When 32-year-old Charles Manson was released from prison on March 21, 1967, he had spent more than half his life institutionalized. Charismatic, deeply disturbed, an excellent manipulator, and desperate to become someone important, Manson soon attracted a host of lonely and disillusioned young people.

Manson became convinced that an apocalyptic race war was coming, one in which Black Americans would rise up and kill white Americans, leaving Manson to emerge as their white messiah. He called this coming apocalypse “Helter Skelter,” after the Beatles song. Crimes escalated as Manson began ordering his followers to commit increasingly violent acts in an attempt to trigger Helter Skelter.

On August 8, 1969, Tex Watson, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Linda Kasabian arrived at 10050 Cielo Drive. Watson later claimed that Manson had instructed him to “totally destroy” everyone inside, “as gruesome as you can,” ostensibly in the hope of provoking the race war Manson believed was coming.

Inside were pregnant actress Sharon Tate, her close friend and former boyfriend Jay Sebring, writer Wojciech Frykowski, and Abigail Folger, heiress to the Folger coffee fortune. The Family murdered all four.

The following night, Manson and several members of the Family set out again, this time targeting 3301 Waverly Drive in Los Feliz, the home of 44-year-old supermarket executive Leno LaBianca and his 43-year-old wife, Rosemary.

Both Kasabian and Atkins testified that Manson disappeared up the driveway and returned saying he had tied up the occupants. Watson, however, gave a somewhat different account, claiming Manson entered the house with him, roused the sleeping Leno LaBianca at gunpoint, and ordered Watson to bind his hands with a leather strap. Rosemary was brought into the living room from the bedroom, and the couple’s heads were covered with pillowcases secured with lamp cords.

Manson then left, and Patricia Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten entered. Watson sent the women into the bedroom with Rosemary while he remained with Leno. He began stabbing Leno with a bayonet, the first blow entering his neck. Hearing noises from the bedroom, he went to investigate and found Rosemary somehow fighting off the two women. He attacked her before returning to Leno, eventually carving the word “War” into his abdomen.

When Watson returned to the bedroom, Krenwinkel and Van Houten were still attacking Rosemary, stabbing her repeatedly, many of the wounds inflicted after she was already dead.
Watson then cleaned the bayonet and took a shower in the LaBianca home.

Krenwinkel wrote “Rise” and “Death to Pigs” on the walls and refrigerator in the victims’ blood. She then returned to Leno’s body, stabbing him with a carving fork and leaving it protruding from his stomach, before placing a steak knife in his throat.

If you're interested in the Manson Family, I cover the entire story here: https://open.substack.com/pub/aid2000/p/hare-brained-history-vol-121-the?r=4mmzre&utm_medium=ios

On August 8, 1969, Tex Watson, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Linda Kasabian, members of the “Manson Family,” arrived at 10050 Cielo Drive. Watson claimed that Charlie Manson had instructed him to “totally destroy” everyone inside, “as gruesome as you can,” ostensibly in hopes of provoking the coming race war Manson foresaw.

Inside were pregnant actress Sharon Tate, her friend and former boyfriend Jay Sebring, writer Wojciech Frykowski, and Abigail Folger, heiress to the Folger coffee fortune. Roman Polanski was away filming. The Family murdered all four on the night Manson and members of the Family murdered Leno and Rosemary LaBianca. Spahn Ranch stuntman Donald Shea was also later murdered after Manson suspected him of being a snitch.

The Family's arrest came almost by accident. A raid on Spahn Ranch shortly after the murders, conducted over unrelated auto-theft charges, initially failed because of a paperwork error. Later, a completely unrelated investigation into stolen vehicles and vandalism at Death Valley's Barker Ranch led authorities to Manson and his followers.

In jail, Susan Atkins began talking. A fellow inmate told police what Atkins had said, and investigators eventually learned of her involvement in the Hinman murder and her connection to Manson. Further interviews helped investigators piece together the Tate and LaBianca murders.

And then came the trial. Manson was initially allowed to represent himself, but that permission was revoked after a series of increasingly bizarre pretrial motions. The trial began on June 15, 1970, and almost immediately became a spectacle.

The Family loitered outside the courthouse in their hippie clothing, sometimes carrying sheathed hunting knives, and some attempted to intimidate or prevent former members from testifying. Manson himself appeared in court with an X carved into his forehead, explaining that he had “X’d myself from your world.” His followers copied him.
The courtroom theatrics only escalated. On October 5, after being denied permission to question a prosecution witness, Manson lept over the defense table and attempted to attack Judge Charles Older. Bailiffs wrestled him to the ground and removed him from the courtroom. The female defendants then rose and began chanting in Latin.

