The Manson Women and Me: Monsters, Morality, and Murder by Nikki Meredith

Okay, I promise this will be my last serial killer book for a little bit. After recent events, I've needed something lighter. But that does not mean I didn't enjoy this book thoroughly. I have taken an interest in the people involved in the Manson murders, and this book did not disappoint.

(Source: Kelsey Darling)

In this biography, Nikki Meredith spent 20+ years getting to know Leslie Van Houten and Patricia "Pat" Krenwinkel. She wanted to learn if they really had changed in their years of incarceration and ends up building a relationship with the women.

After reading Helter Skelter last month, I had my opinion on the people involved in the murders. I felt that Manson did deserve the death penalty all those years ago as he never changed his stance that what he did was wrong. And I felt that Susan Atkins, Tex Watson, Leslie, and Pat did deserve life in prison without the chance of parole. After reading this book, I see that this thought is much more complicated. My stance on Manson has not changed. Too many tax dollars went towards him. However, I don't know if the other deserve(d) life without parole (I say deserved in regards to Susan as she passed away in 2009). While the book focuses on just the two women, it has me questioning all of them, and I can honestly say that I am glad I am not on the parole board or the governor who has to approve the parole.

(Patricia Krenwinkel
Source: LA Times)

Both women have worked toward being better people. Krenwinkel has maintained a perfect prison record, received a Bachelor's in Human Services from the University of La Verne, is an active member of AA and NA, taught illiterate prisoners how to read, writes poetry and music, plays guitar, and was active on the prisons women's volleyball team.Van Houten is also heavily involved in recovery groups and has received her Bachelor's in English. In the book, Meredith describes how the women have worked to overcome their demons and regret the decision that changed so many lives in 1969, not only through their own personal accounts but through accounts of friends and family who have kept in contact with the women over the years.

Towards the end of the book, as it moves to more recent years, Meredith discusses the parole hearing the women have been through, and been denied. The one that really had me questioning my stance on the women was when Leslie was denied parole in 2016.

"At the end of July, about a week after Brown reversed the parole board's decision, I visited Leslie at Frontera. She said she understood the governor's dilemma. She knew it would have been difficult for him to be associated with the release of a member of the Manson Family while trying to gain support for the bill.

'He was in a tough spot,' she said. 'Opponents of his initiative would use my release against him.'

She said she was in agreement with what he was trying to accomplish. Over the years she has witnessed so many young women come to Frontera with no education, no skills, and no hope of acquiring either while they serve extraordinarily long sentences. Many of them are young mothers with children. 'They don't have a chance and neither do their kids.

'This initiative needs to pass. It's important. And I know it would have been harder to pass if I was in any way associated with it.

'Of course I'm torn,' she said. She looked at me with a bittersweet smile. 'I'm torn between my desire to get out of prison after more than forty-five years and what I know is best for the community.'" (pp. 344-345)

(Leslie Van Houten
Source: ABC News)

The bill she is referring to is the Public Safety and Rehabilitation Act of 2016 that reinstates rehabilitation as a goal for the prison system and expands parole opportunities, moving the power of parole decisions from prosecutors to parole boards (p. 344). Her last statement of being torn between wanting to be out of prison and what is best for the community spoke volumes to me. A person who wants the best for greater mankind is clearly not the same person who selfishly took the lives of humans so many years before.

Of course, I am torn too. I do not personally know these women. Even Nikki Meredith sounds torn in what is appropriate for the situation. 

But this is what I love about reading. I may not have come to a conclusion if these women are the same monsters they once were, if they deserve parole, or any of the many other questions I went into with the book, but it did make me think and re-examine the women, and I think that's the real gift of reading.

While I enjoyed the book, I did not fully understand how the narrative of Meredith's life completely related. She talks about how growing up, she did not embrace her Jewish heritage. She is only one-quarter Jew, and her childhood self did not see that as enough to be considered Jewish. In adulthood, she decided she was an atheist, but the part of her that was one-quarter Jewish ruined a college relationship because his parents were prejudice. While that was extremely interesting to read about, I feel like the connection was lost. The connection being that between Hitler being a cruel dictator responsible for the lost lives of up to six million Jews, and Manson, the mastermind behind the deaths of at least 7 people. While the numbers are incredibly different, the cruelty is similar. But as I said, I don't feel this was well communicated.

Rating: 7/10

Genres: Non-fiction, True crime, History

Author: Nikki Meredith