Inside Charles Manson's crazed cult | 60 Minutes Australia

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Benedict Canyon high above Los Angeles and standing out amongst all others this palatial residence is famously home to the stands it's also infamous for one of America's most iconic crimes the shocking scene as mass murder on the orders of crazed cult leader Charles Manson you do exactly what I said it may have been fifty years ago but time does nothing to ease the horror whatever it's necessary to do do it five people were floated here in the dead of the night including the stunning and heavily pregnant Hollywood actress Sharon Tate can I ask you how keenly do you Miss shown today fifty years on I would love to have her here Sharon was my big sister do I miss her yes would I like her here yes do I have this pain every day no I don't but it's not far from the surface do I want revenge on these people no there is no such thing but nor does Deborah Tate believe the surviving Manson family killers should ever be allowed to go free right now that is a very real possibility for murderer Leslie Van Houten her parole will be either permitted or denied within weeks I don't think that people that were condemned to death that are undoubtedly guilty of the most heinous crimes in American history should be let out simply because they're 60 years old I believe an eye for an eye a tooth for tooth that's why I believe you don't believe that after 50 years there's hope for rehabilitation no room for forgiveness I don't believe in parole for murderers no no I don't believe in that do you look back on that very fateful day and wish you've never taken the call for Bob Burbridge one of the first cops on the scene the memory of those killings on the 9th of August 1969 will never be erased how would you describe what you saw oh it was horrific I mean yeah it was one of the worst things I've ever seen I've never seen that many dead bodies in one place before and it was it was it was horrible it was just horrible there were young people there innocent people were slaughtered by knifes and guns and it was awful they loved all the pain that you've caused people all 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 the rantings of a madman Charles Manson in full flight fall make strong good pain understand pain not bad pains not bad it's good but somehow Manson made sense to the disaffected and impressionable he collected them mainly young women tells us to be beautiful let us be beautiful and as their self declared Messiah set up a commune at an old ranch just half an hour north of Los Angeles to outsiders and filmmakers Manson's Ranch was what the 60s was all about free love and plenty of LSD but it would soon turn much darker his biggest talent if you will an evil talent was to prey on the very very young and vulnerable some of his followers were as young as 12 years old journalist Linda Deutsch he's a longtime observer of Charles Manson and the girls who were drawn to him the people who followed Manson were as he said he said they these are your children and they were they were children from ordinary families who got sucked into a cult he could say the most inane things and they would think that it was it was gospel so that were young and they were damaged were they insane no I don't think so I don't think they were insane I think they were drug addled at that point Manson's Gospel soon became deranged and deadly money to die for Charlie he's ready to die for me he has died for me he wanted to kick start a race war his plan was to commit mass murder but make it look like it was done by black militants to be ready right now thank you right now a wannabe musician Manson thought the Beatles song helter skelter was an anthem to Armageddon a message to him to get things started Charlie was a piece of work I'll tell you he was out there it was the 9th of August 1969 the night Charles Manson turned his unthinkable plan into action when somebody needs to be killed there's no wrong you do it and then you move on aiming to create panic Manson chose the celebrity home of Sharon Tate and her movie director husband Roman Polanski Sharon had taught Billy Polanski was away that night unaware of what was to come Sharon was entertaining friends what do you think those last moments were like oh he must have been terrifying for these people you know they were just slaughtered it was late and Manson sent a posse of devotees from his ranch into the heart of Los Angeles the blood the knife wounds these people took there wasn't one or two snot knife ruins there was a lot we were just completely stabbed and stabbed and stabbed and stabbed nothing compares to it to that murder scene [Music] Manson ordered his longtime left tenant Tex Watson and two of his lovers Susan Atkins and Patricia KRENWINKEL to break into the Tate Polanski home and kill whoever they found it was a man down call at 1 zero zero five zero Cielo Drive 25 and just three and a half years in the job bob Burbridge was on call that morning six minutes later he was at the Tate house joining other bewildered officers on the scene of unimaginable mayhem so I walked in and I came upon a car that was parked kind of askew in the driveway and I looked into the car and there was a dead body in the car they looked out on the lawn about 75 feet away on the front lawn there were two more bodies we systematically searched the house room by room closet under beds bedrooms hallways and