Charles Manson: The Man Who Murdered the Sixties - Softcover

Krajicek, Charles Manson Mass Killers David J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1789501830 ISBN 13: 9781789501834

Publisher: Arcturus, 2019

Synopsis

Fifty years after CharlesManson's shocking murders, the American true crime writer David J.Krajicek takes a fresh look at his life and crimes in a portrait of evil that reveals the dark side of the swinging Sixties. Using Manson's ownwords and those of his naive followers, Krajicek, a former professor ofjournalism at Columbia University, shows how the manipulative ex-convict managed to build a harem of acolytes who committed murder on hisbehalf, including that of the emerging film star Sharon Tate.

Krajicek portrays Manson, raised amid impoverished Appalachian despair, as anunlikely messiah. Freshly paroled after spending most of his young lifelocked up, he stumbled into San Francisco in 1967 just as thousands ofimpressionable young people were streaming into town for the Summer ofLove. Using skills of manipulation he gainedin prison, Manson assembled his personal commune cult of hippies,three-quarters of whom were women. He began to control their bodies andminds as they moved from one LA flop to the next, graduating from peaceand love to horrific acts of violence that shook the world.

 
The narrative is framed by the seminal events of the time--the sexualrevolution, the civil rights movement, race riots, space exploration,and the emergence of the drug-happy hippie culture and psychedelic music scene. Charles Manson became the personification of Flower Power goneto seed.

About this title

From the Author

David J. Krajicek has been telling crime stories for more than 30 years, as an author and a newspaperman.

A native of South Omaha, Nebraska, he comes from a long lineofmeatpackers and bartenders--men and women who have told a few storiesof their own. After more than a decade covering the crime beatforMidwestern and New York newspapers, Krajicek worked as aColumbiaUniversity journalism professor during the 1990s but was soondrawn back to his true muse: writing.

Since 1999, he hasbeen writingThe Justice Story, a weekly historical true crime featurethat has beenrunning in the New York Daily News for nearly a century.(His book"Murder, American Style" includes 50 brisk stories drawn fromhis workon The Justice Story.) He continues to write about crime andcriminaljustice for many other venues, contributing to The CrimeReport,Alternet, The New York Times, Boston Magazine, Slate and others.

He was a special correspondent for Court TV's CrimeLibrary and has appeared frequently on television as a true crimeexpert, including on"The Today Show," Dominick Dunne's "Power, Privilege and Justice," and"The Poisoner's Handbook" on PBS's AmericanExperience.

In addition to his 50-year look back at Charles Manson, hismost recent books include Mass Killers: Inside the Minds of Men Who Murder (Arcturus) and Massachusetts Disasters: True Stories of Tragedy andSurvival (Second Edition) (Globe Pequot Press). His books also include a 2011 e-book, Gotti and Me: A Crime Reporter's Close Encounters With the New York Mafia(News Ink Books); the regional best-seller True Crime: Missouri, The State's Most Notorious CriminalCases (Stackpole), and an e-book for Kindle Singles, Death By Rock 'n' Roll" (Crimescape/RosettaBooks).

When he is not writing, Krajicek can often be found on a bandstand or tennis court. He has spent 25 years singing and playing trombone in a NewYork-based R&B band. He lives in the Catskill Mountains of NewYorkand on the Gulf Coast.

Review

"The 300-plus-page book is a masterful, well-written, well-researched,contextual and insightful exploration into the motivations and mentalstate of these killers in their own words."--Ruben Rosario, St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press

Edition details

• Publisher: Arcturus
• Publication date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1789501830
• ISBN 13: 9781789501834
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256