Inside the Manson Cult: The Lost Tapes (2018) Movie Script
1
ANNOUNCER: Thanks for downloading this Fox show.
And don't miss all-new episodes only on Fox.
- Yeah, every girl ought to
have a daddy like Charlie.
Should--deserves to have
a daddy like Charlie.
[camera shutters clicking]
male narrator: Charles Manson:
Hippie guru,
would-be rock star,
and,
until his death in 2017,
the most notorious
prison inmate in America.
- You can't prove anything.
Now is the only thing
that's real.
narrator: Manson
was the leader of a cult
called The Family.
narrator: They murdered
nine people,
including movie actress
Sharon Tate
in the summer of 1969.
- It was one of the worst
things I've ever seen.
There was blood all over her.
narrator: The murders sent
shockwaves through Hollywood.
- No one was safe.
- Entertainers out there
are hiring bodyguards.
It put the fear of God
in them.
narrator: The court argued
that Manson had brainwashed
his followers
and programmed them to kill.
- They had no idea that where
Manson was leading them
was mayhem and murder.
- [laughs]
narrator: But could one man
have this much power?
And if so, how?
For the first time,
we can see how.
Shortly after his arrest,
Manson gave a group
of young filmmakers
led by Robert Hendrickson
exclusive access
inside his cult.
- Scene one, take two, roll 53.
narrator: Hidden away
for decades,
the original footage
has now been found:
More than 100 hours of film,
and with it
reels of unheard audio...
- We've seen Charlie do things
that no human being
has ever done.
Or no human being has...
narrator: And dozens of unseen
photographs.
- No, we've seen miracles.
- This is dynamite information
to have.
Where's it been all these
years, all this stuff?
- Some people
are making a movie.
narrator: Today, former cult
members can see themselves
as they once were.
- Did you ever think
of Sharon Tate's baby?
-I didn't know her.
I never met her.
Anybody watching this
would think I was a monster.
narrator: Never-before-seen
interviews
give us a firsthand view
of the programming process.
- I am Charlie.
And if he dies, I die.
narrator: And long-forgotten
film
provides shocking revelations
about how Manson's
followers lived,
loved...
[gun cocks]
And ultimately,
how they were turned from
regular, peace-loving kids
into brutal and brainwashed
killers.
-I didn't want to believe
the things I heard.
- I'm ready to die.
- I didn't want to believe
the things I saw.
- They're persecuting
what they can't stand
to look at in themselves:
The truth.
- When somebody
needs to be killed...
[knives thud]
There's no wrong.
You do it.
- Bam.
- And you kill whoever
gets in your way.
This is us.
[dramatic musical sting]
- Your home is where
you're happy
It's not where
you're not free
narrator: In the hills
above Hollywood, California,
lives a small band
of young men and women
about two dozen in all.
They share a love of music
and each other.
They call themselves
the Family.
- Roll 136.
- All we ever did amounted to
smoking grass
and taking acid
and making love
as much as we could.
If we weren't doing that,
we was leading up to it.
If we weren't leading up
to it, we was doing that.
narrator: The group's leader
is a career criminal
with a rap sheet
containing multiple offenses
from forgery to armed robbery:
32-year-old Charles Manson.
Manson never knew his father.
His mother was a petty thief
who was in and out of jail.
And Manson followed
in her footsteps.
His latest sentence:
a seven-year stretch
for forgery
and breaking parole.
[ambient music]
He's released on March 21,
He heads to California...
and the Summer of Love.
- My name's Peter Coyote.
I'm the last ancient hippie,
and I was a serious player
in the counterculture.
It was wonderful
to wake up in the morning.
You could get food,
friendship,
whatever you needed.
People of like minds
got together
and they formed
extended families.
- My name is Aesop Aquarian.
There was a lot of talk about
going to the Summer of Love
and we did love each other
in those days.
We believed in peace and love
and that things
actually could get better.
[cheerful music]
- Charlie saw
the hippie movement
and saw the power in it;
saw the power behind
the young people;
could see a huge
revolution starting.
And there really is
a revolution.
And Charlie wanted
to take this power
and turn it into
his own game.
- When Charlie
was released from prison,
he had spent over half
of his life in jail.
So he had no family.
For him, recruiting followers
was creating the family
that he never had.
narrator: Guitar in hand,
Manson sets up
at street corners
and starts playing.
Gradually,
he attracts followers.
- People say
that I'm no good
- In the late '60s,
music led kids
off the suburban sidewalks
to hear the sounds
of authentic voices
for whom the American dream
didn't work.
- The counterculture
was this idea that
young people
had been led astray.
What did it mean
to be a human being
in a capitalistic society?
Young people had been fed
a myth about
American exceptionalism
and American democracy
that was untrue.
narrator: And Manson
knew just how
to get the kids to listen.
- My name is John Douglas.
I'm with the FBI,
former criminal profiler--
developed criminal profiling--
and I interviewed
Charles Manson
as part of the serial murderer
research project.
When Charles was in prison,
he was fascinated
by the pimps.
Because these pimps didn't
look anything extraordinary.
So how are you able to,
you know, master,
have this control,
you know, over others?
These pimps told him
where to find these girls.
They look like a broken wing.
A broken wing meaning that
something was wrong.
There was this rejection.
So Manson had the ability
to approach these so-called
broken wings
and talk to them.
- My name is Dianne Lake.
I was one of the first
and the youngest member
of the Manson Family.
I was 14 when I met Charlie.
Say a little prayer?
- He expressed his love
and adoration for me.
It was a high.
It was magic.
It was an incredible
upwelling of love, and,
you know, joy.
My mom and dad were not
the warm, fuzzy
hugging variety.
They really weren't.
And I think that
I needed to feel that.
- As long as you've got
love in your heart
- Charlie invited me to be
a part of their family.
It was what I was looking for.
[cheerful music]
narrator: By the spring
of 1968,
Manson has gathered
half a dozen girls.
The lost tapes
show how he uses them
to lure men.
- Action.
What is your name?
- Paul Watkins.
- How did you get in?
- How did I get in
to The Family?
- Yes.
- I was walking through
Topanga Canyon
and it was starting
to get dark.
I needed a place to sleep.
And there was
this little house
in the clearing in the woods.
Who came to the door was
one of the prettiest girls
I'd ever seen.
- I go answer the door
and it's Paul.
- Big puff of marijuana smoke
hit me in the face.
And that smelled good to me.
- [giggling]
- Charlie told me,
"I want you to reel him in."
[soft music]
- There was 15 people
sitting around in there.
And it was a big room that
had mattresses all over it
and a little table
in the middle.
Charlie, he was playing
the guitar.
He laid all his girls
out in front of me
and says, "They're yours.
What are you gonna
do with them?"
And uh...
I was flattered.
- Nancy and I made him
feel welcome
and had sex with him.
- I agreed that I would stay
with them for the summer
'cause he said he needed
some help;
he was all alone with them
and he couldn't handle them
all by his own,
couldn't keep them satisfied.
Charlie said that The Family
was my family forever.
narrator: The lost tapes
show how Manson
broke down The Family
members' inhibitions
and used sex
not just to seduce,
but also to control them.
- We all had to go through
lots and lots of changes.
All the guys had to get over
all their homosexual things
by doing everything that you
could possibly think of
doing with guys.
And all the girls had to do
everything they could
possibly think of doing
with girls.
- He would have them talk
while he's having sex.
Was there anything, sexually,
that went on that you feel
disgraced by
or embarrassed by?
By doing that
they just felt better
about themselves,
although he had, now, all
the intelligence information
on them, and then would know
what kind of buttons to push.
narrator: Manson's technique
is finding the thing
each of his followers
really feels they need
and giving it to them.
- He'd mirror people.
He did that
the very first day with me.
He just mirrored me.
And he told me, "You're me.
We're the same."
He knew people.
He knew human nature.
So he made me feel
that this was just
meant to be.
And he made me feel important.
[ambient music]
- People would say,
"Well, how come
you didn't leave?"
I stayed with
Charlie because
Charlie captured my heart.
And like heroin addicts the
first time they take heroin,
I was addicted to that initial
feeling of love and adoration
and acceptance.
I wanted that again
and again and again.
[rock music plays]
narrator: As he gathers
his followers around him,
Manson pursues an idea
first dreamt about
during his years in prison:
A career in music.
He sends his girls
out into the streets,
hoping to meet people with
connections to the business.
- On some level,
Manson's entrance
into the LA music scene is
rooted in a chance encounter.
Two of the women in The Family
happen to meet
Dennis Wilson
of the Beach Boys,
one of the central figures
of rock music
in Los Angeles
in the late 1960s.
- Wilson takes the girls home.
And shortly afterwards,
Manson follows.
- I was at Dennis Wilson's
house.
It astounded me at that time
because I'd never seen
a place like that.
It was like a fairy tale.
And Charlie comes
dancing out of the house,
and I said, "Wow."
[swinging music plays]
- There's no other way
to put it.
Dennis Wilson falls in love
with Charles Manson
and falls in love
with the women.
- Both Charlie and Dennis,
I think that
there was a mutual admiration
going on between them.
They were both wild,
liked women,
liked music.
Dennis was very much impressed
with the fact that Charlie
could get his girls
to participate.
narrator: They party.
They hang out.
They even record together.
[men laughing]
On one occasion,
captured in the lost tapes,
Manson gives his home-spun
philosophy on life.
[guitar strumming]
- The way out of a room
is not through the door,
partner.
Because then you just go into
another room
which leads into another room,
which leads into a bigger room
and you're still inside
your cage, man.
- Dennis was kind of
looking for
some kind of spiritual
guidance, and I think that
you know, Charlie kind of
fit the bill.
- That's not the way out.
The way out is
to give it all up
and love every bit of it
as being perfect.
- Manson couldn't have
scripted it better.
Wilson introduces him
to his good friend
Terry Melcher,
one of the hottest
rock-and-roll producers
in America.
- He's the music producer
who has produced The Byrds,
and Paul Revere
and the Raiders.
He's got a number of hits
behind him.
narrator: Melcher has it all:
a superstar mom in Doris Day,
a superstar girlfriend
in Candice Bergen.
And at the time, he even rents
a superstar's mansion
in Beverly Hills
with an address
Charlie and the world
will never forget:
10050 Cielo Drive.
Coming up on "Inside
the Manson Cult"...
- Anyone in that house
on Cielo Drive...
- On Cielo Drive, over.
- Was going to die that night.
They were all going to die.
narrator: The real
inside story
of America's
most shocking cult.
- It was just pandemonium
in Los Angeles.
[gun clicking]
- It was terrifying,
the idea of
testifying against them.
- He's programming us.
-We are sneaking in
a county jail.
- He's telling us
to break him out.
[dramatic musical sting]
male narrator: Hidden
and forgotten
for more than 40 years,
the lost tapes take us
inside the Manson cult
and show how Charles Manson
turns a group
of hippie runaways
into brainwashed zombies,
some capable of mass murder.
- [laughs]
[rock music]
narrator: It is spring
of 1968.
The whole world
is rock-and-roll crazy.
- In that era, music's
a talking newspaper.
Music is a way that young
people were processing
the conflicts that were
all around them
in the culture.
It wasn't a secret code.
It was another language,
and it was a language that
thousands and thousands
of young Americans
spoke fluently.
narrator: Manson speaks
the language too,
and fame would bring him
the widest possible audience
for his ideas.
He's living with
California music legend
Dennis Wilson,
drummer of the Beach Boys.
He knows the power
rock stardom can bring.
Now he gets a taste
for the life.
- Charlie evolved.
He didn't want money or fame,
because he never had
money or fame.
But then when he sees
Dennis Wilson,
people are fawning over him,
he's got this beautiful house.
And Charlie thought,
"Hey, this is something
I want."
narrator: Wilson
hooks Manson up
with top Hollywood
music producer Terry Melcher.
Melcher is rock-and-roll
royalty.
- Just come
and say you love me
- Manson thought Melcher
was there to audition him
for a record contract.
- I think Charlie was
very nervous,
but I don't think he wanted
to show that.
- Come on and look at me
narrator: Melcher
holds the keys
to Manson's musical dreams.
But a sound recording
from the lost tapes
reveals what Melcher thinks
of Manson's music.
-When Charlie was rejected
by Terry Melcher
and the music industry,
it festered with Charlie.
It's something he focused on
and fixated on
for a very long time
afterwards.
- He talked about all these
Hollywood people.
"They're all liars."
narrator: Manson has had it
with show business
and the people in it.
It marks a turning point
in the Manson story.
From now on,
Hollywood is the enemy.
Their dreams dashed,
The Family pack up
and hit the road.
[acoustic guitar plays]
They settle at a horse ranch
around 30 miles north
of Los Angeles.
- Spahn Ranch was private.
You know, it had that
interesting little flair
because it's been in a lot
of Western movies
but there also was, like,
a faade of a saloon
and, you know,
they rented horses
for horseback riding.
- Spahn Ranch
sat on old Highway 70.
It was a place...
Yeah, it had its own magic.
My job was looking after
horses and the cowboys,
the people that worked on
Spahn's Ranch.
A place like that
isn't actually a job.
It's a way of living.
narrator: A way of living
that is about to change.
- In comes this little guy
who bangs through the door
like he thought he was God,
and he screamed at us,
"I'm Charles Manson!"
