. >> a probe or panel is recommending the release of former charles manson follower leslie van houten. >> leslie van houten, a name on the list are forever linked on one of the most famous crimes and criminals of the 20th century. charles manson. >> you don't understand me. that is your trouble. it's not my fault because you don't understand me. i don't understand either. >> the story of charles manson, and all the horror they, roth is buried in archives. memorialized in media, long obsolete. yet, somehow, it feels present. that hot summer night that caught the world unprepared when los angeles became, suddenly, a very scary place. . it was august 9th, 1969, around 8 am. officer jerry derosa was a young cop with the lapd working the day shift. >> the first call i got was to go to -- it turned out a drunk in a car. >> august for sir rosa cruised up the canyon and found the dead and street called c on a drive. a neighbor flagged him down, and suddenly the drunk in a car called became something else. >> he told me that the maid came running back out, yelling blood and bodies. >> derosa,

there's an image stuck in my head from 1969, 1970 of charlie manson and susan atkins, leslie krenwinkel and patricia van houten three women who were part of his gang and it's stuck there in time. >> of course it has. it's very dramatic. i a lot of time with leslie van uten amp patricia krenwinkel researching the book. they are in corona california women's prison for life. they will never get out because no california governor wants to be the one to let any of the manson family out among the world but they remember the whole trial. the prosecutor writes that fabulous true crime book helter-skelter which he sold over 9 million copies. for charlie it was what he dreamed of. he's the center of international attention. every day before the trial opened in the media came in charlie, his lawyers and the three women who were on trial with him convened for strategy sessions andie would say, i'm going to do this outrageous thing today and when i do what i want you three women to jump up and i say this. he orchestrated every step of it. if he had gone into selling vacuum cleaners instead of crying he might have been a mu

. >> host: jeff guinn, what was it like sitting across the table from leslie van houten and patricia krenwinkel, knowing what they had done? >> guest: you are not allowed in that prison if you're visiting them to bring in a pad eand pen or a recording device. so i would spend the day interviewing one or the other. they are not friends at this point anymore, were not going to sit at the same table and talk to him at the same time trend when . >> host: at their old ladies basically. >> guest: that's one of theanan shots to remember them frozen in time and in the way they still are leslie van houten the lar pretty girl in high school, you got remember she's 20 when all this happened and she still has a little girl gestures. when she's talking to you she plays with her hair. she giggles beer she reacho pat her hand just like the pretty flirtatious girl in high school would deal. but they would talk and i would have to race back to my hotel and get my laptop out and try to write it down. patricia krenwinkel at one point, an old woman now, who spends her days in prison training rescue dogs

leslie van houten believes that she has seen mass murderers who did far worse things get paroled andnot a person while she stays there and she makes the argument that she never killed anybody like the others. she does desecrated the corpse. she feels for this this this reason if no other she deserved to be pardoned. the parole board or at least the california governor has not agreed to this point but she says a she's sorry and i think e is but i also think she thinks she sees herself as the victim, but there is injustice that is then placed on her. patricia kerr winkle has told me in tears that she did things and her excuse is that she was scared of him and she was scared of doing things. she added i know that's no excuse and she, i believe does not see herself as the victim but as somebody who's been punished deservedly for something. i hope that helps answer your question. i apologize for the past that isn't -- fascination about this but what was the first letter you wrote and why did they allow you personally to talk? >> one of the bandages of having written a lot of books is one

viewpoint that does not mean readers read of the manson book and oh my god, patricia krenwinkle, leslie van houten they are wonderful people and i hope they are my neighbors. it does not forgive horrific crimes. we need to look beyond what happened for why and how. that is where the story really matters. peter: was your next book about jim jones and jonestown a natural follower to the manson book? jeff: i have never really been categorized as a writer of a certn type and i never wanted -- a certain type of history and i never wanted to be known as a cold writer. i do not think there is a generic type of cult. from the manson family to david karesh and the branch davidians there are similarities and differences. but haven't written about the late 1960's i wanted to learn more. i am 18, 19, 20, growing up now. how do we segue from the chaos of the late 60's into, let's go with ronnie reagan and conservatism? that is sweeping the country in the 70's. what has to happen? five was going to write about the 70's i thought two teams would resonate with readers. one was watergate. i thought there was nothi