Afternoon of Alterity - Nazareth College

of the killing, “When investigators arrived they determined thatthere were 169 stab wounds and seven gunshot wounds. Blood fromthe victims was used to write the phrase ‘Death to Pigs’ on the wallsof the house” (4). Manson’s orders were always followed withoutquestion. His followers were so devout that the murders escalatedin violence. “Leno LaBianca was stabbed 26 times and his wife 41times” (4). Charles Manson is so fascinating because he was sucha powerful cult leader. He had the ability to control the minds ofhis followers and convince them to murder over and over again.Peterson writes that “as one of America’s most famous criminals, hereportedly receives more mail than any other prisoner in the country(about 60,000 a year). Fascination with the details of the murder andManson continues more than thirty years later and Manson becamean anti-hero and something of an icon in some corners of popularculture” (5). Charles Manson was such an icon that the “rock bandGuns N Roses recorded one of Manson’s songs, titled ‘Look at yourGame Girl,’ in the early 1990s” (5).Recently USA Today did an article entitled Why Do AmericansIdolize Serial Killers? The article stated that “if you log onto eBay, youwill find a variety of ‘murderabilia’ on sale for anywhere from fivedollars (for a lock of Charles Manson’s hair) to ten thousand dollars(for one of John Wayne Gacy’s clown paintings)” (USA Today 11).The article also raises the point that “despite the fact that the U.S.produces 85% of the world’s serial killers, Americans consistentlyrepresent them as ‘other’ than themselves - as loathsome, monstrous,utterly alien creatures. At the same time, these murderers are treatedas icons, celebrity performers and fetish figures” (11). This articlealso goes so far to say “entire industries revolve around them; theyentertain us in a variety of ways” (11).Jack Levin and James Alan Fox further outline the paradigm bysaying, “becoming a popular-culture celebrity is an important partof the motivation that inspires serial killers to continue committingemily mastrobattisto 75