1969, seven brutal murders, seven innocent lives taken, one crazed master mind. >> said yeah, you're right. >> a man who redefined the word evil. >> charles manson was born evil. >> and transformed a group of young girls into vicious killers. >> i fall in love with him

continuously. >> now, 45 years later, exclusive interviews with people who were there, family, friends, the prosecutor and manson supporters. >> i am charles manson's wife. >> now a cnn spot light. charles manson. it was an unusually hot night on hollywood's prestigious celo drive. >> it was behind closed gates. >> but just after midnight on august 9, 1969 it was as close to hell as you could possibly get. 1050 cielo was the new home of a

jet set celebrity couple, roman polanski and his wife. polanski was in london filming and his wife was home. tate was having a quiet evening home with friends. >> he kind of had this peaceful normal domestic scene happening. and then in the dead of the night the killers broke into the house and preceded to commit some of the most savage, inhumane nightmarish murders that ever occurred in this country. >> intruders cut the telephone lines, entered the secluded compound, killing one man in the drive way before continuing the barbaric rampage inside. >> 102 stab wounds, seven

gunshot wunts. >> she was 8 1/2 months pregnant. she was stabbed 16 times, three times in the heart. they hung her before they killed her. >> the murder scene was like something out of a horror movie. >> investigative journalist jeff gwen says there was blood everywhere. the word pig was written in blood on the door and the victims were soaking in it. >> abigail foelger was wearing a white night gown. people thought it was red because there was so much blood. officers had not seen anything like it. we are talking about los angeles police department veterans. >> they would see something just as shocking the following night. >> the bodies of a man and his wife found in their home. >> in the peaceful suburban neighborhood. >> their bodies had been mutilated. they had been stabbed repeatedly.

a fork was left in abdomen. someone carved a word on his stomach. there were words written in blood on the walls and on the refrigerator. >> the words rise, death to pigs and helter skelter written in blood. >> they found no evidence of robbery, no motive. >> the los angeles police department assigned almost 20 investigators. with seven people viciously murdered and no good leads people started to blame the victims. rumors filled the newspapers. were the killings drug deals going bad or a jealous husband? >> people needed evil. they needed victims to be evil because this didn't happen to normal god fearing people.

>> after rushing back to the states a dazed and grieving polanski faced the press. >> all of you know how beautiful she was and very often i read and heard statements that she was one of the most beautiful if not the most beautiful women of the world. only few of you know how good she was. >> police had no idea who killed sharon tate and the others and answers were slow to come. >> two separate teams of detectives who worked in the same room were doing the investigations. they didn't get along. they weren't cooperating. if only they talked to each other they could have put everything together. >> turns out the police had the killers under surveillance yet didn't realize it. >> police say they were a pseudo religious cult. people who worked oon the ranch

said they were heavy users of drugs. >> just weeks after the killers officers were watching a group of wanderers led by a man named charles manson. police suspected the group of auto theft, not murder. >> when the police swooped in a week after the murders charlie thought this was it somehow they have figured it out. and the police couldn't understand when charlie asked what the charges were and they said car theft thattance ancma started laughing. he had a reason to laugh. >> soon after released on a technicali technicality, a missed opportunity. a manson follower named susan atkins would be jailed for auto theft. >> she couldn't help but brag to other inmates about a murder she was involved with and finally everything was put together. >> the police returned to the

death valley compound, nearly two dozen people were arrested but not the man atkins said was behind it all, charles manson. he had disappeared. the next day police were back and this time they found him crammed into a bathroom cabinet. >> when charlie was arrested in death valley he was booked as charles manson, a.k.a. jesus christ because he was telling everybody he was the reincarnation of jesus. >> it was hardly an open and shut case. coming up how charles manson almost went free. >> the problem was that manson was not at the murder scene. [ female announcer ] this allergy season, will you be a sound sleeper, or a mouth breather? a mouth breather! [ whimpers ] how do you sleep like that? well, put on a breathe right strip and shut your mouth. allergy medicines open your nose over time,

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♪ >> san francisco 1967. summer of love was at its peak.

