Charles Manson’s not feeling well these days. Sniff, sniff. The infamous lifer guilty of mass murder was moved from his prison cell to an undisclosed hospital. At long, long last, maybe society will finally be rid of this notorious sociopath.
For almost fifty years, Charles Manson has remained so well known he’s like an uncle in prison. Because of him, much has been debated on the nature-versus-nurture theory in child development: Would Charlie have turned out the same if he had come from a loving home, or is he indeed proof of a born sociopath? With several books and autobiographies, TV movies and news magazine specials, interviews, articles, websites and perpetual interest, Charles Manson’s life and crimes are like a tattoo on our society—perhaps never to be removed. Even his heroes the Beatles commented on him back in the day. (John was more sympathetic; George was not.)
Did you know that Manson and the attorney who prosecuted him were born the same year, in 1934? Prosecutor and defendant—clean-cut suit with college, unkempt hippie with prison smarts—were the same age during the trial. Vincent Bugliosi was always available to comment on Manson through the decades until his own death a few years ago. Sharon Tate’s mother, a physical presence at every parole hearing, also passed away. Alas, Manson and his aging girls live on behind bars. Originally after their collective trial, they had received the death penalty in California. But that punishment was later deemed cruel and unusual in our society. That was during the liberal ’70s when even the likes of heinous murderers, though never forgiven, were going to be treated in the manner of a loving society. Life without parole was considered fair and just.
A lot more vicious crimes have occurred since 1969, back when some hippies on a hot August night went on a senseless rampage of carnage not once but twice, leaving blood-smeared taunts and warnings at the police and society. More discreet mass murderers roamed free in the decades to follow—each news account a revelation that scared us, mostly women, out of our wits. Nowadays no one sleeps with the windows open and doors unlocked, and those who can afford it place a premium on home safety by adding dogs and alarm systems. Manson and his creepy crawlies had a lot to do with ushering in these commonsense changes in the American home.
Another decade or so after the Manson trial, the death penalty was restored as being perfectly sound in the case of certain kinds of murders. These crimes had to meet criteria such as involving a child or police officer and taking place during another offense such as burglary or rape and being particularly gruesome. In the past decade, Texas boasted the number one killer of capital offenders. And more of the condemned were black than white. Once upon a time, lethal injection was deemed a viable solution that lets the punishment fit the crime without offending society’s growing inclination against other forms of execution. As the years rolled on, however, we became increasingly aware of many men in prison who were proven innocent through DNA. So now, like the ’70s, society is questioning the death penalty, and many states already have banned it—because it stands to reason some who died in the death chamber were innocent.
I am against the death penalty and support life in prison. A lifelong prison sentence is exactly how some murderers should pay for taking one or more human lives. We have to pay more money to provide lifers with housing, food, health and education. But doing so reflects a society’s clear conscience. I am a product of the ’70s after all, having grown up knowing about Manson and the murders and his commuted sentence from death to life in prison. So I shed no tears about Charlie or any mass murderer spending the rest of his life in prison—even if living to be 100. We have all the time in the world.