“I think we owe it to society not to turn loose a member of the Manson family such as Patricia Krenwinkel who has participated in seven of the most vicious, brutal murders in the history of American crime,’’ Kay said.

In 2002, Leslie van Houten attended another of her own parole hearings and was erstwhile in her testimony.

“I take very seriously not just the murders, but what made me make myself available to someone like Manson,” she said.

Susan Atkins gave a televised interview after her first failed parole hearing in 1976.

“I was deprogrammed by the persuasiveness of Manson and the drugs that I took,’’ she said.

In 1990, Doris Tate, mother of actress Sharon Tate, attended the parole hearing of Tex Watson.

“I do not feel that the people of California could accept the fact that a serial killer could be released into society ever again. I rest my case,’’ she said.

On August 9, 1969, Walker led Krenwinkel and Atkins to the home of Sharon Tate, who was eight and a half months pregnant.

Sharon Tate was brutally slain, along with four others.

The following night, Walker and the women, joined by van Houten, went to the home of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca and killed them too.

The one common thread — Charles Manson.

Although he did not commit the murders physically, he was found guilty in 1971 of the crimes by association, his brainwashing of the four accused symptomatic of the events of those nights.

The murders are remembered today as among the most heinous ever seen and America has never been the same since.

Not only was the viciousness of the killings so severe but the complete lack of remorse from any of the perpetrators sent chills through your soul.

Charles Manson died this week in a prison cell in California at the age of 83.

Charles Milles Manson was born in 1934. His mother was just 16 at the time.

When he was 13, he was arrested for the first time and sent to reform school in Indiana.

By the time he was released, several arrests later, in March 1967, he had spent more than half of his 32 years behind bars. He was quoted as saying that “prison was his home”.

Manson was uneducated but was diagnosed as having an IQ of 109. The average of the day in the USA was 100.

It was this intelligence Manson used to attract followers to his cult. His overriding philosophy was that an apocalyptic race war was ensuing.

He decided murder would help facilitate this and thus he coerced his followers into conducting horrific killings, using a combination of his hypnotic charm and copious amounts of drugs.

At his trial, he was vehement in his testimony, claiming he did not kill anyone and he did not tell anyone to do anything they did not already want to do.

The jury dismissed his reasoning and found him guilty of orchestrating seven murders and semtenced to death, which was commuted to life when California rescinded the death penalty in 1972.

During the course of his incarceration, Manson had 12 parole hearings and was denied each time.

In April 2012, the parole panel said that Manson had a “history of contolling behaviour”. They decided he was too great a risk to the general public to be set free.

They also noted that he “had no indication of remorse, no insight into the causative factors of the crimes, lacked understanding of the magnitude of the crimes and had an exceptional, callous disregard for human suffering’’.

The parole board determined that he should not be considered for parole again until 2027.

That day will never come.

Vincent Bugliosi knew more about Manson and his followers than anyone. His book Helter Skelter painted a picture of a delusional psychopath with murder in his heart.

In an interview in Time magazine in 2009, Bugliosi, who was the chief prosecutor at Manson’s trial, recalled how evil changed the lives of Americans on those heady nights in 1969.

He was asked about the continuing public fascination with Manson.

“I’m not aware of any other murder case in American history, other than the assassination of President Kennedy, where [anniversaries] are marked by television specials, news reports and articles,’’ he said.

“Before the murders, no one associated hippies with violence and murder, just drugs, peace, free love etc.

“Then the Manson Family comes along, looking like hippies, but what they were all about was murder. That was their religion, their credo.

“That shocked a lot of people and definitely hurt the counterculture movement.

I think the main reason for the continuing fascination is that the murder case is almost assuredly the most bizarre mass-murder case in the recorded annals of American crime.

“The killers were young kids from average American homes.’’

Was Manson insane?

“His moral values were completely twisted and warped, but let’s not confuse that with insanity,’’ Bugliosi said.

“He was crazy in the way that Hitler was crazy. In fact, Hitler was Manson’s greatest hero — he spoke about Hitler all the time.

“He said that Hitler had the right answer for everything, that he was a tuned-in guy. So he’s not crazy — he’s an evil, sophisticated con man.

“We’re talking about evil here, as opposed to mental illness. Manson wanted to kill as many people as he could.’’

News of Manson’s death swept the globe. Even in death, he was the headline.

Relatives of some of his victims had mixed emotions at heading the news.

Sharon Tate’s sister Debra told America’s ABC News she “said a prayer, shed a tear and stuck a flower under my cross in my bedroom”.

“People are saying that this should be some kind of relief, but oddly enough it really isn’t.

“While he may be gone, it’s the ones that are still alive that perpetrate everything and it was up to their imaginations for what brutal things were going to be done.

“In an odd way I see them as much more dangerous individuals.”

At the Tate house that night in August 1969 was Jay Sebring, a celebrity hair stylist who was butchered by the Manson Family.

His nephew spoke this week of his family’s response to Manson’s death.

“Today we derive no joy or comfort from the passing of Mr Manson,’’ Anthony DiMaria said.

“Nor is there closure because nothing will bring back Jay, or any of the victims sent to their graves 48 years ago. For us, our hearts and thoughts are with them.”

****

Atkins had tried for parole many times but developed brain cancer and died in 2009.

Watson, van Houten and Krenwinkel are still behind bars, still trying for release.

Krenwinkel had a parole application denied back in June. Prosecutors are steadfast in their belief she should remain incarcerated.

In 2014, in an interview with the New York Times, Krenwinkel said: “What a coward that I found myself to be when I look at the situation. The thing I try to remember sometimes is that what I am today is not what I was at 19.”

Remarkably, a panel of state commissioners granted van Houten parole in September.

But, as all parole decisions need to be ratified by California governor Jerry Brown, it is unclear if she will see the outside world once more.

Brown did reject her parole bid last year, saying she still posed “an unreasonable danger to society”.

Watson is in Mule Creek State Prison just outside Sacramento.

While behind bars, he has managed to get married, divorced, father four children and become an ordained minister. He also earned a bachelor’s degree in business management.

But when he went up for his 17th time in front of the parole board in October 2016, he was denied release.

At the time, district attorney Jackie Lacey said: “These were some of the most horrific crimes in California history, and we believe he continues to exhibit a lack of remorse and remains a public safety risk.’’