Taming the Beast: Charles Manson's Life Behind Bars

by Edward George

  INMATE MANSON: Is that what you call it, rambling, huh?

  PRESIDING BOARD COMMISSIONER KOENIG: Well, no, I didn’t mean it that way. I will allow you to talk about what you would like to talk about, as long as you don’t stray too far from suitability, please.

  INMATE MANSON: As long as I don’t say anything, it’s okay if I talk?

  PRESIDING BOARD COMMISSIONER KOENIG: No. I’ll allow you to say—

  INMATE MANSON: You see nine dead people. That’s just—that’s not even the tip of it. That just set one little blaze to this thing that you call Helter Skelter that you created for Rambo movies, so all the Italians can move over from New York and move into the District Attorney’s office and this Anglo-Christian girl don’t seem to know which whorehouse is—got the red light on it.

  The law in my perspective is a [inaudible] like the—there’s a court on the inside, like an inmate court. We’ve always held a court in the inner sanctum of the prison. Peace officers are servants to the will of everyone, the Bible, the church has a chapel and a preacher in it and we abide by the rules and regulations. It goes into the courtroom to do the same. If I abide by the rules and regulations I can walk in harmony with God. If I don’t abide by the rules and regulations, sooner or later I have to fall short and go through a lot of changes.

  It’s best you look into my mind now while you got a chance while I’m still here. I know a lot about law. I know the judge’s bench. I know crime and school and doctors and reports and I know bad and good and money and the economy and gambling, prostitution. I see the world from the underworld up.

  So I go out in the desert when I get out in ’54 and I see birds and I see bees and bugs and trees and then I get locked up. Well, when I get back out again, all these bugs and birds and trees are gone. There are shopping malls where the lake used to be. You’re using up all the water. The creeks is over there where the freeway is and you can’t swim there anymore, there’s no more fish there. And civilization has moved out and it’s choking all the life off the earth.

  So it’s none of my affair. I just got out of jail. I don’t know that much about it. A couple of old men I met in Mexico City, we used to deal mushrooms and talk about the planet and the earth and the balance of the earth, and all these kids come around me and I’m playing music. And they ask me, how do I know these things, and where do these things come from? And I said, well, the only thing I know is what I learned in jail, man, you know. My brother’s in jail [inaudible] you know, my brother’s like, he’s God, you know, he lives in jail, you know. And that’s all I know is what I’ve done, you know.

  I said, but I’ll tell you, if you don’t stop cutting them trees down, there’s going to be nothing of them left, you know. And a lot of the kids never met anybody that told them the truth. They never had anybody that was truthful to them, you know. They never had anybody that wouldn’t lie or snake on them or play old fake games.

  So what I did was I was honest with a bunch of kids and they used to come to me and say, we ain’t got no place to stay and I said, well, I ain’t got no place to stay either. And they say, well, can we stay with you? I said, can you stay with me? They’d say, well, we want to be a family. I said, don’t put no tags on my toes, man. Don’t give them people nothing to identify them with. If they can come back and put me back in the penitentiary with.

  I know what conspiracy is. I got an intelligence, I’m not that stupid. I can understand drat bugs communicate. I can understand that trees can hear you. I understand that there are other life forms on this planet besides myself, you know. And conspiracy, I understand the law.

  And a lot of firings that people have said in the court is [inaudible] the game that they’re gaming whether I’m suitable for this planet earth or not probably will outlast what the court’s doing for money, because my principle is not locked up in a bank and my soul is not locked up in a government. And my life is not locked up in a penitentiary. You’ve got my body in a cell, but that’s only today, you know. That don’t count for no eternity. I’m walking in forever, man.

  And this little game that we’re playing here on this level, there is more things that are important to you than my parole and there’s a whole lot more important to me than my parole. If you want to give me a parole, I might consider taking that and letting you live in my world. If you deny my parole, you go off in your world. Don’t come back at mine. If I can get some trees growing over here and C.C. camp and I can work with these guys in a uniform and I can work and do a job in here like I don’t get paid for the job that I do in here. But if I’m honest with what I do in here, maybe the preacher will let me out and hoe in your garden again.

