The Face Of Evil

                                                             The Face Of Evil


"Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws."
 
               -Plato

 
"Because if we the storytellers don't do this, then the bad people will win."
 
              -Christiane Amanpour


LOS ANGELES, March 12, 1977 — Polish film director Roman Polanski, widower of murdered actress Sharon Tate, was free on bond today on charges of luring a 13-year-old girl to the home of Jack Nicholson under the pretext of photographing her, then drugging and raping her. Polanski, 43, was arrested by police to Beverly Wilshire Hotel Friday night following the incident Thursday night at Nicholson's Bel Air home. In addition to the rape charges, Polanski also was booked on suspicion of sodomy, child molestation and furnishing dangerous drugs to a minor. He was released on $2,500 bond pending his arraignment March 18.

He did what???

"We did photos with me drinking champagne," Geimer later told "GMA." "He was friendly and then right toward the end it got a little scary, and I realized, you know, he had some other intentions, and then I knew I was not where I should be. I just didn't quite know how to get myself out of there." Geimer said the other intentions became clear after Polanski offered her part of a Quaalude, which she took, then asked her to get into a Jacuzzi without her underwear. He took pictures of her in the Jacuzzi naked, before taking off his clothes and joining her in the water, she said.
 
And then....

"A grand jury has indicted Roman Polanski, director of "Rosemary's Baby" and other macabre movies, on six counts of drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl at actor Jack Nicholson's home."

And then...

"Film director Roman Polanski arrived at his Paris apartment yesterday (after a stop in London) having fled the United States just hours before he was to have been sentenced in a California court for his admitted unlawful sexual relations with a 13-year-old girl last March. Polanski, 44, a French citizen, was said by friends to be exhausted by the 42 days he spent undergoing psychiatric tests."
 
And then Roman explains why this is such a big deal in his own words....
 
" When I was being driven to the police station from the hotel, the car radio was already talking about it. The newsmen were calling the police before I was arrested to see whether they can break the news. I couldn't believe… I thought, you know, I was going to wake up from it. I realise, if I have killed somebody, it wouldn't have had so much appeal to the press, you see? But… fucking, you see, and the young girls. Judges want to fuck young girls. Juries want to fuck young girls – everyone wants to fuck young girls! No, I knew then, this is going to be another big, big thing."

Hmmmm. Maybe it was a mistake? Never heard Roman had a thing for young girls....

"Samantha Geimer Not the Only Teenager Roman Polanski Sexually Exploited. Oscar-Winning Director Forced 16-Year-Old Charlotte Lewis to Have Sex with Him in Exchange for Movie Role. Roman Polanski's child rape victim Samantha Geimer was not the only teenager Oscar-winning movie director sexually exploited. Actress Charlotte Lewis gave a statement to the Los Angeles County district attorney in May 2010 detailing her sexual exploitation by Polanski when she was a 16-year-old seeking a part in his 1986 movie Pirates."
 
" Between Polanski's rape of Geimer in 1977 and his sexual blackmail of Lewis in the mid-1980s, he began an affair with the teenage actress Nastassja Kinski in 1975. Kinski was all of fourteen. When he fled California rather than face a possible jail sentence for his statutory rape conviction, he wound in France in the arms of Kinski. At seventeen, she had finally crossed the bourne of the age of consent (16 in most of Western Europe)."

Now when a grown man gives drugs to, and/or forces-has sex with underage girls in Southern California in our little circle- we normally think of our favorite " Most Evil Man on the Planet"- Charlie Manson. But again- like I always say- smart people should have seen him coming. It is the ones you don't suspect that end up being capable of the unspeakable who really spook me. Roman left his very pregnant wife alone with a guy he knew surrounded himself with trouble. He laughed and made jokes during the interrogation when the authorities were trying to help him find Sharon's killers. He bragged about cheating on her, and acted like an arrogant prick at every chance he got with no regard for her memory or name. He committed some very heinous crimes himself and then fled when it came time to answer for them. If that wasn't enough of an insult- he made smirky comments about the entire episode and more or less flipped us the bird and told us as an " Artist" he is above us and our system. So it seems- he himself has ruled on himself. Roman didnt like the way things were going so Roman decided to end the process on his own terms. He seems to be something of a child predator in addition to one of the worst husbands on record. Lots to like about this guy huh?
 
And finally, I add one last thing he shares in common with Charlie Manson in addition to the underage girl/drug lustination....
 
A group of people who blindly support him for reasons which have nothing to do with the crimes he has committed. There are a group of people in our society who  feel his hard past and his talents/contributions in whatever area give him carte blanche with our children and our laws. Obviously I am not one of them. To me there are certain lines we don't cross and once we have there is no lifetime credit to be taken into consideration. When you force yourself on a child, or take advantage of one by giving them drugs or using blackmail to violate them- you have to go down. Making excuses for guys like this and Charlie is the same misguided idea to me. Why not find people who do the same things or have the same values and talents- who haven't hurt others? Be it helping the environment or making semi-decent movies, I promise you there are people out there you can throw your support behind who wouldn't give drugs and force themselves on a 14 or 15 year old girl. Both of these guys have shown the willingness to do just that. If you chose to support people like this then you must own it. I don't want to hear about the good ideas they have or the work they have done. Again- plenty of people do the same and never hurt others....
 
It is a choice we all have to make. What is right and what is wrong? Who deserves your support and who/what do you want to stand for???
 
To me it is the easiest choice on Earth. Roman and Charlie are about the same thing to me. Seriously. Take away the movies Roman directed, and the gunshot to Crowe's belly Charlie fired, and their nature's are actually very similar. Neither one of them killed Sharon, but they both share some responsibility as well in my line of thinking. If it were up to me they would sit side by side in the same clink for the rest of what they have left of life. What a great conversation that would make lol....  

And what a great post!!

