01x04 - Out of Eden

[bunniefuu]

[dramatic music]

- [Interviewer]

[dramatic music]

- [Leslie]

♪ Always is always forever

♪ As long as one is one

♪ Inside yourself
for your father ♪

♪ All is none all
is none all is one ♪

♪ And it's time we put
our love behind you ♪

♪ Illusion has
been just a dream ♪

♪ Valley of death
and I'll find you ♪

♪ Now is when on
a sunshine beam ♪

[soft music]

♪ Los Angeles weather

- [Weatherman] Another nice
day, a little cooler today.

Sunny skies high near 85.

Moderate smog, that
means quite a bit.

Right now it's 62
degrees in Hollywood.

[soft guitar]

♪ Somewhere beneath
the sea and the sand ♪

♪ My baby waits for me

♪ Waits for me

♪ She calls, I come if I can

♪ You know she's good to me

♪ You never, never, never saw

♪ Someone like
this girl before ♪

♪ Lalalalalala

- [Narrator] In '68, Sharon Tate

and husband Roman Polanski
moved to Los Angeles.

♪ She calls, I come if I can

♪ You know she's good to me

- [Narrator] While
Roman was in London

prepping his movie, "The
Day of the Dolphins",

Sharon shared the house

with Roman Polanski's Polish
pal, Voytek Frykowski,

and Voytek's girlfriend,
Abigail Folger,

the San Francisco socialite

who was known as being the
heiress to the Coffee Fortune.

And then Jay Sebring,

who was actually the former
fiance of Sharon showed up,

pretty well every day to
hang out with the foursome.

♪ Waits for me

♪ Waits for me, ah

[typewriter keys clicking]

[dramatic music]

- When I arrived in
the spring of 1968,

Spahn Ranch was idyllic.

We were very
accepting and loving.

[dramatic music]

The music really pulled me in.

We weren't catty,
we weren't jealous.

We just all, just
kinda loved each other.

Home was the ranch.

Home was Charlie and all
the people at the ranch.

[dramatic music]

- [Barbara] I met
Charlie at Spahn's Ranch.

I was walking up Santa
Susanna Pass Road.

I was picked up by
Dede and Stephanie

and they took me to where
the Family was staying

and I got immersed
in the milieu there.

It was like being pioneers.

[dramatic music]

You know it was just, wow,
this is cool, this is fun.

[dramatic music]
[camera clicking]

The first thing
that they asked me

if I heard of the White Album,

The Beatles White Album.

Did I know about Helter
Skelter and all this stuff.

[dramatic music]
[women laughing]

- In the winter of 1968
and the spring of 1969,

Charlie Manson, he's playing
'em The Beatles White Album

over and over and
here are the messages

The Beatles are sending us.

[Charlie mumbling]

- Charlie really believed

that The Beatles were sending
him a subliminal message

in the White Album.

[dramatic music]

He played it forwards,
backwards, slow, fast.

- [Jeff] Manson became
so obsessed with that,

that that was all
he cared about.

[dramatic music]

[dramatic music]

- We just thought that
they were singing about us.

It was like to him and
then of course to us,

that The Beatles had tuned
in to the consciousness

and Charlie was tuned
in to the consciousness.

- Dennis Wilson would say
Charlie's cosmic, you know.

He gets messages
from Beatle Records,

like the White Album.

But everybody did that.

I mean every rock song was
a prophecy to my generation.

- [Narrator] This is where
Charlie gets the idea

that Helter Skelter, the
apocalypse is coming.

Blackbird works in very well.

Piggies works in very well.

- [Leslie]

[imitates machine g*n]

[dramatic music]

- [Narrator] Then there's
the song "Helter Skelter"

comin' down fast.

[dramatic music]

[sirens blaring]

- Helter Skelter
was the new name

for this race w*r that
he'd been talking about.

- [Brooks] When Helter
Skelter comes down,

the cities are gonna
be mass hysteria

and that the cops
won't know what to do.

- [Barbara] The Blacks would
rise, k*ll off the Whites.

Karma would be turning

'cause of all that we
done to the other races,

and then they would be
unable to rule and run things

and so they would go

to the only white people
left who survived,

which would be the
Family who had hidden

and ultimately of
course Charlie.

- [Woman] It was real.

It was really real, Helter
Skelter is coming down.

You know whether he was
supposed to start it or not

but that it was imminent.

- Charlie Manson gets to the
whole Helter Skelter idea,

mostly after it's
pretty obvious to him

that he's not gonna
become the music star

that he's promised his
followers he's gonna become.

