Collector Alert: Michael Channels is selling part of his collection

Michael Channels is selling parts of his collection off for cheap! Here is a letter from 1987 that comes with a certificate of authenticity, as does everything that comes of the back porch. Michael's stuff is guaranteed for real, and trust Patty, that is important because there is a lot of fake stuff out there.

Here is a piece of fan mail from a guy in Europe that Manson wrote on. Michael is selling it for FIVE measly little dollars!! In the video he hilariously says, "Maybe it's you. You can get it back." LOL

Why is he doing this you might ask? Because he has a ton of stuff and apparently is raising funds to one day add a book he is writing to the legion of titles published on the subject. It's bound to be a good one, Patty'd venture.

Says Michael,"If you want more, tune in later. Cuz I got a pile of shit to get rid of here, and its all going, Out the door. First come, first served."

UPDATE: at the time of this publication the items you see here have mostly been sold. However, do get in touch with Michael via the contact information he has in his video to be alerted to upcoming items he is ready to part with. This is one of a kind stuff, people.

Video of the Hinman Murder Scene

Video of the Hinman house, including the inside bedroom where
Gary Hinman's blood stains are clearly visible.

Included is part of the interview with Det. Charles Guenther & Det. Paul Whitely.

Am I Blue?

Am I Blue?

Am I blue, yes I'm blue

It started the day I lost you.

Nobody ever missed somebody like I do.

Am I blue, am I blue...

Here we have an extremely rare photograph of Sandra Good being visited by her son Elf, possibly during her stint at the federal prison in Dublin, California when he was probably around 7 or 8. Obviously, she had already transformed from Sandra Good into "Blue" for Manson's "Order Of The Rainbow" environmental religion. Actually, that was the whole reason she got sent to prison. Well, that isn't the reason she got sent to prison. The reason was because she was sending death threats through the mail. I always thought getting 10 years for sending threatening letters was kind of severe, but the authorities probably felt otherwise. She did seem to always threaten people's lives back then. Well, hopefully she has mellowed with age. Enjoy the photo, ladies & gentlemen. It's an oldie, but a GOODIE!!

Goodbye Helter Skelter Chapters six through nine

The next two chapters on Bernard Crowe and Gary Hinman begin to flesh out Stimson's contention that Charles Manson is not legally culpable for the murders that took place during the summer of 1969. If Patty understands correctly, rather than Charlie's ordering "his children" to kill, his brothers and sisters killed for love of each other, to preserve their family unit. The distinction here is that each person involved made the decision to be involved of their own free will rather than being told to do something and obeying because of having been brainwashed or what have you.

Chapter six: "The Shooting of Bernard Crowe"

Stimson claims that this incident was one of two main catalysts that led to the murders later that summer, and was a naive effort by Tex Watson alone to raise a little cash. Tex got Rosina Kroner to raise $5,000 for a marijuana deal that ostensibly Bernard Crowe helped her to raise. When the three of them travelled to the dealer's apartment, Tex slipped out the back leaving Rosina with a very angry Crowe, who called Spahn demanding his money back. If he did not get his money, he threatened to come to the ranch and kill everyone there.

While Tex claims that it had previously been agreed that Charlie would handle the aftermath of the theft, Charlie claims that this was never so. Stimson agrees with Charlie's version because he was not "criminally naive" enough to have set the deal up in the first place. On the other hand, Stimson asserts that Tex already had a reputation as a thief because it was his idea that Linda Kasabian should rip off her husband's friend for $5,000 that summer. Stimson quotes Tex from Will You Die for Me as having said that "I thought a while and came up with an idea" and "it was MY mess." Charlie claims that he told Tex to give the money back, but rather he ran to the hills to hide out with Sadie. Then Charlie was stuck holding the bag and had to do something to protect his family from being up into danger.

When Charlie shot Crowe, he thought he had killed him. He also thought that meant that Tex was inadventently going to cost him his own life and as such, he told Tex that Tex OWED him big time. The very next day, the new reported that a Black Panther had been killed in Griffith Park, and the Family mistakenly thought it was Crowe. This is significant according to Stimson because the Family therefore believed that Charlie had killed for the benefit and survival of the family, which set a standard and demonstrated the extent of Charlie's love for them. From this point on they all became capable of murder.

Furthermore, Stimson says that Tex wrote in his book about how Charlie brought up the Crowe affair on the night of Cielo. This is further significant in showing that Charlie didn't order the murders that night because if Charlie had been involved, there would not have been any debt for Tex to have to pay back.

Chapter Seven: "The Murder of Gary Hinman"

While some of their specific assertions conflict, both Bobby Beausoleil and Charlie have claimed that the murder of Gary Hinman was indeed a drug deal gone bad and not a strong-armed robbery as many have asserted. Bobby's story is that the Straight Satans were having their tenth anniversary party in Venice Beach, and that he wanted to be invited, so he tried to score "something different" to impress them. He claims that Gary was making mescaline from peyote in his basement and that he bought 1,000 tabs for $1,000. The next day, the angry bikers beat Bobby up and demanded their money back, which is why Bobby paid Gary a visit in the days before his murder on July 31, 1969. But since Bobby did not have any of the so-called bad drugs for Gary to test, Gary assumed that Bobby was trying to rip him off.

