Patricia Krenwinkel Recommended For Parole

"A California state parole board found Patricia Krenwinkel’s risk of reoffending to be low. 

Former Manson follower Patricia Krenwinkel was recommended for parole on Friday, May 30

She was convicted on seven counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Sharon Tate, Abigail Folger, Wojciech Frykowski, Steven Earl Parent, Jay Sebring, Leno LaBianca and Rosemary LaBianca

"Pat has fully accepted responsibility for everything she did, everything she contributed to, every twisted philosophy she embraced and endorsed and, most importantly, every life she destroyed by her actions in 1969," Keith Wattley, Patricia Krenwinkel’s parole attorney, said

The panel's decision must now be reviewed by the Board of Parole Hearings and then Governor Gavin Newsom, which can take up to 150 days.

Krenwinkel was 21 when she and Manson’s followers went on a two-day murder spree killing pregnant actor Sharon Tate, coffee heiress Abigail Folger, Wojciech Frykowski, Steven Earl Parent and Jay Sebring in August 1969 — as well as grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary, the next night in what prosecutors called Manson’s attempt to start a race war.

Krenwinkel, now 77, testified that she stabbed Folger 28 times, per the New York Times. She later helped kill the LaBiancas the following night and wrote in blood on the walls, “Death to Pigs,” according to the Times.

She was convicted on seven counts of first-degree murder in April 1971 and sentenced to death. She was resentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole in 1972 after the death penalty in California was deemed unconstitutional.

Krenwinkel, the longest-serving female inmate in the California prison system, first became eligible for parole in 1976. She has had 16 appearances before the state parole board.

In 2022, Newsom overruled the recommendation by the Board of Parole Hearings for her release after citing that Krenwinkel still posed “an unreasonable danger to society if paroled at this time." 

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"Ms. Krenwinkel fully accepted Mr. Manson's racist, apocalyptical ideologies," Newsom said, per The Associated Press. "Ms. Krenwinkel was not only a victim of Mr. Manson's abuse. She was also a significant contributor to the violence and tragedy that became the Manson Family's legacy."

Jay Sebring’s nephew Anthony DiMaria spoke out at Friday’s hearing.

"Patricia Krenwinkel is not a follower, nor is she a victim," said DiMaria, according to CBS8. "She is a cold-blooded killer of eight people. The more accurate number is eight, as I include the murder of Tate’s unborn son. Krenwinkel obliterated the rights of all of her victims. Charles Manson did not write Helter Skelter in blood. Patricia Krenwinkel did. She is the author of blood-smeared messages that terrified the world. Parole Patricia Krenwinkel once her victims are paroled from their graves."

Keith Wattley, Krenwinkel’s parole attorney, said in a statement obtained by PEOPLE that the inmate should be released.

"After 56-and-a-half years of incarceration with no rule violations, with substantial change in who she is, and with the last nine psychological evaluators over the past 40 years agreeing that Pat is no longer a risk, it’s time to make the possibility of parole a reality," he said.

"Pat has fully accepted responsibility for everything she did, everything she contributed to, every twisted philosophy she embraced and endorsed and, most importantly, every life she destroyed by her actions in 1969," Wattley continued.

"Pat has participated in extensive therapy and group counseling to address her experiences as both a perpetrator and survivor of violence, allowing her to understand how she was able to cause this tragedy and helping others along their own healing journeys. This case also shows what happens when we don’t officially offer any healing-focused alternative to survivors of violent crime. Pat and I wish them peace, if they can ever experience it after the harm she caused."  

In response to the recommendation, Sharon Tate's sister, Debra, has started a petition to keep Krenwinkel from getting parole.

"Society cannot allow this serial killer who committed such horrible, gruesome, random killings back out," she wrote. "I am asking for your help by letting the parole board know that you do not want to see her get released by signing this petition."

It has gained 116,790 signatures as of Monday morning.

Manson died in prison in 2017." 

Source:People Magazine with a look at Mansan Family assassin Patricia Krenwinkel after 55 years in state prison.

From People Magazine

As Fred Schneider wrote about this back in 2023 about Leslie Van Houten's parole: 

"I think sparing the life of Leslie Van Houten was a good thing. She obviously became a good, intelligent, responsible person, these last 53 years. But if you are old enough, strong enough, and mentally capable enough, to murder not one, but 2 people, in the prime of their lives, you  are old enough to spend the rest of your life paying for your murders.

My response to what Leslie Van Houten’s lawyer, Nancy Tetreault, who was on CNN last night talking to John Berman, she tried to argue that since Leslie was 19 at the time of her two murders in 1969, that she shouldn’t be held completely responsible for her crimes, because the brain of the 19 year old, isn’t as developed as someone whose in their 20s. Only in Hollywood, California could that argument hold. Well, the rest of Hippieland, California, as well.

But again, if you are old enough, strong enough, mentally competent enough, to murder not one, but two people in the prime of their lives, you are old enough to pay the price for your crimes, for the rest of your life, regardless of how old you were when you committed your murders." 