And I was like, "I don't give
a hell who you are,
Get the hell out of my house!"
narrator: But it isn't
Windy's ranch.
It belongs to 80-year-old
George Spahn.
And Manson
makes a deal with him.
The Family can stay
free of charge
if the girls help out.
- We helped out
renting the horses,
shoveling horse poop.
- Charles Manson
took two of the girls
and he assigned them to
keep George Spahn happy...
in any way they could.
And they did.
narrator: Manson's commune
attracts more and more
followers,
including 25-year-old
musician Catherine Share,
nicknamed Gypsy.
- To me, it was beautiful.
I didn't see the dust.
I just saw the quaintness
of it.
And it just looked
almost dreamlike to me.
I was told by
one of the girls that
everybody picked new names,
and I could pick whatever
name I wanted,
and I said, "Oh, okay,
then I'll call myself Gypsy."
- We didn't need food.
Charlie showed us how to
get food out of the dumpsters
at the back
of the grocery stores.
- You wouldn't believe
what we got
out of the garbage cans today.
We got a whole watermelon,
six boxes of bananas,
four boxes of oranges, um...
- Don't forget the artichokes.
- Artichokes...
- We'd wash it off
and make fruit salads.
We ate very well, actually.
Playing music and
making love and getting to
know everyone...
It was quite ideal
for quite a long time.
But beneath the surface
there was a monster
that was lurking.
narrator: The lost tapes
reveal the tightening grip
Manson has
on his followers' minds.
- I am Charlie.
And if he dies, I die.
- You said you
are Charlie?
- I gave up my personality
and become what he
showed me I can be.
- And that is what?
- Total love.
- So in this clip we can see
more about the mindset
of Manson's followers;
that, in essence, they had
eliminated their identities.
They have nothing else
to go upon
except what Charlie
had provided,
and this instills this idea
of groupthink,
where all they know
is the benefit of the group.
- We didn't talk about
our inner feelings
or emotions because we weren't
supposed to have any.
It was one mind
with a lot of hands.
And there was no discussing it.
narrator: Somehow The Family
seemed to believe
they're actually living the
dream Manson had sold them.
But those outsiders
close enough to witness
see something very different.
- Manson had a bunch
of ragtag...
dirty little girls.
They were kind of pathetic.
They sure were strange.
The men all carried knives.
When I went up there,
I always carried a gun.
narrator: Coming up,
the lost tapes reveal
how Manson takes his cult
a step closer to killing.
- Everybody just went
stark raving mad,
I mean, just completely crazy.
narrator: And startling
recordings
show that he is
bending their minds
to believe he is God.
- We've seen Charlie do things
that no human being
has ever done.
We've seen miracles.
male narrator: It is
the summer of 1968.
Charles Manson, wannabe
musician and ex-con,
has established a commune
on a run-down ranch
30 miles outside
of Los Angeles...
[all humming]
And he's turning it
from commune to cult.
- Every now and then,
them girls would ask me
why I didn't throw away my bras
and run like them half-naked
around the ranch.
Didn't I feel like
I should be free?
I said, "You're not free.
You're slaves."
narrator: Along with sex,
music, and mind-control,
Manson throws
one more ingredient
into his cult-creating
cocktail:
isolation.
At the ranch there are no
calendars or clocks;
no magazines or newspapers.
Manson's word
is the only word.
- We were totally reliant
on Charlie's idea
of what our family
should be doing.
[solemn music]
- The isolation
that Manson imposed
upon his followers by taking
them out into the Ranch
was pivotal.
In that environment,
he controlled
everything they saw,
everything they heard.
He could create
an absolute bubble.
- In hindsight, it was the
perfect breeding ground
for his philosophy to grow
and our commitment to him
to deepen.
narrator: The lost tapes
contain a unique record
of Manson's preaching.
- You're born with
a survival instinct
to be selfish.
So the first thing that
happens, man,
is they start giving you
their thoughts
and making things out of you
that they want out of.
And then by the time
you reach 30,
you're exactly what they want.
You're a free soul
standing in a cage
who has to die
because he was taught.
[chuckles]
Yeah.
- We would listen
to everything he had to say.
We never joined in,
commented,
disagreed.
He would seem to just
answer your questions
before you had any.
narrator: Manson's Family
is now about 30 strong.
Some have been with him
more than a year.
He has bent them to his will
with sex, isolation,
and domination.
And the lost tapes show
one last vital ingredient.
- We took things
like belladonna
and smoked hashish a lot
and smoked marijuana
all the time, and...
and psilocybin and mescaline...
When I was with Charlie we took
anywhere between
30 and 40 trips
on acid alone.
[rock music]
Everybody just went
stark raving mad.
I mean, just completely crazy.
- People are jumping in and out
of the fireplace,
flying through windows,
hitting other people
in the face.
- Arms and legs flying
in every directions
and people screaming,
"Charlie! Charlie!"
- One too many trips
To the moon and back
Feel like I'm shot through
From green to black
Had so many highs
- The LSD was fun.
Everything became
more animated,
the songs, you know, the words,
I felt totally disconnected
from reality.
narrator: But not everybody
in the cult is high.
- Manson was smart enough
to know
how to dose out LSD.
I've interviewed Manson
three times.
He told us in the interview
at San Quentin
he would take drugs,
but not that much.
But what about your flock?
"I gave them the
full dosage of it."
You know, "Why?"
"Because I felt I could have
more of an impact
over them."
- The shadow side
of psychedelics
is that you're nakedly innocent
and vulnerable.
And someone can weasel their
way inside your mind
and alter your perspective.
narrator: With The Family
drugged and under his spell,
Manson takes his power
to a whole nother level.
-Charlie never just said
he was Jesus Christ,
but then he always said it.
He said it in every other way
except for just coming
flat-out and saying
"I am Jesus Christ."
- He said that 2,000 years ago
he'd hung on a cross
and died for everyone's sins,
and it didn't do a [bleep]
bit of good,
so now he's up again.
[solemn music]
- He started using
subliminal messages
such as, "They won't kill me
this time
because I've already died."
But he'd say it very quickly
with a lot of other things.
- The most extreme form
of grandiosity
and power and narcissism
is to be godlike.
- You look the part.
You got the hair,
you got the beard,
and now you start talking
and it's very,
very convincing.
Before you know it,
you're Jesus.
You're Christ.
- It looked to me like he was
hanging on the cross and...
you know, bleeding
from his hands.
It seemed very real.
It seemed like other people
were, you know,
believing it.
- We've seen what's possible.
We've seen Charlie do things
that no human being...
has ever done.
Or no human being has revealed
that he could do these things.
No, we've seen miracles.
- He often talked about
the significance of his name,
Man-son.
That he was Man's Son.
The Son of Man.
- We saw him bring
a bird back to life.
We know that
anything's possible.
narrator: It's taken two years
of sex, mind-control,
drugs, and domination
for Manson
to turn regular kids
into a cult of worshippers
ready to obey
his every command.
The question now
is what will he make them do?
- Manson knew
where he wanted to go.
He knew where he was taking
these people.
But they had no clue.
They had no idea that
where Manson was leading them
was mayhem and murder.
narrator: Coming up,
the lost tapes show Manson
as he prepares for war...
- We're always ready.
narrator: And the killings
start.
- He was the commander now
and we were all in boot camp.
narrator: And an incredible
confession
never broadcast before.
- He said that one day
in Beverly Hills,
there would be some
atrocious murders
and people would be
chopped to pieces.
There'd be things written on
the walls in blood.
- [laughs]
narrator: June 1969.
Charles Manson is becoming
increasingly obsessed
with one extraordinary vision.
- I think Charles Manson
was looking for some
chaotic Armageddon
into which he could take
even more advantage
of disorder,
and rally people
behind a common threat.
- Charlie used to say
the blacks would
fight against the whites, and
everyone would fight
against everybody else
and that everyone would get
killed except for Charlie
and a few blacks who'd be left
to be their servants.
- He became increasingly,
you know,
paranoid about that,
and started preparing us
for that event.
- Manson is imbibing
what's happening
in terms of popular
and political culture
in the United States.
When we think about
the late 1960s,
the Civil Rights movement,
Malcolm X,
the Black Panther party,
the Vietnam War,
there were really hundreds
of civil disturbances.
And there was a real fear
that race war was coming
to the United States.
It seemed as if
the end of the world
was coming.
narrator: Manson dubs his
race war prophecy
"Helter Skelter,"
a name he takes from
a most unlikely source.
Male announcer: You guessed it,
the Beatles!
This rock-and-roll group
has taken over
as the kingpins
of musical appreciation
among the younger element.
narrator: In November 1968,
the Beatles release
their "White Album."
Manson becomes obsessed.
- Charlie played it forwards
and backwards
and he played it
over and over again.
He said, "The Beatles are
sending me a message...
That it's time."
Black man was gonna
take over the world.
- [laughs]
- There was a song
called "Helter Skelter"...
[guitar riff]
About people who were at the
bottom of the slide
of society getting back
to the top.
According to Manson,
these were the blacks.
- The Beatles now were
confirming
that it was all true.
[guitar riff]
It was crazy, crazy thinking.
[guitar riff]
narrator: Now free love
transforms to boot camp
as Manson readies his Family
for Helter Skelter.
- Mark it.
- Sandy, Brenda, Squeaky,
six, take one, roll 210.
-We're always ready.
- The new thought is
to be a strong reflection
of the father.
Now, I'm just finding out
about this, see.
And it feels good.
It feels good to know.
- He issued us all buck knives
and showed us
the most effective way
to kill someone.
He said it...
"You have to be willing to kill
in order to not be killed."
- If you want it
Here it is
Come and get it
[all laughing]
- But you better hurry
Because it won't be here long,
you [bleep].
- He told us
you stab and then you rip up.
You know, you--that's what
I remember.
It's like, you know, so,
the reason being that
you would hit as many organs--
you know, vital organs
as possible.
- He was the commander now.
And we were all in boot camp.
I think the dangerous side
of Charlie
was that
he would do anything...
to survive.
narrator: While Manson's
Family
think they're getting ready
to defend themselves,
in reality,
their leader's intentions
are very different.
- At that time, I was staying
with a man named Pete Nell
who was president of the
San Francisco Hell's Angels.
And I got to his house one day
just as Charles Manson
had left,
and he was flabbergasted.
Charles Manson had come to them
to try to get the Hell's Angels
to begin a race war;
to just go start randomly
shooting black people.
And Pete had said, "You know,
if you want a race war,
go start it yourself."
narrator: A chilling
piece of audio
captured on the lost tapes
when the cameras
stopped rolling
and never broadcast before
reveals that Manson
now does plan
to start that race war
himself.
And the place he's chosen?
The very heart
of Hollywood's elite:
Beverly Hills.
- He said
that one day, up in the
mountains of Beverly Hills
that they just, uh...
go in and have a bunch
of mass murders.
That they would be
so atrocious.
That there would be blood
splattered
all over everything.
That people would be
chopped to pieces
and cut up with knives.
There'd be things written
on the walls in blood.
And, uh, the white man would
get all uptight about it
and blame the [bleep] for it.
narrator: Coming up
on "Inside the Manson Cult"...
- He confided in me about
killing people.
About how groovy it was
to take a gun and blast
some guy in the stomach.
narrator: And a former
cult member
has to face
her younger self
from half a century before.
- Did I ever think
of her baby?
I've pictured her pregnant.
Anybody watching this would
think I was a monster.
narrator: Early summer,
Charles Manson is convinced
a race war
is coming down fast.
- The ranch changed completely
after that.
narrator: And the lost tapes
show how his world view
turns dark.
- He confided in me about
killing people.
About how groovy it was
to take a gun and
blast some guy in the stomach
just because he was black.
About how far out it would be
to go into a house and...
cut the [bleep] out of women
and cut the [bleep] off
of little boys
and just have pools of blood
everywhere.
- Manson addressed
the issue of
the pending race war
by creating what he thought
would be the circumstances
to ignite it.
narrator: As Manson
hones his master plan,
the tapes show how he's
conditioned his followers
to commit the ultimate crime
by conquering their
deepest fears
of death.
-There is no death.
There's no such thing.
When you die,
you die with the thoughts that
you have in your head.
- Their reality was
such that oh,
you know, death was
no big deal.
- When somebody
needs to be killed,
there's no wrong.
You do it.
And then you move on.
[gun clicking]
- Manson had weaponized
his followers
to use--like a knife,
like a gun,
like a rope,
to kill the people
that he had targeted.
narrator: Manson has trained
his Family
to be able to kill for him.
But are they ready
to really do it?
It's time to find out.
-Gary Hinman had his ear
chopped off...
along with being killed
and stabbed and
tortured...
everything else he had done
to him.
- We'd been to Gary's house
you know, several times.
He lived in Topanga Canyon.
narrator: Gary Hinman has sold
Bobby Beausoleil some drugs.
Beausoleil sells them on
but his buyers think
the drugs are bad.
Beausoleil needs
the money back.
- So, uh, Bobby was driven
over there
to make it right
with two girls
that knew Gary very well.
In fact I think he had slept
with both of them.
Susan Atkins
and Mary Brunner.
- Hinman denies
he did anything wrong.
He doesn't have any money,
he swears by it.
