(helicopter chuff) - [Narrator] What is up B-roll Crew? The story we have for you today is one to surely give you nightmares and even have you rethinking the people with whom you spend your time especially those who
you think you can trust. We are going to look into
the horrific realities of the infamous story of Charles Manson and some of the lesser known conspiracies surrounding this case. If you enjoy true crime,
mysteries and true stories be sure to hit the like
button and subscribe. Now let's get into it. (stereo music) In early 1934, 16-year-old Kathleen Maddox hit a crossroads in her life when she realized that she was pregnant with a child from a man by the name of Colonel
Walker Henderson Scott Sr who she had been seen for
only a short amount of time. Despite the sound of his name Colonel had no affiliation
with the military though he did have Kathleen convinced that he had been called
away on army business as soon as he found out that
he was going to be a father. Following Colonel's inevitable abandonment Kathleen found herself
in a new relationship with a man named William Eugene Manson. Despite sticking around for her pregnancy he still wasn't an appropriate partner as he was often prone to alcoholism they were married in August, 1934. Three months later, on November 12th 1934 in Cincinnati, Ohio Kathleen gave birth to a baby boy who she named No Name Maddox before eventually calling
him Charles Milles Maddox Within a few weeks of his birth. By April of 1937 William divorced Kathleen after an alleged gross neglect of duty when taking care of Charles. Upon their divorce Charles took
William's last name Manson, thus the infamous Charles
Manson received the name that would end up going down in history but for all the wrong reasons. Charles' childhood was
tumultuous to say the least. A few years after his parents' divorce Charles' mother was arrested
for both assault and robbery and ended up in prison for five years. Charles did not cope well with
his mother's imprisonment. When Kathleen was finally
released on parole in 1942 Charles was a visibly different child. It appeared to his aunt and uncle whom he lived with during
his mother's sentence that Charles was the
happiest he had ever been when he was finally
reunited with his mother. Unfortunately for Charles, she was incapable of keeping
herself out of trouble for very long and had an insatiable desire to commit crime. Just months after having
moved herself and Charles to Charleston, West Virginia. Kathleen was inevitably
arrested for grand larceny though she was never
convicted for the crime Kathleen nonetheless found
herself in a bad place once more. She had continually allowed
for Charles to skip school and maintained her old drinking habits nearly every evening without fail. Eventually Charles and his
mother ended up moving again. This time to Indianapolis
where his mother remarried and Charles ended up committing
his first series of crimes. But thing about Charles
Manson, even as a boy, was that once he started something
he could never ever stop. When Charles was only nine-years-old he committed his first act of arson by literally single-handedly burning down his elementary school. You see, Charles was a troubled kid who desperately wanted to be loved and accepted by his mother. Unfortunately for Charles Kathleen's mind was almost always somewhere else. As she seemed to focus on
drinking, men and survival. By the age of 13 Charles was forced to attend the Gibault School for Boys
in Terre Haute, Indiana. As was evident to anyone who
had known Charles at the time the last thing he wanted was
to be away from his mother as such he frequently ran away from the Gibault School for Boys and often wound up on the streets and his Trek to reach his
mother's home by foot. However, every time he managed
to reunite with his mother she would send him
straight back to the school for male delinquents. With each escape from the school grounds, Charles' antics became
more and more risky. He slowly began robbing stores and even committing petty theft while working for Western Union
to make a little extra cash. After months of getting away
with these smaller robberies Charles was eventually caught
for the first time in 1949. Instead of a proper sentence a judge took sympathy on young Charles and sent him to a juvenile facility in Omaha, Nebraska
called Boys Town instead. After all it did not look like Charles was a bad kid necessarily. Just a boy who saw himself as an outcast against the rest of the world,
including his own mother. Of course Charles could
not seem to control himself when it came to committing crime. And instead of becoming reformed he made friends who had
the same values as his own and continue to steal what he could in hopes of getting away with it. Each time Charles was caught and arrested he was sent to new establishment
for delinquent boys in hopes that the rules
and regulations there could help turn him into a better man. Ultimately, Charles' time spent
at the Indiana Boy's School proved to be the worst situation
