♪ 1969, seven brutal murders. seven innocent lives taken. one crazed mastermind. >> we got to get out of here, the cops are going to be here. >> a man who defined the word evil. >> charles manson was born evil. >> and transformed a group of young girls into vicious tillers. >> i tall in love with him continuously. >> now, 45 years later exclusive

interviews with people who were there family, friend, the prosecutor and manson supporters. >> i am charles manson's wife. now, a "cnn spotlight: charles manson." it was an unusually hot night on hollywood's prestigious clo drive, a road some called the pathway to heaven. >> it was very secluded. very ethereal. it was behind closed gates. >> but just after midnight on august 9th, 1969, it was as close to hell as you could possibly get. 10050 cilo was the home of a jet set couple, director roman polanski and sexy actress, sharon tate.

polanski was in london filming, and a very pregnant tate was at home in los angeles. according to family friend alyssa statman, tate was having a quiet evening at home with friends. wojciech frykowski, his girlfriend, coffee heiress, abigail folger and celebrity hairstylist, jay sebring. >> had this peaceful normal 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 murderers that have ever occurred in this country. >> intruders cut the telephone lines, entered the secluded compound, killing one man in the driveway before continuing their barbaric rampage inside. >> there were 102 stab wounds, 7 gunshot wounds, 2 of the victims were beaten so badly that one of them was just unrecognizable. >> and sharon, as we said, was 8 1/2 months pregnant. >> she was stabbed 16 times, she

was stabbed 3 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 gwynn says there was blood everywhere. the word "pig" was written in blood on the door. and the victims were soaking in it. >> abigail folger had been wearing a white nightgown. people thought that it must have been red, there was so much blood. officers who attended the murder scene had not seen anything like it, and we're talking about los angeles pd veterans. >> but 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 of rosemary and lino la bianca. >> their bodies had been mutilated. they had been stabbed repeatedly. a fork was left in lino's abdomen. someone had 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, just as they had been at the tate house. >> they found no evidence of robbery, no suggestion of motive. a baffling crime and bizarre. >> 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 a drug deal gone bad? a demented sex orgy or even the actions of a jealous husband, roman polanski? >> people needed evil. they needed the victims to be evil because this didn't happen to normal god-fearing people. >> after rushing back to the states on august 19th, 1969 at the beverly wilshire hotel, 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 woman of the world. but 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 had 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 said they were a pseudoreligious cult. people who worked on the ranch said they were heavy users of drugs. >> just weeks after the killings, officers in death valley, california, 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've figured it out. and the police couldn't understand when charlie asked what the charges were, and they said car theft, that manson started laughing. but he had a reason to laugh, he was relieved. >> and soon after released on a technicality. a tragically missed opportunity. but eventually, a manson follower named susan atkins would be jailed for auto theft. >> she couldn't help but brag to some other inmates about a murder she had been 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, aka, jesus christ, because he was telling everyone he was the reincarnation of jesus. >> four months after the murders, the police believed they had their killers, but 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.

♪ san francisco, 1967, summer summer tthe summehthe summeethe summer of love was at its peak. ♪ one two three 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 hate as bury, and someone named charlie manson saying how much he loves them and he wants to take care of them. it was made to order for them and he took full advantage. >> manson's destructive course through life was fixed from the start. >> i don't have any particular reality. >> he spoke to cnn from prison in 1987. >> i spent the best part of my life in boys' 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 gwynn says there's only one explanation for the life of charles manson. >> charles manson was born evil. >> in 2013, gwynn landeded exclusive interviews with manson's sister and cousin. >> little charlie was taken in by loving relatives, his grandmother, his uncle, his aunt, his cousin, joanne. but 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 as he got older from stealing cars to armed robbery, drug dealing to pimping. >> he was born to be in prison. ♪ there's a time >> but did he 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 illusion living in that confusion ♪ >> from then on, it's his dream to become the biggest musical star in history. ♪ >> bigger, he said, than the 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 fall 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 self-styled spiritual guru. >> charlie sometimes said he was

a scientologist. charlie sometimes said he was in the church of the nazarene. but the only religion charlie ever had was the church of charlie. >> the church of charlie got stranger as the manson family got bigger. leaving san francisco for l.a. to secure the big record deal charlie was sure was coming. the manson "family" made a dilapidated old movie set called spawn ranch their home. >> everybody was really happy, and we would help take care of the horses. garbage runs were a lot of fun, we would hop in the back of, you know, those dumpsters behind the stores, and you'd find all kinds of vegetables. >> george spawn, the old owner, was nearly blind. lynette fromme was assigned by manson to live with george and to fulfill his every whim and george liked to pinch her a lot and she would squeal and george is the one that nicknamed her

