A LOOK AT THE EARLY YEARS THAT TURNED CHARLES MANSON INTO A NOTORIOUS CULT LEADER

Known for orchestrating the Tate murders in Beverly Hills back in 1969 along with his Helter Skelter theory about race wars, Charles Manson is one of the most notorious criminals of the 20th century. The man who influenced a group of young people so much that they committed murder at his behest, had a history of going in and out of government custody throughout his adult life. Tom O'Neill in his book an excerpt of which was given to AETV pointed out some instances from Manson's early life that could be depicted as a harbinger of what was to come. Despite a reprieve from a judge for delinquency during his youth, Manson returned to his criminal ways. He also displayed a disturbing pattern where he got people to defend him no matter how big or small his crime was. The reprieve he got was also because of the impassioned plea given by a woman who wished to marry and settle down with him. Such events in his life shaped Mason into a psychopath cult leader who wanted to use gruesome murders merely as a tool to "shock the world."

Facing neglect as a child

As mentioned by Jill Sederstrom in her report for Oxygen, Charles Manson was born to 16-year-old Kathleen Maddox who came from a religious background but grew up to be a rebel at heart. Her community turned their backs on Kathleen after learning about her pregnancy, and she quickly shacked up with William Manson and married him. Charles lived a life of instability with his mother and they moved from one house to another living at the mercy of their relatives. Things took a drastic turn when Kathleen along with her brother Luther got arrested for robbing and assaulting a man. Following this, Charles' custody was given to his grandmother, Uncle Bill, and Aunt Glenna in McMechen, West Virginia.

Strict upbringing

Manson did not like his time with his grandparents at all. One of his most haunting memories from this time was his Uncle dragging him to visit his mother in a prison in Moundsville. The meetings were always stressful as he could not hug Kathleen. Despite having an unfavorable view of the prison in his childhood, Manson requested to get transferred to this very same place in Moundsville while serving his own sentence, probably to feel some presence from his mother. There are accounts available of him where he implies his hatred for the woman who didn't care for him one bit after bringing him into the world but at the same time throughout his life, he went back to her multiple times, trying to build a home with her.

Bullying in school

There was no escape from the stressful environment even outside home, as Manson was placed in the class of a teacher who had a reputation for being mean. A family friend once said, “I would never want one of my children to be in her class. I mean the way she ran her class was the way you would run a prison.” Jo Ann, another one of Manson's cousins shared that her father forced Manson to wear a skirt to school. All these people holding commanding positions in his life dominated him in every aspect, a behavior he went on to replicate with his cult.

Manson would often “recruit gullible classmates, mostly girls to attack other students he didn’t like,” according to Metro News. Whenever they got caught he used to deny any responsibility and would get off scot-free because nobody could believe that a 6-year-old could be capable of such manipulation.

Return of his mother

Manson's mother returned from her prison stint when he was 8 years old. By this time, he was as much of a nuisance to his community as his mother once was, regularly stealing from local shops. The duo again tried to form some kind of a bond and began shacking up with the string of men that Kathleen dated. In between there was another stint in jail for Kathleen for grand larceny. After her release she decided to sober up and followed a traveling salesman in Indianapolis, marrying him in 1943. At this point, she was seemingly frustrated with the responsibility of a son and began to search for foster homes to take him in. He became a ward of the state and was sent to the Gibault School for Boys, a Catholic-run school for delinquents in Terre Haute, Indiana. Not liking his new place at all he ran away and convinced his mother to take him in. 

Though Kathleen agreed to his proposition, her attempt of trying to get rid of him seemed to leave a huge impact on the young mind. His follower Watson shared that he had “a special hatred for women as mothers… This probably had something to do with his feelings about his own mother, though he never talked about her… The closest he came to breaking his silence was in some of his song lyrics: ‘I am a mechanical boy, I am my mother’s boy.’ ”

Stint at Indiana Boys School

Despite his reunion with his mother, Manson did not give up on his problematic behavior. He was apprehended twice before being sent to Indiana Boys School, where he claims that he was raped on a regular basis by other boys. In order to save himself he had to pretend to be mentally unstable to keep others at bay, but the situation was so dire that he ran away from there eighteen times in three years. In his last escape, he ran off with a pair of boys in a stolen car and crossed state lines, hence committing a federal offense. For this, he was sent to the National Training School for Boys, in Washington, D.C. Later on he was transferred to the Natural Bridge Honor Camp, where he was caught raping a boy at knifepoint. This continued even after he was sent to a federal reformatory in Virginia before he was finally released in 1954 for good behavior.

Love for the Beatles

Manson during his 10-year prison stint saw the meteoric rise of the Beatles from behind bars. Seeing the band's impact on their audience, seemed to have caught Manson's attention. The staff made a note of his charisma, something that helped him influence his "family" of young people he manipulated into committing murders, as well as his enduring appeal in pop culture.