Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson

by Jeff Guinn

Overview

The New York Times bestselling, authoritative account of the life of Charles Manson, filled with surprising new information and previously unpublished photographs: “A riveting, almost Dickensian narrative…four stars” (People).

More than forty years ago Charles Manson and his mostly female commune killed nine people, among them the pregnant actress Sharon Tate. It was the culmination of a criminal career that author Jeff Guinn traces back to Manson’s childhood. Guinn interviewed Manson’s sister and cousin, neither of whom had ever previously cooperated with an author. Childhood friends, cellmates, and even some members of the Manson family have provided new information about Manson’s life. Guinn has made discoveries about the night of the Tate murders, answering unresolved questions, such as why one person near the scene of the crime was spared.

Manson puts the killer in the context of the turbulent late sixties, an era of race riots and street protests when authority in all its forms was under siege. Guinn shows us how Manson created and refined his message to fit the times, persuading confused young women (and a few men) that he had the solutions to their problems. At the same time he used them to pursue his long-standing musical ambitions. His frustrated ambitions, combined with his bizarre race-war obsession, would have lethal consequences.

Guinn’s book is a “tour de force of a biography…Manson stands as a definitive work: important for students of criminology, human behavior, popular culture, music, psychopathology, and sociopathology…and compulsively readable” (Ann Rule, The New York Times Book Review).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781451645170
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	08/05/2014
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	512
Sales rank:	81,852
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Jeff Guinn is a former award-winning investigative journalist and the bestselling author of numerous books of fiction and nonfiction, including Go Down Together: The True Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde, The Last Gunfight: The Real Story of the Shootout at the O.K. Corral and How It Changed the West, and Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson. Guinn lives in Fort Worth, Texas.

Editorial Reviews

Manson is not simply a biography of a killer and a cultist. It's a history of American culture from the Great Depression to the close of the 20th century. It's the dirty boogie in four-four time, a fascinating study of greed, mind control, celebriphilia, sex, narcotics, racism, and the misuse of power. I lived in South Los Angeles when many of the events in this book took place. No one has told the story as accurately as Jeff Guinn. It's the story of Nixon and Johnson, Martin Luther King, Vietnam, the SDS, the Black Panthers, the acid culture, and a nation coming apart at the seams. From the first page to the last, I could hardly put it down. Hang on, reader. This is a rip-roaring ride you won't forget.

James Lee Burke

Brilliant. Written with deep insight and in seamless, fluid prose, Guinn’s Manson expands the story of the cult leader into something far beyond the shocking story we're used to. The best book about Manson that I’ve read . . . and I think I’ve read them all.

Jeffrey Deaver

Jeff Guinn takes the reader on a fascinating, chilling visit to a dark and decadent time in American history, all the while maintaining a laser focus on the era’s most recognizable face of evil. A gifted writer and master researcher, Guinn explores the depths of Charles Manson’s twisted psyche in a brilliant effort that dramatically raises the bar on the true crime genre.

Carlton Stowers

[A] brawny, deep-digging biography that's much more riveting than might be expected. . . . Mr. Guinn is fascinating in his use of hindsight, and it allows him a more probing view of his subject than earlier biographers had. . . . Steadily surprising.

The New York Times - Janet Maslin

"[Guinn] is now proving himself to be one of the pre-eminent true crime writers in the country. . . . Even though you know how the story turns out, you’re surprised on almost every page."

Fort Worth Star-Telegram - Jim Witt

"Splendid, comprehensively researched. . . . [Guinn] has given us an American nightmare from which we have not yet fully awoken."

The Miami Herald - Ariel Gonzalez

"[A] riveting, almost Dickensian narrative. . . . four stars."

People - Judith Newman

[A] tour-de-force of a biography. . . . Vincent Bugliosi’s book Helter Skelter led me to believe there was nothing more to learn. . . . I was wrong. . . . [Manson] stands as a definitive work: important for students of criminology, human behavior, popular culture, music, psychopathology and sociopathology, and compulsively readable.

The New York Times Book Review - Ann Rule

"Guinn has managed against all odds to offer a fresh take and a worthy complement to the first-hand immediacy of [Vincent] Bugliosi's Helter Skelter. . . . Offers new insight to those who lived through that turbulent era, and provides essential context to those who didn't. What emerges is a grim but highly compelling portrait of a 'lifelong social predator' who was 'always the wrong man in the right place at the right time.'"

The Washington Post - Daniel Stashower

"Sometimes a book is so good that the reviewer does not know where to begin. It doesn't happen often, but this is one of those times. . . . Jeff Guinn has produced not only the best biography of Charles Manson, but the best study of American true crime since Victoria Lincoln's A Private Disgrace: Lizzie Borden by Daylight. . . . [A] consistently superb book. . . . Flawless."

