November 19, 2017 saw the passing of the poster child of cultism and mass murder, Charles Milles Manson, at age 83.  History has a plethora of notorious figures who can truly be called evil, including Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, Ho Chi Minh, Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Pol Pot and more recently, Kim Jong Un.  And so it was with Charles Manson.  His face with it's wild, staring eyes, scraggly hair and beard and the "X" that he carved into his forehead between his eyes (which was later modified into a swastika) has become symbolic of the horror, terror and the dysfunction of the 60s generation.  In order to better understand the methods, morality, motivation, and, dare I say it, the madness that drove this diminutive psychopath on his destructive and murderous path, it will be necessary to study a little bit of history.

    Charles Milles Manson was born on November 12, 1934 in Cincinnati, Ohio to Kathleen Maddox, an unwed 16 year-old prostitute.  At the time of Manson's birth, his mother was married briefly to one William Eugene Manson who worked as an unskilled laborer.  Charles would eventually be given the surname Manson.  It appears that Charles Manson never knew his biological father, although his mother filed a paternity suit against a Colonel Walker Henderson Scott which resulted in an agreed judgement in 1937.  Much of Manson's early life is unknown.  And what details that are known have come from Manson himself in the form of interviews and writings, nearly all of which have been found to be untrue.  One such story alleges that his mother, a supposedly heavy drinker, tried to trade young Charles for a pitcher of beer in a Cincinnati tavern.  This story is most certainly false, or at least apocryphal.  What is known is that in 1939, Kathleen Maddox and her brother robbed a gas station in Charleston, West Virginia, were arrested, tried and convicted and sentenced to five years incarceration.  During this time, young Charles was sent to live with his aunt and uncle in McMechen, West Virginia.  His aunt and uncle were devout Christians, almost fanatical, who tried to instill in Charles a sense of Christian morality.  Sundays would be spent in church.  Wednesdays in prayer meetings.  The rest of the week would be Bible readings and prayers.  And while Charles did not like going to church, he did, it seems, enjoy the music and the singing.  Unfortunately, this almost constant exposure to Christianity did nothing to alter Charles' thinking or behavior.

    Between 1942 and 1950, Manson's childhood to early adulthood was a secession of petty crimes followed by incarceration in a number of juvenile detention centers including the Gibault School for Boys in Terre Haute, Indiana which he ran away from after 10 months, the Indiana Training School for Boys near Indianapolis where Manson, so he claimed, was sexually assaulted and beaten.  He managed to escape with two other boys, but was soon recaptured.  Then came placement in Father Flannigan's Boys Town in Nebraska.  Manson ran away from there four days later.  From 1950 to 1964, Manson would rack up a long list of offenses including auto theft, burglary, strong arm robbery, pimping and check forging.  In 1954, Manson would commit his first federal crime by driving a stolen car across state lines, thus violating the Dyer Act.  For this, he was sentenced to three years in Terminal Island prison in San Pedro, California.  In 1961, Manson was again arrested and charged with two more federal crimes, driving across state lines with a prostitute in his car thus violating the Mann Act and for forging a stolen $45.00 government check.  Following his conviction in court, Manson was transferred from the Los Angeles County Jail to McNeil Island prison off the coast of Washington State.  While there, he met Alvin "Creepy" Karpis, the last of the Depression Era outlaws and former member of the Ma Barker gang.  Karpis taught Manson how to play the steel guitar, and from this experience, Manson would forever fancy himself a musician.

