1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 2 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 3 00:00:23,023 --> 00:00:24,892 [CHARLES MANSON] Let me explain something to you. 4 00:00:24,925 --> 00:00:27,428 I wrote about a couple of hundred songs. 5 00:00:27,461 --> 00:00:31,465 I've got them all written down. I'll give you an example, man. 6 00:00:31,499 --> 00:00:36,237 I'll try to stick to a song... that'll make you some money. 7 00:00:36,270 --> 00:00:38,572 [LAUGHS] 8 00:00:38,606 --> 00:00:39,873 Let's see. 9 00:00:39,907 --> 00:00:42,009 [DRAMATIC MUSIC] 10 00:00:42,042 --> 00:00:45,779 [JEFF GUINN] The mythology of Charlie Manson has come to mean 11 00:00:45,813 --> 00:00:49,783 above all else vicious murder, 12 00:00:49,817 --> 00:00:54,522 but those terrible acts were never what he was aiming for. 13 00:00:56,124 --> 00:01:00,994 The real story of Charlie Manson... is music. 14 00:01:01,028 --> 00:01:03,297 [PHIL KAUFMAN] I don't think Charlie could have been Charlie 15 00:01:03,331 --> 00:01:05,133 without the music. 16 00:01:05,166 --> 00:01:09,737 He was a poet and he believed in his music. 17 00:01:09,770 --> 00:01:11,805 [DIANNE LAKE] Music was the vehicle. 18 00:01:11,839 --> 00:01:16,277 He really wanted to spread his philosophy. 19 00:01:16,310 --> 00:01:21,915 To me that seemed to be the most important and overriding agenda. 20 00:01:23,083 --> 00:01:25,419 [NARRATOR] In 1968, cult leader 21 00:01:25,453 --> 00:01:27,688 and singer-songwriter Charles Manson 22 00:01:27,721 --> 00:01:31,892 gained access to the top tier of the Los Angeles music world. 23 00:01:31,925 --> 00:01:34,995 Only a year later he was accused of being 24 00:01:35,028 --> 00:01:37,331 the most dangerous man alive. 25 00:01:37,365 --> 00:01:39,833 [DOMENIC PRIORE] It might not be as obvious to some people 26 00:01:39,867 --> 00:01:42,870 how involved and ingrained in the music business 27 00:01:42,903 --> 00:01:44,872 Charles Manson seemed to be. 28 00:01:44,905 --> 00:01:46,940 Terry Melcher is producing The Byrds, 29 00:01:46,974 --> 00:01:48,509 The Beach Boys, Brian Wilson. 30 00:01:48,542 --> 00:01:51,245 These are two huge selling record producers 31 00:01:51,279 --> 00:01:54,648 and they're looking at you, Charles Manson. 32 00:01:54,682 --> 00:01:57,351 [GREGG JAKOBSON] It could never have happened before or after. 33 00:01:57,385 --> 00:02:00,588 It really was a perfect storm, that period of time. 34 00:02:00,621 --> 00:02:03,591 When somebody like Charlie could walk into the scene. 35 00:02:03,624 --> 00:02:06,860 There was no cap, no limit, there were no rules. 36 00:02:06,894 --> 00:02:08,429 [NARRATOR] This film tells the story 37 00:02:08,462 --> 00:02:12,400 of Manson's musical dream and how it all fell apart... 38 00:02:12,433 --> 00:02:14,202 [SIMON WELLS] The story of Charles Manson 39 00:02:14,235 --> 00:02:16,136 is the story of rejection and collapse. 40 00:02:16,170 --> 00:02:19,139 It was a disintegration of Manson's dreams 41 00:02:19,173 --> 00:02:22,210 and it allowed the madness to rise. 42 00:02:31,685 --> 00:02:34,388 [QUIET DRAMATIC MUSIC] 43 00:02:36,224 --> 00:02:40,628 [NARRATOR] Los Angeles. August 9th, 1969. 44 00:02:40,661 --> 00:02:43,331 At the tail-end of one of the most tumultuous decades 45 00:02:43,364 --> 00:02:46,467 in American history, the city's residents awaken 46 00:02:46,500 --> 00:02:49,169 to the news of a brutal multiple homicide 47 00:02:49,203 --> 00:02:51,439 in the very heart of Tinseltown. 48 00:02:52,973 --> 00:02:54,908 [NEWS REPORTER] In a crime scene that police say 49 00:02:54,942 --> 00:02:57,211 resembled a ritualistic mass murder, 50 00:02:57,245 --> 00:03:00,013 five persons including the actress Sharon Tate 51 00:03:00,047 --> 00:03:03,451 were found slain at the home of Ms. Tate and her husband, 52 00:03:03,484 --> 00:03:06,119 screen director Roman Polanski. 53 00:03:06,153 --> 00:03:08,021 Ms. Tate who was eight months pregnant 54 00:03:08,055 --> 00:03:10,858 and the other victims were discovered dead this morning 55 00:03:10,891 --> 00:03:13,894 at the Hilltop Estate in Benedict Canyon. 56 00:03:13,927 --> 00:03:16,564 Most have suffered multiple stab wounds, 57 00:03:16,597 --> 00:03:19,032 while one had been shot at close range. 58 00:03:21,235 --> 00:03:22,870 [SIMON WELLS] Murders in Los Angeles are 59 00:03:22,903 --> 00:03:24,071 a regrettable formality. 60 00:03:24,104 --> 00:03:26,574 They happen - in California, in America, 61 00:03:26,607 --> 00:03:29,310 especially where gun crime and knife crime is prevalent. 62 00:03:29,343 --> 00:03:34,648 This was out of that league. This was premier league horror. 63 00:03:34,682 --> 00:03:36,317 We are talking about the slaughter 64 00:03:36,350 --> 00:03:38,819 of an 8 and a half month pregnant woman 65 00:03:38,852 --> 00:03:41,121 and the murders of those present 66 00:03:41,154 --> 00:03:44,458 with such violence inflicted on them 67 00:03:44,492 --> 00:03:46,394 which appeared to have no bounds. 68 00:03:46,427 --> 00:03:49,229 This was something else. It was absolutely shocking. 69 00:03:49,263 --> 00:03:51,064 [NARRATOR] The fact that one of the victims 70 00:03:51,098 --> 00:03:52,366 was a Hollywood star, 71 00:03:52,400 --> 00:03:54,167 and the wife of a famous film director, 72 00:03:54,201 --> 00:03:57,805 saw the story hit the headlines worldwide. 73 00:03:57,838 --> 00:04:01,008 The following day, two more murders were discovered 74 00:04:01,041 --> 00:04:02,743 less than 15 miles away, 75 00:04:02,776 --> 00:04:05,646 again the targets of a savage home invasion, 76 00:04:05,679 --> 00:04:08,015 and this second attack sent further shockwaves 77 00:04:08,048 --> 00:04:10,318 through the local community. 78 00:04:10,351 --> 00:04:14,054 [JEFF GUINN] From the beginning, stories would elude 79 00:04:14,087 --> 00:04:18,025 to the savagery, the brutality of what was done 80 00:04:18,058 --> 00:04:20,728 and some facts got in the newspaper. 81 00:04:20,761 --> 00:04:24,264 Within a few days you could not buy a gun 82 00:04:24,298 --> 00:04:26,567 in Los Angeles anymore. 83 00:04:26,600 --> 00:04:29,269 The stores, the shelves were bare. 84 00:04:29,303 --> 00:04:34,141 Guard dogs that sold for $100 before the murders 85 00:04:34,174 --> 00:04:37,244 were going for as much as $2,000. 86 00:04:37,277 --> 00:04:39,580 [NARRATOR] It would take months for the police 87 00:04:39,613 --> 00:04:41,114 to apprehend the culprits. 88 00:04:41,148 --> 00:04:43,250 And when the arrests were eventually reported, 89 00:04:43,283 --> 00:04:45,419 the world was stunned. 90 00:04:46,720 --> 00:04:49,089 Charles Manson, the head of a hippy commune, 91 00:04:49,122 --> 00:04:52,926 and a number of his mostly female followers, were charged 92 00:04:52,960 --> 00:04:56,864 with some of the most violent murders in American history. 93 00:04:56,897 --> 00:04:58,799 Only two years beforehand, 94 00:04:58,832 --> 00:05:00,768 California had been the epicenter 95 00:05:00,801 --> 00:05:01,869 of the Summer of Love, 96 00:05:01,902 --> 00:05:03,771 where the flourishing counterculture 97 00:05:03,804 --> 00:05:06,507 celebrated peace and understanding. 98 00:05:06,540 --> 00:05:09,209 But this younger generation had always been viewed 99 00:05:09,242 --> 00:05:11,945 with skepticism by conservative Americans, 100 00:05:11,979 --> 00:05:14,882 and over time as the movement became more radical 101 00:05:14,915 --> 00:05:17,785 it also became more threatening. 102 00:05:17,818 --> 00:05:20,854 Through Manson and his band of murderous flower-children, 103 00:05:20,888 --> 00:05:24,725 that potential threat had now become a reality. 104 00:05:25,859 --> 00:05:27,194 [ANTHONY DECURTIS] The average American 105 00:05:27,227 --> 00:05:29,697 looking at the coverage of the Manson case, 106 00:05:29,730 --> 00:05:34,334 didn't feel any identification with Sharon Tate 107 00:05:34,368 --> 00:05:37,505 or these other families in Hollywood. 108 00:05:37,538 --> 00:05:42,410 What they felt was these kids are out of control. 109 00:05:42,443 --> 00:05:45,413 They experienced it as indistinguishable 110 00:05:45,446 --> 00:05:50,551 from campus rebellions and the riots in Chicago 111 00:05:50,584 --> 00:05:51,985 and protests. 112 00:05:52,019 --> 00:05:57,124 From the standpoint of the so-called silent majority, 113 00:05:57,157 --> 00:05:59,693 it was a sense of these spoilt kids. 114 00:05:59,727 --> 00:06:02,430 All they want to do is this rabble rousing 115 00:06:02,463 --> 00:06:05,365 and take drugs and have sex. 116 00:06:05,399 --> 00:06:07,100 And then you bundle all that up 117 00:06:07,134 --> 00:06:09,837 into the worst possible version of it 118 00:06:09,870 --> 00:06:11,672 and there's the Manson murders. 119 00:06:11,705 --> 00:06:13,907 [NARRATOR] But the case was also baffling 120 00:06:13,941 --> 00:06:16,977 and the motives for the murders remained unclear. 121 00:06:17,010 --> 00:06:18,779 Although the press were quick 122 00:06:18,812 --> 00:06:22,315 to run stories of drug-fueled orgies and satanic rituals, 123 00:06:22,349 --> 00:06:24,918 as the District Attorney and the police probed 124 00:06:24,952 --> 00:06:27,655 deeper into the testimonies of those involved, 125 00:06:27,688 --> 00:06:30,658 a complex story emerged. 126 00:06:30,691 --> 00:06:34,061 Manson was not simply the isolated cult leader 127 00:06:34,094 --> 00:06:36,063 nor the cold-blooded career criminal 128 00:06:36,096 --> 00:06:38,065 that his profile suggested. 129 00:06:38,098 --> 00:06:40,233 He was also a singer-songwriter 130 00:06:40,267 --> 00:06:42,269 with connections at the very top 131 00:06:42,302 --> 00:06:44,037 of the LA music scene. 132 00:06:44,071 --> 00:06:48,241 [JEFF GUINN] About early December 1969, 133 00:06:48,275 --> 00:06:50,410 the first stories started to appear 134 00:06:50,444 --> 00:06:52,480 in the Los Angeles newspapers, 135 00:06:52,513 --> 00:06:54,948 that Manson may have committed this crime 136 00:06:54,982 --> 00:06:59,019 as trying to either kill or get even with Terry Melcher, 137 00:06:59,052 --> 00:07:02,189 who's the son of actress Doris Day. 138 00:07:02,222 --> 00:07:04,324 To young America, Terry Melcher 139 00:07:04,357 --> 00:07:06,960 was a famous name because of his work 140 00:07:06,994 --> 00:07:09,963 with The Byrds, with Paul Revere and the Raiders. 141 00:07:09,997 --> 00:07:12,265 To middle America 142 00:07:12,299 --> 00:07:15,503 he was the son of America's sweetheart. 143 00:07:15,536 --> 00:07:18,405 But as the investigation would continue, 144 00:07:18,438 --> 00:07:21,542 the story started appearing in the paper. 145 00:07:21,575 --> 00:07:23,611 A name at a time. 146 00:07:23,644 --> 00:07:25,078 Terry Melcher certainly, 147 00:07:25,112 --> 00:07:27,881 Greg Jacobson who was part of the music scene, 148 00:07:27,915 --> 00:07:29,583 but other names too. 149 00:07:29,617 --> 00:07:32,586 Dennis Wilson, Neil Young, 150 00:07:32,620 --> 00:07:36,356 John Phillips, Buffy Saint-Marie. 151 00:07:36,389 --> 00:07:38,258 It became apparent early on 152 00:07:38,291 --> 00:07:41,762 that music was a big part of whatever it was 153 00:07:43,330 --> 00:07:44,965 that made up Charlie Manson. 154 00:07:44,998 --> 00:07:47,334 [UPBEAT MUSIC] 155 00:07:53,373 --> 00:07:56,844 [NARRATOR] And Manson's musical journey began here. 156 00:07:56,877 --> 00:07:59,279 San Francisco, 1967. 157 00:07:59,312 --> 00:08:02,683 A city at the heart of a cultural revolution. 158 00:08:02,716 --> 00:08:05,018 Since the end of the Second World War 159 00:08:05,052 --> 00:08:06,520 it had emerged as a beacon 160 00:08:06,554 --> 00:08:09,022 for those looking to escape the conservatism 161 00:08:09,056 --> 00:08:10,190 of middle America 162 00:08:10,223 --> 00:08:13,260 and explore alternative lifestyles and attitudes, 163 00:08:13,293 --> 00:08:15,663 and it became the West Coast stomping ground 164 00:08:15,696 --> 00:08:18,666 for the writers of the Beat Generation. 165 00:08:18,699 --> 00:08:20,400 But it was in the mid-1960s 166 00:08:20,433 --> 00:08:22,002 that the city fully blossomed 167 00:08:22,035 --> 00:08:23,837 as a hub of creativity, 168 00:08:23,871 --> 00:08:28,275 its youth fueled by new music, new drugs and new ideas. 169 00:08:28,308 --> 00:08:29,677 And the nerve center 170 00:08:29,710 --> 00:08:31,679 for this cultural and artistic activity 171 00:08:31,712 --> 00:08:34,047 was the Haight-Ashbury district. 172 00:08:34,081 --> 00:08:36,216 [PETER RICHARDSON] Haight-Ashbury in 1967. 173 00:08:36,249 --> 00:08:38,151 In part it's a bit of an accident. 174 00:08:38,185 --> 00:08:40,621 The Beat scene had been located in North Beach. 175 00:08:40,654 --> 00:08:45,425 But there's a new availability of housing, and cheap housing. 176 00:08:45,458 --> 00:08:47,494 San Francisco State University students 177 00:08:47,527 --> 00:08:49,062 start moving in. 178 00:08:49,096 --> 00:08:51,031 And then the artists come 179 00:08:51,064 --> 00:08:54,034 and they create a very... 180 00:08:54,067 --> 00:08:56,103 It's small but it's a vital, 181 00:08:56,136 --> 00:09:00,473 collaborative cooperative do-it-yourself art scene. 182 00:09:00,507 --> 00:09:03,977 The musicians are a big part of that. 183 00:09:04,011 --> 00:09:06,914 The Grateful Dead are there at 710 Ashbury, 184 00:09:06,947 --> 00:09:09,149 Janis Joplin lives there. 185 00:09:09,182 --> 00:09:11,785 Jefferson Airplane is the first big band 186 00:09:11,819 --> 00:09:13,120 to hit it there. 187 00:09:13,153 --> 00:09:16,323 When you put all those creative people together 188 00:09:16,356 --> 00:09:19,259 they start feeding off of each othe's energy. 189 00:09:19,292 --> 00:09:21,461 I think the big picture is the fight 190 00:09:21,494 --> 00:09:25,465 for personal, artistic and sexual freedom. 191 00:09:25,498 --> 00:09:27,300 There was something going on here 192 00:09:27,334 --> 00:09:30,503 that was pushing for expanded freedoms 193 00:09:30,537 --> 00:09:32,940 across many dimensions. 194 00:09:32,973 --> 00:09:34,708 [NARRATOR] Although in the mid-1960s 195 00:09:34,742 --> 00:09:36,977 the city's crusade for expanded freedoms 196 00:09:37,010 --> 00:09:39,479 was not unique, the driving force 197 00:09:39,512 --> 00:09:43,383 behind its particular vision of freedom was. 198 00:09:43,416 --> 00:09:45,853 While a vibrant youth culture had been thriving 199 00:09:45,886 --> 00:09:47,955 in cities across Europe and America 200 00:09:47,988 --> 00:09:49,823 since the emergence of the Beatles 201 00:09:49,857 --> 00:09:51,558 at the start of the decade, 202 00:09:51,591 --> 00:09:53,193 no other scene had access 203 00:09:53,226 --> 00:09:56,697 to the Haight-Ashbury's drug of choice - LSD. 204 00:09:56,730 --> 00:10:00,233 This powerful hallucinogen was at the very center 205 00:10:00,267 --> 00:10:02,269 of the San Francisco experience, 206 00:10:02,302 --> 00:10:05,038 informing the music, art and ideas 207 00:10:05,072 --> 00:10:07,407 that were emerging from the city. 208 00:10:07,440 --> 00:10:09,509 Where other drugs affected mood, 209 00:10:09,542 --> 00:10:12,179 with LSD a user's perception of reality 210 00:10:12,212 --> 00:10:13,947 was significantly altered, 211 00:10:13,981 --> 00:10:15,548 and after only one "trip" 212 00:10:15,582 --> 00:10:19,252 many felt they had undergone a spiritual awakening. 213 00:10:19,286 --> 00:10:21,655 [SIMON WELLS] It can't be overstated, the power of LSD. 214 00:10:21,689 --> 00:10:25,993 It literally elevated people from one place 215 00:10:26,026 --> 00:10:28,128 to somewhere completely different 216 00:10:28,161 --> 00:10:30,263 and transformed people's lives overnight. 217 00:10:30,297 --> 00:10:32,365 [DIANNE LAKE] Everybody was seeking this enlightenment, 218 00:10:32,399 --> 00:10:35,402 but LSD was kind of a shortcut. 219 00:10:35,435 --> 00:10:38,205 It kind of opened up the top of your head 220 00:10:38,238 --> 00:10:42,843 and let you see, or at least think you saw, 221 00:10:42,876 --> 00:10:45,278 this other way of life. 222 00:10:45,312 --> 00:10:48,849 But it also made us all very vulnerable 223 00:10:48,882 --> 00:10:51,451 to people taking advantage. 224 00:10:51,484 --> 00:10:54,054 [NARRATOR] And as the San Francisco counterculture began 225 00:10:54,087 --> 00:10:57,190 to attract both national and international recognition 226 00:10:57,224 --> 00:10:59,392 at the start of 1967, 227 00:10:59,426 --> 00:11:01,695 it was the psychologist Timothy Leary 228 00:11:01,729 --> 00:11:04,597 who emerged as the most prominent advocate of LSD, 229 00:11:04,631 --> 00:11:06,133 publicly promoting 230 00:11:06,166 --> 00:11:08,836 its therapeutic and spiritual benefits. 231 00:11:10,003 --> 00:11:11,772 [PETER RICHARDSON] There was a lot of talk 232 00:11:11,805 --> 00:11:13,240 about expanded consciousness. 233 00:11:13,273 --> 00:11:17,811 sometimes that took on very strong spiritual dimensions 234 00:11:17,845 --> 00:11:21,181 in the way people talked about LSD and its uses. 235 00:11:21,214 --> 00:11:24,785 Leary was the new face of that story. 236 00:11:26,119 --> 00:11:28,388 [ANTHONY DECURTIS] Tim Leary was a Harvard professor 237 00:11:28,421 --> 00:11:33,060 who essentially became the apostle of LSD. 238 00:11:33,093 --> 00:11:38,365 His background gave a patina of a kind of authority 239 00:11:38,398 --> 00:11:44,805 to his ideas about LSD and the new world, 240 00:11:44,838 --> 00:11:47,474 the kind of utopia that it was going to introduce. 241 00:11:47,507 --> 00:11:49,576 [TIM LEARY] The message is very simple. 242 00:11:52,045 --> 00:11:53,646 Six words: 243 00:11:54,547 --> 00:12:00,087 turn on, tune in, drop out. 244 00:12:02,956 --> 00:12:04,825 [ANTHONY DECURTIS] His slogan became: 245 00:12:04,858 --> 00:12:07,194 turn on, tune in, drop out. 246 00:12:07,227 --> 00:12:09,963 Get high, marijuana, LSD. 247 00:12:09,997 --> 00:12:14,701 Tune in, connect with the kind of images, 248 00:12:14,734 --> 00:12:19,039 ideas, visions that those drugs bring to you. 249 00:12:19,072 --> 00:12:21,641 And then drop out of the society. 250 00:12:21,674 --> 00:12:25,445 There was a sense that utopia is just in the offing. 251 00:12:25,478 --> 00:12:26,947 That was the idea, 252 00:12:26,980 --> 00:12:30,317 that paradise could be regained 253 00:12:30,350 --> 00:12:32,519 and LSD was the path to it. 254 00:12:32,552 --> 00:12:35,022 [PETER RICHARDSON] The drop out part of his message 255 00:12:35,055 --> 00:12:36,990 was the most controversial. 256 00:12:37,024 --> 00:12:40,193 Later he would walk that statement back a bit. 257 00:12:40,227 --> 00:12:42,896 He didn't mean drop out. 258 00:12:42,930 --> 00:12:47,968 He meant think harder about where you put your energy. 259 00:12:48,001 --> 00:12:51,571 But the pebble had been dropped in that water 260 00:12:51,604 --> 00:12:54,174 and it started rippling out in ways 261 00:12:54,207 --> 00:12:57,210 that nobody could finally control, 262 00:12:57,244 --> 00:12:59,412 least of all Timothy Leary. 263 00:12:59,446 --> 00:13:01,815 [NARRATOR] In the summer of 1967, 264 00:13:01,849 --> 00:13:03,917 the so-called Summer of Love, 265 00:13:03,951 --> 00:13:06,887 young disenchanted people from across America 266 00:13:06,920 --> 00:13:08,755 began dropping out en masse 267 00:13:08,788 --> 00:13:10,958 and flocked to San Francisco, 268 00:13:10,991 --> 00:13:12,525 searching for the utopia 269 00:13:12,559 --> 00:13:16,496 that Timothy Leary's vision suggested was waiting for them. 270 00:13:16,529 --> 00:13:17,965 [JEFF GUINN] One of the things we forget 271 00:13:17,998 --> 00:13:21,734 is that Haight-Ashbury was such a concentrated place. 272 00:13:21,768 --> 00:13:23,803 It could perhaps have handled 273 00:13:23,837 --> 00:13:28,375 maybe a thousand people living there, eating there, 274 00:13:28,408 --> 00:13:29,943 part of the community, 275 00:13:29,977 --> 00:13:33,080 but during the so-called Summer of Love 276 00:13:33,113 --> 00:13:35,248 from '67 through '69, 277 00:13:35,282 --> 00:13:37,050 the estimate is to this day 278 00:13:37,084 --> 00:13:42,122 that about 300 kids a day would show up. 279 00:13:42,155 --> 00:13:44,457 And these were the ones who had no money, 280 00:13:44,491 --> 00:13:46,526 they had no place to go, 281 00:13:46,559 --> 00:13:49,529 just the belief if you get there we'll be taken care of. 282 00:13:49,562 --> 00:13:51,031 That is the atmosphere. 283 00:13:51,064 --> 00:13:54,267 It opened up the possibility for predators. 284 00:13:54,301 --> 00:13:57,404 From around the country came hustlers, 285 00:13:57,437 --> 00:14:02,042 the dope dealers, the pimps, 286 00:14:02,075 --> 00:14:06,980 and above all, attracted by this wonderful hunting ground 287 00:14:07,014 --> 00:14:08,481 came Charlie Manson. 288 00:14:10,650 --> 00:14:12,719 [NARRATOR] First arriving in the Haight-Ashbury district 289 00:14:12,752 --> 00:14:15,188 in the spring of 1967, 290 00:14:15,222 --> 00:14:19,059 Charles Manson was 32 and just as keen to engage 291 00:14:19,092 --> 00:14:22,629 with the utopia on offer as the youths surrounding him. 292 00:14:22,662 --> 00:14:25,732 Freshly released from a seven-year stretch in prison, 293 00:14:25,765 --> 00:14:28,435 like many of those flocking to San Francisco, 294 00:14:28,468 --> 00:14:31,571 Manson too was looking to escape a troubled past 295 00:14:31,604 --> 00:14:34,607 and to make a fresh start in this brave new world. 