Biography Charles Manson was an American cult leader whose followers carried out several notorious murders in the late 1960s, resulting in his life imprisonment. He died in 2017 after spending more than four decades in prison.
Who Was Charles Manson?
Charles Manson was an American criminal who spearheaded a murderous campaign with his followers, the Manson Family cult, that would make him one of the most infamous figures in criminal history. Notorious for his connection to the brutal slayings of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and other Hollywood residents, Manson received the death penalty in 1971, a sentence that was commuted to life in prison the following year.
Early Life Manson was born Charles Milles Maddox on November 12, 1934, in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Kathleen Maddox, a 16-year-old girl who was both an alcoholic and a prostitute.
Kathleen later married William Manson, but the marriage ended quickly and Charles was placed in a boys school at age 12. Rejected in his attempts to return to his mother, Charles was soon living on the streets and getting by through petty crime. Over the next 20 years, Manson spent time in and out of reform schools and prisons for various crimes. He was released from prison on March 21, 1967, and moved to San Francisco.
The Manson Family Cult "The Family" was a group of around 100 follow-
ers of Manson who shared his passion for an unconventional lifestyle and habitual use of hallucinogenic drugs, such as LSD and magic mushrooms. The Manson Family eventually moved from San Francisco to a deserted ranch in the San Fernando Valley. Manson’s followers also included a small, hardcore unit of impressionable young girls. They began to believe, without question, Manson's claims that he was Jesus and his prophecies of a race war.
Charles Manson and "Helter Skelter" Manson was influenced not only by drugs, such as LSD, but by art works and music of the time, most notably The Beatles song "Helter Skelter," from their 1968 White Album. Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders was later the title of a best-selling book about Manson and his crimes written by Vincent Bugliosi. Paul McCartney has said that the playground slide in "Helter Skelter" was a metaphor for the rise and fall of the Roman Empire. Manson, however, interpreted the lyrics of "Helter Skelter" as incitation to begin a race war. He turned to the album and lyrics to justify his scheme and guide his followers to murder. Manson had a strong belief and interest in the notion of Armageddon from the Book of Revelations, and also explored the teachings of Scientology and more obscure cult churches, such as the Church of the Final Judgment.
In many ways, Manson reflected personality traits and obsessions that were associated with gurus of cult-quasi-religious groups that began to emerge in the 1960s. He was pathologically deluded into believing that he was the harbinger of doom regarding the planet's future.
The Manson-Beach Boys Connection
tiful people." The first of Manson’s victims was murdered at the home Polanski had rented, located at 10050 Cielo Drive in Benedict Canyon, an area just north of Beverly Hills. Polanski was away in London shooting a film., and the four victims had just returned home from dinner at the time of the murder.
Before Manson's famous murderous spree, Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys had allowed Manson and several members of his Family to stay at his home after picking up two female members of the Family who had been hitchhiking. It was through this association that Manson got the opportunity to audition for Terry Melcher, son of Doris Day and friend/producer of the popular 1960s band the Beach Boys, who was living at Polanski's house at the time. Melcher wasn't interested in signing a contract with Manson. Manson allegedly did record some music at Dennis's brother Brian Wilson's home studio. The Beach Boys released a song written by Manson entitled "Cease to Exist" (renamed "Never Learn Not to Love") on their 1969 album, 20/20, as a single B-side. READ MORE: Dennis Wilson and Charles Manson Had a Brief and Bizarre Friendship
Murders and Victims The Manson Family — including Manson and his young, loyal disciples — is thought to have carried out some 35 killings. Most of their cases were never tried, in part for lack of evidence. The perpetrators had also already been sentenced to life for the killings on August 9, 1969 (Tate, writer Wojciech Frykowski, his partner, coffee bean heiress Abigail Folger and celebrity hairstylist Jay Sebring) and two more victims on August 10, 1969 (wealthy supermarket executive Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary). In August 1969, Manson gathered a group of his most loyal Family followers to carry out his massacre among Hollywood's elite and "beau-
While Manson himself took no part in the actual killings, he directed four of his most obedient followers — Charles "Tex" Watson, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel and Linda Kasabian — to the address and directed them to kill everyone. According to one of the Family member's statements, the Polanski household had been targeted because it represented the showbiz world that had rejected Manson.
