May 20, 2026

50 Shades of Evil: California - Charles Manson

50 Shades of Evil: California - Charles Manson
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Season 9

In the summer of 1969, a ragtag group of runaways and outcasts living in the California desert unleashed one of the most shocking crime sprees in American history. At the center of it all was Charles Manson—a failed musician with a magnetic personality and a deadly vision. In this episode, we dive deep into the twisted world of the Manson Family: how a small-time criminal became the self-proclaimed messiah of a doomsday cult, how he used sex, drugs, and the Beatles’ White Album to brainwash his followers, and how his apocalyptic race-war prophecy known as “Helter Skelter” led to the brutal murders of Sharon Tate, Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, and six others.

From Manson’s troubled childhood to the chaotic trial that captivated the world, we uncover the psychology of a cult leader, the chilling loyalty of his disciples, and the enduring mystery of whether Manson truly ordered the killings or simply planted the seeds. This isn’t just another retelling of a familiar story—it’s a chilling journey into the dark heart of manipulation, celebrity obsession, and the thin line between charisma and pure evil.

“50 Shades of Evil” is a podcast series brought to you by “Bloody Angola Podcast”.

Chapters
09:20 Reform School Breakdown
16:31 Prison Shapes a Manipulator
19:35 Haight-Ashbury Cult Begins
24:18 Murder Orders Begin
25:25 Tate-LaBianca Nightmare
30:06 The Investigation Closes In
32:15 Courtroom Spectacle
36:04 Life Behind Bars
39:04 Final Years and Legacy

Join Bloody Angola on Patreon for Commercial Free Early Releases and more here: www.patreon.com/bloodyangolapodcast

For Louisiana Local Advertising inquiries or to book appearances please email BloodyAngola@gmail.com

WEBVTT

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Hm, I walk straight line, shackle change, Oh someome gird,

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it's calling my name. There is no mercy and it's

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been a century. Juice as the huge stream game Rango

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the three.

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I'm here be.

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By mere to die inside these walls, inside the wild.

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Hadn't went more girls as I.

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Welcome back to Bloody Angola. I am your host, Jim Chapman,

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and today I am continuing that Fifty Shades of Evil series.

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This week, I'm taking you to California, where, in the

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summer of nineteen sixty nine, a group of runaways and

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dropouts walked into two Los Angeles homes and slaughtered everyone inside.

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Acts so savage they shattered the peace and love dreams

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of an entire generation. But the man who sent them

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wasn't holding the knife. He was sitting in a desert ranch,

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strumming a guitar, quoting the Beatles, and promising his followers

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a race war that would make him a king. This

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episode dives deep into the life of Charles Manson, the

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small time com man who became one of America's most

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infamous cult leaders. I'm going to bring you from his

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chaotic childhood and reform schools and prisons to his brief,

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delusional stint chasing a music career in the nineteen sixties.

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I'm also going to cover with you how Manson weaponized charisma, drugs,

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and the counterculture to build what he would call the Family.

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I'll examine the twisted logic of Helter Skelter, the brutal

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tait In Libyanca murders, and the circus of a trial

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that followed. So let's get into it. And for Charles Manson,

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it all started on November twelfth of nineteen thirty four

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in Cincinnati Gimeral Hospital, where a sixteen year old girl

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by the name of Kathleen Maddox gives birth to a

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baby boy that she hadn't even named yet. There was

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no proud father in the waiting room, no flowers, just

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a scared kid holding a newborn she hadn't planned for.

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That baby was Charles Miles Maddox. He was soon to

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become Charles Manson. Now, Kathleen was wild, she was restless,

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and already deep into a life of alcohol and bad decisions.

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She filed a paternity suit against a con man army

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colonel named Walker Scott, who skipped town the second he

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heard that she was pregnant, Kathleen tried to make it

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work for a minute. She married a laborer named William Manson,

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and he gave Charles his last name, But that marriage

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didn't last long. By the time little Charlie was a toddler,

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was leaving him with babysitters for days at a time

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while she and her brother Luther went on drinking binges.

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Then in nineteen thirty nine, when Charlie was just four

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and a half years old, it all came crashing down.

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Kathleen and Luther, they go out, they get drunk, and

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they decide they're going to rob a service station in

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West Virginia. They beat the attendant with a bottle, they

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steal what they could, and they got caught almost immediately.

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Kathleen was sentenced to five to ten years in state prison.

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So imagine that little boy. He's barely old enough to understand.

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He's watching his mother get handcuffed and taken away. No goodbye, hug,

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no promise she'd be back soon. Instead, Charlie was shipped

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off to live with his aunt Glenna and his uncle

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Bill Thomas in a tiny river town in West Virginia

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called mcmeachin, and it was a strict religious household. There

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were no hugs, no I love you. His uncle Billy

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ram what you would call a tight ship. Some family

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stories say he once punished Charlie by making the boy

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wear a dress to school, just to humiliate him into behaving. Now,

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Charlie later told interviewers his aunt and uncle made it

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crystal clear affection was a sin. Quote no hugs in

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this house, he remembered them, saying he also slept in

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the attic, and he claimed that he felt invisible. So

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for three long years, that was Charles Manson's world. Then

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in nineteen forty two, Kathleen, she gets parolled. She comes

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back for her son, but the reunion wasn't the happy

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ending you may hope for. Mother and son drifted from

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one cheap rooming house to another, one shady boyfriend to

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the next, and Kathleen and she drank heavily. She chased men,

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she chased trouble, and Charlie tagged along like unwanted luggage

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through all of this. Now, by the time he was nine,

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Charlie was already skipping school. He was stealing from local stores.

