WEBVTT - S05 Episode 5: When Love Breaks Down (Pt. 2 of 2) 0:00:10.280 --> 0:00:14.640 You're listening to Unexplained Season five, episode five, when Love 0:00:14.720 --> 0:00:19.480 Breaks Down, Part two. Please note the following episodes contain 0:00:19.560 --> 0:00:23.000 details of events that some may find disturbing and are 0:00:23.040 --> 0:00:34.519 not suitable for children. Things had been steadily sliding for 0:00:34.560 --> 0:00:37.560 Susan after the death of her mother from cancer when 0:00:37.600 --> 0:00:41.559 Susan was only fourteen, though in truth they'd been sliding 0:00:41.600 --> 0:00:45.800 for some time before that. Susan Atkins was born in 0:00:45.880 --> 0:00:50.519 nineteen forty eight in San Gabriel, California, with one older 0:00:50.560 --> 0:00:53.199 and one younger brother. Her family moved a number of 0:00:53.200 --> 0:00:56.080 times as she was growing up, but were based mainly 0:00:56.160 --> 0:01:00.760 in San Jose, superficially, at least to sid as they 0:01:00.800 --> 0:01:04.959 seemed normal enough. Later, Susan would claim that as a 0:01:05.000 --> 0:01:08.080 young girl, she was sexually abused by a male relative, 0:01:08.520 --> 0:01:12.400 and that both her parents drank heavily. By twelve years old, 0:01:12.680 --> 0:01:16.680 she was shoplifting regularly. Having been brought up to believe 0:01:16.720 --> 0:01:20.800 in God, Her parents alcoholism, and later her mother's painful 0:01:20.840 --> 0:01:24.360 and premature death left her angry and resentful that any 0:01:24.400 --> 0:01:28.640 God would sanction such things. Being left to effectively take 0:01:28.680 --> 0:01:31.240 over her mother's role in the home and having to 0:01:31.240 --> 0:01:34.320 watch her father drink himself into a drunken stupor every 0:01:34.400 --> 0:01:39.240 night only served to harden her sense of injustice. Before long, 0:01:39.560 --> 0:01:42.200 she would find herself secretly frequenting the bars on the 0:01:42.319 --> 0:01:45.760 quieter edges of town, seeking comfort in the alcohol and 0:01:45.880 --> 0:01:50.560 company she found there. Feeling increasingly restless and trapped by 0:01:50.560 --> 0:01:54.200 her predicament, her grades at school began to suffer, and 0:01:54.280 --> 0:01:56.960 after being told she would have to repeat her junior year, 0:01:57.360 --> 0:02:00.240 she made the decision not to go back and headed 0:02:00.280 --> 0:02:05.080 to San Francisco. Despite quickly picking up a job selling 0:02:05.120 --> 0:02:08.960 subscriptions to magazines, her employer neglected to give her a 0:02:09.000 --> 0:02:12.519 steady wage, and before long she was struggling to pay 0:02:12.520 --> 0:02:17.360 her bills. But something else was beginning to bite, a 0:02:17.480 --> 0:02:21.640 deep and profound sense of loneliness, something she was beginning 0:02:21.639 --> 0:02:25.839 to realize had dogged her her whole life. One night, 0:02:26.080 --> 0:02:30.360 Susan attempted suicide by swallowing a bottle of codeine pills, 0:02:30.400 --> 0:02:32.640 claiming later that it was just a cry for help. 0:02:33.760 --> 0:02:36.959 Soon after, she met a guy and together along with 0:02:37.040 --> 0:02:39.360 a friend of his, they embarked on a road trip 0:02:39.400 --> 0:02:42.160 to Oregon for some business he had to attend to 0:02:43.000 --> 0:02:46.120 the business turned out to be an unspecified heist of 0:02:46.160 --> 0:02:50.840 some sort. Rather than being disturbed by the revelation, what 0:02:51.000 --> 0:02:53.480 Susan felt most of all as they sped toward their 0:02:53.520 --> 0:02:57.280 destination was an intense sense of freedom and the sheer 0:02:57.360 --> 0:03:02.160 thrill of it. Not long their journey, however, after holding 0:03:02.240 --> 0:03:04.840 up a number of gas stations, the group were caught 0:03:04.919 --> 0:03:08.560 by highway patrol officers on the lookout for their vehicle, which, 0:03:08.639 --> 0:03:13.799 unbeknownst to Susan, had been stolen. Susan was given three 0:03:13.840 --> 0:03:16.400 months in jail for her part in the operation, and 0:03:16.520 --> 0:03:20.960 afterwards returned to San Jose. A month later, she was 0:03:21.000 --> 0:03:25.160 back in San Francisco, still searching for somewhere to belong, 0:03:26.400 --> 0:03:32.440 and then she discovered lysurgic acid diethylamite, also known as LSD. 0:03:39.640 --> 0:03:42.440 It is a mode of all new generations to examine 0:03:42.440 --> 0:03:45.720 and reevaluate the world left to them by their forebears. 