The Manson Family Tree: Possible Son Asserts Killer is His Dad

41-year-old Los Angeles-based musician Matthew Roberts (sometimes Robert) is making headlines here and in the UK for claiming convicted killer Charles Manson is his father. The New Rising Son singer "told the U.K.'s Sun newspaper that he tracked down his mother who told him she was a Manson follower in 1967 when the killer raped her. He was born the next year," reports the LA Weekly.Roberts was adopted as an infant, and raised in Rockford, Illinois. He began to trace his birth parents 12 years ago, and in a series of letters exchanged with his birth mother, Terry, first learned of his possible conception on the Spahn Ranch. In the past few years, however, Roberts' name has come up in published articles in conjunction with the question of how many children Charles Manson actually fathered--a tally that is very difficult to confirm thanks to his multiple sexual partners and the secretive, drug-influenced behavior of those who lived on the Family ranch in the late 60s and early 70s prior to Manson's conviction.

In response to a 2007 LAist article charting the likely and possible descendants of Manson, Roberts posted a public comment, asserting that he had at the time only suspicion he was Manson's son:

The timing, however, is still a bit off. Yesterday's UK Sun article claims: "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," which means Roberts was aware of the the "truth" in at least 2004. Though he now asserts Manson is his "biological father" he has not said if this was confirmed via the DNA testing he told LAist he sought.