Bobby also asserts that Charlie did not order him to kill Gary and that he did not make the phonecall to Spahn that the police later discovered from Gary's telephone records. Rather, he claims that the girls, who were unaware of the purpose of the visit in the first place, called Charlie to say that they were in trouble and that Gary had a gun. This is why Charlie had Bruce Davis drive him from Spahn Ranch to Gary's house where he took Gary's gun away and cut his ear with a machete. Prior to Charlie's arrival, Bobby said that Gary had signed over the pink slips to his cars which Bobby was going to give to the bikers in lieu of the $1,000. According to his account, a gentleman's agreement had already been achieved before Charlie showed up and cut Gary, purportedly to protect the girls. Only after Charlie cut Gary did Gary threaten to go to the police, at which point Bobby said he "acted irrationally" and killed Gary.

Susan Atkins tells a different story when she says that the pink slips to Gary's cars were not turned over until two days later. Charlies version differs as well. He says that Bobby asked him what he should do about the bunk drugs and that Charlie told him to forget about it. Bobby however wanted to pay the visit to Gary because it was a matter of principle for him. When Charlie showed up, he cut Gary to show Bobby how to be a man at which point Charlie says the pink slips were turned over and he left. After he left, he claims that Gary said he was going to kill Charlie and so Bobby killed Gary first to protect his friend. Charlie claims that he never told Bobby what to do.

At some point, Gary's gun was fired since a bullet hole was found by police in the kitchen. No one can agree about when it actually went off, however. Stimson claims that although some things still don't make sense, no one says that they went there with the intention of killing Gary. "People don't normally administer first aid to their victims before killing them," he claims. The killing only occurred after Gary went back on his word to not go to the authorities over his slashed ear and therefore was not premeditated as the prosecution would have us believe. Stimson says that Bobby killed Gary to protect Manson. He killed for brother, just as Manson did when he believed he killed Crowe. Stimson is painting an overall picture here in which Charlie is not the father of a group of children who unquestioningly did his bidding: rather, they all had a more equal social and emotional relationship based on mutual love and reciprocity.

Chapters Eight and Nine: "Introduction to the Tate La Bianca Murders" and "The Murders on Cielo Drive

Stimson says very little about the murders on Cielo, save the following: They were not random, nor isolated, but part of a larger series of events that arose out of "illegal drug transactions gone awry, underworld favors owed, and an ill-conceived plan to divert police attention from a previous murderous occurrence." All four participants admit to what they did, but did Charlie really "mastermind" them? Charlie told Stimson that perhaps he did, but "unknowingly." Everyone remembers Charlie telling the girls to do whatever Tex said and to "leave something witchy." Charlie also remembers giving them the old pair of glasses to leave behind in order to cause confusion. While Tex remembers that Charlie specifically told him to kill the occupants of Cielo and in exactly what way, Stimson believes that Tex was either mistaken or outright lying. Future chapters are to elaborate on what Stimson believes the true motive was.

Stimson has a bit more to say about Waverly because each of the participants' memories of what exactly happened differ much as they did in the instance of Gary's Murder. More on that next time.

Goodbye Helter Skelter: Chapters three through five

Welcome back to Patty's ongoing book report on George Stimson's very thoughtful Goodbye Helter Skelter. Today's installment covers the next ninety pages or so for your reading enjoyment. BTW, have you ordered your copy yet? If not, then get on it!

Chapter three: "On Sources, Methodology and Terminology"
George explains why he does not use Helter Skelter as source material (one sided and self aggrandizing), The Family (entertaining but irrelevant), or Manson in His Own Words (in Emmons' own words). He claims that the Indiana School for Boys' gang rape recorded in Emmons is completely fabricated, and that Charlie himself refers to the entire book as "bullshit." He also discounts Taming the Beast because the quotes attributed to Manson were not tape recorded or written down verbatim, they were paraphrased by the author.

Rather, George relies on taped interviews and conversations, letters, trial transcripts, and the websites of people who were involved like Tex's and Bobby's. He relies on speakers talking about themselves only, and refuses to use anonymous sources.

Here is where things get a little shaky. George is occasionally willing to "present possible motivations" for people when he feels that they are lying. For instance, he claims that when Susan Atkins told her cellmates that she tasted her victims' blood, it is reasonable to assume that she is lying because she was trying to scare them in order to protect herself. While this may seem reasonable, it seems to Patty that then he is venturing into territory where he should not be if he is attempting to be more objective than his predecessors. We shall see how this plays out as the book goes along.

