Charles Jackson Jr. was born on February 12, 1937, in Louisiana. When he was just a baby, his family moved to Mississippi. Charles grew up in a rural area where life was challenging. His father struggled with alcoholism and was often aggressive. This made home life difficult for Charles and his family.

Due to financial issues, Charles dropped out of high school in the early 1950s. After leaving school, he started spending a lot of time on the streets. During this time, he became involved with criminal activities and began to engage in crime himself.

In 1953, at the age of 16, Charles was arrested for theft. After this first arrest, he continued to face legal troubles. He and his mother moved to California in the late 1950s. Over the next two decades, Charles was repeatedly arrested. His charges included burglary, rape, and assault.

Charles Jackson Jr. was a serial killer who murdered at least six women, one man, and one child between June 1975 and January 1982.

His first known victim was Sonya Higginbotham, a 19-year-old woman murdered in her Oakland home in June 1975. She was found sexually assaulted and stabbed to death. Just two months later, in August 1975, 27-year-old Ann Johnson was also stabbed and assaulted in her Montclair home.

In April 1978, 11-year-old Cynthia Waxman disappeared while playing with a kitten in Moraga. Her cousin went to fetch money for food, and when she returned, Cynthia was missing. Several hours later, Cynthia's mother found her body hidden in nearby bushes.

On November 22, 1981, Jackson killed a couple, 62-year-old Henry Vila and his 59-year-old wife Edith, in their Albany Hill home. Both were found stabbed to death, and there was evidence that Edith had been sexually assaulted. They were murdered at night when the couple was preparing for bed.

Just weeks later, on December 4, 1981, 37-year-old Betty Jo Grunzweig was found stabbed in her home in Oakland. She was still alive when her daughter found her. Betty told her daughter that she thought her attacker was a rapist before passing away shortly after.

On December 8, 1981, he murdered 34-year-old Gail Leslie Slocum, who was found stabbed to death in her yard in Oakland.

Jackson's last confirmed victim was Joan Stewart, a 44-year-old biology professor. On January 5, 1982, she was found raped, strangled, and stabbed in the woods near Montclair.

The morning after her body was discovered, investigators recovered a half-eaten piece of Canadian bacon from the scene, which provided crucial evidence. Witnesses described a suspicious car nearby when Stewart was attacked. The car was seen on January 8, and the owner was identified as Jackson. After police visited his home, his mother revealed that she wrapped Canadian bacon for him every morning. This connection led to his arrest.

In 1983, Jackson was convicted of Joan Stewart's murder and sentenced to life in prison. A retrial in 1986 confirmed his sentence.

In 1998, DNA testing linked Jackson to the double homicide of the Vila couple in 1981. Investigators struggled to speak with him about it, but he refused to cooperate. Jackson passed away in his cell at Folsom State Prison from a heart attack on February 15, 2002. His true victim count remains unknown as there were at least six other serial killers active in the area during his killing spree.