This week brought to a close the life of Charles Mansion. Thanks in part to the man who personified evil the aftermath from the summer of love would be bloody and violent. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy would both be gunned down in 1968 but it is Charles Mansion who has remained in the American psyche and has garnered a morbid fascination more than any other figure of the late 1960s.

On August 9th, 1969 the Manson Family would strike in Charlie’s misguided attempt to start an apocalyptic race war. He believe the Beatles song Helter Skelter prophesized the war and that the Manson Family would survive the coming apocalypse by hiding underground. In an attempt to fuel the war the Manson Family would murder actress Sharon Tate, her unborn child and four guests at her home. The next night the Family would strike again killing Supermarket executive Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary.

The plan was to make police believe the murders were racially motivated. More specifically to pin the killing on the Black Panthers, an African American civil rights group active in California at the time. The race war never materialized but the ’60s would come to a crashing close and Charlie and family would take the Age of Aquarius with them.

Charles Manson would show no remorse for his actions and would be convicted of the murders along with other family members Tex Watson, Susan Atkins, Linda Kasabian, Patricia Krenwinkel, Leslie Van Houten and Clem Grogan. They were all sentenced to death but the sentences would later be commuted to life when California abolished the death penalty.

Manson would become one of the most notorious serial killers in American history. Helter Skelter, apocalyptic race wars and brutal murder would punctuate the history of the ’60s and leave a black stain on the hippie generation.

On November 19, 2017 his life sentence would finally end. At age 83, Charles Milles Manson would pass from this world. Now, almost half a century later, a nation still profoundly affected by his evil and the actions of the Manson Family can finally turn the page.

Copyright 2017 Greg Glazebrook, All Rights Reserved.