Manson Family Leader Charles Manson Dead At 83

Charles Manson, the infamous cult leader of the “Helter Skelter” gang, has died after nearly five decades in prison, according to several media outlets. He was 83.

Charles Manson on his way to court in 1970. (Photo: Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Charles Manson on his way to court in 1970. (Photo: Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Manson was reportedly taken from Corcoran State Prison in California, where he had been serving a life sentence, to a hospital in Bakersfield last week, TMZ and The Los Angeles Times reported at the time.

Manson was hospitalized for gastrointestinal issues at Bakersfield Hospital in January 2017.

The man who would become synonymous with pure evil was in his mid-30s in 1969, when he was charged with orchestrating a series of gruesome murders. He was the leader of the so-called Manson Family, a quasi-commune. He told followers an apocalyptic race war was coming.

He described the collapse of society as “helter skelter,” a term he borrowed from a Beatles song and was found scrawled in blood ― though misspelled ― on a refrigerator at one of the crime scenes.

Manson was trying to precipitate a race war when he ordered his followers to kill seven people, including Sharon Tate, a pregnant actress married to famed director Roman Polanski.

Manson and three of his devout followers ― Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten ― went on trial in June 1970. A fifth suspect, Linda Kasabian, was given immunity in exchange for her testimony against the others.

Susan Denise Atkins, left, and Patricia Krenwinkel, second from right. (Photo: Bettmann via Getty Images)
Susan Denise Atkins, left, and Patricia Krenwinkel, second from right. (Photo: Bettmann via Getty Images)

The nearly 10-month trial cost Los Angeles $1 million, a record that stood until serial killer Richard Ramirez’s murder trial nearly 20 years later.

The courtroom antics of Manson and his followers captured front-page headlines. At one point, Manson carved an X into his forehead, which years later he turned into a swastika. Some of his followers held vigils outside the courthouse.

The outbursts turned volatile in August 1970, when an infuriated Manson, denied permission to question a witness, leaped over the defense table to attack the judge. Manson was wrestled to the ground before he made it to the bench, but the attack reportedly prompted the judge to begin wearing a revolver under his robes.

Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.

On Jan. 25, 1971, the jury convicted the four defendants on multiple counts of first-degree murder.

During the penalty phase, Manson shaved his head and trimmed his beard in the likeness of a fork, according to the book The True Story of the Manson Murders.

“I am the devil, and the devil always has a bald head,” Manson told reporters covering the trial.

Charles Manson after his arrest. (Photo: Bettmann via Getty Images)
Charles Manson after his arrest. (Photo: Bettmann via Getty Images)

In March 1971, the jury sentenced each of the four defendants to death. Manson reportedly shouted to jurors: “You people have no authority over me.”

Three months later, Manson follower Charles “Tex” Watson went to trial. He was found guilty of seven counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to death.

The defendants’ sentences were commuted to life in prison in 1972, when the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily banned the death penalty.

Manson was denied parole a dozen times during his decades of incarceration. He didn’t attend his most recent hearing, in April 2012.

Even in prison, Manson didn’t fade from the media spotlight. In the 1980s, he gave several interviews, including a notorious session with Geraldo Rivera on NBC in 1988. During the interview, Rivera hit a raw nerve when he suggested Manson was not brazen enough to do his own bidding.

“Where I come fro, the guys with guts, they do it themselves,” Rivera said.

Manson, apparently irritated by the comment, replied, “Come on, man, why you feel the need to get down on me? Is that going to make you look any bigger? What if I just jumped on you and beat the dog shit out of you. Would that make you feel any bigger?”

(Photo: Handout . / Reuters)
(Photo: Handout . / Reuters)

The public’s fascination with the notorious killer endured, with Manson’s likeness plastered on T-shirts and featured in comic books. His story was told countless times in books and true-crime TV shows. He was featured in movies and documentaries, including two made-for-television dramatizations of his crimes. Songs written by Manson have been sung by several hard-rock bands. Singer Brian Hugh Warner, who goes by the stage moniker Marilyn Manson, reportedly created his name by combining Manson’s last name with the first name of actress Marilyn Monroe.

Sandi Gibbons, a former reporter who covered the Manson trial for City News Service, discussed Manson’s cultural influences with The Associated Press in 1999.

“Charlie was always a con man,” Gibbons said. “And now he’s managed to con a whole new generation of people.”

Manson captured headlines around the world again in November 2014, when Afton Elaine “Star” Burton, then 26, announced she was engaged to the aging killer. Burton obtained a marriage license, but it expired and she did not obtain another prior to Manson’s death.

