A hardened recidivist criminal, Charles Manson sought vengeance on a society he felt perpetuated his vicious cycle of incarceration. With a charismatic litany of love/hate, life/death mind games and heavy drug use, he attracted followers—"the Family"—who beheld him in messianic awe, yet were terrified of his brutality. Manson wanted attention, prison psychiatrists would explain, and eventually he would make famous (and infamous) the hippie thrill kill cult that murdered in his name to bring down "the Establishment" at the close of the tumultuous 1960s.

Born Charles Milles Manson on November 12, 1934, in Cincinnati, Ohio, Manson was often left in the care of a religiously strict aunt while his mother committed petty crimes. He was placed in a boys' school, and upon escaping, stole to survive, committing his first armed robbery at age 13. Described by case workers as "aggressively antisocial," Manson was...