Updated 10.55am - Added video

Cult leader Charles Manson, whose followers killed actress Sharon Tate and six others in 1969, has died. He was 83.

A spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections said Manson died of natural causes on Sunday night.

The gory slayings horrified the world and revealed a violent underbelly of a counterculture that preached peace and love.

The killings occurred on successive August nights and terrorised the city of Los Angeles.

Tate, who was nearly nine months pregnant, was found stabbed repeatedly in her Hollywood mansion, along with several of her friends. Other victims included coffee heiress Abigail Folger and celebrity hair stylist Jay Sebring.

The next night a wealthy couple was killed in a similar fashion.

Investigators learned Manson sent a group of disaffected young followers to commit murder as part of a twisted, quasi-religious belief that it would launch a race war.

* The powers of manipulation that Manson used on his followers were honed in prison when he took a class based on "How to Win Friends and Influence People," the 1936 book by self-help guru Dale Carnegie, according to the biography "Manson."

* Hoping to boost his music career, Manson became friends with Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson and producer Terry Melcher. He later became upset with Melcher, who was the son of actress Doris Day, because he did not make a record with him. The first round of murders by Manson's followers occurred in the house where Melcher had previously lived.

* Before the killings, the Beach Boys recorded a song Manson wrote titled "Never Learn Not to Love." Later, Guns N' Roses recorded his "Look at Your Game Girl" and Marilyn Manson, whose stage name was partly inspired by the killer, used lyrics from Manson's "Mechanical Man" in his song "My Monkey." Trent Reznor, front man for the band Nine Inch Nails, lived in the house where the Tate murders occurred.

* Manson was anything but a model prisoner after his conviction in the Tate-LaBianca murders. He was involved in frequent fights, set his mattress on fire, was disciplined for possessing weapons and selling drugs to inmates and often refused to participate in rehabilitation programs or psychiatric evaluation. He suffered serious burns in 1984 when an inmate set him on fire.

* According to movie lore, Anthony Hopkins studied videotapes of Manson in preparation for his role Hannibal Lecter in "Silence of the Lambs," but Hopkins denied it.

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