>> reporter: are you sane? >> sane? that's relative. i felt guilty about. >> reporter: you may think you know the charles manson story. but not like this. >> things that the police had never seen before. >> sharon tate begged her, begged her, "please don't kill me." >> he was -- was primed to take advantage of peace and love flower power. >> reporter: even now, almost fifty years later, the world is still fascinated by charles manson and his crimes. tonight, we take you inside his world of drugs. >> he would dose them with lsd, sex. >> he slept with all those girls -- >> reporter: and rock & roll -- >> they really did listen to the

white album over and over. >> reporter: with new interviews. >> he says, "gary, this is your last chance." and new details. >> he would always frame his statements -- "this is what i believe." and the girls all believed it. >> reporter: the murders. >> these people were brutally butchered. >> reporter: the mayhem. >> charlie was acting meaner towards the girls. >> reporter: the madman. >> maybe i should have killed four, five hundred people, then i would have felt better. >> he symbolizes the horror that can be possible in this world. >> reporter: i'm lester holt and this is dateline. here's keith morrison with the summer of manson -- >> reporter: all that remains are ruins. the ramshackle barker ranch is long gone.

only the fitful baking death valley wind left now to stir the faded bits, the rusted junk. the artifacts of 50 years ago when this was ground zero for one of the most infamous crimes in history. the hideout of a living personification of evil. >> you've got it stuck in your brain that i've murdered somebody. charles manson. >> reporter: one hot, dry weekend in los angeles, august 1969 -- a pregnant movie star, slaughtered along with four others in her home. across town a couple butchered in theirs. >> these were brutal crime scenes. things that the police had never seen before. >> reporter: murders so bloody, so ugly, they rewrote history -- became a kind of bookmark as an era of optimism ended and a darker time began.

>> the '60s came to a close, 1969, and that was the curtain, that was the final curtain. >> reporter: who could make sense of it? >> "are you sane?" >> "sane? that's relative." >> reporter: who even now? >> how do our kids end up doing this kind of incredibly violent crime? how did that happen? >> reporter: tonight we'll do our best to answer that question to get past the myths that have clouded the story of charles manson and with the help of those who witnessed, finally explain the chaos, the crimes, the horror. >> reporter: it's a story that begins in a small mill town on the banks of the ohio river, mcmechan, west virginia. where the myth manson spun had its beginning. >> manson had told his own life story that he was a child nobody wanted. his mother's a career criminal

and prostitute. >> reporter: but manson lied. this is jeff guinn. author of "manson." the man whose research revealed the facts behind the myths. >> manson was raised by a very loving family, his uncle and aunt and his grandmother. these were folks who were very religious and they, of course, wanted charlie to go to church, which he hated. but he had an amazing knack to memorize scripture. >> reporter: he was fascinated, particularly with the book of revelation, which he learned to quote at great length. but he did not learn to be good. >> he constantly stole. he lied. he picked on people. he was fascinated with knives. and nothing you would do to try to discipline him worked. >> reporter: finally, manson was sent to reform school, eventually prison. by 32, he had spent half his

life locked up. >> he was immediately struck by the pimps from them, he learned how to control women who were, and this is his quote, "bent, but not broken." >> reporter: manson also became fascinated with a popular book by dale carnegie, called -- >> "how to win friends and influence people." >> this is so strange to hear. that he, you know, read dale carnegie? >> not only read dale carnegie, absorbed it. >> reporter: that wasn't the only thing manson picked up in prison. another inmate gave him guitar lessons, and one day in the prison workshop a radio was blaring the top 40 of 1964. >> he hears a song by the beatles. and so he sets a goal for himself of becoming even better than the beatles. and he starts writing songs and performing in prison shows. >> reporter: and so by the time charlie manson was released from

prison on parole, his fantasy was very strong. >> he would be signed to a contract, would become world famous, rich, and have all the women and drugs he wanted. >> reporter: the fantasy and charles manson himself, would almost certainly have remained anonymous, a complete unknown, had it not been for this -- san francisco's haight-ashbury district where at that very moment in 1967. 50 years ago exactly, busloads of kids were arriving to what they thought would be a new world of peace and love. >> there'd be hundreds of people sitting on the sidewalk. and they'd go, "grass. acid. speed." >> reporter: roger smith was manson's parole officer in san francisco. >> and into that scene walked charlie manson. >> he did. >> he could somehow identify the ones who could be tricked, coerced, drawn in. >> reporter: "bent but not

