BAKERSFIELD - Charles Manson, the sinister ringleader behind the grisly 1969 killing spree that took the life of young actress Sharon Tate and six others, died Sunday, TMZ reported. He was 83.

Manson died at a Bakersfield hospital, Tate's sister Debra told TMZ after receiving a call from the prison where Manson was located. He had been serving multiple life sentences in Corcoran State Prison after being convicted in January 1971 of conspiracy to commit the murders.

Like his followers, or "family," Hollywood was attracted to Manson on several occasions. Perhaps the most notable onscreen portrayal of him was turned in by Steve Railsback in Helter Skelter, a CBS event telefilm directed by Tom Gries that aired over two nights in April 1976.

Based on the best-selling 1974 book co-written by Los Angeles County assistant district attorney and Manson prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi, it was a ratings sensation, attracting an estimated 50 million-plus viewers.

Before the murders, Manson aspired to a career in the L.A. music scene. After learning to play guitar in prison, he became friends with Byrds producer Terry Melcher (the son of actress Doris Day) and Dennis Wilson of The Beach Boys, and the fabled group covered one of his songs.

Manson even recorded 13 folksy songs for an album that eventually was titled Lie: The Love and Terror Cult; it was released independently in March 1970 to help pay for his defense during his murder trial.

A petty criminal who had been in and out of jail since childhood, Manson reinvented himself during the 1967 Summer of Love as a long-haired, Christ-like guru spouting Bible verses and Beatles lyrics.

After attracting a few dozen followers from San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district, many of them young women, runaways or other lost souls, the Cincinnati native took them to the old Spahn Movie Ranch, where David O. Selznick's Duel in the Sun was filmed years earlier. He had transformed the site, located along the L.A.-Ventura county line, into a commune of sex, drugs and music.

On Aug. 9, 1969, Manson sent his devotees to a home at 10050 Cielo Drive in Benedict Canyon that was being rented by Tate, 26, and her husband, director Roman Polanski. (French actress Michele Morgan once owned the house).

The Valley of the Dolls actress, who was 8 1/2 months pregnant, was stabbed 16 times, and an 'X' was carved into her stomach. Polanski, her husband of 20 months, was in London scouting film locations.

"Even after so many years, I find myself unable to watch a spectacular sunset or visit a lovely old house or experience visual pleasure of any kind without instinctively telling myself how much she would have loved it all," Polanski wrote in the 2004 book Sharon Tate Recollection, compiled by the actress' sister, Debra.

Coffee heiress Abigail Folger, celebrity hairstylist Jay Sebring and two others also were stabbed to death. The next night, Manson devotees went to the house of Los Feliz grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary, and murdered them as well.

Authorities would learn that Manson had hoped the killings would touch off an apocalyptic race war. He apparently had gotten the idea from a twisted reading of the raucous Beatles 1968 song, "Helter Skelter."
The slayings shocked the country with their savagery. Messages like "Pigs" and a misspelled "Healter Skelter" were scrawled in the victims' blood on their walls and doors.

The youngest member of the original Manson Family, Leslie Van Houten, a former homecoming princess from L.A, said Manson had brainwashed her and others with sex, LSD, constant readings from the Bible, repeated playing of The Beatles' White Album and rambling lectures about triggering a revolution.

After Manson and his followers were caught, the nation got a front-page look at his piercing, demonic stare and the Nazi swastika he had carved into his forehead during his trial.

Story Date: November 20, 2017