His followers were using mind altering drugs and Charley was a megalomaniacal sociopath. Not much else to it than that.
Exactly, but it is more than that.
Lots of people use mind altering drugs, and there are a bunch of sociopaths out there, but it is not likely that many people on LSD could be convinced to do that, or even be in a cult.
My point is that, the system will usually identify people like Manson, and take some kind of measures through incarnation or the mental health system.
But the system cannot identify the middle upper class suburban kid that would commit such violence.
I have worked with some very, very violent people. Not just your typical murderers and rapists, but people people that have tortured and people that have murdered with an axe.
Some from the moment you meet them, you can tell they are absolutely insane. There are others that are so damn normal that they blended into society to an almost invisibility.
Those are the ones that scare me.