Charles Manson Research Paper

Imagine growing up in a home in which parents do not teach morality, right from wrong, all goodness is an illusion, and the only present parent is an extremely young, alcoholic mother. Charles Manson’s early life was very similar to this. This terrible way of living can cause someone to do extremely obscene and grotesque things as an adult. Charles Manson’s life was like this, and as a result of his upbringing, he made some horrendous choices--such as convincing others to commit awful crimes--and was found guilty for the murders of the Tate and LaBianca families. Manson’s case became very public and well known in its time. His conviction was obvious due to the overwhelming evidence, but it all goes back to how he was raised: in poverty and …show more content…
Manson’s upbringing was filled with abuse and neglect. According to, “The Charles Manson (Tate-LaBianca) Trial”, “his early life began with trouble. He was the illegitimate son of a heavy drinking, promiscuous, sixteen year old girl from Cincinnati” (Linder). With a mother such as his, he most likely grew up with very few to none good role models in his life to help him distinguish right from wrong. His young mother figure probably was not acting how a mother should and he most likely got away with everything. Because of his mother’s lack of good parenting, in his later life, he got so cocky that he preposterously thought he could even get away with murder. Later in the same article, “The Charles Manson (Tate-LaBianca) Trial”, it stated that “By age thirteen, he had committed his first crime, the burglary of a grocery store. The next nineteen years were a parade of crimes, apprehensions, incarcerations, escapes, and …show more content…
Manson, as he grew older, became worse and worse and he eventually started a cult “Family”. It is interesting that he called his cult a “Family”. It seems in his twisted mind, he was searching for what he never had, a family. The cult seemed like a harmless, hippie-oriented group of people, but as they were investigated further in later days, they were ultimately the fruit of a perverted and dysfunctional mind. The article, “The Charles Manson (Tate-LaBianca) Trial”, explains how they were hiding behind what someone could call a “hippie facade”: “The activities of the Family included sexual orgies, hallucinogenic drug trips, and frequent sermons by Manson on the meaning of Beatles' music and the coming of Helter Skelter. Manson dominated Family life, even to the extent of telling members who they could have sex with. No one questioned his authority. Many Family members seemed to see Manson as having "Christ-like" characteristics…” (Linder). Manson, clearly, had his followers wrapped around his finger to where they basically worshipped him. It was in this context that he was able to convince them to commit murder for him. When he and some of his followers were arrested for the suspected murders, one of his followers gave an extremely condemning testimony and in the article, “People v. Manson”, “She testified that on the evening of August 8, 1969, at the Spahn ranch, Manson told