Who Are Charles Manson’s Children & Where Are They Now?

In the new documentary My Grandfather Charles Manson, streaming on Hulu now, a woman named Sophia Maddox documented her discovery that she’s related to criminal cult leader Charles Manson through her father, Daniel Arguelles. Arguelles learned Manson was his father in 2022 thanks to an Ancestry.com DNA test he’d submitted seven years earlier.

The Ancestry test connected Arguelles to a half-brother he never knew. The men share Manson, who died in prison in 2017 after being found guilty of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder 46 years earlier, as a father.

With the doc exploring Manson’s lineage, we’ve rounded up everything we know about his known children and what they’re doing now. Scroll down for more.

How many kids did Charles Manson have?

With the addition of Arguelles, Manson has four known children, all of whom he fathered with different women. His other three sons are Charles Manson Jr. (who now goes by Jay White), Charles Luther Manson (who now goes by Jay Charles Warner), and Michael Brunner (the man who Arguelles connected with via Ancestry).

Per a birth certificate obtained by Los Angeles magazine, White’s mother is Rosalie Jean Willis. The New York Times reported that Manson and Willis married in 1955, one year before she gave birth to White in April 1956. They eventually divorced.

Warner’s mother is Leona Rae Musser, who was known as “Candy Stevens,” according to The Las Cruces Bulletin. Musser married Manson in December 1959 and gave birth to Warner in September 1960. The former couple reportedly divorced three years later, and Warner never knew his father.

Manson shared Brunner with Mary Theresa Brunner, who was reportedly one of the first members of Manson’s cult, per the Los Angeles Times.

Arguelles’ mother is Darlene Arguelles, who had a fling with a man she met at a bus stop and knew as Charlie Dear when she was just 17 years old. Darlene gave birth to her son in 1959, and 10 years later, when she saw Manson making headlines, she connected the dots that he was the father of her child. She died in 2020 without telling Arguelles the identity of his father.

What is Charles Manson Jr. doing now?

Manson’s eldest son (who went by Jay White) died by suicide in 1993, according to CNN. He was 40 years old.

White was the father of a son named Jason Freeman, who did not know his dad. Freeman alleged to People that he spoke to Manson on the phone while the convicted criminal was serving his life-long prison sentence. He also defended his grandfather, telling the outlet that “his hands are clean” because he didn’t physically commit the murders he orchestrated (Manson was found legally responsible for the killings).

What is Charles Luther Manson doing now?

Very little is known about Charles Luther Manson’s (Jay Charles Warner) life. The Las Cruces Bulletin reported that he died in 2007.

What is Michael Brunner doing now?

Brunner was raised by his maternal grandparents, who officially adopted him in 1976. He joined the Army after high school and then began working as a military contractor in Afghanistan. It wasn’t until then that he reached out to his father, who had attempted to contact him in the past, for the first time.