Editing Charles Manson (section)

== 1934–1967: Early life ==
=== Childhood ===
Charles Milles Maddox was born on November 12, 1934, to 16-year-old Ada Kathleen Maddox of [[Ashland, Kentucky]], in Cincinnati General Hospital, now the [[University of Cincinnati Academic Health Center]], in [[Cincinnati]], Ohio.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |date=Mar 31, 2025 |orig-date=Dec 3, 1934 |title=Official birth certificate of Charles Milles Manson |url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Charles_Milles_Manson_-_Original_birth_certificate.jpg |url-status=live |website=State of Ohio Department of Health: Division of Vital Statistics |publication-date= |via=the Butler County Department of Health, Ohio}}</ref>{{sfn|Bugliosi|Gentry|1974|pp=136–137}}<ref>{{Cite web |last=Reitwiesner |first=William Addams |title=Ancestry of Charles Manson |url=http://www.wargs.com/other/manson.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305010208/http://www.wargs.com/other/manson.html |archive-date=2016-03-05 |website=wargs.com}}</ref> Manson's Ohio birth certificate simply lists his name as "Manson."<ref name=":3" /> His biological father appears to have been Colonel Walker Henderson Scott Sr.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.accuracyproject.org/cbe-Manson,Charles.html |title=Charles Manson |website=Internet Accuracy Project |access-date=October 28, 2012 |archive-date=February 24, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224141140/https://www.accuracyproject.org/cbe-Manson,Charles.html |url-status=live }}</ref> of [[Catlettsburg, Kentucky]], against whom Maddox filed a [[Paternity (law)|paternity]] suit that resulted in an [[stipulated judgment|agreed judgment]] in 1937.<ref name="mom">{{cite news |last=Smith |first=Dave |title=Mother Tells Life of Manson as Boy |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=January 26, 1971 }}</ref> Scott worked intermittently in local mills and had a local reputation as a [[con artist]]. He allowed Maddox to believe that he was an army colonel, although "Colonel" was merely his given name. When Maddox told Scott that she was pregnant, he informed her that he had been called away on army business. After several months, she realized he had no intention of returning.{{sfn|Guinn|2013|p=22}} Manson never knew his biological father.<ref>{{Cite web |last=O'Neill |first=Tom |title=What Was Charles Manson's Life Like Before He Formed 'The Family' Cult? |url=https://www.aetv.com/real-crime/charles-manson-early-life-before-the-family-cult |access-date=2025-04-25 |website=A&E |date=June 25, 2019 |language=en |ref=none}}</ref>

In August 1934, before Manson's birth, Maddox married William Eugene Manson (1909–1961), a laborer at a [[dry cleaning]] business. Maddox often went on drinking sprees with her brother Luther Elbert Maddox (1916–1950), leaving Charles with babysitters. On April 30, 1937, Maddox and her husband divorced, after William alleged "gross neglect of duty" by Maddox. Charles retained William's last name of Manson.{{sfn|Guinn|2013|p=23}} On August 1, 1939, Kathleen and Luther were arrested for assault and robbery, and sentenced to five and ten years of imprisonment, respectively.{{sfn|Guinn|2013|p=27}}

Manson was placed in the home of an aunt and uncle in [[McMechen, West Virginia]].<ref name="ketchup">{{cite news |url = https://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/07/books/a-new-look-at-charles-manson-by-jeff-guinn.html |title = Long Before Little Charlie Became the Face of Evil |date = August 7, 2013 |work = [[The New York Times]] |access-date = January 7, 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150930225705/http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/07/books/a-new-look-at-charles-manson-by-jeff-guinn.html |archive-date = September 30, 2015 |df = mdy-all |last=Maslin|first=Janet|author-link=Janet Maslin}}</ref> His mother was paroled in 1942. Manson later characterized the first weeks after she returned from prison as the happiest time in his life.{{sfn|Guinn|2013|p=36}} Weeks after her release, Manson's family moved to [[Charleston, West Virginia]],{{sfn|Guinn|2013|p=38}} where he frequently played [[truancy|truant]] and his mother spent her evenings drinking.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=Lansing |first=H. Allegra |title=The Manson Family: More to the Story |date=June 29, 2019 |publisher=Self-published |isbn=978-1075489884 |chapter=Son of Man: The Early Life of Charles Manson |chapter-url=https://medium.com/@themansonfamily_mtts/son-of-man-the-early-life-of-charles-manson-c89d41d03bf8 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220228032216/https://themansonfamily-mtts.medium.com/son-of-man-the-early-life-of-charles-manson-c89d41d03bf8 |archive-date=2022-02-28 |url-status=dead |via=[[Medium (website) | Medium]]}}</ref> She was arrested for [[grand larceny]], but not convicted.<ref name="ketchup" /> The family later moved to [[Indianapolis]], where Maddox met alcoholic Lewis Woodson Cavender Jr. (1916–1979) through [[Alcoholics Anonymous]] meetings, and married him in August 1943.<ref name=":4" />

