hope for a music contract.
In my opinion, that rejection is what led to his desire to kill.
Kay: He started holding training classes
for how to commit murder.
Then, on Friday, August the 8th, he said,
"now is the time for helter skelter."
Roman polanski was a very famous director at that time;
Sharon Tate, an up-and-coming young actress.
The newlyweds had moved into 10050 cielo drive.
Manson sends out three women,
with Tex Watson, to the Tate residence.
Shelley: Manson instructs Tex that he's to go in there
and kill everyone in a gory scene.
Guinn: Watson and the women proceeded to the house.
Tex Watson said, "we're gonna kill everyone in there."
Atkins: I remember that I had gone so far,
and there was no turning back,
that even if I had wanted to run,
even if I had wanted to leave, I couldn't.
It was like I was caught in something
that I had no control over.
Dr. Jordan: Sharon Tate and three houseguests...
Jay sebring, Abigail Folger, and wojciech frykowski...
Have no idea what's coming up the driveway.
The people in that house were terrorized, tortured.
♪♪
Dr. Jordan: Charles manson may not have been there,
but he had given them very specific instructions,
"before you leave, leave a sign."
Susan atkins picks up a towel
and dips it in the blood of Sharon Tate,
and on the front door of the house writes the word,
"pig."
Reporter: In a scene described by one investigator
as reminiscent of a weird religious rite,
five persons including actress Sharon Tate, were found dead.
Sidner: Incredibly, 19-year-old William garretson,
the fill-in caretaker,
had been just 25 yards away, in the guesthouse,
when these five people were murdered the night before.
Wiehl: The police take William garretson into custody,
and he becomes suspect number one.
Shelley: As I.A. homicide detectives are looking,
one of the strangest things was a statement written in blood.
On the front door, they saw the word "pig."
Sidner: But why is it written here, on Sharon Tate's front door?
Police at the Sharon Tate murder get a call from police
that were investigating the murder of Gary hinman.
Hinman was the musician who was murdered in his own home
a little over a week before.
Kay: And they said, "look, we have the murder of Gary hinman",
and there's writing in blood on the wall...
'political piggy.'
and you have the Tate murders with 'pig'
written in Sharon Tate's blood on the front door.
These murders may well be connected,
"because it's so unusual to have writing in blood."
And... pbht... LAPD not interested.
The LAPD should have made that connection.
The thing would have been solved in a matter of days.
But despite the brutal murders, manson is still not satisfied.
I am very mad, and I don't know whether I can control myself.
♪♪
Charlie had been talking about the race war,
referring to it as helter skelter.
Manson thought, because of the Tate murders,
helter skelter would begin.
But that bizarre race war manson predicted
still wasn't happening.
So, on August 10th, after everyone else had gone to bed,
manson again gathers a select group of his followers together.
A team of his death squad, his favorite followers,
to commit yet another murder.
There was Tex and manson and Linda kasabian,
Susan, pat, and I.
Manson said he was going to go out with them that night
and show them how to do it right.
Van houten: We got in the car.
And you drive where?
We drove all over I.A.
Charles manson is actually in the car with Tex
and the girls, looking for what the target will be.
♪♪
And they went looking for their victims completely at random.
And manson was very agitated.
And kasabian was very nervous and upset,
and he was yelling at her a lot.
Eventually, manson has kasabian pull over at a house
in the I.A. neighborhood of Los feliz.
The labiancas, a nice middle-upper-class couple.
Kay: Leno ran a family business, a chain of small markets.
He had met Rosemary when she was a waitress
at a local restaurant.
They were good family people.
Guinn: Manson knew that neighborhood.
That's why he brought his killers there.
♪♪
Wiehl: Charles manson goes up,
looks into the window of the labianca home,
sees leno in the home.
Dr. Jordan: Manson and Watson enter through the backdoor.
The labiancas are tied up and pillowcases
put over their heads.
Manson then left the house, returning to the car.
Manson came back, and he pointed at pat and I
and told us to get out and go do what Tex said,
and then... do whatever Tex said?
Yeah.
He said to Tex to make sure that everybody did something.
Charlie left before the actual murders.
He was not going to be there while murder was committed.
Man: You came in the house with Tex,
and decided to leave and go elsewhere.
I walked with Tex.
What Tex did was Tex' business.