National Review - Florence King

"Manson is a book impossible to put down, the details so palpable that the sense of being a part of each scene is almost overwhelming. . . . Guinn manages something much more than a true-crime book. Filled with the trampled hopes and broken dreams of those who gave their lives to a sociopath, Manson is an American tragedy."

Dallas Morning News - Michael E. Young

“Manson by Jeff Guinn knocked me down. . . . Mr. Guinn has become a truly great writer of nonfiction Americana.

The Wall Street Journal - Daniel Woodrell

Manson is not simply a biography of a killer and a cultist. It's a history of American culture from the Great Depression to the close of the 20th century. It's the dirty boogie in four-four time, a fascinating study of greed, mind control, celebriphilia, sex, narcotics, racism, and the misuse of power. I lived in South Los Angeles when many of the events in this book took place. No one has told the story as accurately as Jeff Guinn. It's the story of Nixon and Johnson, Martin Luther King, Vietnam, the SDS, the Black Panthers, the acid culture, and a nation coming apart at the seams. From the first page to the last, I could hardly put it down. Hang on, reader. This is a rip-roaring ride you won't forget.”

“Brilliant. Written with deep insight and in seamless, fluid prose, Guinn’s Manson expands the story of the cult leader into something far beyond the shocking story we're used to. The best book about Manson that I’ve read . . . and I think I’ve read them all.”

“Jeff Guinn takes the reader on a fascinating, chilling visit to a dark and decadent time in American history, all the while maintaining a laser focus on the era’s most recognizable face of evil. A gifted writer and master researcher, Guinn explores the depths of Charles Manson’s twisted psyche in a brilliant effort that dramatically raises the bar on the true crime genre.

From the Publisher

"Biographer Jeff Guinn spent years on this book and it shows. . . . Manson will remain the definitive biography of this 'true life criminal.'"

The Huffington Post - Steve Heilig

"Fascinating. . . . Manson isn't merely a hybrid biography/true crime book, though. It's also a sweeping cultural history. . . . [Guinn] making a name for himself as a doggedly thorough chronicler of famous American criminals. Manson, which uncovers new material culled from exclusive interviews, should draw an even larger readership. It certainly deserves it."

Richmond Times-Dispatch - Doug Childers

"Author Jeff Guinn likes to dive into stories we think we know and give us much more. . . . Manson is a well-told, well-researched story that explains much about the murderer, his followers and his times."

San Diego Union-Tribune - Douglas Williams

Edgar finalist Guinn reexamines the life of Charles Manson, interviewing Manson's sister and cousin, who have not previously spoken out, and gleaning new information from childhood friends, cellmates, and Manson Family members. Guinn argues that while Manson spouted incoherent race-war rhetoric, the killings were in fact related to his failed ambitions to be a rock star. Many readers will be interested in grappling with the psyche behind the 1969 killings, a signal event in American cultural history; bound to get the considerable attention the 100,000-copy first printing anticipates.

Library Journal

Guinn (The Last Gunfight: The Real Story of the Shootout at the O.K. Corral--and How It Changed the American West, 2011, etc.) paints a striking, full-length portrait of one of American history's most notorious sociopaths. By 1967, 32-year-old Charles Manson had spent more than half his life in reform schools, jails and prison. Released onto the streets of San Francisco during the Summer of Love, armed with a practiced street rap--a mishmash of Bible verses, Dale Carnegie quotations, Scientology precepts and rock-'n'-roll lyrics--a philosophy of free love and even freer drugs and crude psychological insights gleaned from fellow pimps and con men, the petty hustler attracted a small following among the city's naïve, confused youth. Moving his "Family" to Los Angeles in pursuit of a music career, Manson tightened his hold on his followers and led them in increasingly bizarre escapades that culminated in several murders, most infamously the Tate-LaBianca killings, designed to kick off "Helter Skelter," a race war that would end with the Family ruling the world. Guinn takes readers on a head-spinning ride through Manson's deeply disturbed childhood, his criminal career and his brief tenure as satanic guru to the damaged disciples, mostly women, he held in thrall. Against the backdrop of the roiling '60s, the author offers inside information on life within the cult, miniportraits of its various members, and stories about the dope dealers, rock musicians, motorcycle gang members, Hollywood glitterati, record-industry honchos and hangers-on who brushed up against the Family. He concludes by effortlessly unpacking the murders, the manhunt and the trial that riveted the nation. Spared the gas chamber by California's abolition of the death penalty, Manson remains incarcerated. A handful of deluded supporters maintain a Facebook page devoted to proving his innocence and to spreading his environmental rants. A compulsively readable account of a murderer who continues to fascinate.

Kirkus Reviews