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The Manson Murders

Charles Manson

Matt Moffitt
Intro to Criminal Justice 1010
Prof. John Minichino
December 8, 2016

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The Manson Murders are some of the most famous murders
throughout the history of the United States. They took place in the late
1960s in parts of California. Most people have heard of the Manson
Murders and have somewhat of an idea as to what took place, but
there are a lot more to it than just a guy killing people. The details are
what caught my attention and helped guide me to be interested in
researching deeper to the actual events that occurred. I hope that this
paper will provide more information to help readers understand just a
little more about the murders and the reasoning behind them.
Charles Miles Maddox was born on November 23, 1934. I feel a
background on his life is the best place to start so that you may
understand what led him to choose the path of life that he did. He was
a songwriter on the fringe of the music industry in Los Angeles. Music
is what occupied most of his time, but unfortunately, a lack of success
attributed to him making many of the poor decisions that he did.
Charles was born to a single mother who was just 16 years old at the
time. She was a heavy drinker, was up to trouble herself, and
genuinely did not care to be a part of her sons life. She even sold her
son to someone for just a pitcher of beer. Luckily, Charles uncle
retrieved him and brought him home. Its reasons like this that he lived
with his aunt and uncle most of the time. However, his mother would
take him back when she wanted from time to time and they would live

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in a run down hotel room. They were never in a secure and healthy
home.
As time went by, she tried putting him in the foster system, but
there was no such thing at the time. He eventually ended up in an all
boy school in Indiana. He tried to come back home to his mother, but
she rejected him as she had done before. He later took his
stepfathers, William Manson, last name. This helps us to see that
Charles wasnt brought up in a very healthy living environment and
had a childhood that we all fear of having. Many believe that this is
what led him down the path in life to make the choices he did and Im
sure that is valid assumption.
The textbook teaches us about the social process theories and
that it is a school of criminology that considers criminal behavior to be
the predictable result of a persons interaction with his or her
environment. According to these theories, everybody has the potential
for wrongdoing. Those who act on this potential are conditioned to do
so by family or peer groups, or institutions of media. This helps us to
understand that a great deal of Mansons behavior was attributed to
the environments he was placed in. Unfortunately for him, many were
not by his choice as he was forced into them at such a young age. This
still happens in our modern day and is a serious problem. We become
the average of the five people we most associate with. This means that
if we are associating with people who promote good behavior, then we

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are likely to become some who promotes good behavior as well.
Manson was the opposite and associated with people who committed
criminal activity, which took him from a positive path to a more
destructive one.
Like most criminals, Charles started at the bottom of the crime
ladder when he began to get into trouble. One of his first arrests was
because he was caught burglarizing a liquor store in order to get
money. However, he didnt just want the money to have or waste on
himself. He was using the money to rent a room so that he had a place
to stay and roof over his head. This still isnt a justification for
committing a crime, but at least he wasnt just doing it out of
enjoyment. He was arrested for an array of different crimes and
eventually landed himself in a juvenile detention center. That didnt do
much though as he was able to escape from the detention center all
together.
Manson continued his criminal behavior and was put into a Boys
Town after being arrested. He managed to escape there as well; this
shows that he was very good at being a criminal. His problem was that
he never learned from his mistakes and never took anything seriously.
He was hard headed in a manner that he always wanted to get his
way, no matter what it dealt with. Once his mind was made up about
something or what he was going to do, thats how it was going to be.
Eventually, he was put into a nation training school, which didnt help

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much. He was said to have come out of there being illiterate and anti
social. He came out an entirely different person, but not necessarily in
a good way.
Around 1967 is when he began to gather a group of people that
he called his followers. They seemed to share a similar passion and
lifestyle as him. This consisted of doing hallucinogenic drugs,
developing their own theory as to what was right or wrong, and having
a completely askew perspective on life. They referred to themselves as
a family and this is where they adopted the name of the Manson
Family. The family consisted of about 12 main members, but the exact
number of followers he had is unknown. They moved to an isolated
area called Spahn Ranch in California where they spent most of their
time. There, Manson was convincing himself and everyone else that he
was Jesus and most of their hippie activities took place.
Their murders started in Beverly Hills when 18-year-old Steven
Parent was shot while driving up to a house there. Jay Sebring was
another victim that was shot and brutally kicked to death. Two people
tried to escape from the house, but were chased down and stabbed to
death on the front lawn. Coffee heiress Abigail Folger was stabbed 28
times. A pregnant woman was stabbed mercilessly in the stomach until
she passed away. I could go on and on about all the murders that took
place and how brutally graphic they were, but these are just some that
illustrate how heartless these people actually were.

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Manson was smart enough that he never actively participated in
the actual killings. Instead, he would be very precise in instructing
them what to do and who to kill. He would then make comments and
basically do an analysis of how smooth the job took place. He would let
them know when they were sloppy and what needed to be fixed. In the
end, he bragged about that fact of committing thirty-five murders,
which can be read in the famous book Helter Skelter. Vincent Bugliosi
who was the prosecutor against Manson during the trials wrote this
book. It is believed that he killed many more people during his dark
life.
The book defines a felony as a serious crime, usually punishable
by death or imprisonment for a year or longer. In regards to murder, it
states that it is an unlawful homicide that occurs during the
attempted commission of a felony. Regardless of the actors intent or
circumstances surrounding the death, the homicide is automatically
considered first-degree murder. A felony is the highest level of crime
one can be charged with and has three classifications. There are first,
second and third degree felonies, with first-degree felonies being the
highest. Felonies remain on your record throughout your life and can
severely complicate many aspects of your life. Convicted felons lose
certain rights, such as purchasing a firearm, and can make it hard to
get a job. When an employer does a background check, it will show
what you were convicted of and we all know that first-degree murder