0:03:46.320 --> 0:03:48.960 For nineteen sixties youth in the West, that was a 0:03:49.000 --> 0:03:54.160 world partly characterized by war and control. With its innate 0:03:54.240 --> 0:03:58.440 ability to unravel the mind, LSD provided the perfect tool 0:03:58.720 --> 0:04:03.960 to deconstruct this press reality. Though hallucinogenic drugs were nothing new, 0:04:04.480 --> 0:04:07.960 having long been used by many ancient cultures throughout the world. 0:04:08.360 --> 0:04:12.520 The nature of LST, a synthesized compound of lysurgic acid 0:04:12.800 --> 0:04:16.159 invented in a lab in nineteen thirty eight, made it 0:04:16.240 --> 0:04:21.839 perfect for cheap mass production and consumption. Susan's first trip 0:04:22.120 --> 0:04:25.520 was a nightmare ride, taking it in the company of 0:04:25.600 --> 0:04:28.359 the stranger she had procured it from all sense of 0:04:28.360 --> 0:04:32.920 the world around her quickly dissolved into wild, kaleidoscopic patterns 0:04:32.960 --> 0:04:37.159 and explosions of color. But before long, all sense of 0:04:37.200 --> 0:04:41.960 herself began to dissolve too. As Susan battled the terror 0:04:42.080 --> 0:04:45.400 that she might lose herself forever. The stranger did what 0:04:45.480 --> 0:04:48.720 he could to reassure her, reminding her over and over 0:04:48.800 --> 0:04:52.080 again that she was still Susan and that she was 0:04:52.160 --> 0:04:57.040 not going to disappear. A few weeks after this experience, 0:04:57.400 --> 0:05:00.320 Susan fell in with Barbara and her commune on the 0:05:00.360 --> 0:05:04.160 corner of Oak and Lyons Street. Though warmly accepted by 0:05:04.200 --> 0:05:07.600 the group, Susan continued to be plagued by that abject 0:05:07.680 --> 0:05:14.080 sense of loneliness until the day she met Charlie. After 0:05:14.120 --> 0:05:16.800 listening to him play guitar for the first time. The 0:05:16.880 --> 0:05:20.279 pair had spent the night together a few days later, 0:05:20.440 --> 0:05:23.760 while sat on the curb in hate Ashbury, Charlie attempted 0:05:23.800 --> 0:05:26.920 to explain to her the importance of living in the now. 0:05:27.880 --> 0:05:30.000 To live in the now was to be cleansed of 0:05:30.080 --> 0:05:33.560 the baggage of the past and the expectations of the future. 0:05:34.400 --> 0:05:37.680 It was as pure estate as you could reach. And 0:05:37.800 --> 0:05:40.839 should you ever want for anything, he explained, all you 0:05:40.920 --> 0:05:43.279 have to do is think it and it will be so. 0:05:45.480 --> 0:05:49.360 If you want a quarter, for example, just visualize a quarter. 0:05:50.760 --> 0:05:54.640 A moment later, Susan watched with utter amazement as a 0:05:54.720 --> 0:05:58.560 stranger approached, holding out a quarter and placed it in 0:05:58.680 --> 0:06:03.960 Charlie's hand. When he asked her later that day to 0:06:04.040 --> 0:06:07.120 go with him to Los Angeles, it was as if 0:06:07.120 --> 0:06:17.160 he already knew what she was going to say. Sharon 0:06:17.200 --> 0:06:20.080 and Roman had returned to Los Angeles in early nineteen 0:06:20.160 --> 0:06:22.880 sixty seven after Sharon was offered a part in an 0:06:22.880 --> 0:06:26.760 adaptation of the nineteen sixty six novel Valley of the Dolls, 0:06:27.520 --> 0:06:31.120 while Roman secured a three picture agreement with Paramount Pictures 0:06:31.160 --> 0:06:35.680 in Hollywood. In August, Roman left for New York to 0:06:35.760 --> 0:06:38.839 begin principal photography on the first of these three films, 0:06:39.440 --> 0:06:44.240 an adaptation of the Irah Levin book Rosemary's Baby. The film, 0:06:44.600 --> 0:06:47.800 now regarded as one of the finest psychological horror films 0:06:47.800 --> 0:06:50.720 of all time, follows the story of Rosemary and her 0:06:50.760 --> 0:06:53.520 husband Guy as they prepare for the birth of their 0:06:53.560 --> 0:06:58.240 first child. When their eccentric neighbors take an unusually keen interest, 0:06:58.720 --> 0:07:01.920 Rosemary becomes convinced they are part of a Satanic coven 0:07:02.279 --> 0:07:05.680 intent on stealing it. Without wanting to give too much 0:07:05.680 --> 0:07:08.920 away for those who haven't seen it, the tortured Rosemary 0:07:09.279 --> 0:07:14.720 isn't entirely wrong in her assumptions. At one point, Sharon 0:07:14.840 --> 0:07:17.320 was considered for the lead role of Rosemary, which was 0:07:17.360 --> 0:07:21.480 offered in the end to Mia Pharaoh. Though she was disappointed, 0:07:21.840 --> 0:07:24.280 nineteen sixty seven was still set to be a big 0:07:24.360 --> 0:07:27.160 year for her, with no less than three movies due 0:07:27.240 --> 0:07:30.080 for release at the end of the year. Much to 0:07:30.120 --> 0:07:35.200 Sharon's further disappointment. However, or three films, The Fearless Vampire Killers, 0:07:35.560 --> 0:07:38.600 I of the Devil, and finally, Valley of the Dolls, 0:07:39.240 --> 0:07:44.600 were poorly received, both commercially and critically. The response left Sharon, 0:07:44.800 --> 0:07:49.000 who already felt insecure about her acting abilities, deeply despondent 0:07:49.360 --> 0:07:53.920 and questioning the state of her career prospects. Meanwhile, Roman 0:07:54.080 --> 0:07:58.160 was glowing after wrapping up Rosemary's baby in December, convinced 0:07:58.160 --> 0:08:02.080 he'd captured something special with Sharon, turning her thoughts to 0:08:02.160 --> 0:08:05.200 settling down and perhaps having a baby of their own. 0:08:05.840 --> 0:08:08.920 The couple were married in January the following year, and 0:08:09.040 --> 0:08:19.560 traveled back to Europe to spend a honeymoon. A few 0:08:19.560 --> 0:08:24.840 months previously, Susan, Charlie, and five other young women were 0:08:24.880 --> 0:08:29.360 speeding down Route One inside a black painted bus heading 0:08:29.800 --> 0:08:34.960 toward Los Angeles. Halfway down, the group pulled over to 0:08:35.040 --> 0:08:40.679 admire the golden Californian coastline and dropped acid together. Doing 0:08:40.679 --> 0:08:44.360 it with Charlie was an altogether different experience from Susan's 0:08:44.360 --> 0:08:49.000 first time in San Francisco. Whereas before she'd resisted the 0:08:49.040 --> 0:08:52.360 assault on her sense of self, Charlie urged her to 0:08:52.400 --> 0:08:56.360 embrace it, telling her you must die to self in 0:08:56.480 --> 0:09:01.000 order to become one with the world. Arriving in La 0:09:01.160 --> 0:09:05.200 later that day, the group settled into Panga Canyon, an 0:09:05.200 --> 0:09:09.440 area of rugged country northwest of Santa Monica and home 0:09:09.520 --> 0:09:12.480 to a slew of artists and musicians keen to escape 0:09:12.520 --> 0:09:16.440 the city. Over the next few months, living off the 0:09:16.520 --> 0:09:21.400 charity of others, their lives centered around LSD and marijuana 0:09:21.520 --> 0:09:25.199 and the ceaseless teachings of Charlie, imploring them to shed 0:09:25.240 --> 0:09:28.680 all inhibitions and to forget about yesterday and to morrow, 0:09:29.040 --> 0:09:33.680 and to live only in the eternal now. Sometimes it 0:09:33.679 --> 0:09:37.079 would be the odd lines uttered throughout the day. Other 0:09:37.120 --> 0:09:41.000 times Charlie would give long, intense lectures to drive home 0:09:41.080 --> 0:09:44.520 his point, urging anyone willing to listen, to throw off 0:09:44.520 --> 0:09:47.679 the shackles of the plastic world, even to reject all 0:09:47.800 --> 0:09:52.640 concept of time, since it too was just another meaningless construct. 