{"id":5253,"date":"2026-07-24T13:42:26","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T13:42:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=5253"},"modified":"2026-07-24T13:42:26","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T13:42:26","slug":"exclusive-filmmaker-sophia-maddox-devastated-and-dumbstruck-to-learn-her-grandfather-was-charles-manson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=5253","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive | Filmmaker Sophia Maddox ‘devastated’ and ‘dumbstruck’ to learn her grandfather was Charles Manson"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Her DNA search results went helter-skelter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Filmmaker Sophia Maddox broke down in tears when she and her father, Daniel Arguelles, learned from an online ancestry search that his dad was one of America\u2019s most notorious criminals \u2014 Charles Manson.<\/p>\n

Read more Nolan Wells\u2019 pal begged him to \u2018get the f\u2013k on the boat\u2019 before teen vanished, \u2018best friend\u2019 claims<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI was obviously very devastated,\u201d Maddox, 26, exclusively told The Post. She recalled feeling \u201cdumbstruck\u201d and \u201csobbing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad was just rubbing my back and holding me, and telling me we were nothing like him. But, it was a little traumatic,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Co-directed by Maddox and Alexandra Orton, the Hulu documentary, \u201cMy Grandfather Charles Manson\u201d follows Maddox\u00a0as she looks into Manson\u2019s past, struggles with her fraught relationship with her father, and interviews former Manson family members such as Lynette \u201cSqueaky\u201d Fromme and Manson trial prosecutor Stephen Kay.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Arguelles was born in 1959, when his mother, Darlene, was 17. She met Manson at a bus stop when he was going by the name \u201cCharlie Dear\u201d and the pair had a one-night stand.<\/p>\n

Manson \u2014 who was convicted of seven counts of first-degree murder and one count conspiracy to commit murder, including the famously horrific 1969 slaying of the pregnant Sharon Tate \u2014 died in prison at 83 in 2017.<\/p>\n

During his decades behind bars, Manson was given various diagnoses, including schizophrenia and hypomania, although experts disputed an exact condition. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Therapists \u201ccleared me\u201d of mental health disorders, Maddox said.\u00a0If she has kids in the future, she will \u201calways have that concern.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, if they do inherit\u00a0issues such as bipolar or hypomania, depression, anxiety, \u201cI do have a hopeful heart that we have tools, and we have therapists,\u201d she told The Post.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She added that if anything is passed down to her kids or future generations, she knows they\u2019ll have \u201cthe support that they need.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though Maddox said she has \u201climited\u201d watching all of the portrayals of her infamous grandfather in pop culture, she has seen a \u201cpretty interesting\u201d clip from \u201cMindhunter\u201d (which aired from 2017 to 2019), and the 2019 Quentin Tarantino movie, \u201cOnce Upon a Time\u2026in Hollywood.\u201d<\/p>\n

The popular Tarantino flick starred Margot Robbie as Tate and Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt as two men accidentally waylay her killers in a reimagined version of events. In a unique casting fluke, Australian actor Damon Herriman played Manson in both projects.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Because she was a teen when it came out, \u201cI didn\u2019t even clock that when they said \u2018Charlie\u2019 they were talking about Charles Manson.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Ravens waive Diego Pavia just days before training camp<\/a><\/p>\n

In her documentary, she visits the Indiana Boys School, a juvenile correctional institution Manson was sent to at 14. There, he was allegedly both a victim and a perpetrator of sexual abuse.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Onscreen, Maddox frets about not wanting to seem like a Manson \u201capologist.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

She told the Post that she doesn\u2019t think that looking at the factors that shaped him is \u201capologist behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maddox added, \u201cI think other people might project that onto me, but I don\u2019t believe that facing what his life was [is] justifying any actions. I think to end cycles of abuse, you have to look at the root of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked if she feels any sense of connection to Manson, she said, \u201cNo, not really. I just had to face it all.\u201d<\/p>\n

She explained, \u201cI couldn\u2019t live in secret. I don\u2019t like lying to people. It really weighs heavy on my heart\u2026I didn\u2019t feel like I could live a lie.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Maddox conceded that she could see a connective family trait through the \u201cobvious stream of creativity,\u201d and she could recognize that Manson\u2019s music is \u201cpretty good.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Before the infamous Manson Family murders, Manson was an aspiring musician, rubbing elbows with The Beach Boys.<\/p>\n

Her dad was used to sing, act, and model, and she noted that it was \u201chard not to see the similarities.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Growing up, she didn\u2019t think she was \u201csmart enough\u201d to learn how to play the guitar, but once she tried, \u201cI realized how naturally it came to me. And now, it\u2019s kind of a comfort for me. So, I think that\u2019s one thing I\u2019ve taken away.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Her father didn\u2019t want to dig into learning about Manson, and over the course of the documentary, they have a falling out.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re still estranged, she said, but \u201cmy door is always open\u201d to a reconciliation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more House of Horrors mom denies 16 kids were \u2018feral animals,\u2019 just messy and poor<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cMy Grandfather Charles Manson\u201d is now streaming on Hulu.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sophia Maddox made a Hulu documentary, “My Grandfather Charles Manson,” about how her father, Daniel Arguelles, learned his dad was Charles Manson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5252,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tv"],"yoast_head":"\nExclusive | Filmmaker Sophia Maddox 'devastated' and 'dumbstruck' to learn her grandfather was Charles Manson - Metro Transit Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=5253\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Exclusive | Filmmaker Sophia Maddox 'devastated' and 'dumbstruck' to learn her grandfather was Charles Manson - 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