From The New Democrat

I think Fred covered how The New Democrat feels... pretty much about how anyone who was in the Manson Crime Family, who murdered and got life sentences for their murders, feels about anyone in that crime family, ever getting paroled. We don't think they should ever even be eligible for parole. And I'm just going to give you a few more reasons why. 

To qualify as a serial murderer in the United States, you've had to of murdered at least 3 people. What's a murder? The premeditated, intentional, killing, of an innocent person. Very different from let's say manslaughter where you kill someone accidentally by being irresponsible... like hitting someone with your car, while driving drunk. Or 2nd degree murder, where you intended to physically hurt someone who wasn't an immediate threat to your safety, but you didn't intend to kill them. 

Patricia Krenwinkel is guilty of murdering 7 innocent people, intentionally (which is what 1st degree murder is) and perhaps the worst part, she had no idea who her victims were before she murdered all 7 of them. Think about that for a second: you break into a complete stranger's home and murder 7 people by yourself, because your cult leader said they were bad people, or he simply didn't like them. That's the type of person that Pat Krenwinkel was 56 years ago. 

And if you want to give me "the LSD made her do it", or "Charles Manson made her do it"... she joined the Manson Family voluntarily in 1967 or 68, after running away from her middle class, suburban home in California and she took the drugs voluntarily as well. Not like she was kidnapped and stabbed with LSD 20 times a day, every time that she was there. (That was a half joke) 

I'm all for second chances when it comes to everyone who's never intentionally killed an innocent person. And I do believe that sparing the life of Pat Krenwinkel is just based on the person she's become that last 55 years while in prison. But nothing that she's accomplished while in prison, even taking responsibility for her 7 murders, makes up intentionally murdering 7 innocent strangers, especially the way she did with all the stab wounds and the innocent blood that she left behind because of her murders. 

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CNN: ‘Former Manson Family Member Leslie Van Houten Released From California prison, Official Says’

Source:CNN- convicted two-time murderer Leslie Van Houten, will get to walk away from prison as a free woman. Even though her two victims are still dead.

Source:The New Democrat

“Leslie Van Houten, a former Charles Manson follower and convicted murderer, was released from a California prison on Tuesday, a prison spokesperson told CNN.

Van Houten was released to parole supervision, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokesperson Mary Xjimenez said. Van Houten will have a three-year maximum parole term with a parole discharge review occurring after one year, Xjimenez said.

FILE – In this Sept. 6, 2017, file photo, Leslie Van Houten attends her parole hearing at the California Institution for Women in Corona, Calif. On Tuesday, March 29, 2022, California Gov. Gavin Newsom blocked parole for Charles Manson follower Van Houten, reversing a panel’s recommendation that she be freed after spending a half-century in prison. (Stan Lim/Los Angeles Daily News via AP, Pool, File)

Manson family member Leslie Van Houten parole reversed for the fifth time

Van Houten, now in her 70s, was 19 when she met Manson and joined the murderous cult that came to be called the “Manson family.”

Prior to her release on Tuesday, she was serving concurrent sentences of seven years to life after she was convicted in 1971 for her role in the killings of supermarket executive Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary, at their Los Angeles home.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office on Friday announced it would not challenge a state appellate court’s panel ruling in May that opened the possibility of parole for Van Houten, clearing the path to her release.

“More than 50 years after the Manson cult committed these brutal offenses, the victims’ families still feel the impact, as do all Californians. Governor Newsom reversed Ms. Van Houten’s parole grant three times since taking office and defended against her challenges of those decisions in court,” Erin Mellon, a spokesperson for the governor, said Friday.

“The Governor is disappointed by the Court of Appeal’s decision to release Ms. Van Houten but will not pursue further action as efforts to further appeal are unlikely to succeed. The California Supreme Court accepts appeals in very few cases, and generally does not select cases based on this type of fact-specific determination,” Melton said.

A family member of celebrity hair stylist Jay Sebring, who was killed by the Manson cult in 1969, said he disagrees with the decision by the governor’s office to not challenge Van Houten’s parole.

“I certainly have respect for Governor Newsom and the attorney general,” Sebring’s nephew, Anthony DiMaria, told CNN’s Laura Coates on Tuesday night. “But our families strongly, vehemently, disagree with their decision not to file an appeal.”

DiMaria called Van Houten a “cold-blooded killer in one of the most notorious murder rampages in United States history,” and said her release sets a “dangerous, pernicious precedent.”

Van Houten’s attorney, Nancy Tetreault, told CNN’s John Berman Tuesday night that her client has “gone through courses to confront what she did – to take responsibility for what she did,” along with “40 years of psych evaluation” to gain parole.

“I understand why … the family members of the victims feel emotional about this and want retribution, but that’s not the law,” Tetreault told Berman. “The law says she has the right to achieve parole if she meets the standard, and the standard is that she no longer poses a danger to society.”