Caged Tomato by Leslie Van Houten

This print from a wood cut, #1/21, by Leslie Van Houten is currently for sale on eBay.  It will be up for bid until May 8th unless someone gets it at the buy-now price of $5000., the starting bid is $2,500.  I bet a psychiatrist would have a field day interpreting the imagery on this piece by Leslie.

The price includes wood cut prints by other prisoners, too, as well as one by the prison instructor.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Portfolio-of-Wood-Cuts-1-by-Leslie-Van-Houten-1-21-Charles-Manson-Murders-/330915368581?

I am struck by how artistic some of the Family members actually are/were, whether it be drawing, writing, embroidery or music.  I can't say that all their endeavors are great works of art but they do show talent.

The World's Most Interesting Man

Next on the Docket...

June 5'th Parole Consideration Hearing for Leslie Van Houten

                " The lack of criminality within her family, her recent ongoing participation and organized activities, the lack of current alcohol or drug problems, her positive attitude regarding her conventions of society, her positive outlook regarding future supervision and treatment, her lack of antisocial mindset. After weighing all of the data from the available records, the clinical interview, and the risk assessment data, it is opined that Ms. Van Houten presents a low risk for violence in the community. And again as I indicated, this was done by Dr. C. Carrera, C-A-R-R-E-R-A, and it was done in March or probably February of 2010."
                         
              - DEPUTY COMMISSIONER BENTLEY- from Leslie's 2010 Parole Hearing Transcript.
  
               
                     " Okay. My deepest apologies are given to the family members and friends of Mr. and Mrs. LaBianca. I apologize to you for all the harm and pain I caused your family. Not only did Mr. and Mrs. LaBianca deserve full lives, you should have had them here to share the day-to-day joys and sorrows. I am so sorry. Additionally, I would like to state that I accept full responsibility for my actions as were noted in the Statement of Facts. I understand the enormity of attempting to start a race war during the turbulent 1960s, and I make no excuse for what I have done. My actions August 10th, 1969, were contemptible and they were without justification. I apologize to The People of the State of California along with the people of this country for the fear they experienced until I was arrested and for my disgraceful behavior during the trial of 1971. I equally apologize to those whose cultures and ethnicities I offended by my ignorance and my arrogance. As a rehabilitated woman, I would like to state that the insight I have gained is not meant to excuse any of my acts. Insight is understanding the whys of behaviors so that it will not be repeated. I appreciate this opportunity to make amends to the many I directly and indirectly have offended and harmed. Thank you. "
                          
                - Leslie Van Houten- from her 2010 Parole Hearing Transcript.

          Whilst reading up over at Cielodrive.com (which is filled with interesting Manson information for those of you who like to read up on details and facts) I noticed that LULU has a parole consideration hearing coming up next month. Now that struck my curiosity button for a couple of reasons. First- LULU has always been the one who people thought had the best chance to get out. Especially LULU.  Secondarily, I gotta tell you that LULU has always been my personal favorite. Not becuase she was the cutest or the one I liked the best, but in my personal opinion she is the most interesting. Her steadfast and direct focus on getting out at a certain point has been apparant in every one of her interviews and parole hearings that I watched for the first 20 years of her incarceration after her Death Sentence was commuted. I watched interviews with Leslie when she was in her late 20's where she is laughing and smiling and telling the interviewer exactly how much longer she will be serving according to the " matrix". Some hoped to get out, others fought to get out. LULU EXPECTED TO GET OUT.  I have read the Karlene Faith Biography about her which tells how much the prison staff respects her and allowed for her to be smuggled in Ice Cream, and allowed her other little pleasures and special considerations. I have studied the emails from the " Friends of Leslie Van Houten", and understand all the support she has had over the years and maintains today. I have read the positive Psych reports and know her mostly spotless post incarceration record. And do you know what???
 
In the words of the immortal Clarke Griswold- " I could give a frogs fatass less"

LULU must stay put and pay for the life's SHE PERSONALLY ASKED TO PARTICIPATE in taking!
 
I have noticed over the last ten years or so that she is finally starting to get it. The reality has sunk in. Bruce getting so close the last couple of tries, and then getting shot down at the last stop has to gnaw at her pretty badly. You now see a person who finally understands the severity of what she has done, and has arrived at the process of discovering the totality of the consequences. But not until fairly recently. So, if you ask me- she is just starting to serve a proper punishment. In reality it still isn't a real justice for the victims families, because unfortunately, the sadness Leslie is finally experiencing is not so much for the loss she has caused to others as much as the mourning of the wasted life she cares about the most..... 
 
Her own....

Tex Watson Files Last Minute Appeal on Release of Tapes

Eviliz reports ahead of the mainstream media:

Como Captured After Jail Break

murderpedia.org

POLICE NAB MANSON PAL IN  JAILBREAK

 

 

Kenneth "Curly" Como, a reputed member of Charles Manson's hippie-style clan, was captured today seven hours after a daring predawn escape from a 13th floor cell at the Hall of Justice in Los Angeles.

 

Sheriff's deputies said Como, 31, was arrested in a residential are of West Hollywood where he had been the object of a massive door-to-door manhunt in a six-block residential area.

 

Deputies said Como was found hiding in a small shed behind a garage by Deputy Roger Anderson.  Anderson said Como offered no resistance and had no weapons.

 

The deputy said he just opened the door of the shed and shouted: "Freeze! Come out."  He said Como uttered a brief obscenity when he surrendered.

 

Mass Search

 

The shed was located behind a small wood-framed house occupied by Mrs. D.B. Trad, an elderly, partially blind widow who was in her home behind locked doors when Como surrendered.

 

Nearly 100 sheriff's deputies and policemen had taken part in the search, accompanied by a small army of newsmen and cameramen.  It was their second search of the area- one was made before dawn- and scores of residents still in their bathrobes and slippers watched from their doorsteps.

