No Journey's End: My Tragic Romance with Ex-Manson Girl, Leslie Van Houten

by Peter Chiaramonte

★ Updated 2022No Journey’s End is the true story of ex-Manson Family member Leslie Van Houten's love affair with Dr. Peter Chiaramonte. Connecting during Van Houten’s high-profile retrial for first-degree murder in 1977-78, the couple struggles to make sense of their relationship. No ordinary love story, the book follows Chiaramonte’s journey through a landscape of love, sex, media frenzy, drugs, violence, and ultimately, redemption.“Chiaramonte gives a human face to a woman portrayed as a monster in the media and explains the reality behind the Manson myth superbly. This riveting book delivers in every way.” —Donald Levin, Ph.D., author of Guilt in Hiding“The reader vicariously races through the hell of the Manson experience in the author’s ‘shotgun seat,’ often watching through spread fingers of hands over eyes.” —Mark Federman, Ph.D.“Chiaramonte is a talented writer, and you may just come out of reading this book with a profound sense of angst that is well worth the ride.” —Albert J. Mills, Ph.D.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction

386 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 22, 2015

Reviews

[Lisa-Jaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perhaps I'm just cynical but it seems to me Peter Chiaramonte had an interest in all things Manson and targeted Leslie Van Houten when she was in jail and vulnerable. Why does he tape all their phone calls and why does he keep all the letters which suddenly pop up in a book about their romance?

This tells us more about Leslie Van Houten than the whole "romance" thing and is an interesting insight into the Parole system.

[Donald Levin · Rating 5 out of 5]

No Journey’s End: My Tragic Romance with Ex-Manson Girl, Leslie Van Houten is a compelling nonfiction novel tracing Dr. Peter Chiaramonte’s passionate love affair with ex-Manson Family member Leslie Van Houten, set against the turbulent background of Van Houten’s retrials for first-degree murder in 1977-78. Chiaramonte—at the time a gifted but directionless graduate student, athlete, and philosopher-in-training living in Toronto—forms a near-obsession with Van Houten as a result of certain coincidences that convince him she represents the possibility for transcendence that he had been searching for. Driven to seek her out in prison in California, Chiaramonte discovers the attraction is both mutual and instantaneous. Against the background of those times, and swept up in Van Houten’s high-profile prosecutions, Chiaramonte and Van Houten struggle to make sense of themselves, their relationship, and all the light and dark elements that brought them together. The book follows their journey of love, sex, drugs, music, violence, and vocation as it unfolds within the contours of their efforts to come to terms with her media-generated identity as Leslie Van Houten, accused killer.

The book does many wonderful things. Chiaramonte’s way with structure is very deft, the lyricism of some of the passages is quite lovely, even breathtaking, and his portrait of the attack dogs of the legal system is horrific and comical. Most impressively, Chiaramonte has caught the tenor of the turbulent late 1970s superbly. He gives a fine and human face to a woman who’s been portrayed as a monster, and fills in the reality behind the Manson myth exceptionally well. This book delivers in every way.

[Levi Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gives a gripping look into the love affair between Dr. Peter Chiaramonte and Leslie Van Houten, a once-member of the notorious Manson family. As he takes you through these events and the aftermath, you get a chance to take a look into what really happened with these events - one that has never been shown elsewhere. At the same time, as a contrast to this darkness, you also get to see a true love develop between two people in a very unique circumstance.

I picked up this book with curiosity, and couldn't put it down once I'd started it. Chiaramonte describes his life in the 1970s with such vigor and clarity that by the end, you feel like you know him through his experiences and passion. He doesn't hold anything back, sex, drugs and violence, are all there - raw and authentic. The good as well as the bad, woven together in a way that I've never seen before.

[Mike Brand · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyable, raw, well-written book with many highs and lows. If you have an interest in the Manson Family and the associated murder cases, with a soft spot for a true, tragic love story, I'm confident you will enjoy this book. Chiaramonte paints a vivid picture of life and times in the 70's, while giving the reader an in-depth perspective into his personal relationship with Leslie after the Manson murders, including personal letters and phone conversations. This book highlights brutal failures of our justice system, which led to decades of undeserved imprisonment served by Ms. Van Houten, who has been unfairly portrayed as an evil monster for far too long. Chiaramonte hit a home run with this.

[Gilliane Nadeau · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book transports you back to the 1970s and inserts you into one of the most publicized murder trials ever. The narrative gives a human character to Leslie van Houten as the author shares intimate moments and personal letters written by Leslie.

A story of young love, obsession and hopeless optimism in the face of enormous odds. This story exemplifies the life altering power that a single person, or chance encounter or newspaper clipping, can hold in setting a person's future trajectory.

[Benjamin · Rating 4 out of 5]

If the mason family is a puzzle, Leslie Van Houten is a missing piece. If you are one who reads to find answers then you will not enjoy this book. However, if you read to find questions there are plenty here; it is rare to find a story that takes a death sentence and gives it so much life. The reader might not be used to finding empathy with convicted killers, but then neither were the courts.

The book is gritty and dirty and the reader should be prepared to woo the slimy bottom of the 1970s. For all that, the book is full of little smirks and stolen kisses. Like gold from the garbage, Dr. Chiaramonte whispers a breath of humanity into one of the most sensationalized trials of the 20th century. He does it by reminding us that there are victims on either side of the bar.

This is a tender story that hasn't yet resolved and a damn good read.