Well, it's been a busy week, hasn't it? First the NY Times story highlighting the upcoming Krenwinkle documentary, all the 45th anniversary attention and then the anticipated decision by Gov. Brown on Bruce Davis.
There were other things too, like the tasteless timing of Manson's announcement of his intention to marry an emotionally and perhaps mentally unstable 20-something year old. This will be the last we should mention that. It is less than relevant and more than nauseating.
The stats have been through the roof and we've had a record number of sign-ups onto the email list. We've also had lots of emails form first-time readers. Welcome, all of you!
Regarding the Krenwinkle doc, I plan on getting a copy. It looks really well done and possibly informative. But on a personal note, I wanna punch Krenwinkel and the Doc maker in the nose. It kinda makes me nuts that there's any type of sympathy given to any of these killers.
The 45th anniversary was covered in the mainstream media which got people searching the subject in Google again. It shows that this whole story still fascinates more than just us TLB Junkies.
Then there's the down-to-the-wire veto by Gov. Brown of the parole board's decision to release Bruce Davis. BTW, kudos to Deb for being on top of things and getting the documentation first - even before the media! That Deb is bad ass!
I can't say I was shocked by Brown's veto - I more or less expected it - but it's sad that he got some of his facts wrong. There's also that crazy hunger for knowledge buried within me that thinks a prison release or two would help us get closer to the truth. Damn, could you imagine the swarm around here from a Bruce Davis book?
Now please don't get me wrong. Davis deserved what he got. He (at the very least) stood by as Gary Hinman was sliced across the face by Manson. He also was (again, at the very least) present at Shorty Shea's brutal murder. But I, just like my crazed cohorts on this blog and the rest of you, want to hear more. To be clear, Davis should not be freed to get the truth from him - that's like rewarding someone for bad behavior. And, perhaps if he ever stopped lying, or changing his story every time he sneezed during his hearings the governors would have much less ammunition to overturn.
As Alisa Statman has said , "there is no restitution for murder, there is no making it right. Murder is final and there's no taking it back by saying 'I'm sorry' or 'I've changed'". And as Statman quoted Doris Tate in her comment to Watson: "Are these 7 victims and possibly more going to walk out of their grave when you get paroled?" Or to quote Van Houten as Statman did in Restless Souls: "It's hard for me sometimes to accept the fact that people choose to believe that I absolutely cannot change. That I was something at nineteen and what I am at thirty-three is irrelevant because the life of the one they loved ended when I was nineteen. And though I understand it, it's very difficult because life goes on. And I go on." The glaring problem with her statement is, no matter how you break it down, the LaBianca's lives and their loved ones lives stopped going on that night.
One parting shot from this blogger: in my more than 3 decades of being allowed to vote, I have only sent money to ONE candidate. Ever. Want to know who it was? Jerry Brown...
