charles manson
While waiting to be tried for the Tate and LaBianca murders, his court-appointed attorney Brian Reese remarked that Manson was an example of the "total failure of modern society..." As the leader of the Family he said he was Christ and Satan simultaneously. As a jailhouse psychotic and media star, Charlie has appeared dancing and wisecracking on Geraldo. Once he is released on parole he plans to go to Sri Lanka and New Delhi where he has his "own mahatma" and will radiate "like the sun."

charlie's girls
"We were all called Charlie's girls, but Charlie often told us, in fact every day he told us, 'You people do not belong to me, you belong to yourself.' But I personally thought that I belonged to Charlie. He had sexual intercourse with all of us girls. In the begining I was jealous until I came to an understanding that he was only making love to the girls for the purpose of love and also to give them back to themselves. We-- the girls-- had sexual relations with each other. There was no limit to what I'd do for him. I was in love with the reflection and the reflection I speak of is Charles Manson."

susan atkins a.k.a. sadie mae
Sadie really enjoyed killing Sharon Tate. She later claimed that it was the most exciting sexual experience in her life. She recalled how she felt an urge to drink her blood. "It was slick and I brought my hand to my face and I could smell the blood. I opened my mouth and licked it on my fingers..." She thought of carving out Tate's unborn child and bringing it to Charlie wrapped in a towel. "How proud Charlie would be if I presented him with the baby cut from the womb of the woman." She also considered cutting out the heart and eating it, and skewering the baby and roasting it in a bonfire.

leslie van houten
A friend of Leslie who saw her in court, said: "I could hardly believe it was her. And I talked to her for a moment-- she remembered me and was very cheerful and everything, but it wasn't the girl I'd known all those years... Something's drastically wrong... She's like a comedienne or mentally unbalanced."

patricia krenwinkel
Katie, as she was known in the Family, was part of the death squads sent to Cielo Drive and the LaBianca house in Los Feliz. After butchering Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, Katie, in a stroke of evil brilliance, carved the word "WAR" on the stomach of the dead man using a fork. When police discovered his body the next day the fork was still protruding from his gut.

squeaky fromme
In September 4, 1975, Family member Squeaky Fromme managed to approach President Ford while he was visiting Sacramento and lunged at him with a gun. Fortunately a Secret Service agent was able to wedge his thumb between the hammer and the firing pin.

squeaky and president ford

My Aunt Cheryl Ford just happened to be President Ford's personal secretary at the time of this god-awful episode in our history. She was approximately 5-12 feet away from him as Squeaky was in her realm of Mansonism. I am very fortunate to have been able to witness this as I also was in the crowd. Fortunate you may say is an awkward word for me to use to identify my feelings toward this event yet to learn firsthand the absolute power and reign that Manson had when our own heads of state and policing agencies cannot contain are interesting to perceive as well as study. I hope, of course, that we have no problems in this type of a situation again. It would not be tolerable in the least.

tex watson
When Charles "Tex" Watson entered the Cierlo Drive home of Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski he said, "I'm the devil. I'm here to do the devil's business." And that's exactly what he did. All victims died of gunshots and multiple stab wounds coming mainly from Tex's knife. Abigail Folger was stabbed 21 times. Voityck Frykowski was shot once and stabbed 51 times. Jay Seebring was shot twice and stabbed six times. Steven Parent was shot three times. Sharon Tate was stabbed 16 times.

When the heat came down Tex ran to his home in Texas. There he was arrested and extradited to California. While awaiting trial he lost fifty pounds and was unable to communicate or feed himself. He reached an acute state of psychosis and was sent to the Atascadero State Hospital. Once his health improved he was tried, found guilty and sentenced to death. A year later the Supreme Court abolished the death penalty and Tex's mental instability improved rapidly. He found God and devoted himself to praising the lord with the same fervor he once wallowed in the blood of his victims. A changed man, Tex has become a preacher, a husband and a father (thanks to conjugal visiting rights). He hopes to be released soon on parole so he can preach the word of the law.

bobbie beausoleil
Bobbie played Lucifer in Kenneth Anger's seminal film Scorpio Rising. Anger, a filmmaker of esoteric taste, introduced Bobby to the world of Devil worship. Flying on Owsley tabs of acid Beausoleil metamorphosed from the Lone Eagle to the Angel of Disobedience. "Kenneth brought it all to a head. He made me the star of Lucifer Rising, and I was rising, and he made me believe that I had this power inside me and it radiated out of me... Each acid trip became more and more an earth-shattering experience. I was experiencing Lucifer, 'the angel on earth.' I believed that during the rituals, Kenneth was showing me myself, that this reflection of who I was and what I was doing was because of who I was."