broken." troubled young women. like susan atkins, she left home as a teenager and drifted and washed up in the haight. she worked as a topless dancer, quit and then fell under manson's spell. he nicknamed her, "sadie." later there was leslie van houten, who got into drugs, ran away from home, had an abortion and then met him. people magazine's elaine aradillas has written about manson. >> he slept with all those girls right away, making a connection with them. and they felt, "this man gets me." >> reporter: he kept adding women to his entourage, and they went with him everywhere. even to meet and flirt with his parole officer who heard firsthand manson's preaching to his flock, an oddball mix of free love, social commentary and apocalyptic prophesies. >> i found a lot of his stuff

pretty silly. but he would always frame his statements -- "this is what i believe." and the girls all believed it. >> reporter: the girls hung on every word he spoke, seemed ready to do anything he asked. like when he told them to have sex with men he wanted to win over or when he told them he was destined to be bigger than the beatles. >> manson fully intended to become a rock 'n roll star and didn't think it was gonna be very hard. >> reporter: the summer of love was over. manson loaded his family, they now numbered about a half a dozen, onto a school bus and took them to los angeles. he was still just a small time criminal with a dream but not for long. >> reporter: a beach boy, and charles manson. when we return -- >> dennis was convinced that he could make charlie a star. and manson's strange hold on his "family." >> "he dances, he sings. he looks beautiful, he looks happy. and this draws a lot of

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>> reporter: los angeles. 1968, the center of the rock and roll universe. here was capitol records, the beatles' record company, the sunset strip, and here the producers who could make charles manson a star. he positioned his family out here in a wooded haven of alternative living. topanga canyon. >> he lived on a place in topanga canyon. it was a burned-out house. >> reporter: eric carlson was living nearby. in his first tv interview, he told us how he got to know manson and his very available young women. >> they would come over to get -- to take showers and stuff. >> reporter: and stuff, as he said. >> sadie was called sexy sadie, and not without cause. >> reporter: wasn't exactly eric's house or shower to offer, mind you. the main occupant and owner of

the house in which eric was living was a soft-spoken music teacher named gary hinman. >> so he was just generous basically, huh? >> he never charged me any rent whatsoever. >> reporter: when some of the manson women were busted, for a spree of minor crimes. >> charlie came over and asked gary if he could help him. well, he says, "well, what's the-- what's the bail?" >> reporter: of course gary hinman, as he generously paid the bail, had no idea how manson would return his favor. manson and the family moved from topanga to a defunct western-movie location called spahn ranch, a few miles farther out. manson told another of his followers, lynette fromme, who was nicknamed "squeaky," to keep the octegenarian owner "happy." so the family, in exchange for a few chores, got to live on the ranch for free.

and manson? >> he dances, he sings. he looks beautiful, he looks happy. and this draws a lot of people, just like people are drawn to little babies. >> reporter: they scrounged for food in trash dumpsters, said former family member barbara hoyt. >> it was fun. you go behind the store, they used to throw away some good stuff, good vegetables, you find all kinds of treasures out there. >> reporter: but the "family" didn't just live on scavenged vegetables. they stole cash, credit cards, cars. manson taught them a skill he called "creepy crawling." entering houses at night without waking the sleeping people inside. and he used his women to advance his dream of becoming famous. >> sends them out into the parts of los angeles that are known as areas where the rock stars live. to find some of them, do what it takes, and get them to take

charlie on as, sort of, their project that -- that they will introduce him to the right people. >> reporter: ridiculous? of course. but then, the most extraordinary thing: it worked. >> dennis picked up a couple girls on s -- on sunset, they were hitch hiking. >> reporter: dennis was dennis wilson of the beach boys, at the time, america's answer to the beatles. gregg jakobson was a music producer and friend of dennis wilson's. >> they went to dennis' house, they had a good time, played music and all the things that they would do. >> reporter: man son's system worked like a charm, offering his young women as sexual favors to get what he wanted. before the day was out, he and most of the family had moved right in to dennis wilson's house. >> dennis used to call me up and say -- he said, "gregg, come on down, man, we're -- we're partying. all -- these girls are here, charlie, you gotta meet charlie, the wizard." dennis, was convinced that he

