Yesterday's Monsters: The Manson Family Cases and the Illusion of Parole

by Hadar Aviram

In 1969, the world was shocked by several murders committed by Charles Manson and his followers. Although the defendants were sentenced to death in 1971, their sentences were commuted to life with parole in 1972; since 1978, they have been regularly attending parole hearings. So far, all of the living defendants remain behind bars.

Relying on nearly fifty years’ worth of parole hearing transcripts, as well as interviews and archival materials, Yesterday’s Monsters invites readers into the opaque world of the California parole process—a realm of almost unfettered administrative discretion, prison programming inadequacies, and political pressures—and offers a fresh longitudinal perspective on extreme punishment.

Genres: Politics, True Crime

296 pages, Paperback

Published February 18, 2020

Reviews

[Kenneth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m not sure how many people will see what I’m about to write, but I want to make three points here:

1) The justice system, not the Manson Family, is the true villain in this work.

2) This book inspired me to sit down and write a letter to my parents telling them that if I am ever murdered, I don’t want them wasting their lives in vengeance and hatred the way generations of the Tate family did. Find some peace and move on.

3) Regarding the Tate family: there comes a point where no matter how horrible your suffering, your quest for justice becomes a quest for vengeance, and that injures you as much as it does those you hate.

[Leigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating look at the parole hearings of the Manson family members and an invaluable resource for those of us who work with incarcerated people seeking parole. I don't usually rate books I read for work on Goodreads, but this one is really, really terrific.