Tetreault said she’s not trying to prove that Van Houten is innocent, but rather emphasizes that Van Houten “has to, and has, accepted full responsibility for the crime.”

Following 53 years in custody, Van Houten will participate in a transitional housing program to help her with employment training, teach her how to get a job and support herself, Tetreault told CNN last week.

“If you think about it, she’s never used an ATM, never had a cell phone,” Tetreault said last week. The attorney told CNN she and her client have discussed the likelihood of her being overwhelmed as she transitions back to routine daily activities, such as going to the supermarket.

Van Houten will seek employment that builds on the bachelor’s and master’s degrees in humanities that she earned while in prison, the attorney said. But for now, she’s just getting acclimated.

“She said that she’s just trying to get used to the idea that she’s no longer in prison after all these decades, and just acclimate to her new life outside of prison,” Tetreault said Tuesday.

Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten, shown walking to court to appear for their roles in the murders.

Leslie Van Houten, Manson Family member, recommended for parole

Following her conviction, Van Houten was sentenced to death, but the death penalty was overturned after California abolished capital punishment, and her sentence was commuted to life in prison. She first became eligible for parole in 1977 and a California parole board panel first recommended her release in 2016 after she made 22 appearances before the board, CNN reported.

That decision, however, was reversed five times by the state’s governors – twice by former Gov. Jerry Brown, who cited the horrific nature of the murders and Van Houten’s eager participation, and three times by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

In 1994, Van Houten described her part in the killings in a prison interview with CNN’s Larry King.

“I went in and Mrs. LaBianca was laying on the floor and I stabbed her,” said Van Houten, who was 19 at the time of the murders. “In the lower back, around 16 times.” 

From CNN 

I guess my first reaction to the release of Leslie Van Houten, is that only in hippie, left-wing California, can a two-time convicted murderer, walk away from prison. But that’s not completely accurate. You might have a shot at that, if you are a two-time murderer, if you committed your murders in Oregon or the State of Washington, perhaps Vermont. But in the real world, including a lot of deep blue states, like Maryland, which is my state, if you are a two-time murderer, hell, if you murdered one person, you are looking at life without, or the death penalty in prison.

Pamela Smart, who I talked about last month, is still serving life without even the possibility of parole, even though she didn’t actually physically commit her murder, but the two accomplishes that she hired did, but now they’re both free men. But Leslie Van Houten, whose physically and mentally responsible for murdering two people, Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, gets to walk away from prison, even after 53 years, which is more than almost 2 times the years that she lived as a free person, before her murders, but her victims are still dead.

I think sparing the life of Leslie Van Houten was a good thing. She obviously became a good, intelligent, responsible person, these last 53 years. But if you are old enough, strong enough, and mentally capable enough, to murder not one, but 2 people, in the prime of their lives, you  are old enough to spend the rest of your life paying for your murders.

My response to what Leslie Van Houten’s lawyer, Nancy Tetreault, who was on CNN last night talking to John Berman, she tried to argue that since Leslie was 19 at the time of her two murders in 1969, that she shouldn’t be held completely responsible for her crimes, because the brain of the 19 year old, isn’t as developed as someone whose in their 20s. Only in Hollywood, California could that argument hold. Well, the rest of Hippieland, California, as well.

But again, if you are old enough, strong enough, mentally competent enough, to murder not one, but two people in the prime of their lives, you are old enough to pay the price for your crimes, for the rest of your life, regardless of how old you were when you committed your murders.

Hard Copy: February, 1991: 'Charles Manson Pirated Guitat Playing Video in the Jokey Prison Video

Source:Atomic TV- From a 1991 Hard Copy special report about serial murderer Charles Manson.

"Duping old VHS tapes, stumbled across this Charles Manson segment from Hard Copy. He does his crazy act in a smuggled ja-il video, and plays some guitar.
Please let me know how you stumbled on this video - were you googling Manson after the Tarantino movie or was this link mentioned in a blog? Thanks! Check out Atomic TV too:Atomic TV."

From Atomic TV

This photo is from a 1991 special report on serial murderer and cult leader Charles Manson, featuring new video footage of Manson and his crime family. But the video that this photo is from, is not currently available online right now.

Source:Hard Copy- From a 1991 special report about serial murderer Charles Manson.

The Manson murders twenty years later. Actually twenty years after The Manson Family murderers were convicted of those evil murders.

I mean when I think of evil serial murderers Charlie Manson and Ted Bundy are at the top of my list at least when you're talking about individuals. The KKK as a group are probably just as bad though. Manson ordering murders of people because they were literally part of the successful establishment. Imagine that as your defense in court. But not only that, but ordering the murders of the wrong people. He wanted Dennis Wilson murdered and wasn't aware that Wilson had moved out and other people moved in. Roman Polanski and his girlfriend Sharon Tate.

Charlie Manson wasn't a dumb person. Certainly uneducated and not educated in the traditional sense. But we're talking about someone who didn't functioned properly mentally. Who lacked moral character, actually didn't really have any. Who believed he was above the law and that somehow these murders was benefiting society or something. Even though again he ordered the murders of the wrong people in the sense that it was Dennis Wilson that he wanted murdered.

