Here are a few things people I don’t know, have said on the news of Charlie Masons death.
He should’ve been in a mental institute being studied all these years; he was a fascinating specimen and I think could’ve taught us a lot about mental health and manipulation. I did extensive research on him when I played Squeaky Fromme. He was a true example of a combination of nature and nurture, horribly abused as a child and yet incredibly driven and artistic; his original vision for the Manson Family was actually quite beautiful, (conservation, community and environmentalism its primary tenants), but it was twisted by rejection and revenge. It’s incredible that he never actually killed anyone, but was able to drive (what started out as innocent) kids to chemically induced madness and murder. So many football players’ brains are being studied after their death now to try and find the link between concussions and domestic violence; I wish we could study Manson’s to try and maybe learn how someone so terribly mad could lead and inspire such rabid devotion in so many! (Maybe it would help us to understand Trump!) —Shannon Barry O’Grady
Helter Skelter, the book about the Mason Family murders, was the most terrifying I ever read, because the victims were random, the murders brutal, and I couldn’t put in down and tell myself it wasn’t real. Manson’s speech in the courtroom, on his innocence, while the jury was out, was so well delivered, if the jury had heard it who knows what the verdict would have been. After-all, he was America’s most notorious serial killer, and his weapon was words. Vicious manipulators can make otherwise good people turn nasty. And reading the comment sections regarding his death, it’s not just his followers he knew how to bring the worst out of. —Colin Frizzell
What is it about the human race who rather than forget men who do evil deeds, we enable them to be remembered in almost superstar, legendary ways – like Cult Leader Charles Manson who died today at 83. I almost don’t even want to write his name. He hardly is the most evil man – he hardly did the damage the Las Vegas shooter did – but as a cult leader Manson did indeed create a wider cult with a whole generation and modern culture following him. His death made the news after all – today. —Maria Afsharian
So many people commenting on this obviously have no idea why Manson is given the level of infamy that he has. I’ve seen Republicans try to make his long life a political issue, typical. I’ve seen young kids angry that it’s getting media coverage, most likely from sheltered lives. Adults older than me seem to be the only ones that recognize the level of evil he represented. Bundy, Gacy, Dahmer… They just killed a lot of people and in some cases mutilated the corpses. Manson was a whole different league right up there with Jim Jones. Anyone can kill someone, they did it without lifting a finger, making hundreds kill themselves willingly. —Al Melton
The world will not mourn the loss of a crazy little man who was involved with the murderers of Sharon Tate and several others… There is more to that story than will ever be told …but that is another days tale… today the world has one less unwanted child… a man rejected by family and society since the day he was born…he was raised in prison by men forgotten as well… he had a strange sense of humor and a strange sense of loyalty as well… we will not judge his new place in the universe today… but I hope mercy was found for him as I hope also for that mercy … I in my mind do not know what lies beyond death …is it the same for all or completely different for each individual? Possibly the conditions of our beginnings are more important than many realize …so many begin life without love and end up broken people…but anyways… Charlie is gone… you can now be safe from the boogeyman. .. —Lamar Ridley
Ah, but for circumstance. —Jan Parker
This, plus your previous post – for me it’s that feeling I’ve had after, through sheer circumstance and blind luck, I have not suffered some catastrophic consequence. Just not being in THAT place, at THAT time, but very close.
Yes.