Should Charles Manson have been found guilty?

[Amateur_Barbarian]

@Moriarty

I think this is an excellent synopsis, and makes a lot of sense.

It’s also pretty much straight out of Bugliosi, although he may have left the question more open through simple “exercise left to the reader” thinking.

Even now, 45 years later, he’s never mellowed, repented, or shown any sort of remorse. I’m inclined to believe he never believed his own rhetoric, and was just engaged in cynical manipulation, but I’m not sure if his ongoing behavior supports or invalidates that belief. He’s still as mean, narcissistic, and delusional as ever.

“I decided I didn’t care. He was never again going to kill any little girls. That suited me. I went to sleep.”

[Captain_Amazing]

@tapu

It references my casual observations that most people have no idea that Manson wasn’t convicted of a murder.)

Manson was convicted of seven counts of murder, wasn’t he?

[Little_Nemo]

@Captain_Amazing

Manson was convicted of seven counts of murder, wasn’t he?

Seven counts of first degree murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder. He was also convicted of one count of first degree murder in the death of Gary Hinman at another trial.

[Guinastasia]

Someone can be crazy, but still legally sane, if they knew what they were doing was wrong, or at the very least, illegal.

[madsircool]

@Little_Nemo

Seven counts of first degree murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder. He was also convicted of one count of first degree murder in the death of Gary Hinman at another trial.

Charles Manson

Claims

In 1971 he was found guilty of conspiracy to commit the murders of seven people: actress Sharon Tate and four other people at Tate’s home; and the next day, a married couple, Leno and Rosemary LaBianca; all carried out by members of the group at his instruction. He was convicted of the murders through the joint-responsibility rule, which makes each member of a conspiracy guilty of crimes his fellow conspirators commit in furtherance of the conspiracy’s objective.

[Leo_Krupe]

I don’t know whether this fits better here or in the Vince Bugliosi is dead thread, but I was re-reading my copy of Manson In His Own Words last night, and found this on page 200:

@Charles Manson

…I spotted Tex walking toward the boardwalk. I gave him a call, he stopped, and we had a talk near the corral fence. I did most of the talking. “It’s time to get something done for Bobby. The girls are ready to do whatever is necessary. They don’t have a plan or a place picked out, so it looks like it’s going to be pretty much up to you. But I think it would be best to hit some of the rich pigs’ places. Get some bolt cutters or something you can cut a phone wire or gate chain with. You know what else you need, so put it all together and get going.” He said, “Geez, Charlie, my mind’s not working, I can’t think of a house.” “Come on Tex,” I said, “you’ve been to a lot of those rich guys’ places. You know the neighborhoods–someplace like where Terry used to live. Just make sure the girls do it like Gary’s house was done. Maybe even take some rope and hang somebody, like a reverse of the Ku Klux Klan thing; that way it will put the heat on the blackies.”

Now, Manson also says in that book that most of what he ever said was twisted to suit other purposes (like Bugliosi’s, who Manson doesn’t mention by name – he calls him the prosecutor or the DA), but you have to admit, if that statement I quoted (and don’t take my word for it, the edition I have is ISBN 0-8021-3024-0 trade paperback)is true, then that’s pretty damning evidence that Manson was in control, and is in fact, guilty as charged.