New Netflix Documentary to Reveal Unofficial Narratives Behind the Charles Manson Murder Cases

After a seven-month trial that captivated the world, Charles Manson and three of his followers were convicted on January 26, 1971, of the murders of seven people, including pregnant actress Sharon Tate. For the first time since the gruesome 1969 killings in California, Americans felt safer in their beds.

But what if the official story of the Manson family murders got it wrong? A new Netflix documentary premiering Friday, March 7, Chaos: The Manson Murders, examines the roles the CIA, LSD, Jack Ruby and Manson prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi might have played in the tragedy. “How did Charles Manson get those kids to kill on command — without hesitation, without regret?” documentary producers Robert Fernandez and Steven Hathaway pose to Closer.

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Based on a 2020 book Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties by Tom O’Neill and Dan Piepenbring, the new documentary sheds light on some unofficial narratives behind the case. “We started asking questions … directly to the people who are still alive who had been closest to the story,” say Fernandez and Hathaway. “What emerged is a juxtaposition of ideas, theories and unsettling possibilities.”

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‘Chaos: The Mansion Murders’ Takes a Closer Look at Charles Manson’s Music

Born to an unwed teenage mother, Charles Manson spent years in reform schools, detention centers and prison. Behind bars, he learned to play guitar and in the late 1960s landed in Southern California looking for a recording contract. “He wasn’t that bad a musician,” say Fernandez and Hathaway, who explore Manson’s dashed rock star dreams in the doc. “It was impossible to ignore one key moment: the rejection of a record deal. In digging into Manson’s musical past, it’s wild to see just how close he came to actual stardom.”

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The Beach Boys’ Mike Love, whose bandmate Dennis Wilson had been pals with Manson, believed that being spurned by the recording industry led to Manson’s bloody rampage. “Consumed by rage and seeking revenge against a corrupt society, he convinced his followers that the apocalypse was coming in a bloody race war, at the end of which, he and his disciples would take over,” wrote Love in his memoir, Good Vibrations.

As recently as 2008, officials searched the California desert near a ranch where Manson and his followers lived, looking for other victims, but none were found. Manson made headlines again in 2017 when he died in a prison hospital at 83. “America has been fascinated with the murders since they happened in 1969,” say Fernandez and Hathaway. “It seemed like the right time to reintroduce what really happened to a new generation.”