Dec. 2022 - True Crime Book Club - Past Titles - LibGuides at Westwood Public Library

"Manson: The Life & Times of Charles Manson" by Jeff Guinn

Manson by Jeff Guinn
Call Number: BIOGRAPHY MANSON
Based on new interviews, this revealing account of one of the most notorious criminals in American history puts Manson in the context of his times, the turbulent end of the 60s, revealing a rock star wannabe whose killings were directly related to his musical ambitions. After more than forty years, Charles Manson continues to mystify and fascinate us. Manson and members of his mostly female commune killed nine people, including pregnant actress Sharon Tate. Now, drawing on new information, the author tells the definitive story of how this ordinary juvenile delinquent became a murderer whose crimes still shock and horrify today.

Did you enjoy this book? Why or why not?
1. Did you find yourself racing to the end? Or was it more of a struggle to finish?
Did you find yourself researching more information about anything in the book? Certain Family members? The time period or setting? Etc.?
How was Manson able to draw people into joining “The Manson Family”?
How did Manson utilize language to gain followers?
Do you believe Manson was a psychopath or a sociopath? What are the similarities and what are differences? Was he just antisocial?
1. Antisocial Personality Disorder
  1. A mental health disorder characterized by a disregard for other people. Those with antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) may begin to show symptoms in childhood, but the condition can't be diagnosed until adolescence or adulthood. Those with antisocial personality disorder tend to lie, break laws, act impulsively, and lack regard for their safety or the safety of others. Symptoms may lessen with age. Treatment may include talk therapy and support for affected family members.
2. Psychopathic Traits
  1. A psychopath is a person who has an antisocial personality disorder characterized by a lack of regard for the rights and feelings of others, controlled and manipulative behavior, the absence of shame, and an inability to form emotional relationships.
3. Sociopathic Traits
  1. A sociopath is a person with a personality disorder that is marked by traits of impulsivity, risk-taking, and violence.
Do you think Manson would’ve been as successful of a cult leader in a different time or place? What made him so successful in the 60s in Los Angeles?
Manson never actually committed any of the murders himself. Do you think he was still guilty of murder? Assisting in a crime? How would you have charged him if you’d been on the prosecution team?
Manson was sentenced to death, but a change in California law commuted his sentence to life in prison. Do you think certain crimes should hold a death sentence? Should he have been grandfathered in? What would you have thought as a jury member?
Linda Kasabian received an immunity plea for her testimony against other members of the Manson Family. Do you think she deserved immunity? How about a reduced sentence?
Manson’s crimes took place over fifty years ago and yet he is still one of the most well-known criminal celebrities. How do you think we as a society should combat this celebration of evil? Is it better to know the evil lurking in the world or to hide it in disgust?
How is the book structured? Does the author use any narrative devices like flashbacks or multiple voices in telling the story? How did this affect your reading of the story and your appreciation of the book? Do you think the author did a good job with it?
If this book were to be made into a movie, who would you cast for the main characters?
Does the author present information in a way that is interesting and insightful, and if so, how does he achieve this?

