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When this new broke, I kind of wondered why on earth would he go public with that knowledge.
You definately can't choose your family but you DO have a choice if you go to the media about it. Am wondering if he will receive payment of some kind for the interviews he has had and assuming the ones that will come out as time goes by. Course I might just be cynical but...
I feel sorry for him but your future does not have to be determined by your past. Obviously he is receiving help to cope with it but not much we can do to help him.
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Well, how are we supposed to respond to this? Are we supposed to respond to Matthew, or to Paul Barton?
And back to the previous thread - why is this on the Tips Board? Is to deter people from finding their families? I don't quite get the purpose.
But here goes......
Discovering that a mass murderer is your biological father must be dreadful - but perhaps having been brought up by him would be much worse. I mean he might have had a devastating effect on Matthew's outlook on, and approach to life, which seems to be that of a kind and sensible man. As it was, Matthew was brought up by a loving couple and given a start in life that he could never have hoped for with a father like Charles Manson. Okay, he recognises some characteristics in himself that could be inherited from Charles. They could equally be inherited from his maternal grandparents or greatgrandparents who he never knew.
There are lots of others in the world who are the offspring of criminals of various kinds. Or of violent drunks who never quite got round to killing anyone but made the lives of their families an utter misery. Or of total wastrels who were bone idle and sponged off society. Or of trollops who slept with any man who would flatter them (and I am not including prostitutes in this category cos many would rather not be).
I can't pretend to know what Matthew is feeling. My dad was a lovely, hard-working, kind and generous man and I was proud to know him. I wish everyone could say the same about their dads. But they can't, and can do nothing about it except give thanks that they had the upbringing and self-strength to be the people that they are today.
My advice to Matthew would be to stop writing to his father. It seems he is getting nothing out of it. His father barely remembers his mother (and he possibly has another few children in the same circumstances). Never mind "not relating" to his adoptive parents. Go back and thank them for their 1950s values that shaped the man that he is. He sounds absolutely lovely. A peaceful man, not treading on bugs, and okay he has a bit of a non-comformist streak that might (or might not) be inherited from his father. I hesitate to say from "his dad", cos he isn't his dad. His dad is the man who brought him up.
On the other hand, I see no point in pretending now that he knows. It is no shame on Matthew. It is a fact that he cannot avoid. But he doesn't need it to intrude on his life or the life of his family.
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His adoptive parents must have done a good job even though he says he couldn't relate to them
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It's bad enough having the same last name as that beast, I can't imagine what it must be like to find out he's your father. (I was going to use another b-word instead of beast, thought I'd better not.)
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From yesterday's Sun:
LIKE many adopted children, Matthew Roberts set about finding his biological parents with a mix of nerves and excitement.
In particular, he hoped that discovering his father's identity would help him to work out what made him the man he had become.
But nothing could have prepared him for being told his dad was... serial killer CHARLES MANSON.
Over a five-week period in the summer of 1969, Manson and his Family of commune followers committed a series of nine gruesome murders. Victims included pregnant actress Sharon Tate, wife of film director Roman Polanski. Matthew, 41 - who bears a haunting resemblance to his father - sank into depression after discovering his identity. He has since been in contact with his dad in a series of letters to his California prison and Manson has replied - each time chillingly signing off with a swastika.
Now Matthew, who was given up for adoption as a baby, has told of his horror at finding out he was the son of a monster. He says: "I didn't want to believe it. I was frightened and angry. It's like finding out that Adolf Hitler is your father. "I'm a peaceful person - trapped in the face of a monster."
Matthew grew up in Rockford, Illinois, and didn't know he was adopted until his sister told him when he was ten. He loved his adoptive parents but always knew he was different. He says: "My parents were great people, but very conservative. They were products of the Fifties and I didn't relate to them. My biological parents were products of the Sixties and I take on a lot more of those characteristics."
He also reveals his adoptive father tried to discourage him from getting in contact with Manson, telling him: "Nothing good will come from this."
Matthew, who now lives in Los Angeles, began investigating his family history 12 years ago when he contacted a social services agency who located his mother, Terry, in Wisconsin. He wrote to her straight away and their early exchanges will be familiar to adopted children everywhere. She confirmed she was his mum and told him she had named him Lawrence Alexander - and that she would tell him his last name in time.
The jigsaw of his life was beginning to take shape but it was still missing a crucial piece - his father. Terry remained tight-lipped about his identity but after Matthew pressed her for details in a string of letters, she eventually revealed the awful truth. She said she met commune leader Manson in 1967 - two years before the infamous "Manson Family" murders in Los Angeles for which he is still in jail at the age of 75. But back in 1967, Terry had been one of many who were transfixed by Manson's charms. Her father had tried to chase him away when he met Terry, calling him a "white-trash biker bandit" but she found him charismatic and hypnotizing. So she hopped on a bus with his Family and ended up in San Francisco. There she claims she was raped by Manson in a drug-fuelled orgy, after which she returned home and Matthew was born on March 22, 1968.
Terry always believed Manson was the father of the baby she gave up for adoption. And after seeing a picture of Matthew, her worst nightmare was confirmed. For he is the spitting image of Manson, with the same nose, mouth, eyes and large forehead. They even have the same thick, arched eyebrows and long, thick, dark hair. Like his father, Matthew is a songwriter and poet. He is even worried that he may have inherited his father's schizophrenia.
Matthew, now working as a DJ, recalls hearing mum Terry's bombshell: "She even said, 'You look just like him'. I'm not nuts but I've got a little bit of it. It's scary and upsetting. If I get worked up, my eyes get really big and that's really freaked some people out before. I've tried to tone that down quite a bit. I don't like having that effect on people. I don't even like the fact that I'm big. It makes me even scarier. My hero is Gandhi. I'm an extremely non-violent, peaceful person and a vegetarian. I don't even kill bugs. I've had long hair all my life. I could make it go away, but I can't let the world and their fears change me."
After discovering the truth, it took Matthew five years to pluck up the courage to write to his father at Corcoran State Prison in California. Manson replied to Matthew's letter straight away and has since sent him a string of ten handwritten notes and postcards signed with the wartime Nazi symbol. Matthew says: "He sends me weird stuff and always signs it with his swastika. At first I was stunned and depressed. I wasn't able to speak for a day. I remember not being able to eat."
According to Matthew, the letters mainly rambled and said "crazy things" but Manson did confirm he could be his father. In one twisted letter he wrote: "The truth is the truth. The truth hurts." In another note Manson talked about meeting Matthew's mother. He wrote: "I remember her. We came back to LA on the super-cheap train."
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