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4.05 AVERAGE
4.05 AVERAGE
informative
slow-paced
dark
Really good but could not finish it all because it was making me paranoid.
dark
informative
dark
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Murder
I've never read any true crime, and I picked this one up during Spooky Reads Month because I've heard so many apocryphal tales about how charismatic Charles Mason was, and how people who met him would want to be on his side and help him, murderer or no. I've never quite been able to understand why. He doesn't seem especially well spoken, handsome or, y'know...sane.
The story is beyond belief. A jailbird who spent even a big chunk of his childhood in prison (and begs to stay there when finally released) immediately rounds up wealthy spoiled hippie gals and young girls who have been kicked out by their parents and teaches them that sexual inhibitions (including apparently those toward newborns, ew Sadie, gross) are evil. Between drugs, orgies and rock and roll, they bond. He uses well placed fear to begin to control them, and teaches them about the secret messages in Beatles songs/the Bible/something something Scientology. They dig a pit to hide in through the end of the world. He can't get any records made to tell about the coming Apocalyptic race war, because his music stinks. So instead he subtly suggests his followers murder people so that black people will get blamed and get things started. And they do. No one knows quite how many to this day (claims of 30-40!), but when they choose a house full of celebrities and heiresses, the world freaks out big time. More murders, car theft, rape, bank robbery, on and on. No one can figure out who did it. Months pass. A thousand tips later, the police catch on. A trial in which the girls sing and giggle and Manson rages against the machine and gives orders from the big house for more threats and murders. Manson tells the press he doesn't like blacks or Jews and women are best used as slaves. Fringe weirdos love him and make him their hero. The Family don't like their lawyer. They have him killed. They all get the death penalty (until it's abolished in CA and amended to life in prison). The Family on the outside cause additional mischief and go to jail for lesser crimes. And that's just the short version.
What a circus. Also, police work in the sixties is just depressing. They keep ignoring tips, destroying fingerprints accidentally, destroying evidence clumsily--all the cops are busy with the usual LA wackiness and keep making embarrassing mistakes, especially with LA being huge and a lack of organization between precincts. They are all in jail for completely separate crimes when the police get wind that something is up with these people.
Don't mass murder, kids.
The story is beyond belief. A jailbird who spent even a big chunk of his childhood in prison (and begs to stay there when finally released) immediately rounds up wealthy spoiled hippie gals and young girls who have been kicked out by their parents and teaches them that sexual inhibitions (including apparently those toward newborns, ew Sadie, gross) are evil. Between drugs, orgies and rock and roll, they bond. He uses well placed fear to begin to control them, and teaches them about the secret messages in Beatles songs/the Bible/something something Scientology. They dig a pit to hide in through the end of the world. He can't get any records made to tell about the coming Apocalyptic race war, because his music stinks. So instead he subtly suggests his followers murder people so that black people will get blamed and get things started. And they do. No one knows quite how many to this day (claims of 30-40!), but when they choose a house full of celebrities and heiresses, the world freaks out big time. More murders, car theft, rape, bank robbery, on and on. No one can figure out who did it. Months pass. A thousand tips later, the police catch on. A trial in which the girls sing and giggle and Manson rages against the machine and gives orders from the big house for more threats and murders. Manson tells the press he doesn't like blacks or Jews and women are best used as slaves. Fringe weirdos love him and make him their hero. The Family don't like their lawyer. They have him killed. They all get the death penalty (until it's abolished in CA and amended to life in prison). The Family on the outside cause additional mischief and go to jail for lesser crimes. And that's just the short version.
What a circus. Also, police work in the sixties is just depressing. They keep ignoring tips, destroying fingerprints accidentally, destroying evidence clumsily--all the cops are busy with the usual LA wackiness and keep making embarrassing mistakes, especially with LA being huge and a lack of organization between precincts. They are all in jail for completely separate crimes when the police get wind that something is up with these people.
Don't mass murder, kids.
Frightening look at Charles Manson and his "family". This book scared me when I first read it and continues to amaze me with each reread.
challenging
dark
informative
slow-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
Great story, interesting analysis, bad writing, pretentious narrator.