Further complicating the methodology is the fact that since parole boards don't retry cases and must accept as true the courts findings, those hoping to be paroled must admit to guilt and could also therefore not be telling the whole truth. This might not be entirely intentional on the part of the participants. George quotes Pat Krenwinkel here when she said in 1993 that "sometimes I'm not sure who said what and what really happened because there is (sic) so many accounts from everyone."

Before the chapter ends, George vouches for Charles Manson's honesty when he says that he has never known him to lie, but only to be evasive. He claims that in "even Bugliosi has acknowledged Manson's honesty."

At the end of the chapter, Patty was left with an uneasy feeling that she hopes will dissipate some as the book progresses.  After all, George has asks us that if we are to read the book, we read the entire thing, hear him out fully.  Patty intends to do just that.

Chapter four: "The Mood of the Time"
This chapter is very densely packed with many details, and is nearly impossible to summarize. In fact, George has already summarized what was a very crazy and tumultuous few years into just a few pages which, if you are big on US History, pop culture, movies and/or music you will want to read very carefully for book, movie and album recommendations just as Patty did.

Patty is afraid to try and summarize what George wrote at all because of this passage near the middle of the chapter: "Although most written works...on the Manson case touch briefly on the mood of the time, it is really not enough to vaguely refer to "Flower Power" or the "Summer of Love" to fully explain the spirit of the late 1960's and early 1970's. That spirit cannot be conveyed into a soundbyte, for it was in fact derived from an accumulation of experiences and events that took place and affected people's minds...on a daily basis for years." Any attempt by Patty to boil down George's eloquent chapter into a paragraph or two would be doing just this: creating a soundbyte. Suffice it to say that Patty has received her marching orders to read up on topics that she still knows very little about like Eldridge Cleaver and the Black Panthers, the philosophy of Jerry Rubin, movies like Zabriskie Point and Alice's Restaurant, the "Is God Dead?" Time Magazine cover, the shooting of James Meredith and so on.

Chapter Five: "Spring 1967 to Summer, 1969"

This chapter is a chronology of the events leading up to the murders that is meant to illustrate the group dynamics and bonding between the members of Charlie's brigade. Much of it you are already familiar with but let's hit the highlights, shall we?

Shortly after his release from prison on March 21, 1967 Charlie traveled to the Bay are where he met Mary Brunner. They stayed only a few months before leaving for LA where they met Lynette Fromme in Venice Beach. The three traveled through Northern California through the spring and summer of that year, staying briefly at 636 Cole Street in the Haight Ashbury. In July, Charlie met Dean Moorheouse while hitchhiking, and the four were invited to stay with him for a time. Charlie was gifted a piano by a friend of Dean's which he sold in order to buy a VW camper van. By September, the four were in LA again, where they met Patricia Krenwinkel in Manhattan Beach. Back in San Francisco, they traded the camper van for a black bus with a stove, sink and water tank on top (what Little Paul likened to the bus' "hat") and added Susan Atkins to their group.

In November 1967, Charlie contacted producer Gary Stromberg whom he met through a prison contact (Phil Kaufman), and worked on an ill-fated movie about a black Jesus. He also recorded some music at Universal which was never released. While in LA they stayed at the Spiral Staircase where they met Bobby Beausoleil, Gary Hinman, Diane Lake, Nancy Pittman and Dede Lansbury. There were two abandoned houses they stayed in, Horsheshoe Lane (where Susan was given the nickname Sadie Mae Glutz during a fake ID brainstorming session) and Summit Drive where they met Bruce Davis, Little Paul, and Sandra Good (who had flown down from the Bay area in a private plane with a rich artist friend to sell paintings and go surfing).

Pooh Bear was born at Summit Drive on April 5, 1968 which concreted the group, George Stimson asserts, from a group of loose knit friends into more of a "family." By May, they were forced to move out because of pressure from local law enforcement. Sadie then heard about Spahn Ranch from someone who picked her up while hitchhiking. The group asked George Spahn if they could stay, and he agreed. Here is where the group picked up Steve Grogan (Clem), TJ Walleman and Catherine Share.

Around this time Dennis Wilson invited the group to stay with him after picking up Pat and Ella Jo Bailey while hitchhiking. Here, they met Brooks Poston and Tex Watson, who had picked up Dennis while hitchhiking home from Sunset Boulevard (hitchhiking seems to be a common theme through all of the meetings, doesn't it?). Dean Moorehouse was on the scene again when Mary, Susan and Pat moved north to where the famed Witches of Mendocino incident happened. Manson asked Dennis to bail the girls out but he demurred. Charlie made new Hollywood contacts through Dennis, namely Greg Jakobson and Terry Melcher. When Charlie wasn't given any royalties or writing credits for Cease to Exist (Cease to Resist), Stimson claimed that he soured on Hollywood and actually CHOSE to move out. The family was "glad to get back to the more natural way of living at Spahn's Ranch" to spurn the materialism of Hollywood in favor of their beloved environmentalism.

