Charles Manson

PVHS Forensic Science

Charles Milles Manson

Born November 12, 1934American criminal who led a cultic

commune in California in the mid to late 1960s in CaliforniaThe Manson Family

Found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder

Helter Skelter

This term he took from the Beatles’ song with that same name and used as a term to describe his “apocalyptic race war”

His connection with rock music linked him with pop culture as he became the epitome of insanity

Before the conviction he mooched around with celebrities such as Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys and wrote songs for Artists such as Guns N’ Roses and Marilyn Manson

Early Life

Born to unwed 16 year old Kathleen Maddox in Cincinnati, OH as “no name Maddox”

For a period during his childhood, his mother was married to William Manson and was named then

His mother sold him to a childless bar maid for a pitcher of beer

After an attempt to place him in foster home, the court placed him into Gibault School for Boys in Indiana…he fled there back to his mother who rejected him

By burgling a grocery store, Manson stole cash and enabled him to rent a room

He was eventually caught in the act of stealing a bicycle and was returned to a juvenile center in Indiana

He escaped there four days later with another inmate

The pair committed two armed robberies on their way to the other boy’s uncle

Caught during the second of two more grocery store robberies, Manson was sent at the age of 13, to Indiana School for BoysHere he claimed to have been brutally

sexually assaulted and physically abusedAfter near daily escape attempts, he

finally escaped in 1951 with two other boys

Escaping to Utah, having robbed gas stations along the way, The three were caught on the way to California in stolen cars

For this federal crime of taking a stolen car across state borders, the three were sent to The National Training School for Boys in Washington D.C.

There, despite four years of schooling, Manson tested an average IQ of 109 (He was later tested at 121), but was still illiterate

His caseworker concluded that he was aggressively antisocial

Less than one month before a parole hearing, Manson “took a razor blade and held it against another boy’s throat while he sodomized him”

He was transferred to Federal Reformatory in Petersburg, VA

In September of 1952, after being classified as “dangerous”, he was transferred again to Federal Reformatory in Chillicothe, OH where he became a “model citizen” and was granted parole in May of 1954

After temporarily honoring parole conditions to live with his aunt and uncle in West Virginia, he moved in with his mother in the same state

In January 1955, he married Rosalie Jean Willis, a hospital nutritionist who he found “a genuine, marital happiness” with

He supported her with smalltime jobs and auto theft

In October, three months after his pregnant wife arrived in LA in a stolen car, Manson was charged again with interstate transfer of a stolen vehicle

After psychiatric evaluation, he was given 5 years probation

His failure to appear in the LA hearing on an identical charge filed in Florida resulted in his March 1956 arrest in Indianapolis

His probation was revoked and he was sentenced to 3 years in Terminal Island in San Pedro CA

Manson’s son, Charles Manson, Jr, was born while Manson was in prison

In 1957, Manson’s mother informed him that Rosalie was living with another man

Caught trying to escape in another stolen car, less than two weeks before a parole hearing, his parole was denied and he was given 5 more years of probation

Manson received five years probation after his parole hearing in September of 1958 the same year he filed for divorce from Rosalie

By November, he was pimping a 16-year old girl and was receiving financial support from a girl with wealthy parents

Manson plead guilty in 1959 of a charge of forging a US Treasury check, he received a 10 month suspended sentence and probation after a young woman tearfully told the court that she would marry Manson if he were freed

After Manson took that woman and another from CA to NM for prostitution purposes, he was held and questioned for violation of the Mann Act

Mann Act

The United States White-Slave Traffic Act of 1910 (ch. 395, 36 Stat. 825; codified as amended at 18 U.S.C. § 2421–2424) prohibited white slavery. It also banned the interstate transport of females for “immoral purposes.” Its primary stated intent was to address prostitution, immorality, and human trafficking. The act is better known as the Mann Act, after James Robert Mann, an American lawmaker.

Source: wikipedia.com

He disappeared, which violated his parole and a bench warrant was issued, an April 1960 indictment on violation of the Mann Act was placed on Manson

He was arrested in Laredo, TX when one of his “girls” was picked up on prostitution charges

He was ordered to serve the remainder of his 10 year sentence for his check fraud charges

In July 1961, he was transferred from the Los Angeles County Jail to the United States Penitentiary at McNeil Island

In his annual parole hearing in September 1961, he was noted as having “a tremendous drive to call attention to himself”

In 1963, Leona, one of his girls, was granted a divorce in the pursuit of which she alleged her and Manson had a child, Charles Luther

In June 1966, in preparation for early release, he was sent back to Terminal Island

By March 21, 1967, his release date, he had spent more than half of his 32 years of life in prison

