Manson the Cult Leader

Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson by Jeff Guinn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The murders of Sharon Tate and Jay Sebring foisted the infamously murderer, Charles Manson into the spotlight. There was more to Charlie Manson then being a serial killer and it ain't all that good. His mother, Kathleen Maddox, was raised in a very strict Christian Environment and she used to rebel.. One act of rebellion was to slip into bars for illicit romance. The result of such an affair with Col. Scott was the birth of Charlie, of course this man never knew Charlie. She later married a guy with the last name of Manson. The name stuck. She herself went through a multitude of guys and ended up serving several terms in prison .

Charlie's childhood was about moving around from one relatives house to another. Usually his bizarre behaviors would become too much for his relatives to bear. He also ended up in a multitude of juvenile detention centers. It was while he was in prison that Charlie picked up a love of Scientology and Dale Carnegie's "How to Make Friends and Influence People". He would use these tactics to start his own cult.

From prisons and Juvenile detention centers, Manson made his way west to San Francisco and then to Los Angeles. It was in San Francisco that Manson made a home and started recruiting members for his family . He would later to move to Los Angeles. The family lived on two ranches . Spahn Ranch in Los Angeles and Barker Ranch out in Death Valley. Manson and the family made their way by mooching off people and having his girls dig through trash cans.

The family episode would close with the family being caught and found guilty of multiple murders. Charlie spent his time behind bars and is still there. Many of his followers after being rehabilitated went on to different things.

The book is great in that not only does it give a good biography of Manson but it tells how charismatic a he could be when he wanted. Manson was a master manipulator . He had th girls in the family under his complete control. He made his girls look fore food. He proatitutd them and he dealt him drugs. His cult was based a on a.coming race war. The book did a bang em up job of describing the environment of the sixties both for Los Angeles and. San Francisco . If serial killer or the sixties are your ing I ink you will enjoy this book.

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