he had experienced yet. At the school other students
would allegedly abused Charles forcing him to come up with a
special form of self-defense he dubbed the insane game. When an attack seemed eminent,
he would flail his arms about and scream incoherent phrases and sounds trying to scare his attackers away by making them think that
he was not of sound mind and perhaps even dangerous. For the most part this method worked for
Charles to protect himself. However, he was still completely miserable while locked within the walls
of the Indiana boy's school. While there Charles managed to escape on 18 different occasions. On his final escape attempt Charles was arrested
having stolen a vehicle on his way across state lines. As this was a federal
crime, he was sent to Washington, D.C.'s National
Training School for Boys. The caseworker aiding Charles transfer had hoped that this
transition would be enough for Charles to properly shape
up before he became an adult. As part of his entry to the facility. Officials noted that Charles
was almost entirely illiterate though his IQ was 109
making him undoubtedly smart yet very reckless and often
dangerous combination. Manson was in and out of prison
from October 1951 to 1967 for various crimes such
as more stolen cars, abuse and even pimping out underage
girls for extra cash. Nearly every time he was close to parole something inside of Charles seemed to snap making him lash out in ways that ended up negatively affecting his
predetermined release States. As a result the then
32-year-old Charles Manson had spent more than half of his life in correctional facilities. In fact, on his final release from prison on March 21st, 1967 Charles claimed that prison had
essentially become his home. He even asked for permission
to remain behind bars. He was denied. Perhaps if the authorities
had known the monster he would inevitably become they would have begged
for him to stay in prison. Once Charles was officially a free man something rather peculiar occurred. You see Charles Manson had
something captivating about him that intrigued people something that made people
stop, stare and listen. When he was released from prison, Charles lived mostly
by begging for survival until he met Mary Brunner, a library assistant at Berkeley
and he moved in with her. Eventually they shared the
residence with 18 other women and Charles soon found himself
developing a small following of misfits all from the
state of California. He dubbed himself as a guru with most of his followers being women though a few men also found themselves incessantly interested
in the life that Charles had started to lead after
years of imprisonment and abandonment. At the heart Charles' cult like group were individuals by the
names of Charles Tex Watson, Robert Beausoleil, Mary
Brunner, Susan Atkins, Linda Kasabian, Patricia
Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten. Each of Charles followers
was lured in seamlessly by Charles as his personality
led people to trust him and the lifestyle he offered fit perfectly into the 1967 Summer of Love. Charles offered a place
of belonging for many where they practiced free love and indulged and consuming
newly accessible drugs. The group under Charles' leadership refer to themselves as the Manson Family, a title that would end up
plastered on newspapers for years to come. Despite the popular assumption
that Charles was a hippie and that he had created a hippie cult he actually saw himself as distinct from the phenomenon of hippies. Despite the men's long hair
and women's flowing dresses Charles believed that hippies were weak and refuse to call his group hippies. Instead using the name slippies. He chose the name to refer
to how the Manson Family would often slip into the
home homes of the rich and steal from them. Before the inevitable
infamy that would come as a result of the Manson
Family's formation. Charles had wished for
another kind the fame. He was a musician at heart and in prison he had learned
to play the steel guitar from a bank robber named Alvin Karpis. Charles had even met with Dennis Wilson from the Beach Boys on multiple
occasions to discuss music and the potential release of new songs. Unfortunately for Charles,
he often found himself and his musical talent specifically being taken advantage
of by those around him. In fact, the Beach Boys
even ended up stealing an original song written
by Charles himself and both recorded and released it without giving any credit to him. Putting his music woes behind him, Charles focused on his newfound role as a leader of his group
of malleable minds. Something deep within him
had been rather disturbed for years but he never truly had a means of expressing it properly. That is until he had a following. Charles took his time
ensuring that the members of the Manson Family
were loyal, trustworthy and believed the notion that he would always be there for them even when the rest of the world wasn't. Charles had successfully gained the trust of each member individually
