Denied his request to represent himself during his 9-1/2 month trial, Manson showed up in court with an "X" carved into his forehead, and would later alter it into a swastika.
Co-defendants Susan Atkins, Leslie Van Houten and Patricia Krenwinkel cut "X"s in their foreheads, shaved their scalps, sang Manson-written songs and giggled through chilling testimony.
At one point, Manson tried to leap over the defense table at the judge, snarling: "In the name of Christian justice, someone should cut your head off." The judge began carrying a gun afterward.
Manson ultimately was brought down by his followers. Atkins told two inmates about the Tate-LaBianca murders while she was jailed in an unrelated killing, then testified to a grand jury before recanting. Prosecutors then persuaded another follower, Linda Kasabian, to testify against the rest of the group in exchange for immunity.
Convicted along with Manson, his three co-defendants, Atkins, Van Houten and Krenwinkel, also had their death sentences reduced to life terms.
Manson long maintained his innocence, telling Rolling Stone magazine that follower Charles "Tex" Watson was responsible for the Tate-LaBianca killings. Watson was tried separately and is serving a life term for his role in those killings.
Still, Manson seemed resigned to a life of incarceration, ceasing to even attend his parole review hearings after 1997.
"What would I want out for?" he said in a telephone interview with the Los Angeles Times. "This beats an old folks home."
In April 2012, Manson was quoted by parole officials as having told a prison psychologist the previous fall: "I have put five people in the grave. I've been in prison most of my life. I'm a very dangerous man."
