The World Is A Slightly Better Place

[Rev. Rye]

Yeah, Charles is in a better place now.

But I really don't understand obsession with this person. He was clearly total idiot and yet there are so many books about him, fans and also movies & TV shows. Almost every year there is at least one movie either about him or inspired by those killings. Apparently even Tarantino was to make a film about him, but now he's saying the script is not about him.

I think the obsession is partly because of the timing of the murders (the murders happened a week before Woodstock, and the Manson Family was apprehended a week before Altamont) showing the darker side of the hippie movement, partly because one of the victims was a famous movie star, and partly because Manson himself acted so strangely. I suppose that his bizarre behaviour (which may or may not have been an act) may be the tipping point that explains why someone like Manson keeps getting his story told and why someone like Ed Kemper (apparently gentle giant with a MENSA level IQ who killed 8 coeds and his grandparents) has to wait until Mindhunters and the occasional composite character like Buffalo Bill to get some sort of pop cultural play.

It might also have helped that he's written a couple halfway decent songs, including this one, specifically chosen to commemorate this garbage dump of a human being:

I guess it depends whether the conditions of that prison are worse than death or not? Maybe he didn't luck out.

Life in prison can actually be crueler than the death penalty; just for one example see this (I don't know how much time Manson spent in the Hole in the 48 years since his arrest):