Charles Manson, (born November 12, 1934, in Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.- died November 19, 2017, in Kern county, California). (Britannica)
Even as a child, Manson was a genius at pulling strings and deflecting blame, either running from trouble or flummoxing his accusers with a saintly smile. He was the bad seed turned jailbird turned spiritual guru; the catalyst for a notorious 1969 killing spree that claimed the life of the Hollywood actor Sharon Tate among numerous others, selected almost at random. (The Guardian)
There's nothing mystical or magical about Charles Manson. He's a gifted psychopath who's a talented liar who's lied about just about everything. (Jeff Guinn, USA Today)
I don't think he was ever insane. I do think he was always selfish, self-absorbed, and deliberately manipulative. It is also possible having kept up the "Crazy Charlie" act for so long, that this has become more of his persona than the old calculating Charlie. There's no way to know. I don't think he would know. But I do think much of what we've seen is a deliberate act. He knows how to get attention, he knows how to hold attention. Let's face it, he's done that now for going on half a century. He's a performer. (Jeff Guinn, USA Today)
Manson was born Charles Milles Maddox on November 12, 1934, in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Kathleen Maddox, a 16-year-old girl who was both an alcoholic and a prostitute. (Biography)
"The Family" was a group of around 100 followers of Manson who shared his passion for an unconventional lifestyle and habitual use of hallucinogenic drugs, such as LSD and magic mushrooms. (Biography)
Tate Murders:
- Charles Manson directed Charles Watson, Susan Atkins, Linda Kasabian, and Patricia Krenwinkel to enter the Tate residence (formerly the Melcher residence, who rejected Mason’s music compilation) and to “destroy everyone in it – as gruesome as you can.” Watson, Atkins, Kasabian, and Krenwinkel all climbed up a brushy platform to gain entrance into the property. While they were trespassing, Steven Parent, a visitor of the residence’s caretaker, William Garretson, was leaving the property in his vehicle. Watson stopped Parent, swung a knife at him, and then shot him four times in the chest and abdomen.
- Watson entered the residence by cutting the screen of a window and opened the front door for Atkins and Krenwinkel. Kasabian was at the end of the driveway to “keep watch.” Watson and the group entered the residence and found Tate, Folger, Frykowski, and Sebring. Tate and Sebring were tied together by their necks, and Folger was taken into a nearby bedroom. Sebring was shot and stabbed seven times. Frykowski was bound by a towel but managed to free himself. After doing so, he became involved in a physical altercation with Atkins resulting in her stabbing him in the legs. Frykowski continued to flee, but Watson struck him with the gun multiple times over the head, shot, and stabbed him multiple times. The gun grip broke off as a result of Watson striking Frykowski over the head.
- Folger fled the room she was taken to and then was chased by Krenwinkel. Folger was stabbed by Krenwinkel and eventually stabbed by Watson as well. Folger was stabbed a total of 28 times by both Krenwinkel and Watson. Meanwhile, Frykowski was struggling across the lawn when Watson came to stab him again. Frykowski was stabbed a total of 51 times.
- While witnessing the horrific crimes, Tate pleaded with Atkins for mercy but was rejected. Tate was stabbed a total of 16 times. Tate’s unborn child did not survive the incident. (Crime Museum)
LaBianca Murders:
- Manson and six of the Manson family members (Leslie Van Houten, Steve Grogan, Susan Atkins, Linda Kasabian, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Charles Watson) committed another murder. Unlike the Tate murder, Manson joined in on the LaBianca murder because he felt that there was not enough panic among the victims from the Tate murder. Manson and the family members drove around looking for prospective murder victims when they arrived in the neighborhood of a home in which they had attended a party a year prior. The neighboring home belonged to a successful grocery company owner, Leno LaBianca, and his wife, Rosemary.
- There are several differing accounts from Manson and six Manson family members, so the exact happenings of the murder are not certain. Manson claims he approached the home alone and returned later to bring Watson along. When Manson and Watson were in the residence, they tied up the LaBianca couple with a lamp cord and with pillowcases covering their heads. Manson reassured the couple that they would not be hurt and that they were being robbed. All the cash was collected, and the bound Rosemary was returned to her room. Soon after, Van Houten and Krenwinkel entered the premises with instructions from Manson to kill the couple. Manson left the residence and instructed Van Houten and Krenwinkel to follow Watson’s orders.
- Watson began stabbing Leno multiple times. Afterward, in the bedroom, Rosemary began to swing the lamp still attached to the cord wrapped around her neck. Van Houten and Krenwinkel yelled for Watson’s aid and stabbed Rosemary multiple times. Watson gave the knife to Van Houten, and she continued to stab Rosemary. Rosemary was stabbed a total of 41 times by Watson, Van Houten, and Krenwinkel.
- Watson returned to the living room and continued to stab and kill Leno. Krenwinkel carved the word “WAR” into Leno’s stomach, stabbed Leno multiple times, left a carving fork sticking out from his stomach, and left a knife in Leno’s throat. Leno was stabbed a total of 26 times.
- On the walls of the living room, “Death to pigs” and “Rise” were written in Leno’s blood. On the refrigerator door, a misspelled “Healter Skelter” was smeared.
- Frank Struthers, Rosemary’s son from a prior marriage, returned from a campaign trip and found it suspicious that the shades were drawn. He also found it suspicious that Leno’s speedboat was still parked in the driveway. Struthers called his sister to alert her, and she came with her boyfriend, Joe Dorgan. Dorgan and Struthers entered the home through the side door and found Leno’s body. LAPD was alerted. (Crime Museum)
During the trial, Manson released an album titled Lie in an effort to raise money for his defense. He reveled in the media attention, and during court proceedings, he turned up with an X carved into his forehead. Some of his female followers copied the act and shaved their heads, sometimes sitting outside the courthouse. The X was gradually modified until it turned into a swastika. (Biography)
The jury took a week to deliberate and came to a verdict of guilty for all charges of murder and conspiracy for all defendants. During the penalty phase of the trial, the jury declared the penalty of death. Under the California Supreme Court ruling in 1972, the death penalties for all defendants were commuted to life in prison. (Crime Museum)

