Manson Family also included a small, devoted unit of mostly impressionable young women and girls. According to Susan Atkins, whose initial statements in late 1969 cast the die for the template henceforth applied to the telling of the story in popular media, the Manson family began to believe, without question, Manson's claims that he was a manifestation of Jesus and his prophecies of a race war. They gained national and international notoriety after the murder of actress Sharon Tate and four others on August 9, 1969 by Tex Watson and three other members of the Family, acting under the instructions of Charles
Charles Manson "Man of the Year". In June 1970, he was the subject of a "Rolling Stone" cover story, "Charles Manson: The Incredible Story of the Most Dangerous Man Alive". When a "Rolling Stone" writer visited the Los Angeles District Attorney's office in preparing that story, he was shocked by a photograph of the bloody "Healter Skelter" that would bind Manson to popular culture. Prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi pointed out the dispute in the underground press over whether Manson was "Christ returned" or "a sick symbol of our times" to his "Helter Skelter" co-author, Curt Gentry. Bernardine Dohrn, a leader of the Weather