Angela Lansbury’s Startling Connection to Charles Manson
Angela Lansbury was known for her iconic roles like in Murder, She Wrote and the animated Beauty and the Beast, but she was also a fierce mother.
In fact, the legendary performer's two children were once associated with the Manson Familt, prompting Lansbury to take drastic measures for their safety.
In a 2014 interview with The Daily Mail, Lansbury detailed how she previously saved her kids from becoming entangled with the infamous 1960s cult led by Charles Manson.
Lansbury revealed her two children, who were teens at the time, had fallen into the Manson crowd and started using drugs.
"It started with cannabis but moved on to heroin," she shared.
"It pains me to say it but, at one stage, [daughter] Deidre was in with a crowd led by Charles Manson," the star added.
Lansbury said the cult leader's "charismatic personality" was what "fascinated" her young daughter.
According to Grunge, the book Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson revealed Lansbury's daughter had been using her mother's credit cards for shopping sprees on behalf of Manson. The cult leader had even picked Deidre up from school several times.
When Lansbury realized what was going on, she made the decision to uproot her family and move them all the way from Los Angeles, Calif., to Ireland, where her own mother was from.
"I said to [husband] Peter [Shaw], 'We have to leave,'" Lansbury continued, adding, "So we upped sticks and moved the family to a house I found in County Cork. I was drawn to Ireland because it was the birthplace of my mother and it was also somewhere my children wouldn't be exposed to any more bad influences."
Due to the move, Lansbury took the year off from acting to help her family get back on their feet.
Due to Lansbury's drastic measures, her children not only got sober but also escaped the infamous 1969 Manson family murder spree that killed nine people, including Valley of the Dolls actress Sharon Tate.
Lansbury said the thought of her kids being caught up in the Manson murders "filled her with dread."
"We were so very, very lucky we spotted what was happening just in time," she shared.
Lansbury passed away Tuesday (Oct. 11). She was 96.