Nowhere Man

Psycho killer or folk hero? -- Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
Our popular culture has a strange fascination with bad boys – men who tramp on the law and survive to talk about it. We your have criminal suspects like OJ, or just the badly behaved like Chris Brown and Andy Dick. The fan base lacks rhyme or reason – sometimes the people with a notoriety fan club are psycho killers like Jeff Dahmer or Ted Bundy. Who in any right mind would admire convicted killers? Charles Manson, the ultimate, crazy, 60’s wack job fits some of the patterns above, although he looms larger in some ways. Because of his recorded music, Manson may even be a wack job for the ages. It would fill a volume to tell you completely why. I won’t attempt to cover Manson’s whole biography -- will just try to compress his bio and rap sheet here…

Manson was born to Kathleen Maddox, a 16 year old unwed mother, in 1934. “Manson” is a step-father’s name, a man he barely came to know. Charles spent much of his youth with an aunt and uncle in West Virginia and then in reformatories. He was an incorrigible burglar and car thief who transitioned from juvenile hall directly into prison. He was married briefly to a Rosalie Willis in his early 20’s but she divorced him after a couple of years, impatient to wait for his 5 year car theft sentence to expire. One pivotal prison fact – Manson actually had some musical abilities. During this last incarceration Manson was taught to play steel guitar by 30’s bank robber/legend Alvin Karpis.

Upon his release in the early 60’s, Manson was aimless. He pan-handled, committed petty theft and pimped out a couple of sometime-girlfriend prostitutes. His luck changed dramatically when he moved from LA to San Francisco at the dawn of the hippie era. His shiftless lifestyle, pimping of women, musical forays and Scientology psycho-babble was all taken as guru-worthy – Manson acquired a following of 12 women who cohabited with him in the residence of one of the women. His luck soared higher when two of his female “desciples” hooked up with Beach Boy Dennis Wilson at a night club. They introduced Wilson to Manson and the two actually became friends. Wilson then introduced Manson to Terry Melcher, an influential music producer who liked some of Manson’s tunes.

At this point, it should be mentioned that Manson obsessed over the Beatles. He thought that the Beatles were giving codified instructions for a race war in the lyrics of their songs. The coming race war was going to be called "Helter Skelter” after a Beatles song; one of Manson’s hideouts, a bright yellow bungalow, was dubbed the “Yellow Submarine”. In fact, much of Manson’s ranting would be seen nowadays as the dire symptoms of untreated schizophrenia – a markedly disordered thought process. That so many followers went with him informs you somewhat about the nature of cults and pseudo-religions.

On August 8th, 1969 four of the Manson Family disciples (one man and three women) invaded the LA home formerly occupied by Terry Melcher. Melcher and Wilson had witnessed Manson’s violent outburst toward an assistant and distanced themselves from him. A proposed music contract was canceled and all contacts dropped. Manson was furious with Melcher and wanted revenge. It’s thought that Manson knew Melcher had moved away but still chose his prior residence as an attack point – maybe for shock effect. Melcher was terrified of Manson for months preceding the murders and had extra security to accompany him everywhere.

The Family murdered actress Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring a hair dresser friend, Abigail Folger the coffee heiress and her friend Wojcieh Frykowski. The murders were messy and bungled with victims nearly escaping and the evidence scattered indoors and outdoors all across the property. All the participants were high (victims and killers) which probably added to the surreal nature of it. The title “Helter Skelter” was scrawled on a wall – a reference to the White Album song. The next night a wealthy grocery executive, La Bianca, and his wife were murdered in similar fashion. "Piggies" (also from the White Album) was scrawled on their wall.

There was evidence abounding and the police caught up to the killers in pretty short order. High, schizoid criminals aren’t the most skilled at covering their tracks. The 1970 murder trial was highly publicized due to the Hollywood tie-ins and bizarre behavior of the Family. They carved X’s in their foreheads and intimidated witnesses as a form of solidarity. All the killers were found guilty and sentenced to death. The state of California declared the death penalty illegal in 1972, and all the participants had their sentences commuted to life terms.

AFTERMATH

Much the way that gang-bangers like sinister-looking tattoos and pit bull dogs, musical bad boys have embraced Manson. Marilyn Manson borrowed his name from the killer and also sang Manson’s song My Monkey on one of his albums. Gun N’ Roses has also recorded Manson tunes – in fact Family Jam has released entire CD collections of Manson music. Sick-minded people can still find copies of a Manson CD titled LIE. It’s notable, but not especially admirable that a psycho killer so captured America’s imagination . If my blog’s title ever applied it, is here – it is truly a strange fascination.

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