The Manson Family

Show Name:  The Massari Files 

Episode Title:  The Manson Family 

Podcast episode introduction…

• Welcome to the Massari Files podcast with your hosts Toby and Harper. 
• In today’s episode, we will talk about the Manson Family, how it came to be, and the outcome of the cult. 
• Sit back, relax, and enjoy. 

Segment 1: Origin & Leader 

• Charles Manson founded the Manson Family in 1968.
• born Charles Milles Maddox in Cincinnati, Ohio, on 12 November 1934, the illegitimate son of 16-year-old Kathleen Maddox. Shortly after his birth, his mother married William Manson and her son took his stepfather's name. 
• His mother was an alcoholic and when, in 1939, she was jailed after robbing a petrol station, Manson was placed in the care of his aunt and uncle.
• Starting at the age of 9, he spent much of his life in juvenile reformatories or prison for crimes, such as petty larceny, armed robbery, burglary, and auto theft
• His ultimate goal, ever since he first heard the Beatles on a prison radio, was to become the most famous musician on earth
• Following Manson's release from prison in 1967, he moved to San Francisco where he attracted a small but devoted following from the city’s bohemian culture
• Fuelled by considerable quantities of drugs, notably LSD, Manson set himself up as something of a guru, peddling a mixture of beliefs and the teachings of numerous cults. He convinced a series of adoring female followers that he was Christ. Manson was very manipulative and he knew the impact of drugs, so he very carefully avoided taking them himself and then handed out those drugs to the girls and never, never got himself stoned in front of them, because he wanted to be in control,” 

Segment 2:  Cult ideals, activities and victims

Cult Ideals: 

• The Manson Family was a communal religious cult dedicated to studying and implementing Manson's eccentric religious teachings that were drawn from science fiction and the occult and fringe psychology.  
• Manson had developed an interest in the Beatles White Album. He believed that the album emanated with race-baiting undertones. He specifically took inspiration from the song, Helter Skelter, he alleged that he interpreted the song as a call to racially divisive action. He hoped a race war would lead Blacks and Whites to kill one another, with Blacks eventually leading themselves to destruction. 
• He convinced his followers that if they didn’t commit the murders, black people would rule the nation and kill or enslave them
• Manson wanted to manipulate the police into thinking that black organizations like the Black Panthers, a group against police brutality, were responsible for the murders. 

recruitment:

• The Manson Family was once touted as the embodiment of free love, attracting young men and women looking to break away from traditional society in the late 1960s.
• Former cellmate Phil Kaufman said Manson was good at influencing people without them knowing it. He would take advantage of easily manipulated people and the hook was in. The chameleon-like cult leader used those skills after his release from prison to find young women fed up with society’s traditional roles and often alienated them from their families 
• Manson specifically targeted women “hungry for a connection” and quickly identified each person’s most significant vulnerabilities.
• Manson capitalized on fear by preaching to his followers that the world was on the verge of a violent race war, something that didn’t seem all that far-fetched given the race riots breaking out all across the country at the time.
• To draw his followers in, Manson showered them with love and acceptance.

Family activities:  

• Manson got his followers to push their boundaries by recruiting them to go on missions known as “creepy crawlies,” where they’d break into homes and rearrange the furniture. 
• 14 year old Dianne Lake recalls at Manson’s commune on Spahn Ranch that 10 to 15 Manson family members settled into the routines of commune living: rummaging through dumpsters for food; caring for horses, and occasionally renting them out for rides; and late afternoons with Manson, singing songs
• The group would also regularly use drugs and participate in orgies 

Victims: 

Possible victims:

• Nancy Warren, 64, and Clyda Dulaney, 24, were both found near Ukiah, California at the antique store owned by Warren on October 13, 1968. They had both been beaten and strangled to death with thirty-six leather thongs. After the Family members were arrested, they became suspects when it was discovered that members of the Family had been in the Ukiah area at the time of the murders. However, no one in the Family was ever charged with the murders and no arrests were ever made in the case.
• James Sharp, 15, and Doreen Gaul, 19, were both found stabbed to death in an alley in Los Angeles on November 7, 1969. The murder of the two young Scientologists involved both being stabbed between fifty and sixty times. Police immediately noted the similarities between these murders and those of the Tate-LaBianca murders 

