CALGARY—James Buddy Day was at an Applebee’s in small-town Florida in 2016 when Charles Manson called him for the first time.

Day was nervous and didn’t know what to ask the convicted killer first. He didn’t want to jump straight into the murders, but Manson brought it up himself.

“He just paused. And he was like, ‘You know, I had nothing to do with killing those people.’ And he started talking about the Sharon Tate murders. And I was just like, ‘This is crazy.’ ”

They talked for 15 minutes that day — as much time as Manson was allowed to use the phone in the California prison where he was serving a life sentence for his role in the deaths of nine people, including actress Sharon Tate.

Over the next year, Day spoke with Manson many times. Sometimes, Manson would call several times a day, or a few times a week. Sometimes a month would pass between calls. Every conversation could have been the last, but Manson kept calling Day until he died in November 2017.

Those calls became the basis for Day’s documentary Manson: The Final Words, which came out in December 2017, the month after Manson died. But there were hundreds of hours of interviews Day wanted to share with the world — far more than he could fit into a documentary. So he decided to write a book chronicling his yearlong phone correspondence with the convicted murderer and cult leader.

Hippie Cult Leader: The Last Words of Charles Manson, which comes out August 8 — the 50th anniversary of the Tate murders — tells the Manson story nobody has ever told, says Day.

“What I learned is that the Manson story that people think they know is not true,” he said.

‘You could actually talk to a serial killer’

Day is a writer, director and producer of true crime shows who grew up in Calgary. He started off as a nursing student before doing a master’s degree in counselling psychology. Finding himself drawn to deviant psychology, Day decided to pursue a career in television and realized he had a knack for telling true crime stories. In his 15-year career, the last five or so years have been spent exclusively on true crime documentaries and television shows on figures like Casey Anthony, Slenderman, and of course Manson, about whom he’s made three documentaries.

Day was introduced to the Manson story by his mother, a writer who loves true crime. He remembers picking up her copy of Helter Skelter, a wildly popular book by Manson prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry that paints Manson as a “dark messiah” obsessed with the Beatles who started a cult.

“It was a fascinating, harrowing story that always kind of stuck with me,” said Day.

Charles Manson was an American criminal, often called a cult leader, whose “family” of followers killed nine people in 1969. Five were killed by Manson's followers at the home of Tate and director Roman Polanski, who was not home at the time. Two more were killed the next day. Manson was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. He was also convicted of first-degree murder in the deaths of two other men. Manson was convicted in 1971 and has since become a popular figure in true crime, especially as some of his followers continued to profess their devotion to him.

In 2016, while working on another documentary, Day met people who had spoken to Manson, some of whom believed he was innocent.

“I thought that was crazy … I thought that would be just a phenomenal documentary,” he said. The idea that “you could actually talk to a serial killer” struck him, and he decided to try it himself. He sent Manson a few letters and included his cellphone number.

But when the first call actually came, Day was shocked. He and his colleague dashed out of the restaurant to take the call so quickly that the waitress thought they were skipping out on their bill.

The director thought that first call was his only chance to talk to Manson. But the next day, he called again.

“I thought this would just be a great story I’ll tell at parties,” said Day. “Then he called me again.”

The calls kept coming, and gave Day insight into Manson’s world, leading him to believe the stories that had been told about the cult leader, especially the narrative popularized by Helter Skelter, weren’t painting the full picture.

Day was in the final couple of weeks of the Final Words documentary when Manson died. He rushed to finish what became a documentary about the last year of the infamous criminal’s life.

“It was just surreal,” he said.

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‘He gave people what they wanted’

Though Day feels like he got to know Manson during that year, the prisoner told him “unequivocally” that they were not friends. He was unpredictable — sometimes he would call and just rant for fifteen minutes, almost indecipherable, but other conversations were perfectly civil.

“I never knew what I was going to get,” said Day.

Manson’s trick, Day explains, was to be the person people wanted or expected him to be — this was his way of manipulating them. He would present a “crazy” personality to reporters who came to interview him in prison, but could also be kind, fatherly or convincing.

“He gave people what they wanted,” said Day. “There was a lot of method to his madness.”

Ultimately, though, Day began to feel that the story of Manson as a mastermind cult leader wasn’t quite true. The reality, he says, was much more disorganized.

“Manson was certainly the catalyst for all these things,” said Day, but he calls the idea that he orchestrated everything “a misconception.”

But in the 50 years since the murders, Day believes Manson’s story has been told — and often dramatized and embellished — so many times that most people aren’t clear on what exactly happened.

“The Manson story has become mythology. Like, it’s folklore at this point,” said Day. “So if you think that the Manson story is that an insane dark messianic guru was wandering around in the ’60s, and recruited teenagers into a cult, and became obsessed with the Beatles and wanted to start a race war so he indoctrinated his followers to murder people … none of that is true.”

Day said the Manson story has become part of American culture, in part because it embodies a particular time period, albeit a dark perversion of it. These are the hallmarks of any criminal who becomes a pop culture fascination, he said.

“There’s just so much to it that really embodies the 1960s in America,” he said. “And then it all culminates in this horribly tragic outcome ... I mean, it’s got everything.”

Throughout his time talking to Manson and those around him, Day realized the story was like a big puzzle, where every person held one piece. Nobody, not even Manson himself, has the full story, he says.

Does Day feel like he got the real story? No, but “I think I’ve come pretty close.”

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