FREE ESSAY ON CHARLES MANSON

CHARLES MANSON

Charles Manson is known as one of the most sinister and evil criminals of all time. He
organized the murders that shocked the world and his name still strikes fear into
American hearts. Manson's childhood, personality, and uncanny ability to control people
led to the creation of a family-like cult and ultimately to the bloody murders of
numerous
innocent people.
Charles M. Manson was born in Cincinnati, Ohio on November 11, 1934. His mother, Kathleen
Maddox, was a teenage prostitute. Manson's father walked out on the still pregnant
Maddox, never to be seen again. In order to give her bastard son a name, Ms. Maddox
married William Manson. He soon abandoned the both of them. Manson's mother often
neglected Charles after her husband left her. She tried to put him into a foster home,
but the arrangements fell through. As a last resort she sent Charles to school in Terre
Haute, Indiana. Mrs. Manson failed to make the payments for the school and once again
Charles was sent back to his mother's abuse. At only fourteen, Manson left his mother and
rented a room for himself. He supported himself with odd jobs and petty theft. His mother
turned him into the juvenile authorities, who had him sent to "Boys Town," a juvenile
detention center, near Omaha, Nebraska. Charles spent a total of three days in "Boys
Town" before running away. He was arrested in Peoria, Illinois for robbing a grocery
store and was then sent to the Indiana Boys School in Plainfield, Indiana, where he ran
away another eighteen times before he was caught and sent to the National Training School
for Boys in Washington D.C. Manson never had a place to call "home" or a real family. He
spent his childhood being sent from one place to another, and trouble always seemed to
follow him. His mother's negligence left Manson without a home and without much of a
future. Manson turned to crime to support himself, and he soon became very good at it.
When just a child, he became a criminal and spent his last years of childhood in a
correctional facility.
After his release from the training school in 1954, a new period of Manson's life began.
He went to West Virginia and soon married a girl named Rosalie Jean Willis. She became
pregnant and Manson had a child. This was Manson's first real family, but he didn't stray
from the criminal lifestyle. He started stealing cars to make the money necessary to
support his new family. By the time the baby was born, Manson was in prison on Grand
Theft Auto charges. 
In 1958 Charles was released from prison. His wife and child had left him, leaving
Charles alone once again. Several arrests for car theft and pimping followed; in 1960
Charles was given ten years imprisonment for forging government checks. While he was
serving his ten year sentence at McNeil Penitentiary, he studied philosophy, took up
guitar, and taught himself sing and compose songs. His newfound musical skills would
later attract followers. His study of philosophy helped create some of his outlandish
ideas that later appealed to his would-be followers. Manson was released in March, 1967
after serving seven years. By the time Manson was thirty-two years old, he had spent
seventeen years, more than half of his life, in prison.
This long stretch of incarceration had left its mark. "If Charlie has any roots, they're
in the penal system," 1 said one acquaintance.
"Inside, you have to be aware of everything, and when he came out, Charlie was like a
cat. Nothing got by Charlie if something happened within a hundred miles of him, he made
sure he knew about it. Everytime he came into a room, he cased it, like an animal. Where
were the windows? What was the quickest way out? He never sat with his back to the door."
Soon after his release, Manson traveled to Haight Ashbury, where the "hippie" movement
was in full force. At this time, hippies were gentle people, believing in peace, love,
and sharing with others. This was a perfect environment for Manson to gain followers.
Manson's probation officer remembers he was "shaken" by the friendliness of the hippies,
but before long, Manson learned how to exploit it. He started to collect a retinue of
impressionable girls searching for a community of love. With a guitar, a pleasant voice,
sinuous mannerisms, and sweet talk with empty promises, Manson convinced many
young-adults to leave their lives and families to be with him. The beginnings of his
"Family" took shape.