It gives him a new thing
to predict is coming.

And let's face it.

There were race riots in
every major American city.

[people yelling]

And Los Angeles was a
tinder box at that time.

And he could say
to his followers,

see I'm telling you there
are these great events

and we're right at
the middle of them.

[dramatic music]
[camera clicking]

- [Leslie] We knew
that we were part

of the Revelations in the Bible.

We knew that we had part in it.

- [Brooks] God's getting ready

to pull down the
curtain on this game

and start it over again
with His chosen people.

[dramatic music]

- [Narrator] Charlie
at this point

was talking Beatles
and Bible a lot.

That if The Beatles said
it or it was in the Bible

it had to be true.

And one of the things in
the book of Revelation,

is discussion of
a bottomless pit.

[dramatic music]

- [Brooks] He says the
Negroes are gonna revolt

and k*ll all the white man

except the ones that are
hiding in the desert.

And he said that it was
getting worse and worse

and that he wanted to
hide in the desert.

[dramatic music]

- [Narrator] Charlie preached

when this terrible race w*r
was going on all around him

that they would go
into the bottomless pit

where underneath there
would be a wonderful city

they could live in.

And there they would exist,
and there they would multiply.

[dramatic music]

- He wanted beautiful people

to help repopulate and
help the black man rule.

[dramatic music]

I think he went off the deep end

'cause I think he
really believed it.

- That move from
believing in the rational,

orderly world as we know it

to this other mystical realm,

is really a move into insanity.

[dramatic music]

- [Charles] Life is the
struggle.

The experience of
existence to me.

Some people don't
like to struggle.

I do, I like to struggle.

That's the reason I like
the desert so much, yeah.

[dramatic music]

- [Brooks] At the
end of September

or partway through
October of '68,

Catherine came along

and she knew of a place in
the desert in Death Valley

that her grandmother owned.

[dramatic music]

- We met Cathy Gilles
at a recording session.

She had a boyfriend that
was a recording engineer

and she was fascinated
by our music.

She was listening to the words.

And she came up to Charlie

and told him how much
she liked the music

and he asked if she
wanted to go for a ride.

And she went for a ride with him

and came back about
a half an hour later

and told her
boyfriend at the time

that she had just
met Jesus Christ

and she was gonna
go home with him.

On that ride she told him

about her grandparents'
place, the Myers.

She told him how remote it was

and he said that
might be our place.

- [Brooks] She led everyone up

and the transportation used

was an old green school
bus that they painted

and fixed up on the inside

to look like a harem
sort of effect.

[dramatic music]

And we took the bus to
the bottom of Goler Wash.

[dramatic music]

And hiked up seven or seven and
a half miles to Myers Ranch.

[dramatic music]

And on the way, Charlie
and the rest of us spotted,

all of us spotted
this Barker's Ranch.

And a couple of days
after we were there

we moved into Barker's
Ranch and cleaned it up.

[dramatic music]

- [Bobby] Charlie
found what he thought

was a discarded landscape

and since he was
a discarded person

that's how he kinda
characterized it.

He said, "It's just a
perfect place for me

"out in the desert.

"Nobody wants that place.

"Nobody wanted me.

"So I'll go out
there and be unwanted

"and not be a part of all the
trappings of civilization."

- [Narrator] One
of the fallacies

about the time they
spend out in the desert

is that they're stuck there.

[dramatic music]

A lot of the Manson
family members

actually liked it out there.

They liked being out
in the wilderness

and the idea that
we're really pioneers

and it's just us with
thrown off civilization.

- I loved the desert.

We made a movie out there.

If you watch the movie,

you can see it's all this sweet,

everybody running around,
jumping, having a good time.

I was just showing
people that we were free

and that it was wonderful.

- [Brooks] Barker's Ranch,

part of the rules was that
while it was warm enough,

that everyone was to go nude.

So that I suppose that would
stimulate sexual interest

and everyone would wind up
making love all day long.

And I heard him
comment once that,

"Wouldn't it be nice if all had,

"if we could just stay in
bed forever and make love?"

- Charlie also got
the information

that there was a bottomless pit
somewhere out in the desert.

And there are.

Somewhere out in the desert,

there is some kind of
a lake under the earth.

Once you went through the
water and inside the earth,

there was a place where
people could live.

- I heard a lotta talk
about the bottomless pit

and that didn't come
out of Charlie's head.

He got lost one time,

and he calls it his


rather than Jesus's 40 days
and he met up with a miner

who told him the
legends of Death Valley

and how people had disappeared,

and some people
that it was UFOs.