 

Como was awaiting trial on charges of armed robbery and assault.  He and four other reported Manson Family members were arrested Aug. 21 following a brief shootout at a Hawthorn Calif. surplus store in what police said was an attempt to steal guns.

 

They said Como escaped from the facility in a waiting car.  The car was spotted by a police mobile unit in Hollywood and a brief chase ensued until the stolen car crashed.  Police said Como escaped on foot through an alley and a person in the car, Sandra Good, a clan member, was arrested for investigation of aiding and abetting an escape.

 

An all-points bulletin was issued for Como and two other alleged Manson Family members, both women.

 

The Sheriff's department issued an all-points bulletin for Como and deputies conducted a house-to-house search for him in a sealed off two-block square area of West Hollywood, where he has escaped.

 

Deputies also arrested five more persons, in addition to Miss Good, all said to be Manson clan members.  They were booked for investigation of conspiracy to aid and abet an escape.

 

They were identified as David Lee Stauffer, 20; Susan Bartel, 20; Katherine Lutesinger, 19; Lynn Alice Fromme, 23; and Nancy Pitman, 23.

 

Los Angeles police said prior to his arrest in the Hawthorne robbery incident, Como had escaped once before while being brought from Folsom to testify at Manson's trial in the slaying of a Malibu musician.  Como had been serving a term for armed robbery, police said.

 

 

Star News Pasadena CA October 20, 1971

Kenneth Como was born in Morrison County Minnesota November 22, 1939 to Ernest and Mae Como.  He died September 4, 2004 in California.  The Social Security Death Index does not give the county where he died.  The last known address for him was in Rialta CA.

According to the 1940 US Census Como had three older sisters and his father was employed as a foreman for WPA Park Improvement.  The family was living in Little Falls, Minnesota.

Pics of Blue after being released from the pokey

From our German friends~

Susan Atkins Sues

All I can say is Susan Atkins has some pretty big cajones.... for a girl!

Article from Inside Detective April 1972

Thoughts on the Tex Tapes

                    So.... What Says Tex? Thoughts on the Tapes.....       

"My Definitive Statement"
  
"I have no knowledge of any murders committed by the Manson family, other than those which have already been prosecuted by the authorities."
 
"I have never personally heard any Manson Family member speak of any bodies being buried at Barker Ranch."
 
Charles Tex Watson- May 2008. (A Prisoner Outreach with Abounding love- Website of Charles "Tex" Watson)

“Bodies Buried?”
 
"This is what CNN asked me when they requested an interview on March 26, 2008. I turned down the phone interview and a visit, but I responded to their questions by mail. I do know that no one had been buried by the Manson Family at Barker Ranch when I fled Manson two weeks before they were arrested on October 10, 1969. The only runaways I knew at Barker Ranch were Stephanie and Kathryn, a.k.a. “Kitty”. As reported above, they were picked up by the California Highway Patrol. There are only two faithful members of the old Manson family left. It stands to reason that if there were bodies buried at Barker Ranch, at least one of the rest would have come forward with reliable information during the past forty years."     

Charles Tex Watson- May 2008. ( A Prisoner Outreach with Abounding love- Website of Charles "Tex" Watson)

Well now we can all stop worrying right?  Tex said in 2008 he knows nothing, and he would never  change his story- would he? He was a man of God by this time, and surely he would not betray his faith and all encompassing love of the lord by telling another lie???  

Hmmm.... On the other hand- maybe we should NOT take him at his word. Tex has always been a self serving and looking out for himself first and foremost type of bastard. What  would he have had to gain by revelaing more than he had to? Personally- I wouldn't put a two and half timer on these tapes revealing didley scadoodle. I think the guy always had the attitude that ultimately it wasn't his fault and that life made him act the way he did, and casued him to wind up in the Circumstances he found himself in. To keep confessing makes him less a compassionate kid and more the monster he really was. I don't think he wanted people to know that, and I am not sure at that point it had sunk in to him yet how he was viewed from the outside. He probably still thought he could play the sympathetic role- hence the initial period when he feigned like he was a mute and dying...  But every once in awhile- I get hope and read something which makes me wonder what if???
 
What if those tapes really do say something? Would Tex really talk?????
 
Here are a few more words from Tex's online Biography (Will you Die for Me?) to ponder:

"Boyd was no cynic. He knew I was guilty and his intent was not to get me off. He simply believed firmly that under our system of justice every person-no matter how obvious his guilt or how horrible his crime-deserves a fair trial."
 
"Bill was a mild, soft-spoken man with glasses, the beginnings of baldness, and a conservative taste in his clothes. He was also, as the next nine months would prove, a tenacious fighter for what he believed was right".

"We had our first meeting the morning after my arrest, in a dingy little upstairs room at the jail, a room which would become very familiar to me over the next nine months. My parents were present, and I continued to insist that I had no idea what the warrant was all about. (Chief Davis had not yet held his press conference-it took place at 2:00 P.M. Los Angeles time.) It was only after they had gone back to Copeville that I called Boyd back and told him that there was one thing that had happened in California-I had been involved in the Tate LaBianca killings. Lawyers, like poker players, need poise - and Bill Boyd handled the moment well. We would need to talk a lot, he said."

              

           Did Tex find someone to admire and trust?  A confidant?  Maybe... Just Maybe....

Crazy For Lovin' You...

Charles Manson's 2nd Wife Leona

 

 



 

The pictures are from Leona's junior year of high school in Colorado.  The year is 1956 and the group picture is the pep club.

Charles Manson and Leona Musser were married in the Spring of 1959 in California.  They had one child, Charles Luther Manson.  I had originally thought that Charles Luther's middle name was probably after Charlie's Uncle Luther but in researching I found that Leona's grandfather was named Luther and both her father and brother had Luther as a middle name. 

