The Defendants...

Susan Atkins (aka Sadie Mae Glutz) - As a young teen, Susan Atkins sang in her church choir in San Jose, California and nursed her mother, who was dying of cancer. After her mother's death, however, her life went seriously off course.

Leslie Van Houten - A psychiatrist, after evaluating Leslie Van Houten, described her as "a psychologically loaded gun which went off as a consequence of the complex intermeshing of highly unlikely and bizarre circumstances."

Patricia Krenwinkel (Katie) - In September 1967, twenty-year-old Patricia Krenwinkel joined the Family, leaving behind her Manhattan Beach apartment, her car, her job, and even her last paycheck.

Charles Manson - Manson was born to a promiscuous sixteen-year-old girl named Kathleen Maddox on November 12, 1934 in Cincinnati. His presumed father was a "Colonel Scott" of Ashland Kentucky, whom Manson never met. When Manson was five, his mother received a five-year sentence for armed robbery, and Manson moved in with his aunt and uncle in West Virginia.

Charles Watson (Tex) Tried Separately, ne of Charles Watson's former neighbors in Collin County, Texas described him as "the boy next door." Watson was an "A" student in a high school and a sports star. He held the state record in the low hurdles. According to his uncle, Watson's problems started when he began taking drugs in college.