Charles Manson 1995 A&E Biography "Journey into Evil Documentary"

Remembering Charles Manson's victims: Rich, famous, fringe and random - Los Angeles Times

Jeff Guinn is the bestselling author of numerous books, including Go Down Together, The Last Gunfight, Manson, The Road to Jonestown, War on the Border, and Waco.
He lives in Fort Worth, Texas, and is a member of the Texas Literary Hall of Fame.
Jeff Guinn is the winner of the 2016 TCU Texas Book Award.
The former books editor at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and award-winning investigative journalist, he is a member of the Texas Institute of Letters.

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).
Based on new interviews with previously undiscovered relatives and filled with revelations and unpublished photographs, this is the most authoritative account of the life of Charles Manson (BookClub.com).
Guinn’s book is three-pronged: there’s the rise and fall of Manson; a thorough look at the 1960s music industry; and the bizarre ambiance of the ’60s — Berkeley and the Haight-Ashbury, Los Angeles and the Spahn Ranch, the sprawling property where the Manson Family settled for a time (Ann Rule, The New York Times Book Review).
Although it’s difficult to compare Manson to anyone in terms of psychopathy, Adolf Hitler seems most apt. Both men were megalomaniacs and completely amoral. Both were charming and terrifying, and ultimately failures (Ann Rule, The New York Times Book Review).
“To me, what was amazing is how much of this supposed Manson craziness and spontaneous violence was calculated,” Guinn said. “The guy is a puppet master. He is a performer. He definitely is not insane, just evil.” (AZ Central)
Guinn’s book relies on exclusive interviews with Manson’s sister and cousin, childhood friends, cellmates, and some of his most ardent former followers to provide a complete picture of a troubled boy who grew into one of history’s most iconic criminals. (AZ Central)
“I wanted to write a book that captured the craziness and confusion of the 1960s. ... There were hundreds of Manson books but not the one I wanted to write. The rest of the books almost universally present him as sort of a full-blown monster suddenly showing up in LA. I wanted to know if he is a monster, how did we grow him?” (Jeff Guinn, AZ Central)
“It’s getting harder to find those kinds of nonfiction books now because the way a lot of people buy nonfiction books has changed over the last five, 10 years,” Guinn said. “A lot of people no longer want to buy nonfiction to learn things. They want nonfiction books to reflect what they already believe, want books that reinforce their opinions. They want books that tell them everything they believe is absolutely right and that the other side is even worse than they thought.” (Cleburne Times Review)
But what makes Jeff Guinn's biography so rich, knotty and gripping is the way it stitches the man into his environment. It shows how the humid climate of late-60s California harbored Manson and allowed him to flourish, at least on the fringes, at least for a while. And by the time it recoiled, the damage was done. (The Guardian)
What I do with all my books is to write about an era in American history, and to get readers interested, I usually try to pick an iconic individual event. History doesn't happen in a vacuum. And I wanted to find out with Manson: If he's so terrible, how did we grow such a monster? He didn't just emerge full-blown running around in Los Angeles directing followers to kill people. (Jeff Guinn, USA Today)
Jeff Guinn on the Life of Charles Manson

