Theories of the Mad Man, Charles Manson

"Mr. and Mrs. America--you are wrong. I am not the King of the Jews nor am I a hippie cult leader. I am what you have made me and the mad dog devil killer fiend leper is a reflection of your society . . . Whatever the outcome of this madness that you call a fair trial or Christian justice, you can know this: In my mind's eye my thoughts light fires in your cities."- (Charles Manson, Tate-LaBianca Trial, 1969). From January to March of 1971, the penalty trial of Charles Manson was for the jury to decide whether this mad man should be punished with life imprisonment or a death penalty. Possible considerations such as alleviating circumstances, remorse, background, and the possibility of rehabilitation were now relevant. Viewed as a psychopath, Manson and his followers committed numerous amounts of heinous crimes, which all had to be triggered by something at some point in time. I am associating the Charles Manson and Family/Helter Skelter Crimes with the Psychopathic Mental Disorder and the General Strain Theory.

Charles Manson, born in Cincinnati, Ohio on November 12, 1934 to the Mother of Kathleen Maddox, a troubled sixteen year-old with a history of promiscuity and drinking. Manson, unplanned, was also born with no name, people called him "No-Named Maddox". It wasn't until Kathleen was briefly married to William Manson that William gave Charles his name. Charles was never exposed to a father figure and never knew his paternal father and Kathleen was described as the mother that children are taken away from and placed into foster homes. His mother had habits of disappearing for days or weeks at a time while Charles was left at home with his grandmother or aunt. When Kathleen and her brother were arrested and sentenced to jail for armed robbery and Charles was to live with his uncle and aunt in McMechen, West Virginia until Kathleen was released. However, when his mother and uncle were released, it was said that she was not responsible enough to care for him because she chose the life of heavy drinking and promiscuity as a normal lifestyle. As a result, unfortunately there was nothing constant in Charles' life. Moving from house to house, one person to the other, due to this he only had temporary friends on and off the streets wherever he went.

"Mom was in a café one afternoon with me on 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," (Manson). Having said that, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that Manson was very neglected as a child, which could be a factor leading up to the reason behind his crimes. It was described that he had ways of adaptation to his lonely, violent lifestyle: keeping to himself, and the very start of his criminal life, stealing. Later theorized that an object owned, gave identity to an owner; an identity yet to be acknowledged, which would give Manson more of a reason to steal in search of a sense of stability rewarded by owning something.

Some of Charles' first offences took place at the early age of nine-years old in 1947, being the fact that he was so young and the crime he committed (theft) was minor, his punishment was to be sent to the Gibault School for Boys, a reform school in Terre Haute, Indiana. Less than a year later he ran away from this reform school in search of Kathleen, who did not want him. With nowhere to go, Manson was forced to live on his own surviving solely on theft and burglary until he was caught and forced to Father Flanagan's Boys Town. As I've mentioned earlier, nothing was constant in Charles' life, only four days prior to his arrival Charles and an accomplice was caught for two armed robberies only at the age of thirteen. Again with the inconsistency, a few more similar offences in this town and Manson were sent to Indiana School for Boys.

California-bound, Manson and two others from his school broke out of their school and made the whole trip on auto theft and burglary. However, their trip was stopped by a sudden halt in Utah when they were caught. Sent all the way across the country to Washington D.C. to the National Training School for Boys, as a result of his conviction, was given an IQ test to discover he was illiterate and his intelligence for everything besides music was just average.

After a while, his aunt agreed to take custody of Charles and his chances for parole were very high. Which was quickly changed when Manson sodomized a boy, while holding a razor to his throat shortly before his parole hearing. After these offences Manson was sent to the Federal Reformatory in Virginia; also named homosexual, safe only under supervision, and dangerous, little did they know this was only the beginning. During September of 1952 they had sent him to an institution in Chillicothe, Ohio because the keepers in Virginia described Manson as, "criminally sophisticated despite his age and grossly unsuited for retention in an open reformatory type institution." However, with a sudden more permanently appearing improved attitude, Manson was granted parole at the age of nineteen in May 1954. In 1955 he met his first wife who bore him a son, Charles Jr. Manson had steady low-income jobs, which he increased by stealing cars, one that he took to Los Angeles with his then-pregnant wife and ended himself fight back in jail and his wife filed for a divorce.

In the ripe hippie era of the 1960's Manson blended into society with his guitar, eventually starting a group of followers. This group consisted mainly of young women with emotionally unstable lives who constantly rebelled against their parents and society. He was associated with ex-cons, known narcotic users, and young minors. Charles also used LSD and amphetamines to change these girls' personalities as he needed, making them easy to lead and even more gullible and naïve than they already were. Manson and his "family" left San Francisco to travel around which led them to move in with a music teacher named Gary Hinman. After the move in, Hinman introduced Manson to Dennis Wilson of The Beach Boys, until Manson made Wilson feel uneasy then Manson was asked to leave. Along the way Manson found half blind George Spahn and swindled the man into letting Manson and his followers stay there, under the condition that Spahn's sexual desires were filled by one of the young girls he forced. "Manson had 'programmed all his people to the extent that they're just like him. He has put all kinds of things in their heads. I didn't believe it could be done,