Charles Manson

WARNING: This true crime story includes graphic details of violence and murder. Discretion is advised. (if you can not handle graphic details, it is highly suggested to skip this one)

Charles Manson is one of the most famous cult leaders of all time. He is known for his weird interactions with celebrities and unusual personality

Childhood

Charles Manson was born on November 12, 1934 (fun fact, I share a birthday with him). Manson’s mother was extremely young and his father was not present in his life. Charles’ childhood was nowhere near a happy one. His mother struggled with alcohol and would sometimes go missing for days. Eventually, Manson’s mother would go to prison for robbery and he was left to his aunt and uncle. Throughout his younger years, his family would say that he was fascinated by weapons and would get into trouble lots of times. Later his mother would get out of prison and continue with the abusive habits. Manson would end up going to juvie twice for his crimes.

The Cult

Manson was an attractive man for his time so many girls were attracted to him. Manson would tell his followers that the African-American race was trying to overtake the white race and that they were the only ones standing. He manipulated his followers into believing him and eventually became a messiah figure to them. He was able to get his followers to do things for him which eventually turned into murderous crimes.

The Beach Boys

On one eventful day, Dennis Wilson, the drummer for The Beach Boys, picked up two female hitchhikers. Those hitchhikers were two of Manson’s followers. One of Manson’s followers talked about him to Dennis, saying that he was a great musician and would get along with Dennis. Just like she said, Manson and Dennis got along great. At one point, the cult moved into Dennis’ home. Although Dennis liked the cult, his band members did not. The relationship between The Beach Boys and the Manson cult came to an end when Dennis invited Manson to a recording studio. Manson and one of the producers named Terry Melcher got into an argument. It got so heated that Manson would end up pulling out a knife. The cult soon after moved out. This didn’t end the tension between the two groups though. When The Beach Boys released their song “Never Learn Not to Love'' Manson was furious. He claimed that that was actually his song and that they had stolen it without crediting him.

His famous crimes

One of Charles Manson’s crimes involved a very famous woman from the ’60s, Sharon Tate, a famous actress, and model. On August 8, 1969, Charles Manson forced 4 of his followers to break into Mrs. Tate’s house and to kill everyone inside. Sharon was eight and a half months pregnant at the time and had over 4 guests. All 5 residents were killed brutally. To finish off what they had done, one of the followers wrote the word, pig with Sharon’s blood. The reason why they attacked the house wasn’t that they were targeting Sharon. In fact, Sharon was renting the house from the music producer, Terry Melcher. As previously stated, Manson did not like Terry because he apparently stole his music. If you can’t already connect the lines, Terry was supposed to be the target, not Sharon (talk about right place, wrong time). Another one of his crimes was named after the famous song by the Beatles “helter-skelter”. Although Paul McCartney said that the song was inspired by the rise and fall of the roman empire, Charles Manson felt it was talking about a race war and murder. The day after the Tate murder, the followers were ordered to go to another house, the owners being a middle-aged couple named Leno and Rosemary LaBianca. The followers followed through like last time and killed the couple. Just like last time, the followers wrote “political piggies” and “helter-skelter” in their blood. Manson will later on say that he killed all these people because “we wanted to do a crime that would shock the world, that the world would have to stand up and take notice.”

How he got caught

The way Manson got caught wasn’t as eventful as other crimes but certainly was a strange one. Under a bush, a ten-year-old boy found the gun that was used in the Tate murders. The boy gave it to his dad who turned it into the LAPD. Not much later, Manson and his followers were arrested at a ranch. Charles Manson was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder for the deaths of seven people. His followers were also charged with first-degree murder. During his time in jail, Charles would carve an X on his forehead which would eventually turn into a swastika. He did this because it symbolized him being “Xed out of society”. A few of his followers would end up doing this as well.