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What makes a mass murderer?

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Charlie Manson is dead. Fetch me a bin liner. I could make that funeral quick and inexpensive I assure you.

In the wake of Manson’s long overdue demise there were a great many catastrophically bad opinions expressed.

Chuck Woolery, a former television host and Hollywood conservative does a podcast (doesn’t everyone these days?) with fellow weirdo, Mark Young. It sounds as many podcasts do, as if two drunk men are sitting in a garage with a cheap microphone trying to outdo each other with increasingly stupid takes.

Woolery thinks Manson was an early supporter of the antifa (anti-fascist movement) and further that had Charlie been allowed to vote, he would have scratched a swastika in the box alongside Bernie Saunders’ name. By Woolery’s logic Jeffrey Dahmer would be a Reaganite, preferring to opt out of the expensive food stamp welfare program and make his own sandwiches.

Sadly it got a lot worse. On the other side of the political aisle, there were some appalling attempts to evoke sympathy for the man who facilitated and urged his followers to commit the most appalling deeds known as the Tate-Labianca murders in Los Angeles in 1969.

Full column here.

516 Comments

  • Milton says:

    Nice to see Smith and Marsh settle the ship. Pretty even test thus far.

  • Milton says:

    Only a little bloke Charlie so a freezer bag could do the job.

  • Dwight says:

    I’ve always been a bit disturbed by the mainstream musicians who covered some of Manson’s songs from his album: Lie: The Love Terror Cult
    https://m.ranker.com/list/manson-covers/lyra-radford

  • Wissendorf says:

    Squeaky Fromme made the attempt on Ford in 1975, long after Manson was jailed. I believe he remained a dangerous influence to the end of his life, and Brown’s stance is justified.

  • Dismayed says:

    Batting collapses lead to murderous results. Handscombe’s “technique” was always going to be an issue against the POMs quicks.

  • Razor says:

    The nature verse nurture argument generally sits on the outdated right left paradigm. Over the years, generally speaking, I have observed a substantial proportion of offenders come from broken homes or single parent families. This is not to say many successful people do not come from broken homes. Malcolm Turnbull and Albo immediately come to mind. I actually believe the predisposition to criminality comes from an innate weakness in character. This weakness can manifest in some reasonably benign ways or in more serious aberrations. Often pure chance dictates this. What I do know is some juvenile offenders, once on the road to career criminality, are impossible to deter. It manifests at quite a young age and is easy to pick. Family support, social support and legal support count for nothing. They are what they are. Here’s a little prediction. Watch how the young chap Voller from the NT goes and see if I am wrong.

    • Jack The Insider says:

      Poverty is a corollary of crime. No doubt about it. But it’s not a cause. In the case of Voller, I’d like to think there was sufficient effort to intervene and prevent him going further down the road. The argument makes more sense when you flip it to the cost of crime to the community. It is sensible to spend a little money and a lot of energy now than it is to have a career criminal either running about or banged up.

      • Razor says:

        Absolutely agree re prevention being cheaper in the long run than any attempted cure JTI. What good programs and targeted community support can do is deter those on the fringes or, if you like, those starting down the path. I’ve personally seen it with young aboriginal kids in Nth Queensland. Presented an award one night to a young 16yr old kid which had the whole auditorium with tears in their eyes, myself included. Project Booyah in Queensland is one of many which seems to achieve results. I think the reason is because it targets specific kids and doesn’t use a broad brush one fits all approach. These programs aren’t cheap but the perspective is this; If one kid commits just one break and enter or steals one car a week a year then that is 52 offences. The cost to the community is not just in property and insurance premiums. It comes through people not feeling safe. These people report higher levels of stress and more engagement with health professionals therefore this adds significantly to the overall cost of low level offending. As you rightly pointed out many of the people you mentioned started with low level offending. So the question is where do the community wish to spend the money? I know what makes more sense.

        On Voller, mark my words he will come to the notice of law enforcement in the future. He is on of the entractables I mentiomed in my previous post.

