Manson a Leader in deviance Charles Manson, for the last 43 years, has captivated a nation. In August of 1969, he managed to bring together a group of people which were from a portion of society that no one would seem to associate with the horrendous murders of Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger, Voytek Frykowski, Steven Parent, Rosemary LaBianca, and Leno LaBianca. This group which Manson formed was known simply as “The Family. ” Some called him a madman, some called him a genius, other called him a nightmare but, no matter what they called him, Charles Manson has never been ignored.

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The question that beckons an answer is, why? How could this little man become a larger than life icon and how could so many of those never expected to commit these crimes allow themselves to become the pawns in this maniacal man’s skewed chess game? That is what we will attempt to explore. We will do this by first attempting to understand the man, Charles Manson. Secondly, we will look at one of the stages of group/team development and investigate the era in which this nightmare of society was beginning to unleash his hellish form of vengeance.

Lastly, we will uncover what type of backgrounds these followers of the so called Manson family came from. After discussing these three things we will sum it all up and try to give clear reasoning behind what has come to be known as “Helter Skelter. ” First let’s look at Charles Manson. Charles was born in Cincinnati, Ohio to a sixteen year old runaway named Kathleen Maddox on November 12, 1934. Maddox named him no-name Maddox and a few weeks after his birth she named him Charles Milles Maddox. Manson would later accurately describe himself as being nobody, a hobo, a tramp, a boxcar and a jug of wine.

His biological father was Colonel Walker Scott. During the course of this time she married a laborer named William Manson and gave Charles his last name of which we know him to be today. Maddox had spent a few decades after the birth of Manson as an alcoholic and spent periods of time in jail. She was such an alcoholic that it was reported, by family members, that she sold Manson for a pitcher of beer to a childless waitress. His uncle retrieved him a few days later. Maddox and her brother were sentenced to a five year prison sentence in 1939.

Manson spent the next five years with an Aunt and Uncle in McMechen, West Virginia. After his mother returned home from prison, Manson recalls that her physical embrace was the only happy childhood memory he had. Manson spent most of his young life living with relatives or in special reform schools. By the time he was nine; he had already begun stealing and later graduated to burglary and auto theft. It was around this time that his mother placed him, via the courts, in the Gibault School for Boys. He ran away after ten moths there to his mother, which rejected him.

By the time he was thirteen, Manson had already spent time in an Indianapolis juvenile center, escaped from there one day later, then placed in Boys Town. After four days there he escaped with another boy. While with the boy he escaped with and his uncle, he was caught in the act of the second of two grocery store robberies and sent to the Indiana Boys School. It was here that Manson would later recall being brutally raped and physically beaten. Manson, after numerous attempts, escaped there in 1951 only to be caught in a stolen car in Utah.

He was then sent to the National Training School for Boys in Washington, DC. It was here that, just one month before his parole, he held a razor to a boy’s throat while he sodomized him. This introduced him to the prison system. He became a model prisoner and, after released in May of 1954 he returned home and lived with his mother. Manson was an adult now and his life of crime would now escalate. In January of 1955, he married a hospital waitress named Rosalie Jean Willis, with whom, by his own account, he found genuine, if short-lived, marital happiness.

He supported their marriage via small-time jobs and auto theft. When his wife was three months pregnant with Charles Manson Jr. Manson was imprisoned for three years because a car that she was driving had been stolen. He was not imprisoned right away, only given probation for five years but, since he failed to appear in Florida for a similar charge it was revoked and he was sent to Terminal Island, in March of 1956. While he was in prison his mother told him that his wife was living with another man. Manson, after hearing about his wife leaving, attempted to escape less than two weeks before his release date.

He was subsequently caught again and given five years parole in September of 1958. Manson, by 1958, had begun to chart his course and seemed determined to go back to prison. In September of 1959, while being the pimp of a 16 year old girl and living off the money of a girl with wealthy parents, he pled guilty of attempting to cash a forged U. S. Treasury check. He received a 10 year suspended sentence for this after the court was sympathetic to the pleas of a woman, who stated that she and Manson were in love and would marry if he was free. Her name was Leona.

