Bombshell newly-obtained prison call reveals Charles Manson confessing to more murders
The notorious murderer led a cult which was behind the deaths of seven people
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A new documentary series is revealing how Charles Manson claimed to have killed a couple of people before creating the infamous Manson family.
“There’s a whole part of my life that nobody knows about,” Manson says in a recorded prison call. “I lived in Mexico for a while. I went to Acapulco, stole some cars. I just got involved in stuff over my head, man. Got involved in a couple of killings. I left my .357 Magnum in Mexico City. And I left some dead people on the beach.”
The admission is part of a Peacock three-part documentary series called Making Manson, which uses 20 years’ worth of never-before-aired conversations from prison.
Manson is known for leading the Los Angeles-based Manson Family cult he created in the 1960s. The cult was behind seven murders, including the deaths of actress Sharon Tate, the pregnant wife of Polish-born film director Roman Polanski, as well as Jay Sebring, a celebrity hairdresser, Wojciech Frykowski and Abigail Folger, friends of Tate, Steven Parent, a recent high-school graduate and Leno and Rosemary LaBianca.
Polanski was a target of the gang but was away from home that night.
Manson did not commit the murders himself but manipulated his followers into committing them, thinking the deaths would incite a race war. When he appeared in court, he did so with a swastika tattooed on his forehead. He and three members of the cult were convicted for their respective roles in the murders in 1971.
In 2017, Manson died of natural causes while serving a lifetime sentence at California State Prison-Corcoran, where he had been housed since 1989. He was originally sentenced to death before California abolished the death penalty. He was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
The documentary, which is due to premiere on Tuesday, explores Manson’s upbringing, criminal youth and feelings about the cult, according to a description of the series. Former members of the family sit through the conversations, as well as the prisoner’s former cellmate.
Dianne Lake, one of the interviewees, joined the cult when she was 14. In a clip from the documentary, Lake says she knew that Manson had been in prison for taking a girl across the state line but knew little else about the leader’s criminal background.
“Seemed minimal at the time,” Lake said. She was not directly involved in the murders. She left the group and taught special education for 10 years. She is now retired.
Former members of the group went on to lead different lives. Linda Kasabian changed her name and moved to the Pacific Northwest after being given legal immunity to testify against Manson and four of his followers. She died last year.
Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme was convicted in the 1975 attempted assassination of President Gerald Ford. She went on to write a book about her life following her 2009 release.
Some members, including Patricia Krenwinkel, Charles Watson and Robert Beausoleil, continue to serve prison sentences in California.
Leslie Van Houten, 75, was released on parole last year after spending 53 years in prison for the LaBianca murders.
She’d been denied parole more than 20 times. Upon her release, she lived in a transitional living facility to get accustomed to social, cultural and technological changes, her attorney said at the time.
Before Manson’s death, he reportedly committed hundreds of violations in prison that included assault, repeated possession of a weapon and threatening staff, according to the Los Angeles Times. He’s said to have spat in officers’ faces, tried to cause a flood and set his mattress on fire.