Charles Manson Today: The Final Confessions of a Psychopath

Star looks up, and here is Charlie again, smiling his chipped-tooth, bad-dentures smile, with a pair of cool, yellow-tinted shades covering his eyes. He’s pushing a wheelchair in front of him, using it for support, but it’s probably all for show, part of some con against the system, because two minutes later, he’s on his feet, doing the dragon-dance kung-fu thing he historically reserves for when the TV cameras are turned on.

manson 7 He did it for Charlie Rose in 1986, Penny Daniels in 1987 and Geraldo Rivera in 1988. These were the golden years of his midlife media exposure. In interviews, he was a massive kinetic force, constantly parting his long, graying hair and fiddling with his beard, eyes all six-guns-a-blazing, rolling right over and owning some of his adversaries (Rivera was especially hapless), playing nice and thoughtful with others, and always raging with righteous indignation. He made for terrific TV. But after a booming, almost sexually aggressive chat with Diane Sawyer in 1994, the state of California banned the use of recording devices during prisoner interviews. This upsets Manson greatly. It’s the reason why you haven’t heard from him lately. He tends to sulk about it. The main reason is the dance, the big set piece in so many of his on-camera appearances. It’s the dance, more even than words, that he believes can best communicate his true feelings, thoughts and ideas. Without it, what’s the point of talking to the media? And it really is quite astounding to see, him moving into it now, arms and legs circling around in baroque curlicues, forming jagged-glass shapes and otherworldly patterns and whorls. What it all means, I don’t know. But, boy, is he dexterous.

Star has a few things on her mind. For one, that Manson-memorabilia collector. “He’s attacking us and saying someone’s going to come to my home,” she says.

Charlie folds his hands together. “Are you still going to target practice?”

Star nods.

“Good. If they’re bullying you, they’re afraid. They’re just a bunch of Internet fat mouths,” he says. Although, of course, he’s never been on the Internet in his life. Or on a computer.

He uses his shirt sleeve to wipe some sleepy-winker rheum out of his eyes, then puts his hand on mine, runs his fingers along my fingers, up my wrist, and up my forearm. He squeezes it a few times and says, “Man, you’re a soft dude,” which I make a joke out of, telling him I don’t go that way. He shrugs. “Sex to me is like going to the toilet. Whether it’s a girl or not, it doesn’t matter. I don’t play that girl-guy shit. I’m not hung up in that game.”

Then he nods at Star and says, “I can get inside her from out here, just got to go slow.” He shakes his head and leans in on me, easing up close. “Well, you know what I’d really like to have? I’d like to have some real pussy. I’d like to have a little something to smoke. I’d like a good electric guitar. I’d like a good place to fart and shit. I’d like to have what you have.” He’s not threatening me, he’s just saying, and it seems to be taking him back. “All the people sucking and fucking at the ranch, I couldn’t turn any of them away. All I was looking for is some pussy and to play some music and dance. I took Susie off the bottom. Everyone said she’s ugly, looks like a man. I said she’s a beautiful piece of humanity. She paid me back. She hands me the bloody knife and says, ‘I love you so much, I give you my life.’ And Leslie, well, I boned her a few times. She had a big, fat old ugly, it was like sticking your dick out the window. Now that don’t make her a bad person, but that’s not what you want.”

He scowls, in a mood, sitting with his legs open, his little round convict’s belly hanging down in between.

“They all went out and killed, but, of course, I wouldn’t do nothing,” he goes on. “Do you expect me to go kill all those people? I was scared. I didn’t want to go back to prison. Cockroaches do more for life than I do. I do . . . nothing.” He stands up. “What a life, man. One great big fucking piece of shit.”

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