Los Angeles Herald Examiner Charles Manson and his followers, who were charged with the 1969 murders of actress Sharon Tate and six others, "Herald Examiner" reporter William Farr reported in an article that Manson had planned to murder Elizabeth Taylor and Frank Sinatra. Farr was summoned by judge Charles Older to divulge his sources for the article. Farr refused. But at that time Farr had left the "Herald Examiner" to work for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office and later for the "Los Angeles Times". Farr cited the California reporters shield law that protected him from revealing his sources, but Older ruled that
Charles Manson was part of the journalist's prime-time special on Satanism. At least as early as the Snyder interview, Manson's forehead bore a swastika in the spot where the X carved during his trial had been. Nikolas Schreck conducted an interview with Manson for his documentary "Charles Manson Superstar" (1989). Schreck concluded that Manson was not insane but merely acting that way out of frustration. On September 25, 1984, Manson was imprisoned in the California Medical Facility at Vacaville when inmate Jan Holmstrom poured paint thinner on him and set him on fire, causing second- and third-degree burns on over 20 percent