Manson, Charles

(born Nov. 12, 1934, Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.) U.S. cult leader and mass murderer. From age 9 he spent a great deal of his life in the care of the state, first in juvenile reformatories and later in prison. By 1968, he had become the leader of the “Family,” a communal religious cult in Los Angeles dedicated to studying and implementing his eccentric religious teachings. In 1969 he sent Family members to a house rented by the actress Sharon Tate and her husband Roman Polanski; there they murdered Tate and five friends, and elsewhere they killed three others. The trials of Manson and four of his followers in 1971 attracted national attention. Their death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment when California abolished the death penalty in 1972. Manson's crimes were the subject of the best-selling book Helter Skelter (1974), by the prosecutor in the case, Vincent Bugliosi.

Manson, Charles (1934– ) cult leader; born in Cincinnati, Ohio. Released from prison in 1967, he set up a commune based on free love and devotion to himself. Members of his cult conducted a series of grisly murders in California in 1969. He and his accomplices were sentenced to death, but were spared the death penalty due to a Supreme Court ruling against capital punishment.