Welcome to Unexplained Extra with me Richard McClain Smith, where for the weeks in between episodes we look at stories and ideas that, for one reason or other, didn't make it into the previous show. In the last episode, when Love Breaks Down, we followed two young women on two very different paths, albeit ones that were destined eventually to
collide in devastating and tragic circumstances. With all the conflicting testimonies, it isn't known exactly what took place inside the main house of one hundred and fifty Cello Drive on the night of August eighth, nineteen sixty nine. What is known, however, is that sometime around midnight, Susan Atkins, Patricia Cremwinkle, and Charles tex Watson entered the property uninvited, while Linda Kasabian
remained outside on lookout. By the time they'd left, Sharon Tate, eight months pregnant at the time, j Sebring, Abigail Falger, and Voycheck Frykovsky, who were staying with Sharon that night, and Stephen parent who'd been visiting the property's caretaker, William Garretson in the guest house, had all been murdered. Though at first tex Watson attempted to take responsibility for all the murders, it was made clear in the subsequent trial that although he may have taken the lead, he was
far from acting alone. Reports vary as to whether Techs murdered Sharon Tate single handedly, or whether, in fact, she was also stabbed by Susan Atkins. The killing spree continued the following night, when Watson and Kremwinkle joined, this time by then nineteen year old Leslie Van Houghton, were ordered by Charles Manson to kill Rosemary and Lino Labianko at
their home in Los Felis in Los Angeles. The Tate Labyanka murders, perpetrated by some of the members of the Manson family, as they have since come to be known, occupy a complicated place in the annals of twentieth century culture, occurring as they did within the context of the counterculture movement of the time, and at the center of it all,
of course, was Charles Manson. Although Manson didn't take part physically in the killings, he was through the influence he exerted on his followers, judged by the law to have been equally responsible for them. It wasn't a particularly controversial ruling, and certainly few would argue against it, much less defend Manson for his involvement. Manson has been described as both a psychopath and a sociopath, devoid of any empathy for those he harmed, whose sole intention was to manipulate and
control people for his own deluded ends. Nonetheless, we are still left with the rather thorny issue of trying to decipher what it was exactly that encouraged so many seemingly ordinary young men and women to perpetrate murder on his behalf. It would certainly be far too easy to dismiss them as simply drug adult drifters with psychological problems. Central to Manson's power was the landscape and era in which he
was operating. The term hippie is largely a pejorative one that goes back to the Beach Generation, a term itself coined by Jack Carouac in nineteen forty eight as a way to describe the growing anticonformist creative scene in New
York at the time. As the scene developed and became more widely dispersed into mainstream culture, many of the early Beat generation became scornful of the sudden influx of people trying to participate in it, the problem being that since the scene was no longer underground, it could no longer be anticonformist. Those who arrived late to the party were, in effect deemed to be merely mimicking Beat sensibilities, as opposed to really embodying what made the scene in the
first place. Hippy was coined by the Beat generation to describe any one who wasn't considered hip enough. Ironically, this term would later be used by more conservative elements of society as a pejorative to describe any one they took to be a member of the new anticonformist creative movement of the nineteen sixties, in effect completely reversing its meaning. Hippy quickly became shorthand for virtually any one who didn't
readily adopt conservative values and fashion styles. However, anyone who might genuinely have considered themselves part of the counterculture movement would rarely use the term, preferring instead to describe themselves as freaks or children of love. The central tenet of that counterculture fostered in the communes and collect gives of hate Ashbury and to Panga Canyon was the rejection of
the stale, rigid norms of society. It encouraged people to be open to who or what they could be, and to remove all inhibitions and worries about how others might perceive them, but also not to be coerced into having to be a certain way just for the comfort of others. It was a movement that also rejected notions of property and possession, where everyone and everything was free and equal. Such things, they believed encouraged repression and competition, and ultimately violence,
things that destroyed humanity rather than enriched it. Rosemary Kent, a woman who lives on the edge of the infamous Black Hills Forest, needs your help to find her missing son. But to find him, you must investigate the mysterious forest yourself. Will you face down the horror of the blair Witch
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Whether you're social distancing or struggling to find somewhere fun to go out for the night, this is the perfect game to play at home with a small group of friends, or even online via video calls, picking through the clues together under candlelight from the comfort of your own home. Right now, just for listeners, have unexplained, You can go to hunter Killer dot com slash b w unexplained and use your promo code bw unexplained at checkout for twenty
