Sophia Maddox spent her life hearing from her father about how he had never met his father. Four years ago, following a match on a genealogy website, they learned the shocking truth: her father's father was Charles Manson, the notorious cult leader and criminal.
“When my dad found out, he couldn’t bring himself to tell me for two months because it was so dark,” Maddox told the Guardian.
The Documentary
This discovery is the subject of Maddox's documentary, My Grandfather Charles Manson, which premieres on Hulu. Throughout the film, Maddox works through complex feelings around being related to one of the most infamous criminals in history. “I come from a murderer,” she says in the first few seconds. “Who the fuck would accept me?”
The documentary evolves from a philosophical exercise on the origins of evil into a practice of unpacking generational trauma and making peace with a legacy inherited from flawed figures. Maddox is filmed in therapy sessions, making the process highly personal.
Personal Journey
Maddox, 26, grew up away from the shadow of Manson's crimes. She only learned of them as a teenager after Googling “Helter Skelter” by chance, but didn't truly comprehend the impact until watching Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood.
Throughout the documentary, Maddox and co-director Alexandra Orton juxtapose happy home videos of her father, Daniel Arguelles, with clips of Manson. The physical similarities are striking, and Maddox grapples with other shared traits: childhood trauma, mental health issues, and unpredictability.
Family History
Arguelles was conceived during a one- or two-night stand and raised by his mother and stepfather. “My grandma … kept the secret to her grave,” Maddox said. “The biggest trauma … was how no one validated his experiences in childhood.”
Maddox struggled with humanizing Manson while respecting his victims. “I’ve made a lot of true-crime documentaries … society has this fascination with making monsters that are superhuman,” Orton said. “But if you want to understand how to stop bad things from happening, you have to understand that every monstrous thing is done by a human being.”
Breaking the Cycle
Maddox's therapist says that “inheriting sensational wounds is not how you break generational traumas.” Maddox added: “I just had to find out what I had to break.”
The ultimate lesson is that while evil cannot be passed on, trauma can. Arguelles had a difficult time with the discovery. “I never knew him, but I know him. I am him, but I’m not him,” he said in the documentary. Tensions led to a confrontation captured on film, and Maddox hasn't spoken to him since.
Maddox hopes to reconcile and that her father will watch the documentary. “I hope he feels seen … I hope he’s proud of me, that I’ve dug deep into our generational trauma … I hope he can see that if I am able to get past it, he can too.”
My Grandfather Charles Manson is available now on Hulu in the US and Disney+ elsewhere.
