When Women Kill | |
---|---|
Directed by | Lee Grant |
Produced by | Joseph Feury Milton Justice Mary Beth Yarrow |
Narrated by | Lee Grant |
Cinematography | Hart Perry |
Edited by | Geri Ashur |
Distributed by | HBO Hope Runs High [1] |
Release date |
|
Running time | 57 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
When Women Kill is a 1983 documentary film directed by Academy Award winner Lee Grant. The film explores life inside several women's prisons across the United States and the circumstances that led to the incarceration of a variety of inmates. Originally aired on HBO, the film is notable for its sympathetic, if level headed treatment of its characters. The film features women incarcerated for crimes ranging from drug use to first degree murder. A portion of the film follows Manson Family member Leslie Van Houten. Grant has spoken at length about the Manson family and the murder of her Valley of the Dolls co-star Sharon Tate. [2] [3]
When Women Kill was produced under Grant and husband/producer Joseph Feury's production deal with HBO. Initially Grant was interested in what led women to commit violent crimes. Grant's crew gained entrance to several women's prisons across the country and filming took place over many months. Harlan County USA director Barbara Kopple was the sound recordist.
The film received mixed-to-positive reviews. The New York Times felt that though at moments the film had trouble balancing the morality of its subjects, "The truth is that the criminal-justice system is unsure itself about what to do about these women. In making its argument, the documentary indicates that no one is ever rehabilitated in prison and that the women don't need rehabilitation, anyway." [4] [5]
The film is part of Grant's documentary collection and is expected to receive a digital and limited repertory cinema re-release in the Winter of 2019-2020 along with the majority of her non-fiction work.[ citation needed ]
Charles Milles Manson was an American criminal and musician who led the Manson Family, a cult based in California, in the late 1960s. Some of the members committed a series of nine murders at four locations in July and August 1969. In 1971, Manson was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder for the deaths of seven people, including the film actress Sharon Tate. The prosecution contended that, while Manson never directly ordered the murders, his ideology constituted an overt act of conspiracy.
Sharon Marie Tate Polanski was an American actress and model. During the 1960s, she played small television roles before appearing in films and was regularly featured in fashion magazines as a model and cover girl. After receiving positive reviews for her comedic and dramatic acting performances, Tate was hailed as one of Hollywood's most promising newcomers.
Folsom State Prison (FSP) is a California State Prison in Folsom, California, U.S., approximately 20 mi (30 km) northeast of the state capital of Sacramento. It is one of 34 adult institutions operated by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
San Quentin State Prison (SQ) is a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation state prison for men, located north of San Francisco in the unincorporated place of San Quentin in Marin County.
Patricia Dianne Krenwinkel is an American convicted murderer and a former member of the Manson Family. During her time with Manson's group, she was known by various aliases such as Big Patty, Yellow, Marnie Reeves and Mary Ann Scott, but to The Family she was most commonly known as Katie.
California Institution for Women (CIW) is a women's state prison located in the city of Chino, San Bernardino County, California, east of Los Angeles, although the mailing address states "Corona," which is in Riverside County, California.
Lynette Alice "Squeaky" Fromme is an American criminal who was a member of the Manson family, a cult led by Charles Manson. Though not involved in the Tate–LaBianca murders for which the Manson family is best known, she attempted to assassinate President Gerald Ford in 1975. For that crime, she was sentenced to life in prison. She was paroled from prison on August 14, 2009, after serving approximately 34 years. She published a book about her life in 2018.
Susan Denise Atkins was an American convicted murderer who was a member of Charles Manson's "Family". Manson's followers committed a series of nine murders at four locations in California, over a period of five weeks in the summer of 1969. Known within the Manson family as Sadie Mae Glutz or Sexy Sadie, Atkins was convicted for her participation in eight of these killings, including the most notorious, the Tate murders in 1969. She was sentenced to death, which was subsequently commuted to life imprisonment when the California Supreme Court invalidated all death sentences issued prior to 1972. Atkins was incarcerated until her death in 2009. At the time of her death, she was California's longest-serving female inmate, long since surpassed by her fellow murderous Manson family members Leslie Van Houten and Patricia Krenwinkel.
