Charles Manson example essay topic

"Jails, courtrooms and prisons had been my life since I was twelve years old". (Emmons and Manson, 21) These are the words of Charles Miles Manson, a convicted serial killer who has never actually murdered a single person in his life. Manson was born "no name Maddox" on November 12, 1934, and has in fact been in prison for more than half of his life. (28) It was 1967, after Manson had just been released from the Federal Penitentiary at Terminal Island, San Pedro, when the "Manson Family" had begun to form. (85) In just two years the family would not only grow to a surprisingly large number, but become nationally known for the brutal murders of Sharon Tate, Voytek Frykowski, Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger, Steven Parent, Gary Hinman, Leno La Bianca, and Rosemary La Bianca. (Bugliosi and Gentry, 558) Although many people know of the "Manson Family", few are aware of the lives the family members led before 1967; these are their stories.

Mary Theresa Brunner is usually considered to be the first member of the Manson 'Family. ' She was born on December 17, 1943, to parents John and Evelyn Brunner in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Shortly after graduating from the University of Wisconsin she moved to California to accept a librarian position at UC Berkeley. It was there, while walking her poodle in the spring of 1967, that she met a man who had only weeks before walked out of a federal penitentiary. (Brunner) Perhaps the most well known of the 'Manson girls' is Lynette Alice Fromme. She was born on October 22, 1948 in Santa Monica, California.

Her mother, Helen Ben zinger Fromme, was a homemaker and her father, William Millar Fromme, was an aeronautical engineer. Her father was known to be cold and intimidating; his treatment of his growing daughter was very harsh. Upon moving to the LA suburb of Redondo Beach in 1963, Lyn's grades began to suffer and she started drinking and abusing drugs. After barely graduating in 1966 she moved out of her parents' home and was supporting herself. After only a few months her newfound freedom ended at her father's insistence. She enrolled at El Camino Junior College and had only been there for a couple of months when a final argument with her father left her out on the streets with no place to go.

She went to her boyfriend's only to discover that he was not home, so she decided to head up to Venice Beach. Once she got there, she sat down on a bench by the beach and began crying. Almost immediately, a small, somewhat grubby man approached her; his name was Charles Manson. (Fromme) Patricia Diane Krenwinkel was born on December 3, 1947 to an insurance salesman father and a homemaker mother. At one point in her life she was very overweight, and overcame this problem only after getting hooked on diet pills supplied by her junkie sister. Even after she lost the weight young Patricia still felt very ugly and unloved.

This was partly due to an endocrine problem that caused an excess of hair on her body. When Patricia was seventeen her parents divorced, so after graduating from Westchester High School she moved out her mother's home state of Alabama to attend a Catholic college there. She dropped out after her first semester and moved back to California. There she took a job as a secretary and shared a Manhattan Beach apartment with her heroin-addicted sister. Life was obviously less than ideal, and when Charlie Manson came knocking on her door, she readily answered. (Krenwinkel) The first of five children (two sisters and two brothers), Bobby Beausoleil was born in Santa Barbara, California in 1947.

Bobby displayed an interest in music at a very young age and eventually taught himself how to play the guitar. After the death of a grandmother Bobby moved to Los Angeles. There, he briefly played in a band with Arthur Lee, called Grass Roots. Grass Roots would later achieve fame under the name Love. Lee apparently named the group Love as a reference to Beausoleil's nickname 'Cupid'. Bobby also became friends with Frank Zappa, and can be heard as a backup singer on Zappa's first record, Freak Out.

However, L.A. became to be too superficial for Bobby, so he traveled north and fell in love with the Bay Area. Bobby was living in the basement of Gary Hinman's Topanga Canyon home when he first ran into Manson and the Family at a house called the 'Spiral Staircase'. Bobby's musical talent impressed Charlie and the girls, and Bobby started hanging around with them. (Beausoleil) Susan Denise Atkins was born on May 7, 1948 in San Gabriel, California, to a lower middle-class family. Her father was a construction worker and her mother took various odd jobs to help support Susan and her two brothers. When Susan was still very young, the family moved to northern California.

