Charles Manson’s Residence in Indiana:
Just looking at it from outside, the house seems to have been the model for the ‘Psycho’ house on the hill above the ‘Bates Motel’. In fact, this old house is in Noblesville Indiana. It’s a small township that is only 150 miles along the famous Route 66 running from Chicago to Los Angeles.
The house was built in the French revival style in 1875. And this imposing house was for many years the home of the Sheriff of Noblesville. This house holds a secret every bit as frightening as Norman Bates’s infamous family home. This house’s secret is that it was a stepping-stone along the road to a real-life series of horrific murders, rather than any of Hollywood's fictitious ones.
Today the building is the town’s local history museum. Upon entering, you are transported back 100 years into an elegant American- Victorian setting. The rooms encapsulate the refined style of turn-of-the-century living, with The Holy Bible and Christian emblems prominent in the living room.
However, in 1951, a very disturbing character was in residence here – Charles Manson; Cincinnati born, and the infamous jailed leader of 'The Family’. This was a group who were responsible for a trail of slaughter and carnage across Los Angeles in the late 1960s. Their many crimes include the murder of Roman Polanski’s pregnant wife Sharon Tate.
You see, as well as being the Sheriff’s home. This house was also the Noblesville County Jail. And this was where, in 1951, seventeen-year-old Charles Manson was held in custody, for three weeks, after stealing a car. Previously, the county jail had also held another notable name, the Indiana-born gangster John Dillinger.
Descend the creaking staircase. Step through the large steel door into the underground cell area, and you can still sense a lingering atmosphere of evil. Written above the barred entrance to the old two-man cell is scratched a telling epitaph – ‘Welcome to Jail You Fools.’ No one knows who wrote it.
It's said that the young Manson made a strong impression with the sheriff and his wife of someone very evil, and someone who was already beyond any redemption. Still, the sheriff’s wife did her duty for 21 days and visited the basement lock–up. Three times every day to feed the future monster. Manson was soon released from the Noblesville goal. It seems that three weeks inside was the going rate for car theft back then. Both the sheriff and his wife were glad to see him leave.
Today, if you ask the house’s curator, you can still go down and visit the cells in which Manson was held. They haven't been refurbished. Through the decaying bars and inside the dusty walls, you can feel an eerie chill of what it must have been like. Sharing this confined space with drunks and violent criminals on a Saturday night, in the heat of a Mid-west 1950s summer, could not have been pleasant. Even less pleasant if you had had to share it with the juvenile Charles Manson.
So it was, from here that in 1951, Charles Manson travelled west from this old house to establish his bizarre hippy commune. The malevolent group that brought so much death, fear, and panic to the high-class suburbs of Los Angeles at the end of the 1960s ‘Summer of Love’.
Only black & white images can successfully illustrate such a story and convey the lingering feelings of evil that are still present in the old house.
So, if you are ever passing through Noblesville Indiana. Please do drop in!
Just looking at it from outside, the house seems to have been the model for the ‘Psycho’ house on the hill above the ‘Bates Motel’. In fact, this old house is in Noblesville Indiana. It’s a small township that is only 150 miles along the famous Route 66 running from Chicago to Los Angeles.
The house was built in the French revival style in 1875. And this imposing house was for many years the home of the Sheriff of Noblesville. This house holds a secret every bit as frightening as Norman Bates’s infamous family home. This house’s secret is that it was a stepping-stone along the road to a real-life series of horrific murders, rather than any of Hollywood's fictitious ones.
Today the building is the town’s local history museum. Upon entering, you are transported back 100 years into an elegant American- Victorian setting. The rooms encapsulate the refined style of turn-of-the-century living, with The Holy Bible and Christian emblems prominent in the living room.
However, in 1951, a very disturbing character was in residence here – Charles Manson; Cincinnati born, and the infamous jailed leader of 'The Family’. This was a group who were responsible for a trail of slaughter and carnage across Los Angeles in the late 1960s. Their many crimes include the murder of Roman Polanski’s pregnant wife Sharon Tate.
You see, as well as being the Sheriff’s home. This house was also the Noblesville County Jail. And this was where, in 1951, seventeen-year-old Charles Manson was held in custody, for three weeks, after stealing a car. Previously, the county jail had also held another notable name, the Indiana-born gangster John Dillinger.
Descend the creaking staircase. Step through the large steel door into the underground cell area, and you can still sense a lingering atmosphere of evil. Written above the barred entrance to the old two-man cell is scratched a telling epitaph – ‘Welcome to Jail You Fools.’ No one knows who wrote it.
It's said that the young Manson made a strong impression with the sheriff and his wife of someone very evil, and someone who was already beyond any redemption. Still, the sheriff’s wife did her duty for 21 days and visited the basement lock–up. Three times every day to feed the future monster. Manson was soon released from the Noblesville goal. It seems that three weeks inside was the going rate for car theft back then. Both the sheriff and his wife were glad to see him leave.
Today, if you ask the house’s curator, you can still go down and visit the cells in which Manson was held. They haven't been refurbished. Through the decaying bars and inside the dusty walls, you can feel an eerie chill of what it must have been like. Sharing this confined space with drunks and violent criminals on a Saturday night, in the heat of a Mid-west 1950s summer, could not have been pleasant. Even less pleasant if you had had to share it with the juvenile Charles Manson.
So it was, from here that in 1951, Charles Manson travelled west from this old house to establish his bizarre hippy commune. The malevolent group that brought so much death, fear, and panic to the high-class suburbs of Los Angeles at the end of the 1960s ‘Summer of Love’.
Only black & white images can successfully illustrate such a story and convey the lingering feelings of evil that are still present in the old house.
So, if you are ever passing through Noblesville Indiana. Please do drop in!