treatment in his former prison in Atlanta, running his organisation while incarcerated and receiving special privileges by bribing guards. After four-and-a-half years, however, he began to show the debilitating effects of the syphilis, that would kill him a few years later, and was transferred to Terminal Island prison in Los Angeles. George ‘Machine Gun’ Kelly spent time there, as did several members of the Purple Gang, the leader of Boston’s Winter Hill Gang, James ‘Whitey’ Bulger and Alvin Karpis, Public Enemy Number One and member of the murderous Karpis-Barker Gang during the 1930s. Karpis became Alcatraz’s longest-serving inmate, spending more than 25 years there, from August 1936 until April 1962.
Alcatraz became prohibitively expensive to run, however. While at the start of the 1960s it cost $3 (£1.50) a day to keep a prisoner in an ordinary American institution, it cost almost $10 (£5.00) a day to keep a prisoner in Alcatraz. There was also a serious pollution danger posed by the sewage from the 250 prisoners and 60 families who lived on The Rock. A new prison to replace ‘The Rock’, was built at Marion in Illinois, and Alcatraz was closed for good on 21 March 1963.
The Manson Family
10050 Cielo Drive, Los Angeles, USA
Charles Manson and his 'family' have gone down in folk history as the most notorious serial killing cults of all time, but they were largely unknown until the night of 9 August 1969 - when 'helter skelter' was unleashed on the wealthy celebrity inhabitants of 10050 Cielo drive. The extraordinarily violent events that took place there that night, meant the whole world would find out just who the Manson family were, and what they stood for.
10050 Cielo Drive was designed by Robert Byrd for the French actress Michèle Morgan, in 1944. This French country-style structure sat in 1.2 hectares (three acres) of land at the end of a cul-de-sac in Benedict canyon in the Santa Monica Mountains, west of Hollywood. Facing east and overlooking Beverly Hills and Bel Air, past residents had included Cary Grant and Dyan Cannon, Henry Fonda and record producer, Terry Melcher (son of Doris Day) and his girlfriend, Candice Bergen.
Charles Manson had spent more than half his 32 years in prison and institutions. In 1968, he was the leader of a group of hippies and drop-outs, called ‘the Family’ which had been living in the house of Beach Boy, Dennis Wilson. Wilson had expressed enthusiasm for some songs that Manson had written and introduced him to Terry Melcher at 10050 Cielo Drive. Melcher, however, was not as impressed as Wilson and decided he did not want to record Manson’s songs. Eventually, Wilson and Melcher stopped taking his calls, and Manson was infuriated.
Not long after this, Melcher moved out of the Cielo Drive house, and it was rented by film director, Roman Polanski and his wife, Sharon Tate. Every so often, however, Manson would turn up at the house looking for Melcher, to be told, on more than one occasion, that he had moved.
Manson developed a strange philosophy that was partly based around the music of The Beatles. He assimilated their work, especially the newly released White Album into his belief that the blacks in America’s cities would shortly rise up and slaughter the whites. He believed that The Beatles were talking directly to the Family through their lyrics.
In Topanga Canyon, he finessed his vision of the impending apocalypse, calling it ‘Helter Skelter’, after a track on the White Album. The Family would be safe while the killing was going on, he said; they would go into hiding in ‘the bottomless pit’, a secret city beneath Death Valley.
A few months later, on the night of 9 August 1969, Manson, having come to the conclusion that he would have to show the blacks the way, unleashed Helter Skelter. He ordered Family members, Charles ‘Tex’ Watson, Patricia Krenwinkel,
Alcatraz became prohibitively expensive to run, however. While at the start of the 1960s it cost $3 (£1.50) a day to keep a prisoner in an ordinary American institution, it cost almost $10 (£5.00) a day to keep a prisoner in Alcatraz. There was also a serious pollution danger posed by the sewage from the 250 prisoners and 60 families who lived on The Rock. A new prison to replace ‘The Rock’, was built at Marion in Illinois, and Alcatraz was closed for good on 21 March 1963.
The Manson Family
10050 Cielo Drive, Los Angeles, USA
Charles Manson and his 'family' have gone down in folk history as the most notorious serial killing cults of all time, but they were largely unknown until the night of 9 August 1969 - when 'helter skelter' was unleashed on the wealthy celebrity inhabitants of 10050 Cielo drive. The extraordinarily violent events that took place there that night, meant the whole world would find out just who the Manson family were, and what they stood for.
10050 Cielo Drive was designed by Robert Byrd for the French actress Michèle Morgan, in 1944. This French country-style structure sat in 1.2 hectares (three acres) of land at the end of a cul-de-sac in Benedict canyon in the Santa Monica Mountains, west of Hollywood. Facing east and overlooking Beverly Hills and Bel Air, past residents had included Cary Grant and Dyan Cannon, Henry Fonda and record producer, Terry Melcher (son of Doris Day) and his girlfriend, Candice Bergen.
Charles Manson had spent more than half his 32 years in prison and institutions. In 1968, he was the leader of a group of hippies and drop-outs, called ‘the Family’ which had been living in the house of Beach Boy, Dennis Wilson. Wilson had expressed enthusiasm for some songs that Manson had written and introduced him to Terry Melcher at 10050 Cielo Drive. Melcher, however, was not as impressed as Wilson and decided he did not want to record Manson’s songs. Eventually, Wilson and Melcher stopped taking his calls, and Manson was infuriated.
Not long after this, Melcher moved out of the Cielo Drive house, and it was rented by film director, Roman Polanski and his wife, Sharon Tate. Every so often, however, Manson would turn up at the house looking for Melcher, to be told, on more than one occasion, that he had moved.
Manson developed a strange philosophy that was partly based around the music of The Beatles. He assimilated their work, especially the newly released White Album into his belief that the blacks in America’s cities would shortly rise up and slaughter the whites. He believed that The Beatles were talking directly to the Family through their lyrics.
In Topanga Canyon, he finessed his vision of the impending apocalypse, calling it ‘Helter Skelter’, after a track on the White Album. The Family would be safe while the killing was going on, he said; they would go into hiding in ‘the bottomless pit’, a secret city beneath Death Valley.
A few months later, on the night of 9 August 1969, Manson, having come to the conclusion that he would have to show the blacks the way, unleashed Helter Skelter. He ordered Family members, Charles ‘Tex’ Watson, Patricia Krenwinkel,
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