Just Askin': How is mass murderer Charles Manson connected to Cincinnati?

Editor's note: This story has been updated with a corrected profession for Martin Dumler.

The Enquirer's Just Askin' series aims to answer the questions that no one seems to have an answer for, not even Google.

Everyone here seems to know it, but we don't know much: Charles Manson is somehow tied to Cincinnati.

The mass murderer was convicted in 1971 of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder for the deaths of seven people.

His cult followers, known as the Manson family, were instructed by Manson in 1969 to commit five of the seven murders. Among the victims was actress Sharon Tate, who at the time was pregnant and married to film director Roman Polanski.

Charles Manson: The mass murderer's Cincinnati roots

Manson died in on Nov. 19, 2017. He was 83.

And indeed, Manson was a Cincinnati native.

Question: What is Charles Manson's connection to Cincinnati?

Answer: According to a 1969 Enquirer article by Karen Heller, Manson was born on Nov. 12, 1934 at Cincinnati General Hospital – now University of Cincinnati Medical Center – with no name (the name filed at City Hall read "no name Maddox."), and no identified father. His 18-year-old mother, Kathleen Maddox, was reportedly a prostitute from Ashland, Kentucky.

He didn't stay in Cincinnati long. In 1942, he was sent to live with extended family in McMechen, West Virginia, while his mother was incarcerated for a series of robbery schemes. He subsequently stayed in boys' homes and penal institutions throughout childhood, and had multiple brushes with the law.

He landed in federal prison in adulthood for stealing cars, pimping and forging government checks in the late 1950s, and was released in 1967. A few years later, he reportedly came back to the Queen City.

According to the 1969 Enquirer article, Cincinnati police reached out to California authorities in that year inquiring if Manson had been in the Cincinnati area around Oct. 22 when a Cincinnati businessman, Martin Dumler, his wife and mother-in-law were found murdered in their Mount Lookout home. The case remains unsolved.

Local legends have since swirled around the time that Manson was believed to be here in the '60s. The rumor mill says he was a regular at Mount Adams' City View Tavern.

Deb Henning, who bought the bar in 1985 from Ted Lagemann, shared this story:

Lagemann was manning the bar one night in the late '60s when Manson (everyone called him "Charlie") came in. He went with his usual libation of choice, tequila, and became more intoxicated than usual. That's when Manson tried to jump off the back balcony, Henning said.

To this day, City View Tavern doesn't sell tequila.

Do you have a question for Just Askin'? Send it to us at cinlocalnews@enquirer.com.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: How is Charles Manson connected to Cincinnati?