By July 1968, Paul Watkins was back from Big Sur, and on August 16 the Witches were released from custody in Mendocino. Susan gave birth to her son. Tex moved in to a tent at Spahn but continued to split his time between there and Hollywood where he sold wigs and marijuana. In November, he moved back to LA, failed his civil service exam, and met his fiance, Rosina Kroner. He also began selling LSD and returned to Spahn by March 1969, but continued to come and go as he pleased.

By Late August, 1968, Bobby arrived at the ranch with wife Gail and Leslie Van Houten. By September, Juanita Wildebush also arrived and donated her van and inheritance to the Family. Stimson claims that many, many people came and went, but that Charlie put conditions on none of them. He did have a way of getting rid of "troublemakers" with his "kill me, kill you" routine and by putting loathsome characters on a horse named Major to scare the shit out of them. Charlie claims that Susan caused a lot of trouble but he didn't have the heart to drive her off.

It became impractical for the group to stay at Spahn because of their burgeoning size and increased pressure from the law, so in October 1968 they drove out to the desert to check out Myers Ranch. Stimson claims that they got along just fine with the locals, like Emmett Harder, who thought well of them. When winter came, it got cold and harsh, so everyone but Paul, Brooks and Juanita moved in January 1969 to the house on Gresham Street in Canoga Park. Supposedly they didn't immediately return to Spahn's because Lynette and George Spahn had a fight. A month later however, Stimson says that Spahn invited them back again.

Danny DeCarlo arrived at the ranch in March, 1969. The group began their moneymaking schemes to get back to the desert, including the "Helter Skelter" nightclub in the Longhorn Saloon which the police quickly shut down. The stage was now set, says Stimson, for the "ill conceived underworld mis-dealings that would soon get out of control and escalate into literal matters of life and death."

Bobby Beausoleil's Parole Hearing Postponed

The parole hearing for Bobby Beausoleil scheduled for today was postponed without explanation.


Read the story HERE

Leave Something Witchy by Randolph Gentile

"Leave Something Witchy"  is a full-length graphic novel about the life of Charles Manson and his "Family". Chronicling Manson’s life from birth to his final arrest, months after the Tate/LaBianca murders.

Written and drawn by Randolph Gentile, Marvel and DC Comics letterer and creator of the critically acclaimed" Viral: A Slasher Comic", published by Comixology, "Leave Something Witchy"part 1, will be released in late 2015.

Randolph Gentile is available to answer questions in the comments section.

-------------------------------

When I decided to write and draw "Leave Something Witchy", the story of Charlie Manson and the Family, I, like everyone on this blog and others who read a lot of true crime novels was fascinated by Charlie. To ask "what makes him tick" kick starts a journey into the human mind, America in the 1960s, drugs, runaways, the US prison system, music, Hollywood, Satanism, religion, and murder. More than enough material for a good story.

One appeal of the Manson story that always fascinated me is how he not only managed to attract wayward youth, but how many of those young people were capable of murder. What are the odds? There were communes all over California, none remembered for murder yet the group at Spahn Ranch managed to have 7 (at least) ready and willing killers.

How did Charlie bring that dark side out of these people? Is that dark side tucked away in all of us, able to surface if you were pointed in that evil direction? Charlie used a cocktail of LSD and quasi-religion to mold Tex, Sadie, Patricia and the others into killers.

But not everyone at Spahn was chomping at the bit to kill for Charlie. Some ran at the first drop of blood. So what was it about Tex that would pick up a knife and gun and lash out at "blobs" while others literally headed for the hills at Spahn and Death Valley? Maybe it wasn't Charlie's fault for what happened at Cielo and Waverly? But then, maybe it is… after all Leslie, Patricia, Tex, Sadie, Bruce Davis, were all model prisoners while an 80 year old Charlie still does time in the hole, yelling with a swastika tattooed between his eyes about the injustices thrust upon him.

You can turn this story in countless directions. That's what I find most fascinating about this story and it's why I've decided to embark on writing and drawing "Leave Something Witchy".

The first time I drew Sharon Tate, I, like most people that have seen her, was struck by her beauty. She's the prototypical Hollywood Beauty. When you draw someone you're forced to really look at them. Eyes being the most important part to capturing life in your drawing. As I drew Sharon's eyes for the first time I became incredibly saddened. Those eyes watched at Tex wrapped a rope around her neck. They watched Patricia Krenwinkel, knife in hand, chase her dear friend Abigail out of her house. Then they pleaded with Tex and Sadie to let her live… to let her have her baby… suddenly I'm not drawing the eyes of a beautiful actress, I'm drawing eyes that have seen unspeakable horror.

I kind of envy Vincent Bugliosi, Ed Sanders and the others who have written novels about that night. It's one thing to write about the murder of a pregnant woman. It's another to draw it.

