How Angela Lansbury Saved Her Daughter From Charles Manson & Heroin Addiction

Angela Lansbury, who died on Tuesday at the age of 96, revealed in a 2014 interview how she saved her daughter Deirdre Shaw from heroin addiction.

She said that Deirdre and her brother Anthony Shaw have begun abusing hard drugs in the 1960s when Charles Manson was recruiting kids for his murder cult.

“It pains me to say it but, at one stage, Deidre was in with a crowd led by Charles Manson,” Lansbury told the Daily Mail. “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.”

According to Lansbury, her daughter was fascinated by Manson’s “charismatic” personality. “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,” she continued.

In order to protect her children from the criminal, she decided to move her whole family from Los Angeles to Ireland.

“I said to [husband] Peter, ‘We have to leave.’” said Lansbury. “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.”

According to Lansbury, that was a wonderful time in her life. She has a house there which she would try to visit at least once a year.

“We were so very, very lucky we spotted what was happening just in time,” she said.