Charles Manson's parole hearing was held on Thursday March 27, 1997. It was his ninth parole hearing since 1978. Manson was not asking for a parole. He only decided to go to the hearing at the last moment.
The proceedings, which lasted about an hour, were broadcast by Court TV. The hearing itself was shown on a tape delay of about 45 minutes due to a new Department of Corrections policy which has apparently ended live broadcasts of parole hearings.
After twenty minutes of deliberating, the Board announced that it would not be setting a parole date because Manson "would pose an unreasonable risk and danger to society and a threat to public safety if released from prison."
Manson responded, "I accept this decision. That's cool. What I'd like for you to do in your own minds personally, everybody that has a personal mind of their own, could possibly consider that the longer that you let this conviction stand, and this little Helter Skelter scheme of the District Attorney to give his particular reality over into the play, that's going to be the reality that they're perpetuating. That's not the reality that I'm perpetuating. I'm not saying that I wasn't involved. I'm saying that I did not break man's law nor did I break God's law. Consider that in the judgments that you have for yourselves. Good day. Thank you."
Manson's next parole hearing is scheduled for 2002.
QUOTES AND IMAGES FROM MANSON'S 1997 PAROLE HEARING
The more confusion that people have piled on me with lies and deceit and ambition and all the greedy little things that they play their dollar bills for comes back to the penitentiary that I've been in since I was a little kid. So I look at everything from a child's perspective. Because I'm still ten years old. Because I've still been up underneath the authority of the father since I was a little ten year old kid.
I'm not a yankee. I'm a rebel boy out of the hills of Kentucky and Tennessee. I keep telling these people from California that, that they don't understand what a Beverly hillbilly is.
I do a lot of underworld things. I've been in the underworld all my life, since I was a child. You make a mistake and cross me, I'll get you. It's that simple. Sooner or later.
Manson grooms himself while a Board member reads his psych report.
Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. That's my daddy too, you know.
(On drugs) I ran the gamut of the streets, everything that the children do. I never let anything over on me enough to get ahold of me. I tried to understand what it is. I've learned from everything I've done. I've been looking for myself for a long time. I've been trying to find out a lot.
I believe in the field of honor. And I believe that if someone offends you that you have the right to smack 'em in the mouth, punch 'em out, and dare 'em to come out and fight till -- you know, the field of honor is there. That's the way prison is run. Well, I run that.
(On his psych report) Whoever did that did a really good job, didn't they? Yeah, that was a real nice report. I thought the guy had a lot of good things down there pretty much. Yeah, I'm a lot of those things. He's making me look a little better than I really am.
Manson makes a point.
I've been raised in the stomach of this beast. And I've been living and I've been doing whatever I have to do. If I can live in peace I'll run. If I can get along with people, I'll get along. I'll do my best to do everything I can. But when they mess with my music, they fuck with my family, bother my dogs, steal my cows, mistreat my horses -- I'll do whatever I feel is necessary to do whatever I feel is necessary. I believe in George Washington, I believe in the Constitution of George Washington, I believe in the United States government. I don't believe in Abraham Lincoln. I never did. I don't like him at all. That's the truth.
I haven't been trying to be good. And I haven't been trying to be bad.... I'm just trying to live, that's all.
We're all robots to right, R-I-G-H-T. If we stay up all night and look at right we're still looking at right and we're all right if we're right. So don't blame me and say I'm taking over your minds, because you didn't have any to start with.
If I had a choice and you guys opened the gates of wherever, you know, I'd get on down the road and you can have this Charlie Manson thing that they created. Because they haven't seen me. Not really.
Manson says he'd "go poof" if he is paroled.