Who Were Charles Manson’s Followers? What to Know About the ‘Manson Family’

Charles Manson and his “family” of followers were the perpetrators of one of the most infamous murder sprees in U.S. history.

There are nine known victims of the Manson family’s 1969 murders, which were set into motion by their leader in hopes of inciting a race war, which he dubbed “Helter Skelter,” after the Beatles song.

The cult members known to be involved in the August 1969 murder spree were Susan Atkins, Charles D. “Tex” Watson, Patricia Krenwinkel, Leslie Van Houten, Linda Kasabian and Steven “Clem” Grogan. All except Kasabian, who served as the state’s “star witness” and was granted immunity in exchange for her testimony, were convicted.

In January 1971, Manson was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder for the deaths of seven people. He was sentenced to death, but that was commuted to life in prison after California’s Supreme Court invalidated all death sentences prior to 1972. He was 83 and serving nine life sentences in California’s Corcoran State Prison at the time of his death from natural causes in November 2017.

“Some people glorify [Manson] as a sort of master outlaw,” lead prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi told PEOPLE shortly before his death, in 2015. “But he really was nothing more than an evil, very sophisticated con man.”

During the Manson family’s 1970 trial, Kasabian told jurors that Manson’s girls did “anything and everything” for him.

The Manson family murders are being examined in Errol Morris’ new documentary, CHAOS: The Manson Murders, now streaming on Netflix. In the film, the director asks one central question: “How did Charles Manson convince the people around him to kill on his orders?”

Here’s everything to know about Charles Manson’s followers, otherwise known as the Manson family.

Who was Charles Manson?

Charles Manson was born Charles Milles Maddox in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Nov. 12, 1934.

Manson — who later took his stepfather, William Manson’s, last name — was sent to the Gibault School for Boys in Terre Haute, Ind., in 1947, when he was 13, per Jeff Guinn’s 2013 book Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson. He would spend the next two decades in and out of reform schools and prisons.

After his March 1967 release from prison, Manson moved to San Francisco, where he began to attract followers and start his “family.” By 1968, they moved to Spahn Ranch, located in the Santa Susana Mountains, as Manson hoped to kick off his music career in nearby Hollywood, per Curbed.

Guinn told PEOPLE in 2017 that Manson was drawn to famous and glamorous people, and he “fully intended to become the most famous rock ’n’ roll star in history.”

Manson worked his celebrity connections, including the Beach Boys and producer Terry Melcher, in an attempt to aid his career. After failing as a musician, Manson’s anger towards the world allegedly grew. He reportedly became obsessed with the Beatles and dubbed his plan to incite a race war “Helter Skelter,” after the group’s song of the same name.

What was the Manson family?

The Manson “family” was Manson’s group of followers, most of whom were young women.

Before they murdered, the group sought out celebrities as friends, roommates and professional connections. Their timing in the 1960s coincided with an egalitarian era of Hollywood, and Manson often sent his “girls” out in pairs to meet musicians.

“In that era, in that time, it was inevitable they [the Manson ‘family’] would encounter some famous people,” Guinn told PEOPLE in 2017. “But it was not anything that happened by chance. It was their design.”

The family lived with Beach Boys member Dennis Wilson for a few months in 1968, but the musician had enough of Manson and the group after they allegedly ransacked his home, stole his property and totaled his Mercedes. The group later moved to Spahn Ranch, a former Western filming site.

The Associated Press reported in 1971 that Manson’s followers called him “God,” “Jesus” and “Satan.”

Who were the Manson family members?

Many members of Manson’s “family” cult were disenfranchised young people, especially women, brought together by the former convict.

Mary Brunner is considered Manson’s first follower, per Guinn’s book. The pair met in 1967, and Brunner gave birth to Manson’s son, Valentine, the following year. She was charged with the murder of Gary Hinman — one of the cult’s first victims — but later received immunity when she testified against her fellow Manson followers, Bobby Beausoleil and Susan Atkins.

