and then i became my own mother. >> but author jeff gwen says there is only one explanation for the lifecharles manson. >> charles manson was born evil. >> in 2013 gwen landed exclusive interviews with manson's sister and cousin. >> little charlie was taken in by loving relatives, grandmother, uncle, aunt, cousin joanne. he always had people who loved him. the problem was that charlie himself was a rotten little kid from the word go. >> a rotten kid whose crimes escalated from stealing cars to armed robbery, drug dealing to pimping. >> he was born to be in prison. >> but he did have an innate talent as a decent guitar player. >> charlie manson listening to the radio in prison hears the beatles. he starts writing his own songs, performing in prison shows. ♪ what a mad delusion living in the confusion ♪ >> from then on it is his dream to become the biggest musical star in history. >> bigger, he said, than the beatl beatles. and san francisco was the perfect place to start. paroled after seven years in prison he used his guitar and charisma to lure a flock of vulnerable young women. >> i fe

. >> author jeff ngyun says there is one explanation. >> gwen landed exclusive interviews with manson'susin. >> little charlie was taken in by loving relatives, his grandmother, uncle, aunt, cousin, joanne. he always had people who loved him. the problem was charlie was a rotten little kid from the word go. >> cnn spot light 7:30 p.m. eastern and pacific here on cnn. that does it for me. stay here. for now "smerconish" begins. >>> devastating strikes conducted by the united states in iraq. israel and militants in gaza are striking again and this as the president is kicking off a two-week vacation. >>> ebola rumors on social media. i'm michael smerconish. let's get started. >>> my first headline is from abc news. air strikes undertaken as u.s.

what did you make of all -- gwen: speaking more toughly about the racial component. >> without question. >> we're in the middle of a conversation, not just in washington, jeff, but all over the country about the criminal justice system and the disparities in the criminal justice system. rand paul in an essay went all the way there. he said he would be treated differently if he were on the street and told by a police officer to move along and get out of the street. he would not expect at all to be the subject of violence as this young man, michael brown, was. they also have come together, politicians from left and right around this issue of big government in federal funding for some of these technicalologist and techniques, the notion that there are armored vehicle that are provided to the ferguson police, the swat team gear, the tear gas and rubber bullets that we saw exploding in the streets of ferguson this week. >> some members of congress have said they're going to look in that, all of these military conversations of these global police forces. >> not just rand paul and ted cruz, a tea party favorite and carl levin, democrat from michigan who runs the a

jeff from north carolina. we'll go next to gwen in birmingham, alabama.g, gwen. >> caller: good morning, steve. how are you? >> host: fine, thank you. >> caller: you know what? sometimes it's just so hard to follow up with some things that people say, because first of all, steve, this is america. we are all in this together. the terrorists don't care who they kill. when they came over here and happened 9/11, it was not singled out you're black, you're caucasian, you're hispanic, you're asian, you're an arab-american, it was we all got killed, a race of people on 9/11. i mean, i'm going to get away from that. but as far as mitt romney running for president again, i really don't think so because you know what's going to be in people's head? those 47% statements that he made. that's going to always stick with people. it's when he made that statement about the 47%. and i don't think, i just really don't think that he can even get past that. there's something about a person when they run for president, you just know. and he just don't even seem the type. thank

gwen. >> ifill: we turn now to our occasional series of conversations with those directly affected by the ongoing border crisis. jeff is back with that. >> brown: last night we heard from an attorney offering free legal services to immigrants at a new mexico detention center. tonight, rancher and veterinarian gary thrasher joins us. he's lived on the southern u.s. border for more than four decades. he has a ranch near sierra vista, arizona, just 8 miles from the mexican border. and he treats cattle in ranches from arizona to new mexico to west texas, where rugged, remote landscape is a major corridor for illegal immigrants and drug smugglers. welcome to you, dr. thrasher. so how does illegal immigration at the border impact your life as a rancher and vet? give us a glimpse of life at the border as you experience it. >> well, where i'm at, at the border, and where i spend most of my time is in the remote regions of the border rather the areas where there's a lot of population, so we're in pretty remote areas that have a lot of traffic, that are not patrolled very regularly, and it does create a situation where we com