  And I was helping the kids over there in the visiting room in Vacaville and then people wanted to use me again and play some more politics and tell some more lies, because they wanted to bring Bingham back from France, because he’s responsible for killing six people over there when San Quentin came down from death row and Jackson got killed. But we’ll cover that up. We won’t look at that because he’s got the money to get away with things like that.

  So we got the juvenile running wild and we’re saying, where does the juvenile come from and where does he get his principle from, the old winos that live in the county jail or the retired veterans that were outcasts? And we dig into their hearts and we see how real they are and how comes they got up on the railroad train because they couldn’t even get the dog in the house, because she wouldn’t let him do anything except what the Queen of England said, and she’s fighting against Spain and that’s still going into languages and it’s so abstract that someone has to carry insanity. Someone’s got to be insane. Someone’s got to be the bad guy. How can we be good guys?

  There’s another letter in there that you didn’t read about how Manson was burned up and how people threw fire at him, they should’ve killed him. They didn’t tell you that they tried to kill me at least 30 or 40 times. But they hadn’t been able to kill me, because you ain’t got nobody bad enough to kill me, [inaudible] handcuffed. No two or three of you. Because I’m right with my God and I’m right with myself. And I didn’t break the law. I didn’t break God’s law and I didn’t break man’s law.

  What you’re doing in the political arena with Hollywood to make your Rambo movies with my machine gun, the machine gun was a World War II relic. It would only shoot one bullet at a time. It wouldn’t even go pop, pop, pop because it was all worn out, it was so old.

  But I liked it because I liked World War I, because that was my father. I didn’t worship Hitler any more than I liked MacArthur. MacArthur and Truman was the same father figure to me like the kids look up to Vietnam veterans as their father figure, so I looked up to my grandfather in the First World War and my father in the Second World War.

  And wherever there is a man, I am there also. In the truth, I walk with all men. I’m bad. I’m as bad as I got to be when it comes down. I deal. And I can deal from the bottom, just as easy as I can deal from the top and I’d cheat if it comes to where I need to cheat. And I steal if I need to steal if I’m too hungry and I can’t feel it any other way, I’ll do whatever I can do to survive, just like I’ve always done. And if I have to pick up steel and roll it down to—do whatever I got to do, that’s what I got to do and that’s what I’ll do.

  I seen this, and this is the reality. The air in LA. basin is dying. Where there used to be bees, the bees can’t live. Where there used to be butterflies, the butterflies can’t fly. I said to Blue—I said, “Girl I’m going to call you Blue.” I said, “You see that sky?” I said, “That sky’s dying. If we don’t do something about that sky, nobody cares. If you don’t care, there’s going to be no life left on this planet.” I said, “Do you see that water over there?” I said, “They’re dumping tons of junk in that water. So you’re Blue for the sky and the water and I—

  PRESIDING BOARD COMMISSIONER KOENIG: Mr.—

  INMATE MANSON: Now wait—I set those people’s minds, like he said, I set their minds
back on the track with Jesus on a rebirth movement. I set it with a guy called Frank Costello in the Horseshoe Pits. I set it with the Pope in the Vatican. I set it with the Mafia and the gangsters. I set it with every man I’d ever met in my life all the way back to Creepy Carpis when he did the Ma Baker gang with J. Edgar Hoover and the F.B.I. Because wherever there’s been a man walking in the underworld from Cook County Jail in Chicago to the super chief that rides to L.A., from Leavenworth, Kansas, to [inaudible] Section 8, the Navy down to the Coast Guard, wherever there’s one walking, I’ve been walking there with it.

  PRESIDING BOARD COMMISSIONER KOENIG: Mr. Manson, talk about suitability, please.

  INMATE MANSON: I don’t know what else I could be if I couldn’t be suitable to be your leader, I ain’t nothing.

  PRESIDING BOARD COMMISSIONER KOENIG: All right.

  INMATE MANSON: I’m your president at least three times. That’s through Reagan up through [inaudible]. [Inaudible] was only his appointee and he only got there because he was riding on me. That was my horse, that was my divorce court to come back from Nixon, and the only reason J. R. got up out of Texas was because I went across to Africa with two [inaudible] from [inaudible] in 1960.

