The year 1969 was pretty momentous, giving us Apollo 11, Woodstock, Chappaquiddick, Stonewall, and the Manson Family murders, the last of which features prominently in the new Quentin Tarantino movie Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Those of us of a certain age followed the murder investigation in the news and/or read the brutal, salacious, and just plain weird details in the book Helter Skelter. Younger people might wonder what cult leader Charles Manson had to do with the fame factory of Hollywood.
Manson had connections to a number of wealthy and influential people in Los Angeles. Through Dennis Wilson, he became acquainted with record producer Terry Melcher, son of actress Doris Day and boyfriend of model and actress Candice Bergen. At one point, the daughter of actress Angela Lansbury was a Family hanger-on, and though she wasn’t an official member, she used her mother’s credit cards to buy the Family’s food and clothing.
Melcher and Bergen lived at the house (10050 Cielo Drive) that Tate would eventually rent with her husband, director Roman Polanski, and Guinn posits that the house represented Manson’s rejection by the musical establishment—he’d courted Melcher as a patron, and even hosted the producer at Spahn Ranch, where Melcher politely listened to Manson and the Family perform. Manson pinned a great deal of hope on his connections with Wilson and Melcher, and it’s widely believed that once it became clear the two men weren’t going to significantly advance his music career (though Wilson did convince the Beach Boys to re-work and record a version of Manson’s song “Cease to Exist,” which they renamed “Never Learn Not to Love,” it was considered a flop), Manson became increasingly focused on violence.
One can only wonder if it would have made any difference if Manson were more musically talented. Read an overview of the Manson Family murders at Smithsonian.