And other people thought
that had found the passage

to the inner world
where El Dorado was.

This miner told him, "You
can't be afraid of snakes

"because the legend
says the passageways

"are covered in snakes."

- [Bobby] It's all fantasy
and that's how I took it.

It was entertainment,
fireside chats.

You know, that was most
of the entertainment

within the group, playing
music and making up stories.

- [Brooks] He said it's
underneath Death Valley

and leads down to a city of gold

that the Indians know about,

and that every tuned
in tribe of people

that's ever lived,
the most tuned in

have escaped the
destruction of their race

by going underground.

- [Narrator] Manson took people

who mostly had bad self
images and convinced them

that they were so great

they were gonna rule
the world with him.

They were in it for what
they were going to get.

[dramatic music]

- [Man] Around this time,

Charles Manson goes
back to Los Angeles

to give his music
one last chance.

[dramatic music]

[typewriter keys clicking]

- I remember both Terry
Melcher and Greg Jacobson

came to the ranch
and listened to us

and Charlie play
the guitar and sing.

- For the first time Charlie
made things really important,

like this is an
important person.

For those of you that you know
who you are that can't sing,

just mouth the words and
the ones that can sing,

you know, listen to each other.

This is important,
he's a big producer.

Our music could go somewhere.

[guitar music]

- [Terry] I arrived and
met a bunch a people.

They all sat down
and they played,

I don't know, a dozen songs.

It was a big campfire.

♪ Don't do anything ill*gal

♪ Beware of the eagle

♪ It's got you by the neck

- [Terry] So Manson
played the guitar,

and all the girls sang
the parts and harmonies

and background stuff.

♪ Ah heck

♪ I don't wanna do that

- [Terry] And it was, you know,

it was quite an
interesting thing

and they talked about how
they all shared this and that.

It was one big family,
and that these were people

who were basically
disenfranchised

by their biological families.

And I thought, well, all right,

I mean it's kind of, you know,

maybe this is what's
going on today.

[women laughing]
[crickets chirping]

- We ran through the songs

and I remember Terry looking
intrigued but uncomfortable.

He looked at his watch,

and said, "Well I
gotta get going."

And so Charlie said, "Let
me walk you back up."

[dramatic music]
[crickets chirping]

He said that Terry Melcher
said he was gonna get in touch

and never did.

[dramatic music]

He said things like
people in Hollywood,

they just don't know
what their word means.

He says where I come
from, which is prison,

but he didn't say prison,

where I come from your
word is your bond,

and you could die if you
don't keep your word.

[whooshing]

- [Narrator] Charlie
got pissed off,

and at this point he turns all
his attention to the desert.

But he needed money for that.

Money for supplies and so forth.

- That's when things, they
started going a little crazier.

All the energy was
about getting money

to fund this move, this
long-term move to Death Valley.

We tried to do a night
club in the saloon,

and I think the police came
and you know, shut that down.

Also they did some drug deals

and I think Tex brought that
element into the family.

- Charlie, because he
was such a misogynist,

always needed to have a man

who he could send
out to be in charge.

- Paul Watkins, he was
just a young little kid.

He wanted to play music.

He was stoned all the
time, more so than anybody

and he hung out a
lot with Brooks.

Steve Grogan was taught by
Charlie to act really stupid

and out of it, around
anybody that he didn't know,

so that he could be
totally under the radar.

And he was playing a game.

- [Woman] Then there
was Bruce Davis

who was really into Scientology

and he wanted to be
just like Charlie.

- [Brooks] Bruce was
more his own person.

Tex was a disciple.

Tex was more subordinate.

[dramatic music]

- Tex very much wanted
to prove to Charlie

that he could do something big.

[typewriter keys clicking]

[dramatic music]

There were some problems
with various drug deals,

and one involved
Lotsapoppa, a dope dealer.

- [Interviewer] How'd you
get a moniker like that,

the name of Lotsapoppa?

[laughs]

- It seems like
everyone that I meet

seems that I just
need to be a daddy

to 'em more or less
'cause I'm always

trying to get some sort of
advice, I guess, you know,

but I don't practice
what I preach.

[laughs]

- Charles Tex Watson
sold some drugs

to Bernard Lotsapoppa Crowe.

Somehow Crowe gave him the money

and off he went to the
Spahn Ranch with the money

without delivering the drugs.

He gave the money to Manson

and Manson was
gonna use the money

for one of his
other dune buggies

or his vehicles or whatever.

- Was it a personal dispute
of some kind or what?