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He was learning the hard way that the world didn't

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care if he showed up or not. He once claimed

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in a later interview, I watched that he even set

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his school on fire just to feel something, a desperate

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cry for attention that nobody answered. Biographers who would dig

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later into court records and family interviews, they paint the

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same picture I'm telling you now, a boy that was

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starved for love, learning the only way to get power

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was to take it. And here's the part that's really

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hard to hear but important to understand. This wasn't just

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a tough childhood. This was like the perfect storm of

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a band meant emotional neglect and instability. Psychologists who studied

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Manson's early years they pointed out something It's simple, but

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it's pretty profound. When a child learns that the people

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who are supposed to protect him can't be trusted, something

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breaks inside. He starts believing that the world owes him.

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He starts looking for ways to control others so he'll

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never feel powerless again. Charlie, as a matter of fact,

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cray family so badly that he would later build one,

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albeit a twisted and dangerous one, out of lost young

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people who were just as broken as he was. The

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seeds of that desperate anger. They were planted right here

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in those cold rooms in mcmeechin, in those endless moves,

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with a mother who kept choosing. It seemed like everything

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else over Charlie. So by the age of twelve, Charlie

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was already running away. He was already getting picked up

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by police for petty theft, and his mother she tried,

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it seemed like, kind of halfheartedly, to find him a

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foster home, but instead the state stepped in. At thirteen,

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he was declared a ward to the court. He would

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sit to what's known as the Guilbault School for Boys.

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This is in Indiana, but that's where the boy's story

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kind of collides with the teenagers. And we'll get to

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that in a moment, But right now, I just want

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you to sit with this image, a small boy standing

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in a window in meechin West Virginia, watching his mother

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just disappear into a police car, knowing deep down that

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nobody was ever really coming back for him. Now, that

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boy didn't become a monster overnight, but every rejection, every

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cold night in that attic, every time he was told

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that he wasn't worth loving, those moments stacked up like kindling,

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and the fire was just waiting for a match. By

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the age of thirteen, that neglected boy had already been

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labeled a delinquent. The system was about to get its

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first real look at Charlie Manson and it would fail

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him completely. So let's go to nineteen forty eight, and

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I'm going to take you to Indianapolis, Indiana. In a skinny,

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scruffy fourteen year old Charles Maddox, still using his mother's

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surname at that time, he was caught breaking into a

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grocery store with two older boys. It was petty theft,

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it was nothing violent, but it was enough to send

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him straight to the Gilbat School for Boys, a strict

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Catholic reformatory run by the Franciscan Brothers just outside of

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Terre Haute, Indiana. Now this is the late nineteen forties

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and you can probably picture this place. Gray stone building,

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endless rows of iron beds and dormitories that smelled like

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floor wax and sweat morning mass every single day, whether

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he wanted to go or not. The Brothers believed in discipline.

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They believed in hard work, prayer, silence, and the strap.

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When the words failed, and Charlie he arrived with a

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chip on his shoulder the size of Texas. He was

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small for his age, but his eyes already carried the

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hard glint, if you will, of someone who had learned

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early that trust was a luxury that he could not afford.

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He hated everything about it, the structure, the confinement, everything.

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Within weeks he ran first escape. He slipped out of

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a window at night. He hitchhiked toward his mother's last

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note address, only to be picked up by police two

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days later and dragged back in handcuffs. So the brothers

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they doubled down to give him extra chores, longer prayers,

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more isolation, and guess what, Charlie ran again and again,

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three escapes, as a matter of fact, in under a year.

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Each time the freedom only lasted a few hours or

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days before he was caught and shut her back. Now,

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by nineteen forty nine, the state had had enough of

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his escapes. They shipped him to the Indiana Boys' School

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in Plainfield, which is a much harsher juvenile facility known

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among the boys as Plainfield l And This was no

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reform school with prayers and chores. This was concrete walls,

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bar wire, and guards who didn't mind using their fists

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Manson was later described in interviews with the mix of

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rage and dark pride. He claimed that he was beaten regularly.

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He claimed he was sexually assaulted by other boys, while

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guards would look the other whether every detail was exact

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or exaggerated, which mans intended to do in detail. One

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thing was undeniable. From court records and fellow inmate accounts,

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the environment itself was brutal, and it taught Charlie something

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far more dangerous than any lesson plan could ever produce.

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In school, he learned to survive by becoming the smartest

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guy in the room. He started manipulating the staff, playing

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the remorseful kid one day, the tough guy the next.

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He would form little alliances with other runaways and outcasts,

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and this would create tiny families, if you will. Inside

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of those walls where he could feel control, he discovered

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that he could read people, their fears, their weaknesses, their

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need to feel important. He could bend them to his will.

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Prison psychologist at that time need his well above average

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intelligence and his growing skill at conning adults. One report

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called him quote a boy with a gift for manipulation.

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Now he still ran whenever he could. It didn't mean

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that he loved prison, and in nineteen fifty one, at sixteen,

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he and another boy they escaped for good. This time,

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or so they thought. They stole a car, they drove

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across state lines. They robbed a grocery store at gunpoint.

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This is in Illinois, and the issue with going across

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state lines was that they would become federal fugitives and

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of vendors at this point, which means the FBI is

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going to get involved. So Charlie gets caught again along

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with his accomplice, and this time he is sent to

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the National Training School for Boys. This is in Washington,

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d c. And that was a federal reformatory that was

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supposed to be the last stop before a present. If

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he didn't get right here, he was going to big jail,

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as they call it. But for a brief moment, it

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looked like the system might actually reach Charlie. He took

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vacational classes in tailoring and auto mechanics. He even earned

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some praise for good behavior. But underneath that same fire

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bird and in nineteen fifty two he was caught raping

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another inmate, another boy, by knife point. That incident landed

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him in solitary and destroyed any chance of an early release.

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Psychologist who examined him would write chillingly accurate notes, quote,

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this boy is emotionally unstable. He has a tendency to

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form intense relationship with others in order to dominate them. Quote.

