[Reality-TV-Fanatics] Report: Killer Charles Manson dead at 83

by Crime Time Tamil on November 20, 2017

Report: Killer Charles Manson dead at 83

Posted: Nov 19, 2017 11:32 PM CST Updated: Nov 19, 2017 11:37 PM CST

Report: Killer Charles Manson dead at 83

By Spencer Ernst

TMZ is reporting Charles Manson, the man who masterminded one of America's horrific killing sprees, is dead ...

Posted: Nov 19, 2017 11:32 PM CST Updated: Nov 19, 2017 11:37 PM CST

Spencer Ernst, Digital Producer, Meredith

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Spencer.Ernst@meredith.com

(Source: California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation)

LOS ANGELES (Meredith/AP) — TMZ is reporting Charles Manson, the man who masterminded one of America's horrific killing sprees, is dead at 83.

Sources tell TMZ he died at 8:13 p.m. local time Sunday.

Serial murderers before and after have killed far more than Manson. Fifty-one years ago a former Marine named Charles Whitman climbed to the observation deck of a tower at the University of Texas and opened fire on dozens of people, killing 11, after killing five before reaching the deck. Just last month, Stephen Paddock fired down from a hotel window on a Las Vegas concert, killing 58.

But like Whitman's, Paddock's name if not his deed seems destined to be largely forgotten. Not so with Manson.

"I was thinking today about why Manson is so remembered and such a part of our cultural history, whereas other serial killers have done far worse," said former AP Special Correspondent Linda Deutsch, who covered the 1970-71 trials of Manson and his followers, as well as all of their parole hearings until she retired two years ago.

It was, she concluded, because Manson killed more than just seven people. He also destroyed a Baby Boomer generation's dream of a peace-and-love era that had begun with 1967's San Francisco Summer of Love, two years before Los Angeles' 1969 Manson murders.

"For most of that period, the hippies up in San Francisco and throughout the country really spread a message of love and understanding," Deutsch said. "And now here come these people who wore these hippie clothes and although they were not hippies, they were just people who came together in a commune, they became symbolic of that hippie era.

"In addition to killing seven people, he killed a whole counterculture," she added.

A career criminal and con artist, Manson had reinvented himself during the Summer of Love as a Christ-like figure who attracted young people to a commune he established at an old, abandoned movie ranch on the edge of Los Angeles.

"To tell you the truth, the older I get the harder it is to deal with all of this, to know what I did, how it happened," one of the youngest of his followers, Leslie Van Houten, told a parole panel in September. The panel has recommended she be released, but Gov. Jerry Brown could reject that recommendation as he did once before. No Manson Family member convicted of murder has ever been freed.

Van Houten, now 68, explained how Manson used sex, drugs, repeated playings of the Beatles' "White Album" and readings from the Bible to persuade his young followers that they could launch a race war between blacks and whites by killing people, then hide in the desert until it was over. He was particularly fascinated by the Beatles' song "Helter Skelter," which he saw as predicting the coming race war, although its lyrics mainly seem to reference a childhood playground slide of that name.

His followers' victims included Tate, who was several months pregnant, coffee heiress Abigail Folger and several other wealthy and prominent people.

But what Manson really wanted to do, Deutsch said, was become famous.

At one point he'd befriended the late Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson with hopes of becoming a musician as famous as those in Wilson's group. The music industry ultimately dismissed him as crazy and dangerous and, worse yet to his way of thinking, only marginally talented.

"So he wanted to make a statement and be the star that Hollywood wouldn't let him be," said Deutsch. "And he was demonic."

Click here to read the TMZ report.

Charles Manson -- the man who masterminded one of the most heinous murder sprees in American history -- is dead ... this according to the sister of his famous victim.

Debra Tate tells TMZ she received a call from the prison telling her Manson died 8:13 PM Sunday.

We're told the prison is contacting all of the victim's families.

Manson was recently wheeled into Bakersfield hospital and escorted by 5 uniformed cops. Our sources had said at the time, "It's just a matter of time." He was covered in blankets and looked ashen in the gurney.

TMZ broke the story ... Manson was taken from Corcoran State Prison to the hospital back in January where he was being treated for intestinal bleeding.

As we reported ... Manson was supposed to undergo surgery but it was deemed too risky.

Manson has been locked up since his arrest in December 1969 for the Tate-LaBianca murders. He was convicted of conspiracy to commit the slayings, which occurred one day after the next in August 1969.

Manson was not present, but members of the so-called Manson Family slaughtered 5 people, including actress Sharon Tate, at her home in the Beverly Hills area. Manson's goal was to start a race war he called "helter skelter" ... from the Beatles song.The night after the Tate murders, members of the family randomly murdered Leno and Rosemary LaBianca. In all, the family inflicted 169 stab wounds and 7 gunshot wounds.

Manson got the death penalty in 1971, but when that was ruled unconstitutional ... it was changed to 9 consecutive life sentences.

Manson was 83.