Biological Criminal Behavior

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Manson had a group of followers who began to believe his claims that he was Jesus, as well as his prophecies of a race war, and over 2 nights the “family” murdered 5 people. Manson believed that he was the new Messiah and that him and his followers would be saved after a nuclear attack.

Knowing that Manson had grown up in and out of jail and prison, was there no tracking system going on that could have clued anyone in to the fact that he had some mental issues? Could some of the killings of been stopped if he had been diagnosed, and administered medication? Or if maybe he had been admitted into a psychiatric hospital?

When looking at criminals with psychopathic issues, Ted Bundy comes to mind. Bundy was a kidnapper, rapist, burglar, serial killer and necrophiliac. He reportedly murdered numerous women, and to this day the exact number is not known. It is known, however, that he decapitated at least 12 of his victims and even kept some of the severed heads in his apartment as mementos. Ted was known as a handsome young man who would attempt to win the trust of women in public places by acting as if he was disabled or faking an injury. He sometimes would even go as far as to impersonate an authority figure before he would overpower and assault his victim. Bundy was not a normal serial killer though, he was a very educated man and even was a psychology major. Ted went through several trials and defended himself as he had once been a law student also. After he had been sentenced to the electric chair in Florida, he attempted to make a deal and give information about other missing persons cases in order to escape the death penalty. He was executed by electric chair in Starke, Florida at the Raiford Prison in 1989. Biographer Ann Rule described him as "a sadistic sociopath who took pleasure from another human's pain and the control he had over his victims, to the point of death, and even after". (Rule, 2009)

Yates, Manson, and Bundy came from very similar backgrounds. They all had issues with their parents. Each of them, however, were educated, which is the curveball here. It would seem that all of them though did have some kind of mental issue that they had been diagnosed with over the course of their life. It seems though that some of them would feed off of it though rather than trying to get help for it.

References

Biography. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.biography.com/people/charles-manson-9397912#early-life

CNN. (2007, December 31). Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/law/12/11/court.archive.yates8/index.html?_s=PM:US

Rule, A. (2009). The Stranger Beside me. New York: Pocket Books.