Charles Manson
Unauthorized
Mass Murderer or a Scapegoat?
John E Derossett
An Eagle Publishing Company book.
Copyright 2013 © John E Derossett.
All Rights Reserved under international and Pan-American copyright conventions. Published and distributed in the United States by the Eagle Publishing Company, Baltimore, Maryland in partnership with CreateSpace.
http://www.eaglepublishing.org
http://www.johnderossett.com
Book cover design by John E Derossett
ISBN: 1482391074
ISBN-13: 978-1482391077
No part of this book may be copied whole, or in part without express written permission from the author.
Charles Milles Manson
2011
EAGLE PUBLISHING COMPANY
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DEDICATION
Dedicated to Marlene, Sasha, and Sammy. A special thanks to my wife Marlene who proofed and edited this book for me.
Table of Contents
Introduction
1
Charles Milles Manson – Before the murders
5
Family Members – Key members involved in the murders at the Tate-Polanski and LaBianca residences.
15
Before the Murders
27
Gary Hinman Murder
33
Murder at the Tate-Polanski Residence
35
Murder at the LaBianca Residence
43
After the Crimes
51
Other Crimes by the Family
67
Resources
71
About the Author
73
introduction
I’m not going to bore you with a long introduction. There are some insights here however, that will give you a picture of why I am so interested in Charles Manson. For years, I, like millions of other Americans have been fascinated with Charles Milles Manson. Not so much because he has the ingrained reputation of being a mass-murderer, but from a psychological point of view. My fascination lies within the ability of a single person having the ability to manipulate and control a group of people, willing them to do his or her bidding, without so much as having to raise their voice, or physically force these people to do his or her will.
Nearly everyone alive today is aware of Charles Manson and the so-called “family” in some form or another. Even children born in the 70’s and 80’s know who he is, and the infamous family crimes were committed in 1969! There are some aspects to this case that many people may not be aware of, even those who were around during the era when these horrendous crimes happened. At the very least, there are those even today, that object to Manson being convicted of murder when he never physically participated in the crimes.
Manson maintains to this day, that he had absolutely nothing to do with the murder of any of the people he is convicted of killing in 1969, including the LaBianca’s, though it is known that he was at the scene at some point in time during the night in question.
The truth of the matter, is that regardless of whether Manson had been on the scene or not, he is still responsible for murder under California’s Joint Responsibility law, in effect at the time of the murder’s. This means that Manson could have actually been in Maryland, but because he knew about, and allegedly ordered the murder of the people in question, it made him just as responsible as if he killed the people himself. This law is important, because while it is indeed controversial, it makes those who order murders of others to be just as responsible, if it can be proven that they in fact ordered a “hit” on someone else.
The Manson Family is actually suspected of murdering more than 35 people, though there is no evidence available to convict them on any of the crimes. Vincent Bugliosi maintains that there was a list of people the family planned to kill. Among the names found on this list were Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor, Steve McQueen, Tom Jones and Richard Burton. There were other names as well, but these are the most notable. There is also a suspicion that Dennis Wilson’s name was there as well, because Manson felt that he betrayed him. According to Susan Atkins, there were specific acts that would be committed on each person such as carving the term “Helter Skelter” into the face of Elizabeth Taylor. She said that they were also going to slit the throat of Tom Jones after forcing him to have sex with Atkins.
As you progress through this book, you will see some disturbing images, giving you a little glimpse of how things were at the crime scenes. Unfortunately, some of the images leave a lot to be desired by way of clarity. It still gives you a vision of what was seen during these despicable acts of violence. Reader Beware. If violent images are disturbing to you, then perhaps you will want to skip over those pages.
I try to approach this subject matter from a chronological point of view, and present the facts to you in the order that they happened. I find that going back and forth can be quite confusing to some people, so I tried to avoid that altogether. There is a section toward the end that does a sort of a look back, but it should not be too confusing. Chapter one of this text will deal specifically with Charles Manson’s younger years up to the period before the murders actually occur.
From there, we take a brief look at the more infamous members of the family. What many people do not realize, is that the Manson Family was actually quite large. When most people think of them, they only picture those who actively participated in the heinous crimes that you are about to read of.
For those of you who enjoy my books, please read the short that I have written about David Berkowitz. Also, my new book “Serial Killers and Mass Murderers” will be ready for release sometime this summer. Two sections in that back include Berkowitz and the Manson Family as well, but in addition, it will profile a number of serial killers and mass murderers who have not received as much publicity as some other cases. I am also working on another project involving Adam Lanza and the Connecticut School Shootings so keep an eye out for those.
