Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The DA made his career on the case mostly via creating a huge mythology about the Manson Family as a doomsday cult led by a charismatic madman. It was 99% fabricated by Bugliosi but neverthess effective.
To me it was a bit about that vulnerable time which most teens go through in which they are finding their own values, branching out on their own and questioning what their parents and society tells them. It was about a charismatic older, world wise, person drawing such people to him with some sort of answers, drugging them, and turning them into his disciples. Mind control. You heard of the government doing it and MkUltra? Well, this was Manson's version of it.
I don't think Manson started out wanting it to end where it did. I think all the drugs and the lifestyle and perceived wrongs and hope and dreams going down the toilet lead to a bad place.
A much, much, better understanding of the life these people lived was written by Ed Sanders called The Family.
I guess I have to ask why a surname he was given would equate to anything superatural in his mind.
During the earlier incarceration he studied a bit of mysticism, Scientology, probably hypnotism and other things. He even said that there were times when he was brought before a judge and sent Masonic symbols to the judges and since many judges in the country are Masons they somehow let him go.
He mentioned that society was corrupt and causing their children to follow him and that so many called themselves Christian but acted in their daily lives without the compassion and love that Jesus taught.
Don't ask me, this is just what I remember from the book. He was a kind of pied piper for disillusioned youth.
One of the biggest impacts that this crime had on our generation was the pure evil behind it. Even today and knowing that Manson will never leave his cell other than in a bag, looking at pictures of him gives me the "creeps" to this day. It was the whole scene which affected so many. I'm not easily chilled but it was, and remains, frightening that this short-statured and basically insignificant man could have wielded such charismatic psychological power over his followers that they could do his bidding in not only slaughtering innocent people but cheerily laugh about it both at the time and during all the ensuing court appearances. Anybody who followed the crime and who had any doubts that pure evil can indeed exist had those doubts dispelled.
Murderers come and go but, unlike most, this one never got his own hands dirty but precisely directed the carnage.
So many people with severe mental health problems are in some institution or another and never seem to get much mental health help at all.
Manson was in reform schools and prisons for so much of his early life. Lanza's mother was frantic in trying to get some help for her kid. Mental health in the US is scattered and unless you want someone who just quiets people down with drugs, expensive. It is also so varied, you can go to several facilities and get different diagnoses and treatments in each. Look at Andrea Yates, whose doctor prescribed drugs that her husband would not allow her to take and the doctor advised her not to have more children because of the severity of her depression, yet her husband insisted otherwise.
This event was so epic, that I remember where I was and what I was doing when I read about the murders in the newspaper. (I was just over 10). I had so many questions I wanted answered, because at the time, it was very scary and the newspaper sentationalized it to such a degree that I was scared.
My parents were very "establishment," conservative, bigoted, and afraid of being considered "non comformists," and refused to talk to me about any of my questions, even though I tried to convince them to listen because I had read it in the "in the newspaper." I didn't realize at the time that my parents didn't consider that a "credible source."
So, as an inquisitive 10 year old, I started reading all the books that were being written, and luckily, got bored rather than obsessed. I still remember hearing the news about the Tate murders. I was in 9th grade when his sentenced got commuted.
My kids are 28, 26, & 23 and they don't remember as many details about 9-11 as I remember about the Tate murders. I'm not saying I'm an "expert" by any means; only that the degree of importance was such in a child's mind.
I know the details, but still can't really see why it's all such a big deal.
care to offer some insight?
It was the incredible weirdness of it all, combined with the shocking savagery of the murders.
L.A.was a lot different city back then; it was booming, prosperous, and folks were happy and friendly. Hippy kids were everywhere, and kids in general acted much the same whether they were rich or poor. Peace and love were actually considered seriously, as the only boogieman that affected most folks was the Viet Nam war.
Manson and his girls really put a chill on the town, and deeply alarmed a lot of the middle and upper middle class folks who had never been alarmed in that way before.
Another strangeness was the year of the murders. There had been a lot of talk about the Big Quake, the one that was going to split California off the continent and sink it in the Pacific for months. Most folks laughed it off, but it raised their anxiety level anyway. Nam, the student riots after Nixon invaded Cambodia, and the general undercurrents of unrest were causing other anxiety ripples for months.
And it took quite a while before the Manson family were suspected, and more months before they were tracked down. Until then, there were no suspects at all, and rumors flew around like clouds of flies during all that time.
When Manson was finally arrested, everyone at first thought it was impossible that such a little runt, who looked harmless, could have had anything to do with it. Then Life magazine put that picture of Manson, all wild eyed and snarling on a cover, and all that instantly changed. Life was still a very big deal back then, and was one of the most popular weekly magazines. Manson changed into a monster overnight.
Then, he carved an X into his forehead, and so did his girls. And then they all shaved their heads. No one shaved their heads in that era of hair, the longer the better! The weirdness just kept coming, month after month as the trials went on, and the total other-world quality of it all obsessed the nation, and the world, for well over a year.
Now, almost 50 years later, I guess it's hard for those who weren't around then to understand it, but the Manson family saga was the leading topic of conversation all over for a long time. He was truly scary, and not in a horror movie kind of way. He was much, much scarier than Freddy Kruger.
It didn't even end after Manson and the others all went to prison.
Squeaky Fromme, the most vocal of the Manson girls who were never charged, tried to take a shot at President Ford just a few years after everyone thought it was over and done with, all dressed up in a red riding hood, and that kicked up another round of interest in Charlie and the girls. Then, Charlie kept coming up for parole, time after time after time, always acting crazier than the time before. Some of the convicted girls also did the same. They never faded away, and still haven't.
These memories remain fresh for all the generations who were living then and are still among us today. Since none were given the death penalty- it was put on hold shortly after they were sentenced to death, and all were commuted to life- and most are still living, it it will be like this for as long as they live. Even as an old man, Charlie still has the power to scare the crap out of lot of people.
They creeped out the entire nation for a very long time. It has not happened before, and hasn't happened since. There was a lot of bad stuff that happened later, but the Manson family topped it all.
Last edited by banjomike; 01-15-2013 at 11:36 PM..
I left home and was working my way through college. At some point my parents got divorced. My father still lived in our two family house. We had the same tenants for a long time, a man and his daughter, who attended parochial school. She seemed like a nice kid.
At one point my father said he did not like the kids that she hung around with. He did not elaborate.
Years later I picked up a book about the Manson crew, it could have been the Sander's book, saw a picture of some of his followers, and there she was. Her name was even mentioned. She was probably a recruit in the later years of the group. There were always people coming in and staying for a bit and then leaving.
Shook me up. I was glad that my father did not make an issue over whatever it was that he did not like about her friends.
I left home and was working my way through college. At some point my parents got divorced. My father still lived in our two family house. We had the same tenants for a long time, a man and his daughter, who attended parochial school. She seemed like a nice kid.
At one point my father said he did not like the kids that she hung around with. He did not elaborate.
Years later I picked up a book about the Manson crew, it could have been the Sander's book, saw a picture of some of his followers, and there she was. Her name was even mentioned. She was probably a recruit in the later years of the group. There were always people coming in and staying for a bit and then leaving.
Shook me up. I was glad that my father did not make an issue over whatever it was that he did not like about her friends.
I'm not going to say. She was a nice kid as I remember her. She may have a decent education and a good job by now. I did not see her mentioned in any book except as a caption under that one picture.
I'm not going to say. She was a nice kid as I remember her. She may have a decent education and a good job by now. I did not see her mentioned in any book except as a caption under that one picture.
Oh, so not one of the main ones: Kasabian, Fromm, Atkins, can't recall the other names . . .
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
