So I saw this headline on The Globe, a fine newspaper with more journalistic standards than the C.S. Gazette but that doesn’t say much. We’re expected to get our knickers in a knot because, just like every third year for a while now, Charles Manson is going to have a parole hearing. So is Mark David Chapman, the man who shot John Lennon AND … John Hinckley Jr. lone wolf gunman with ties to the Bush family.
Hinckley, almost 31 years ago, was found not guilty by reason of insanity for four counts of Aggravated Assault. Didn’t kill anybody. So he’s in a Psychiatric Prison with no set release date ever. No sentence, they can keep him until his rotting corpse falls apart as far as the courts are concerned. Chapman and Manson ain’t getting out either.
Having a parole hearing doesn’t mean you get parole, it’s just a formality in many many cases. But makes for some spectacular fear-mongering, don’t it? Manson was scheduled for a hearing at the time Geraldo Rivera aka Horrendo Revolver (from Cheech & Chong “Wedding Album” song “Black Lassie”) interviewed him.
Horrendo Revolver asked him this really Stoopit question “What does it feel like to kill a man?” (According to witnesses, Charlie never pulled the trigger on anybody) And Charlie gets all up in Horrendo’s grill and wild eyed as only he can do (I can do a close approximation but, hey, Charlie is The Past Master at it) saying “You want me to kill YOU? I’ve got friends in New York who’ll send me your head in a paper bag if I ask, you want me to kill you?”
I was a guest of the County at the time and everybody in the day-room was shakin’ his head and saying “Charlie, Charlie, Charlie…. You really don’t WANT that parole, do you?” To nobody’s surprise Charlie wasn’t paroled. Nor were his co-defendants three of whom are Jailhouse Preachers who have successful prison ministries… from within their prison cells cause on account of They Ain’t Ever Gettin’ Out Either. Charles “Tex” Watson, for instance, author of a “How I Found God in Jail” chaplain book.
Nice try on the fearmongering, though. It will accomplish its purpose, to get enough citizens frightened enough that they’ll petition their Election Year representatives to crack down on anybody accused of any crime ever. Nothing like a good old fashioned crackdown to get the votes of Really Stupid People.