Squeaky Sums Up Genesis P-Orridge

This letter appears in a publication titled Squeaky's Scrapbook that was complied by Jack Stevenson.  Though it's hard to find the original publication, I believe there are copies of it available somewhere.

The letter is postmarked 1983.

Canyons

"If you were surprised by the murders, you weren’t connected to what was going on in the canyon”

- Gail Zappa 

"David (Briggs) chased Manson off the grounds of his Topanga house. Manson wanted his truck. David told him he’d shoot him if he didn’t get lost. Manson was scared of Briggs

- David Blumberg (Music Arranger)

---

I just finished a couple of older books in the last few weeks, and they got me to thinking about Manson again. I wasn’t really reading any of them for Manson-related reasons, but it doesn’t seem to matter much. Whenever I get into anything related to music or the Los Angeles area in the late 60’s- Charlie seems to make an appearance sooner or later. One of the books was about the music scene in and around Laurel Canyon. It had all the usual suspects. I read tales of Mama Cass Elliot and her rock and roll networking parties, and stories about Frank Zappa and the legendary “Log Cabin”. Once again, I wondered about the close proximity of the Cass Elliot residence to where two of the victims of TLB were living at the time.

In this first book, I read references made by Gail Zappa and music industry executives (such as Sally Stevens) to seeing Charlie and his friends at parties, and being in and around the scene. I had always believed that if there was any connection between the TLB murders and the music industry, it had to have had its roots in relationships forged during these times and in this place, where some of the people known to have associated with both the family and the victims socialized. I hung on to the little things I read—small pieces I had picked up here and there that told me members of the family had to have come into contact with certain people associated with the victims in Laurel Canyon; and yet, I could never come across any concrete evidence that Charlie had personally met anyone who was intimately involved with any of the major players of the Laurel Canyon musical fraternity.

There were things about Dennis Wilson, but that never seemed to get me anywhere beyond the time they spent having sex orgies at his house. Not sure that there is anything of real concrete value in relation to Dennis that we don’t already know, and it never seemed to directly tie Charlie to any other member of the music scene outside the Melcher/Wilson/Jakobson trilogy.  The Wilson connection was essentially some great sex stories, and a nice final tab for Dennis along with a wrecked car or two. But aside from that, nobody else would admit to having anything to do with Charlie if it couldn’t be proven. Dennis himself wouldn’t talk about it after the murders. After all these years, and after reading almost all the TLB-related books, I had become convinced there would never be any direct admissions by any other players of any consequence of any dealings with Manson or his minions. But to steal a line from our favorite Prosecutor- it was otherwise, however, with the second book I read...

All quotes/excerpts below are taken from the biography "Shakey" by Jimmy McDonough.

"Topanga Canyon is a mere 25-minute drive from Hollywood and, in the late 60’s, was a universe apart from the glitz of the Sunset Strip. "It was like I was on speed and everyone else was on downers. People wore capes in Topanga".

 - Writer Eve Babitz

Floods and fires brought hippies and rednecks together and earned it the nick-name- Haight Ashbury South: "It just exploded" - "it’s inaccessible except for one road so it became a microcosm of the best of the 60’s".

- Actor Dean Stockwell

"There were theater groups, nudist colonies, and communes, plus a small thriving music scene centered around the Corral. Originally a country western hole-in-the-wall called Mickey’s Hideaway, the Corral was revamped by architect Ral Curran into a hippy nightclub complete with a large painting of a naked couple, entitled Pisces Dancing, hanging over the dance floor. Canned Heat, Taj Mahal, the Flying Burrito Brothers, and Joni Mitchell all played at Corral, along with Neil Young and Crazy Horse. Biker Gang Satans Slaves called the Corral home, as did R&B great Big Joe Turner, who was booked into the club by beatnik "Topanga" Dick Ludwig, famous for his T-shirt proclaiming "Topanga Dick is not a social disease!" People would walk out into the parking lot with pitchers of beer, there would be drug connections up the street, people were screwing in the bushes, it was nuts. Just nuts." 

- author

"In addition to the other Topanga Crazies Young was meeting, at some point in 68 he encountered Charles Manson a few times. ( Curiously, Young and Manson share a November 12 birth date)"

- author   

Well, this is interesting to me for a couple of reasons. First, this must be the Corral where Charlie and Bobby’s band played their "Milky Way" gigs. Who knew they were in such heavy company?  Second, I have read references to connections between the Family and Satan’s Slaves. A potential motive in Labianca ties this biker gang to a daughter of one of the victims through a boyfriend. As Charlie was only out for a short time in the big picture, and traveled a bunch as well, there was only so much time for him to have met all of the people he is tied to. We know that when he was at Spahn Ranch he was spending most of his free biker time with the Straight Satans. So if indeed Charlie did meet and form some type of relationship with Satan’s Slaves, was it here- during this period? This is the first thing I have ever read that puts both of them at the same place in the same time.

