Charles Manson and Ciccone Youth at 75

It never ceases to amaze me, the emotions I feel when I read Helter Skelter, Vincent Bugliosi's runaway bestseller recounting his prosecution of The Tate/LaBianca murders. The book is astonishing in how it sucks you right in, which is why it is the bestselling True Crime book to date. The same could be said for the media and to a certain extent the public, in how they view and fete mass murderer Charles Manson.

I know what his Axl Rose style fans who share his racist, sexist values will say "Charlie didn't actually kill anyone dude..."

Yes, he did.

He conspired to kill and was the force behind the brutal murders of SIX people (Steve Parent, Sharon Tate, her unborn baby Paul, Abagail Folger, Wojtek Frykowski and Jay Sebring) over forty years ago this past August AND then he tied up Leno and Rosemary LaBianca and sent his psycho hillbilly hippie friends into their home to slaughter them. Manson tortured ranch hand Shorty Shea to death, participated in the torture and killing of musician Gary Hinman and is most likely responsible for dozens of other still unsolved murders. "There are 11 murders they'll never solve..." boasted his right hand hag , Susan Atkins who recently and finally died a long and deservedly painful battle with brain cancer, receiving FREE, million dollar cancer treatments that few in the US could ever hope to afford.

Creepy and disgusting and The Manson families prison sentences (commuted from the death penalty to life imprisonment when California temporarily abolished the death penalty) and college degrees are paid for by US tax payers...why? And why? WHY? Does he have thousands and thousands of fans, some of whom are elite Uni students, defending and laughing about him and his vermin family? Are people really that stupid? Mainly because the Manson family did NOT get the death penalty and NO glaring example was made of their heinous actions, they have all been able to continue on alive and suck off the system they 'hated' existing as mass murdering quasi-stars. Many of the victims siblings and even children have since died, many quite young no doubt due to the stress of having your family torn apart by murder and then watching the killers become pop culture icons with shots at parole. So many other killers are fading memories and unfeted. To wit: John Wayne Gacy and Ted Bundy were both executed and one notices, despite being guilty of crimes as abhorrent, neither are able to live off the system and be courted by the media and fans.

Why? Because they are DEAD! They were put to death like the Manson family all should have been!

I see his obsessive fans on You Tube. One guy is really out there. One woman (I'm sure the are more) has taken her very young children to meet Manson in prison. They think he's just a quirky, funny Eco-Terrorist who got the rap and that the swastika carved into his forehead is somehow a "sun symbol" and they embellish his life as if he's actually important as anything other than human refuse. Funny, for such an "environmentalist" he did nothing discernible to save or preserve any animals, plants or land when he was on the outside.

Pitiful. This crazy trashy and I will begrudgingly admit, campy creep turns 75 today. He still leeches off of the system he said he wanted to destroy, while sadly having huge artistic value. Tweedy little KKK satanists with monotone delivery narration make their pretentious documentaries about him, I.T. guys who will never have any friends create fonts named after him, D-list celebrities and skinheads wear him on their t-shirts with moronic slogans, lukewarm post modern faux punks like Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon (who both look like Manson family members) honor them with crap song tributes and even Banksy (predictably) gave him a nod. But John Waters goes the distance. He has not only dedicated TWO films to the killers, he's actually been trying for decades to get Leslie Van Houten released. I'll venture to guess John Waters has never had a family member murdered. He finds far too much joy in this person who created unspeakable pain that has and will continue to mark her victims family for generations to come. And whom was given the death penalty and yet unlike her victims given another shot at life.

I watch pop culture trends, and I believe that ultimately Manson and his squalid ilk will be forgotten in the next generation. Yes, the swill will be forsaken. Many teens today that I meet online via the non-profit I'm connected to and the children I've nannied, have no idea who Charles Manson is and are not so easily led to think that far right wing new age narcissistic serial killers are worth championing.