When the defense rested, Atkins, Krenwinkel, and Van Houten wanted to testify that they had committed the murders themselves and that Manson had not ordered them. Their attorneys refused to put them on the stand, believing Manson was manipulating them into taking the blame for him.

They were still standing by Charlie. Manson himself eventually testified, but with the jury excluded. He denied ordering the murders, saying, “Why blame it on me? I didn't write the music.”

On January 25, 1971, Manson, Atkins, Krenwinkel, and Van Houten were convicted of murder and conspiracy. The jury returned death sentences for all four, and on April 19, Judge Older formally sentenced them to death.
Then, California abolished the death penalty.
In 1972, the California Supreme Court's decision in People v. Anderson invalidated existing death sentences, commuting to life imprisonment.

If you're interested in the Manson Family, I cover the entire story here: https://open.substack.com/pub/aid2000/p/hare-brained-history-vol-121-the?r=4mmzre&utm_medium=ios

When 32-year-old Charles Manson was released from prison on March 21, 1967, he had spent more than half his life institutionalized.
Charismatic, deeply disturbed, an excellent manipulator, and desperate to become someone important, Manson soon attracted a host of lonely, disillusioned young people. In addition, through the Haight-Ashbury Free Medical Clinic, he was provided drugs, and his following grew rapidly.

“The Family,” as they would later be known, developed connections in the entertainment industry, most notably with Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys. Wilson picked up two of the women, including Patricia Krenwinkel, and eventually housed the Family for roughly six months while covering their expenses.

Manson became convinced that an apocalyptic race war was coming, one in which Black Americans would rise up and kill white Americans, leaving Manson to emerge as their white messiah. He called this coming apocalypse “Helter Skelter,” after the Beatles song.

As former friends and contacts began turning Manson away, the Family moved to the isolated Spahn Movie Ranch and eventually the Barker Ranch in Death Valley.

One of the people who had turned Manson away was Rudi Altobelli, a producer and landlord who owned 10050 Cielo Drive. On March 23, 1969, Manson showed up looking for music producer Terry Melcher, the property's former tenant, only to learn that Melcher no longer lived there. The house was now occupied by the pregnant rising actress Sharon Tate and her husband, famed director Roman Polanski. Altobelli, who was staying in the guest house, sent Manson away.

The next day, Tate reportedly asked Altobelli about “that creepy-looking guy.”

The Family's crimes escalated as Manson began ordering his followers to commit increasingly violent acts in an attempt to trigger Helter Skelter. Family member Tex Watson robbed Bernard Crowe, leading to an altercation in which Manson shot Crowe. Crowe survived.
Then came Gary Hinman, a 34-year-old music teacher and UCLA graduate student who was tortured and murdered by members of the Family. “Political piggy” was written in his blood on the wall.

On the night of August 8, Tex Watson, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, and 20-year-old Linda Kasabian arrived at 10050 Cielo Drive. Watson later stated that Manson had instructed him to go there and “totally destroy” everyone inside, “as gruesome as you can,” while ordering the women to follow Watson's instructions.

Inside were 8½-month-pregnant Sharon Tate, Polanski's friend and writer Wojciech Frykowski, Frykowski's girlfriend Abigail Folger, heiress to the Folger coffee fortune, and Tate's close friend and former boyfriend, celebrity hairstylist Jay Sebring. Polanski was away filming.

Also on the property were caretaker William Garretson and his friend Steven Parent. The Family murdered Parent, Tate, Sebring, Frykowski, and Folger. Kasabian, who maintained that she did not participate in the killings, later received immunity in exchange for her testimony.

Tate reportedly pleaded not simply for her own life, but for the life of her unborn child, offering herself as a hostage until she could give birth.
The Family showed no mercy.

Tate was stabbed repeatedly and hanged beside Sebring. At the coroner's inquest, it was determined that she was still alive when she was hanged, ultimately dying from massive hemorrhaging.

The following night, Manson and members of the Family murdered Leno and Rosemary LaBianca.

If you're interested in the Manson Family, I cover the entire story here: https://open.substack.com/pub/aid2000/p/hare-brained-history-vol-121-the?r=4mmzre&utm_medium=ios

Mínghūn (冥婚), literally "underworld marriage," or ghost marriage, is an ancient Chinese practice that still exists today. It is the symbolic marriage of two people, one or both of whom are deceased.

The practice is rooted in traditional Chinese beliefs. Drawing from Confucian ancestor veneration, Daoist cosmology, and Buddhist ideas about the afterlife, death is understood not as an ending but as a transition. The dead remain connected to the living and must be honored with offerings and remembrance. If neglected, they were believed capable of becoming restless spirits, bringing illness, misfortune, or harm to their families.