could make charlie a star. >> reporter: and so, as improbable as it seems, dennis took manson to his brother brian's studio, that's brian wilson, to record some of his songs. here's manson singing during that session. but when the other beach boys actually heard that? >> they didn't have a very high opinion of the music or charlie. >> reporter: the session fizzled. but the beach boys did play one of manson's songs on the mike douglas tv show. but dennis rewrote the words and the title. >> ooh, charlie was so angry that anybody would dare to change the lyric or change anything he said. it was like misquoting him. >> reporter: so, the beach boys were not the answer to manson's dreams.

but there was one more chance: gregg jakobson knew a man in los angeles who could snap his fingers and get manson a contract. his name was terry melcher, one of l.a.'s top music producers. and in the late spring of '69, melcher agreed to come to spahn ranch to hear manson sing. >> charlie almost expected somebody to pull out a contract and a pen and say, "here, sign here, where you now have a contract with columbia records." >> reporter: but, there was to be no contract because later terry melcher politely but firmly rejected charlie manson. >> charlie was really crushed. >> reporter: he would not be a rock and roll star. he would not be rich and famous. he was a failure. which to manson, meant said his parole officer roger smith. >> charlie was in serious danger of losing the family. he did something that, you know,

politicians are masterful at, and that is he creates this -- this horrible thing out there. that there's gonna be a race war. >> reporter: it was a time of racial strife in america, especially in l.a. and manson blended that information somehow with the book of revelation, to prophesy armaggedon, a world-ending race war. he called it "helter skelter." after one of the songs on the beatles "white" album. his followers believed it. but did he? roger smith isn't so sure. >> i think it was basically used to -- keep them focused and maybe even divert attention from the fact that he was not doing well in terms of -- of realizing -- his dream. >> reporter: time to move he told his family. gather money, car, and get to the desert to wait out the war between the races. where again, the manson story might have disappeared from history without a ripple or a

trace... except... coming up: a day in the life of the >> every day at a certain point he would gather everyone together and dose them with lsd. and, the killing begins. >> beausoleil calls manson again. "what are we gonna do?" manson says, "you know what you have to do." when dateline continues. did you know when you buy any bag of dog or cat food at petsmart we give a meal to a pet in need? help us reach our goal of donating more than 60 million meals

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>> reporter: charlie manson had come to los angeles with a plan. to be bigger than the beatles. by the summer of '69 he knew that wasn't going to happen. and that's when manson told his followers they had to ignite something he called "helter skelter," an imminent world-destroying race war which he'd named for reasons only he knew... after a song on the beatles' "white album." >> they were gonna go in the desert, stay there for 150 years, while the black man takes over. but then they're gonna need him later. and that's when he's gonna come out as the master race, and be the leader of everyone. >> it sounds ridiculous, of course. >> it is ridiculous. but combination of, drugs, being

isolated. he had them all convinced that this was real. >> he was serious about this -- >> oh yeah. >> king of the world thing. >> yeah. he believed it. or so he persuaded his followers. he told them he needed complete loyalty and complete control. >> every day he would gather everyone together and dose them with lsd. and he would talk for a while. >> reporter: that's when, for his 'bent but not broken' flock. manson portrayed himself as the new jesus, but not a sweet and kindly version of jesus. >> charlie was -- acting meaner towards the girls, and if they failed to follow his directions. >> he'd hit you in the head with a stick. >> he went from good charlie to bad charlie. >> yeah. he really got mean. >> reporter: mean and desperate to find the money and cars to take his family to death valley where he told them they'd wait out helter skelter. and who had money and cars? his music-teacher friend, gary hinman.

