Charles Manson's first prison interview | 60 Minutes Australia

Manson has been serving his time at this prison in Vacaville California isolated from his fellow inmates Manson's first television interviews since the murders begins badly Manson refuses to sit in the chair provided he says he's not going to look up to anyone but finally Tom Snyder of the National Broadcasting Company asks his first question you know you were sent to the gas chamber and then they modified the death penalty were you happy when that was done was I happy when what was done when you found out that you weren't going to the gas chamber you talking about dying now it gets me nervous why did you have any thoughts about something would you want to go anywhere were you happy when you found out you weren't gonna go to the gas chamber Charles oh I knew I wasn't gonna go with a gas chamber because I hadn't done anything wrong you're scared to die sometimes I feel I'm scared to live living is what scares me dying is easy how long have I been in jail 34 years 34 years so out of 47 you've been here 34 I've been in jail a prison a long time all my life I was raised up in here so I understand jail so I understand myself and I can deal with that I set my cell and I do my number like a convict does his number but there's different colors on different people's backs doing different things it's a different world I love the world I live in - just like Regan loves the world he lives in you love the world you live in hmm most assuredly it's me you love all the pain that you've caused people oh oh I don't know pain I don't know pain I have no depth of pain I have no depth of suffering I don't know ridicule I don't know all the bad things I haven't been punished by you all my life since I was ten years old I've been in every reform school you got across the country and used to lay down have to get a swift and I couldn't walk tell me about to paint and that's our fault that's all no people know it fault make strong good pain understand pain not bad pains not bad it's good it teaches you things it teaches you things like when you put your hand in fire oh you know not to do that again yeah yeah I understand that written accounts indicate that you told the authorities don't let me out I can't cope with the outside world you have a recollection of that and I may get a desperate plea out of something man there's no desperate plea out of it I say I don't know maniacs outside let me back in I didn't use the word desperate that's your work yeah well your your inflection and your voice tones were implications there well you use the word maniacs on the outside how are you different from the maniacs on the outside and why do you call them maniacs because you know something they think you are one yeah it would reflect if you hold a negative up to the light you don't see the light you just see the negative so I'm a reflection of your negative there's no doubt about that and I can handle that also I've been Hamlin Dana I don't know have you well I've been up and down these damn hallways you know now these nut wards for the last ten years you think you could follow that act I'm playing for my life are you working for money when you say you're playing for your life am I to assume that you think that some day you're gonna get out of here get out of here hmm get out of here where would I go see what would you do if you got out of here Gotti what if they said they said to you tomorrow morning Charles hey listen you're free you go wherever you want to go do whatever you want to do what would you do I'll probably go out and sit down the question is should Manson ever go free it's ten years now since he and his three female accomplices virtually robots under his control were convicted of murder on August the 9th 1969 they murdered actress Sharon Tate and four other people in Los Angeles the following night there were two more victims lino and rosemary LaBianca in court Manson was also charged with two more mutilation murders Ranch Hand Donald Shea was beheaded a musician Gary Hyneman had his ear cut off according to some accounts Manson and his family may have been responsible for as many as 35 killings if you got out of here there are a lot of people who think you'd go start killing people again again before you guys'd misinformed I hadn't killed anyone I didn't break the law judge knew that but people didn't want to hear it the judge knew it he washed his hands he said I don't know it but what can I do people want dead George never said yeah that's what oldest is no judge didn't say that he got off and shook the hands didn't you're so white and pure judge didn't say you were innocent are you innocent innocent of what no that's what I'm saying none of us are innocent yeah just because you're convicted in a courtroom doesn't mean you're guilty of something what does mean you're guilty well you know you're guilty what about shave what about him well what about it we got killed well the word is you killed him this where it is that you're an old woman where it is you have Turkey and sky where it is I don't know what word yes somebody else