Afton Burton was 16 when she discovered Charles Manson. Nine years later, her name is Star and she considers herself Charles Manson’s wife (story)

After a few years of sending letters and talking to Manson on the phone, Star, at age 19, moved to Corcoran, a small central California city that’s home to Corcoran State Prison, where Charles Manson has lived for the past 25 years. “Charlie never believed in something called Helter Skelter. That didn’t have anything to do with why those people were killed,” she says of the theory prosecutors used that Manson persuaded a group of followers to kill wealthy white people to incite a race war by framing the Black Panthers. “He never ever thought any of that stuff. That’s ridiculous,” says an emphatic Star. “That’s crazy.” Star is fiercely loyal to Manson. She still has a scar from when she shaved her head and carved an X in her forehead two years ago.