In John Waters' 2009 piece Leslie Van Houten: A Friendship, I have always been particularly fascinated by part of a paragraph that refers to The Family having their own language:
In late 1971, still free, second-tiered Manson Family members robbed the Western Surplus Store in the suburbs of Los Angeles and stole 14 guns (supposedly to break Manson out of jail) and a shoot-out with the police occurred. All six robbers were arrested. At their trial, many members of Manson royalty, now awaiting the promised Helter Skelter end of the world from death row, were called as witnesses by the robber defendants so they could have a courtroom reunion of sorts. The nervous trial judge called the proceedings "the biggest collection of murderers in Los Angeles County at one time". There were only two court spectators the day I went to a pre-trial hearing; myself and a lower-echelon Manson groupie with a shaved head and a fresh X carved in her forehead who was furiously writing what looked like a thirty-page letter to one of her "brothers". When about fifteen of the Manson Family were brought into court, hand-cuffed and chained together, women on one side and men on the other, many with their heads shaved, the atmosphere was electric with twisted evil beauty. Not having seen each other in about a year, the cultists started chanting, jerkily gesturing, and speaking to one another in a nonsensical language that only the Family could understand.Is there anyone out there that has actually heard any of it?
A couple of years ago when we were delving deeper into the Ukiah murders we touched on our discovery that the Anderson Valley has its own language called Boontling.
Is there anyone out there that has actually had exposure to Boontling for longer than the video we posted?
A contingent of The Family spent quite some time up there in 1968 and I'm curious if the "nonsensical language" that Waters mentions had it's roots in their exposure to Boontling. If not, where?