Steven Parent had been visiting his friend Garretson when he became the Manson Family’s first victim. As he drove away from the house in the dark early morning hours, he was spotted by the intruders and shot dead. Kasabian was horrified by the shooting of the boy, and she remained outside to keep watch. Kasabian acted as the getaway driver and was to become the star witness during the trial. When the other three broke into the house, they herded Tate, Frykowski, Folgers and Sebring into the living room and tied them up. Sebring was shot and brutally kicked as he tried to defend Tate. During the terrifying murder spree, both Frykowski and Folger managed to escape from the house but were chased and stabbed to death. At the trial, Kasabian described how she saw Frykowski staggering out of the house covered in blood and was horrified at the sight. She told him she was "sorry," but despite her pleas to his attacker to stop, the victim was bludgeoned repeatedly. Folger escaped from the house with terrible injuries but was caught on the front lawn and stabbed 28 times. Eight-months-pregnant Tate pleaded for the life of her unborn child. She was mercilessly stabbed in the stomach by Atkins. Kasabian told of Atkins's chilling words to Tate before she stabbed her: "Look, bitch, I have no mercy for you. You're going to die, and you'd better get used to it." Atkins then used Tate's blood to write the word "pig" on the front door. However, instead of this brutal massacre sating the pathological Manson, he criticized the murderers for being sloppy. The following night, Manson took Family members Watson, Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten to the Los Feliz address of the LaBiancas, and the couple was murdered in a similarly horrifying fashion.
Arrest and Trial
Ironically, Manson and his Family were arrested not on suspicion of the Tate-LaBianca murders, but simply on the belief that they had vandalized a portion of the Death Valley National Park while they were hiding out in the Mojave
Desert. In 1969, the county sheriff had taken them into custody, not realizing that they were involved in the heinous murders. But it was through the confession of Susan Atkins, while held in detention on suspicion of murdering Gary Hinman during an unrelated incident, that led detectives to realize that Manson and his followers were involved in the killings. Various motivations were examined during the course of the trial. The most feasible was that Manson's pathological ego, insanity and belief in Armageddon were influences that led him to leave behind a trail of destruction. Manson believed that he was the new Messiah, and that after a "nuclear attack" he and his followers would be saved by hiding in a secret world under the desert.
His prophetic visions included a belief that the race war would result in a black victory, and Manson along with his Family members would have to mentor the black community, as they would lack experience to run the planet. As Manson and the Family were to be the beneficiaries of the race war, he told his followers that they had to help initiate it. According to defense witness and killer Van Houten, this was the primary reason why they murdered the LaBiancas. Manson had taken the wallet of murdered Rosemary LaBianca with the intention that he would deposit it in a section of L.A. where an African American might find it, use it and then possibly have the murders pinned on them.
Later in court, Van Houten, who was just 19 when she took part in the LaBianca killings, alleged that Manson had taken advantage of her vulnerability and dislike for her mother, although she believed, like the other members, that he was a man of vision. Thirty years later, during a parole board hearing, Van Houten said she was horrified by what she had done that night and desperately wanted to redeem herself. She was denied parole in 2006 and again in 2010. Susan Atkins admitted in initial confessions to fellow prisoners that she had wanted to cut out Tate's unborn baby but didn't have the time. She also revealed that other grisly and macabre acts were to be perpetrated against the victims and that a list of other high-profile Hollywood stars were on a list to be killed and mutilated. These included Elizabeth Taylor and husband Richard Burton, Frank Sinatra, Steve McQueen and Tom Jones. When asked why they wanted to kill celebrities, Atkins replied that the Manson Family wanted to commit murders that would shock the world and make people take notice. The trial began in June 1970, with lawyer Ronald Hughes named the attorney for Manson and Van Houten. Hughes soon dropped Man-
son as a client, reportedly because he felt he could convince the jury that Van Houten had been unduly influenced by the Family leader. The move may have cost him his life: Late in the year, Hughes went camping and disappeared, and his decomposed body turned up several months later. It is thought that he was the victim of a retaliation killing by members of Manson's Family. During the trial, Manson released an album titled Lie in an effort to raise money for his defense. He reveled in the media attention, and during court proceedings he turned up with an X carved into his forehead. Some of his female followers copied the act and shaved their heads, sometimes sitting outside the courthouse. The X was gradually modified until it turned into a swastika. Throughout the trial, the killers often giggled and exchanged grimaces with Manson, showing no remorse for their crimes. On January 25, 1971, Manson was convicted of first-degree murder for directing the deaths of the Tate-LaBianca victims.
He was sentenced to death, but this was automatically commuted to life in prison after California's Supreme Court invalidated all death sentences prior to 1972. He was sentenced to life in prison and spent the next four decades behind bars. Kasabian was granted immunity for her part as star witness. Susan Atkins was sentenced to death, but her sentence was later commuted to life in prison. She was incarcerated from 1969 until her death in 2009.
Children and Wives
In 1955, between prison sentences, Manson married Rosalie Jean Willis, a 17-year-old hospital waitress. The couple moved to California and had a son, Charles Manson Jr., who committed suicide in the 1990s. By 1956, Willis had left with their child to be with her new lover, and she later divorced Manson. In 1959, Manson married a prostitute, Leona Rae “Candy� Stevens, with whom he had a second son, Charles Luther Manson. Stevens divorced Manson in 1963.
her mother disputed Simone's claims in a Rolling Stone story. Their marriage never did come to pass before Manson's death.