and would further solidified their respective relationships with him by providing them with
drugs, emotional support and constant reassurance
that they needed each other. Charles' constant display of manipulation in the form of affection was integral to the tight-knit status of
the Manson Family as a whole. More so than that it was the
key reason why the members of the Manson Family were
willing to do anything for Charles and obey his every wish. They truly believed he
would do anything for them and they should do the same. Throughout the year of 1968 Charles convinced the Manson Family that they were the reincarnations of the original Christians. With this understanding he also told them that the establishment
was a representation of the Romans who had murdered
many of the first Christians. This type of anti-establishment thinking was a prominent
counterculture in the 1960s. He also became fixated with the quote, "Idea of an imminent apocalyptic race war "between America's black population "and the larger white population." In fact, Charles thoroughly believed that during the inevitable race war the black population would spare the lives of only the Manson Family and kill all other white
people across the country. The Manson Family believed
that they were an elect group and would be spared because
they would preserve the worthy during the upcoming apocalypse Charles himself reportedly believed that he would be the leader of the people who remained after the race war as they needed quote, "a
white man to lead them." He would then become the master. During this same time,
Charles became fascinated with the Beatles song, "Helter Skelter." According to former Manson
follower, Catherine Share, he believed that, "The Beatles had tapped into his spirit, "the truth that everything
was gonna come down "and the black man was going to rise." It wasn't the Charlie
listened to the white album and started following what he thought the Beatles were saying. It was the other way around. He thought that the Beatles were talking about what he had been
expounding for years. Every single song on the white album he felt that they were singing about us. The song Helter Skelter, he was interpreting
that to mean the blacks were gonna go up and the
whites were gonna go down. In the months after the
songs initial release Charles and the rest of the Manson Family transformed into a kind of doomsday cult and spent a significant amount of time preparing for an attack of their own one that would alter the course of Charles criminal history for the worse. After the Manson Family's
constant movement from place to place they decided to record their
own album like the Beatles which would serve as the
catalyst to begin Helter Skelter. The name Charles gave to the race war. They believe that their
album would change the world. Simultaneously the Manson
Family prepared their escape from the race war, where they
would wait out the violence including vehicles, maps,
and a Canary yellow home in the Canoga park
known as the Spahn Ranch but nicknamed the Yellow Submarine. The Manson Family had prepared
their race war inciting album and they planned to play it for the famous record
producer Terry Melcher. It seemed that Charles
still hadn't given up his desperate dream to be
recognized in the music industry. Yet melter never showed up
and rudely snubbed them. Many people believe that
Charles must have been a terrible musician, but in fact Neil young actually
compared his music as quote, quite good. Then in May, 1969, Melcher
showed up to Spahn Ranch, where the Manson Family was
living, to hear their music. Charles expected Melcher to record them and he even had a friend accompany
him with a recording unit but he did not make their desired record. Charles vowed never to forget
this experience with Melcher. It was March 23rd, 1969 when Charles alone went to
Terry Melcher's old residence at 10050 Cielo Drive where a movie actress Sharon Tate and her husband Roman
Polanski were living. Tate was eight and a half months pregnant and was missing her husband
who was filming in Europe. Charles was seen by Quentin Tarantino, a photographer who was at
the house to take pictures of Tate before she was
due to leave for Rome. Tarantino watched as
Charles entered the premise and headed towards the main house and when Tarantino asked what he wanted Charles reportedly asked for someone whose name he didn't recognize. Tarantino apparently told Charles that the house belonged to the Polanski's and Tate herself came
to see who was there. Together they watched as
Charles went to the guest house and then left without a word to them. He returned again that evening and asked for Rudolph Altobelli, the property owner who
had rented to Melcher and then the Polanski's and was living in the guest
house where Melcher was. Altobelli asked Charles not
to disturb anyone at the house and so he left but the next day when Altobelli and Tate left for Rome She reportedly asked him
if that creepy looking guy had returned. By June of 1969 Charles
