Charles Manson

Timeline

• Born, November 11, 1934
• In 1947, committed his first crime, an armed robbery
• His first arrest was in 1951, he was 17
• Over the next 4 years spent most of his time in Federal Reformatories
• Manson married Rosalie Jean Willis, and a short time later he was arrested and sent to a Terminal Island Prison outside L.A.
• By 1967 he spent seventeen years behind bars (more than half his life)
• He had been used sexually by men in prison and he was a bisexual
• By the time he reached California in 1967, Charles Manson had a taste for long-legged, long-haired flower children of the 1960's
• Among Manson's "family" was Patricia Krenwinkel, Susan Atkins, Leslie Van Houten, Linda Kasabian, and Charles "Tex" Watson
• Manson's hatred for blacks stemmed from his miserable life in prison, where he had been raped by black prisoners
• On Aug. 8, 1969, Manson sent his death squad to a house on Cielo Drive where movie star Sharon Tate, her husband Roman Polanski, also Abigail Folger and Voyteck Frykowski were living
• Then again on Aug. 10 1969, Manson led his group of killers to the home of Rosemary and Leno LaBianca (a random house selected in the Silver Lake area)
• After each blood bath Manson and his follwers would take the blood and smear it on the walls writing "death to all pigs", "rise", and even "healter skelter"
• Back in California Manson set up a new commune at the Saphn ranch, 30 miles from Los Angeles
• In Oct. 1969 Atkins, who was in custody for a minor offence, boasted to a cellmate that she had taken part in the Tate and LaBianca murders (not knowing a police officer overheard)
• On Dec. 1 Manson was arrested and charged with a life sentence in prison

Background
Victims
Trial
MSD Law