Squeaky Fromme to Be Released from Jail 8/16/09
 

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And speaking of the Manson Family, August 9th is the 40th anniversary of the Manson murders that took place at the Tate-Polanski house.

CNN and Life have been posting stories about the Manson family. I remember seeing Helter Skelter as a kid and being totally freaked out.

Hulu.com has a Biography episode about the Manson women that I watched last night. As they did back in the footage from 1969, they look pretty normal (well, Fromme was always kinda scary to me, loopy) and benign yet those murders were freakin' gruesome. They are fighting for their release, but I don't think that will ever happen. The documentary had the footage of Fromme pointing her gun at Ford. It could have been quite gory had it been loaded.

Gee, all of the cool outlaws of my youth are getting out of jail.

If I recall, Squeaky went to high school with Tramspotter's mom.

My only question is whether she still thinks she's unworthy of Charlie's love. Charlie, Charlie.

I wonder if Fromme will ever go see a performance of Assassins. If I had a song about me in a Sondheim musical, I wouldn't hesitate, of course.

John Waters is running a series of articles on Huffpost about his friendship with Leslie Van Houten, advocating her parole. It's part of an upcoming book called Role Models, and he is very thoughtful and even introspective here.

I've read Waters' articles and though I applaud his sense of compassion for his friend Van Houten, I can't agree with him about how she should be set free. The LaBianca murders were gruesome. I have a hard time feeling sorry for someone who was holding down Mrs. LaBianca as she was stabbed and then stabbed her 16 times herself.

I agree with you - and disagree with Waters - but still appreciated his point of view. I also found it a bit of a relief that he admits his early obsession with the Manson family may not have been the healthiest thing in the world. It was interesting for him to consider the fine line between himself and his drugged out hippie friends who made obnoxious movies, and Manson's drugged up hippie friends who murdered in order to start a race war. Always a fascinating and deeply troubling story.