Charles Manson Then and Now
Charles Manson, (aka Charles Milles Maddox), the self-proclaimed Messiah who presided over a commune-style group known as the Manson Family was convicted in 1971 in California in a trial covering a total of 27 count indictments against he and members of the family for the murders of seven persons, including actress Sharon Tate, (who was pregnant at the time of the murder), coffee heiress Abigail Folger, supermarket executive Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary.
In 1972, the death sentences of all Manson Family members were commuted to life imprisonment secondary to the case of California v. Anderson, wherein the death penalty was ruled cruel and unusual and was temporarily abolished until reinstated by Constitutional Amendment. Since being commuted, Manson has been denied parole eleven times as of 2007, his next opportunity coming in 2012.
Was justice done in the cases affected? Should those sentenced to death by California's penal system have had their sentences reversed? Should Manson and his followers have been executed as originally sentenced?
Agreed Jane!
You guys are all confused, a guy named Charles WATSON killed all those people not Charles MANSON. Manson got the credit because his face and weirdness sold more books than the boring simpleton looking guy who actually killed. Please don't say that Manson controlled anyone. That's silly we know enough 50 years later to know that didn't happen and couldn't happen.
Well considering we don't fully understand what death means it is kind of a weird punishment (for all we know we could be setting them free in some way). But as far as Tex having the opportunity to start a family while serving for such horrible crimes is hard to get past. I don't think the privilege of getting officially married and spawning children should be extended to someone sentenced to die in prison (not only for the sake of society and the victims, but for his children too), but then again if prisons don't exist for rehabilitation then they simply exist for warehousing humans, and a death penalty would actually seem more logical.
Definitely a difficult issue.
This man lives with comforts of life.
There is no question what this man and his followers did.
Thousands of dollars wasted on keeping this man alive.
Death penalty cruel?
what they did was beyond cruel.
It's a shame that a scumbag like Manson got to live all these years while his victims lay in graves.
George Vreeland Hill
This doc is extremely messy...
The doc's title photo of Manson looks like a white Snoop Dogg^
There are mainly two types of documentaries. One wherein it is all centered on some small but ominous breakthrough in science, which starts, as well as ends with what-could-this-all-mean-time-will-tell speculations, and which keeps beating around the same bush, paraphrasing the theme in all possible ways. The second is a two-hour long speed-talk riddled with irrelevant names and personal connections around a certain famous figure, finally flying off at a tangent into obscurity. This is of the last kind.
This is actually about 50 minutes on Charles Manson, then about 30 minutes on Ed Gein and John Wayne Gacy. At the end, a general program on murders committed in Hollywood.