They were married when he was freed. Manson’s freedom would only last a short time because he would, by taking his new wife and another girl from California to New Mexico for the purposes of prostitution, violate the “Mann Act. ” This “Act” was designed to prohibit white slavery and the interstate transport of females for “immoral purposes. ” In June of 1960 he was ordered to begin serving a ten year sentence for the check cashing charge because he had violated his probation. By 1963 he and Leona were divorced and Manson was part of the system.

On his scheduled date of release, on March 21, 1967, he had spent more than half of his 32 years in prisons or other institutions. It was reported later that he told the prison authorities that prison had become his home and requested permission to stay. It was now 1967 and Mason was beginning to show signs of one of the stages of group/team development. The stage that we will focus on is the one called “To be or not to be. ” This stage is characterized by group awareness and relationship building, involves practical and psychological ability, and shuns any challenge of the group.

Manson began enacting this stage in three steps. These steps were, being granted permission to move to San Francisco with the aid of a prison acquaintance, learning to play the steel guitar while in prison by a bank robber named Alvin Karpis, and lastly moving in with a Berkeley graduate by the name of Mary Brunner. These factors, along with the particular time in history, were very instrumental in making Manson the “leader” he came to be. The reason for his quick rise to “power” is more clearly seen through the lens of one central occurrence of the time.

It was only one year prior to Manson’s release that a man by the name of Timothy Leary began to tell his students at Berkeley to “Turn on, tune in, and drop out. ” This was extremely important because Leary got his message out to students at Berkeley by introducing them to LSD. Leary simply applied the Milligram’s theory of authority to his new philosophy. By the time Charlie, as he came to be known, arrived in San Francisco was ready for the harvest and Mason was the master of the field. He used drugs, his age, and techniques of Scientology—which he claimed to be his religion in prison, to lure people from their societal norms.

Because this era opened itself up to these mind altering drugs, through the “authority,” Charlie was able to have control over people that otherwise would not have allowed it. This gave one man total control over every facet of the lives of those who would, by 1969, refer to Manson as Jesus Christ. Orders came from Manson and would now be followed. The family, after spending ’67 and ’68 roaming up and down the western coast would set up residence at the home of Brian Wilson, a member of the Beach Boys. They resided there because Manson reported that he was invited to come there while smoking pot with Wilson.

Manson took the invitation to mean his whole family, so he moved them into Wilson’s house at Sunset Blvd. Wilson would stand by and allow his home to be overrun to the tune of $100,000. 00. It was at this point that Wilson bought another home and had the family removed from his home by his manager. It was at this time he relocated “The Family” to a place called Spahn Ranch in August of 1968 and then later deep into Death Valley where they occupied two unused or little-used ranches, Myers and Barker. Later, in January of 1969 the family moved once more to a yellow canary home in Conga Park, which was not too far from Spahn Ranch.

Time was getting close at hand for the most gruesome crime that rocked the media. The Spahn Ranch was the place where Charles began to teach his twisted ideas of what the world would become. Manson, having been deep into music came to the twisted conclusion that certain music was speaking directly to him, in particular “The Beatles” and even more particular “The White Album. ” He taught that there was something coming called “Helter Skelter. ” Manson believed this was where the black man would rise up and kill all the white people.

He moved his family deeper into Death Valley in 1969 to prepare for this. An underlying reason for going so deep was that Manson thought he had killed a member of the Black Panther Party. This may have been the reason that he taught that once the black man took power they would not know how to deal with it and they would need some white people to teach them. To this end he was preparing what he called “the bottomless pit” for them. What he meant by that was that he would convince them he was there friend and then kill them. Even though this is what Manson taught he was still intrigued with making music.