True Crime

The Last Gunfight

Go Down Together

Manson

The Road to Jonestown

Waco

Nonfiction

The Vagabonds

War on the Border

Our Land Before We Die

Something in the Blood

The Sixteenth Minute

Sports

Dallas Cowboys: The Authorized Pictorial

You Can't Hit the Ball With the Bat on

When Panthers Roared

Sometimes a Fantasy

Fiction

Silver City

Glorious

Buffalo Trail

Christmas

The Autobiography of Santa Claus

How Mrs. Claus Saved Christmas

The Christmas Chronicles

The Great Santa Search

Santa's North Pole Cookbook

Charles Manson

About:
- The Other Side Of Madness aka The Helter Skelter Murders (1971)
- Helter Skelter (1976)
- Manson Family Movies (1984)
- Summer Dreams: The Story Of The Beach Boys (1990)
- The Manson Family (1997)
- Helter Skelter (2004)
- House Of Manson aka Manson (2014)
- Manson’s Lost Girls (2016)
- Charlie Says (2018)
- Life After Manson (2014)
- Charles Manson Superstar (1989)
- The Book of Manson (1989)
- The Manson Family Massacre (2019)
- The Six Degrees of Helter Skelter (2009)
- Helter Skelter: An American Myth (2021)
Inspired By:
- The Manson Massacre aka The Cult (1971)
- Live Freaky! Die Freaky! (2006)
- Manson, My Name Is Evil (2009)
- Haunting Charles Manson (2014)
- Manson Family Vacation (2015)
- Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood (2021)
- Aquarius (2015-2016)
- Wolves at the Door (2016)
- The Strangers (2008)
- Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011)
- I Drink Your Blood (1971)
- The Haunting of Sharon Tate (2019)

Jeff Guinn

Movie & Television Appearances
- Writer
  - Love Is a Gun (pre-production)
  - 2018 - Jonestown: Terror in the Jungle (TV Mini-Series documentary)
- Producer
  - 2018 - Jonestown: Terror in the Jungle (TV Mini-Series documentary)
- Personal Appearances
  - 2020 - Helter Skelter: An American Myth (TV Mini-Series documentary)
  - 2019 - Manson: Music from an Unsound Mind (Documentary)
  - 2019 - Very Scary People (TV Series documentary)
  - 2018 - Jonestown: Terror in the Jungle (TV Mini-Series documentary)
  - 2018 - Truth and Lies: Jonestown, Paradise Lost (TV Movie documentary)
  - 2017 - 20/20 (TV Series documentary)
    - Truth and Lies: The Manson Family (March 17, 2017)
  - 2016 - American Experience (TV Series documentary)
    - Bonnie & Clyde (January 19, 2016)
  - 2015 - CNN Special Reports (TV Series)
    - Face of Evil: The Charles Manson Murders (August 18, 2015)
  - 2013 - The Cycle (TV Series)
    - Episode dated 6 August 2013 (2013)
  - 2009 - Timewatch (TV Series documentary)

The Real Bonnie and Clyde (July 30, 2009)

