Musician at Heart, Murderer in Reality, Charles Manson Essay Example

📌Category: Crime
📌Words: 1054
📌Pages: 4
📌Published: 23 May 2021

Charles Milles Maddox, who would eventually become Charles Manson was born on November 12th, 1934 in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was born to Kathleen Maddox, a sixteen year old alcoholic and prostitute. Later, for a short period of time, she married a man named William Manson, hence the infamous name, Charles Manson. At the young age of twelve, Manson was placed in a boys reform school. Unwanted by his mother, Manson spent the next twenty years in and out of jail, living on the streets and relying on crime to survive. That is, until 1967 when he moved to San Francisco, California and everything changed. Charles Manson was a charismatic cult leader that gained the following of many young outcasts in the area. He orchestrated the killing of nine people and left a trail of destruction behind him, everywhere he went. Music played a great influence on Manson, leading to his reasons for killing, the specific victims he killed, and how he controlled the members of his cult.

Firstly, in order to understand Manson, it is imperative to understand how pop culture and specifically, popular music influenced him. Manson had always had a deep love and passion for music. When he was first introduced to the popular music group, The Beatles, he immediately became obsessed. Some of the most impactful songs on Manson being, “Black Bird”, “Piggies”, and “Helter Skelter”.  Manson listened to the music and interpreted the messages they were spreading in his own sick way. Those interpretations gave him ideas of killings and racism. In his mind, it was all justified because it related to the “Book of Revelation”. Manson had said himself, “These kids listen to this music and pick up the message. It’s subliminal.” Manson knows firsthand what it is like to pick up messages from music. The song, “Blackbird”, for example, Manson interpreted as black people trying to rise up and overthrow white people. Manson’s love for music and his belief in the words he was hearing in the songs caused him to focus only on the death and destruction of others, especially black people. Manson used his cult members to carry out the murder and violence that he heard in the songs. Arguably, Manson would not have become the murderous maniac he became, if it wasn’t for his devotion to the music and idea it gave him. 

Secondly, Manson’s love for music played a big factor in the people he chose to have killed by his cult members. Manson believed that a race war was on the horizon, in part because that is what he gathered from the song, Helter Skelter. Manson believed that by killing actress Sharon Tate and her husband, Roman Polanski and then framing it on “The Black Panthers” (a group in favor of black nationality and standing up to police brutality), it would start a race war. Not only that, Manson and his cult had run into a problem with a drug dealer which, ended up with the man getting shot. They needed a distraction in order to throw the police off of their trail. On the night of August 9th, 1969, Tex Watson, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkle, and Linda Kasabian, who were a few of Manson’s devout followers, broke into the home of the Tate family by his orders. They started by killing a boy named Steven Parent who was returning home from a friends house and happened to have seen the intruders. Kasabian stood guard outside as the other three entered the home. They killed Tate, Frykowski, Folgers and Sebring in the house. The cult members also wrote the word “pig” on the door in blood in an attempt to frame the Black Panthers and incite a race war as Manson had inferred so many times before from the music he had listened to. The next night Manson and two others went to the house of the Biancas and killed them in similar fashion, writing the word “pig” in blood, again. Manson believed that those killings would help set off a race war as prophesied in the music he was listening to. 

Finally, music played a big role in helping Manson control his cult. Manson referred to his followers as “family members” and in an interview even claimed that they were all just a big band, playing music and having fun. However, by all other accounts, Manson used drugs like psychedelics and marijuana to keep his followers complacent and under his control. On top of that, Manson took significantly less drugs at a time than the rest of the group, allowing him to give coherent speeches and take control over the intoxicated cult members. It was through the grip of drugs, music, and his charismatic personality that Manson was able to attract misfits and outcasts and trick them into believing he is Jesus and get them to murder people for his cause. Manson himself had said, “I'm Jesus Christ, whether you want to accept it or not, I don't care.” By claiming to be Jesus, Manson was able to trick the cult members into believing every word he said. It was through the use of music, drugs and a false sense of reality that Manson was able to manipulate those around him into following his orders.

In conclusion, music significantly affected Charles Manson’s decisions such as, the reasons he killed people, people he chose to kill, and how he managed to control a cult full of people. Some might argue that Manson was a result of mental illness and the system failing him as a boy. That regardless of how he interpreted the music he heard from his idols, he was always going to be a sick man with evil intentions. Although that may be partially correct, it is undeniable that music was one of his biggest influences in thinking and acting the way he did. He was always a troubled man and that would never have changed, but it was through the music that Manson formed his ideas, selected his victims, and took control of others.

Bibliography

“Charles Manson.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 4 Feb. 2021, www.biography.com/crime-figure/charles-manson.

Gries, Tom, director. Performance by George Dicenzo, and Steve Railsback, Helter Skelter, Amazon, 2016, www.amazon.com/Helter-Skelter-George-DiCenzo/dp/B00GNYBLTQ. 

“Charles Manson Part 01 of 02.” FBI, FBI, 6 Dec. 2010, vault.fbi.gov/Charles%20Manson/Charles%20Manson%20Part%2001%20of%2002/view. 

RicardoGrice. “1993 THROWBACK: ‘Charles Manson RAW INTERVIEW With Diane Sawyer.’” YouTube, YouTube, 24 Mar. 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxxH6xm_ZVg&t=25s. 

“Charles Manson.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-Manson. 

StoryboardFilmStudio. “Charles Manson Interview With Penny Daniels 1989.” YouTube, YouTube, 16 Jan. 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNPW0WHIAvo. 

Grow, Kory. “Charles Manson: How a Twisted Beatles Obsession Inspired Family Murders.” Rolling Stone, Rolling Stone, 9 Aug. 2019, www.rollingstone.com/feature/charles-manson-how-cult-leaders-twisted-beatles-obsession-inspired-family-murders-107176/. 

Lynch, John. “Charles Manson's Brief and Strange Relationship with The Beach Boys.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 20 Nov. 2017, www.businessinsider.com/charles-mansons-relationship-with-the-beach-boys-explained-2017-11. 

Romano, Aja. “The Manson Family Murders, and Their Complicated Legacy, Explained.” Vox, Vox, 7 Aug. 2019, www.vox.com/2019/8/7/20695284/charles-manson-family-what-is-helter-skelter-explained. 

“Charles Manson Quotes (Author of Manson in His Own Words).” Goodreads, Goodreads, www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/150550.Charles_Manson#:~:text=%E2%80%9CI'm%20Jesus%20Christ%2C,I%20don't%20care.%E2%80%9D&text=%E2%80%9CThere%20is%20no%20way%20that,you%20jump%20in%20the%20river.%E2%80%9D.

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