Althouse: Gone at last.

November 20, 2017

Gone at last.

54 comments:

Anonymous said...: Should have gone like Ted Bundy; 11/20/17, 6:31 AM
Fabi said...: That's the most disturbing photo of him I've seen.; 11/20/17, 6:48 AM
David Begley said...: He spent a short time at Boystown in 1949. He was 14.; 11/20/17, 6:49 AM
Curious George said...: "Should have gone like Ted Bundy"

Yep. None of this lethal injection crap. Strap 'em in, light 'em up.; 11/20/17, 6:52 AM
Tim Wright said...: Woodstock generation? No, sir! It was the Manson-Altamount generation.; 11/20/17, 6:59 AM
Wince said...: Before bed last night I saw an interviewer ask Kanye West what was the first cover of Rolling Stone magazine he remembers seeing.

My immediate thought was Charles Manson or David Cassidy. It was probably Manson (1970) versus Cassidy (1972).

Looks like they may go out together.; 11/20/17, 7:03 AM
exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...: Good riddance. As others have noted, his descent into hell was long overdue.; 11/20/17, 7:08 AM
Big Mike said...: Merkel’s quit and Manson’s dead. This is already a good day for planet earth and it’s still early morning.; 11/20/17, 7:17 AM
MayBee said...: Has anyone else here watched "Manson Family Vacation" by the Duplasse brothers? Enjoyable movie.

How Manson ever led a cult, I will never figure out. That's why I can't stand the idea of probation for his followers. Who would choose to follow him?; 11/20/17, 7:25 AM
Wilbur said...: Manson lived in a number of juvenile facilities. I was aware of one in which he lived in Indiana. He regarded incarceration as his true home.; 11/20/17, 7:27 AM
Humperdink said...: Manson was a hero to Bernardine Dohrn. Dohrn was a close friend and supporter of Barack the Magnificient. Using the Inga's connect-the-dots model, we must conclude the Big O held the same views as Manson.; 11/20/17, 7:32 AM
Rob said...: David Begley said, "He spent a short time at Boystown in 1949. He was 14."

I guess there is such a thing as a bad boy.; 11/20/17, 7:41 AM
Rumpletweezer said...: It's a condemnation of modern society that Manson died "of natural causes."; 11/20/17, 7:41 AM
Quaestor said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 11/20/17, 8:05 AM
Fernandinande said...: A promising musical career cut short by a murder spree - sad!; 11/20/17, 8:05 AM
MadisonMan said...: I wonder who will go to his funeral.; 11/20/17, 8:14 AM
Quaestor said...: "Offing those rich pigs with their own forks and knives, and then eating a meal in the same room, far out! The Weathermen dig Charles Manson." — Bernadine Dohrn at an SDS meeting in 1969

Just something to keep in mind.

America has much housecleaning left to do.

(reposted without the fat-fingered typo.); 11/20/17, 8:22 AM
Bad Lieutenant said...: Big Mike said...
Merkel’s quit

Say what ?!?; 11/20/17, 8:27 AM
robother said...: Manson was paroled from his previous prison term in March 1967, just in time for the Summer of Love in San Francisco. That's where he began gathering his young acolytes.; 11/20/17, 8:31 AM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: "That's the most disturbing photo of him I've seen"

Whenever I see a Howdy Doody photo of someone who grew up to be a monstrous shit I do have to wonder. What happens to us? What shitty adult(s) ducked their responsibilities and allowed that kid to become that person?; 11/20/17, 8:38 AM
mockturtle said...: I've never understood why the state of California, which has a death penalty, chose to house and feed this monster for 43 years. But, then, I don't understand California.; 11/20/17, 8:45 AM
Michael K said...: I remember well how frightened people were until they were caught. Good friends lived next door to the LaBiancas and they were not home that night. Manson had sent his crazies to the house on the other side of them, to a house owned by a man named True who had turned down Charlie for a recording contract.

These were not random murders and he should have been executed.

Sharon Tate was renting Doris Day's son's house who also knew Charlie.

I had a copy of "Helter Skelter," Bugliosi's book about the case. I hid it so my kids wouldn't find it. Years later, my son told me they found it and all read it when they were about ten.; 11/20/17, 8:47 AM
Tim Wright said...: I think an excellent recent bio of Manson is the one by Jeff Guinn, Manson: His Life and Times.; 11/20/17, 9:01 AM
tcrosse said...: I wonder who will go to his funeral.

