Charles Manson, dubbed father of the world's worst family, has died aged 83.
His clutch of deranged disciples, known as the Manson Family, gained notoriety after committing a string of ritualistic murders in California in the late 1960s.
Their most high-profile victim was actress Sharon Tate - wife of famed director Roman Polanski.
The cult leader, who had a Swastika etched between his eyebrows, spent the past four decades in prison - barely making a dent in his nine life-sentences.
Charles Milles Maddox was born on 12 November 1934 in Ohio to a 16-year-old, drug-addict prostitute mother.
He spent much of his early life in prison after being shunned by his mother Kathleen, who briefly married a man called William Manson.
"The only thing that my mother taught me was that everything that she said was a lie," he claimed.
It is thought he never met his father, a colonel.
In 1955, he moved to the land of promise California with a 17-year-old lover in tow, settling into a routine of theft and incarceration in San Francisco.
Manson was jailed for ten years for forgery and released in 1967 - the year before he orchestrated a killing frenzy that would scorch his name into history.
Caught in a swirl of hallucinogenic drugs, belief in the apocalypse, and an impending race war, the deluded narcissist recruited burned-out, malleable, middle-class followers.
The Family, as they became known, lived on isolated ranches - one in Death Valley - and grew drunk on Manson's claim to be a prophet sent to warn of the coming "Helter Skelter" ethnic conflict.
The charismatic visionary would pump his slavish followers with LSD and re-enact the crucifixion while they were tripping, former cult members said.
Whatever he believed, they would too.
On 9 August 1969, at Polanski's glitzy Los Angeles home, five people, including the heavily pregnant Sharon Tate, 26, were tied up and massacred by Family members.
They were stabbed collectively 102 times.
The horrifying episode was followed by a double-murder the following night of a supermarket executive and his wife; the two-day spree became known as the Tate/LaBianca killings.
Other celebrities including Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor and Steve McQueen were reportedly targets for The Family.
Speaking in a documentary, Manson said:
"When I stand on the mountain and I say do it! It gets done ..."
Manson thought if the murders were pinned on black people, an "eschatological race war" would follow, and with The Family safe in a subterranean layer, they could emerge as the only white people in the world and then rule over it.
The keen musician called the end-times episode the "Helter Skelter", after the song from The Beatles.
Follower Susan Atkins told an inmate they wanted to "do a crime that would shock the world".
The proceedings mesmerised the city of Los Angeles and made global headlines.
Manson released an album called Lie to raise money for his legal defence and arrived at hearings with an X carved on his forehead that later mutated into a Swastika.
Archive footage shows Charles Manson in court and being led through prison after his conviction pic.twitter.com/yhLb0dSbAK
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) November 20, 2017
After a seven-month trial, Manson and four followers were convicted and received the death penalty in 1971; yet a year later the penalty was temporarily abolished and the sentences changed to life imprisonment.
He showed no remorse for his crimes.
Speaking to journalist Diane Sawyer for a documentary, Manson said: "I see blood in here every day ... I've lived it all my life, woman. That don't wrinkle up my forehead.
"You could pile up 100 dead bodies in front of my cell and it don't set me to do nothing."
At its height, The Family reportedly had around 100 members and was a mix of both men and women.
Manson was married twice and had at least two children, although the real figure could be higher.
A besotted woman, Afton Burton, dated Manson when he was in jail, and applied for a marriage licence when she was 26 and he was 80 in 2014 - although it expired.
After months of failing health, he died from natural causes at Kern County Hospital in Bakersfield, California at 8.13pm on Sunday.
Where Manson's cult followers are now:
Charles 'Tex' Watson
Watson, 71, described himself as Manson's "right hand man".
On 9 August 1969, he and three female accomplices murdered actress Sharon Tate and four visitors at her Beverly Hills home.
The following night, they killed a couple, Leno and Rosemary La Bianca, at their Los Angeles home.
Watson remains in prison in California after repeatedly being denied parole.
He became a minister in 1981, taking a path similar to some other ex-Manson Family members who also turned to Christianity.
Susan Atkins
Atkins, who took part in several of the slayings including those at the Tate residence and who wrote "Pig" in blood on a house wall, died of brain cancer in a California prison in 2009 at age 61.
Atkins had been denied a request to be freed on parole as the fatal illness took hold.
Patricia Krenwinkel
Krenwinkel, 69, who took part in the murders of the La Biancas and at the Tate residence, has become California's longest-serving woman prisoner.
In June, commissioners again denied parole for Krenwinkel, after a six-month inquiry to look into allegations that she had been abused by Manson or someone else, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Leslie Van Houten
Van Houten, 68, is serving a life sentence for taking part in the murders of the La Biancas. Last year, California Governor Jerry Brown overturned a parole board recommendation that she should be released, saying that Van Houten still posed an "unreasonable danger to society".
In September, the parole board again granted her parole, which started a 150-day review process that will likely culminate in a final decision by Brown.
Lynette 'Squeaky' Fromme
Fromme, 69, was a member of the Manson Family and attended Manson's trial.
In 1975, she was tackled by a Secret Service agent after she aimed a pistol at then President Gerald Ford.
Convicted of attempted assassination, she was sentenced to life in prison.
She was paroled in 2009 and moved to Marcy in New York state, according to the New York Post.
Bruce Davis
Davis, 75, was sentenced to life in prison for the 1969 murders of music teacher Gary Hinman and stunt man Donald "Shorty" Shea.
Brown has repeatedly overturned recommendations by the California parole board that Davis should be freed.
Robert (Bobby) Beusoleil
Beusoleil, 70, is serving a life sentence for the 1969 murder of Hinman.
A California parole board last denied his bid on 14 October 2016. He will be eligible for a hearing again in 2019.