♪ what are we fighting for >> free love, free drugs, dream living for hippies escaping the mainstream. but 32-year-old charles manson arrived with much darker ambitions. >> you get these kids, these children coming in. here is someone, charlie manson, saying how much he loves them and he wants to take care of them. it was made to order for him and he took full advantage. >> manson's destructive course through life was fixed from the start. he spoke to cnn from prison in 1987. >> i spent the best part of my life in boy schools, prisons and reform schools because i had nobody. >> he blamed his mother for his troubled youth, kathleen maddox gave birth to manson in cincinnati, ohio at the age of

16 and went to prison when charlie was 5 years old. >> she got out of my life early and let me scuffle for myself. and then i became my own mother. >> but author jeff gwen says there is only one explanation for the life of charles manson. >> charles manson was born evil. >> in 2013 gwen landed exclusive interviews with manson's sister and cousin. >> little charlie was taken in by loving relatives, grandmother, uncle, aunt, cousin joanne. he always had people who loved him. the problem was that charlie himself was a rotten little kid from the word go. >> a rotten kid whose crimes escalated from stealing cars to armed robbery, drug dealing to pimping. >> he was born to be in prison. >> but he did have an innate

talent as a decent guitar player. >> charlie manson listening to the radio in prison hears the beatles. he starts writing his own songs, performing in prison shows. ♪ what a mad delusion living in the confusion ♪ >> from then on it is his dream to become the biggest musical star in history. >> bigger, he said, than the beatl beatles. and san francisco was the perfect place to start. paroled after seven years in prison he used his guitar and charisma to lure a flock of vulnerable young women. >> i fell in love with him continuously. he is very brilliant. and yet whatever he wants to be, i let him be that. >> i was mesmerized by his mind and the things he professed.

>> manson transformed himself from a two bit criminal into a spiritual guru. >> charlie sometimes said he was a scientologist. the only religion he had was church of charlie. >> the church of charlie got stranger as the following got bigger. the manson family made a dilapidated movie set called spawn ranch their home. >> everybody was really happy. we would help take care of the horses. garbage runs were fun. we would go to the back of the dumpsteres and you would find vegetables. >> the old owner was nearly blind. lynette was assigned to live

with george and fulfill his whim. george liked to pinch her and she would squeal. george nicknamed her squeaky. >> manson held l.s.d. fuelled origina orgies. recording execs weren't interested and charlie was angry. >> he seemed on fire. he was very worried. >> by 1968 race riots, the black panther movement and antiwar violence convinced manson -- the book was named after the philosophy. >> one of the songs stood out in his mind "helter skelter".

>> manson increasingly paranoid and angry hatched a deranged plan to ignite the race war himself by killing a handful of rich white people and framing the black panthers. >> friday night in los angeles a movie actress and friends were murdered. >> the brutal murders left the l.a.p.d. perplexed for months. but when the disturbing truth about the manson family surfaced the stage was set. >> all the elements are present for one of the most sensational murder trials in american history. >> nearly a year after the murders the trial began. >> on the evening of august 8, 1969 charles manson sent out from the fires of hell four heartless, cold blooded robots -- that's what i told the

jury. >> buliosi might have been the prosecutor but charles manson was the star. >> the first day of the trial charlie takes control. he comes in and he has cut an x between his eyes because society has xed us out. we don't count. a couple of days later he put the prongs on it. >> manson insisted he had no role in the murders. >> man, i never killed nobody. >> former manson family members told a much different story on the witness stand. >> i was told to go get a change of clothing and a knife. >> everything was preparing for helter skelter. i remember in the desert teaching us how to stab people. >> it took hours of deliberating. >> the verdict came down on january 25.

charles manson and three followers were to die in prison. buliosi pulled off with seemed impossible. >> the fact you were able to get a conviction, a death sentence, this guy wasn't there. >> i showed through witnesses that he was the ruler of the family, the king, and then members of his family were slavishly obedient to him. >> manson spoke to buliosi on his way out of the courtroom. >> he says you haven't accomplished anything here. all you have done is sent me back to where i came from. he doesn't mind prison. in a sense he is beating the wrap. >> coming up, is history repeating itself? >> people think you are crazy. vo: this is the summer.

