Netflix's "Conversations with a Killer: The Charles Manson Tapes" is now streaming, the fifth and final installment in director Joe Berlinger's true-crime documentary series, built around previously unreleased prison recordings of the cult leader.
Manson, born Charles Milles Maddox in 1934, spent much of his early life in reformatories and prisons before founding the group known as the Manson Family in the late 1960s. Before turning to crime, he pursued music on the fringes of the Los Angeles industry, briefly connecting with Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson, who helped get one of Manson's songs recorded by the band. In 1969, Manson directed his followers to carry out the Tate-LaBianca murders, killing nine people, including actress Sharon Tate, who was eight and a half months pregnant at the time.
The three-part series draws on prison phone calls and interviews with former Manson Family members and law enforcement to examine how Manson built control over his followers. "Rather than adding to the mythology surrounding Manson, our goal was to examine the systems of manipulation and control he created, while centering the voices of those who lived through it and continue to grapple with its aftermath," the filmmakers said in a statement.
Manson died in prison in 2017 at age 83. In the decades since the murders, Tate's own mother, Doris, became a prominent victims' rights advocate, gathering more than 350,000 signatures to oppose parole for one of the killers and helping pass California's Victims' Bill of Rights in 1982 - work her family has continued in the years since. Her legacy, built out of unimaginable loss, remains a reminder that even the darkest headlines don't get the last word.
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