0:09:53.520 --> 0:09:56.319 And whenever Susan threatened to dip into one of her 0:09:56.360 --> 0:10:00.720 familiar lows, whenever that sense of loneliness gan knocking at 0:10:00.720 --> 0:10:05.959 the door, there was Charlie to remind her. You are beautiful, 0:10:06.679 --> 0:10:10.600 you are perfect, and you must learn to love yourself. 0:10:17.160 --> 0:10:20.079 By the spring of nineteen sixty eight, the tide was 0:10:20.120 --> 0:10:23.439 already turning against the Summer of Love and the optimism 0:10:23.559 --> 0:10:27.120 of the Flower Power generation, as their dreams of bringing 0:10:27.120 --> 0:10:31.600 an expanded consciousness to the wider population was already beginning 0:10:31.600 --> 0:10:35.560 to fade. The war in Vietnam continued to drag on, 0:10:36.000 --> 0:10:39.640 and as the opposition to it became increasingly hostile, so 0:10:39.720 --> 0:10:43.679 too did the government's response to that opposition, metering out 0:10:43.840 --> 0:10:47.840 violent retribution to many who rallied and protested against it. 0:10:49.080 --> 0:10:52.360 In April nineteen sixty eight, after all the gains of 0:10:52.400 --> 0:10:56.000 the civil rights movement, the assassination of Martin Luther King 0:10:56.120 --> 0:11:00.319 Junior was a brutal reminder of the segregationist attitude that 0:11:00.520 --> 0:11:04.920 continued to underpin much of the nation. Then, in June, 0:11:05.360 --> 0:11:09.559 presidential hopeful Robert Kennedy, a long time supporter of civil 0:11:09.640 --> 0:11:12.880 rights who also recognized the folly of persisting with the 0:11:12.920 --> 0:11:18.280 American Vietnam War, was also assassinated, effectively handing that year's 0:11:18.320 --> 0:11:24.040 presidential election to Richard Nixon. Sharon and Roman had dinner 0:11:24.040 --> 0:11:27.280 with Kennedy a few nights before he was murdered. A 0:11:27.320 --> 0:11:32.040 few days later, Roman received the distressing news that Christoph Commoda, 0:11:32.360 --> 0:11:35.959 who composed the score for Rosemary's Baby, had been involved 0:11:36.000 --> 0:11:39.120 in an altercation at a house party and fallen off 0:11:39.160 --> 0:11:43.400 the edge of the property. Commoda was knocked unconscious, sending 0:11:43.480 --> 0:11:46.120 him into a coma from which he would never wake up, 0:11:46.679 --> 0:11:51.840 dying four months later. Some noticed similarities with the accident 0:11:52.320 --> 0:11:55.880 and the fate of a character in Rosemary's Baby, leading 0:11:55.920 --> 0:12:00.600 some to suggest that perhaps the film was cursed. The 0:12:00.679 --> 0:12:04.479 couple's marriage was struggling too, not helped by the discovery 0:12:04.520 --> 0:12:07.480 one night by Sharon and her friends of a set 0:12:07.520 --> 0:12:11.360 of unmarked video tapes belonging to Roman. Putting one on 0:12:11.520 --> 0:12:14.760 out of curiosity, they watched with horror when it became 0:12:14.800 --> 0:12:18.040 clear that they were tapes of Roman having sex with 0:12:18.080 --> 0:12:23.480 another woman. Sharon turned increasingly to her ex boyfriend Jay 0:12:23.760 --> 0:12:27.320 for support, with the pair having remained close since Sharon 0:12:27.360 --> 0:12:31.280 and Roman got together. It was that year also that 0:12:31.400 --> 0:12:34.480 Sharon began work on the Wrecking Crew, during which she 0:12:34.600 --> 0:12:38.600 was interviewed by Hollywood correspondent de Kliner and reminded of 0:12:38.600 --> 0:12:42.280 that horrifying night she'd spent at Jay's house On eastern 0:12:42.360 --> 0:12:53.400 drive back into Panga Canyon. Susan's new family was growing 0:12:53.480 --> 0:12:55.920 larger by the week to include a number of men 0:12:56.080 --> 0:12:58.760 to add to the six women that originally traveled to 0:12:58.880 --> 0:13:05.680 La with Charlie. Sparn Ranch was the perfect solution. Nestled 0:13:05.679 --> 0:13:09.439 in the Santa Susanna Mountains just fifteen kilometers to the north, 0:13:10.000 --> 0:13:12.840 the ranch dressed up to look like an old Western 0:13:12.880 --> 0:13:15.920 film set, had previously been hired out by a number 0:13:15.960 --> 0:13:19.720 of films and TV shows. By nineteen sixty eight, however, 0:13:20.240 --> 0:13:23.280 