Charismatic psychopath Charles Manson is one of the darkest figures in US criminal history, subsequently and pop culture, became famous for the murder of 9 people, among them the young actress Sharon Tate, eight months pregnant.
This is what copywriter Alexander Gyurov commented to "Focus".
He was born in Kentucky to a 15-year-old mother who quickly became alcoholic, grew up without a father and without the concept of a healthy home and family. Since his childhood, he started with crimes and petty acts of hooliganism, was kicked from one school to another, looked at by some people, then by others, as he was "not particularly impressive with his physique, quite often he pretended to be crazy , to avoid any kind of violence so that people would leave him alone".
Already an adult, he ended up in several large prisons, and the years spent in prison for Manson are what shaped him the most in terms of thinking and worldview. There he learned not only to read, but also influenced by authors such as Dale Carnegie with his book "How to win friends and' to influence others", Robert Heinlein with his novel "A Stranger in a Strange Land, and also L. Ron Hubbard – one of the charismatic figures in the USA who influence the masses and succeed in bringing troubled people together and manipulating them. "A key role in his formation was also played by the inmate Island Karpis, who befriended Manson, took him under his wing and even taught him to play the guitar, which perhaps sparked his interest in pop and rock music, which would trace everything. what he does from there on in his life", he also told.
Manson's key years were immediately after he was released from prison in the mid-1960s, when the hippie culture flourished, and he settled in the famous Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco. "He makes very good use of his charismatic demeanor to preach to the masses, constantly drop religious references, and talk about the impending race war." Then he formed his so-called "family" from outsiders who are the problem children of the 60s and come from families like him.
"What is very characteristic of him is that apart from the use of psychedelics in the "family" his, and the politics of absolutely unbridled sexual relationships, he has relationships with almost all the female members who idolize him. At the same time, he uses a pseudo-Christian dogmatics to preach these messages, which are mixed with the work of The Beatles, with the "White Album", which has just been released. And that's where the term helter-skelter comes from, which is taken directly from The Beatles song. One of the goals of his "family" is for them to record an album that is unlikely to change people's thinking".
The events of August 8 and 9, which shocked the whole of America, took place at the home of the famous director Roman Polanski, which are defined as an attack on successful people of the upper class. The motive for this break-in is more revenge against the music producer Terry Melcher, who lived in the house before the Polanskis. "The only thing Manson wants to do, and purposefully, is to sow terror and terror. He was a nobody whose goal was to go down in history. The quote that Tarantino later used in the film: "I am the Devil and I have come here to do the devil's work" best describes this chaotic pattern of behavior where it happens on the night of August 8-9, explained Alexander Gyurov and added that Manson's trial attorney, Vincent Buliosi, later published a book about his murders titled "Helter Skelter".
The horrific crimes dictated and influenced by Charles Manson are also reflected in pop culture. He became an icon of evil, which in some way continues to be alive and provokes the imagination of many artists today. The darkness that possessed Polanski after this tragedy permeated his works, among which is "Chinatown" (Chinatown) – one of the greatest Hollywood films of the 70s, the ending of which is pessimistic, because "in life there is no happy ending at any price".
Twenty years later, there is a revisionism to the work of Charles Manson, which is very well seen in the album The Downward Spiral by the industrial group Nine Inch Nails, which was recorded in the very house where the atrocities were committed. The 1990s were characterized by the glorification and fanaticism of serial killers, such as Hannibal Lecter from The Silence of the Lambs. and John Doe from "Seven”. There is also influence in musical formations, such as Axel Rose from Guns N' Roses and Nirvana, one of the most famous American bands of the 90s.
Attempts to recreate Charles Manson in cinema art are not so successful, but according to Alexander Gyurov in the short scene in the series "Brain Hunter" (Mindhunter) his image is conveyed extremely truthfully and "you can believe that the actor is really this real historical image. Manson achieves his goal, above all, to leave his mark on pop culture, albeit in the most painful, dark and bloody way", summed up Alexander Gyurov.