Manson was a nut that had spent a lot of his time in prison or youth detention centers. He got out of Terminal Island and went to CA. There, he gathered young adults around him (mostly women and a few men) who lived commune style in various places. One night, Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys picked up some of the Manson Family (the group called themselves the family) and they met Charles Manson who sang and played the guitar. Wilson liked Mason and wanted him to become a star and introduced him to Doris Day's son, Terry Melcher, a producer who did "Don't call us, we'll call you" type of thing. This and the fact that Manson believed the Beetles were talking to him through their White Album, created this really weird mind set for Manson who sent some of his women and a guy named Tex Watson to the home where Terry Melcher had lived but Melcher had since moved and Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski lived there, to kill the people in the home. Melcher was not there of course, but Tate was as was a famous CA hairstylist, the heir to the Folger coffee fortune and her boyfriend a Polish actor. They also killed a kid who was leaving the estate after he had visited the grounds keeper in his cottage. It was a blood bath and Tate was 8 months pregnant.
The next morning all hell broke loose when the maid reported for work.
Then the next night, Manson went with the group to "show them how to do it properly". They picked a house at random that belonged to the owner of a grocery store chain. He and his wife were tied up by Manson who left and then the others killed the La Bianca couple (their son was not home and their daughter was married and lived elsewhere), changed clothes and then hitchhiked back to Spahn Ranch (where they lived, which was an old wild west movie set)
The ranch was raided because cops thought it was a chop shop and one of the girls confessed to a cell mate.
Eventually, the family was brought in (Watson had fled to Texas but was extradited back to CA) and after a trial that was apparently a lot like a circus, they were found guilty and sentenced to death.
The death penalty was then overturned in the USA and their sentences were commuted to life in prison. That is why we see them every once in a while on TV, coming up for parole.
Manson is also suspected of killing musician Gary Hinman, a musician and Shorty Shea, a ranch hand at the Spahn Ranch. In addition, at a site up towards Death Valley, 4 graves appeared to have been found but because the land is National Park Service, they cannot dig it up to see.
The 'facts' are disputed to this day. Charlies friends who were living with him at a commune carried out a 'Home Invasion mass killing'. Sharon Tate was murdered along with three other people. It was said to be random act of violence, murder for 'fun'. In Hollywood there is urban stories about all kinds of people being present when the gang members broke in but escaped, there is no evidence to prove the stories. However, there seems some validity to a theory that the murders were not random, it is claimed one of the people murdered was a drug dealer who had been targeted for murder by a rival drug dealer, tragically, Sharon Tate and the other victims were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Charlie was not present at the killings, but was found guilty of conspiracy to murder, Charlie insists he is innocent. Charlie and the gang were living pretty wild lives of Black Magic Rituals, group sex orgies and lotsa drugs. Charlie does not dispute the Magic, sex and drugs stories. Roman Polanski was in Europe shooting a Movie when his wife was murdered, he is said to have been devastated by the loss of his wife and child.
To give you the short answer, it was a hippie commune gone wrong. It started off like any other commune(lots of sex and drugs )but then Charlie got on a power trip. I think it all started when Charlie got screwed over by one of the beach boys-He was told that one of his songs was going to be on one of their albums. It was rumored that they went to Sharon Tates house only because it used to belong to an associate of the beach boys(i can't remember if it was a manager or who) But they weren't looking for Sharon Tate. Anyway what is known is that Manson and his girls went on a killing spree and butchered-no other word for it, 8 month pregnant Sharon Tate and her house-guests. Then they waited and then they attacked the LaBianca's. Unlike the Tate murders, Charlie actually went in and tied them up and then instructed his girls what to do. So then they went in and butchered them too. They were arrested on a different charge and one of the girls confessed to her cell mate what she'd done. They were all originally given the death penalty but it was overturned to life in prison with the possibility of parole. What makes me mad is that these psychos now have changed their tune and act like that it was all Charlie that made them do it and they were on drugs and should be let out. Let them rot.
Manson was a longtime reform school and jail inmate who got caught up in the Hippie movement. Soon he had a gang, which they called The Family, all couched in Hippie terms. and they went out and committed small time crime. Then they got the idea to go on killing sprees, which they did. Manson is said to have directed it.
Can somebody give me a summery of what its all about please?
