Charles Manson died: anti-hippie does not survive cell

los angeles - The late sixties of the last century were a time of love and peace and flowers for part of Western humanity. From this subculture of the colorful hippies also less peaceful types came about and the last Sunday died Charles Manson is the most famous exponent of this.

Manson, born in 1934 during the low point of the crisis years, was a crumb criminal who moved to San Francisco in 1967 during the so-called Summer of Love. He settled in Ashbury Heights, the hippie capital district where most of the flower children lived, and developed into a sort of satanist guru.

He gathered a group of mainly young women around him and that commune was named The Family. Following the example of other well-known hippies such as Ken Kesey, the group bought an old school bus to drive through the country. At the end of the summer of love the Family settled in Los Angeles.

There, through the female members of his family, Manson quickly gained access to the higher showbiz circles of Hollywood. He became acquainted with Beach Boy Dennis Wilson and music producer Terry Melcher. In that period The Beatles' White Album came out and the song Helter Skelter in particular had a big influence on Manson. That song is about a fairground attraction, but he himself thought it was referring to an impending racial war. This delusion took over his life and led to a series of murders, of which the murder of Sharon Tate was the best known.

Tate, incidentally, was the victim of a person's change. Manson wanted to record an album with his Family that Melcher should produce, but when the producer did not make an appointment, Manson sent some Family members to his house to kill everyone. Melcher, however, had rented his house to Roman Polanski and his friend Sharon Tate. The Polish film director was not at home that night, but Tate and four others did, and they were slaughtered in a horrible way.

Manson was eventually sentenced to nine times in prison for his involvement in the various killings. Also in prison he remained a cult figure and he managed to get the front pages regularly through high-profile statements in interviews, accompanied by photos on which the swastika tattoo was clearly visible between his eyes. He asked several times for pardon or early release, but he remained too dangerous in the eyes of Justice.

What he was missing was not disclosed.