Why is TV so obsessed with Charles Manson?

New York Post

Manson, who died last night at age 83, is still relevant on TV and in pop-culture 48 years after his notorious killings. CBS made two Helter Skelter movies about Manson — one in 1976 starring Steve Railsback and one in 2004 starring Jeremy Davies. In recent years, Manson has been a subject in TV series like Aquarius, American Horror Story: Cult and even Mad Men. In March, when ABC News scheduled a Charles Manson special, Michael Starr tried to find out why Manson was “homicide’s go-to guy" on television. Starr asked former Manson actor Railsback, who sent a good luck note to Davies. “They’ve done so many things on him so many times, and I’m going, ‘Why is that?’” said Railsback. “I don’t know what it is.” ALSO: Hollywood and pop-culture often used Manson as “a hackneyed shortcut to outrage.”