And the Manson crew didn't realize that Wilson no longer lived there and that new group of people are now using that home. The Manson Family soldiers I guess who were made up of high school and college dropouts and people who were kicked out by their parents, didn't understand that.

Charlie Manson created a cult of evil an even culture of evil. I guess he was pissed off at society after leaving prison for the last time in his life and was looking for a way to get back at the people that he believed wronged him. We're talking about a man who grew up in prison and at 32 in 1967 had spent more than half his life in prison. And even though prison was always the best and most comfortable place for him in life he now believed he was going to punish the people for sending him there.

And Manson finds his societal dropouts in the Manson soldiers with the young women, Tex Watson and others and now had the crew to commit the evil acts that he didn't have the balls to do himself. Charlie Manson is the perfect example of why we have life in prison and life without parole in prison. Because you don't want people like that living freely ever again. 

You can also see this post at The Daily Press, on Blogger.

MSNBC: The Mind of Manson- Keith Morrison: Documentary on Charles Manson

Source:MSNBC- interviewing convicted serial murderer and cult leader Charles Manson.

“I’ve also uploaded all of Manson’s music. If you’d like to hear it, send me a message and I’ll send you the links.”

Source:One Two Sixx

“Description: Robin Sax Legal talk Good Day Charles Manson Family Bruce Davis release and Gov. Brown.” 

Source:Michaels Backporch- with a video about The Manson Family.

From Michaels Backporch

Whatever your position on the death penalty is and even if you’re in favor of the death penalty, but agree that forty-five years later not executing the Manson Family murderers other than Charlie Manson himself was the correct decision. I think most of the country can agree that once you intentionally take the innocent life of another human being and are convicted of that murder, or murderers, you forfeit your right to freedom for the rest of your life. I could imagine only anti-use of force at anytime groups, as well as anti-prison advocates, or Anarchists having a problem with that.

Bruce Davis, has never even admitted, or apologized for his role in the Manson murders. The only thing that puts him ahead of Charlie, is that he’s made a productive life for himself while in prison. Which is one of the reasons for having prison. Which is the whole point of rehabilitation which is self-improvement and not just preparing people who have a release date on the outside for life there, but empowering people who are serving life, or very long sentences to make a positive life for them self in prison and allow for them to give back. Which is what she should be doing a lot more with our prisons and would make them a lot more affordable to run. But that’s a different subject.

Once you murder someone, you can’t take that back. Your victim never recovers from that. And because of that why should the murder be able to live freely when their victim, or victims can never live at all? No one should feel sorry for anyone who decided to hook up with Charlie Manson. None of the Manson Family members were kidnapped and all voluntarily joined that group. And they were all eighteen, or older when they got involved and they all knew what they were doing when they committed those murders. And they’re all paying the price for it in prison and will continue to pay that price as long as they’re alive. Because their victims will never recover from their murders. 

You can also see this post at The Daily Press, on WordPress.

Journey Into Evil: The Charles Manson Story

Source:The New Democrat

A lot can be said about Charles Manson most of it bad. I mean he was the leader of one of the most evil crime families that America has ever seen. And this wasn’t a crime family that was built around enriching themselves financially off the backs of people who’ve made it in life. But a crime family that was built around destroying the establishment essentially. That if you were successful in life, especially if you were a successful Caucasian-American in society in the Los Angeles area and Charlie Manson knew about you and could get to you, you were a potential target of the Manson Family.

If you were on the Manson Crime Family’s hit list, they were not going to take what you earned in life. They weren’t after the wealth, but the person themselves. That the establishment was the problem in America. And Charlie Manson had this fantasy that if all of these wealthy people were murdered, that these murders would get blamed on African-Americans in Los Angeles. And that Caucasians would be so mad by this, that it would unite some type of race war between Caucasians and Africans in Southern California. This sounds crazy, but that’s the fantasy that Manson had. But what he didn’t realize apparently as well as several other things, that he was in California not Alabama. And race wars just didn’t happen there. People in LA learned to live with each other.

Charlie Manson’s life was tragic enough and to a certain extent society was partially to blame for this. With the way Manson was raised. But the bigger tragedy was, its one thing to destroy your own life, but its another to destroy others. And his family members are responsible for their actions in the Manson Family. But without Charlie Manson the Manson Crime Family never gets created and he targeted young adults in the late 1960s to join his family and show them another way of living.

Manson gave his members what they were missing in life, in exchange for doing Charlie’s evil business. Do the deeds that Manson didn’t have the guts to do on his own, which is murder people. And thank God most people don’t have the guts to murder people, or this would be a much different country. Thats how the Manson Family operated and how they were able to be in business. Charlie Manson was sentenced to prison for the last time in his life in 1970 after being convicted of conspiracy to commit murder of the people his family murdered.

