Charles Manson

Charles Milles Manson November 12 1934 November 19 2017 led the Californiabased Manson Family cult based in the late 1960s Some cult members committed a series of nine murders at four locations in July and August 1969 In 1971 Manson was convicted of firstdegree murder and conspiracy to commit murder for the deaths of seven people including film actress Sharon Tate The prosecution contended that while Manson never directly ordered the murders his ideology constituted an overt act of conspiracy Before the murders Manson had spent more than half of his life in correctional institutions While gathering his cult following Manson was a singersongwriter on the fringe of the Los Angeles music industry chiefly through a chance association with Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys who introduced Manson to record producer Terry Melcher In 1968 the Beach Boys recorded Mansons song Cease to Exist renamed Never Learn Not to Love as a single Bside but without a credit to Manson Afterward Manson attempted to secure a record contract through Melcher but was unsuccessful Manson would often talk about the Beatles including their 1968 selftitled album According to Los Angeles County District Attorney Vincent Bugliosi Manson felt guided by his interpretation of the Beatles lyrics and adopted the term Helter Skelter to describe an impending apocalyptic race war During his trial Bugliosi argued that Manson had intended to start a race war although Manson and others disputed this Contemporary interviews and trial witness testimony insisted that the TateLaBianca murders were copycat crimes intended to exonerate Mansons friend Bobby Beausoleil Manson himself denied having instructed anyone to murder anyone Mansons notoriety as an emblem of insanity violence and the macabre influenced pop culture Recordings of songs written and performed by Manson were released commercially starting with Lie The Love and Terror Cult 1970 Since his incarceration various musicians have covered some of his songs Although originally sentenced to death in 1971 his sentence was commuted to life with the possibility of parole after the California Supreme Court invalidated the states death penalty statute in 1972 He served his life sentence at the California State Prison Corcoran and died at age 83 in late 2017 Description above from the Wikipedia article Charles Manson licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia