The notorious mass killer Charles Manson, b. Cincinnati, Ohio, Nov.12, 1934, was convicted of the murders of actress Sharon Tate and six of her friends near Bel Air, Calif. The bloody rampage on the night of Aug.9, 1969, was the culmination of Manson's cult philosophy based on the worship of both God and the devil. He exerted total control over the so-called Manson family, mostly women, through repetitious preaching, drugs, and fear. His control was such that the Tate murders were committed at his direction but without his presence. After a widely publicized trial in Los Angeles, Manson was sentenced (Apr.9, 1971) to death, but the sentence was later reduced to life imprisonment in keeping with the change in California law eliminating the death penalty.
