Of the family, the king. A man who redefined evil and violently ended seven innocent lives. Charles manson is one of the worst human beings that ever walked the planet. Now 45 years after his trial, exclusive interviews with family friends, the prosecutor, the jury, the manson followers. He just seemed on fire. Im terrible. Im a terrible guy. Face of evil. The Charles Manson murders. August 9, 1969. It was an unusually hot night when hollywoods prestigious cielo drive. It was peaceful and very isolated. It curved around the canyon. The secluded home of a jet set celebrity couple. Director Roman Polanski and actress sharon tate. While polanski was abroad shooting a film, tate was home and very pregnant. Look at that smile. Just the milliondollar smile, you know . Family friend alyssa. Her world revolved around that baby. Making everything perfect in that home to start a family. They were joyful times, tate recorded this message for her father, a military man stationed far from home. Roman will be here in two weeks. He is doing a film. By the way, roman smokes like you. He smokes cigars, he is very sensitive and stubborn. Those are amazing recordings. You had the moments in time before the tragedy struck of a happy family, of better times. Was it what she had always dreamed of . She was living the life she wanted. A life that would end that august night. Tate went out to dinner with friends in l. A. And his girlfriend, and celebrity hairstylist jay sebring. They all returned to tates home. Abigail spoke to her mother about flying out to San Francisco for her birthday. Wojciech frykowski spoke to a friend at midnight. Those would be the last calls ever. Sometime after midnight, intruders cut the telephone lines to the house. Killed one man in the driveway. Then ambushed the four people inside. Tate begged for the life of her unborn baby. Just let me have my unborn baby. Then you can kill me any way you want. Just let me have my baby. They didnt. Tate was stabbed 16 times. Three time to the heart. They hanged her before they killed her. The others were butchered too. 86 stab wounds in total. It is incomprehensible, the savagery that night. As the sun rose and the neighborhood came to life, the maid arrived to discover carnage. The Police Arrived soon after. And so did the press. 8 30 this morning an employee came to work at 10050 cielo and found several bodies in the house. I got a call. This person said theres something going on up in beverly hills. The reporter was on the scene that morning. The place was just jammed with newspaper people, television people, all kept away from the house. You couldnt even see the house. It was behind the gate. Behind the gate, inside the house, the investigative journalist jeff said there was blood everywhere. The murder scene was like something out of a horror movie. The word pig was written in blood on the door. The victims were soaking in it. Abigail folger had been wearing a white night gown. People thought that it must have been red there was so much blood. Officers who attended the murder scene had not seen anything like it. And were talking about los angeles pd veterans. But they would see something just as shocking. The following night in the peaceful suburban neighborhood of rosemary and leno labianca. Bodies of a man and his wife found in the home. No one on the outside knew how bad it was on the inside. The bodies had been mutilated. They had been stabbed repeatedly. A fork was left in lenos abdomen. Someone had carved the word on his stomach. There were words written in blood on the walls and on the refrigerator. Strange words. Death to pigs. Rise and helter skelter were written in blood just as they had been at the tate house the night before. They found no evidence of robbery, no suggestion of murder. It sent this wave of panic through los angeles and through the hollywood community. If they could get to a movie star, if they could get to a coffee heiress, they could get to anybody. Then 17 years old, barbara hoyt remembers the news reports about the murders. She was living on a ranch outside of l. A. With a group of friends. They all came in and watched the news. And the first story was on about the sharon tate murders. Somebody said something at the time and they all laughed. I didnt see anything in it at all. They lived here this abandoned movie set where a charismatic selfstyled guru named Charles Manson led a group of impressionable young followers. They worshipped charlie like a god. In the days after the murders, charlie seemed dangerous and unhinged. He was almost in a frantic state, i would say. He was very worried. And so was hoyt. She knew something was very wrong. But she didnt know what. And neither did police. It would be months of false leads and missed opportunities for them to unravel the mystery of the seven savage murders. In the case of this nature where you have so many people who are dead, and then you try on find out, who did they know . Where do you start . Hunting a monster when we come back. When youre not confir companys data is secure, the possibility of a breach can quickly become the only thing you think about. Thats where at t can help. At at t we monitor our Network Traffic so we can see things others cant. Mitigating risks across your business. Leaving you free to focus on what matters most. Roasted turkey cranberry flatbread online with rapid pickup then eat it, however you like. Panera. Food as it should be. Friday night in los angeles, a Movie Actress and four of her friends were murdered. The circumstances were lurid. Death and fear hung heavy over hollywood in the summer of 69. A 24hour vicious killing rampage had left seven people dead and their loved ones in shock. The lapd called sharons father. Family friend alyssa says sharons father paul didnt believe she was dead. And he basically said theres no identifications here until ive seen her. And he went directly to the crime scene. Then he came home and of course, they were all together and there was a very sad night. Paul tate was forced to return to the bloody crime scene weeks later to perform another tragic