Editing Charles Manson (section)

=== 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}}