Taming the Beast: Charles Manson's Life Behind Bars

by Edward George, Dary Matera

Overview

Edward George understand Charles Manson as few others ever will. Former prison counselor to the messianic killer, George enraged Manson as an agent of the state's criminal justice system, listened to him as a trusted confessor, spoke for him as an erstwhile press agent-and-almost-connected with him as a friend. George saw Manson in a way the public never would, witnessing the method to his madness, the charisma that underlies his sickness, the pathetic abandoned boy within the homicidal man. If you read Helter Skelter and think you know the whole story about Charlie Manson, think again. You don't know it all until you've read Taming the Beast: Charles Manson's Life Behind Bars.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781466830455
Publisher:	St. Martin's Press
Publication date:	07/16/1999
Sold by:	Macmillan
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
File size:	479 KB

About the Author

Edward George is a former theological student and Navy pilot who lives in San Francisco.

Dary Matera is a veteran true-crime writer and coauthor of Are You Lonesome Tonight? He lives in Chandler, Arizona.

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION		xi
CHAPTER 1		1	(17)
CHAPTER 2		18	(9)
CHAPTER 3		27	(15)
CHAPTER 4		42	(13)
CHAPTER 5		55	(14)
CHAPTER 6		69	(10)
CHAPTER 7		79	(10)
CHAPTER 8		89	(15)
CHAPTER 9		104	(17)
CHAPTER 10		121	(17)
CHAPTER 11		138	(15)
CHAPTER 12		153	(15)
CHAPTER 13		168	(20)
CHAPTER 14		188	(19)
UPDATE: 1998		207	(2)
EPILOGUE		209	(2)
APPENDIX I: MANSON'S STATEMENT TO THE COURT, 1970		211	(18)
APPENDIX II: MANSON'S PAROLE HEARING, 1986		229	(4)
APPENDIX III: MANSON'S PAROLE HEARING, 1992		233	(48)
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS		281	(2)
INDEX		283

Editorial Reviews

Former prison counselor George's recollection of conversations with Charles Manson from 1975 to 1983 offer a glimpse into the mind of the cult leader. Manson's statements to the court in 1970 and two subsequent parole hearings are included in three appendices. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Booknews

The latest entry in the canon of a true madman. George, a retired corrections officer who met Manson in 1975 at San Quentin, says up front that his Jesuit training led him to believe that the beast could indeed be tamed. His years of knowing Mansonþwhom he frequently describes as þdevilishþ or þdemonic,þ þa wicked trollþþled him to believe otherwise, and as both George's narrative and the parole board hearing transcripts cited here make clear, Manson is as monstrously sick as ever; he builds cockroach cages and voodoo dolls and rants about himself as a Christ-like figure. This volume (co-authored by true-crime writer Matera) gives us an ugly, ugly look at a man whose entire life has been a study in sickness. George advances a few theories about Manson's childhood and relationship with his father, then admits he doesn't know if Manson actually knew his father. George also has little to offer about Manson's motivations, though he does provide a chilling glimpse of Family members like Lynette þSqueakyþ Fromme, who showed up at the prison regularly in her red cape, begging to be allowed to see Manson. George saw her just days before she attempted to assassinate then-president Gerald Ford. George also gives updates on the women who still follow Mansonþand there are quite a few of themþand it's scary how active the Family still is, nearly 30 years after they rose to infamy. While it's tough to see the rationale behind yet another book about this particular psychoþManson himself counts 58 books on the topicþGeorge has some items of interest to those who want to know all the details of Manson's prison life.

Kirkus Reviews