The Manson family legacy continues to live on to this day. Both in true crime discourse as well as modern pop culture representations — Charles Manson has spawned countless documentaries, biographies, movies, and tv show cameos. Similarly, when Manson was on trial in 1969, he inspired a huge amount of audience/fan interaction. Women would send him letters, wanting to be part of his family even as he prepared for a life in prison. He represented the ideals of the counterculture — free love, communal living. This made him a figurehead to many people who to this day find a way to idolize his lifestyle. “Because so many of the attacks on Manson included wholesale attacks on hippies and other disaffected youth, a backlash started to swell. A lot of people started to wonder if Manson was an innocent man who was being persecuted for daring to live outside of conventional society,” said creator Karina Longworth. Dark fandoms, …show more content…
In this way, the dark fandom of Manson’s family is similar to the dark fandom that continues to draw people in to this day. One point of ambivalence to be found in the audience engagement with the Manson case is the way that the corruption of “gurus” rose to public attention. The 1969 trials symbolize, in the opinions of many historians, the beginning of the end of the counterculture era. While many of the leaders of mainstream society at the time already censured hippie culture, the murders gave concrete evidence of the hypocrisy and exploitative practices that hid behind the ideals of peace and love. Now, in our society there is a general level of suspicion of anything resembling utopian-ideals cult. Most of us know to question anyone claiming to have all the answers, posing as a leader and controlling our actions. To those who don’t have that instinct yet, they may want to listen to this