--- description: News of a potential marriage has brought him back to the limelight, many years after his crimes title: Who Is Charles Manson? Marriage Lincense Puts Convicted Killer In News image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt417accacdf37af75/6987694a0b72e3c2f96dbf95/manson.jpeg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [History](/section/history/) ## History Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Who Is Charles Manson?  by [Lily Rothman](/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Nov 18, 2014 6:00 PM CUT  Charles Manson's appearance changes in these three photos from circa 1971 Charles Manson's appearance changes in these three photos from circa 1971Popperfoto/Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Nov 18, 2014 6:00 PM CUT Charles Manson returned to headlines on Monday, after decades in prison, with the [news](http://time.com/3590534/charles-manson-marriage/ "undefined") that he and Afton Elaine “Star” Burton, a 26-year-old who has been corresponding with him for nearly a decade, have secured a marriage license. As Manson returns to public consciousness, so do his crimes: some physical similarities between Burton and the Manson Family followers of earlier years [have been noted](http://time.com/3590836/charles-manson-marriage-afton-elaine-brown-star/ "undefined"), and his relationship with the much younger woman generally calls to mind the enthralling power that Manson was once said to have, a power that captivated the attention of both his adherents and the appalled nation alike. But Burton was not even born when the Manson family first made headlines, almost half a century ago. So who exactly is Charles Manson and what did he do? It was 45 years ago that TIME first [reported](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,840465,00.html "undefined") on the man it dubbed “The Demon of Death Valley.” A “band of hippies” had broken into a Los Angeles house and murdered five people, including the actress Sharon Tate, who was nearly nine months pregnant at the time. “Please let me have my baby,” Tate reportedly pleaded before being stabbed 16 times. ### The Face of a Killer: See Charles Manson's Twisted Evolution  Charles Manson at age 13, three days before he ran away from Boy's Town in Omaha in 1947. Bettmann/Corbis  Charles Manson, accused of seven killings including that of actress Sharon Tate, leaves a Los Angeles courtroom, on Feb. 16, 1970 where he was denied a change of venue. The court ruled he can receive a fair trial in Los Angeles despite massive pretrial publicity. Wally Fong—AP  Manson sticks his tongue out at photographers as he appears in a Santa Monica, Calif., courtroom on June 25, 1970. AP  Charles Manson appears during his trial with an 'X' carved into his forehead, in 1970. AP  Convicted murderer Manson appears with a swastika carved into his forehead as he is led back to the courtroom to hear the penalty he and this three female followers must pay for the Tate-LaBianca murders, on March 29, 1971. Bettmann/Corbis  Manson appears at his parole hearing at San Quentin, Calif., in 1985. Eric Risberg—AP  Manson mugs for the camera during a rare interview with reporter Geraldo Rivera at San Quentin Prison in California on March 17, 1988. AP  Manson, age 74, at Corcoran State Prison in California on March 18, 2009\. The picture was taken as a regular update of the prison's files. Getty Images The killers were, the magazine reported, the “zombie-like followers” of a “semi-religious hippie drug-and-murder cult” — the leader of which was Manson, then 35 years old. Manson was not one of the killers himself, though he was charged with both murder and conspiracy for having ordered the acts (because, police suggested early on, the previous occupant of the house had once refused to record a song by Manson). The crimes were proof of the remarkable influence that he had acquired in just a few short years: --- > “” --- During the 1970 Tate-LaBianca murder trial — a months-long ordeal so called because it focused on the killings of Tate and those with her, as well as another double murder that took place the following night — further details of life with Manson began to emerge. Prosecutors claimed that Manson was inspired by the Beatles song “Helter Skelter” and that his goal was to make the white population believe that a “violent black uprising” had begun. The star witness for the state was Linda Kasabian, a defector from the Manson family who was granted immunity in exchange for testifying about what she had seen. Manson, for his part, attempted to get the court to agree to let him represent himself, with the idea that his three co-defendants — young women whom he had told to actually commit the murders — would testify that they had indeed committed the crimes but that Manson was innocent. He had not told them to kill anyone, he would later say; rather, society had. A judge decided that Manson was incompetent to do represent himself, that he must take on an actual lawyer. In the end, Manson and the three women did not testify in front of a jury at all. All four were [found guilty](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,904707,00.html "undefined") of first-degree murder. Manson would not allow any of them to plead insanity. During the sentencing portion of the trial, however, followers like Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme — who was not accused in the Tate-LaBianca murders but would, a few years later, attempt to assassinate President Gerald Ford — did speak up to describe life among the Family. They told of how “Charlie” was both a father figure and a lover to them, and described seeing Manson reanimate dead animals. The testimony also included an alternate motive, the idea that the murders would suggest that the state had been off-base in its findings about a separate but similar killing, of which another Family member had previously been convicted. Susan Denise Atkins, one of the convicted killers, also described the night of the Tate killings in vivid and gruesome detail, as TIME [reported](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,902810,00.html "undefined"): --- > “” --- Manson and the three women were sentenced to death, but California abolished its death penalty before the executions could be carried out. And, despite having been denied parole several times of the years, Manson has never completely receded from the public eye — as this week’s news once again proves. **See more photos of Charles Manson and his followers** [**here, at LIFE.com**](http://life.time.com/history/charles-manson-photos-of-the-cult-leader-and-his-followers/#1 "undefined")**.** _Read next:_ [_Charles Manson Gets Marriage License_](http://time.com/3590534/charles-manson-marriage/?xid=time%5Freadnext "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3591949/charles-manson-history/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3591949/charles-manson-history/"},"headline":"Who Is Charles Manson?","datePublished":"2014-11-18T18:00:18.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:07:01.806Z","description":"News of a potential marriage has brought him back to the limelight, many years after his crimes","url":"https://time.com/3591949/charles-manson-history/","keywords":["Crime","Marriage","Bizarre"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt417accacdf37af75/6987694a0b72e3c2f96dbf95/manson.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt417accacdf37af75/6987694a0b72e3c2f96dbf95/manson.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Charles Manson","caption":"USA, Circa 1971, American cult leader and mass murderer Charles Manson is shown in these three pictures demonstrating how he has changed his appearance during his trial for the Tate-La Bianca murders in Los Angeles in 1969","creditText":"Popperfoto/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3591949/charles-manson-history/","name":"Who Is Charles Manson?"}}]}] ```