Charles Manson Cartoon and Me.

Last updated on January 3, 2023

Oh, and Ted Rall, but not all in the same room, please.

Charles Manson cartoons

I’m the luckiest girl in the world, to get to do a cartoon on Charles Manson. Charles has been a bad boy again.

I take special note of news about Manson since something he did affects me personally…The LA Times said:

For the second time in less than two years, California prison officials caught Charles Manson, mastermind of one of the most notorious killing sprees in U.S. history, with a cellphone behind bars.

I took note of it the first time they found him using a cell phone – it’s hysterical, both that he is so free and easy and sly, and that the security there is so bad! My editor at CalWatchdog wasn’t so sure about the news item then, but when they found the second phone, and actually admitted they know it was the guards doing the smuggling – yet didn’t try to stop them!…okay, then!

From the Los Angeles TImes:

Lawmakers struggling to keep cellphones away from California’s most dangerous inmates say a main obstacle is the politically powerful prison guards union, whose members would have to be paid millions of dollars extra to be searched on their way into work.

Ted Rall did a cartoon on Charles Manson, too, a day after mine…

Analysis of 2 editorial cartoons

Let’s compare the 2 cartoons.

My first idea was to do something about it being an iPhone – kind of obvious, but popular – but I knew there was something better. For me, I’ve found that although the first idea might be easy, it’s not the best idea. That didn’t stop Ted, however, as he used the iPhone idea, and threw in AT & T.

I did my cartoon for CalWatchdog, a state journalism group from a libertarian perspective. Ted, a cartoonist in NY, was somehow hired by the Los Angeles Times to do local cartoons, so I’m surprised he didn’t hit the fact that the Manson murders were committed in Los Angeles, and the  famous investigation and trial was held here as well.

I included the fact that the state knows the guards are smuggling in thousands of phones, but they do nothing. I also brought up unions, since they are so hot in the news now. Ted had a woman shaking a feather pillow. He drew books in Manson’s cell, including the famous Helter Skelter one. It wasn’t until I read a comment at the LA Times link that I noticed that one of the books in Charles Manson’s cell is by Sarah Palin. Commenter over there wrote:

There’s a Sarah Palin book on the shelf. Are you really equating Manson and Palin? Try thinking for once. I know it hurts. But please just try.

My cartoon is about corruption at the state level, with a joke about calling Charles Manson “Chuck”. Ted’s cartoon is a joke about an iPhone, and a dig at Sarah Palin. Of course.

But I have the knockout punch, a personal connection to Charles Manson:  I live a block away from the hidden house of the famous LaBianca murders. The really gruesome murders, where Manson and 6 of his “family” killed Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, carved a word in his abdomen, and wrote Death to Pigs and Helter Skelter on the wall in their blood. It makes my stomach hurt just writing this.

I read Helter Skelter a while ago, but I don’t even know if I finished it and I didn’t realize any of the murders were in Los Feliz – it all happened before my time. The Sharon Tate house, home of the first Manson “family” murders, located  somewhere in the Valley, was torn down years ago, but the LaBianca house in Los Feliz still stands. (I was always more concerned about the Hillside Stranglers, which occurred 8 years after Charles Manson, as I knew they buried some of their victims in Griffith Park, which is also within walking distance (and I volunteer on a Neighborhood Council committee there.))

It was actually someone at a dinner party who finally told me about this notorious house in my own neighborhood.. It gives you chills when you see it. In fact, I bring all unsuspecting friends & relatives, and of course new boyfriends, to see it, to give them bad chills, too.

My landlady told me they washed their bloody clothes after the murders at a Laundromat called Launderland, that I drove by all the time, not knowing this…

So grumble, grumble about a New York cartoonist (Ted Rall) thinking he knows everything about Los Angeles, even though he’s 3000 miles away… Sorry, Ted, the home turf girl always wins.

While looking up the link for the original article I found a blog by Prison Movement – kind of cool. Bossip.com refers to Manson as a “habitual texter and convicted murderer.” Hee!

My Charlie Manson cartoon captions: Corcoran Prison caught Charles Manson with 2 phones! (Love ya, Marci! Heya, Joe!) with shot of him and another inmate. State investigations conclude that prison guards bring in over 10,000 cell phones a year. (sketch of prison guard carrying bad that reads Less Smart Phones.) State officials claim unions would charge more if guards were scanned. So they aren’t. (drawing of government official shrugging in Sacramento) BOTTOM LINE: California is more afraid of prison unions than Charles Manson! (cartoon of prison guard saying, “We’re going to call you Chuck.”)

Caption of Ted Rall’s cartoon of Manson: Woman guard is shaking out the pillow. Prison guard says to Manson, An iPhone? How do you make it work? Charles Manson replies, “I can’t. It’s AT&T.” ANOTHER CELLPHONE FOUND IN CHARLES MANSON’S CELL

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