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.
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 a prostitute. When Manson was still a toddler, his other was imprisoned for five years for armed robbery. Manson then grew up in a variety of institutions, which had an adverse effect on his character. At the age of 13 he committed his first crime, an armed robbery, and four years later he committed a homosexual rape. By the time he was 18, he was listed as "dangerous with assaultive tendencies." He was sent to live with relations in West Virginia in 1954, and there he met and married a 17-year-old waitress. They had a son before moving to California. The marriage ended in divorce in 1958. In 1960 Manson was imprisoned for 10 years for a variety of offenses including procuring, fraud, and theft. He remained in prison until 1967. He was terrified of the outside world, a...