Charles Manson: Everything We Know About Cult Leader’s Family

Seven years after his death, a new Peacock docuseries debuting on November 19, Making Manson, unearths 20 years of unheard conversations with Charles Manson, infamous for his manipulation and role in a series of gruesome murders.
It offers fresh insights into his troubled childhood, criminal past and rise as a cult leader in the late 1960s.
Manson became notorious for his ability to manipulate and control others. He quickly gained followers in his inner circle and convinced them to view him as a God-like figure.
This tactic allowed him to build his “family,” a devoted group living communally on an abandoned movie set in California. There, Manson led sermons, orchestrated orgies and fostered a cult-like environment. All the while, he pursued his ultimate goal of becoming a famous musician and creating art, potentially propelling him to stardom.
Manson convinced his followers, most of whom were female, to kill at least seven people in California in the summer of 1969. Although Manson did not directly participate in the murders, he was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder because of his influence over his followers.
Members of the “Manson Family,” including Susan Atkins, Linda Kasabian, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Charles “Tex” Watson, arrived at the Hollywood Hills home of Sharon Tate on August 8, 1969. They stabbed, beat and shot the young actress, who was married to director Roman Polanski, and her friends—Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger and Wojciech Frykowski. As they made their way to the house, they encountered a teenager, Steven Parent, who had been visiting an acquaintance at the estate’s guesthouse and shot him to death.
Tate’s murder was not tied to her identity but to the house she lived in. The Tate-Polanski residence had previously belonged to record producer Terry Melcher, who refused to collaborate with Manson on his music. Fueled by anger, Manson ordered his followers to kill everyone in the house.
The next night, members of the Manson Family killed Los Angeles couple Leno and Rosemary LaBianca in their home.
The LaBianca murders were part of Manson’s plan to incite a race war, a concept he called “Helter Skelter.” Manson and his followers believed these killings would be blamed on Black Americans, escalating societal tensions.
Although Manson ranks among the most notorious murderers in American history, he never killed his victims himself. He relied on his family members, nearly hypnotized by their cult involvement, to carry out the murders. None of Manson’s family members were biologically related to him; most were runaways and hippies who left home and found a sense of community under his leadership.
Manson was married twice: first to Rosalie Jean Willis and then Leona Rae “Candy” Stevens.
In 1955, during a break between prison sentences, Manson married 17-year-old hospital server Willis. The couple moved to California and had a son, Charles Manson Jr., who tragically took his own life in the 1990s. By 1956, Willis had left him for a new lover and took their child with her, ultimately divorcing Manson two years later.
In 1959, Manson married Stevens, a sex worker, and they had a son, Charles Luther Manson. Stevens divorced Manson in 1963.
In 1971, the court sentenced Manson to death for the murders, but California’s abolition of the death penalty in 1972 commuted his punishment to life in prison.
Although the state later reinstated capital punishment, officials upheld his life sentence. Parole boards reviewed his case 12 times but repeatedly denied his release.
Mason served over 45 years in prison as the mastermind behind the murders. The leader, who had a swastika tattoo between his eyes in his later years, died of natural causes on November 19, 2017, at the age of 83.
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