These people were desperately lonely, hurt and naive and in each other they found pleasure and belonging. They were a predator's wet dream and Charlie, being a product of America's youth detention system and then adult prison system, was just that predator. In that, I do pity him. It just seems true that people whom end up being that evil had suffered some unbelievably torturous trauma themselves
Right, all those people were a bit lost, or far from home and searching for something. Charlie had learned very well how to read people, sense weakness, and exploit it. He is short in stature and this put him at a disadvantage physically in the boys homes and prison. So he learned to use his "crazy" bit to his advantage, and he learned how to invoke fear in others and use that as a manipulative tool. It can be used in a hypnotic manner, it changes the state of mind. Charlie could induce fear in someone and then spin his esoteric rap and ask for and gain their assent, their 'yes' to him. When he hit San Francisco during the hippie period and met those lost kids, who were experimenting with LSD, he found fertile ground for his style of manipulation.
I'm saying, in context, he wasn't so weird at first, to his followers. I mean, if I guy walked up to a woman today and said that stuff, they'd think he was a bad cartoon in need of some hygiene. But back then, he was a character and the people he preyed upon were weak or injured and vulnerable in some way which most of us can't imagine.
[Yes, I agree again. I was just a kid in those days but I remember the times. I tried to tell a young friend of mine once a little about the different attitudes and viewpoints of that time but failed to convey them. He had no point of reference, and what I was saying didn't make sense to him. He could only think about it in present day terms.]
What I liked about Bugiosi's book was how he wrote it like a lawyer. Here's my assertion and here's the evidence or set of facts which led me to that conclusion. Or, this looks this way but it could also look that way. This is not enough to be sure, so leave that open until we know more. I love his high reverence for truth and reason. So, my impression of who these people are is largely based on his book or from their appearances in the news.
Yes, I agree. I read Helter Skelter also and thought it was well done. Some might have found the style a little dry, but I appreciated him laying out the facts, telling the story of what happened when and how, etc. LAPD was not so great in those days. If not for Vincent, who knows what would have happened in that trial.
I also read part of a book by Tex Watson. He talked about Charlie's hold over him and the others. At one point Charlie took a knife and put the point to his chest over his heart and asked him if he loved him. Tex said I love you Charlie. Manson asked Tex if he could kill him. And Tex said Yes, you can kill me Charlie. That is serious brainwashing.
acts of unquestioning obedience and that obedience is equated with love and loyalty and it's what bonds them together as the only family they feel a part of. The sex, drugs and rock and roll vibe supported that environment of blending your consciousness with others.
Yep, and Charlie was the glue that held them together. A few remained really crazy after he was gone, but most of them became free of his hold over their minds.
After the Tate murders I think Charlie began to worry about the cops. I believe he wanted to set up Tex to take the rap. He told Tex to hide out alone, first in the attic of some shack. Charlie told him to kill any police who might show up. But when Tex was all alone there for a day or so he had time to think on his own, without the family, the mass group belief (which is powerful) and without Charlie. A cop did stop by the shack but Tex didn't shoot. Tex said he began to wonder whether Charlie was right; Helter Skelter was supposed to be coming down, but there were no riots, no civil war, etc. And Charlie still had not found the hole in the desert leading to the city underground.
This is what I found interesting; when Tex was apart from the others for a while, he started to think critically, to think for himself, to reason.
It is a shame Tex ever met Charlie. He had been a really good kid from good parents in a small town in Texas. He was a star athlete (his track records still stand at his high school) and good student. But he began to feel he was missing out on fun. He wanted to drink beer with the guys, drive fast, and chase girls, and his parents were way too strict for that. He wanted to get away where they would not know what he was up to. Damn shame.
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