'NAIVE AND VULNERABLE': Charles Manson's youngest follower explains why she joined cult
Aidan Wallace
Published:
November 7, 2019
Updated:
November 7, 2019 11:48 PM EST
This file handout photo shows inmate Charles Manson on Aug. 14, 2017. HANDOUT / AFP/Getty Images
Why did she follow Charles Manson and then turn on him?
That’s the question Dianne Lake, the youngest follower of Manson’s cult, said in an interview on the Dr. Oz Show.
“I was very vulnerable. I just wanted a place to feel like I belonged,” Lake told Dr. Oz.
“At 14, we really are extremely naive and vulnerable.”
Lake described Manson as “just another guru leader of a commune,” telling Dr. Oz she never suspected he and the cult would be capable of committing the horrific murders.
His charismatic personality is one reason the cult leader was able to build up such a following.
“He (Manson) had this uncanny ability to become whoever we needed, and he could read our weaknesses and where we were broken, and he could fill in the gaps,” Lake said.
When Manson found Lake at the age of 14, “he was a fun-loving, and kind of playful, and impish,” she said, adding, he was a “good lover.”
“He made me feel like a woman.”
When Lake began to slowly discover the grisly truth of his involvement with the murders being carried out by the cult, she started to lose faith in the world he had created for her.
Dr. Oz asked Lake what event caused her to change her mind.
“He took me into this little gypsy caravan and sodomized me and said, ‘That’s the way we do it in prison.’ I never trusted him after that.”
Things became worse during the Manson Family’s murder spree in the summer of ’69 when Lake discovered how involved the cult members were with the crimes.
“I came into the campground and he (Tex Watson) had a newspaper with the headlines about the Tate-LaBianca murders,” she said.
“He slapped it and said, ‘I did this.’ Charlie told me to.”
http://torontosun.com/news/world/na...oungest-follower-explains-why-she-joined-cult
Aidan Wallace
Published:
November 7, 2019
Updated:
November 7, 2019 11:48 PM EST
This file handout photo shows inmate Charles Manson on Aug. 14, 2017. HANDOUT / AFP/Getty Images
Why did she follow Charles Manson and then turn on him?
That’s the question Dianne Lake, the youngest follower of Manson’s cult, said in an interview on the Dr. Oz Show.
“I was very vulnerable. I just wanted a place to feel like I belonged,” Lake told Dr. Oz.
“At 14, we really are extremely naive and vulnerable.”
Lake described Manson as “just another guru leader of a commune,” telling Dr. Oz she never suspected he and the cult would be capable of committing the horrific murders.
His charismatic personality is one reason the cult leader was able to build up such a following.
“He (Manson) had this uncanny ability to become whoever we needed, and he could read our weaknesses and where we were broken, and he could fill in the gaps,” Lake said.
When Manson found Lake at the age of 14, “he was a fun-loving, and kind of playful, and impish,” she said, adding, he was a “good lover.”
“He made me feel like a woman.”
When Lake began to slowly discover the grisly truth of his involvement with the murders being carried out by the cult, she started to lose faith in the world he had created for her.
Dr. Oz asked Lake what event caused her to change her mind.
“He took me into this little gypsy caravan and sodomized me and said, ‘That’s the way we do it in prison.’ I never trusted him after that.”
Things became worse during the Manson Family’s murder spree in the summer of ’69 when Lake discovered how involved the cult members were with the crimes.
“I came into the campground and he (Tex Watson) had a newspaper with the headlines about the Tate-LaBianca murders,” she said.
“He slapped it and said, ‘I did this.’ Charlie told me to.”
