Manson Family also included a small, devoted unit of mostly impressionable young women and girls. According to Susan Atkins, whose initial statements in late 1969 cast the die for the template henceforth applied to the telling of the story in popular media, the Manson family began to believe, without question, Manson's claims that he was a manifestation of Jesus and his prophecies of a race war. They gained national and international notoriety after the murder of actress Sharon Tate and four others on August 9, 1969 by Tex Watson and three other members of the Family, acting under the instructions of Charles
Charles Manson Manson may never have known his biological father. Scott worked intermittently in local mills, and also had a local reputation as a con artist. He allowed Maddox to believe he was an army colonel, although "Colonel" was merely his given name. When Maddox told Scott she was pregnant, he told her he had been called away on army business; after several months she realized he had no intention of returning. In August 1934, before Manson's birth, Maddox married William Eugene Manson (1909–1961), whose occupation was listed on Charles's birth certificate as a "laborer" at a dry cleaning business. Maddox went