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Mrs. Manson, Hometown Antihero

Helter Skelter

She grew up in Bunker Hill, Illinois, as Afton Burton and is soon to become Star Manson, wife of America’s most famous murderer.

Justin Glawe

Updated Jul. 09, 2020 3:49PM ET / Published Nov. 24, 2014 5:45AM ET 
BEAST INSIDE

Bettmann/Getty

At first glance it’s easy to see why Afton Burton would want to leave Bunker Hill, Illinois. With a population of 1,800, the one-stop-sign town offers about as much as thousands of other farm villages across the heartland: not much.

Down a one-lane gravel road sits the house Burton left seven years ago. On top of a small rise in the surrounding flats of cornfield, the home is a picture of Midwest comfort—wide, wooden front porch, American flag hanging by the front door, a lake glinting in the sunlight—but the picturesque environs weren’t enough to keep the 26-year-old there. She fled Bunker Hill at the age of 19 with $2,000 she’d saved. Her destination was Corcoran, California, where Charles Manson is spending his remaining days in a state prison. Her goal: marry the convicted murderer.

He is “the most famous guy in the world,” Burton, who goes by Star, told Rolling Stone.

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