Charles Manson

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses how Charles Manson's upbringing as the child of an unwed alcoholic mother raised in a broken home was the cause of his murderous life. The paper explains how a criminal gang often takes the place of an absent family structure, and in this case, it was Manson's own manufactured "family" that he himself could command after the fashion of a messianic leader. The paper shows how Manson's orgy of murder was a classic example of the violently anti-social personality in action and emphasizes that had Manson's environment been different, he might not have displayed these psychopathic tendencies he came to manifest as he matured.

From the Paper:

"In August of 1969, the nation and the world were shocked by the brutal and sadistic murders of actress Sharon Tate and several other individuals in Los Angeles, California. The carnage marked the notorious entry into the annals of crime of Charles Manson and his "family" of crazed hippie killers. Manson's life story and subsequent career of horror are nearly textbook examples of the development of an anti-social criminal pathology. "Helter skelter" - the meaningless words that Manson took from a Beatles' song became identified in the murderers' minds with a bloody religious mania that called for the setting in motion of an apocalyptic race war between Blacks and Whites, a war from which the Manson Family would emerge as the only surviving Whites, and as rulers over a population of now cowed Black people."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Dardenne, R. (1997). 13 The Case of Charles Manson (1970) "Plump, White Rabbits". In The Press on Trial: Crimes and Trials as Media Events, Chiasson, L. (Ed.) (pp. 159-168). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
• Fagan, Patrick. (1998). "The Breakdown of the Family: The Consequences for Children and American Society." Issues '98: The Candidate's Briefing Book, Ch. 6, 11. The Heritage Foundation.
• Kemp, D., & Center, D. (2000). Troubled Children Grown-Up: Antisocial Behavior in Young Adult Criminals. Education & Treatment of Children, 23(3), 223.
• Levin, J., & Fox, J. A. (1985). Mass Murder: America's Growing Menace. New York: Plenum Press.
• Roy, J. M. (2002). Love to Hate: America's Obsession with Hatred and Violence. New York: Columbia University Press.

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