Not Roman Polanski; 11/20/17, 9:09 AM
Pugsley the Pug said...: @Mockturtle - I believe Manson was sentenced to death but shortly afterwards CA’s death penalty law was declared unconstitutional.

Too bad that had occurred as I don’t think the authorities thought that he would survive almost 5 decades as a guest of the taxpayers of CA. Manson did his part to drain that state’s treasury just by staying alive as well as having to be medically treated for whatever health issues he had. Just think how much it cost for him this year alone when he spent time at several hospitals - not only the cost of treatment to keep this monster alive despite his condition but also I am guessing a heavily armed prison and police security detail (and probably even larger than normally allotted due to his notoriety).; 11/20/17, 9:17 AM
Breezy said...: Awful for victims families that he lasted so long in prison.; 11/20/17, 9:19 AM
Bilwick said...: A nation mourns. . . . In the words of Daniel Patrick Moynihan, we may smile again, but we'll never laugh again; 11/20/17, 9:31 AM
Bilwick said...: There goes my idea for a bumper sticker: "Clinton-Manson in 2020!"'; 11/20/17, 9:33 AM
Birches said...: What rumpletweezer said. My kid asked this morning who he was. I was glad she didn't know.; 11/20/17, 9:45 AM
Birches said...: Just another data point to support my belief that hippies were the worst.; 11/20/17, 9:47 AM
Darrell said...: Merkel didn't resign yet, but the talks on forming a government have been suspended. Rumor has it that Global Warming is the sticking point. She's had to deal with with even-more batshit crazy Lefties to build a coalition.; 11/20/17, 9:52 AM
Gahrie said...: I've never understood why the state of California, which has a death penalty, chose to house and feed this monster for 43 years. But, then, I don't understand California.

He was originally sentenced to death, but in 1972 California outlawed the death penalty and his sentence was changed to life imprisonment along with everyone else on death row. When the death penalty was reinstated it was ruled that the life sentences could not be changed back to death sentences.; 11/20/17, 10:04 AM
Michael said...: "The Family" by Ed Sanders, formerly of the Fugs, is the best Manson book.; 11/20/17, 10:12 AM
NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...: Leslie Van Houten was recently granted parole pending Moonbeam Brown's approval. It will be interesting to see what happens to her now that the Tate-LaBianca murders are back in the public conscience.; 11/20/17, 10:17 AM
JAORE said...: Only say good about the dead.

He's dead?

Good.; 11/20/17, 10:24 AM
Etienne said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 11/20/17, 10:33 AM
Darrell said...: There is no God...

That's our job. We failed.; 11/20/17, 10:35 AM
Etienne said...: Poor kids dying of un-treatable diseases before they're 18, and people like him live forever.

There is no God...; 11/20/17, 10:36 AM
Bill said...: I was impressed to read that Debra Tate said a prayer for his soul (what there is of one) and had forgiven him.

Footage from Sharon Tate's funeral.; 11/20/17, 10:38 AM
Darrell said...: Etienne--You moved your comment below mine but it's still our job. Are you seven-years old and think that God controls everything that happens? You should pick up the brochure at a Muslim outreach facility, then.; 11/20/17, 10:43 AM
Etienne said...: Darrell, I had to edit because I used 'their' instead of 'they're'.

P.S. it's an old joke saying. Obviously, as a Catholic, I know that God created murderers so we could have a point of reference.

Same with bloggers, pimps, and whores...; 11/20/17, 10:48 AM
victoria said...: I was in the courtroom during the trial, an assignment for one of my college classes. Gave me the creeps all those years ago. I hope that all his victims are R.I.P., not him

Vicki from Pasadena; 11/20/17, 11:01 AM
William said...: He led a stressful life and made it to 83. It doesn't seem he ever considered the possibility that he was in the wrong or that he had harmed not just the people he wanted to harm but the people who loved him. Great men and utter psychopaths have such a conscience........I just finished reading a biography of Lenin. Lenin was shot at and wounded by a socialist revolutionary when he disbanded the Constituent Revolutionary. The woman assassin felt that he had betrayed the revolution. She had previously been in prison for trying to assainate a Czarist official. Lenin blamed the Czarists for plotting his murder. There were some five hundred Czarist officials imprisoned in the Peter and Paul fortress. They were all killed the day after the assassination attempt. The woman assassin was also killed, but Lenin and his wife were said to express regret over the need to kill a good revolutionary........Manson was a piker.; 11/20/17, 11:02 AM
Robert Cook said...: "Whenever I see a Howdy Doody photo of someone who grew up to be a monstrous shit I do have to wonder. What happens to us? What shitty adult(s) ducked their responsibilities and allowed that kid to become that person?"

