A fourth family member, Charles “Tex” Watson, was convicted in a separate trial.
#CHARLES MANSON JR. CAUSE OF DEATH TRIAL#
Manson transfixed the nation with his roving, luminous eyes and courtroom theatrics during the months-long trial in which he and three female followers - Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten - were convicted. Over the years, the Helter Skelter massacres, as they were often described, attained macabre folklore dimensions, generating books, songs, movies and even an opera. All were sentenced to death in the California gas chamber, but the sentences were reduced to life in 1972 when the state Supreme Court abolished the death penalty. Manson and four of his followers in 1971.
The slayings - known collectively as the Tate-LaBianca murders - led to the arrest and conviction of Mr. Manson’s uncontrolled rage in the weeks leading up to the murders, when Hollywood agents rejected his self-proclaimed musical talents. Investigators, however, said the attacks also appeared motivated, at least in part, by Mr. The scheme bore surface plausibility with the rash of urban explosions throughout the 1960s, culminating in the assassination of the Rev. That in turn, he told his followers, would stir white sentiment against blacks, triggering widespread violence by blacks. Manson on two successive nights in August 1969, the seemingly random killings were calculated to hasten the race war by making them appear committed by black militants. Manson and his so-called “family” members wandered the countryside, scavenging, stealing and preparing for an apocalyptic race war prophesied by their leader and dubbed “Helter Skelter” after the Beatles song.Ī prelude to the conflagration was the slaughter of the seven victims in two affluent Los Angeles neighborhoods.
For many, Manson and his ragtag entourage of runaways, two-bit criminals and blindly loyal worshipers also symbolized the dark, even contradictory, excesses of the drug-driven, free-love ’60s, especially in California.
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