squeaky. >> manson hosted lsd-fuel orgies, gave persuasive sermons and made ensuring his success as a musician the family's top priority but recording execs weren't interested. and charlie was angry. >> he just seemed on fire. he was all over the place pacing. he was very worried. >> by 1968, race riots, the black panther movement and anti-war violence convinced manson that armageddon was coming. he called it helter-skelter after the famous beatles' song. ♪ helter-skelter >> vincent bugliosi named his best-selling book after manson's strange philosophy. >> one of the songs stood out in his mind, "helter-skelter," which he felt was an apocalyptic war between blacks and whites, the last destructive final war on the face of this earth. >> 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 four of her friends were murdered. >> the brutal murders at the tate and labianca homes left the lapd 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 8th 8th, 1969, charles manson sent out from the fires of hell four heartless, cold-blooded robots. that's what i told the jury. >> bugliosi may have been the prosecutor, but charles manson

was the star. >> the first day of the trial, charlie takes control and he comes in and he has cut an "x" between his eyes on the top of the bridge of his nose because society has x'd us out. we don't count. a couple days later, he has put the little prongs on it. it's a swastika. >> why is it this guy's fault? >> manson insisted he had no role in the murders. >> man, i ain't 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, um, a knife. >> everything was preparing for helter-skelter. >> i remember the desert, when tex was teaching us how to stab people, a murder school. >> it took 42 1/2 hours of deliberating -- >> the verdict came down on january 25th, 1971. charles manson and three of his

followers were to die in prison. bugliosi pulled off what seemed impossible. >> the fact you were able to get a conviction, a death sentence, this guy wasn't even there. i showed through witnesses that he was the dictatorial ruler of the family, the king, the maharaja and members of this family were slavishly dedicated owe bead cent to him. >> manson spoke to bugliosi on his way out of the come. >> he said, you know, bugliosi, you haven't accomplished anything here, all you have done is accepted me back to where i came from. he doesn't mind prison. he was totally institutionalized. so, i hate to say it, but in a sense, he's beaten the rap. >> coming up, is history repeating itself? >> people think you're crazy. i lost my sight in afghanistan, but it doesn't hold me back. i go through periods where it's hard to sleep at night, and stay awake during the day.

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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. ♪ therefore ever give the monster credit. he's good at it. >> if you search the internet, you can find music he made in prison and paintings. >> there's lots of people who collect memoribilia. >> 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 the labiancas' home coming up on the left. >> people still pay to tour the tate/l tate/labianca murder sites. >> they left the word "war" carved in his stomach. >> there's a facebook page with tens of thousands of likes and a youtube channel with hundreds of thousands of views. >> it's so obvious that charles manson was railroaded. >> that 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 wasn't? >> people get married for all kinds of different reasons. >> well, i wouldn't. >> but manson might. last year when star first told "rolling stone" magazine she planned to marry the nearly 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, drawn to something manson calls atwa. >> if you want to breathe air and water and live in harmony, get with it. >> he claims it's his mission to save the planet's environment. >> atwa stands for air, trees, water and animals. >> did you know that 900 redwood trees get cut down a day, 900 redwood

trees at 1 thou th,000 years apiece, that's 900,000 years of sunlight you're taking off this planet. >> gray wolf is a long time follower. >> it's been his main focus all along but the media basically has just covered that up and concentrated on the image that they 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 proselytizing it, if talking about it can earn charlie a buck, if it can get him a few followers, fine. he'll throw it out there for you to buy into. >> the only thing that 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 regularly, star's main focus has switched to clearing his name. >> it's just not a true story.

it's completely fabricated. >> manson has always maintained his innocence and he called star from prison before our interview to stress it again. >> you know i didn't break the law. you know you are holding me hostage. you know i'm a political prisoner. you're all a bunch of liars. you're all lying. >> 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 leslie van houten were on trial with manson, they all carved xs in their foreheads just like manson had. all three girls went to prison. atkins died there of brain cancer in 2009.

van houten and krenwinkel say they are rehabilitated but were denied parole multiple times. >> i was raised to be a decent human being. i turned into a monster, and i have spent these years going back to a decent human being, and i just don't know what else to say. 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 are a danger to the public. i think their influence is dangerous. >> as for manson, almost no one believes that he will ever leave here, california's corcoran state prison. he has been denied parole 12 times, and the next time he's eligible, he will be 92 years old. >> charles manson will die physically in prison. >> i'm a human being. >> i think it will take at least another generation for charles manson to die 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 awhile longer. >> well, god, i guess you're my best friend, being as i invented you.