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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
From Kirkus Reviews
The latest entry in the canon of a true madman. George, a retired corrections officer who met Manson in 1975 at San Quentin, says up front that his Jesuit training led him to believe that the beast could indeed be tamed. His years of knowing Mansonwhom he frequently describes as devilish or demonic, a wicked trollled him to believe otherwise, and as both George's narrative and the parole board hearing transcripts cited here make clear, Manson is as monstrously sick as ever; he builds cockroach cages and voodoo dolls and rants about himself as a Christ-like figure. This volume (coauthored by true-crime writer Matera) gives us an ugly, ugly look at a man whose entire life has been a study in sickness. George advances a few theories about Manson's childhood and relationship with his father, then admits he doesn't know if Manson actually knew his father. George also has little to offer about Manson's motivations, though he does provide a chilling glimpse of Family members like Lynette Squeaky Fromme, who showed up at the prison regularly in her red cape, begging to be allowed to see Manson. George saw her just days before she attempted to assassinate then-president Gerald Ford. George also gives updates on the women who still follow Mansonand there are quite a few of themand it's scary how active the Family still is, nearly 30 years after they rose to infamy. While it's tough to see the rationale behind yet another book about this particular psychoManson himself counts 58 books on the topicGeorge has some items of interest to those who want to know all the details of Manson's prison life. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Review
"A valuable book which gives additional insights into the criminal mind of Charles Manson." --Vincent Bugliosi, author of Helter Skelter "[George] strives to understand Manson and his devotees and, spewing psychological and spiritual insights and plenty of witchy Masonoid details, succeeds in horrifying his readers.' --Booklist "[Taming the Beast] puts a human face on a man whose very name defines evil-revealing the personality hidden during television interviews." --Almeda Journal "The latest entry in the canon of a true madman...this volume...gives us an ugly, ugly look at a man whose entire life has been a study in sickness." --Kirkus Reviews "This anecdotal account...confirms that Manson remains without remorse, unstable, frightening, and unlikely to ever be paroled." --Library Journal "Manson continues his reign as America's leading celebrity carnivore." --Phoenix Arizona Republic
Book Description
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.
From the Publisher
"A valuable book which gives additional insights into the criminal mind of Charles Manson." --Vincent Bugliosi, author of Helter Skelter "[George] strives to understand Manson and his devotees and, spewing psychological and spiritual insights and plenty of witchy Mansonoid details, succeeds in horrifying his readers." --Booklist "[Taming the Beast] puts a human face on a man whose very name defines evil--revealing the personality hidden during television interviews." --Almeda Journal "The latest entry in the canon of a true madman...this volume...gives us an ugly, ugly look at a man whose entire life has been a study in sickness." --Kirkus Reviews "This anecdotal account...confirms that Manson remains without remorse, unstable, frightening, and unlikely to ever be paroled." --Library Journal "Manson continues his reign as America's leading celebrity carnivore." --Phoenix Arizona Republic
About the Author
Edward George is a former theological student and Navy pilot who lives in San Francisco. Dary Matera is a veteran true-crime writer and coauthor of Are You Lonesome Tonight? He lives in Chandler, Arizona.
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