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
Manson Family despite precautions taken by the court, Manson flashed the jury a "Los Angeles Times" front page whose headline was "Manson Guilty, Nixon Declares". This was a reference to a statement made the previous day when U.S. President Richard Nixon had decried what he saw as the media's glamorization of Manson. Voir dired by Judge Charles Older, the jurors contended that the headline had not influenced them. The next day, the female defendants stood up and said in unison that, in light of Nixon's remark, there was no point in going on with the trial. On October 5, Manson was denied