Buster has died

Hello Friends,

Tonight at about 5:30 P.M. I had just finished cleaning the horse pens.  Buster was waiting in front of our cabin to play with his tire that was in his mouth.  I threw the tire for him and he took off running to fetch the tire.  About 15 feet away from the tire his legs went out from under him and he collapsed on his right side.  His tongue was hanging out his mouth into the dirt and he was barley breathing.  I was petting him as an cry of anguish came out from deep inside and he died.  It was over in less than 60 seconds.  Buster died doing what he loved.

What an incredible effect that Buster has had on my life.  We have gone all over the world together and it was all because of him and his love of searching.  His alerts on Tarawa are still resulting in recoveries.

Tomorrow I will bury Buster on a hill that overlooks the ranch.  I will bury him with his blue bone and the blanket that Nancy Ekelund made for him.  The blanket and bone have traveled all over the world with Buster.

I wanted to get this Email out to you all while I am still in a state of shock and disbelief and before the grieving process overwhelms me which is starting now.

Feel free to forward to anyone I forgot.

Thanks,

Paul

You can read more about Buster here and here.

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 A NOTE FROM PAUL:

I would like to thank all of you for the kind words.  If you go to the History Flight Facebook page you can see a lot about Buster.  The first thing you see will be a hanger with rows of flag draped caskets.  There are 36 of them and they contain US Marines from the battle of Tarawa in November 1943.  One of the missing was missing Medal of Honor winner Lt. Alexander Bonnyman.  This recovery was a result of Buster alerting right on top of the trench burial that contained the Marines.

Last Tuesday Buster and I were in Las Vegas with the rest of our History Flight team making presentations at a forensic meeting.  Clay Bonnyman, grandson of Lt. Bonnyman had Emailed me that he wanted a picture of him with Buster.  This was the last photo ever taken of Buster.

Buster has around 250 documented recoveries to his credit, most of them on Tarawa.  In regards to the Barker Ranch, 100% there are bodies buried there.  My friend and colleague Dr. Arpad Vass says the same thing.  Dr. Vass is the leading authority in the world on the chemistry of Human decomposition.  He makes a very definitive statement about the bodies buried at the Barker Ranch in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0Qd2nxMC2Y

The Mass Spectrometer chemistry from the graves at the Barker Ranch is the same as the graves on Tarawa where human remains were recovered.

Some of you know about my friend and colleague Tom O'Neill.  Tom is one of the best investigators that I have ever met in my life.  What he has discovered is astounding and I am honored that he has shared so much with me from his incredible investigation.  Someday it will all come out.  No, I don't know when.  I can tell you it will blow you away.

There is a Vet in Bishop that Buster has seen many times in his life.  The Vet told me that he remembers sitting around the dining room table with his parents and Frank Fowles when he was younger.  He told me that Frank knew that there were bodies buried at the Barker Ranch and he was very frustrated that he could not find them.  I knew Frank when he was a defense attorney in Bishop when I was on a multiagency task force.  Frank was hard working, honest advocate for his clients and taught me a few lessons the hard way when I was on the stand.  I wish he had not passed away prior to my interest in the Manson Family in Inyo County.

Buster's first search ever was on February 24th, 2007 at the Barker Ranch.  What he found was history making, only the history has not happened yet.  In the spring of 2014 I brought a friend of mine to the Barker Ranch.  My friend had recently retired from a large law enforcement agency and had a cadaver dog.  Without saying anything more than to search some general areas, the dog alerted at the exact same locations that Buster did 7 years before.

What I do know is that two boys are buried near the ranch house just on the other side of the fence to the south.  There is a girl buried half way between the Barker and Myers Ranch.  The other sites I don't know.  I believe that the two boys is what Robert Hendrickson smelled in the spring of 1970 when he was sitting on the front porch of the Barker Ranch House.  For the record, not everyone from the family is in jail for the murders that took place at the Barker Ranch.  Some are still free.

Some of you may recall a statement attributed to Susan Atkins, “There are two boys and a girl buried eight feet deep behind the Barker Ranch”.

I did ask Manson to help me and Buster out and tell about the bodies buried at the Barker Ranch.  I will send an audio file to Matt as to what he said when he called me at home with his answer.  I will send it out in a few weeks.