Well, he was raped and abused while he was a juvie in reform school. He was the son of a prostitute who apparently didn't want him. He was responsible for his actions as an adult, but who knows how much of his personality was warped by his early experiences?; 11/20/17, 11:46 AM
mockturtle said...: Well, he was raped and abused while he was a juvie in reform school. He was the son of a prostitute who apparently didn't want him. He was responsible for his actions as an adult, but who knows how much of his personality was warped by his early experiences?

Could be. Could be some bad genes, too.; 11/20/17, 11:48 AM
Howard said...: I guess it's really true now, Charlie can't surf. I wonder what sort of reward in heaven he gets for being punished on earth doing G_d's bidding to show us mopes the Universe is indifferent?; 11/20/17, 12:03 PM
AZ Bob said...: The LA Times today threw up a straw man to temper thoughts that Manson was truly evil:

"Manson has been portrayed as the dark prince of the counterculture, the sinister consequences of a permissive era. The man and his crimes, however, are more a product of parental neglect, a failed foster care system and barbaric juvenile justice institutions."

They only time the LA Times is willing to call out evil is when it comes from a Republican.; 11/20/17, 12:19 PM
Bilwick said...: Robert Cook: I've often wondered what makes otherwise decent people grow up to be statists. I never feel the need to use the Mailed Fist against my fellow human beings, so it's a pretty foreign mentality to me. Is it revenge for being raped by an IRS or ATF goon at an early age? "Someday I'LL wield the Mailed Fist and make 'em ALL pay!" Is that the scenario?; 11/20/17, 12:37 PM
Howard said...: There was a recent TV cop show that covers Manson pretty well.
Fox Mulder Takes on Charlie and Tex; 11/20/17, 12:39 PM
William said...: There was some trauma in Manson's childhood. What is the excuse for Bernadine's blood lust?; 11/20/17, 12:51 PM
tcrosse said...: We have psychological explanations for a spiritual reality, so as not to admit the existence of evil.; 11/20/17, 12:55 PM
Big Mike said...: @Bad LT, Merkel informed the President of Germany that she is unable to form a government. The only political party that will form a coalition with her CDU are the Greens. She has three options: (1) try to form a minority government, where they hope to pick up votes from one or two politicians here or there from the parties outside the government; (2) rerun the last election, which according to polls will cost the CDU even more seats; or (3) resign and hope a CDU successor has more luck forming a coalition.; 11/20/17, 1:20 PM
Bill said...: @William: There was some trauma in Manson's childhood. What is the excuse for Bernadine's blood lust?

Perhaps a lack of trauma, and a lot of good luck? From Wikipedia:

Dohrn graduated from Whitefish Bay High School where she was a cheerleader, treasurer of the Modern Dance Club, a member of the National Honor Society, and editor of the school newspaper.; 11/20/17, 7:33 PM
Rosalyn C. said...: I find comfort in the thought that the Creator gives everyone a choice between good and evil. Regardless of our circumstances, the cause of which is unfathomable, our choices are not preordained. The thought that God would create a murderer just so we could have a reference point contradicts the concept of a loving God IMO. A God who would create monsters would be either sadistic or at the very least extremely cruel.

I know that Islam holds that Allah preordains everything, I did not know that Catholics believe the same. I had thought that Catholics believed in the Bible, the Garden of Eden story. If Adam's sin was preordained by God then what kind of God would then punish him? Why would anyone be punished for mistakes if their behavior was all preordained? I thought the Lord's Prayer asks God for forgiveness of our sins as we forgive those who have transgressed against us. We wouldn't be asking for forgiveness if we had no choice in our behavior.; 11/21/17, 4:45 PM