50 Fun Facts About Charles Manson

Which Beatles song title did Charles Manson adopt as his name for a coming apocalyptic race war?

Helter Skelter comes from the Beatles' 1968 White Album. One of Manson's followers scrawled a misspelled version of it in blood at a murder scene in August 1969.

Which film director, away in Europe at the time, was married to Sharon Tate when Manson's followers killed her?

Roman Polanski was in Europe working on a film that night, while Tate, 26 and eight and a half months pregnant, was at home on Cielo Drive with friends.

Which U.S. president did Manson follower Lynette 'Squeaky' Fromme try to assassinate with a pistol in Sacramento?

Gerald Ford was unharmed: the pistol's magazine held four rounds but the chamber was empty, and a Secret Service agent grabbed Fromme at once.

What did Charles Manson carve into his forehead before the first day of testimony at his 1970 murder trial?

The letter X was his way of saying he had crossed himself out of the establishment's world. His co-defendants copied it over the weekend, and he later turned his into a swastika.

Which Star Wars hero's original surname, Starkiller, was changed partly because it evoked Charles Manson?

Luke Skywalker was still Luke Starkiller when filming began. George Lucas said people were confusing the old name with someone like Manson.

A persistent urban legend claims Charles Manson auditioned for which made-for-television 1960s pop band?

The Monkees story cannot be true: the supposed audition was in late 1965, when Manson was still locked up in the federal penitentiary at McNeil Island, Washington.

What did Charles Manson ask the authorities for on the day of his release from Terminal Island in 1967?

To stay in prison was his request: he had spent more than half his life in institutions and told officials that prison had become his home. They released him anyway.

Where was Charles Manson found hiding when officers raided remote Barker Ranch near Death Valley in October 1969?

Under a bathroom sink, folded into a small cabinet, is where a Highway Patrol officer found him. The raid was about stolen vehicles; nobody yet tied the group to the murders.

Which Beach Boys drummer let Charles Manson and his followers live in his Sunset Boulevard home in 1968?

Dennis Wilson came home from a recording session to find about a dozen people occupying his house, after twice giving a lift to two hitchhiking followers. They stayed for months.

Which director's 2019 film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood imagines a different ending for Manson's followers?

Quentin Tarantino built the plot around the Manson Family in 1969 Los Angeles, yet Manson himself is on screen only briefly.

Which Los Angeles prosecutor won Charles Manson's conviction and then co-wrote a best-selling 1974 book on the case?

Vincent Bugliosi wrote the account with Curt Gentry. It won an Edgar Award and became the best-selling true crime book in history, with over seven million copies sold.

Which Manson Family member was granted immunity and became the prosecution's main witness at the 1970 trial?

Linda Kasabian had gone along on both nights but, by all accounts, took no part in the killing. She turned herself in to police in New Hampshire once a warrant was issued.

Which public figure's remark that Manson was guilty became a headline Manson flashed at the jury in mid-trial?

Richard Nixon made the remark while complaining that the media were glamorising Manson. Questioned in court, the jurors said the Los Angeles Times headline had not swayed them.

Whom did Charles Manson try to attack by leaping over the defense table during his trial in October 1970?

The presiding judge, Charles Older, had just refused to let him question a witness. Bailiffs wrestled Manson to the floor, and Older reportedly took to wearing a revolver under his robes.

One of the victims at Cielo Drive in August 1969 was an heiress to which American coffee fortune?

Folgers heiress Abigail, 25, was staying at the house with her boyfriend Wojciech Frykowski, a friend of Sharon Tate's husband.

Which rock band hid a cover of Charles Manson's song 'Look at Your Game, Girl' on a 1993 covers album?

Guns N' Roses kept it off the sleeve entirely: it plays as an unlisted thirteenth track at the end of "The Spaghetti Incident?".

Which band recorded most of the 1994 album The Downward Spiral in the house where Sharon Tate was killed?

Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor rented 10050 Cielo Drive in 1992 and built a studio there. He left the next year, saying the house held too much history for him.

Which animated series aired a 1998 Christmas episode with Charles Manson's name in its title?

South Park has Manson break out of jail with Cartman's Uncle Howard in its second-season episode "Merry Christmas, Charlie Manson!".

In which San Francisco neighborhood did Charles Manson gather his first followers during the 1967 Summer of Love?

Haight-Ashbury was becoming the signature hippie district that summer. Manson, newly released, set himself up there as a guru and within a year had twenty or so followers, most of them women.

Why was Charles Manson's 1971 sentence reduced to life in prison the following year?

California voided its death penalty in a 1972 state Supreme Court ruling. It took everyone off death row, and Manson became eligible to apply for parole after seven years.

Which 1967 film gave Sharon Tate the role of Jennifer North and a Golden Globe nomination?

Valley of the Dolls, adapted from a hugely popular novel, made Tate a rising Hollywood name. She was killed by Manson's followers less than two years after its release.

Charles Manson's 1970 album Lie copied the cover of which magazine's December 1969 issue about him?

Life had put Manson's face on its front under the words "The Love and Terror Cult". The record sleeve is almost identical, with the F deleted from the masthead.

What had Spahn Ranch, the Manson Family's base from August 1968, mainly been used for in earlier decades?

Filming Westerns for cinema and television was the ranch's old trade. By 1968 the sets were falling apart, and it got by selling horseback rides for its nearly blind 80-year-old owner.

What kind of old vehicle did Charles Manson and his first followers fit out with rugs and pillows in 1967?

A school bus, with most of its seats pulled out, carried the group away from San Francisco. They ended up around Topanga Canyon, Malibu and Venice on the Los Angeles coast.

In which Ohio city was Charles Manson born in November 1934 to a 16-year-old mother?

Cincinnati General Hospital recorded his birth. His mother, a teenager from Ashland, Kentucky, was sent to prison for robbery before he turned five.

What official document did the imprisoned Charles Manson obtain in November 2014, only for it to expire unused?

A marriage license would have let him wed Afton Burton, 26, who had visited him for years and whom he nicknamed Star. It lapsed in February 2015 with no ceremony held.

Which record producer, the son of Doris Day, lived at 10050 Cielo Drive before Sharon Tate moved in?

Terry Melcher had been Manson's best hope of a record deal, which never came. Manson knew the house as Melcher's and walked up to it looking for him in March 1969.

Which music producer, a friend of Jay Sebring, planned to join him at Cielo Drive on the murder night but stayed away?

Quincy Jones is one of the people who could have been there: he had planned to join Sebring, a hair stylist to Hollywood celebrities, that evening and changed his mind.

Under which title did the Beach Boys release Charles Manson's song 'Cease to Exist' as a 1968 B-side?

Never Learn Not to Love carried no label credit for Manson, who gave up the publishing rights in exchange for a sum of cash and a BSA motorcycle.

Which Depression-era gangster gave Charles Manson guitar lessons while both were held at McNeil Island penitentiary?

Alvin Karpis, nicknamed Creepy, had led the Barker–Karpis gang. Manson also left McNeil Island with a record producer's contact details, supplied by another inmate.

Which religion did Charles Manson list as his own in a 1961 prison record after studying it with another inmate?

Scientology gave him 150 hours of auditing and, one prison report said, some insight into his problems. By 1966 another report noted that he no longer advocated it.

Which car model was the Manson Family accused of stealing and rebuilding as dune buggies in the summer of 1969?

Volkswagen Beetle thefts were the reason deputies raided Spahn Ranch a week after the murders and arrested Manson with 25 others. A misdated search warrant set them all free.

Which magazine made Charles Manson its cover story in June 1970, just as his murder trial was beginning?

Rolling Stone ran its cover story three months after an album of Manson's own songs went on sale. Only about 300 of the 2,000 copies pressed found a buyer.