 

Also in this book, I came across an interesting character named David Briggs. He was the producer of almost every record Neil Young made with his side-band Crazy Horse. He lived in Topanga, and for a time while recording his earliest solo stuff- Neil Young lived with him at 1174 Old Topanga Road on his Ranch. They shared the place with the white dog you see on the cover of "Everyone Knows This is Nowhere".  They hung around with guys like Louie Kelly. His parties were infamous. He was a charter member of the Topanga All-Stars, a loose congregation of 15 or so roughnecks who functioned as "Topanga's answer to the James Gang." The Topanga Allstars also congregated on the property. David Briggs had some unique personality traits. Here is a quote about life at Mr. Brigg's Ranch:

"They treated women like dirt. The whole macho cowboy thing. I have never heard anyone before refer to a woman as "old lady". 

- That was said by Nils Lofgren, who was about to join the band. Here are a few more quotes about David Briggs:


"Briggs was evil, an evil individual. He looked like the devil. There was this anti-Semitic thing I used to get from David Briggs. He wasn't too crazy about Jews."

- Larry Kurzon (Agent and Manager)


"You put a hand right in front of David's face and you get a lot of respect out of him immediately. His mouth has written a lot of checks his ass can't cash."

- Kirby Cohee (Childhood friend)


"David was the master of committing women to slavery by putting them in left field. A true master of administering pure pain and gaining true love"

- Poncho Sampedro (Guitar player - Crazy Horse)


"One thing about David Briggs - even when you thought he was completely gone, he was always 100% there. Even when he was 100% stoned, 100% out of his mind, 100% lost on some fucking trip, he was still there. What was Brigg's job?  I think he kept the chaos happening. 

- Niko Bolas (Engineer)


Remind you of anyone? You wonder if Neil Young had encountered Charlie during this period if Neil and some of Neil's friends maybe had some influence on a struggling musician wannabe? When exactly did the vibes get darker for Charlie? Somewhere between the Magic Mystery Tour on the bus and Helter Skelter at Spahn Ranch, Charlie went from Mr. Lovey-Dovey to Apocalypse Now, and there wasn't a whole bunch of time in between. But, these times were in between. Who and what were the influences that caused this huge turnaround in Manson's priorities? The Beatles did all of that with a couple of records?

Hmmmm...

As for Neil Young, you can read the 700 plus pages for the rest of his story, but he certainly surrounded himself with some dark people. But I would ask if it was the darkness that Neil saw in Charlie? When exactly did they really meet? Was Charlie even showing dark signs back in Topanga in 68, if they crossed paths at that time?  If Neil would admit to meeting Charlie several times, why not be honest about when? Certainly, some of what I read Neil say about the meetings didn't add up. It could be passing of time, selective memory, or who knows what else. If you listen to Neil Young, it is simple and he has figured it all out. Me? I am still not so sure. As always, with anything I read about this case, I walk away with as many questions as answers. But you haven't read all of this for my feelings and thoughts. Here are Neil Young's:

"We just hung out. He played some songs for me, sittin in Will Rogers old house, on Sunset Blvd. Dennis had a house there, and I visited Dennis a couple of times… Charlie was always there. I think I met him two, maybe three, times. Spent the afternoon with him. Dennis and all those girls - Linda Kasabian, Squeaky Fromme. The girls. They only paid attention to Charlie. Dennis and I felt like we weren't there, o.k.? Now that may not seem that unusual, but it is. Because both Dennis and I were known. The girls couldn't see us. He seemed uptight, a little too intense. Frustrated artist. Spent a lot of time in jail. Frustrated songwriter. Singer. Made up songs as he went along. New stuff all the time, no two songs were the same. I remember playing a little guitar while he was making up songs. Strong will, that guy .I told Mo Ostin about him- Warner Brothers. This guy is so unbelievable - he makes songs up as he goes along, and they are all good. Never got any further than that. Never got a demo. Glad he didn't get around to me when he was punishing people for the fact he didn't make it in the music biz. That's what that was all about. Didn't get to be a rock and roll star, so he started wiping people out. Dig that."

Q: What would have happened if he had got signed?

"Well, he would have probably gotten pissed off at them. He was an angry man. But brilliant. Wrong, but stone brilliant. He sounds like Dylan when he talks. He is like one of the main movers and shakers of the time- when you look back at Jesus and all those people. Charlie was like that. But he was kind of…. skewed. You can tell by reading his words. He's real smart. He's very deceptive though. Tricky. Confuses you. Crosby was scared to death of doing Revolution Blues. He didn't think it was safe to do it. Didn't want people to get the message you know- about Rock and Roll stars being worse than lepers. Didn't want that vibe out there."

Q: Are some people just Evil?

"Some people's lives are evil. I think people are receptacles- evil and good are out there. We either pick up on one or the other. I mean Well, if you're talking about intensity, and you're talking about somebody who you don't why they get to ya - look at Charlie."