What you do is yours.
I don't tell you what to do.
Rick: Manson had other people he could weaponize to do
whatever it was that he wanted done,
rather than to take on the responsibility himself.
Pat and I went in the kitchen.
I think Tex said to get knives.
And pat and I took Mrs. Labianca into the bedroom,
and, um... was she screaming?
Not at that point. Mostly, "what's going on?
What are you going to do?"
Dr. Jordan: Within seconds, Tex Watson begins to stab leno labianca.
Rosemary labianca can hear
what's going on in the living room,
and she can hear her husband being killed.
And she screams out, "what are you doing to my husband?"
She then begins to struggle with Patricia krenwinkel
and Leslie Van houten.
I tried to hold Mrs. Labianca down.
And pat went to stab her, and the knife bent,
and she was yelling out for her husband.
Dr. Jordan: Tex hears the struggle going on and takes control,
and he begins to stab Rosemary.
Van houten: And then Tex turned me around and he handed me a knife,
and he said, "do something."
And Mrs. Labianca
was laying on the floor, and I stabbed her. Where?
In the lower back, around 16 times.
Dr. Jordan: Patricia krenwinkel had a long carving fork,
a two-pronged fork that she stabbed into leno's stomach.
Then the word, "war" was carved into leno's stomach.
Patricia krenwinkel then wrote in blood on the walls,
the words "rise," "death to pigs,"
and then the most famous, "helter skelter,"
misspelled on the refrigerator door.
After you went out to the car and drove away,
was there a rush, a high?
There was... we didn't do that.
What did you do?
We went and sat in some bushes.
And I believe it was Tex took milk and cheese from the house.
And you ate?
And we sat in the bushes and had milk and cheese.
And where was manson?
He was gone.
♪♪
Dr. Smith: How can relatively normal-looking young people
come up with these awful ideas
and commit these terrible crimes?
Manson fulfilled a core need in his followers' lives.
They felt unloved, and they got what they needed from manson.
He told them that he would be the family they never had.
And the key was, they had to be completely loyal
and give their lives over to him
if they wanted to be in his family.
They became little Charlie mansons.
They were gleeful and happy to kill.
♪♪
Guinn: Fear permeated the city.
No matter where you lived, you were not safe.
Gun sales went off the charts in I.A.
Guinn: Guard dogs that were selling for $200,
the days before the murder, were now selling for $1,000,
and you had to get on a waiting list for them.
In I.A., actors and actresses were having bodyguards
because, you know, Sharon Tate was an actress married to
a famous director.
It sent shock waves through everyone in Hollywood.
And there was a great deal of fear...
Very tangible fear that rippled through the Hollywood Hills.
♪♪
Kay: LAPD had a group of detectives
working the murders at the Tate residence
and another group of detectives working the labianca murders,
and these two groups weren't really talking to each other.
You've got "pig" on the front door of Sharon Tate's house,
"death to pigs" on the living room in the labianca house.
The minute that the homicide detectives
saw the writing of blood in the labianca double homicide,
they should have brought those investigations together.
The homicides are not connected.
I think the public and a lot of the media had
picked out the fact that they were similar in nature,
possibly because of the blood and the inscriptions.
Wiehl: They should have been one investigation,
looking for one individual or group of individuals
that had committed both of these heinous crimes.
♪♪
Sidner: The same day the labiancas are found murdered,
the prime suspect in the Tate case,
19-year-old William garretson,
is abruptly ruled out as a suspect and released.
Reporter: Late this afternoon,
police released the only suspect they had...
19-year-old William garretson, caretaker at the polanski home.
Wiehl: They give him a polygraph.
He passes the polygraph in flying colors.
Sidner: Meanwhile, the LAPD has a new theory
why Tate and the four other people killed with her
at her home were targeted in the first place.
It had been determined that the Tate murders were drug-related
and had nothing to do with anyone else.
Wiehl: The autopsy reports showed some drugs in two of the bodies.
And there was marijuana in Jay sebring's car.
Wiehl: Roman polanski and his friends
are quite frustrated with the LAPD
because the LAPD is making it quite clear
that somehow the celebrity lifestyle
led to this horrible scene of murder.
And Roman polanski and his celebrity friends are saying,
"no, that's not it."