>> and charlie knew all of that. >> reporter: eric carlson was with gary when manson called and made demands. >> he's telling gary that it's time for him to join the family because this whole helter skelter was coming and that he needed to cash out all of his investments and go with the family and go out to the desert. >> reporter: gary told manson "no." but the man who'd become used to getting what he wanted, persisted. >> he says, "gary, this is your last chance. if you don't do this, i will not be responsible for the karma you will invoke upon yourself." >> reporter: karma. manson style. then he sent a friend of the family named bobby beausoleil, along with loyal family members susan atkins and mary brunner to shake down gary. >> beats him up. hinman keeps going, "i don't have any money. i don't have any money." >> reporter: eventually beausoleil called manson. >> manson comes down. he's wearing a sword that he's

waving around. >> reporter: charlie actually slices part of hinman's ear off, departs again. manson's followers tortured gary hinman. for three days. until he finally signed over the pink slips for his cars. but then he threatened to call the police. >> beausoleil calls manson again. "what are we gonna do?" manson says, "you know what you have to do." >> reporter: beausoleil stabbed gary hinman and then mary bruner and susan atkins finished him with a pillow over his face. >> gary died because he didn't wanna give up his money. and the cars? >> yes. but it was equally important that he become a part of. >> what? become a part of us or we'll kill you? >> the revolution's coming. a lotta people are gonna die. >> reporter: manson had a term for those people, "piggies," another song title from the white album. >> if you wanna be one of the piggies, you know, today's pork is tomorrow's bacon.

>> reporter: so on manson's orders, on the wall of gary's house they wrote the words "political piggy" and left a paw print -- all in the victim's blood, hoping it would lead the police to suspect black panthers committed the murder. >> the county police come to investigate. it's a murder, but they don't in any way link it to a black revolutionary execution. >> reporter: manson's mis-direction failed. in less than a week, bobby beausoleil was pulled over, driving one of gary hinman's cars. where, police found a bloody knife. beausoleil called manson from jail. demanding help and saying he hadn't ratted on him yet. jeff guinn believes manson decided on a plan to spring beausoleil and save his own skin. >> family members at spahn ranch are talking about what's happened to bobby. he's in prison. "what's gonna happen? how can we break him out?"

>> reporter: they did hatch a plan, so horrible that the name charlie manson would be famous, alright. not as a star, but as a symbol of evil. >> reporter: coming up, helter skelter. a night of madness. and murder. >> sharon tate quite naturally is screaming. she's begging not for her life, but for her baby's. susan atkins says, "i have no sympathy for you." ♪ ♪ ♪

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>> reporter: august 6th, 1969, bobby beausoleil was in jail, accused of murdering gary hinman. charlie manson was afraid bobby might talk, implicate him and the family. and then -- an idea. a crazy, horrible idea. >> they were watching some old james cagney movie where he's in the -- in jail for these -- for these murders and they do these copycat murders to prove that he's not the one.

>> reporter: and that's when charlie manson decided to commit murders so similar to what they did to hinman, that the cops would have to think the real killers were still on the loose. and if they thought that, they'd release bobby beausoleil. but the key to these copycat killings, manson decided, was to find a high profile victim. >> if it's somebody famous and the newspapers and the tv are makin' a big deal out of it, then it'll work. they'll have to let bobby out. >> reporter: free bobby and maybe touch off helter skelter in the bargain by framing the black panthers. august 8th, 1969. late. susan atkinsm "sexy sadie", dressed in black and headed out of spahn ranch. >> sadie hung out of the car window and yelled, "we're gonna kill some mother effing pigs." >> reporter: also in the car, tex watson, patricia krenwinkel, and linda kasabian. their target -- whoever lived in

the house recently vacated by terry melcher, who months earlier had politely blown off manson's hopes for a record deal. >> whoever's living there now has to be rich and famous. nobody else could afford a house like that. >> reporter: manson had actually been at the house earlier that year looking for terry melcher. he'd moved out. but manson encountered the current resident actress sharon tate, the pregnant wife of film director roman polanski. now tex climbed a telephone pole and cut wires to that very same house. they all went over the gate. and just then a young man named steven parent, who'd been visiting the property caretaker, was heading out of the driveway. tex confronted him with a knife, then shot him several times. the killing had begun. with kasabian standing guard, susan, patricia and tex went inside the house. polanski was out of the country that night but his friend,

woytek frykowski, was asleep on the couch. tex kicked him. susan atkins went to see who else was there. >> she starts down a hallway and there's a guest bedroom and there's a woman sitting up in bed. it's abigail folger. >> reporter: heiress to the folger's coffee fortune. >> folger assumed this was just some other friend of sharon's and waves to her. and susan atkins gives the little finger wave back, continues down the hall. >> reporter: in the bedroom, she found sharon tate and jay sebring, a celebrity hairdresser and tate's former boyfriend. she herded them into the living room. anthony dimaria is jay sebring's nephew. >> at a certain point, watson turned his back and jay charged. and he shot jay as he was coming to him. and then watson and krenwinkel went over and started stabbing and kicking.