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He was released in nineteen fifty four, and at this

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point he's seventeen. But also by this point a pattern

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was already locked in in Charlie's mind. He drifted back

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to Indianapolis and he married a seventeen year old waitress

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named Rosalie Jean Willis. That was in nineteen fifty five,

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and for a short time he tried the straight and

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narrow life. They had a son, Charles Manson Junior, who

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was born in nineteen fifty six, and Charlie worked at

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a service station. But the temptation of easy money was

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stronger than his desire to walk the straight in narrow,

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and eventually he would take Rosalie and the baby on

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a cross country crime spree. They would steal cars, they

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would rob gas stations, all at gunpoint. So he gets

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arrested again. This time the judge shows absolutely no mercy,

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and nineteen years old Charlie Manson enters the federal penitentiary

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system for real, the Big Jail, first Top Terminal Island

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in California, then McNeil Island, Federal pennch Century in Washington State.

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So over the next thirteen years he would spend nearly

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every single day behind bars, and by the time he

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walked out in nineteen sixty seven, he had been incarcerated

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for almost seventeen straight years, starting at the age of thirteen.

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Most of his adult life up to that point had

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been behind bars. Now inside of Big Jail, Manson, he

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didn't waste time. He devoured books on self improvement and

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he would absolutely study I Mean to the max. He

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was almost an expert at Dell Carnegie's How to Win

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Friends and Influence people like it was his bible. He

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took scientology courses from a fellow inmate who had been

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a former auditor, and he would learn techniques of auditing

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and mind control that he would later twist into kind

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of his own unique style. He practiced hypnotic speaking patterns

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in front of the mirror, and he would use the

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same soft, rhythmic cadence that would one day hold young

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runaways at the edge of his every word. He would

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even learn how to become a master com man. In prison,

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he would run gambling rackets in the yard. He formed

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tight little crews of followers who looked up to him

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as a big brother, as a protector, as a leader,

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even though in stature he was a little bit of guy.

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He was like five three and one hundred and twenty pounds,

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soaking wet, but he would use his mind to manipulate

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even other convicts. Now, that same dynamic that he had

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started in juvenile hall, he was reforming that in adult prison.

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He hated authority with a passion, and it really bordered

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on an obsession. Guards to Charles mans and some more pigs,

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rules were chains, but he learned to smile at the

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right moments, to say the right words during parole hearings,

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and of course only violate every condition the moment he

246
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was set free. Now there were two more marriages during

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brief periods out on parole for Charles Manson, one to

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a woman named Leona, with whom he had another son.

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But that pattern, of course, never changed. Short burst of

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freedom followed by new crimes car theft, arm robbery, interstate

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transport of stolen vehicles. In each return to prison would

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only sharpen his skills. Each parole denial would free the

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resentment that had grown in him since the day his

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mother was taken away in handcuffs. It seemed to this

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point the system played perfectly into his hands. Every time

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society tried to fix Charles Manson, it actually gave him

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a better education in manipulation. The reformed schools they would

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teach him how to read people, the prisons taught him

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how to control people. The isolation would teach him patience,

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and the constant rejection taught him that the only person

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he could ever truly rely on in his mind was himself.

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He believed anyone could be bent to his will. Now,

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by nineteen sixty seven, at thirty two years old, he

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had spent more times in institution than on the street.

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Imagine that you've been in jail longer in your life

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than you've been free. And he's thirty two years old now.

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When the gates of Terminal Island finally opened up for

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the last time in March of that year, he walks

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out of those prison gates they would clang shut behind

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Manson for the final time, and he steps into the

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California sunlight, wearing the same cheap clothes. The state gave

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every parolee upon parole thing jacket worn jeans and thirty

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five dollars cash. He had no home, he had no job,

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he had no family waiting for him. But he did

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have a plan. So he hitchhikes north to San Francisco

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and straight into what's known as the height Ashbury District

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and at this time in history, the streets they were

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alive in this area with color flower children in tied

279
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eye barefoot girls handing out flowers to everybody, the samell

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of marijuana thick in the air. Was a place where

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runaways and dreamers came, looking for peace and love and

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for meaning and for family. Charlie Manson saw this as

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opportunity for him, so he started small. His first follower

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was Mary Brunner, a shy twenty three year old librarian

285
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from Wisconsin who had just arrived in the city, and

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within weeks he had gathered kind of a small circle

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of followers. Nineteen year old Lenette Squeaky from Charlie would

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give his followers nicknames, Squeaky being one of the most

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I guess infamous of those followers, but she was a

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freckled redhead running from an abusive home, nineteen year old

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Patricia Krenwinkle, who called herself Katie, and Susan Atkins, who

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was a troubled nineteen year old who had already danced

293
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on the edge of the wall. Wasn't long before Moore

294
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joined Leslie van Hooton, a pretty nineteen year old high

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school dropout, twenty three year old Charles tex Watson, a

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clean cut Texas boy who had come out West chasing

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the hippie dream, and dozens of others who drifted an

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in and out of the ever growing group they began

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calling the family. Charlie would give them what they were

300
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looking for. He played guitar, and he sang soft folk

301
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songs that he had written in prison, and he passed

302
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around LSD like commute Wafers, guided their acid trips with

303
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his prison honed voice, slow, rhythmic, and mesmerizing. He preached

304
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a twisted gospel that mixed scientology, del Carnegie charm in

305
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his own dark philosophy. The world was in He soon right.

306
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We were in a race war, he would tell them.

307
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He called it Helter Skelter, named after the Beatles' White

308
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album song Black people would rise up and slaughter the whites,

309
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he would say, and then Charlie and his family would

310
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emerge from the desert to rule what remained. He told

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them they were chosen, they were the ones. He told them,

312
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he was both Jesus and the devil. And the scary

313
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thing is these kids believed him. By late nineteen sixty eight,

314
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Charles Manson's family had swelled to nearly fifty core members.