decided it was officially time for Helter Skelter to begin. His plan was to have his followers commit a series of murders and stage them to appear racially motivated. So as to initiate the race war that Charles had assumed to be inevitable. As their first act he
instructed Tex Watson to defraud a black drug dealer whose name was Bernard Lotsapoppa Crowe. The plan went haywire immediately when Crowe threatened to kill
everyone at the Spahn Ranch the Manson Family took
the threat seriously and shot Crowe in Manson's
apartment in Hollywood. He expected there to be retaliation from the black Panthers
though Crowe wasn't a member. To prepare, the Manson
Family began patrolling the Spahn Ranch with armed guards. When no race war began
Charles then set his sights on Gary Allen Hinman a music teacher and PhD student at UCLA who
had become an acquaintance to the Manson Family. On July 25th, 1969 some of the
members were sent by Charles to see Hinman and
convince him to join them and sell his stocks and bonds
to give money to Charles. Hinman refused and was
held hostage for two days. To try to force them to cooperate Charles himself brought a sword and cut Hinman's ear with it. Bobby Beausoleil ended up
stabbing Hinman to death. And one of the other
members used his blood to write on the wall, political piggy with a black Panther paw hoping to stage his death as
a racially motivated attack. Beausoleil was arrested on August 6th when he was seen driving
around in Hinman's car and on searching the police
discovered the murder weapon hidden and the tire wheel. Two days later, Charles
told the Manson Family that, "Now is the time for Helter Skelter." Many people now believe that
it was Beausoleil arrest that sparked the horror that would follow. On August 8th Charles
accompanied for other members of the Manson Family. Tex Watson, Susan Atkins, Linda Kasabian and Patricia Krenwinkel
to come with him back to 10050 Cielo Drive. There Sharon Tate was
visiting with her friends Jay Sebring, Wojciech
Frykowski and Abigail Folger. At the time Charles had
no particular interest in Sharon Tate and her company. Rather, he had picked
the Cielo Drive residence as his intended location to hit because he and Watson had
both been there together once before and were both familiar with
the layout of the home. Just past midnight on that fateful evening Charles and the members
of the Manson Family parked just out in front of the residence and made their way to the home making sure to clip the phone
line to the house as they did. As the group approach
the entrances to the home they noticed a car slowly
approaching their location. So Tex Watson went over
to the vehicle by himself and leveled a 22 caliber revolver at a man named Steven
Parent who had been visiting the properties caretaker in
the guest house that evening. Steven Parents begged for
mercy and to be left alone promising texts Watson that
he would not tell a soul about what he had seen. Despite the young man's efforts Tex ended up slashing the
palm of Steven's hands with a knife and ultimately shot him a total of four times in
the chest and abdomen. (gun shots) With the only potential
witness done away with the rest of the Manson Family helped to push the young
man's car out of sight. The group proceeded to cut the screen off one of the house windows. Watson let himself in first before unlocking an opening
the front door of the home for the rest of the group to enter. Once inside a barely
audible whisper from Watson managed to wake Frykowski who had been fast asleep on
the couch just moments before. Watson managed to detain Frykowski who was then forced to
show the Manson Family where each of the other
inhabitants were in the home. One by one, the Manson Family took each of the innocent
individuals captive in the home. And one by one, they were all killed despite their desperate efforts to escape. Sebring was shot seven times. Frykowski was beaten, struck
in the head 13 times by Watson, stabbed 51 times and shot twice. Folger was stabbed a total of 28 times and Tate was stabbed 16 times resulting in her death and
the death of her unborn child. Upon Charles initial
request for the women to "Leave a sign, something witchy" Atkins used Tate's blood to write pig on the front door of the home. The following evening Charles Manson expressed his
disappointment with the fact that their victims had quite
nearly managed to escape. So Charles decided to
show them how to do it by leading the next attack himself. With no real plan Charles
decided to hit a home that he and the other family
members had seen at a party the year before. With Atkins, Kasabian, Watson, Krenwinkel and Tow, Charles added Leslie Van Houten and Steve Clem Grogan to the mix for that evening's intended murders. Upon arrival at a home located
at 3301 Waverley Drive. Charles approached the house on his own, according to Atkins and Kasabian though Watson later claimed
to have assisted Charles in the beginning stages of the