Leslie Louise Van Houten is an American convicted murderer and former member of the Manson Family. During her time with Manson's group, she was known by various aliases such as Louella Alexandria, Leslie Marie Sankston, Linda Sue Owens and Lulu. Van Houten was arrested and charged in relation to the 1969 killings of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca. She was convicted and sentenced to death. However, the California Supreme Court decision on People v. Anderson then ruled in 1972 that the death penalty was unconstitutional, resulting in her sentence being commuted to life in prison. Her conviction was then overturned in a 1976 appellate court decision which granted her a retrial. Her second trial ended with a deadlocked jury and a mistrial. At her third trial in 1978, she was convicted of two counts of murder and one count of conspiracy and sentenced to seven years to life in prison.
The Manson Family was a commune, gang, and cult led by Charles Manson that was active in California in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The group consisted of approximately 100 followers, who lived an unconventional lifestyle with habitual use of hallucinogenic drugs such as LSD. Most were young women from middle-class backgrounds, many of whom were radicalized by Manson's teachings and drawn by hippie culture and communal living.
California Men's Colony (CMC) is a male-only state prison located northwest of the city of San Luis Obispo, San Luis Obispo County, California, along the central California coast approximately halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Henry Lee Lucas was an American convicted serial killer. Lucas was convicted of murdering his mother in 1960 and two others in 1983. He rose to infamy while incarcerated for these crimes when he falsely confessed to approximately 600 other murders to Texas Rangers and other law enforcement officials. Many unsolved cases were closed based on the confessions and officially attributed the murders to Lucas, and he was considered the most prolific serial killer in history. Lucas was convicted of murdering 11 people and condemned to death for a single case with a then-unidentified victim, later identified as Debra Jackson. An investigation by the Dallas Times-Herald newspaper showed that many of the murders Lucas confessed to were flatly impossible for him to have committed. While the Rangers defended their work, a follow-up investigation by the Attorney General of Texas concluded Lucas was a fabulist who had falsely confessed. Lucas' death sentence was commuted to life in prison in 1998. Lucas himself later recanted everything, with the exception of his confession to murdering his mother, as a hoax. He died of congestive heart failure in 2001.
America Undercover is a series of documentaries that aired on the cable television network HBO from 1983 through 2006. Within the series are several sub-series, such as Autopsy, Real Sex, and Taxicab Confessions.
Robert Kenneth Beausoleil is an American murderer and associate of Charles Manson and members of his communal Manson Family. He was convicted and sentenced to death for the July 27, 1969 fatal stabbing of Gary Hinman, who had befriended him and other Manson associates. Beausoleil was later granted commutation, to a lesser sentence of life imprisonment, when the Supreme Court of California issued a ruling that invalidated all death sentences issued in California prior to 1972.
Valley State Prison (VSP), previously the Valley State Prison for Women (VSPW), is a state prison in Chowchilla, California. It is across the road from Central California Women's Facility. It was formerly a prison for women.
Mary Theresa Brunner is a former member of the "Manson Family" who was present during the 1969 murder of Gary Hinman, a California musician and Ph.D. candidate. She was arrested for numerous offenses, including credit card theft and armed robbery, and she served a prison sentence at the California Institution for Women.
Catherine Louise "Gypsy" Share is a former member of the Manson Family. Share was not directly involved in the Tate-LaBianca murders that sent Charles Manson and some of his followers to prison. She was convicted for trying to intimidate a witness against testifying, serving 90 days, and later served five years in prison for armed robbery. Following her release in 1975, she disassociated herself from the "Family" and has spoken publicly about her experiences.
Crime After Crime is a 2011 award-winning documentary film directed by Yoav Potash about the case of Deborah Peagler, an incarcerated victim of domestic violence whose case was taken up by pro bono attorneys through The California Habeas Project.
The Tate–LaBianca murders were a series of murders perpetrated by members of the Manson Family during August 8–10, 1969, in Los Angeles, California, United States, under the direction of Tex Watson and Charles Manson. The perpetrators first killed five people on the night of August 8–9: pregnant actress Sharon Tate and her companions Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger, Wojciech Frykowski, and Steven Parent. The baby later died of cerebral anoxia in Tate's womb. On the following evening, with Manson allegedly displeased about the chaotic operation of these murders, the Family then also murdered supermarket executive Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles.
Madeleine Sackler is an American filmmaker, heiress, and member of the Sackler family. She received an Emmy in 2015 and was nominated for a second one in 2020. Her grandfather, Raymond, was one of the three Sackler brothers who created and owned Purdue Pharma, infamous for its role in the Opioid epidemic. She has received criticism for her family fortune, which derives mostly from the sale and manufacture of the highly addictive pharmaceutical opioid Oxycontin, the central drug in the opioid crisis.