By Heidi Simmons
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Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson
By Jeff Guinn
Biography
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In 1970 Charles Manson was given a death sentence for murders he did not commit. However, as the mastermind and leader of a cult called “The Family”, he was convicted for the brutal slaying of nine people. Alive and well today, Manson remains in prison after California overturned the death penalty. He is almost eighty. In Jeff Guinn’s Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson (Simon & Schuster, 495 pages), we get a sweeping historical account of the man and the era that fed his madness.
Born in 1934, Manson’s mother Kathleen was only15. Married when she had Charlie, her husband was not his father. His real father wanted nothing to do with Kathleen or Charlie. Raised by a conservative Christian in a small Midwestern town, Kathleen continued to rebel. She liked men and she liked to party and dance. Kathleen and her brother Luther, enticed then attacked a man for his money. They were caught and sent to prison. Only five, Charlie had no mother or father, but he was taken to visit his mom in prison regularly.
A small boy, Manson was bullied, mistreated and disliked. He lived with family and developed an attitude that everyone recognized as trouble — he lied, misbehaved and craved attention. By age 13, he was a criminal and sent to reform school. For the next fourteen years he was in custody or on probation. Manson became a career criminal, spending most of his life in prison.
Although Manson was barley educated, he read in prison. He was interested in Elron Hubbard’s Scientology, read Dale Carnegie, the Bible and Robert Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land, all helping to create his own pseudo philosophy. He learned from pimps how to choose women and get them to be obedient. Getting the education he needed, this diminutive, narcissistic, creepy little man became a dangerous Svengali.
Paroled in 1967, Manson was 32 and afraid to face the world. When he did, it had changed, gone wild. He went to Berkley, California, and began collecting women and building followers. But Manson couldn’t earn a living pimping or selling drugs there, since both were easily found for free. According to Guinn, what Manson wanted most was a music contract and to be more famous than the Beatles.
Guinn gives a cursory history of the burgeoning music industry in Los Angeles during the sixties. Manson moved to LA to be a part of the music scene. The Beach Boys’ Dennis Wilson became involved with Manson and The Family. He did everything he could to help Manson get a record deal and eventually recorded one of his songs.
The Family took advantage of Wilson’s good nature, living at his home and stealing his stuff. Manson wormed his way into Wilson’s life and leached onto Wilson’s friends in hopes to get a record deal and become famous. Manson used the girls in the family as sexual bait.
The Beatles’ lyrics and music became the backdrop for Manson’s manifesto. “Helter Skelter” became a prophetic voice in Manson’s head. He believed an impending cataclysmic race war was near during which blacks would rise up and take over the country. He and his Family would need to prepare.
Author Guinn gives a snapshot of the country’s tumultuous history at the time: Race riots, the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, military escalation in Vietnam, student protests, increasing violence and a moon landing. Apocalyptic events Manson used to control and preach to his flock.
Manson needed money to support his growing family and to move them to the desert. Angry when his music options were over, and in order to save face with The Family, Manson had to bring about “Helter Skelter.” According to Guinn, if the blacks were not going to get the race war started, Manson would.
When Manson devised a scheme to rip off a drug dealer, it backfired resulting in the murder of a “friend.” A family member was arrested for the crime. Manson saw the opportunity and made it look as if the Black Panthers were responsible. To free his follower, Manson planned another murder — copycat killings — so it would look as if the police captured the wrong guy. This time something high profile that the cops would be sure to notice.
Chosen only by where they lived and for their wealth and affluence, actress Sharon Tate, pregnant with Roman Polanski’s baby, and three friends were brutally murdered. A young kid was gunned down in his car. Manson didn’t stop there. The next night he instructed his followers to kill the LaBiancas. Another gruesome murder. Manson’s plan for a race war failed. But the horrific crimes garnered national attention.
The LAPD and Los Angeles Sheriffs Department at first wouldn’t work together and misinterpret both crime scenes taking months before they would link all three together and to Manson. Meanwhile LA was terrified, gun purchases skyrocket.
Eventually Manson and Family members were apprehended. At trial, Manson wanted to represent himself. He created chaos and had regular outbursts in court. He employed “Crazy Charlie,” an act he put on to get people to back off. The Jury was sequestered for eight months. They found him guilty.
Even President Nixon commented on Manson and his followers as proof of how drugs, longhair, rock and roll turned normal kids into crazed killers.
Guinn does not go into any depth about Manson’s teaching or philosophy. He did not get an interview with Charlie. This is a book about Manson and the world he grew up in and the influence of that world on him. (To read more about the murder and trial, Manson prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi wrote Helter Skelter with Curt Gentry. It is a chilling read.)
The Manson murders were 44 years ago and the subject is still fascinating and horrifying. Manson is still with us and still has followers. Was he born bad, a product of the era, or did the era make Manson’s cult possible? Whatever it is, Manson finally achieved the fame and notoriety he desired. And more.
