23 VOLUME 5 |ISSUE 3 |2014
Manson: The Life and Times
of Charles Manson
By Jeff Guinn
Great Britain: Simon &Schuster, 2013. ISBN-13: 978-
1451645163 ISBN-10: 1451645163 (hardcover). $18.47. 512
pages. Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN):
B00A2813WE (Kindle edition), $12.74. 30272 KB.
Review by RaeAnne Wiseman
It turns out our mothers were right: Sex, drugs, and rock ‘n roll
can lead to trouble. For the Manson family, trouble took the
guise of free love, LSD, and the Beatles—which may not have
been all that toxic without that one poisonous ingredient: the
dangerously charming Charlie M. Manson.
The Manson Family made it into the popular press during the
summer of 1969 as the perpetrators of ritualistic witchcraft
and brutal slayings. Over the course of two sweltering
Los Angeles nights, 12 victims were tortured and killed. In
Manson…, journalist, veteran, and best-selling author Jeff
Guinn offers the inquiring reader an engaging exposé on
the sociocultural and psychospiritual factors that led to the
brutal murders. Guinn’s primary source material comes from
numerous interviews with former members and associates
of the Manson Family. Guinn has artistically woven these
extensive interviews together to create an organic and
informative perspective. By recording the thoughts and
feelings of the actual characters involved, he provides
the reader an eerie familiarity with the events as the story
unfolds.
Guinn incorporates into this profile public records pertaining
to the frightful murders that shocked the nation. However,
unlike the popular true-crime manuscript on the same
subject, Helter Skelter, Guinn spends a relatively short time
discussing the heinous details of the Manson Family’s civil
transgressions. The target audience for this biography is
not the macabre-seeking masses looking for gruesome
descriptions of ritual slaughter. Rather, Guinn’s objectivity
appeals to professionals and laypeople of social science who
wonder what alignment of circumstances contributed to the
bitter saga of Charlie Manson.
Guinn opens the book with a gripping tale of Manson’s
unexplainable magnetism. The biography proceeds with
key influences on Manson’s upbringing. He pays particular
attention to the juxtaposition of a benevolent Christian
grandmother and a felonious mother, whose ideology fused
to create a righteous savagery that was foundational to
Manson’s psychology. The author’s engagement with origins
and early life provides valuable insight into the formation of
Manson’s radical, drug-infused philosophy.
Guinn later suggests that Manson’s prolonged residence in
the criminal-justice system provided designs for his nefarious
cult. For example, during one of his many incarcerations,
Charlie enrolled in a workshop on the practical application of
Dale Carnegie’s book, How to Win Friends and Influence People.
In the penal system, Manson also gleaned from Scientology
manipulative techniques that would ultimately assist him in
the recruitment of naïve and insecure supporters.
Guinn also pays meticulous attention to the methods that
Charlie employed to keep his followers obedient. Along
with their physical and emotional dependence on him,
Manson played on the chemical desires of his group. The
hallucinogenic drug LSD was routinely used to excite the
family’s mythos of an impending race war they called
Helter Skelter. Manson kept his followers busy preparing for
this mayhem through strenuous physical labor, including
ceaselessly probing the Death Valley desert for an escape
hatch: the phantasmagorical “bottomless pit.” Manson
told his followers that within this natural orifice, the family
would be sheltered during the impending conflict. In this
subterranean utopia they planned to wait out the bedlam
until their time came to emerge as heralded sovereigns of the
postapocalyptic earth. It didn’t quite work out that way. n
Book Review
About the Reviewer
RaeAnne Wiseman
is a graduate student at Hood College in
Frederick, Maryland. Here she researches
the ways individuals create existential
satisfaction through the process of life
review. Professionally Ms. Wiseman
works as Activities Director at a local
nursing home. In 2011 she founded
Existentialists Anonymous, a support
group to examine mortality and meaning in the absence of an
objective religious truth. n
It turns out our
mothers were right...
