Charles Manson Did Unthinkable Things in Jail - Danny Trejo

Danny Trejo shares his personal experience meeting Charles Manson in county jail, painting a very different picture from the media portrayal. He describes Manson as a small, scrawny man around 5'4" or 5'5" who was so poor he used string as a belt and looked like a bum. Despite his unimposing appearance, other inmates discovered Manson could hypnotize people, so they protected him by letting him sleep in front of their cell. Trejo recounts how Manson hypnotized him and other cellmates to experience drug highs without any actual substances - first marijuana, then heroin. The hypnosis was so effective that Trejo and another inmate experienced physical symptoms like red eyes and vomiting, exactly as they would from real heroin use. One cellmate couldn't be hypnotized into a heroin high because he had never experienced it before, and Manson explained that the mind needs to know how to react for the hypnosis to work. Trejo notes that Manson was in jail for petty theft and wasn't considered dangerous at the time. He explains Manson's later success in manipulating his followers by describing how Manson targeted vulnerable, broken women in Oakland and San Francisco who had been abused by pimps. These women were already primed for someone to rescue them, making them susceptible to viewing Manson as a messiah figure when he appeared with a bus and drugs.