Aug 10, 2020
The Manson Murders are captivating, not just because of the shocking nature of the crimes or the involvement of actual Hollywood celebrities.
They are also a metaphor about the end of the 60s, a bleak reminder that movements are as much about the people in them as they are about the ideas they espouse.
A dark undercurrent ran through the Sixties that goes completely against the narrative of “Free Love,” one that turned women into objects of a movement that was meant to liberate them.
The story of the Manson Murders is about the disaffected women of America during a time of social upheaval finding something they thought they could belong to.
They were Orphans, runaways, and rebels, teenage girls and young women living at the margins of society. This was a time of “dropping out,” literally leaving society to find a more personal, transcendentalist experience.
What that often meant was ignoring all traditional familial structures, and when that happens, people tend to fall through the cracks.
That’s true with Dianne “Snake” Lake—author of Member of the Family—and Squeaky Fromme and plenty of the other members of the family.
One of the ironies of the freedom associated with the late Sixties is that people still nevertheless fell victim to the need for an authoritarian figure, someone whom they thought they could trust and put all their faith in.
That is, ultimately, the story of Charles Manson and young women and men who made up his family.
This is just a slice of that story, and I hope I tell it well.
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