Both of her parents were alcoholics and often got into violent conflicts with one another. Susan has also claimed that her older brother and some of his friends molested her. To top it all off, her mother died of cancer when Susan was just fifteen. (Atkins) Susan met Manson one day while he was visiting a friend at the house she was staying at in the Haight-Ashbury district. She was the fourth girl to join the growing 'Family'.

(Emmons and Manson, 118) Charles Denton Watson was born on December 2, 1945 in Dallas, Texas. He was the youngest of three children and grew up in the small town of Cope ville, Texas. He looked up to his parents, who ran a gas station in town. The Watsons were church going people, and as Charles got older he became more involved with church activities. In high school he was an honor role student, and held some town sports records; he played football, basketball, and track. Things started to change when Charles went away to North Texas University in September of 1964.

His grades started to slip as he became more interested in girls and booze. Watson met Charles Manson in California at Beach Boy Dennis Wilson's mansion; he eventually decided to join the family. (Watson) Leslie Louise Van Houten was born on August 23, 1949 in Los Angeles, California. When Leslie's parents, Jane and Paul Van Houten, divorced she took it extremely hard and immediately started going down a destructive path. She began dating classmate Robert Mackie and became sexually active at age fourteen.

She became pregnant that same year and had an abortion. She also began experimenting heavily with LSD. Upon graduating from Monrovia High School in 1967, she enrolled in secretarial school. It was during this period that Leslie became a "nun" in the Self-Realization Fellowship. Leslie soon tired of the nun thing and at the age of 18 began wandering around California. Her travels led her to cross paths with handsome musician Bobby Beausoleil in 1968; they soon became lovers but Leslie still felt empty inside.

When she heard of Manson through Beausoleil's friend Catherine Share she immediately went to go meet the man in person. It didn't take long for her to become a believer. (Van Houten) In 1969, each one of these people would change the lives of nearly everyone living in the United States at that time. Bobby Beausoleil, Mary Brunner, and Susan Atkins murdered Gary Hinman at his home in Topanga Canyon, California in early August. (Emmons and Manson, 189-190) Charles Watson, Susan Atkins, and Patricia Krenwinkel all took part in the savage murders of Sharon Tate, Voytek Frykowski, Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger, and Steven Parent at 10050 Cielo Drive, California on August 8. (202-206) The very next night, Charles Watson, Leslie Van Houten, and Patricia Krenwinkel each took part in the murders of Leno and Rosemary La Bianca at 3301 Waverly Drive, California.

(209-211) The majority of the family members are still alive. Charles Manson, Susan Atkins, Leslie Van Houten, Charles Watson, Bobby Beausoleil, Bruce Davis, and Patricia Krenwinkel are still in prison serving life sentences (They were originally sentenced to death by the gas chamber, but California did away with such a sentence. ). Manson is currently seventy-years-old. (Parole) These seven people each came from completely different backgrounds, but all were searching for a new way of life. They all had found the life they were looking for with a thirty-two-year-old ex-convict from Cincinnati, Ohio.

Together, they came to be known as the "Manson Family", and together they achieved fame by taking the lives of eight innocent people in 1969.

Bibliography

Bugliosi, Vincent and Curt Gentry. Helter Skelter. New York: Bantam Books, 1974.
Emmons, Null and Charles Manson. Manson In His Own Words. New York: Grove Press, 1986.
web Manson Family Photo Gallery #1. April 25, 2005.
Parole Hearings. April 25, 2005.
web Lynette Fromme aka Squeaky, Red. April 25, 2005.
Leslie Van Houten. April 25, 2005.
Mary Brunner. April 25, 2005.
Patricia Krenwinkel aka Katie. April 25, 2005.
Susan Atkins aka Sadie. April 25, 2005.
web Charles Denton Watson. April 25, 2005.
Robert Kenneth Beausoleil. April 25, 2005.