296 00:14:36,076 --> 00:14:39,479 Born in Cincinnati, Ohio to an unmarried teenager, 297 00:14:39,512 --> 00:14:41,581 Kathleen Maddox, a wayward mother 298 00:14:41,614 --> 00:14:43,683 at odds with her religious family, 299 00:14:43,716 --> 00:14:47,420 young Charlie Manson never knew his father. 300 00:14:47,454 --> 00:14:49,122 And at the age of only 4, 301 00:14:49,156 --> 00:14:51,658 he watched his mother being led away by police 302 00:14:51,691 --> 00:14:52,926 for armed robbery, 303 00:14:52,960 --> 00:14:56,296 for which she would receive a five year jail sentence. 304 00:14:57,797 --> 00:15:01,234 [SIMON WELLS] Manson was every part the throwaway kid. 305 00:15:01,268 --> 00:15:03,870 He was passed to friends, to family, 306 00:15:03,903 --> 00:15:05,472 anyone who would take him, 307 00:15:05,505 --> 00:15:09,109 and he was then sent to his grandparents 308 00:15:09,142 --> 00:15:12,379 and then on to his aunt and uncle. 309 00:15:12,412 --> 00:15:14,314 So basically he was passed around 310 00:15:14,347 --> 00:15:17,350 and from an early age he knew he wasn't wanted. 311 00:15:17,384 --> 00:15:20,553 [JEFF GUINN] He lived with his aunt, uncle and cousin 312 00:15:20,587 --> 00:15:23,090 and his grandmother came to see him. 313 00:15:23,123 --> 00:15:26,393 There was no reason to say that Charlie's early life 314 00:15:26,426 --> 00:15:27,894 as a child was ideal. 315 00:15:27,927 --> 00:15:30,097 Having your mother in prison never is. 316 00:15:30,130 --> 00:15:33,700 But he always had loving people who cared about him. 317 00:15:33,733 --> 00:15:35,202 The problem was, of course, 318 00:15:35,235 --> 00:15:37,137 that Charlie was from the beginning 319 00:15:37,170 --> 00:15:41,308 a very disagreeable, violent child. 320 00:15:41,341 --> 00:15:43,343 [NARRATOR] But although aggressive and sullen, 321 00:15:43,376 --> 00:15:46,046 in his aunt and uncle's household in West Virginia 322 00:15:46,079 --> 00:15:47,914 the young Charles Manson also found 323 00:15:47,947 --> 00:15:51,418 a less destructive outlet for his energies. 324 00:15:51,451 --> 00:15:54,821 [JEFF GUINN] There was a piano in his uncle and aunt's house 325 00:15:54,854 --> 00:15:56,423 and even as a tiny child, 326 00:15:56,456 --> 00:15:59,993 and you need to remember we're talking about a boy 327 00:16:00,027 --> 00:16:03,596 who even at 5 years old looked perhaps 3. 328 00:16:03,630 --> 00:16:05,398 His hands were tiny. 329 00:16:05,432 --> 00:16:07,500 But he would stay at the keyboard 330 00:16:07,534 --> 00:16:10,103 and by ear pick out songs. 331 00:16:10,137 --> 00:16:12,805 The songs in his life at that time 332 00:16:12,839 --> 00:16:14,607 came from one of two categories, 333 00:16:14,641 --> 00:16:17,644 church music or country music. 334 00:16:17,677 --> 00:16:20,280 He was something of a musical prodigy. 335 00:16:20,313 --> 00:16:22,815 He hated going to church except singing, 336 00:16:22,849 --> 00:16:24,251 and when he would sing, 337 00:16:24,284 --> 00:16:26,453 he would join in so wholeheartedly 338 00:16:26,486 --> 00:16:29,489 that his grandmother would believe the spirit of the Lord 339 00:16:29,522 --> 00:16:32,159 must be descending on this child. 340 00:16:32,192 --> 00:16:34,461 [NARRATOR] This natural gift for music was not enough 341 00:16:34,494 --> 00:16:37,730 to curb Manson's delinquent tendencies, however. 342 00:16:37,764 --> 00:16:40,233 In his teenage years his criminal activities, 343 00:16:40,267 --> 00:16:44,337 including theft and burglary, saw him arrested countless times 344 00:16:44,371 --> 00:16:46,906 and detained in a number of reform schools 345 00:16:46,939 --> 00:16:48,808 and correctional institutions. 346 00:16:48,841 --> 00:16:50,943 And as he gained a criminal education 347 00:16:50,977 --> 00:16:52,412 while incarcerated, 348 00:16:52,445 --> 00:16:56,816 by his early 20s his main aspiration was to become a pimp. 349 00:16:56,849 --> 00:16:59,319 [SIMON WELLS] Manson was every bit the petty criminal. 350 00:16:59,352 --> 00:17:00,820 He couldn't really organize much 351 00:17:00,853 --> 00:17:03,590 and as his rap sheet concludes he kept getting caught. 352 00:17:03,623 --> 00:17:07,360 [JEFF GUINN] Charlie Manson was a failure 353 00:17:07,394 --> 00:17:09,262 as a criminal in every way. 354 00:17:09,296 --> 00:17:12,365 He started out shoplifting and always got caught. 355 00:17:12,399 --> 00:17:16,803 He would steal cars, they would track him down. 356 00:17:16,836 --> 00:17:20,907 Finally, when we decided after learning the trade from pimps 357 00:17:20,940 --> 00:17:22,409 and his first stint in prison 358 00:17:22,442 --> 00:17:24,477 that he would run a string of girls, 359 00:17:24,511 --> 00:17:26,946 he could never keep them very long. 360 00:17:26,979 --> 00:17:31,884 The thing that carried over from his early criminal career 361 00:17:31,918 --> 00:17:35,922 is a tremendous eye for those who can manipulate. 362 00:17:35,955 --> 00:17:38,225 Manson would explain 363 00:17:38,258 --> 00:17:41,694 his philosophy of attracting first his prostitutes 364 00:17:41,728 --> 00:17:43,830 and later his female followers 365 00:17:43,863 --> 00:17:49,068 as always find the ones who were bent or cracked 366 00:17:49,102 --> 00:17:51,904 but not completely broken. 367 00:17:51,938 --> 00:17:53,640 [NARRATOR] Despite a brief attempt 368 00:17:53,673 --> 00:17:55,375 to settle down in the mid-50s 369 00:17:55,408 --> 00:17:57,277 which saw him return to West Virginia 370 00:17:57,310 --> 00:17:59,078 and marry a local waitress, 371 00:17:59,112 --> 00:18:02,315 criminal instincts were now ingrained in Manson. 372 00:18:02,349 --> 00:18:04,151 At the end of the decade 373 00:18:04,184 --> 00:18:07,420 an attempt to establish himself as a pimp in New Mexico 374 00:18:07,454 --> 00:18:09,389 once again led to his arrest, 375 00:18:09,422 --> 00:18:11,391 and this time he was incarcerated 376 00:18:11,424 --> 00:18:15,262 at the isolated, medium- security prison McNeil Island, 377 00:18:15,295 --> 00:18:17,096 on a ten-year sentence. 378 00:18:17,130 --> 00:18:20,767 With no chance of escape he learnt to play the guitar, 379 00:18:20,800 --> 00:18:23,670 and his passion for music returned. 380 00:18:23,703 --> 00:18:26,005 It was at first only a pastime. 381 00:18:26,038 --> 00:18:29,509 And then, in 1964, through the radio 382 00:18:29,542 --> 00:18:31,611 he heard a sound that would change his outlook entirely. 383 00:18:31,644 --> 00:18:33,913 ["I Want to Hold Your Hand", The Beatles] 384 00:18:33,946 --> 00:18:36,916 * Oh yeah, I'll tell you somethin' 385 00:18:37,984 --> 00:18:40,620 * I think you'll understand 386 00:18:40,653 --> 00:18:44,424 * When I say that somethin' 387 00:18:45,392 --> 00:18:47,494 * I want to hold your hand 388 00:18:47,527 --> 00:18:49,729 [SIMON WELLS] The Beatles' music was extraordinary. 389 00:18:49,762 --> 00:18:51,431 It was vibrant. It was alert. 390 00:18:51,464 --> 00:18:53,966 It just swept up the youth of the world 391 00:18:54,000 --> 00:18:55,935 and everyone who came across them 392 00:18:55,968 --> 00:18:57,304 was affected, even if they disliked them 393 00:18:57,337 --> 00:18:58,705 they were sort of affected by them. 394 00:18:58,738 --> 00:19:00,473 [ANTHONY DECURTIS] It's impossible to overestimate 395 00:19:00,507 --> 00:19:03,910 The Beatles' impact on aspiring musicians, 396 00:19:03,943 --> 00:19:05,044 Charles Manson among them. 397 00:19:05,077 --> 00:19:09,749 But... everybody, anybody from that generation 398 00:19:09,782 --> 00:19:14,153 talks about The Beatles and the immediate effect. 399 00:19:14,187 --> 00:19:20,193 It was huge, instantaneous and it was lasting. 400 00:19:20,227 --> 00:19:22,695 [JEFF GUINN] It was a transformative moment 401 00:19:22,729 --> 00:19:25,465 in his life hearing that music. 402 00:19:25,498 --> 00:19:27,567 What The Beatles do for Charlie Manson 403 00:19:27,600 --> 00:19:31,170 is they not only expand his musical horizons, 404 00:19:31,204 --> 00:19:33,740 but they expand his ambition. 405 00:19:33,773 --> 00:19:37,777 Previously all he wants to be is a successful pimp 406 00:19:37,810 --> 00:19:40,046 where women go out and do all the work for you 407 00:19:40,079 --> 00:19:42,349 and you don't have to work very hard yourself. 408 00:19:42,382 --> 00:19:46,118 Now suddenly he's got a guitar, 409 00:19:46,152 --> 00:19:50,723 he knows how to play it, he's got the inspiration 410 00:19:50,757 --> 00:19:53,993 and he starts writing songs in prison. 411 00:19:57,430 --> 00:19:59,732 [NARRATOR] Terminal Island, Los Angeles. 412 00:19:59,766 --> 00:20:03,603 It was here, in 1966, that Manson was transferred 413 00:20:03,636 --> 00:20:05,438 to complete his time in prison, 414 00:20:05,472 --> 00:20:09,409 his 10 year stretch reduced due to good behavior. 415 00:20:09,442 --> 00:20:12,945 At this low security prison, Manson met Phil Kaufman, 416 00:20:12,979 --> 00:20:16,516 an actor serving a short sentence for drug possession. 417 00:20:16,549 --> 00:20:18,918 [PHIL KAUFMAN] We were walking in the yard every day 418 00:20:18,951 --> 00:20:22,054 between jobs and after dinner and breakfast. 419 00:20:22,088 --> 00:20:23,923 You walk in the yard back and forth. 420 00:20:23,956 --> 00:20:26,225 And this guy was playing a guitar 421 00:20:26,259 --> 00:20:29,896 and he was singing "the shadow of your smile". 422 00:20:29,929 --> 00:20:31,298 I said, "Wow, this guy's cool." 423 00:20:31,331 --> 00:20:33,933 ["The Shadow of Your Smile", Tony Bennett] 424 00:20:33,966 --> 00:20:40,473 * The shadow of your smile... 425 00:20:40,507 --> 00:20:42,575 [PHIL KAUFMAN] So I walked up to say, 426 00:20:42,609 --> 00:20:43,943 let's introduce ourselves. 427 00:20:43,976 --> 00:20:45,945 And he continued playing his guitar 428 00:20:45,978 --> 00:20:49,015 and we were talking and a guard comes up to him 429 00:20:49,048 --> 00:20:53,620 and says, "Manson! You can't play your guitar here. 430 00:20:53,653 --> 00:20:57,590 "You got to play your guitar over there in the music area." 431 00:20:57,624 --> 00:20:59,559 Charlie just kept playing his guitar. 432 00:20:59,592 --> 00:21:01,861 He walked away. And the guard yelled, 433 00:21:01,894 --> 00:21:04,531 "Manson, you ain't never gonna get out of here." 434 00:21:04,564 --> 00:21:08,835 Charlie said, "Out of where, man? The shadow of your smile." 435 00:21:08,868 --> 00:21:13,773 He just carried on. Charlie was he cool. 436 00:21:13,806 --> 00:21:17,043 He played the guitar and sang music that I liked. 437 00:21:17,076 --> 00:21:18,911 He was singing standards. 438 00:21:18,945 --> 00:21:21,914 Like I said, "The Shadow of Your Smile", 439 00:21:21,948 --> 00:21:24,116 other popular songs at the time. 440 00:21:24,150 --> 00:21:27,019 And he sang well. 441 00:21:27,053 --> 00:21:29,121 He sounded like Frankie Laine. 442 00:21:29,155 --> 00:21:31,057 He was a big star back in the 40s 443 00:21:31,090 --> 00:21:33,993 and Charlie and I are both from that era. 444 00:21:34,026 --> 00:21:35,628 We're both older guys. 445 00:21:35,662 --> 00:21:37,964 That was our frame of reference. 446 00:21:37,997 --> 00:21:43,069 We had Frank Sinatra, Perry Como and that genre. 447 00:21:43,102 --> 00:21:45,472 [NARRATOR] In March 1967, 448 00:21:45,505 --> 00:21:48,307 Manson was up for release from Terminal Island. 449 00:21:48,341 --> 00:21:50,377 And aware of his musical ambitions, 450 00:21:50,410 --> 00:21:52,412 Phil Kaufman gave him the details 451 00:21:52,445 --> 00:21:54,514 of a valuable entertainment contact. 452 00:21:54,547 --> 00:21:56,282 [PHIL KAUFMAN] When Charlie was getting out, 453 00:21:56,315 --> 00:21:59,786 I suggested he meet a friend of mine Gary Stromberg, 454 00:21:59,819 --> 00:22:02,922 who was in the music business because I thought he was good. 455 00:22:02,955 --> 00:22:06,393 Once again, this is Charlie in prison I'm talking about. 456 00:22:06,426 --> 00:22:09,929 So I'm taking that persona and introducing him 457 00:22:09,962 --> 00:22:13,966 to respectable people in the music business, 458 00:22:14,000 --> 00:22:17,704 and it turned out just the opposite. 459 00:22:17,737 --> 00:22:24,544 Once he got out he says, "Game on." 460 00:22:24,577 --> 00:22:26,613 [NARRATOR] Having been incarcerated 461 00:22:26,646 --> 00:22:28,781 since the end of the previous decade, 462 00:22:28,815 --> 00:22:30,883 upon his release Manson was cast 463 00:22:30,917 --> 00:22:33,653 into a totally foreign landscape. 464 00:22:33,686 --> 00:22:36,255 The America he had known had been transformed 465 00:22:36,288 --> 00:22:38,324 by the youth culture revolution that followed 466 00:22:38,357 --> 00:22:40,192 in the wake of The Beatles. 467 00:22:40,226 --> 00:22:42,729 With the assassination of John F Kennedy, 468 00:22:42,762 --> 00:22:44,631 the advent of the Vietnam War 469 00:22:44,664 --> 00:22:46,999 and the draft that was seeing thousands of young men 470 00:22:47,033 --> 00:22:49,068 thrown into a conflict they didn't believe in, 471 00:22:49,101 --> 00:22:52,071 the generation gap that had developed in the 1950s 472 00:22:52,104 --> 00:22:55,007 had now become a chasm. 473 00:22:55,041 --> 00:22:58,611 The counterculture that was spreading across the nation 474 00:22:58,645 --> 00:23:01,514 viewed their elders and the authorities with suspicion, 475 00:23:01,548 --> 00:23:05,685 and was looking to reshape the American way of life. 476 00:23:05,718 --> 00:23:08,455 [DAVID FELTON] People realized that as a nation, 477 00:23:08,488 --> 00:23:10,523 we were spiritually bankrupt. 478 00:23:10,557 --> 00:23:11,891 We'd lost our way. 479 00:23:11,924 --> 00:23:15,327 The moral principles of our constitution 480 00:23:15,361 --> 00:23:19,466 and the founding fathers seemed to have been forgotten. 481 00:23:19,499 --> 00:23:22,301 This was a time of deep alienation in the country 482 00:23:22,334 --> 00:23:25,104 because of the Vietnam War, 483 00:23:25,137 --> 00:23:27,740 because of advances in sexual rights 484 00:23:27,774 --> 00:23:30,309 and a greater awareness of racial discrimination 485 00:23:30,342 --> 00:23:32,512 and the civil rights movement. 486 00:23:32,545 --> 00:23:33,813 There was a great division, 487 00:23:33,846 --> 00:23:36,115 but I thought not so much as a negative thing 488 00:23:36,148 --> 00:23:38,217 but one as where we were exploring new things. 489 00:23:38,250 --> 00:23:41,187 We were all going through these sort of phases 490 00:23:41,220 --> 00:23:43,790 of exploration and innocence really. 491 00:23:43,823 --> 00:23:46,225 [NARRATOR] And the 32-year-old Charles Manson 492 00:23:46,258 --> 00:23:48,728 was very keen to exploit that innocence. 493 00:23:48,761 --> 00:23:52,532 Heading first to Berkeley and then on to San Francisco, 494 00:23:52,565 --> 00:23:56,335 the city enabled him to regain a youth lost in confinement, 495 00:23:56,368 --> 00:23:58,070 and he embraced this new culture 496 00:23:58,104 --> 00:23:59,839 and its liberating power. 497 00:23:59,872 --> 00:24:03,710 In Haight-Ashbury, Manson's first impulse was to stand back 498 00:24:03,743 --> 00:24:06,312 and observe the leaders of this scene. 499 00:24:06,345 --> 00:24:09,081 Over a number of weeks he listened to the local bands, 500 00:24:09,115 --> 00:24:12,018 watched the various preachers and social activists 501 00:24:12,051 --> 00:24:16,022 at Golden Gate park and took LSD for the first time. 502 00:24:16,055 --> 00:24:19,391 Then he headed down the street with his guitar in hand 503 00:24:19,425 --> 00:24:21,894 and began looking for followers of his own. 504 00:24:21,928 --> 00:24:25,898 [SIMON WELLS] San Francisco was awash with gurus 505 00:24:25,932 --> 00:24:28,835 and philosophers, preachers, cults, religions, 506 00:24:28,868 --> 00:24:31,604 everything imaginable on every street corner. 507 00:24:31,638 --> 00:24:35,074 Manson had his own brand of philosophy. 508 00:24:35,107 --> 00:24:38,010 He was known as the 'gardener'. 509 00:24:38,044 --> 00:24:40,379 He used to plant seeds in people's minds. 510 00:24:40,412 --> 00:24:42,682 So he brought a package with him. 511 00:24:42,715 --> 00:24:47,186 [DAVID FELTON] He was a very crafty and charismatic person. 512 00:24:47,219 --> 00:24:49,789 I mean, he was a great performer and a great preacher. 513 00:24:49,822 --> 00:24:54,627 He did have a good act which was one of cosmic intelligence, 514 00:24:54,661 --> 00:24:57,196 which frankly never made sense to me 515 00:24:57,229 --> 00:24:59,799 beyond two or three sentences, but still he had it down. 516 00:24:59,832 --> 00:25:02,635 [NARRATOR] Melding concepts from the Bible, 517 00:25:02,669 --> 00:25:05,638 scientology and the acid gurus surrounding him, 518 00:25:05,672 --> 00:25:08,074 Manson's philosophy - that morality was a lie, 519 00:25:08,107 --> 00:25:12,411 that nothing was corrupt except for possessions, the ego 520 00:25:12,444 --> 00:25:14,513 and family - began to draw to him 521 00:25:14,547 --> 00:25:16,916 a small group of young women. 522 00:25:16,949 --> 00:25:19,919 Mary Brunner, Lynette Fromme, 523 00:25:19,952 --> 00:25:22,221 Patricia Krenwinkel, Susan Atkins 524 00:25:22,254 --> 00:25:25,457 - all were seduced by Manson's charisma, 525 00:25:25,491 --> 00:25:28,828 his music and the closeness he promised them. 526 00:25:28,861 --> 00:25:32,665 This small harem of followers would act as Manson's entourage 527 00:25:32,699 --> 00:25:34,233 for the next step in his plan. 528 00:25:34,266 --> 00:25:37,970 With the phone number of Phil Kaufman's music contact, 529 00:25:38,004 --> 00:25:40,272 Gary Stromberg, still to hand, 530 00:25:40,306 --> 00:25:45,244 in November, 1967, he acquired a large yellow school bus 531 00:25:45,277 --> 00:25:47,814 and headed south to the City of Angels, 532 00:25:47,847 --> 00:25:50,683 his musical dream still burning bright. 533 00:25:50,717 --> 00:25:53,119 [JEFF GUINN] In California in particular, 534 00:25:53,152 --> 00:25:56,623 even the San Francisco bands that were big 535 00:25:56,656 --> 00:25:59,959 and thought of themselves as sort of the upper echelon, 536 00:25:59,992 --> 00:26:03,730 as Frank Zappa said, everybody had to go down 537 00:26:03,763 --> 00:26:06,498 to Los Angeles and get their hands dirty. 538 00:26:06,532 --> 00:26:08,935 That's where the record companies were, 539 00:26:08,968 --> 00:26:12,104 there's the labels, there's the people who could sign you. 540 00:26:12,138 --> 00:26:15,241 Manson went to Los Angeles for no purpose 541 00:26:15,274 --> 00:26:18,878 other than to become a rock and roll star. 542 00:26:18,911 --> 00:26:21,781 [UPBEAT MUSIC] 543 00:26:24,416 --> 00:26:28,220 [NARRATOR] Los Angeles, 1967. A sprawling city 544 00:26:28,254 --> 00:26:31,758 powered by its immense entertainment industry. 545 00:26:31,791 --> 00:26:33,693 And although it had been the heart the American 546 00:26:33,726 --> 00:26:35,962 film world for decades, 547 00:26:35,995 --> 00:26:37,496 its growth as a thriving music capital 548 00:26:37,529 --> 00:26:40,432 was a relatively recent phenomenon. 549 00:26:40,466 --> 00:26:41,768 At the dawn of the decade, 550 00:26:41,801 --> 00:26:44,804 the music industry was predominantly concentrated 551 00:26:44,837 --> 00:26:46,272 in New York. 552 00:26:46,305 --> 00:26:48,074 Yet in 1961 a band emerged 553 00:26:48,107 --> 00:26:51,678 who would help put Los Angeles on the musical map. 554 00:26:53,212 --> 00:26:55,347 Amid a West Coast craze for surfing, 555 00:26:55,381 --> 00:26:57,549 which produced its own local youth culture 556 00:26:57,583 --> 00:26:59,719 and instrumental rock sound, 557 00:26:59,752 --> 00:27:01,487 The Beach Boys released a run of hits 558 00:27:01,520 --> 00:27:05,457 that brought this culture to national attention. 559 00:27:05,491 --> 00:27:08,360 Led by the gifted composer and singer Brian Wilson, 560 00:27:08,394 --> 00:27:10,596 with his brothers and cousin in support, 561 00:27:10,629 --> 00:27:12,331 the band's unique sound 562 00:27:12,364 --> 00:27:14,834 propelled them to the top of the music world 563 00:27:14,867 --> 00:27:18,270 and immediately gave California a cultural kudos. 564 00:27:18,304 --> 00:27:19,538 [DOMENIC PRIORE] The Beach Boys 565 00:27:19,571 --> 00:27:22,008 and the surf music phenomenon 566 00:27:22,041 --> 00:27:24,643 out of the West Coast, the waves and the suntans 567 00:27:24,677 --> 00:27:29,949 and the girls in skimpy bikinis and dancing go-go girls 568 00:27:29,982 --> 00:27:32,584 was something that kids in the Mid-West 569 00:27:32,618 --> 00:27:36,422 especially were fascinated by. "I can go out in California 570 00:27:36,455 --> 00:27:38,057 "and be living an endless summer." 571 00:27:38,090 --> 00:27:40,159 Even people in the colder East Coast cities 572 00:27:40,192 --> 00:27:42,561 saw that as an out, way out. 573 00:27:42,594 --> 00:27:45,064 People started to head to California 574 00:27:45,097 --> 00:27:47,233 in the early part of the 60s. 575 00:27:47,266 --> 00:27:50,837 The Beach Boys created that mystique nationally. 