Charles Manson, as of April last year. Picture: AP/California Dept of Corrections Source: AP
CHARLES Manson is the popular face of evil - second only to Hitler as an icon. And this week, he spoke out at length for the first time in decades.
Manson is the deranged criminal mastermind who orchestrated one of the world's most notorious spate of killings during the height of the hippie era.
In July and August 1969, the 'Manson Family' murdered nine people, including Sharon Tate, the wife of film director Roman Polanski eight-and-a-half months pregnant at the time.
Sharon Tate pleaded with her murderers to kill her but spare her unborn baby. Picture: AP Source: AP
His followers - mostly young women who lived with him at a sordid Californian commune - carried out the killings under Manson's theory that the murders would spark an apocalyptic war between blacks and whites.
Manson did not commit any murders himself but was jailed for life for leading the family's loopy conspiracy, known as Helter Skelter, the popular 1968 Beatles track.
Has he been rehabilitated? Far from it.
In his latest interview with Rolling Stone magazine, it sounds as if he has disturbing - delusional - plans for the future. Here are the three of the best bits.
1. HE HAS A CHARISMATIC AURA
Manson’s followers Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten in August 1970. Picture: AP Source:NewsComAu
In The Castle, Michael Caton's character objected to an unjust law with the logic: 'It's just the vibe of the thing'.
That's similar to the logic behind why so many got involved with Manson - according to one of the leading prosecutors who brought Manson to justice, it was his 'vibe', his charismatic aura, that dragged them in.
"He had a quality about him that one thousandth of one per cent of people have. An aura," attorney Vincent Bugliosi said. "'Vibes,' the kids called it in the Sixties.
"Wherever he went, kids gravitated toward him. This is not normal. I mean, I couldn't get someone to go to the local Dairy Queen and get me a milkshake, OK?"
Sandra Good, a Charles Manson follower, in 1975. Her friend was charged with attempting to kill the President Ford. Picture: AP Source: AP
Even after decades in the big house, Rolling Stone journalist Erik Heerdegaard wrote that he still has it. He could feel it when he was stroking his arm.
"I nod, because for a moment, with his hand on my skin, sliding up, I can see how it was. It feels OK," he wrote.
"It feels unexpectedly good to go with the flow, even if it is Charlie Manson's flow and even if, since he's touching me, he can kill me, which is probably how it was way back when, too. "It's a presence.
"And it's that presence, coupled with how he used it, that for the past 44 years has made him a face-of-evil superstar symbol second only to Hitler."
2. HE HAS A GIRLFRIEND
Star, far right, is one of his biggest supporters. Source: NewsComAu
Her name is 'Star'. She's 25. "She's not a woman. She's a star in the Milky Way!" Manson explained to the magazine.
Star runs an online network of Manson believers and has carved an X into her face in devotion.
They may get hitched. "I'll tell you straight up, Charlie and I are going to get married," she said. So Star, how do her parents feel about you dating a lunatic?
"My parents like Charlie. We were just talking and they said, 'If Charlie gets out, you guys can come stay here. You could stay in the basement for a while, and you could maybe build your own little house down by the creek.'"
3. AND MAY HAVE A PLOT IN MIND FOR HER
But Manson may not be as keen. He told the magazine they 'playing up' the marriage card: "That's a bunch of garbage. You know that, man. That's trash. We're just playing that for public consumption."
Instead, Hedegaard said it sounds like he is treating her as a project - a child who he is teaching his ways. "It sounds like he has plans for her," the Rolling Stone journalist wrote. "And historically, his plans never turned out well."
His other projects were Squeaky and Sandy. Manson Family conspirator Sandra Good and her close friend and murderer Lynette Fromme.
Both carved Xs into their faces too.
SOURCE:news
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