KFI: The first time I saw Charles Manson being led into a courtroom in 1969 at the old Los Angeles Hall of Justice, I was shocked — not because of the mythology that preceded him, but because of just how small he was.
The cult leader, accused of the most notorious murders in decades, arrived amid stories of mystical powers and hypnotic eyes. Now, he was shuffling down a hallway in handcuffs, wearing fringed buckskins, surrounded by deputies.
At just over 5-foot-3, Manson was not much taller than me. His shaggy brown hair hung across his face, and he appeared dazed by the hysteria surrounding him.
Photo crews galloped down the hallway, jockeying so fast to get near him that they knocked a water fountain off the wall, flooding the corridor.
“This is crazy,” I said to another reporter. Little did I know how crazy it would become.
The gruesome murders of actress Sharon Tate and six others had stunned the world — a celebrity case like no other that plunged me into the world of high-profile trials that would become my professional calling. The Manson case shadowed my life for nearly a half-century as I covered parole hearings and anniversaries and saw a new generation become transfixed by the horror.
To this day, the name Manson can make people shudder as they recall the cult leader who ordered the killings of a group of Hollywood’s beautiful people, as well as husband and wife Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, who were slain across town from Tate’s elegant home.
The trial of Manson and three female followers lasted from late 1969 into 1971, a surreal spectacle punctuated with grotesque images of death, bloody scrawlings and tales of a “family” of disaffected youths living in a backwater commune.
The aura of celebrity permeated the case. Tate’s husband was the movie director Roman Polanski, and Manson had hung out on the fringes of the music business.
The focus was squarely on “Charlie” and the extraordinary power he exerted over his followers, leading them into a world of sex, drugs, rock ‘n’ roll and, ultimately, murder. read more
I don’t think Manson physically killed anyone.
Yes he did, they found the bodies on the ranch.
It’s interesting to realize that Chuckles has 2 things in common with Tom Cruise – their height and that both were (are) in cults.
Remember Rolling Stone’s fawning coverage of Manson, portraying him as a sort of rock and roll hero? They continue that sort of thing today with coverage of noted murderous scumbags like Dzhokar Tsarnev on their cover. The left is Charlie Manson.
Newsweek magazine posted this tweet yesterday https://twitter.com/newsweek/status/932717710756208640
-How murderer Charles Manson and President Donald Trump used similar language to gain followers bit.ly/2AYw9ib
Tex was there both nights, he was tried separately.
Manson participated in the murders of Shorty Shea and Gary Hinman . he also shot drug dealer “Lotsapoppa’ Crowe, but he survived. conspiracy to commit murder does carry the same penalty as having actually carried out the murder. supposedly there were other murders, cops believe there were.
“I am Manson.”
Icon of the Left.
Chuckie effectively put the last nail in the coffin of rampant Hippyism.
Not till billy boy Ayres is dead and his fugly wife Bernadine Dohrn and a lot of the baby boomers who believed in all that shit back then and still do today, then it will be over. And also when the last progressive FM radio station finally goes of the air permanently.
I don’t see any difference in manson and moslim jihad. Both cults. Both savage. Both supported by the left.
The local news did 10 mins on manson and NONE on the murdered Border Patrol Agent.