much like the paint on the various outhouses dotted about 0:13:23.280 --> 0:13:27.640 the place, its glory days had long since faded. When 0:13:27.720 --> 0:13:31.560 Charlie approached branch owner George Sparne, offering to look after 0:13:31.600 --> 0:13:34.240 the maintenance of the property in return for his group 0:13:34.320 --> 0:13:38.160 living there rent free. Sparne, who was eighty years old 0:13:38.160 --> 0:13:41.240 at the time and almost completely blind, was more than 0:13:41.280 --> 0:13:45.200 happy to agree. That he was apparently offered occasional intimate 0:13:45.240 --> 0:13:47.640 time with some of the young women who would be 0:13:47.679 --> 0:13:53.320 living there, only served to sweeten the deal. Shortly before arriving, 0:13:53.760 --> 0:13:57.760 Susan discovered she was pregnant, fearing it might jeopardize her 0:13:57.760 --> 0:14:00.200 position in the group. She was relieved to find that 0:14:00.280 --> 0:14:03.959 Charlie was overjoyed at the prospect, insisting that children were 0:14:03.960 --> 0:14:06.520 the best of them since they were completely pure and 0:14:06.720 --> 0:14:11.559 uncorrupted by the plastic world. Likely due to her drug use, 0:14:12.000 --> 0:14:16.520 Susan gave birth two months premature in October. The baby, 0:14:16.840 --> 0:14:20.360 weighing only two pounds at the time, was named Zeso 0:14:20.480 --> 0:14:25.200 zes sad Frack. Life at the ranch was a fairly 0:14:25.280 --> 0:14:30.360 languid affair, consisting mostly of the group sitting around smoking pot, 0:14:30.920 --> 0:14:35.600 playing cards, and making love to each other. Everything was shared, 0:14:35.880 --> 0:14:39.400 from clothes to food, with dinner often involving the group 0:14:39.560 --> 0:14:42.120 sitting round a large pot of stew and rice and 0:14:42.240 --> 0:14:45.920 taking it in turns to eat from it and throughout 0:14:45.960 --> 0:14:51.720 it all. Charlie continued his teachings. Then in November, with 0:14:51.840 --> 0:14:55.320 the release of the Beatles White album, the Teachings took 0:14:55.320 --> 0:15:05.360 a darker tone with their new album. Charlie believed the 0:15:05.360 --> 0:15:09.120 Beatles were trying to communicate with him directly, and it 0:15:09.280 --> 0:15:12.200 was in one song in particular that their message was 0:15:12.280 --> 0:15:17.680 most abundantly clear. Helter Skelter, according to some, is a 0:15:17.760 --> 0:15:23.720 brilliantly frenetic, sexually charged blast of proto heavy rock. To Charlie, however, 0:15:24.040 --> 0:15:27.320 it was nothing less than a coded prophecy signaling the 0:15:27.360 --> 0:15:32.840 oncoming of an apocalypse. Charlie had already begun discussing the 0:15:32.880 --> 0:15:36.560 potential for apocalypse prior to the album's release, putting his 0:15:36.640 --> 0:15:40.320 own spin on the stories contained in the Book of Revelations. 0:15:41.600 --> 0:15:46.359 At some point, Charlie, a confirmed white supremacist, became convinced 0:15:46.440 --> 0:15:49.200 that a race war was going to take place in America, 0:15:49.400 --> 0:15:53.040 whereby white Americans would fight each other over the treatment 0:15:53.240 --> 0:15:56.800 of Black Americans. What was left of the white population 0:15:57.120 --> 0:16:01.480 would then be slaughtered by black militants. Charlie's plan was 0:16:01.520 --> 0:16:04.200 to find somewhere for their group to hide until it 0:16:04.240 --> 0:16:08.160 was over, after which they would emerge and subjugate the 0:16:08.200 --> 0:16:12.320 black population, since, according to him, they would be incapable 0:16:12.440 --> 0:16:17.120 of running the country. The Book of Revelations speaks of 0:16:17.120 --> 0:16:21.040 a bottomless pit from which the fifth angel Abadon will 0:16:21.080 --> 0:16:24.720 release a plague of locusts on to the world. Charlie, 0:16:25.000 --> 0:16:28.360 who believed himself to be Abodon, surmised that the group 0:16:28.400 --> 0:16:31.080 would have to find this bottomless pit in order to 0:16:31.080 --> 0:16:36.040 survive the apocalypse and fulfill his