I wondered before setting out to do this paper: Why exactly is Charles Manson in prison for life? If these people were given the death sentence, why are they all still around? Still creating controversy and cutting culture? What kind of cult were they? If they were hippies, why were they so into murder? Who are these people and where did they come from and what is their deal?
Manson is in prison for life because he is held responsible for the others involved in the brutal slaying(s). He does not attempt parole anymore; he has no desire to be released. He has spent most of his life in prison. For most of the last thirty years he has been in solitary confinement. He used to attempt parole, but not now. I have to wonder about something after reading all that I have - the State of California withdrew the death penalty because they felt it cruel and unusual punishment. Charlie, though, was sentenced before this rule went into effect. I have to wonder if he and society would not have been better off if he had been grandfather-claused into the gas chamber. Not only do I feel it is cruel and unusual to keep a prison locked up, mainly in solitary, for thirty years, but it is what has allowed him to become the cult hero of pop iconology. If he had just been executed after the event - would any really know who he is today? Vincent Bugliosi, prosecutor of the Tate-LaBianca trials may not have sold so many books if Charlie was gone now. He is not to blame, though. He, too, was shocked when in 1972 the State of California decided that the death penalty was no longer policy. The Manson Family would never see the Green Room, as it was called, over at San Quentin.
Charlie! Crazed psycho hippie... Except that Charlie hated hippies. Charlie was filled with hate; he had never experienced love. Charles Manson was born a bastard child on 12 November 1934. His mother an alcoholic, rumored to be a prostitute. Shortly there after 16 year old Katherine Maddox married to give her son a name, though the marriage would not last. The boy became Charles "Charlie" Manson. Charlie Manson spent most of his youth at reform institutions such as Boys Town, U.S.A. or being pushed onto distant Aunt’s and Uncles in between lock ups. He was known as soft spoken and pleasant youngster. His rap sheet was showing a another side of him. At 21, he was released, after having been there nearly entirely since he was 16. He took off to West Virginia, has sex for the first time with a waitress. He got her pregnant. They were married in 1955. He met another lady, though, stole a car, and took off to California. When he was caught, he was sent to Terminal Island Prison in Los Angeles for felony auto theft. His wife came went out west with their baby to wait for him to get out of prison. She left him shortly thereafter. When he was released on five years probation, Charlie Manson took off to Venice, California alone. Not long after his release from Terminal Island, Charlie wrote a bad check for thirty seven dollars, and was sent to McNeil Island in Washington. He would not be paroled until 1967. Some of Charlie’s favorite things to learn in prison were pimping, other cons to keep money fluid, guitar and Scientology. He felt he had really mastered Scientology. In 1967, Charles Manson was 33. He’d been incarcerated for most of his life. He was not formally educated. He had no proper work skills. He could play his guitar and he could sing. He was pretty happy to be free, find a career in music, and a use some of the skills he’s learned in prison.
After being released from McNeil Island, Charlie rode the bus aimlessly. H e would end up in Berkeley, California and then San Francisco. The streets of San Francisco were filled with cheap or free drugs, free love, free meals at the soup kitchens, and everything one needed when they had nothing but love to give. San Francisco 1967 was a special place for a man who had been in prison most of life. Charlie liked it, and the girls liked Charlie. He made them beautiful, special -- complete. He became their father, lover, friend; Jesus and the Devil.
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