Newsweek
October 12, 2022
Angela Lansbury, who died on Tuesday at the age of 96, once moved her family from Los Angeles to Ireland to save her daughter, Deidre Shaw, from the clutches of infamous cult leader Charles Manson.
In 1971, Manson was given the death sentence for a series of brutal murders he had led his "family members," or cult followers, to commit, including the 1969 murder of pregnant screen star Sharon Tate, the wife of filmmaker Roman Polanski.
Manson did not physically participate in the murders, instead orchestrating his so-called "family" to kill for him. At the time of Manson's sentencing, the death penalty was legal in California, but by 1972, the death penalty was abolished in the state. Manson remained imprisoned until he died in 2017 at the age of 83, having been denied parole 12 times.
As news of Murder, She Wrote star Lansbury's death spread on Tuesday, a number of fans took to social media to share their
Writer and photographer Christopher Moloney wrote how Manson's influence on her daughter's life partially led to her making a major life-decision.
"Angela Lansbury told a story about her daughter falling under the spell of a Hollywood deadbeat," Moloney tweeted. "He would pick the girl up from school and get her to steal money and food from her parents for him. Worried, Lansbury moved the entire family to Ireland. The guy was Charles Manson."
In a 2014 interview with U.K. newspaper the Daily Mail, London-born Lansbury said that she did relocate to County Cork for one year in the 1960s, to save her then-teenage daughter and her son, Anthony Shaw, from drug use.
"It started with cannabis but moved on to heroin," Lansbury said. "There were factions up in the hills above Malibu that were dedicated to deadly pursuits. It pains me to say it but, at one stage, Deidre was in with a crowd led by Charles Manson.
"She was one of many youngsters who knew him—and they were fascinated. He was an extraordinary character, charismatic in many ways, no question about it.
"I said to Peter [Shaw, husband], 'We have to leave,'" Lansbury added. "So we upped sticks and moved the family to a house I found in County Cork. I was drawn to Ireland because it was the birthplace of my mother, and it was also somewhere my children wouldn't be exposed to any more bad influences. [...]
"So I refused all work for a year and simply kept house. I bought Elizabeth David's books and learnt how to cook properly. It was a wonderful time in my life."
Discussing the path her children could have followed had she and her husband not intervened, Lansbury said: "It fills me with dread. Peter and I had no idea what had been going on. But then we had no experience of drugs.
"We didn't know the significance of finding a pipe in a drawer. Why would we? And when we did, we didn't know how to help them. Nor were there any experts back then who could offer advice to the parents of kids from good families who were using, and sometimes overdosing on, drugs. It was like an epidemic.
"Certainly, I have no doubt we would have lost one or both of our two if they hadn't been removed to a completely different milieu, the simplicity of life in Ireland," Lansbury said.
"In the end, we found a doctor who prescribed methadone, a heroin substitute, which helped with the withdrawal symptoms as Anthony and Deidre were weaned off hard drugs. We were so very, very lucky we spotted what was happening just in time."
https://www.newsweek.com/how-angela-lansbury-saved-her-daughter-charles-manson-cult-1751086
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