prophecy. Helter Skelter would 0:16:36.120 --> 0:16:40.200 quickly become Charlie's shorthand for this racist vision, and one 0:16:40.240 --> 0:16:44.200 that began increasingly to consume him and in turn seep 0:16:44.400 --> 0:16:53.520 into his followers. Do you ever have trouble sleeping? One 0:16:53.680 --> 0:16:57.000 especially spooky podcast keeping you up all night? Perhaps? Do 0:16:57.040 --> 0:16:59.160 you ever worry that you aren't getting all the nutrients 0:16:59.160 --> 0:17:02.160 you need for your body to thrive? Athletic greens is 0:17:02.200 --> 0:17:05.600 a great tasting multivitamin, a multimineral made from the most 0:17:05.640 --> 0:17:08.960 absorbable form of each ingredient that takes the guess work 0:17:08.960 --> 0:17:11.600 out of knowing what to take or from where. 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It was around this time 0:18:30.080 --> 0:18:34.240 that Sharon heard her friends Terry Melcher and Candy's Bergen's 0:18:34.240 --> 0:18:38.719 house was going on the market. The house, located at 0:18:38.760 --> 0:18:42.320 one hundred and fifty Clo Drive in Benedict Canyon, was 0:18:42.359 --> 0:18:46.399 built in nineteen forty four with previous residents including Carrie 0:18:46.440 --> 0:18:50.679 Grant and Henry Fonder. Located at the furthest end of 0:18:50.680 --> 0:18:54.479 the road, the long, one story house was surrounded by 0:18:54.560 --> 0:18:58.080 tall pines and cherry blossom, with a much prized view 0:18:58.200 --> 0:19:01.719 overlooking the canyon down cross to Beverly Hills and all 0:19:01.760 --> 0:19:04.320 the way to the sparkling waters of the Pacific Ocean 0:19:04.640 --> 0:19:08.760 about ten miles away. Sharon and Roman knew the place well, 0:19:09.160 --> 0:19:13.040 having attended numerous parties there before, and needed little convincing 0:19:13.119 --> 0:19:16.919 to take it off the market. Sharon was especially taken 0:19:17.080 --> 0:19:20.040 with the line of Christmas lights that former owner Candies, 0:19:20.200 --> 0:19:23.240 had strung up across the front of the property, lending 0:19:23.240 --> 0:19:28.080 it a perennial air of festive spirit. Presently, it was 0:19:28.119 --> 0:19:31.600 occupied by a young man who'd been staying there temporarily, 0:19:31.880 --> 0:19:34.800 having been living previously with a group of hippies out 0:19:34.840 --> 0:19:39.760 on an old Western movie set called Spahn Ranch. In 0:19:39.840 --> 0:19:43.520 late February, Sharon and Roman signed the lease and promptly 0:19:43.560 --> 0:19:48.040 moved in, before both taking jobs in Europe while they 0:19:48.080 --> 0:19:51.119 were away. The couple offered the place to their friends 0:19:51.240 --> 0:19:56.960 Abigail Fulgier and Voychek Vraikovsky. In late March, the day 0:19:56.960 --> 0:19:59.680 before Susan was due to travel to Italy to begin 0:19:59.720 --> 0:20:03.400 work on her latest film, she invited her friend photographer 0:20:03.480 --> 0:20:07.359 shiroc Hertamy to the property to take some publicity stills 0:20:07.359 --> 0:20:11.800 of her. Later that afternoon, they were joined for dinner 0:20:11.920 --> 0:20:18.120 by j Voytek and Abigail. At some point, Sharroc noticed 0:20:18.160 --> 0:20:21.680 a shortish looking man with long dark hair and an 0:20:21.680 --> 0:20:24.800 intense look on his face making his way across the 0:20:24.840 --> 0:20:29.840 front lawn. Moments later, the man drew up to the porch. 0:20:31.200 --> 0:20:34.879 Angered by the stranger's sudden appearance, Shiroc went over to 0:20:34.880 --> 0:20:37.240 meet him and asked him what he was doing there. 