Charles Manson is a man that needs no introduction, ever since the infamous
Tate-LaBianca case in August 1969, Manson’s name and the name of his cult, The Manson Family
have been the subject of documentaries, podcasts, books and films. There is a wealth of knowledge
about the Manson family thanks to books such as ‘Helter Skelter’, but there are a handful
of mysteries that have been attributed to one of the most famous cults of all time.
5 - CIA Conspiracy? One of the more troubling
questions that pops up about the Manson Family is whether their leader, Charles Manson was a CIA
test subject. These claims, if true, could completely change the way that we view
Charles Manson and the Manson Family and could create a controversy for the U.S Government.
For those who are interested in reading a canonical telling of the Manson Family Murders,
the book “Helter Skelter” by Vincent Bugliosi (byooliosi) and Curt Gentry is certainly an
excellent place to start. Bugliosi was part of the prosecution team during the Manson murder trials
and provides an extremely in-depth account of what happened on those fateful nights in 1969.
How does Bugliosi tie into Charles Manson being a CIA project? Well,
there is where Tom O’Neill comes into the picture.
In 1999, O’Neill was tasked with writing investigative journalist pieces on the
Manson Family and quickly made a name for himself when he started asking unfavourable questions.
He quickly turned on Bugliosi and accused him of tampering with witnesses to suppress and cover up
evidence that would have exposed a dark truth. Of course, Bugliosi strongly denied these claims
and threatened to sue O’Neill and told him to stop poking his nose where it didn’t belong.
O’Neill was undeterred, he had no money or assets that Bugliosi could sue him for
and it was going to take more than the threat of a lawsuit to stop him digging for the truth.
After speaking to Bugliosi and accusing him of tampering with witnesses, O’Neill turned his
attention to another key question. Why was Charles Manson a free man in August 1969?
O’Neill explained in his articles that Manson had served numerous prison sentences
for an array of crimes including federal ones. He was well known to police forces across the U.S
for being a violent and eccentric man but somehow always managed to keep his nose clean when he
was on parole. Interestingly, on August 16th 1969, a week after the Tate-LaBianca murders,
Spahn Ranch, where the Manson Family lived, was raided following a tip.
Inside the ranch, they found multiple weapons as well as stolen property, but bizarrely,
after a few hours, each member of the Manson Family was released and free to go. Official
records state that this was down to a clerical error and that the warrant for their arrests had
the wrong date on it, but O’Neill believes that there is a much darker explanation behind this.
O’Neill believes that Charles Manson was allowed to roam free for as long as he did because he was
a part of the CIA’s Operation Chaos and was fed mind-altering substances such as
LSD. It is believed that the CIA was using Manson as an extension of MKUltra
and wanted to test mind control techniques and test the effects of these substances on people.
O’Neill’s theory comes across as a conspiracy theory,
with him connecting the dots and making patterns where there aren’t any. Of course,
only time will tell and until documents are released from these projects, we may never know.
4 - Manson and the Beach Boys Those of a certain age will be
familiar with the Beach Boys and our younger audience will have probably heard their parents
talk about them. For those who don’t know, The Beach Boys are an American Rock Band
that formed in the early 1960’s right when the counterculture movement was taking off in the U.S.
This was also right around the same time as the sexual liberation of women
and just years after the word ‘teenager’ had found its way into the dictionary.
Looking back, the ’60s seemed like an idyllic time to be a young person,
with rock concerts, festivals and the counterculture, there was certainly plenty to
do. What most people don’t know about The Beach Boys is that they have ties to one of the most
infamous cults in history, The Manson Family. Dennis Wilson,
one of the members of the Beach Boys met Manson in a chance encounter in the summer of 1968.
Wilson was driving home when he spotted two female hitchhikers, he decided to pull over and give them
a ride. Little did Wilson know that the two women who had just entered his car were members of the
now infamous ‘Manson Family’. As they arrived at their destination and the two women got
out of the car, Wilson was greeted by Manson who immediately went on the charm offensive.
From the get-go, Wilson was captivated by Manson and hung off his every word. Another member of the
Beach Boys told reporters “Dennis and Charlie hit it off right away, which is not surprising
given Charlie’s skills at ingratiating himself with strangers. Dennis, in no rush to leave,
hung out for a while, smoked and listened to some of Charlie’s songs.”
Manson was an aspiring musician and was thrilled at the chance to make connections
with one of the worlds biggest rockstars at the time.
Within days, Charles along with his family had invited themselves to live in Wilson’s home and
Wilson did little to stop them. By all accounts, Wilson and the Manson family had a lot of fun
whilst they lived there, they consumed numerous substances and engaged in group activities.
But then at the close of the summer of 68, the Manson Family abruptly moved out of Wilson’s home
after producers at Wilson’s studio and Manson got into a disagreement.
The argument ended with Manson pulling a knife on everyone present
and after that, Manson moved his family out of the home.
It appears that this incident didn’t sour the relationship between Manson and Wilson
too much and the pair regularly kept in contact with each other and hung out from time to time.
The real mystery comes in Spring 1969 when Wilson claims to have witnessed a murder
orchestrated by none other than Charles Manson himself. His fellow band member
Brian Wilson said that Wilson had told him “I just saw Charlie take his M16 and blow this
black guy in half and stuff him down a well.” Wilson was so scared that he decided to keep
quiet about the crime and hoped that Manson and the family would go away and leave him alone.
