Much has been written over the past 50+ years about various celebrities and their tangential connections to Charles Manson.
They included one of America’s most beloved actresses Doris Day. Her son, Terry Melcher, was a record producer who actually visited Manson’s ranch. Manson tried to persuade Melcher to produce an album of his songs, which never came to pass.
Melcher told his mother about the strange people and occurrences he saw at Manson’s ranch. Doris Day wisely told her son to leave the place where he had been renting and move to her beach house. She feared for his safety.
That proved prescient, because Melcher had been renting the property where Sharon Tate and others had been murdered.
Doris Day wasn’t the only celebrity mother to protect her vulnerable child.
Angela Lansbury had starred in 1963’s The Manchurian Candidate, a movie about a mind-controlled political assassin. The picture earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
Five years later in 1968, a year before the infamous Manson murders, Lansbury’s teenage daughter Deidre spent time around Manson’s ranch.
Because she was the child of a famous and wealthy actress, the Manson Family took advantage of her financially. Whatever money Deidre had went to the commune.
Drugs were ever-present at the remote ranch, not just pot but also LSD.
Having appeared in The Manchurian Candidate, Lansbury was aware of the concepts of powerful drugs and mind control.
When she learned about Manson, whom she described as “charismatic in many ways,” Angela Lansbury whisked her daughter away from the place. But she suspected that their lives weren’t safe if they remained in Southern California.
So Lansbury quickly moved her family to Ireland.
She bought a house in County Cork in Southern Ireland where Deidre was free from the influences of drugs and Manson and his followers.
That was where the Lansburys lived when the Manson murders took place in Los Angeles. Deidre had no involvement in the crimes.
Fifteen years later, Angela Lansbury began work in LA on the TV series that she starred in for 12 seasons.
In almost every way, the fictitious Murder, She Wrote was the polar opposite of the horrifying realities of Helter Skelter.
ALSO:
Other celebrities who had random connections to Manson include:
Dennis Wilson of The Beach Boys; he notoriously hung out with Manson
Neil Young; he met Manson briefly at Wilson’s house
Mama Cass Elliott of the Mamas & the Papas; Manson attended at least one party at her home
Candice Bergen was Terry Melcher’s girlfriend at the time
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