by Opal Elaine Moyer

     Cult leader and murderer, Charles Manson, will be up for parole, yet again, in 2007. He is now seventy years old; what thread might a seventy year old man present to society, now? There is actually a website dedicated to this man. There have been responses, to this site, by several teens who have inquired as to how they might join the Manson "family". Though physically, he may present no threat to individuals, himself, there is still the danger that, by means of his charismatic personality, he might influence others to commit crimes very similar to the "Helter Skelter" murders of the sixties; these crimes were comitted by the "Manson family".

     In a 1998 interview with Geraldo Rivera, Manson made the verbal threat, " I am going to chop up more of you m------f---ers. I am going to kill as many of you as I can. I am going to pile you up to the sky." Are these the words of one who's been reforming in prison?

     Obviously, one who speaks words like these should still be considered dangerous. Yet, his death penalty had been overturned to a life sentence when the California Supreme Court abolished the death penalty in 1972. The very establishment, that he so vehemently despises, has protected him. There are many who completely oppose the death penalty. However, what might happen if Charles Manson, or others like him, were granted parole or managed to escape prison, while serving his life sentence? The infamous Ted Bundy received the death penalty by electrocution, January 24, 1989 for the violent rape and murders of at least thirty-six young women. (It has been estimated that Bundy may actually have killed as many as100 women.)

     Jeffrey Dahmer was sentenced to fifteen consecutive life sentences, or a total of 957 years, for the rape, torture, murders and even cannibalism of several young men. He'd killed twelve young men and boys, from May to July of 1991, alone. He was murdered in prison by fellow inmate, Christopher Scarver, on November 28, 1994. Would anyone feel safe if either Bundy or Dahmer had been given lesser sentences and eventually go free?

     Granted, the death penalty can not erase the crimes that have been comitted, nor will it take away the pain and suffering of the victim's family and friends. However, killers, of the same magnitude as the aforementioned three, have the overpowering compulsion to kill; serving a little prison time, even with psyciatric treatment, is not likely to change this. Though the death penalty is not neccessarily the best route for all killers, serial murderers and those who commit brutal slayings should most certainly be candidates. The death penalty can put an irrevokeable end the the tortured bloodlust of killers, such as these, and protect the lives of possible future victims.