Serial killer and former cult leader Charles Manson has died aged 83

According to the Califirnia Department of Corrections late 1960s serial killer Manson 83, died of natural causes on November 19th at Kern County hospital.

Manson’s infamy was a result of the brutal killings of several of L.A.s rich and famous. Having embarked on a killing spree with his followers who consisted of runaways and what can only be described as disillusioned individuals. Manson’s motives in leading these heinous crimes was a bid to trigger a race war, an idea he created in his mind that he twisted from the Beatles song lyrics of ‘Helter Skelter’.

According to reports Manson had health problems in recent years and was hospitalised in January for gastrointestinal bleeding. He was serving a life sentence at California State Prison in Corcoran.

The ritual stabbings of seven victims on August 9th 1969, among them Sharon Tate, who was eight months pregnant, and the wife of movie director Roman Polanski who was out of the country at the time, coffee heiress Abigail Folger, celebrity hairdresser Jay Sebring, Polish movie director Voityck Frykowski and Steven Parent, a friend of the estate’s caretaker; left the public in shock and the residents of California in fear.

The following night, they stabbed to death a wealthy grocer and his wife, Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, in their home across town.

The killers also known as “The Manson Family” scribbled the phrases “Pigs” and “Helter Skelter” (sic) in blood at the crime scenes.

It was three months later, when one of Manson’s followers was arrested on unrelated charges, and whilst in the holding cell boasted to a cellmate about the gruesome murders. This led to the arrest of Manson and the year long trial that ensued, where Manson maintained that he was innocent and that society was in fact guilty.

When the trial was over Manson and three of his followers, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten, were found guilty of murder and sentenced to death. Another defendant, Charles “Tex” Watson, was convicted later.

They were spared the gas chamber and given life sentences instead after the California Supreme Court rescinded the death penalty in 1972.

With an “X” carved on his forehead which he later turned into a swastika; Manson was the embodiment of evil in the late 60s. A disgruntled aspiring actor/singer, with the mind of a psychopath who used his hatred for people of colour to exact revenge on a Hollywood that rejected him.