- New season of the crime thriller series features a host of serial killers from the 1970s and 80s, but it is Manson who will surely draw the most interest
- Played by Australian actor Damon Herriman, the infamous figure will go head-to-head with series stars Jonathan Groff and Holt McCallany
If you thought the 1969 moon landing was the only significant 50th anniversary being marked this summer, you should think again. A rather more grisly series of events, and the man behind them, are also a big thing right now.
It was exactly five decades ago, almost to the day, that Charles Manson and his murderous acolytes left residents of Los Angeles fearful for their lives. Now the bearded cult leader and mass murderer, who died in prison in 2017 aged 83, is back.
Already, Mary Harron's recent movie Charlie Says saw Matt Smith play Manson in a story that focuses on three followers " Leslie Van Houten, Patricia Krenwinkel and Susan Atkins " who did his bidding, killing supermarket executive Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary, a dress shop owner, in their Los Angeles home.
"I was just interested in ordinary people doing terrible things," Harron says. "I think the fascination of true crime is always, 'This really happened. Could it happen to me or my family?'"
More explosive is Quentin Tarantino's celebrated new movie Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood . The story melds fictional characters such as Leonardo DiCaprio's fading actor Rick Dalton with real-life figures such as Sharon Tate (played by Margot Robbie), the young actress who was 8 1/2 months pregnant when she was murdered in her own home " the night before the LaBianca killings " by members of the so-called "Manson Family".
Manson, played by Australian actor Damon Herriman, makes a brief but eerie appearance in the film; strangely, the actor also plays the cult leader in season two of Mindhunter, which dropped on Netflix on Friday.
The first season of the series, which is executive produced by David Fincher, compellingly dealt with the 1970s creation of the FBI's Behavioural Science Unit, as agents Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) and Bill Tench (Holt McCallany) interviewed incarcerated serial killers in the hope of understanding how they think.
The second season moves on a couple of years, between 1979 and 1981, as the Atlanta child murders " which saw at least 28 youngsters and adults die " gripped the nation. Among the killers featuring in the show is David Berkowitz (Oliver Cooper), aka Son of Sam, who terrorised New York in 1976.
But it will surely be Herriman's turn as the imprisoned Manson that draws most interest, as he goes head-to-head with Ford and Tench after being sentenced to serve nine life terms.
While countless books, articles, true crime documentaries, exploitation movies and even a stop-motion animation film (2006's Live Freaky! Die Freaky!) have already drooled over the Manson killings, Fincher promises Mindhunter won't do the same.
"We don't need to up the salacious mythology of Manson. He does just fine by himself," Fincher recently told Empire magazine, all too aware that Manson's appearance had to be more than being a grim guest spot in an all-star line-up of serial killers.
Nevertheless, the Manson Family's murderous spree never lost its notoriety. But why? Was it the boundless sex and hallucinogenic drugs that Manson and his crowd indulged in at Spahn Ranch where they based themselves? Or was it the music, with Manson gorging on The Beatles' White Album, obsessing over the lyrics and even adopting the song title Helter Skelter as a moniker for his race war?
That Tate was the wife of film director Roman Polanski naturally added to the intrigue, as did the quasi-religious feel to Manson, who was seen by some as the Second Coming on an apocalyptic mission to destroy.
"Somebody who can come up with their own mythology and then persuade other people of the reality of that (is intriguing)," says filmmaker Andrew Dominik (director of 2000's Chopper), who directs the Manson/Mindhunter sequences. That Manson was also convicted, despite not being "at either crime scene", was another unique piece of this blood-soaked jigsaw.
Beyond the bold facts of the case, the Manson murders symbolised the end of an era of hippie idealism, as America " already embroiled in the Vietnam war " slid towards the Richard Nixon-governed period of suspicion, paranoia and disenchantment.
As Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood star Brad Pitt notes, "The Manson murders were certainly a flagrant loss of innocence for the country who had been leading towards this idealised hope of peace and free love."
Thankfully, even if Manson is back, nobody is lionising him, his followers or their crimes.
"Charles Manson was basically a loser of a man who happened to find some power," Harron says. In and out of prison in his early years, "he was like an animal who had grown up with a lot of fear and abuse," she continues. "A lot of what he says is just nonsense really, but he was very good in sensing weakness and danger in others."
Charismatic, cruel and clinical " Manson will continue to fascinate true crime lovers the world over.
Mindhunter Season 2 is on Netflix
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