The Manson Family

Formation

Upon his released from prison on March 21, 1967, Manson received permission to move to San Francisco, where, with the help of a prison acquaintance, he moved into an apartment in Berkley. In prison, bank robber Alvin Karpis had taught Manson to play the steel guitar. Living mostly by begging, he soon got to know Mary Brunner, a 23-year old graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Manson moved in with her. According to a second-hand account, Manson overcame her resistance to him bringing other women to live with them. Before long, they were sharing Brunner's residence with 18 other women. He soon had the first of his group of followers, which have been called the Manson Family, most of them female. 

Manson taught his followers that they were the reincarnation of the original christians, and that the romans were the establishment. He strongly implied that he was christ, he often told a story envisioning himself on the cross with he nails in his feet and hands. Sometime around 1967, he began using the alias "Charles Willis Manson." 

Before the summer ended, Manson and 10 of his followers piled into a old school bus that he re-wrought in hippie style. They roamed as far north as Washington State, then south towards Los Angeles, Mexico and the southwest. Returning to the Los Angeles area, they lived in Topanga Canyon, Malibu and Venice. 

In 1967, Brunner had become pregnant by Manson and, on April 15, 1968, gave birth to a son she named Valentine Michael, nicknamed "Pooh Bear", in a condemned house in Topanga Canyon, assisted during the birth by several of the young women from the family. Brunner, like most of the members of the family, acquired a number of aliases and nicknames, including; "Marioche", "Och", "Mother Mary", "Mary Manson", "Linda Dee Manson" and "Christine Marie Euchts."