But he's getting loud,
he's getting angry.
- The women get on the phone
with Manson
and tell him what's going on
and Manson decides
that now he has to
ride in again
and solve the situation.
- Charlie gets a samurai sword.
He takes the sword
to the house.
- Once you show up
with a sword,
things will not end well.
- Manson makes a swipe.
He made a slice from the ear
down to the face.
It was bleeding a lot.
- Pretty much what he's
telling Beausoleil
is, "Come on.
You know what you have to do."
- Bobby Beausoleil
takes one of the cars
and leaves the area.
Beausoleil is found
in the car, asleep,
arrested,
charged with the crime
of killing Gary Hinman.
Manson gets a call
letting him know
that Beausoleil
has been arrested,
and this is where the chaos
really sets in.
- This is when things
start getting really dire.
I mean, really murderous.
narrator: Manson's Family
are now murderers
and, it seems, ready to
give up everything for him.
It's time to put his
master plan into action.
The Helter Skelter race war
won't start on its own.
But his family can start
it for him,
and he knows just where
and how
he wants them to do it.
It has taken over two years,
but he has created
an army of followers
ready to kill
to please their master.
On the evening
of August 8, 1969,
Charles Manson
selects his most trusted
for a mission that will haunt
U.S. history.
- Manson told his followers
that this would
be the ignition point
for Helter Skelter.
narrator: Charles "Tex"
Watson,
23-year-old ex-high school
football star.
Patricia Krenwinkle,
21, a onetime
church choir member.
And Susan Atkins,
also 21,
a former Girl Scout.
They'll be driven
to the onetime home
of Terry Melcher,
the man who rejected Manson
for a record deal:
10050 Cielo Drive.
Coming up
on "Inside the Manson Cult"...
Manson brings terror
to Tinseltown...
- The gore. The blood.
This was what Charles Manson
wanted.
narrator: And the threat
of more murder to come
on the lost tapes.
- If you had to kill more,
you'd kill more?
- Mm-hmm.
- Whatever we have to do.
- Whatever.
- We leave our house open
to the soul.
narrator: Charles Manson
has turned
his young followers...
- We're always ready.
narrator: Into killers.
- There is a deed to be done.
There is something that has
to be taken care of here.
narrator: The murder spree
has begun.
-When somebody
needs to be killed,
there's no wrong.
You do it.
woman on radio: Man down,
man down,
at 10050 Cielo Drive, over.
- August 9, 1969.
9:00 a.m.
Bob Burbridge is a 25-year-old
cop on patrol
for the LAPD.
- Well, I just got out
of roll call
at West Los Angeles
Police Station
and the call was
a man down call,
a call of a drunk
or it could be a dead body.
So I rolled on the call...
[indistinct radio chatter]
- We're turning onto
Cielo Drive.
This is the way I came up
on that day.
[woman speaking on radio]
We're approaching the driveway
going up to the mansion,
the Sharon Tate mansion.
As soon as I went through
the gate,
I discovered a body
in a white car.
I looked on the lawn,
and there were two more bodies
laying on the lawn.
We decided that there might be
a sniper involved,
so we asked one of the
policemen
to go get a shotgun
to cover us while we went
running across this open area
to the house.
[indistinct radio chatter]
narrator: By the summer
of 1969,
Terry Melcher
had moved out of the
Cielo Drive house.
- Manson knew pretty damn well
that Terry Melcher
no longer lived there.
What you have here
is you have a resonance--
it's a symbolic resonance.
And there's gonna be revenge
on whoever is there:
men, women, children.
It didn't really matter.
narrator: The people now
living at 10050 Cielo Drive
are Hollywood director
Roman Polanski
and his wife,
Sharon Tate.
- Sharon Tate was a rising
young movie actress.
She had not starred
in any A movies
but she was certainly headed
in that direction.
narrator: Polanski is in
London working on a movie.
But Tate is at home
with friends.
[guitar riff]
Three of Charles Manson's
most trusted followers
had paid them a visit.
Charles "Tex" Watson,
Patricia Krenwinkle,
and Susan Atkins.
[radio chatter]
The LAPD is just about
to find out
what horrors
they had inflicted
inside the house.
- We got to the living room.
We saw two more bodies--
towels over their head
and a rope wrapped around
both of their necks.
One of them was Sharon Tate.
She was obviously
eight to nine months pregnant.
man's voice: A movie
actress and four
of her friends were murdered.
And the circumstances
were lurid.
- I just remember she was
the most beautiful thing
I've ever seen.
And there was blood
all over her and...
it was awful.
It was just awful.
I--I hate
to even think about it.
- Identification of the persons
are as follows:
Sharon Polanski,
Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger...
- Jay Sebring was an
internationally famous
hairstylist.
Abigail Folger was the heiress
for the Folger coffee fortune.
Wojciech Frykowski was good
friends with Roman Polanski.
Steven Parent had just been
there to visit the caretaker.
The victims suffered
102 stab wounds.
Three of the victims
were shot.
One of the victims was pounded
on his head with a gun butt.
Sharon Tate was hung
from a high beam
going across
the living room ceiling.
- The Manson followers, they
leave "pig" scrawled in blood
to try to convince
investigators
that the Black Panthers
had done this.
The Panthers call
police officers pigs
because they're trying to
dehumanize law enforcement
in the same way they argue
law enforcement
has dehumanized black people.
- The gore. The blood.
Manson told his followers
that this would
be the ignition point
for Helter Skelter.
- The revolution
is waiting for a spark.
Everybody's ready.
Everybody's got their--
their guns together.
- All right, this is beautiful.
Okay, you'll be able to...
You have to have
this thing to where
it just slides right out
with your own motion.
- Everybody's waiting
for somebody
to...
have enough love
to start it.
narrator: Not content
with one bloodbath,
on the following night
Manson decides
that the killing spree
must continue.
- The Family drove around
Los Angeles county
for 4 1/2 hours
looking at random
for people to murder.
Then Manson started giving
more specific directions,
and they ended up
at the LaBianca house
at 3301 Waverly Drive.
[heart beating]
narrator: The house belongs to
supermarket owner
Leno LaBianca
and his wife, Rosemary.
[tense music]
- He said, "Don't move.
This is just a robbery."
He assured them that
he wasn't going to hurt them.
He took Rosemary LaBianca's
wallet
because he wanted to have it
planted in a black area
and he wanted a black person
to find the wallet
and use the credit cards
and get blamed
for the murders.
He said, "Don't let them know
that you're gonna kill them."
- In a personality-driven
cult,
whatever the leader says
is right is right,
and whatever the leader says
is wrong is wrong.
His ideas,
his prescriptions
are absolute
and must be accepted
without question.
- No "why?"
We never ask why.
- Mm-hmm.
- Whatever we have to do.
- Whatever.
- We leave our house open
to the soul.
We leave our mind open.
[guns clicking]
- In the LaBianca house,
above the inside
of the front door
is written the word "rise."
On the living room wall
in Leno LaBianca's blood
is written "death to pigs."
- Well, that was the whole
point of it.
Staging the murder scene
the way it was staged
was so that it would be
believed that
this was a race war.
That this was
the disenfranchised
lashing out at the rich
and the privileged.
- And it's the people
that will cause a revolution.
And it's the people that will
cause a change
in the country.
- And on the refrigerator
at the LaBiancas
in Leno LaBianca's blood
is written the words
"Helter Skelter."
narrator: Coming up on
"Inside the Manson Cult,"
news of the murders
spreads through The Family...
- Tex tells me, "I did this.
Charlie told me to."
They were almost like lethal.
They didn't seem to have
any remorse.
narrator: And a new member
shares an extraordinary
confession
for the first time.
- One of the girls came up
to me and said
"We want you to go
to the courthouse and...
Kill the judge."
- [laughs]
Male announcer: The latest
murders were discovered
during the night.
Leno LaBianca,
a supermarket owner,
and his wife had both
been stabbed to death,
repeated stab wounds.
- It was just pandemonium,
in Los Angeles especially.
People were so scared
that gun sales
went up tremendously.
- People are buying
extra locks on their doors.
Entertainers out there
are hiring bodyguards
to be--to be with them,
you know, 24/7.
So it put the fear of God
in them.
- Charles Manson
accomplished his goal
of terrorizing Los Angeles.
No one was safe.
narrator: Back at Spahn Ranch,
news of the murders
spread through The Family.
- Tex tells me, "I did this.
Charlie told me to."
Patty said that
she had stabbed somebody
and at first, you know,
it was hard
but then it got to be more fun.
They were almost
like boastful
or gleeful.
I mean, it's like they...
they didn't seem to have
any remorse.
- Despite the violence
and the brutality
of these murders,
the people that had
committed them
of this following
were still very proud
of what they had done.
For them, it was a way to
sort of say,
"Hey, look at what I did.
This is how loyal I am
for Charlie."
narrator: For the first time
in decades,
Catherine Share,
known in The Family as Gypsy,
sets eyes on her younger self.
She was filmed shortly after
the Tate murders.
- Mm-hmm.
- Did I ever think of her baby?
I've pictured her pregnant.
Yeah.
No, I've--I've only pictured
her pregnant.
That's the only way I can
picture her.
I was so cut off
that I couldn't feel...
what I should have felt
for another pregnant woman
and her child.
And it's very disturbing
to watch me
put that out.
- The baby?
- No, I picture Sharon Tate
pregnant at times. Yeah.
Anybody watching this
would think I was a monster.
- I didn't know her.
I never met her.
How can you tell
what's in a picture?
It's not even living.
And there was part of me
that still believed that
he had all the answers
and he was the one.
There was another part of me
that was starting
to know better.
But I was keeping it
just deep down inside.
Because if I showed it,
my life would be in danger.
narrator: While Manson
plots his next move,
the cops are fumbling
their investigation.
- The police had no idea
who committed these murders.
They had one team working on
the Tate murders,
and another team working on
the LaBianca murders.
- They didn't think these
cases, ah, were related,
you know, at all.
I mean, this is obvious to me.
Here's the signature.
Here's the symbolism of this.
What are the probability
that someone else is
perpetrating the same crime,
the same way?
[upbeat music]
narrator: As the investigation
stumbles along,
Manson leads his followers
to the desert
to hide out from
the Helter Skelter race war
he still insists is coming.
But then things start
to go wrong.
- Charlie decided that he was
gonna burn up an earth-mover.
Not a very swift move when you,
when you want to hide.
- I was washing my hair.
- Get your hands up!
Everybody up, turn around!
- And I had a gun
pointing at me,
"You're under arrest."
- Quiet, give me
your other hand.
I said move!
- Charlie disappeared.
Just--
[whistles]
You know, he made himself
invisible.
[tense music]
-Get up! Get up!
- So the police found Charlie
under the sink cupboard.
narrator: To The Family's
relief,
the cops aren't hunting
for the Tate
and LaBianca killers.
They're looking for the people
who burnt the earth-mover.
- We got arrested
for vandalizing
government property.
narrator: The police
have no idea
that they have America's
most wanted killers
in their care.
Coming up,
exclusive lost tape footage
with the prisoner
who blows the Sharon Tate
murder case
wide open.
- She told me
she just kept stabbing her
until she stopped screaming.
narrator: And shocking
evidence
of the power Charles Manson
has over his followers.
- I'm ready to die
for Charlie.
I'm ready to die.
[dramatic musical sting]
narrator: Charles Manson
and some of his
most faithful followers
are in jail after burning
an earth-mover.
But they also just may be
getting away with murder.
- It wasn't until Susan Atkins
got transferred
to Los Angeles County Jail
Sybil Brand
that she started
talking to her cellmate
about Charlie, and, you know,
Helter Skelter.
narrator: Susan Atkins,
known in The Family as Sadie,
was at the Hinman murder
and also at the Tate mansion
on Cielo Drive.
- Susan Atkins came from a,
uh, middle-class family.
Unfortunately her mother died
at a very, very young age,
which devastated her.
She wasn't getting
the attention anymore
from the mother who she loved,
she loved dearly
and she sought out others
to get some type of attention.
narrator: While in jail,
Atkins latches onto cellmate
Ronnie Howard.
- Roll 159.
What is your name?
- My name is Ronnie Howard.
narrator: And the lost tapes
reveal how Atkins
unwittingly gives
the game away.
- She was telling me about
different things that
she thought would shock me.
And I told her,
"Nothing shocks me."
And she said, "Well,
I think I can tell you
a few things that would
shock you."
[solemn music]
- She confessed
to Ronnie Howard
about her participation
and Charles Manson's
participation
in these murders.
- I asked her,
"If you were really there,"
I said, "Who really
killed Sharon Tate?"
And she told me
that she killed Sharon Tate.
She said she was the one
that stabbed her.
Every time she screamed
she'd stab her again and...
she just kept stabbing her
until she stopped screaming.
And she said it sent
a hot rush all the way
through her body.
And she told me that
to stab somebody
is better than having a climax.
But she--she told me that
the future murders
would be more gruesome.
They wanted to do something
to really shock the world.
A few of them
were celebrities.
- Which celebrities were
they going to kill?
- Steve McQueen.
Tom Jones.
Frank Sinatra.
Liz Taylor.
- Ronnie Howard
called LAPD and said, "Hey,
this is what this woman
has told us,"
and that broke the case.
narrator: On December 9, 1969,
the charge against Manson
is changed from arson
to first-degree murder.