0:20:38.480 --> 0:20:40.920 When the man said he was looking for Terry Melcher, 0:20:41.440 --> 0:20:44.240 Shirac informed him that he no longer lived there and 0:20:44.359 --> 0:20:48.520 promptly sent him on his way. As the man walked away, 0:20:48.840 --> 0:20:53.200 Sharon arrived suddenly to inquire who he was. It's nobody, 0:20:53.320 --> 0:20:57.120 explained Sharroc. He's just looking for someone who wasn't here. 0:21:04.440 --> 0:21:10.160 Aside from impending apocalypse, Charlie's other obsession was music, specifically 0:21:10.440 --> 0:21:14.720 becoming a verified recording artist in his own right. Convinced 0:21:14.720 --> 0:21:16.760 he was just as talented as any of the other 0:21:16.840 --> 0:21:20.000 bands clogging up the air waves, he made numerous efforts 0:21:20.080 --> 0:21:23.359 during his time at sparn Ranch to secure a record deal. 0:21:24.600 --> 0:21:27.520 At some point, Charlie had worked himself into the orbit 0:21:27.600 --> 0:21:31.639 of Beach Boy Dennis Wilson and spent many hours accompanied 0:21:31.640 --> 0:21:34.520 by Susan and other members of the group, hanging at 0:21:34.520 --> 0:21:39.800 Wilson's house. Wilson was sufficiently impressed by Charlie's songwriting that 0:21:39.920 --> 0:21:43.719 he even appropriated one of his songs called Ceased to Exist, 0:21:44.280 --> 0:21:46.280 to use as a B side on the Beach Boy's 0:21:46.359 --> 0:21:50.640 single Blue Birds Over the Mountain, released in December nineteen 0:21:50.680 --> 0:21:55.399 sixty eight. Wilson recommended Charlie to his friend and producer 0:21:55.600 --> 0:21:58.639 Terry Melcher, suggesting that he worked with him on a 0:21:58.640 --> 0:22:02.560 few tracks. After spending a few sessions with him in 0:22:02.600 --> 0:22:06.320 the spring of nineteen sixty nine, however, Melcher was unconvinced 0:22:06.320 --> 0:22:10.680 of his talent. About the same time, Charlie was becoming 0:22:10.720 --> 0:22:13.960 more and more convinced of his own prophecies and moved 0:22:14.000 --> 0:22:16.920 the group to another ranch in Death Valley, the place 0:22:16.960 --> 0:22:19.320 where he believed they would find the bottomless pit that 0:22:19.520 --> 0:22:21.560 was going to save them from the end of the world. 0:22:22.720 --> 0:22:26.919 The group, now leaning increasingly on new arrival, Tex, turned 0:22:26.920 --> 0:22:30.640 to dealing drugs in order to pay for the move. Techs, 0:22:31.080 --> 0:22:34.479 a former honor student and athlete, had been studying at 0:22:34.480 --> 0:22:37.960 the University of North Texas before he dropped out and 0:22:38.080 --> 0:22:42.200 found his way to Los Angeles and eventually Span Ranch. 0:22:43.480 --> 0:22:46.320 One night, Tex claimed he was ripped off in a 0:22:46.400 --> 0:22:50.919 drug deal with a man named Bernard Crow, prompting Charlie 0:22:51.000 --> 0:22:55.080 to drive out to Crow's home and shoot him. Returning 0:22:55.080 --> 0:22:58.240 to Span Ranch, it was clear something had shifted in him. 0:22:58.920 --> 0:23:01.719 He was convinced the crow was a black panther and 0:23:01.840 --> 0:23:06.479 that the organization would come looking for retribution. In short, 0:23:06.960 --> 0:23:10.040 this was the beginning of the race war. He had foreseen. 0:23:11.400 --> 0:23:14.800 Time was fast running out and they would need money 0:23:14.840 --> 0:23:19.640 and protection to survive. Charlie ordered his followers to keep 0:23:19.640 --> 0:23:22.919 a knife on them at all times, and so began 0:23:23.480 --> 0:23:28.920 the creepy crawling. For Susan, it was nothing more than 0:23:29.040 --> 0:23:32.439 utilizing the shoplifting skills she had procured ever since she 0:23:32.560 --> 0:23:35.600 was ten years old, and so it was that in 0:23:35.640 --> 0:23:37.800 the dead of night or even in the middle of 0:23:37.840 --> 0:23:41.639 the day, she and the others began to tiptoe silently 0:23:41.880 --> 0:23:45.480 in bare feet into the homes of the rich and famous, 0:23:45.600 --> 0:23:49.320 armed with knives as they cautiously hunted for things to steal. 