McNeil Island

So in 1960, when he was 25, a court ordered him to serve the 10 years it had suspended.

He served most of it at McNeil Island, a federal penitentiary in Washington State.

In prison, Manson took a Dale Carnegie self-improvement course, which was basically just content from How to Win Friends and Influence People.

He also picked up Scientology from another inmate.

So in 1960, when he was 25, a court ordered him to serve the 10 years it had suspended.

He served most of it at McNeil Island, a federal penitentiary in Washington State.

In prison, Manson took a Dale Carnegie self-improvement course, which was basically just content from How to Win Friends and Influence People.

He also picked up Scientology from another inmate, and most importantly, he asked an older prisoner to teach him the guitar.

He served just over two years, and he's released in 1958.

Then he ends up at the United States Penitentiary at McNeil Island in Washington State.

He's sentenced to 10 years in 1960 for forging a federal treasury check and violating the Mann Act.

He served seven years here, famously begging prison officials to let him stay because he felt unfit for the outside world.

All of those clues can help scientists figure out what happened.

So the whale was moved from the port of Tacoma to nearby McNeil Island, where scientists could safely examine her.

And that's where the tugboat from our other episode comes into the story.

Imagine that for a second.

A tugboat traveling through the Puget Sound, pulling a 67-foot whale behind it.

Eventually, the whale reached McNeil Island, and that's where scientists began looking for clues.

What did they discover? Here's the sad part of our story.

Scientists found evidence that the whale had been alive when the vessel struck her.

As the launch continued towards Seattle, Tracy remained armed and watchful.

At one point, as they passed McNeil Island Federal Penitentiary, he asked Captain Clark to pull in as close as possible so he could shoot any guard he saw.

Luckily, the crew talked him out of it, saying that it probably wasn't the best idea and Tracy decided they were right.

Clark wanted the trip over as quickly as possible.

But becoming a father didn't change Charles.

By 1961, the 26-year-old was back in prison, this time at the federal penitentiary at McNeil Island, Washington.

He'd been sentenced to 10 years for forging a treasury check, and that's where Charles Manson really came into his own.

By that point, he'd been in jail or institutionalized for most of his life, and he'd had a lot of time to reflect, not on where he'd gone wrong, but on who had wronged him.

The cops there sent him back to California for violating parole on the check cashing charge and he was ordered to serve his original 10-year sentence.

He was now doing time at the federal penitentiary at McNeil Island in Washington, and while there was taught to play guitar by Alvin Creepy Karpis, the former leader of the Barker gang.

He put Charlie on the path to what he came to believe was his real purpose in life, rock star.

Charlie was released from prison again on March 21st, 1967.