Male announcer:
A wandering band
of members of
a so-called religious cult
with a leader they call Jesus
has had three of its
followers arrested
in the investigation
of the murder of Sharon Tate
and six others.
narrator: But Manson's arrest
for the murders
does not signal the end
of his Family.
In fact, it gains a new member
at a crucial time.
- I walked away from my house
and everything that was in it.
Just...away.
And, uh, went to the ranch.
narrator: 24-year-old
Aesop Aquarian
is a musician
and aspiring actor.
The lost tapes show him
playing guitar
with the Family just days
after the murder charge
is filed.
- I was,
"part of The Family."
I was living on the ranch,
working the ranch.
I was taking care
of the girls,
I was driving the girls,
I was making sure
they were safe.
And the love that
was there was...
undeniable, anybody who came
on the ranch
even for a second,
you know, caught the love
that we had.
[all laughing]
- Even when he was in jail,
Charlie was still able
to manipulate
and have power and control
over his followers.
narrator: New recruit Aquarian
can see firsthand
how Manson's power
is getting, if anything,
stronger.
- These girls loved Charlie
so much
that they literally
would do anything for him.
Literally would do
anything for him.
- Whenever we need to,
we respond.
We respond with our knives.
We respond with
whatever we have.
[indistinct chatter]
narrator: Among Manson's
most loyal disciples
on the outside
are Nancy Pitman,
known as Brenda,
Lynette Fromme,
known as Squeaky,
and Sandra Goode,
known as Sandy.
- We could respond so quickly.
Teeth...
- Anything.
Whatever. Whatever's at hand.
Because we are animals.
- We are.
- [indistinct speech]
- And I know that if they
ever laid a finger on Charlie,
if we were unarmed, we would
chew their necks off,
anything. Claw their eyes out.
And they know it.
- Those members that stayed
to the very end
with Charles Manson
were in love with him.
- N-88!
- The idea
that they might imagine
another life
did not occur to them.
- I'm ready to die
for Charlie.
He's ready to die for me.
He has died for me.
I'm ready to die.
I'm ready to die for--
to protect my own.
narrator: The Manson trial
begins on July 24, 1970.
- I have no, uh,
absolute knowledge,
but I don't think any case
in history
has received this much
pre-trial publicity
throughout the world.
narrator: Stephen Kay
was a rookie prosecutor
working on the case.
- At age 27,
I had been assigned
to be a prosecutor on
what was then considered
the crime of the century.
narrator: Kay's job
will be tough.
- Manson left no fingerprints
at the locations.
There was nothing at the scene
of the crimes to tie Manson
into the crime
so it was all testimony.
- So what basically
had to be proved
was that Charlie had
manipulated his followers
so much that he himself was
culpable of these murders.
man: You want Mr. Kanarek
to challenge the jurors
or are you ready to accept
anyone that's put in the box?
- You've already tried
the case.
narrator: To bring
Manson down,
the prosecution needs someone
on the inside
to turn against him.
But getting a Family member
to break ranks
will be no easy task.
- In the visiting room
he said to a Family member,
"If Gypsy tries to get away,
"I want you to...
"tie her behind a car
"and drag her slowly
"back to the ranch.
Don't kill her,
but you can get close."
And then he looked at me
and said,
"Are you going anywhere?"
And I said, "No."
narrator: Another potential
witness is Dianne Lake,
known in The Family as Snake.
She's now 16.
Still under Manson's control,
Lake has kept
her true identity hidden
from the prison authorities...
Until now.
- They sent us to testify
in front of the Grand Jury
and that's when I finally
felt safe enough
to say...
"My name is Dianne Lake.
I'm 16, and I want my mommy."
narrator: But after two years
of near-daily LSD use
Lake is in no position
to testify.
Diagnosed with schizophrenia,
she's sent for emergency
psychiatric treatment.
- They committed me
to 90 days observation
at Patton State Hospital.
And then the 90 days
turned into nine months.
It was like he was in my head
telling me,
"Turn left. Turn right."
You know, "Turn the light off."
"Don't say that" or
"Don't talk to that person."
There was one officer
in particular that really
treated me with--with respect
and like a tenderness.
He made me feel safe
enough to start telling...
telling the truth.
- Sandy, Brenda, Squeaky,
four, take one, roll 209.
narrator: As Lake prepares
to testify against Manson
the tapes reveals what her
former friends think of her.
-She's a very young girl,
and by the time the, the DAs
had gotten through with her
she was speaking their
language.
She's just like a baby.
She can be molded whatever way
anyone chooses to mold her.
- I'm sure that's what they
believed, you know,
that I had been, uh,
swallowed up.
You know, that I was
being manipulated
by the courts.
narrator: The big question is:
will Lake be brave enough
to testify?
- Snitches will be taken
care of.
- How?
-Oh, that's to be seen.
That's to be seen.
narrator: Still to come
on "Inside the Manson Cult,"
secretly filmed footage
of Manson in prison...
- We are sneaking
in the county jail.
Looking under the door
to see if the man is there.
- He's telling us
to break him out.
narrator: And an extraordinary
command
to young member of the cult:
Kill the judge.
- I felt my jaw drop
to the ground.
[dramatic musical sting]
narrator: Charles Manson
is on trial
for multiple murders.
Teenage cult member
Dianne Lake
might be key
to convicting him
if she can escape his control.
- It was like he was
in my head.
- [laughs]
narrator: A unique moment
from the lost tapes
shows just how hard
that's going to be.
Secretly, the filmmaker
smuggles a camera
into Manson's jail cell.
And the cult leader
takes his chance
to speak directly
to his followers.
- We are sneaking
in the county jail.
Looking under the door
to see if the man is there.
Sneaking like little children
out of town.
[laughs]
Sneaking...
[laughs]
Sneaking all around
the courthouse.
- He's programming us.
Telling us what to do.
- Everything is sneaky
up around Sneakyville.
[laughs]
- He was telling us
to break him out
of jail.
To learn where the vents are,
learn how to get in and out
of the building
and learn how to set him free.
- You gotta sneak
to get to the truth.
The truth is condemned.
The truth is in
the gas chamber.
[laughs]
- Manson had a very powerful
personality.
When he was in a room,
you could almost feel
the electricity
pouring off of him.
And he would kind of
command the room.
[indistinct chatter]
Manson one time
came into court,
and he had taken a razor blade
and put an X on his forehead.
And the next day, the girls
all had Xs on their foreheads.
They said they were going to
X themselves out of society.
- Some of the behaviors
that the girls exhibited
during the trials
really was frightening.
Because you can see that
despite being back in reality
back in society,
they're still totally
under Charlie's spell.
narrator: The tapes show
how Manson's followers
may be ready
to threaten anyone
involved in the prosecution.
- Sandy, Brenda, Squeaky.
- Ask me a question.
- What if they execute
Charlie?
- Well, they'll have
to contend with us.
narrator: Just how far
the cult is prepared to go
is made frighteningly clear
to new member Aesop Aquarian.
- One of the girls
came up to me and said
"We've got to get Charlie out.
"We want you to," uh...
"To go the courthouse and...
Kill the judge."
I felt my jaw
drop to the ground.
"You want me to what?"
Said, "We want you
to kill the judge."
"That'll show them
that we're serious
and that'll get Charlie out."
"Are you for real?"
And she said, "Yeah."
My first thought was,
"What the hell
am I doing here?"
I don't think that was
the next day that I left
but it could have been.
[ambient music]
narrator: Manson's power
over his followers
may be giving Dianne Lake
second thoughts.
- It was terrifying,
the idea of going by the girls
and testifying against them.
And I was always afraid
that I was going to have
mind control by Charlie again.
That was a big fear.
And also that fear
of wanting that...
you know, that original feeling
of love and adoration from him.
I thought that was going
to be a weakness.
- The truth has not been
in your courtrooms.
Never has been
in your courtrooms.
All you have is confusion
in your courtroom.
- We went in, like,
the back door,
and there was still
a lot of press
but they kind of snuck me in.
- You can't prove anything
that happened yesterday.
Now is the only thing
that's real.
- The girls were outside
the Hall of Justice.
I was scared.
- We were on pins and needles.
We didn't know how the jury
was gonna respond
to Dianne Lake.
We felt that she had been
a great witness.
Believable, but...
she had spent eight months
in a mental hospital.
We didn't know what the jury
was going to do.
narrator: Still to come
on "Inside the Manson Cult"...
- He's waiting in a cage.
He's looking down like
I'm one of his disciples.
- [laughs]
narrator: An astonishing
revelation...
- I don't believe Charlie
believed in Helter Skelter.
It was just a crazy story.
[dramatic musical sting]
narrator: One of
Charles Manson's
earliest converts
has testified against
the man she loved.
- It was terrifying,
going by the girls
and testifying against them.
narrator: Time for the jury
to decide.
man: The jury,
hearing the charges
against Charles Manson
and three girl members
of his so-called Family
brought in its verdict
this afternoon.
All were found guilty
of murder in the first degree.
[indistinct chatter]
narrator: The trial
has lasted seven months
and is, at the time,
the most expensive
in U.S. criminal history.
The jury takes ten days
to reach a verdict.
man: Manson then shouted
at the jurors,
"You're all guilty!"
narrator: On Monday,
March 29, 1971,
Manson is sentenced to die
for the murder spree
that shocked the world.
Leslie Van Houten,
Susan Atkins,
and Patricia Krenwinkle
will also be given
the death sentence.
[women singing]
- I couldn't understand
how they could
be so happy
and cheerful when they were
facing the death penalty.
It would be years later
that I would see that look
in other eyes of cult followers
and I would realize
this is the way
that people look
when they're under
undue influence
and they're not thinking
for themselves.
[ambient music]
narrator: In 1972,
Charles Manson and his
three female accomplices
have their death sentences
commuted to life in prison
when California temporarily
abolishes the death penalty.
- After Charlie Manson
was locked away for life,
he became the most popular
prison inmate
in the United States
measured by the amount
of fan mail
that he received.
For a lot of young people,
he was like the ultimate
outlaw,
the counterculture icon...
And he continued to live on
in that sense
and continued to have
a cult following
in the broader population.
- I think within the
psychodrama of his own mind
Manson tapped into
this idea
of a fear of black-led
racial violence.
And I think that idea
was something that is a
carry-over from the '60s
even to this day.
- Charlie Manson wanted to be
rich and famous.
When he couldn't do it
in the music business,
he figured out another way
to be famous.
- Manson frequently said
he wanted to be bigger
than the Beatles.
And it could be argued
that he did have
even more of an impact
than the Beatles on our lives,
on American culture.
It did something to us.
We're no longer as free
and able to just...
think that we're safe
in our homes.
- Roll N-72, scene
four girls A, take one.
narrator: Over the years,
many of Manson's followers
remained devoted
to their Messiah.
- Again and again I've gotta
pay for your sins.
I've been laying up here
paying for your sins
for 2,000 years.
narrator: Others managed
to break free.
- Do I feel that
Charlie Manson conned me?
As time went on, absolutely.
Charlie had learned to be
a very good manipulator.
A shark, it will eat
whatever to survive.
And it will kill whatever
to survive.
- I lost some innocence
for sure.
But I--I survived
and I thrived,
and, um, I'm very thankful
for that.
narrator: In the space
of two years,
Manson brainwashed
dozens of followers
and even convinced some
to kill for him.
Behind it all
lay his twisted world view,
the Helter Skelter race war.
But did Manson ever truly
believe in this philosophy
or did he simply use it
to frighten and control
The Family?
In 1979,
when FBI profiler John Douglas
met Charles Manson in prison,
they had a revealing exchange.
- He's waiting in a cage.
He's looking down,
he's looking down like
I'm one of his disciples.
Like, you know.
- You gotta sneak
to get to the truth.
The truth is condemned.
The truth
is in the gas chamber.
- At the end of the day,
I don't believe Charlie
believed in Helter Skelter
at all.
It was just a crazy story.
And I didn't believe it,
I told him he
didn't believe it,
and he laughed
when I told him, "I don't
believe your BS here, Charlie,
"Come on, man.
You're just into sex, drugs,
and rock and roll."
- [laughs]
- And he was nodding his head,
he was smiling,
laughing, you know.
So.
- Pretty girl
Pretty, pretty girl
Cease to exist
Just come and say
you love me
Give up your world
Come on, you could be
I'm your kind
Oh your kind
And I can see
- Um, as far as
these things go, um...
You have to make love with it.
- Walk on, walk on
I love you, pretty girl
My life is yours
And you can have my world
Never had a lesson
I ever learned
But I know
We all get our turn
I love you
Never learn
Not to love you
Submission is a gift
Go on, give it
to your brother
Love and understanding
Is for one another
I'm your kind
I'm your kind
I'm your brother
I never had a lesson
I ever learned
But I know we all
Get our turn
And I love you
Never learn
Not to love you
Never learn
not to love you
Never learn
Not to love you
Thanks for watching.
And here are a few more shows to check out from Fox.
Buckle up, Buttercup.
It's real, and it
pulls people together.
- We're breaking waves
-[siren wailing]
Shooting stars
We live for glory
not forever
MAN: Touchdown!
Reach out
- Make this
right here right now
-[laughing]
Stand up
Here right now
That sounds like fun.