Sidner: Not only are the Tate investigators
on a wild goose chase,
but so are the labianca detectives.
They're looking into leno and his horses and his gambling.
And they find that he may have some gambling that has gone bad.
The idea that the police have is some kind of mafia connection.
Again, they're looking in the wrong track.
[ Whooshes ]
A week after the Tate murders, Charles manson and his followers
wake to the sound of unwanted visitors.
The sheriff's department had a big raid on spahn ranch.
They arrested manson.
They arrested other members of the family...
...for stealing cars.
And the police couldn't understand
when Charlie asked what the charges were
and they said, "car theft," that manson started laughing.
But he had a reason to laugh.
He was relieved.
No one had any idea that they had anything to do
with Tate and labianca.
And they've got the wrong date on the search warrant.
So all of them are now released.
Sidner: What some of his followers don't realize is that Charlie
had groomed a violent hit squad within the family.
Lake: Leslie and Susan and Patty
were telling me how they participated.
Leslie said she stabbed somebody over and over again,
even though they were already dead.
When I found out that Tex had murdered,
it was like the rug had been pulled out from under me.
I had no idea that I was sitting amongst the murderers.
Charlie was getting threatening, and he was quite... he was mean.
He was beating on some of the girls,
specially dianne lake.
And he broke a chair and then beat me with the chair leg.
I was afraid that I would be killed.
♪♪
Dr. Jordan: Manson now realizes that the heat is on with the police,
that they're going to be caught unless they relocate,
so he gathers the manson family
and they move deep into death valley.
Sidner: 250 miles away, manson and his followers
move to an extremely remote place in the desert,
called barker ranch.
Wiehl: In death valley, all of a sudden,
a huge piece of road equipment goes up in flames.
I think it was Charlie and Tex and Bruce
that had started this fire
because the road was blocked with this road grader
and they were mad, and so they decided to burn it.
The inyo county sheriff's department
starts to investigate, and they raid barker ranch
and find dune buggies and engines
and cars that are stolen.
Sidner: Members of the family had stolen these cars and dune buggies
and were using them for parts.
Kay: Manson and the people who were with him
at the time were arrested.
Wiehl: But they're still, at that point,
arresting him for low-level auto theft.
Yet the important thing is, they've got him.
They have the murderers, and they don't know it.
Guinn: If it hadn't been for the police in death valley
arresting Charles manson and his followers,
he might still be out there.
♪♪
Charles manson and his followers are under arrest
after a police raid, but not for murder.
They're in custody for auto theft,
and detectives still have no clue
that they're holding the killers
responsible for multiple murders.
But they're about to get an unexpected break in the case.
And the world is about to witness
one of the most bizarre murder trials in U.S. history...
A courtroom spectacle that gives new meaning
to the term "devil's work."
♪♪
The October 1969 arrests of Charles manson
and many of his followers, for car theft,
has put most of the family members behind bars,
including Susan atkins.
Guinn: Susan atkins, at the time she was imprisoned,
was surely one of Charlie's most devout followers.
She is taken to what is now Sybil brand,
the I.A. police holding center,
and she's taken there for questioning.
I was at Sybil brand because I had written a check
and I couldn't cover it.
There was a young, pretty little girl
that was always singing and dancing
and running up and down the aisle,
and so she started talking with me.
Kay: She's a blabbermouth.
She had a reputation in the family
of not being able to keep a secret.
And she begins to talk about what happened
in the Tate residence.
Graham: She says, "well, you know those murders up Benedict canyon?"
Then, it dawned on me that it was the Tate murders.
She said, "you know who did it, don't you?"
And I looked at her and I said, "no, I don't."
And her words to me, to be exact, were,
"you're looking at her."
I just thought that this was something she dreamed up.
Sidner: But by an odd twist of fate, Virginia says,
she'd actually been to 10050 cielo drive years earlier,
when she and her husband considered renting the property.
Graham: She said they had gotten Jay and Sharon into the living room,
and it had beamed ceilings,
and that's how I knew that she had been in the house.
She took responsibility for murdering Sharon.
Graham: She told me that Sharon Tate was crying and was begging her,
"please don't hurt me, don't don't kill me.
I just want to have my baby."
And with this, she said, "bitch, I don't care
if you're going to have a baby or not.
You're going to die.
And I killed her."
And that was her exact words, "I killed her."
