Charles Manson is Dead

Charles Manson is dead. The words seem strange. His people killed Sharon Tate when I was about 9. He used to travel the same area that I lived in. His people would sneak into houses in the area and rearrange the furniture while the families slept. After he was convicted and it came out, my mother was freaked out knowing that they had been operating where we lived. It effected her sense of security. I had no such illusions. My father's job ensured that.

I remember the trial, what a circus it was. Every day in front of the courthouse, three young ladies would sit on the sidewalk protesting. When Charlie carved a swastika in his forehead, they did to. There are moments in this world where you cannot turn away, where we all look at the same train wreck at once. Watergate and OJ come to mind. The prurient, voyeuristic, knee jerk fascination with the slightest disgusting detail being discussed for days. Manson provided that level of entertainment.

Let me start by saying that I am glad that Charlie never got out of jail. There is a slight problem, he didn't go to jail for killing anyone. He went to jail for murders that others committed. He did not kill Sharon Tate or the La Biancas. Many murderers have spent less time in jail than he did. What made hi special?

Charlie grew up in the system, he grew up in jail, he grew up being abused and he got used to it. He used to say that we created him and to a degree we did; but, he failed to take responsibility for his choices. In the end, Charlie was jailed for the evil in his heart and not the evil that he did (and he did plenty). Charlie's greatest challenge to our beliefs was his accusation that we let evil happen to him as a child. On that issue, he was correct. We can argue over the options he had, our responsibility to take care of one another and our ability to have protected him; but, in the end, he saw us as those who allowed him to be abused as a child. He saw us as the evil ones, he never killed anyone and yet he saw us killing hundreds of thousands in Vietnam and he was the one that went to jail.

Who shall pray for his soul, who shall give forgiveness? God will, his challenge will be accepting it, accepting that he had no excuse, that he is responsible for his actions to himself. That can only be bought by forgiving others. Charlie did not make those young girls leave their homes, they left them on their own and he found them. He took them in and made them feel loved. He told them that they were the family after their own families had turned a cold heart to them.

A community is a type of family. If we reject the pain of others, a time will come and is coming when we create a society of Charlie's. I read that one of Tate's relatives said a prayer for him. I think she might just get what I am talking about and I am quite sure God will credit her forgiveness as righteousness.

UPDATE:

By the way, the idiots at the Washington Post referred to his as a serial killer. He was not. He is believed to have committed two murders with purpose, not thrill kills. He did not kill Tate or the La Biancas personally. He does not fit the profile of a serial killer. Son of Sam was a serial killer, Zodiac was a serial killer, BTK was a serial killer, Manson was a sociopath who influenced others into believing it was okay for them to kill people.