ANNOUNCER: Thanks for downloading this Fox show.
And don't miss all-new episodes only on Fox.
- Yeah, every girl ought to
have a daddy like Charlie.
Should--deserves to have
a daddy like Charlie.
[camera shutters clicking]
male narrator: Charles Manson:
Hippie guru,
would-be rock star,
and,
until his death in 2017,
the most notorious
prison inmate in America.
- You can't prove anything.
Now is the only thing
that's real.
narrator: Manson
was the leader of a cult
called The Family.
narrator: They murdered
nine people,
including movie actress
Sharon Tate
in the summer of 1969.
- It was one of the worst
things I've ever seen.
There was blood all over her.
narrator: The murders sent
shockwaves through Hollywood.
- No one was safe.
- Entertainers out there
are hiring bodyguards.
It put the fear of God
in them.
narrator: The court argued
that Manson had brainwashed
his followers
and programmed them to kill.
- They had no idea that where
Manson was leading them
was mayhem and murder.
- [laughs]
narrator: But could one man
have this much power?
And if so, how?
For the first time,
we can see how.
Shortly after his arrest,
Manson gave a group
of young filmmakers
led by Robert Hendrickson
exclusive access
inside his cult.
- Scene one, take two, roll 53.
narrator: Hidden away
for decades,
the original footage
has now been found:
More than 100 hours of film,
and with it
reels of unheard audio...
- We've seen Charlie do things
that no human being
has ever done.
Or no human being has...
narrator: And dozens of unseen
photographs.
- No, we've seen miracles.
- This is dynamite information
to have.
Where's it been all these
years, all this stuff?
- Some people
are making a movie.
narrator: Today, former cult
members can see themselves
as they once were.
- Did you ever think
of Sharon Tate's baby?
-I didn't know her.
I never met her.
Anybody watching this
would think I was a monster.
narrator: Never-before-seen
interviews
give us a firsthand view
of the programming process.
- I am Charlie.
And if he dies, I die.
narrator: And long-forgotten
film
provides shocking revelations
about how Manson's
followers lived,
loved...
[gun cocks]
And ultimately,
how they were turned from
regular, peace-loving kids
into brutal and brainwashed
killers.
-I didn't want to believe
the things I heard.
- I'm ready to die.
- I didn't want to believe
the things I saw.
- They're persecuting
what they can't stand
to look at in themselves:
The truth.
- When somebody
needs to be killed...
[knives thud]
There's no wrong.
You do it.
- Bam.
- And you kill whoever
gets in your way.
This is us.
[dramatic musical sting]
- Your home is where
you're happy
It's not where
you're not free
narrator: In the hills
above Hollywood, California,
lives a small band
of young men and women
about two dozen in all.
They share a love of music
and each other.
They call themselves
the Family.
- Roll 136.
- All we ever did amounted to
smoking grass
and taking acid
and making love
as much as we could.
If we weren't doing that,
we was leading up to it.
If we weren't leading up
to it, we was doing that.
narrator: The group's leader
is a career criminal
with a rap sheet
containing multiple offenses
from forgery to armed robbery:
32-year-old Charles Manson.
Manson never knew his father.
His mother was a petty thief
who was in and out of jail.
And Manson followed
in her footsteps.
His latest sentence:
a seven-year stretch
for forgery
and breaking parole.
[ambient music]
He's released on March 21,
He heads to California...
and the Summer of Love.
- My name's Peter Coyote.
I'm the last ancient hippie,
and I was a serious player
in the counterculture.
It was wonderful
to wake up in the morning.
You could get food,
friendship,
whatever you needed.
People of like minds
got together
and they formed
extended families.
- My name is Aesop Aquarian.
There was a lot of talk about
going to the Summer of Love
and we did love each other
in those days.
We believed in peace and love
and that things
actually could get better.
[cheerful music]
- Charlie saw
the hippie movement
and saw the power in it;
saw the power behind
the young people;
could see a huge
revolution starting.
And there really is
a revolution.
And Charlie wanted
to take this power
and turn it into
his own game.
- When Charlie
was released from prison,
he had spent over half
of his life in jail.
So he had no family.
For him, recruiting followers
was creating the family
that he never had.
narrator: Guitar in hand,
Manson sets up
at street corners
and starts playing.
Gradually,
he attracts followers.
- People say
that I'm no good
- In the late '60s,
music led kids
off the suburban sidewalks
to hear the sounds
of authentic voices
for whom the American dream
didn't work.
- The counterculture
was this idea that
young people
had been led astray.
What did it mean
to be a human being
in a capitalistic society?
Young people had been fed
a myth about
American exceptionalism
and American democracy
that was untrue.
narrator: And Manson
knew just how
to get the kids to listen.
- My name is John Douglas.
I'm with the FBI,
former criminal profiler--
developed criminal profiling--
and I interviewed
Charles Manson
as part of the serial murderer
research project.
When Charles was in prison,
he was fascinated
by the pimps.
Because these pimps didn't
look anything extraordinary.
So how are you able to,
you know, master,
have this control,
you know, over others?
These pimps told him
where to find these girls.
They look like a broken wing.
A broken wing meaning that
something was wrong.
There was this rejection.
So Manson had the ability
to approach these so-called
broken wings
and talk to them.
- My name is Dianne Lake.
I was one of the first
and the youngest member
of the Manson Family.
I was 14 when I met Charlie.
Say a little prayer?
- He expressed his love
and adoration for me.
It was a high.
It was magic.
It was an incredible
upwelling of love, and,
you know, joy.
My mom and dad were not
the warm, fuzzy
hugging variety.
They really weren't.
And I think that
I needed to feel that.
- As long as you've got
love in your heart
- Charlie invited me to be
a part of their family.
It was what I was looking for.
[cheerful music]
narrator: By the spring
of 1968,
Manson has gathered
half a dozen girls.
The lost tapes
show how he uses them
to lure men.
- Action.
What is your name?
- Paul Watkins.
- How did you get in?
- How did I get in
to The Family?
- Yes.
- I was walking through
Topanga Canyon
and it was starting
to get dark.
I needed a place to sleep.
And there was
this little house
in the clearing in the woods.
Who came to the door was
one of the prettiest girls
I'd ever seen.
- I go answer the door
and it's Paul.
- Big puff of marijuana smoke
hit me in the face.
And that smelled good to me.
- [giggling]
- Charlie told me,
"I want you to reel him in."
[soft music]
- There was 15 people
sitting around in there.
And it was a big room that
had mattresses all over it
and a little table
in the middle.
Charlie, he was playing
the guitar.
He laid all his girls
out in front of me
and says, "They're yours.
What are you gonna
do with them?"
And uh...
I was flattered.
- Nancy and I made him
feel welcome
and had sex with him.
- I agreed that I would stay
with them for the summer
'cause he said he needed
some help;
he was all alone with them
and he couldn't handle them
all by his own,
couldn't keep them satisfied.
Charlie said that The Family
was my family forever.
narrator: The lost tapes
show how Manson
broke down The Family
members' inhibitions
and used sex
not just to seduce,
but also to control them.
- We all had to go through
lots and lots of changes.
All the guys had to get over
all their homosexual things
by doing everything that you
could possibly think of
doing with guys.
And all the girls had to do
everything they could
possibly think of doing
with girls.
- He would have them talk
while he's having sex.
Was there anything, sexually,
that went on that you feel
disgraced by
or embarrassed by?
By doing that
they just felt better
about themselves,
although he had, now, all
the intelligence information
on them, and then would know
what kind of buttons to push.
narrator: Manson's technique
is finding the thing
each of his followers
really feels they need
and giving it to them.
- He'd mirror people.
He did that
the very first day with me.
He just mirrored me.
And he told me, "You're me.
We're the same."
He knew people.
He knew human nature.
So he made me feel
that this was just
meant to be.
And he made me feel important.
[ambient music]
- People would say,
"Well, how come
you didn't leave?"
I stayed with
Charlie because
Charlie captured my heart.
And like heroin addicts the
first time they take heroin,
I was addicted to that initial
feeling of love and adoration
and acceptance.
I wanted that again
and again and again.
[rock music plays]
narrator: As he gathers
his followers around him,
Manson pursues an idea
first dreamt about
during his years in prison:
A career in music.
He sends his girls
out into the streets,
hoping to meet people with
connections to the business.
- On some level,
Manson's entrance
into the LA music scene is
rooted in a chance encounter.
Two of the women in The Family
happen to meet
Dennis Wilson
of the Beach Boys,
one of the central figures
of rock music
in Los Angeles
in the late 1960s.
- Wilson takes the girls home.
And shortly afterwards,
Manson follows.
- I was at Dennis Wilson's
house.
It astounded me at that time
because I'd never seen
a place like that.
It was like a fairy tale.
And Charlie comes
dancing out of the house,
and I said, "Wow."
[swinging music plays]
- There's no other way
to put it.
Dennis Wilson falls in love
with Charles Manson
and falls in love
with the women.
- Both Charlie and Dennis,
I think that
there was a mutual admiration
going on between them.
They were both wild,
liked women,
liked music.
Dennis was very much impressed
with the fact that Charlie
could get his girls
to participate.
narrator: They party.
They hang out.
They even record together.
[men laughing]
On one occasion,
captured in the lost tapes,
Manson gives his home-spun
philosophy on life.
[guitar strumming]
- The way out of a room
is not through the door,
partner.
Because then you just go into
another room
which leads into another room,
which leads into a bigger room
and you're still inside
your cage, man.
- Dennis was kind of
looking for
some kind of spiritual
guidance, and I think that
you know, Charlie kind of
fit the bill.
- That's not the way out.
The way out is
to give it all up
and love every bit of it
as being perfect.
- Manson couldn't have
scripted it better.
Wilson introduces him
to his good friend
Terry Melcher,
one of the hottest
rock-and-roll producers
in America.
- He's the music producer
who has produced The Byrds,
and Paul Revere
and the Raiders.
He's got a number of hits
behind him.
narrator: Melcher has it all:
a superstar mom in Doris Day,
a superstar girlfriend
in Candice Bergen.
And at the time, he even rents
a superstar's mansion
in Beverly Hills
with an address
Charlie and the world
will never forget:
10050 Cielo Drive.
Coming up on "Inside
the Manson Cult"...
- Anyone in that house
on Cielo Drive...
- On Cielo Drive, over.
- Was going to die that night.
They were all going to die.
narrator: The real
inside story
of America's
most shocking cult.
- It was just pandemonium
in Los Angeles.
[gun clicking]
- It was terrifying,
the idea of
testifying against them.
- He's programming us.
-We are sneaking in
a county jail.
- He's telling us
to break him out.
[dramatic musical sting]
male narrator: Hidden
and forgotten
for more than 40 years,
the lost tapes take us
inside the Manson cult
and show how Charles Manson
turns a group
of hippie runaways
into brainwashed zombies,
some capable of mass murder.
- [laughs]
[rock music]
narrator: It is spring
of 1968.
The whole world
is rock-and-roll crazy.
- In that era, music's
a talking newspaper.
Music is a way that young
people were processing
the conflicts that were
all around them
in the culture.
It wasn't a secret code.
It was another language,
and it was a language that
thousands and thousands
of young Americans
spoke fluently.
narrator: Manson speaks
the language too,
and fame would bring him
the widest possible audience
for his ideas.
He's living with
California music legend
Dennis Wilson,
drummer of the Beach Boys.
He knows the power
rock stardom can bring.
Now he gets a taste
for the life.
- Charlie evolved.
He didn't want money or fame,
because he never had
money or fame.
But then when he sees
Dennis Wilson,
people are fawning over him,
he's got this beautiful house.
And Charlie thought,
"Hey, this is something
I want."
narrator: Wilson
hooks Manson up
with top Hollywood
music producer Terry Melcher.
Melcher is rock-and-roll
royalty.
- Just come
and say you love me
- Manson thought Melcher
was there to audition him
for a record contract.
- I think Charlie was
very nervous,
but I don't think he wanted
to show that.
- Come on and look at me
narrator: Melcher
holds the keys
to Manson's musical dreams.
But a sound recording
from the lost tapes
reveals what Melcher thinks
of Manson's music.
-When Charlie was rejected
by Terry Melcher
and the music industry,
it festered with Charlie.
It's something he focused on
and fixated on
for a very long time
afterwards.
- He talked about all these
Hollywood people.
"They're all liars."
narrator: Manson has had it
with show business
and the people in it.
It marks a turning point
in the Manson story.
From now on,
Hollywood is the enemy.
Their dreams dashed,
The Family pack up
and hit the road.
[acoustic guitar plays]
They settle at a horse ranch
around 30 miles north
of Los Angeles.
- Spahn Ranch was private.
You know, it had that
interesting little flair
because it's been in a lot
of Western movies
but there also was, like,
a faade of a saloon
and, you know,
they rented horses
for horseback riding.
- Spahn Ranch
sat on old Highway 70.
It was a place...
Yeah, it had its own magic.
My job was looking after
horses and the cowboys,
the people that worked on
Spahn's Ranch.
A place like that
isn't actually a job.
It's a way of living.
narrator: A way of living
that is about to change.
- In comes this little guy
who bangs through the door
like he thought he was God,
and he screamed at us,
"I'm Charles Manson!"
