Taming the Beast: Charles Manson's Life Behind Bars
by Edward George, Dary Matera
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Book Summary Information
Author: Dary Matera, Edward GeorgeEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1999-07-16
ISBN: 0312209703
Number of pages: 304
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Book Reviews of Taming the Beast: Charles Manson's Life Behind Bars
Book Review: Taming the Beast
Summary: 5 Stars
Written by a guy who was Charles Mansons prison counselor for eight years. This is of interest because it gives some insite into Mansons life since he has been in prison. Also included are transcripts of Mansons commentary during his various court and parole hearings over the years. This book is not perfect, the author at various times bends over backwards to paint Manson as being "spookier" than he really is, at one point implying that the reason for a near drowning accident and being attacked by an inmate were the result of a "voodoo doll" curse put on him by Manson! But flaws aside this is a very interesting look at Mansons life in the California prison system and contains the previously mentioned court/parole transcripts so it is a must read if you have an interest in Charles Manson.
Summary of Taming the Beast: Charles Manson's Life Behind Bars
Edward George understand Charles Manson as few others ever will. Former prison counselor to the messianic killer, George enraged Manson as an agent of the state's criminal justice system, listened to him as a trusted confessor, spoke for him as an erstwhile press agent-and-almost-connected with him as a friend. George saw Manson in a way the public never would, witnessing the method to his madness, the charisma that underlies his sickness, the pathetic abandoned boy within the homicidal man. If you read Helter Skelter and think you know the whole story about Charlie Manson, think again. You don't know it all until you've read Taming the Beast: Charles Manson's Life Behind Bars.
Edward George, who was Charles Manson's prison counselor for eight years during the late 1970s and early '80s, offers an insider's look at the creepy cult leader's day-to-day life behind bars. Although Charlie is literally a graybeard now, he's lost none of his knack for oddball ranting and dark and compelling personal magnetism. George conveys the riveting persona of the convicted killer--complex and arcane, by turns violent and easygoing, and in some ways even sensitive. In one bizarre incident, Manson, upon discovering a bird's nest outside his cell window, procures an egg from the nest to protect it from the prison's cleaning crews, who routinely swept such nests off the building. George stumbles upon Charlie expectantly warming the egg with his hands, hoping for a hatchling to emerge. "Charles Manson held that egg in his hands for weeks, cherishing it, talking to it, waiting for that bird to emerge," George writes. "It never did."
The portrait of Manson that emerges from Taming the Beast is largely one of a defanged, eccentric, and even comical man, a man who goes before parole boards every few years and, like an actor leaping onstage, performs for his captive audience, then chuckles about it afterward. Still, the author is careful to remind readers of the harsher reality of Manson's past, at one point promising to stick a "shank into that bastard's black heart" if Manson ever came after his daughter. Though George struggles mightily to emphasize Charlie's sociopathic nature, it becomes obvious very early on in the book that he has a fairly big soft spot for his former charge. Manson, it seems, despite being confined, still has his infamous powers of persuasion after half a life on ice. --Tjames Madison
West Books
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