576 00:27:50,870 --> 00:27:51,971 [SCREAMING FANS] 577 00:27:52,004 --> 00:27:53,139 ["Surfin' U.S.A.", The Beach Boys] 578 00:27:53,172 --> 00:27:56,142 * If everybody had an ocean 579 00:27:56,175 --> 00:27:59,345 * Across the U.S.A. 580 00:27:59,378 --> 00:28:02,281 * Then everybody'd be surfin' 581 00:28:02,314 --> 00:28:05,517 * Like Californi-a 582 00:28:05,551 --> 00:28:08,487 * You'd see 'em wearing their baggies 583 00:28:08,520 --> 00:28:11,623 * Huarachi sandals too 584 00:28:11,657 --> 00:28:14,761 * A bushy bushy blonde hairdo 585 00:28:14,794 --> 00:28:17,629 * Surfin' U.S.A. 586 00:28:17,663 --> 00:28:21,367 [SIMON WELLS] They had this sort of California sun surf 587 00:28:21,400 --> 00:28:24,804 which for everyone, certainly across America 588 00:28:24,837 --> 00:28:26,405 and certainly across the world, 589 00:28:26,438 --> 00:28:28,307 it was a fantastic package. 590 00:28:28,340 --> 00:28:30,409 And it was a brochure to a lifestyle 591 00:28:30,442 --> 00:28:32,244 which many people aspired to. 592 00:28:32,278 --> 00:28:33,512 So it was good time music. 593 00:28:33,545 --> 00:28:34,981 ["I Get Around", The Beach Boys] 594 00:28:35,014 --> 00:28:38,050 * I get around get around round, round I get around 595 00:28:38,084 --> 00:28:41,954 * From town to town get around round round I get around 596 00:28:41,988 --> 00:28:43,790 * I'm a real cool head 597 00:28:43,823 --> 00:28:46,125 * Get around round round I get around... 598 00:28:51,430 --> 00:28:52,932 [JON STEBBINS] Surf music had been around, 599 00:28:52,965 --> 00:28:54,600 but it was instrumental music. 600 00:28:54,633 --> 00:28:57,436 They never had really good vocals on them 601 00:28:57,469 --> 00:28:59,338 or vocals at all on them. 602 00:28:59,371 --> 00:29:01,808 All of a sudden Brian Wilson matches 603 00:29:01,841 --> 00:29:05,244 that Chuck Berry surf rock energy 604 00:29:05,277 --> 00:29:07,479 with these amazing harmonies, 605 00:29:07,513 --> 00:29:10,316 harmonies that have sort of a jazz element to them. 606 00:29:10,349 --> 00:29:12,384 There hadn't been anything like that. 607 00:29:12,418 --> 00:29:14,787 [NARRATOR] The Beach Boys didn't just bring 608 00:29:14,821 --> 00:29:18,825 the allure of California to America's teenagers. 609 00:29:18,858 --> 00:29:22,995 In 1964, record companies began opening offices in Los Angeles 610 00:29:23,029 --> 00:29:24,763 and, following the impact 611 00:29:24,797 --> 00:29:26,833 of The Beatles and the British Invasion, 612 00:29:26,866 --> 00:29:29,601 music television shows were in high demand 613 00:29:29,635 --> 00:29:32,338 and began filming at Hollywood studios. 614 00:29:32,371 --> 00:29:35,607 With the industry booming, in LA itself promoters 615 00:29:35,641 --> 00:29:38,310 and A&R men were looking for local bands 616 00:29:38,344 --> 00:29:40,312 to thrust into the limelight. 617 00:29:40,346 --> 00:29:42,348 Enter The Byrds. 618 00:29:42,381 --> 00:29:44,150 [DOMENIC PRIORE] The Byrds changed 619 00:29:44,183 --> 00:29:46,352 the West Coast music scene overnight. 620 00:29:46,385 --> 00:29:48,888 We had all this record company and record business 621 00:29:48,921 --> 00:29:52,224 moving out to Los Angeles in 1964 622 00:29:52,258 --> 00:29:53,960 but The Byrds pretty much defined 623 00:29:53,993 --> 00:29:55,828 what the future of music was going to be. 624 00:29:55,862 --> 00:29:58,797 They took The Beatles' beat and The Beatles' harmony sound 625 00:29:58,831 --> 00:30:02,935 and then mixed it with Bob Dylan's lyrical profundity. 626 00:30:02,969 --> 00:30:04,603 ["Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man", The Byrds] 627 00:30:04,636 --> 00:30:10,576 * Hey Mister Tambourine Man, play a song for me 628 00:30:10,609 --> 00:30:18,050 * I'm not sleepy and there ain't no place I'm goin' to... 629 00:30:18,084 --> 00:30:21,320 [ANTHONY DECURTIS] You had a progression in L.A. 630 00:30:21,353 --> 00:30:25,391 The Beach Boys were important in the early 60s 631 00:30:25,424 --> 00:30:27,960 and would continue to be so. 632 00:30:27,994 --> 00:30:31,163 But what The Beach Boys represented 633 00:30:31,197 --> 00:30:34,967 by the time The Byrds came along seemed old school, 634 00:30:35,001 --> 00:30:38,304 this fun and the sun and surfing and all this business. 635 00:30:38,337 --> 00:30:41,807 This sense of a countercultural vision of a new world. 636 00:30:41,840 --> 00:30:45,377 That was kind of inscribed in what The Byrds were doing. 637 00:30:45,411 --> 00:30:47,013 ["Turn! Turn" Turn", The Byrds] 638 00:30:47,046 --> 00:30:49,415 * A time of love, a time of hate 639 00:30:49,448 --> 00:30:54,720 * A time of war, a time of peace 640 00:30:54,753 --> 00:30:57,289 * A time you may embrace... 641 00:30:57,323 --> 00:30:59,926 [SIMON WELLS] The Byrds morphed a pop sensibility 642 00:30:59,959 --> 00:31:02,394 with a much deeper theme, 643 00:31:02,428 --> 00:31:05,697 which really up until the end of 1964 644 00:31:05,731 --> 00:31:07,166 no one else had done in pop. 645 00:31:07,199 --> 00:31:09,768 Dylan had done it but he was still a folk artist. 646 00:31:09,801 --> 00:31:12,771 He really hadn't penetrated the higher echelons of pop. 647 00:31:12,804 --> 00:31:15,441 We talk about "Teen Beat" or "16" magazine, 648 00:31:15,474 --> 00:31:17,643 he wasn't featuring in that, but The Byrds were. 649 00:31:17,676 --> 00:31:20,412 [JON STEBBINS] The Byrds were definitely something 650 00:31:20,446 --> 00:31:22,781 that was more 60's, more modern. 651 00:31:22,814 --> 00:31:24,883 They had more of a hippy look. 652 00:31:24,917 --> 00:31:26,285 It was pre-hippy 653 00:31:26,318 --> 00:31:28,420 but Crosby wore his cape 654 00:31:28,454 --> 00:31:31,223 and McGuinn wore his weird sunglasses 655 00:31:31,257 --> 00:31:33,225 and they looked a little edgy. 656 00:31:33,259 --> 00:31:35,627 They had a cool sound. 657 00:31:35,661 --> 00:31:38,130 It was just so perfect and right for the time. 658 00:31:38,164 --> 00:31:40,432 ["Riding on a Storm", The Doors] 659 00:31:40,466 --> 00:31:43,502 [NARRATOR] And the Byrds' success soon inspired 660 00:31:43,535 --> 00:31:45,972 a number of other local bands, including The Doors, 661 00:31:46,005 --> 00:31:49,841 Love and Frank Zappa and his Mothers of Invention. 662 00:31:49,875 --> 00:31:52,744 With marijuana more readily available in California 663 00:31:52,778 --> 00:31:55,047 than on the East coast or in Britain, 664 00:31:55,081 --> 00:31:58,650 these acts all shared an underground sensibility, 665 00:31:58,684 --> 00:32:00,452 a stoned mystique that distinguished them 666 00:32:00,486 --> 00:32:01,988 from the pop world. 667 00:32:02,021 --> 00:32:05,057 And they developed as part of a blooming scene, 668 00:32:05,091 --> 00:32:08,260 its center of activity the half-mile stretch of clubs 669 00:32:08,294 --> 00:32:09,795 and restaurants in West Hollywood 670 00:32:09,828 --> 00:32:11,998 known as the Sunset Strip. 671 00:32:12,031 --> 00:32:14,933 Here, at venues like the Whisky a Go-Go, 672 00:32:14,967 --> 00:32:17,569 the old Hollywood order was being dismantled 673 00:32:17,603 --> 00:32:20,006 and the seeds of the coming hippy movement 674 00:32:20,039 --> 00:32:21,540 were being sown. 675 00:32:21,573 --> 00:32:23,675 [GREGG JAKOBSON] Oh, it was everything. 676 00:32:23,709 --> 00:32:25,978 The Strip was... there was the Whisky and the Trip 677 00:32:26,012 --> 00:32:30,582 and then there were some lesser clubs up and down The Strip. 678 00:32:30,616 --> 00:32:36,688 The Strip was the heart, the Mecca, where you went. 679 00:32:36,722 --> 00:32:40,692 You were either one of those people who was hip, 680 00:32:40,726 --> 00:32:42,394 smoking grass and stuff. 681 00:32:42,428 --> 00:32:44,130 But for those people who weren't into it at all... 682 00:32:44,163 --> 00:32:46,432 Oh, boy! They were like from another planet. 683 00:32:46,465 --> 00:32:47,866 You couldn't even talk to them. 684 00:32:47,899 --> 00:32:50,536 [DOMENIC PRIORE] In previous days like The Sunset Strip 685 00:32:50,569 --> 00:32:54,640 when the Trocadero and the Mocambo and the original Ciro's, 686 00:32:54,673 --> 00:32:56,142 those were exclusive nightclubs 687 00:32:56,175 --> 00:33:00,312 where the rich and the Hollywood movie stars went to. 688 00:33:00,346 --> 00:33:03,649 And you had pictures of Charlie Chaplin and Marilyn Monroe 689 00:33:03,682 --> 00:33:05,884 and all the big names there 690 00:33:05,917 --> 00:33:08,620 but it wasn't really accessible to normal 'Joe'. 691 00:33:08,654 --> 00:33:11,123 You know, you'd see these pictures in movie magazines 692 00:33:11,157 --> 00:33:12,591 and that's about it. 693 00:33:12,624 --> 00:33:15,294 Now that group of people had gotten older. 694 00:33:15,327 --> 00:33:17,229 They'd started performing in Vegas 695 00:33:17,263 --> 00:33:19,831 and teenagers took over the nightclubs. 696 00:33:19,865 --> 00:33:23,669 [DIANNE LAKE] There didn't seem to be this separation. 697 00:33:23,702 --> 00:33:25,904 The musicians were doing their thing 698 00:33:25,937 --> 00:33:30,042 and the audience was doing their thing 699 00:33:30,076 --> 00:33:31,743 but it was all the same thing. 700 00:33:31,777 --> 00:33:33,212 We were getting high. 701 00:33:33,245 --> 00:33:39,218 We were tuning into this expressway to enlightenment. 702 00:33:39,251 --> 00:33:41,887 People were just communing with each other, 703 00:33:41,920 --> 00:33:46,058 both mentally, physically. We were in it together. 704 00:33:48,060 --> 00:33:50,362 [NARRATOR] And it was into this hip new world 705 00:33:50,396 --> 00:33:55,867 that Charles Manson and his four female followers arrived in late 706 00:33:55,901 --> 00:33:59,638 Immediately arranging a meeting with Phil Kaufman's contact, 707 00:33:59,671 --> 00:34:03,442 Gary Stromberg, who was a talent scout for Uni Records, 708 00:34:03,475 --> 00:34:06,578 Manson prepared his best work for the audition. 709 00:34:06,612 --> 00:34:08,647 And Stromberg was impressed enough 710 00:34:08,680 --> 00:34:10,082 to book an hour long recording session 711 00:34:10,116 --> 00:34:13,285 at the illustrious Gold Star Studios, 712 00:34:13,319 --> 00:34:16,188 the venue from which producers Phil Spector 713 00:34:16,222 --> 00:34:18,056 and the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson 714 00:34:18,090 --> 00:34:20,259 had recorded their most famous work. 715 00:34:20,292 --> 00:34:23,429 [SIMON WELLS] The first recording session we know of 716 00:34:23,462 --> 00:34:27,233 for Charles Manson is for Universal Records subsidiary 717 00:34:27,266 --> 00:34:28,467 Uni Records. 718 00:34:28,500 --> 00:34:31,137 The tape remarkably exists. 719 00:34:31,170 --> 00:34:36,575 It's unedited which is unusual... 720 00:34:36,608 --> 00:34:45,151 and it presents a raw, untutored... busker 721 00:34:45,184 --> 00:34:51,423 previewing 20 odd songs... 722 00:34:51,457 --> 00:34:55,827 with no guidance, form or structure whatsoever. 723 00:34:55,861 --> 00:34:57,529 [RECORDING] MAN: Hi, Charlie baby. 724 00:34:57,563 --> 00:34:59,198 [CHARLES MANSON] It's very good. 725 00:34:59,231 --> 00:35:00,666 [MAN] OK. 726 00:35:00,699 --> 00:35:01,867 [CHARLES MANSON] Let's see... 727 00:35:01,900 --> 00:35:03,502 [MAN] Do whatever you feel like doing, man. 728 00:35:03,535 --> 00:35:05,103 [CHARLES MANSON] Yeah. 729 00:35:05,137 --> 00:35:06,905 [MAN] Just groove, you know. Tell us when you're gonna start 730 00:35:06,938 --> 00:35:08,374 and we'll turn the machine on. 731 00:35:08,407 --> 00:35:10,176 [CHARLES MANSON] OK, well, you know... 732 00:35:10,209 --> 00:35:12,211 Can't you just turn it on and let it go? 733 00:35:12,244 --> 00:35:13,512 [MAN] OK. We're going to let it go right now. 734 00:35:13,545 --> 00:35:14,813 [CHARLES MANSON] And then take out what you want 735 00:35:14,846 --> 00:35:16,882 and the rest throw it away. 736 00:35:16,915 --> 00:35:20,886 [NERVOUS LAUGHTER] 737 00:35:20,919 --> 00:35:26,725 [DAVID FELTON] I was startled by Manson's voice. 738 00:35:26,758 --> 00:35:28,160 It seemed different then the voice 739 00:35:28,194 --> 00:35:30,596 that he had when we talked to him... 740 00:35:30,629 --> 00:35:35,066 which must have been a year or two later, in prison. 741 00:35:35,100 --> 00:35:40,706 He was more playful. He... a giggled a lot. 742 00:35:40,739 --> 00:35:42,541 And he seemed nervous. 743 00:35:42,574 --> 00:35:47,012 [MUSIC] 744 00:35:47,045 --> 00:35:49,114 [CHARLES MANSON] If I can make myself nervous... 745 00:35:49,147 --> 00:35:51,683 I should be able to make myself unnervous. 746 00:35:51,717 --> 00:35:53,151 [NERVOUS LAUGHTER] 747 00:35:53,185 --> 00:35:55,587 And it makes sense that it works both ways, don't it? 748 00:35:55,621 --> 00:35:58,023 [ANTHONY DECURTIS] He seems younger than he is at the time. 749 00:35:58,056 --> 00:36:00,292 You know he's in his... mid 30s. 750 00:36:00,326 --> 00:36:03,295 And he seems like he's in his early 20s 751 00:36:03,329 --> 00:36:04,996 maybe when you listen to him. 752 00:36:05,030 --> 00:36:07,899 But he's also nervous as hell. 753 00:36:07,933 --> 00:36:12,871 And you know the kind of command, if you know, 754 00:36:12,904 --> 00:36:16,208 if someone were to say to you, "Well, you know this guy 755 00:36:16,242 --> 00:36:18,777 "is going to be like..." 756 00:36:18,810 --> 00:36:21,647 set aside murderer and all the other stuff 757 00:36:21,680 --> 00:36:22,881 but , "cult leader." 758 00:36:22,914 --> 00:36:25,384 You know he's going to be commanding people 759 00:36:25,417 --> 00:36:28,186 and causing them to do whatever he wants them to do. 760 00:36:28,220 --> 00:36:30,088 That just seems absurd. 761 00:36:30,121 --> 00:36:32,057 He's got like ideas for a song, 762 00:36:32,090 --> 00:36:33,759 he's got little sketches in his mind 763 00:36:33,792 --> 00:36:36,562 and some of them really have potential. 764 00:36:36,595 --> 00:36:38,196 They seem like they can become something. 765 00:36:38,230 --> 00:36:41,867 ["Home Is Where You're Happy", Charles Manson] 766 00:36:41,900 --> 00:36:44,670 * Your home is where you're happy 767 00:36:44,703 --> 00:36:49,575 * It's not where you're not free 768 00:36:49,608 --> 00:36:53,211 * Your home is where you can be what you are 769 00:36:53,245 --> 00:36:56,548 * 'Cause you were just born to be 770 00:36:56,582 --> 00:37:00,286 * You can have a castle 771 00:37:00,319 --> 00:37:03,922 * And diamonds for all to see 772 00:37:03,955 --> 00:37:07,726 * But, you'll never show you their peace of mind 773 00:37:07,759 --> 00:37:10,662 * 'Cause they don't know how to be free 774 00:37:10,696 --> 00:37:12,163 * So burn... 775 00:37:12,197 --> 00:37:14,300 [SIMON WELLS] Your home is where you're happy. 776 00:37:14,333 --> 00:37:16,134 It's a fascinating piece of work. 777 00:37:16,167 --> 00:37:17,736 That was very attractive to young people 778 00:37:17,769 --> 00:37:21,340 with no visible home or no visible background 779 00:37:21,373 --> 00:37:23,775 or no visible structure 780 00:37:23,809 --> 00:37:26,077 or something they've been alienated from 781 00:37:26,111 --> 00:37:28,380 'cause they knew their home wasn't happy. 782 00:37:28,414 --> 00:37:30,382 They knew they weren't free at home. 783 00:37:30,416 --> 00:37:33,819 So they could buy into Manson's utopian world 784 00:37:33,852 --> 00:37:35,186 through the song. 785 00:37:35,220 --> 00:37:36,822 ["Close to Me", Charles Manson] 786 00:37:36,855 --> 00:37:40,292 * Would you mind if I approach you 787 00:37:40,326 --> 00:37:46,332 * With this song may I tell you that I watched you 788 00:37:46,365 --> 00:37:51,102 * How very long that I watched you from afar 789 00:37:51,136 --> 00:37:57,709 * And now right here you are, so close to me 790 00:37:57,743 --> 00:38:00,312 * Now I know it isn't proper... 791 00:38:00,346 --> 00:38:02,314 [JON STEBBINS] There's a Latin influence. 792 00:38:02,348 --> 00:38:04,550 There's a Jazz influence in his stuff. 793 00:38:04,583 --> 00:38:06,685 I was very surprised to hear 794 00:38:06,718 --> 00:38:11,122 actually the smoothness of some of the arrangements 795 00:38:11,156 --> 00:38:13,659 or potentially these arrangements 796 00:38:13,692 --> 00:38:15,994 had a smoothness to them 797 00:38:16,027 --> 00:38:18,029 that just I would never have guessed 798 00:38:18,063 --> 00:38:20,332 that would have been coming out of Charlie. 799 00:38:20,366 --> 00:38:21,867 [DOWNBEAT MUSIC] 800 00:38:21,900 --> 00:38:24,069 [NARRATOR] The sessions didn't convince Uni Records 801 00:38:24,102 --> 00:38:26,905 that Manson was ready for a recording contract. 802 00:38:26,938 --> 00:38:28,640 Taking the rejection in his stride, 803 00:38:28,674 --> 00:38:30,942 he and his Family looked for accommodation, 804 00:38:30,976 --> 00:38:33,512 and found temporary lodging at a communal house 805 00:38:33,545 --> 00:38:35,514 a short walk from Topanga Beach, 806 00:38:35,547 --> 00:38:38,016 known as the Spiral Staircase. 807 00:38:38,049 --> 00:38:40,519 Sharing the property with various drifters, 808 00:38:40,552 --> 00:38:42,020 drug addicts and drop-outs, 809 00:38:42,053 --> 00:38:45,256 Manson and the girls settled into a communal life. 810 00:38:45,290 --> 00:38:48,026 And while he spent time working on his music, 811 00:38:48,059 --> 00:38:53,064 Manson also used the opportunity to search for new recruits. 812 00:38:53,098 --> 00:38:57,369 In December 1967, 14 year old drop-out Dianne Lake 813 00:38:57,403 --> 00:39:00,138 attended a party at the Spiral Staircase house 814 00:39:00,171 --> 00:39:04,943 and became easy prey for an ex-convict twice her age. 815 00:39:04,976 --> 00:39:07,312 [DIANNE LAKE] Charlie comes up, gives me a... you know, 816 00:39:07,345 --> 00:39:08,747 shares his root beer with me, 817 00:39:08,780 --> 00:39:11,049 which was apparently really an honor. 818 00:39:11,082 --> 00:39:14,886 And invites me to come and, you know... 819 00:39:14,920 --> 00:39:16,755 sit in a circle and sing with them. 820 00:39:16,788 --> 00:39:20,859 He was playing the guitar and the girls were all surrounding 821 00:39:20,892 --> 00:39:26,297 and they all came up, hugged me, made me feel really welcome. 822 00:39:26,331 --> 00:39:31,537 Later, Charlie took me under his wing and under his spell 823 00:39:31,570 --> 00:39:35,006 and he seduced me. 824 00:39:35,040 --> 00:39:41,012 He was funny. He was impish, childlike, playful. 825 00:39:41,046 --> 00:39:42,881 You know he had this... he'd shake his head 826 00:39:42,914 --> 00:39:46,718 and his hair would kind of dance around a little. 827 00:39:46,752 --> 00:39:50,489 I mean, he thought he was... I was attracted to him. 828 00:39:50,522 --> 00:39:51,890 I thought he was good-looking. 829 00:39:51,923 --> 00:39:53,525 [NARRATOR] Instantly welcomed 830 00:39:53,559 --> 00:39:55,627 by the other girls in Manson's troupe, 831 00:39:55,661 --> 00:39:57,295 young Dianne quickly fell in 832 00:39:57,328 --> 00:40:00,331 with the group's rituals of hallucinogens 833 00:40:00,365 --> 00:40:03,368 and music, learning every word to Charlie's songs 834 00:40:03,401 --> 00:40:05,537 and joining them in their communal performances. 835 00:40:05,571 --> 00:40:08,940 [DIANNE LAKE] I think we took acid at least once a week. 836 00:40:08,974 --> 00:40:10,408 We'd sit around in a circle 837 00:40:10,442 --> 00:40:13,612 and Charlie would kind of administer it, like a sacrament. 838 00:40:13,645 --> 00:40:17,783 He'd place it on your, tongue and go round the circle. 839 00:40:17,816 --> 00:40:21,052 I mean, it was... it was special. 840 00:40:21,086 --> 00:40:23,054 And most of the trips were good. 841 00:40:23,088 --> 00:40:25,524 And most of them were centered around music. 842 00:40:25,557 --> 00:40:27,125 I enjoyed his music. 843 00:40:27,158 --> 00:40:32,430 At that time, a solo artist with his guitar 844 00:40:32,464 --> 00:40:34,399 was not that uncommon. 845 00:40:34,432 --> 00:40:38,136 [NARRATOR] But by 1968, Charlie began to question 846 00:40:38,169 --> 00:40:40,806 whether his chances of making it in the music business 847 00:40:40,839 --> 00:40:44,075 may be improved if he had a band behind him. 848 00:40:44,109 --> 00:40:47,445 From the Spiral Staircase house and along Sunset Strip, 849 00:40:47,479 --> 00:40:50,248 Manson put the word out that he was forming a group 850 00:40:50,281 --> 00:40:52,684 and looking for young, gifted musicians. 851 00:40:52,718 --> 00:40:55,086 One of the first to turn up for an audition 852 00:40:55,120 --> 00:40:57,322 at the communal house near Topanga Beach 853 00:40:57,355 --> 00:40:59,825 was guitarist Ernest Knapp. 854 00:40:59,858 --> 00:41:01,927 [ERNEST KNAPP] It was creepy, right off the bat. 855 00:41:01,960 --> 00:41:10,135 He had this sense about him that was... just uncomfortable. 856 00:41:10,168 --> 00:41:14,272 Oddly, I didn't audition with the other musicians. 857 00:41:14,305 --> 00:41:17,709 I just auditioned for Charlie and his family. 858 00:41:17,743 --> 00:41:20,512 I set up in the middle of the living room floor. 859 00:41:20,546 --> 00:41:23,549 Put my amp down and plugged it in. 860 00:41:23,582 --> 00:41:26,752 Three of the girls had percussion instruments... 