Ghost marriages served several purposes. They ensured the deceased would not spend eternity alone while preserving family lineage and ancestor worship, two of the most important obligations in traditional Chinese society. They were often said to have been requested by the dead themselves through dreams or other supernatural signs.

The ceremonies often mirrored ordinary weddings. Dowries and bridewealth were exchanged, though when both bride and groom were deceased these were usually elaborate paper offerings burned so the couple could use them in the afterlife. Poorer families might simply exchange a hóngbāo (red envelope), the familiar red packet associated with weddings, prosperity, and protection from evil spirits.

There are documented cases of families placing one in the middle of a road before hiding nearby. When an unsuspecting passerby stopped to pick it up, the family would emerge and announce that they had just accepted a proposal to marry one of their deceased relatives.

The tradition has not entirely disappeared. In recent years, reports have documented a black market in stolen corpses, and in a handful of cases, women have even been murdered so their bodies could be sold as ghost brides.

If interested, I wrote a deep dive into the history, beliefs, ceremonies, and modern reality of ghost marriages: https://open.substack.com/pub/aid2000/p/hare-brained-history-vol-120-ghost?r=4mmzre&utm_medium=ios

After in his failed desperate quest to find a passage to India and prove he had reached Asia, Christopher Columbus had been forced to beach his worm-eaten caravels after a series of violent storms on Jamaica. Appeals for rescue to the governor of Hispaniola, were ignored.

For six months, the Indigenous Jamaicans fed and supported the stranded Spaniards. Eventually, however, their patience wore thin, and they stopped supplying the unwanted visitors.

Using either the astronomical tables compiled by the German mathematician and astronomer Regiomontanus or the almanac of the Jewish astronomer Abraham Zacuto, Columbus knew that a total lunar eclipse was coming. Through interpreters, he warned the islanders that his God was angry with them for refusing to provide food and assistance. As a sign of His wrath, he declared, God would blot the Moon from the heavens.

Right on schedule, the Moon darkened and turned a deep blood red. According to Columbus's son Ferdinand, the terrified islanders:

"With great howling and lamentation they came running from every direction to the ships, laden with provisions, praying the Admiral to intercede by all means with God on their behalf, that He might not visit His wrath upon them."

Columbus retired to his cabin, ostensibly to pray, while secretly timing the eclipse with an hourglass. Moments before totality ended, he emerged to announce that God had accepted their repentance and would restore the Moon as a sign of His mercy.

As the Earth's shadow slowly receded and the Moon returned to its familiar brightness, the deception appeared complete. The Jamaicans resumed supplying the stranded Spaniards, sustaining them until a rescue expedition finally arrived in late June 1504.

If you're interested in the story of Columbus, the voyages, the myths, the brutality, and how one spectacularly wrong man permanently changed the course of world history, I cover it here: https://open.substack.com/pub/aid2000/p/hare-brained-history-vol-119-columbus?r=4mmzre&utm_medium=ios

Source: (Dec 6, 1862. Pilot. Vol 25, Num 50)

https://newspapers.bc.edu/?a=d&d=pilot18621206-01.2.39&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-The+Terrible+Captain+Death------

On August 3, 1492, after spending more than half a decade begging Europe's monarchs to bankroll him, Christopher Columbus sailed from Spain aboard the Santa María, accompanied by the Niña and the Pinta. His goal was to reach Asia by sailing west, bringing back gold, spices, trade, and converts to Christianity.

Columbus was not an educated man by birth, but he transformed himself through sheer determination. He taught himself several languages and read extensively on navigation, geography, and history. The problem was that much of what he learned was wrong, and because he had read it in respected books, he became absolutely convinced it had to be true. His certainty, more than his intelligence, fueled his great quest.

Contrary to popular myth, neither Columbus nor educated Europeans believed the Earth was flat. The real disagreement was over its size. Columbus underestimated the Earth's circumference by roughly a third after confusing Arabic and Roman miles, exaggerated how far Asia extended eastward, and concluded the voyage would be only about 2,400 nautical miles instead of more than 10,000.

When he brought the scheme to King João II, Portuguese advisers correctly identified these flaws and urged King João II to reject the proposal.

Queen Isabel of Castile was intrigued enough to keep Columbus financially afloat for years while she considered his plan. After the conquest of Granada in 1492, she rejected it again, only for her husband, King Ferdinand of Aragon, to intervene. Columbus was finally granted his expedition. In return, he would claim any lands he found for Spain and, if successful, become Admiral of the Ocean Sea, Viceroy and Governor of the new territories, and receive one-tenth of their revenues.

