Manson Has Endured As The Face Of Evil For Nearly 50 Years

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Other killers snuffed out far more lives than Charles Manson did in 1969. Yet Manson has endured for nearly a half century as the personification of evil, even in an age in which mass shootings leave dozens dead at a time.

Manson, the hippie cult leader who died Sunday at 83, horrified America a generation ago with the way he seemed to have turned young people murderously against everything their parents cherished.

That horror continued long after he was locked up, in large part because of the demonic image that crime experts say he cultivated with his bizarre behavior and searing, wild-eyed gaze.

James Alan Fox, a criminology professor in Boston, says Manson had a "maniacal look."