Sidner: Virginia and another inmate,
who also heard this story from Susan atkins,
both decided to report the manson follower's
stunning admission to police.
Kay: They came forward at about the same time,
calling independently of each other,
calling Hollywood homicide.
Sidner: Virginia says that one thing in particular Susan told
her compelled her to talk to police.
Susan had told Virginia Graham that the plan of the family
was to seek out celebrities to murder them.
And the one I recall in particular was,
they were going to murder frank Sinatra.
Graham: They were going to skin him alive
and make purses out of it
and sell it on Hollywood boulevard.
And Elizabeth Taylor, they were going to remove her eyes.
Sidner: This hit list of stars Susan atkins tells Virginia
about also includes singer Tom Jones and Steve McQueen.
Graham: Supposing she had gotten out
and then did the terrible things that she was saying.
I just had to speak up.
Well, that broke the case.
Davis: Information from the two separate investigations
of the Tate and labianca cases
led detectives to the conclusion that the crimes in both cases
were committed by the same group of people.
Shelley: Susan atkins is now hauled before a grand jury.
But when she took the stand,
she actually denied that she stabbed Sharon Tate
and said she held Sharon Tate while Tex did the stabbing.
Nobody really knows which version is true.
Saying that I had killed Sharon Tate,
I tried to take some of the blame
and put it on myself because I thought that was my part.
Sidner: Atkins also names fellow manson family members
Patricia krenwinkel, Linda kasabian,
and Leslie Van houten as key participants
in the Tate and labianca murders,
all under manson's direction.
What Susan atkins said was so important,
that the prosecution at the time made a deal with her to testify.
Reporter: The leader of the hippie clan, Charles manson,
is being returned to Los Angeles today
from the desert town where he's been in jail on other charges.
When the trial begins, the state will attempt to prove
that he gave the orders to his followers to kill.
That sent a tremor through this country at the time.
"My god, how is this possible?
Has the hippie movement gone that awry
that it's starting to murder people?"
Sidner: The Los Angeles district attorney appoints
Vincent bugliosi lead prosecutor on the case against manson.
The prosecutor considers these murders to be
perhaps the most heinous in modern history.
The savagery of them, the mind control.
♪♪
Sidner: Charles manson and some of his closest followers face
seven counts of murder,
and one count conspiracy to commit murder.
Guinn: We now look back at it and think it was a foregone conclusion
that they were gonna be convicted.
They're guilty as hell.
And yet it never was that certain.
Dr. Jordan: You're trying a man for multiple counts of murder,
and he wasn't there
and he didn't even pick up any of the murder weapons.
Guinn: Vincent bugliosi... He could always be certain
that he would eventually convict Tex Watson,
and Patricia krenwinkel, Susan atkins, Leslie Van houten.
There was evidence linking them to the crimes
that any jury would see.
But Charles manson, that was the hard one.
His defense was, "I had nothing to do with it,
they were doing what they wanted to.
How can you blame me?"
♪♪
Reporter: Susan, what are you planning to do today?
Whatever is asked of me, I would imagine.
Sidner: Manson works hard to dominate his followers.
He actually convinces Susan atkins,
who already received immunity for her testimony against him,
to drop the deal.
She is going to deny all those statements
made at the grand jury.
Guinn: Dennis Wilson absolutely refused to go into court
and testify against him.
He feared Charlie manson.
Dennis denied any contact with him whatsoever.
And Terry Melcher wasn't really cooperating.
Melcher went underground for a year, living in fear.
So, you haven't got witnesses who can really build up the case
against manson and the grudges he held.
So, how to prove in court
that manson was responsible for the murders?
The prosecution went after Linda kasabian to testify,
which made much more sense,
because Linda didn't physically participate
in any of the actual murders.
Linda kasabian was chosen by Charles manson
to go along on the first night of the Tate murders
because she was the only member of the immediate family
that had a valid driver's license,
and she later became the chief witness
against manson and the others.
I'd like to see them fall on their knees
and beg for forgiveness.
They don't want to realize what they've done.
Reporter: All the elements are present for one of the most
sensational murder trials in American history...
Seven people brutally murdered
in a glare of Hollywood publicity.
Sidner: In July of 1970, the joint murder trial of Charles manson
and his followers... Susan atkins, Leslie Van houten,
and Patricia krenwinkel... Begins in Los Angeles,
for the Tate and labianca murders.