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They moved out of the Height and into an old,

316
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crumbling movie ranch in Santa Susanna Mountains north of Los Angeles,

317
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and it was called Span Ranch. The owner, eighty year

318
00:23:07.359 --> 00:23:10.920
old George Spam, was nearly blind and half in love

319
00:23:11.400 --> 00:23:15.000
with the girls who would call him Grandpa. In exchange

320
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for chores in companionship, he would let all of them

321
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live on that property rent free. Now, life of the

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ranch was pretty wild, drugs, sex, rock and roll, everything

323
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you would imagine. Just absolute obedience on top of that

324
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to Charlie Manson. Charlie ruled with what you would call

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a velvet fist. He would demand total devotion. Followers would

326
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surrender their identities, their possessions, even their names, and he

327
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would give them nicknames. As I told you, They listen

328
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for hours as he ran it about the coming of apocalypse.

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He would quote lyrics from the Beatles' White Album as

330
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if they were scripture. Quote Helter Skelter is coming down,

331
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he would say, his eyes burning with evil. We have

332
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to be ready, be prepared. So the family would start

333
00:24:07.000 --> 00:24:11.960
stealing cars, they would start forging credit cards and stockpiling

334
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weapons to quote, be prepared, and then the small crimes

335
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would start to escalate. So the first murder came on

336
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July twenty fifth of nineteen sixty nine, a guy by

337
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the name of Gary Hemman, a music teacher and an

338
00:24:29.039 --> 00:24:33.359
occasional drug dealer who had once been friendly with the family.

339
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He was targeted because Charlie believed he had money in

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a car that they needed. Bobby Bouselt, Susan Atkins, and

341
00:24:43.599 --> 00:24:47.400
Mary Brunner went to Himman's Tipanga Canyon home and when

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him men refused to hand over what they wanted, the

343
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violence started. He was beaten, stabbed, and held for two

344
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days while they ransacked the house. Now before he died,

345
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Susan Akin dips her finger in his blood and she

346
00:25:03.920 --> 00:25:08.240
writes political Piggy on the wall, and that was kind

347
00:25:08.240 --> 00:25:12.599
of a premonition for more to come, and Charlie. It's

348
00:25:12.640 --> 00:25:15.440
important to note he was not there that night, but

349
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he had given the order in to his followers. Charlie's

350
00:25:19.319 --> 00:25:22.000
word that was the law. And then came the Knights

351
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that would shatter the entire United States. Let's go to

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August eighth of nineteen sixty nine. It's a warm Friday

353
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night in the Hollywood Hills, and I'm going to take

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you to a secluded estate rented by mega film director

355
00:25:38.079 --> 00:25:42.720
at that time named Roman Polanski, now Roman Polanski. He

356
00:25:42.839 --> 00:25:45.880
had a wife who was eight and a half months pregnant,

357
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who was famous in her own right, absolutely beautiful, stunning

358
00:25:50.400 --> 00:25:53.839
lady by the name of Sharon Tate. She was an

359
00:25:53.880 --> 00:25:58.200
actress and she was hosting friends at this rented estate

360
00:25:58.279 --> 00:26:01.839
while Roman was away filming in Europe. And the guests

361
00:26:01.960 --> 00:26:06.680
were all rich people. They were glamourous, successful, full of life,

362
00:26:06.759 --> 00:26:13.240
celebrity hairstylists. J Sebring was there. Coffee Heiress Abigail Folger

363
00:26:13.640 --> 00:26:18.039
as in Folger's Coffee, was there, y'all. A Polish writer

364
00:26:18.359 --> 00:26:22.839
by the name of Warjack Frakowski, and an eighteen year

365
00:26:22.880 --> 00:26:27.359
old Stephen parent who had simply stopped by to visit

366
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the caretaker of the estate. That was the only reason

367
00:26:30.480 --> 00:26:34.079
he was there. Around midnight, a black nineteen sixty five

368
00:26:34.240 --> 00:26:39.720
four pulls up in the driveway. Tex Watkins, Susan Atkins,

369
00:26:39.759 --> 00:26:45.359
Patricia Krimwinkle, and Linda Kasabian climb out. Linda was ordered

370
00:26:45.400 --> 00:26:47.559
to stay by the gate as a lookout, and the

371
00:26:47.640 --> 00:26:52.000
other three arm with knives and a twenty two caliber revolver.

372
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They creeped toward the house and what happened inside is

373
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the stuff you would see in a horror flick. They

374
00:26:59.440 --> 00:27:02.480
cut the foe lines, they forced their way in, and

375
00:27:02.680 --> 00:27:06.000
text announces quote, I am the devil, and I'm here

376
00:27:06.039 --> 00:27:09.960
to do the devil's business. And over the next twenty minutes,

377
00:27:10.240 --> 00:27:14.759
the slaughter that occurred inside that home was merciless. Stephen

378
00:27:14.880 --> 00:27:18.079
Parent was shot four times in his car as he

379
00:27:18.200 --> 00:27:22.039
tried to leave. Jay Seabring was shot and stabbed while

380
00:27:22.119 --> 00:27:28.720
trying to protect Sharon Tate. Wojack Furkowski fought desperately running outside,

381
00:27:28.839 --> 00:27:32.519
only to be chased down and stabbed fifty one times.

382
00:27:32.640 --> 00:27:37.319
Abigail Folger was stabbed twenty eight times as she ran

383
00:27:37.559 --> 00:27:43.039
toward the pool, and Sharon Tate, beautiful fibrant, begging for

384
00:27:43.119 --> 00:27:46.160
her life and that of her own born baby. Was

385
00:27:46.240 --> 00:27:51.720
stabbed sixteen times while she pleaded quote, please don't kill me.