Whenever Manson succeeded in gaining one of these followers, the first thing he did was
to deprogram both their ego and their "hang ups," about conventional society. By "hang
ups," he meant anything he did not like. Richard DeMargeno, a criminologist, believed
Manson was able to control these people by replacing their father figures. "It wasn't a
very difficult process. He was dealing with lonely insecure people in need of a father
figure, people who didn't have much ego to begin with. What he did, in effect, was to
tear down that ego and substitute himself, thus gaining enormous control over his
followers." 2 To his girls, Charles Manson was a "beautiful man who loved us all
totally." Later, a group of young women outside of Manson's murder trial replied, "We're
waiting for our father to be set free," when asked why they sat on the street-side
corner. Manson had obviously replaced these girls' father figure, placing himself at the
center of their lives. Manson soon recruited dozens of girls into his "Family." Yet, many
outsiders found him to be a relentless recruiter who came on strong with every girl he
met, a cynic who treated his followers like possessions and seldom showed any real
affection to them. Alan Springer, a man Manson once tried to recruit, said, "In away he
was very frank and truthful, but in away he was very treacherous with words."3 Dr. David
Smith, founder and director of the free clinic in Haight Ashbury, thought that these two
sides of Charles Manson were not contradictory: "To take an example, if you get to know
any paranoid schizophrenics it won't puzzle you at all. The schizophrenic usually
believes in a mystical system in which he is right, and he can plan in the most
calculating and cunning way possible. He himself does not really know he is a con man, or
whether he really does love the girls. He vacillates between one emotion and the other,
one of the characteristics of a schizoid personality is the inability to sustain one
emotion. It doesn't confuse me that he would be able to convey sincere emotion and carry
on in a very plotting way. Of course, he would hide the cunning side as much as possible
from those he wanted to involve in his system." 4 
When a new girl came into Manson's group, their biggest conflict was the idea of sex on
demand. Charles could be very brutal when necessary and any girl that stayed with him
accepted the idea of having sex with him or anyone else he wanted. He preached that women
should be submissive to men. Surprisingly, these girls came to believe as he did.
Obviously, Charles had an unbelievable talent of manipulating people. According to Paul
Watkins, a one-time follower of Manson, he soon had almost complete control over his
followers. "I lived with Charlie for about one year straight and on and off for two
years. I know Charlie. I know him inside and out. I became Charlie. Everything I once
was, was Charlie. There was nothing left of me anymore. And all of the people in the
Family, there's nothing left of them anymore, they're all Charlie too." 5 Charles packed
his crew of fourteen, consisting of nine girls and five boys, into an old school bus and
headed south in the spring of 1968. The "Family" settled at Spahn Ranch in the Santa
Susana Mountains, just north of San Fernando Valley. The owner of the Ranch, eighty-five
year old George Spahn, was blind and feeble and allowed the family to stay with him.
Manson ordered one of his girls to care for the man so that the "Family" could might stay
there as long as they wished. Mr. Spahn soon grew desperately afraid of Manson and only
allowed him to stay because he enjoyed the attention he got from the girls who cooked and
cleaned for him. It was at this ranch that Manson seriously started developing his cult.
Manson's following grew and many more people were recruited in the "Family." He started
preaching to his followers in bizarre ways. He would have the group take acid trips then
listen to him as he spun twisted stories that put ideas into their heads. Charles would
reenact the Crucifixion of Christ, trying to instill upon his follower's minds that he
was Jesus Christ, that he was a higher power that they all needed to follow
unquestionably. Manson convinced his followers that a war of the races was coming, which
he named Helter Skelter. He got the name from a Beatles song, and had his followers
prepare for the upcoming war by collecting guns and other weapons. Manson turned the
ranch into a fortress. He started to change his following from being a group of freedom
searching people into an organized army-like force. A prosecution witness in the later
murder trial said, "..., he [Manson] wants to build up a thing where he can be leader of
the world. He's crazy." 6 The men would target practice and guards were posted. Escape
routes to the desert were planned. Caches of gasoline and other necessities were buried
all over the Death Valley area. Then Manson had his followers start the crimes, then he
had them start the killings.
