Some music fans maybe familiar with the Beatles song ‘Helter Skelter’, which rocked the music charts. However there was one deranged individual who thought the song ‘spoke’ to him and unleashed a series of violence and murder. Charles Manson, who just died last year, was an iconic symbol of Satanism and anti- establishment and all things evil. His very birth on November 12, 1934 was encased in bitter drama as he was born to an unwed woman of 16 years, Kathleen Manson.
His birth registry had no name until weeks later they named him Charles Maddox. His mother Kathleen was shortly arrested for robbery. As a child Manson began stealing from his home and then from local stores. Soon Manson was sent to a home for boys run by Catholic priests.
That Christmas he was caught stealing a gun from his uncle’s home. His violent attitude escalated as he and a friend named Nielsen robbed a casino. Manson was taking the first steps to a lifetime of crime and violence.
At age 13 he was sent to a reform school, where he says he was raped by other students. During this time he began a ritual of acting insane when unable to defend himself by ‘screaming and waving his arms’. If these incidents were true it would only fuel the anti-social sentiments within this troubled youth. Soon he escaped from the school and was driving a stolen car and was arrested. When taken to Social Services he was credited as illiterate. On psychiatric recommendation he was sent to a minimum security institution.
He was sent to a maximum security facility in Ohio, as he was charged with raping another boy. Manson was to remain here till he turned 21 years. In 1955 Manson somehow enticed a waitress named Jean to marry him.
Whilst his wife was pregnant Manson was arrested. Jean gave birth to a son, but soon began living with another man. Manson then married a prostitute named Leona. While in jail Manson took an interest in music and started guitar lessons from gangster Alvin Karpis.
By 1966 Manson had spent half of his 32 –year- old life in various prisons. He once said “Prison has become my home”. Using his evil aura he managed to influence others and started a quasi- communal cult in California, which soon gained fame as the Manson Family. The isolated cult had nearly 100 members who used hallucinative drugs. Many were young women who embraced the hippie culture. The cult lived in a ranch in the San Hernando Valley.
Manson convinced these hippies that he was going to wage a race war. Manson believed that Satan would become reconciled to Christ. Manson envisioned himself being crucified. The group was involved in the murder of Gary Hinman (Manson wielded a sword and cut off Hinmans ear) and the sensational murder of actress Sharon Tate and 3 others in 1969. The cult members killed another two individuals Leno and Rosemary. The cult was also linked to the assassination attempt of US President Gerald Ford at Sacramento.
Manson somehow got connected with Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys and used this friendship for his own hidden agenda. Soon Manson brought many young women from his cult to party at Wilsons home. The Manson family cult misinterpreted the Beatles hit song ‘Helter Skelter’, and Charles Manson used it to bring division between blacks and whites, and garnered the support of his foolish narcotics induced believers to ‘wage war’ against the black community.
When Manson was arrested he was found “hiding under a sink”- showing that he really was a manipulative coward and failure. In 1971 Charles Manson was sent to jail on 7 counts of 1st degree murder.
He was sentenced to death and later when the death penalty was abolished in 1972 he was given life imprisonment. In 1989 Manson was sent to California State Prison. Many opined the Manson was not really insane but acted that way out of deep frustration- from such a unproductive childhood and teenage life, never receiving the love of a mother or any family.
He had tattooed a swastika sign on his forehead. During his time in jail fellow inmate Jan Holmstrom poured thinner liquid on Manson and set him on fire, causing him many burns.
On January 2017 Manson was seriously ill and rushed to hospital, but he was too weak to undergo surgery. By November he had become weaker and later died from cardiac arrest and colon cancer, aged 83 years. Charles Manson leaves left his dark cult legacy. His ranch was burned down.