=== First offenses ===
In an interview with [[Diane Sawyer]], Manson stated that when he was aged 9, he [[Arson|set his school on fire]].<ref>"Charles Manson – Diane Sawyer Documentary.{{Full citation needed|date=February 2026}}</ref> He also got repeatedly in trouble for truancy and petty theft. In 1947, although there was a lack of foster home placements, at age 13, Manson was placed in the [[Gibault School for Boys]] in [[Terre Haute, Indiana]], a school for male delinquents run by [[Catholicism|Catholic]] priests.{{sfn|Guinn|2013|p=43}} Gibault was a strict school, where punishment for even the smallest infraction included beatings with either a wooden paddle or a leather strap. Manson ran away from Gibault and slept in the woods, under bridges and wherever else he could find shelter.<ref name=":2">{{cite news| first=Al |last=Hunter |title=Charles Manson – Hoosier Juvenile Dilenquent |newspaper=The Weekly View |date=January 22, 2015 |url=https://weeklyview.net/2015/01/22/charles-manson-hoosier-juvenile-delinquent/ |access-date=4 January 2025 }}</ref>

Manson fled home to his mother and spent Christmas 1947 at his aunt and uncle's house in West Virginia.{{sfn|Guinn|2013|pp=37–42}} His mother returned him to Gibault. Ten months later, he ran away to Indianapolis.<ref>{{cite news|first=Dawn|last=Mitchell|url=https://www.indystar.com/story/news/history/retroindy/2014/01/14/charles-manson/4471927/|title=Retro Indy: Charles Manson, mass murderer and cult leader, spent time in Indiana|newspaper=[[The Indianapolis Star]]|date=January 14, 2014|access-date=August 17, 2020|archive-date=September 19, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200919163018/https://www.indystar.com/story/news/history/retroindy/2014/01/14/charles-manson/4471927/|url-status=live}}</ref> It was there, in 1948, that Manson committed his first documented crime by robbing a grocery store, at first to simply find something to eat. Manson found a cigar box containing just over a hundred dollars, which he used to rent a room on Indianapolis's Skid Row and to buy food.<ref>{{cite web|first=David|last=Mercer|date=November 20, 2017|access-date=August 17, 2020|url=https://news.sky.com/story/charles-mansons-life-and-crimes-a-timeline-11135463|title=Charles Manson's life and crimes: a timeline|website=[[Sky News]]|archive-date=October 24, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201024201551/https://news.sky.com/story/charles-mansons-life-and-crimes-a-timeline-11135463|url-status=live}}</ref>

For a time, Manson had a job delivering messages for [[Western Union]] in an attempt to live honestly. He quickly began to supplement his wages through theft.<ref name=":2" /> He was eventually caught, and in 1949 a sympathetic judge sent him to [[Boys Town (organization)|Boys Town]], a juvenile facility in [[Omaha, Nebraska]].<ref name="SawyerInterview">Charles Manson – Diane Sawyer Interview.{{Full citation needed|date=February 2026}}</ref> After four days at Boys Town, he and fellow student Blackie Nielson obtained a gun and stole a car. They used it to commit two armed robberies on their way to the home of Nielson's uncle in [[Peoria, Illinois]].{{sfn|Guinn|2013|pp=42–43}}{{sfn|Bugliosi|Gentry|1974|pp=136–146}} Nielson's uncle was a professional thief, and when the boys arrived he allegedly took them on as apprentices.{{sfn|Guinn|2013|p=43}} Manson was arrested two weeks later during a nighttime raid on a Peoria store. In the investigation that followed, he was linked to his two earlier armed robberies. He was sent to the [[Plainfield Juvenile Correctional Facility|Indiana Boys School]], a strict reform school outside of [[Plainfield, Indiana]].<ref>{{cite web|first=Richard|last=Ray|url=https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/in-indiana-charles-manson-was-once-a-14-year-old-lost-little-kid-report/28532/#:~:text=In%20Indiana%2C%20Charles%20Manson%20Was%20Once%20a%20%E2%80%98Lost,the%20Gibault%20School%20for%20Boys%20in%20Terre%20Haute.|title=In Indiana, Charles Manson Was Once a 'Lost Little Kid': Report|website=NBC Chicago|date=November 20, 2017|access-date=August 17, 2020|archive-date=October 25, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201025203413/https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/in-indiana-charles-manson-was-once-a-14-year-old-lost-little-kid-report/28532/#:~:text=In%20Indiana%2C%20Charles%20Manson%20Was%20Once%20a%20%E2%80%98Lost,the%20Gibault%20School%20for%20Boys%20in%20Terre%20Haute.|url-status=live}}</ref>