While in jail, Bobbie, covered with Nazi tattoos, became part of the Aryan Brotherhood. "The men and women of this family, my brothers and sisters, have followed me through the killings, to the jails, the courts, to prison, and to Death Row for the love they have for me..."

danny decarlo
Danny, a member of the outlaw biker gang the Straight Satans, moved to the ranch to fix Charlie's three-wheeler motorcycle. Like Bobbie, he stayed at the ranch because of all the pretty girls. After working on the three-wheeler he converted several cars into dune buggies. Charlie wanted to align himself with the Straight Satans to keep the public away from the ranch. However the Straight Satans didn't like Charlie and wanted to claim Danny back to their club. Once they rolled into the ranch and threatened to rape and kill everyone if Danny didn't return to Venice with them. Charlie offered his life in exchange for them to leave. The bikers were so freaked out by Charlie's death wish they left the ranch without raising hell.

dennis wilson
Charlie planned to launch his stellar career as a folk singer with the help of his friend Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys. Before moving to the Spahn Ranch Charlie was a permanent fixture at Dennis' Malibu home. When too many freaky people started showing up, Dennis asked Charlie to leave. Nonetheless, they remained good friends. Dennis thought Charlie was very talented and bought one of his songs, Cease to Exist. The Beach Boys released the it as Never Learn Not to Love in their album 20/20 and as a B-side to the single Blue Birds Flew Over the Mountain.

spahn ranch
An old western set, the Family found it by chance while driving their bus through the mountains. It's junked up state reflected the gang of misfits and rejects that Charlie had been collecting in his black bus. The Family settled in the ranch rent free after Charlie talked to the owner, George Spahn, and arranged for the girls to take care of him. At the ranch the Family fucked and sucked to their hearts content and Charlie became the resident midwife after delivering three babies.

the garbage people
"Where does the garbage go, as we have tins and garbage alongside the road, and oil slicks in the water, so you have people, and I am one of your garbage people." The Family subsisted by scavenging food from dumpsters behind supermarkets. Manson also scavenged unwanted people whom he took to his " garbage dump" and told them, "that in love there is no wrong."

lsd
The Family took LSD on a regular basis. According to Charlie, "When you take LSD enough times you reach a state of nothing, of no thought." Linda Kasabian, who became the prosecution's star witness against the Family in exchange for total inmunity, allegedly took over 300 trips of acid and could not distinguish "fact from fantasy."

helter skelter
Manson 's odd interpretation of the Beatles' song "Helter Skelter" warned of a coming race war in which "blackie" would win. Charlie didn't like the Beatles song, but he did "hear what it relates... It says rise-- it says kill." Helter Skelter was to be the last war on earth: "It would be all the wars that have been fought built one on top of the other, something that no man could concieve of in his imagination. You can't concieve of what it would be like to see every man judge himself and then take it out on every other man all over the face of the earth."

death valley
Charlie and the Family relocated to the Barker ranch in Goler Wash in the outskirts of Death Valley where they "tried to get as close as we could to all the animals, try to learn from them how to live." Charlie told his minions to let scorpions crawl on them: "You have to learn from them. They are the same as you. We're all here together..."

the dogs
In Goler Wash the women were treated like dirt and the dogs were treated special. Charlie would say: "Don't treat the dogs like people. Treat the dogs like dogs. They are better than people." The dogs would eat first; then humans would eat the dog left overs.

the bottomless pit
As Charlie's attempts at recognition by the music industry failed, his philosophy of oneness and love became dark and apocalyptic. He would quote from the Book of Revelations: "From the shaft of the bottomless pit... came locusts on earth, and they were given the power of scorpions. They were told not to harm any green growth or any tree, but only those who have not the seal of God on their foreheads."