386
00:27:52.400 --> 00:27:54.880
I don't want to die. When it was all over,

387
00:27:55.119 --> 00:27:58.480
the killers used the victim's blood to scrawl the word

388
00:27:58.720 --> 00:28:03.440
pig on the front door in Helter Skelter on the

389
00:28:03.480 --> 00:28:06.559
living room wall, and it was spelled h e A

390
00:28:07.079 --> 00:28:10.759
l t e R s k E l t e

391
00:28:10.920 --> 00:28:15.480
R was deliberately misspelled and meant to point toward a

392
00:28:15.519 --> 00:28:19.240
coming race war. The very next day, August ninth, the

393
00:28:19.359 --> 00:28:23.119
nightmare repeated. This time the target was a wealthy couple

394
00:28:23.359 --> 00:28:28.119
in a wealthy neighborhood, Leno li Bianca, the owner of

395
00:28:28.200 --> 00:28:33.400
a supermarket chain, and his wife Rosemary. Again, Tex Watson

396
00:28:33.880 --> 00:28:38.240
led the attack, this time accompanied by Leslie van Houton,

397
00:28:38.519 --> 00:28:42.599
Patricia Krimwinkle, and Susan Atkins. The couple was tied up.

398
00:28:42.799 --> 00:28:49.359
They were stabbed repeatedly, Leno twenty six times, Rosemary forty

399
00:28:49.440 --> 00:28:53.559
one times, and man she fought valiantly for her life.

400
00:28:53.960 --> 00:28:58.680
A carving fork was left protruding from Lino's stomach, and

401
00:28:58.799 --> 00:29:02.920
on the walls they wrote death to pigs. In another

402
00:29:03.000 --> 00:29:08.319
area they wrote rise and once again Helter Skelter now

403
00:29:08.359 --> 00:29:13.400
once again. Charlie himself did not physically participate in either

404
00:29:13.599 --> 00:29:17.440
Knight's killings. He drove the killers to the tatehouse, he

405
00:29:17.519 --> 00:29:20.000
gave the orders, and he left. He was at the

406
00:29:20.079 --> 00:29:23.599
ranch when the Libiancas were murdered, yet every drop of

407
00:29:23.680 --> 00:29:28.319
blood was shed at his command. He had turned ordinary

408
00:29:28.440 --> 00:29:32.960
young people, many of them bright attractive, from good homes,

409
00:29:33.000 --> 00:29:37.240
into instruments of pure evil. There would be one more

410
00:29:37.359 --> 00:29:41.799
victim tied directly to the family's collapse. On August twenty

411
00:29:41.799 --> 00:29:46.079
eighth of nineteen sixty nine, ranch hand Donald Shorty Shay,

412
00:29:46.359 --> 00:29:50.160
who had grown suspicious of the group's activities. He was

413
00:29:50.279 --> 00:29:56.680
lured into the hills and brutally murdered, stabbed, beaten, and decapitated.

414
00:29:57.200 --> 00:30:00.799
His body would not be found for mont So the

415
00:30:00.839 --> 00:30:05.519
bodies at both the Tate and Lobianka's homes they were discovered,

416
00:30:05.559 --> 00:30:08.480
and the nation was in shock. Now the man who

417
00:30:08.519 --> 00:30:14.039
pulled seemingly everyone's string is going to finally face justice

418
00:30:14.559 --> 00:30:18.480
in the most bizarre trial America had seen. And how

419
00:30:18.480 --> 00:30:22.000
did he get caught Well, one of his followers had

420
00:30:22.039 --> 00:30:25.400
went to a bar, meets another female who she didn't know,

421
00:30:26.160 --> 00:30:28.440
but she would tell this female I feel like you're

422
00:30:28.480 --> 00:30:30.559
someone I can trust, and asked her if she had

423
00:30:30.599 --> 00:30:33.720
heard of the Sharon Tate's murder. And the lady says yes,

424
00:30:33.880 --> 00:30:36.759
And this follower says, well, do you know who killed her?

425
00:30:36.799 --> 00:30:40.039
And the lady says no, and the follower says, you're

426
00:30:40.079 --> 00:30:43.960
looking at her. And this lady she left and she

427
00:30:44.079 --> 00:30:46.359
called police and she said, I think I know who

428
00:30:46.440 --> 00:30:50.920
killed Sharon Tate. So that's how they would catch this family.

429
00:30:51.079 --> 00:30:53.880
They learn that they're at a ranch. They go to

430
00:30:53.920 --> 00:30:57.039
the ranch and there they find kind of the remnants

431
00:30:57.079 --> 00:31:02.480
of the family, ragged, sunburned, still chanting Manson's name, and

432
00:31:02.559 --> 00:31:06.640
they find Manson in a cabinet hiding. They handcuff him

433
00:31:07.079 --> 00:31:11.640
and he is brought to jail, and the investigation it

434
00:31:11.759 --> 00:31:18.000
moved fast. Vincent Bugliosi a sharp, relentless LA prosecutor with

435
00:31:18.039 --> 00:31:21.759
the background in High States cases. He was assigned to

436
00:31:21.839 --> 00:31:26.599
lead the prosecution, and he would quickly connect these dots.

437
00:31:27.000 --> 00:31:30.680
He would figure out the bloody messages at both crime scenes,

438
00:31:31.119 --> 00:31:35.200
the family's obsession with the Beatles' White Album, the stolen

439
00:31:35.319 --> 00:31:38.559
vehicles that they would end up with, and the chilling

440
00:31:39.000 --> 00:31:42.960
loyalty of all these young followers what that meant. He

441
00:31:43.079 --> 00:31:47.039
figured out it all led back to Charles Manson. But

442
00:31:47.160 --> 00:31:51.279
the biggest break really came with Linda Kasabian, the twenty

443
00:31:51.279 --> 00:31:53.799
two year old lookout from the tape murders.

