In the plot of the film "Once Upon a Time in … Hollywood" - a real story that took place in Los Angeles, California. This story is about Charles Mills Manson, an American criminal, the founder of the "Family" sect, whose members committed a series of murders in 1969. One of these crimes was the brutal murder of the wife of Polish filmmaker Roman Polanski, who was nine months pregnant.
Spahn Ranch was located on the outskirts of Los Angeles and covered 22 hectares of land. In 1947, several cinemas were built here. Then the territory was bought by George Spahn, who created a ranch and organized horse rentals on it - locals came here to learn horse riding skills. The ranch was a popular filming location for Westerns due to the landscape typical of old western cities in America. The ranch is currently not in use and is part of the Pass Santa Susana State Historic Park. All of the filming buildings on the ranch were destroyed in a fire in 1970.
In 1968-1969, Spahn's ranch became the main residence for members of the Charles Manson sect - the "Manson family". Then Spahn himself turned 80 years old, he became blind and led a reclusive lifestyle. He allowed the members of the Family to live on the ranch for free, for which they had to look after the ranch and continue the horse rental business. Spahn has never been accused of any of the crimes that the Family members committed at the direction of Manson.
Manson himself was from a dysfunctional family; it is not known exactly who his biological father was, his mother was engaged in prostitution, abused alcohol, and almost did not devote time to her son. Charles from an early age began to commit thefts, for which he was often arrested and sent to correctional institutions, from where he also often fled. By the time Manson turned 32, he had already spent 17 of them in prisons. At this age, he met his first future member of the Family. After a short period of time, they, along with 18 other women, began to live in commune on Spahn's ranch.
The sect members called each other brothers and sisters. Manson taught them that they were all reincarnations of the early Christians. He called himself neither more nor less - Christ, and told how he clearly represents himself on the cross with nails in his hands and feet. At the same time, he also clarified that he is Christ and the devil in one person. Manson was a kind of spiritual guru during the "Summer of Love" - a phenomenal event that brought together about one hundred thousand hippies in the San Francisco-Haight Ashbury area.
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And in 1969, members of the Family committed a series of crimes. The most brutal was the murder of the film actress Sharon Tate, Polanski's wife, and her guests. In the same year, Manson and members of his sect were arrested, and a lawsuit began against them. Some of the Family girls testified against Manson. As a result, seven participants in the crimes were sentenced to death in a gas chamber, which was later replaced with life sentences.
Several documentaries, film adaptations, horror films and television series were later shot about the biography of Charles Manson, and he is also mentioned in books and songs. Manson tried to become a musician, in 1970 an album of his songs was released. Although the album sold only 300 out of 2,000 copies at the time, the original is now a collector's item.