Beausoleil, an aspiring musician and one of Manson’s main recruiters was arrested on Aug. 6, 1969, after he was found asleep in Hinman’s stolen car, per The Tribune. Manson set off “Helter Skelter” two days later when his followers killed Sharon Tate and four others. The following night, they went on to kill Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, ending a spree that was later given the name the Tate-LaBianca murders.

The cult members associated with the August 1969 murder spree were Atkins, Charles D. “Tex” Watson, Patricia Krenwinkel, Leslie Van Houten, Linda Kasabian and Steven “Clem” Grogan. Kasabian allegedly remained in the car as the lookout and became a key witness in the Manson family trial in 1970.

The youngest Manson family cult member was Dianne Lake, who did not participate in the violence of 1969. She was 14 when she met Manson at a party in Topanga, Calif., in 1967. Lake told PEOPLE in 2017 that Manson was an adept manipulator.

“He was extremely intelligent,” she said. “He had the incredible ability to pick up on other people’s weaknesses and their needs and their desires, and he could fulfill those.”

A family member deeply devoted to Manson was Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, who was allegedly considered the leader when Manson was absent. Fromme was not linked to the Tate-LaBianca murders but during Manson’s trial, she camped outside the Hall of Justice in L.A., sporting a carved “X” on her forehead and spouting her devotion to the cult leader, according to the Los Angeles Times.

She was also not the only Manson “girl” there keeping vigil, waiting for their “father” to be freed, as the AP reported.

Why did the Manson family commit murder?

Manson ordered a string of slayings throughout L.A. in an alleged effort to incite a race war in the United States.

According to the 1974 book Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders, Manson dubbed his plot “Helter Skelter,” after the Beatles song. He apparently believed he would take power after the race war he created, the AP reported.

“That was kind of scary to people: to think there were people walking around who would kill innocent people they didn’t even know to start a race war,” retired L.A. County prosecutor Stephen Kay told PEOPLE in 2017.

Which Manson family members took part in the murders?

In August 1969, the Manson family killed seven people over two nights in L.A.

The bloodiest evening took place after midnight on Aug. 9, when Watson, Krenwinkel and Atkins killed pregnant actress Sharon Tate alongside four others: Jay Sebring, Wojciech Frykowski, Abigail Folger and Stephen Parent.

The family’s previous acquaintance, Melcher, had once lived at the home at 10500 Cielo Drive. The killers used the victims’ blood to write messages on the walls of the home, including Atkins’ spelling out “PIG” on the white front door in Tate’s blood.

Not happy with how messy the murders had been, per Helter Skelter, the next night, Manson set out with Watson, Atkins, Krenwinkel, Kasabian, Van Houten and Steve “Clem” Crogan. They then killed Leno and Rosemary LaBianca in their Los Feliz home. Kasabian later testified that Manson left before the murders.

Lake told PEOPLE in 2019 that she remembered Watson coming back to the ranch after the murders carrying a news article about Tate’s killing.

“He shows me the newspaper and he slaps it, and he says, ‘I did this. Charlie told me to,’ ” she said, adding that as the other girls started appearing at the ranch, they also “told me their participation in the murders.”

Although the two-day spree known as the Tate-LaBianca murders is the most infamous, Manson’s followers also killed at least two other people. The first known death came almost two weeks before the Tate murders when Manson orchestrated the death of musician Gary Hinman on July 27, 1969.

Hinman was a music teacher who introduced Manson to Beach Boys band member Dennis Wilson. Beausoleil was arrested for Hinman’s murder, but he had also been accompanied by Atkins and Brunner.

In her 1971 testimony, Atkins claimed that the motivation for the Tate-LaBianca murder spree stemmed from Hinman’s death.

