Member of the Family: My Story of Charles Manson, Life Inside His Cult, and the Darkness That Ended the Sixties

by Dianne Lake and Deborah Herman

At age 14, I became one of Charles Manson’s Girls. At 17 I helped put him in prison. This is my story.

At fourteen Dianne Lake—with little more than a note in her pocket from her hippie parents granting her permission to leave them—became one of “Charlie’s girls,” a devoted acolyte of cult leader Charles Manson. In this poignant and disturbing memoir of lost innocence, coercion, survival, and healing, Dianne Lake chronicles her years with Charles Manson, revealing for the first time how she became the youngest member of his Family and offering new insights into one of the twentieth century’s most notorious criminals and life as one of his “girls.” Over the course of two years, the impressionable teenager endured manipulation, psychological control, and physical abuse as the harsh realities and looming darkness of Charles Manson’s true nature revealed itself. From Spahn ranch and the group acid trips, to the Beatles’ White Album and Manson’s dangerous messiah-complex, Dianne tells the riveting story of the group’s descent into madness as she lived it.

Member of the Family: My Story of Charles Manson, Life Inside His Cult, and the Darkness That Ended the Sixties [Amazon Ad Link]

“In this disturbing, courageous memoir, Lake, a former special education teacher, recounts her dark journey as the youngest member of Charles Manson’s ‘family.’”
Publishers Weekly

“Fans of Emma Cline’s novel ‘The Girls’ will enjoy this nonfiction account of a teenager living under Charles Manson’s cult leadership in the ’60s and her eventual aid in his arrest and imprisonment.”
– amNewYork

“If a taut psychological thriller is what you like, Member of the Family crushes it.”
– Northwest Indiana Times

Member of the Family: My Story of Charles Manson, Life Inside His Cult, and the Darkness That Ended the Sixties [Amazon Ad Link]

Reader Comments:

“I read this and loved it. I was shocked at her parents behavior. It also told of a side of Charlie that I had never heard before.”
Becky, from Facebook

“Her parents were a piece of work, I liked book, not her. Squeekys book is better”
Kathy, from Facebook

“I liked it to a point. Then she cops out and lays that BS Helter Skelter because Charlie wasn’t getting over as a rock star. That isn’t true. We know that especially after reading Chaos. That said, Dianne seems like a good kid who really got caught up in some crazy times and had very unsatisfactory parental guidance.”
Dean, from Facebook