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♪ i was talking to myself to see if i was listening to myself ♪ >> charles manson, the musician, long dreamed of fame and fans. and now, he has both. despite being locked away and isolated for 45 years. >> charlie knows how to retain a presence. ♪ there forever >> give the monster credit. he's good at it. >> if you search the internet, you can find music he made in prison. ♪ riding >> and paintings. >> there's lots of people who collect memorabilia. >> people can't stop watching

him. >> charlie manson is the equivalent of a spectacular car wreck. we know we shouldn't look, but we can't help it. >> if i spit on you, that gives you the god given right to spit on me back. >> this is biancbianca's homeco up on our left. >> people still pay to tour the tate labianca murder sites. >> they left the word murder carved in his stomach. >> there's a youtube channel with hundreds of thousands of views. >> it's so obvious that charles manson was railroaded. >> that's star. she's 25, pretty, fiercely loyal to manson. and then there's this. >> i am charles manson's wife. >> wife? are you married? >> the paperwork hasn't gone through yet, but we already consider each other to be husband and wife. >> are you in love?

>> yeah. why would i marry somebody if i -- >> people get married for all kinds of different reasons. >> well, i won. >> but manson might. last year, when star first told "rolling stone" magazine she planned to marry the 80-year-old lifer, he told the reporter, that's a bunch of garbage, we're just playing that for public consumption. >> people think you're crazy. >> i really don't care. >> star says she first discovered manson at 16, drawed to something manson called atwa. >> if you want to breathe air and water and live in the harmony, get with it. >> he claims it's his mission to save the planet's environment. >> atwa stands for air, trees, water, and animals. >> do you know that 900 redwood trees get cut down every day? at 1,000 years a piece. that's 900,000 years of sun live

you're taking off this planet. >> gray wolf is a longtime follower. >> it's been his main focus all along, but the media basically has just covered that up and concentrated on the image that hay have created of him. >> i run with a pack of wolves and i got to be a wolf. >> that being crazy, horrific, threatening. >> he's as sincere about atwa as he was about helter-skelter. if talking about it can earn charlesly a buck, if it can get him a few followers, fine, he'll throw it out there for you to buy into it. >> the only thing he's trying to manipulate people into doing is planting trees. and cleaning up the earth. >> but after seven years living near manson's prison, visiting him regular ly, star's main focs

switched to clearing his name. >> it's just not a true story. it's completely fabricated. >> manson's always maintained his innocence and called star from prison before our interview to stress it again. [ inaudible ] you all a bunch of liars. you're all liars. >> star is so loyal that when manson was tossed into solitary confinement, she shaved her head and carved an x in her forehead. >> it's a show of support. just like when they did it back in 1970 whatever. >> in 1971, when susan atkins, patricia krenwinkel, and less liz van houten were on trial with hansen, they all carved xs in their foreheads just like manson had. all three manson girls went to prison. atkins died there of brain

cancer in 2009. van houten and krenwinkel say they are rehabilitated but have been denied parole multiple times. >> i was raised to be a decent human being. i puturned into a monster and i spent these years going back to a decent human being. >> i'm so ashamed of my actions. >> former manson follower barbara hoyt doesn't buy it. she now works to keep the family locked up. >> i think they're a danger to the pub lk. i think their influence is dangerous. >> as for manson, almost no one believes that he'll ever leave here, california's corcoran state prison. he's been denied parole 12 times and the next time he's eligible, he'll be 9 yn2 years old. >> charles manson will die physically in prison. >> i'm a human being. >> it will take at least another generation for charles manson to tie in terms of fascination to

the public. >> and it's my world. >> he's too much a part of our lives right now. he's going to live on in our memories for a while longer. >> well, god, i guess you're my best friend being since i invented you. the communists seem to be putting on the defense on a number of fronts. >> we're behind and i'm sure they are making a concentrated effort to stay ahead. >> we may get beaten more. there are no cheap or easy victories in the game. >> we are aware of the international implications of the project but we're not in this for the race aspects. >> rockets for a lunar trip are built t