Who does Charles Manson compare to in serial killers?

Answer 1

There are very few serial killers who can compare to Charles Manson. He manipulated his followers into committing the murders instead of doing it himself, and so in this way he does not compare to other famous murderers. Other high profile killers are often driven by some sort of sexual perversion, for example necrophilia (Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer etc) or pedophilia (John Wayne Gacy etc etc) but Charles Manson was driven by a combination of his hate of authority - due to his traumatic institutionalized childhood and imprisonment as a young adult, the freedom and liberation of the 60s, LSD, a borderline personality disorder which resulted in self obsession and an ability to use and abuse trust of the people who liked him, his own belief system based on many religions and ways of life that he read about during his early prison life and an obsession with becoming famous - he had originally hoped it would be through his music but murderous infamy became good enough in the end!

A complex individual, like many other serial killers but perhaps his complexities deviated from those of a 'typical' serial murderer.

He has reached a level of international fame that only SOME high profile celebrities and Hollywood stars have reached. He has received more fanmail than any other prisoner in history and much more than most popular celebrities, no other serial killer has ever had this level of media attention or public interest.