“Believe me… If I started murdering people, there’d be none of you left!”
- Charles Manson
charles milles manson
Charles Milles Manson
Charles Milles Manson, or Charlie as he liked to be called by friends and followers, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. His mother was 16-years old when he was born, and by his own account, a prostitute. Legally, his name was initially “No-Name” Maddox, and would remain that way for several weeks, until finally, the name Charles Milles was added to his birth certificate.
Manson got his new last name from a man that his mother would briefly marry named William Manson. Manson says that his biological father was a black man named Colonel Walker Scott, though during court proceedings in 1971 he would deny this. Scott allegedly had nothing to do with the boy, although his mother filed a bastardy suit (child support in today’s terminology), and Scott agreed to a judgment handed down in court around 1937.
Manson says that while his mother was originally from Ashland, Kentucky, he was born in Cincinnati and that eventually they migrated to Charleston, West Virginia. He said that his mother was a heavy drinker, and according to another family member, she had once given Charles away in exchange for a pitcher of beer. The recipient, a childless waitress, relinquished Charlie to an uncle who had to go and retrieve him. Looking back on the life of Manson as we now know it, one has to wonder whether Manson might have been better off with the waitress. That
being the case, events as we know them today, may never have happened.
In 1939, Manson’s mother and her brother robbed a Charleston, West Virginia service station. They were caught in the act and locked up. After appearing in court, they were each sentenced to five years in prison, leaving Charlie to wonder where he would go. Authorities then sent Manson to live with an aunt and uncle in McMechen, West Virginia, near Wheeling in the northern panhandle of the state. His mother was then released from prison in 1942 and he began living with her again, though it seems that she didn’t want him around.
Manson says that the single happy memory that he remembers from the early days of his life as a child, was his mother hugging him when she returned home. From that point, they began living in a series of run-down hotels while he was a child, moving from one place to another dodging landlords. At some point in 1942, mother and son had ended up in Indiana. Sometime in 1947, Kathleen tried unsuccessfully to place him in foster care. At the time however, there was no foster care system and Manson was placed in the Gibault School for Boys in Terre Haute, Indiana by the court. The school was a program created by the Knight of Columbus in 1909 and was initially founded to provide service for 25 boys. It quickly reached that limit however, and was expanded to include an additional two halls to enable the program to serve more boys. Today, the school is now known as Gibault’s Children Services and serves both boys and girls. The staff consists of more than 250 members. Manson did not like the school and ran away after being there for only 10 months. He made his way to his mother’s house, but she rejected him, leaving him basically alone and on his own.
Charles Manson’s first run-in with the law occurred while he was a young boy. His crime spree began with his burglary of a grocery store. He used the proceeds from the break-in to rent a room in which he could stay, because he had no place to live. He then went on to break-in to other stores where he continued to steal cash and other items, including a bicycle that he used to get around with. The proceeds from these crimes were used to pay his rent and to eat. His crime spree came to an end when he was caught red handed breaking into a building. After appearing in court, he was sent to a juvenile center in Indianapolis, but as he will do several other times throughout his young criminal career, Manson escaped from the facility the next day.
He was sent to Father Flanagan’s Boys Town after he was recaptured following that escape. At Boys Town, he lasted four days before escaping from that facility along with another boy. The boys were making their way to the home of the other boy’s uncle. Along the way, they committed two armed robberies in order to get cash for food and drinks. They also broke into two grocery stores along the way, and it was during the second break-in that they were caught. Manson was then sent to the Indiana Boys School, which is known today as the Plainfield Juvenile Correctional Facility. He was 13-years old by now, and it was here, on Manson’s own admission, that he was brutally raped and otherwise abused. He tried to escape from this facility on a number of different occasions, but consistently failed to get away. Finally, he managed to escape from the facility in 1951. This time, two other boys left with him. The trio began making their way to the West Coast, stealing cars and burglarizing gas stations along the way. If they would have simply been stealing cars, that would have been one thing, and they would not have gotten into as much trouble as they did. However, They took the stolen automobiles across state lines, making the crimes federal and the result was much stiffer penalties than they otherwise would have received. The penalty for Manson’s part in these crimes, was for him to be sent to the National Training School for Boys in Washington, DC. The school’s primary function was to house offenders under the age of seventeen years old, making it basically a prison for underage boys. The facility is no longer in operation today, having closed in 1968 after more than 50 years in operation.