Charlie been in prison ever since and will never leave prison for what he did. Nor should he, because he’s clearly not rehabilitated. And even the California corrections system recognizes this. But he’s lucky in once sense to even be a live for the murders he’s responsible for. Had the death penalty not have been outlawed in 1973, Charlie and his followers would be dead right now. Probably executed by the late 1970s and early 1980s. And how his members, most of the women anyway have turned out and conducted themselves while in prison and are now rehabilitated, that may have been a tragedy. But Charlie is still the same person he’s always been as an adult.

Michaels Backporch: CNN Spotlight: Charles Manson (2014)

Source:The New Democrat

I’m not making the excuses for Charlie Manson, because he was and probably still is pure evil. But the fact he was born that way, seems odd to me at the very least. That would be like being born a racist or something. And also the idea that he had a loving childhood and everything else, because he had all of these relatives that took care of him. I mean the fact that he was moved around so much during his childhood says a lot right there. He didn’t have that one or two adult relatives who loved him enough to bring him up right. And he eventually ends up in reform and boys schools to take care of him.

Having said all of that, this man is personally responsible for countless murders. And not just the Tate murders on that horrible hot night in August of 1969, but other murders as well that haven’t been completely tied to him. He knew what he was doing when he put him crime family together and what he wanted these young adults to do for him. Which was to get revenge on society for treating Manson the way he was treated as a young person. And if the Manson Family wasn’t stopped when they were, they would’ve kept on killing into the 1970s.

Charlie Manson is not physically responsible for the murders that his crew committed in the sense that he physically murdered all of those people. But he’s responsible for ordering the murders that were committed and motivating his crew to commit the murders that he did. Which is called conspiracy to commit murder. The conspirator is just as responsible for the murders as the murderer who physically committed the murders. That is why Manson was sentenced to death in 1971, I believe along with his crew members who committed the murders. And when their sentences were commuted to life, he was given life as well.

The Manson Family Today: Good Morning America: Diane Sawyer's 2002 Interview of Susan Atkins

Source:The New Democrat

I think it is pretty sad the way that Susan Atkins died in prison, especially from brain cancer which must of been horrible for her. And I’m glad she didn’t turn her life around, because I’m not sure life was ever moving in the right direction in the first place to end up where she did. But she did build a positive life for herself in prison as far as how she did her time and how she helped fellow inmates and helped people on the outside. Life in prison doesn’t have to be and shouldn’t be torture. Other than the fact that you know you’ll never be free and you’ll always be incarcerated. Which is bad enough and shouldn’t be any worst than that if the inmate does their time well and doesn’t further their criminal career inside of prison.

Life in prison still means life and that the person still has their life to live, just in prison and living in prison for the rest of their lives. But that also means they are alive in prison and that they should be able to make out of that time in prison the best that they can do. That it should be a productive and constructive existence for them, the prison and society. That they are not lockdown in a cell most of their days essentially doing nothing. As long as they are behaving themselves and staying out of trouble and taking advantages that are in front of them. Things like education, work, community service and other rehabilitation programs.

By all counts Susan Atkins did those things in her thirty-seven plus years and prison and made of her life sentence the best that she could and perhaps the best anyone could. Especially considering what she was in prison for and the condition she was in when she entered prison. I truly believe the only bad if not evil person that is doing time for the Manson Family murders is Charlie Manson. That is his family hadn’t met Manson and not have fallen for some other criminals or criminals, that they wouldn’t of ended up in prison and probably made positive lives for themselves.

But given all of that, the fact is they including Susan Atkins did hook up with Charlie Manson and they did carry out his evil orders. And committed such crimes that their victims will never get over and recover from because they were murdered. And a life sentence is exactly that. And unless you are paroled and why you would even be eligible for parole when you’re guilty of first degree murder and you’re a serial murderer, is beyond me. But unless you are parole, you’re still on the hook for the crimes you committed. Which is why Susan Atkins shouldn’t of never been rewarded even a compassionate release from prison, which she wasn’t because of the crimes she committed.

Jack London: Charles Manson: The Man Who Killed The 1960s

Source:The New Democrat 

This era the 1960s especially the late 60s is an example of why I wish I was 20-25 years older than I am today. Instead of being born in mid 1970s, I wish I was born in the early 50s or mid-50s. Now of course that would mean I’m either pushing 60, or in my early to mid 60s today, so that would be the drawback. But instead of hearing about the latest celebrity and why they are in jail today, or who they are sleeping with. Or the latest computer or smart phone and what was the coolest commercial Super Bowl, with very little if any mention about who actually won the game, I would be hearing about real true crime stories and people who were at least a certain extent victims of their generation, who were lost and fell to a madman.

The 1960s was an incredibly fascinating for both good and bad. And you could say Charles Manson and his group ended the peace and love anti-establishment decade. But the fact is the 1960s was one of the most divisive and violent decades America has ever experienced before Charlie Manson ever came on the scene. What Manson and his group, his crime family did was to escalate the violence of that decade and take their extreme anger out on completely innocent people. And why they do that? Because their victims were successful and wealthy, unlike the Manson Family. It was almost like a communist or socialist revolution taking out their anger against the rich establishment.