861 00:41:26,785 --> 00:41:30,722 shakers, and a tambourine and some little drum 862 00:41:30,756 --> 00:41:33,525 and actually were accompanying me. 863 00:41:33,559 --> 00:41:36,628 So... which I liked. It was... 864 00:41:36,662 --> 00:41:39,164 I'll take any help I can get, you know. 865 00:41:39,197 --> 00:41:41,600 [NARRATOR] Knapp was invited to join the band, 866 00:41:41,633 --> 00:41:43,569 and the following week returned to rehearse 867 00:41:43,602 --> 00:41:46,471 with Manson's quickly assembled ensemble. 868 00:41:46,504 --> 00:41:48,073 ERNEST KNAPP: Once we had some songs 869 00:41:48,106 --> 00:41:50,108 we knew we could play... 870 00:41:50,141 --> 00:41:52,410 "So, OK, Charlie, what you got?" 871 00:41:52,443 --> 00:41:54,680 And he performed his stuff for us. 872 00:41:54,713 --> 00:41:56,682 I thought he had talent. 873 00:41:56,715 --> 00:41:59,417 I thought his songs were viable. 874 00:41:59,450 --> 00:42:03,555 It was more of a singer-songwriter presentation. 875 00:42:03,589 --> 00:42:06,057 [NARRATOR] Naming the band The Milky Way, 876 00:42:06,091 --> 00:42:08,026 the following day they played 877 00:42:08,059 --> 00:42:10,195 their one and only public performance - 878 00:42:10,228 --> 00:42:12,263 an audition for the Saturday night slot 879 00:42:12,297 --> 00:42:15,466 at the local live bar, the Topanga Corral. 880 00:42:15,500 --> 00:42:17,002 [ERNEST KNAPP] We all met down there 881 00:42:17,035 --> 00:42:19,605 and loaded up into a couple of cars 882 00:42:19,638 --> 00:42:21,707 and drove on up to the Corral, 883 00:42:21,740 --> 00:42:25,076 which at that time was a country and western beer bar 884 00:42:25,110 --> 00:42:27,445 higher up in the canyon. 885 00:42:27,478 --> 00:42:31,282 But we were probably one of the first hippy bands 886 00:42:31,316 --> 00:42:32,918 to try to play there. 887 00:42:32,951 --> 00:42:34,385 And this was in the afternoon 888 00:42:34,419 --> 00:42:38,489 and there was a couple of guys sitting around, 889 00:42:38,523 --> 00:42:43,061 and they were not very nice about it. 890 00:42:43,094 --> 00:42:44,763 They said... no. 891 00:42:44,796 --> 00:42:48,066 [NARRATOR] Manson's only ever band was stillborn, 892 00:42:48,099 --> 00:42:51,269 and he refocused on his work as a solo artist. 893 00:42:51,302 --> 00:42:54,272 Despite its failure, the project had brought him 894 00:42:54,305 --> 00:42:57,242 into contact with another confident young musician. 895 00:42:57,275 --> 00:43:00,178 Bobby Beausoleil, who bragged about his affiliations 896 00:43:00,211 --> 00:43:01,647 to the band Love 897 00:43:01,680 --> 00:43:04,415 and his late night jam sessions with Frank Zappa, 898 00:43:04,449 --> 00:43:07,152 would become a sporadic presence around the family 899 00:43:07,185 --> 00:43:09,254 over the coming two years. 900 00:43:09,287 --> 00:43:12,057 [JEFF GUINN] He was more talented than Charlie. 901 00:43:12,090 --> 00:43:14,359 Everybody who saw the two of them together 902 00:43:14,392 --> 00:43:18,163 would agree, but Beausoleil as a creative artist 903 00:43:18,196 --> 00:43:20,231 certainly saw there was a lot of creativity 904 00:43:20,265 --> 00:43:21,767 in Charlie Manson 905 00:43:21,800 --> 00:43:24,870 and there was a certain bond that was formed between them. 906 00:43:24,903 --> 00:43:27,706 [SIMON WELLS] They shared a musical symmetry. 907 00:43:27,739 --> 00:43:29,908 They had a similar outlook. 908 00:43:29,941 --> 00:43:32,143 They complemented each other quite well. 909 00:43:32,177 --> 00:43:35,146 But Bobby Beausoleil was a strong male. 910 00:43:35,180 --> 00:43:37,148 He had his own independent mind. 911 00:43:37,182 --> 00:43:39,517 That's not something that really fitted in 912 00:43:39,550 --> 00:43:40,986 with Manson's Family. 913 00:43:41,019 --> 00:43:43,188 So while they walked similar paths, 914 00:43:43,221 --> 00:43:47,225 Beausoleil was never a member of the Manson family. 915 00:43:47,258 --> 00:43:49,695 [NARRATOR] But he was well connected. 916 00:43:49,728 --> 00:43:53,832 As Manson was looking to move on from the Spiral Staircase, 917 00:43:53,865 --> 00:43:56,534 Beausoleil suggested the family head north 918 00:43:56,567 --> 00:43:58,369 into Topanga Canyon, 919 00:43:58,403 --> 00:43:59,871 and move into an empty property 920 00:43:59,905 --> 00:44:03,374 where he had been staying in Horseshoe Drive. 921 00:44:03,408 --> 00:44:08,413 Here, in March 1968, the family were joined by Phil Kaufman, 922 00:44:08,446 --> 00:44:11,116 Manson's fellow inmate at Terminal Island, 923 00:44:11,149 --> 00:44:13,484 who was a free man once again. 924 00:44:13,518 --> 00:44:15,687 [PHIL KAUFMAN] When I got out in 1968, 925 00:44:15,721 --> 00:44:19,524 Gary Stromberg knew another guy I knew, Harold True. 926 00:44:19,557 --> 00:44:22,560 Harold had been in contact with Charlie. 927 00:44:22,593 --> 00:44:26,865 So when I got out, Harold took me to Charlie. 928 00:44:26,898 --> 00:44:28,934 When I first met him... 929 00:44:28,967 --> 00:44:31,236 That wasn't the guy I knew in the yard 930 00:44:31,269 --> 00:44:33,438 singing "The Shadow of Your Smile". 931 00:44:33,471 --> 00:44:35,173 [NARRATOR] As impressed as he was 932 00:44:35,206 --> 00:44:37,608 by Manson's harem of women, 933 00:44:37,642 --> 00:44:39,244 Kaufman was also amazed 934 00:44:39,277 --> 00:44:41,579 at the transformation in his music. 935 00:44:41,612 --> 00:44:43,181 And in the compositions themselves, 936 00:44:43,214 --> 00:44:46,151 he could see how these new songs Charlie was writing 937 00:44:46,184 --> 00:44:49,454 were being used to seduce more followers... 938 00:44:49,487 --> 00:44:50,922 [PHIL KAUFMAN] He had a message. 939 00:44:50,956 --> 00:44:55,727 They got a meaning, kind of a pied piper meaning. 940 00:44:55,761 --> 00:45:00,565 Charlie went from Frankie Lane to kind of an acid music. 941 00:45:00,598 --> 00:45:01,867 He was using it. 942 00:45:01,900 --> 00:45:05,436 It was a tool, because young people younger than him, 943 00:45:05,470 --> 00:45:07,038 everybody was younger than him, 944 00:45:07,072 --> 00:45:11,009 were into the new music so he put his lyrics 945 00:45:11,042 --> 00:45:14,079 to kind of a folky type because he didn't have a band. 946 00:45:14,112 --> 00:45:17,248 And "Look at Your Game Girl" was the thing... 947 00:45:17,282 --> 00:45:19,117 "Look at your game girl, come with me." 948 00:45:19,150 --> 00:45:20,618 ["Look at Your Game Girl", Charles Manson] 949 00:45:20,651 --> 00:45:32,297 * There's a time for living The time keeps on flying 950 00:45:32,330 --> 00:45:34,065 * Think you're loving baby... 951 00:45:34,099 --> 00:45:37,002 [SIMON WELLS] "Look at Your Game Girl" is the most complex 952 00:45:37,035 --> 00:45:39,437 of all of Manson's songs of that period. 953 00:45:39,470 --> 00:45:42,841 It's multi-layered, it harmonizes with his guitar. 954 00:45:42,874 --> 00:45:44,442 It has different tempos. 955 00:45:44,475 --> 00:45:47,312 His voice range is considerable on them. 956 00:45:47,345 --> 00:45:50,048 So it's a very... It's hard to say, 957 00:45:50,081 --> 00:45:51,516 given what we know about Manson, 958 00:45:51,549 --> 00:45:53,952 but it's a very well-crafted piece of work. 959 00:45:53,985 --> 00:45:55,987 Are those feelings real 960 00:45:56,021 --> 00:46:01,960 * Look at your game, girl 961 00:46:01,993 --> 00:46:06,764 * Look at your game, girl 962 00:46:06,798 --> 00:46:07,933 * What a mad delusion... 963 00:46:07,966 --> 00:46:10,701 [PHIL KAUFMAN] He was selling something. 964 00:46:10,735 --> 00:46:12,437 He was selling him. 965 00:46:12,470 --> 00:46:16,007 And they bought it. These girls were lost. 966 00:46:16,041 --> 00:46:17,742 These children were lost. 967 00:46:17,775 --> 00:46:22,981 And the hippy thing, peace and love, that was his bait. 968 00:46:23,014 --> 00:46:26,985 [NARRATOR] But the atmosphere in Topanga wasn't sinister. 969 00:46:27,018 --> 00:46:29,955 Peace and love reigned, and the family was beginning 970 00:46:29,988 --> 00:46:32,157 to experience Manson's conception 971 00:46:32,190 --> 00:46:36,027 of a communal life free from material concerns. 972 00:46:36,061 --> 00:46:36,261 With more new members joining the fold, 973 00:46:38,363 --> 00:46:40,465 he taught them how to live modestly, 974 00:46:40,498 --> 00:46:42,800 feeding themselves by visiting garbage dumps. 975 00:46:42,834 --> 00:46:46,537 Times were good, and these collective activities 976 00:46:46,571 --> 00:46:49,307 would find their way into the songs themselves. 977 00:46:49,340 --> 00:46:51,176 [PHIL KAUFMAN] You're not poor, you have a garbage tent. 978 00:46:51,209 --> 00:46:54,579 You'll never starve, as long as you have a garbage dump. 979 00:46:54,612 --> 00:46:56,915 You buy a piece of cheese. 980 00:46:56,948 --> 00:47:01,286 It's dated today. You can't sell it tomorrow. 981 00:47:01,319 --> 00:47:03,321 There's nothing wrong with it. 982 00:47:03,354 --> 00:47:06,457 You can take it home and put it in the fridge. 983 00:47:06,491 --> 00:47:08,126 And that's what Manson or I did. 984 00:47:08,159 --> 00:47:09,627 I was with him. 985 00:47:09,660 --> 00:47:12,097 [DIANNE LAKE] You know, at first it was like, eugh! 986 00:47:12,130 --> 00:47:15,433 'Cause some of the dumpsters were, you know, stinky. 987 00:47:15,466 --> 00:47:16,902 They don't get cleaned, 988 00:47:16,935 --> 00:47:19,337 they don't get hosed down on a regular basis. 989 00:47:19,370 --> 00:47:22,941 But, you know, there was lots of cardboard in there. 990 00:47:22,974 --> 00:47:24,409 There was also food. 991 00:47:24,442 --> 00:47:26,677 I mean, you know, some of them, you know... 992 00:47:26,711 --> 00:47:29,747 You'd learn when they threw the food out, 993 00:47:29,780 --> 00:47:31,616 you know, what time. 994 00:47:31,649 --> 00:47:34,685 And so some of the stuff was still cold. 995 00:47:34,719 --> 00:47:38,789 [PHIL KAUFMAN] We were eating America's garbage, if you will. 996 00:47:38,823 --> 00:47:40,458 ["Garbage Dump", Charles Manson] 997 00:47:40,491 --> 00:47:43,228 * When you're livin' on the road 998 00:47:43,261 --> 00:47:46,731 * And you think sometimes you're starvin' 999 00:47:46,764 --> 00:47:50,601 * Get on off that trip my friend 1000 00:47:50,635 --> 00:47:54,639 * Just get in them cans and start carvin' 1001 00:47:54,672 --> 00:47:58,309 * Oh garbage dump my garbage dump 1002 00:47:58,343 --> 00:48:03,648 * Why are you called my garbage dump... 1003 00:48:03,681 --> 00:48:06,384 [JEFF GUINN] If you want to see what Charlie Manson 1004 00:48:06,417 --> 00:48:09,955 would have wanted the world to see himself as, 1005 00:48:09,988 --> 00:48:12,190 this is the image. 1006 00:48:12,223 --> 00:48:14,392 Not the image of some monster 1007 00:48:14,425 --> 00:48:18,329 who could make mindless robots go out and kill 1008 00:48:18,363 --> 00:48:21,032 but as a wonderful being 1009 00:48:21,066 --> 00:48:25,836 who could exist on practically nothing and be richer 1010 00:48:25,870 --> 00:48:28,139 than all the people who had all the things 1011 00:48:28,173 --> 00:48:30,708 that might otherwise look down on him. 1012 00:48:30,741 --> 00:48:32,477 [NARRATOR] But although the atmosphere 1013 00:48:32,510 --> 00:48:34,245 within the group was tranquil, 1014 00:48:34,279 --> 00:48:37,715 for Phil Kaufman, Manson's constant sermonizing 1015 00:48:37,748 --> 00:48:39,417 was becoming intolerable. 1016 00:48:39,450 --> 00:48:44,489 [PHIL KAUFMAN] I got old, you know, I got old and I got wiser. 1017 00:48:44,522 --> 00:48:48,526 And fortunately I got really wised up 1018 00:48:48,559 --> 00:48:51,829 and I saw the handwriting on the cell block. 1019 00:48:51,862 --> 00:48:54,332 It was time to get out of there 1020 00:48:54,365 --> 00:48:56,167 and divorce myself from him. 1021 00:48:56,201 --> 00:48:59,904 The day I left a friend of mine came and picked me up 1022 00:48:59,937 --> 00:49:02,340 and he said, 1023 00:49:02,373 --> 00:49:05,543 "I got to come, Charlie." He said, "Yeah, I know. 1024 00:49:05,576 --> 00:49:07,545 " You're still thinking, aren't you?" 1025 00:49:07,578 --> 00:49:10,015 I said, "Yeah, I'm gonna keep it up." 1026 00:49:10,048 --> 00:49:12,550 [NARRATOR] Sermons and communal activities 1027 00:49:12,583 --> 00:49:14,185 may have filled their time, 1028 00:49:14,219 --> 00:49:17,788 but Manson was also keen to make musical contacts. 1029 00:49:17,822 --> 00:49:19,624 While he attempted to rub shoulders 1030 00:49:19,657 --> 00:49:20,758 with the rock community 1031 00:49:20,791 --> 00:49:22,327 living in and around Topanga Canyon, 1032 00:49:22,360 --> 00:49:26,331 he also sent his followers to the Sunset Strip. 1033 00:49:26,364 --> 00:49:28,699 Here they were to attract the attention 1034 00:49:28,733 --> 00:49:31,102 of any musicians they may come across 1035 00:49:31,136 --> 00:49:33,471 and effect an introduction to Manson. 1036 00:49:33,504 --> 00:49:38,143 And in May, 1968, two of the girls hit pay dirt. 1037 00:49:38,176 --> 00:49:41,646 [JEFF GUINN] That was Jo Bailey, who was known as Yeller, 1038 00:49:41,679 --> 00:49:45,783 and Pat Krenwinkel, walking down the road 1039 00:49:45,816 --> 00:49:47,718 in Hollywood hitching. 1040 00:49:47,752 --> 00:49:52,790 A car stops to pick them up. A young good-looking guy says, 1041 00:49:52,823 --> 00:49:54,692 "Hey, do you girls need a ride?" 1042 00:49:54,725 --> 00:49:59,464 He suggests they go back to his place for milk and cookies. 1043 00:49:59,497 --> 00:50:02,700 They think they know exactly what that means, 1044 00:50:02,733 --> 00:50:04,169 so when they get back to his house, 1045 00:50:04,202 --> 00:50:06,937 which is really a spectacular place, 1046 00:50:06,971 --> 00:50:08,873 just off the Sunset, 1047 00:50:08,906 --> 00:50:12,210 he really does offer them milk and cookies. 1048 00:50:12,243 --> 00:50:16,447 And after a while, he says he's got to go, 1049 00:50:16,481 --> 00:50:19,050 he hopes he sees them again sometime. 1050 00:50:19,084 --> 00:50:21,686 He's in a band called The Beach Boys. 1051 00:50:21,719 --> 00:50:25,323 They dutifully go back and... 1052 00:50:25,356 --> 00:50:27,592 Charlie's asking, "Did you meet anybody?" 1053 00:50:27,625 --> 00:50:29,894 "Well, there's this one guy who picked us up 1054 00:50:29,927 --> 00:50:32,297 "and took us back to his house, you know..." 1055 00:50:32,330 --> 00:50:35,900 "What band was he is?" "The Beach... Boys." 1056 00:50:35,933 --> 00:50:38,269 And Charlie... that's it. 1057 00:50:38,303 --> 00:50:41,139 He is jumping out of his clothes. 1058 00:50:41,172 --> 00:50:43,141 "Where's this guy's house?" 1059 00:50:43,174 --> 00:50:44,442 [NARRATOR] The Beach Boy 1060 00:50:44,475 --> 00:50:46,077 they had unwittingly stumbled upon 1061 00:50:46,111 --> 00:50:48,913 was Dennis Wilson, the drummer and younger brother 1062 00:50:48,946 --> 00:50:52,950 of the band's celebrated producer and songwriter Brian. 1063 00:50:52,983 --> 00:50:55,886 That night, Manson and his entire family set off 1064 00:50:55,920 --> 00:50:58,489 for Wilson's property on Sunset Boulevard, 1065 00:50:58,523 --> 00:51:00,525 keen to make a real impression. 1066 00:51:00,558 --> 00:51:02,960 [JEFF GUINN] Dennis Wilson in the middle of the night, 1067 00:51:02,993 --> 00:51:05,663 coming back home, pulls into his driveway 1068 00:51:05,696 --> 00:51:08,366 and the lights are on in his house. 1069 00:51:08,399 --> 00:51:11,536 And there's a school bus parked there. 1070 00:51:11,569 --> 00:51:14,572 There's people in his house. 1071 00:51:14,605 --> 00:51:17,342 He gets out of his car and he's going in carefully 1072 00:51:17,375 --> 00:51:18,509 'cause he's a rich guy. 1073 00:51:18,543 --> 00:51:20,311 You never know what's gonna be there. 1074 00:51:20,345 --> 00:51:25,616 And out comes this little short dude with a beard, 1075 00:51:25,650 --> 00:51:29,220 "Hey man. How are you?" acting like a host. 1076 00:51:29,254 --> 00:51:31,956 And the first words out of Dennis' mouth are, 1077 00:51:31,989 --> 00:51:33,724 "Are you gonna hurt me" 1078 00:51:33,758 --> 00:51:36,594 And Charlie Manson kneels down 1079 00:51:36,627 --> 00:51:39,564 and he kisses Dennis Wilson's foot. 1080 00:51:39,597 --> 00:51:42,367 "Do I seem like somebody who's gonna hurt you, man? 1081 00:51:42,400 --> 00:51:46,137 "Come on in." And Dennis goes in and they're in his house. 1082 00:51:46,171 --> 00:51:48,706 It's the Manson Family making themselves at home. 1083 00:51:48,739 --> 00:51:52,477 [NARRATOR] With half-naked girls sprawled around his house, 1084 00:51:52,510 --> 00:51:54,879 Dennis Wilson was instantly enchanted 1085 00:51:54,912 --> 00:51:56,681 by Manson and his followers. 1086 00:51:56,714 --> 00:51:59,284 Of all The Beach Boys, they had unwittingly met 1087 00:51:59,317 --> 00:52:02,052 the one who would be most open to their charms. 1088 00:52:02,086 --> 00:52:04,489 [DOMENIC PRIORE] Dennis Wilson was 100% different 1089 00:52:04,522 --> 00:52:08,259 from the rest of the band in one important way. 1090 00:52:08,293 --> 00:52:09,527 He was the athlete. 1091 00:52:09,560 --> 00:52:11,429 He was the guy who went out and surfed, 1092 00:52:11,462 --> 00:52:14,199 and of course the girls liked him the most. 1093 00:52:14,232 --> 00:52:17,235 He was, you know, very ruggedly handsome 1094 00:52:17,268 --> 00:52:19,337 and he had a way with women. 1095 00:52:19,370 --> 00:52:22,607 The other guys were like, Brian is sort of tall and goggy, 1096 00:52:22,640 --> 00:52:26,110 and Carl's like chubby and taking guitar lessons, 1097 00:52:26,143 --> 00:52:27,545 and Al's gonna be a dentist, 1098 00:52:27,578 --> 00:52:29,514 and Mike's working at a gas station. 1099 00:52:29,547 --> 00:52:32,417 He's sort of like the jerk lead singer. 1100 00:52:32,450 --> 00:52:35,953 Dennis Wilson embodied what The Beach Boys were about. 1101 00:52:35,986 --> 00:52:38,389 Their first songs were about surfing and cars. 1102 00:52:38,423 --> 00:52:42,427 Brian Wilson was writing songs about Dennis' life. 1103 00:52:42,460 --> 00:52:45,129 [NARRATOR] And the Family had burst into Wilson's life 1104 00:52:45,162 --> 00:52:47,332 at a perfect juncture. 1105 00:52:47,365 --> 00:52:49,567 In the past year The Beach Boys had suffered 1106 00:52:49,600 --> 00:52:52,102 a series of commercial disappointments, 1107 00:52:52,136 --> 00:52:53,971 with their genius Brian Wilson 1108 00:52:54,004 --> 00:52:56,541 losing artistic control of the band 1109 00:52:56,574 --> 00:52:57,908 and mentally struggling 1110 00:52:57,942 --> 00:53:00,978 following his prolonged use of LSD. 1111 00:53:01,011 --> 00:53:04,682 Trying to refresh their tired image in the new, hip world, 1112 00:53:04,715 --> 00:53:07,452 in the weeks before the Manson Family arrived 1113 00:53:07,485 --> 00:53:09,354 Dennis had been on the road for a tour 1114 00:53:09,387 --> 00:53:13,324 that paired the band with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. 1115 00:53:13,358 --> 00:53:17,395 This prominent Indian guru had been elevated to superstardom 1116 00:53:17,428 --> 00:53:19,864 following his involvement with The Beatles, 1117 00:53:19,897 --> 00:53:21,666 yet the combination of his speeches 1118 00:53:21,699 --> 00:53:23,368 on Transcendental Meditation 1119 00:53:23,401 --> 00:53:24,802 with a rock and roll show 1120 00:53:24,835 --> 00:53:28,172 unsurprisingly failed to make any impact. 1121 00:53:28,205 --> 00:53:29,674 [GREGG JAKOBSON] It was a disaster. 1122 00:53:29,707 --> 00:53:31,876 The people that want to see The Beach Boys 1123 00:53:31,909 --> 00:53:33,311 don't want to see Maharishi, 1124 00:53:33,344 --> 00:53:34,712 and the people who want to see Maharishi 1125 00:53:34,745 --> 00:53:35,646 don't want to see The Beach Boys. 1126 00:53:35,680 --> 00:53:36,781 It didn't work. 1127 00:53:36,814 --> 00:53:39,817 Interesting idea, but it was a failure. 1128 00:53:39,850 --> 00:53:42,086 [JON STEBBINS] '68 was a rough year for them 1129 00:53:42,119 --> 00:53:44,822 The Maharishi tour was a disaster. 1130 00:53:44,855 --> 00:53:46,924 They had problems 1131 00:53:46,957 --> 00:53:49,059 with the southern element of their tour 1132 00:53:49,093 --> 00:53:52,096 because of Martin Luther King's assassination. 1133 00:53:52,129 --> 00:53:54,599 They were losing money, they were hemorrhaging money. 1134 00:53:54,632 --> 00:53:56,734 Records weren't selling. 1135 00:53:56,767 --> 00:53:59,604 They really weren't catching up with people culturally. 1136 00:53:59,637 --> 00:54:02,206 They were still wearing matching outfits on stage. 