And I was like, "I don't give
a hell who you are,
Get the hell out of my house!"
narrator: But it isn't
Windy's ranch.
It belongs to 80-year-old
George Spahn.
And Manson
makes a deal with him.
The Family can stay
free of charge
if the girls help out.
- We helped out
renting the horses,
shoveling horse poop.
- Charles Manson
took two of the girls
and he assigned them to
keep George Spahn happy...
in any way they could.
And they did.
narrator: Manson's commune
attracts more and more
followers,
including 25-year-old
musician Catherine Share,
nicknamed Gypsy.
- To me, it was beautiful.
I didn't see the dust.
I just saw the quaintness
of it.
And it just looked
almost dreamlike to me.
I was told by
one of the girls that
everybody picked new names,
and I could pick whatever
name I wanted,
and I said, "Oh, okay,
then I'll call myself Gypsy."
- We didn't need food.
Charlie showed us how to
get food out of the dumpsters
at the back
of the grocery stores.
- You wouldn't believe
what we got
out of the garbage cans today.
We got a whole watermelon,
six boxes of bananas,
four boxes of oranges, um...
- Don't forget the artichokes.
- Artichokes...
- We'd wash it off
and make fruit salads.
We ate very well, actually.
Playing music and
making love and getting to
know everyone...
It was quite ideal
for quite a long time.
But beneath the surface
there was a monster
that was lurking.
narrator: The lost tapes
reveal the tightening grip
Manson has
on his followers' minds.
- I am Charlie.
And if he dies, I die.
- You said you
are Charlie?
- I gave up my personality
and become what he
showed me I can be.
- And that is what?
- Total love.
- So in this clip we can see
more about the mindset
of Manson's followers;
that, in essence, they had
eliminated their identities.
They have nothing else
to go upon
except what Charlie
had provided,
and this instills this idea
of groupthink,
where all they know
is the benefit of the group.
- We didn't talk about
our inner feelings
or emotions because we weren't
supposed to have any.
It was one mind
with a lot of hands.
And there was no discussing it.
narrator: Somehow The Family
seemed to believe
they're actually living the
dream Manson had sold them.
But those outsiders
close enough to witness
see something very different.
- Manson had a bunch
of ragtag...
dirty little girls.
They were kind of pathetic.
They sure were strange.
The men all carried knives.
When I went up there,
I always carried a gun.
narrator: Coming up,
the lost tapes reveal
how Manson takes his cult
a step closer to killing.
- Everybody just went
stark raving mad,
I mean, just completely crazy.
narrator: And startling
recordings
show that he is
bending their minds
to believe he is God.
- We've seen Charlie do things
that no human being
has ever done.
We've seen miracles.
male narrator: It is
the summer of 1968.
Charles Manson, wannabe
musician and ex-con,
has established a commune
on a run-down ranch
30 miles outside
of Los Angeles...
[all humming]
And he's turning it
from commune to cult.
- Every now and then,
them girls would ask me
why I didn't throw away my bras
and run like them half-naked
around the ranch.
Didn't I feel like
I should be free?
I said, "You're not free.
You're slaves."
narrator: Along with sex,
music, and mind-control,
Manson throws
one more ingredient
into his cult-creating
cocktail:
isolation.
At the ranch there are no
calendars or clocks;
no magazines or newspapers.
Manson's word
is the only word.
- We were totally reliant
on Charlie's idea
of what our family
should be doing.
[solemn music]
- The isolation
that Manson imposed
upon his followers by taking
them out into the Ranch
was pivotal.
In that environment,
he controlled
everything they saw,
everything they heard.
He could create
an absolute bubble.
- In hindsight, it was the
perfect breeding ground
for his philosophy to grow
and our commitment to him
to deepen.
narrator: The lost tapes
contain a unique record
of Manson's preaching.
- You're born with
a survival instinct
to be selfish.
So the first thing that
happens, man,
is they start giving you
their thoughts
and making things out of you
that they want out of.
And then by the time
you reach 30,
you're exactly what they want.
You're a free soul
standing in a cage
who has to die
because he was taught.
[chuckles]
Yeah.
- We would listen
to everything he had to say.
We never joined in,
commented,
disagreed.
He would seem to just
answer your questions
before you had any.
narrator: Manson's Family
is now about 30 strong.
Some have been with him
more than a year.
He has bent them to his will
with sex, isolation,
and domination.
And the lost tapes show
one last vital ingredient.
- We took things
like belladonna
and smoked hashish a lot
and smoked marijuana
all the time, and...
and psilocybin and mescaline...
When I was with Charlie we took
anywhere between
30 and 40 trips
on acid alone.
[rock music]
Everybody just went
stark raving mad.
I mean, just completely crazy.
- People are jumping in and out
of the fireplace,
flying through windows,
hitting other people
in the face.
- Arms and legs flying
in every directions
and people screaming,
"Charlie! Charlie!"
- One too many trips
To the moon and back
Feel like I'm shot through
From green to black
Had so many highs
- The LSD was fun.
Everything became
more animated,
the songs, you know, the words,
I felt totally disconnected
from reality.
narrator: But not everybody
in the cult is high.
- Manson was smart enough
to know
how to dose out LSD.
I've interviewed Manson
three times.
He told us in the interview
at San Quentin
he would take drugs,
but not that much.
But what about your flock?
"I gave them the
full dosage of it."
You know, "Why?"
"Because I felt I could have
more of an impact
over them."
- The shadow side
of psychedelics
is that you're nakedly innocent
and vulnerable.
And someone can weasel their
way inside your mind
and alter your perspective.
narrator: With The Family
drugged and under his spell,
Manson takes his power
to a whole nother level.
-Charlie never just said
he was Jesus Christ,
but then he always said it.
He said it in every other way
except for just coming
flat-out and saying
"I am Jesus Christ."
- He said that 2,000 years ago
he'd hung on a cross
and died for everyone's sins,
and it didn't do a [bleep]
bit of good,
so now he's up again.
[solemn music]
- He started using
subliminal messages
such as, "They won't kill me
this time
because I've already died."
But he'd say it very quickly
with a lot of other things.
- The most extreme form
of grandiosity
and power and narcissism
is to be godlike.
- You look the part.
You got the hair,
you got the beard,
and now you start talking
and it's very,
very convincing.
Before you know it,
you're Jesus.
You're Christ.
- It looked to me like he was
hanging on the cross and...
you know, bleeding
from his hands.
It seemed very real.
It seemed like other people
were, you know,
believing it.
- We've seen what's possible.
We've seen Charlie do things
that no human being...
has ever done.
Or no human being has revealed
that he could do these things.
No, we've seen miracles.
- He often talked about
the significance of his name,
Man-son.
That he was Man's Son.
The Son of Man.
- We saw him bring
a bird back to life.
We know that
anything's possible.
narrator: It's taken two years
of sex, mind-control,
drugs, and domination
for Manson
to turn regular kids
into a cult of worshippers
ready to obey
his every command.
The question now
is what will he make them do?
- Manson knew
where he wanted to go.
He knew where he was taking
these people.
But they had no clue.
They had no idea that
where Manson was leading them
was mayhem and murder.
narrator: Coming up,
the lost tapes show Manson
as he prepares for war...
- We're always ready.
narrator: And the killings
start.
- He was the commander now
and we were all in boot camp.
narrator: And an incredible
confession
never broadcast before.
- He said that one day
in Beverly Hills,
there would be some
atrocious murders
and people would be
chopped to pieces.
There'd be things written on
the walls in blood.
- [laughs]
narrator: June 1969.
Charles Manson is becoming
increasingly obsessed
with one extraordinary vision.
- I think Charles Manson
was looking for some
chaotic Armageddon
into which he could take
even more advantage
of disorder,
and rally people
behind a common threat.
- Charlie used to say
the blacks would
fight against the whites, and
everyone would fight
against everybody else
and that everyone would get
killed except for Charlie
and a few blacks who'd be left
to be their servants.
- He became increasingly,
you know,
paranoid about that,
and started preparing us
for that event.
- Manson is imbibing
what's happening
in terms of popular
and political culture
in the United States.
When we think about
the late 1960s,
the Civil Rights movement,
Malcolm X,
the Black Panther party,
the Vietnam War,
there were really hundreds
of civil disturbances.
And there was a real fear
that race war was coming
to the United States.
It seemed as if
the end of the world
was coming.
narrator: Manson dubs his
race war prophecy
"Helter Skelter,"
a name he takes from
a most unlikely source.
Male announcer: You guessed it,
the Beatles!
This rock-and-roll group
has taken over
as the kingpins
of musical appreciation
among the younger element.
narrator: In November 1968,
the Beatles release
their "White Album."
Manson becomes obsessed.
- Charlie played it forwards
and backwards
and he played it
over and over again.
He said, "The Beatles are
sending me a message...
That it's time."
Black man was gonna
take over the world.
- [laughs]
- There was a song
called "Helter Skelter"...
[guitar riff]
About people who were at the
bottom of the slide
of society getting back
to the top.
According to Manson,
these were the blacks.
- The Beatles now were
confirming
that it was all true.
[guitar riff]
It was crazy, crazy thinking.
[guitar riff]
narrator: Now free love
transforms to boot camp
as Manson readies his Family
for Helter Skelter.
- Mark it.
- Sandy, Brenda, Squeaky,
six, take one, roll 210.
-We're always ready.
- The new thought is
to be a strong reflection
of the father.
Now, I'm just finding out
about this, see.
And it feels good.
It feels good to know.
- He issued us all buck knives
and showed us
the most effective way
to kill someone.
He said it...
"You have to be willing to kill
in order to not be killed."
- If you want it
Here it is
Come and get it
[all laughing]
- But you better hurry
Because it won't be here long,
you [bleep].
- He told us
you stab and then you rip up.
You know, you--that's what
I remember.
It's like, you know, so,
the reason being that
you would hit as many organs--
you know, vital organs
as possible.
- He was the commander now.
And we were all in boot camp.
I think the dangerous side
of Charlie
was that
he would do anything...
to survive.
narrator: While Manson's
Family
think they're getting ready
to defend themselves,
in reality,
their leader's intentions
are very different.
- At that time, I was staying
with a man named Pete Nell
who was president of the
San Francisco Hell's Angels.
And I got to his house one day
just as Charles Manson
had left,
and he was flabbergasted.
Charles Manson had come to them
to try to get the Hell's Angels
to begin a race war;
to just go start randomly
shooting black people.
And Pete had said, "You know,
if you want a race war,
go start it yourself."
narrator: A chilling
piece of audio
captured on the lost tapes
when the cameras
stopped rolling
and never broadcast before
reveals that Manson
now does plan
to start that race war
himself.
And the place he's chosen?
The very heart
of Hollywood's elite:
Beverly Hills.
- He said
that one day, up in the
mountains of Beverly Hills
that they just, uh...
go in and have a bunch
of mass murders.
That they would be
so atrocious.
That there would be blood
splattered
all over everything.
That people would be
chopped to pieces
and cut up with knives.
There'd be things written
on the walls in blood.
And, uh, the white man would
get all uptight about it
and blame the [bleep] for it.
narrator: Coming up
on "Inside the Manson Cult"...
- He confided in me about
killing people.
About how groovy it was
to take a gun and blast
some guy in the stomach.
narrator: And a former
cult member
has to face
her younger self
from half a century before.
- Did I ever think
of her baby?
I've pictured her pregnant.
Anybody watching this would
think I was a monster.
narrator: Early summer,
Charles Manson is convinced
a race war
is coming down fast.
- The ranch changed completely
after that.
narrator: And the lost tapes
show how his world view
turns dark.
- He confided in me about
killing people.
About how groovy it was
to take a gun and
blast some guy in the stomach
just because he was black.
About how far out it would be
to go into a house and...
cut the [bleep] out of women
and cut the [bleep] off
of little boys
and just have pools of blood
everywhere.
- Manson addressed
the issue of
the pending race war
by creating what he thought
would be the circumstances
to ignite it.
narrator: As Manson
hones his master plan,
the tapes show how he's
conditioned his followers
to commit the ultimate crime
by conquering their
deepest fears
of death.
-There is no death.
There's no such thing.
When you die,
you die with the thoughts that
you have in your head.
- Their reality was
such that oh,
you know, death was
no big deal.
- When somebody
needs to be killed,
there's no wrong.
You do it.
And then you move on.
[gun clicking]
- Manson had weaponized
his followers
to use--like a knife,
like a gun,
like a rope,
to kill the people
that he had targeted.
narrator: Manson has trained
his Family
to be able to kill for him.
But are they ready
to really do it?
It's time to find out.
-Gary Hinman had his ear
chopped off...
along with being killed
and stabbed and
tortured...
everything else he had done
to him.
- We'd been to Gary's house
you know, several times.
He lived in Topanga Canyon.
narrator: Gary Hinman has sold
Bobby Beausoleil some drugs.
Beausoleil sells them on
but his buyers think
the drugs are bad.
Beausoleil needs
the money back.
- So, uh, Bobby was driven
over there
to make it right
with two girls
that knew Gary very well.
In fact I think he had slept
with both of them.
Susan Atkins
and Mary Brunner.
- Hinman denies
he did anything wrong.
He doesn't have any money,
he swears by it.
But he's getting loud,
he's getting angry.