There were people who wanted peace and fought for peace and even died for peace. The great Dr. Martin L. King comes to mind damn fast and perhaps the ultimate tragedy of this decade as far as what happened to him, along with President John F. Kennedy. But the 1960s was not a peaceful decade. There was horrible violence from the early 1960s with a presidential assassination all the way through the decade. And The Manson Family didn’t even strike the biggest blows of the decade. In Los Angeles sure, as far as the amount of people who were killed. But keep in mind U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles in the late 60s, 1968. Not to take away from the Manson victims.

What the Manson Family represented was the anti-establishment movement and violence of the 1960s. And they took that to a horrible new evil level that perhaps hasn’t been unmatched by any other crime group in America, at least as far as the amount of people they killed in the amount of time that they killed. The Manson Family really were all about the 1960s and represented a lot of the good and bad. Mostly bad, but the 60s hippie movement, peace and love all of that didn’t die with the Manson Family. Because those things were always just dreams anyway.

The Tomorrow Show With Tom Snyder: Charles Manson (1985)

Source:The New Democrat 

I don’t think there is a lot new here at least from what we already know about Charlie Manson, at least the people who have followed his life in and out of prison. The one thing that is different, is that he’s in a medical facility, instead of hardcore prison and he’s not in solitary confinement. Tom Snyder was granted excellent access of Manson and Manson’s time at Vacuville. It would’ve been nice to know what Manson was doing there, because it did look fairly healthy, at least physically. Mentally I’m not sure he’s ever been healthy and has ever been a right frame of mind, but that is a different story.

Manson apparently still living on his own planet. Tom Snyder asked him point-blank, “why do people follow you”? And he does this little dance and does all of these vibrations, like he’s a god or something. And Snyder asked Manson about Vince Bugliosi’s book, the man who prosecuted The Manson Family and his book about those trials. And Manson said that Bugliosi got the times and dates right. And that was essentially Bugliosi’s version of what happened back then. But nothing about whether Bugliosi was accurate or not.

Charlie Manson has been in prison for his last crimes for now forty-five years. The man is now eighty-years old and when he went to prison for the last time back in late 1969 or early 1970, he had already spend half of his life in either juvenile hall, jail or prison. That is all he knows. And even today he still doesn’t take any responsibility for his crimes. So why would he of bothered to do that back almost thirty-years ago. The man belongs in hell and if he’s going to be allowed to live he should and is in hell on Earth.

Helter Skellter (1976) The Story of The Manson Crime Family

Source:The Daily Press 

In 1976 there was a two-part TV mini-series I believe on CBS about the Manson Crime Family from the late 1960s and even after their leader Charles Manson was arrested in  late 1969 for his role in the Tate murders and other murders during the Manson Family murder spree from the summer of 1969,  a summer Los Angeles will never forget. The Manson Family was still in business so to speak in the early 1970s and even up to 1975 with Lynette Squeaky Frohm's attempt to assassinate President Gerald Ford.

And this mini-series was about the murders of the Manson Family in the Summer of 1969 and other business about the Manson Family. It was not a religious cult, there was some spirituality in it. But it was basically about a petty thief pimp career criminal who was never very good at staying out of prison. Who would get released from prison for the last time in the mid 1960s and work his way to the San Francisco area, pick up some girls in their late teens early 20s who ran away from home.

These were young adults late teens for the most part who seemed somewhat lost and build a family made up of high school and college dropouts. People that they believed were kissed off from society and Charlie Manson finally found a group of people that seemed like him, somewhat lost in the World. That didn't seem to fit in with mainstream society and he founded his soldiers that would take out their anger against mainstream society.

Charlie Manson wasn't intelligent in the sense that he was well educated, he didn't get through high school or make it to high school. He grew up in prison basically, in juvenile hall and probably didn't spend much time in school there. He never knew his father and his mother was a prostitute who didn't spend much time with her son and Charlie got moved around a lot as a kid. And probably didn't feel very loved, as an FBI profiler once said about Manson on NBC Dateline. "Charlie Manson is an example of what happens when we don't raise our kids well".

Society in a sense has some blame here for creating Charlie Manson. Not to excuse Manson because he's exactly where he belongs and will and should never leave prison. But society isn't innocent here in the creation of Charlie Manson. And what Manson had in his crime family were the people that would take out revenge for him against society. "If you were part of the establishment and successful in life, living in the Los Angeles area and they knew about you, you were a target of the Manson Family". To paraphrase Vince Bugliosi who prosecuted the Manson Family. Charlie wasn't stupid but he wasn't educated either.

Charlie Manson had talent to play and write music, but also to read people and know how they work and how he could work them up to the point where he could make people kill for him, Charles Watson, Patricia Krenwenkell, Leslie Van Houten, Susan Atkins and others. And they found their targets in actress Sharon Tate, Karen Folger and others and killed them. The Manson Family murders were some of the worst murders ever committed. Adolph Hitler, Saddam Hussein would've been proud of these murders.