attack by entering the home through the unlocked
back door with Charles. When the two made it inside. Charles pointed a gun
into the face of a man named Leno LaBianca, who had
been sound asleep on the couch in the living room. Charles tied Leno's hands together while Watson fetched
Leno's wife, Rosemary, from the bedroom. Watson then covered the couple's heads with pillow cases and
bound them with lamp cords. So that Charles had time
to retrieve Krenwinkel and Van Houten from the car
to help murder the couple. Watson stabbed Leno LaBianca with a chrome-plated
bayonet a total of 12 times before carving the word
war into the man's abdomen as per Charles' request. In the bedroom, the women were
instructed to kill Rosemary who they had dragged away from her husband during his murder. In total Rosemary was
stabbed around 41 times. Watson instructed the
women to vandalize the home with a murdered couples
blood while he showered. So Krenwinkel wrote rise and death to pigs on various walls around the house and use Leno's blood
to write Helter Skelter on the couple's refrigerator. At the same time as the
LaBianca's were being murdered Charles then drove the other
three Manson Family members to the home of an actor he knew. As he dropped them off in
front of the apartment complex Charles ordered the family
members to murder the actor and then make their way back to Spahn Ranch by hitchhiking. Member Kasabian said that they try to avoid
the murder altogether by purposefully waking
one of the neighbors and making it impossible for the group to go
through with the attack. It was not long after
the Manson Family murders were committed that
they were swiftly found to be responsible and arrested. Charles Manson himself was
found hiding in a cabinet. On the first day of trial for
the Tate and LaBianca murders Charles Manson arrived in the courtroom with an X carved into his forehead and had a statement issued claiming that he had, "X'd
himself from your world." In the days that followed more and more of Charles'
followers appeared in court with X carved into their
own respective foreheads mirroring their leader. The 1970 Manson Family murder trial was both long and strange as Charles Manson's
unpredictable character made for interesting courtroom etiquette. The primary witness on
trial was Linda Kasabian who had been present for all the attacks during August 8th-9th of 1969. Kasabian gave a detailed
recounting of the murders and went directly into
hiding after she testified. She was not seen again
for the next 40 years. In the midst of the trial, president Richard Nixon
himself stated that he truly believed that Charles Manson was behind each of the murders
either directly or indirectly and should be sentenced to such. As a direct result of
president Nixon's comments, Atkins, Krenwinkel and Van
Houten sat in the courtroom and chanted, "Nixon says we
are guilty. So why go on?" Over and over before
they were escorted out. Charles began growing
increasingly more reckless in the courtroom and on October 5th, 1970 he actually attempted to kill Judge Older. Charles threatened
Older while on the stand before lunging at the judge
with a sharpened pencil intending to stab him in the throat. The defendant's counsel
ultimately rested their case and Atkins, Krenwinkel and Van Houten said that they wanted to testify. However, the three women wanted to testify that Charles Manson was innocent and had no role in the murders whatsoever. Manson himself decided to
testify away from the jury and stated, "These children that come
at you with the knives, "they are your children. "You taught them. "I didn't teach them. "I just tried to help them stand up. "Most of the people at the
ranch that you call the family "were just people that you did not want. "I know this, that in
your hearts and your souls "you are as much responsible
for the Vietnam war "as I am for killing these people. "I can't judge any of you. "I have no malice against
you and no ribbons for you. "But I think that it is high time "that you all start looking at yourselves "and judging the lie that you live in. "My father is the jail house. "My father is your system. "I am only what you made me. "I am only a reflection of you. "You wanna kill me? "Ha! I'm already dead. "Have been all my life. "I've spent 23 years in the
tombs that you've built" Despite their please January 25th, 1971 Charles Manson, Krenwinkel
and Atkins were found guilty of first degree murder in all seven of the Tate
and LaBianca murders. Additionally, the jury
found Van Houten guilty of first degree murder
in the LaBianca murder. Manson showed up to the penalty
reading with a shaved head and his beard fashioned into a fork. He said to the press, "I am the devil, and the
devil always has a bald head." Each of the four defendants
were sentenced to death though the death penalty was
then ruled unconstitutional in California in 1972. Oddly on the same that the death
penalty verdicts were read, the body of Ronald Hughes was found though it hasn't been proven many believe that the Manson Family