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would be a huge red flag. Manson and his followers would have these
things follow them for the rest of their lives once they were convicted.
After reading about all of the inhumane things that were done
during the Manson Murders, I became very curious to know as to why
these crimes took place. What was their justification behind their
actions that led them to believe that these werent morally wrong?
There are many interviews in the book, but one interviewer asked a
question that stood out to me. He asked, What did Manson say, if
anything, about right and wrong? The response was, He believed you
could do no wrong, no bad. Everything was good. Whatever you do is
what youre supposed to do; you are following your own karma.
Another question was, What was Mansons philosophy on death?
They responded by saying, There was no death, to Charles way of
thinking. Death was only a change. The soul or spirit cant die. Based
on these responses, we can see that Charles Manson really didnt
believe that there was anything wrong with the crimes that he was
committing.
In the fall of 1969, Manson and others are first indicted with
several of the murders they committed. They were then taken to trial
in the summer of 1970. Judge Charles H. Older found Manson guilty
with 1st degree murders and conspiracy to commit murder. They were
all sentenced to the death penalty or life in prison, however, with the
abolishment of the death penalty in California, all members of the

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Manson Family had their charges reduced to life in prison. After the
trial was over, Manson follower Susan Atkins said, Better lock your
doors and watch your own kids. Manson member Leslie van Houten
also added, Your whole system is a game. Manson then began
shouting and complaining over the fact that he had not been allowed
to adequately defend himself.
When Manson showed up for trial in Los Angeles, California, he
arrived with a large X carved into the skin of his forehead. He did this
to show his solidarity from the world, as he was X-ing himself from
society. Many of his followers soon did the same thing as they
appeared for their trials. Manson later turned his into a tattoo of a
swastika, which would lead us to believe that he is a prejudice or
racist.
Charles Manson is now 82 years old and has been in prison for
over four decades. He has been denied parole 12 times and his next
parole hearing wont take place until 2027. He prided himself when he
went to trial as he viewed it as more of an accomplishment than
anything else. He made it seem to himself that they were saying
thank you for what he had done since he believed that he was doing
the right thing by committing all those crimes. After the Manson Family
was convicted, it was marked to have been one of the centuries most
infamous murder cases. The prosecutions case was an example of how
the U.S. Supreme Courts Aranda ruling is applied in cases that involve

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multiple defendants. This states that the testimony from one
defendant cant be used to incriminate another. It was one of the
longest and most expensive trials in California that took all the way
until 1976 to solve.
We briefly discussed the process of a jury trial during the class.
Due to the crimes committed by these people, they all likely had high
bail amounts with no chance of probation. Many people believe that
you walk into a courtroom before a judge, some arguing takes place,
the jury comes up with its verdict, and the judge sentences you to your
punishment. We can see hear that these trials are often longer and a
lot more complicated than just that. It is the same process, however, it
is done over an extended period of time. Throughout the trial, people
are constantly coming up with new evidence and testimonies in order
to argue one side over the other. All evidence must be reviewed
thoroughly because something that seems so small is often times the
exact fact that can change the momentum of the courtroom.
We learned about parole several times throughout the course of
the semester. The book defines parole as the conditional release of an
inmate before his or her sentence has expired. An inmate usually
receives the opportunity for parole when theyve been demonstrating
good behavior and are reviewed by a parole board. A parole board can
grant someone parole, but a higher authority can still overturn it. Only
one person from the Manson Family received parole and its because

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he revealed the location of one of their murder victims in order to aid
police investigation. Manson follower Bruce Davis had his parole
overturned by three separate governors after the board had thought he
was ready to be released. Hes still in jail today. They dont believe
Manson has a feeling of remorse for the crimes he committed and
thats why he has yet to receive this privilege.
The Manson Murders are very complex and more detailed than
most people are aware of. People often know the generic basics and
believe it was a serial killer who murdered a couple of people. Since
the time that the crimes and trial happened, many people have
published books, done interviews, and written articles about the events
that took place. The actual members of the Manson Family were not
the actively open to the media about what took place. However, there
are many statements and interviews of them talking about what
actually happened. Most are very similar in the fact that many did not
believe what they were doing is wrong. I encourage people to take a
deeper look into the details of this case in order to see for themselves
how much one person can affect a society.
In conclusion, I do not agree that Charles Manson and the other
members of the Manson Family did anything positive by committing
these crimes. This has helped me to see how much an environment
can affect someone and how one person can influence so many others
in both a positive and negative way. I feel that they dont deserve to be

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released on parole for what they did because the innocent people they
murdered cant get their life back. Yes, I do believe in second chances
and change, but I also believe that every choice has a consequence,
whether it is positive or negative. The Manson Family consciously
chose to do what they did and I feel they deserve to suffer the
consequences. I thoroughly enjoyed researching and writing about this
topic. I plan to continue my studies on it and urge others to do the
same.

Bibliography:

Bugliosi, Vincent and Curt Gentry. 1974. Helter Skelter: the True Story of the Manson
Murders. New York: Norton.

Anon. n.d. Wikipedia. Wikipedia. Retrieved March 1, 2016

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/charles_manson).

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Anon. n.d. Bio.Com. Bio.com. Retrieved February 27, 2016
(http://www.biography.com/people/charles-manson-9397912).

Anon. n.d. Charles Manson And the Manson Family. Crime Library: Retrieved
February 27, 2016 (http://www.crimemuseum.org/crime.../charles-manson-and-themanson-family).

Bugliosi, Vincent., John Gray, and John Gray. 2004. Helter Skelter.