One of Us by A. . . sne Seierstad; Sarah Death (Translator)
Call Number: 363.32 Seierstad
On July 22, 2011, Anders Behring Breivik detonated a bomb outside the Norwegian prime minister's office in central Oslo, killing eight people. He then proceeded to a youth camp on the wooded island of Utøya, where he killed sixty-nine more, most of them teenage members of the country's governing Labour Party. In One of Us , the journalist Åsne Seierstad tells the story of this terrible day and its reverberations. How did Breivik, a gifted child from an affluent neighborhood in Oslo, become Europe's most reviled terrorist? How did he accomplish an astonishing one-man murder spree? And how did a famously peaceful and prosperous country cope with the slaughter of so many of its young? As in her international bestseller The Bookseller of Kabul , Seierstad excels at the vivid portraiture of lives under stress. She delves deep into Breivik's childhood, showing how a hip-hop and graffiti aficionado became a right-wing activist, a successful entrepreneur, and then an Internet game addict and self-styled master warrior who believed he could save Europe from the threat of Islam and multiculturalism. She writes with equal intimacy about Breivik's victims, tracing their political awakenings, teenage flirtations and hopes, and ill-fated journeys to the island. By the time Seierstad reaches Utøya and relates what happened there, we know both the killer and those he will kill. In the book's final act, Seierstad describes Breivik's tumultuous public trial. As Breivik took the stand and articulated his ideas, an entire country debated whether he should be deemed insane, and asked why a devastating sequence of police errors allowed one man to do so much harm. One of Us is at once a psychological study of violent extremism, a dramatic true crime procedural, and a compassionate inquiry into how a privileged society copes with homegrown evil.
The Mystery of the Lone Wolf Killer by Unni Turrettini
Call Number: 363.325 Turrettini
July 22, 2011 was the darkest day in Norway's history since Nazi Germany's invasion. It was one hundred eighty-nine minutes of terror--from the moment the bomb exploded outside a government building until Anders Behring Breivik was apprehended by the police at Utøya Island. Breivik murdered seventy-seven people, most of them teenagers and young adults, and wounded hundreds more. The massacre left the world in shock. Breivik is a new type of mass murderer, and he is not alone. Indeed, he is the archetypal "lone wolf killer," often overlooked until the moment they commit their crime. He has inspired others like him, just as Breivik was inspired by Timothy McVeigh and Theodore Kaczynski. No other killer has murdered more people single-handedly in one day. Adam Lanza studied Breivik's now infamous manifesto prior to his own unthinkable crime. Breivik was Lanza's role model, as he will no doubt be for others in the future who are frustrated with their societies, and most of all, their lives. Breivik is also unique as he is the only "lone wolf" killer in recent history to still be alive and in captivity. With unparalleled research and a unique international perspective, The Mystery of the Lone Wolf Killer examines the massacre itself and why this lone-killer phenomenon is increasing worldwide.
The Good Nurse by Charles Graeber
Call Number: 364.152 Graeber
After his December 2003 arrest, registered nurse Charlie Cullen was quickly dubbed "The Angel of Death" by the media. But Cullen was no mercy killer, nor was he a simple monster. He was a favorite son, husband, beloved father, best friend, and celebrated caregiver. Implicated in the deaths of as many as 300 patients, he was also perhaps the most prolific serial killer in American history. Cullen's murderous career in the world's most trusted profession spanned sixteen years and nine hospitals across New Jersey and Pennsylvania. When, in March of 2006, Charles Cullen was marched from his final sentencing in an Allentown, Pennsylvania, courthouse into a waiting police van, it seemed certain that the chilling secrets of his life, career, and capture would disappear with him. Now, in this piece of investigative journalism nearly ten years in the making, the author, a journalist presents the whole story for the first time. Based on hundreds of pages of previously unseen police records, interviews, wire-tap recordings and videotapes, as well as exclusive jailhouse conversations with Cullen himself and the confidential informant who helped bring him down, this book weaves an urgent, terrifying tale of murder, friendship, and betrayal. The author's portrait of Cullen depicts a surprisingly intelligent and complicated young man whose promising career was overwhelmed by his compulsion to kill, and whose shy demeanor masked a twisted interior life hidden even to his family and friends. Were it not for the work of two former Newark homicide detectives racing to put together the pieces of Cullen's professional past, and a fellow nurse willing to put everything at risk, including her job and the safety of her children, there's no telling how many more lives could have been lost. This work does more than chronicle Cullen's deadly career and the breathless efforts to stop him; it paints an incredibly vivid portrait of madness and offers a penetrating look inside America's medical system. This book will make you look at medicine, hospitals, and the people who work in them, in an entirely different way.