Leona filed for divorce Jan. 6, 1964. The grounds for the divorce were conviction of a felony, by Manson, and extreme repeated acts of cruelty.  Manson was served the papers for divorce later in the Spring while imprisoned at McNeil Island, Washington.

Brooks Poston

Date unknown

Thanks to Ole JC for the pic!

Ex-Scientologists Argue Scientology's involvement in Manson & Zodiac killings

"Anybody who tries to downplay Scientology's involvement in Manson & Zodiac killings is part of misinformation campaign"

On this message board you can observe a recent discussion among Ex-Scientologists regarding the Zodiac & Manson murders' Scientology connection.

Click HERE to read the forum.

Manson Hopes to Pay His Way With Record Album

San Francisco Examiner
December 26, 1969 - pg. 18

LOS ANGELES — (UPI) — Hippie cult leader Charles Manson hopes to finance his legal defense against seven counts of murder in the Sharon Tate slayings by selling a record album.

George E. Shibley, the lawyer who is handling Sirhan B. Sirhan's appeal and who has identified himself as an old friend of Manson, says the defendant is conducting negotiations with a record company.

Shibley said the negotiations are in connection with tapes Manson recorded prior to his arrest.

The attorney said the bearded, long-haired Manson learned to play the guitar while in federal prison several years ago and is considered an excellent guitarist and "an adequate vocalist." He said the album will contain a number of protest songs and numbers Manson improvised.

Manson was known as a musician in the Haight-Ashbury District of San Francisco where he lived after his release from prison, before he and his followers known as "The Manson Family" moved to Southern California.

Susan Atkins, a defendant turned informer on the Tate killings last August and the slayings two days later of Leno LaBianca and his wife, has indicated Manson bore a grudge against Terry Melcher, son of Doris Day. The grudge came about, Miss Atkins said, when the young producer was not interested in recording Manson's songs.

Miss Atkins, 21, claimed Melcher's home became a "symbol of rejection" to Manson and he later sent his followers to the Benedict Canyon house, by that time occupied by Miss Tate.

Paul Dostie and Buster

Here at Eviliz we like to keep up with our good friend Sgt. Paul Dostie and his wonder dog Buster!  Both have done some amazing work finding remains.  This is Paul and Buster's most recent endeavor.

thesheetnews.com

http://thesheetnews.com/archives/18018

Charlie Plays in San Francisco

Herb Caen was a well known San Francisco Chronicle columnist famous for his "three dot journalism" because of how he separated his little scoops when writing his gossipy tidbits about the San Francisco scene.  Charlie is mentioned in Caen's Dec. 17, 1969 column just a few days after he was charged in the Tate LaBianca murders. 

 

Baba's On-Line Sex Offender Registration... at age 92

Deane Moorehouse was convicted in the late 80‘s of molesting his own children. He is listed on the Megan's Law website.

To the end of his life he still spoke of the virtues and yes, the total innocence of Charlie. He never renounced Manson.

Uncle Rico starring in .............

Everybody probably knew this already, but just thought I would post it anyway, just for shits & giggles......As you may know, Napolean Dynamite has become a true Hollywood cult-classic. Well, actually, I just think it is funny as shit, regardless of the film's status....BUT.... Did you know that the actor who played "Uncle Rico" so well in Napolean Dynamite ALSO played a minor, supporting role in another Hollywood classic? Yes, you are reading this correctly: Uncle Rico, who was played by Jon Gries ALSO played "William Garretson" in Helter Skelter (1976 version)!! What movie trivia! How about a clip? You do have to skip to 11:31 to see the part I am referring to.

BOOK REPORT Popular Crime Reflections on the Celebration of Violence

Eviliz is a lover of all true crime stories and frequents the library in search of the newest releases.  My newest read comes with a complimentary type up of the Charlie parts to share with the blog.-

Popular Crime Reflections on the Celebration of Violence   
by Bill James published in 2011.  

It’s your basic run of the mill A-Z true crime book.  Lizzie Borden and O.J. plus everyone in between.  The title of the book contains the words ~“Popular Crime Reflections” yet Manson and the Family are mentioned three times without even a description of the crimes and only mentions one victim, Sharon Tate. Were the crimes considered not “popular” or worth “reflecting on?”

The writer composed 18 elements which characterize crimes.

Here are 2 of the 18 elements I found amusing plus the one which mentions Charlie.

“The tabloid elements- which involve soap opera like stories and are media driven.

Killer on the loose story elements- receive attention due to the public’s perception that they may be in actual danger.  The Beltway sniper was a Killer on the Loose story, as were John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, and Charles Starkweather.

Bizarre elements- cause stories to stand out from the mass of criminal events by gruesome, grotesque and extremely unusual features.  Jeffrey Dahmer is a Bizarre story, as is Charles Manson and Winnie Judd, the Trunk Murderess (1931).  Any story involving unusual amounts of cruelty could be called a Bizarre story.

Page 265~ “I have no empirical evidence to support what I’m saying, but go to the library, and look up magazines from 1965 to 1968.  You’ll find volumes of essays about the “generation gap,” the split of society into young and old.  Very, very few of those articles will make any mention of the assassination of JFK.   It’s an easy, after-the-fact dividing line between the generations, but it’s just not true.  On the other hand, the cultural impact of the Manson murders is enormously under appreciated.  The murder of Sharon Tate rocked the nation when the counter culture was just past its peak.  The arrest and trial of Charles Manson and his followers delivered to young Americans a simple message of enormous impact: that evil men, adorned with flowers, would look much the same as saints.  A culture based on categorical trust and unconditional acceptance was a balloon waiting to burst, and Charles Manson was the needle.