Death Manson died on November 19, 2017, of natural causes. He had been in prison for more than 40 years for his crimes. Days earlier, Manson had been admitted to a hospital in Bakersfield, California; however, no details about his medical condition or his location were disclosed, due to privacy and security reasons. The longtime prisoner had also been hospitalized earlier in the year. Manson had been serving time in Corcoran State Prison in California since 1971. In 2012, He was denied parole for the 12th time.
Posthumous Legal Battles
Girlfriend in Prison In a 2013 interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Afton Burton, who called herself Star, claimed that she and Manson were in a relationship, telling the reporter: "I'll tell you straight up, Charlie and I are going to get married. When that will be, we don't know. But I take it very seriously. Charlie is my husband. Charlie told me to tell you this." At the age of 19, Star had moved from Illinois to Corcoran, California, to be near the prison where Manson was incarcerated, and she also ran multiple websites aimed at securing his release. In November 2014, the 26-year-old Star and 80-year -old Manson obtained a marriage license. However, their marriage license expired in 2015, and allegations were made in February of that year by writer Daniel Simone that Star primarily intended to marry Manson so she could publicly display his corpse for profit after his death. Manson's wife Star later told Inside Edition the nuptials were still on, while
For around four months after Manson's death, the Kern County Superior Court of California sought to determine who had the right to claim the notorious cult leader's body. Four people expressed interest, including two who claimed to be his son, one who demonstrated he was a grandson and a fourth who said he was a longtime pen pal. The matter was further complicated by the submission of competing wills.In March 2018, the court awarded Manson's body to his grandson, Jason Freeman, the only child of Charles Manson Jr. A resident of Bradenton, Florida, Freeman told a local news channel he planned to cremate his grandfather's body and scatter the ashes in an undisclosed location.
Still, just a teenager, in 1951 Manson began spending time in prison. Early on, before he discovered the benefits of being a "model prisoner," he was considered dangerous. He would eventually spend half of the first 32 years of his life behind bars. Manson was described by probation reports as suffering from a "marked degree of rejection, instability and psychic trauma" and "constantly striving for status and securing some kind of love." Other descriptions included "unpredictable" and "safe only under supervision." From 1958, Manson was in and out of jail for a variety of offenses, including pimping and passing stolen checks, and he was sent to McNeil Island prison in Washington State for 10 years. It was while he was incarcerated that Manson learned how to read music and play the guitar.
Gruesome And Shocking Facts About The Tate Murders This list contains disturbing crime scene images.] On August 8th, 1969, Charles Manson ordered four
cult members—Tex Watson, Susan Atkins, Linda Kasabian, and Patricia Krenwinkel—to the home of actress Sharon Tate, with the instructions to kill everyone they found. Shortly after midnight, the followers climbed the gates of the Beverly Hills home and cut the telephone wires. They shot and killed 18year-old Steven Parent who was visiting the caretaker at the property as he pulled into the driveway. They then entered the house and killed Tate, celebrity hairstylist Jay Sebring, screenwriter Wojciech Frykowski and Frykowski’s girlfriend Abigail Folger. Tate’s husband, director Roman Polanski, was not at the house. These murders still shock today and nearly 50 years later, the chilling events that took place that night are not forgotten. There have been a lot of retellings of the Tate murders but the reality itself is even more horrifying than any fictional account could portray.
First Visit from Manson
hideous crimes in the hopes this would be blamed on black people. Manson sent his four followers Tex Watson, Susan Atkins, Linda Kasabian, and Patricia Krenwinkel to carry out his instructions. He later told Diane Sawyer in an interview, “If you’re going to do something, do it well. And leave something witchy. Leave a sign to let the world know that you were there.” They did not disobey his orders.
Wrong Place, Wrong Time Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski shared a luxury home together at 10050 Cielo Drive in Benedict Canyon, north of Beverly Hills, California. Built in 1942, nobody could predict this French country style house would become home to one of the grisliest crime scenes California had ever seen. Tate was born in Dallas, Texas, she moved to Los Angeles in the early 1960s to become an actress, later landing roles in Eye of the Devil (1966); The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967), and she was nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance in Valley of the Dolls (1967). Then in March 1969, five months before the brutal slayings—Charles Manson visited Tate at 10050. Tate’s photographer friend was a witness during the Tate murder trial and testified that Manson had arrived looking for record producer Terry Melcher. The creepy visit was forgotten about until months later when Manson commanded his followers pay Tate a much different visit.