444
00:31:54.039 --> 00:31:54.240
See.

445
00:31:54.400 --> 00:31:58.559
She had fled the family and they granted her meaning

446
00:31:58.599 --> 00:32:03.200
the state granted her immunity in exchange for her testimony,

447
00:32:03.640 --> 00:32:09.000
and she became the prosecution's star witness, white eyed, saw spoken,

448
00:32:09.119 --> 00:32:12.799
young lady who would sit on the stand and describe

449
00:32:12.960 --> 00:32:16.359
in calm detail the knights of the murder. So the

450
00:32:16.440 --> 00:32:21.960
trials of Charlie Manson, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krimwinkle, and Leslie

451
00:32:22.279 --> 00:32:26.240
Van Hooton. They would start on June fifteenth of nineteen

452
00:32:26.359 --> 00:32:30.319
seventy in La County's Superior Court, and it would become

453
00:32:30.440 --> 00:32:35.279
the longest and most expensive trial in California history. Up

454
00:32:35.279 --> 00:32:39.920
to that point, nine and a half months of pure spectacle.

455
00:32:40.359 --> 00:32:44.839
The courtroom was packed every single day. Reporters from around

456
00:32:44.880 --> 00:32:48.799
the world would jam the press benches. Cameras weren't allowed

457
00:32:48.839 --> 00:32:52.559
inside during this time, but the media circus would spill

458
00:32:52.680 --> 00:32:56.440
onto the courtroom steps every morning, and from the very

459
00:32:56.480 --> 00:33:01.759
first day, Manson would turn the proceedings into his personal stage.

460
00:33:02.240 --> 00:33:05.960
He would arrive every morning and he would be freshly shaved,

461
00:33:06.440 --> 00:33:10.079
hair neatly combed. He'd be wearing the same denim shirt

462
00:33:10.119 --> 00:33:14.440
and jeans, but his eyes would burn with defiance. On

463
00:33:14.480 --> 00:33:17.519
the third day of jury selection, he stands up, He

464
00:33:17.599 --> 00:33:21.000
grabs a pencil from the defense table, and he carves

465
00:33:21.119 --> 00:33:24.720
a deep X into his own forehead while the judge

466
00:33:24.799 --> 00:33:28.319
is sitting there looking at him, stunned in silence, and

467
00:33:28.400 --> 00:33:32.000
he says, I xed myself from your world. And he

468
00:33:32.039 --> 00:33:36.920
announces us in a soft umus hypnotic voice. The three

469
00:33:37.160 --> 00:33:41.359
female defendants in the courtroom, they immediately do the same thing.

470
00:33:41.440 --> 00:33:45.119
Now later the X would be turned into a swastika

471
00:33:45.720 --> 00:33:50.039
on Charlie Manson's head, assembled that he claimed represented the

472
00:33:50.079 --> 00:33:53.839
broken cross of a dying society. But we all know

473
00:33:53.960 --> 00:33:58.920
what that really represented. The girls Atkins, Krimwinkle and van Houton,

474
00:33:59.319 --> 00:34:03.799
they behave like a synchronized choir of the damned. They

475
00:34:03.839 --> 00:34:07.839
would laugh at inappropriate moments. They would blow kisses to

476
00:34:07.920 --> 00:34:11.199
Manson from across the courtroom, and once even stood up

477
00:34:11.239 --> 00:34:15.960
together and began chanting in unison when he was scolded

478
00:34:16.000 --> 00:34:20.199
by the judge. When the prosecution tried to introduce evidence,

479
00:34:20.519 --> 00:34:24.519
they would erupt an outburst, saying you're all pigs. Helter

480
00:34:24.719 --> 00:34:30.039
skelter is coming down. And Manson himself was repeatedly removed

481
00:34:30.079 --> 00:34:35.880
from that courtroom for disruptions, only to return with fresh theatrics.

482
00:34:36.159 --> 00:34:39.559
At one point he lunched toward the judge and he shouted,

483
00:34:39.679 --> 00:34:43.280
in the name of Christian justice, someone should cut your

484
00:34:43.320 --> 00:34:47.079
head off. He was a sarcus act all in himself.

485
00:34:47.360 --> 00:34:51.920
Now Bugliosi, the prosecutor. His strategy, it was brilliant and

486
00:34:52.000 --> 00:34:56.320
pretty methodical. He didn't just prove the murders, he proved

487
00:34:56.360 --> 00:35:01.480
the conspiracy, which was important in getting a from Manson.

488
00:35:01.880 --> 00:35:04.840
He painted a portrait of Manson as a puppet master

489
00:35:05.239 --> 00:35:09.639
who never needed to hold the knife himself. Remember, Manson

490
00:35:09.719 --> 00:35:13.639
himself had not killed anyone. So over one hundred and

491
00:35:13.639 --> 00:35:18.840
forty witnesses they take the stand. Linda Kosibon's testimony lasted

492
00:35:18.920 --> 00:35:24.920
eighteen days. Just her testimony, she described voice trembling but steady,

493
00:35:25.280 --> 00:35:28.840
how Tex Watson had said I'm the devil before those

494
00:35:28.920 --> 00:35:32.159
killings began, and how Sharon Tate had begged for her

495
00:35:32.199 --> 00:35:35.119
baby's life as I told you earlier, and how the

496
00:35:35.239 --> 00:35:38.440
killers had returned to the ranch covered in blood, had

497
00:35:38.519 --> 00:35:43.679
been greeted by Manson with open arms. Now the defense, well,

498
00:35:44.320 --> 00:35:48.079
it was almost non existent. To be honest, Manson's lawyers