    In June of 1966, Manson was transferred from McNeil Island to Terminal Island in preparation for his release.  By now, the world had changed radically from the one Manson had known in the 40s and 50s.  Hundreds of thousands of young people were migrating to San Francisco, particularly to the Haight Ashbury district, and embracing the "hippie" lifestyle with its emphasis on free love, marijuana smoking, and "grooving" to rock music by such groups as the Beatles, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Led Zeppelin, Jefferson Airplane and others.  A popular song from that year was "If you're going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair..."   However, by 1967, the Haight had acquired a harder edge as more serious drugs such as LSD, heroin, mescaline and methamphetamine led to crimes such as robbery, rape, and even murder.  Now if you went to San Francisco, you not only wore flowers in your hair, but you were also obliged to wear a .45 in your belt.  And Manson, who had a sinister gift for manipulation plus a snake-oil salesman's tongue, was able to gather around him a group of emotionally immature young women, including the ones who would ultimately commit murder out of misplaced love for him.  These young women, most of whom came from stable, conservative families, would form the center of a cult known simply as "the family."  And Manson, like Rasputin, would exercise an almost Svengali-like control over these simple-minded girls and the few men who made up his cult with a mixture of religiosity, psycho-babble, but mostly with drugs, particularly LSD.

    In August of 1969, Manson "family" members, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, Leslie Van Houten, Linda Kasabian, plus a young man, Charles "Tex" Watson, a former All-American high school football quarterback, drove up to the Beverly Hills mansion of movie director Roman Polanski and there in cold blood slaughtered Sharon Tate, the stunningly beautiful actress and wife of Polanski who was also eight months pregnant, Abigail Folger, heiress to the Folger's coffee fortune, Jay Sebring, hair stylist to the Hollywood elite, Voytyck Frykowski, a sometime actor, songwriter and drug dealer who was a friend of Roman Polanski and Steven Parent, a friend of the mansion's caretaker.  "Tex" Watson did most of the killing, though the girls did their fair share as well.  The victims were slaughtered almost ritualistically, their bodies stabbed, disemboweled, and dismembered, except for Steven Parent who was shot by Watson while sitting in his car.  The room where the murders took place resembled an abattoir, with the word "pig" written in Sharon Tate's blood on the front door.  The following night, this time accompanied by Manson himself, the group invaded the home of grocery store executive Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary.  In an almost repeat of the Tate murders, Leno and Rosemary were stabbed numerous times.  A carving fork was left sticking in Leno's stomach.  The word "war" was carved into his flesh.  Rosemary was stabbed at least fifty times.  Their blood was then used to write the words "Helter-Skelter" (misspelled) on the refrigerator door, and "Rise" and "Death to Pigs" on a wall.  Manson defined "Helter-Skelter" as the code word in which blacks and whites would destroy each other in an apocalyptic race war.  The words themselves were taken from a song on the Beatles White Album.  However, if one actually listens to the song, it is not describing a race war or any war for that matter.  The song in fact is about an amusement park ride.  After the Tate-LaBianca murders in fact, the Beatles rock group, their managers, publicists and their record company, Apple, vehemently denied any connection or involvement with Manson and his followers.

   Eventually, Charles Manson and his devotees were captured while hiding out at Barker Ranch in Death Valley, California, and soon were connected to the Tate-LaBianca murders for which they were formally charged.  Throughout the trial, Manson continued to exercise an almost eerie hold on his female followers.  Whatever he said to do, they did.  When he shaved his head, so did the girls.  When he carved an "X" into his forehead, so did they.  Finally in 1971, Manson and his followers were convicted on seven counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to death.  But in 1972, the California Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty was unconstitutional.  And so, Manson and his female devotees were resentenced to life imprisonment.  During their imprisonment, while Pat Krenwinkel, Leslie Van Houten and Susan Atkins did their time quietly, coming up every few years for parole hearings which always ended with parole being denied, Manson continued to be an habitual troublemaker.  During his stays in San Quentin, Pelican Bay and Corcoran State prisons, he had gotten into repeated fights with other inmates and with prison staff.  From the 1970s through the 1980s and 90s, Manson had been the target of assaults from fellow inmates, including getting shanked (stabbed), beaten and even set on fire on one occasion.  He had been denied parole at each parole hearing, not only because of his notoriety but also because of his incorrigible behavior.  He had also done numerous stints in solitary for offenses ranging from creating forbidden art with stolen materials to having a contraband cell phone.  Finally in 2017, this author learned through the MSNBC news website that Charles Manson was seriously ill with gastrointestinal bleeding, and that he had been transferred from Corcoran Prison to Mercy Hospital in downtown Bakersfield, California.  Having been a Certified Nurse's Aide in the past, I knew that it was only a matter of time before Satan would soon claim one of his own.  And on November 19th, the devil did just that.  Manson would die from a heart attack while in hospital.  To conclude, Charles Manson was a little man who needed mass murder in order to feel big.
    

