A woman who claims she is Charles Manson’s daughter has come forward to stake a claim to the serial killer’s estate, DailyMail.com can reveal.
Rebecca Evans, 48, says she was given up at birth and placed in foster care before making the shock discovery that Manson was her biological father at age 15.
And having overcome her dark secret, the accountant and part-time actress, exclusively told DailyMail.com that she has every right to fight for a share of the cult leader’s ‘fortune’ and plans to challenge all other claimants.
Rebecca said: ‘I am Charles Manson’s daughter, I’m a possible heir, it’s something I’ve had to grow to live with.
‘I’ve got as much right as the next person to stake a claim to his estate and I plan to do so. I’m looking for legal representation and want to throw my name in the mix.’
Rebecca, who lives in Los Angeles, is friends with another Manson ‘heir’, Matthew Roberts, a musician from LA who claims he’s the cult leader’s son.
She is now joining forces with Roberts, supporting his claim for the Manson estate while also lodging her own.
The pair plan to attend a court hearing in Los Angeles on Friday and Rebecca hopes to submit her name as a potential heir.
Rebecca Evans claims that she is Charles Manson’s daughter and is now throwing her hat into the ring for the fight of his remains and estate. She told DailyMail.com: ‘It’s something I’ve had to grow to live with. I’ve got as much right as the next person to stake a claim to his estate’
The 48-year-old is joining forces with another Manson ‘heir’, Matthew Roberts (pictured), a musician from LA who claims he’s the cult leader’s son. The pair plan to attend a court hearing in Los Angeles on Friday and Rebecca hopes to submit her name as a potential heir
Rebecca says she was born at the Spahn Ranch and was given up at birth by her mother Andrea Kavakow. She says she discovered who her father was at age 15. Charles Manson (left in August 2017 and right in 2009) died in November
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge must decide which court takes up the separate issues of Manson’s remains and his estate, The judge will consider claims from at least three people. Rebecca would be a fourth.
Rebecca lived much of her childhood unaware of the truth to her past.
But at 15 years old, the teen’s cherished dream of one day meeting her birth family became a living nightmare when she discovered her father was one of the world’s most notorious murderers.
Rebecca had lived with eight different foster families before being adopted at six years old.
She had enjoyed a happy childhood but as she grew older the questions surrounding her past began to nag her.
She began researching her family history through the LA County system and found out she had been taken into care from a place called Spahn Ranch.
Unbeknownst to Rebecca at the time, the rural ranch in the mountains above Chatsworth, California, was the spot where Manson lived with his followers.
‘I also reached out to my social worker who was able to get me a copy of my original birth certificate,’ she recalls.
‘From there I was able to track down my biological mother, a woman called Andrea Kavakow.’
Rebecca said she met with her real mother and the first question she asked was, ‘who is my dad?’.
Unbeknownst to Rebecca at the time, the rural ranch in the mountains above Chatsworth, California, was the spot where Manson lived with his followers
Manson and his cult members stayed on the Spahn Ranch (pictured) in the late 60s after the owner George Spahn, then 80, allowed the group to move in rent free, in exchange for housework and sexual favors from young female members of the cult
‘When I asked her who my father was, she told me how she had met Charles Manson in the 60s, had started hanging out with him and became one of the members of his group living on the ranch.
‘Then she said she believed Charles Manson was my father.
‘I instantly knew the name even as a young girl, everybody did.
‘I knew he was a killer. I suppose I was in shock – I wasn’t angry, I just felt disbelief.’
Sadly the realization she was related to the cult leader had an immediate and lasting affect on Rebecca.
She went on to read with horror about Manson’s deranged sect and their gruesome murder of actress Sharon Tate and eight others.
The teenager struggled to process it all.
‘I was extremely hurt and confused and I didn’t understand why nobody had ever told me,’ she explains.
‘As I grew up, it was hard to maintain relationships with people, to tell them about my past. I was worried it might scare some people away.
‘Because of what he had done, I was scared people would apply that to me.
‘I had mixed emotions about it, some good some bad, but it was quite overwhelming.
‘I found it difficult to get close to people, to form relationships.
‘It was really only in the past few years that I’ve been able to accept it and start opening up.’
Her anguish is shared by Roberts, 49, who told the world he was Charles Manson’s son in 2009.
Rebecca said to DailyMail.com: ‘It was really only in the past few years that I’ve been able to accept it and start opening up’
Manson memorabilia fanatic Michael Channels (left) claims to have Manson’s last will and testament signed by the cult leader. The cult leader’s long lost ‘grandson’, MMA fighter and oil rig worker Jason Freeman (right), has also stepped into the fight
Roberts, who was adopted and grew up in Rockford, Illinois, was told that Manson was his real father, after he tracked down his biological mother in 2001.
She told Roberts she was raped by Manson during a drug-fueled orgy nine months before he was born in 1968 – but she later claimed it was not rape but ‘vigorous sex’.
Rebecca says Roberts is the only person who really understands her pain.
‘Matthew and I have talked at length about how it feels to be a child of Charles Manson, he’s helped me open up about it,’ she said.