1137 00:54:02,239 --> 00:54:04,074 So by 1968, 1138 00:54:04,108 --> 00:54:08,613 The Beach Boys were perceived as part of the past. 1139 00:54:09,747 --> 00:54:11,316 [NARRATOR] Dennis wasn't interested 1140 00:54:11,349 --> 00:54:13,551 in being part of the past. 1141 00:54:13,584 --> 00:54:16,220 A young man ever alive to new ideas, 1142 00:54:16,253 --> 00:54:19,089 he had been fascinated by the Maharishi's teachings 1143 00:54:19,123 --> 00:54:22,327 and was looking for greater meaning in his life. 1144 00:54:22,360 --> 00:54:25,463 Manson's sermons denouncing material possessions 1145 00:54:25,496 --> 00:54:28,566 and celebrating communal and spiritual unity, 1146 00:54:28,599 --> 00:54:31,068 along with the sexual allure of the girls, 1147 00:54:31,101 --> 00:54:32,737 won him over immediately, 1148 00:54:32,770 --> 00:54:34,772 and he invited them all to join him 1149 00:54:34,805 --> 00:54:38,809 at his 14400, Sunset Boulevard home. 1150 00:54:38,843 --> 00:54:40,244 [DIANNE LAKE] Dennis was a fun guy. 1151 00:54:40,277 --> 00:54:43,113 I remember him being kind of a wild man, 1152 00:54:43,147 --> 00:54:49,253 he liked... loved fast cars, fast women. 1153 00:54:49,286 --> 00:54:51,922 He liked living in the fast lane. 1154 00:54:51,956 --> 00:54:55,426 Dennis had just come off of retreat or something 1155 00:54:55,460 --> 00:54:59,229 with the Maharishi yogi so I think he... 1156 00:54:59,263 --> 00:55:02,500 And Charlie kind of fit that guru... 1157 00:55:02,533 --> 00:55:08,138 I think that Dennis was looking for this kind of inspiration. 1158 00:55:08,172 --> 00:55:10,375 [JON STEBBINS] Dennis was always looking for more. 1159 00:55:10,408 --> 00:55:13,277 He was always looking for the next thing, 1160 00:55:13,310 --> 00:55:15,780 and he was like a child in that way. 1161 00:55:15,813 --> 00:55:20,751 And I think that these people really interested him. 1162 00:55:20,785 --> 00:55:23,454 Part of the thing for Dennis at that time 1163 00:55:23,488 --> 00:55:28,292 was that he harbored a certain guilt for all that he had, 1164 00:55:28,325 --> 00:55:32,262 for all the wealth and trappings that came with it. 1165 00:55:32,296 --> 00:55:36,300 I don't think he ever felt like he deserved it. 1166 00:55:36,333 --> 00:55:38,469 I think he felt like he got all of this 1167 00:55:38,503 --> 00:55:40,571 basically because of his brother. 1168 00:55:40,605 --> 00:55:43,774 And all of this stuff just came to him, 1169 00:55:43,808 --> 00:55:46,777 not by his own hard work or not by his own talent, 1170 00:55:46,811 --> 00:55:48,913 but just by luck. 1171 00:55:48,946 --> 00:55:50,347 [NARRATOR] Wilson had only moved 1172 00:55:50,381 --> 00:55:53,317 into his sprawling, rented property on Sunset Boulevard 1173 00:55:53,350 --> 00:55:57,087 recently following the breakdown of his first marriage. 1174 00:55:57,121 --> 00:55:59,089 With Manson and his wandering harem 1175 00:55:59,123 --> 00:56:00,758 now permanent house guests, 1176 00:56:00,791 --> 00:56:04,429 he contacted his close friend and collaborator Gregg Jakobson 1177 00:56:04,462 --> 00:56:06,163 and invited him to the party... 1178 00:56:06,196 --> 00:56:08,065 [GREGG JAKOBSON] My first exposure to the wizard, 1179 00:56:08,098 --> 00:56:11,636 as Dennis would call him, was he called me up one night, 1180 00:56:11,669 --> 00:56:13,270 "Gregg, you have to come down here. 1181 00:56:13,303 --> 00:56:15,172 "You've got to see this guy. He's the wizard 1182 00:56:15,205 --> 00:56:17,141 "and he's got all these girls." 1183 00:56:17,174 --> 00:56:20,344 For me it was, "OK, Den, I've heard it before. 1184 00:56:20,377 --> 00:56:23,681 "Girls and a party. I'm married. I've got a couple of kids." 1185 00:56:23,714 --> 00:56:27,652 So I never responded until it was sometime, 1186 00:56:27,685 --> 00:56:30,621 maybe a week later when they were much more 1187 00:56:30,655 --> 00:56:33,491 part of the whole scene down there at the house. 1188 00:56:33,524 --> 00:56:38,563 I must say this. When Charlie was around, he had an energy. 1189 00:56:38,596 --> 00:56:40,998 You couldn't not pay attention to Charlie. 1190 00:56:41,031 --> 00:56:42,967 He was a likeable person. 1191 00:56:43,000 --> 00:56:45,670 He was very charming and he paid attention to you. 1192 00:56:45,703 --> 00:56:48,506 I can understand why Dennis called him 'The Wizard' 1193 00:56:48,539 --> 00:56:53,177 because he did have that unique ability 1194 00:56:53,210 --> 00:56:57,582 to make you feel like you were... he was concerned. 1195 00:56:57,615 --> 00:57:01,218 You were important. He didn't just shine you on. 1196 00:57:01,251 --> 00:57:05,923 [DIANNE LAKE] Just living on that estate was magical. 1197 00:57:05,956 --> 00:57:09,159 I remember getting high 1198 00:57:09,193 --> 00:57:13,263 and drinking like orange juice or grape juice 1199 00:57:13,297 --> 00:57:16,567 that was just, uh... heavenly. 1200 00:57:16,601 --> 00:57:18,736 [GREGG JAKOBSON] Don't forget, Dennis had left his house 1201 00:57:18,769 --> 00:57:20,905 and his family and his wife and stuff. 1202 00:57:20,938 --> 00:57:25,676 Now he had all this adoration and all these girls. 1203 00:57:25,710 --> 00:57:27,912 They were making him clothes 1204 00:57:27,945 --> 00:57:30,247 and they almost would bow down to him. 1205 00:57:30,280 --> 00:57:32,917 So I'm sure for the moment 1206 00:57:32,950 --> 00:57:36,787 he was very charmed by the whole scene. 1207 00:57:36,821 --> 00:57:39,056 [NARRATOR] But it wasn't all about sex, drugs 1208 00:57:39,089 --> 00:57:40,858 and expanded consciousness - 1209 00:57:40,891 --> 00:57:44,695 Wilson was also fascinated by Manson's music. 1210 00:57:44,729 --> 00:57:47,397 And with his older brother Brian withdrawing from his role 1211 00:57:47,431 --> 00:57:51,135 as The Beach Boys' driving force, the other band members 1212 00:57:51,168 --> 00:57:53,938 were keen to find their own voice within the group, 1213 00:57:53,971 --> 00:57:55,573 none more so than Dennis. 1214 00:57:55,606 --> 00:57:59,944 [STEPHEN DESPER] At the time he was developing his skills 1215 00:57:59,977 --> 00:58:01,546 on the keyboard. 1216 00:58:01,579 --> 00:58:06,917 He would come in in the morning and practice and work things out 1217 00:58:06,951 --> 00:58:10,154 and sometimes Brian would help and show him things, 1218 00:58:10,187 --> 00:58:13,891 but most of the time he was experimenting on his own. 1219 00:58:13,924 --> 00:58:16,426 So he was different from the other guys 1220 00:58:16,460 --> 00:58:19,930 who were familiar with chords and transitions 1221 00:58:19,964 --> 00:58:21,398 and that kind of thing. 1222 00:58:21,431 --> 00:58:25,536 But he was extremely talented, he was a fast learner. 1223 00:58:25,570 --> 00:58:27,838 [JON STEBBINS] 1968 was the first time 1224 00:58:27,872 --> 00:58:29,940 he was even being looked at 1225 00:58:29,974 --> 00:58:33,978 as something serious musically 1226 00:58:34,011 --> 00:58:36,380 and Brian was allowing the others 1227 00:58:36,413 --> 00:58:38,348 to show what they had. 1228 00:58:38,382 --> 00:58:42,720 And Dennis was showing the knack for writing songs. 1229 00:58:42,753 --> 00:58:46,991 He's a novice but it's obvious that there's something there. 1230 00:58:47,024 --> 00:58:49,326 [NARRATOR] The Beach Boys had also recently 1231 00:58:49,359 --> 00:58:50,928 set up their own record label, 1232 00:58:50,961 --> 00:58:54,298 Brother Records, with an eye to signing new talent 1233 00:58:54,331 --> 00:58:55,933 that would better reflect the times 1234 00:58:55,966 --> 00:58:58,435 than their own stale act. 1235 00:58:58,468 --> 00:59:00,971 Impressed by Manson's musical talents, 1236 00:59:01,005 --> 00:59:02,873 Wilson hoped to both learn from 1237 00:59:02,907 --> 00:59:05,375 and collaborate with his new houseguest. 1238 00:59:05,409 --> 00:59:07,211 [GREGG JAKOBSON] It was probably the first time 1239 00:59:07,244 --> 00:59:09,313 that Dennis got interested in somebody 1240 00:59:09,346 --> 00:59:11,148 and the music at the same time, 1241 00:59:11,181 --> 00:59:13,383 almost like a producer would start considering 1242 00:59:13,417 --> 00:59:15,252 how you deal with an artist 1243 00:59:15,285 --> 00:59:17,688 and I think that was where Dennis was coming from 1244 00:59:17,722 --> 00:59:19,489 and he realized that he really had something 1245 00:59:19,523 --> 00:59:21,158 that he could bring to the table. 1246 00:59:21,191 --> 00:59:24,829 And so he became musically Charlie's mentor, let's say. 1247 00:59:24,862 --> 00:59:26,864 [DIANNE LAKE] Primarily, the relationship 1248 00:59:26,897 --> 00:59:29,133 that bound them together was music. 1249 00:59:29,166 --> 00:59:33,203 What I remember is that he was truly fond of Charlie. 1250 00:59:33,237 --> 00:59:37,574 I mean, he introduced Charlie to his friends. 1251 00:59:37,608 --> 00:59:39,944 Charlie was teaching him how to play the guitar 1252 00:59:39,977 --> 00:59:45,182 and he, you know, it was kind of a mutual admiration... 1253 00:59:45,215 --> 00:59:49,754 bromance or whatever. That's what I remember seeing, 1254 00:59:49,787 --> 00:59:54,992 is that I think they genuinely liked each other. 1255 00:59:55,025 --> 00:59:58,595 [JON STEBBINS] It must have been a bit of a vindication 1256 00:59:58,629 --> 01:00:01,198 for Manson to be taken seriously by somebody 1257 01:00:01,231 --> 01:00:02,867 as well-known as Dennis. 1258 01:00:02,900 --> 01:00:06,136 Even though Dennis hadn't really developed himself 1259 01:00:06,170 --> 01:00:08,939 as an artist yet, Dennis was a superstar. 1260 01:00:08,973 --> 01:00:12,276 Suddenly, you were collaborating with someone 1261 01:00:12,309 --> 01:00:14,411 who was very well-known 1262 01:00:14,444 --> 01:00:15,846 and comes from a family 1263 01:00:15,880 --> 01:00:19,616 that is hugely respected in the industry. 1264 01:00:19,650 --> 01:00:21,285 [NARRATOR] Along with Gregg Jakobson, 1265 01:00:21,318 --> 01:00:23,253 Wilson was also keen to introduce 1266 01:00:23,287 --> 01:00:25,656 his dynamic new house guest and collaborator 1267 01:00:25,690 --> 01:00:29,159 to another friend, record producer Terry Melcher. 1268 01:00:30,027 --> 01:00:31,461 The son of Doris Day 1269 01:00:31,495 --> 01:00:34,164 and the partner of rising star Candice Bergen, 1270 01:00:34,198 --> 01:00:36,867 with his prominent role in the LA music scene 1271 01:00:36,901 --> 01:00:40,938 Melcher was a vital link between Hollywood past and present. 1272 01:00:40,971 --> 01:00:42,572 [ANTHONY DECURTIS] Terry Melcher was somebody 1273 01:00:42,606 --> 01:00:45,042 who was very much part 1274 01:00:45,075 --> 01:00:48,645 of the Hollywood entertainment scene 1275 01:00:48,679 --> 01:00:51,816 and, you know, he produced the first two Byrds' albums, 1276 01:00:51,849 --> 01:00:53,918 which are hugely important. 1277 01:00:53,951 --> 01:00:56,486 He was very involved with Paul Revere & The Raiders, 1278 01:00:56,520 --> 01:00:59,690 who were big hit makers at the time. 1279 01:00:59,724 --> 01:01:02,993 I mean, everybody knew who Terry Melcher was. 1280 01:01:03,027 --> 01:01:09,099 And so to get his blessing or to summon his interest 1281 01:01:09,133 --> 01:01:14,304 would have been a big get for any aspiring songwriter. 1282 01:01:14,338 --> 01:01:15,940 [NARRATOR] Over the coming months, 1283 01:01:15,973 --> 01:01:17,942 Manson became close enough to Melcher 1284 01:01:17,975 --> 01:01:20,444 that he was invited to the Beverley Hills property 1285 01:01:20,477 --> 01:01:23,213 the producer rented in Cielo Drive. 1286 01:01:23,247 --> 01:01:27,117 Although Melcher and Jakobson were his most frequent visitors, 1287 01:01:27,151 --> 01:01:29,553 Dennis Wilson's home was a popular hangout 1288 01:01:29,586 --> 01:01:31,588 for many prominent musicians. 1289 01:01:31,621 --> 01:01:34,424 [SIMON WELLS] Dennis' house was a gathering point. 1290 01:01:34,458 --> 01:01:38,495 Being very liberal, and people sort of felt welcome 1291 01:01:38,528 --> 01:01:40,297 and could drop in at all hours, 1292 01:01:40,330 --> 01:01:42,432 so many people called in on Dennis, 1293 01:01:42,466 --> 01:01:46,570 and obviously collided with the Manson Family. 1294 01:01:46,603 --> 01:01:49,740 The likes of Stephen Stills, Glenn Campbell. 1295 01:01:49,774 --> 01:01:51,341 Neil Diamond was another. 1296 01:01:51,375 --> 01:01:55,079 Neil Young, freshly released from Buffalo Springfield, 1297 01:01:55,112 --> 01:01:58,482 came across Manson and he was blown away 1298 01:01:58,515 --> 01:02:00,550 by Manson's musical playing. 1299 01:02:00,584 --> 01:02:01,952 If reports are to be believed, 1300 01:02:01,986 --> 01:02:03,954 he was enchanted with Manson. 1301 01:02:03,988 --> 01:02:06,123 He bought him a motorcycle. 1302 01:02:06,156 --> 01:02:09,493 Took him along to meet Warners, 1303 01:02:09,526 --> 01:02:12,462 who if accounts are to be believed, 1304 01:02:12,496 --> 01:02:13,964 wasn't that impressed. 1305 01:02:13,998 --> 01:02:19,503 So I think Manson's personable presence enchanted people. 1306 01:02:19,536 --> 01:02:20,971 The problem with Manson is 1307 01:02:21,005 --> 01:02:24,842 once you bounce that down onto tape it loses everything. 1308 01:02:24,875 --> 01:02:27,211 So what you're left with is some songs. 1309 01:02:27,244 --> 01:02:28,846 You don't have Manson the character, 1310 01:02:28,879 --> 01:02:30,347 you don't have Manson, the girls... 1311 01:02:30,380 --> 01:02:34,351 What enchanted people was the package. 1312 01:02:34,384 --> 01:02:36,153 [NARRATOR] Now an accepted figure 1313 01:02:36,186 --> 01:02:39,156 within the upper echelons of the LA counterculture, 1314 01:02:39,189 --> 01:02:43,193 Manson's presence at parties and clubs became common. 1315 01:02:43,227 --> 01:02:45,429 And in the very nerve center of the scene, 1316 01:02:45,462 --> 01:02:46,864 on the Sunset Strip 1317 01:02:46,897 --> 01:02:49,366 and its premiere venue the Whisky A-Go-Go, 1318 01:02:49,399 --> 01:02:51,601 he made an indelible impression... 1319 01:02:51,635 --> 01:02:53,503 [GREGG JAKOBSON] There was an incident at the Whisky. 1320 01:02:53,537 --> 01:02:55,605 One night we were all there at the table. 1321 01:02:55,639 --> 01:02:57,574 Charlie had come with us. Dennis was there. 1322 01:02:57,607 --> 01:03:00,911 Terry Melcher was there. So we were all there, 1323 01:03:00,945 --> 01:03:03,380 drinking beer and having a good time. 1324 01:03:03,413 --> 01:03:05,415 And we noticed a bit of a commotion 1325 01:03:05,449 --> 01:03:09,619 coming from the dance floor. And the Whisky's packed. 1326 01:03:09,653 --> 01:03:11,255 The girls were up in the cages 1327 01:03:11,288 --> 01:03:14,458 at the time at the Whisky and the band is playing full on. 1328 01:03:14,491 --> 01:03:17,161 The band's really into it because something's going on. 1329 01:03:17,194 --> 01:03:18,495 I stood up on the chair. 1330 01:03:18,528 --> 01:03:20,497 I stood up in the back of the booth and I said, 1331 01:03:20,530 --> 01:03:22,732 "Hey you guys, you've got to see this." 1332 01:03:22,766 --> 01:03:26,837 It was Charlie in the middle of the dance floor dancing 1333 01:03:26,871 --> 01:03:29,974 and he'd literally cleared the dance floor at the Whisky. 1334 01:03:30,007 --> 01:03:32,109 I mean, people slowly pulled back until... 1335 01:03:32,142 --> 01:03:34,344 And I swear to God to this day 1336 01:03:34,378 --> 01:03:36,580 it looked like electricity was coming out of him. 1337 01:03:36,613 --> 01:03:38,182 I mean, that kind of energy 1338 01:03:38,215 --> 01:03:39,984 and he literally blew everybody away 1339 01:03:40,017 --> 01:03:41,451 on the dance floor by himself. 1340 01:03:41,485 --> 01:03:44,188 Nobody could even come close to dancing with him. 1341 01:03:44,221 --> 01:03:46,556 But that was Charlie. 1342 01:03:46,590 --> 01:03:51,862 He had that explosiveness, that energy. 1343 01:03:51,896 --> 01:03:54,198 [NARRATOR] Although he was making his mark on the scene, 1344 01:03:54,231 --> 01:03:56,433 by the late summer Manson and his Family 1345 01:03:56,466 --> 01:03:59,403 had outstayed their welcome at Dennis Wilson's house. 1346 01:03:59,436 --> 01:04:01,872 In August The Beach Boys were embarking 1347 01:04:01,906 --> 01:04:04,374 on an extensive tour of the U.S. and Canada 1348 01:04:04,408 --> 01:04:06,110 to promote their latest album, 1349 01:04:06,143 --> 01:04:08,979 and Wilson decided this would be the perfect time 1350 01:04:09,013 --> 01:04:11,448 for his houseguests to move on. 1351 01:04:11,481 --> 01:04:13,617 [SIMON WELLS] The party had to end sometime 1352 01:04:13,650 --> 01:04:15,052 and it was costing Dennis a fortune 1353 01:04:15,085 --> 01:04:17,521 and if all the accounts are to be believed 1354 01:04:17,554 --> 01:04:23,160 it was $100,000 in food, gonorrhea treatment, 1355 01:04:23,193 --> 01:04:28,665 lost clothing everything. They were bleeding him dry. 1356 01:04:28,698 --> 01:04:31,801 [GREGG JAKOBSON] I was told by Dennis' PA man. 1357 01:04:31,835 --> 01:04:34,504 "I'm going on the road. Can you... find us a new place?" 1358 01:04:34,538 --> 01:04:36,506 He says, "I want my stuff out of there." 1359 01:04:36,540 --> 01:04:39,944 Charlie didn't have much choice. The house got closed down. 1360 01:04:39,977 --> 01:04:42,546 I closed it down while Dennis was gone. 1361 01:04:42,579 --> 01:04:44,414 He came back a couple of weeks later 1362 01:04:44,448 --> 01:04:46,350 to a new house. 1363 01:04:46,383 --> 01:04:49,920 [NARRATOR] Their friendship and musical collaboration continued, 1364 01:04:49,954 --> 01:04:53,924 and Manson used the opportunity to relocate his growing Family 1365 01:04:53,958 --> 01:04:56,026 to a more isolated venue. 1366 01:04:56,060 --> 01:04:58,462 Spahn Ranch, 30 miles north 1367 01:04:58,495 --> 01:05:00,530 of Dennis' Santa Monica home, 1368 01:05:00,564 --> 01:05:02,666 was a once a thriving movie location 1369 01:05:02,699 --> 01:05:05,970 during the heyday of Western films the previous decade. 1370 01:05:06,003 --> 01:05:10,407 Now largely inactive, it proved perfect for Manson's needs. 1371 01:05:10,440 --> 01:05:13,944 [JEFF GUINN] Cult leaders can always be identified 1372 01:05:13,978 --> 01:05:17,614 by a couple of things they do and Manson did them all. 1373 01:05:17,647 --> 01:05:21,118 The first thing is that you have to find people 1374 01:05:21,151 --> 01:05:25,155 who feel put upon, persecuted and convince them 1375 01:05:25,189 --> 01:05:29,459 that you know the way to protect them but only you. 1376 01:05:29,493 --> 01:05:32,796 The second thing you try to do is isolate them. 1377 01:05:32,829 --> 01:05:36,133 You've got to get them away from outside voices. 1378 01:05:36,166 --> 01:05:40,570 Families, friends, media. Anybody who would say, 1379 01:05:40,604 --> 01:05:42,739 "Wait a minute, this guy's a crackpot." 1380 01:05:42,772 --> 01:05:44,041 You want to get to a point 1381 01:05:44,074 --> 01:05:45,842 where the only voice they hear is yours. 1382 01:05:45,875 --> 01:05:48,778 That's not going to work at Dennis Wilson's house. 1383 01:05:48,812 --> 01:05:52,549 Spahn Ranch, just outside of Los Angeles, 1384 01:05:52,582 --> 01:05:55,519 and if you hear the distance involved, 1385 01:05:55,552 --> 01:05:57,021 it's not that many miles. 1386 01:05:57,054 --> 01:05:58,922 You think, "It's going to be smog 1387 01:05:58,955 --> 01:06:00,757 "and more of these buildings." 1388 01:06:00,790 --> 01:06:04,161 But it's actual sort of this natural area 1389 01:06:04,194 --> 01:06:06,496 that seems like it's the frontier. 1390 01:06:06,530 --> 01:06:07,831 It's the country. 1391 01:06:07,864 --> 01:06:10,667 It's as far removed from a big city as you can imagine. 1392 01:06:10,700 --> 01:06:13,603 And yet it's only about a 25 minute drive. 1393 01:06:13,637 --> 01:06:16,406 Charlie still can reach Los Angeles 1394 01:06:16,440 --> 01:06:18,608 but he can isolate his followers. 1395 01:06:18,642 --> 01:06:21,378 [NARRATOR] At Spahn Ranch the family became 1396 01:06:21,411 --> 01:06:22,879 a commune once again, 1397 01:06:22,912 --> 01:06:26,183 and its reputation grew around Los Angeles. 1398 01:06:26,216 --> 01:06:29,319 New followers found their way to this rustic idyll, 1399 01:06:29,353 --> 01:06:31,121 along with members of biker gangs 1400 01:06:31,155 --> 01:06:33,557 the Straight Satans and the Satan's Slaves 1401 01:06:33,590 --> 01:06:35,992 and figures from the music world. 1402 01:06:36,026 --> 01:06:39,029 [SIMON WELLS] The Manson Family's presence at Spahn Ranch 1403 01:06:39,063 --> 01:06:41,631 was like a psychedelic little house on the prairie. 1404 01:06:41,665 --> 01:06:44,368 I mean, it was just a lovely throwback. 1405 01:06:44,401 --> 01:06:47,471 These guys were on an old film set. 1406 01:06:47,504 --> 01:06:48,905 They were dressing up in costumes. 1407 01:06:48,938 --> 01:06:50,707 It was a happy-go-lucky scene. 1408 01:06:50,740 --> 01:06:53,077 It was free love, free drugs, 1409 01:06:53,110 --> 01:06:56,080 music, free food from the dumpster 1410 01:06:56,113 --> 01:06:57,981 and famous people were dropping in, yeah. 1411 01:06:58,014 --> 01:06:59,583 Dennis Wilson was there. 1412 01:06:59,616 --> 01:07:03,187 He took the girls on a garbage dump truck. 1413 01:07:03,220 --> 01:07:05,389 It's said Jim Morrison went there. 1414 01:07:05,422 --> 01:07:06,923 [GREGG JAKOBSON] Whenever Terry and I showed up 1415 01:07:06,956 --> 01:07:08,925 or Dennis and I showed up out at the ranch, 1416 01:07:08,958 --> 01:07:11,061 he would definitely have everything set up. 1417 01:07:11,095 --> 01:07:13,730 When we were there, everybody was on alert 1418 01:07:13,763 --> 01:07:15,599 and we were supposed to be entertained. 1419 01:07:15,632 --> 01:07:17,567 I said, "Terry, we should... this should be filmed. 