duty. Back then, we didnt have the resources that we have now. You cleaned it up yourself. He got down on his hands and knees and scrubbed the blood off the floor. That must have killed him. He said that the one thing that brought him to his knees literally in grief was having to scrub his childs blood off the floor. The griefstricken families knew nothing about the Strange Group living miles away in the desert. Nothing about their leader, Charles Manson, who had grown increasingly menacing. Charlie was getting threatening and he was mean. He was beating on some of the girls. It was not fun anymore. The free living, free loving life on the ranch had turned dangerous. They had armed guards on the ranch at night, like hiding in the hay stacks and other places amongst the buildings and stuff. It was just a lot more intense. But police had no idea that manson and his followers were involved in the Tate Labianca murders. In the case of this that where you have so many people dead, who did they know . Where do you start . With no good leads, rumors filled the newspapers. People blamed the victims. Were the killing as drug deal gone bad . A demented sex originally or even the husband, Roman Polanski . The saddest part was the victims were killed twice. Once by the killers and then again in the months and weeks after. Polanski rushed back to the states to bury his wife and unborn child. And then to take a lie detector test. He passed. A dazed and angry polanski then faced the press. It was a lot of talk about drugs and use of drugs. Sharon not only didnt use drugs. She didnt touch alcohol. She didnt smoke cigarettes. Police were stumped and answers were slow to come. Despite the graphic similarities in the two crime scenes, two different investigative teams were assigned. They didnt get along. They werent cooperating. If only they had talked to each other, they could have put everything together. If you look back on the two crime scenes, theyre identical. The writing on the wall. It made sense that they were tied together. But miscommunication wasnt the only problem. Much of the tate crime scene had been contaminated. There was over 100 Police Officers that tracked through that crime scene. They missed clues, missed evidence and missed eyewitnesses. But reporters like mary and others were succeeding where the police were not. We found the boy that heard the shots and we could find the time of the murders. There were no tracks or anything until we went down the hill to look at it. Another news crew found the killers bloody clothes near the household and the young boy found the killers gun. Frustrated, sharon tates father, a former Army Intelligence officer, launched his own investigation. Staking out his daughters house. One night there were some harleys that drove up. They knew exactly where they were going. They drove right up to the gate and they started climbing the gate. By then owner had guard dogs. The guard dogs came around and that was the only thing that stopped them. And sharons dad knew they were too cocky, they knew exactly where they were going. He followed them to the ranch. Right to mansons door step. Tate notified the detectives about the suspicious bikers at the ranch but the lapd did nothing. It turns out another Police Department was already there, watching mansons every move. But they suspected him of auto theft. Not murder. When the police swooped in a week after the murders, charlie thought, this was it. Somehow they have figured it out. And the police couldnt understand when charlie asked what the charges were and they said car theft. That manson started laughing. But he had a reason to laugh. He was relieved. Relieved and soon released on a technicality. They put the wrong date on the warrant. And they had to actually just release everybody. A tragically missed opportunity. It would be months until investigators got their big break. November 1969, one of mansons followers, susan atkins, who was already in jail for another crime, confessed to the murder of sharon tate. She couldnt help but brag to some other inmates about a murder she had been involved with. And finally, everything was put together. The police returned to the death valley compound and arrested nearly two dozen people but manson seemed to have disappeared. They would find him though the next day. Hidden in a small bathroom cabinet at the ranch. When charlie was arrested in death valley, he was booked as Charles Manson, aka jesus christ because he was telling everybody he was the resurrection of jesus. Four months after the murders, a ragged band of killers and their strange leader now behind bars. But the mystery of why, stranger still. Coming up, inside the mind of a madman. Charles manson is literally one of the worst human beings that ever walked this planet. I will take beauty into my own hands. Olay regenerist, it regenerates surface cells. New skin is revealed in only 5 days without drastic measures. Stunningly youthful Award Winning skin. From the worlds 1, olay, your best beautiful. Im a gas service my nrepresentative. N. Ive been with pg e nine years. As an employee of pg e you always put your best foot forward to provide reliable and safe service and be able to help the community. We always have the safety of our customers and the community in mind. My family is in oakland, my wifes family is in oakland so this is home to us. Being able to work in the community that i grew up in, customers feel like friends, neighbors and it makes it a little bit more special. Together, were building a better california. San francisco, 1967. Free love, free drugs, dream living for hippies escaping the main stream. But 32yearold Charles Manson arrived with much darker ambitions. You get these kids, these children coming into haightashbury and here is Charlie Manson saying how much he loves them and wants to take care of them. It was made to order for them and they took full advantage. Manson was fixed for life. I dont have any particular reality. He spoke to cnn from prison in 1987. I spent the best part of my life in boy schools, prisons and reform schools because i had