What happened in 1994 to the house at 10050 Cielo Drive where Manson's followers killed Sharon Tate?

It was demolished together with its guest house. A new mansion went up on the site, and the street address was changed to 10066 Cielo Drive.

Which former Manson follower, convicted over the LaBianca killings, was paroled in 2023 after 53 years in prison?

Leslie Van Houten had been recommended for parole five times from 2016, only for two California governors to veto it. An appeals court then overturned one of the vetoes.

Which Robert Heinlein science fiction novel did Charles Manson fold into the philosophy he preached to his followers?

Stranger in a Strange Land went into the mix beside the Bible and the Beatles when Manson began preaching his own philosophy during the Summer of Love.

Who found the revolver Manson's followers used at Cielo Drive, about three weeks after the murders?

A 10-year-old boy, Steven Weiss, found it near his home on September 1, 1969. It sat in an evidence file until his father phoned the police repeatedly that December.

What was the Hollywood trade of Donald 'Shorty' Shea, a Spahn Ranch worker killed by Manson's group in August 1969?

Stuntman Shea, 35, was killed more than two weeks after the Tate–LaBianca murders. His remains stayed hidden until 1977, when one of the men convicted drew a map for the authorities.

Which comedian played Charles Manson as a recurring character on the 1992 sketch series The Ben Stiller Show?

Bob Odenkirk was in the cast of the short-lived Fox series, which was cancelled after a single season and then won an Emmy for its writing.

Which former Black Flag singer added production to Completion, an unreleased album of Charles Manson's acoustic songs?

Henry Rollins holds two of the only five copies ever pressed. The other three are presumed to have gone to Manson, and the album has never been released.

Which Australian actor played Charles Manson twice in 2019, in Mindhunter and in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood?

Damon Herriman was already cast as Manson in the Netflix series when his name was put forward for the film, and an audition won him the part a second time.

Whose 1986 prison interview with Charles Manson for CBS News Nightwatch won a national news Emmy?

Charlie Rose recorded the second of four interviews Manson gave the mainstream media in the 1980s. It took the 1987 Emmy for Best Interview.

A fellow inmate set Charles Manson on fire at Vacaville in 1984 after Manson objected to which habit of his?

Chanting Hare Krishna was Jan Holmstrom's practice. He poured paint thinner over Manson, who suffered second- and third-degree burns over more than a fifth of his body.

Which famous home for troubled youths took in the teenage Charles Manson in 1949, only to lose him within days?

Boys Town, in Omaha, held him for four days. He and another resident then got hold of a gun, stole a car and committed two armed robberies on the road to Illinois.

In which state did Charles Manson live with an aunt and uncle while his mother served a prison term for robbery?

West Virginia was home while she was inside: he stayed in McMechen until her parole in 1942, and later called the weeks after her return the happiest time of his life.

What happened to Ronald Hughes, a defense lawyer in Charles Manson's trial, during a recess in November 1970?

He vanished while camping near Sespe Hot Springs, where heavy rain had caused flash floods. His body was found four months later, and the cause of death was never determined.

What did the defense lawyers at Charles Manson's trial do in November 1970 that stunned the courtroom?

Rested with no witnesses called, the lawyers were trying to stop the three women from testifying that they had planned the crimes and that Manson was not involved.

Which Berkeley library assistant, a University of Wisconsin graduate, became Charles Manson's first recruit in 1967?

Mary Brunner let the newly released Manson move in with her. Before long eighteen other women were sharing the home, and in 1968 she gave birth to his son.

Which UCLA music teacher, a friend of the Manson Family, was held hostage for two days and killed in July 1969?

Gary Hinman had let Family members stay at his Topanga Canyon home. Manson believed he had come into money, and slashed his face with a sword during the standoff.

Which jailed Manson associate did the women later claim the August 1969 murders were copycat crimes meant to clear?

Bobby Beausoleil, a musician and actor, had been arrested days before the Tate murders while driving his victim's car, with the weapon in the tire well. The jury rejected the story.