Charles Manson’s Youngest Cult Member Breaks Her Silence On Savage Killer
Oct. 18 2017, Published 7:40 p.m. ET
Dianne Lake, who helped send twisted madman Charles Manson and his murderous followers to prison, is breaking her silence on her time in the infamous Manson cult in her new book Member of the Family.
Lake was just 14 in 1967 when Manson took over her life after her parents, counterculture hippies, emancipated her and told his flock to watch over her.
“I needed to feel like I belonged somewhere,” wrote Lake in her book, which was excerpted in People. “Charles perceived that from the get-go.”
Lake writes how Manson managed to seduce her by making her feel special in the beginning.
“You are so beautiful, my little one,” she recalled him saying. “His voice was barely a whisper, but I heard it reverberate through my consciousness. We had only smoked pit, but I felt as if I were on a trip, his trip, and he was guiding my every move.”
“He took time to explore my body…Charlie was offering me more than sex. He told me I should forgive my parents and give up my inhibitions. He made it clear he wanted me to be part of the group; his group. It felt as if there was no turning back.”
Lake writes in horrific detail of how she learned about Sharon Tate and supermarket executive Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary’s brutal murder in 1969 from her fellow cult members.
Manson devotee Patty Krenwinkel, who was again denied the chance for parole last summer was just one Manson devotee to recount parts of the gruesome murders to Lake.
“I listened to her talk about the blood and how she dragged a woman, later determined to be Abigail Folger, from her bedroom to the living room,” Lake recalled of learning about the Tate killings.
“After she had stabbed her, the woman got up to run and Patty said she chased her out of the house and tackled her. She then stabbed her until she saw the life leave her eyes.”
“I stared at them, speechless and shocked but doing my best not to reveal my feelings,” said Lake of hearing the gory stories.
In 1970, following the arrests of the cult family, Lake spent time in a psychiatric facility.
She was successfully deprogrammed and, at 17, testified against Manson and his murderous followers for their savage crimes.
Lake eventually went to live with an officer who had worked the case and his wife, and she was able to finally move on with her life.
“He showed himself for what he really was and still is: a scruffy little man with an enormous ego who thought the rules didn’t apply to him,” wrote Lake of Manson, who is now 82 and serving multiple life sentences for .
“He was a fake, a fraud, a pimp, and a con artist. And now I was truly free of him.”
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