Reporter: Young girls supposedly under the spell of a bearded svengali
who allegedly masterminded the seven murders.
One of the girls was only 16 years old.
Dr. Jordan: The question as to whether the followers of manson
were victims or villains...
The dynamic is that they are both.
Their victimization, at the hands of Charles manson,
the brainwashing, turned them into villains.
Bugliosi: Manson was the only one that had a motive for these murders,
and that motive was helter skelter.
Helter skelter was his philosophy.
And when those two words were found printed in blood
at the murder scene, that's tantamount to manson's
fingerprints being found at the murder scene.
Rick: And the theory that bugliosi brilliantly used
was that manson so totally controlled his followers
that they were little more than his weapon of choice
and that he would kill people,
using them as the device of destruction.
We had to show that he had control over the killers,
so that if he gave them the order to kill,
that they would do that.
And it was just clear to everyone in the courtroom
that manson still controlled all the female defendants.
The manson family was camped out on the sidewalk.
They lived outside the courthouse.
It almost became like a circus.
It was just showtime.
Guinn: Manson he has some of his followers in the hallways,
passing out leaflets about how,
"these people have no right to try me."
Shelley: The girls would come into the courtroom,
smiling and singing a song that Charlie wrote.
Manson came in one day with an "x" on his forehead.
He has cut an "x" between his eyes because,
"society has x'd us out.
We don't count."
Man: The next day, the women came in with x's on their forehead.
Shelley: And the followers outside carve x's in their foreheads, as well.
Nobody had ever seen anything like it.
Boy, did they play right into our hands.
Shelley: Manson gave bugliosi everything he needed...
Living daily proof that they were following
what he told them to do, regardless of the consequences.
In the courtroom itself,
the girls essentially had been told by Charlie to make a scene.
Kay: Manson would say something in the courtroom,
and then the three women in unison would get up
and they would repeat what manson said.
What transpired today was this...
The three girls in the case stood up
and turned their back to the court.
There's a constant theme of disorder in the court
because of all of the antics,
and the judge is always having to order
manson removed from the courtroom.
I'll do whatever it takes to preserve my life
on the planet earth, because I am a selfish, bitter,
no-account, vicious snake.
Dr. Jordan: He knows what he's doing, and at one point,
he offers one of the bailiffs $100,000,
if he can figure out a way for him to escape, or set him free.
It was really just yet another courtroom tactic,
where he was trying to show, "I have so much power."
What he used to do, he had this hitlerian stare.
That was the stare that was on the cover of "life" magazine.
He'd turn around and he'd stare at spectators, you know,
and they'd get up and they'd leave.
Dr. Jordan: When the witness for the prosecution,
Linda kasabian, is entering the courtroom,
the intimidation by Charles manson was unmistakable.
He lifted his finger and made a slicing motion
across his throat,
to send a very clear message to Linda,
"you're going to die for what you're about to say."
The press gets a hold of the fact that president Nixon
has actually made a statement, "Charles manson is guilty."
Manson gets the paper, stands up in front of the jury.
Headline... extra... "manson guilty, Nixon declares."
Bugliosi: Threw the trial into a tizzy, obviously.
There was a motion for a mistrial.
♪♪
Sidner: Former family member Barbara hoyt is torn
about whether she should testify against manson.
His followers try to keep her from talking.
They threatened my family that what had happened
at Sharon Tate's house would happen at mine.
She was overdosed with LSD by another manson follower,
who was trying to keep her from testifying.
It gave her a bad trip but didn't kill her.
I knew what to do then.
She testified and was a great witness.
Dr. Jordan: During the presentation of evidence,
October 5, 1970,
the prosecution is presenting testimony of a detective,
and Charles manson takes it upon himself
to stand up and demand of the judge
that he wants to cross-examine the witness.
And before you knew it... bingo...
He was leaping toward the judge.
A bailiff tackled him in midair.
He had a pencil in his hand, like a knife.
And he yells at the judge,
"in the name of Christian justice,
someone should chop off your head."
Charles manson is crazy like a fox.
He just loves to mess with people's minds.
Now, the judge started carrying a
.38-caliber revolver under his robe in court.
