Bryan Cranston recalls creepy run-in with Charles Manson

Bryan Cranston has told how he was ‘within the grasp’ of cult leader Charles Manson during a trip out into the Los Angeles countryside back in 1969.

The ‘Breaking Bad’, who would have been 12-years-old at the time, star took to Twitter to detail the chilling run-in yesterday, as news Manson’s death broke.

“I was within his grasp just one year before he committed brutal murder in 1969,” he wrote.

“Luck was with me when a cousin and I went horseback riding at the Span [sic] Ranch, and saw the little man with crazy eyes whom the other hippies called Charlie.”

The Spahn Ranch is a now abandoned area of ranch land, which was often used as a set in western movies and TV shows, having appeared in series like ‘Zorro’, ‘The Lone Ranger’ and ‘Bonanza’.

But it became infamous when its owner, dairy farmer George Spahn, let the ‘Manson family’ cult move in rent free in exchange for labour.

A wild fire destroyed many of its sets and residences a year after the Manson family committed the horrifying Tate-LaBianca murders in 1969.

(AP Photo, File)
(AP Photo, File)

Cranston has spoken of the ominous meeting in the past too, telling The Daily Beast: “[My cousin and I] were dropped off to go horseback riding while my mom and uncle went off and did something else.

“So we were checking out our horses at Spahn Ranch, which is very close to where I was raised. We noticed that the people around there were all strange in their own kind of interesting way.

“There was an old guy [Spahn] checking us in and some guy in his twenties came in yelling, ‘Charlie’s on the hill! Charlie’s on the hill!’ Everybody looked around and there was this frantic nervous energy going on, and they all jumped on horses and away they went.

“We asked the old guy what was going on, and he said, ‘Oh, it’s nothing. It’s happened before.’ We thought, well, Charlie must be someone important.

“After we left the barn area where the horses were gathered, we see this trail of horses coming back.

“There were about eight or so people, and there was a man in the middle on a horse… and Charlie, I guessed, was this comatose, bearded, long-haired guy with big eyes riding as if he’s just stuck to the back of a horse. Totally zoned out. You couldn’t take your eyes off him.

“My cousin turned back to me and said, ‘Wow, that guy’s weird.’ When we passed him and their whole group, she turned around again and said, ‘That must be Charlie,’ and I said, ‘Yeah… and Charlie’s freaky!’ We didn’t think anything of it.”

Manson died on November 19 of natural causes at the age of 83 in a hospital in Bakersfield while still incarcerated for the murders.

Read more
Harrison Ford plays the hero in real-life car accident
Asia Argento: More pigs will be revealed
Transparent writers mulling killing off Jeffrey Tambor’s character