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    Charlie and Me
    Charles Manson and the Reporter Who Came to Know the Most Famous Mass Murderer in History

    Mary Neiswender (Author), Kate Neiswender (Author)

    9781640126688

    Paperback / softback, published 1 December 2025

    184 pages, 7 photographs, 22 illustrations, index
    22.9 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm, 0.666 kg

    “This tough, fearless, and tireless journalist scored what countless other reporters sought: an inside line to cult leader Charles Manson during the trial of the century.”—Lesley M. M. Blume, New York Times best-selling author and journalist
    “Charlie and Me is a fascinating look at Charles Manson and his followers by Mary Neiswender, an award-winning journalist who started interviewing Manson in Los Angeles County Jail prior to the trial that sent him to prison for life. Her talks with Manson started a decades-long dialogue that turned into an unlikely, albeit guarded, friendship between a reporter and her ‘source,’ a convicted murderer.”—Sandi Gibbons, a journalist who covered the Manson trial

    Charles Manson, arguably the most famous killer in American history, remains a source of fascination more than fifty years after the Tate–LaBianca murders that shocked the nation. In previous books about the 1969 murders, writers focused on trial testimony and scrambled to find anything new that would provide insight into what happened. The information they had was orchestrated by the prosecution, which used cult images and sex orgies to shock. But who was Manson, really? Was he the racist, Helter Skelter, mind-controlling cult master portrayed in the media? Or was there more? Only one journalist-Mary Neiswender-was able to meet Manson in person during the year-long trial in 1970.

    After Manson’s arrest, Neiswender spent more time with Manson than any other person, except maybe his prison guards. Manson and Neiswender spoke in person at the county jail or on the phone almost daily. However, the conversations between Manson and Neiswender have never been published: most of their talks were off the record, and Neiswender refused to write about them until after Manson’s death in prison in 2017. In Charlie and Me Neiswender finally reveals their conversations and the insights she gained from her time with Manson, a complicated man, a killer, and a figure of intense interest in American crime culture.

    Prologue
    Chapter One: Charlie Manson and Me
    Chapter Two: A Little Bit About Me
    Chapter Three: Charlie’
    s Girls
    Chapter Four: The Family
    Chapter Five: Gary Himan, Shorty Shea, The Symbionese Liberation Army and More
    Chapter Six: The Press Were Part of the Story
    Chapter Seven: The Defense of Charles Manson
    Chapter Eight: Prosecuting Charlie and His Girls
    Chapter Nine: Charlie in His Own Words
    Chapter Ten: He Never Left the Public Eye
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