tell you that I didn't tell you did you kill Shay hell no did you cut the human 0 hell yes why did how did that feel when you cut his ear off what did it feel like yeah well I had done what he said for about 20 years I've done everything he told me to do and I got to thinking now why don't this guy do something I tell him to do and he said no I said well how comes I'm always doing what you tell me to do but then you never do what I say too and he said well blah blah blah so I said now you do what I say and he said no I said you do exactly what I say and he said no I'm telling you I'm not asking you I'm telling you you do exactly what I said and that's about the extent of it all it's all called all that hocus-pocus stuff that you guys are playing I don't know nothing you know nothing about something called helter skelter tell me Charles I don't know it's a fairy it's worse than a fairy it's a fairytale it's it's it's a comedy it's a comedy tragedy the body of Sharon Tate is make-believe that's me that's make-believe that's make-believe to the people that went in there and did what they did and who are those people you know yeah but you know who they were sure I know who they were with you at the spawn ranch they were part of this thing called if not the Manson Family or the Manson culty the Manson Ranch call it was so then what you dealt the hand down in LA you and that press you dealt the hand you put me on Life magazine had me convicted before I walked in the courtroom you had what people wanted to buy when they wanted to buy it they didn't give a damn - had to convict a district attorney that had convicted the whole building to get that dollar bill going now they had big bucks going there and made 27 million thousand hundred billion I'm bombing ten fifteen dollars from my friend here here's another newspaper account that you can now speak to since you haven't done it before that on the night following the killings at the house on Cielo Drive in Los Angeles you accompanied four people to a home occupied by mr. and mrs. Leow LaBianca yeah that you went inside that house and you tied them up and assured them that they were not going to be hurt but she went back outside and sent Kassabian and KRENWINKEL and Watson and napkins inside the house to kill him true or false did you do that Cheers getting hot huh did you do that did I kill anyone no did you go in and tie up the lobby on because that a very simple question that night August 10th 1969 that night August attend did you in 69 white Duquette white dodge it why not answer yes or no once and for all put it behind you did I kill anyone did you tie up the lobby ancas Atkins testified you did that's what Susie said that's what she said and you remember you were in the courtroom when she said it she's written three books and these times she said something different mm-hm each time did you tie him up did I mm-hm well we came down from a burning and let's stay in Los Angeles August 10 1969 there was a hole in the wall gang there why don't you want to talk about it Charles why don't you want cause I'm an outlaw and I go so far and that's all you know and if you did like asking Jesse James and if you can intend and and if as others have written and as others have testified in as the media has reported you did that yeah and you sent your friends back in to do the deed aren't you know Howard my friends back in to do the terrible deed doesn't know what your deed did we have the castle there with the vampires and the Frankenstein and the bugs and lizards dying in the deserts do we have the water that's dying and the whales are being killed and the seals oh here we go again lay it off on somebody else like I went to all the other ones I'm in the world all by myself yeah on this one you are yeah yeah who's okay if that's the way you see it for you you've never talked about this before but I'm gonna make it up try it one more time no now you can see you look at a pistol on you no sir they wouldn't let me in here if I had a pistol you know that as well as I do so why even ask the question okay well I just thought you might not like what I don't want to do something about it I don't much care for what you've done yeah a lot of people don't how do you feel about that well we don't think you're a monster Charles yeah they think you're a monster because you reflect this news media on me cult leader I never had long hair before I got busted I never had a beard before I got busted I went to shaving the guys know you can't shave yeah I need a razor shaves no you can't save us let me get a haircut it's not what I want you change your appearance they said I had a great family and I was the following and leaders and all that it wasn't follows them they just bunch of kids out the ranch playing to me planet what playing at living do you miss women certainly my goodness yeah damn right yeah what do you think of with them oh I like them yeah they're nice they're put together well and everything and they're soft and spicy yeah they're nice long they keep their mouths shut and do what they're supposed to do why do you say that because that's what