This article written and copyright 2014 by Will Johnson, wjhonson@aol.com, Professional Genealogist
1 Charles Manson
Charles Manson was born 12 Nov 1934 in Cincinnati, Ohio as "Charles Milles Manson" to Ada Kathleen Maddox (1918-73). Although she had married on or about 21 Aug 1934 (date of license) to William Eugene "Gene" Manson (1909-61), she in 1936 filed a bastardy suit against Colonel Walker Scott (1910-54) and there was an agreed judgement in that matter in 1937. At the time of her marriage to Eugene, he was working as a laborer at a dry cleaners. This marriage didn't last long, as on 20 Apr 1937 she had an uncontested divorce decree issued from Ohio. In 1940 William E Manson, 30, born West Virginia, divorced is listed in the US Federal Census at Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio.
On 27 Sep 1939, Kathleen got a five-year prison sentence for unarmed robbery while her brother Luther got a ten-year term for armed robbery. She was incarcerated at the West Virginia Penitentiary in Moundsville, Marshall County, West Virginia, where she appears in the 1940 US Federal Census.
While his mother was in prison, Charlie was living either with his grandmother Nancy Maddox, or with his aunt and uncle Bill Thomas and Glenna Maddox, all of whom were living in Charleston, West Virginia.
In 1954, Charlie started hanging around Clarence "Cowboy" Willis, which is how he met his first wife Rosalie Jean Willis. Charlie and Rose married on 17 Jan 1955 at the Nazarene Church, Marshall County, West Virginia; she "aged 17".