“Chaos: The Manson Murders”
A Netflix documentary revisits the dark Los Angeles tragedy.
By Tim Estiloz
In the waning days of 1969, the name Charles Manson would become infamous and synonymous with a brutally diabolical act of criminal evil. Manson and a small group of his blindly devoted followers would eventually be convicted in the bloody and brutal murders of beautiful actress Sharon Tate and three of her friends; coffee heiress Abigail Folger, Jay Sebring, Vojciech Frykowski and Steven Parent, in her Los Angeles home on August 8, 1969.
Tate was eight and a half months pregnant when she was stabbed to death over a dozen times while tied up.
Manson and his disciples would also be convicted of the equally vicious murders Leno and Rosemary LaBianca in their home the following night. The sensational murders would grip the city of Los Angeles in fear for the next few months. The nation itself would be held spellbound even longer by the sensational news reports about the hunt for the killers, their eventual capture and the trial that Manson and his followers tried to turn into a circus.
Over the nearly six decades since Manson was convicted and sentenced to what would become a life behind bars; the story and details of his diabolical act and those who literally had blood on their hands by obediently following his orders has faded in our collective memory. The infamous image of Manson and his piercing glare that once adorned the cover of Time magazine in 1969 during the trial can now be seen as a pop culture adornment in comical online memes and edgy T-shirts.
Even the details of the crimes themselves have grown even fuzzier and become fictional fodder for inventive Hollywood filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino’s 2019 revisionist, but superbly well crafted, film “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood”. Contrary to the real life tragedy, the pregnant Tate and her friends would be miraculously saved by the intervention of two fictional heroes played by Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio.
The actual events had a far from happy ending.
A new original documentary by acclaimed filmmaker Errol Morris now on Netflix, “Chaos: The Manson Murders” revisits the grisly case by trying to examine just how and why Charles Manson was able to manipulate his young followers to obey his every word; and ultimately, to convince them to butcher seven innocent people over two nights in Los Angeles.
At the time of the trial, LA prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi presented the theory that Manson prompted the murders to create a race war; a war in which he and his followers would have dominion over the survivors.
However, throughout this documentary, Morris interviews writer Tom O’Neill who proposes a fascinating, if not somewhat conspiratorial, alternate theory. O’Neill weaves a theory that involves an actual, but failed, CIA experiment in mind control called “MK Ultra” which the agency thought could create the ability to convince otherwise innocent people to become assassins. Not unlike the plot line of the film “The Manchurian Candidate”.
Ultimately the CIA jettisoned the project, save for a few remaining documents that are presented in the documentary. O’Neill relates tales of CIA connections to a physician in the Haight-Ashbury section of San Francisco who allegedly conducted mind-control experiments on many of the young hippies who flocked to the area during its 1968 “Summer Of Love” heyday.
It’s suggested that Manson and his followers were among those who may have been among the doctor’s subjects.
O’Neill tosses in connections to the assassination of Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby, J. Edgar Hoover’s efforts to undermine and place surveillance on The Black Panthers, the Civil Rights Movement and the Anti-Vietnam War effort. Granted, O’Neill does offer some interesting and strange coincidences to bolster his conjecture, creating some interesting suspicions for all including the viewer.
However, beyond the conspiracy theories presented in “Chaos: The Manson Murders”; it is filmmaker Errol Morris meticulously crafted narrative that visually details the crimes as seen during that era over a half century ago. The documentary includes numerous newsreel videos and photos bringing the crimes to vivid light.
Most arresting are the actual filmed interviews with many of the participants at the time, including Manson’s murderous followers, both during the trial, and then, years later after decades in prison. Indeed, it’s truly chilling and fascinating to see Manson himself relating his twisted perspective on the crimes. O’Neill includes multiple snippets of interviews with Manson over the decades from behind prison bars with various news journalists; Diane Sawyer, Tom Snyder and even Geraldo Rivera before he became a parody of himself on television.
It’s this aspect of “Chaos: The Manson Murders” that is the most effective and memorable. The documentary reminds us of the unimaginable horror that took place in 1969 snuffing out the lives of seven people in such a brutal fashion. That the tragedy is not just fodder for a Hollywood fictional fantasy.
It also brings to life the vivid evil behind the name Charles Manson for a new generation.