Okla-homey
8/9/2010, 06:00 AM
August 9, 1969 The Manson Cult Strikes
http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/1719/mansonmugshot0fa.jpg
41 years ago today, five people are killed in film director Roman Polanski's home in Hollywood, California, including Polanski's pregnant wife, Sharon Tate, by a members of a bizarre cult. Less than two days later, they struck again, killing Leno and Rosemary LaBianca in their home.
At both scenes, the killers scrawled messages in blood on the walls. The city of Los Angeles was in a state of panic until the leader of the cult, Charles Manson, was identified and arrested. Joan Didion, author of The White Album, wrote that many in Los Angeles believed "the 60s abruptly ended on August 9, 1969."
Manson, who had spent virtually his entire life behind bars for murder, was eventually released from prison in 1967 at the age of 33. His strange brand of charisma attracted a group of hippies, who followed him and settled down at the Spahn Ranch on the outskirts of Los Angeles, where heavy drug use and alcohol-soaked orgies were common.
Manson began telling his "family," as they called themselves, that a war between blacks and whites was coming and that their cult would be the leaders of the new world order that would follow. In support for this theory, Manson claimed that the Beatles' White Album, and, in particular, the song "Helter Skelter," backed him up. Manson decided that they should try to instigate the war by killing white people in a way that would implicate the black radicals.
The Manson Family
http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/6242/atkins19sj.jpg
Susan Atkins
http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/4500/watson13xa.jpg
"Tex" Watkins
http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/2896/kasabian17is.jpg
Linda Kasabian
http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/7527/krenwinkel11zh.jpg
Patricia Krenwinkel
http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/3289/houten19uw.jpg
Leslie Van Houten
Manson directed his followers, including Tex Watson and Susan Atkins, to kill certain prominent, wealthy whites. They chose Polanski's home because Manson had unsuccessfully attempted to get a recording deal from a producer who used to live there.
Polanski happened to be out of town at the time, but his actress wife, Sharon Tate, and her friends, including coffee heiress Abigail Folger, were brutally slaughtered by the Manson cult.
http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/6778/sharontate3rl.jpg
Sharon Tate
http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/1917/abigailfolger2nn.jpg
Abigail Folger
Some were shot, while others were stabbed to death. Manson did not go into the Polanski home and refrained from participating in the LaBianco murders two days later.
Manson and his gang were uncovered when one of his followers, who was jailed on a different charge, began bragging about the murders. Manson was charged with murder on the basis that he had influenced the "family" and directed the murders. His subsequent trial became a national spectacle. Manson came into court one day with an "X" carved in his forehead, explaining, "I have X-ed myself out of your world."
http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/7114/manson8so.jpg
His followers copied him and did the same. Another day, Manson assaulted the trial judge when he lunged and attempted to strike him. The jury convicted Manson and sentenced him to death, but when the Supreme Court invalidated the death penalty law in 1972, his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.
http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/671/him049a005ap153eb.jpg
Manson remains a criminal icon to this day. He periodically comes up for parole, but there is no indication that California will ever release him
From Charles Manson's testimony at trial...
"You made your children what they are.... These children that come at you with knives, they are your children. You taught them. I didn't teach them. I just tried to help them stand up.... You can project it back at me, but I am only what lives inside each and every one of you. My father is your system.... I am only what you made me. I am a reflection of you. You made your children what they are...I am a reflection of you."Charles Manson
http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/3731/insane7zo0bq.jpg
http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/1719/mansonmugshot0fa.jpg
41 years ago today, five people are killed in film director Roman Polanski's home in Hollywood, California, including Polanski's pregnant wife, Sharon Tate, by a members of a bizarre cult. Less than two days later, they struck again, killing Leno and Rosemary LaBianca in their home.
At both scenes, the killers scrawled messages in blood on the walls. The city of Los Angeles was in a state of panic until the leader of the cult, Charles Manson, was identified and arrested. Joan Didion, author of The White Album, wrote that many in Los Angeles believed "the 60s abruptly ended on August 9, 1969."
Manson, who had spent virtually his entire life behind bars for murder, was eventually released from prison in 1967 at the age of 33. His strange brand of charisma attracted a group of hippies, who followed him and settled down at the Spahn Ranch on the outskirts of Los Angeles, where heavy drug use and alcohol-soaked orgies were common.
Manson began telling his "family," as they called themselves, that a war between blacks and whites was coming and that their cult would be the leaders of the new world order that would follow. In support for this theory, Manson claimed that the Beatles' White Album, and, in particular, the song "Helter Skelter," backed him up. Manson decided that they should try to instigate the war by killing white people in a way that would implicate the black radicals.
The Manson Family
http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/6242/atkins19sj.jpg
Susan Atkins
http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/4500/watson13xa.jpg
"Tex" Watkins
http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/2896/kasabian17is.jpg
Linda Kasabian
http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/7527/krenwinkel11zh.jpg
Patricia Krenwinkel
http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/3289/houten19uw.jpg
Leslie Van Houten
Manson directed his followers, including Tex Watson and Susan Atkins, to kill certain prominent, wealthy whites. They chose Polanski's home because Manson had unsuccessfully attempted to get a recording deal from a producer who used to live there.
Polanski happened to be out of town at the time, but his actress wife, Sharon Tate, and her friends, including coffee heiress Abigail Folger, were brutally slaughtered by the Manson cult.
http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/6778/sharontate3rl.jpg
Sharon Tate
http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/1917/abigailfolger2nn.jpg
Abigail Folger
Some were shot, while others were stabbed to death. Manson did not go into the Polanski home and refrained from participating in the LaBianco murders two days later.
Manson and his gang were uncovered when one of his followers, who was jailed on a different charge, began bragging about the murders. Manson was charged with murder on the basis that he had influenced the "family" and directed the murders. His subsequent trial became a national spectacle. Manson came into court one day with an "X" carved in his forehead, explaining, "I have X-ed myself out of your world."
http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/7114/manson8so.jpg
His followers copied him and did the same. Another day, Manson assaulted the trial judge when he lunged and attempted to strike him. The jury convicted Manson and sentenced him to death, but when the Supreme Court invalidated the death penalty law in 1972, his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.
http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/671/him049a005ap153eb.jpg
Manson remains a criminal icon to this day. He periodically comes up for parole, but there is no indication that California will ever release him
From Charles Manson's testimony at trial...
"You made your children what they are.... These children that come at you with knives, they are your children. You taught them. I didn't teach them. I just tried to help them stand up.... You can project it back at me, but I am only what lives inside each and every one of you. My father is your system.... I am only what you made me. I am a reflection of you. You made your children what they are...I am a reflection of you."Charles Manson
http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/3731/insane7zo0bq.jpg