'It's an open and shut case.' Man who gained control of Charles Manson's body by having a judge declare he was cult leader's secret grandson refuses to take DNA test to prove they are related

Daily Mail, UK/December 17, 2018

By Ryan Perry West

The man who won ownership of Charles Manson's corpse on the grounds he is the killer cult leader's grandson is refusing to take a DNA test to prove they are related.

Jason Freeman, 43, said he would not voluntarily take a DNA test after Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Clifford Klein posed the question to him in court on Friday. 

The request for Freeman to prove his relation to Manson came on behalf of the only other contender to his estate, memorabilia collector Michael Channels, who was one of four trying to stake their claim to Manson's body after he died last November.  

Outside of court Freeman, a father of four from Bradenton, Florida, told DailyMail.com: 'There are people on the other team (Channels and his lawyers) who are trying to build a case against me. They think that a DNA test would prove something different.

'If the DNA test was a match nothing changes. If it's not a match, it does not take away the fact that this man I knew all my life was my grandfather.'

Freeman, who runs a building contracting business, added: 'If the court ordered me to take a DNA test I would. I am confident that a DNA test would prove that I am Charles Manson's grandson.

'In my eyes, my father was Charles Manson Jr. It's an open and shut case.'

Wearing a shirt that read 'BE THE CHANGE', Freeman explained that his shirt 'speaks for itself. The world has to change, one person at a time.'

He said he visits jail inmates to counsel them, adding: 'I want to be a guy who's going in the right direction. I want to help people. God has made the path. I'm just along for the ride.'

Freeman won the drawn-out fight for possession of Manson's corpse earlier this year after Manson died of natural causes on November 19, 2017 at Corcoran State Prison, California.

Manson died aged 83 after spending 47 years on death row for the brutal 1969 murders of seven people, including heavily pregnant Hollywood actress Sharon Tate.

Freeman, a former mixed martial arts fighter, said he doesn't know what's included in the belongings of his grandfather.

But Alan Davis, the attorney representing Dale Kiken whom Freeman appointed administrator to Manson's estate, told DailyMail.com: 'There are boxes of the stuff,' referring to the killer's possessions which were at the prison but are now in a storage facility.

'I don't know what's in those boxes. We have to make a proper inventory of everything and try to put a value on everything.

'To me, this stuff would probably be worth nothing. But to a collector, it could be worth a fortune.'

Some of the most lucrative of Manson's belongings are most likely not in those boxes. They would be the rights to the journals and stories and the songs he wrote - two of which were recorded by Guns 'n Roses and The Beachboys.

To allow time to inventory all of Manson's possessions and get expert valuations on them, Judge Klein continued the case to June 21 next year.

Four people originally filed petitions proclaiming their right to the estate of Manson. 

Michael Brunner and Matthew Roberts each insisted they were his offspring but both of their claims were dismissed last July, leaving just Freeman and Channels.

Freemen staked his claim by filing a birth certificate and death certificate that he insists proves he's Manson's grandson. 

He says that he learned about his relationship with Manson when he was 11 years old but his grandmother, Rosalie Willis, who was apparently married to Manson in the 1950s, never spoke about him. 

Freeman maintains that his father was Charles Manson Jr. who couldn't live with his shameful name so he changed it to Charles White, and eventually shot himself in the head in 1993.

Meanwhile, memorabilia collector Channels says he was friends with Manson for 30 years and claims to have a document written by Manson in 2002 that leaves his remains and estate to Channels. 

The letter allegedly written by Manson reads: 'I have disinherited both known sons and any unknown children in the present and in the future.'

Freeman was declared the winner of the bitter legal fight for possession of Manson's corpse. Kern County Commissioner Alisa Knight, in Bakersfield - 100 miles north of LA - ruled: 'Freeman is hereby determined to be the surviving competent next of kin of (Charles Manson). No sufficient probative evidence was provided to the court to refute Freeman's claim.'

Five days later - on St. Patrick's Day - Freeman was one of the speakers at a memorial service at a funeral home in Porterville, 50 miles north of Bakersfield, where some 30 people - including Manson's one-time fiancée Afton Burton and former Manson Family cult member Sandra Good - filed past the open coffin.

Manson - whose body was kept in cold storage for four months was cremated the same day and one of America's most feared and hated killer's ashes were strewn along a creek bed in a nearby forest.

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.' 

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.

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.   

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.

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