Netflix’s ‘Conversations With a Killer’ Takes on Charles Manson Tapes Next
Netflix’s Conversations With a Killer series continues for its fifth and final iteration. This time, the true-crime docuseries will focus on Charles Manson, the notorious cult leader whose “Manson Family” members killed at least nine people.
Conversations With a Killer: The Charles Manson Tapes from Joe Berlinger will head to the streamer soon, and here’s everything to know about it.
When does Conversations With a Killer: The Charles Manson Tapes premiere?
The docuseries will premiere on Wednesday, August 12, on Netflix.
What is Conversations With a Killer: The Charles Manson Tapes about?
Like the other installments of the Conversations series, the show will focus on recordings and other documents centered on its titular subject: Charles Manson.
“Drawing on previously unreleased prison recordings, firsthand accounts, and archival footage, this documentary series traces Charles Manson’s rise as a cult leader, the 1969 murders that followed, and the media spectacle of his trial. The series features interviews with former Manson Family members and law enforcement alongside recorded phone calls with Manson himself,” the description tells us.
Netflix
Berlinger added of this chapter, “As we bring Conversations with a Killer to a close, I wanted our final season to focus on the figure who, more than anyone else, ushered in the modern era of America’s fascination with true crime. While Charles Manson isn’t a traditional serial killer like Bundy, Gacy, Dahmer, or the Son of Sam, his crimes fundamentally changed the way the media covered violence and the way the public consumed it. Rather than adding to the mythology surrounding Manson, our goal was to examine the systems of manipulation and control he created, while centering the voices of those who lived through it and continue to grapple with its aftermath. Their firsthand accounts — along with remarkable archival material, including never-before-heard prison phone recordings of Manson himself — offer a fresh perspective on one of the defining criminal cases of the twentieth century. It felt like the right story with which to conclude one of Netflix’s longest-running true crime documentary series.”
Check out a sampling of what the series will offer, including some of the interviews with former “family” members, in the trailer above.
What else is there to know about Conversations With a Killer: The Charles Manson Tapes?
This is the fifth and last installment in Berlinger’s Conversations series, following the 2019 debut with The Ted Bundy Tapes, 2022’s The John Wayne Gacy Tapes and The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes, and the 2025 addition of The Son of Sam Tapes.
Conversations With a Killer: The Charles Manson Tapes, August 12, Netflix
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