Charles Manson

When he was nine he was caught stealing and sent to reform school. Later, at age 12, he was caught stealing again and sent to the Gibault School for Boys in Terre Haute, IN, in 1947, where he claimed that he was repeatedly beaten, abused and raped by both staff and inmates. He spent nearly a decade in prison (1958-66), and returned again in 1971 to serve his life sentence.

Did not audition for a role on The Monkees (1966) in 1965, despite stories to the contrary (and also did not meet comedian Mike Warnke that year, as was later claimed). Manson was in prison serving a ten-year sentence for forgery and mail theft in 1965, and was not paroled until 1967.

Son Valentine Michael Manson (nicknamed "Pooh Bear"), with Manson Family member Mary Brunner, born circa 1969. The child was placed with an adoptive family upon Manson's arrest.

Charles Manson is one of the most notorious convicted murderers in American history, though ironically, there is no evidence that he ever killed anyone himself. In 1971, Los Angeles prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi used his "Helter Skelter" theory to successfully convict Manson and several of his female compatriots of seven murders: the Tate-LaBianca murders that shocked America and the world (the victims included heavily-pregnant movie star Sharon Tate). Manson was subsequently convicted of two other murders: Donald "Shorty" Shea, a hand at the Spahn Ranch where Manson and his cronies and female groupies congregated, who Charlie may have believed snitched on him to the police after the Tate-LaBianca murders; and the earlier murder of music teacher and small-time drug dealer Gary Hinman by Bobby Beausoleil. Although Manson never did any of the actual murder, under the rules of accomplice liability, he was deemed as responsible for the murders as the actual perpetrators who caused the deaths of the nine people.

Condemned to death upon conviction, his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment by the State of California after a 1972 Supreme Court decision struck down extant death penalties in the various states.

Portrayed by Steve Railsback in Helter Skelter (1976), Jeremy Davies in Helter Skelter (2004), Ryan Kiser in House of Manson (2014), and Damon Herriman in Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood (2019).

On January 1, 2017, Manson was suffering from gastrointestinal bleeding at California State Prison in Corcoran when he was rushed to Mercy Hospital in downtown Bakersfield.