Charles Manson is a name you may have recently heard, as he died only in November of last year. Manson became prominent in the 1960s, as the leader of the "Manson family" cult that was responsible for killing pregnant actress Sharon Tate and several others. As a result of his crimes, Manson was sentenced to death in 1971 but was then sentenced to life in prison. The Manson Family was a "commune" that was established in the 1960s, as Manson became a "guru" in San Francisco's Haight Ashbury during the 1967 "Summer of Love" and the emergence of the counterculture movement. A said "scientologist", Manson recruited mainly women into his group, and taught them ideologies which implied that he was Christ, and that "they were the reincarnation of the original Christians". The group numbers varied at different times, yet many of them supported and enjoyed the "Manson Family" lifestyle which included frequent LSD and mushroom use. In 1968, the Family moved to an unoccupied ranch- where the beginning of Manson's "Helter Skelter" fanaticism began.
In the late 1960s, when the Beatles "White Album" was released, Manson became obsessed with the boy band. Indeed, when talking to the rest of his family members, he emphasized that the Beatles were the "soul", and that "he could surpass the group in fame". In terms of what "Helter Skelter" is, it was originally a Beatles song, but Manson interpreted the term as "an apocalyptic war arising from racial tensions between blacks and whites."Although Manson's exact interpretations of the Beatles lyrics are extensive, he basically twisted up their meanings so that he entwined both religion and psychedelics in a highly misinterpreted way. He told the Family that the blacks would rise up and rebel against whites- a prediction he stated that he had made, but the Beatles had as well. Awkwardly and insanely enough, Manson also claimed that the Beatles "White Album" was a code for the Manson Family to follow to "preserve the worthy" from the upcoming "race war". After moving from the desert ranch to a home in Canoga Park (a yellow home which was referred to as the "Yellow Submarine"), Manson decided that the Family was to make a musical album which would somehow trigger the apocalypse to begin. Talk about an extreme Beatles fan...
Although Manson and the Family committed several other murders before the murder of Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger, Steven Parent, and Wojciech Frykowski, the death of Sharon Tate was one of the most publicized crimes of that time. Why this home in particular? Manson was snubbed by the previous renter of the home, as he never showed up to help Manson finish his record. On August 8th, 1969, Manson ordered Tex Watson to kill everyone within the home at Cielo Drive, Los Angeles. Telling Watson, Susan Atkins, Linda Kasabian and Patricia Krenwinkel to go to the house and "totally destroy everyone in it, as gruesome as you can". Actress Sharon Tate, who was 8 months pregnant, was brutally stabbed 16 times. Folger was stabbed 28 times, and Frykowski a total of 51 times. Not only had Manson told his followers to kill everyone in the home, but told the women to "leave a sign...something witchy". As a result, using a bloodied towel, Susan Atkins wrote "PIGs" on the front of the house using Sharon's blood. But the Family was not done yet, the next night they killed Leno and Rosemary Bianca. Manson was annoyed at how panicked the victims at Cielo Drive were, so he wanted to show his followers how to correctly execute a mass murder. Using a bayonet, Leno was stabbed 12 times, and the word "WAR" was literally carved into his stomach. Rosemary was stabbed 41 times; before the Family left, they wrote "Helter Skelter" on the refrigerator. After extensive searching, Manson and his family members were found and arrested. Charles Manson was denied parole 12 times, and has shown zero "remorse for the murders".
Manson's will go out as one of the most sadistic, yet charismatic 5'2" criminal in all of American history. Said to be "off the charts-evil", it was his crimes, as well as the crimes of his Family that led to the end of the decade of Love. The Helter Skelter/psychedelic influence on the Manson family was often used as justification of why NOT to use drugs. Although the Manson family was looking and living like a normal group of "hippies", their actions made it clear that hippies were also totally capable to commit violent crimes. The countercultural movement was hurt by these "rogue Manson-ite hippies", changing the campaign and its message in the coming years.
Pictures:
1) Charles Manson
2) "PIGs" written on Tate home
3) Manson Family (note: mainly female)
4) "Healter Skelter" written on LaBianca's fridge
5)Beatles White Album: Helter Skelter
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manson_Family
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tate_murders
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/08/10/california.manson.murders/index.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manson_Family#Helter_Skelter
https://www.cnn.com/2013/09/30/us/manson-family-murders-fast-facts/index.html
https://www.biography.com/people/charles-manson-9397912
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/11/20/brutally-killed-by-charles-mansons-followers-sharon-tate-became-the-face-of-victims-rights/?utm_term=.1c800752fdcf
Whoa. That's pretty crazy. I had heard of Charles Manson, but until this post, I didn't actually know what he did. What's even weirder is that he's not the only overzealous Beatles fan who interpreted popular culture as a sign he should kill someone: Mark David Chapman assassinated John Lennon on December 8, 1980. Though the Beatles' music was innocent enough at the start of their career, their later work was more cryptic and likely written while they were on drugs. Maybe the combination of this and their listeners doing drugs too made them read way too much into the music? Either way, don't do drugs kids.
ReplyDeleteSource: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_John_Lennon
This blog post was really interesting! I had only vaguely heard of Charles Manson, so thank you for writing so in depth about his life. Cults and the use of LSD increased drastically during the 60's. In contrast to Manson's "Family", the Brotherhood of Eternal Love is an LSD using cult that believed the drug helped stop them from being violent and lead them to become better people. Almost 2/3 of the cult was made up of criminals. Like Manson, the cult was heavily religious. Their doctrine included that the use of LSD would "heal and reveal" spiritual matters.
ReplyDeleteFinally, I researched how Manson is still affecting life today, and found that despite dying 3 months ago, his body still has not been buried -- 4 different people are fighting over the rights to it.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/13/us/charles-manson-body/index.html
http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20170112-the-lsd-cult-that-terrified-america
Really good post Anya, I never knew about Charles Manson's obsession with the Beatles, I had learned about the murders in my forensics class but reading about it from this perspective made me see the historical significance as well! I was still curious about how Manson could have been such a messed up person and wanted to see if there was any condition he was actually schizophrenic and psychopathic, didn't really shock me. What was interesting to me however, even though it was kind of expected was that he did have a troubled childhood. As a child his mother ended up in jail multiple times and he had to be raised at his cousins house, frequently for these mass killers there is someone kind of event in their lives that made them develop such disorders.
ReplyDeleteSource: http://www.medicaldaily.com/was-charles-manson-psychopath-or-sociopath-analyzing-murderer-and-cult-leader-407778
Wow, Anya. I've only vaguely heard about Charles Manson - honestly, I heard his name from a documentary playing on the TV at McDonalds while I was eating chicken nuggets. This is really crazy (if not terrifying), especially how he connected his cult to a cherished band like the Beatles. Adding on to Anya S.' comment, it seems like Mark David Chapman was inspired by pop culture to assassinate John Lennon. Yes, Lennon was a Beatle, but what's more interesting is that it wasn't just the fact that Lennon was in a popular band that inspired Chapman - in fact, it was a piece of literature. Catcher in the Rye had great personal significance to Chapman, and he reportedly wished to model his life after its protagonist, Holden Caulfield (even to the extent that he wanted to change his name to Holden Caulfield!). Prior to shooting Lennon, he bought a copy of the novel in which he wrote "This is my statement," signing it "Holden Caulfield" and leaving it for the police to find. Once he had fired, he remained at the scene and appeared to be reading the book when the police arrived and arrested him without incident. It's crazy that pop culture, designed to be entertaining, can be morphed to have fatal consequences.
ReplyDelete