Charles Manson and His "family"

Charles Manson and his "Family"

In 1934, Charles Manson was born into a family of criminals. His teenaged mother, Kathleen Maddox, was a prostitute, robber, and an alcoholic. Manson's father, Colonel Scott, was never around to be a father figure. Kathleen Maddox married an elderly man, William Manson, for a brief period of time. He gave Charles the last name of "Manson".

While Manson's mother was in and out of jail throughout his childhood, he shuffled between relatives, foster parents, and reformatories. In 1942, Maddox was released from jail and Manson moved back with his mother.

Manson traded his opportunity of a good education for life as he knew it. He quit school in the seventh grade and by the age of twelve, he resorted to criminal actions such as auto theft, forgery, and pimping. "It was during these years that Manson developed his hatred of the affluent and a loathing for women" (The Demon of Death Valley n.pag.).

While Manson was in prison he learned he had an interest in music and the occult. When he was unconfined in 1967, he traveled to San Francisco as a "traveling singer". There he began to gather followers of his cult and "assembled what had been called "The Family" (Bosky n.pag.). Manson moved his followers to Spahn Ranch in Los Angeles County. Spahn Ranch was a secluded place in the woods; "The Family" stayed in ragged cabins. The members of the cult "led an indolent, almost savage existence, singing Manson's songs, dancing, swimming in a small pool, stealing cars for cash, and picking through garbage for food" (The Demon of Death Valley n.pag.). The women would walk around unclothed and fill his every fantasy. They looked at Manson as magical; he was their everything. Charles Manson targeted vulnerable people to be members of his cult because he wanted them to worship his every move. "Manson established complete control over his followers, using a combination of violence, intimidation, sex, and his powerful charisma" (Charles Manson n.pag.).

Manson's cult members took the lives of many innocent people in very brutal and cruel ways. On 9 August 1969, Tex Watson, Linda Kasabian, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Susan Atkins entered the Tate residence and stabbed and shot the occupants. There was a pregnant women who pleaded for her life; "Please let me have my baby." Unfortunately, "The Family" members did not feel compassion for this woman; they instead stabbed her sixteen times. The slayers marked "PIG" on the wall using the victims' blood.

On 10 August 1969, one night after the Tate murder, the cult attacked Leno and Rosemary LaBianca. The killers used the victims' knife to carve "WAR" in Leno's stomach and left a carving knife in his abdomen. Again, the slayers wrote on the walls in blood. Cult member, Patricia Krenwinkel, later said, "I stabbed him with a fork repeatedly and eventually left the fork in him" (Zoglin n.pag.).

The Charles Manson murder trial that began on 24 July 1970 was very long. It lasted over nine months, making a record in American History. Up to that time, it was the longest murder trial that had ever taken place. In the beginning, the caretaker of the Tate residence was