One of the world's best-known serial killers: Charles Manson

By the 1960s he had become a symbol of the dark side of the counterculture. Manson and his followers, who founded a kind of cult called the Manson family, shot and stabbed seven people in two nights to start an interracial war in August 1969. Among the victims of the serial killer was Sharon Tate, the pregnant wife of famous director Roman Polanski.

Manson was born on November 12, 1934, in Cincinnati, Ohio. He is one of the most notorious criminals in the USA. His mother was 16 when Charles Manson was born. His mother made a living as a prostitute and was often imprisoned. Charles Manson started to make a living by stealing and living on the streets because his mother went to prison. He was also arrested at the age of 18. After being sexually abused by a ward friend with a knife threat in prison, he was placed in a reformatory. He was released on parole in 1954. He has been in and out of jail many times for giving fake checks, dealing with women, drugs and similar crimes. After his final release in 1967, he settled down on a farm in Los Angeles, forming a "family" with those he gathered around him.

He sowed the seeds of his cult by influencing suitable people in San Francisco, considered the capital of the hippie movement. Learning to play the guitar in prison, Manson rallied his girl-dominated band around him with his charisma. He traveled the streets and became a musician. Manson, who had fascinated his so-called family of homeless and drug addicts with very philosophical words, lived in a Volkswagen van with his harem.

Charles Milles Manson (November 12, 1934 – November 19, 2017) was an American criminal and musician who led the Manson Family, a cult based in California, in the late 1960s. Some of the members committed a series of nine murders at four locations in July and August 1969. In 1971, Manson was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder for the deaths of seven people, including the film actress Sharon Tate. The prosecution contended that, while Manson never directly ordered the murders, his ideology constituted an overt act of conspiracy.

In Los Angeles, California, 5 of his followers, guided by the "theories" he developed on this farm, brutally murdered Roman Polanski's pregnant wife Sharon Tate, Abigail Folger, Polish actress Wojciech Frykowski, men's hairdresser Jay Sebring, and a high school graduate Steven Parent. .

The next night, this time with Manson, the group killed and dismembered the Labianca couple in the same way. Manson and four of his friends were arrested after a woman who was a fan of his bragged about the murders they had committed when he was arrested for a different crime. Although they were sentenced to death, their sentences were changed to life imprisonment when the California Supreme Court abolished the death penalty. The total number of murders is unknown, and Manson and his group are thought to be responsible for 35 deaths. As much as he is hated in the US, Charles Manson also has a fan base that loves him and organizes various fan clubs and campaigns that want his release.

On March 6, 1970, the album Lie: The Love & Terror Cult, consisting of Manson's songs, was released. This album includes notable works such as “Cease to Exist”, a new version of “Never Learn Not to Love” previously composed by the Beach Boys. However, only 300 of the two thousand copies printed for the album were sold within two months of its release. After this album, various musical works recorded by Manson were constantly on the agenda. The album The Family Jams is a two-disc work and includes songs recorded by Manson and his family in 1970. The album, whose guitar and main vocals were undertaken by Steve Grogan, also features names such as Lynette Fromme, Sandra Good, and Catherine Share. A collection of music, poetry and speech recordings called One Mind was also released in April 2005 and is licensed under Creative Commons.

American rock band Guns N' Roses also performed Manson's song "Look at Your Game, Girl" on their 1993 album "The Spaghetti Incident?" Re-recorded it as the thirteenth song not mentioned in it. In the song "My Monkey" in Marilyn Manson's album Portrait of an American Family, the lyrics are also included in the song "Mechanical Man" by Charles Manson.

Also, Manson's songs "I'm Scratching Peace Symbols on Your Tombstone" (or "First They Made Me Sleep in the Closet"), "Garbage Dump" and "I Can't Remember When" are the songs of the 1976 television movie "Helter". It is among the original soundtracks of Skelter. However, the versions here were voiced by Steve Railsback. According to a popular urban legend today, Manson had a talent trial to join the Monkees in 1965, but his request was turned down because he was imprisoned on McNeil Island at the time.

Within months of the Tate-LaBianca arrests, Manson was hailed by the underground press as an example of the "counterculture" of the 1960s. A Rolling Stone writer who arrived in Los Angeles to appear in the June 1970 issue saw a photograph of the bloody "Healter [sic] Skelter" body. This was a finding enough to associate Manson with popular culture. Manson has left a mark in fashion, graphics, music, movies, television and theatrical stages.

Manson made such a huge impact that he even gave names to some bands. Bands like “Spahn Ranch” and Marilyn Manson are two of them. Again, the crimes committed by the family found their way into works such as John Moran's opera The Manson Family and Stephen Sondheim's musical Assassins. Some of Manson's experiences have been adapted for television. In the South Park episodes of Merry Christmas, Charlie Manson!, Manson appeared in the animation with the ward number "06660", which was dedicated to the number "666".

A documentary called “Manson” was shot by Robert Hendrickson and Laurence Merrick in 1973.

A documentary called “Charles Manson Superstar” was shot by Nikolas Schreck in 1989.