1420 01:07:17,601 --> 01:07:20,970 "We ought to film this thing. This is history. 1421 01:07:21,004 --> 01:07:22,539 "This is really unusual." 1422 01:07:22,572 --> 01:07:24,674 I mean, you have the girls. You have the horses. 1423 01:07:24,708 --> 01:07:26,676 You have some cowboys. You have the hippies. 1424 01:07:26,710 --> 01:07:28,345 You have the motorcycle gang 1425 01:07:28,378 --> 01:07:30,314 and you have this big movie ranch. 1426 01:07:30,347 --> 01:07:32,982 You couldn't make that kind of stuff up. 1427 01:07:33,016 --> 01:07:36,120 I thought, "Terry, we should be filming this." 1428 01:07:36,153 --> 01:07:38,455 [NARRATOR] And while the Family were acclimatizing 1429 01:07:38,488 --> 01:07:39,923 to this new rural life, 1430 01:07:39,956 --> 01:07:42,526 Dennis Wilson announced that The Beach Boys had agreed 1431 01:07:42,559 --> 01:07:45,028 to record one of the songs that he and Manson 1432 01:07:45,061 --> 01:07:47,797 had been working on earlier in the summer. 1433 01:07:47,831 --> 01:07:51,568 This track, "Cease to Exist", perfectly captured 1434 01:07:51,601 --> 01:07:53,603 the cult leader's spiritual outlook. 1435 01:07:53,637 --> 01:07:55,239 ["Cease to Exist", Charles Manson] 1436 01:07:55,272 --> 01:07:58,475 * Cease to exist 1437 01:07:58,508 --> 01:08:01,345 * Just, come an' say you love me 1438 01:08:07,484 --> 01:08:10,053 * Give up, your world 1439 01:08:11,788 --> 01:08:13,823 * Come on you can be 1440 01:08:17,994 --> 01:08:19,263 * I'm your kind... 1441 01:08:19,296 --> 01:08:21,398 [GREGG JAKOBSON] It was more Charlie's composition 1442 01:08:21,431 --> 01:08:22,766 than Dennis'. 1443 01:08:22,799 --> 01:08:25,135 Charlie would really come from a different place. 1444 01:08:25,169 --> 01:08:27,704 Charlie was much more philosophic, 1445 01:08:27,737 --> 01:08:29,273 kind of an Eastern philosophy, 1446 01:08:29,306 --> 01:08:32,642 and Dennis was fascinated with that to some degree. 1447 01:08:32,676 --> 01:08:35,078 He could smell that there was something there 1448 01:08:35,111 --> 01:08:37,581 but didn't know what it was. So he went along with that. 1449 01:08:37,614 --> 01:08:39,149 He liked that. That was something new. 1450 01:08:39,183 --> 01:08:42,152 The Beach Boys weren't writing about that kind of stuff either. 1451 01:08:42,186 --> 01:08:43,753 They were still doing surf songs 1452 01:08:43,787 --> 01:08:46,223 and "Good Vibrations" and so on which was all cool. 1453 01:08:46,256 --> 01:08:47,724 But this was a big departure 1454 01:08:47,757 --> 01:08:49,726 and it was very much the '60s, you know. 1455 01:08:49,759 --> 01:08:51,361 This was new. 1456 01:08:51,395 --> 01:08:54,198 [NARRATOR] But as the band went into Brian Wilson's home studio 1457 01:08:54,231 --> 01:08:57,301 to record the track in September 1968, 1458 01:08:57,334 --> 01:08:59,769 they shaped the song into their own creation, 1459 01:08:59,803 --> 01:09:03,507 and its name was altered to "Never Learn Not to Love". 1460 01:09:03,540 --> 01:09:06,210 Stephen Desper, the band's in-house engineer, 1461 01:09:06,243 --> 01:09:07,744 oversaw the sessions. 1462 01:09:07,777 --> 01:09:09,479 [STEPHEN DESPER] We were all aware 1463 01:09:09,513 --> 01:09:12,015 that Dennis had a friend named Charles Manson 1464 01:09:12,048 --> 01:09:15,319 and the two of them were both musicians. 1465 01:09:15,352 --> 01:09:19,689 And as musicians do, they compare notes. 1466 01:09:19,723 --> 01:09:21,991 They write things together. 1467 01:09:22,025 --> 01:09:24,294 This was a collaboration 1468 01:09:24,328 --> 01:09:27,564 and Charles and Dennis had worked on it together. 1469 01:09:27,597 --> 01:09:29,633 It may have been the initial idea 1470 01:09:29,666 --> 01:09:31,368 may have been Charles', 1471 01:09:31,401 --> 01:09:36,440 but he had given it to Dennis and been compensated for it. 1472 01:09:36,473 --> 01:09:40,009 And... The Beach Boys were taking it 1473 01:09:40,043 --> 01:09:44,314 and embellishing it as they do and making it their own. 1474 01:09:44,348 --> 01:09:47,284 ["Never Learn Not to Love", The Beach Boys] 1475 01:09:47,317 --> 01:09:50,287 * ...ooo I love you pretty girl 1476 01:09:51,855 --> 01:09:56,593 * My life is yours, and you can have my world 1477 01:09:58,762 --> 01:10:02,966 * I'm your kind, I'm your kind, and I see 1478 01:10:04,834 --> 01:10:08,705 * Never had a lesson I ever learned 1479 01:10:08,738 --> 01:10:14,544 * I know I could never learn not to love you... 1480 01:10:14,578 --> 01:10:17,447 [JON STEBBINS] Dennis, who knew his way around a studio 1481 01:10:17,481 --> 01:10:20,317 and knew his way around vocal arrangements, 1482 01:10:20,350 --> 01:10:22,386 took that idea and expanded it 1483 01:10:22,419 --> 01:10:25,121 into something that was... more palatable, 1484 01:10:25,154 --> 01:10:26,523 that was pop. 1485 01:10:26,556 --> 01:10:28,792 And again for The Beach Boys, 1486 01:10:28,825 --> 01:10:32,095 it was pushing their sound forward. 1487 01:10:32,128 --> 01:10:37,301 * Come in now closer 1488 01:10:39,603 --> 01:10:48,478 * Come in closer come in closer ahhhh... 1489 01:10:51,681 --> 01:10:53,317 [JON STEBBINS] I think it's a really good song. 1490 01:10:53,350 --> 01:10:56,185 I think it's better actually than it gets credit for. 1491 01:10:56,219 --> 01:11:00,156 The harmonies are just gorgeous on that song. 1492 01:11:00,189 --> 01:11:03,327 I think that the collaboration between Dennis and Manson 1493 01:11:03,360 --> 01:11:04,828 really showed potential 1494 01:11:04,861 --> 01:11:07,331 with this "Never Learn Not to Love" song. 1495 01:11:07,364 --> 01:11:09,232 I think it definitely works. 1496 01:11:09,265 --> 01:11:11,267 I think it's a win for The Beach Boys. 1497 01:11:11,301 --> 01:11:13,570 And I think an album full of that kind of sound 1498 01:11:13,603 --> 01:11:16,673 would have been amazing for them at the time. 1499 01:11:16,706 --> 01:11:18,342 [NARRATOR] Yet it was not to be. 1500 01:11:18,375 --> 01:11:20,710 While the recording should have provided the Family 1501 01:11:20,744 --> 01:11:22,879 with new hope, back at Spahn Ranch 1502 01:11:22,912 --> 01:11:24,514 the atmosphere was changing, 1503 01:11:24,548 --> 01:11:27,584 and Manson's commune was losing its focus. 1504 01:11:27,617 --> 01:11:30,687 [GREGG JAKOBSON] Things were getting a little bit rougher, 1505 01:11:30,720 --> 01:11:32,889 everybody I think started pulling away, 1506 01:11:32,922 --> 01:11:35,725 because more and more we were hearing stories 1507 01:11:35,759 --> 01:11:38,728 that The Satan Slaves were now hanging out there. 1508 01:11:38,762 --> 01:11:43,933 The picture was... the flower part was going away. 1509 01:11:43,967 --> 01:11:46,970 It wasn't flowers and beads anymore. 1510 01:11:47,003 --> 01:11:49,839 It was motorcycles and gasoline 1511 01:11:49,873 --> 01:11:53,176 and harder core drugs and people coming from downtown LA 1512 01:11:53,209 --> 01:11:55,879 that nobody knew. And winter was coming. 1513 01:11:55,912 --> 01:11:59,949 It was kind of like the summer was... the season was closing. 1514 01:11:59,983 --> 01:12:03,052 It was getting darker earlier and so on. 1515 01:12:03,086 --> 01:12:04,988 [NARRATOR] And this reflected a darkness 1516 01:12:05,021 --> 01:12:07,357 that had been spreading throughout the counterculture 1517 01:12:07,391 --> 01:12:09,025 during 1968. 1518 01:12:09,058 --> 01:12:11,528 The Summer of Love was now a distant memory, 1519 01:12:11,561 --> 01:12:13,830 the Vietnam War continued to escalate, 1520 01:12:13,863 --> 01:12:17,100 and following the assassinations of first Martin Luther King 1521 01:12:17,133 --> 01:12:18,568 and then Robert Kennedy, 1522 01:12:18,602 --> 01:12:20,303 the younger generation's faith 1523 01:12:20,336 --> 01:12:23,540 in conventional political change was crushed. 1524 01:12:23,573 --> 01:12:24,941 Across the nation, 1525 01:12:24,974 --> 01:12:26,643 the counterculture took up arms 1526 01:12:26,676 --> 01:12:28,845 and prepared for battle with the authorities, 1527 01:12:28,878 --> 01:12:32,248 with violent clashes breaking out in several cities. 1528 01:12:32,281 --> 01:12:33,316 At the same time, 1529 01:12:33,349 --> 01:12:35,084 the peaceful civil rights movement 1530 01:12:35,118 --> 01:12:36,886 was also transforming, 1531 01:12:36,920 --> 01:12:40,323 and as riots erupted following King's assassination, 1532 01:12:40,356 --> 01:12:42,225 Black Power became a new slogan 1533 01:12:42,258 --> 01:12:43,527 for numerous groups 1534 01:12:43,560 --> 01:12:46,430 looking to confront their white oppressors. 1535 01:12:46,463 --> 01:12:48,798 And all of these currents fed directly 1536 01:12:48,832 --> 01:12:51,568 into the mind of Charles Manson. 1537 01:12:51,601 --> 01:12:53,236 Now his sermons altered, 1538 01:12:53,269 --> 01:12:56,072 and his spiritual vision of a communal society 1539 01:12:56,105 --> 01:12:59,342 was replaced by predictions of a coming apocalypse - 1540 01:12:59,375 --> 01:13:02,311 a violent uprising in which African Americans 1541 01:13:02,345 --> 01:13:04,448 would overthrow the existing order. 1542 01:13:04,481 --> 01:13:05,949 [ANTHONY DECURTIS] The ideas 1543 01:13:05,982 --> 01:13:09,719 that Manson was playing around with, race war, revolution, 1544 01:13:09,753 --> 01:13:12,756 the sense that everything was falling apart. 1545 01:13:12,789 --> 01:13:15,792 I mean, these were commonly thought ideas. 1546 01:13:15,825 --> 01:13:20,697 Even at the point that Martin Luther King was assassinated, 1547 01:13:20,730 --> 01:13:22,999 he had been outflanked on his left 1548 01:13:23,032 --> 01:13:25,835 by more militant black political figures. 1549 01:13:25,869 --> 01:13:28,705 So once he was shot and killed, 1550 01:13:28,738 --> 01:13:29,673 there was the message of 1551 01:13:29,706 --> 01:13:32,241 you see where non-violence gets you? 1552 01:13:32,275 --> 01:13:36,279 The idea that the structure was under assault, 1553 01:13:36,312 --> 01:13:38,782 couple that with the complicated, 1554 01:13:38,815 --> 01:13:40,416 to say the very least, 1555 01:13:40,450 --> 01:13:42,519 racial history of the United States, 1556 01:13:42,552 --> 01:13:47,090 the sense that these forces were potentially in charge 1557 01:13:47,123 --> 01:13:48,992 of a takeover - 1558 01:13:49,025 --> 01:13:51,127 yeah, that again was something 1559 01:13:51,160 --> 01:13:53,563 that was very much in the air. 1560 01:13:53,597 --> 01:13:55,799 [NARRATOR] But Manson took these common beliefs 1561 01:13:55,832 --> 01:13:58,201 and warped them into a very singular vision. 1562 01:13:58,234 --> 01:14:01,671 In September, aware that his control over his followers 1563 01:14:01,705 --> 01:14:04,708 was slipping at the overpopulated Spahn Ranch, 1564 01:14:04,741 --> 01:14:07,477 he scouted a new location for their commune 1565 01:14:07,511 --> 01:14:09,913 deep in the heart of Death Valley. 1566 01:14:09,946 --> 01:14:12,482 200 miles north of Los Angeles, 1567 01:14:12,516 --> 01:14:15,552 Barker Ranch offered total isolation, 1568 01:14:15,585 --> 01:14:17,420 and he fed this into his prediction 1569 01:14:17,453 --> 01:14:19,422 of the coming revolution. 1570 01:14:19,455 --> 01:14:21,357 When the black population rose up 1571 01:14:21,390 --> 01:14:23,459 to overthrow the white authorities, 1572 01:14:23,493 --> 01:14:25,128 their commune would be hidden 1573 01:14:25,161 --> 01:14:28,632 in this remote desert retreat, and when the dust settled 1574 01:14:28,665 --> 01:14:32,235 they would emerge to rule over a brave new world. 1575 01:14:32,268 --> 01:14:34,738 [DIANNE LAKE] Times were different. 1576 01:14:34,771 --> 01:14:40,677 It wasn't the same loving... commune 1577 01:14:40,710 --> 01:14:44,480 kind of enlightenment thing anymore. 1578 01:14:44,514 --> 01:14:47,116 There was an agenda. 1579 01:14:47,150 --> 01:14:49,285 He'd always been kind of fostering 1580 01:14:49,318 --> 01:14:51,387 and laying some ground work 1581 01:14:51,420 --> 01:14:53,189 for this race war. 1582 01:14:53,222 --> 01:14:56,993 I think he truly believed that this was going to happen 1583 01:14:57,026 --> 01:14:59,428 and so he was always kind of preparing us. 1584 01:14:59,462 --> 01:15:03,466 But the whole impetus was to make money... 1585 01:15:05,835 --> 01:15:10,106 ...to get dune buggies and knives and guns or whatever 1586 01:15:10,139 --> 01:15:16,713 and hide out in the desert until this war thing was over. 1587 01:15:16,746 --> 01:15:19,148 [NARRATOR] And just as music seemed to have receded 1588 01:15:19,182 --> 01:15:20,617 into the background 1589 01:15:20,650 --> 01:15:22,285 of the Family's day-to-day existence, 1590 01:15:22,318 --> 01:15:26,422 a record was released that shook Manson to his very core. 1591 01:15:26,455 --> 01:15:29,092 Having sent a number of his followers to Death Valley 1592 01:15:29,125 --> 01:15:31,561 to prepare their new accommodation in the desert, 1593 01:15:31,595 --> 01:15:33,429 he and the remaining family members 1594 01:15:33,462 --> 01:15:35,565 moved into a house on Gresham Street 1595 01:15:35,599 --> 01:15:37,867 in the northern part of Los Angeles. 1596 01:15:37,901 --> 01:15:41,370 It was here that he first heard the Beatles' new LP, 1597 01:15:41,404 --> 01:15:44,307 commonly known as The White Album. 1598 01:15:44,340 --> 01:15:45,942 Through a number of its songs, 1599 01:15:45,975 --> 01:15:48,044 somehow The Beatles were sending a message 1600 01:15:48,077 --> 01:15:50,079 directly to Manson himself, 1601 01:15:50,113 --> 01:15:53,850 confirming his prophesies of a violent race war. 1602 01:15:53,883 --> 01:15:55,318 [DIANNE LAKE] When I came back 1603 01:15:55,351 --> 01:15:57,053 from the desert to Gresham Street 1604 01:15:57,086 --> 01:16:01,157 and there was all this frenetic energy and a lot of it 1605 01:16:01,190 --> 01:16:05,729 had to do with the fact that Charlie felt like 1606 01:16:05,762 --> 01:16:07,496 The Beatles, through the White Album, 1607 01:16:07,530 --> 01:16:08,898 were telling him 1608 01:16:08,932 --> 01:16:11,768 that this black/white race war was helter-skelter. 1609 01:16:11,801 --> 01:16:13,870 It's coming down fast, you know, 1610 01:16:13,903 --> 01:16:15,839 and he would play it backwards. 1611 01:16:15,872 --> 01:16:17,140 He was obsessed 1612 01:16:17,173 --> 01:16:20,009 and I remember he made me stay and listen 1613 01:16:20,043 --> 01:16:22,111 and pee my pants on the rug 1614 01:16:22,145 --> 01:16:24,914 because he wouldn't let me leave to go to the bathroom. 1615 01:16:24,948 --> 01:16:27,684 "No, you have to you stay here. I want you to hear this." 1616 01:16:27,717 --> 01:16:29,318 ["Piggies", The Beatles] 1617 01:16:29,352 --> 01:16:30,854 * Have you seen the little piggies 1618 01:16:30,887 --> 01:16:33,556 * Crawling in the dirt 1619 01:16:33,589 --> 01:16:38,695 * And for all the little piggies Life is getting worse... 1620 01:16:38,728 --> 01:16:42,231 [JEFF GUINN] "Piggies" was one of the first he talked about, 1621 01:16:42,265 --> 01:16:44,333 written by George Harrison. And George later said 1622 01:16:44,367 --> 01:16:47,470 his mother actually suggested some of the lyrics 1623 01:16:47,503 --> 01:16:50,439 that Charlie thought The Beatles were proclaiming 1624 01:16:50,473 --> 01:16:52,441 about how there were certain people 1625 01:16:52,475 --> 01:16:54,944 that needed to be punished. 1626 01:16:54,978 --> 01:16:57,747 What they need is a damn good whacking. 1627 01:16:57,781 --> 01:17:00,850 * In their eyes there's something lacking 1628 01:17:00,884 --> 01:17:04,620 * What they need's a damn good whacking... 1629 01:17:04,654 --> 01:17:06,355 [SIMON WELLS] Harrison was just doing a dig 1630 01:17:06,389 --> 01:17:08,191 at the upper classes etc, etc. 1631 01:17:08,224 --> 01:17:10,393 But of course Manson saw it as a call to arms. 1632 01:17:10,426 --> 01:17:12,528 What they need is a damn good whacking. 1633 01:17:12,561 --> 01:17:14,864 "Piggies" is certainly a violent song 1634 01:17:14,898 --> 01:17:18,735 and the word 'pig' would play an important part 1635 01:17:18,768 --> 01:17:21,337 in the Manson Family's infamy later on. 1636 01:17:21,370 --> 01:17:22,772 ["Blackbird", The Beatles] 1637 01:17:22,806 --> 01:17:26,042 * Blackbird singing in the dead of night 1638 01:17:26,075 --> 01:17:29,512 * Take these broken wings and learn to fly 1639 01:17:31,547 --> 01:17:34,183 * All your life 1640 01:17:35,551 --> 01:17:40,489 * You were only waiting for this moment to arise... 1641 01:17:41,691 --> 01:17:42,792 [JEFF GUINN] The song "Blackbird", 1642 01:17:42,826 --> 01:17:45,729 Charlie led his followers to believe 1643 01:17:45,762 --> 01:17:47,931 was particularly significant. 1644 01:17:47,964 --> 01:17:50,299 That although black people in Charlie's view 1645 01:17:50,333 --> 01:17:53,536 were very inferior, they had been enslaved, 1646 01:17:53,569 --> 01:17:55,571 they had been mistreated for so long 1647 01:17:55,604 --> 01:17:58,908 and now The Beatles were saying they were going to rise up. 1648 01:17:58,942 --> 01:18:02,378 You were only waiting for your moment to arise. 1649 01:18:02,411 --> 01:18:06,983 And then there's the real hook. Helter Skelter. 1650 01:18:07,016 --> 01:18:11,354 In Britain, people would realize Paul McCartney is talking about 1651 01:18:11,387 --> 01:18:12,655 an amusement park ride. 1652 01:18:12,688 --> 01:18:16,926 But in America, nobody knew what a helter skelter was, 1653 01:18:16,960 --> 01:18:19,095 and Charlie took advantage of that. 1654 01:18:19,128 --> 01:18:20,730 ["Helter Skelter", The Beatles] 1655 01:18:20,764 --> 01:18:22,198 * When I get to the bottom 1656 01:18:22,231 --> 01:18:23,800 * I go back to the top of the slide 1657 01:18:23,833 --> 01:18:26,502 * Where I stop and I turn and I go for a ride 1658 01:18:26,535 --> 01:18:30,940 * Till I get to the bottom and I see you again... 1659 01:18:33,076 --> 01:18:35,078 [JEFF GUINN] When you get to the bottom 1660 01:18:35,111 --> 01:18:38,748 you go back to the top - that's the blacks. 1661 01:18:38,782 --> 01:18:42,385 They're at the bottom, they're going to go to the top. 1662 01:18:42,418 --> 01:18:46,923 Helter Skelter is the name The Beatles have given 1663 01:18:46,956 --> 01:18:49,492 to the race war that's coming. 1664 01:18:49,525 --> 01:18:56,866 * Helter skelter, helter skelter Helter skelter... 1665 01:19:03,439 --> 01:19:05,274 [GREGG JAKOBSON] Charlie bought into that 1666 01:19:05,308 --> 01:19:07,176 because it's coming from The Beatles. 1667 01:19:07,210 --> 01:19:12,248 This fit Charlie's predictions. That that was coming, 1668 01:19:12,281 --> 01:19:16,152 that war, that black/white war was coming. 1669 01:19:16,185 --> 01:19:18,621 [NARRATOR] Life within the Family radically shifted 1670 01:19:18,654 --> 01:19:21,490 in the early months of 1969. 1671 01:19:21,524 --> 01:19:23,026 For their exodus to the desert, 1672 01:19:23,059 --> 01:19:26,062 they would need vehicles, gasoline and weaponry, 1673 01:19:26,095 --> 01:19:28,231 and Manson returned to his criminal ways 1674 01:19:28,264 --> 01:19:30,233 to fund these new activities. 1675 01:19:30,266 --> 01:19:33,236 But the musical dream was far from over. 1676 01:19:33,269 --> 01:19:35,438 In March, Dennis Wilson reappeared 1677 01:19:35,471 --> 01:19:38,074 with the offer of a demo session for Manson. 1678 01:19:38,107 --> 01:19:41,077 The results would be presented to The Beach Boys themselves 1679 01:19:41,110 --> 01:19:43,512 to see whether they would sign him to their new label, 1680 01:19:43,546 --> 01:19:45,181 Brother Records. 1681 01:19:45,214 --> 01:19:48,651 The recording would take place at Brian Wilson's home studio, 1682 01:19:48,684 --> 01:19:50,954 with the band's engineer Stephen Desper 1683 01:19:50,987 --> 01:19:53,022 in charge of the session. 1684 01:19:55,391 --> 01:19:57,693 [STEPHEN DESPER] Someone knocked on the studio door 1685 01:19:57,726 --> 01:20:00,629 and says your talent is here. 1686 01:20:00,663 --> 01:20:04,500 So I met him at the front door. 1687 01:20:04,533 --> 01:20:09,738 It was Charles and he had with him five girls. 1688 01:20:09,772 --> 01:20:14,143 He got his guitar out and he had talent. 1689 01:20:14,177 --> 01:20:17,546 I could see why Dennis wanted to do a demo with him 1690 01:20:17,580 --> 01:20:23,186 and consider him as a talent they would sign and produce. 1691 01:20:23,219 --> 01:20:26,822 It was the producing part that bothered me. 1692 01:20:26,856 --> 01:20:28,824 Once he got in front of the microphone 1693 01:20:28,858 --> 01:20:31,127 and into the recording environment 1694 01:20:31,160 --> 01:20:32,862 he was not like other people. 1695 01:20:32,896 --> 01:20:34,763 It was all very foreign to him 1696 01:20:34,797 --> 01:20:37,800 and he was annoyed by the whole thing. 1697 01:20:37,833 --> 01:20:40,636 And I just wasn't feeling comfortable 1698 01:20:40,669 --> 01:20:42,571 about being around him. 1699 01:20:42,605 --> 01:20:45,074 [DIANNE LAKE] Charlie had his way of doing things. 1700 01:20:45,108 --> 01:20:46,575 He knew best. 1701 01:20:46,609 --> 01:20:50,513 Being a rock star, a famous rock star 1702 01:20:50,546 --> 01:20:52,681 was not his highest priority, 1703 01:20:52,715 --> 01:20:55,484 because if it was his highest priority, 1704 01:20:55,518 --> 01:20:58,321 oh, to meet The Beach Boys, 1705 01:20:58,354 --> 01:21:00,389 to record in their studio... 