Manson in His Own Words

by Charles Manson, Nuel Emmons (As Told to)

Overview

We have called him a devil and quarantined him behind such labels as "the most dangerous man alive." But Charles Manson remains a shocking reminder of our own humanity gone awry. This astonishing book lays bare the life and the mind of a man whose acts have left us horrified. His story provides an enormous amount of new information about his life and how it led to the Tate-LaBianca murders, and reminds us of the complexity of the human condition. Born in the middle of the Depression to an unmarried fifteen-year-old, Manson lived through a bewildering succession of changing homes and substitute parents, until his mother finally asked the state authorities to assume his care when he was twelve. Regimented and often brutalized in juvenile homes, Manson became immersed in a life of petty theft, pimping, jail terms, and court appearances that culminated in seven years of prison. Released in 1967, he suddenly found himself in the world of hippies and flower children, a world that not only accepted him, but even glorified his anti-establishment values. It was a combination that led, for reasons only Charles Manson can fully explain, to tragedy. Manson's story, distilled from seven years of interviews and examinations of his correspondence, provides sobering insight into the making of a criminal mind, and a fascinating picture of the last years of the sixties. No one who wants to understand that time, and the man who helped to bring it to a horrifying conclusion, can miss reading this book.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802130242
Publisher:	Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
Publication date:	01/11/1994
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	182,437
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.70(d)

Table of Contents

	Introduction	3
Part 1	The Education of an Outlaw	19
Part 2	A Circle of One	75
Part 3	Without Conscience	163
	Conclusion	228

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

The shocking confessions of “the most dangerous man alive.” –Rolling Stone

“Compelling and chilling.” —Baltimore Evening Sun

“I couldn’t put it down.” —Liz Smith

“Disturbingly hypnotic.” —Vogue

“Compulsively readable. . . . Manson can’t ever succeed in being paroled out of that cell, not as long as people with any sense at all can read this book.” —William S. Burroughs

“A glimpse of part of the American experience that is rarely described from the inside. . . . It compels both interest and horror.” —The Washington Post

“Gives us a portrait close to the truth.” —The New York Times Book Review

“The book finally diminishes the Manson mystique. For that, credit goes to the co-author Nuel Emmons, [who] gives Manson room to reveal himself without voodoo hype. The result is an explanation of Manson’s crimes that, for the first time, feels convincing.” —San Francisco Bay Guardian

“Provides a fascinating glimpse into the mind of a truly dangerous human being.” —Los Angeles Herald Examiner

“Reads like a sordid but often gripping picaresque novel.” —Louisville Courier-Journal

“These ‘words’ are the essence behind the horror of the tragedy: cold, calculated, hard facts told exactly the way it was from the beginning. . . . Effectively captures the disturbed mind of Manson and gives us a better understanding of the complexity of a violent criminal.” —Rave Reviews

Editorial Reviews

The shocking confessions of “the most dangerous man alive.” –Rolling Stone

“Compelling and chilling.” —Baltimore Evening Sun

“I couldn’t put it down.” —Liz Smith

“Disturbingly hypnotic.” —Vogue

“Compulsively readable. . . . Manson can’t ever succeed in being paroled out of that cell, not as long as people with any sense at all can read this book.” —William S. Burroughs

“A glimpse of part of the American experience that is rarely described from the inside. . . . It compels both interest and horror.” —The Washington Post

“Gives us a portrait close to the truth.” —The New York Times Book Review

“The book finally diminishes the Manson mystique. For that, credit goes to the co-author Nuel Emmons, [who] gives Manson room to reveal himself without voodoo hype. The result is an explanation of Manson’s crimes that, for the first time, feels convincing.” —San Francisco Bay Guardian

“Provides a fascinating glimpse into the mind of a truly dangerous human being.” —Los Angeles Herald Examiner

“Reads like a sordid but often gripping picaresque novel.” —Louisville Courier-Journal

“These ‘words’ are the essence behind the horror of the tragedy: cold, calculated, hard facts told exactly the way it was from the beginning. . . . Effectively captures the disturbed mind of Manson and gives us a better understanding of the complexity of a violent criminal.” —Rave Reviews

From the Publisher