♪♪
The jury hearing the charges against Charles manson
and three girl members of his so-called "family"
brought in its verdict this afternoon.
Wiehl: They found him guilty of all the crimes,
all the conspiracy counts, all the murder counts.
They were all sentenced to death.
And then Watson, in his trial, was sentenced to death.
Aren't we all born to die?
Shelley: Charlie manson shaved his head,
and the followers shaved their heads in solidarity.
This city is going to be burning very soon.
This city is coming down.
This city is falling.
Babylon is going to fall.
Sidner: Manson and the others are placed on death row.
Bugliosi: But, the very next year, the California supreme court
and the U.S. supreme court set aside the death penalty.
I mean, if this was not a proper case
for the death penalty, what would be?
How many people would he have to kill to get the death penalty?
Kay: Everybody on death row at that time,
including manson and the three girls and Watson,
became eligible for parole after seven years.
At a minimum, if justice means anything in america,
they should spend the rest of their lives behind bars.
Martley: It was a shock,
and I'm sure it's a shock to all the victims' families,
because we felt that they had been put in prison
and that's where they would stay.
Sidner: Shelley Ross produced a Charles manson
prison interview with nbc's Tom snyder.
If you got out of here, there are a lot of people
who think you'd go start killing people again.
"Again"? Mm-hmm.
Shelley: Manson reaches over to me, and he said,
"are you going to ask me questions like,"
and he put his hand around my neck,
"is this where I hold the knife to women's throats?"
It was really creepy.
These murders would never have taken place
if it had not been for Charles manson.
But I also think you have to realize
that these murders would probably have not taken place
if the actual killers did not want to kill.
And he was like the catalyst that brought
that hostility to the surface.
Sidner: Susan atkins died of brain cancer in prison in 2009.
But five of his former followers
are still behind bars in California...
Charles "Tex" Watson, Leslie Van houten,
Patty krenwinkel, Bruce Davis, and Bobby beausoleil.
They are struggling to get out to be on parole,
and that's the sad part of it.
We're still all this time later,
and we're now having to fight to keep them in prison.
If they got paroled, they'd be somebody's next-door neighbor,
and I never believed that they were reformed enough
so that they wouldn't be a danger, even today.
Every life that Charles manson touched was hurt in some way.
Martley: To have a family member murdered is shocking,
and it will never go away.
Roberts: Sharon Tate had made it, she was a star,
and this incredible tragedy of being cut down at 26,
it just was horrific.
And her unborn son never got the chance
to experience life at all.
The very thought of young women dressed in black,
armed with sharp knives, entering the homes
of complete strangers in the middle of the night,
and mercilessly stabbing them to death
is really so horrendous a thought that it's difficult
to contemplate a thought like that
for more than a couple moments.
Rosemary labianca's 15-year-old son,
frank struthers,
it had such an effect on him that for many years,
he lived as a hermit in Colorado in the mountains,
and he would only come down like once
every three months for provisions.
Martley: Every time that word "manson" comes up,
it brings back these terrible memories.
The infamous criminal cult leader Charles manson has died.
Manson dead at the age of 83 years old.
California prison officials say
that he died of natural causes on Sunday.
Manson was serving nine life sentences for murders
carried out by his followers.
Guinn: Charles manson was born evil.
He spent his life doing horrible things.
There is no excuse for what he became.
Charles manson is literally one of the worst human beings
that ever walked this planet.
Maybe I should have killed 400 or 500 people.
Then I would have felt better.
I would've felt like I really offered society something.
♪♪
Not many people know that Charles manson was a father
who had at least three sons with three different women.
His first son committed suicide in 1993,
reportedly because he couldn't live with who his father was.
Charlie's second son has done everything possible
to disassociate himself from his father.
And manson's youngest purported son, Michael brunner,
is the baby the killer reportedly had
with manson family follower Mary brunner.
Michael was born with Charlie
and the manson girls there to help with the delivery.
Some say Charlie used his teeth
to cut through the umbilical cord.
Michael brunner went to court,
seeking control of his father's estate,
after the killer's death in 2017.
Charlie died in prison without ever admitting his guilt
in the manson family murders.
In one expert's opinion,
his failure to take responsibility for the deaths
is glaring proof that Charlie manson
was evil till his last breath.
Thanks for watching.
I'm Donnie wahlberg.