Summary of Nikki Meredith's The Manson Women and Me

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 I was researching a story about settled gypsies in 1995, and I wanted to meet one of them, George, who was living in Hollywood. I went to the Formosa Café, and when I didn’t see George, I sat down and watched a tennis match on the TV above the bar. A man next to me began watching a documentary about Charles Manson.

#2 I had fled the city because of the bad air, but I was also escaping the atmosphere of boundless possibility. I had always felt that L. A. was a place to experiment and shed the past, but now it felt like it was bedrock.

#3 I was so afraid of the women in Manson’s group, who seemed normal, that I couldn’t bring myself to read about the murders. I was also afraid of Charles Manson, who had achieved almost mythical status in the country.

#4 The enduring power of the Manson myth stems not only from his involvement in the murders, but from his ability to destroy the humanity of seemingly normal young people who killed at his command.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Apr 27, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669395355

IRB Media

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Insights from Chapter 1

#1

I was researching a story about settled gypsies in 1995, and I wanted to meet one of them, George, who was living in Hollywood. I went to the Formosa Café, and when I didn’t see George, I sat down and watched a tennis match on the TV above the bar. A man next to me began watching a documentary about Charles Manson.

#2

I had fled the city because of the bad air, but I was also escaping the atmosphere of boundless possibility. I had always felt that L. A. was a place to experiment and shed the past, but now it felt like it was bedrock.

#3

I was so afraid of the women in Manson’s group, who seemed normal, that I couldn’t bring myself to read about the murders. I was also afraid of Charles Manson, who had achieved almost mythical status in the country.

#4

The enduring power of the Manson myth stems not only from his involvement in the murders, but from his ability to destroy the humanity of seemingly normal young people who killed at his command.

Insights from Chapter 2

#1

Charles Manson instructed his followers to rob and kill everyone in the house, which they did. They found four people in the house: Sharon Tate, a veteran of more than ten films, was eight months pregnant with her husband Roman Polanski’s child.

#2

The murders that took place that night were the result of a party that had gone on too long. The drugs had gotten too hard, the sex too easy, and a deranged tension had been building.

#3

We learned that Steven Parent, a kid from the San Gabriel Valley, had been at Cielo Drive only to see if he could sell his clock radio to William Garretson, the caretaker. According to Linda Kasabian’s account, Steven also begged for his life.

Insights from Chapter 3

#1

On August 9, 1969, Manson and his followers went to the house of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, who were getting ready for bed. They tied them up and killed them.

#2

The Manson Family murdered the LaBiancas, a couple who lived at the address where the Manson Family lived. They wrote death to pigs on a tapestry in the living room, and wrote rise and Healter Skelter on the refrigerator.

Insights from Chapter 4

#1

I wrote to the women, and received letters from Pat and Leslie agreeing to interviews. I met with a filmmaker who was planning to make a documentary on the three women. But California Department of Corrections officials banned media interviews in prisons, citing concerns about the safety of the prisoners.

Insights