The Manson Murders and the End of the Sixties

Unraveling a More Complex Reality

The Manson Family murders in August 1969 are often described as the symbolic end of the 1960s, a brutal closing chapter to a decade that had been marked by idealism, social upheaval, and a spirit of countercultural rebellion.

The horrific violence of the Tate-LaBianca murders seemed to cast a dark shadow over the peace and love ethos that had defined much of the 1960s, and many cultural commentators and historians have pointed to those events as the moment when the optimism of the era was irreversibly shattered. However, this popular narrative oversimplifies a much more complex series of cultural and social shifts that were already well underway by the time Charles Manson and his followers struck. In fact, the ‘Sixties,’ as a cultural era, was a far shorter and more specific period than the full ten years usually assigned to it, and its decline had already begun before Manson’s violence made headlines.

An April 1968 mugshot of Charles Manson, arrested with members of his Family for public indecency

The “Sixties” as a Short-Lived Cultural Moment

While we often think of the 1960s as a cohesive decade of rebellion, radicalism, and social change, the actual cultural moment that…