Confirmed victims: 

• Then in late July 1969, several members of The Family went to the home of Manson's friend and music teacher Gary Hinman. Hinman had allegedly sold one of the members, Bobby Beausoleil bad drugs and they wanted their money back. When Hinman didn’t have any money to give them, Manson came to the home and slashed Hinman in the face with a sword. When Hinman threatened to go to the police over the wound, Beausoleil killed him. 
• On 8 August, Manson sent four members of the Family to the rented house of record producer Terry Melcher, with instructions to kill everyone they found. Melcher had previously turned down Manson's request for a recording contract. Melcher had moved, and the house had been rented to the film director Roman Polanski and his actress wife, Sharon Tate. The cult first shot an 18-year-old youth they encountered outside the house before going in and killing the four occupants, hairstylist Jay Sebring, Polanski's friend and aspiring screenwriter Wojciech Frykowski, and Frykowski's girlfriend Abigail Folger. Polanski was away in London at the time on business. Tate, who was eight and a half months pregnant, died from stab wounds, and her blood was used to write the word "pig" on the outside of the house.
• The following night Manson, who had not attended the previous killings, went with six members of the Family to the house of a supermarket executive, Leno LaBianca, and his wife Rosemary. The couple were stabbed to death although, after tying them up, Manson left the house before the attacks began. They carved the word “war” into Leno’s stomach during the frenzied attack
• The final victim was former film stuntman, Donald Shea. Manson instructed Steve Grogan, a member of the Family, to kill Shea, who he believed had passed information to the police. Shea's remains were not found until 1977 when Grogan led police to where he had buried him eight years previously. 

Segment 3:  Where are they now

• those responsible for the killings were put on trial. At the same time, Manson’s other followers remained completely devoted to him, carving an “x” into their forehead, shaving their heads, or even crawling on their hands and knees to the courthouse each day to show their complete and absolute devotion to him. 

• Manson and the three other defendants from the Family were sentenced to death. An appeal process delayed the executions and the sentences were commuted to life imprisonment when California abolished the death penalty in 1972.

• The publicity surrounding Charles Manson and his Family did not go away.  In 1975, one of his followers, Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, was jailed for life after attempting to assassinate President Ford. In 1987, she escaped a West Virginia Prison in an attempt to meet up with Manson because she heard he had developed cancer. She was captured and imprisoned until being granted parole in 2008. She was released in 2009 and published a book in 2018. In an interview, she said, “was I in love with Charlie? Yeah, oh yeah, oh, I still am, still am. I don’t think you fall out of love.”
• Susan Atkins who participated in the murder of Shannon Tate died of brain cancer at 61 in 2009
• Leslie Van Houten who murdered Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, was released after nearly fifty years in July of 2023
• Charles Tex Watson and Patricia Krenwinkel who both participated in the murders of Shannon Tate and the LaBiancas are both still incarcerated. 
• Bobby Beausoleil who murdered Gary Hinman, is still incarcerated
• Linda Kasabian turned herself in December 1969 and received immunity after becoming a lead witness in the trials against Manson and his followers. She died on January 21, 2023, at age 73. 
• Steve Grogan, who murdered Donald Shea, was originally sentenced to death. The presiding judge reduced the sentence to life imprisonment because he felt that Grogan was too intellectually inept and high on drugs to have planned the murder. Grogan received parole in 1985, after showing the police where Donald Shea’s remains were located. He is now 71 years old and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. He plays music with several different bands. 
• Bruce Davis was present during the murder of Gary Hineman and helped in the murder of Donald Shea. He turned himself into the authorities in 1970. He became a preacher in prison. He is serving a life sentence and has been denied parole. The most recent parole board said he lacks empathy. 

Music Credits:   List the artist and song name

• Sharon Tate, The Sound of Animals Fighting 

Or 

• Helter Skelter, The Beatles