also murdered Hughes as he ones stood up
against Charles Manson. Susan Atkins was California's
longest serving female inmate. By the time of her death from brain cancer at age 61 in 2009. Patricia Krenwinkel is
still currently imprisoned and since Atkin's death in 2009 is now the longest
incarcerated female inmate in the California penal system. Leslie Van Houten is also
still currently incarcerated. Charles Tex Watson has
been denied parole 17 times and remains incarcerated today. Charles Manson lived the
rest of his life behind bars until dying of cardiac arrest resulting from respiratory
failure and colon cancer on November 19th, 2017. In recent years new
information has come to light from in-depth investigations
into Charles Manson and the rise of his cult and
research that span decades. Shocking new details have been uncovered. Tom O'Neill an investigative
journalist began, 20 years ago, to look into some of the
stranger pieces of Manson's case. He says he faced a lot of
difficulty seeking answers because many of the records
were hidden behind a veil of government secrecy but
O'Neill noticed something odd. Before 1969 Manson's
parole officers allowed him to begin gathering his cult
of followers around him even knowing his history of rampant crime. Even stranger when his federal parole file was subpoenaed during his trial the US Attorney General blocked
them from being released. This was very unusual unless they contain something
particularly secretive. It has now been revealed that
Manson may have been a lab rat for a CIA funded doctor who
experimented with psychedelics as a form of mind control. Many of us have heard of the
mysterious project MK-Ultra, the CIA mind control program where human subjects were
tested on to develop drugs that would weaken them as individuals making them more
cooperative to suggestion. The experiments often used LSD but also other psychoactive drugs. MK-Ultra only officially ended in 1973. From what O'Neil was later able to uncover it appears that Manson was
given immunity from prosecution during the exact time that he was beginning to build
up his devoted following. The only reason he would
receive such immunity was if he was a government test subject. The doctor who experimented on Manson likely was Dr. Roger Smith who worked on two federal studies, the San Francisco project and the amphetamine research project both of which are now
believed to be fronts for CIA MK-Ultra experiments as well Manson and Dr. Smith have a close history weaved together. Including Dr. Smith
once convincing a judge to release two of Manson's
followers from jail. And he attempted to help
Manson get permission to travel to Mexico which
was ultimately denied. Not to mention the fact that at one point, Dr. Smith had only one
client; Charles Manson and he actually became the legal guardian of one of Manson's children. O'Neill believes that there
is sufficient evidence that Manson was not only a subject of these drug experiments
but also learned from them and employed the same methods
with his own followers. For one, it was well known at the time that Terry Melcher would host
drug and Booz ridden parties at his beach house and Manson
would often supply the drugs. This is believed to be how the men met and why Melcher became involved in Manson's pursuit of music. Putting the pieces together many wonder if Manson
used the same methods of psychedelic drugs
to encourage compliancy with his followers. As he likely witnessed the ways that psychedelics could be
used to manipulate people from Dr. Smith who experimented on him. And he was also known to
have drugs in his possession. In 1965, a doctor working on LSD research warned that the drug
would lead to LSD cults, where youths who had a desire to, "Share forbidden activity
in a group setting "to provide a sense of
belonging might cultivate." Note that this was just before
the Manson murders began. All of this evidence now
seems hardly coincidental but ultimately we cannot know for certain if Manson was subjected to the
highly secretive drug tests or if he then later use the same methods to encourage others to not only follow him but to commit atrocious murders. Though Charles Manson is no
longer a threat to the world his mentality has left a
lasting effect on the people who trusted and admired him
from a distance and up close. In fact, Charles Manson's
beliefs and ideologies have been passed down
to younger generations who wished to continue Manson's plight despite the brutality of
the crimes he committed and the crimes of the
rest of the Manson Family. Manson himself is even
regarded as a true crime icon. The families of the victims affected by the Manson murders may
never have true closure as cult followings never
seem to truly disappear. Rather, their beliefs
may be adopted by others perpetuated right under our noses. If there is one thing that
you take away from this video I hope that it is this, be careful who you trust because we often don't see
we are being manipulated until it is too late."
