Charles Manson’s corpse: Grandson wins battle for frozen remains

They all wanted the corpse. For four months, while Charles Manson’s remains stayed on ice under a fake name in a California coroner’s office, a local court heard arguments on behalf of at least four parties seeking the right to send off the notorious cult leader.

There was the serial killer memorabilia collector Michael Channels.

And there was Michael Brunner, who claimed he was Manson’s son with an early cult member.

Another claimant, a Los Angeles musician named Matthew Lentz, said he was conceived by Manson at a 1967 orgy.

And finally, came Manson’s grandson, Jason Freeman, a former mixed martial arts fighter from Florida who recently appeared in a Facebook Live video alongside a puppet version of the murderer. “We’re going to do things as a family with Grandpa,” he said in the video as his own young son dangled the puppet, which featured wild hair and a swastika on its forehead. “There’s nothing wrong with that … finally, I get to take him fishing. Finally.”

Untangling the claims — which were complicated by issues of paternity as well as two dubious wills — was Kern County Superior Court Commissioner Alisa Knight.

On Monday evening, Knight made a decision, determining grandson Freeman was Manson’s “surviving competent adult next of kin,” according to a written ruling.

Although the decision settles the question of who will take possession of Manson’s body, it is only the first act in the courtroom tussles to come. A court in Los Angeles is scheduled to hear arguments regarding the control of Manson’s actual estate.