So it seems like they certainly spent some time together. Not sure Linda was around when they were at Dennis Wilson's and Neil sure had a pretty specific opinion of someone he barely met. But there could be good reasons for those types of things... What is more important to me is that this erases any doubts that Charlie had met, at least, one of the major players in the music scene outside of Dennis Wilson. If Neil young is wrong about where/when, that makes it a bit more interesting to me as well..

Sometime in the couple of years (total) that Manson was free in between jail sentences, he formed some relationships and connections that, in addition to various influences he came under, I believe, led to the motive for the TLB murders. I think the motive had its roots in the scene he first flirted with, and aspired to, before things went South. I always assumed that Laurel Canyon was the most fertile soil for those seeds to have been planted. But, it seems that in my obsession over Laurel Canyon- I may have overlooked another Canyon just a few miles away. Topanga appears to have been another place in the late 60's in California where only no sense seemed to make any sense at all...


-All the very best from Your (You're?) Favorite Saint ;)

Goodbye Helter Skelter: Acknowledgements, Author's Note, Chapter One: "Preface" and Chapter Two: "Who Am I?"

Patty is finally going to crank out a synopsis of George Stimson's very interesting book (which RFoster1 mailed to her) for you, the readers, one hunk at a time.  Enjoy, but please don't settle for just these Cliff's Notes (or Patty Notes as the case may be). Patty encourages you to think for yourself and to do that you must also read for yourself. Anywhoo, here goes:

Acknowledgements. George's acknowledgements read like a who's who of the Manson world. Patty says Manson here, not TLB, or HTLB, or SHTLB or what have you with good reason. Stimson is firmly on Charlie's side of the fence but please do not call him a follower, because he is not. More on that later. Anyhow, acknowledgements include his personal friends and associates, most of whom he has stayed with at least once and more often many times including Shreck and LaVey, Bougas, Aes Nihil, Emmett Harder, Walleman, Gillies, Bartell, Good, Fromme and of course Manson himself.

Author's Note. George writes that most of his book was already written by 1999. He has since done additional research but didn't change much of what he already had because "What was true in 1999 (and in 1969, for that matter), is still true today."

Chapter One: "Preface: Why Write This Book?" George claims that he intends to present a totally different, new point of view based on his 25+ years of research. He writes quite simply that "The premise of this book is that...Helter Skelter is a fantasy." A secondary premise he concedes might be that Charles Manson has no legal culpability for what happened because he was NOT the mastermind that Bugliosi made him out to be. Charles is not a nice guy, but neither is he "evil incarnate." The killers, he writes, have ceased to be mere criminals, but are now "monsters beyond human comprehension" presumably because "it is now more advantageous to keep Manson...locked up forever as a permanent sign that the authorities are doing their jobs." Finally, he asks of the reader, "If you read this book, please read it all."

Chapter Two: "Who Am I?" This chapter is a short autobiography and chronology of events that made George the Manson expert that he is, today.  Though more conservative than many of his peers, he was still a child of the times and admittedly "experienced" in the Jimi Hendrix sense of the word. George was a college senior majoring in German when Squeaky crossed paths with President Ford in 1975. He read Helter Skelter first, like most of us did, but found it largely unbelievable. He began to devour all of the movies and books and videos and newspaper articles he could find on the topic, and amassed quite a body of material. Sanders, he writes, was even less believable to him than Helter Skelter. Conversely, Shreck's first Manson File of 1988 made a lasting impression on him in terms of credibility and reasonableness. It was Shreck that ensured a letter that George wrote to Charles Manson made it up to the top of the pile. When Charlie wrote George back for the first time, he referred to him as Saint George, in case you were wondering where that nickname came from. About this same time, he helped to film the movie "Charles Manson Superstar" and can actually be seen in some of that footage.

In 1990, George was introduced to Sandy Good, who was looking for high quality videotapes which George was in possession of. At the time, Sandy was still on probation and living in Bridgport, VT. George visited her there and stayed for three days in the fall of 1990. Towards the end of 1991, Sandy finished her probation and moved to Hanford, CA. George also moved to California from Ohio by the end of that year and began writing to Lynette Fromme who was in the federal prison in Marianna, FL.

It was also in 1991 that George first began meeting with Charlie at Corcoran. Of their meetings, George says that he was personally transformed. Though their relationship was limited to the visiting room there, they met over 200 times in 10 years. George claims that he knew Charlie better than anyone aside from Sandy in those years. As a result, he became sensationalized in the media as a brainwashed follower, a white supremacist, a satanist, an arsonist, and a murderer. He was and is none of these things. He was insulted and threatened by strangers on the internet and in mailings to his home. His house was watched and filmed. He was interrogated by the Secret Service. He was even impersonated. This, he says, gave him a true appreciation for what Charles Manson and his associates had experienced for the past 30 years.