My wife Jeri and I have a deep hole in our hearts from not having Buster in our lives any longer.  We will be getting a lab puppy soon and if he can do half of what Buster has done I would be very happy.

Someday, somehow, Buster will be proven right at the Barker Ranch.  I don’t know how yet.  I am honored to have been his friend and driver.  Paul

Pre-Arrest Tabloid Article Eerily Accurate

Below is an article from the November 16, 1969 issue of The National Enquirer. The Enquirer is nothing normally to be considered (except for chuckles on the checkout line), but take a look at the description of the killer by psychiatrist Dr. Jean B Rosenbaum:

The killer of actress Sharon Tate and four others is a cold, calculating psychotic who was  well organized and in complete control of himself during the orgy of death…

He approached his gruesome task in a state of high tension and excitement comparable to that of a football player awaiting the kickoff or a prize fighter ready for the bell…

He was motivated. not by envy, jealousy or money but by raw revenge, based on imagined wrongs and on prejudices stemming from a very deep inferiority complex…

He is riot a “wild” madman, a drug addict or an alcoholic -  but an ordinary, looking person whose mild, polite manner masks a seething rage against people he considers evil...

He planned the crime with methodical cunning and executed it with symbolic trappings that showed not only his revulsion against the victims but also an obsession to purge them of heir evil…

The doctor describes one Charles Denton Watson to a tee. Wouldn't you agree?

Gary Hinman's Bus -- Again

There are two basic versions of the events that led up the murder of Gary Hinman at his home on Old Topanga Canyon Road on July 25-27, 1969. The first version is that Charles Manson believed that Hinman had come into an inheritance and sent Bobby Beausoleil, Susan Atkins, and Mary Brunner over to Hinman's house to get that inheritance from him, by violent means if necessary.

The second version is that Hinman sold some mescaline to Beausoleil who in turn sold it to the Straight Satans Motorcycle Club. When the Satans claimed that the mescaline was bad and demanded their money back, Beausoleil went to Hinman's house to get a refund on the transaction and events escalated into his murder. 

It is worth looking at these two motive versions in some detail, but before we do this we should understand why discerning the correct motive is important.

Gary Hinman's house at 964 Old Topanga Canyon Road

(Photo courtesy of Cielodrive.com)

Why does it matter? 

If the first motive version (the strong-arm robbery gone bad scenario) is true, it reinforces the perception of Charles Manson and the people around him as being violently murderous sociopaths who would stop at nothing in order to further their own interests. If the second motive version (a drug deal gone bad) is true it reinforces an alternative perception of those same persons being caught up in unfortunate criminal circumstances that spiraled out of control and culminated in murder. 

The determination of motive is also important because if a preponderance of evidence supports the drug deal scenario it also reinforces that idea that Charles Manson was not the originating force behind the incident, which further reinforces  the viewpoint that Manson was not the impetus behind all of the illegal activity that emanated from Spahn's Movie Ranch in the summer of 1969.

Looking at the two versions --

The first motive version is the one presented by the prosecution at the various Hinman murder trials. It has also been reiterated in numerous books and media statements regarding the crime. The reason for this is obvious --  it was the only scenario that demonstrated any criminal intent for any of the defendants besides Bobby Beausoleil. But what real evidence is there that Hinman was killed during an attempt to obtain his money and belongings?

Several people (Bruce Davis at his parole hearings, and Kitty Lutesinger and Danny DeCarlo at Bobby Beausoleil's second murder trial) said that Beausoleil, Mary Brunner, and Susan Atkins were going to Hinman's "to get money." This "get money" reason has been advanced to show that the Hinman homicide was the result of a strong-arm robbery gone bad. Maybe so, but yet there is nothing in the general  contention that people went to Hinman's "to get money" that doesn't also jibe with the idea that people went to Hinman's "to get money" as a refund for the Satans on their dope deal. (There are variations in the amount of money people were supposed to "get." Danny DeCarlo has said both $20,000 and $10,000.  Mary Brunner was not sure, saying either $3,000 or $30,000. Susan Atkins, in her book Child of Satan, Child of God, said $12,000. Bobby Beausoleil and Charles Manson say that the amount was $1,000.) Also, although there has been much contention that Manson sent Beausoleil to Hinman's to get a supposed inheritance (or, as Ella Jo Bailey testified at Beausoleil's first trial (which ended with a hung jury) because it was thought that he owned his house and stocks and bonds) this aspect of "get money" was not introduced at Beausoleil's second trial where he was successfully convicted. Was it not mentioned because the prosecution knew that it was nebulous? Remember, trials are where contentions might have to be supported by actual evidence, as opposed to books, media statements, or even statements to police, where no rules of evidence are in effect.

