CALIFORNIA--What people don't understand is that Manson doesn't want to be let out anyway. The whole thing was a pathetic string of crimes and murders that resulted from a drug deal gone-wrong that resulted in the murder of dealer Gary Hinman. Manson associate Bobby Beausoleil stabbed and mutilated Hinman, and Manson came and finished him off. The LAPD bagged Beausoleil first.
From there, it spiralled into a desperate attempt at freeing Beausoleil with copycat murders, period. Was it all Manson? That's a stupid question, the others equally share Manson's guilt. They've done their best to try to cloud this issue, playing-into former prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi's strategy of "Helter Skelter" that was merely what it was going to take to sink the Family in the courts. That doesn't make it fact.
They're all guilty and should remain incarcerated for life. The sad thing is that it was seized-upon by the mainstream media to smear the counterculture and the anti-war movement. It was--and still is--substantially successful in this regard. They're all cold-blooded killers and cannot be trusted in civil society. They were spared the death penalty in 1970, and they should at least have to serve a life-sentence for the murders they all committed, especially Tex Watson and Susan Atkins. Simply opposing the system does not a hero make.
What you have are a bunch of runaway-kids who couldn't cope well when they headed-out to California, that land-of-plenty. Former failed-pimp Charles Manson was just one of numerous wolves who preyed on the gullible kids in the Haight in 1966-67. It's a safe-bet that most of the Manson Family members were abused in some form as children, but it doesn't excuse what they did at all. It just explains it better.
He previously told a prison counselor that he refuses to participate because he considers himself a "prisoner of the political system,'' said Patrick Sequeira, Los Angeles County deputy district attorney, who attended the hearing. The board voted to deny Manson parole for at least five years, the maximum allowed by law. He will not be eligible for release again until 2012.Despite his age, Manson "continues to pose an unreasonable danger to others and may still bring harm to anyone he would come in contact with,'' the board wrote in its denial. Manson has had 12 disciplinary violations since his last parole hearing in 2002. He refused to take advantage of rehabilitation programs, and he would not participate in a psychiatric evaluation, Sequeira said.
(AP,05.23.2007)
The mainstream media created a monster in Charles Manson, and a monster is what they got--he's more-powerful than he ever would have been, and has tens-of-thousands of people out in the world who actually admire him. For this reason, his interviews are edited in specific-ways to screen codes and messages, and his media appearances have lessened over time. They made him more dangerous than he could ever have dreamed of, or ever wanted to be. Why write about Manson? He from this region, and even lived for a time in Indiana. His stays in juvenile correctional system--because that's what it was and is--were horrific, and it's a small-wonder he declared war on society after being in them. Charles Manson stole his first car in Indiana, his first major crime.
In that sense, I agree with him: the system made him, and it is corrupt and rotten. The only difference between Charles Manson and George W. Bush is that one of them is in prison. That's an illustration of how powerful Bush really is, and how powerful Manson isn't. In order for the smear to work, you need to maintain the myth of democracy and Bugliosi's prosecution strategy:
Manson believed the Beatles song "Helter Skelter" warned of an impending war between blacks and whites and hoped to spark such a conflict by killing whites around Los Angeles in such a manner that blacks would be blamed. Manson is in California State Prison, Corcoran, 175 miles northwest of Los Angeles, which is home to some of the nation's most infamous killers. He is kept in a protective housing unit that allows interactions with only 17 other inmates, including Sen. Robert Kennedy's assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, prison officials say. (Reuters, 05.23.2007)
Only Manson didn't believe in Helter Skelter. In the drug deal gone-wrong, Manson and his Family had sold some drugs to one Bernard Crowe, a Black dealer who Manson thought had connections to the Black Panthers. Crowe confronted Manson saying the drugs they sold him were no good. Manson ended up shooting Crowe in the chest. This, in-turn, led to the confrontation between the Manson Family and Gary Hinman, the guy who sold them the drugs. It was July, 1969, with the real trail-of-blood coming in August. Manson and the Family feared that Crowe had been killed and that retaliation by his people was imminent. This wasn't the case--Crowe survived his wound and never went to the police or anyone else, as it usually plays-out in the criminal underworld.
Smearing "PIG", "HEALTER SCELTER" in blood at the scenes of the LaBianca and Tate murders was to throw the police off, possibly leading to Crowe and his associates. At that time, they were slang phrases that were associated with Blacks, not Whites. But once the Manson Family thought Crowe was probably dead, that's when the fear and paranoia of retaliation began.
The ones who really thought there was a "coming race war" were in the L.A. prosecutor's office, as they were illegally aiding the LAPD and the FBI in a counterintelligence war against the Black Panther Party (for Self Defense) and Black nationalism in Los Angeles. This is just obvious, but it's not an argument for releasing Manson, it's an argument to jail both of them and their co-conspirators for life. Charles Manson is 72-years-old, and he will die in prison. Ultimately, there isn't anything wrong with that fact, but society also failed him (and us) a long time ago. In that sense, he really is a "political prisoner," but then, so is everyone else in our penal system, seen through that lens.
Gary Hinman's old house: http://www.charliemanson.com/places/hinman-ad.htm
The Chronicle, 05.23.2007: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/nation/4831475.html
Reuters, 05.23.2007: http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyid=2007-05-24T003023Z_01_N23263024_RTRUKOC_0_US-CRIME-MANSON.xml
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