We didn’t ask ourselves what evil lurked beneath the skin of strangers, so long as they dressed like us.  Evil belonged to the other generations, to the hard cases among our generation who would not open their hearts.  Was this naive?  It was preposterously naive.  We were younger than young.  The sixties weren’t cynical, and they certainly didn’t come about after the loss of the nation’s innocence.  They were innocence personified, innocence run amok.  They could not co-exist with personified evil."

Page 286-  In the three cases ca. (Manson, Hearst and Power), career criminals, a few years older than the baby boomers, adopted the guise of revolutionaries in order to seduce young women – seduce them sexually, but also to seduce them into becoming accomplices, to seduce them into a life sustained by violent crime.

Charles Manson worked with society's least favored, with young girls who had run away from dysfunctional families, or who had been driven away by physical and sexual abuse.  He adopted not the central ideas of the revolution, but the marginalia- the clothes, the hair, the music- and used these to build a “family,” a cult of people who had abandoned normal life in order to do whatever Charlie wanted.  This cult he then used as a weapon against bourgeois society that he felt had humiliated him, intending nothing except to cause pain, to cause harm.

Pretty accurate wouldn’t you say?

Rare Manson Family footage

Who Was Mark Ross? Argosy May 1970

 

According to Deemer's list Mark Ross was born Feb. 27, 1945 and had addresses in New York and the now well known 28 Clubhouse Dr. Venice CA address where John "Zero" Haught died.  According to the article below the way Ross, aka Y L Freeman, tells it, he was living at Spahn Ranch in 1968 in the house at the back ranch with John aka Crazy Jake.  His story in Argosy is at odds with what Paul Watkins wrote in "My Life With Charles Manson" chapter 23, which says that when Paul came back to the Family after Manson was arrested in Inyo County that Ross was a newcomer to the Family.  Some sources say that it was Ross who arranged for Laurence Merrick and Robert Hendrickson to film the Family for the movie "Manson".  I'm not sure if that is true.

First of all Crazy Jake in the Argosy story is not really Crazy Jake but Irwin Kaufman Friedman aka Johnny Friedman and later Partee Friedman the masked man on Geraldo's Family reunion show.  Friedman was originally from New York, he was an artist, travelled extensively, also married extensively and begat lots of children.  He and his second wife, Patricia aka Holly, raised Ivan Pugh, Sandra Good's son with Beausoleil.  Partee Irwin Friedman died in Sonoma County CA Sept. 30, 2008 after living for many years in the Guerneville area, the same area where James Willett was killed in 1972.

So, I think that what Mark Ross aka Y Lee Freeman is relating in the Argosy article is actually mostly Irwin/Johnny/ Partee Friedman's story and that Mark Ross was never at Spahn before Manson was jailed.  I also think that Mark Ross was not his true name.  I've never been able to find a Mark Ross born Feb. 27, 1947 but I was able to find a Mark Rosen born on that date in Los Angeles.  Doing some checking I found that this Mark Rosen has an alias of Mark Ross and has lived in Los Angeles and Ventura counties.  He no longer lives in California.

If it is true that Mark Ross is not really Mark Ross it raises other questions for me, like why? And does he have more of an involvement in Zero's death than what is currently known?  What the hell else has he done to skew the Family history?

 

 

 

 

Goler's Legend

{The first mining stories out of the El Paso Mountains in the Western Mojave talk of discoveries in the narrow canyon known today as Goler Canyon or Goler Gulch. There are many different versions of the original story.}

Between 1867 and 1869, a German prospector named Goler on his way from Death Valley to Los Angeles is supposed to have stopped at a spring to have a drink of water and rest for a while. While taking a drink from the spring he looked into the water and saw gold nuggets lying there. Because he was worried about the Indians he did not stay long enough to investigate the area completely. He gathered up a few samples and continued on to Los Angeles. Goler tried to take a short cut and lost his way. When he realized he was lost he climbed to the top of a small hill and drew a map of the site to mark the location. To mark the location where he made the map he took his rifle and stuck the barrel in the ground and left it there so he might find it when he returned. Then he met Grant Cuddeback, a former prospector turned rancher. Cuddeback helped Goler organize an outfit to go back and find the gold three separate times before they found gold in Red Rock Canyon, where they mined for several years. Goler, still convinced he could find his gun and the spring, left the group.

{Throughout the years that followed, freighters coming back and forth from the successful mining camps north of Mojave, told stories of seeing a lonely man and his burro prospecting in the eastern El Paso foothills. While camping at Mesquite Springs, Freighter “Slate Range Jack” ran into Goler with more nuggets said to have been found 5 miles to the east of them. Many a man outfitted himself with prospecting supplies and headed into the Western Mojave in search of “The Lost Gunsight Mine” or “Goler’s Lost Gold." Unfortunately, the Mojave desert turned out to be riddled with many canyons that fit the description of the one on Goler’s map, and no gun could be found at the entrance to any of them. In 1893, when a bonanza was finally found in a dry narrow gulch in the Southern El Paso Mountains, many believed that this was the site of John Goler’s lost mine, and named the camp that grew up around it}

In March 1893, twenty six years after Goler left his rifle, the Goler Mining District was formed. A spring, which was a mile and a half up the canyon, is considered to be the spring Goler drank from when he found the gold nuggets. In the fall of 1893 a stage line was put into operation from the Goler diggings to connect to the stage line that came from Owens Lake to Mojave. This stage lone connected with the Mojave Line at Red Rock Stage Station. When some men would reach this point they would leave their teams and wagons to follow the “gold fever.”

Fifty years after Goler left his gun as a landmark, it was found on a cattle ranch about twenty miles north of Mojave, owned by Mrs. Rhoda Munsey and her son Will. Even after being left out in the elements for so many years, the words and dates on the gun left no doubt in anyone’s mind that this was the old Spencer Repeating Rifle right where Goler had left it so many years ago.