>> sharon tate quite naturally is screaming. frykowski and folger break out a side door and are running across the lawn. krenwinkel and watson chase after them. >> reporter: soon everyone was left for dead except sharon tate. >> she's begging not for her life, but for her baby's. susan atkins says, "i have no sympathy for you," and she's slaughtered. >> reporter: then susan atkins wrote the word "pig" in blood on the front door, to make sure the cops would connect these murders to gary hinman's murder. >> they arrive back at the ranch. charlie manson's waiting for them. "what'd you do? tell me about it." and they tell him. and he's furious. from their description, he doesn't think they've left the house appalling enough that it will get the attention they want.

>> reporter: so, said guinn, manson himself returned to the house and draped an american flag near sharon tate's body. >> manson, with his sense of theatre, thought that would be the thing that would really, really make everybody gasp and pay attention. >> a movie actress and four of her friends were murdered and the circumstances were lurid. >> were the bodies badly mutilated? >> this i'd rather not discuss. >> reporter: but nobody made a link to gary hinman. beausoleil remained in jail. >> charlie was furious. they had screwed up. >> he blamed them? >> very much so. if they had done it right -- >> they'll have -- >> "we'll do it" -- >> --to do it again. >> again tonight. and this time, i'm going with you to make sure it gets done properly." >> reporter: he took his band of killers on a tour of los angeles, looking for just

the right innocent victims. there was a street manson knew had been to a party there, in the los feliz area of l.a. he picked the house next door. no idea who lived there. it was the home of leno and rosemary labianca. >> charlie says, when they're outside the labianca home, that he'll go in, he'll check it out. >> charlie comes back out, gets tex watson. they go in. first, they capture leno labianca. he ties labianca up, asks, "is there anybody else here?" "my wife's in the bedroom." >> reporter: then manson went and got tex watson, susan atkins, patricia krenwinkel, and leslie van houten, who had begged to go with them this time. >> charlie tells them, "go in there. do what you need to do." and he drives off in the car. >> reporter: the labiancas died as brutally as those the night before. bound and blind-folded,

gagged. a crime scene created to horrify. >> with blood the killer scrawled "death to pigs." >> reporter: "helter skelter," misspelled, had been written in blood on the refrigerator. and carved into leno labianca's torso, there was one word: "war." surely no one could miss that message. coming up -- the killing still wasn't over. >> this was the one murder that manson was personally involved in. >> reporter: and how a jailhouse chat finally brings the nightmare to an end. >> she said, "you know who did it, don't you?" "you're looking at her." >> reporter: when "dateline" continues. ways to manage my symptoms. i thought i was doing okay... then it hit me... ...managing was all i was doing. when i told my doctor,... ...i learned humira is for people who still have symptoms of moderate to severe crohn's disease... ...even after trying other medications. in clinical studies,... the majority of people on humira...

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>> reporter: there were many funerals that week in the summer of '69. too many. one for the beautiful sharon tate. >> many of hollywood's elite turned out for the funeral, despite the fact that it was billed as a private family >> reporter: families watched the shocking news on tv -- including the manson family and follower barbara hoyt. i that. >> how did they react to the news? >> they laughed. harlie manson thought he'd hoodwinked the police, for sure that they would think the same people who killed

tate and the labiancas also killed gary hinman. and so, they'd free family member bobby beausoleil. but, even though there was talk that the tate and labianca murders might be connected to each other -- >> police today could but speculate whether these two crimes had been done by the same person. >> reporter: no one connected them to the hinman case. the plan failed. bobby beausoleil stayed in jail. and if that wasn't frustrating enough for manson, just six days after the labianca murders, more than 100 sheriff's deputies descended on the "family." >> they decide they're going to have a huge raid on spahn ranch. they're gonna arrest everybody in it. >> reporter: but the raid turned out to be good news for charlie manson, because it didn't have anything to do with murder. the warrant was for auto theft totally unrelated. and even that charge didn't stick. >> manson uses this as a great

