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"Gives us a portrait close to the truth" of the man responsible for the Tate-LaBianca murders that changed Hollywood and ended the sixties (The New York Times Book Review).
This astonishing book lays bare the life and the mind of a man whose acts have left us horrified. His story provides an enormous amount of new information about his life and how it led to the Tate-LaBianca murders and reminds us of the complexity of the human condition.
Born in the middle of the Depression to an unmarried fifteen-year-old, Manson lived through a bewildering succession of changing homes and substitute parents, until his mother finally asked the state authorities to assume his care when he was twelve. Regimented and often brutalized in juvenile homes, Manson became immersed in a life of petty theft, pimping, jail terms, and court appearances that culminated in seven years of prison. Released in 1967, he suddenly found himself in the world of hippies and flower children, a world that not only accepted him, but even glorified his anti-establishment values. It was a combination that led, for reasons only Charles Manson can fully explain, to tragedy. Manson's story, distilled from seven years of interviews and examinations of his correspondence, provides sobering insight into the making of a criminal mind, and a fascinating picture of the last years of the sixties.
"A glimpse of part of the American experience that is rarely described from the inside . . . It compels both interest and horror."—The Washington Post
"Provides a fascinating glimpse into the mind of a truly dangerous human being."—Los Angeles Herald Examiner
Praise for Manson in His Own Words
“The shocking confessions of “the most dangerous man alive.” —Rolling Stone
“Compelling and chilling.” —Baltimore Evening Sun
“I couldn’t put it down.” —Liz Smith
“Disturbingly hypnotic.” —Vogue
“Compulsively readable. . . . Manson can’t ever succeed in being paroled out of that cell, not as long as people with any sense at all can read this book.” —William S. Burroughs
“A glimpse of part of the American experience that is rarely described from the inside. . . . It compels both interest and horror.” —The Washington Post
“Gives us a portrait close to the truth.” —The New York Times Book Review
“The book finally diminishes the Manson mystique. For that, credit goes to the co-author Nuel Emmons, [who] gives Manson room to reveal himself without voodoo hype. The result is an explanation of Manson’s crimes that, for the first time, feels convincing.” —San Francisco Bay Guardian
“Provides a fascinating glimpse into the mind of a truly dangerous human being.” —Los Angeles Herald Examiner
“Reads like a sordid but often gripping picaresque noel.” —Louisville Courier–Journal
“These “words” are the essence behind the horror of the tragedy: cold, calculated, hard facts told exactly the way it was from the beginning. . . . Effectively captures the disturbed mind of Manson and gives us a better understanding of the complexity of a violent criminal.” —Rave Reviews
Nuel Emmons (1927-2002) first met Charles Manson briefly when he was imprisoned for auto theft in 1956, and again under similar circumstances in 1960. After that, Mr. Emmons began a career as a photojournalist, and he has contributed to a number of magazines both in the United States and Europe. In 1979, he contacted Manson and began the extensive interviews that resulted in this book.