Five people are killed in film director Roman Polanski's home in Hollywood, California, including Polanski's pregnant wife, Sharon Tate, by a members of a cult. Less than two days later, they struck again, killing Leno and Rosemary LaBianca in their home. At both scenes, the killers scrawled messages in blood on the walls. The city of Los Angeles was in a state of panic until the leader of the cult, Charles Manson, was identified and arrested. Joan Didion, author of The White Album, wrote that many in Los Angeles believed "the 60s abruptly ended on August 9, 1969."

Manson, who had spent nearly half his life behind bars for various counts of theft and fraud, was eventually released from prison in 1967 at the age of 32. His strange brand of charisma attracted a group of hippies, who followed him and settled down at the Spahn Ranch on the outskirts of Los Angeles, where heavy drug use and orgies were common.

Manson began telling his "family," as they called themselves, that a war between blacks and whites was coming and that their cult would be the leaders of the new world order that would follow. In support for this theory, Manson claimed that the Beatles' White Album, and, in particular, the song "Helter Skelter," backed him up. Manson decided that they should try to instigate the war by killing white people in a way that would implicate the black radicals.

Manson directed his followers, including Tex Watson and Susan Atkins, to kill certain prominent, wealthy whites. They chose Polanski's home because Manson had unsuccessfully attempted to get a recording deal from a producer who used to live there. Polanski happened to be out of town at the time, but his actress wife, Sharon Tate, and her friends, including coffee heiress Abigail Folger, were brutally slaughtered by the Manson cult. Some were shot, while others were stabbed to death. Manson did not go into the Polanski home and refrained from participating in the LoBianco murders two days later.

Manson and his gang were uncovered when one of his followers, who was jailed on a different charge, began bragging about the murders. Manson was charged with murder on the basis that he had influenced the "family" and directed the murders. His subsequent trial became a national spectacle. Manson came into court one day with an "X" carved in his forehead, and said "I have X-ed myself from your world." His followers copied him and did the same. Another day, Manson lunged at the trial judge and tried to assault him. The jury convicted Manson and sentenced him to death, but when the Supreme Court invalidated the death penalty law in 1972, his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.

Manson remains a criminal icon to this day. He periodically comes up for parole, but there is no indication that California will ever release him.