The Manson family vs. the West family

Low-grade con man, no argument. I guess what I find so interesting myself--and I think it's there in Guinn's book, at least implicitly--is that his particular con was so perfectly suited to the time and the place that he accidentally found himself thrust into when he was released from prison roundabout 1964.

(Which doesn't explain why people like "Star" gravitate towards him today, although there's a different dynamic there--no less perverse--involving celebrity and such.)

yeah he has popularity working for him now, which he for sure didnt have back then. which i guess is where the interest lies. reeling in wilson & melcher, as well as the girls & tex et al through sheer manipulation

Trump's concession speech!

Freudian slip, wishful thinking, something like that.

thread title takes on a whole new meaning in the kanye/kim era

...or does it?

*steeples fingers, raises one eyebrow*

Is anyone watching the NBC series Aquarius, with David Duchovny, which is about an LAPD detective investigating Manson (and other things) in the months before the murders? It's pretty watchable, though it does try to cover too many bases, I think.

thread title takes on a whole new meaning in the kanye/kim era

lol I assumed this was who it was about before I saw the thread date

have no idea who this other "West" family is

it's pretty grim reading, to say the least

yr a dad Shakey. do not read about the other West family.

Sound advice.

The West family were more Texas Chainsaw Massacre than Manson.

I'm capable of sort of understanding how something like the Manson Family happens - drugs, impressionability, cult mindset, etc.. The West family, I just can't wrap my head around.

I'm reading this Sharon Tate biography, and something that had never occurred to me until tonight: how close I was geographically and on a timeline to the murders. We took a family trip to Disneyland in July of '69 (I was seven). I know we saw a baseball game at Anaheim Stadium, and I'm pretty sure Reggie Jackson (visiting) hit a home run. I checked the game logs, and that would mean the game was either July 19 or 20. The murders were August 9.

http://la.curbed.com/maps/mapping-13-key-locations-in-the-1969-manson-family-murders

Spahn Ranch is about 60 miles from the Disneyland area. I don't know how many days before and after the game we were there, but about an hour away they were planning and preparing for some awful stuff. (I guess I was just too young to hear anything about what happened when we got back to Toronto...I don't recollect knowing anything about the story until I started high school a few years later.)

that's gotta be an eerie feeling...

Big news!

BREAKING: Charles Manson follower Leslie Van Houten granted parole by California board.

— The Associated Press (@AP) September 6, 2017

Had missed she was granted it last year and Jerry Brown reversed it. Wonder if it'll happen again?

damn

I doubt Jerry's changed his mind

Brown's reversed Bruce Davis's parole four times.

just finished The Life and Times of Charles Manson

def feels pretty definitive
the whole story is just so unreal
the most telling detail for me was the one thing he always returned to, after having taken a course in prison, was How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

^ ding

yeah that made so many aspects of his behaviour click together

About 30 pages into Jeffrey Melnick's Creepy Crawling: Charles Manson and the Many Lives of America's Most Infamous Family. Same idea as Dead Elvis and Unshackled: The Dustbin of Donald Trump: Manson is everywhere.

https://cdn11.bigcommerce.com/s-5wx3mh9/images/stencil/1280x1280/products/237/1931/denied_stamp_180604__66005.1528149761.gif?c=2
https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/03/us/leslie-van-houten-manson-family-parole/index.html

"I'm gonna run for president one day and I'll be damned if I give them any ammo against me!"

Are we including the Kardashians?

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Charles Manson follower Leslie Van Houten walked out of a California prison Tuesday after serving more than 50 years of a life sentence for her participation in two infamous murders.

Van Houten “was released to parole supervision,” the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said in a statement.

Is she the only one to gain release?

nevermind, I see that Squeaky walked years ago

Missed this...I think she's the first directly responsible for the murders.

interesting article from a few years back about the ongoing rehabilitation of Van Houten, Kremwinkle & Atkins on behalf of a feminist coalition at the Santa Cruz prison project

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/keeping-faith-with-the-manson-women

i carry this info about her rehabilitation alongside the brutality of the LaBianca murders & I don’t really know where I land on it exactly

but i think prison is fucked & people deserve a second chance which also sounds naive of me idk

Not sure how I feel either, other than surprised--I thought the Tate family was vigilant (and convincing) about no one ever getting parole.

yeah - I think Sharon’s sister Debra was even representing on behalf of the LaBiancas. So I dunno.

I’d be interested to read what about this appeal turned things around.

I just finished another Mad Men rewatch last night. Everyone remembers Meredith's great line to Harry about the Manson Brothers, but I'd forgotten Don's follow-up as he pulls in to the office: "Are they coming in?"