0:23:51.080 --> 0:23:55.480 Everything was justified because possession was just a state of mind. 0:23:56.560 --> 0:24:01.400 Nothing belonged to anyone and nothing was real, and if 0:24:01.400 --> 0:24:04.000 they had to exist in a plastic world that they 0:24:04.040 --> 0:24:08.840 didn't choose, this was the only way to survive. The 0:24:08.920 --> 0:24:21.480 next step seemed almost inevitable. Gary Hinman had befriended Susan 0:24:21.520 --> 0:24:23.920 and the rest of the group during their time into 0:24:23.920 --> 0:24:27.600 Panga Canyon. He'd even helped them out, often giving them 0:24:27.640 --> 0:24:32.439 food and money. It was late one afternoon when Charlie 0:24:32.440 --> 0:24:35.439 approached Susan and told her that if she wanted to 0:24:35.480 --> 0:24:38.679 do something important for the group and their mission, she 0:24:38.720 --> 0:24:41.320 should go to Gary's house and steal the twenty one 0:24:41.359 --> 0:24:45.359 thousand dollars he'd recently inherited, and if she really wanted 0:24:45.480 --> 0:24:48.600 to prove her commitment to the mission, she should kill 0:24:48.680 --> 0:24:54.080 him too. That night, Susan, along with two other of 0:24:54.160 --> 0:24:58.800 Charlie's accolytes, Bobby and Mary, drove out to to Panga Canyon, 0:24:59.119 --> 0:25:02.119 and demanded that Gary give them the money or suffer 0:25:02.200 --> 0:25:06.800 the consequences, but Gary refused, insisting that he didn't have 0:25:06.960 --> 0:25:10.920 the money. Taking the lead, Bobby pulled out a gun 0:25:11.200 --> 0:25:13.800 and tried to shoot him, only for Gary to fight 0:25:13.880 --> 0:25:18.080 back and eventually wrestle the gun away from Bobby. But 0:25:18.280 --> 0:25:22.160 Gary wasn't a violent man. He offered the gun back 0:25:22.200 --> 0:25:24.920 to Bobby, saying he didn't want any trouble and that 0:25:25.000 --> 0:25:29.160 they should take it and leave. Knowing they couldn't possibly 0:25:29.200 --> 0:25:32.640 return to Charlie empty handed, Susan and Mary were told 0:25:32.640 --> 0:25:37.360 to watch Gary while Bobby went to call Charlie. When 0:25:37.440 --> 0:25:40.159 he arrived an hour later, he brought a sword with 0:25:40.240 --> 0:25:42.879 him and used it to slash the right side of 0:25:42.920 --> 0:25:47.840 Gary's face. As Gary ride about in agony, Charlie asked 0:25:47.840 --> 0:25:50.800 the others to make him comfortable, but keep him prisoner 0:25:51.000 --> 0:25:54.640 until he gave up the money. By the third day 0:25:54.720 --> 0:25:59.359 of keeping him hostage, Bobby had had enough. After getting 0:25:59.359 --> 0:26:03.040 Garry ownership of his car over to the group, Bobby 0:26:03.400 --> 0:26:07.240 stabbed him in the stomach, then smothered him to ensure 0:26:07.280 --> 0:26:11.720 he was dead. In a panic, the group tried to 0:26:11.760 --> 0:26:14.080 make it look as though the murder had been committed 0:26:14.080 --> 0:26:18.600 by political revolutionaries by writing political Piggy on the wall 0:26:18.720 --> 0:26:24.000 in Gary's blood. By then, Charlie's group, often referred to 0:26:24.119 --> 0:26:28.040 now as the Family, had become scattered between Spahn Ranch, 0:26:28.520 --> 0:26:32.120 Death Valley, and a house in Canoga Park known as 0:26:32.119 --> 0:26:36.720 the Yellow Submarine. When news of Gary's murder began filtering 0:26:36.800 --> 0:26:40.160 back to them all, many were shocked and immediately ended 0:26:40.160 --> 0:26:43.720 their association with the group. Many of the others who 0:26:43.800 --> 0:26:47.400 chose to stay, like Susan, only became more and more 0:26:47.440 --> 0:26:52.359 convinced by Charlie's teachings, Helter Skelter was coming and there 0:26:52.480 --> 0:26:55.640 was nothing any of them could do about it. Nor 0:26:55.840 --> 0:26:59.119 was there any reason to fear what was happening. Guilt, 0:26:59.520 --> 0:27:03.000 like everything else, was just an illusion, And when even 0:27:03.080 --> 0:27:07.120 you are an illusion, there is only one and everything 0:27:07.640 --> 0:27:19.040 is part of it. On Friday, August eighth, nineteen sixty nine, 0:27:19.280 --> 0:27:21.600 La was in the middle of an intense heat wave. 0:27:22.640 --> 0:27:25.280 Up at Sharon and Roman's home at one hundred and 0:27:25.320 --> 0:27:29.639 fifty Yellow Drive, Sharon, by now eight months pregnant, was 0:27:29.720 --> 0:27:33.040 overseeing the painting of what was to be her baby's nursery. 0:27:33.880 --> 0:27:36.760 At the time, Sharon was sharing the house with Abigail 0:27:36.800 --> 0:27:39.399