My Grandfather Charles Manson

I wanna ask questions about

what happened within the family that brought you to therapy.

You know, I don't know, I come from a, a murderer.

You know, who would

who the fuck would accept me?

Uh, so what else do you need to know?

Maybe the best way to start this is to talk about my dad.

My dad... was a great dad.

Are you my babys? Are you my babys? Huh?

Growing up, I felt like he and I

were the only two people who existed.

She's flying through the air!

Everyone else was living in our world.

My parents were divorced,

but my dad took care of me part-time.

Time to get dressed for school.

His biggest gift to me was his imagination.

He was a writer, actor, and director.

What, are you kidding me? The President's gonna be there.

But he never quite made it as a filmmaker.

Until one day

he did.

Action.

He filmed every second of my life.

There was nothing we wouldn't do for each other.

Can I, um, videotape, um, the world?

That's what you're doing right now.

You're videotaping the world.

Oh, you're gonna like this.

I'm now that LA cliché

of a struggling actress, babysitter, wannabe filmmaker.

I work a bunch of jobs, and I have 50 bucks in the bank.

And then, my dad and I just, uh, got some really bad news.

It shattered our worlds.

- Bobby, you good? - Yeah.

Okay, cool.

This is Daniel's interview.

I'm terrified.

- Is it a little weird for you? - Yeah.

But... this is my story.

So, this all started because you never knew your dad.

Yeah, yeah.

Growing up, was always skeptical of my father.

Uh, he was Hispanic, of course, with the last name Arguelles.

And I would go up to him and put my arm up against his

and I'd say, "Hey, how come I'm white and you're brown?"

So, when I was 21, I did press my mother

if Jim was my real father.

What did she say?

She confessed, "No, he wasn't."

And I said, "Okay, who's my dad?"

She said, "I really don't know."

And when I was, you know, 18, 19 years old in Hollywood, everybody was telling me,

"Wow, you look just like a young Elvis."

I like to sing, I like to dance, I like to act.

How are you doing, everybody?

That's right, it's me, Elvis Presley.

You know, I'm doing my new album, and it's called Loving You.

You had a lot of Elvis impressions, impersonations around the house.

Yeah, I walk around like I'm Elvis, you know?

I gotta be Elvis, right?

So, you joined Ancestry to find your father.

It wasn't until seven years later you found a half-brother.

Right.

He just said, "Hey, uh, I'm Mike, and we matched."

And I was like, "Oh, brothers, wow.

Okay, then you know who your dad is, maybe?"

"Yeah, I know who he is."

You know.

Charles Manson.

Did you have a good day?

Charles Manson, to me, he was just this cult leader

and this murderer I had read about on Wikipedia.

When I found out he was my grandfather,

I didn't know what he looked like,

so I decided to YouTube "Charles Manson."

Breaking news, Charles Manson,

cult leader who led a string of murders

in the 1960s is dead.

With a swastika on his forehead

and eyes wild with violence,

Charles Manson was the face of evil.

Maybe it was that look in Charles Manson's eyes

that convinced people to murder in his name.

He was once called "the most dangerous man in America."

Forty years later and the fascination hasn't faded.

People are still interested in Charles Manson.

Twenty years ago today, America was stunned

by one of the most brutal killing sprees in history.

He's been called, "Madman, mobster,

and monster, and murderer."

The center of a kind of horrible fascination that will not die.

He's a dangerous influence on society.

Dangerous, highly dangerous.

In a scene described by one investigator

as reminiscent of a weird religious rite,

five persons, including actress, Sharon Tate, were found dead

at the home of Miss Tate and her husband,

screen director, Roman Polanski.

Miss Tate was eight months pregnant

and was found with a rope around her neck attached to the body of a man.

Among the other victims were Hollywood hairstylist,

Jay Sebring, and coffee heiress, Abigail Folger.

Cause of death, multiple stab wounds

of the chest and back.

One officer summed up the murders when he said,

"In all my years, I have never seen anything like this before."

A short time later, not far away,

a middle-aged couple was found murdered

in similar circumstances.

Leno LaBianca, a supermarket owner,

and his wife had both been stabbed to death, repeated stab wounds.

On his body, the word "war" had been carved in the chest.

Then, with blood, the killer had scrawled

the words, "Death to Pigs."

Five members of a so-called religious cult,

including Charles Manson, the guru, or high priest,

have been indicted in the murder of Sharon Tate and six others.

These defendants literally entered the homes of citizens

of this community at random

and literally slaughtered the victims in an orgy of murder.

All the elements are present

for one of the most sensational murder trials in American history.

The involvement of a mystical hippie clan,

which despised the straight affluent society.

Young girls, supposedly under the spell of a bearded Svengali,

who allegedly masterminded the seven murders.

In a conspiracy, the acts of one member

are attributed to all members.

Under that approach, they needn't prove that he actually did the killing.

It's all a play, isn't it?

The act of the murders themselves

will be the case against the other members of the so-called Family.

Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel,

Leslie Van Houten, Charles Watson.

Manson's principle motive

for ordering the seven Tate-LaBianca murders

was his fanatical obsession with "Helter Skelter,"

a term he borrowed from the English musical recording group, The Beatles.

To ignite Helter Skelter, to start the Black/white, uh, revolution,

Manson envisioned that white people

would turn against the Black man if they thought

the Black man had committed these seven murders.

The victims, by necessity, had to be white

and preferably in the white establishment.

The jury hearing the charges

against Charles Manson and three girl members

of his so-called Family brought in its verdict.

All were found guilty of murder in the first degree.

Manson then shouted at the jurors,

"You're all guilty.

We are still not allowed to put on a defense."

The press has been the mouthpiece of the prosecution.

And they've succeeded in brainwashing a lot of people.

Charlie never preached a "Race War."

- That's what the DA gave you for reality. - Okay.

He stood in the courtroom and said,

"This man did this, and this man did that,"

and you all believed him.

Those first few days after I found out...

I don't think I've ever been that low in my life.

I kinda hated myself.

I hated him.

I've always been the good one.

I've always been the one, or the kid,

with her head screwed on right.

I would always get these, like, integrity or caring awards, and

all of the teachers would tell my parents how nice I was to everybody and

if someone was lonely, I'd go sit next to them,

or if I saw someone bullied, I'd stand up against the bully and...

I always took really great pride in being this moral, good person.

And then you find out your grandfather's Manson...

the most hated man.

How could my blood do something so

atrocious?

How could my blood

be the cause of other people's bloodshed?

If it's true that there was something in him

that made him this satanic cult leader

do my dad and I have that in our blood too?

I have his eyes.

His hands are my dad's.

It fucks with you.

Was he born evil or was it something else?

I need to find out what made him.

I don't know, I just feel like I, for sure, need a therapist.

I'm the spawn of the spawn of the spawn of Satan.