The Manson victims literally being stabbed and hanged to death in their own homes and their blood being spread around their homes. The Manson Family literally left their mark and were begging for the death penalty with their murders. And were given the Death Penalty before the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed the death penalty in I believe 1973. The only reason why these serial murderers are alive today. Their lives being spared something they didn't do for their victims and they are the poster children for why we need to raise our kids well. And the Manson Crime Family had to be stopped for them to pay their debt to society. But to put them out of business so they couldn't strike again.

NBC News: The Today Show- Charles Manson Interview

Source:NBC- interviewing Charles Manson in 1985.

"Watch Manson intellectually run circles around everyone in this interview:Mexican Taint."

Source:NBC News

Charles Manson has made a couple of admissions of guilt. I'm not a lawyer but this is what it sounds like when he says perhaps he should've killed more people. I'm paraphrasing here, but that is pretty close, and perhaps the closes, he's come to taking responsibility for the brutal Manson Family murders of 1969 of people the Manson Family didn't know or had ever heard of. The interviewer asked a basic straightforward question and got a fairly straight answer from Charlie.

I believe a borderline silly question has to be asked of Charlie Manson: Do you feel responsibility or remorse for the murders?  It is a silly question because you know what he's going to say:  Remorse for what, what murders, what about everything you've done to me and so forth.  It has to be asked because he's the one man who knows exactly how many people he's responsible for killing and you are looking for new information here and, if nothing else, to get a new reaction out of him.

This is not much of an interview but certainly entertaining. The interviewer is not asking many questions but really just letting Charlie do his shtick, his routine, and letting him go off on the world and what he thinks of things and letting him speak and make up for lost time spending so much of his time not just in State prison but in solitary confinement, during which the world that is still fascinated by the man gets to see how he is doing and what he is thinking. 

You can also see this post at The Daily Press, on WordPress.

CBS News NightWatch: Charlie Rose 1987 Interview of Charlie Manson

Source: Fat Hawaiian Man-

Source:Fat Hawaiian Man

I can feel a certain sympathy for Charlie Manson because it is easy to see why he is so pissed off at a society that provided only the corrections system as an early home for him. Never knowing his biological father, with a criminal mother who rejected her son, being shipped around from aunt and uncle to aunt and uncle, and then ending up in reform school, he received no encouragement as a child or the emotional and physical skills to tackle life's demands.

I am not excusing Manson's crimes, but many career criminals in the United States emerge from similar rough beginnings. Ted Bundy would be an exception to that, as well as Manson's soldiers, but the life of Charles Manson is a lesson for society that it shouldn't give up on the younger generation, because it could come back to bite them if young people end up looking for an avenue to express their resentment or hatred for the society that neglected them.

I'm not sure there's someone more qualified than Charlie Rose to interview Charlie Manson, because of his intelligence, the work he puts into his interviews, and his vast knowledge about so much that is news-related.  His interviewing skills are unmatched.  He knows when someone is being straight with him and knows when they are leaving out important facts.  His bullshit radar is superb, and Charlie Manson found himself up against someone who was more than his match in Charlie Rose in this interview.

ABC News: 20/20 Diane Sawyer- 1994 Special on The Manson Family

Source: ABC News- Charles Manson-

Source:ABC News

The Manson Crime Family, which is what I call it instead of a cult, because of all the crimes they committed and people they either seriously hurt or killed, is one of the worst crime families of all time with regard to their large number of victims.  Charlie Manson, the leader of this family, was a professional criminal and, until he put the Manson Family together, wasn't a very successful criminal because of all the time he had already spent in prison.

Charlie Manson, even though he was not an educated man (I believe he didn't even make it to high school) is very intelligent and talented, has a quick mind, and knew how to use his mental skills, charm, and narcotics to make people do exactly what he wanted them to do as in the case of middle class, talented, educated, and intelligent people like Tex Watson and the Manson women.

Charlie Manson felt he had been screwed his entire life and searched for a way to express his anger and get his payback.  He found the perfect cast of characters to do his evil work, a group of people who felt lost, didn't fit into the establishment, and were looking for a leader.  They found Charles Manson instead and he led them to ruin their lives and those of the victims and their families.

The Manson Family Today: The Manson Murders

Source:The Daily Press

Charles Manson had the perfect group to do his evil deeds, so to speak. Because his group was similar to him in the sense that they didn’t seem to fit in very well in mainstream society. Even Manson’s soldiers all came from solid middle class backgrounds and could’ve all ended going to college before they went to prison for their murders. But instead ended up with Charlie Manson, because they felt for some reason that their families no longer wanted them. Charlie, had just gotten out of prison for the last time, in 1967-68 and ends up in the San Francisco area. And meets up with these very young women and Tex Watson, in their late teens. And sees that they are lost and offers them his love and takes them in. And they embraced him and the Manson Crime Family is formed as a result.

