Growing up in a small Midwestern town with his grandparents, Mike Brunner had no idea of his ties to one of the most infamous and politically charged criminals of the twentieth century. The Tate-LaBianca murders may have riveted the nation and served as a backdrop to countless documentaries, films and bestselling books, but to Brunner, Charles Manson - unknown to him by name - was just an absent father he knew nothing about. That is, until the third grade, when a classmate passed Mike an ominous note: your father is a murderer.
We all deal with the legacy of our parents in some form, but what does it mean to carry the legacy of a man like Charles Manson? On that day, Mike Brunner began a lifelong journey to reconcile his father's heinous crimes with his own identity. At first, he tried to ignore the connection. Over time, though, he visited his mother Mary in jail, forming a fragile bond, and more and more of his friends discovered his lineage. Then, chillingly, Manson himself reached out. Brunner felt he had no choice but to confront his father's past if only to form his own understanding of his mother, Charlie, and the depth of their crimes, unjaundiced by sensationalized media.
Growing Up Manson is a revelatory new insight into the enduring enigma of Charles Manson. Drawing on never-before-seen letters and postcards from Manson and brand new interviews with 'family members' - including his mother, who has never before spoken publicly - Brunner seeks to discover who his father really was and how, if at all, he can come to terms with his awful legacy.