‘I remember when I found out he was my dad I started looking in the mirror for similarities between me and the pictures of him, but I honestly don’t think there are any.
‘Matthew on the other hand looks exactly like him.
‘I had read about Matthew and wanted to meet him. He plays in a band so I went to a few of his shows and eventually introduced myself.’
Roberts and Rebecca will attend the hearing at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse in LA with the hope of making a firm claim on the Manson estate.
At least three parties have so far staked claims to collect Manson’s body from the Kern County morgue two months after he died and to take control of any assets, which could include potentially lucrative rights to the use of his image and songs he wrote and any other property.
Manson memorabilia fanatic Michael Channels claims to have Manson’s last will and testament signed by the cult leader.
The cult leader’s long lost ‘grandson’, MMA fighter and oil rig worker Jason Freeman, has also stepped into the fight.
Rebecca said she went on to read with horror about Manson’s deranged sect and their gruesome murder of actress Sharon Tate (pictured in 1968) and eight others
And Roberts also claims to have a signed will sent to him by Manson from prison via a pen pal.
Rebecca said: ‘I know a lot of people have come forward saying they are an heir, but I believe, due to everything I’ve been told, I have a right to stake a claim.
‘I do intend to get legal representation with Matthew Roberts and weigh up my options and we’ll take it from there. We want to fight this together.’
Manson and his cult members stayed on the Spahn Ranch in the late 60s after the owner George Spahn, then 80, allowed the group to move in rent free, in exchange for housework and sexual favors from young female members of the cult.
Then, over a five-week period in the summer of 1969, Manson and some of his ‘family’ members committed a series of nine horrific murders.
Rebecca was born on June 16, 1969, just two months before the ranch was raided by police in August that year.
Victims of the cult included pregnant star Tate – the wife of film director Roman Polanski.
In 1971 Manson, along with Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, Leslie Van Houten and Charles Watson, were convicted of the murders.
Manson was sentenced to death but when California scrapped the death penalty in 1972, it was commuted to life imprisonment.
He died of ill health aged 83 on November 19, 2017 after spending most of his remaining life behind bars at California State Prison in Corcoran.
Roberts (pictured) claims to have a signed will sent to him by Manson from prison via a pen pal
Roberts claims that his Manson will (pictured), dated January 2017, is the rightful will
The document filed by Charles Manson’s ‘son’ Matthew Roberts includes a swastika on Manson’s signature
Before Manson died Rebecca had considered trying to visit her ‘father’ in jail.
‘I thought about writing him a letter and visiting him many times,’ she confessed.
‘I kept getting interested in finding him and talking to him, but then I would get too scared and never went through with it, I was scared of what I’d find.’
Rebecca says she is still haunted by what had been her dark secret.
‘I didn’t tell anybody when I found out other than my half brother and sister,’ she said.
‘I was completely in shock and afraid of what people would say or think.
‘It’s only now I feel more comfortable talking about it.’
But despite all she knows about her serial killer father, Rebecca refuses to condemn Manson.
‘I haven’t got the right to form an opinion about him or judge him because I never met him,’ she said.
THE ‘CHILDREN’, ‘GRANDSON’ AND MEMORABILIA COLLECTOR WHO ARE FIGHTING FOR CHARLES MANSON’S BODY AND ESTATE
Charles Manson died in November and since then, two of his ‘children’, a ‘grandson’ and a memorabilia collector have turned up in Los Angeles to claim the cult leader’s body and his estate.
Rebecca Evans
Rebecca Evans
Evans, 48, only recently stepped forward to stake her claim on Manson’s corpse and estate.
She says she was born at the Spahn Ranch and was given up at birth by her mother Andrea Kavakow, only discovering who her father was at age 15.
Evans told DailyMail.com: ‘It’s something I’ve had to grow to live with. I’ve got as much right as the next person to stake a claim to his estate.’
Matthew Roberts
Matthew Roberts
Roberts is a musician who lives in LA. He was adopted and grew up in Rockford, Illinois, was told that Manson was his real father, after he tracked down his biological mother in 2001.
She told Roberts she was raped by Manson during a drug-fueled orgy nine months before he was born in 1968 – but she later claimed it was not rape but ‘vigorous sex’.
Although attempted, DNA tests have proved inconclusive, and Roberts claims that Manson knew he was his son – and even sent people to find him.
Roberts claims to have a new typed will that was signed by Manson before he died.
Michael Channels
Michael Channels
Channels is a well-known Manson collector and historian, was a long-time pen pal of the cult leader and had been communicating with him for 20 years.
He claims that in 2002 Manson drafted a will and handed it to him.
However, Roberts’ lawyers have said that Channels’ will might not be authentic because Manson’s signature lacks a swastika – something that he normally signs with.
Jason Freeman
Jason Freeman
Freeman, 41, a Florida oil rigger, claims to be Manson’s grandson and next of kin.
He has filed documents to prove he’s Charles Manson Jr.’s son but the claim has not been confirmed.
Freeman said if he received Manson’s remains, he would cremate them and spread them secretly so the location couldn’t be turned into a morbid tourist destination.