A crowd of reporters surround Los Angeles prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi as he leaves the courtroom in the trial of Charles Manson. (Photo: Bettmann via Getty Images)
A crowd of reporters surround Los Angeles prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi as he leaves the courtroom in the trial of Charles Manson. (Photo: Bettmann via Getty Images)

Tate’s sister, Debra Tate, told The Associated Press in January 2017 that, as a Catholic, she had “no ill wishes” for her sister’s killers.

“I would probably say a prayer for them and shed a tear and ask God to have mercy on their souls,” she said at the time.

She told ABC News after Manson died that she did not feel relieved to hear the news.

“People are saying that this should be some kind of relief, but oddly enough it really isn’t,” Debra Tate said. “While Charlie may be gone, it’s the ones that are still alive that perpetrate everything and it was up to their imaginations for what brutal things were going to be done. In an odd way I see them as much more dangerous individuals.”

Manson’s prosecutor, Vincent Bugliosi, author of the 1974 book Helter Skelter, died at age 80 in 2015. Bugliosi made his feelings clear in a 2009 interview with Time, when asked if he was sorry Manson was not executed.

“I don’t use the word sorry, but he should have been executed, and I told the jury, if this was not a proper case for the imposition of the death penalty, then no case ever would be,” Bugliosi said. “Manson did not deserve to live.”

Michele Hanisee, president of the Association of Deputy District Attorneys, issued a statement Sunday saying that Bugliosi “provided the most accurate summation: ‘Manson was an evil, sophisticated con man with twisted and warped moral values.’”

This article has been updated with comment from Hanisee, as well as additional comment from Debra Tate.

Also on HuffPost

Jeffrey Dahmer

Notorious cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer sits with his defense team during his 1991 trial. Dahmer went on a killing spree in the 1980s during which he murdered 17 men and boys. He often had sex with the corpses before dismembering them and, in some cases, ate pieces of human flesh. After his conviction, Dahmer was killed by a fellow inmate in prison.
Notorious cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer sits with his defense team during his 1991 trial. Dahmer went on a killing spree in the 1980s during which he murdered 17 men and boys. He often had sex with the corpses before dismembering them and, in some cases, ate pieces of human flesh. After his conviction, Dahmer was killed by a fellow inmate in prison.

John Wayne Gacy

John Wayne Gacy was arrested in 1978 after murdering 33 men and boys. He was known as the "Killer Clown" for his work as a children's entertainer. When Gacy became the suspect in a young man's disappearance, he invited police to his home for coffee. Cops noticed a smell that could emanate from a decaying body. They returned with a search warrant and found 29 victims stuffed into crawlspaces.

David Berkowitz

David Berkowitz, the "Son of Sam" killer, terrorized New York with six murders and several other shootings that ended with his 1977. When police arrested him, Berkowitz, a mailman, said his neighbor's dog commanded him to strike. He's in Sing Sing prison In New York serving life, though he's eligible for parole.
David Berkowitz, the "Son of Sam" killer, terrorized New York with six murders and several other shootings that ended with his 1977. When police arrested him, Berkowitz, a mailman, said his neighbor's dog commanded him to strike. He's in Sing Sing prison In New York serving life, though he's eligible for parole.

Angelo Buono

Angelo Buono, a 47 year old auto upholsterer, sits in a Los Angeles courtroom Monday March 2, 1982 as he listens to opening arguments in the so called "Hillside Stranglings" case in which Buono is accused of killing 10 women and girls in the Los Angeles area between 1977 and 1978.
Angelo Buono, a 47 year old auto upholsterer, sits in a Los Angeles courtroom Monday March 2, 1982 as he listens to opening arguments in the so called "Hillside Stranglings" case in which Buono is accused of killing 10 women and girls in the Los Angeles area between 1977 and 1978.

Ted Bundy

Ted Bundy at one time in the 1970s had a bright future in the Washington State Republican Party, but instead became one of the most famous serial killers and necrophiliacs. He often deceived his victims, all women, into thinking that he was injured and in need of help before attacking them. In 1976 he was arrested for an attempted kidnapping, but while acting as his own lawyer, he escaped. He migrated to Tallahassee where he killed two women in a Florida State University sorority house. He was convicted of those murders and while on death row in 1989 he confessed to 50 other murders.   <em><strong>Correction</strong>: A previous version of this slide misstated the location of the Florida State murders as Pensacola, Fla.</em>

Aileen Wuornos

Aileen Wuornos admitted to killing six men while she worked as a prostitute in Florida in 1989 and 1990. She initially claimed that she acted in self defense against johns who raped her or tried to rape her. But later she admitted that she robbed and killed in cold blood and would do it again if she were free. She was executed in 2002.
Aileen Wuornos admitted to killing six men while she worked as a prostitute in Florida in 1989 and 1990. She initially claimed that she acted in self defense against johns who raped her or tried to rape her. But later she admitted that she robbed and killed in cold blood and would do it again if she were free. She was executed in 2002.