On August 9th, 1969, Manson ordered a party of his followers to burglarize a residence in
the Los Angeles. All of the people going knew they were supposed to kill everyone there,
yet they didn't think twice about doing it for Manson. Before they left, Manson told the
party, "If you're going to do something, leave something witchy." 7 This order was later
followed to a hideous extent. The residence targeted by Manson for the robbery and
murders belonged to Roman Polanski, a movie director, and his pregnant wife Sharon Tate,
an up-and-coming movie star. Mr. Polanski was in Europe. His wife had Abigail Folger and
Voytek Frykowski staying with her until his return. That night, Jay Sebring and Steven
Parent were visiting Mrs. Tate. Manson's followers broke into the residence, and
viciously murdered everyone there. They were very brutal in the slayings, acting without
remorse or guilt. Manson had them believing there was nothing wrong with murdering these
people. One of Manson's girls, Sandra Good, said, "Whatever is necessary, you do it. When
somebody needs to be killed, there's no wrong. You do it, then you move on." 8 Manson's
followers mutilated the bodies, Ms. Folger's corpse was so bloody that her once white
night gown appeared to be red. Sharon Tate's body was no different. She was covered in
stab wounds and had a rope tied around her neck that ran over a rafter in the ceiling and
was bound to Mr. Frykowski's neck. The word 'PIG' was scrolled with blood on the front
door of the home, thus Manson's orders of leaving something "witchy" were followed. Susan
Atkins, one of Manson's followers, claimed to have almost enjoyed these murders, saying
it gave her a sort of trip. She had wanted to cut out the baby, Susan said, but there
hadn't been time. They wanted to take out the eyes of the people, and squash them against
the walls, and cut off their fingers. "We were going to mutilate them, but we didn't have
a chance to." 9 The next night following the Tate murders, Manson and his followers
struck again. The target was the home of Mr. and Mrs. LaBianca. This time, Manson himself
accompanied his family members to the residence. After the group broke into the home and
detained the LaBianca's, Manson issued orders to kill the couple and then left. Manson's
followers stabbed Mrs. LaBianca fourty-one times, stabbed her husband to death, left a
fork and a knife in his chest, and carved the word "WAR" into his stomach. The words
"RISE", "HELTER SKELTER", and "DEATH TO PIGS" were scribbled on the walls and the
refrigerator in the victims' blood. These brutal slayings demonstrate the evil in
Manson's warped mind. He was able to convince normal human beings to commit unspeakable
acts of violence the likes of which the world had never seen. In a sense, Manson molded
his followers' beliefs and values to represent his own. He had once again ordered his
"Family" members to slay innocent people in his name and they gladly did so. It wasn't
long before Manson and his followers were arrested for the savage murders. Manson carved
an "X" into his head, that he later turned into a swastica, claiming that he "X'd"
himself from our world. Many of his women quickly followed suit. Even when faced with the
death penalty for the murders, Manson's followers still believed in and loved their
leader. The murder trial attested to Manson's twisted mind even more. He often burst out
with strange comments or demands, and freely spoke of his strange ideas in front of the
jury. It soon became obvious that Manson had some sort of psychological problam. Yet,
through the whole trial, Manson contested that he was innocent, that he didn't force any
of his followers to do anything. This showed he had no love for his followers, he didn't
care what happened to them. Manson said to the prosecuting attorney, "You know, I only
made love to her [a women follower] two or three times. After she had her baby and lost
her shape, I couldn't have cared less about her."10 The prosecution attorney did an
excellent job of proving the murderers' guilt, and all persons charged, including Manson,
were found guilty. The jury sentenced all of the murderers to be put to death, but
because the state of California soon after abolished the death penalty, the sentences
were commuted to life imprisonment. 
To this day, Manson and his followers are still in prison. Manson is eligible for parole,
and has had several hearings. He still claims that he wasn't responsible for the murders
and acts as if the bloody slayings were of no importance. Manson was a criminal to the
core. In his life he had committed almost every crime imaginable. His life of crime
developed a warped mind that he used to sinister ends. His never having a loving family
deadened him to having any morals or guilty feelings. He felt no remorse for the killings
and acted as if the people he had killed did not deserve to live. His uncanny ability to
control people allowed him to gather the followers he needed to accomplish his devilish
tasks. He was able to convince these followers into sharing his beliefs and used these
people as killing machines. The murders of numerous innocent people were a direct result
of Manson's ability to control people and his corrupted childhood that created created
his criminal mind.
Bibliography
ENDNOTES
1Steven Roberts, "Charles Manson: One Man's Family," New York Times, January 4, 1970.
2Ibid.
3Eve Babitz, The Manson Murders, W.W. Norton & Company Inc., 1974, p. 113.
4Ibid. p. 87
5Vincent Bugliosi, Helter Skelter, Bantam Books, October 1975, p. 623.
6Ibid. p. 122.
7"The Manson Women: Inside the Muders," Turning Point, ABC, New York, November 1994.
8Bugliosi, p. 624.
9Bugliosi, p. 114.
10Bugliosi, p. 415
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Babitz, Eve, The Manson Murders, New York, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1974.
Bugliosi, Vincent, Helter Skelter, Bantam Books, October, 1975. Roberts, Steven, "Charles
Manson: One Man's Family," New York Times, 45:1-3, January 4, 1970.
Sanders, Ed, The Family, New York, E.P. Dutton & Co., 1971.
"The Manson Women: Inside the Murders," Turning Point, New York, ABC, November 9, 1994.
The Internet (Universal Relay Languange Addresses Available.)
Unknown, "The Power of a Cult," Glamour, 11:160-183, January, 1995.
Encyclopedia of Occultims and Parasychology, Gale Research, Inc., 1991.