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Films >> Helter Skelter (1976) >>

1) I have heard that Haight-Ashbury's reputation was created by "flower children" who advocated love and peace. There were a few of those still in the district, but as a whole, that image was on the decline long before Charles Manson appeared on the scene (Manson, quoted in Emmons 85.)

2) The power of sex wasn't all I learned from those girls. The two of them, from completely different backgrounds, gave me a fair glimpse of the generation that was so dominant in the 60s. While some were running from bad homes and traumatic experiences, others were leaving good homes because of their disenchantment with the restrictions of their parents' code of morality. They were searching for a way of life that would allow them self-expression and acceptance among those they chose to be with. (Manson, quoted in Emmons 97)

3) For the first time in my thirty-three years of life, I was current with fads and lifestyles. I wasn't a misfit, somebody's bastard child, or an ex-convict that people didn't want around. And this situation existed not only in the Haight, but all over America and other countries as well. The flower children and the hippies were accepted as part of the times. My chest was probably puffed out bigger than it was supposed to be, but damn, there was joy and excitement to just being around a whole generation of people who saw me as an equal (Manson, quoted in Emmons 101.)

4) Nothing is wrong if it feels good and satisfies you (Manson, quoted in Emmons 103.)

5) The whole trip in the 60s -- all the protests, the drop-outs, the runaways, the flower children, the hippies, the drug addicts, and yes, the murdering outlaws -- was the product of a society that spoke lies and denied their children something or someone to respect (Manson, quoted in Emmons 143-44.)

6) I hadn't twisted any arms. I wasn't sitting behind anyone with a gun to their head, giving directions. Yet I can't deny making some of the suggestions that led to the events of that night. Nor can I deny that I was the one person who could have prevented that car from leaving Spahn Ranch. But -- so goes the feeling of power when coupled with hatred (Manson, quoted in Emmons 201.)

7) And the more the media sensationalized the crimes, the wider the grin got on my face (Manson, quoted in Emmons 212.)

8) It was like I was some god who could do no wrong (Manson, quoted in Emmons 215.)

9) The myth of Charles Manson has twisted more minds than I was ever accused of touching (Manson, quoted in Emmons 225.)

10) At my will, I walk your streets and am right out there among you (Manson, quoted in Emmons 227.)

11) That Manson foresaw a war between the blacks and the whites was not fantastic. Many people believe that such a war may someday occur. What was fantastic was that he was convinced he could personally start that war himself (Bugliosi 293.)

12) Just before she went underground, Bernadine Dohrn told a Students for a Democratic Society convention: "Offing those rich pigs with their own forks and knives, and then eating a meal in the same room, far out! The Weathermen dig Charles Manson" (Bugliosi 296.)

13) He's more of a rock star than any of the other serial killers (magazine editor Mark Kemp, quoted in Rosen F-01.)

14) I remember growing up getting Jim Morrison confused with Charles Manson (singer Marilyn Manson, quoted in Rosen F-01.)

15) He's [Manson] the Achilles' heel of the baby-boomer generation. Especially to all its nostalgia for the hippie days -- the Summer of Love, the peace generation, Woodstock, free love, communal living and LSD-aided mind expansion (Rosen F-01.)

16) He [Manson] was the quintessential hippie. He represents what was worst of that generation (sociologist Jack Levin, quoted in Rosen F-01.)

17) In an interview before his last hearing in August, 1989, Manson said he might have to kill several hundred people in retaliation if he's ever released, then expressed interest in saving the environment, primarily trees (Tyler C15.)