Uploaded October 2020 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
At the height of the hippie era in 1967, petty criminal Charles Manson started his own hippie cult that eventually grew to around 50 members: the so-called "Manson Family." Eventually, the hippie cult evolved into a murderous doomsday cult that, on Manson's orders, murdered seven people on the nights of August 8th and 9th, 1969. The senseless and appalling nature of the Manson Family murders caused an international sensation. Why did Manson order these killings? Was it, as the Los Angeles District Attorney Vincent Bugliosi theorised, to start a race war, or simply to exact revenge on a society he felt had abused him all of his life?
Please note that this program was made in 1992:
1) Susan Atkins died in prison in 2009.
2) Manson himself also died in prison in 2017.
3) Patricia Krenwinkle, Leslie Van Houten, and Charles "Tex" Watson remain in prison as of 2020, having last been denied paroles in 2017, 2016, and 2019, respectively.
4) Van Houten was recommended for parole for the fourth time on July 23, 2020, and it remains to be seen what California Governor Gavin Newsom's decision will be (he had previously overruled the parole board's positive recommendation in 2019).
This is the full length episode. Previous uploads are TV recordings with about 3 minutes cut. This is the last episode that can be uploaded from Series 1. The remaining episode on the Lindbergh baby kidnap is subject to copyright claim from A+E and is blocked since it uses some of the same footage as an A+E documentary.
At the height of the hippie era in 1967, petty criminal Charles Manson started his own hippie cult that eventually grew to around 50 members: the so-called "Manson Family." Eventually, the hippie cult evolved into a murderous doomsday cult that, on Manson's orders, murdered seven people on the nights of August 8th and 9th, 1969. The senseless and appalling nature of the Manson Family murders caused an international sensation. Why did Manson order these killings? Was it, as the Los Angeles District Attorney Vincent Bugliosi theorised, to start a race war, or simply to exact revenge on a society he felt had abused him all of his life?
Please note that this program was made in 1992:
1) Susan Atkins died in prison in 2009.
2) Manson himself also died in prison in 2017.
3) Patricia Krenwinkle, Leslie Van Houten, and Charles "Tex" Watson remain in prison as of 2020, having last been denied paroles in 2017, 2016, and 2019, respectively.
4) Van Houten was recommended for parole for the fourth time on July 23, 2020, and it remains to be seen what California Governor Gavin Newsom's decision will be (he had previously overruled the parole board's positive recommendation in 2019).
This is the full length episode. Previous uploads are TV recordings with about 3 minutes cut. This is the last episode that can be uploaded from Series 1. The remaining episode on the Lindbergh baby kidnap is subject to copyright claim from A+E and is blocked since it uses some of the same footage as an A+E documentary.
