The world has held a strange fascination with Charles Manson ever since the inner workings
of his "family" went public after a string of grisly murders, all of which were done
not by him but at his behest.
Here is the untold truth.
It's human nature to want to know why something happened, especially when it's something this
horrible.
For years, people have looked for explanations in the early life of the man whose birth certificate
listed him as "No Name Maddox," son of a 16-year-old girl who refused to name the father.
According to The Los Angeles Times, the story told of Charles Manson's mother, Kathleen,
was that she would leave him with relatives for weeks at a time and was a heavy drinker
and robber who spent five years in state prison.
When she was released, she and Manson traveled the country with a series of men he called
his "uncles," until he ended up in a string of reform schools where he claimed to have
suffered unthinkable abuse.
That's the accepted story, but when Jeff Guinn was given access to family documents and members
for his book, Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson, he says he found something
else.
He says the stories, including Manson's tale about his mother's attempts to sell him for
a pitcher of beer, were largely false.
Guinn says Manson's mother loved him unconditionally and tried to keep him in school.
You probably already know that "Helter Skelter" was found written on the LaBiancas' fridge
in blood, though misspelled, and you've probably heard about Charles Manson's obsession with
The Beatles.
The whole story is ridiculously complicated, and Rolling Stone says Manson wasn't just
obsessed with "Helter Skelter" but the entire White Album.
Manson believed the album was an ode to a coming race war that would destroy the country
with its epic proportions.
During the trial, Manson and his followers claimed they had interpreted the White Album
with help from the Book of Revelation, and it was especially powerful because it came
on the heels of Magical Mystery Tour, which Manson believed documented his own hippie
trip.
Manson assigned most of the songs an apocalyptic meaning — "Rocky Raccoon" was a clear racial
slur, "Blackbird" was a fight against the establishment and a call for revolution, and
"Piggies" was mocking the establishment.
In case you're not intimately familiar with the White Album, there are two other songs
that don't need much in the way of explanation — "Revolution 1" and "Revolution 9."
The Beatles have each individually expressed their horror at Manson's interpretation of
the album, and George Harrison even condemned him for giving the scruffy, long-haired hippie
look a bad connotation.
It was John Lennon who put it best, though, simply saying, "He's barmy."
Charles Manson preached Helter Skelter was coming and when he said it, he meant it in
a very literal sense.
He, and, in turn, his followers, believed Helter Skelter was the name of a race war
that would rip the country apart.
The Miami Herald says he claimed white people would fight on two fronts — against each
other and against Black people.
That schism would be the deciding factor, and Manson preached that only he and his followers
would be safe during the revolution.
They were destined to retreat to Death Valley and live in an underground compound until
he was sought out by the champions of Helter Skelter.
That was, Manson said, destined to be Black people, who would need to find a new ruler.
You can probably guess who he thought that was going to be.
He and his family were to be installed as the new leaders in a post-war world, and it
was happening soon.
He thought The Beatles were the harbingers of the end of days, and that meant it was
time to find the bottomless pit where he and his select few would wait out the war.
When the war didn't start, he decided to accelerate the schedule a bit by sending his followers
out to start killing.
Where on Earth did Charles Manson get the basis for any of this?
It was all rooted in his interpretation of the Book of Revelation.
If you're not familiar with Chapter 9 of Revelation, that's the part of the Bible about opening
"the pit of the abyss," fire and brimstone, the horses of the apocalypse, and the reign
of Abaddon, angel of the abyss.
It's heavy stuff whether you're a believer or not.
Manson believed he was the fifth angel who held the key to the abyss, and that he would
unlock it to literally unleash hell on the world.
He interpreted the entire section of the Bible to reflect his world, and of course, he was
at the center of it.
The locusts foretold to swarm the Earth were The Beatles, the fire and brimstone was their
music, the so-called armies of horsemen were motorcycle gangs, and the abyss itself was
in Death Valley.
All that was left was for him to unlock the abyss and bring about the end of days.
Anyone who's asked to come up with a list of the most inoffensive groups in music history
would almost certainly include the Beach Boys.
But weirdly, in addition to their connection to surf, sand, and Kokomo, they're also connected
to Charles Manson.
Specifically, it's drummer Dennis Wilson who had the Manson connection, and it started
when, according to The Washington Post, Wilson picked up a few hitchhikers.
They were part of Manson's Family and made introductions that led to Wilson crashing
with The Family to enjoy some girls and even more drugs.
Manson even taught him how to play a bit of guitar.
Wilson was already riding high on fame, and the Manson clan moved in with him — until
a vicious STD made orgies not as much fun anymore, and Wilson apparently footed the
bill to get everyone cleaned up.
Wilson made the mistake of offering to help Manson with his dream of becoming a serious
musician, but perhaps unsurprisingly, Manson didn't take well to the criticism that came
with actually recording his music, and they parted ways.
Charles Manson relentlessly insisted there was more to his relationship with the Beach
Boys, though.
He claimed Dennis Wilson took one of his songs, turned it into "Never Learn Not to Love,"
and didn't even give him a writing credit.
Manson repeated the claim in the documentary Truth and Lies: The Family Manson, and added
at the time that he was so insanely angry about it he went as far as leaving a bullet
on Wilson's bed.
