January 25, 1971
The cult leader Charles Manson and three of his female followers are found guilty in the 1969 murders of Sharon Tate and six others. During the trial, Manson attempted to kill the judge while the jury was present in the room. Manson threatened the judge and then jumped over his lawyer’s table and headed for the judge with a sharpened pencil, but was restrained before he was able to reach the judge. At the trial, Manson testified before the judge, “These children that come at you with knives, they are your children. You taught them. I didn’t teach them. I just tried to help them stand up. Most of the people at the ranch that you call the Family were just people that you did not want.”
All four were sentenced to death, but in 1972 the death penalty was ruled unconstitutional and Manson was resentenced to life with the possibility of parole. He died in prison in 2017.