Above excerpted from Desert Country (2002) by Bob Powers and http://www.explorehistoricalif.com/lost_mines.html

Patty's takeaway from Goler's story is that everyone who found gold in the Mojave thought that they were finding Goler's lost claim. The Canyon in Death Valley is called Goler, but so is the mining village of Goler Gulch which is in Kern, not Inyo County. And, Mesquite Springs where he was supposedly seen with a handful of nuggets isn't near either one of these places. He is an enigma, or a legend. A dirty, dusty sasquatch or leprechaun who guards the entrance to untold, lost riches.

So now you know!

Bloody beam is baffling

What, one asks is the point of rehashing up evidence from a case that was closed a long, long time ago? Why do people, including myself still seem confused as to what really happened those two nights in August, 1969? Will anyone, other than the perpetrators, and their friends find out the truth, once, and for all? I do hope so. Sometimes I find myself feeling guilty for even being interested in such human tragedy, but on the other hand find myself pissed off that the actual killers still haven’t divulged the TRUE sequence of events. So, as it turns out, I was (Internet) visiting Cielodrive.com, which is a really good site, and came across some photos of the Cielo crime scene that reminded me of the posting I read a while back about if/when Manson & friends returned to the scene. I have never thought Manson would of been that dumb to place himself at the scene of the crime, when he didn't even go with them the first time around. Of course, Manson has never been a suave, smooth criminal. He always got caught, no matter what! Anyway....something caught my attention in the photos.

 In the first crime scene photo, you are shown the living room area during the investigation. You can clearly see where the rope is hanging from the beam.

In the second photo (courtesy of Cielodrive.com), you see one of the detective's hand pointing to a blood smear on one of the living room beams:

Ok, in the third you see where the actual beam is located:

This blood evidence is clearly not making sense with what the killers stated happened. Yes, I know the killers are/were liars of the most devious kind, but I ask myself "Why would there be blood on THAT particular beam, if the rope to "hang" them was the beam closer to Jay Sebring's body?" Did they move the rope after they had begun stabbing?

Let the discussions begin.....

My Interface With The Manson Family, by Sue Marshall: Part 3 of 3

The Trial

A few months later, in March 1970, writer Ed Sanders arrived from New York.  He had obtained the consent of Freep editor Art Kunkin to represent the paper in covering the trials of Manson and his followers.

This was a delightful two-fer for me.  First, I was freed from the duty of covering the trial, thereby allowing me to pursue news that was more in keeping with my interests.  Second, Ed turned out to be a delightful colleague, always very professional and pleasant. Later, he would be the sole reporter of Mansonite lore who would actually imbed himself in the Family in order to get an accurate story, from their point of view rather than the perspective of law enforcement.

The trial started in late 1970 and continued into 1971.  At some point in the proceedings, perhaps when Manson was forbidden to act as his own attorney, he shaved his head and carved an "X" in his forehead.

One day as I tromped up to the Hall of Justice to cover the L.A. Black Panther trial, I encountered Squeaky, Sandy, and other Mansonite girls. They were squatting on the sidewalk in front of the courthouse, as was their custom. They had also shaved their heads and carved X's into their foreheads.  They spoke to me, but all they could say was some nonsensical prattle that they had learned from their cult leader.  Looking back, I am sure that they were hungry and cold and in acute emotional distress. I did not stop to converse with them.  Their scene was just too horrifying.


Three Minutes with Manson

One day in early 1971 I accomplished a journalistic coup:  an interview with Elmer (Geronimo) Pratt, Minister of Defense for the L.A. Black Panther Party[7]. He was being held in the jail in the upper floors of the old Hall of Justice downtown during his own trial.

Through the services of a leftist lawyer connected with the case, I was able to interview Pratt in the Hall of Justice attorneys' room.  The rules allowed only one person to be with the inmate at a time, so the lawyer departed.  I stood at the north end of the long room, with its well-buffed linoleum floor and GSA steel desks, waiting for the county sheriff's deputies to bring Pratt.

To my surprise, at the south end of the room, the sheriffim opened the door and escorted in none other than Charles Manson.  He was shackled.  He stood there for several minutes, staring at me.

Few events in my life have been so astonishing. I stared back at Manson, hoping that he would not mistake my fascination for the devotion he got from his hapless followers.  I stared at him in the same sense that one stares at a biological oddity, a hideous monster fish from the darkest depths, now on public display in some aquarium.  He was short, scruffy, ugly.  I hope my glance conveyed my scorn and contempt.


Conclusion

Had I formed an opinion in 1971 as to the culpability of Manson and his followers in all those murders?  Perhaps not.  But the creepy subservience of the Manson Family girls with whom I was acquainted was enough to convince me that the man was evil incarnate.

By the time of the trials, it was clear that despite the excesses of law enforcement during that era, the cops had correctly identified the murderers of Hinman, Shea, the Tate household, and the LaBiancas.

So I will turn to the question that has vexed every student of the Manson Family:  how the hell did he get all those girls to subjugate themselves to his psychopathic bullshit?  How did he get them to commit murder for him?

With a modern perspective on what makes people tick, I favor the concept used by psychologists that there is something called "executive function", the biochemical basis for good old-fashioned common sense,

The female followers of Manson and his male counterparts would seem to have a gaping deficit in the executive function department.  In general, I  believe that bad taste in boyfriends is the primary cause of women being in jail.  While there is no doubt that some of his followers were psychopaths just like Manson[8], not all of them could have been.  Certainly overdosing on the drugs available then (and now) can make people crazy.  And crazy people can be susceptible to suggestion.

Finally, there is the almost-forgotten zeitgeist of the era before contraception was widely available – the era into which the Manson followers were born. The parents of the Manson followers could not limit the number of children they had.  This led to the phenomenon of 1960s-era "throwaway children." Dads returned from WWII or the Korean War and took up the Playboy Philosophy, leaving the Moms with too-large families to support. Some kids were rejected; others simply got neglected. Some of the Mansonites may have emerged from that type of situation.  In 21st Century America, few of us still recall those times.