  PRESIDING BOARD COMMISSIONER KOENIG: Mr. Manson—Mr. Manson, excuse me. Would you please talk as to why you should be paroled? If you have nothing to say in that area, then we’re going to recess and we’re going to deliberate.

  INMATE MANSON: Okay. If I’m not—

  PRESIDING BOARD COMMISSIONER KOENIG: [Inaudible]—

  INMATE MANSON:—if I’m not paroled, and I don’t get a chance to get back up on top of this dream, you’re going to lose all your money, your farms ain’t going to produce, you’re going to win Helter Skelter. You’re going to win your reality. You’re going to get everything that you want right from the pages of that court. That’s going to be your reality and you’re coming. You’re growing up and you’re going to be there, just like you want him to be there, that’s where he’s coming because that’s what you’re making for yourselves.

  PRESIDING BOARD COMMISSIONER KOENIG: All right. We’re going to recess for deliberation. We’ll call you back after we make a decision. The time is now 1525 hours. The prisoner will leave please.

  INMATE MANSON: I don’t need those papers.

  PRESIDING BOARD COMMISSIONER KOENIG: All right.

  [Recess]

  [Decision]

  PRESIDING BOARD COMMISSIONER KOENIG: We’ve reconvened the panel’s hearing on Charles Manson. All participants are present who were present prior to the recess and the time is 1545 hours.

  The panel reviewed all the information received and relies on the following circumstances in concluding that the prisoner is not suitable for parole and would pose an unreasonable risk of danger to society if released at this time.

  The [inaudible] offense was carried out in an especially heinous, atrocious, and cruel manner. The offense was carried out in a manner which exhibits a callous disregard for the life and suffering of another. Multiple victims were attacked, injured, and killed in the same and separate incidents. The victims were abused and defiled and mutilated in the offense.

  These conclusions are drawn from the Statement of Facts wherein the prisoner [inaudible] participated in the torture, mutilation, and killing of nine victims. Seven of the victims were strangers who were selected by the prisoner at random. The murders were senseless, brutal, directed by the prisoner to satisfy his idealistic vision of a race war.

  The prisoner has a record of violent and assaultive behavior, an escalating habit of criminal conduct and violence. He had an unstable social history. He’s failed to profit from society’s previous attempts to correct his criminality. These included juvenile probation, juvenile camps, C.Y.A. commitment, three prior prison terms, and county jail and parole violation.

  As to the unstable social history, the prior criminality included beginning criminal conduct at an early age, sent to juvenile boys school as a juvenile involved in burglary, stealing vehicles, convicted of the Dyer Act and sent to the National Training School in Washington, D.C. Adult convictions included G.T.A., forgery, theft, interfering with a peace officer, attempted escape from prison—attempted escapes from prison, three prior prison terms, probation and parole violation, extensive involvement in drugs and was under federal parole at the time of the instant offenses.

  The prisoner has programmed in a limited manner while incarcerated. He’s failed to develop a marketable skill that can be put to use upon release. He’s failed to upgrade educationally and vocationally as previously recommended by the Board and he’s not participated to any extent—has not participated in beneficial self-help and therapy programming.

  He failed to demonstrate any evidence of positive change. Misconduct while incarcerated included 60 115s from 1971 to 1992, nine 115s since his last hearing, many for threatening staff, the latest was on 2/11/92 where he received three of a serious nature for spitting on a correctional officer, threatening staff, and resisting staff. The psychiatric report authored—dated January of 1992 authored by Christopherson—is unfavorable. He also refused to attend a 1992 appointment for a psych evaluation.

  The panel makes the following finding: that the prisoner needs therapy in order to face, discuss, understand, and cope with stress in a nondestructive manner. Until progress is made, the prisoner continues to be unpredictable and a threat to others. Also therapy, although the panel feels that therapy is needed, we question motivation and amenability.

