{"id":4992,"date":"2026-07-20T13:41:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T13:41:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=4992"},"modified":"2026-07-20T13:41:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T13:41:22","slug":"california-filmmaker-who-learned-she-was-charles-mansons-grandkid-digs-into-family-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=4992","title":{"rendered":"California filmmaker who learned she was Charles Manson\u2019s grandkid digs into family past"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<p>A new documentary digs into a young filmmaker\u2019s revelation that she\u2019s the granddaughter of convicted murderer and former cult leader Charles Manson.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=4991\">As Trump buyouts shake offshore wind industry, states hope developers stay in the game<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Sophia Maddox\u2019s new Hulu documentary, \u201cMy Grandfather Charles Manson,\u201d dropping next Wednesday on the streamer and Disney+, explores how she came to terms with the disturbing information, which her father learned from a DNA test.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was interested in hearing from people who knew him \u2013 not the media\u2019s interpretation, not a prosecutor\u2019s interpretation. I\u2019ve gathered my own opinions on him,\u201d 26-year-old Maddox, also an actress, told People of the interviews with former Manson family members.<\/p>\n<p>Among those interviews was Lynette \u201cSqueaky\u201d Fromme, who was portrayed by Dakota Fanning in Quentin Tarantino\u2019s \u201cOnce Upon a Time\u2026 in Hollywood.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Maddox\u2019s father, Daniel, didn\u2019t confirm his connection to Manson until a DNA test followed his discovery of Michael Brunner \u2013 a known son of Manson, with whom Maddox has since formed a bond \u2013 on Ancestry.com in 2022.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=4989\">Bay Area events calendar for July 24-30 weekly editions<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Per family lore, Daniel\u2019s mother \u2013 who died in 2022 \u2013 never made a peep about her son\u2019s biological father, though she realized in the late 1960s that Charles Manson was the same Charlie Dear with whom she\u2019d had a fateful fling.<\/p>\n<p>Maddox said, despite the bombshell paving the way for a sort of estrangement with her father, she\u2019s grateful to have uncovered \u201cmy family\u2019s truth, not just \u2026 the sensational ones.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Manson \u2013 who orchestrated nine slayings in 1969 \u2013 was 83 when he died behind bars in Nov. 2017. At the time, he\u2019d served over 40 years in prison. Victims of Manson\u2019s included Roman Polanski\u2019s then-expectant wife, actress Sharon Tate, celebrity hairstylist and Tate\u2019s friend Jay Sebring, Steven Parent, Wojciech Frykowski and his girlfriend, coffee heiress Abigail Folger, as well as Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=4987\">\u2018King of the North\u2019 Andy Burnham went from Manchester mayor to Britain\u2019s new leader<\/a><\/p>\n<div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new documentary by Sophia Maddox, a young filmmaker who in recent years learned her paternal grandfather was none other than Charles Manson, explores her family&#8217;s bombshell tie to the cult leader.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":289,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-things-to-do"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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