At the Indiana Boys School, other students allegedly raped Manson with the encouragement of a staff member, and he was repeatedly beaten. He ran away from the school eighteen times.<ref name=SawyerInterview/> Manson developed a self-defense technique he later called the "insane game", in which he would screech, grimace and wave his arms to convince stronger aggressors that he was insane. In February 1951, after a number of failed attempts, he escaped with two other boys.{{sfn|Guinn|2013|p=45}}{{sfn|Bugliosi|Gentry|1974|pp=136–146}} The three escapees robbed filling stations while attempting to drive to California in stolen cars, until they were arrested in [[Utah]]. For the federal crime of driving a stolen car across state lines, Manson was sent to Washington, D.C.'s [[National Training School for Boys]].{{sfn|Bugliosi|Gentry|1974|pp=137–146}} On arrival he was given aptitude tests which determined that he was illiterate, but had an above-average [[IQ]] of 109. His case worker deemed him aggressively [[Antisocial personality disorder|antisocial]].{{sfn|Guinn|2013|p=45}}{{sfn|Bugliosi|Gentry|1974|pp=136–146}}

=== First imprisonment ===
In October 1951, on a psychiatrist's recommendation, Manson was transferred to Natural Bridge Honor Camp, a minimum security institution in [[Virginia]].{{sfn|Bugliosi|Gentry|1974|pp=136–146}} His aunt visited him and told administrators she would let him stay at her house and help him find work. Manson had a parole hearing scheduled for February 1952. In January, he was caught [[Rape|raping]] a boy at [[Coercion|knifepoint]]. Manson was transferred to the [[Federal Correctional Complex, Petersburg|Federal Reformatory]] in [[Petersburg, Virginia]], where he committed a further "eight serious disciplinary offenses, three involving homosexual acts". He was then moved to a maximum security [[Chillicothe Correctional Institution|reformatory]] at [[Chillicothe, Ohio]], where he was expected to remain until his release on his 21st birthday in November 1955. Good behavior led to an early release in May 1954, to live with his aunt and uncle in West Virginia.{{sfn|Guinn|2013|p=52}}

[[File:Charles Manson mugshot FCI Terminal Island California 1956-05-02 3845-CAL.png|thumb|Manson, aged 21. Booking photo, Federal Correctional Institution, Terminal Island, May 2, 1956]]
In January 1955, Manson married a hospital waitress named Rosalie "Rosie" Jean Willis (January 28, 1939 – August 21, 2009). Around October, about three months after he and his pregnant wife arrived in Los Angeles in a car he had stolen in Ohio, Manson was again charged with a federal crime for taking the vehicle across state lines. After a psychiatric evaluation, he was given five years' [[probation]]. Manson's failure to appear at a Los Angeles hearing on an identical charge filed in Florida resulted in his March 1956 arrest in Indianapolis. His probation was revoked, and he was sentenced to three years' imprisonment at [[Federal Correctional Institution, Terminal Island|Terminal Island]] in Los Angeles.{{sfn|Bugliosi|Gentry|1974|pp=136–146}}

While Manson was in prison, Rosalie gave birth to their son, Charles Manson Jr. (April 10, 1956 – June 29, 1993). During his first year at Terminal Island, Manson received visits from Rosalie and his mother, who were now living together in Los Angeles. In March 1957, when the visits from his wife ceased, his mother informed him Rosalie was living with another man. Less than two weeks before a scheduled parole hearing, Manson tried to escape by stealing a car. He was given five years' probation and his parole was denied.{{sfn|Bugliosi|Gentry|1974|pp=136–146}}