  In view of the prisoner’s criminal history, continued negative behavior, and lack of program participation, there is no indication that the prisoner would behave differently—

  INMATE MANSON: How can I participate? You’ve got me locked in a hole, man.

  PRESIDING BOARD COMMISSIONER KOENIG: Okay. Listen to me—

  INMATE MANSON: You guys get trapped up in all that illusion and it keeps building up and making it worse.

  PRESIDING BOARD COMMISSIONER KOENIG: Please listen to what [inaudible].

  INMATE MANSON: You’ve got to live in it.

  PRESIDING BOARD COMMISSIONER KOENIG: The prisoner—the hearing panel, according to Section 3041.5(c) of the Penal Code, the hearing panel finds that it is not reasonable to expect that parole would be granted at a hearing during the following five years.

  The specific reasons for these findings are as follows: No. 1, the crime itself. The prisoner committed the offense in an especially heinous, atrocious, and cruel manner and that he participated in the killing of nine victims, most victims selected at random to fulfill his idealistic dream of Helter Skelter. As a result a longer period of observation and evaluation is required before the Board should set a parole date.

  No. 2, the prisoner has a prior criminal record and spent most of his life prior to the instant offense in and out of correctional facilities.

  No. 3, a longer period of time is required to evaluate his suitability. In view of the prisoner’s long history of criminality and misconduct, these include 60 serious 115s, nine since his last hearing, and three serious within the last year.

  No. 4, a recent psychiatric report dated January of 1992, authored by Christopherson, indicates a need for a longer period of observation and evaluation.

  And No. 5, the prisoner has not completed the necessary programming, which is essential to his adjustment, and needs additional time to gain such programming.

  Recommendations to you, Mr. Manson, that you become disciplinary free, that you work to reduce your custody level so that the program opportunities will become more available, that you upgrade when—and that’s when you can, upgrade vocationally and educationally and you participate in self-help and therapy programming.

  This concludes the panel hearing. The time is now 1552 hours. The prisoner may leave. Good luck to you, Mr. Manson.

  INMATE MANSON: Good-bye.

  PRESIDING BOARD COMMISSIONER KOENIG: Here’s a copy [inaudible].

  Parole denied five years.


  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Thanks to my wife, Beth, and our six children for enduring my years of struggle collecting information and writing this book. Thanks to them for forgiving my dark moods and moments of rage. Thanks for support from friends like Robi and Bob Andersen, and Bev and Gary McGuire, who have long put up with my Charlie stories. Thanks to my many other friends and relatives who encouraged me to write, and particularly to my perennial convict friend, Roger Dale “Pin Cushion” Smith, the most stabbed inmate in the California prison system, who taught me more about prison life than anyone else.

  Thanks to my many bosses, peers, and subordinates who worked with me throughout my thirty-two-year law-enforcement and prison career, especially Warden Bob Rees, Parole Administrator Ron Chun, Prison Chaplain Nick Ristad, and Doctors Larry Clanon, Joyce Sutton, and Al Rotella.

  Thanks to Lisa Kaiser, my first literary agent contact, who referred my manuscript to Dary Matera, who proposed changes in the manuscript leading to its sale, and who then rewrote the book into its finished form. Thanks to Steve Huddleston, Assistant Publisher of the Vacaville Reporter, for research assistance.

  Thanks to authors Leonard Bishop and Donna Levin, whose writing workshops and advice helped me get started. Thanks to Nuel Emmons, Manson book author, for photos, friendship, and advice. Thanks to those many Sulpician and Jesuit priests and teachers who taught me the skills and virtues of sanity which sustained me throughout the many years of prison madness. And thanks to my mother, who was always there.

  Last and the least thanks to Charles Manson, whose demonic behavior shocked the world’s conscience, motivating me to search his life and chronicle his long prison odyssey.

  —E.G.

  Special thanks to Fran Matera, Ph.D., of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Telecommunications, Arizona State University, for all her assistance and support. And to Will Hart, Lonnie Haney, Ernestina Zamora; Jim Fitzgerald, Dana Albarella, and Charles Spicer at St. Martin’s Press; and to my agents Stedman Mays and Lisa Kaiser of Connie Clausen Associates.