Violent Instructions Manson sealed the fate of Tate and her friends when he ordered his followers to go to 10050 Cielo Drive and destroy everyone in the house. Manson and his cult had been living out in Spahn Ranch, California, where they became obsessed with The Beatles’ song ‘Helter Skelter’. Manson misinterpreted the lyrics as a sign there would be a race war between black and white people. He wanted his followers to commit
Manson had a grudge against record producer Terry Melcher—who was the son of actress and singer Doris Day—over a failed record contract when Manson was still an aspiring rock star. Manson knew the home address of where he believed Melcher still lived and ordered his followers there. Day had warned her son that she had a bad feeling about Manson and she had already persuaded Melcher to move out. Mike Love from The Beach Boys wrote in his memoir ‘Good Vibrations’, “Melcher had told (Day) about Manson and about some of his scary antics, his brandishing of knives, his zombie followers and that Manson had been to the house on Cielo and she insisted he move out.” Day’s request for Melcher to leave the house might have been down to ‘mother’s intuition’ but the decision had also signed the death warrant for Tate and her friends.
Charles Manson had very specific rules.
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On the Spahn Ranch, books were not allowed. Neither were watches, clocks, or calendars. The oddest thing that Manson Family members were not allowed to do was wear glasses if they required them. Why? Charlie wanted them to “see the world around them” with their natural vision. The Family had a huge celebrity hit list.
He’s more West Virginia and Kentucky than California: He’s often thought of as the crazy guy from California, but Manson didn’t move there until later in life. Until he was 32, Manson was immersed in the culture of Appalachia and additionally held on to his uncle’s Confederate views, which frequently clashed with 1960 California’s emerging culture.
They were determined to become absolutely infamous, with a carefully-chosen group of celebrities they planned to murder, including Frank Sinatra, Tom Jones, Elizabeth Taylor, and Steve McQueen. Officially, the Family has only been held responsible for the eight deaths that occurred during the 1960s, but experts speculate that they may have actually carried out even more murders. They weren’t pursued in court because the Family members involved in the murders had already been found guilty. Charles Manson never actually killed anyone. He would either send Family members to do his bidding or leave just prior to the murders. He had a deadbeat dad: While the last name “Manson” originated from a man Kathleen Maddox briefly tied the knot with after her son was born, he was not Manson’s real father. That was believed to be a man named Colonel Scott Walker, whom Manson never met.
A friend to Grandpa Munster: Evidently, Manson did a little babysitting on the side when he was younger, and some of the kids he watched belonged to actor Al Lewis, who most notably played Grandpa Munster in The Munsters. Lewis remembered Manson fondly, saying: “He didn’t chop no heads off. He was very nice with me.”
He married young: After serving a prison sentence Քաղաքականություն for a burglary charge, Manson courted a waitress named Rosalie Willis and whisked her away to California. The two had a son—Charles Manson Jr.— but the marriage didn’t last long. Rosalie divorced him while he served another prison sentence.
He was a pimp: After that last stint in prison, Manson pimped out a 16-year-old girl named Leona. Like Rosalie, he married her, but this was no marriage of love and passion. Rather, it was merely one to exploit a loophole: while legally wed, she couldn’t be forced to testify against him.
He learned to play guitar from a gangster: In prison, Manson learned to play guitar from Alvin “Creepy Karpis” Karpavicz, leader of the Depression-era gang Barker-Karpis. For some time, Karpis
was public enemy number one, and even he saw something dangerous in the young, imprisoned Manson: “There was something unmistakably unusual about Manson,” he wrote. “He was a runt of sorts, but found his place as an experienced manipulator of others.”
He studied Dale Carnegie: You may know Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People as short self-help book designed to help you pick up a few new friends and fit in at the office. Manson took the writings and courses to heart, however, and through studying Carnegie’s tactics, he developed the persuasion skills necessary to go from a simple pimp to an effective sociopath.
He had extensive celebrity connections: Manson drew the fascination of Deirdre Lansbury, daughter of Murder, She Wrote star Angela. While she never joined the family, Manson drew Deirdre in close enough to his inner circle that he was able to catch more young women in his gravitational pull.
He lived with a Beach Boy: Drummer for the Beach Boys Dennis Wilson once made the mistake of picking up a few hitchhikers who turned out to be some of Manson’s female followers. Soon after, a handful of Manson Family members—including Manson himself—flooded his home. He had to have his manager kick everyone out.
He built a movie set commune: With nowhere to go after Dennis Wilson kicked them out of his home, Manson and his family settled into the Spahn Ranch outside Los Angeles. The ranch had once been a major hotspot for filming old Western movies, and for room and board, the family offered the 80-year-old ranch owner manual labor and sex.
He didn’t do the dirty work: The Manson Family has a laundry list of dirty deeds to its name, but there’s no evidence Manson himself committed any murders. He led them—that’s for sure—but he wasn’t even at the scene of the infamous Tate-LaBianca murders, for instance.
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