                                                                                                                                        Death of a Monster
                                                                                                                                   The passing of Ian Brady

    On May 15th of this year, one of the most notorious serial killers in the history of British crime passed away at age 79, the male half of the killer couple known as the Moors Murderers, Ian Duncan Brady.  Born in 1938 in the slums of Glasgow, Scotland to an unwed bar maid, Brady as child showed high intelligence, but also evidenced several personality disorders.  Brady was raised by Mary and John Sloan, a local couple with four children of their own.  It was a situation arranged by Brady's mother who was unable to care for him.  Various crime authors have stated that among Brady's favorite pastimes was torturing small animals such as cats.  He is alleged to have buried one alive, although in his later years, Brady vehemently denied such allegations.  As a boy, Brady was accepted into the Shawlands Academy, a school for above-average pupils.  Unfortunately, as he entered his teens, Brady's behavior worsened.  He often got into fights with the other students at the academy and twice appeared before a juvenile court for housebreaking.  He left Shawlands at age 15, was hired and fired from numerous jobs before being arrested with a bag full of stolen lead seals.  He was sentenced to Strangeways Prison for three months, after which he was sent to borstal  for "training."  The exact type and nature of this training is not known.  Following his stint in borstal, in January of 1959, Ian Brady applied for and was offered a clerical job at Millwards, a wholesale chemical distribution company based in Gorton, Manchester.  He was regarded by his workmates as a quite, punctual but short-tempered young man.  When not performing his duties on the job, Brady immersed himself in literature with a disturbing theme.  These included Teach Yourself German and Hitler's Mein Kampf, as well as history books about Nazi atrocities, S&M themed pornography and the most salacious works of the Marquis de Sade, including Justine or the Misfortunes of Virtue and 120 Days of Sodom to name a few.  Among Brady's favorite possessions was a Tiger Cub motorcycle.  In January of 1961, Ian Brady met Myra Hindley who happened to also be an employee at Millwards, working as a clerk-typist.  She soon became infatuated with Brady despite learning that he had a criminal record.  After a number of dates, which included visits to X-rated movie houses, Brady introduced Hindley to his choice of reading material, in particular the book Compulsion, a novel based on the American murder duo Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold.  Brady claimed that the novel inspired him to want to commit "the perfect murder," as Leopold and Loeb had also fantasized of doing.  Brady was also interested in photography, using Myra as his model.  At first snapping simple photos of Myra and her dog, Puppet, Brady soon upgraded to taking photos of Myra decked out in leather dominatrix gear.  He called her "Myra Hess," in honor of the Nazi deputy fuehrer, Rudolph Hess.  She called him "Neddy," after a character on the Goon Show.  By 1963, not only was Myra Hindley thoroughly enamored with Ian Brady, but she was also steeped in Brady's sick, Sadien philosophies.  She was more than willing to participate in any of her lover's activities, including Brady's obsession with torture and murder.

