The Tate-LaBianca Murders
Nicole Nichols
LEG-110 D
10/30/10
Instructor Devito
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Susan Atkins Leslie Van Houten
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Patricia Krenwinkel Charles “Tex” Watson
On August 9, 1969 the seven innocent victims of the Tate-LaBianca murders were senselessly slain by a vicious cult and their leader Charles Manson… Manson’s childhood was a troubled one, he was born Charles Milles Maddox on November 12, 1934 to sixteen year old Kathleen Maddox in Cincinnati, Ohio. Shortly after his birth, his mother married William Manson which gave him the name that is so well known today. Manson never knew his birth father. Not much is known about him other than he was a “Colonel Scott” of Ashland, Kentucky. In 1939, Kathleen was sentenced to prison for armed robbery, and a young Charlie spent the majority of his youth living in the homes of relatives and numerous boys homes. At the age of nine Charlie started his criminal career by burglarizing homes and stealing cars. Manson’s first violent offense came in 1952 when he sodomized another boy while holding a razor blade to his throat during his stay at a reform school. He was released in 1954 at the age of nineteen and met a young woman named Rosalie Willis. They married in 1955 and a year later had a son, Charles Manson Jr. One month after the birth of his son, Manson was arrested for stealing cars and sentenced to three years which he served in San Pedro, California; his wife filed for divorce. After his release in 1958, Manson made a living by pimping, stealing checks, and conning women out of money. During this time he met and married a woman by the name of Leona and had a second son named Charles Luthor Manson. Leona divorced Manson after he was arrested yet again in 1960 and sent to McNeil Island Penitentiary. While