i remember in another thread you mentioning talking to Manson on the phone. What's that like? What do you talk about? Does he know about the website, etc. i would imagine its pretty surreal.

Good question, Terrapin. I'll be anxious to hear Webmaster's answer here too. It seems like Webmaster only posts about every few weeks.

One thing I know about Charlie: he has never been known to put 2 coherent sentences together. He talks in Very abstract phrases & analogies, often babbling on and 'beating around the bush', seldom ever answering a question directly. He usually changes the subject in mid-sentence, then blathers on forever about what color the tangerine sky was on Easter Sunday in 1945, or some such nonesense.

Yeah i find it very interesting reading Charlie's interviews. sometimes when it seems like he's changing subjects he's actually just using a metaphor. I've got a pretty abstract sort of mind (i'm a musician/songwriter) so i can understand a fair bit of what he's rambling about. He's pretty smart on a lot of subjects but when he's trying to deflect a question that he doesn't want to answer its pretty obvious he's having trouble 'keeping the act up'. IMO

In the Manson documenrat there is film of Clem talking metaphoric gibberish like Chatlie does. Most all of the Family would retreat to that embecilic state when they were cornered.

Davis did it too in the video of him surrendering. althought when he doesnt know what to say he just doesnt say anything!

At times, Charlie talked very normally. Those were the most interesting. He'd talk about areas he lived while growing up. I'm from that same general part of the country so could talk about some of the places. He'd talk a bit about family and such. He pawned a gun in my town. When he talks about normal stuff, then he's just like anybody else.

Largely though, he'd like to take off on a train of thought that was hard to follow. His rights and such. That could go on for five to ten minutes non-stop. You'd start to drift away because you weren't getting to say anything. Then suddenly he'd ask something like "What do you think of that?" or "Do you know what that is?"

He'd want to know what was on the website and why I was interested in him. I think he'd largely go off on the "rambling" topics to try to give some input to the site. He'd often ask if I was recording the call and be happy that I was.

He asked some guy to call me. He had him record a message for me and then play it back to me. It went on a good while in the same vein of rights and such. I bet that guy hated spending the money on a collect call that was essentially a message to me.

The calls are incredibly expensive. If I remember right, the first minute is around $5. Each additional was something like a $1. Then you're automatically cut off after 15 minutes. If he calls again, then the first minute is $5 again. One night he called three times at around $20 per call. I believe if he calls an in-state person then it isn't quite as bad.

Anyway, when he's talking about normal stuff, it's just like talking to anybody else. He's very friendly and nice. He said he liked talking to me. I think it was a lot because of where I'm from. He was really very likeable. There was one time in particular that I knew he was trying to pull a mindgame on me. It was like he was looking for a weak point to exploit. Perhaps it would have been interesting to play into it. I didn't and he soon went on to other topics.

The main thing I'd say is that he was very nice. Very likeable. But he had spells where he'd take off on topics that tended to ramble around and were hard to follow.

wow! thanx heaps, very interesting. i was wondering if he ever tried to play a mindgame on you.
when he's being very nice and likeable do you forget that he's "Charlie Manson"?

Interesting Mr Turner...For anyone wanting to hear Charlies voice from recent times, go to Mansondirect dot com.