He had been locked up ever since he ordered members of his cult to go on a crazed killing spree.
One of their victims included the beautiful actress Sharon Tate, who was pregnant at the time. She had been married to the Polish film director Roman Polanski, whom she fell in love with while making 'The Fearless Vampires' horror comedy together, which starred Irish actor Jack McGowran, who also made 'Cul De Sac' with the Polish-French director.
The crazed Charles Manson was a frustrated failed musician who wrote and recorded music. During his time trying to conquer the music world, he befriended members of The Beach Boys and would pop into the studio to watch them rehearse.
In fact, The Beach Boys even recorded one of his songs, 'Cease To Exits'. Manson himself later released a version of the song. Guns N' Roses recorded Manson's 'Look at Your Game, Girl', as a hidden 13th track on an album.
You can find several of Manson's song on YouTube. For those interested, here's a a recording of him singing 'My World':

Bitter and angry that he was unable to get a music career off the ground, Manson started a bizarre brainwashing cult, the so-called Manson Family, a quasi-commune that arose in California in the late 1960s.
Three of followers, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkle and Leslie Van Houten went out during a two-day killing spree and brutally murdered seven people.
As well as pregnant actress Sharon Tate, they killed her former lover Jay Sebring, the hairdresser to the stars. Other victims were Abigail Folger, Wojciech Frykowski, Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, and Steven Parent.
It was Sharon Tate's sister who broke the news of the crazed psycho killer to the world's media.
Music played a role in the killings and, more specifically, a song by The Beatles. According to his Wikipedia entry, it's stated: "Manson believed in what he called 'Helter Skelter', a term he took from the Beatles' song of the same name.
"Manson believed Helter Skelter to be an impending apocalyptic race war, which he described in his own version of the lyrics to the Beatles' song.
"He believed the murders would help precipitate that war. From the beginning of his notoriety, a pop culture arose around him in which he ultimately became an emblem of insanity, violence and the macabre."
When U2 famously covered the song on 'Rattle and Hum', Bono announced: "This is a song Charles Manson stole from The Beatles - we're stealing it back."
We would highly recommend that anybody interested in this dark story read lawyer Vincent Bugliosi's book about the case, aptly entitled 'Helter Skelter'.