August 9 and 10 mark the 40th anniversary of the murders that made Charles Manson and his followers infamous, and with the anniversary comes a flurry of activity on the Manson front.
Squeaky Fromme, who though she had been lucky enough not to have been chosen for the Tate-La Bianca slayings, eventually, sort of, tried to assassinate Gerald Ford. Fromme, nevertheless, is about to be let out of prison after 24 years. Susan Atkins has been in the news for seeking a compassionate release from prison due to brain cancer that has left her partially paralyzed.
And the Huffington Post has just serialized a five-part excerpt from filmmaker John Waters’ upcoming book, Role Models, which they have entitled “Leslie Van Houten: A Friendship.” The release of the essay and the anniversary of the slaying is obviously not coincidental. (Note: the above link is only part one and you'll need to do a Google search or the equivalent to continue on to the later parts.)
I can’t say that it surprised me much that John Waters, the filmmaker, who is considered the “king of bad taste and shock value” by both his supporters and detractors, has spent over 20 years visiting and corresponding with a member of the Manson Family. So much gruesome fascination with the case has been spewed out by the media over the years that it would have been extremely difficult for even Waters’ version to be significantly worse than what media and entertainment have done to cash in on America’s favorite bogeyman, Charles Manson.
Tom Snyder interviewed Manson. Geraldo Rivera interviewed Manson. Were it not for the fact that California passed a law against it, Jerry Springer would have eventually interviewed Manson, the prisoner who has received more mail than anyone else in U.S. history.
Therefore it turns out to be splendidly shocking that Waters has written perhaps the most thoughtful and compassionate piece on the original event and its long aftermath that I have ever read.
I have my own history with the case.
When I was six or so, I used to check out my parents’ books, look through the pictures, and read the captions. This turned out to be a huge lifetime mistake. I’m pretty sure that I made it through Alive without ever realizing that it was a book about cannibalism, but I wasn’t nearly so lucky with Vincent Bugliosi’s Helter Skelter. I was looking for pictures of wildlife, or whatever, and instead found gruesome, graphic pictures of randomly murdered bodies, where the killers seemed to have stabbed everybody about as many times as humanly possible and then wrote a bunch of threatening and offensive words in their blood. Please God, let your children watch Reservoir Dogs, if they have to, but keep them away from a hardback copy of Helter Skelter.
Article comments
1 - Jennifer Bland
I don't believe this is a real friendship, and I don't believe this book will kick it off.
Ms.Bland
2 - Silas Kain
As someone who has followed John Waters from the beginning I have always found him to be thoughtful and very concerned about the state of our society. Behind all the eccentricities is a man who has a huge heart.
3 - Fromer Splane
We must never allow trash like John Waters to profit from the selling of murder.
4 - Jeff
Fascinating: What sophomoric minds find as "enormously informative, thoughtfully persuasive, and a philosophically impressive." Hmmm? Reminds me of what Ms. Van Houten found as, "enormously informative, thoughtfully persuasive, and a philosophically impressive" so many years ago!
5 - chele
screw some of y'all.
6 - Darlene
Hmmm. After reading this articile is it about Brad Laidman and how the Manson murders affected him or John Waters and his book? Never the less regarding Leslie Van Houten given all of the information that has been spewed over the last 40 years. This woman assisted and did kill two people. The justice that she was given is, she has the pleasure of sitting in a US prison and is allowed to be among the prison population instead of sitting on death row. I believe she was given a break not being put to death. Instead of parole hearings she would have been up before the prison board every time asking for her life, just to live inside those walls.
7 - Tara
I don't feel John Waters is the best spokesperson for the Manson family. John is a man with an obesession with serial killers even having memorablia from some of societies biggest sickos. He has not shown any true compassion or sympathy for the victims. He made fun of Sharon's murder in Multiple Maniacs! How can someone make fun of something like that. She was 9 & a half months pregnant. That's sick. Leslie may not have personally inflicted the wounds that killed Sharon but she let the others do it & that makes her responsible too! How anyone could even live with themselves with those memories is beyond me. Other people who aren't guilty of heinous crimes like Pete Ham of Badfinger, Pete Duel, Capucine, Del Shannon etc. just can't live anymore because of problems & depression & kill themselves. That these people don't wish themselves dead is beyond me.
If Leslie & co. have changed so much they should want to be an example to sickos out there who are thinking of committing crimes as to what happens when you do sick, evil & bad things: Life imprisonment!
8 - Brian G.
Add me to the list of people who would love to see her get out someday. She was a kid who made a terrible mistake. She has grown up and matured in prison and seen the error in her ways. Its that simple. She is in no way a threat to society at all. Some people have done alot worse things with far lesser penalties. I am an upstanding citizen and I fully support her parole!