Charles Manson And Helter Skelter
Bettmann/Contributor/Getty ImagesCharles Manson leaves court after deferring a plea on murder charges. Dec. 11, 1969.
Charles Manson’s cult was initially no more than a band of outsiders who found themselves at the fringes of 1960s counter-culture. These runaways, dropouts, and lawless social outcasts seeking purpose and belonging thought they’d found a father figure in Manson.
While the beginnings of this cult saw nothing more than petty crime, drug use, and using an old movie lot as the hippie hub of operations, it quickly devolved into far more serious territory. According to Newsweek, Manson was eager to kickstart a race war he dubbed “Helter Skelter.”
Taken from a Beatles song of the same name, Helter Skelter was believed to inevitably pit black and white Americans against each other and lead to a nationwide rampage. Manson and his acolytes would be the only surviving members of white society, who could then overrun the victorious party.
In order to expedite the process, the Manson Family would have to murder a few admirable and upstanding white members of society while blaming black entities like the Black Panthers for their deaths.
Scrawling “PIG” in blood on Sharon Tate’s front door, for instance, was intended to lead authorities to consider the militant anti-police factions of the time. The failed attempt to start this revolution occurred on Aug. 9, 1969, and continued the following night — but it all began with Manson.
Bettmann/Contributor/Getty ImagesManson Family members (from left to right) Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Leslie van Houten in custody. August 1970.
Born on Nov. 12, 1934, in Cincinnati, Ohio, Charles Manson had a pretty tumultuous childhood. According to Biography, his 16-year-old mother was both a prostitute and an alcoholic, and the young boy was sent off to a boys school by age 12.
He was routinely rejected by his mother and rapidly resorted to the streets to make a living and find comfort. By the time he was in his 30s, Manson was a prolific car thief, fathered several children, and was in and out of prison for a whole roster of crimes.
Familiar with those cast out of traditional society, Manson used his experience — as well as the ubiquity of psychedelic drugs in the 1960s — to convince impressionable young minds that he could see what was around the proverbial corner.
By the time he and his followers made Spahn Ranch in the San Fernando Valley their home, the Jesus-looking prophet had them convinced that only violence would result in the future they desired.
Ralph Crane/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesThe Spahn Ranch in the San Fernando Valley where Manson and his “family” dwelled in the late 1960s.
On one of the last summer nights of the 1960s, the Manson Family invaded the home of Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate and murdered everyone inside. The famous director was in the U.K. while his pregnant wife was stabbed to death, along with her unborn child.
Manson never forgot the address. 10050 Cielo Drive. Music producer Terry Melcher had lived there previously, and the failed musician-turned-cult leader had tried his damndest to get into the industry.
“Make it a real nice murder,” Manson allegedly told followers Charles “Tex” Watson, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Linda Kasabian, “just as bad as you’ve ever seen. And get all their money.”
The first to die was 18-year-old Stephen Parent, who unluckily visited the home that night to sell off his audio equipment and was shot by Watson in the driveway. The others died slower deaths, via repeated stabbings.
Terry O’Neill/Iconic Images/Getty ImagesA pregnant Sharon Tate holds baby clothes not long before her murder.
“I’m the devil and I’m here to do the devil’s business,” Watson told a confused Voytech Frykowski, friend of Tate’s, who awoke to find a stranger in the room. He was then stabbed 51 times and shot twice, while his girlfriend was stabbed 28 times.
Jay Sebring, Sharon Tate’s former boyfriend, was stabbed seven times and shot twice. Tate begged the Manson Family to let her live long enough to have her baby, but they refused. They stabbed her 16 times instead and scrawled “PIG” on the door in her blood.
The Manson Family murdered Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, well-to-do business owners, the following night. It took months for authorities to find those responsible and put Manson’s Helter Skelter vision had come to an end.
The cult leader died behind bars in 2017 at 83.