=== Second imprisonment ===
In September 1958, Manson received five years' parole, the same year in which Rosalie received a decree of divorce. By November, he was [[pimp]]ing a 16-year-old girl and receiving additional support from a girl with wealthy parents. In September 1959, he pleaded guilty to a charge of attempting to cash a forged [[United States Department of the Treasury|U.S. Treasury]] check, which he claimed to have stolen from a mailbox; the latter charge was later dropped. He received a ten-year [[suspended sentence]] and probation after a young woman named Leona Rae "Candy" Stevens, who had an arrest record for prostitution, made a "tearful plea" before the court that she and Manson were "deeply in love&nbsp;... and would marry if Charlie were freed".{{sfn|Bugliosi|Gentry|1974|pp=136–146}} Before the year's end, Stevens married Manson. [[Vincent Bugliosi]], the prosecutor who later secured Manson's murder conviction, believed the marriage may have been so she [[Spousal privilege|could not be required]] to testify against Manson.{{sfn|Bugliosi|Gentry|1974|pp=136–146}}

Manson took Leona and another woman to [[New Mexico]] for purposes of prostitution, resulting in him being held and questioned for violating the [[Mann Act]]. Though he was released, Manson correctly suspected that the investigation had not ended. When he disappeared in violation of his probation, a [[Arrest warrant#Bench warrant|bench warrant]] was issued. In April 1960, an indictment for violation of the Mann Act followed.{{sfn|Bugliosi|Gentry|1974|pp=136–146}} Following the arrest of one of the women for prostitution, Manson was arrested in June in [[Laredo, Texas]], and was returned to Los Angeles. For violating his probation on the check-cashing charge, he was ordered to serve his ten-year sentence.{{sfn|Bugliosi|Gentry|1974|pp=136–146}}

Manson spent a year trying unsuccessfully to appeal the revocation of his probation. In July 1961, he was transferred from the [[Los Angeles County Jail]] to [[McNeil Island Corrections Center|the United States Penitentiary]] at [[McNeil Island]], Washington. There, he took guitar lessons from [[Barker–Karpis gang]] leader [[Alvin Karpis#Imprisonment|Alvin "Creepy" Karpis]], and obtained from another inmate the contact information of [[Phil Kaufman (producer)|Phil Kaufman]], a record producer and tour manager.<ref>{{cite web |access-date=July 2, 2012 |url=http://www.lostinthegrooves.com/short-bits-2-charles-manson-and-the-beach-boys |work=Lost in the Grooves |title=Short Bits 2 – Charles Manson and the Beach Boys |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120718010206/http://www.lostinthegrooves.com/short-bits-2-charles-manson-and-the-beach-boys |archive-date=July 18, 2012 |date=April 13, 2006 }}{{Self-published source|date=February 2026}}</ref> Among Manson's fellow prisoners during this time was future actor [[Danny Trejo]]; the two participated in several [[hypnosis]] sessions together.<ref>{{Cite web|date=July 7, 2021|title=Danny Trejo Says Charles Manson Once Hypnotized Him in Jail|url=https://www.mediaite.com/entertainment/danny-trejo-says-charles-manson-once-hypnotized-him-in-jail/|access-date=July 7, 2021|website=Mediaite|language=en|archive-date=July 7, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210707202624/https://www.mediaite.com/entertainment/danny-trejo-says-charles-manson-once-hypnotized-him-in-jail/|url-status=live|last=Shuster|first=Andrew}}</ref> Manson's mother moved to Washington State to be closer to him during his McNeil Island incarceration, working nearby as a waitress.<ref name="Rule/Guinn">{{cite magazine |last=Rule |first=Ann |title=There Will Be Blood |journal=The New York Times Book Review |date=August 18, 2013 |page=14 }}</ref>

Although the Mann Act charge had been dropped, the attempt to cash the Treasury check was still a federal offense. Manson's September 1961 annual review noted he had a "tremendous drive to call attention to himself", an observation echoed in September 1964.{{sfn|Bugliosi|Gentry|1974|pp=136–146}} In 1963, Leona was granted a divorce. During the process, she alleged that she and Manson had a son, Charles Luther Manson.{{sfn|Bugliosi|Gentry|1974|pp=136–146}} According to a popular [[urban legend]], Manson auditioned unsuccessfully for [[the Monkees]] in late 1965. This is refuted by the fact that Manson was still incarcerated at McNeil Island at the time.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/monkees.asp |title=Did Charles Manson Audition for The Monkees? |website=[[Snopes]] |date=September 25, 1995 |access-date=July 5, 2018|last=Mikkelson|first=David}}</ref>

In June 1966, Manson was sent for the second time to Terminal Island in preparation for early release. By the time of his release day on March 21, 1967, he had spent more than half of his thirty-two years in prisons and other institutions. This was mainly because he had broken [[federal law]]s. Federal sentences were, and remain, much more severe than state sentences for many of the same offenses. Telling the authorities that prison had become his home, he requested permission to stay.{{sfn|Bugliosi|Gentry|1974|pp=136–146}}