example. see how powerful he is? "they arrested all of us, but i used my power and they're letting us go." >> reporter: the "l.a. times" ran a small story about the car-theft raid along with an article about the tate murders and the labianca murders, each story completely separate. but manson was still on edge, especially after he found out a ranch hand named shorty shea was trying to get the family kicked out of spahn ranch. barbara hoyt remembers what happened next. >> i heard a scream. and i bolted up. >> is there any way to describe what that sounded like? >> just pure horror. >> did you have any idea whether it was a human or an animal or -- >> i knew who -- it was shorty. >> you knew it was shorty? >> i recognized the voice. >> this was the one murder that manson was personally involved in. and shea was sort of hacked to pieces. >> reporter: manson decided it

was time to get out of l.a. maybe he was feeling the heat from that raid. or maybe he wanted an even more remote place to keep his family under his control. >> to him, the whole idea of control is not just having people worshiping you, but having people follow your orders in ways that contradict common sense. >> reporter: that is, fleeing an apocalyptic race war helter skelter. he moved them out to an old homestead, called barker ranch -- over 200 miles from los angeles, now part of death valley national park. yes, death valley. >> during this war, he will lead his family into death valley, where there is a bottomless pit and a city underneath the surface. they will go down there and be safe. >> he seriously thought there was something beneath the earth where all of you'd go and hide. >> uh-huh. >> and escape the race war. >> uh-huh. >> rivers of milk and honey, trees with different kinds of

fruit. >> reporter: barbara hoyt remained loyal to manson until, as she tells it, out in the desert one day she overheard susan atkins gleefully describing the murder of sharon tate, and suddenly feared for her own life. >> i knew i had to get out of there. >> reporter: so, early one morning, barbara and a friend took a huge risk. >> we walked out -- >> you walked >> yeah, we walked out. >> reporter: into the heat of death valley they walked for miles to the nearest ranch, said barbara. and she eventually reunited with but the rest of the manson family stayed busy in the desert >> the family's up to its old tricks. there's cars stolen. there's different -- desecration of national monument areas. again drew the notice of law enforcement. during two raids in october, they rounded up most of the family. the last to be captured was manson himself, hiding under the

bathroom sink. he told authorities his name was, "manson, charles m., a/k/a jesus christ, god." the charges were auto theft and arson. they'd faced similar charges before, had beaten the rap before. but this time, something unexpected, completely out of manson's control. somebody in the family squealed about susan atkins and her role in gary hinman's murder. so atkins was moved from a jail near death valley to los angeles. >> she couldn't stay quiet. she started sharing this incredible and unbelievable story. >> reporter: atkins boasted to a fellow inmate named virginia graham about the sharon tate murders. >> she said, "you know who did it, don't you?" and i looked at her and i said, "no, i don't." and her words to me were, "well, you're looking at her." >> reporter: atkins told virginia graham every hideous detail, even mocking one of her

victims. >> he was screaming, "help -- help, somebody please help me." and she said, "and nobody came. and we killed him." >> reporter: virginia told the cops. >> police apparently got their break in the tate case when this girl, susan atkins, was arrested. and talked to a cellmate about the tate killings. >> reporter: four months after the tate and labianca killings, charles manson and several of his followers were indicted for murder. he'd come to l.a. seeking fame. he was about to find it. coming up -- what if the manson family hadn't been stopped? who might have been next? >> elizabeth taylor, steve mcqueen, and frank sinatra. when it's time to move to underwear toddlers see things a bit differently thanks to pampers easy ups while they see their first underwear you see an easy way to potty train pampers easy ups

