Where Is Charles Manson Now? The Answer Is "Creepy" — and Complicated

Infamous 1960s cult leader Charles Manson became a household name after he and a motley crew of young and impressionable adults took part in the ultra-violent murders of at least nine people, including rising Hollywood actress Sharon Tate. Decades later, the crimes of Manson and his accomplices  remain one of the most shocking events of the 20th century, one that fractured the zeitgeist of the counterculture’s peace and love movement. But where is Charles Manson now?

Manson, the notorious head of what started as a hippie commune, died in 2017, but his death sparked a frenzy as horror and crime lovers fought for his remains, some of which may currently be in the possession of celebrity ghost hunter Zak Bagans.

“It gives you chills,” Bagans told the Las Vegas Review-Journal in a 2018 interview. “And it is awesome.”

Making Manson, a new true crime series coming to Peacock on November 19, sheds new light on the explosive events from the summer of 1969, featuring never-before-heard interviews straight out of Manson’s mouth. So before the November 19 series premiere, learn more about Charles Manson, the bizarre events following his death, and where he is now.

What did Charles Manson do?

On August 9, 1969, Manson directed followers Charles "Tex" Watson, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Linda Kasabian to drive to a Los Angeles home rented by Tate, 26, and her film director husband, Roman Polanski, the latter of whom was away on business. Inside the affluent Benedict Canyon residence, the murderous group hung Tate from the rafters and stabbed her 14 times, as previously reported. She was eight and a half months pregnant when killed, making the crimes all the more gruesome.

Tate and Polanski’s friends, Wojciech Frykowski, 32, Folgers coffee heiress Abigail Folger, 25, and celebrity hairstylist Jay Sebring, 35, as well as 18-year-old Steven Parent (who’d been there to visit the home's caretaker) were shot or stabbed to death before the killers wrote messages on the walls with the victims’ blood.

The following evening, Manson joined the assailants, plus Leslie Van Houten and Steven “Clem” Grogan, before Watson, Krenwinkel, and Van Houten entered the Los Feliz home of married couple Leno and Rosemary LaBianca. The wife had been stabbed more than 40 times while the husband had the word “WAR” crudely mutilated onto his abdomen. Like the crime scene of the previous night, messages were smeared on the walls with the victims’ blood.

The horrifying events and its high-profile trial rocked the nation, leading to many film adaptations and books, including lead prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi’s groundbreaking true-crime novel, Helter Skelter.

Manson was found guilty of killing all seven victims for his role in ordering the murders despite never directly carrying out the senseless attacks. He was also convicted for the separate slayings of Donald Shea and Gary Hinman.

Manson was sentenced to death, but following 1972’s People v. Anderson, his sentence was commuted to life, and he spent his remaining years in several California state prisons, including San Quentin and Folsom, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (C.D.C.R.).

Sources said Manson had been in failing health in the months preceding his death, including a January 1, 2017 visit to Bakersfield’s Mercy Hospital, where Manson was seen for gastrointestinal bleeding, according to The Los Angeles Times. Around then, Manson’s purported grandson, Jason Freeman, said he was in pretty good shape for his age.

“I think at age 82, he’s in pretty good shape. For being 82 and locked up, he’s kept himself together well physically,” said the Bradenton, Florida man. “Old age is setting in. Nature is taking its course. There will be a day where he doesn’t wake up again.”

A death certificate published by TMZ in December 2017 stated that Manson died of cardiac arrest and respiratory failure, aggravated by colon cancer that had metastasized.

Where is Charles Manson’s body?

No less than five people, including Freeman, came forward to collect Manson’s remains, as previously reported by Oxygen.com. For months, the Kern County Coroner’s Office kept the body on ice until a judge finally granted Freeman the corpse of his alleged grandfather, after initially denying his petition.

Matt Lentz, an L.A.-based musician who claimed to be conceived by Manson during a Wisconsin-based orgy, according to ABC Milwaukee affiliate WISN-TV, was dropped as a beneficiary because there was nothing concrete to prove his relationship to the prisoner.

Long-time pen pal and “murderabilia collector” Michael Channels, as well as Manson’s half-sister, were also contenders for the body, according to NBC Los Angeles.

After much legal back and forth, in 2021, a three-justice panel ruled that Freeman did not have to undergo D.N.A. testing to prove his relation to Manson, per a decision with the 2nd District Court of Appeal, CBS San Diego affiliate KFMB-TV reported. A lawyer representing Manson’s estate said paternity was established back in 1986, proving that Freeman was the son of the late Charles Manson Jr., who died by suicide in 1993, according to the Los Angeles Daily News.

"I'm here to claim my grandfather, have him cremated, spread his ashes, and do the right thing," Freeman told reporters during his initial and failed attempt to win Manson’s remains, per ABC Fresno’s KFSN-TV.

Today, the legal battle continues over Manson’s $1 million estate among Freeman, Channels, and another man claiming to be Manson’s unclaimed son, according to Fox News.

Freeman told reporters that he and his relatives “acted like ninjas” to give Manson a Christian funeral in private, according to KTLA. On March 17, 2019 — four months after Manson’s death — Freeman and company had the convicted man cremated before scattering his ashes on a hillside in Porterville, California, about 50 miles north of Bakersfield.

In attendance was at least one “Manson family” member, Sandra Good.

Freeman, who works with a Christian outreach center in Florida, told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune that he also scattered part of the ashes in the Gulf of Mexico between Bradenton and St. Petersburg.

"It's a comfortable setting, a good atmosphere, and a spot where I fish," Freeman said. "I ain't the best fisherman, so I might just sit on the boat and read."

Still, there is question about some of Manson’s ashes.

Zak Bagans, a self-proclaimed paranormal investigator and host of the Travel Channel’s Ghost Adventures, has a piece of art on display at his Las Vegas-based Haunted Museum that allegedly includes Manson’s cremated remains, as reported by NBC Las Vegas affiliate KSNV. At the museum, paying customers can “venture through creepy hallways and secret passages while exploring paranormal exhibits and cursed artifacts, as well as possessions once owned by notorious serial killers,” according to its website.

On display is a portrait of Manson purportedly made of the artist’s blood and using Manson’s ashes for its eyes.

“My people were there at the funeral, and my people saw what went down,” said Bagans. “So, I know exactly who had the ashes and let them blow in the wind.”

He told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that the collection of ashes is documented as “legitimate.”

In recent years, New York man and Manson superfan Patrick Boos got two face tattoos to show his love for Manson, including an “X,” like the one Manson infamously branded onto his own forehead, and the words “Helter Skelter,” which was synonymous with the 1969 case. Boos claimed the tattoo ink was reportedly infused with some of Manson’s ashes, as previously reported by Oxygen.com.

In 2021, Boos and his girlfriend used more ashes to have Charles Manson’s portraits tattooed onto their bodies, as reported by TMZ.

Though Freeman admitted to giving some of Manson’s items to a museum in Las Vegas, he said he only gave some of the ashes to Sandra Good before scattering the rest of the ashes elsewhere, according to the Herald-Tribune.

Learn more about Charles Manson and his followers in Making Manson, coming soon to Peacock.