Charles Manson was a figure whose life and actions left a dark mark on American history. He was born in 1934, and since his first days, he had experienced violence and indifference. Manson was a kid with a troubled childhood. He used to bounce between foster homes and juvenile detention centers. His unstable family life and frequent run-ins with the law were only the beginning of the formation of the notorious “Manson Family.” Their union was a cult-like group of followers who saw Manson as their spiritual leader.

In the late 1960s, Manson gathered a group of disillusioned young people, many of whom belonged to the counterculture movement of the time. The group lived together in isolation at the Spahn Ranch. It is a remote area once used as a set for Western movies. Manson’s influence was substantial. He even used LSD to control his followers. He gave them lots of drugs while he himself took very little. This made them see things his way and do whatever he wanted. His followers, however, were like robots, obeying him blindly.

These young people adopted a radical rejection of conventional morality and created their own philosophy. It was a mix of environmentalism, free love, and apocalyptic beliefs. Manson claimed that a devastating race war, which he called “Helter Skelter,” was coming. He convinced his followers, the Family, that they would rise to power afterward and establish a new world order.

The Manson Family’s infamous reign of terror culminated in the horrific Tate-LaBianca murders of August 1969. On the night of August 8th, Manson directed four of his followers to the residence of actress Sharon Tate and her husband, the renowned filmmaker Roman Polanski. Polanski was absent, but Tate was at home with several companions in the last months of her pregnancy. The group savagely murdered Tate and her guests. The following night, Manson himself participated in another killing of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, a couple residing in Los Angeles.