MANSON - Two-hour Special Premieres on September 7 at 9pm ET/PT on HISTORY�

Inside Charles Manson's warped world of fear, sex, and drug-induced mind control, The cult leader turned a group of harmless hippies into a gang of brutal murderers.

Pasadena, CA, July 29, 2009 � Shortly after midnight on August 9, 1969, a car pulled up to actress Sharon Tate's sprawling Benedict Canyon home she rented. As the driver, Linda Kasabian, stood guard outside, three of her "family" members committed one of the grisliest mass murders in American history. Forty years later, HISTORY� presents a chilling drama-documentary featuring exclusive, first-hand testimony from Kasabian, as well as interviews with Vincent Bugliosi, the chief prosecutor in the case and author of Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders; family member Catherine Share, aka "Gypsy"; and Debra Tate, Sharon Tate's sister. The two-hour special MANSON premieres on September 7 at 9pm ET/PT on HISTORY�.

MANSON chronicles the nine months leading up to what Manson called "Helter Skelter," the title of a Beatles song twisted by him to mean an apocalyptic race war the murders were supposed to ignite. As Manson subjected his followers to LSD-fueled orgies and increasingly bizarre tests of loyalty, they fell completely under his spell. Realizing he could get his "family" to kill anyone, Manson embarked on a murderous mission that would shock the nation to the core. Manson's name has become an emblem of insanity, violence and the macabre; his crimes mark an emphatic end to the 1960s.

MANSON takes viewers deep inside America in the late 1960s � into a world of hate, fear, sex, and mind-control. It vividly details how Charles Manson transformed a harmless group of hippies � mostly young women from decent families � into a gang of brutal murderers. The special, a drama-documentary, weaves in rare archival footage and on-camera eyewitness testimony to present a spellbinding portrait of a true nightmare in U.S. history. At the center of the film is Kasabian, the star witness for the prosecution, who has emerged from hiding to tell the full story of the murders for the first time in four decades.

Kasabian, then a 21-year-old flower child fleeing an abusive marriage with her baby, recounts finding love and freedom with Manson and his disciples: "He gave me the feeling that I would be cared for, and that he took care of everybody. We were like his children." Deep under their leader's drug-fuelled spell, Linda and the "family" were soon lured into his paranoid vendetta against The Establishment. She recounts what it was like to witness the horrific murders, and how she ultimately risked her life and her daughter's to escape.

Executive Producer for HISTORY is Susan Werbe. Executive Producers: Nick Godwin, Simon Lloyd. Director: Neil Rawles. MANSON is produced for HISTORY by NF-Cineflix (The Family) Inc. and Media Productions (The Family) Ltd.

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Cast of MANSON

RYAN BLAKELY Terry Melcher

MEREDITH CHEESBROUGH Lynette 'Squeaky' Fromme

SASCHA COLE Abigail Folger

ROGER DOCHE Wojtek Frykowski

JAMES GILBERT Charles 'Tex' Watson

ANTHONY GERBRANDT Bob Kasabian

PAUL ANTHONY HARDY Stan Shapiro

MORGAN KELLY Dennis Wilson

CORA KENNEDY Nancy 'Brenda' Pitman

DAVID KINER Bobby Beausoleil

CAT MCCORMICK Patricia 'Katie' Krenwinkle

SARAH PODEMSKI Catherine 'Gypsy' Share

BRITTANY SCOBIE Susan 'Sadie' Atkins

MELANIE SCROFANO Leslie Van Houten

MOTI YONA Gary Hinman

JOSHUA YOUNG Steven 'Clem' Grogan

Introducing

ADAM WILSON as Charles Manson

and

TAMARA HOPE as Linda Kasabian