Do you ever wonder why someone turned out the way they are? Like Charles Manson, what exactly does it take to create a cult leader that kills innocent people? Charles Manson is currently 82 and serving a life sentence at Corcoran State Prison. He is facing charges of first degree murder of nine people and conspiracy. He was originally sentenced to death, but in 2012, California abolished the death penalty, so it was changed to life without parole. Since then Manson has been denied parole 12 times, the last time being in 2012. Manson’s mother and the childhood she gave him is identified as a main cause of his merciless behavior and life. He also is seen to have the mental illness of schizophrenia, and found himself in music, which inspired his crimes later in life. Charles Manson grew up with a terrible childhood, which ultimately lead him to a life of crime and imprisonment. Manson was born on November 12th, 1934 in Cincinnati, Ohio as Charles Milles Maddox. His mother, Katherine Maddox, was a 16 year-old alcoholic prostitute when he was born. When he was still a young boy, she sold him for a pitcher of beer. “His uncle had to …show more content…
While he was in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco, California, he was diagnosed with “ambulatory schizophrenia” (Heilig, 2013) Schizophrenia is a long-term mental disorder that affects a person’s ability to feel, think and behave. So, the fact that Manson had this life-altering disorder may not have caused him to murder his victims or create a cult, but maybe it gave him the justification he needed for himself to act that way. In the late 1960s Manson created the Manson Family, a quasi-commune, that is held responsible for 35 murders. What makes a person do such heinous things? Well, for Charles Manson it was having schizophrenia, his interest in music, and his