Telling police that prison was “my home” he was not granted permission to stay

On his release day, and with the help of a prison acquaintance, he moved into an apartment in Berkeley, CA

After moving in with Mary Brunner, a 23 year old University of Wisconsin-Madison grad student, who was an assistant librarian at UC Berkeley he began to bring home several women per day

Brunner eventually adapted after 18 women became their roommates

Manson began to establish himself in the “hippie” movement of 1967

He began to follow the Church of ScientologyHe persuaded a large group of females

and a few males that he was a called leader in Scientology

Before the end of that summer. Manson had convinced 8 or 9 enthusiasts to join him on a cross country road trip

An alternative account does not mention the 18 roommates, but does account for the road trip

Manson’s strange behavior began in spring of 1968

Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys picked up a couple of the “Manson Girls”

Following a night recording session, Wilson returned home to see Manson standing in his driveway

Manson insisted that he meant Wilson no harm, but fell to the ground and kissed Wilson’s feet

Inside the house, Wilson discovered 12 strange women

Over the next few months, the number of women doubled

The new “Family Members” cost Wilson $100,000 This included a medical bill for their

treatment of Gonorrhea$21,000 for accidental destruction of an

uninsured car

Wilson returned to the studio to record some of Manson’s music and introduced him to some very important people for this case:Gregg Jakobson – a music producerTerry Melcher – a musicianSharon Tate – an actressRoman Polanski – a director

By August 1968, Wilson had his management clear all of the “family” from his house

Manson has established a base for the “family” at Spahn’s Move Ranch

Manson paid the rent for the place by using his girls to sexually appease the blind owner of the ranch

The family was soon joined by Charles Watson, a man who met Manson at Wilson’s house

Manson’s family moved on to a new location at Meyer’s ranch

For some time, Manson had been predicting the rise in racial tensions of the late 1960s

He had emphasized that Martin Luther King Jr would be assassinated

On a bitterly cold New Year’s Eve, Manson convinced that not only he had predicted the racism, but the Beatles White Album also predicted the racism in code

He maintained that the album was written for the family and that they were an elect group instructed to preserve themselves from impending disaster

In January 1969, the group moved into a canary yellow house in Canoga Park, CA…not far from Spahn Ranch

Manson called the house the yellow submarine, yet another Beatles reference

There, family members prepared for “Helter Skelter”, Manson’s predicted apocalypse

By February, Manson’s vision was complete

Racial Tensions escalated and his predictions came true

Rumors flied that Terry Melcher was to come to the Yellow Submarine to hear the music Manson had written about his visions

He Never Arrived

March 23, 1969 Manson broke and entered 10050 Cielo Drive,

the home of Terry Melcher Melcher had moved into a new residence, so

the home was occupied by Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski

Manson questioned a Tate photographer and insisted that he enter the guest house

This informed prosecutors that Manson had visited the house since the exit of Melcher

The Polanksi guest recognized Manson from Wilson’s home

He complimented Manson’s music

Crowe and Hinman Murders

May 18, 1969 Melcher visited Spahn Ranch to hear Manson

and the family perform By June, Manson had began to tell the family to

show blacks Helter Skelter When Manson asked Watson to raise $ for the

assault, he defrauded a black drug dealer, Bernard “Lotsapoppa” Crowe

Crowe responded with a threat to wipe out all of the Spahn Ranch

Manson Responded with the shooting of Crowe on July 1, 1969 in his Hollywood apartment

July 25, 1969Manson sent three family members to

the home of Gary HinmanHinman was suspected of inheriting

some moneyManson wanted all of the money, but

Hinman refused to turn it over to the family members

Manson slashed his ear and family member, Bobby Beausoleil stabbed Hinman to death

Beausoleil was arrested on August 6, 1969 after being caught driving Hinman’s car

August 8Manson instructed Watson to take three

family members to the old Melcher home and…

“totally destroy everyone in [it], as gruesome as you can”

He told the girls that they were to do just as Watson instructed

Tate Slaughter

Victims18 year old innocent driver – Steven

ParentWojciech FrykowskiSharon Tate – 8 months pregnantJay Sebring – father to Tate’s babyAbigail Folger – heiress to the Folger’s

Coffee franchise

Polanski was in London shooting a film

One night laterManson and 6 family members ended up

at 3301 Waverly Dr, the home of Leno LaBianca, a grocery store executive, and his wife Rosemary

With a bayonet, Manson killed Leno on his couch

Watson carved “WAR” on Leno’s exposed abdomen

Rosemary was stabbed by all three girls involved

Sharon Tate Pictures

LaBianca Pictures

Investigation

LAPD found bloody writing on the wall of the Hinman Home

They even mentioned that Beausoleil was a member of a group of hippies led by a guy named “Charlie”

