Matthew Roberts was adopted at an early age and, like most adoptees, has always wondered who his biological parents were. About 12 years ago, he began to search in earnest, despite the advice of this adoptive parents, and finally succeeded in tracking down his mother. However, what she revealed to him has to have been the shock of his life.
In 1967, Roberts’s biological mother was raped by Charles Manson, the notorious head of the “Manson Family”, who were responsible for the infamous Los Angeles murders in 1969. Roberts has since been carrying on correspondence with Manson, who is 75 years old and still in prison.
More than anything else, this seems to me to be the clearest case for the notion that it’s nurture, not nature, that determines what a child’s personality will become. Roberts describes himself as someone who “worships Gandhi” and “[doesn't] even kill bugs”. It isn’t known whether or not Roberts’ adoptive parents were aware of his paternity, so we can’t say whether they felt misgivings about his search. From numerous second-hand reports, however, it is something that many adoptive parents dread. In this particular case, how will this revelation affect Roberts? Will it spur him to become an even better person? Will he attempt to try to make amends for the sins of his father? We wish him only the best, and hope that he will achieve the insight to know how to integrate this event into his life in a positive way.
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