Thursday, January 10, 2013

Charles Manson Writes the AVA

Forty years after the Witches of Mendocino were arrested Charles Manson wrote a letter to the editor of the Anderson Valley Advertiser in Boonville CA.  The newspaper had never received any other letters from Manson before this one.  Here is the letter as it appeared in the newspaper.



I contacted the editor of the newspaper and asked if he would be willing to let me have a copy of the letter Manson wrote and he agreed!  I expect that Manson has caused a few editors to have a WTF moment when it came to editing his letters.



And here is the envelope the letter came in, I was sent B&W copies.



A couple of weeks later Kenny Calihan, Manson's prison buddy, also wrote a letter to the AVA.  Enclosed with his letter was a prison form of Manson's that Manson signed, I guess to show the newspaper that he really was a buddy of Manson.    I'm not at all familiar with what this form is all about but it seems to be called an ANNUAL/PRE-MERD REVIEW.  If anyone knows what this form is for, please, do tell!