This last bit really gets to Patty because even writing for this little tiny blog, she has experienced a lot of these same things from total strangers. It is definitely transforming. Patty is developing sympathy for George already after just the first two chapters, and can't wait to read what he has to say next.  Tune in next time, won't you? Or better yet, get yourself a copy and we will all discuss in the comments.  Until then...

Email from Ruth Ann Moorehouse to Bill Nelson?

Back in the day this was posted on Bill Nelson's 

(now defunct) website "mansonmurders.com".

 ---------------------------

Bill—

I have just been to your website and read the page about me.  I wanted to write and express my feelings on this matter.  I would also like for you to publish this letter on your website as a sort of "my story" type of thing.  I realize it is your website and you are free to publish whatever you want.  I also would like to thank you for not releasing any information that you have about me.

---------------------------

I have been living a quiet life for the past 30 years.  I have been blessed well beyond what I have deserved.  I have a great husband who I adore, a job I love, and sons who are my whole being.  But there have been many tragedies along the way.  I am not trying to make anyone feel sorry for me, I am merely trying to "set the stage" for what has become of my life.

I received my first email from Bill back in July.  I admit that it hit me out of the blue.  I had seen his website and had also seen him interviewed on television.  I didn't know what to expect.  I hadn't talked about those years of my life for a long, long time.  Indeed, my own children don't know my history.  I have been up front with them about the drug use and basically told them I lived in a "commune". They have no idea I was with Manson.

I tried to explain to Bill my reluctance to "speak out" because it had been so long.  I have been living quietly with this for almost thirty years.  Old habits are hard to break.  For a moment put yourself in my shoes.  Have you ever tried to explain to a plastic surgeon why you have an ‘X' on your forehead in the first place? I have had all these feelings bottled up tight for many years.  I have been to professional counseling for years.  I can't talk to my friends about it.  Real friends will understand?  Wrong!  I know from firsthand experience that is not the case.  I have tried "opening up" before and have had people (special people) walk out of my life because of it.  Welcome to my life.

I told Bill this story.  I live in a VERY small town. One cold night, I couldn't sleep.  I flipped on the TV and there happened to be a Sharon Tate movie (DON'T MAKE WAVES) showing.  I cried the rest of the night.  I think about it all the time.  Not a day goes by when I don't think back wishing the whole thing was some awful dream.  But it wasn't a dream.  I know that.  I can't change it, although I would if I could.

Barbara Hoyt.  I think about her and wish that there was something I could do to ease her pain.  What I did was despicable.  I am ashamed.  But again, I can't take back something I did 30 years ago. The reason I never apologized to Barbara through email to Bill is quite simple.  I can't fully express my feelings in words.  I feel it is something that needs to be done face to face.  At this time however, Bill has told me that Barbara doesn't want some type of overly emotional reunion to be blasted all over the talk shows. I feel the same way.  Like I said, I think about Barbara on a daily basis.  What happened with her has kept me up nights for 30 years thinking about what could have been a very tragic outcome.  I am truly sorry.

After reading Bill's website update about me, I felt compelled to give my side of the story.  Bill has been getting a bad rap on the message boards and I probably shouldn't have "popped off" the way I did.  As far as I know, he hasn't spilled any information about me. Basically, everything happened too fast for me.  Much too fast. I wanted to set the record straight and give insight into my decision to do what I did.

---------------------------

OK Bill.  What do you think?  Can you publish that letter in full?  I picked up the ball in my court and have passed it to you.

Ruth

Hand signals: What do they mean?

I am sure most of you have studied the above photo, and though a lot about what it meant. I sure have. What year this photo was taken, I haven't a clue, but from the hair style, it looks to me like it might be late 70's early 80's at the most. The question I would like answered is this: WHAT THE FUCK is she doing with her hand? Is it an "M?" If so, does that mean an "M" for Manson? Could it be something else, like some secret, woman club she had at the prison? Could it be a "W" for woman? An "M" for Manwich? What? Aiy! 

In the second photo, we have another weird, hand thing going on. Of course, this photo is of Manson himself, and he always has a secret riddle to figure out. He isn't a "beat around the bush" type of guy, unless we are talking about something else. You know what I mean. Observe, and please let me know if you think it could be connected. 

I do believe the third photo below was taken at the same time as the one above, but maybe a few seconds before or after. Same hand thing, though.

And last, but not least, we need to talk about the horrendous wound that was "carved" on poor Leno LaBianca. Out of respect for the victim, I really don't want to have to publish the whole photo of his body, so I will just show the "W" or whatever it is. The "W" on that wound looks an awful lot like the hand signal that Manson & Pat were sharing in photos. 

What do these mean? Has anyone ever asked Manson, or Pat? Well, now that I think about it, you'd probably get a bullshit answer from them anyway. Ya know, I am surprised nobody has brought that up at Pat's parole hearings. Then again, there isn't any real "proof" that she was doing it out of an alliance to Manson. Shall we discuss?