When early life is formed by instability, violence, and abandonment, even the most innocent-looking youngster might develop into something very different.
And with the individual we’re going to discuss today, that was definitely the case.
The idea that the seemingly innocent youngster in this picture would grow up to be one of the most infamous villains in history is nearly unthinkable.
The boy’s early years were everything from steady after his November 12, 1934, birth in Cincinnati, Ohio, to a 16-year-old mother. Before he was born, his dishonest father disappeared.
He was transferred to live with his aunt and uncle in McMechen, West Virginia, when he was four years old, following his mother’s imprisonment for robbery and assault.
Together with her brother Luther, his mother Kathleen had broken into a man’s car and smashed a bottle over his head. Kathleen was given a five-year term but barely completed three, while Luther was given a ten-year sentence.
Even though the youngster frequently objected, visits with his mother were required.
The first few weeks following Kathleen’s release from prison were said to be the happiest period of his life. Kathleen eventually returned home. However, she eventually became an alcoholic.
She would disappear for days at a time, leaving the boy to be watched by a changing group of babysitters. She ultimately made the decision to send him to a reform school, but even that would not be enough to control his conduct. He would subsequently assert that he had already lit one of his schools on fire by the time he was nine years old. He also frequently got in problems for petty stealing and truancy.
He was sent to the Gibault School for Boys in Terre Haute, Indiana, when he was thirteen. It was a Catholic school with stern priests who thrashed students for even small transgressions. He quickly ran away, first to his mother, who sent him back immediately, and then to Indianapolis, where he started breaking and entering to make ends meet. He slept anywhere he could find cover, even under bridges and in the woods.
Arrests and stays at juvenile facilities ensued, including one at a school in Omaha, Nebraska, where he and a classmate committed armed robberies and stole a car on their way to a relative’s house in four days — an apprenticeship with a professional thief. In order to convince more powerful attackers that he was insane, he even came up with a strange self-defense strategy he later called the “insane game,” which involved screaming, twisting his face, and furiously swinging his arms.
He attempted to go straight for a short while, working as a messenger for Western Union.
It didn’t last, though, as he soon reverted to his old habits. And the boy’s illegal activity quickly got worse. He would eventually be described as “aggressively anti-social” in psychiatric evaluations.
He was once imprisoned while incarcerated at a federal reformatory for raping another youngster at knifepoint. He was transferred to maximum-security facilities as a result of his recurrent sexual encounters with other prisoners. His release would signal the start of a pattern of violence, thievery, and manipulation that would characterize his life by the time he became twenty-one.
He demonstrated an unsettling capacity to captivate others even as an adult. He dabbled with criminal organizations, got married, and drove stolen cars across states. He was frequently imprisoned for his attempts to create prostitution rings and connections with young girls, demonstrating his need for control over women.
He experimented with hypnosis on other prisoners, including actor Danny Trejo, while serving a sentence at McNeil Island Penitentiary in Washington. Later on, these abilities would be used as instruments in a much darker endeavor.
His mental state had entirely collapsed by the late 1960s. He persuaded a number of susceptible followers that he was a prophet. He asserted that the Beatles’ songs were addressing him directly. This illusion gave rise to the notorious “Helter Skelter” plan, a race conflict in which he and his supporters would live in a covert desert bunker and later rule over the Black population of the planet, whom he thought would not be able to live on their own.
He had earlier tried to make a name for himself in music by breaking into the West Coast rock scene before to this plunge into murder. He even made friends with Dennis Wilson of The Beach Boys, but he never achieved success or wealth. His passion shifted to retaliation after feeling humiliated and rejected, which eventually led to violence.
Actress Sharon Tate, her unborn child, and four other people were brutally murdered by him and his group in August 1969. According to follower Tex Watson, orders were given to “totally destroy everyone” in the house and make the executions “as gruesome as you can.” Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, two further victims, were killed the following evening.
The personification of evil
The youngster in the picture, Charles Manson, had turned into the epitome of evil.
Prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi would later say, “The very name Manson has become a metaphor for evil—and evil has its allure.”
Manson was given the death penalty in 1971 after being found guilty of several killings, including those of Tate, LaBianca, musician Gary Hinman, and Donald Shea. Despite the fact that Manson never specifically ordered the killing, the prosecution contended that his ideas and teachings constituted a blatant act of conspiracy.
Later, when California abolished the capital penalty, his sentence was commuted to life in prison.
He was detained until his death in 2017 at the age of 83 due to a heart attack worsened by colon cancer, despite having made twelve parole applications.
Manson’s impact on popular culture persisted even after his passing. Numerous books, documentaries, and interviews continued his horrific legacy, and musicians took on names inspired by him.
The youngster who had appeared innocent in a picture had changed into a person whose name would always be associated with deceit, murder, and insanity.