- The women get on the phone
with Manson
and tell him what's going on
and Manson decides
that now he has to
ride in again
and solve the situation.
- Charlie gets a samurai sword.
He takes the sword
to the house.
- Once you show up
with a sword,
things will not end well.
- Manson makes a swipe.
He made a slice from the ear
down to the face.
It was bleeding a lot.
- Pretty much what he's
telling Beausoleil
is, "Come on.
You know what you have to do."
- Bobby Beausoleil
takes one of the cars
and leaves the area.
Beausoleil is found
in the car, asleep,
arrested,
charged with the crime
of killing Gary Hinman.
Manson gets a call
letting him know
that Beausoleil
has been arrested,
and this is where the chaos
really sets in.
- This is when things
start getting really dire.
I mean, really murderous.
narrator: Manson's Family
are now murderers
and, it seems, ready to
give up everything for him.
It's time to put his
master plan into action.
The Helter Skelter race war
won't start on its own.
But his family can start
it for him,
and he knows just where
and how
he wants them to do it.
It has taken over two years,
but he has created
an army of followers
ready to kill
to please their master.
On the evening
of August 8, 1969,
Charles Manson
selects his most trusted
for a mission that will haunt
U.S. history.
- Manson told his followers
that this would
be the ignition point
for Helter Skelter.
narrator: Charles "Tex"
Watson,
23-year-old ex-high school
football star.
Patricia Krenwinkle,
21, a onetime
church choir member.
And Susan Atkins,
also 21,
a former Girl Scout.
They'll be driven
to the onetime home
of Terry Melcher,
the man who rejected Manson
for a record deal:
10050 Cielo Drive.
Coming up
on "Inside the Manson Cult"...
Manson brings terror
to Tinseltown...
- The gore. The blood.
This was what Charles Manson
wanted.
narrator: And the threat
of more murder to come
on the lost tapes.
- If you had to kill more,
you'd kill more?
- Mm-hmm.
- Whatever we have to do.
- Whatever.
- We leave our house open
to the soul.
narrator: Charles Manson
has turned
his young followers...
- We're always ready.
narrator: Into killers.
- There is a deed to be done.
There is something that has
to be taken care of here.
narrator: The murder spree
has begun.
-When somebody
needs to be killed,
there's no wrong.
You do it.
woman on radio: Man down,
man down,
at 10050 Cielo Drive, over.
- August 9, 1969.
9:00 a.m.
Bob Burbridge is a 25-year-old
cop on patrol
for the LAPD.
- Well, I just got out
of roll call
at West Los Angeles
Police Station
and the call was
a man down call,
a call of a drunk
or it could be a dead body.
So I rolled on the call...
[indistinct radio chatter]
- We're turning onto
Cielo Drive.
This is the way I came up
on that day.
[woman speaking on radio]
We're approaching the driveway
going up to the mansion,
the Sharon Tate mansion.
As soon as I went through
the gate,
I discovered a body
in a white car.
I looked on the lawn,
and there were two more bodies
laying on the lawn.
We decided that there might be
a sniper involved,
so we asked one of the
policemen
to go get a shotgun
to cover us while we went
running across this open area
to the house.
[indistinct radio chatter]
narrator: By the summer
of 1969,
Terry Melcher
had moved out of the
Cielo Drive house.
- Manson knew pretty damn well
that Terry Melcher
no longer lived there.
What you have here
is you have a resonance--
it's a symbolic resonance.
And there's gonna be revenge
on whoever is there:
men, women, children.
It didn't really matter.
narrator: The people now
living at 10050 Cielo Drive
are Hollywood director
Roman Polanski
and his wife,
Sharon Tate.
- Sharon Tate was a rising
young movie actress.
She had not starred
in any A movies
but she was certainly headed
in that direction.
narrator: Polanski is in
London working on a movie.
But Tate is at home
with friends.
[guitar riff]
Three of Charles Manson's
most trusted followers
had paid them a visit.
Charles "Tex" Watson,
Patricia Krenwinkle,
and Susan Atkins.
[radio chatter]
The LAPD is just about
to find out
what horrors
they had inflicted
inside the house.
- We got to the living room.
We saw two more bodies--
towels over their head
and a rope wrapped around
both of their necks.
One of them was Sharon Tate.
She was obviously
eight to nine months pregnant.
man's voice: A movie
actress and four
of her friends were murdered.
And the circumstances
were lurid.
- I just remember she was
the most beautiful thing
I've ever seen.
And there was blood
all over her and...
it was awful.
It was just awful.
I--I hate
to even think about it.
- Identification of the persons
are as follows:
Sharon Polanski,
Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger...
- Jay Sebring was an
internationally famous
hairstylist.
Abigail Folger was the heiress
for the Folger coffee fortune.
Wojciech Frykowski was good
friends with Roman Polanski.
Steven Parent had just been
there to visit the caretaker.
The victims suffered
102 stab wounds.
Three of the victims
were shot.
One of the victims was pounded
on his head with a gun butt.
Sharon Tate was hung
from a high beam
going across
the living room ceiling.
- The Manson followers, they
leave "pig" scrawled in blood
to try to convince
investigators
that the Black Panthers
had done this.
The Panthers call
police officers pigs
because they're trying to
dehumanize law enforcement
in the same way they argue
law enforcement
has dehumanized black people.
- The gore. The blood.
Manson told his followers
that this would
be the ignition point
for Helter Skelter.
- The revolution
is waiting for a spark.
Everybody's ready.
Everybody's got their--
their guns together.
- All right, this is beautiful.
Okay, you'll be able to...
You have to have
this thing to where
it just slides right out
with your own motion.
- Everybody's waiting
for somebody
to...
have enough love
to start it.
narrator: Not content
with one bloodbath,
on the following night
Manson decides
that the killing spree
must continue.
- The Family drove around
Los Angeles county
for 4 1/2 hours
looking at random
for people to murder.
Then Manson started giving
more specific directions,
and they ended up
at the LaBianca house
at 3301 Waverly Drive.
[heart beating]
narrator: The house belongs to
supermarket owner
Leno LaBianca
and his wife, Rosemary.
[tense music]
- He said, "Don't move.
This is just a robbery."
He assured them that
he wasn't going to hurt them.
He took Rosemary LaBianca's
wallet
because he wanted to have it
planted in a black area
and he wanted a black person
to find the wallet
and use the credit cards
and get blamed
for the murders.
He said, "Don't let them know
that you're gonna kill them."
- In a personality-driven
cult,
whatever the leader says
is right is right,
and whatever the leader says
is wrong is wrong.
His ideas,
his prescriptions
are absolute
and must be accepted
without question.
- No "why?"
We never ask why.
- Mm-hmm.
- Whatever we have to do.
- Whatever.
- We leave our house open
to the soul.
We leave our mind open.
[guns clicking]
- In the LaBianca house,
above the inside
of the front door
is written the word "rise."
On the living room wall
in Leno LaBianca's blood
is written "death to pigs."
- Well, that was the whole
point of it.
Staging the murder scene
the way it was staged
was so that it would be
believed that
this was a race war.
That this was
the disenfranchised
lashing out at the rich
and the privileged.
- And it's the people
that will cause a revolution.
And it's the people that will
cause a change
in the country.
- And on the refrigerator
at the LaBiancas
in Leno LaBianca's blood
is written the words
"Helter Skelter."
narrator: Coming up on
"Inside the Manson Cult,"
news of the murders
spreads through The Family...
- Tex tells me, "I did this.
Charlie told me to."
They were almost like lethal.
They didn't seem to have
any remorse.
narrator: And a new member
shares an extraordinary
confession
for the first time.
- One of the girls came up
to me and said
"We want you to go
to the courthouse and...
Kill the judge."
- [laughs]
Male announcer: The latest
murders were discovered
during the night.
Leno LaBianca,
a supermarket owner,
and his wife had both
been stabbed to death,
repeated stab wounds.
- It was just pandemonium,
in Los Angeles especially.
People were so scared
that gun sales
went up tremendously.
- People are buying
extra locks on their doors.
Entertainers out there
are hiring bodyguards
to be--to be with them,
you know, 24/7.
So it put the fear of God
in them.
- Charles Manson
accomplished his goal
of terrorizing Los Angeles.
No one was safe.
narrator: Back at Spahn Ranch,
news of the murders
spread through The Family.
- Tex tells me, "I did this.
Charlie told me to."
Patty said that
she had stabbed somebody
and at first, you know,
it was hard
but then it got to be more fun.
They were almost
like boastful
or gleeful.
I mean, it's like they...
they didn't seem to have
any remorse.
- Despite the violence
and the brutality
of these murders,
the people that had
committed them
of this following
were still very proud
of what they had done.
For them, it was a way to
sort of say,
"Hey, look at what I did.
This is how loyal I am
for Charlie."
narrator: For the first time
in decades,
Catherine Share,
known in The Family as Gypsy,
sets eyes on her younger self.
She was filmed shortly after
the Tate murders.
- Mm-hmm.
- Did I ever think of her baby?
I've pictured her pregnant.
Yeah.
No, I've--I've only pictured
her pregnant.
That's the only way I can
picture her.
I was so cut off
that I couldn't feel...
what I should have felt
for another pregnant woman
and her child.
And it's very disturbing
to watch me
put that out.
- The baby?
- No, I picture Sharon Tate
pregnant at times. Yeah.
Anybody watching this
would think I was a monster.
- I didn't know her.
I never met her.
How can you tell
what's in a picture?
It's not even living.
And there was part of me
that still believed that
he had all the answers
and he was the one.
There was another part of me
that was starting
to know better.
But I was keeping it
just deep down inside.
Because if I showed it,
my life would be in danger.
narrator: While Manson
plots his next move,
the cops are fumbling
their investigation.
- The police had no idea
who committed these murders.
They had one team working on
the Tate murders,
and another team working on
the LaBianca murders.
- They didn't think these
cases, ah, were related,
you know, at all.
I mean, this is obvious to me.
Here's the signature.
Here's the symbolism of this.
What are the probability
that someone else is
perpetrating the same crime,
the same way?
[upbeat music]
narrator: As the investigation
stumbles along,
Manson leads his followers
to the desert
to hide out from
the Helter Skelter race war
he still insists is coming.
But then things start
to go wrong.
- Charlie decided that he was
gonna burn up an earth-mover.
Not a very swift move when you,
when you want to hide.
- I was washing my hair.
- Get your hands up!
Everybody up, turn around!
- And I had a gun
pointing at me,
"You're under arrest."
- Quiet, give me
your other hand.
I said move!
- Charlie disappeared.
Just--
[whistles]
You know, he made himself
invisible.
[tense music]
-Get up! Get up!
- So the police found Charlie
under the sink cupboard.
narrator: To The Family's
relief,
the cops aren't hunting
for the Tate
and LaBianca killers.
They're looking for the people
who burnt the earth-mover.
- We got arrested
for vandalizing
government property.
narrator: The police
have no idea
that they have America's
most wanted killers
in their care.
Coming up,
exclusive lost tape footage
with the prisoner
who blows the Sharon Tate
murder case
wide open.
- She told me
she just kept stabbing her
until she stopped screaming.
narrator: And shocking
evidence
of the power Charles Manson
has over his followers.
- I'm ready to die
for Charlie.
I'm ready to die.
[dramatic musical sting]
narrator: Charles Manson
and some of his
most faithful followers
are in jail after burning
an earth-mover.
But they also just may be
getting away with murder.
- It wasn't until Susan Atkins
got transferred
to Los Angeles County Jail
Sybil Brand
that she started
talking to her cellmate
about Charlie, and, you know,
Helter Skelter.
narrator: Susan Atkins,
known in The Family as Sadie,
was at the Hinman murder
and also at the Tate mansion
on Cielo Drive.
- Susan Atkins came from a,
uh, middle-class family.
Unfortunately her mother died
at a very, very young age,
which devastated her.
She wasn't getting
the attention anymore
from the mother who she loved,
she loved dearly
and she sought out others
to get some type of attention.
narrator: While in jail,
Atkins latches onto cellmate
Ronnie Howard.
- Roll 159.
What is your name?
- My name is Ronnie Howard.
narrator: And the lost tapes
reveal how Atkins
unwittingly gives
the game away.
- She was telling me about
different things that
she thought would shock me.
And I told her,
"Nothing shocks me."
And she said, "Well,
I think I can tell you
a few things that would
shock you."
[solemn music]
- She confessed
to Ronnie Howard
about her participation
and Charles Manson's
participation
in these murders.
- I asked her,
"If you were really there,"
I said, "Who really
killed Sharon Tate?"
And she told me
that she killed Sharon Tate.
She said she was the one
that stabbed her.
Every time she screamed
she'd stab her again and...
she just kept stabbing her
until she stopped screaming.
And she said it sent
a hot rush all the way
through her body.
And she told me that
to stab somebody
is better than having a climax.
But she--she told me that
the future murders
would be more gruesome.
They wanted to do something
to really shock the world.
A few of them
were celebrities.
- Which celebrities were
they going to kill?
- Steve McQueen.
Tom Jones.
Frank Sinatra.
Liz Taylor.
- Ronnie Howard
called LAPD and said, "Hey,
this is what this woman
has told us,"
and that broke the case.
narrator: On December 9, 1969,
the charge against Manson
is changed from arson
to first-degree murder.