1706 01:21:00,423 --> 01:21:02,125 Yeah, what do you want me to wear, 1707 01:21:02,158 --> 01:21:05,895 how would you like my hair, you know. Right? 1708 01:21:05,929 --> 01:21:07,196 [STEPHEN DESPER] After the first song, 1709 01:21:07,230 --> 01:21:09,165 he came up in the control room 1710 01:21:09,198 --> 01:21:11,400 and we made a playback. 1711 01:21:11,434 --> 01:21:13,369 In the course of the playback 1712 01:21:13,402 --> 01:21:16,772 he pulled out a 6 inch switchblade 1713 01:21:16,805 --> 01:21:21,077 and started cleaning his fingernails. I said to him, 1714 01:21:21,110 --> 01:21:25,314 "Charlie, take the knife out of the studio." 1715 01:21:25,348 --> 01:21:28,451 The reason for that was because it was Brian's house 1716 01:21:28,484 --> 01:21:31,887 and he has family there, he has little girls upstairs. 1717 01:21:31,921 --> 01:21:34,423 I don't know what this guy is... you know. 1718 01:21:34,457 --> 01:21:39,462 He called one of the girls and they took the knife 1719 01:21:39,495 --> 01:21:41,497 out to the car, and then I had to go out 1720 01:21:41,530 --> 01:21:43,432 and get him back in the studio, 1721 01:21:43,466 --> 01:21:45,234 make sure they weren't wandering round the house 1722 01:21:45,268 --> 01:21:46,702 and all that. 1723 01:21:46,735 --> 01:21:51,207 But he liked what he had done, he was satisfied with it. 1724 01:21:51,240 --> 01:21:54,777 I guess he was there about three or four hours 1725 01:21:54,810 --> 01:21:57,013 pretty well into the evening. 1726 01:21:57,046 --> 01:21:58,881 [NARRATOR] Despite Manson's satisfaction 1727 01:21:58,914 --> 01:22:00,116 with his performance, 1728 01:22:00,149 --> 01:22:02,485 he had failed to win over Stephen Desper, 1729 01:22:02,518 --> 01:22:04,887 whose job it was to report back to the band 1730 01:22:04,920 --> 01:22:06,089 and their management. 1731 01:22:06,122 --> 01:22:09,358 [STEPHEN DESPER] I took the tapes to the office. 1732 01:22:09,392 --> 01:22:11,627 They asked me how it went and I said, 1733 01:22:11,660 --> 01:22:13,896 "He won't take direction, 1734 01:22:13,929 --> 01:22:19,635 "and I don't think he's going to be producable. 1735 01:22:19,668 --> 01:22:22,138 "But his songs are fairly good. 1736 01:22:22,171 --> 01:22:24,140 "I like the lyrics," and so forth. 1737 01:22:24,173 --> 01:22:26,109 And, you know, take a listen. 1738 01:22:26,142 --> 01:22:28,411 [NARRATOR] Brother Records were not interested, 1739 01:22:28,444 --> 01:22:32,415 and although this news never fed directly to Charles Manson, 1740 01:22:32,448 --> 01:22:34,083 he assumed from their silence 1741 01:22:34,117 --> 01:22:37,386 that he was not going to be part of their roster. 1742 01:22:37,420 --> 01:22:40,956 His attentions then turned to Terry Melcher, the producer, 1743 01:22:40,990 --> 01:22:44,093 who he had been socializing with since the previous year 1744 01:22:44,127 --> 01:22:47,530 and who was still an infrequent visitor to Spahn Ranch. 1745 01:22:47,563 --> 01:22:49,098 [JEFF GUINN] Charlie figures out, 1746 01:22:49,132 --> 01:22:51,500 when Dennis Wilson can't get him a record deal, 1747 01:22:51,534 --> 01:22:55,738 that, "Wait a minute, I miscalculated." 1748 01:22:55,771 --> 01:23:00,776 The artists aren't high enough on the food chain themselves. 1749 01:23:00,809 --> 01:23:04,147 And now he's got a different target in mind. 1750 01:23:04,180 --> 01:23:07,550 That target is Terry Melcher. 1751 01:23:07,583 --> 01:23:08,884 You have to remember 1752 01:23:08,917 --> 01:23:11,487 that Manson has been trying to get Melcher 1753 01:23:11,520 --> 01:23:13,722 to listen to him for over a year. 1754 01:23:13,756 --> 01:23:16,825 And he's getting put off and he's getting put off. 1755 01:23:16,859 --> 01:23:18,594 And finally Melcher said, 1756 01:23:18,627 --> 01:23:20,429 "I will come out to Spahn Ranch. 1757 01:23:20,463 --> 01:23:21,697 "I will listen to you." 1758 01:23:21,730 --> 01:23:23,732 He said, "Set the time and the date." 1759 01:23:23,766 --> 01:23:26,669 [DIANNE LAKE] It raised everybody's hopes 1760 01:23:26,702 --> 01:23:29,772 that we were going to make a record, 1761 01:23:29,805 --> 01:23:31,907 and earn some money. 1762 01:23:31,940 --> 01:23:33,909 And really at that point 1763 01:23:33,942 --> 01:23:38,147 the money was to go for gas and vehicles 1764 01:23:38,181 --> 01:23:41,684 and food and supplies... for the desert. 1765 01:23:41,717 --> 01:23:43,586 [JEFF GUINN] Terry Melcher has other things 1766 01:23:43,619 --> 01:23:47,690 going on in his life. His mother's estate 1767 01:23:47,723 --> 01:23:50,926 There's problems going on, and he doesn't go. 1768 01:23:52,995 --> 01:23:55,298 To him, "Well, so what, 1769 01:23:55,331 --> 01:23:57,666 "I'll just call the guy up at some point and say, 1770 01:23:57,700 --> 01:24:00,169 "'Hey, sorry I couldn't make it last time.'" 1771 01:24:00,203 --> 01:24:05,174 To Manson it's not only a personal betrayal... 1772 01:24:05,208 --> 01:24:10,646 but it threatens his hold on his followers and he's furious. 1773 01:24:10,679 --> 01:24:12,881 And he goes looking for Terry Melcher. 1774 01:24:12,915 --> 01:24:15,851 The first place he goes looking for Terry Melcher 1775 01:24:15,884 --> 01:24:20,289 is where he knew Terry Melcher lived, Cielo Drive, 1776 01:24:20,323 --> 01:24:22,291 but Melcher's moved. 1777 01:24:22,325 --> 01:24:24,227 He and Candice Bergen have gone to a place 1778 01:24:24,260 --> 01:24:27,296 on the beach, a property that Doris Day owned. 1779 01:24:27,330 --> 01:24:30,199 And now there's new folks renting. 1780 01:24:30,233 --> 01:24:32,501 Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate. 1781 01:24:34,103 --> 01:24:35,404 [NARRATOR] Polanski and Tate 1782 01:24:35,438 --> 01:24:37,740 were one of LA's most glamorous couples, 1783 01:24:37,773 --> 01:24:39,708 representative of a new Hollywood 1784 01:24:39,742 --> 01:24:42,511 that was embracing the counterculture. 1785 01:24:42,545 --> 01:24:45,414 Polanski's European films earlier in the decade 1786 01:24:45,448 --> 01:24:47,716 had brought him to international attention, 1787 01:24:47,750 --> 01:24:49,952 and it was while working on the last of these, 1788 01:24:49,985 --> 01:24:51,787 "The Fearless Vampire Killers", 1789 01:24:51,820 --> 01:24:54,323 that he cast and fell in love with Sharon Tate, 1790 01:24:54,357 --> 01:24:56,058 the lead actress. 1791 01:24:56,091 --> 01:24:59,195 Close friends of Terry Melcher and Candice Bergen, 1792 01:24:59,228 --> 01:25:01,697 the couple had moved into the house on Cielo Drive 1793 01:25:01,730 --> 01:25:04,267 in March 1969. 1794 01:25:04,300 --> 01:25:07,336 It was at the end of that month that Charles Manson 1795 01:25:07,370 --> 01:25:09,672 came walking furiously up the driveway 1796 01:25:09,705 --> 01:25:11,274 looking for Melcher. 1797 01:25:11,307 --> 01:25:13,409 [JEFF GUINN] Sharon Tate has a photographer, 1798 01:25:13,442 --> 01:25:16,011 her personal photographer who happens to be out there. 1799 01:25:16,044 --> 01:25:19,248 And the guy sees storming up the drive 1800 01:25:19,282 --> 01:25:21,317 this little scrubby looking guy 1801 01:25:21,350 --> 01:25:23,686 looking kind of furious, "What do you want?" 1802 01:25:23,719 --> 01:25:28,957 And for Terry Melcher, this is the Polanski residence. 1803 01:25:28,991 --> 01:25:32,761 You're in the wrong place. The owner lives out back. 1804 01:25:32,795 --> 01:25:34,430 Manson says, "I'll go see him." 1805 01:25:34,463 --> 01:25:36,365 "Stay off the lawn, stay away from the main house." 1806 01:25:36,399 --> 01:25:38,901 He storms up and the guy who owns the property says, 1807 01:25:38,934 --> 01:25:42,571 "Oh, he's moved. I don't want you coming around again 1808 01:25:42,605 --> 01:25:45,541 "without telling people you're on your way." 1809 01:25:45,574 --> 01:25:48,143 Manson is storming off, and as he's storming off 1810 01:25:48,177 --> 01:25:51,547 a beautiful woman walks out of the main house 1811 01:25:51,580 --> 01:25:53,416 and he looks at her for a minute, 1812 01:25:53,449 --> 01:25:55,184 then he storms away. 1813 01:25:55,218 --> 01:25:57,820 Charlie Manson and Sharon Tate did look each other 1814 01:25:57,853 --> 01:26:00,489 in the eye very briefly. 1815 01:26:00,523 --> 01:26:03,426 [NARRATOR] When he was finally able to locate Terry Melcher, 1816 01:26:03,459 --> 01:26:05,728 Manson rearranged their meeting, 1817 01:26:05,761 --> 01:26:08,030 and on June 6th, 1969, 1818 01:26:08,063 --> 01:26:10,165 the producer travelled to Spahn Ranch 1819 01:26:10,199 --> 01:26:12,468 to watch the 34 year old ex-convict 1820 01:26:12,501 --> 01:26:14,670 perform an elaborate set. 1821 01:26:14,703 --> 01:26:16,772 It would take weeks before Manson was able 1822 01:26:16,805 --> 01:26:18,674 to draw a response from Melcher 1823 01:26:18,707 --> 01:26:20,676 as to whether he would be recommending him 1824 01:26:20,709 --> 01:26:22,345 to Columbia Records. 1825 01:26:22,378 --> 01:26:25,614 And it was not the response that he was hoping for... 1826 01:26:25,648 --> 01:26:27,450 [GREGG JAKOBSON] Terry finally told Charlie. 1827 01:26:27,483 --> 01:26:30,419 He said, "Hey Charlie, I really appreciate your music. 1828 01:26:30,453 --> 01:26:33,789 "It's really good, but it's just not my cup of tea. 1829 01:26:33,822 --> 01:26:37,426 "I don't know what I would do with you in the studio." 1830 01:26:37,460 --> 01:26:40,963 Charlie was heartbroken. He was crushed with that. 1831 01:26:40,996 --> 01:26:42,898 [DIANNE LAKE] Charlie was really counting on it 1832 01:26:42,931 --> 01:26:46,001 and I think that he had his hopes up... 1833 01:26:46,034 --> 01:26:49,104 I think they encouraged it. 1834 01:26:49,137 --> 01:26:54,243 They should have been a bit more upfront, 1835 01:26:54,277 --> 01:26:56,412 in the beginning. 1836 01:26:56,445 --> 01:26:58,514 But maybe they saw something in him. 1837 01:26:58,547 --> 01:27:00,349 And I think Dennis did. 1838 01:27:00,383 --> 01:27:02,585 [GREGG JAKOBSON] That was a karate chop 1839 01:27:02,618 --> 01:27:05,554 to the neck for him, 1840 01:27:05,588 --> 01:27:09,124 because I know he was really thinking that 1841 01:27:09,157 --> 01:27:12,227 he had it real in there. Terry was a record producer. 1842 01:27:12,261 --> 01:27:14,630 This is what a recording artist needs 1843 01:27:14,663 --> 01:27:17,600 and a record producer with a track record 1844 01:27:17,633 --> 01:27:19,968 and a carte blanche to a big studio. 1845 01:27:20,002 --> 01:27:24,373 Yeah, that's everything, if you're Charlie at that point. 1846 01:27:24,407 --> 01:27:25,808 So, yeah, that was crushing. 1847 01:27:25,841 --> 01:27:29,678 I'm sure that was crushing to Charlie. 1848 01:27:29,712 --> 01:27:31,480 [NARRATOR] The events that tragically followed 1849 01:27:31,514 --> 01:27:34,216 were fueled by this rejection and the desperation 1850 01:27:34,249 --> 01:27:37,286 that was setting in through the Family's chaotic activities. 1851 01:27:37,320 --> 01:27:39,555 And as had been the case in his youth, 1852 01:27:39,588 --> 01:27:41,657 Manson proved a hopeless criminal. 1853 01:27:41,690 --> 01:27:45,193 [JEFF GUINN] At this same time Charlie's been warning 1854 01:27:45,227 --> 01:27:46,695 about Helter Skelter 1855 01:27:46,729 --> 01:27:48,564 and we've got to get back to the desert. 1856 01:27:48,597 --> 01:27:50,599 Nobody here's getting money. 1857 01:27:50,633 --> 01:27:54,603 To buy the supplies they need is by doing drug deals. 1858 01:27:54,637 --> 01:27:57,272 And among the people he's doing deals with 1859 01:27:57,306 --> 01:28:00,476 there's a music teacher named Gary Hinman that he knows. 1860 01:28:00,509 --> 01:28:04,580 And there's a big black guy known as Lotsapoppa, 1861 01:28:04,613 --> 01:28:07,750 and Lotsapoppa claims to be a Black Panther. 1862 01:28:07,783 --> 01:28:11,286 And Hinman's talking about going to Europe. 1863 01:28:11,320 --> 01:28:14,590 So that means Hinman's got some money. 1864 01:28:14,623 --> 01:28:17,526 With Lotsapoppa, the drug deal goes wrong, 1865 01:28:17,560 --> 01:28:21,063 Charlie with a Buntline Special 22 pistol 1866 01:28:21,096 --> 01:28:24,667 that he brought, shoots him and thinks he's killed him. 1867 01:28:24,700 --> 01:28:26,502 Because he's killed Lotsapoppa, 1868 01:28:26,535 --> 01:28:29,204 suddenly becomes convinced that the Black Panthers 1869 01:28:29,237 --> 01:28:32,040 are going to be coming after Manson and the Family. 1870 01:28:32,074 --> 01:28:33,509 And Charlie may have talked about 1871 01:28:33,542 --> 01:28:35,911 a racial apocalypse and everything else 1872 01:28:35,944 --> 01:28:38,981 and was exaggerating, but Charlie was scared shitless 1873 01:28:39,014 --> 01:28:40,282 of the Black Panthers. 1874 01:28:40,315 --> 01:28:44,453 [NARRATOR] That disastrous drug deal in July 1969, 1875 01:28:44,487 --> 01:28:46,088 was followed by an even worse event 1876 01:28:46,121 --> 01:28:47,790 at the close of the month. 1877 01:28:47,823 --> 01:28:50,192 The family's sometime cohort Bobby Beausoleil 1878 01:28:50,225 --> 01:28:51,494 was running a drug deal 1879 01:28:51,527 --> 01:28:53,862 involving his Topanga Canyon supplier, 1880 01:28:53,896 --> 01:28:55,598 the musician Gary Hinman, 1881 01:28:55,631 --> 01:28:58,033 and the motorcycle gang The Straight Satans 1882 01:28:58,066 --> 01:29:00,202 who were frequent guests at Spahn Ranch. 1883 01:29:00,235 --> 01:29:03,539 When the bikers accused Beausoleil of ripping them off 1884 01:29:03,572 --> 01:29:04,973 with inferior product, 1885 01:29:05,007 --> 01:29:06,809 he and three members of the Family 1886 01:29:06,842 --> 01:29:09,445 visited Hinman to get their money back. 1887 01:29:09,478 --> 01:29:10,813 But a fight ensued, 1888 01:29:10,846 --> 01:29:12,781 the event spiraled out of control 1889 01:29:12,815 --> 01:29:15,083 and after two days in his apartment, 1890 01:29:15,117 --> 01:29:17,453 Bobby Beausoleil murdered Hinman, 1891 01:29:17,486 --> 01:29:20,222 scrawling messages in the musician's blood 1892 01:29:20,255 --> 01:29:22,591 across the apartment walls. 1893 01:29:22,625 --> 01:29:25,093 It took the police only two weeks 1894 01:29:25,127 --> 01:29:26,962 to apprehend the murderer. 1895 01:29:26,995 --> 01:29:28,931 [SIMON WELLS] The death of Gary Hinman, 1896 01:29:28,964 --> 01:29:30,799 which involved several members of the Manson family 1897 01:29:30,833 --> 01:29:32,435 and principally Bobby Beausoleil, 1898 01:29:32,468 --> 01:29:35,838 who was not a card carrying member of the Manson Family 1899 01:29:35,871 --> 01:29:38,206 but was certainly closely allied in many ways, 1900 01:29:38,240 --> 01:29:40,042 at this point also is drug dealing 1901 01:29:40,075 --> 01:29:42,144 with the Manson Family. 1902 01:29:43,479 --> 01:29:47,450 Ultimately and if who we are to believe apparently, 1903 01:29:47,483 --> 01:29:49,685 but allegedly Manson had said to Beausoleil, 1904 01:29:49,718 --> 01:29:53,889 "You know what to do", which led to Hinman's death. 1905 01:29:53,922 --> 01:29:55,958 Beausoleil is spinning out of control 1906 01:29:55,991 --> 01:29:58,761 is picked up very soon with blood all over him. 1907 01:29:58,794 --> 01:30:01,564 It led back to the murder and Beausoleil is arrested. 1908 01:30:01,597 --> 01:30:04,066 Manson's prison nous would say, 1909 01:30:04,099 --> 01:30:07,102 "Well, you know, this is gonna come back to me". 1910 01:30:09,738 --> 01:30:12,274 He might not have said, "You know what to do," 1911 01:30:12,307 --> 01:30:15,377 but certainly the strands are all running back. 1912 01:30:15,410 --> 01:30:18,514 The deal was conducted from Spahn's Ranch, 1913 01:30:18,547 --> 01:30:20,649 possibly facilitated by Manson. 1914 01:30:20,683 --> 01:30:23,486 It was certainly all going to lead back to him. 1915 01:30:23,519 --> 01:30:25,854 [NARRATOR] Fearful that he would be caught up 1916 01:30:25,888 --> 01:30:28,323 in the Beausoleil case, Manson declared 1917 01:30:28,356 --> 01:30:30,759 that the time for 'Helter Skelter' had come, 1918 01:30:30,793 --> 01:30:33,962 and sent four of his followers into the Los Angeles night 1919 01:30:33,996 --> 01:30:39,434 to commit a copycat murder, led by 24 year old Tex Watson. 1920 01:30:39,468 --> 01:30:41,203 There were two objectives. 1921 01:30:41,236 --> 01:30:43,906 Firstly, that new crimes would lead the police 1922 01:30:43,939 --> 01:30:46,008 to assume that Beausoleil was innocent 1923 01:30:46,041 --> 01:30:48,376 and that the killer was still on the loose, 1924 01:30:48,410 --> 01:30:51,947 and secondly, that the police would target African Americans 1925 01:30:51,980 --> 01:30:55,951 for the murders and thus set the race war in motion. 1926 01:30:55,984 --> 01:30:58,020 And looking for high profile targets, 1927 01:30:58,053 --> 01:31:00,222 Manson sent his hunting party 1928 01:31:00,255 --> 01:31:04,493 to Terry Melcher's old residence on Cielo Drive. 1929 01:31:04,527 --> 01:31:06,328 [JEFF GUINN] It was location. 1930 01:31:06,361 --> 01:31:08,831 He needed to kill famous people 1931 01:31:08,864 --> 01:31:11,867 and try to make it look like the Panthers had done it 1932 01:31:11,900 --> 01:31:14,637 to get the heat off Bobby Beausoleil. 1933 01:31:14,670 --> 01:31:18,206 The place that he was most familiar with 1934 01:31:18,240 --> 01:31:22,711 where rich, famous people had to live was Cielo. 1935 01:31:22,745 --> 01:31:25,013 If somebody lived where Melcher had lived, 1936 01:31:25,047 --> 01:31:27,082 that was somebody important. 1937 01:31:27,115 --> 01:31:32,154 The second critical thing why that location was chosen 1938 01:31:32,187 --> 01:31:39,061 Tex Watson besides Charlie had been to the house in Cielo 1939 01:31:39,094 --> 01:31:42,831 and theoretically knew how to get there from Spahn Ranch. 1940 01:31:42,865 --> 01:31:45,701 That's why they picked that house. 1941 01:31:45,734 --> 01:31:49,304 [NARRATOR] The murders that occurred on August 8th, 1969, 1942 01:31:49,337 --> 01:31:51,907 were amongst the most brutal crimes of the era, 1943 01:31:51,940 --> 01:31:54,276 Sharon Tate and her three house guests 1944 01:31:54,309 --> 01:31:57,312 slain without any remorse. 1945 01:31:57,345 --> 01:31:59,882 And the following night, the killing spree continued, 1946 01:31:59,915 --> 01:32:03,719 with wealthy middle-class couple Rosemary and Leno LaBianca 1947 01:32:03,752 --> 01:32:07,022 suffering a similarly violent demise. 1948 01:32:07,055 --> 01:32:09,658 [SIMON WELLS] Another savage night of killing 1949 01:32:09,692 --> 01:32:13,996 but interestingly, in terms of the musical aspect, 1950 01:32:14,029 --> 01:32:15,931 this is the night when they decided 1951 01:32:15,964 --> 01:32:17,800 to daub "Death to Pigs". 1952 01:32:17,833 --> 01:32:20,268 The night before they put "pig" on the door again 1953 01:32:20,302 --> 01:32:22,137 referencing back to The Beatles. 1954 01:32:22,170 --> 01:32:24,740 The key motive that night was "Helter Skelter" 1955 01:32:24,773 --> 01:32:27,643 written on the fridge door. 1956 01:32:27,676 --> 01:32:29,244 I have my own feelings 1957 01:32:29,277 --> 01:32:32,347 that why the killings stopped at that point, 1958 01:32:32,380 --> 01:32:34,482 certainly those sort of killings, 1959 01:32:34,516 --> 01:32:37,586 is that when they went back to Spahn's Ranch 1960 01:32:37,620 --> 01:32:41,423 and Manson would debrief them of what had gone on. 1961 01:32:41,456 --> 01:32:43,291 When he heard Patricia Krenwinkel 1962 01:32:43,325 --> 01:32:44,559 had written "Helter Skelter" 1963 01:32:44,593 --> 01:32:47,663 in blood on the fridge door, he freaked. 1964 01:32:47,696 --> 01:32:48,964 Everyone knew about 1965 01:32:48,997 --> 01:32:51,767 Manson's 'Helter Skelter' theories, obsessions. 1966 01:32:51,800 --> 01:32:54,169 There was even a nightclub at Spahn's Ranch 1967 01:32:54,202 --> 01:32:55,604 called the Helter Skelter. 1968 01:32:55,638 --> 01:32:57,405 So I think that's when Manson spooked fully 1969 01:32:57,439 --> 01:33:00,542 and that's when the move to Barker Ranch occurred. 1970 01:33:00,575 --> 01:33:02,911 [NARRATOR] But Manson was still short of cash. 1971 01:33:02,945 --> 01:33:05,313 No longer worried about his relationships 1972 01:33:05,347 --> 01:33:06,682 in the music industry, 1973 01:33:06,715 --> 01:33:08,684 he decided he was still owed money 1974 01:33:08,717 --> 01:33:10,819 for The Beach Boys' recording of "Cease to Exist", 1975 01:33:10,853 --> 01:33:12,821 whose lyrics Dennis had changed 1976 01:33:12,855 --> 01:33:15,023 without even asking his permission. 1977 01:33:15,057 --> 01:33:17,760 He set out across LA to hunt for the drummer, 1978 01:33:17,793 --> 01:33:20,395 and eventually found him with Gregg Jakobson 1979 01:33:20,428 --> 01:33:22,731 and The Beach Boys' photographer Ed Roach. 