On August 8, 1969, Manson ordered Tex Watson to lead Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, Leslie Van Houten, and Linda Kasabian into a house that had once been owned by record producer Terry Melcher, who’d recently passed on bringing the songwriter into his studio. Manson’s family killed actress Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring, Wojciech Frykowski, Abigail Folger, and the 18-year-old Steven Parent, who showed up at the house by accident. Tate was eight months pregnant at the time of the murder. Manson is probably the most infamous convicted killer of all time. He is the man of nightmares made flesh. No Name Maddox was born in Cincinnati on Nov. 12, 1934. His mother, 16-year-old Kathleen Maddox, was a prostitute and he never knew his biological father. He took the name Charles Milles Manson from William Manson, who was briefly married to his mother. Manson was abused and neglected as a child. From the age of five to eight he was moved between relatives in three states while his mother did time for robbing a gas station. The poster child of teenage delinquents lived in reform schools from the age of 12 where he was raped and abused. Manson married his second wife, 16-year-old Candy Stevens, whom he was pimping, so she couldn’t testify against him for passing bad checks. The Manson trials, which began in June, 1970, were a media spectacle. Charlie carved a cross on his forehead, his followers carved swastikas into theirs. Charlie followed back. President Richard Nixon pronounced Manson guilty before the jury had gone out. Besides the countless films and TV series the killings inspired, Manson inspired the phrase “Manson lamps,” which was used on The Sopranos to describe Richie Aprile. He also inspired the Symbionese Liberation Army, Jim Jones’s Peoples Temple, and the OTO and Scientology offshoot The Process Church. Manson was imprisoned at Corcoran State Prison in Kings County, California. He would next have been eligible for parole when he turned 92. Charles Manson doesn’t appear to have relatives on file with prison officials. His body will continue to be held in state custody, possibly for eight more lifetimes. He won’t be missed.