a one was supposed to do keep her mouth shut and do what she's supposed to do it sure and besides the son that you had in your marriage you've got what four other children somewhere I don't think I've been responsible for as much as you people want to lay on me all right somewhere out there somewhere there's at least one son that we know if it's your child who's probably about 25 or 26 years old you talk to that kid what you gonna say to him catch it on your own boy trains hard the roads rough that's it that's all I knew it's all anyone ever told me all right and you want to hear something yeah he'll do it better than me after what whatever he does you did a little better kids do don't they sometimes yeah that's what makes her such a cast they always seem to get through how are you in school I hear that you weren't too good but maybe I heard it depends on which school I did very well reform school yeah I did good in in every place that I was ever told to do good in I've been an outlaw ever since I was born I went to reform school when I was about 10 and I learned to box and cry and I learned to do all the things that you're doing reform school then I went to I escaped there a bunch of times and I went to prison I learned everything that you do in prison and I talked to all the guys and asked him everything they knew and they told me all the things they knew and then I went to the end of it and then though old man would be ready to die and he and say well son sincerity is the best gimmick remember that I said I be sincere that's that'll win it because that's it sincerity and honesty said we'll do it I'll check him every time I said well sincere and honesty I never tried that I tried everything else but maybe I'll try sincere in honesty so then I looked in the book and says the wages of sin is death now I'm thinking well I don't want to die so maybe I have been sinful here maybe I am wrong maybe I'd take a look at my life and say well I'm gonna change it start all over you know and I know I go to God and I say hey man you're gonna forgive me any gonna save you what do you do you forgive you I mean would you come to me for forgive yourself man we bother me how do you feel about spending the rest of your life in prison well we're all our own prisons we each our own wardens and we do our own times we used to get stuck in our own little trips and we kind of judge ourselves the way we do you know I can't judge nobody else the best thing I could do is try to judge myself and live with that let's assume that one day you were paroled let's just on the road let's just make believe you ever think you will be yeah well I never been paroled before I went up to the board then they never would they said I was incorrigible and that not only was that incorrigible but that I'd never grow up and I kind of agreed with him if you got out tomorrow do you have any scores to settle on the outside scores you know I have any scores out there and we're making believe right well not to you buddy well I don't rightly know I'm stupid to the point where I'm not really sure believe it or not there are a lot of people on the outside that think about the possibility of you coming out of here and they're genuinely scared oh boy I might just just make dust everything terrible one little guy terrible flu or how insecure are we as human beings put all our fear on one little guy you're afraid with any man you might break all the toys why do you say it little guy because I'm not the guy you trying to make out of me That's not me I don't know what my way is they're making telling me I got all these things I read the other day where I had magical powers and now I told everybody at Apple I said zap zap zap I said where's my magical powers to have man you can't read you can't believe what you're eating in the press I can get on magical powers mystical trips and all that kind of crap yeah it's kind of silly yeah I'm getting witches and devils and no one guy come up said I I heard you said you were Jesus I said no man I ain't said that he said I'm glad he said I'm damn glad I said why he said I know you ain't him I said how do you know he said cuz I am I said ok but I mean you know I've been in the network for 10 years so you can't expect me to to rationally take this thing serious hello I'm Liz Hayes thanks for watching to keep up with the latest from 60 minutes Australia make sure you subscribe to our channel you can also download the 9 now app for full episodes and other exclusives 60 minutes content

Channel: 60 Minutes Australia

Views: 7,335,326

Keywords: 60 Minutes, 60 Minutes Australia, Liz Hayes, Charles Wooley, Tara Brown, Liam Bartlett, Allison Langdon, Tom Steinfort, Ellen Fanning, Peter Overton, Karl Stefanovic, Ray Martin, Peter Stefanovic, Jana Wendt, Jeff McMullen, Jennifer Byrne, Mike Munro, Richard Carleton, Tracey Curro, Paul Barry, Peter Harvey, Michael Usher, Ross Coulthart, George Negus, Ian Leslie, Gerald Stone, Sarah Abo, Charles Manson, cult, Sharon Tate, manson murders, Manson family

Id: JbW0agGFv88

Length: 17min 23sec (1043 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 30 2019