Charles Manson's Sixties

Charming, persuasive, and intelligent are adjectives to describe the most notorious American criminal of the nineteen sixties: Charles Manson. Conversely, these are common traits seen among many criminals throughout the United States within modern society. The only difference being the era in which Manson used Helter Skelter to rule with fear over American households. Manson was only successful in his quest for fame because of the liberal turnabout during this time. Drugs and free love are the new main ideologies of the sixties that gave Manson ground to indoctrinate the American youth into his cult.
Marijuana, LSD, Heroin, Methamphetamines is the drugs on the street that are quickly transferring hands throughout America. The New age hippies

are all laced out on the array of drugs. Haight Ashbury Street, the foreground of hippie culture, are over populated with young people escaping the harsh realities of adult and home life. “Haight streets smelled like piss, and a lot of little stores were closing down. All the people we thought were running around with flowers in their hair were now laying with needles stuck in their neck” (Guinn). A real account of the Haight Ashbury experience so many juveniles were flocking to with no regard of the truth that lay in front of them. Manson then stalked the San Francisco Street for young, naïve, and lost children of the new generation. He even partook in drug use himself to heighten his street preaching, which consisted of a mix of Beatles lyrics and bible quotes. He searched for new followers or anyone senseless enough to give him hospitality or currency. However, the vast emerging drug market in the sixties gave to Manson’s calculating skills to a heightened level.
Sex was the second component in the Manson formula. He utilized it as a way to lure women into “The Family.” “Women were so much easier-you told them that they were beautiful, you picked up on their daddy complexes, you had sex with them, and then if they were insecure and needy enough, they were yours” (Guinn). An example of the formulaic measurements Manson exercised to increase the quantity of The Family. The ones he deemed pretty would be pimped out to outside males for his personal gain and for a better male following. Once impregnated they would be leveraged to gain monetary and hospitable support from unsuspecting victims. He used pimp tactics such as keeping all currency away from the women. When he sent them out to pan handle they would be paired with a male who would hold onto the money. This would ensure the women would have nonexistent possibilities of trying to escape The Family. There would be no change to make a call on a payphone or money to hitch a ride. This is all made possible by the new free love ideology encircled in the sixties. Women were prompted into sexual freedom, thus making Charlie’s tactics seemingly apart of the time.
Charles Manson was an abhorrent man, with vast manipulative skills, but most importantly he was in the right era. The exciting and new rules of the sixties are the greatest contributor in giving Manson the capacity to influence and destroy lives. The emerging drug market made it much easier to get people to do what he wanted. The sexual freedom arising made it easier to subdue women into his clutches.