Manson: The Life and Times
of Charles Manson
By Jeff Guinn
Great Britain: Simon &Schuster, 2013. ISBN-13: 978-
1451645163 ISBN-10: 1451645163 (hardcover). $18.47. 512
pages. Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN):
B00A2813WE (Kindle edition), $12.74. 30272 KB.
Review by RaeAnne Wiseman
It turns out our mothers were right: Sex, drugs, and rock ‘n roll
can lead to trouble. For the Manson family, trouble took the
guise of free love, LSD, and the Beatles—which may not have
been all that toxic without that one poisonous ingredient: the
dangerously charming Charlie M. Manson.
The Manson Family made it into the popular press during the
summer of 1969 as the perpetrators of ritualistic witchcraft
and brutal slayings. Over the course of two sweltering
Los Angeles nights, 12 victims were tortured and killed. In
Manson…, journalist, veteran, and best-selling author Jeff
Guinn offers the inquiring reader an engaging exposé on
the sociocultural and psychospiritual factors that led to the
brutal murders. Guinn’s primary source material comes from
numerous interviews with former members and associates
of the Manson Family. Guinn has artistically woven these
extensive interviews together to create an organic and
informative perspective. By recording the thoughts and
feelings of the actual characters involved, he provides
the reader an eerie familiarity with the events as the story
unfolds.
Guinn incorporates into this profile public records pertaining
to the frightful murders that shocked the nation. However,
unlike the popular true-crime manuscript on the same
subject, Helter Skelter, Guinn spends a relatively short time
discussing the heinous details of the Manson Family’s civil
transgressions. The target audience for this biography is
not the macabre-seeking masses looking for gruesome
descriptions of ritual slaughter. Rather, Guinn’s objectivity
appeals to professionals and laypeople of social science who
wonder what alignment of circumstances contributed to the
bitter saga of Charlie Manson.
Guinn opens the book with a gripping tale of Manson’s
unexplainable magnetism. The biography proceeds with
key influences on Manson’s upbringing. He pays particular
attention to the juxtaposition of a benevolent Christian
grandmother and a felonious mother, whose ideology fused
to create a righteous savagery that was foundational to
Manson’s psychology. The author’s engagement with origins
and early life provides valuable insight into the formation of
Manson’s radical, drug-infused philosophy.
Guinn later suggests that Manson’s prolonged residence in
the criminal-justice system provided designs for his nefarious
cult. For example, during one of his many incarcerations,
Charlie enrolled in a workshop on the practical application of
Dale Carnegie’s book, How to Win Friends and Influence People.
In the penal system, Manson also gleaned from Scientology
manipulative techniques that would ultimately assist him in
the recruitment of naïve and insecure supporters.
Guinn also pays meticulous attention to the methods that
Charlie employed to keep his followers obedient. Along
with their physical and emotional dependence on him,
Manson played on the chemical desires of his group. The
hallucinogenic drug LSD was routinely used to excite the
family’s mythos of an impending race war they called
Helter Skelter. Manson kept his followers busy preparing for
this mayhem through strenuous physical labor, including
ceaselessly probing the Death Valley desert for an escape
hatch: the phantasmagorical “bottomless pit.” Manson
told his followers that within this natural orifice, the family
would be sheltered during the impending conflict. In this
subterranean utopia they planned to wait out the bedlam
until their time came to emerge as heralded sovereigns of the
postapocalyptic earth. It didn’t quite work out that way. n
Book Review
About the Reviewer
RaeAnne Wiseman
is a graduate student at Hood College in
Frederick, Maryland. Here she researches
the ways individuals create existential
satisfaction through the process of life
review. Professionally Ms. Wiseman
works as Activities Director at a local
nursing home. In 2011 she founded
Existentialists Anonymous, a support
group to examine mortality and meaning in the absence of an
objective religious truth. n
It turns out our
mothers were right...