- Yeah, sort of,
with Charlie Watson.

- [Interviewer] You
mean Tex Watson?

- Yes, Tex Watson.

- Tex, he had a girlfriend
that lived near Bernard Crowe.

He burned Bernard Crowe,

so Bernard Crowe
kidnapped his girlfriend

and then called the ranch

and Charlie got on the phone.

- Mr. Crowe was
not a happy camper,

and he said, "If you don't
give me my money back

"or my drugs that you promised,

"I'm gonna come over there
and I'm gonna create havoc."

- [Bobby] Bernard Crowe is
making grandiose threats

about k*lling
everybody at the ranch

if he doesn't get his money.

Charlie, he wouldn't
take that lightly.

- [Man] Manson didn't want
Crowe to come over to the ranch,

and he went to meet him.

- [Interviewer] Where?

- [Bernard] In the apartment.

On Franklin Boulevard
next to the Magic Castle.

- [Charles] So Tex
has a little problem.

He had a little problem,
excuse me, a g*n.

He can't do what I have to
go deal with his problem.

- [Interviewer] Which is?

- [Charles] Lotsapoppa.

- [Interviewer] Who?

- [Charles] Some guy down
in the drug world.

I had to go down and take
care of some business

that was not my business because
he's too much of a coward.

He's laying up underneath
the bed with it.

- [Bobby] Bernard Crowe
didn't seem to see Charlie

as much of a threat
as he should have.

He's only like her hair
over five-foot tall.

- [Narrator] Charlie
had a g*n, a 22 g*n

and it was called the bump line.

And it was called the bump line

'cause it had an
extended barrel,

supposedly like Wyatt
Earp's bump line special did

back on the frontier.

[dramatic music]

- [Bobby] Mr. Manson
pulled out his g*n,

leveled it at Crowe,
pulled the trigger.

[dramatic music]

[g*nsh*t]

- I've been told that
Charlie Manson shot you,

is that true?

- Yes, he shot me, yes.

- [Man] Crowe was
shot in the gut

and then went down
like a felled tree.

- Two days after he
was watching the news

and saw that a Black
Panther's body had been found,

he put two and two
together in his head

that must be Bernard Crowe,

he must have been
a Black Panther.

Bernard Crowe was the beginning
of him just being cornered

and getting totally
frantic and paranoid.

Everything changed
after Bernard Crowe.

There was no more fun and games.

- [Bobby] Charlie
pulled me aside.

He said, "Bobby, I k*lled
a Black Panther."

And at the time I showed up,

he was worried that he
didn't have enough men.

So he asked me if I would
come and stay at the ranch

and just be there to
give him some support.

There was no question
that he believed

that he had k*lled this guy.

- Charlie truly believes
that the Black Panthers

are going to descend on
Spahn Ranch to k*ll them all.

He tries to arm the Family.

- [Bobby] He had lookouts.

Clem and Bruce Davis and
some of the time he had,

and a couple of guys
looking down the road

in case the car load of
Black Panthers came up

towards the ranch.

- [Brooks] I've
seen approximately

a knife on, everyone

and Charlie sometimes has
two or three with him.

And I've seen him that
he can throw a knife

approximately 10 or 15 feet
and be deadly accurate with it.

- Charlie gave us all like
a six inch buck knife.

And said, "I'm, you know,
I'm going to show you how,

"you know, to k*ll somebody
with the most effect."

[dramatic music]

- This would be our way
of protecting ourselves

when the world would
come crashing in on us

and you would take the knife

and you'd stick somebody with it

and be sure to wiggle it
around a lot to get any organs

that you could get,

to be sure that you
would k*ll the person.

- You put the knife in and then
I think it was draw upwards.

We were like really building
up this kind of army.

You know, really.

- His personality changed,
he was mean all the time.

Everything had to be done
exactly like bootcamp.

Like I say so.

He had been saying
for a long time to us.

"This is gonna come down
and you gotta be ready.

"'Cause when it happens,

"this is gonna happen
just like that."

And to us, it was
like it started,

and the only way we're gonna
survive is still listen to him

and do everything he says

because the Black Panthers
are gonna k*ll us all.

- That's when he
asked the motorcycle club

that they were just visiting

to please stay for a while
and protect the ranch.

- [Woman] Danny DeCarlo
and the Straight Satans

were like a protection
and a provider of weapons.

- You taught the girls to sh**t

and how to break a weapon down,

how to clean it, all that stuff?

- Yeah.

[murmurs]

You know I had three r*fles,
I had a couple of hand g*ns,

I brought a machine
g*n out there.