then we looked into the living room and we saw two more dead bodies one was with this beautiful lady laying there in her bra and underwear full-term pregnant and with a rope wrapped around her neck going around a beam in the ceiling in the living room oh man that's hard so clear in my mind you know it's hard never it bothers me what Bob didn't know is he looked at the slain Sharon Tate was that her stabbing murder would become one of the biggest news stories of all these killings just stunned America and the world this was a worldwide story they involved everything that we were thinking of then celebrities hippies drugs Lynda Deutsch was a young reporter of filing for Associated Press at the time of the Manson killings she had the first story on the murders and followed the case through to trial it's been said that on the 9th of August 1969 the night of the murder of Sharon Tate and her friends that the 60s stopped the 60s as we knew them the time of flower power and happiness and joy and love and all of that was over it was now a time of fear great fear the Los Angeles where this happened was in terror sometimes I feel I'm scared to live living is what scares me dying behind bars 12 years into his life sentence and this was Charles Manson's first ever interview where I had magical powers and now I told everybody at Apple as it's a trap I said where's my magical powers he used it as an opportunity to rant not to confess to some of America's most heinous murders I knew I wasn't gonna go with a gas chamber because I hadn't done anything wrong in the summer of 1969 members of the Manson family went on a 48-hour killing spree in Los Angeles on the first night following his direct orders three of Manson's most faithful followers broke into the residents of Hollywood actress Sharon Tate and mercilessly slaughtered her and four others the murders were gruesome horrible the most horrible we had heard of at that point the very next night the Manson Family struck again this time Charles Manson took a far more direct role tying up the residents of this property Leno and rosemary LaBianca were telling them they would not be hurt just robbed then he set his disciples on them and left those disciples strangled and stabbed the couple rosemary 41 times before they carved the word war in tulino stomach and used his blood to write helter skelter on the fridge door and I said oh my god it has happened again and the lobby aqus had been killed it was unbelievable incomprehensible and no one had even suspected that women were involved having broken the first story on the tape murders Associated Press journalist Linda Deutsch was again on reporting duty when the Manson family murdered the lobby anchors the reaction was widespread terror you had a city that was in lockdown people were buying alarm systems for their houses people carried guns they were sure that they were targets and then when the lobby ACOs were killed that sort of cemented the idea that there were mad killers on the loose after killing Sharon Tate and her friends Manson had called on Tex Watson and Patricia KRENWINKEL to murder again but this time completing the terror triumvirate was Leslie Van Houten how Manson could get these women to so savagely kill for him remains one of the great fascinations of this tragedy they were mostly disaffected or they had been involved in drugs and they were ripe for the picking he just plucked them off a tree and he turned them into killers what do you think of with him oh I like them yeah they're nice they're put together well and everything and they're soft it's funny yeah they're nice long they keep the mouth 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 do what she's supposed to do sure 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 about all 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 takes a fairy tale 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 did what they did and then 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 in what I'm playing for my life you working for money hmm hi rich your words this morning were just what I needed to hear Thank You Leslie Van Houten he's about to go before the parole board for a record 22nd time I want you to know that we're in this together I'm feeling good and hope to be able to phone at some point so as she writes from prison now is a critical moment and lawyer Rich Pfeiffer is she going to be nervous tomorrow of course her life is on on the line tomorrow or she knows that the second longest-serving female prisoner in California Leslie has been behind bars for nearly 50 years for her role in the Manson murders twice before the parole board has granted Leslie parole only to have her bid for freedom denied by the governor at the 11th hour I think Leslie's gonna get out why should Leslie be given parole well she's not a current unreasonable risks of Public Safety which is the legal standard but way more than that is she was a young person didn't doctrine Aidid into a cult long before the world knew about cults then that there was no such thing as death Leslie was 19 at the time and she was one of three devotees sent out by Manson to kill it was the second night of Manson's murder spree and their target was lino and rosemary LaBianca when she went into the house her intention was to kill the floppy ancas and she owns up to that and that was her part of being accepted by Manson she wanted to be accepted by Manson do you believe that at that time she