Epix
The first episode of Helter Skelter: An American Myth presented us with an adult Charles Manson, pre-murders, a wannabe recording star and guru of a hippie group who lived on an old Hollywood movie ranch, then managed to hook up with Beach Boy Dennis Wilson for a time before heading back to the ranch. Much of the commentary from the people who were there seemed to be enthralled with Manson’s charisma, really unaware of what was to come, and most of them were unaware of a murder committed for Manson by a guy who wasn’t really part of the group and didn’t want to be … until he also fell under Manson’s spell.
But how does one get to a point in their lives when murder is a means to an end and people can blindly fall under your spell to do your bidding without having to lift a finger? Episode 2, titled ‘Seed’, attempts to give us that insight as the docuseries travels back to Manson’s childhood, when everyone pretty much knew him as the shy, quiet kid Charlie. It also lays out a hefty argument that a person isn’t born evil, they learn it. But in Charlie’s case, it may not be as black and white as that.
We learn this week that young Charlie grew up in McMechen, West Virginia. His mother was raised in a very religious family, and her wild side got her pregnant at sixteen which shamed her family. She would go to bars as far out of town as possible to escape being found out by her family, and after Charlie’s birth she continued her wild ways, ending up getting her brother involved in a robbery gone wrong — he used a soda bottle filled with salt to give the impression he had a gun and was quickly found out, leading to the bottle being smashed over the victim’s head. And that lead to the siblings being put in one of the worst prisons imaginable. And then Charlie’s uncle would drag him, at 4 1/2 years old, to this prison to visit his mother who had to sit behind a wall with just a glass window, no contact whatsoever.
And the experience traumatized the boy. But his uncle was a real monster apparently, telling the child boys don’t cry. After Charlie went to school, he found himself the target of bullies because he was shy and quiet. After being abused by one particular boy, Charlie found that he had a way with words when it came to all the girls who were enamored with him, and he was able to subtly get the girls to go after his bully. When they got in trouble, they blamed Charlie for making them do it but Charlie didn’t feel he should be the one to get in trouble since he didn’t do anything. Probably one of his final straws with his uncle was being sent to school in a dress because he’d been caught crying again. It’s hard not to see what kind of impact that would have on a young mind.
As Charlie got older, people began to notice how, while not a great reader, he could retain massive amounts of information and when he needed to, he could pull some of that knowledge, such a verse from the Bible, and apply it to a situation repeating the verse word for word while making it seem like it was his own idea. But the teenage Charlie was trouble, bouncing from one boys facility to another before he ended up in prison for a time. Some say that was where he actually felt the safest.
But he did eventually marry, and he has a child out there somewhere. In an audio recording, he’s quite blunt about why he got married — it wasn’t for love — but he also reveals that when asked about his emotional response to certain things that he really doesn’t have any. The reporter says he certainly does because the reporter has them, everyone has them, but Charlie insists he doesn’t, comparing himself to a rock on a table. As the episode title suggests, we can see there are a lot of seeds planted that go a long way to explaining who Charles Manson eventually became.
Charlie and his wife lived in McMechen for a time, but the neighbors who knew him then remember him as someone who did not sit on his porch and say hello to passersby as most people in town did. Even when asked to give some neighbors a ride to a local ball game, they say he never said a word to them and just drove away after they got out of the car. Eventually Charlie tired of McMechen and decided he and his wife would move to California. That’s where his mother was and he felt it would be a better land of opportunity for them.
But Charlie proved he was as inept as his mother when it came to committing a simple crime, stealing a car, driving it across country, and then riding around California seeing the sights. It wasn’t long before Charlie was arrested and put in prison again. So it’s easy to see all of these factors in Manson’s life, from an absent mother to a domineering uncle, an oppressively religious upbringing (although people did like his singing and thought he might be able to make something of that talent), bullying, sexual abuse, could turn even the apparently sweetest child evil. But the fact that Charlie learned early on that he could hold a special power over others just by speaking to them is a powerful indication that nature and nurture made Charles Manson the man he was.
Helter Skelter: An American Myth airs Sundays at 10:00 PM on Epix.
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