    Space does not allow me to write a detailed account of Brady and Hindley's crimes, however, in brief, their victims who were killed between 1963 and 1965 and whose bodies were buried by the homicidal couple in Saddleworth Moor are; Pauline Reade age 16, John Kilbride age 12, Lesley Ann Downey age 10, and Keith Bennett age 12.  Ian Brady's final victim who's corpse did not end up buried in Saddleworth Moor and whose murder led to Brady's arrest was Edward Evans, 17, who was lured by Brady to his house at Wardle Brook Avenue in Manchester and murdered there when Brady bashed the young man's head in with an axe.  But here is where the deadly couple made the mistake that led to their arrest.  Before killing young Evans, Brady had invited Myra's brother-in-law, David Smith to witness the murder in the hopes that Smith would join them in future murders.  Smith, almost physically sick at the spectacle, was appalled as Brady quipped while caving in Evans' skull with his axe, "This is the messiest one yet," and "he's a brainy swine, isn't he?"  Doubtless thinking that Dave Smith would keep their secret, Brady and Hindley allowed him to leave Brady's house.  Fearing for his life, Smith called the police and breathlessly told them what he had witnessed.  Following the arrest of the murderous couple, the police subsequently found a suitcase in a storage locker in a Manchester railway station.  In it were assorted porno magazines, a blackjack or cosh, a handgun, a copy of Hitler's Mein Kampf, and a reel of recording tape.  When the detectives played the tape, what they heard nearly made them sick to their stomachs, for the voice was that of murder victim Lesley Ann Downey crying and begging to be let go.  Another voice heard on the tape was clearly that of Myra Hindley telling the terrified little girl to "Shut up!" and "You're not going anywhere!" 
In April of 1966, Ian Brady and Myra Hindley appeared in court before the judge, Mr. Justice Fenton Atkinson.  Since their arrest, the "Moors Murders" had become headline news throughout England, so there was plenty of security for both defendants to and from court.  On May 6th, the jury found both Brady and Hindley guilty of the murders of John Kilbride, Lesley Ann Downey and Keith Bennett.  The sentence: life in prison with no chance of parole.  Brady was sent to Durham Prison and Hindley to Holloway Prison.  Eventually, Brady would be moved to Ashworth Secure Psychiatric Hospital in Sefton where he constantly stated his wish to die.  He fought with his jailers on one occasion resulting in a broken wrist.  After which, he went on numerous hunger strikes prompting a judge to order that Brady be force fed through a nasal-gastric tube.  On 15 November 2002, Myra Hindley, aged 60, died from bronchial pneumonia caused by heart disease which had been exacerbated by her almost constant chain-smoking.  Ian Brady himself died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.  Typical of his sadistic mindset, Brady never revealed the location of Keith Bennett's body at Saddleworth Moor, taking the secret to his grave.

    END OF THE OLYMPICS.

Finally the Summer Olympic games are over and done with.  And although I've always believed the Olympic Games to be a total waste of time, not to mention the fact that most of host nations for the games use them as a form of bragging rights, ie; "hey, look at us!  They're staging the Olympics in our little country, so we're better than the rest of you, n'yah, n'yah, n'yah," there are still a few deluded saps who love the so-called "pageantry" of the games.  Still, I am happy to learn that the majority of gold and silver medals were won by the American athletes, most of whom were women, which I'm sure came as quite a shock to the macho sensibilities of the men of Rio where this year's summer games were held.  And, as usual, there were moments of totally unsportsmanlike conduct as when an Israeli won the judo competition against an Egyptian.  And when the Israeli extended his hand, the Egyptian refused to shake it.  This illustrates the fact that many countries hosting the Olympics will use them for political purposes, such as Nazi Germany which used the 1936 Olympics to showcase the alleged superiority of the so-called "Aryans," only to see that illusion evaporate when an African American, Jesse Owens, soundly beat Germany's best in track and field and a white American, Don Budge, totally humiliated Germany's Baron Gottfried von Cramm in tennis.  The bottom line is that the Olympics have become far too politicized.  And that is why I believe the United States should opt out of any future Olympic Games.  They are a waste of time and talent today just as they were a waste of time and talent in ancient Greece.  The sad fact, however, is that while the Summer Games are over, there is still the upcoming Winter Games which will be held in South Korea.  God help us all.