Charles Manson and his Family: 'Human monsters, human mutants'

Abstract

Joan Didion famously described the 1960s as ending abruptly on 9 August 1969 when word spread of the murders of seven people including Hollywood actor Sharon Tate. Fifty years on and the 'Manson murders' remain a focal point of interest in American popular culture and media. Netflix's recent true-crime drama <i>Mindhunter</i> (2017–19) and Quentin Tarantino's <i>Once upon a Time in Hollywood</i> (2019) represent but two popular examples invoking the crimes. What is consistent across most popular renderings of the murders is the representation of the Family, and of their leader Charles Manson especially, as monstrous, warranting investigation. Utilizing both Jeffrey Cohen's (1996) foundational text 'Monster culture (seven theses)' and Natasha Mikles and Joseph Laycock's (2021) 'Five further theses on monster theory and religious studies', this article examines the creation and representation of Charles Manson as a serial killer, a cult leader, but especially as a monster, in the popular culture context.