It wouldn’t be late 1969 that Wilson learnt about The Manson Murders
but decided to keep quiet. This allegation has been brought up to law enforcement officials and
they have confirmed that there is no report matching the description of this crime. Did
Wilson simply imagine and hallucinate the murder? Or did he really witness it?
3 - Sherry Doe For 46 years, a woman known as “Sherry Doe”
laid unidentified in California until 2015 when she was identified by her friends and family
after they came across a sketch of her. After 46 long years, Sherry Doe was finally identified as
19-year-old Reet Jurvetson of Montreal, Canada. Whilst Reet has been reunited with her family,
the question still remains, was she a victim of the Manson Family?
On November 16th 1969 Reet’s body was discovered in a ravine on Mullholland Drive
near Spahn Ranch in Los Angeles, California. Investigators were stunned to find that she
had suffered from over 150 wounds and concluded that whoever was responsible
appeared to be very angry at her. As the investigation was opened into her death,
detectives stumbled upon a problem, they had no idea who the woman was.
She wasn’t carrying any ID with her and in the days after she had been discovered,
no one came forward to claim her and she didn’t match any missing person reports. A witness came
forward claiming to have seen the woman hanging around with the Manson Family at Spahn Ranch
and that she went by the name Sherry. In the absence of her true identity,
the woman was named Sherry Doe and investigators hoped that one day she would have her name back.
It wasn’t until 2015 when Reet’s older sister, Anne stumbled across the sketch that forensic
artists had made of Reet on the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System.
In turn, Anne provided a DNA sample which confirmed that Sherry Doe was in fact,
Reet Jurvetson. This still left the question of who was responsible for her demise?
Many believe that Charles Manson and the Manson Family were directly involved in
Reet’s case. A witness had placed a woman matching Reet’s description at Spahn Ranch
and Mullholland Drive was close by. People also point out that ‘overkill’ had been
used in both the cases of Tate-LaBianca and Reet. Was Charles Manson responsible
or did Los Angeles have another monster roaming its streets at the same time?
2 - Ronald Hughes The trial of the Manson Family was one
of the most publicised and controversial trials in recent criminal history. Aside from the trial of
O.J Simpson, the Manson Family trials are perhaps one of the weirdest to have graced U.S Courtrooms.
Just because some of the members were on trial, that doesn’t mean that the mysteries end here.
Leslie Van Houten, a member of the Manson Family, was being represented by lawyer Ronald Hughes.
As we know, the trial against Van Houten and other members of the Manson Family didn’t
go the way they had planned. It was clear that Charles Manson and his accomplices were unable
to charm the jury and things in the courtroom quickly heated up with Manson exhibiting odd
behaviour and making bizarre claims. In November 1970 the trial was put on recess and Ronald Hughes
made the most of his time off by going on a hiking trip in Ventura County, California.
At the time, Hughes was accompanied by a few friends however their trip was cut short after
they were ordered to evacuate due to floods in the area. It appears that Hughes ignored
this order and carried on hiking and that was the last time he was ever seen alive.
The court reconvened on November 30th 1970 but Hughes was nowhere to be found.
After failing to show up for the trial of the decade,
Hughes was reported as missing and search and rescue teams were sent to look for him.
It wouldn’t be until March 29th 1971 that his remains would be found at Sespe (sesspee) Hot
Springs. Due to the level of decomposition, Hughes had to be identified by dental records
and investigators noted that his body had been lodged between two boulders.
Due to the level of decomposition, an official cause of death was never determined
but many believe that Charles Manson has something to do with it.
In a bizarre coincidence, Hughes’ remains were found on the same day that the jury voted
to hand down capital punishment to the members of the Manson Family on trial.
Sandra Good, who had been a member of the Manson Family told AETV “The Family
had killed 35 to 40 people and that Hughes was the first of the retaliation murders.”
Good never revealed who within the Family had been responsible for Hughes’ demise
and unless credible evidence comes forward, we may never know.
1 - Marina Habe On December 29th 1968, Marina Habe returned to the
home she shared with her parents in Los Angeles, California. Marina had spent the night on a double
date with friends and at 3 am she quietly walked down the driveway and was making her way into the
house. That was until her family were awoken by a scuffle on the driveway and saw an unfamiliar car.
Marina’s car was on the driveway and her mother who looked out of the window assumed that the car
was just one of her friends, but as the minutes ticked by and Marina didn’t enter the house,
she knew that something was very wrong. The scuffle that her family
had heard was Marina being kidnapped and taken away in the unknown car.
On December 31st 1968, Marina’s body was found on Mullholland Drive,
much like the body of Reet Jurvetson whose case we have also covered in this video. Much
like other victims of the Manson Family, Marina had been subjected to ‘overkill’
and was found near Spahn Ranch. Since Marina’s body was discovered
her case has run cold and many people believe that the Manson Family are responsible.
After all, Manson Family member Sandra Good alluded to the fact that the Family had been
responsible for 35 to 40 murders and it seems like an odd coincidence that two young women
would be found with similar wounds on the same road as each other within a short space of time.
According to both Reet’s and Marina’s families, they were both dating a mysterious man named
“John” shortly before their deaths, leading many to believe that John was
Charles Manson who instructed them to lie to their families.