  • smoke says:

    the bastard was barking mad and should’ve been shot at birth and shoved down a rabbit hole

    • Milton says:

      which or what bastard, smoke? and I think you’re jumping the gun shooting people at birth. then again i’m open to all suggestions that are reasonably argued and now I tend to agree with you even though we are not permitted to have rabbit holes up here in qld but we’re an resourceful mob us qld’ers

  • Henry Blofeld says:

    A bin liner for Manson you say Mr Insider, way too expensive burial for him. I remember as a young man seeing his murdering exploits on TV and he masterminded the killing of Roman Polanski’s wife, Sharon Tate on his way to a murderous killing spree. Polanski wasn’t at home at the time otherwise he would have gone too. As your good read goes on to say we here in Australia have had some shocking mass murderers too, the worst of course was the scumbag who killed 35 at Port Arthur in Tasmania in ’96. What is to come , who lurks out there waiting to strike we wonder?

    • Tracy says:

      Rather tasteless of Polanski to be photographed at the house soon after, “pig” written in his wife’s blood was still on the front door.
      He’s a bit of a wierdo still.

      • Jack The Insider says:

        No excuses for his crimes but one can only imagine what be went through when Tate was murdered eight and a half months pregnant. Got your reminder by the way. I’m in.

      • Henry Blofeld says:

        He sure is Tracy and he has spent most of his life hiding overseas trying to get away from a child abuse charge in the USA. Cheers

  • Tracy says:

    Don’t know if you’ve ever heard of H H Holmes Jack but, to quote “I was born with the Devil in me. I could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than a poet can help the inspiration to sing…….I was born with the evil one standing as my sponsor beside the bed where I was ushered into the world and he has been with me since”
    Sums it up really, sometimes it just is.

  • Wissendorf says:

    Nearly all the ‘family’ have been granted parole at least once but it seems Gov Jerry Brown will never permit their release. Manson is the second to die in jail. Susan Atkins died of brain cancer in jail in 2009 and was refused compassionate release. Leslie van Houten, has applied for parole 19 times, and it has been granted twice, most recently when I was in LA in September but Brown insists she is still a big risk so has overturned her release. The only family member to be granted Parole and be freed was Lynette ‘Squeaky’ Fromme. She wasn’t involved in the Tate-LaBianca killings but attempted to kill Gerald Ford. She was pounced upon by Secret Service agents and her trial, imprisonment and parole were under Federal not State law. Linda Kasabian, the getaway driver, turned State’s evidence and wasn’t tried as she claimed not to be involved in the killings. She moved to the East Coast after the trials and lived as a suburban mum with 4 kids. While I was in the US it was sensationally revealed that her DNA had been identified on items from the Tate mansion and she had been arrested. This was about the same time van Houten got knocked back for release. I never heard the outcome of this development.

    • Jean Baptiste says:

      Kasabian was at the scene when the killings started and retired to the car to wait. That has always been known.

      • Wissendorf says:

        Thanks Jean Baptiste. I had to deduce she had been present at the crime scene for her testimony to carry legal weight, but there was no mention in the article I read of her arrest, of what the items were she had been identified as being tied to. And then it all just vanished. Also, the article led me to believe she had been arrested in the family home in New Hampshire, when she had apparently been found in near poverty in a mid West trailer park. Further, I have misinformed stating Squeaky Fromme was the only one ever released. Clem Grogan, whom the judge regarded as ‘dim’ was released in 1985 after revealing the location of one of the missing bodies. While looking for more info I stumbled onto the fact Manson had dabbled in Scientology. Good summaries in Rolling Stone. http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/pictures/manson-family-where-are-they-now-w430665

        • Jean Baptiste says:

          Good link Wissendorf.
          That’s the thing with the charisma of some of the most malevolent and crazy people, they can convince others to do terrible things. Exploiting a primal desire to be part of the ingroup or pleasing an omnipotent parental figure.
          Give ’em heaps.

          • Wissendorf says:

            I noted in one of the articles I read that the biggest mass murder in US history before 9/11 was the Jonestown massacre. Your summation is spot on.

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