Before Manson’s arrest, the cult leader ordered a ninth killing of ranchhand Donald “Shorty” Shea. Shea was killed by Grogan and Bruce M. Davis at Spahn Ranch reportedly because the family thought he was a police informant, according to 2017’s The Crime Book.

Which Manson family members were convicted?

Manson and 25 of his followers were first arrested on Aug. 16, 1969, on auto theft charges, per Helter Skelter. Though the group was later released, just the suspected killers were arrested again in December.

After a six-month trial in 1970, Manson, Atkins, Krenwinkel and Van Houten were found guilty of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder, per Helter Skelter.

Manson was sentenced to death but was spared execution after the death penalty was abolished in California. His sentence, along with the death sentences his convicted followers received, were all commuted to life in prison.

Kasabian, the lookout during the murder spree, was the key witness in the 1970 Manson family trial. She was granted immunity for her testimony, which led to the conviction of Manson and several of his accomplices.

Lead prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi told media in 2009 that without Kasabian’s testimony, “it would have been extremely difficult for me to convict Manson and his co-defendants.”

Atkins confessed to killing Tate and provided testimony about what happened in the actress’ house on the night of the murders. At the time, she said it was Kasabian’s idea to kill. The New York Times reported that the “testimony [was] apparently designed to clear Charles M. Manson of any responsibility for the slayings.”

Van Houten was convicted in the LaBianca slaying but was granted a retrial in 1976. Two years later she was again convicted of two counts of murder and one count of conspiracy and sentenced to seven years to life in prison, per the L.A. Times.

Watson was found guilty of murder in a separate trial, The Washington Post reported, and was sentenced to life in prison. In 1970, Beausoleil was convicted of first-degree murder in the killing of Hinman, per The San Bernardino Sun-Telegram.

What happened to Charles Manson?

Manson spent the rest of his life behind bars. He was denied parole 12 times and died of natural causes on Nov. 19, 2017, at age 83.

After his death, a California prison official shared that Manson was “not a model prisoner.”

​​“He has had over 100 violations since he was incarcerated, which has been a very long time,” Kristina Khokhobashvili, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, told PEOPLE in 2017.

Manson served time at San Quentin, Vacaville and Corcoran prisons. He had been at the latter since 1989.

What happened to the family members?

Some Manson family members have lived most of their lives behind bars, while others have continued to commit crimes.

Brunner, along with other Manson family members robbed a gun store in 1971 with alleged plans to hijack a plane in order to break Manson out of prison, per the 2002 book The Family. She received a sentence of 20 years to life but was released on parole in 1977, per NBC News.

Fromme was charged and convicted for the 1975 attempted assassination of President Gerald R. Ford. She received a life sentence but was released on parole in 2009, per NBC News. She published a book about her life, Reflexion, in 2018.

Krenwinkel, Watson and Beausoleil have all been denied parole multiple times each. Atkins was denied parole 13 times before dying in prison at age 61 from brain cancer on Sept. 24, 2009, per CNN.

After Atkins’ death, Krenwinkel became the longest-serving female inmate in California, according to the L.A. Times. While incarcerated, Watson married, fathered four children, divorced, earned a business degree and became an ordained minister, per his website.

Beausoleil, on the other hand, has sold prison-made artwork and music online, per Rolling Stone. Kasabian was living in Washington state when she died in 2023 at age 73. She had changed her surname to Chiochios to protect her identity, per The Guardian.

Van Houten spent 53 years behind bars before being released from prison on July 11, 2023. According to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, she still had a “three-year maximum parole term with a parole discharge review occurring after one year.”

Grogan was released on parole in 1985 after he revealed where Shea’s body was buried.

Lake, the youngest cult member, was 17 when she testified against Manson and the other murderers in court. Lake told PEOPLE that she “had been pretty deprogrammed” by then but was surprised by how many of her former friends from the group still supported Manson during the trial.

“The girls with the Xs on their foreheads? That part always blew me away,” Lake told PEOPLE. “They continued to hang on, be groupies.”