Legion of Charlies

On this day in 1971, Charles Manson was sentenced to death for murdering B-list celebs and Lieutenant Calley to life with hard labour for the My Lai massacre in VietNam.

Eight were killed by Manson and his associates.
More than 500 unarmed civilians were killed in My Lai.
Manson and his associates remain in prison.
Lt Calley was freed to house arrest 3 days after his conviction, bailed to house arrest and eventually released on parole in 1974.

These two time-linked events were compared and contrasted in a 1971 LastGasp comic, 'Legion of Charlies', drawn by Greg Irons.



I haven't revisited my teenage interest in underground comix for many years, but Greg Irons struck me more forcibly than Robert Crumb ever did. Greg Irons moved from the medium of comics to tattoos, before dying in a road traffic accident with a Bangkok city bus in 1984.