nobody. Manson blamed his mother for his troubled youth. Kathleen maddox gave birth to manson in cincinnati, ohio, at the age of 16. And went to prison when charlie was just 5 years old. She got out of my life early. And let me scuffle for myself. And then i became my own mother. While manson blamed his mother, author jeff winn blames manson. Charles manson was born evil. Little charlie was taken in by loving relatives. The problem was that charlie himself was a rotten little kid from the word go. A rotten kid whose crimes escalated as he got older from stealing cars to armed robbery. From drug dealing to pimping. He sounds like the ultimate conman. He is. He has an a in conning people. The reporter has interviewed him in prison dozens of times. He always said hes been in prison all his life. Prison is his home. And prison is where he became convinced he was a great musical talent. Charlie manson, listening to the radio in prison, hears the beatles. He starts writing his own songs, performing in his own shows. From then on, it is his dream to become the biggest musical star in history. Bigger, he said, than the beatles. And San Francisco was the Perfect Place to start. Paroled have a sever years in prison, he used his guitar and charisma to lure a flock of vulnerable young women. I was mesmerized by his mind and the things he professed. He picked on the little girls. He said he took them away from their parents because their parents werent treating them right or abusing them. Thats baloney. Manson transformed himself from a twobit criminal into a selfstyled guru. He said he was a scientologist, he said he was in the church of the nazarene. The only church he ever had was the church of charlie. The church of charlie got stranger as the manson family got bigger. Leaving San Francisco for l. A. To secure the big record deal charlie was sure was coming. The socalled manson family made aan rated movie set called spahn ranch their home. George spahn, the old owner, was nearly blind. Lynette fromm was assigned to live with george and to fulfill his every whim. And george liked to pinch her a lot. And she would squeal. And george is the one who nicknamed her squeaky. Everybody was really happy and we would help take care of the horses. Garbage runs were a lot of fun. We would hop in the dumpsters behind the stores and we would find all kinds of vegetables. Barbara hoyt lived on the ranch. I had sex with charlie but it wasnt that many time. There were a lot of girls around. There were lsd orgies, and made ensuring his success as a musician the familys top priority. When recording execs werent interested, charlie got angry. He just seemed on fire. He was all over the place pacing. By 1968, race riots, the black Panther Movement and riots convinced manson that armageddon was coming. He called it helter skelter after the famous beatles song. Everything was preparing for helter skelter. I remember in the desert, when tex was teaching us how to stab people as a Murder School. A Murder School teaching lessons they would need to learn to put charlies deranged plan in motion. Manson believed he could ignite a race war by killing several rich white people and framing the black panthers for the crimes. In august, 1969, he ordered several members of the family into action. Barbara hoyt was not one of them. But days later, she would make a horrifying discovery. I overheard sadie describing the murders of the women. Sharon tate was the last to die, she had to watch the others die first. Terrified, hoyt fled. We made it out and we hid out in the desert. Hoyt soon had a big decision to make. Would she go to the police and testify against manson and the family . Coming up, the trial of the century. The theater of the absurd. The circus where there were interruptions every day and the killers making a joke about it. I killed a chicken once. Jake reese, day to feel alive jake reese, day to feel alive when it comes to quitting cigarettes, why does it feel like all or nothing . Would you expect me to lose 25 pounds overnight . Im taking it one cigarette at a time. Thats how zonnic helps me quit. Zonnic nicotine gum. Every victory counts. All the elements are present for one of the most sensational murder trials in history. It was big. There were reporters from all over the world. Seven people had been brutally murdered. And it would be up to the hot shot prosecutor vincent to win a conviction of Charles Manson and his three codefendants. This case received more publicity than any other trial in american history. He died in june, 2015, gave one of his last interviews to cnn. Before the trial, i said charlie, im going to convict you. After you get a fair trial. But convicting manson would not be easy. Unlike patricia krenwinkel, susan atkins and leslie van houten, he was not even in the homes when the murders happened. I let it be known that he had ordered and masterminded these murders. Manson told his followers this would be a blood bath in the streets of every american city. He was the dictatorial ruler of the family, the king, and the members of the family were slavishly obedient to him. I fell in love with him but he is very brilliant. From the start of Opening Statements on july 24th, 1970, the trial seemed as much about spectacle as justice. The first day of the trial, charlie takes control. And he comes in and he has cut anxbetween his eyes and on the bridge of his nose because society has xd us out. We dont count. A couple days later, he put the prongs on it and it is a swastika. So the girl show up with crosses on their heads. The reporter was at the courthouse every day. Charlie started to lead them. When charlie objected to something, the girls would jump up and object. They would sing periodically. They would yell at the judge. The antics that went on in the Charles Manson trial. Had you ever experienced that . Never. And i covered lots of trials. Those antics deepened the pain for the victims families. Sharons father sat in that courtroom every day. He wanted to think of this as justice. What he saw instead was kind of this circus where there were interruptions eve