- [Woman] There was more
like a criminal element

that showed up.

You know, there
was more drug deals

and there were knives
and there were g*ns.

- [Danny] I showed
them how to use a g*n.

- [Interviewer] Made
your own ammunition?

- [Danny] We made,
we were, yeah.

I mean we made everything.

All our ammunition.

- It was just, there
was this frenetic energy

to put together a plan
and supplies and gasoline

and all that to
head to the desert

and wait for the Helter
Skelter w*r be over.

I mean, it was
crazy, crazy talk.

[typewriter keys clicking]

He was always
playing mind games.

The creepy crawly
missions was part of that.

[soft music]

They dressed up in black clothes

and then they would
sneak into people's homes

and eat some food,
rearrange the furniture.

I don't think they
stole anything.

It was just a mess with
people's minds and instill fear.

- [Woman] When he
started taking the kids

on what he called creepy crawls,

where you snuck into someone's
house and move things around,

he was actually
getting him used to it.

You know, burglaries and
calling it something cute.

- I think for the most part,

it was this whole exercise in
sneaking into people's houses

and just messing
with their psyche.

Like, "I didn't leave that
there and who drake the milk?

One time Clem sat behind
people watching television,

and was just silent.

He told me they were all fat,

watching TV and sitting
there feeding their faces.

[dramatic music]

- [Bobby] Charlie
frequently talked about ego

and the need to destroy it,

and he had somehow
managed to get Tex

to surrender his will
in a sense to him.

- This is what life was like.

It wasn't sunshine and roses.

Manson brainwashing.

Manson telling the girls
what to eat, what to drink,

who to sleep with, how to sleep
with, who to have sex with,

boys, each other the whole
panoply of sexual orgies.

- [Brooks] Group orgies was
the way to get tuned in.

He wants everybody
to do everything,

and then you can make love
with six or seven people

at the same time, if you get
tuned in, that's what he says.

[dramatic music]

- Charlie used to
play Jesus Christ

and he used to put everybody
through the tests of death.

He told Brooks Poston to die

and Brooks Poston
actually went and lay down

for several days without
eating until Charlie said,

"You can come up, you
know, you can rise."

[dramatic music]

Charlie played these
games with them.

Charlie told them what
to do and they did it.

- He, you know,
would often tell us

that we didn't really need food

and he was always trying
to get us to not feel pain,

holding our fingers
over a candle flame.

And yeah, it hurts, you
know, just, you know,

get beyond it,
it's not, you know,

it's not really pain,
it's just in your mind.

- [Man] Charlie was just sweet

and kind and cruel and
nasty and they obeyed.

They obeyed.

- LSD, it's so powerful.

You just really feel like
at one with the earth,

and the universe.

I mean, you just kind of like,

everything starts
making more sense.

He did take acid
in the beginning,

but he realized that he
could control us better

if he didn't take
any or as much.

- [Woman] Wasn't as
if Charlie was acting

like a staff sergeant
and yelling out orders,

but when he told
you to do something

and he gave you instructions,

everyone knew that
you had to do it

exactly the way he
wanted you to do it.

- [Brooks] I've had my life
threatened several times

and he's, I've seen him drag
people pull around by the hair,

hold a knife to
the throat and say,

"You know, I can k*ll you.

"Don't you?"

And then after that he says,

"But I wouldn't because
you're one of us."

- The first time he hit me,
I remember he slapped me

'cause he wasn't feeling good.

[dramatic music]

I had asked him, you
know, can I do anything?

You know, I do anything for you?

And it was just like,
he just slapped me.

And then the other girl said,

"Oh, you know,
he's not, you know,

"he's just not feeling good.

"And you know, you gotta be
careful about what you say."

- [Interviewer] What do you
think of women?

- [Charles] Oh, I like them.

Yeah, they're nice.

If they're put together
well and everything

and their soft and
spicy, yeah they're nice.

As long they keep
their mouth shut

and do what they're
supposed to do.

- I remember one time
I was doing dishes,

and he wanted me to
come to the circle

and I just wanted
to finish doing it.

You know, it was just
like, no, you know,

you're gonna do what I say now.

And he like, kind of whipped
me with an electrical,

like an extension cord.

I remember him kind
of like winking at me.

Like you can take it snake.

I'm using you as an example.

[dramatic music]

And then the next time
I remember is that when,

the time when he wanted me
to listen to the White Album

and I needed to go
to the bathroom,

and so I ended up
peeing on the rug

'cause he wouldn't let me leave.