Anthony Sowell

Anthony Sowell was convicted and sentenced to death in 2011 for killing 11 women and keeping their remains in his Cleveland home.
Anthony Sowell was convicted and sentenced to death in 2011 for killing 11 women and keeping their remains in his Cleveland home.

Richard Ramirez

In this file photo taken Oct. 24, 1985, "Night Stalker" Richard Ramirez displays a pentagram symbol on his hand inside a Los Angeles courtroom. The California Supreme Court Monday< Aug. 7, 2006, upheld the convictions and death sentence for serial killer Richard Ramirez, the so-called "Night Stalker" whose killing spree terrorized the Los Angeles area in the mid 1980s. Ramirez, now 46, was sentenced to death in 1989 for 13 Los Angeles-area murders committed in 1984 and 1985. Satanic symbols were left at some murder scenes and some victims were forced to "swear to Satan" by the killer, who broke into homes through unlocked windows and doors. (AP Photo/Lennox McLendon)

Andrew Cunanan

Andrew Cunanan is seen in this 1997 mugshot from the FBI. Cunanan murdered five men from Minneapolis to Miami, including fashion designer Gianni Versace. As investigators closed in on him, Cunanan committed suicide in 1997.
Andrew Cunanan is seen in this 1997 mugshot from the FBI. Cunanan murdered five men from Minneapolis to Miami, including fashion designer Gianni Versace. As investigators closed in on him, Cunanan committed suicide in 1997.

Ed Gein

Edward Gein, 51, of Plainfield, Wisc. enters Central State Hospital for the Criminally Insane Nov. 23,1957, in Milwaukee. Gein admitted to slaying two women and dismembering their bodies as well as robbing graves. Gein flayed the bodies and used human skin and other body parts to decorate furniture and clothing in his decrepit farmhouse. His twisted tale was the inspiration for murders in movies like Buffalo Bill from "The Silence of the Lambs."

Gary Ridgway

Gary Ridgeway slew 48 women in the Seattle area from 1982 to 1998. He was known as the Green River Killer, because his first five victims were found near the waterway. The case was one of the longest unsolved murder mysteries in the country, not to mention one of the bloodiest. Ridgeway pleaded guilty in 2003 and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Albert Fish

Albert Fish was a child rapist and cannibal who confessed to torturing hundreds of children, beginning in 1880 in New York. He was convicted and sentenced to death in 1935, however, for the murder of a single girl, 10-year-old Grace Budd.&nbsp;During the trial, Fish said he heard voices in his head that told him to attack children.<br /><br /><i>CORRECTION: A previous version of this slide incorrectly stated that Budd&nbsp;was the daughter of Fish's employee.</i>

Coral Eugene Watts

Early on his life, Coral Eugene Watts was identified by psychiatrists as a dangerous and violent individual. He lived up to those warnings as the so-called Sunday Morning Slasher and confessed to killing 80 women in Michigan, Texas and Canada in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He strangled, drowned, stabbed and beat his victims. He died in 2007 in prison from prostate cancer while serving a life sentence for two of the Michigan murders.

Richard Angelo

Richard Angelo, a nurse at Good Samaritan Hospital in New York, killed 25 patients in a bungled plan to turn himself into a hero. Angelo injected patients with a cocktail of dangerous drugs with the plan of restoring them to life and burnishing his reputation as a life-saving medical professional. Only 12 patients survived the "Angel of Death."
Richard Angelo, a nurse at Good Samaritan Hospital in New York, killed 25 patients in a bungled plan to turn himself into a hero. Angelo injected patients with a cocktail of dangerous drugs with the plan of restoring them to life and burnishing his reputation as a life-saving medical professional. Only 12 patients survived the "Angel of Death."

Joseph Naso

This is an undated booking photo released by the Washoe County Sheriff's office showing Joseph Naso. Authorities in California and Nevada plan to release more information about Naso, the 77-year-old man accused in four homicides spanning two decades. Naso, of Reno, Nev., was booked late Monday, April 11, 2011, on suspicion of the killings in 1977, 1978, 1993 and 1994.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.