He even had one of his songs produced on a Beach Boys Album—entitled “Cease to Exist” which The Beach Boys changed the name to “Never Learn Not to Love. ” It was reported, at least by Manson, that he was going to get a record deal from Terry Melcher. It is also thought that Manson was angry for being shunned at the house guest door of Rudi Altobelli. This was 10050 Cielo Drive in Benedict Canyon, Los Angeles, CA. This was the home of Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski. He found a way to turn his fear of Black Panther Party and his anger at being rejected, into a sign of power and to send a message at the same time.

It was time, in Manson’s head to send that message, but like all cowards, he sent others to do his dirty work. On the night of August 8, 1969, the date when the Beatles gathered at EMI Studios for one of the most famous photo shoots of their career, Tex Watson ,Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Linda Kasabian were sent, on the orders of Manson, to 10050 Cielo Drive. While Linda remained outside the house she witnessed the evil perpetrated that awful night. Steve Parent was the first to die because he was leaving the neighborhood and happened to be in the way. Tex shot him.

Then inside the house Wojciech Frykowski, after having been shot twice, ran out and then was stabbed 51 times and bludgeoned over the head more than a dozen times with the butt of a pistol. Then Abigail Folger attempted to run out the back door and was stabbed 28 times by Patricia Krenwinkel and Tex Watson. It is said that the last thing Folger said was “I’m already dead, just finish it. ” Inside the house Jay Sebring and Sharon Tate were tied together by the necks. Sebring had been shot in the face and was stabbed seven times. Sharon was stabbed sixteen times I the back and the chest.

While Sharon was being stabbed, she reportedly begged that they spare her unborn baby’s life. Susan Atkins met her pleas with the words, “I don’t care about your baby. ” If that was not enough Atkins dipped some of Tate’s blood and wrote “Pig” on the front door. The scene was later described as a bloodbath. Manson was not pleased with how it was done. This led Manson to order another killing. On the night of August 9, 1969, at 3301WaverlyDrive another couple would meet a similar fate. This time wanted to make sure that it was not only done right but that it would give a quick rise to what he called “Helter Skelter.

He accompanied Watson, Patricia Krenwinkel, Leslie Van Houten and Steve Grogan to the home of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca. He and Tex went into the house, bound the couple and sent Tex, Krenwinkel and Van Houten into the house while he drove off after telling them to leave something “witchy” behind. Leno was found with 12 knife wounds and 14 additional large fork wounds. The word “war” was carved into his flesh. When the police arrived the fork was found still protruding from his throat. Rosemary was stabbed a total of 41 times in the area of her back and buttocks.

Once again, blood was used, by Krenwenkel, to enscribe the words “Rise,” “Pig,” and on the refrigerator “Healter Skelter. ” Of course she spelled the word Helter incorrectly. After having killed the couple they took a break, in the house, ate sandwiches and drank milk. I t was said that they showered there too. Susan was the first to be caught. She began to tell how she and “The Family” executed the murders to a cellmate. The cellmate was so terrified that she went to the detectives and tols them what she was told. This led to the capture of Charles Manson on October 12, 1969.

The rest of the members that were involved were taken into custody by December 1, 1969. By January 25, 1971 they were all found guilty, all that is except for Linda Kasabian who testified that she witnessed the murders and was given immunity because she had not participated in them. What do they have to say today? Well, Tex has become a born again Christian, been allowed to marry and father children. Susan Atkins was allowed to marry and she had regular visits from her husband until she died of brain cancer in prison. Patricia and Leslie are still in prison and will probably both die there.

They both claim to have changed their lives and seem to take full responsibility of the crimes they committed. Of course they all give the credit to the murders to the evil mind control that Charles Manson had over them. What about Charles? He still claims that he never killed anyone and that he has been in prison for something that he did not do. The real reasoning behind these senseless murders, we may never know. What we do know is that when, as Milligram proved, viewing someone in a position of authority we all have the unfortunate flaw of being subdued by their wishes. That’s a scary thought, if you ask me.

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