I think he broke a
chair leg, you know,

like threw a chair at
me and the leg broke off

and then he hit me
with the chair leg.

And then when we're
out in the desert,

he threatened to hang me
upside down and skin me alive

and I believed him, you know.

[dramatic music]

- [Brooks] He's beaten up
several girls that I know of.

One Mary Brunner and
I've seen him choke her

around by her hair and
slap her and make her cry

while he was making love
to her at the same time.

- We only saw his good
side for a very long time.

By the time I got to the point

where I realized that
there was no crossing him,

and I got the other end of his
fist, it was just too late.

I remember we were at
Spahn Ranch in the front

and I hadn't had sex
with him for a while

and was feeling, you
know, kind of left out.

And so I, you know, got
up the nerve to, you know,

come on to him.

And so we walked back to
that little gypsy caravan

that's in this meadow.

[dramatic music]

And he took me in there and
then turned me, you know,

turned me around and you know,
really roughly sodomized me

with no, you know, nothing
like he had ever done

before nuts, you know, not
sweet and tender and you know,

it wasn't magical
anymore at all.

It was just brutal r*pe.

[dramatic music]

When he was finished,

he said something to the effect

of that's the way
we do it in prison.

I was so conflicted
and so hurt and I just,

he laughed and I cried.

[soft music]

And then I went
down to the stream

and just sat in the stream
'cause I was bleeding.

[soft music] [water babbling]

And just cried.

[soft music] [water babbling]

It was after that that I
really was really lost.

[soft music]

And at Spahn Ranch,
I was considering

jumping off the cliff behind
like George's house.

[soothing music] [birds singing]

I really wanted to k*ll myself.

[soothing music]

[typewriter keys clicking]

- [Announcer] T-minus 15 seconds

from the Apollo 11 lift off.


ignition sequence start.

Six.

[Apollo 11 launches]

[dramatic music]

- Moon landing was advertised.

And I remember watching
the moon landing

with the TV on George's stoop.

[dramatic music]

- [Announcer] This is
Apollo Control, Houston,

at 105 hours now under the
flight to Apollo 11.

[dramatic music]

- [Man] The world awaits
curious, wondering, aware.

A moment sensed more
than understood.

- [Man] We copy it down, eagle.

- [Reporter] The eagle has
landed.

- I remember us all
standing around in awe

and then looking up
at the, you know,

looking up at the
moon just like.

- [Man] That's one small step
for man.

[dramatic music]

One giant leap for mankind.

[dramatic music]

- [Narrator] Southern California

is on a collision
course with disaster.

The crisis we face is
in the air around us.

For more than 20 years,

Los Angeles residents
have been subjected

to the high smarting lung
choking stench of smog.

There is alarming evidence

which indicates the
levels of pollution

in Los Angeles are
continuing to runs.

[dramatic music]

- While we were getting
ready at Spahn Ranch

to try to go to the desert,
Bobby came on the ranch

to come help us
all get protected.

He hung out with a bikers, and
he got enthralled with them.

He thought, you know,
iron horses, freedom.

So he wanted to be a prospect?

- [Bobby] I really wanted
to be a part of that.

Like you know, I was a wannabe
and uh.

I wanted to be accepted,
I was building a bike,

I liked the lifestyle,
oh, motorcycle culture,

the biker culture represented
that kind of freedom

that I longed for.

And I did learn that
the Straight Satans

were getting ready to celebrate
their 10th anniversary

as a chartered club.

- They were saying that they
wanted some kind of drugs

besides downers and alcohol
and maybe some acid this time.

And he said, "Well, I don't
know where we can get acid

"but I know somebody
that makes masculine."

And that was Gary Hinman.

- [Bobby] Gary
wasn't like a dealer,

a real dealer by any means.

He was just a guy who sometimes
helped to make ends meet

by selling a little bit
of pot to his friends.

- Bobby wanted to ingratiate
himself to these guys.

So he went to his, you know,
friend and made a deal.

Well, masculine
will get you sick,

it cleans you out
before it gets you high.

So they thought they
had been poisoned,

They thought it was bad drugs,

and they cornered
Bobby, they beat him up

and they threatened
his life and said,

"Get us our money back!"

[dramatic music]

- [Leslie] Bobby and Mary
and baby went to Gary Hinman

to get some money.

[dramatic music]

- [Bobby] Honestly,
I didn't think

it was gonna be a big deal.

I thought I could just
explain what the problem was

and he would give
me the money back.

So anyway, we talked about it

and I told him what had happened

and he says, "Well, buddy,
I don't have the money."

And then I'm starting
to get frantic.