completely lost her will if she lost the ability to know what was right and wrong I I think she knew what was right and wrong to some degree she absolutely believed that Charles Manson was Jesus Christ that's what they were taught that's what they were drilled in over and over again when does Jesus tell his followers that they should go and viciously murder people this is what they believed and she acknowledges that today that you know that belief was skewed and everything but at the time that's what she believed and she wasn't alone the family's blind faith in Charles Manson persisted through their infamous court case even with their own lives now in the balance [Music] they're cheeriness and singing bolide what they faced but in January 1971 Leslie Van Houten and Patricia KRENWINKEL were convicted as multiple counts of murder as was Susan Atkins who repeatedly and fatally stabbed Hollywood star Sharon Tate all were sentenced to death which was later commuted to life in jail so this is where Charles Manson was arraigned this is where the trials were held this is where it was this is the place reporting from the court case Linda Deutsch was witness to history and a circus like none had seen before with Charles Manson also on trial for the seven horrendous murders when he came out of the holding cell into the hallway he looked like a scared animal and he was not looking very threatening he just looked like a little guy in a buckskin outfit not the Messiah no even in custody Manson was controlling his women instructing them to disrupt every step of the court process as for his own behavior Manson attempted to hypnotize witnesses including former police officer Bob Burbridge and there was a craziest leave because I was sitting there justifying against him and he said they said don't look at him and I couldn't help but look at him because he was giving me a google eyes you know he's going like this and I I almost started laughing at him you know he's just a little weaselly guy at the peak of his orchestrated bedlam Manson tried to attack the judge declaring he should have his head cut off Manson was captured by the bailiff the moment captured by the court artist he talked a good game made himself totally sympathetic you know didn't admit that he did anything did you feel any sympathy for him no did you find him charismatic no did you think he was crazy oh yeah he was insane he was malignantly insane it was quite a time Sharon Tate's younger sister Deborah was just a teenager when she confronted the madman who had ripped her life apart when you first came face to face with members of the Manson Family what was that like what did you see what did you feel I was 16 years old and Charlie was in the county jail as were most of the members in the LA County Jail I had myself smuggled in and looked into his eyes and there was a lack of emotion he didn't say a word I didn't say a word but I saw what I saw you've said in the past that you thought you looked into the eyes of evil I did absolutely I'm still looking into the eyes of evil I'm an outlaw and I go so far and that's all you know Deborah also reveals that Manson wrote letters to her from jail and those basically state that he's an outlaw and he is what he is but he knows letters that he wrote to you did he say he was sorry no did he say that he did it no he said he's an outlaw and he lives by ad the outlaw rule which is he's not going to volunteer information Debra Tate has made it her lifetime mission to keep the Manson murderers behind bars and so far she's done so Charles Manson died in prison in 2017 Susan Atkins in 2009 still in prison and still hoping for freedom is Tex Watson as is Patricia KRENWINKEL as for Leslie Van Houten her bid for parole was granted and within weeks she could be the first Manson family murderer set free it's a decision Debra is fighting seeking the governor to overturn the parole board's recommendation I'm talking about people's lives here is it worth taking a chance on I happen to say no and I say that because I sit in the room and I can feel their souls 50 years maybe too soon to forgive certainly too soon to forget and having so securely imprinted itself into the annals of time the Manson Family killing spree is a crime that will most likely continue to confound and horrify for the next 50 years I think that the Manson case will always be if nothing else a footnote to the 60s that people will say and while in the 60s Martin Luther King was assassinated Bobby Kennedy was assassinated hippies were roaming San Francisco the Vietnam War was raging and in Los Angeles on one horrible weekend a man named Manson ordered his followers to kill all these people hello I'm Tara Brown 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 exclusive 60 minutes content

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Channel: 60 Minutes Australia

Views: 425,826

Rating: 4.8024449 out of 5

Keywords: 60 Minutes, 60 Minutes Australia, Liz Hayes, Charles Wooley, Tara Brown, Liam Bartlett, Allison Langdon, Ray Martin, Jana Wendt, Jennifer Byrne, Richard Carleton, Peter Harvey, George Negus, Ian Leslie, Gerald Stone, Sarah Abo, charles manson, sharon tate, roman polanski, manson murders, cult, hollywood, murder, crime, investigation

Id: EWbzE0aZIvY

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Length: 22min 17sec (1337 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 01 2019

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