OXNARD, Aug. 8 – It was more than 26 years ago, but Ventura County Sheriff’s Cmdr. Bill Wade clearly recalls his first meeting with Charles Manson.

“His physical appearance was bizarre. His hair was unkempt and his eyes were wild and soporific. The control he had over young people was unbelievable. It was like they were under a hypnotic spell,” he said.

Wade was working as a traffic officer in Camarillo when he backed up deputy Don Hughes, who had stopped Manson’s brightly colored bus for a traffic violation.

Manson was en route to court in Camarillo after being arrested April 22 in a canyon of the Santa Monica Mountains in the Point Mugu area on suspicion of child endangerment, Wade recalled. The charge was later dismissed.

Deputies were on routine patrol when they found the Manson “family” huddling nude in the weeds under blankets after their bus got stuck near Pacific Coast Highway and Deer Creek Road.

The group — five men and nine young women — were traveling from San Francisco to Los Angeles at the time.

Manson’s booking photograph left a seemingly eerie memory among deputies of the man who would become one of the country’s most notorious mass murderers.

The photograph, taken by retired sheriff’s Lt. Michael Pitts, was used on the front page of Life Magazine and by Vincent Bugliosi in his best selling book, “Helter Skelter.”

Bugliosi prosecuted Manson and his clan.

It was 25 years ago that Manson and his family shocked the world with the gruesome murders on Aug. 9, 1969, at Sharon Tate’s mansion in the fashionable Benedict Canyon area of Los Angeles.

By RICK NIELSEN