“Charles Manson, one of the most notorious murderers of the 20th century…” has died, reports The New York Times.
Manson was 83 and died of natural causes, the paper said.
The Times story adds, “Mr. Manson was a semiliterate habitual criminal and failed musician before he came to irrevocable attention in the late 1960s as the wild-eyed leader of the Manson family, a murderous band of young drifters in California. Convicted of nine murders in all, Mr. Manson was known in particular for the seven brutal killings collectively called the Tate-LaBianca murders, committed by his followers on two consecutive August nights in 1969.
“The most famous of the victims was Sharon Tate, an actress who was married to the film director Roman Polanski. Eight and a half months pregnant, she was killed with four other people at her Benedict Canyon home.”
In 1974 Vincent Bugliosi, who prosecuted the Manson case, wrote a bestseller, “Helter Skelter,” about the murders. The book was made into a TV miniseries in 1976, starring Steve Railsback in a memorably chilling performance as Manson.
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