Maybe it all comes down to the presence of evil in the world.  Maybe – assuming that one has common sense equal to one of Ruby Pearl's chickens – the moral person must be vigilant against getting sucked into evil. Is that not a lesson from Nazi Germany, when ordinary people became evil, one small step at a time?


end

Footnotes:

[7] Pratt served 27 years in prison for a murder he apparently did not commit. His conviction was vacated in 1997 after it was revealed that the chief witness against him was an FBI mole placed through the COINTELPRO offensive.

[8] The late Susan Denise Atkins comes to mind.

My Interface With The Manson Family, by Sue Marshall: Part 2 of 3

The Yellow Submarine House

The following day, a group of us Freep staffers drove to the West Valley in two cars. Since I lived in East Hollywood, in the opposite direction, I drove alone in my battered yellow Ford Falcon.  Paul, Shirley, and Judie lived in Reseda, in the same general direction as the Family.  The rendezvous point was the one-story ranch-style house the Family called the Yellow Submarine.[1]

The vivid detail that sticks in my memory was an antique (or imitation antique) sign on the front porch reading:  Doctor Sigafoos, Diseases of the Colon and Rectum.[2]

We were greeted by two of the men.  I believe one was "Clem," Steve Grogan.  The other may have been Bruce Davis or Dennis Rice.  These guys reminded me of weasels or ferrets.  They were thin and dirty, with the wise-ass demeanor of jailbirds. The young women were summoned from the back of the house.  We all sat in the living room on regular chairs and sofas.  I do not recall the décor in detail, but it lacked the ornate arrangements of India prints, temple bells, candles, incense, and psychedelic posters that were the hallmark of good hippie housekeeping in that era.

I stared at the girls.  Squeaky Lyn was a redhead. Gypsy had very black hair.  Sandy Good was a blonde.  They all wore the same odd hair style:  cut short at  ear length, with a few strands left long at one side of their faces. Ed Sanders would learn later that Manson had ordered his female followers to submit to a ritual tonsure, with the harvested hair woven into a vest that was presented to Charlie. [3]

One of the men, again I think it was Clem, began to hold forth:

The police had it in for Charlie. Why, a cop could sit in a topless bar in Van Nuys all evening and still not succeed in getting laid.  Wouldn't it make him want to nail Charlie, who was surrounded by pretty girls who were happy to do his bidding?

As if on cue, the girls assumed insincere smiles. There was something creepy about the scene.

But here we were, in the West Valley, a district that would become the epicenter of the loathsome L.A. porn industry.  This was early in the progress of the women's liberation movement, but I was struck by the subservience and robot-like sexuality that the Manson girls were enacting.  I had observed this vibe before around the West Hollywood groupie scene, from the young women who gravitated to rock bands.  I had already come to the conclusion that all rock musicians were assholes. So what we were witnessing was, thus far, par for the course.

The Spahn Ranch

With this preliminary indoctrination accomplished, our caravan left for the Spahn Ranch.

The Santa Susana Hills look like the backdrop of every old Western movie you've seen.

When I was a child in L.A. in the 1950s, there was no Ronald Reagan Freeway to expedite the trip between the northwest San Fernando Valley and Ventura. High above Simi Valley, a road passed along the eventual freeway route and crossed Santa Susana Pass.  It is here I would feel a great excitement, for my family would only be here if we were headed for Corriganville.

Movie stuntman Crash Corrigan had developed a small theme park and tourist trap amid his movie set in Chatsworth.  There was a fake old-West town, with false-front buildings, raised plank sidewalks, hitching posts for horses, and a rustic one-room jail, complete with barred windows. Actors would simulate gunfights for the delight of the children.  We had been raised on Western movies and TV.

At Corriganville, the surrounding hills, dotted with massive granite boulders and yucca, set the stage for those Westerns. When I was in Corriganville I was in paradise.

When our party arrived at the Spahn Ranch, I had a moment of the same giddy excitement. By some measures, at age 18 I was still a kid. I looked around at the desert hillsides, at the movie-set Western town.  The Spahn Ranch movie set was smaller than Corriganville, but it looked very similar, and the two sites were not far away from each other.

I had come to the Spahn Ranch expecting a hippie commune, perhaps with noir overtones.  But what I saw was HORSES!

To my surprise, I saw that the young women of the extended Manson family were seriously engaged in the work of renting out horses for trail rides. They were running a business there[4].  I fought a strong impulse to run to the rental corral, mount up, and explore the desert hills on horseback.  Or at least go pet the horses.

But I was a professional.  I was there to do a job. I had come to interview subjects for a news article.  Would I get the by-line?[5]  I was new on the job and eager to prove my ability.

Glancing around the movie ranch, I saw Ruby Pearl, the old cowgirl who was George Spahn's sidekick.  She emerged onto the back porch of the main house. Her orange hair was pinned up in braids around her head. She looked bemused at the scene all around her.  She must have been seeing strangers  everywhere invading her home, hippies outnumbering the horse rental customers.  And now a new group had arrived from the Freep. We were not introduced to her. She must have perceived us merely as more hippies.  She held a pan of grain.  The chickens strutted, clucking, up to the back porch where she stood.  Ruby Pearl tossed out the feed.

In the yard we were greeted by Sandy Good, holding her infant son. She told us his name was Ivan, or Elf.  She smiled and said that his father was Bobby Beausoleil.

The wind blew. We followed the Mansonites into one of the fake-western buildings. I think it was the General Store. We found seats.  A fine layer of gritty dust covered everything, as you would expect at a desert horse ranch where not a lot of cleaning was done. One hanger-on was a teenage girl, from some suburban home, incongruously dressed in clean white pants.  And she still had all her long hair.  I concluded that she must be a very recent recruit.