Manson was never able to escape from this facility. While at NTC, Manson received 4 years of formal education and tested with an IQ of 109, but was still considered to be illiterate. What the authorities failed to realize however, was that despite IQ test scores, Manson was far more intelligent than he was given credit for. While he was incarcerated at NTC, one of his caseworkers noted that Manson aggressively antisocial. From NTC, Manson was transferred to the National Bridge Honor Camp, a minimum security facility, based on the recommendation from his psychiatrist. He got into trouble at that facility when, just one month shy of his first parole hearing, he held a razor to the throat of another boy as he sodomized him. This happened in February 1952 and resulted in his being transferred to a federal reformatory in Petersburg, Virginia. Manson was first classified as “dangerous” while he was in the Petersburg facility. After a number of different rule infractions while at Petersburg, authorities transferred Manson to another federal facility located in Chillicothe, Ohio because it was more secure.
Manson finally settled down a little while at the Ohio facility, and actually came to be known as a model prisoner. He also worked at bringing his education level from that of fourth grade to the seventh grade. Manson also developed good work habits while in the Ohio facility. All of these things worked together to earn Manson in 1954. One of the terms of his parole was that he reside with his aunt and uncle in Mcmechen, West Virginia because they offered him a more stable life than he had experienced with his mother. Manson abided by this requirement, but only for a short time before once again moving in to his mother’s residence. In January 1955, Manson married a woman named Rosalie Jean Willis. Willis had been a waitress in a hospital cafeteria and Manson fell in love with her. According to Manson, he was actually happy with Rosalie, if only for a short time. Manson never held a steady job while he was married. The way he supported the family was by stealing cars and working small-time jobs.
Up to now, the majority of Manson’s legal troubles while seemingly small time, were amplified because he always managed to do something that took the crime to the next level, making his offenses federal crimes, such as taking stolen automobiles across state lines. It seems that he would have fared better if he left the automobile at the state line and then simply stolen another one. That was not the case however.
Manson and his wife Rosalie, who was pregnant by this time, arrived in Los Angeles in August of 1955 in a car that he had stolen in Ohio. Once again, he had taken a stolen vehicle across state lines, so he was charged in federal court for the crime. After being subjected to a psychiatric evaluation, Manson was given 5 years probation on the auto theft charge. He was due to appear in a Los Angeles court to answer charges of a similar nature, which were filed in Florida. He did not go to court however, and this led to issuance of a bench warrant for his arrest. He was ultimately arrested in March 1956 while he was in Indianapolis.
His probation was then revoked and he was sentenced to three years in prison, and sent to Terminal Island Prison in San Pedro, California. While he was serving his prison sentence, his wife gave birth to a son, who she named Charles Manson, Jr. By this time, Manson’s mother was living with Rosalie in Los Angeles. The entire first year he was incarcerated, his mother and Rosalie would come to visit with him. By March 1957 however, Rosalie had stopped going to visit with Manson. His mother then informed him that Rosalie had started living with another man. Manson tried to escape from the prison when he was just two weeks away from his parole hearing date. Again, stealing cars would be his undoing because he stole a car to make his escape but he was caught. Not only was his parole naturally declined because of this, but he also had 5 years of probation added to the prison time he was serving. Had he waited just two more weeks, he may have been paroled and given the chance to try to straighten things out between he and his wife. The way things ended up however, instead of waiting a couple of weeks to get out of the penitentiary, he ended up waiting much longer.
Manson got his parole in 1958 and it was to last for five years. He also received the final divorce decree from Rosalie not long after. By November of 1958, Manson was making money by pimping out
a 16-year old girl. He was also getting money from another girl that he was seeing, as she had wealthy parents. One of Manson’s primary problems was that he was committing what would ordinarily be petty crimes, but he always seemed to take things to the next level, turning his crimes into federal offenses. For instance, stealing cars but taking them across state lines. This time however, he forged the signature on a $37.00 check and cashed it. He escalated the crime because he stole the check out of a mailbox, making it a federal offense and of course, the punishment was more harsh than it would have otherwise been. To make matters worse, the check was a US Treasury check, so when he was sentenced for the crime, he was given 10 years in prison. This meant that if he served his entire sentence, he would not be released until 1969, since the crime happened in 1959. However, it turns out that the judge was a bit sympathetic because when a prostitute made a tearful plea to the judge not to send Manson to prison because they were deeply in love and trying to establish a good relationship. She went on to tell the judge that they were planning to be married Charlie did not go to prison. The judge then suspended Manson’s sentence, allowing him to go free. Manson then married the girl before the year was over, but it is suspected that he did so to prevent the girl from being compelled to testify against him, rather than because of being in love This woman’s name was Leona, but her professional name as a prostitute was Candy.
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