- Bobby asked one of
the girls to, you know,

keep the g*n on him while
he went around the house

to see if there's any money
and there was an altercation

and the g*n was thrown
out of her hand.

- [Bobby] I heard some
yelling from the kitchen,

and I just immediately
just spun around

and ran into the kitchen

and saw Gary tried
to turn the g*n on me

and I just dove at him.

When we were struggling,
the g*n went off.

And in that instant, I was
able to take the g*n from him.

[phone ringing]

- Well, in the meantime, Mary
ran out and called Charlie

and said, "It's all
out of control."

- [Bobby] We both calmed down.

I put the g*n away

and Gary and I sat
down at the table again

and we became aware that someone

was coming to the front door
and Gary went to answer it,

and he opened the door
and said, "Hi, Charlie."

And Charlie stepped
into the front door

just slashed him across the face

without telling him a
word without warning.

I said, "Charlie,
why did you do that?"

And he said, "Showing
you how to be a man."

He and Bruce left.

As quick as they came,
they left and Travis said,

"Tell her to clean
this mess up."

Gary was bleeding, he's holding
his hand up to his cheek.

I spent the next day with Gary.

I was terrified of taking
him to the hospital,

and that's exactly
what I wish I had done.

- Bobby stitched him up
and put antiseptic on it,

gave him first aid,

but Gary was adamant about
going to the hospital.

Bobby knew the first thing
he would do is, you know,

say what happened and
he'd go to prison,

and he made the worst choice
of that a human being can make.

- [Bobby] Well, I called Mitch

and got Charlie on the phone.

And I said, "Man, I
don't know what to do."

And he said something
to the effect, you know,

what to do as well as
I do and hung up on me.

[dramatic music]

And then maybe a half hour
later, I stabbed Gary to death.

I looked up and Mary was
standing in the doorway

with her eyes just, you
know, as big as saucers.

She was horrified

and I mean they with just
reflected back at me,

the way I felt about
myself at that moment.

[ambient music]

I don't remember anything else.

I don't remember writing
blood on the wall.

I don't know that I did that.

I had always assumed it was me.

[ambient music]

I remember a little bit of
driving back to the ranch

and I spent time
down at the creek.

Charlie found me down there.

He said to me, "How does it
feel to k*ll your brother?"

I hated him at that moment.

[dramatic music]

- [Announcer] Only one of these
men is the real Jay Sebring.

The other two are imposters,

and we'll try to fool this
panel on to tell the truth.

[crowd applauds]

- [Narrator] Jay Sebring
was a hot property.

- Number three, how do
you cut hair for a toupee?

- Well, you blend
it in with the hair.

[group laughs]

- He was a booming
star in his own right.

He was the hairdresser to
all the top major movie stars

and Henry Fonda and Paul
Newman and Steve McQueen

and earned huge
amounts of money.

- [Announcer] Will the real,
Jay Sebring please stand up.

[crowd applauds]

- He was also a
friend of Sharon Tate,

and in the summer of


were living in the
house with Terry Melcher

and Candice Bergen used
to live on Cielo Drive.

And while Roman was in London,

Jay Sebring was hanging around
at the house with Sharon.

Sharon was very pregnant
about to deliver.

A lot of Hollywood stars
knew she was pregnant

and would like to stop
by and talk to Sharon.

[dramatic music]

There was always a
party going on there.

[soft music]

- [Charles] I am
a mechanical man.

A mechanical man and
I do the best I can

because I have my family.

I am a mechanical boy.

I am my mother's toy.

- I met Charlie on a road trip.

We were near Big Sur.

Charlie thought he was
gonna be, you know,

a music star, a rock star.

And I remember going to
the Esalen Institute.

He took his guitar
and he told me,

"Stay in the van
while I go in there,

"and I'll be back
in a little bit."

[dramatic music]

I think that he was thinking

that they were gonna be really
blown away by his talent,

and you know, ask him to come
back and possibly pay him

for, you know, his music
abilities but they didn't.

He was pretty upset
when he came back.

The fact that these
people were not impressed

with his talent, made him angry.

[dramatic music]
[water splashing]

[typewriter keys clicking]

- [Stephen] When he got
back on August the eighth,

he said, "Now is the
time for Helter Skelter."

[dramatic music]

And that meant now was
the time for the race w*r.

- [Interviewer] Well,
how are you gonna start

this revolution?

[dramatic music]

- [Narrator] He gathered
some of his family members,

Susan Atkins, Tex Watson,

Linda Kasabian and
Patricia Krenwinkel.

