In 2022, Sophia Maddox received a phone call that upended everything she thought she knew about her family — and sent her searching for answers about one of America's most notorious criminals.
At the time, the 22-year-old aspiring filmmaker and actress was living in Los Angeles, juggling odd jobs to make rent, while her father, Daniel Arguelles, was searching for answers about his own past. Raised by his mother and stepfather, Arguelles had been trying to identify his biological father when he called Maddox with a startling discovery.
"He told me he thinks he found out who his father is, and if it's true, it's really dark," Maddox told Fox News Digital. "He wasn't sure if I was ready to know. And my dad is not a dark person. He never taught me any dark things. So if he says it's dark, my first thought is it must be famously dark. So I asked him to just get it out of the way."
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"'Is it Ted Bundy?'" she recalled. "He said, 'Bigger. Think of the biggest movie you know and the biggest director you know.' And I thought of the movie 'Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood.' I was trying to remember the name mentioned in the film. And then I realized who it was: Charles Manson."
Maddox immediately Googled Manson's name. The resemblance, she said, was uncanny.
"I thought to myself, 'That's my dad,'" Maddox said. "It was a really devastating day."
Maddox's journey after learning that Manson was her grandfather is chronicled in the Hulu documentary "My Grandfather Charles Manson." In it, she meets people who had direct connections to Manson, including some of his former followers, to better understand her family history.
"It was cathartic," Maddox said. "I'm a filmmaker before I found out who my grandfather is. And my life got uprooted from this. I had something to say at that moment, and I couldn't bottle it up."
Arguelles submitted his DNA to Ancestry in 2015, hoping to identify his father and finally answer a question that had followed him for decades. He had long suspected the man who raised him was not his biological father and confronted his mother about his paternity when he was 21.
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Years passed, and Arguelles had nearly given up when he matched with Michael Brunner. DNA testing confirmed they were half-brothers. Brunner is Manson's son with Mary Brunner, one of Manson's earliest followers, People magazine reported.
Maddox described herself and her father as "normal, working-class citizens."
"We have no prior records or anything criminal," Maddox said. "We grew up as artists. My dad showed me the movies he made and his modeling photos of him photographed by Richard Avedon. So of course, when you learn that someone like Manson is your grandfather, it's normal to wonder, 'Am I that too?' People have asked me, 'Were you afraid that you inherited evil, that you were evil?' But my dad and I are very normal, hardworking people."
Manson, who was convicted of orchestrating the 1969 murders of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and six others in Los Angeles, died in 2017. He was 83 and serving a life sentence.
A petty criminal who had been in and out of jail since childhood, the charismatic, guru-like Manson surrounded himself in the 1960s with runaways and other lost souls, The Associated Press reported. According to the outlet, he then sent his disciples to butcher some of the rich and famous in what prosecutors said was a bid to trigger a race war — an idea he got from a twisted reading of the Beatles song "Helter Skelter."
Despite the overwhelming evidence against him, Manson maintained that he was innocent and that society itself was guilty.
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A horrified Arguelles resisted learning more about his biological father. Maddox wanted to dig deeper into her grandfather's past. She said she was less interested in the mythology surrounding Manson and more interested in how he became the man America came to fear.
Manson was born in 1934 to teenage Kathleen Maddox. His biological father was absent, and his mother married William Manson, whose surname Charles took. After that marriage ended, his mother was sent to prison for her role in a robbery, and Manson went to live with relatives. By his teens, he was stealing, running away and bouncing through juvenile institutions.
He eventually was sent to the Indiana Boys School. Manson later said he was beaten and sexually assaulted while locked up as a juvenile. His troubles continued into adulthood, with repeated prison sentences for crimes including theft and forgery.
By the time Manson was released from federal prison in 1967 at age 32, he had spent roughly half his life behind bars or in juvenile institutions.
In the film, Maddox examined previously unreleased records that shed light on Manson's troubled childhood.
"I heard about my dad's abuse as a child from a reform school and from his own parents," she explained. "My dad's was really bad, but that was the '70s. Imagine what it was like back in the '40s or '50s. It was shocking how bad they treated boys in these reform schools. the juvenile justice expert we spoke to said that Manson's experience at Indiana was not singular. Manson's story was not exceptional. That's how they learned their lessons in survival."
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"I think the biggest shock for me was how Manson's decision-making as an adult in his 30s can really stem from the survival mechanisms he learned from his childhood in these prisons," she added.
Maddox said she was disturbed to learn that Manson, who had been institutionalized for offenses including running away and theft, was housed alongside older juveniles with violent records.
"I was shocked to read that he was imprisoned with kids who had murdered people," Maddox said. "And he was there for running away from home, stealing a bike or stealing a car. But so many boys, older kids with violent records, were placed there. And what does a kid have to do to survive a place like that? It breaks my heart."
Arguelles, born in 1959, learned that he was the result of a brief relationship between his mother, Darlene Arguelles, and Manson, who was using the alias "Charlie Dear" at the time, People magazine reported.
But as Maddox dug deeper into the family's past, the search that initially brought father and daughter together began pulling them apart.
Maddox said she and her father had a falling out one week before production on the documentary began. Arguelles had previously sat for an interview and encouraged his daughter to make the film, but she said confronting his biological father's past ultimately became too painful.
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"I have a little more distance from Manson because I am the grandchild, but that's his father," Maddox said. "And he's shared similar experiences in childhood as him. And my dad is a very sensitive person. [But] he was curious. He wanted answers. He wanted me to make this film. But then at the same time, it was all too much."
"I don't know if he's seen the film," Maddox said. "He hasn't reached out. So I'm just sitting back and respecting his wishes until he reaches back out."
"I still support Sophia and I'm very proud of her," Arguelles told Fox News Digital. "I believe the falling out between us came from a difference of opinion on the overall narrative. That's really all I can say at this point."
The Manson Family slaughtered five of its victims on Aug. 9, 1969, at Tate’s home: the actress, who was 8½ months pregnant, coffee heiress Abigail Folger, celebrity hairdresser Jay Sebring, Polish screenwriter Wojciech (Voityck) Frykowski and Steven Parent, a friend of the estate’s caretaker. Tate’s husband, "Rosemary’s Baby" director Roman Polanski, was out of the country at the time.
The next night, a wealthy grocer and his wife, Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, were stabbed to death in their home across town.
After a trial that lasted nearly a year, Manson and three followers — Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten — were convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Another defendant, Charles "Tex" Watson, was convicted and sentenced to death later. Their sentences were commuted to life in prison after the California Supreme Court struck down the state’s death penalty in 1972.
Atkins died of cancer in prison in 2009 at age 61. Van Houten was released on parole in 2023. Krenwinkel and Watson are still behind bars.
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Maddox said she reached out to the victims' loved ones during filming.
"I'm in talks with two relatives at the moment," Maddox said. "And I'll just say every experience I've had with them has been very lovely. They were very kind to me. They understood why I am telling this story. ... I'm not the only person looking for answers."
Maddox said examining the forces that shaped Manson was never about absolving him of his crimes.
"My intention is never to apologize or justify for anybody's actions," she said. "I know what my grandfather did."
Maddox said understanding Manson's past wasn't about excusing his crimes but about understanding what shaped him — and potentially preventing future violence.
In the film, Maddox also explained her decision to change her surname.
"My dad and I were always trying to find a last name that resonated with us," she said. "I spent a year or two investigating my family and re-looked the name 'Maddox.' And when I Googled it, it meant 'goodness.' My blood name means goodness. I'm going to own it. That's mine. I'm giving it new life."