499
00:35:48.119 --> 00:35:53.199
tried to argue diminished responsibility on Manson's part. They also

500
00:35:53.320 --> 00:35:57.159
tried to argue that drugs influenced all this, but the

501
00:35:57.239 --> 00:36:02.000
family's own behavior destroyed any sympathy a jury or the

502
00:36:02.079 --> 00:36:04.920
general public for that matter, would have had. When the

503
00:36:05.000 --> 00:36:09.440
jury finally deliberated and only took them ten hours to

504
00:36:09.480 --> 00:36:13.360
reach guilty verdicts on all counts seven counts of first

505
00:36:13.400 --> 00:36:17.719
degree murder for Manson and the three women, plus one

506
00:36:17.800 --> 00:36:22.480
count of conspiracy, and on March twenty ninth, nineteen seventy one,

507
00:36:23.119 --> 00:36:27.119
the same jury recommended the death penalty for all four.

508
00:36:27.679 --> 00:36:32.199
California would have other plans. In nineteen seventy two, the

509
00:36:32.239 --> 00:36:36.679
state Supreme Court ruled the death penalty unconstitutional. All those

510
00:36:36.760 --> 00:36:40.480
death sentences were automatically commuted to life in prison with

511
00:36:41.039 --> 00:36:45.199
the possibility of parole, So for the next forty six years,

512
00:36:45.599 --> 00:36:49.760
Charles Manson became America's most famous inmate. He was housed

513
00:36:49.800 --> 00:36:54.320
primarily at California State Prison, which was a maximum security

514
00:36:54.360 --> 00:36:58.920
facility in Central Valley, and he racked up fourteen parole

515
00:36:58.960 --> 00:37:03.719
hearings between nineteen seventy eight in twenty twelve, and each

516
00:37:03.800 --> 00:37:08.320
one of these was a media event. Manson would shuffle in.

517
00:37:08.559 --> 00:37:12.320
He'd be wearing prison blues, right long hair, his beard

518
00:37:12.400 --> 00:37:16.239
getting wilder and wilder as time went on. He would

519
00:37:16.239 --> 00:37:21.559
still have that schwastika tattoo, but it was faded, still visible, however,

520
00:37:21.840 --> 00:37:24.360
and he would go on rants for hours about the

521
00:37:24.519 --> 00:37:28.760
environmental collapse, race wars, how the system had graded him

522
00:37:28.920 --> 00:37:31.480
and not the other way around. As a matter of fact,

523
00:37:31.559 --> 00:37:35.320
in nineteen eighty one, he told a parole board quote,

524
00:37:35.800 --> 00:37:39.119
I'm not a prisoner in prison. I am a prisoner

525
00:37:39.280 --> 00:37:42.480
in your mind. And in nineteen ninety two he would

526
00:37:42.559 --> 00:37:45.719
grunt and he would say, quote, you people had been

527
00:37:45.760 --> 00:37:49.239
looking at me for forty years, and I'm still right here.

528
00:37:49.480 --> 00:37:52.000
It was so important to him to feel like he

529
00:37:52.119 --> 00:37:55.719
was winning. Of course, this never stopped him from trying

530
00:37:55.760 --> 00:37:59.480
to manipulate. He would smuggle out letters from prison. He

531
00:37:59.480 --> 00:38:02.960
would give the most bizarre interviews, and he even recorded

532
00:38:03.039 --> 00:38:07.480
music that fans still circulate online from his prison cell.

533
00:38:07.679 --> 00:38:11.239
Prison officials they would move him between high security units,

534
00:38:11.400 --> 00:38:15.199
because he continued to attract followers and guards and visitors.

535
00:38:15.239 --> 00:38:19.440
Even sometimes celebrities would write him fan mail. He became

536
00:38:19.800 --> 00:38:23.159
like a dark celebrity. His face would be on t

537
00:38:23.360 --> 00:38:27.079
shirts and album covers, and his name would be invoked

538
00:38:27.280 --> 00:38:32.000
anytime people were talking about evil. Now the victim's families,

539
00:38:32.079 --> 00:38:36.800
they fought every parole attempt. Sharon Tate's mother, Doris Tate,

540
00:38:37.000 --> 00:38:41.159
she became a tireless advocate until her death in nineteen

541
00:38:41.239 --> 00:38:46.639
ninety two. She attended every hearing. She stared straight into

542
00:38:47.039 --> 00:38:52.800
Manson's eyes. During these hearings, other families, the Libiancas, the Folgers,

543
00:38:52.920 --> 00:38:56.440
the Sea Brings. They spoke of the lifelong void that

544
00:38:56.599 --> 00:39:00.280
was left in their life due to these murders. Ain't

545
00:39:00.320 --> 00:39:06.480
never faded, even as Manson's legend grew, if you will,

546
00:39:06.559 --> 00:39:11.360
But by the mid twenty tens, Manson's health collapsed. He

547
00:39:11.480 --> 00:39:17.440
was human after all, diabetes, heart problems and gastro intestinal cancer.

548
00:39:17.880 --> 00:39:21.320
They would take their toll, and on November nineteenth of

549
00:39:21.400 --> 00:39:25.320
two thousand and seventeen, at the age of eighty three.

550
00:39:25.400 --> 00:39:28.960
I couldn't believe he lived that long. Charles Manson died

551
00:39:29.199 --> 00:39:33.719
of natural causes in a hospital wing at Cochrane State Prison.