Male announcer:
A wandering band
of members of
a so-called religious cult
with a leader they call Jesus
has had three of its
followers arrested
in the investigation
of the murder of Sharon Tate
and six others.
narrator: But Manson's arrest
for the murders
does not signal the end
of his Family.
In fact, it gains a new member
at a crucial time.
- I walked away from my house
and everything that was in it.
Just...away.
And, uh, went to the ranch.
narrator: 24-year-old
Aesop Aquarian
is a musician
and aspiring actor.
The lost tapes show him
playing guitar
with the Family just days
after the murder charge
is filed.
- I was,
"part of The Family."
I was living on the ranch,
working the ranch.
I was taking care
of the girls,
I was driving the girls,
I was making sure
they were safe.
And the love that
was there was...
undeniable, anybody who came
on the ranch
even for a second,
you know, caught the love
that we had.
[all laughing]
- Even when he was in jail,
Charlie was still able
to manipulate
and have power and control
over his followers.
narrator: New recruit Aquarian
can see firsthand
how Manson's power
is getting, if anything,
stronger.
- These girls loved Charlie
so much
that they literally
would do anything for him.
Literally would do
anything for him.
- Whenever we need to,
we respond.
We respond with our knives.
We respond with
whatever we have.
[indistinct chatter]
narrator: Among Manson's
most loyal disciples
on the outside
are Nancy Pitman,
known as Brenda,
Lynette Fromme,
known as Squeaky,
and Sandra Goode,
known as Sandy.
- We could respond so quickly.
Teeth...
- Anything.
Whatever. Whatever's at hand.
Because we are animals.
- We are.
- [indistinct speech]
- And I know that if they
ever laid a finger on Charlie,
if we were unarmed, we would
chew their necks off,
anything. Claw their eyes out.
And they know it.
- Those members that stayed
to the very end
with Charles Manson
were in love with him.
- N-88!
- The idea
that they might imagine
another life
did not occur to them.
- I'm ready to die
for Charlie.
He's ready to die for me.
He has died for me.
I'm ready to die.
I'm ready to die for--
to protect my own.
narrator: The Manson trial
begins on July 24, 1970.
- I have no, uh,
absolute knowledge,
but I don't think any case
in history
has received this much
pre-trial publicity
throughout the world.
narrator: Stephen Kay
was a rookie prosecutor
working on the case.
- At age 27,
I had been assigned
to be a prosecutor on
what was then considered
the crime of the century.
narrator: Kay's job
will be tough.
- Manson left no fingerprints
at the locations.
There was nothing at the scene
of the crimes to tie Manson
into the crime
so it was all testimony.
- So what basically
had to be proved
was that Charlie had
manipulated his followers
so much that he himself was
culpable of these murders.
man: You want Mr. Kanarek
to challenge the jurors
or are you ready to accept
anyone that's put in the box?
- You've already tried
the case.
narrator: To bring
Manson down,
the prosecution needs someone
on the inside
to turn against him.
But getting a Family member
to break ranks
will be no easy task.
- In the visiting room
he said to a Family member,
"If Gypsy tries to get away,
"I want you to...
"tie her behind a car
"and drag her slowly
"back to the ranch.
Don't kill her,
but you can get close."
And then he looked at me
and said,
"Are you going anywhere?"
And I said, "No."
narrator: Another potential
witness is Dianne Lake,
known in The Family as Snake.
She's now 16.
Still under Manson's control,
Lake has kept
her true identity hidden
from the prison authorities...
Until now.
- They sent us to testify
in front of the Grand Jury
and that's when I finally
felt safe enough
to say...
"My name is Dianne Lake.
I'm 16, and I want my mommy."
narrator: But after two years
of near-daily LSD use
Lake is in no position
to testify.
Diagnosed with schizophrenia,
she's sent for emergency
psychiatric treatment.
- They committed me
to 90 days observation
at Patton State Hospital.
And then the 90 days
turned into nine months.
It was like he was in my head
telling me,
"Turn left. Turn right."
You know, "Turn the light off."
"Don't say that" or
"Don't talk to that person."
There was one officer
in particular that really
treated me with--with respect
and like a tenderness.
He made me feel safe
enough to start telling...
telling the truth.
- Sandy, Brenda, Squeaky,
four, take one, roll 209.
narrator: As Lake prepares
to testify against Manson
the tapes reveals what her
former friends think of her.
-She's a very young girl,
and by the time the, the DAs
had gotten through with her
she was speaking their
language.
She's just like a baby.
She can be molded whatever way
anyone chooses to mold her.
- I'm sure that's what they
believed, you know,
that I had been, uh,
swallowed up.
You know, that I was
being manipulated
by the courts.
narrator: The big question is:
will Lake be brave enough
to testify?
- Snitches will be taken
care of.
- How?
-Oh, that's to be seen.
That's to be seen.
narrator: Still to come
on "Inside the Manson Cult,"
secretly filmed footage
of Manson in prison...
- We are sneaking
in the county jail.
Looking under the door
to see if the man is there.
- He's telling us
to break him out.
narrator: And an extraordinary
command
to young member of the cult:
Kill the judge.
- I felt my jaw drop
to the ground.
[dramatic musical sting]
narrator: Charles Manson
is on trial
for multiple murders.
Teenage cult member
Dianne Lake
might be key
to convicting him
if she can escape his control.
- It was like he was
in my head.
- [laughs]
narrator: A unique moment
from the lost tapes
shows just how hard
that's going to be.
Secretly, the filmmaker
smuggles a camera
into Manson's jail cell.
And the cult leader
takes his chance
to speak directly
to his followers.
- We are sneaking
in the county jail.
Looking under the door
to see if the man is there.
Sneaking like little children
out of town.
[laughs]
Sneaking...
[laughs]
Sneaking all around
the courthouse.
- He's programming us.
Telling us what to do.
- Everything is sneaky
up around Sneakyville.
[laughs]
- He was telling us
to break him out
of jail.
To learn where the vents are,
learn how to get in and out
of the building
and learn how to set him free.
- You gotta sneak
to get to the truth.
The truth is condemned.
The truth is in
the gas chamber.
[laughs]
- Manson had a very powerful
personality.
When he was in a room,
you could almost feel
the electricity
pouring off of him.
And he would kind of
command the room.
[indistinct chatter]
Manson one time
came into court,
and he had taken a razor blade
and put an X on his forehead.
And the next day, the girls
all had Xs on their foreheads.
They said they were going to
X themselves out of society.
- Some of the behaviors
that the girls exhibited
during the trials
really was frightening.
Because you can see that
despite being back in reality
back in society,
they're still totally
under Charlie's spell.
narrator: The tapes show
how Manson's followers
may be ready
to threaten anyone
involved in the prosecution.
- Sandy, Brenda, Squeaky.
- Ask me a question.
- What if they execute
Charlie?
- Well, they'll have
to contend with us.
narrator: Just how far
the cult is prepared to go
is made frighteningly clear
to new member Aesop Aquarian.
- One of the girls
came up to me and said
"We've got to get Charlie out.
"We want you to," uh...
"To go the courthouse and...
Kill the judge."
I felt my jaw
drop to the ground.
"You want me to what?"
Said, "We want you
to kill the judge."
"That'll show them
that we're serious
and that'll get Charlie out."
"Are you for real?"
And she said, "Yeah."
My first thought was,
"What the hell
am I doing here?"
I don't think that was
the next day that I left
but it could have been.
[ambient music]
narrator: Manson's power
over his followers
may be giving Dianne Lake
second thoughts.
- It was terrifying,
the idea of going by the girls
and testifying against them.
And I was always afraid
that I was going to have
mind control by Charlie again.
That was a big fear.
And also that fear
of wanting that...
you know, that original feeling
of love and adoration from him.
I thought that was going
to be a weakness.
- The truth has not been
in your courtrooms.
Never has been
in your courtrooms.
All you have is confusion
in your courtroom.
- We went in, like,
the back door,
and there was still
a lot of press
but they kind of snuck me in.
- You can't prove anything
that happened yesterday.
Now is the only thing
that's real.
- The girls were outside
the Hall of Justice.
I was scared.
- We were on pins and needles.
We didn't know how the jury
was gonna respond
to Dianne Lake.
We felt that she had been
a great witness.
Believable, but...
she had spent eight months
in a mental hospital.
We didn't know what the jury
was going to do.
narrator: Still to come
on "Inside the Manson Cult"...
- He's waiting in a cage.
He's looking down like
I'm one of his disciples.
- [laughs]
narrator: An astonishing
revelation...
- I don't believe Charlie
believed in Helter Skelter.
It was just a crazy story.
[dramatic musical sting]
narrator: One of
Charles Manson's
earliest converts
has testified against
the man she loved.
- It was terrifying,
going by the girls
and testifying against them.
narrator: Time for the jury
to decide.
man: The jury,
hearing the charges
against Charles Manson
and three girl members
of his so-called Family
brought in its verdict
this afternoon.
All were found guilty
of murder in the first degree.
[indistinct chatter]
narrator: The trial
has lasted seven months
and is, at the time,
the most expensive
in U.S. criminal history.
The jury takes ten days
to reach a verdict.
man: Manson then shouted
at the jurors,
"You're all guilty!"
narrator: On Monday,
March 29, 1971,
Manson is sentenced to die
for the murder spree
that shocked the world.
Leslie Van Houten,
Susan Atkins,
and Patricia Krenwinkle
will also be given
the death sentence.
[women singing]
- I couldn't understand
how they could
be so happy
and cheerful when they were
facing the death penalty.
It would be years later
that I would see that look
in other eyes of cult followers
and I would realize
this is the way
that people look
when they're under
undue influence
and they're not thinking
for themselves.
[ambient music]
narrator: In 1972,
Charles Manson and his
three female accomplices
have their death sentences
commuted to life in prison
when California temporarily
abolishes the death penalty.
- After Charlie Manson
was locked away for life,
he became the most popular
prison inmate
in the United States
measured by the amount
of fan mail
that he received.
For a lot of young people,
he was like the ultimate
outlaw,
the counterculture icon...
And he continued to live on
in that sense
and continued to have
a cult following
in the broader population.
- I think within the
psychodrama of his own mind
Manson tapped into
this idea
of a fear of black-led
racial violence.
And I think that idea
was something that is a
carry-over from the '60s
even to this day.
- Charlie Manson wanted to be
rich and famous.
When he couldn't do it
in the music business,
he figured out another way
to be famous.
- Manson frequently said
he wanted to be bigger
than the Beatles.
And it could be argued
that he did have
even more of an impact
than the Beatles on our lives,
on American culture.
It did something to us.
We're no longer as free
and able to just...
think that we're safe
in our homes.
- Roll N-72, scene
four girls A, take one.
narrator: Over the years,
many of Manson's followers
remained devoted
to their Messiah.
- Again and again I've gotta
pay for your sins.
I've been laying up here
paying for your sins
for 2,000 years.
narrator: Others managed
to break free.
- Do I feel that
Charlie Manson conned me?
As time went on, absolutely.
Charlie had learned to be
a very good manipulator.
A shark, it will eat
whatever to survive.
And it will kill whatever
to survive.
- I lost some innocence
for sure.
But I--I survived
and I thrived,
and, um, I'm very thankful
for that.
narrator: In the space
of two years,
Manson brainwashed
dozens of followers
and even convinced some
to kill for him.
Behind it all
lay his twisted world view,
the Helter Skelter race war.
But did Manson ever truly
believe in this philosophy
or did he simply use it
to frighten and control
The Family?
In 1979,
when FBI profiler John Douglas
met Charles Manson in prison,
they had a revealing exchange.
- He's waiting in a cage.
He's looking down,
he's looking down like
I'm one of his disciples.
Like, you know.
- You gotta sneak
to get to the truth.
The truth is condemned.
The truth
is in the gas chamber.
- At the end of the day,
I don't believe Charlie
believed in Helter Skelter
at all.
It was just a crazy story.
And I didn't believe it,
I told him he
didn't believe it,
and he laughed
when I told him, "I don't
believe your BS here, Charlie,
"Come on, man.
You're just into sex, drugs,
and rock and roll."
- [laughs]
- And he was nodding his head,
he was smiling,
laughing, you know.
So.
- Pretty girl
Pretty, pretty girl
Cease to exist
Just come and say
you love me
Give up your world
Come on, you could be
I'm your kind
Oh your kind
And I can see
- Um, as far as
these things go, um...
You have to make love with it.
- Walk on, walk on
I love you, pretty girl
My life is yours
And you can have my world
Never had a lesson
I ever learned
But I know
We all get our turn
I love you
Never learn
Not to love you
Submission is a gift
Go on, give it
to your brother
Love and understanding
Is for one another
I'm your kind
I'm your kind
I'm your brother
I never had a lesson
I ever learned
But I know we all
Get our turn
And I love you
Never learn
Not to love you
Never learn
not to love you
Never learn
Not to love you
Thanks for watching.
And here are a few more shows to check out from Fox.
Buckle up, Buttercup.
It's real, and it
pulls people together.
- We're breaking waves
-[siren wailing]
Shooting stars
We live for glory
not forever
MAN: Touchdown!
Reach out
- Make this
right here right now
-[laughing]
Stand up
Here right now
That sounds like fun.