A&E Biography: The Manson Women

Source:The Daily Press

The Manson girls were the female members of the Charles Manson’s family what was known as the Manson Family which was basically a cult. But it wasn’t a religious cult, but a crime cult, a crime family, a gang. They were basically a criminal gang that included murder. But also robbery and even torture to get things they wanted because they didn’t have the character to work for it or earn it. And these somewhat smaller crimes eventually led up to murder, but not random murders.

Even though the Manson Family didn’t know who they were murdering, because the people they murdered to them represented what they wanted to eliminate. Which was the establishment or the power-structure in America that the Manson Family especially Charles Manson believed were holding the Manson Family down and why they needed to come together to move away from mainstream society. Where they were failing to make it, especially Charlie who already at this point in his early and mid thirties, had already spent more than half of his life in prison in one form or the other.

And Charlie Manson just getting out of prison in the late 1960s and ending up in the San Francisco area and not knowing what to do with the rest of his life. Sort of catches onto the Hippie movement that was going on then. And saw these people or some of them as his chance to get back at society for all the things he believed were done to him. That cost him half of his life in prison and sees these young women and men late teens and early twenties who were somewhat lost and not knowing how they fit into society.

These young people struggling to make it on their own and showed them the respect and love they weren’t getting in life and formed this family or gang. And now had the soldiers he needed to get back at society. The people he believed were holding him down as well as his cult members. And ended up brining in people who otherwise would’ve been in college at that point and all had the skills and knowledge to of done very well in college and been successful in life.

In Leslie Van Houten’s case, she was beautiful and intelligent. Probably could’ve made it in Hollywood or in college and had a very successful career in entertainment or business or something had she never of met Charlie Manson and never fallen into his cult. But she made a really bad decision early on in life which led to even worse decisions later on in the Manson Family. Which can sum up the rest of the Manson Family and all of the waste that they represent. And what could’ve been had they just made better decisions in life.

Fat Hawaiian Man: The Tomorrow Show- Tom Snyder Interview: of Charles Manson (1981)

Source:Fat Hawaiian Man- Serial murderer and cult leader Charles Manson, being interviewed by Tom Snyder in 1981, for NBC News.

Source:The Daily Press 

"The infamous Snyder interview from 1981 uploaded in full for the first time- Snyder spends most of the time chain smoking and goading Manson on in any way possible, while a somewhat sedated Manson rues having to talk." 

From the Fat Hawaiian Man

I’m glad that Tom Snyder would be wiling and even wanting to interview Charlie Manson. And that Charlie would be willing to do an interview like this and probably wanting to do this interview in the first place. Perhaps looking for the limelight and the chance to show Americans what he was about and what he’s been up to and so-forth, so the country could see what this guy was about and how people can end up like this if they aren’t given a good opportunity to be successful in life.

The Manson Family felt that society was against them and so-forth, with all that anger building up and once he gets the opportunity to strike back at the people he believes have done him harm and so-forth and his chance to get those people back which is a lot of what the Manson Crime Family was about: taking on the establishment and bringing them down. And that there are people like this in society and this not how you want to end up.

No good reason for Charlie ending up the way he did and how his cult ended up. But when kids aren’t raised right like in Charlie’s case and always moved around from home to home with no one seeming able or willing to love them and raise them right, it is really hard to come from an environment like that and not be angry. To not get involved with people with similar backgrounds growing up. And feel now it's their turn to strike back or get back at the people they believe did them harm.

As far as this interview: Tom Snyder was about as good as anyone when it came to doing the difficult interview. Which are interviews where the person being interviewed is not there to talk about them self. Even though that is why the interviewer is talking to them in the first place. And Snyder got Manson to talk about things he probably didn’t want to talk about. Like his cult and how he came up and why he’s been in prison for so much of his life. Which makes for an interesting interview because the interviewer keeps coming. And is so tough and gets the person to say things about themselves that they normally wouldn’t.

The Current Affair: Linda Kasabian 1988 Special Interview

Source:The Daily Press

It’s hard to feel sorry for anyone no matter how long they are in prison who receive the same pleasures that people in free world get. At taxpayers expense that some of the Manson Crime Family members have gotten while in prison. Like having sex and fathering babies which is what Charles Tex Watson has been able to do. There’s nothing about The Manson Family that any decent sane person should feel sorry about. They made their beds in life and now are sleeping in it. Actually they are sleeping in much better beds than they made for themselves. Serial murderers don’t tend to get the privileges that some of the Manson Family members have received.

For the crimes that the Manson Family committed, Charlie and everyone else most murderers who were diagnosed as sane and knowing what they were doing when committing their murders would’ve gotten the death penalty. Actually they did get the death penalty before their sentences were commuted to life in prison. And generally when serial murderers are sentenced to life in prison, it is life without the possibility of parole. They all are getting opportunities at parole, but probably none of them will ever get parole for their crimes. Because they are still lucky to be just alive, unlike any of their victims.