Who Were Charles Manson’s Parents?

Even America’s most notorious cult leader had a mom and dad

The man whose followers would instill a wave of fear in southern California during the summer of 1969 was born in poverty to an unwed mother at a Cincinnati hospital. “No Name Maddox’’ was the name etched on the infant’s birth certificate, his mother unsure of what to name him. Several weeks later, 16-year-old Kathleen Maddox decided to call her firstborn Charles Milles Maddox after her father.

Kathleen reportedly had a heavy drinking problem and allegedly supported herself as a sex worker (per Biography). She hailed from Morehead, Kentucky. Her father, Charlie, was a railroad worker and her mother Nancy was a homemaker who already had three other children by the time Kathleen was born.

The Maddox household was a strict environment, born out of their strict religious convictions. Kathleen would eventually grow frustrated enough with the fanaticism and run away from home at age 15.

It’s important to point out that a great number of the details released about Manson’s mother are difficult to prove, as Manson himself was the primary source for most of the information we have. The most infamous tale about the cult leader’s mother regarded her trading the young boy for a pitcher of beer to a barmaid at a local…