Charles Manson, The Family Man

Born to a sixteen year old alcoholic prostitute, Manson was born Charles Miles Maddox on November 12, 1934, in Cincinnati. His mother, would marry a man, but the marriage would not last. Charles was placed in a boy's school, and would run back to his mother. She did not want to have anything to do with him. He lived on the streets and quickly started stealing. When he first started getting locked up, he was considered dangerous. After a while, he would discover that being a model prisoner had its benefits.

In 1955, he would marry a seventeen year old and the couple moved to California. Even though she was pregnant, he started committing crimes again, mainly stealing cars. His wife would leave him in 1956, with their child and her new lover.

It is said, by different probation officers that he had, that he was suffering from rejection, psychic trauma, and instability, making him try to get some status and trying to get people to love him. He was viewed as unpredictable and safe but only with supervision.

He spent time in prison, from 1958 until early 1967, for writing bad checks and pimping for ten years. While inside, he would rape an inmate while he held a razor on the inmate. He would tap into his creative talents and learned how to play the guitar.

After being released in 1967, he started a campaign that would put him down as one of the most infamous serial killers of all time. He thought he would bring about the end of the world. He was influenced by different works of art, drugs, and religions (such as the Church of Final Judgment, Scientology, Book of Revelations, LSD, and Helter Skelter by the Beatles). All these things made him have strong feelings that the world was going to end, and he was going to be the one that was going to bring it about. 

Manson started to put together a group who shared his feelings about living unconventionally and use of drugs. They became known as 'The Family”. “The Family” grew to have over a hundred followers, mostly made up of impressionable young girls from broken but middle class families, who started to believe that Manson was Christ and that his talk of a race war soon happening would come true. Manson started out preaching to these kids about peace, love, and acceptance, typical hippie beliefs of the time. He would quickly change to talk of revolution and violence.

It was easy for him to convince them of an impending race war. He would lecture them during meal times while they were on an isolated ranch, called the Spahn Ranch, that used to be used for western movies. His voice and opinion was the only things that these girls would hear. He also set up an arrangement with the owner of the ranch that his female followers would sleep with the owner as well as working on the property in lieu of paying rent.

Manson wanted to become a pop star and devoted some time to it. Some people told him that he was not a very good musician. Manson, on the other hand, believed that he was a musical genius and they just did not see it. He hooked up with Dennis Wilson (drummer and co-founder of the Beach Boys), that put him on the outside of the music scene in Los Angeles. Wilson paid for Manson's studio time so that Manson could record his music. He also allowed Manson and part of “The Family” to stay in his house for some time.

Since 1949, Manson has spent all but four years locked up; including half of his first 32 years. Him and his gang have killed an estimated 35 people, but were never tried for most of them for different reasons. Either a lack of physical evidence or the fact that most of those people involved in the killings were already convicted of murder in the LaBianca and Tate cases.

Most of the people involved in the Tate and LaBianca murders were sentenced to death, but because California abolished the death penalty the next year, all death penalties were commuted to life with parole. Manson has had twelve parole hearings, as of 2012, and has been denied each and every time. He has been eligible for parole since the late 1970s.