552
00:39:34.159 --> 00:39:38.440
His body was cremated, with his ashes scattered in a

553
00:39:38.519 --> 00:39:42.079
secret location that nobody knows. Some say it's in the

554
00:39:42.159 --> 00:39:45.599
mountains that he once called home, so that no one

555
00:39:45.719 --> 00:39:49.679
could ever turn his grave into a shrine. The boy

556
00:39:49.800 --> 00:39:52.760
no one wanted had become the man the world could

557
00:39:52.800 --> 00:39:57.159
never forget. Prison had not broken him, and actually it

558
00:39:57.159 --> 00:40:01.199
had only amplified his myth. The system that failed the

559
00:40:01.360 --> 00:40:05.960
child had spent decades guarding the monster he would become.

560
00:40:06.159 --> 00:40:09.119
Now what I told you just now is the real

561
00:40:09.239 --> 00:40:13.880
story of Charles Manson. Not the cartoon villain on T shirts,

562
00:40:13.920 --> 00:40:16.920
not the rock star or the urban legend. Just a

563
00:40:17.000 --> 00:40:21.599
human being whose every shade of evil was grown from

564
00:40:21.639 --> 00:40:27.920
the same dark soil, neglect, rage, and a most supernatural

565
00:40:28.000 --> 00:40:32.599
talent for turning other people's pain into his power. The

566
00:40:32.639 --> 00:40:36.960
fifty shades of Charles Manson weren't the murdyers alone. They

567
00:40:36.960 --> 00:40:41.400
were the manipulation that made ordinary kids into killers, the

568
00:40:41.519 --> 00:40:45.159
charisma that can make a room full of lost souls

569
00:40:45.280 --> 00:40:49.800
believed the apocalypse was coming and that only he could

570
00:40:49.880 --> 00:40:54.559
save them. Society's blind spots to let a career criminal

571
00:40:54.719 --> 00:40:58.480
walk out of prison In nineteen sixty seven with nothing

572
00:40:58.880 --> 00:41:02.199
but a guitar and a mile and find an entire

573
00:41:02.320 --> 00:41:05.679
generation ready to follow him, and look at what he

574
00:41:05.800 --> 00:41:11.039
left behind. The tait Lebiancamrders didn't just end seven lives,

575
00:41:11.320 --> 00:41:16.320
They ended something bigger, the last innocent gasp of the

576
00:41:16.360 --> 00:41:21.039
whole nineteen sixties and nineteen seventies dream peace and love

577
00:41:21.159 --> 00:41:25.559
right parents locked their doors. The counterculture that had welcomed

578
00:41:25.639 --> 00:41:31.559
runaways now looked at every barefoot stranger with suspicion. Cult

579
00:41:31.599 --> 00:41:36.559
awareness became a national conversation. Loss changed because of this,

580
00:41:37.079 --> 00:41:39.760
and to this day, when we hear the word Manson,

581
00:41:40.159 --> 00:41:44.280
we don't think of a neglected child in West Virginia.

582
00:41:44.320 --> 00:41:49.039
We think of monsters hiding in plain sight. Think about it. Yet,

583
00:41:49.079 --> 00:41:52.920
even in the darkness, there's some lessons that are worth

584
00:41:53.000 --> 00:41:57.960
carrying to the light. Recognize the signs of manipulation before

585
00:41:58.000 --> 00:42:03.119
they become a movement. Listen when someone demands total loyalty

586
00:42:03.480 --> 00:42:08.719
and offers total belonging in return. Pay attention when charisma

587
00:42:09.199 --> 00:42:14.679
feels too perfect, too soothing, to exactly what you've been missing,

588
00:42:15.000 --> 00:42:17.920
Because the next Charles Manson, He's not going to arrive

589
00:42:18.079 --> 00:42:21.599
with a swastika on his forehead. He'll arrive with the

590
00:42:21.639 --> 00:42:27.239
podcast or social media feed or self help seminar, or

591
00:42:27.239 --> 00:42:31.000
a family that feels like home to the victims' families,

592
00:42:31.039 --> 00:42:35.480
those who still carry the empty chairs at holiday tables.

593
00:42:35.719 --> 00:42:38.760
I want to say that my heart's thoughts, prayers, all

594
00:42:38.800 --> 00:42:44.360
of that are with you because these people will suffer forever.

595
00:42:44.639 --> 00:42:47.880
So here we are at the end of yet another

596
00:42:47.960 --> 00:42:51.559
episode of fifty Shades of Evil, and it's important to

597
00:42:51.599 --> 00:42:56.079
remember this series, y'all, is not about glorifying monsters. It's

598
00:42:56.119 --> 00:42:59.840
about understanding how monsters are made so that we can

599
00:43:00.320 --> 00:43:04.280
the next one before the bodies pot love. Now, if

600
00:43:04.280 --> 00:43:07.559
this episode moved you, shook you, made you look twice

601
00:43:07.599 --> 00:43:10.599
at people around you, do me a favor and share

602
00:43:10.639 --> 00:43:14.039
it on your social media. It really helps me grow

603
00:43:14.079 --> 00:43:17.360
and it's very important to this podcast. Also check out

604
00:43:17.360 --> 00:43:21.679
the Patreon for commercial, free early releases and more at

605
00:43:21.760 --> 00:43:27.239
patreon dot com. Slash Bloody Inngola podcast and until next

606
00:43:27.239 --> 00:43:30.480
time for Bloody and Gola, I'm your host, Jim Chapman.

607
00:43:31.159 --> 00:43:47.480
Much love, a.

608
00:43:47.719 --> 00:44:01.280
Wall Street line, shackle change, it's calling my name. There

609
00:44:01.519 --> 00:44:08.480
is no mercy and it's been a tentury juice as

610
00:44:08.639 --> 00:44:12.960
the Huge String Game. Rangle three.

611
00:44:14.599 --> 00:44:15.119
I'm in.

612
00:44:17.920 --> 00:44:26.159
By mere to die inside these walls, inside the wild,

613
00:44:28.119 --> 00:44:46.360
and when the wars, I know it's oldbody angle, obody angle.