Charles Manson

Michelle Rodriguez

Liz Cervio

Psychology 111

Charles Manson

Charles Manson was the "illegitimate and unplanned child of a promiscuous sixteen year old who drank too much and got into a lot of trouble" (Bardsley 5). Manson also had no father figure growing up. He told a story which circulated within this family: "Mom was in a café one afternoon with me in her lap. The waitress, a would-be mother without a child of her own, jokingly told my mom she'd buy me from her. Mom replied, 'A pitcher of beer and he's yours. The waitress set up the beer; mom stuck around long enough to finish it off and left the place without me. Several days later my uncle had to search the town for the waitress and take me home" (Bardsley 5).

Charles Manson is a serial killer from the 1970's whose background in criminal activities stems from his childhood. He was first released on parole for a car theft in May 1954 at the age of twenty- one. "He had been in prison since he was sixteen" (Sanders 21) and prior to that he was in youth correction facilities for various charges. From 1954 Manson was arrested for parole violations, writing bad checks and federal pimp charges. During his time in prison he took up studying "magic, warlockry, hypnotism, astral projection, Masonic lore, scientology, ego games, and subliminal motivation" (Sanders 28). He would practice using these subliminal motivation skills using the prisons' radio station.

The events that Charles Manson is known for occurred on August 9, 1969. He and his Family broke into the house of the pregnant Sharon Tate and three of her friends. The next night, two other murders were committed. The murders were brutal. After many months of questions it was determined that Charles Manson and his Family were responsible for the murders. The Family consisted of a group of Manson's followers who lived in a pace called Soahn Ranch. Charles taught his family to believe in the core of his philosophy, "Charlie preached that the black man was going to rise up and start killing whites and turn the cities in to an inferno of racial revenge. The black man would win this war, but would not be able to hang onto the power he seized because of innate inferiority" (Bardsley 6).

There are several categories of explanations for criminal behavior. The murders that were committed by Charles Manson can fall into many of this categories.The Psychological category being one of them. This theory says that "crimes result from inappropriately conditioned behavior or from abnormal, dysfunctional, or inappropriate mental processes within the personality" (Schmalleger 104). They can each be linked with a