Behold the Monster by Jillian Lauren; Michael Connelly (Foreword by)
Call Number: 364.152 Lauren
It all started when journalist Jillian Lauren asked LAPD Homicide Detective Mitzi Roberts about which case Roberts was most proud of closing. "Samuel Little," Roberts answered. The now 79-year-old Little had murdered approximately 90 women over six decades and repeatedly got away with the murders due to lack of evidence (or jurisdiction); Roberts finally brought him to justice by tying him to the murders of three Los Angeles women. Surprised she had never heard of Little, Lauren started digging. She started exchanging letters with Little until she got a face-to-face meeting that led to hundreds of hours of interviews full of information Little had never shared with law enforcement. Lauren knew this journey to the truth was taking its toll on her, but she couldn't stop--Little was giving her a powerful and harrowing window into the psyche of a serial killer. To balance out his darkness, Lauren decided to illuminate the lives of the women he killed. In her interviews, he confessed to 12 additional murders, supplying details that Lauren could share with families in need of closure. Harrowing, insightful, and extraordinarily adept at giving Little's victims a chance to have their stories heard for the first time, Behold the Monster is a true crime book as unforgettable as it is terrifying.
Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi; Curt Gentry
Call Number: 364.1523 Bugliosi
Prosecuting attorney in the Manson trial, Vincent Bugliosi held a unique insider's position in one of the most baffling and horrifying cases of the twentieth century: the cold-blooded Tate-LaBianca murders carried out by Charles Manson and four of his followers. What motivated Manson in his seemingly mindless selection of victims, and what was his hold over the young women who obeyed his orders? Here is the gripping story of this famous and haunting crime.
The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule
Call Number: 364.1523 Rule
Meeting in 1971 at a Seattle crisis clinic, Ann Rule and Ted Bundy developed a friendship and correspondence that would span the rest of his life. Rule had no idea that when they went their separate ways, their paths would cross again under shocking circumstances. The Stranger Beside Me is Rule's compelling firsthand account of not just her relationship with Bundy, but also his life--from his complicated childhood to the media circus of his trials. Astonishing in its intimacy and with Rule's clear-eyed prose, you can't help but share in her growing horror at discovering that her friend was one of the most notorious American serial killers.
The Long Shadow of Small Ghosts by Laura Tillman
Call Number: 364.1523 Tillman
On March 11, 2003, in Brownsville, Texas—one of America’s poorest cities—John Allen Rubio and Angela Camacho murdered their three young children. The apartment building in which the brutal crimes took place was already rundown, and in their aftermath a consensus developed in the community that it should be destroyed. It was a place, neighbors felt, that was plagued by spiritual cancer. In 2008, journalist Laura Tillman covered the story for The Brownsville Herald . The questions it raised haunted her, particularly one asked by the sole member of the city’s Heritage Council to oppose is there any such thing as an evil building? Her investigation took her far beyond that question, revealing the nature of the toll that the crime exacted on a city already wracked with poverty. It sprawled into a six-year inquiry into the larger significance of such acts, ones so difficult to imagine or explain that their perpetrators are often dismissed as monsters alien to humanity.
I Am a Killer by Danny Tipping; Ned Parker
Call Number: 364.1523 Tipping
What goes through the mind of a killer when they commit murder? What motivates someone to take a life? How do murderers remember their lives and crimes? With unprecedented access to high-security prisons all around the country, the creators of Netflix's I Am a Killer set out to get answers to these questions--by talking to the killers themselves. Most of the killers will die in prison, but each one speaks openly about their pasts and their crimes. Additional interviews--with the families of both perpetrators and victims and the law enforcement officials who worked the cases--reveal the constellations of factors that lead to violent crimes. Each profile features exclusive photographs, documents, and commentary from the documentary producers to give a detailed and balanced account of the crime, leaving it up to readers to decide what was right.