Gypsy took up her guitar and soulfully sang Cease to Exist, the song Manson had almost succeeded in selling to the Beach Boys.[6]

I have no recollection of whatever desultory conversation we had that afternoon.  No food or drink was served and no joints were passed. It was like many a hippie commune, without any money to speak of, and with little attention paid to household cleanliness or personal hygiene.  Perhaps the Mansonites were trying to convince us of how normal they were.

The hour grew late, and we departed at dusk.

Footnotes:

[1] According to research by Ed Sanders, the address of this house was on Gresham Street in Canoga Park.  He says the Mansonites were evicted shortly after our visit and that the house has been demolished since the events recounted here.

[2] Although I don’t recall the exact name of the purported physician, it wasn’t really “Sigafoos”.

[3] Don’t you wonder where this artifact might be today?

[4] Manson had negotiated accommodations for his entourage from elderly George Spahn;  the deal was that the girls would manage the rent string and the horse rental business. Squeaky was assigned to provide oral sex to keep George contented. Her Family name was derived from the sounds she emitted when the old gentleman felt her up, according to Ed Sanders.

[5] As I recall, it was Paul, as managing editor, who got the by-line. He seemed taken in by Clem’s rationale for the LAPD aversion to Manson. In the weeks that followed, I did not care much that I was not assigned to write an article about the Family. Now, in my maturity, I am very relieved.  I would not have been able to publish any sentiments that the Family would have found satisfactory. Who knows what might have resulted?

[6] According to the story, the Beach Boys had insisted in making revisions to the lyrics, including changing the title to Cease to Resist. This move toward marketability was unacceptable to Manson.

My Interface With The Manson Family, by Sue Marshall: Part 1 of 3

This series comes exclusively to Eviliz.com from Sue Marshall, a writer who lives in California. Sue will be monitoring the blog for the next few days to field your questions.

---

At the time the Manson Family perpetrated the Tate-LaBianca murders, I had just graduated from Santa Monica High School.  Shortly thereafter I began  writing on a freelance basis for the Los Angeles Free Press, a tabloid weekly that provided sensational coverage of the counterculture, to much acclaim.

In November 1969, I was hired by the Freep as a staff writer. I began to cover the antiwar movement. Later, I would be named "military editor." To my amazement, I was soon receiving a lot of mail from soldiers in Vietnam who would prefer to be anywhere else.  My journalistic focus inclined toward covering serious news about the peace movement, social justice, and women's liberation.

Around the same time, mid-October 1969, Manson and some of the Family members were arrested at the Barker Ranch in the Panamint Mountains, now within the boundaries of Death Valley National Park.  Charges filed included auto theft and arson. It took the police authorities a few weeks to figure out who to arrest for the Tate-LaBianca murders, as well as those of Gary Hinman and Shorty Shea.


Gary Hinman

Coincidentally, I was acquainted with Manson Family victim Gary Hinman.

In the spring of 1968, as a high school junior, I met a young man named Gabriel, a musician, who recruited me to come to a Buddhist meeting. Thus I discovered the Pacific Palisades chapter of the Nicherin Shoshu Sokagakki, the Buddhist cult that chants "Nam Myho Renge Kyo" and conducts a vigorous proselytization effort. Being curious, bored, and interested in meeting young men, I joined up.

In August 1968, the sect held a convention in Honolulu. Seizing this  opportunity to have a little adventure, I had saved my earnings from a summer job and flew to Hawaii with the group.  There I met Gary Hinman.

Hinman seemed much older and wiser than the rest of us. He must have been in his early 30's. He was not very tall, of thin build, with straight brown hair of medium length and a brown beard.  He smiled and did not talk much.  He wrote his address and phone number in my little red book.  I could have gone to visit him at his house in Topanga Canyon, later to be the scene of his demise.  But I never called him. Could Gary's open and welcoming nature have eased the way for Manson and his followers to have access to him?  I suspect so.


A Visit from Sandy Good, Squeaky Lyn, and Gypsy

By December 1969, the police had arrested most or all of the Manson Family members who had been involved in the string of murders.  I was still very new in my job as a reporter when the Freep office was visited by a trio who would later become infamous in their own right.

At that time, the Free Press office was located on the north side of Beverly Boulevard, one block east of La Brea, across from CBS Television City. Because of earlier bomb threats from anti-Castro Cubans, the door between the lobby and the offices was controlled with an electric latch.  Before anyone could enter, receptionist Dee would have to buzz them in.

It was in this dim lobby, with bright sunbeams filtering through the glass door, that Sandy Good, "Squeaky" Lynette Fromme, and "Gypsy" (Catherine Share) introduced themselves to me and my neighbor, Michael.  They were carrying a stack of vinyl records: Charlie Manson's original songs performed by the Family, with Gypsy playing acoustic guitar.  The appearance of the cover art made it obvious that this was not a product of the slick record companies.  It was a blurry black-and-white version of the Life magazine cover photo of Manson with his trademark stare. The only title, in block letters, was the word "LIE," in an attempt to mimic the magazine logo.

My neighbor Michael immediately produced the five dollars that the young women were asking for their record.  If I had bought one from them then, it would be probably worth ten thousand dollars today.  But I probably didn't have five dollars in my pocket, and the Manson Family trio were activating my weirdness radar.

Soon we were joined by managing editor Paul and advertising administrator Shirley. They were very intrigued by our visitors.


We listened to the spiel:

Charlie, they said, had been targeted by the LAPD because he was having a good time with his Family.  He never did anything criminal, they said.  Everyone was innocent.  It was Us versus the Man. The Pigs were scapegoating hippies because they needed to solve these murders.

All this sounded plausible.  We made an appointment to meet the Family at their stronghold.