The investigation team for the Tate murders thought that the murder was simply a drug case and ignored LAPD’s warning

William Garretson, the resident of the Tate guest house, was held briefly as a suspect

He was released on August 11, 1969 after passing a polygraph test

On August 12, 1969 LAPD informed the press that there was NO connection between the LaBianca and Tate murders

August 16th, Manson and 25 family members were arrested on auto theft charges, but due to a misdated warrant they were released a few days later Weapons were seized during the arrest

By the end of August, the Tate team made a connection between bloody writing at the LaBianca house and the Beatles

In mid-October, the LaBianca team learned of the Hinman case

This led them to Meyers Ranch and another arrest of Manson and several family members on yet another suto theft charge

One of Manson’s 18 roommates from UC Berkeley informed police of the connection between the murders

On December 1, 1969 – Watson, and two other family members were arrested for the Tate case Another family member located in Mobile, AL

surrendered to police in Concord, NH on December 2

The arrest was sparked by the reception of the .22 caliber gun used by Watson on Parent, Sebring, and Frykowski

A local ABC television crew discovered the bloody clothes from the Tate case, but the knives are still missing

The Trial

June 15, 1970 Kasabian, a family member, was granted

immunity to release information related to the crimes

Manson’s request to act as his own attorney was denied by the court just days before the trial began

On Friday, July 24th, testimony began Manson appeared in court with an X carved into his

forehead He claimed that he was “considered inadequate and

incompetent to speak or defend self – and had ‘X’d self from world”

Over the weekend, family members carved the same X symbols into their foreheads

Manson admitted to one mistake in his effort to cause “Helter Skelter” He failed to deposit Rosemary LaBianca’s wallet

into the streets of a black neighborhood to frame an LA gang

The wallet was instead left in the bathroom of a gas station in a black neighborhood…to “show blackie how to do it”

Family members haunted the halls of the courthouse throughout the murder

To prevent this from continuing, prosecution subpoenaed them as prospective witnesses

They then moved outside carrying visible hunting knives and X’s on their foreheads

On October 5th, the judge refused allow suspension of cross-examination of a witness to which Manson responded with a physical assault of the Judge

The Judge returned to court for the remainder of the trial with a revolver under his robe

On November 19, the prosecution rested…and to the shock of the court, the defense rested as well without ever calling a witness

Manson was allowed to speak to the judge but without the presence of the jury to prevent violation of CA Supreme Court decision on People v. Aranda

Manson told the judge “the music is telling the youth to rise up against

the establishment…Why blame it on me? I don’t write the music…”

January 25, 1971 Guilty verdict was presented to Manson,

Krenwinkel and Atkins Van Houten was convicted of two counts of

murder and one count of conspiracy Midways through the penalty phase, Manson

shaved his head and trimmed his beard to a fork saying “I am the devil, the devil always has a bald head”

Once the jury began to consider the death penalty, the female family members all shaved their head as well

On March 29, 1971 – Jury returned with the death sentence on all 4 defendants on all counts

April 19 – Judge sentenced all defendants to death by injection

In February 1972, Supreme Court of California revoked the death penalty and all parties charges were dropped to life in prison

Manson was also found to be guilty of the murders of Gary Hinman and Donald Shea and received life sentences for both murders

Manson’s mother made a statement following these sentences “my son had known no neglect, he had even

been pampered by all the women who surrounded him…”

September 5, 1975 – the family exploded back into the spotlight with an assassination attempt on President Gerald Ford

Squeaky Fromme, the assassin, was sentenced 15 years to life, the first person sentenced under US Code Title 18 Chapter 84 which made it federal offense to attempt an assassination of the US President

Grogan, a family member responsible for the death of Shorty Shea, was the only member to date to be paroled

In the 1980s, Manson gave three notable TV interviews about the murders, where he came clean on all accounts Most notably, March 7, 1986: Charlie Rose for

CBS Nightwatch – won an Emmy Award for best interview

Also, Geraldo Rivera interviewed him in 1988 for a special on Satanism

In 1994, Catherine Share, a family member told the press that her testimony was completely fabricated as per the instruction on Manson to save him from the Gas Chamber

January 1996, Manson follower George Stimson founded a Manson website proclaiming Manson’s innocence

September 2007, MSNBC aired the full 1997 interview with Manson from San Quentin State Prison The original interview only aired for 7 minutes due to the

unruly an unapologetic behavior of Manson This new release was the full interview…completely

uncensored

March 15, 2008 – AP reported that human remains had been found at Barker Ranch, one of the family homes

On May 21, the investigation ended with no human remains located