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>> today is a good day. i don't have any guilt. i know what i've done. it's all a play isn't it? >> reporter: banter from a man about to be tried for one of the most notorious killing sprees in american history. >> i think mr. manson feels that he is a product of our society. >> reporter: the case went to the late vincent bugliosi, a young prosecutor at the time. >> i used to have conversation with manson all the time. "charlie," i said, "i'm going to convict you." i said, "but, after you get a fair trial." ♪ >> reporter: bugliosi tried to flip family members to testify against manson. most stayed ferociously loyal, and some of those not charged

staged demonstrations outside the courthouse. even shaved their heads in a show of solidarity. >> you know we die, we'll do anything for a brother. >> reporter: chatty susan atkins was supposed to be a key witness. she had bragged about the killings in jail, then told the whole story to a grand jury. now that you've had a chance to get it off your chest, describe to me how you feel. >> dead. >> reporter: dead? what kind of feeling is that? but atkins recanted. so, bugliosi turned to virginia graham, one of the two fellow jail inmates atkins had confessed to. graham told the jury how atkins giddily described the tate and labianca murders. >> there wasn't a sign of remorse of anything. in fact, it was almost very boastful. >> reporter: and atkins vowed they were just getting started, said graham. they had a plan to murder a-list celebrities. >> it was tom jones, elizabeth taylor, steve mcqueen,

and frank sinatra. they were going to skin him alive and make purses out of it and sell it on hollywood boulevard. >> reporter: virginia graham's testimony made the front page, one of many headlines in a trial that lasted some seven months. >> the jury hearing the charges against charles manson and three girl members of his so called family, brought in its verdict this afternoon. all were found guilty of murder in the first degree. >> reporter: manson and several members of "the family" were sentenced to death for the tate and labianca murders, a career-making victory for prosecutor vincent bugliosi who was emphatic the sentence was richly deserved. >> in view of the incredible brutality of these savage, nightmarish murders, the death penalty unquestionably was the proper verdict in this case. >> reporter: but then, a little over a year later, it all changed. >> the california supreme court ruled today that the death penalty is unconstitutional.

>> reporter: there would be no gas chamber for manson or any of his convicted family members. >> do you believe that there should be a death penalty? >> aren't we all born to die? we're born with a death penalty. >> in a gas chamber? >> i believe what i'm told to believe. don't you? >> reporter: because of that california state supreme court ruling, the sentences were reduced to life in prison with the possibility of parole -- even for manson. and that touched off a debate that still rages, decades later. can people like these be rehabilitated? should they ever be released? >> there are so many reasons why i'm against parole. anthony dimaria has spent most of his adult life fighting parole for the killers of his uncle jay sebring. >> when somebody says, "well, i've changed. i've rehabilitated." well, you might have, but your victims are dusty and rotting in a grave.

>> reporter: over the last four decades, manson, tex watson, patricia krenwinkel, and the late susan atkins, who died in prison, all had parole hearings. each time they were quickly denied. but leslie van houten seemed to have some hope of being paroled. this is her hearing in 2000. >> it's really hard to live with the murder. >> reporter: van houten has been a model prisoner -- earned two degrees behind bars, runs a self-help group for inmates, has expressed remorse for decades. >> i accept responsibility. i know that what i did is inexcusable. >> reporter: in 2016, van houten was recommended for parole, but it was vetoed by the governor. she has another hearing next month. sharon tate's sister debra strongly opposes her release. >> i don't think she deserves it. these people were brutally

butchered. there has to be some kind of accountability in this world. there just simply has to be. >> reporter: and it doesn't stop when a person is 65 -- >> no. ♪ >> reporter: and the man behind it all, who wanted so desperately to be famous? charles milles manson almost 83 now, in ill health, confined to the prison hospital. one of his friends told us he believes manson may be suffering from early stages of dementia, and seems destined to die in prison, forever the infamous man. >> i haven't done anything i'm ashamed of. guilty. hmmm. i wouldn't do anything that i felt guilty about. >> reporter: manson and his family still seem to occupy some dark corner of our imagination. quentin tarantino is working on a movie about him. but, said jeff guinn, it's time to strip away the mystery, and stop burnishing the legend of charles manson. >> we can't stop what manson did, we can't stop his fame.

if he's notorious, let him be notorious for what he is -- this horrible sociopath. >> reporter: a small man, who used his talents, such as they were, to become not just a symbol of the loss of innocence, or naivete, but an enduring lesson in how not to be a human being. >> that's all for now. i'm lester holt. thanks for joining us.

handcuffed and body slammed. the video that will cost a philadelphia police officer his job. caught with the coins. now $90 in change led police to this murder suspect. slammed at the bus stop.