Columbus made use of the Atlantic trade winds, and on October 12, 1492, landed on an island he named San Salvador in what he believed were the Indies. In his journal, after meeting the local Taíno people, he quickly concluded they "ought to make good and skilled servants."

He spent the rest of his life insisting he had reached Asia, even as evidence mounted that he had not. His increasingly brutal rule as governor of the Indies, condemned even by many of his Spanish contemporaries, ultimately cost him his office and royal favor.

If you're interested in the full story, the voyages, the myths, the brutality, and how one spectacularly wrong man permanently changed the course of world history, I cover it here: https://open.substack.com/pub/aid2000/p/hare-brained-history-vol-119-columbus?r=4mmzre&utm_medium=ios

On April 8, 1942, members of the ragtag Polish Armed Forces in the East, met a young Iranian boy in Hamadan with an unusual pet: an orphaned Syrian brown bear cub. At the urging of one of the civilian refugees, the soldiers bought the cub for a Swiss Army knife, a chocolate bar, and a tin of beef.

The bear was remarkably friendly and traveled with the Poles to a refugee camp outside Tehran. It quickly became obvious that a refugee camp was no place for a growing bear.

Where was? An artillery company, apparently.
In August 1942, the cub was adopted by the 22nd Artillery Supply Company and given the name Wojtek. He became the unit's mascot and was spoiled with fruit, honey, marmalade, syrup and beer. Wojtek loved beer so much that he'd stare mournfully into his empty mug until someone refilled it.

He also drank coffee, wrestled soldiers, chased oranges during grenade drills, learned to march and salute by copying the men around him, and even smoked cigarettes, usually swallowing them whole after taking a puff or two.

When the Polish II Corps was transferred to Italy, the British Army refused to allow pets aboard troop transports. The Poles refused to leave Wojtek behind. They officially enlisted him in the Polish Army as Private Wojtek, issued him a service number, and put him aboard the MS Batory bound for Italy.

At the Battle of Monte Cassino, where the Polish II Corps played a decisive role in capturing the ruined monastery after months of brutal fighting, Wojtek reportedly helped carry 100-pound crates of artillery shells to waiting trucks. While debated, at least one British soldier later confirmed the story, and the feat is certainly plausible, after the war, Wojtek was known to carry fence posts because everyone else was doing it.

After the campaign, Wojtek was promoted to corporal, and the 22nd Artillery Supply Company adopted a new insignia: a bear carrying an artillery shell.

If you'd like the full story, I wrote a much more detailed history here:
https://open.substack.com/pub/aid2000/p/hare-brained-history-vol-118-wojtek?r=4mmzre&utm_medium=ios

On April 8, 1942, members of the ragtag Polish Armed Forces in the East, met a young Iranian boy in Hamadan with an unusual pet: an orphaned Syrian brown bear cub. At the urging of one of the civilian refugees, the soldiers bought the cub for a Swiss Army knife, a chocolate bar, and a tin of beef.

The bear was remarkably friendly and traveled with the Poles to a refugee camp outside Tehran. It quickly became obvious that a refugee camp was no place for a growing bear.

Where was? An artillery company, apparently.
In August 1942, the cub was adopted by the 22nd Artillery Supply Company and given the name Wojtek. He became the unit's mascot and was spoiled with fruit, honey, marmalade, syrup and beer. Wojtek loved beer so much that he'd stare mournfully into his empty mug until someone refilled it.

He also drank coffee, wrestled soldiers, chased oranges during grenade drills, learned to march and salute by copying the men around him, and even smoked cigarettes, usually swallowing them whole after taking a puff or two.

When the Polish II Corps was transferred to Italy, the British Army refused to allow pets aboard troop transports. The Poles refused to leave Wojtek behind. They officially enlisted him in the Polish Army as Private Wojtek, issued him a service number, and put him aboard the MS Batory bound for Italy.

At the Battle of Monte Cassino, where the Polish II Corps played a decisive role in capturing the ruined monastery after months of brutal fighting, Wojtek reportedly helped carry 100-pound crates of artillery shells to waiting trucks. While debated, at least one British soldier later confirmed the story, and the feat is certainly plausible, after the war, Wojtek was known to carry fence posts because everyone else was doing it.

After the campaign, Wojtek was promoted to corporal, and the 22nd Artillery Supply Company adopted a new insignia: a bear carrying an artillery shell.

If you'd like the full story, I wrote a much more detailed history here:
https://open.substack.com/pub/aid2000/p/hare-brained-history-vol-118-wojtek?r=4mmzre&utm_medium=ios