Manson, She Wrote: How Angela Lansbury saved her children from the Manson Family in the 1960s
Charles Manson knew what he was doing when he devilishly created The Manson Family and left a permanent stain on California.
Manson was many things. A murderous psychopath, a fairly shit musician, a proud Nazi, but mainly, he was a conman. Whether or not he believed his own bullshit, his status and following weren’t achieved by being a once-in-a-generation singer-songwriter or prophet or whatever he was drivelling on about in his acid-induced psychosis.
He achieved his disgusting following and status by latching onto important people and refusing to go away. Manson knew exactly who he wanted to be associated with and who he didn’t want to be associated with. Any old Charlie Brown couldn’t just waltz up to Spahn Ranch and sign up to join the cult. You had to have worth in the eyes of Manson, which meant being a particularly hot girl, a particularly hot guy, rich or connected. Preferably three of the four. Ideally, all four.
Case in point, one of Manson’s followers gets picked up by Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys. Within days, the family had moved into Wilson’s house, got into the drummer’s ear, and earned access to the entire Los Angeles celebrity scene. It’s how he tried to charm Terry Melcher into giving him a record deal. It’s how he tried to put Neil Young and Mama Cass under his spell, and it’s the reason that they tried to crack onto a number of different Hollywood celebrities like Steve McQueen.
If they couldn’t work their magic on the celebrities themselves, rather than back down, they’d instead go for their children.
Credit: Fitzgerald Whitney, Los Angeles Times
After all, that was the obvious target, wasn’t it? At the time, Hollywood celebrities were largely adults who’d been through the celebrity ringer and knew a conman when they saw one. Hollywood does tend to swallow up people who can’t see when people will use them and discard them and for many people, Manson was a walking, talking red flag. Why do you think Neil Young never spent more than an hour in his presence?
Their kids, though? These are often privileged, pampered LA natives who’ve never met someone who didn’t fawn over them and had no reason to believe anyone meant them ill. They were sitting ducks for Manson’s promises of free love, free drugs and a utopian future under his control. One of the celebrity young’uns who was nearly swayed by the family was Deirdre Shaw, daughter of national treasure Angela Lansbury, who spoke of her daughter’s troubles in an interview with MailOnline.
When asked about Shaw’s drug problems, Lansbury talked frankly about how a dalliance with weed moved on to full-blown heroin use. She harrowingly shared, “It pains me to say it but, at one stage, Deidre was in with a crowd led by Charles Manson. She was one of many youngsters who knew him – and they were fascinated. He was an extraordinary character, charismatic in many ways, no question about it.”
However, one way or another, Lansbury found out about this association and wanted no part of any of it.
“We upped sticks and moved the family to a house I found in County Cork,” Lansbury said. “I was drawn to Ireland because it was the birthplace of my mother, and it was also somewhere my children wouldn’t be exposed to any more bad influences.”
There, Shaw was able to kick her bad habits (though Lansbury mentions that “it took a little longer”) and eventually moved back to Los Angeles with her husband to run a restaurant.
Here’s hoping that all of LA’s nepo babies have parents who care about their well-being as much as Lansbury did.
Having read pretty much everything Manson and the ‘Family’ I hadn’t remembered the reference to Angela Lansbury’s children but Will make s good fist of the tale here
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