There was no violence, though, as Manson was holding out hope Wilson would introduce him
to producer Terry Melcher.
It was a hope that would eventually lead to murder.
It wasn't the only time Manson would claim the Beach Boys stole his music, either.
Rolling Stone says Manson also swore he originally wrote "In My Room" as "In My Cell," but the
claim is absolutely impossible.
Any manipulative killer achieves a certain amount of notoriety, but part of the reason
Charles Manson's name is still high profile is because of victim Sharon Tate.
The wife of Roman Polanski and an up and coming actress, she ultimately met her horrible,
horrible end because they had picked the wrong house.
After meeting up with Dennis Wilson and being promised a hook-up to producer Terry Melcher,
Manson continued to hold out hope his music career was going to take off.
When it didn't, the BBC says Manson targeted Melcher and sent his loyal followers out to
kill everyone they found in the producer's home.
He had since moved out, and Polanski had moved in with his wife.
Polanski was in Europe when four Manson Family members broke into the house and started killing.
Tate — who was due to give birth in a matter of days — died, along with friends Jay Sebring,
Wojciech Frykowski, and Abigail Folger.
No one would expect Charles Manson to be an angel behind bars, but according to the Los
Angeles Times, he'd amassed somewhere around 100 rules violations by the beginning of 2017.
What exactly does that mean?
The violations included things like bizarre outbursts and behavior, throwing hot coffee
on prison staff, starting fights, trying to start a flood, and trying to start fires.
He was caught several times with drugs, illegal cell phones, weapons, including a hacksaw
blade, and catalogs that led staff to believe he was trying to order hot air balloons in
a completely insane plan to escape.
His figurative middle finger to law enforcement started at his trial, when he stood up, assumed
the pose of Christ on the cross, and refused to sit down.
Along the way, Charles Manson coined the term ATWA.
It stood for air, trees, water, animals, and it was at the heart of the spiel he used to
lure in some of the hippiest of hippies, even into the 21st century.
It's no secret Manson had a weird way with the ladies.
Afton Burton, who went by Star, the name Manson gave her, called herself Manson's wife and
claimed everything about Helter Skelter, the murders, and the race war was absolute bunk.
Instead, her Manson was a crusader for the preservation of everything that existed on
the planet — ATWA.
She told CNN,
"Charlie never believed in something called Helter Skelter.
... He never thought any of that stuff.
That's ridiculous.
That's crazy.
... The only thing that he's trying to manipulate people into doing is planting trees and cleaning
up the Earth.
He genuinely cares about that.
He's nice to everyone.
I've never seen him try to be manipulative.
I've never seen any of that."
"Somehow I've got half a brain that I can see that he is the one."
She wasn't the only one who followed him because of ATWA.
CNN reported he continued to gain followers, like Burton, who flocked to his idea of ATWA
for years after he was tried, convicted, and imprisoned.
Charles Manson will have been gone for decades before his figure stops being larger-than-life.
When Erik Hedegaard interviewed him for Rolling Stone, Hedegaard also talked to Burton about
what Manson was really like — you know, behind the crazy.
Burton said that four times a year, she was allowed to send Manson a care package.
And what did someone like Manson really hope to find when he opened that package?
His favorites were pretty mundane.
He loved sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, roasted peanuts, vegetable soup mix, crackers, cough
drops, tea, and protein bars, along with socks, tank tops, and shorts.
She also included guitar strings, because playing the guitar remained one of his favorite
hobbies.
Charles Manson's delusions of grandeur didn't stop at claims he was going to be the head
of a new world order.
He had also convinced his followers he was Jesus.
All he'd needed to do was hint at the possibility, and his followers did the rest when they elevated
him to a position of near divinity.
They completely believed it, too.
In 1977, Family member Leslie Van Houten went on record, via CBC News, to say,
"I think at one point I really believed he was Jesus Christ."
Manson hinted that he not only believed it, but that he believed in everything that went
along with it.
According to The Independent, Manson called off his imminent marriage to Afton Burton
in 2015, after it emerged she only wanted to marry him so she could put his body on
display after his death.
Apparently he didn't think that was cool, plus he fully believed he was immortal.
How'd that work out for him?
"Notorious mass murderer Charles Manson passed away last November after serving nearly 50
years in a California prison."
At a glance, not much good came from Charles Manson's insane reign of terror.
The Washington Post says there's silver lining, though, and people can thank Sharon Tate's
mother and sisters for it.
After Tate's gruesome death, mother Doris Tate appeared at family member Charles Watson's
parole hearing, and she spoke.
She was heard, too, and her words were the first victim impact statement in the state.
Tate's family campaigned tirelessly for what became the Victims' Bill of Rights in California
that ultimately led to all states passing laws allowing victims to speak out during
trials and parole hearings.
Later, Tate sisters Patti and Debra took up the crusade to fight for victim rights — and
to keep Manson and his Family behind bars.
And that's huge.
Manson may have wanted to bring about a race war and lead humankind into the next era,
but his actions allowed a grieving family to pave the way for countless victims to have
their voices heard throughout the justice system.
That's something worth remembering.
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