He told them that now was
the time for Helter Skelter.

- [Linda] I was told to go
get a change of clothing

and a knife, my driver's
license and meet back.

- [Narrator] Manson told the
girls to do whatever Tex says.

- [Narrator] Manson
said to Susan Atkins,

"Leave assigned
something witchy."

[car engine roaring]

- [Susan] I remember
getting in the car with Tex,

and before I ever
got in the car,

Tex and I had our own special
little stash of cocaine.

And I think it was
cocaine and methadone,

I'm not sure which.

It was speeding.

We bought this at some speed.

- [Charles]

[dramatic music]

- [Susan] And we
drove to the house

with instructions to k*ll
everyone in the house.

[ominous music]

And when we first went in,

one of the people
said, "Who are you?"

and Tex said, "I'm the devil

"and I'm here to do
the devil's business."

[banging]

[dramatic music]

- I was the first
a reporter on duty

on that Saturday.

We suddenly got a call
from the assignment desk.

There's been a 211
in Beverly Hills

and they gave us an address,

Cielo Drive that
didn't ring any bells.

[dramatic music]

And we pulled up and
parked where we could

by the side of the road,
walked up to the gate.

We didn't know who lived
there or what was going on.

There was a body in a car

that you could see
through the gate.

The gate was closed,
LAPD had people inside.

[dramatic music]

As the morning wore on,

more and more camera
crews began showing up.

When I got there on
that Saturday morning,

by then there were
about 25 journalists

and we were kept
outside the gates

and we were talking
to each other

and ask him what's going on.

- The epiphany for me was
when Rona Barrett showed up.

Rona did Gossip News for Channel


And I went over
to her and I said,

"Miss Rona, what
are you doing here?"

She said, "Don't you
know who lives here?"

I said, "I have no idea."

"This is Roman
Polanski's house."

- By pure chance, I had a friend
who lived on Cielo Drive.

Three doors away and
I went to see him

and use his telephone
to phone in the story.

And he told me that Sharon
lived there with Roman Polanski.

- Definitive identification
of the persons are as follows.

Sharon Polanski, Jay
Sebring, Voytek Frykowski,

Abigail Folgere, and
another man who is unknown.

- Do you have any kind of an
idea of who might've done it?

Do you have any kind of APBs
out, any suspects at all?

- [Man] No.

- [Reporter] Why is this
case more complicated

than other cases that
you can't comment.

But what's the
difference in this case?

- [Officer] Well, how many
cases and how many times

do you have five persons

that are found m*rder*d
at the same time?

[dramatic music]

♪ I will make sure you breath

- [Barbara] I was watching TV

and Johnny Schwartz's trailer

was just sitting
there watching it.

I was just sitting
there and Sadie came in

and demanded I turn the
channel to the news.

The first thing on
the news was the story

that Sharon Tate had been
m*rder*d.

- [Announcer] In a scene
described by one investigator

is reminiscent of a
weird religious right.

Five persons including Actress
Sharon Tate were found dead

at the home of Miss Tate,

and her husband, Screened
Director Roman Polanski.

[whooshing]

[dramatic music]

- [Interviewer] Why in the world

would you wanna go
out and k*ll somebody?

- [Woman]

[dramatic music]

- [Stephen] Manson
gathered Susan Atkins,

Patricia Krenwinkel, Leslie
Van Houten, Linda Kasabian,

Tex Watson and Steve Grogan.

[dramatic music]

- [Leslie] We drove all over
LA and Manson was very agitated

and Kasabian was very
nervous and upset

and he was yelling at her a lot.

[ominous music]

- [Stephen] Manson led
them to a house next door

to where Leno and
Rosemary LaBianca lived.

That house at one time
was rented by Harold True,

and a friend of the family,

some of the girls had actually
spent the night at his house,

but he no longer lived there.

Kasabian asked, "Are you
going to that house?"

pointing at Harold Trues,

and Manson said, "No,
I'm going next door."

[ominous music]

So Manson went up to the house.

- [Leslie] We sat in the car.

Manson came back and
he pointed at Pat

and I and told us to get
out and go do what Tex said.

[ominous music]

He said to Tex to make sure
that everybody did something.

[ominous music]

[soothing music]

- [Interviewer]

- [Leslie]

[soft music]

♪ A ground just passing by

♪ I remember
everything you said ♪

♪ I remember every inch of you

♪ Every torrid inch of you

♪ Laid across your back ♪

[soft guitar]

- [Man] Brett, move your head

[whooshing]

[lion roaring]

[ambient music]