Happy Birthday, Charlie

I find Charlie Manson fascinating. When you take a look at the Family, Death Valley 1969, it’s stunning how this small, mentally ill man was able to convince intelligent teenagers that it was a good idea to murder.
Charlie turns 75 today, which blows my mind since now the impish character is now old enough to begin losing some of his intimidation factor.
I mean what are you going to do, dude?
Become incontinent on me?
As a kid, I watched Helter Skelter mini-series when it came out. It freaked my shit, but not as much as Bugliosi’s book of the same name. In the picture section, there was a picture of one of the Family members, dead, with the eyes obviously drawn in on the body.
Every time I see a copy of that book, I always turn to that creepy picture.
After the mini-series, I read how Squeaky Fromme tried to kill President Ford. Do you understand what kind of impact news stories like this has on a young child? I had a vision of zombies wandering around in America, waiting for secret messages from Charlie to go and perform a political assassination.
“And swing by Dennis Wilson’s place and break his arm. That fucker never got me a record deal.”
Remember when Squeaky escaped in the 80’s and tried to go visit Charlie? I mean, she barely got out of the same county that she was institutionalized in, but give the girl credit. That’s some major devotion to a dude that doesn’t top 5’.
I made a cassette mixtape years ago that had dialogue from the Helter Skelter movie in between a few songs.
I miss that type of shit.