Manson Family Mass Murder
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One of the most notorious instances of mass murder in the annals of American criminal justice took place August 9 and 10, 1969 when the so-called Manson family killed a total of six people in savage attacks. The killers left behind slogans scrawled on the walls in their victims' blood. The leader of the group of killers was Charles Manson, who remains to this day a prisoner in San Quentin, subject to periodic review of his eligibility for parole, a parole that is vehemently opposed by the prosecution, the police, and a vast majority of citizens of California. While there are elements in the life story of Manson that might explain his behavior, his warped thinking remains intact, as he demonstrates whenever he gives interviews or comes before the parole board. His involvement with the criminal justice system demonstrates the difficulty in coping with those who are mentally deranged and who, given our present state of knowledge, can never be cured and as a result should never be released. The story of these murders and the legal case that followed is told in a book, Helter Skelter, written by Vincent Bugliosi with Curt Gentry, and this account is especially interesting given that it is told from the point of view of a participant in the trial as Bugliosi was the assistant district attorney who prosecuted. Charles Manson was born in Kentucky in 1934. He later claimed that his mother was a Flower Child, though this was long before that term existed, but in reality she was
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bout his activities and still expresses no remorse, only repeating elements of his complex and bizarre anti-social philosophy. Manson wanted to act as his own defense attorney but was refused by the court. He was assigned several lawyers, finally ending up with a public defender named Paul Fitzgerald, who was quite capable, and a team of other public defenders who were not. The trial itself was something of a farce, with antics by members of the Family attending and with a media circus outside.
Bugliosi's recounting of this story has a personal element because he was the prosecutor and because he was part of the investigatory apparatus on the case from the beginning. he tells the story as it happened from the night of the murder and then goes back to fill in information as it was uncovered by the police. This makes the reader part of the process of investigating and shows the reader how the police operate, how the district attorney's office is involved at an early stage, how evidence is gathered and analyzed, how evidence is developed and arranged for the purpose of trial, and how the story of a crime is pieced together. The sections of the book show how Bugliosi has arranged the material--the first section is entitled "The
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2830
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page)
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