- Charles Manson: I never went to school, so I never learned to read or write too good. And I stayed in jail, and I stayed stupid... and I stayed a child while I watched your world grow up. And then I look at what you do, and I don't understand. You eat meat... and you kill things that are better than you are. And then you say how bad, or even killers, your children are... these children that come at you with knives... they're your children. You taught 'em, I didn't teach 'em. I just tried to help 'em stand up. The people you call my family, they're people you didn't want. People alongside the road that their parents kicked out... so I took 'em to my garbage dump and I fed 'em. I taught them that love is no wrong! I can't dislike you, but I can say this to you... it's not going to be long before you kill yourselves, because you're all crazy. And you can project it back on me, but I am only what lives inside each and every one of you. My father's a jailhouse... my father's your system. I'm a reflection of you... I'm what you made me! I've ate out of your garbage cans to stay out of jail. I've worn your second-hand clothes. I've tried my best to get along in your world. And now you say you want to kill me? And I look at you, and I say to myself: "You want to kill me?" I'm already dead, I have been all my life! I've spent 23 years in tombs that you built! Sometimes, I want to give it all back to you! Sometime, I just want to jump back at you and let you shoot me! If I could, I would grab this microphone and beat your brains out with it because that's what you deserve, that's what you deserve! These children... everything they've done, they've done for love of brother! Is that a conspiracy? Is it a conspiracy that the music is telling the youth to rise up against the establishment because the establishment is rapidly destroying things? Is that a conspiracy? The music speaks to you everyday, but you're too deaf, dumb and blind to listen! It's not my conspiracy, it's not my music! I hear what it relates, it says 'rise', it says 'kill'! Why blame it on me? I didn't write the music! How can you blame what YOU do on your children? And what about your children, huh? What about 'em? You say they're just a few? Well, they're many many more... and they're running in the streets, they're all running in the same direction, they're running right at you!
- Vincent Bugliosi: Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, Sharon Tate... Jay Sebring... Voytek Frykowski... Abigail Folger... Steven Parent... Leno LaBianca... and Rosemary LaBianca are not here with us right now in this courtroom. But from their graves, they cry out for justice! And justice can only be served by you returning to this courtroom with a verdict of guilty.
- Charles Manson: [after his sentencing, to Bugliosi] I don't got no hard feelings.
- Vincent Bugliosi: Thank you, Charlie.
- Charles Manson: You done a remarkable job. You gave me a fair trial, just like you promised. And I ain't bitter about having to go back in. It's always been my home, anyhow.
- Vincent Bugliosi: What about death, Charlie?
- Charles Manson: What about it? I told you, I'm already dead! And while I'm waiting around to take the other form, I got steady chow. It ain't great, but it's better than garbage. And I don't gotta work if I don't want to, so I got plenty of time to play my guitar. You know, you beat a man with a whip, and he likes the whip... you're just making a fool of yourself, partner!
- Vincent Bugliosi: Aren't you going to miss the girls?
- Charles Manson: I don't need broads. There's plenty of sex in prison.
- Vincent Bugliosi: Tell me... you still think the black man's gonna take over?
- Charles Manson: I might have put a clog in that one.
- Vincent Bugliosi: In other words, the trial alerted Whitey.
- Charles Manson: [nods] Yeah. But I almost did it, didn't I? I almost pulled it off... I almost made it, huh?
- Vincent Bugliosi: No, Charlie. You weren't even close. You killed some people, that's what you did. You accomplished murder. You took a bunch of sad kids... human fluff. And you played jailhouse games with them. That's it, Charlie... you're not even important anymore.
- [Bugliosi gathers his papers and the bailiffs lead Manson away]
- Vincent Bugliosi: [narrating] On February 18, 1972, the California Supreme Court voted to abolish the death penalty in the state of California. The death sentences of the convicted killers of the Manson family were automatically reduced to life imprisonment. Manson himself becomes eligible to apply for parole in 1978.