Vincent Bugliosi, prosecutor in Charles Manson case, dead at 80

LOS ANGELES, June 9 (UPI) -- Famed author and former Los Angeles District Attorney credited for putting cult leader Charles Manson and his murderous followers behind bars, Vincent Bugliosi, has died of cancer. He was 80 years old.

His wife, Gail, told the Los Angeles Times that the cancer he survived three years ago returned and metastasized. He is survived by Gail and their two children.

Bugliosi gained worldwide notoriety after successfully convicting Manson, the mastermind behind the high-profile 1969 murders of actress Sharon Tate and four others, followed by Rosemary and Leno LaBianca the following night.

Tate, who was almost nine months pregnant with her and celebrity husband Roman Polanski's baby, reportedly begged for her life before being killed by Manson's "family" on Aug. 9, 1969. The other four with her were hairstylist Jay Sebring, family friend Voytek Frykowski, coffee heiress Abigail Folger and friend of the caretaker, Steven Parent.

"Every member of his family, before they met him, had already dropped off society," Bugliosi said of Manson following in an interview with CBS last year. "He reprogrammed them to be his slaves and to be his followers. So I would say that sex, drugs and sermonizing to his family on a day-to-day basis were the main techniques that he used to gain control."

After the trial -- which landed Manson in prison for life -- Bugliosi became the co-author of a true crime book about the sensational trial following the Helter Skelter murders, a term taken from a Beatles record and redefined by Manson who had the words written in blood on the walls of his crime scenes.

Bugliosi also went on to write books covering a variety of topics from the Iraq war (The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder) to the existence of God (Divinity of Doubt: God and Atheism on Trial). He told the LA Times in 1994, however, that "No matter what I do, I'll be forever known as the Manson prosecutor."