percent off your first box. Head to hunter killer dot com slash bw unexplained for twenty percent off and to show support for the podcast once again, that's hunt a Killer dot com slash bw unexplained. Will you Survive the Curse of the Blair Witch. Whether Manson actually believed the things he said or was merely exploiting the philosophies of the culture, much of what he said and claimed to stand for, it could be argued wasn't wholly reprehensible to
all intents and purposes. Anyone traveling to San Francisco to take part in the Summer of Love would have struggled at first to separate Manson's ideas from the real thing. By way of example, Manson's testimony at his trial makes for some uncomfortable reading. As he said, then, I never went to school, so I never growed up to read and write too good. So I have stayed in jail, and I have stayed stupid, and I've stayed a child
while I've watched your world grow up. And then I look at the things that you do, and I don't understand. You eat meat and kill things that are better than you are, and then you say how bad and even killers your children are. You made your children what they are. These children that come at you with knives, they're your children. You taught them. I didn't teach them. I just tried to help them stand up. Most of the people at the ranch that you call the family were just people
that you did not want. Much of Manson's proselytizing was
directed towards society at large and its inherent hypocrisies. How was it he reasoned that he could be branded a murderer while someone like President Nixon was free to be leader of the most powerful country in the world, while simultaneously be sending America's children off to die in Vietnam for a cause that many did not support, therefore also contributing to the deaths of hundreds and thousands of Vietnamese or As Manson said, I know this that in your
hearts and your souls you are as much responsible for the Vietnam War as I am for killing these people. I can't judge any of you. I have no malice against you and no ribbons for you. But I think that it is high time that you all start looking at yourselves and judging the lie that you live in, none of which is by any means an attempt to justify what Manson and his followers did, but rather to ask what is one guilty of that the other is not.
Embedded also in Manson's words is another uncomfortable truth about just what it means to be human. That to be human is to be both love and hate, good and evil, whatever we take those terms to mean. Whether or not we consider ourselves to be practitioners of nefarious deeds, we cannot escape the reality that if we are to consider ourselves part of a collective human species, we have to also accept that any action perpetrated by a human being
is in a sense perpetrated by us. We cannot pick and choose what we do and don't want to be considered human within That too, is perversely a logical extension of the peace and love philosophy of sixties counterculture, in which we are encouraged to look beyond the boundary of ego and self in order to recognize that we are all one and the same with everything in the universe.
It is precisely this idea, catalyzed by the use of hallucinogenic drugs like LSD, that led Manson's followers into a state whereby they no longer recognize the people they were murdering as being individuals. Since all was one and the ego and self were just illusions, what is left to
actually kill? For many, it is this that is the ultimate horror of the Manson family murders, or the true horror of having to confront any kind of such fanatical reasoning for that matter, For if that person no longer occupies the same reality that you do, there is no knowing just what they might be capable of. I remember I was screaming for help, and he was screaming for help, and then text came and helped me, and I was
left to sit and watch Sharantate. At about that time, I can remember seeing peoples scattering in different places and running in different places, and I was left sitting with Sharantate and she was talking to him, and I remember that I had absolutely I could help. I felt nothing. I felt absolutely nothing for her as she begged for her life and for the life of her baby. I remember when we first went in, one of the people said, who are you in Texan? I'm the devil and I'm
here to do the Devil's business. And I remember that in my conscience. It's so alive in me even just recalling it. I remember that I had gone so far and there was no turning back. That even if I had wanted to run, even if I had wanted to leave, I couldn't. I was like I was caught in something that I had no control over. I had absolutely no say so as to what was happening now. I was just like a tool in the hands of the devil.
Is the only way I can put it. And if you enjoy unexplained and would like to help supporters, you can now do so. Via Patrion to receive access to add three episodes discount or medise, as well as brand new video and audio content exclusive to Patreon members. Just go to patron dot com, Forward Slash Unexplained Pod to sign up, or if you'd like to make a one time donation, you can go to Unexplained podcast dot com Forward Slash Support. All donations, no matter how large or small,
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