1980 01:33:22,765 --> 01:33:26,068 [ED ROACH] It was just after the Woodstock festival started 1981 01:33:26,101 --> 01:33:28,603 so I know it was like a week or two 1982 01:33:28,637 --> 01:33:34,409 after the Cielo Drive episode and... he, he came in 1983 01:33:34,442 --> 01:33:36,745 and he just jumped into the room 1984 01:33:36,779 --> 01:33:38,981 and he looked just like he looked in the newspapers 1985 01:33:39,014 --> 01:33:42,918 where his hair was just like standing and he jumped in 1986 01:33:42,951 --> 01:33:46,121 and he said, "I've just come from the moon". 1987 01:33:46,154 --> 01:33:48,123 I went, "Holy shit, this is that guy Charlie." 1988 01:33:48,156 --> 01:33:51,226 Charlie said, "I need to talk with you," 1989 01:33:51,259 --> 01:33:52,961 and he took him outside. 1990 01:33:52,995 --> 01:33:55,764 Dennis came back in, walked in, grabbed the guitar 1991 01:33:55,798 --> 01:33:58,133 and walked out and came back in without the guitar 1992 01:33:58,166 --> 01:34:01,203 and he said, "I had to give him all my money and the guitar 1993 01:34:01,236 --> 01:34:03,839 "or he said he was gonna kidnap my son in the morning 1994 01:34:03,872 --> 01:34:06,274 "and kill him." 1995 01:34:06,308 --> 01:34:10,512 That was... that was over the song. 1996 01:34:10,545 --> 01:34:13,015 [NARRATOR] It was the end of the relationship 1997 01:34:13,048 --> 01:34:14,983 and the end of Manson's connections 1998 01:34:15,017 --> 01:34:16,618 to the LA music scene. 1999 01:34:16,651 --> 01:34:19,487 The following week, he and his followers jumped 2000 01:34:19,521 --> 01:34:22,257 into their dune buggies and set out on the road, 2001 01:34:22,290 --> 01:34:23,959 heading for the desert. 2002 01:34:23,992 --> 01:34:26,161 And while the Los Angeles police force struggled 2003 01:34:26,194 --> 01:34:28,230 to make headway in the investigations 2004 01:34:28,263 --> 01:34:31,033 of either the Tate or LaBianca murders, 2005 01:34:31,066 --> 01:34:33,635 in Death Valley this newly arrived commune 2006 01:34:33,668 --> 01:34:37,139 soon sparked the interest of the local law enforcement. 2007 01:34:37,172 --> 01:34:39,407 In October, across two raids, 2008 01:34:39,441 --> 01:34:41,710 the police arrested the Manson Family 2009 01:34:41,744 --> 01:34:45,413 having discovered their fleet of stolen dune buggies. 2010 01:34:45,447 --> 01:34:47,215 Charles Manson and some of the murderers 2011 01:34:47,249 --> 01:34:51,253 were taken into custody, on far less serious charges, 2012 01:34:51,286 --> 01:34:53,789 and while waiting in a detention center, 2013 01:34:53,822 --> 01:34:56,291 Family member Susan Atkins, 2014 01:34:56,324 --> 01:34:58,326 a participant in both home invasions, 2015 01:34:58,360 --> 01:35:02,297 began bragging about the murders to a fellow inmate. 2016 01:35:02,330 --> 01:35:05,233 It was the lead the investigation needed. 2017 01:35:05,267 --> 01:35:07,635 Connecting the various strands of the story 2018 01:35:07,669 --> 01:35:09,671 and interrogating Manson's followers, 2019 01:35:09,704 --> 01:35:12,207 the LAPD and the District Attorney 2020 01:35:12,240 --> 01:35:14,843 soon were confident they'd found the murderers. 2021 01:35:14,877 --> 01:35:18,914 They called a press conference on December 1st, 1969, 2022 01:35:18,947 --> 01:35:22,217 to announce that the case was solved. 2023 01:35:22,250 --> 01:35:26,822 Charles Manson and his Family became instantly infamous. 2024 01:35:26,855 --> 01:35:32,527 [STEPHEN DESPER] My personal reaction was disbelief at first 2025 01:35:32,560 --> 01:35:34,196 'cause he didn't seem that bad. 2026 01:35:34,229 --> 01:35:37,966 He was weird but I didn't think he was capable. 2027 01:35:38,000 --> 01:35:41,103 I didn't think those girls out there in the studio 2028 01:35:41,136 --> 01:35:43,605 were capable of stabbing people. 2029 01:35:43,638 --> 01:35:48,176 [PHIL KAUFMAN] When I read about it, I was nervous. What? 2030 01:35:48,210 --> 01:35:51,346 I was in shock, you know. I didn't believe it at first. 2031 01:35:51,379 --> 01:35:55,417 The girls... I couldn't believe how they had changed. 2032 01:35:57,052 --> 01:36:00,555 I mean, they went out there and slaughtered people. 2033 01:36:00,588 --> 01:36:02,791 They're not, "Look at you game girl. 2034 01:36:02,825 --> 01:36:05,060 "Give it up. Give it up all your love." 2035 01:36:05,093 --> 01:36:08,396 They went out there and viciously killed people. 2036 01:36:08,430 --> 01:36:10,765 [GREGG JAKOBSON] I was at home and someone called me, 2037 01:36:10,799 --> 01:36:12,567 "have you heard what happened?" 2038 01:36:12,600 --> 01:36:13,768 When I was told that, 2039 01:36:13,802 --> 01:36:16,338 I thought for a second and I said, "That's real. 2040 01:36:16,371 --> 01:36:19,808 "That really happened." I wasn't surprised. 2041 01:36:19,842 --> 01:36:21,576 It all made sense to me. 2042 01:36:21,609 --> 01:36:25,113 It had gotten that far out of balance, 2043 01:36:25,147 --> 01:36:26,781 that far out of control. 2044 01:36:26,815 --> 01:36:28,917 [NARRATOR] Within the music world itself 2045 01:36:28,951 --> 01:36:31,286 panic quickly spread. 2046 01:36:31,319 --> 01:36:34,256 Although Manson and the murderers were behind bars, 2047 01:36:34,289 --> 01:36:37,459 many of the extended Family were still free. 2048 01:36:37,492 --> 01:36:41,596 Convinced he was the true target of the attack at Cielo Drive, 2049 01:36:41,629 --> 01:36:43,765 Terry Melcher in particular was anxious, 2050 01:36:43,798 --> 01:36:45,600 while those who had been involved 2051 01:36:45,633 --> 01:36:47,402 with Manson in any way 2052 01:36:47,435 --> 01:36:49,504 looked to protect their reputations 2053 01:36:49,537 --> 01:36:52,140 and distanced themselves from the story. 2054 01:36:52,174 --> 01:36:54,776 [GREGG JAKOBSON] Terry went and bought a riot gun, 2055 01:36:54,809 --> 01:36:58,046 a 12-gauge shotgun with a sawn off short barrel. 2056 01:36:58,080 --> 01:36:59,814 It has like six shells in it. 2057 01:36:59,848 --> 01:37:01,917 He literally kept it by his front door. 2058 01:37:01,950 --> 01:37:03,451 They were very concerned. 2059 01:37:03,485 --> 01:37:06,788 Dennis a little bit less but Dennis would more laugh it off 2060 01:37:06,821 --> 01:37:10,592 but Terry was yeah... Oh no, Terry took it seriously. 2061 01:37:10,625 --> 01:37:12,928 He didn't know what those people were capable of 2062 01:37:12,961 --> 01:37:15,063 and he wasn't gonna take a chance. 2063 01:37:15,097 --> 01:37:18,266 [STEPHEN DESPER] I got a call from Beach Boy management. 2064 01:37:18,300 --> 01:37:20,602 They told me they were going to take the tapes 2065 01:37:20,635 --> 01:37:23,305 and put them in a safe place. 2066 01:37:23,338 --> 01:37:26,608 They wanted to make sure there were no copies 2067 01:37:26,641 --> 01:37:27,976 or anything like that. 2068 01:37:28,010 --> 01:37:32,280 Dennis was off to a non-disclosed area. 2069 01:37:32,314 --> 01:37:34,416 Nobody knew really where he was 2070 01:37:34,449 --> 01:37:38,020 but there was a sense that Dennis was threatened. 2071 01:37:38,053 --> 01:37:41,823 [ED ROACH] It didn't satisfy him at all that Charlie was in jail. 2072 01:37:41,856 --> 01:37:43,858 That he wasn't in danger anymore. 2073 01:37:43,892 --> 01:37:46,561 Dennis' whole personality changed. 2074 01:37:46,594 --> 01:37:48,730 He wasn't at all the same person. 2075 01:37:48,763 --> 01:37:52,901 There was a paranoia about him. 2076 01:37:52,935 --> 01:37:58,106 The fear of... you know, how close he was to it all... 2077 01:37:58,140 --> 01:38:00,808 [NARRATOR] And as the District Attorney prosecuting the case, 2078 01:38:00,842 --> 01:38:03,745 Vincent Bugliosi, began to look for witnesses 2079 01:38:03,778 --> 01:38:05,813 to call upon during the trial, 2080 01:38:05,847 --> 01:38:08,750 he found those close to Manson in the entertainment world 2081 01:38:08,783 --> 01:38:12,554 were unwilling to tarnish their reputations by taking the stand. 2082 01:38:12,587 --> 01:38:15,723 [GREGG JAKOBSON] Dennis was not going to cooperate with Bugliosi 2083 01:38:15,757 --> 01:38:17,292 and neither was Terry. 2084 01:38:17,325 --> 01:38:19,461 I believe Terry made a deal with Bugliosi. 2085 01:38:19,494 --> 01:38:21,296 What it was I don't know. 2086 01:38:21,329 --> 01:38:23,431 Bugliosi wanted to bring Dennis into court, 2087 01:38:23,465 --> 01:38:24,732 I mean, a Beach Boy. 2088 01:38:24,766 --> 01:38:26,568 He wanted to bring Candice Bergen into court, 2089 01:38:26,601 --> 01:38:28,003 Terry's girlfriend. 2090 01:38:28,036 --> 01:38:30,505 So, I mean, that couldn't happen in Terry's world. 2091 01:38:30,538 --> 01:38:34,509 He did everything possible to... to stay as far away from it 2092 01:38:34,542 --> 01:38:38,413 and Dennis did the same thing. OK, I was there. 2093 01:38:38,446 --> 01:38:40,715 I'll tell you... So I cooperated. 2094 01:38:40,748 --> 01:38:42,050 I wasn't telling any lies 2095 01:38:42,084 --> 01:38:44,452 and I didn't see anything criminal happen 2096 01:38:44,486 --> 01:38:45,853 so I didn't... I wasn't saying, 2097 01:38:45,887 --> 01:38:48,056 "Yeah, I saw the gun or something." 2098 01:38:48,090 --> 01:38:50,092 I just told the truth. 2099 01:38:50,125 --> 01:38:53,028 [NARRATOR] Manson, meanwhile, was trying to keep control 2100 01:38:53,061 --> 01:38:54,896 of his followers from the inside, 2101 01:38:54,929 --> 01:38:56,931 and was eager to generate some income 2102 01:38:56,965 --> 01:38:58,700 that would help him do this. 2103 01:38:58,733 --> 01:39:01,503 Now that he was on the front pages across the world, 2104 01:39:01,536 --> 01:39:05,073 he decided this was the perfect time to release a record, 2105 01:39:05,107 --> 01:39:07,575 the rock star dream refusing to die. 2106 01:39:07,609 --> 01:39:09,911 [JEFF GUINN] Manson felt the tapes 2107 01:39:09,944 --> 01:39:14,616 from Brian Wilson's house were brilliant music. 2108 01:39:16,151 --> 01:39:18,086 If this was going to be his only chance 2109 01:39:18,120 --> 01:39:21,789 to get a musical statement out, he liked that idea. 2110 01:39:21,823 --> 01:39:24,492 Also, he had, legal expenses 2111 01:39:24,526 --> 01:39:27,996 not just for himself but for the women in the trial. 2112 01:39:28,030 --> 01:39:30,065 He desperately had to make sure 2113 01:39:30,098 --> 01:39:32,900 that they were going to stay loyal to him. 2114 01:39:32,934 --> 01:39:35,837 Their lawyers all wanted to separate their cases 2115 01:39:35,870 --> 01:39:37,939 from Manson so that they could claim that, 2116 01:39:37,972 --> 01:39:40,742 "Oh, the women were just fooled by this man". 2117 01:39:40,775 --> 01:39:43,211 Charlie needed to keep everybody happy. 2118 01:39:43,245 --> 01:39:44,879 Charlie had to get money 2119 01:39:44,912 --> 01:39:47,049 and what better way to do it, he thought, 2120 01:39:47,082 --> 01:39:49,051 than finally releasing this great album of his 2121 01:39:49,084 --> 01:39:52,087 that simultaneously would make him a rock star 2122 01:39:52,120 --> 01:39:55,590 and at the same that covers all the legal fees. 2123 01:39:55,623 --> 01:39:57,859 [NARRATOR] Manson enlisted Lynette Fromme, 2124 01:39:57,892 --> 01:40:00,028 known within the Family as "Squeaky", 2125 01:40:00,062 --> 01:40:01,363 to make this happen. 2126 01:40:01,396 --> 01:40:02,730 And although she discovered 2127 01:40:02,764 --> 01:40:04,899 that the recordings from Brian Wilson's studio 2128 01:40:04,932 --> 01:40:08,170 were under lock and key, she convinced Gregg Jakobson 2129 01:40:08,203 --> 01:40:10,572 to release tapes from a session he had arranged 2130 01:40:10,605 --> 01:40:14,509 at Sound City Studios in mid-1968. 2131 01:40:14,542 --> 01:40:17,212 She then called Phil Kaufman to aid her 2132 01:40:17,245 --> 01:40:18,580 in the release of the record, 2133 01:40:18,613 --> 01:40:20,815 and Kaufman, who at this time believed 2134 01:40:20,848 --> 01:40:24,519 Manson must be innocent, agreed to help. 2135 01:40:24,552 --> 01:40:27,522 [PHIL KAUFMAN] Lynette... Squeaky contacted me, 2136 01:40:27,555 --> 01:40:29,124 "We've got to get Charlie's music out," 2137 01:40:29,157 --> 01:40:32,694 'cause somehow he thought that the album would... 2138 01:40:32,727 --> 01:40:35,130 people would hear the music and would understand 2139 01:40:35,163 --> 01:40:37,499 that what he was doing was valuable. 2140 01:40:37,532 --> 01:40:42,470 She got the tape, and I took it into the studio, 2141 01:40:42,504 --> 01:40:44,572 we cleaned it up and we did the mix down. 2142 01:40:44,606 --> 01:40:47,142 I got some people to chip in some money 2143 01:40:47,175 --> 01:40:49,811 to put it out and we made 300 copies. 2144 01:40:49,844 --> 01:40:52,580 It was the "Life" magazine cover 2145 01:40:52,614 --> 01:40:55,417 which we dropped the 'f' out of 'life' 2146 01:40:55,450 --> 01:40:58,620 and it became the 'lie'. It's a lie, he's innocent. 2147 01:40:58,653 --> 01:41:00,388 How can you listen to his music, 2148 01:41:00,422 --> 01:41:02,990 how can you charge him for such a thing. 2149 01:41:03,024 --> 01:41:04,426 ["Clang Bang Clang", Charles Manson] 2150 01:41:04,459 --> 01:41:09,063 * Clang bang clang Went the big iron door 2151 01:41:11,999 --> 01:41:18,873 * They put me in a cell With a concrete floor 2152 01:41:20,842 --> 01:41:24,011 * Nine other men in that cell with me 2153 01:41:24,045 --> 01:41:28,015 * Moanin' their fate, with destiny 2154 01:41:28,049 --> 01:41:32,520 * Clang bang clang... 2155 01:41:32,554 --> 01:41:37,091 [PHIL KAUFMAN] This is... one of the original albums. 2156 01:41:37,125 --> 01:41:43,665 You can tell it's original by the yellow label. 2157 01:41:44,732 --> 01:41:46,734 Anything else is a bootleg. 2158 01:41:46,768 --> 01:41:50,272 So he asked me to get the album and I did. 2159 01:41:50,305 --> 01:41:53,541 And to this day I regretted my association, 2160 01:41:53,575 --> 01:41:57,445 but you can't divorce yourself from the past. 2161 01:41:57,479 --> 01:41:59,614 [NARRATOR] The record, upon its release, 2162 01:41:59,647 --> 01:42:03,451 received none of the success that Manson felt it deserved, 2163 01:42:03,485 --> 01:42:06,988 and even his infamy failed to shift any copies. 2164 01:42:07,021 --> 01:42:09,291 [SIMON WELLS] Manson's career as a musician 2165 01:42:09,324 --> 01:42:13,060 I think was of little consequence to people 2166 01:42:13,094 --> 01:42:14,662 looking at the headlines of at that time. 2167 01:42:14,696 --> 01:42:16,164 I think they saw him more 2168 01:42:16,198 --> 01:42:18,266 as a cult leader than a musician, 2169 01:42:18,300 --> 01:42:21,169 and when they heard the music, it's difficult to marry that 2170 01:42:21,203 --> 01:42:24,206 to the carnage that went on and the horror. 2171 01:42:24,239 --> 01:42:30,345 So a curio at best, hugely distasteful, 2172 01:42:30,378 --> 01:42:32,247 actually what most people thought of it. 2173 01:42:32,280 --> 01:42:34,282 No record company would touch it of any note 2174 01:42:34,316 --> 01:42:37,151 and it was not going to get any radio play. 2175 01:42:37,185 --> 01:42:38,820 It's just another example 2176 01:42:38,853 --> 01:42:41,756 of Manson's innocence stroke hopelessness 2177 01:42:41,789 --> 01:42:45,293 that he'd imagined that anyone would want to buy it. 2178 01:42:45,327 --> 01:42:47,161 [NARRATOR] As the Manson trial became 2179 01:42:47,195 --> 01:42:49,464 an all-consuming media circus, 2180 01:42:49,497 --> 01:42:51,132 the counterculture itself struggled 2181 01:42:51,165 --> 01:42:54,969 to deal with this cult leader and his hippy credentials. 2182 01:42:55,002 --> 01:42:57,672 As the crusade against the ideals of this movement 2183 01:42:57,705 --> 01:42:59,040 had been emboldened 2184 01:42:59,073 --> 01:43:01,409 first by Californian Governor Ronald Regan 2185 01:43:01,443 --> 01:43:04,246 and then incumbent President Richard Nixon, 2186 01:43:04,279 --> 01:43:07,482 conservative American values were proving more robust 2187 01:43:07,515 --> 01:43:09,884 than the counterculture had once believed. 2188 01:43:09,917 --> 01:43:13,788 While some tried to politicize the Tate-LaBianca murders 2189 01:43:13,821 --> 01:43:17,425 and unwisely held Manson up as a revolutionary leader, 2190 01:43:17,459 --> 01:43:19,060 most simply acknowledged 2191 01:43:19,093 --> 01:43:21,396 that these desperate, shocking acts 2192 01:43:21,429 --> 01:43:25,733 had forever tarnished a movement extolling peace and love. 2193 01:43:25,767 --> 01:43:29,203 [SIMON WELLS] I don't think by design Charles Manson arrived 2194 01:43:29,237 --> 01:43:34,709 to destroy the hippy dream, but by God he did, 2195 01:43:34,742 --> 01:43:40,882 and people have said that from the moment in December 1969 2196 01:43:40,915 --> 01:43:43,451 that Manson was on the front of the newspapers, 2197 01:43:43,485 --> 01:43:46,721 anyone resembling a hippy was demonized. 2198 01:43:46,754 --> 01:43:49,991 [ANTHONY DECURTIS] If you were, somebody on the Right, 2199 01:43:50,024 --> 01:43:51,793 who just detested everything 2200 01:43:51,826 --> 01:43:54,296 that the counterculture stood for, 2201 01:43:54,329 --> 01:43:57,899 you couldn't have scripted Charles Manson 2202 01:43:57,932 --> 01:44:02,537 and those heinous murders any better. 2203 01:44:02,570 --> 01:44:07,675 It gave the Right every weapon it could use. 2204 01:44:07,709 --> 01:44:12,480 I mean, there was sex, there was drugs, there was violence. 2205 01:44:12,514 --> 01:44:16,618 The Beatles are in there. You know, all of it. All of it. 2206 01:44:16,651 --> 01:44:18,853 It just handed it to the Right. 2207 01:44:18,886 --> 01:44:21,423 [DAVID FELTON] The part of the human spirit 2208 01:44:21,456 --> 01:44:24,125 that is more tolerant and open 2209 01:44:24,158 --> 01:44:26,428 and trusting and less fearful 2210 01:44:26,461 --> 01:44:29,364 is one of our super powers really. 2211 01:44:29,397 --> 01:44:31,733 But of course you set yourself up sometimes 2212 01:44:31,766 --> 01:44:34,702 and I think that was one of the real shocks of Manson 2213 01:44:34,736 --> 01:44:38,973 that much like the Hell's Angels at Altamont, 2214 01:44:39,006 --> 01:44:42,544 in some cases we made friends with the wrong people. 2215 01:44:42,577 --> 01:44:45,647 [NARRATOR] For many who had befriended Charles Manson, 2216 01:44:45,680 --> 01:44:48,650 he would remain a permanent presence in their life. 2217 01:44:48,683 --> 01:44:51,986 While he became an exaggerated villain in popular culture - 2218 01:44:52,019 --> 01:44:54,789 a crazed maniac and psychotic mastermind - 2219 01:44:54,822 --> 01:44:57,492 for some drawn into his musical journey, 2220 01:44:57,525 --> 01:44:59,861 he was a real and complex figure, 2221 01:44:59,894 --> 01:45:03,431 and their association with him left lifelong damage. 2222 01:45:03,465 --> 01:45:06,668 Having placed such faith in the man he called The Wizard, 2223 01:45:06,701 --> 01:45:09,371 after the shocking news of the murders emerged, 2224 01:45:09,404 --> 01:45:12,507 Dennis Wilson was cast adrift. 2225 01:45:12,540 --> 01:45:15,009 The once vital soul of The Beach Boys 2226 01:45:15,042 --> 01:45:18,746 was left haunted by a friendship he could never erase, 2227 01:45:18,780 --> 01:45:22,417 and over time he lost himself in drink and drugs. 2228 01:45:22,450 --> 01:45:26,120 He died in 1983, aged only 39, 2229 01:45:26,153 --> 01:45:28,890 and had refused since Manson's arrest 2230 01:45:28,923 --> 01:45:31,393 to ever discuss the affair in public. 2231 01:45:31,426 --> 01:45:33,227 [STEPHEN DESPER] He never brought it up 2232 01:45:33,260 --> 01:45:35,463 and I didn't think it was my place to bring it up. 2233 01:45:35,497 --> 01:45:40,234 So Dennis never spoke about this. 2234 01:45:40,267 --> 01:45:44,071 I'm sure he felt responsible to some extent. 2235 01:45:44,105 --> 01:45:48,309 He was highly involved in it, he was all mixed up in it. 2236 01:45:48,342 --> 01:45:51,278 [ED ROACH] Dennis never really spoke about the murders. 2237 01:45:51,312 --> 01:45:53,314 I mean, he would reflect sometimes 2238 01:45:53,347 --> 01:45:56,384 back on his experiences with the Family, 2239 01:45:56,418 --> 01:46:01,088 but never... I don't know how much he actually... 2240 01:46:01,122 --> 01:46:04,225 You know, I mean, he really did kind of avoid 2241 01:46:04,258 --> 01:46:08,029 the whole massacre aspect of it. 2242 01:46:08,062 --> 01:46:11,566 [JON STEBBINS] Dennis never really recovered 2243 01:46:11,599 --> 01:46:14,135 from the emotional hit that he took from it. 2244 01:46:14,168 --> 01:46:17,371 Dennis was already the black sheep of the band 2245 01:46:17,405 --> 01:46:19,941 and, you know, this just basically... 2246 01:46:19,974 --> 01:46:22,777 Just as he was starting to grow out of that 2247 01:46:22,810 --> 01:46:25,212 and become something that people were taking 2248 01:46:25,246 --> 01:46:29,751 artistically seriously, this happened, 2249 01:46:29,784 --> 01:46:35,623 and it just basically stamped him as a loser forever. 2250 01:46:37,191 --> 01:46:40,928 I think that he thought of himself that way. 2251 01:46:40,962 --> 01:46:44,532 I think it was battle for people to convince him 2252 01:46:44,566 --> 01:46:46,934 he was more than that. 2253 01:46:48,269 --> 01:46:53,340 I just think that it followed him all the way, 2254 01:46:53,374 --> 01:46:54,676 all the way to the end. 2255 01:46:54,709 --> 01:46:56,978 I don't think he ever got over it. 2256 01:47:00,147 --> 01:47:01,182 [GENTLE MUSIC]