There is no corroborating evidence that supports the "get Gary's inheritance" scenario. And this is not surprising, because there was no inheritance. As to the witness statements that allegedly support the inheritance theory, let's be serious: Any cop or prosecutor will tell you that eyewitness testimony, although sometimes effective on the stand, is actually the worst kind of evidence that you can take into a criminal proceeding. Why? Because there's simply too much opportunity for the witness to be mistaken, or to intentionally lie out of animus towards the defendant, or for other reasons such as being offered deals regarding charges pending against them (See DeCarlo, Ella Jo Bailey) in exchange for what the prosecution believes to be "truthful testimony" (i.e., testimony damaging to the defendant). And as we have seen, there was no introduction of the "get the inheritance" motive at the second and successful prosecution of Bobby Beausoleil. 

So, the only evidence that supports the "strong-arm robbery gone wrong" motive theory is eyewitness testimony from questionable witnesses. There is nothing else to corroborate it. 

To date, most of the "drug deal gone bad" motive has come from two of the persons convicted of murdering Hinman, Bobby Beausoleil and Charles Manson.  Beausoleil has given several versions of the crime at his various parole hearings, but for his past several sessions with the parole board he has stuck with one version, and it is worth going into some detail here. A good synopsis can be found in Beausoleil's 2003 parole hearing, where he explained the particulars of the drug deal scenario thusly: 

"Well, it was a couple of days before Gary was killed…. [The Straight Satans Motorcycle Club], I was looking up to these guys. I kind of – I was kind of romanticized that their lifestyle was something that I liked. I kind of thought they were cool. I was young, and these guys were 10 – 15 years older than me. And I wanted to impress them, and they were going to have a party at Venice Beach. I wanted them to invite me. I wanted to go along on the party. They said that they wanted to – it was like a ten-year anniversary party for the, you know, for their ten-year motorcycle club anniversary, or something like that. And they wanted to score something different, some psychedelics for their party. And I thought that I might be able to impress them to, you know, to kind of get in with them if I were to set up a deal for them. I knew someone in Topanga Canyon who made mescaline out of peyote cactus buds. That was Gary Hinman. I’d known Gary for a couple of years, and I saw an opportunity to sort of ingratiate myself in these – with these people. So I set up a deal. It was 1,000 tabs or capsules of homemade mescaline for 1,000 dollars. [But] the next day [after the mescaline was delivered to the club], [they] came back to the Spahn Ranch and essentially [they] kind of beat me up. You know. They hit me in the stomach and, you know, pushed me around and held a knife up to my throat and said they wanted the money back because I had sold them bunk. They said that they had gotten sick on the drugs, and they wanted their money back. So I told them I would do everything I could to get the money back."

Some people have decried the description of Gary Hinman as a "drug dealer" as a libel against a dead person unable to defend himself, but it is worth noting that the term "drug dealer" can be used to describe a wide variety of individuals, from the stereotypical image of the shady character peddling narcotics on the schoolyard to someone who is merely a friend who can get you drugs. Hinman likelier fit more into the latter category. (In the 2009 HIstory Channel "docudrama" Manson Tate-LaBianca prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi said that Hinman "furnished drugs to the Family." The Los Angeles District Attorney's Office referred to Hinman's involvement with illegal drugs in a letter mentioned at Bobby Beausoleil's 1985 parole hearing. And finally, from the August 22, 1969 police report on the investigation into HInman's murder comes this: "A home made scale was observed in a kitchen cupboard containing a white powder on one pan. The pan and powder was taken for examination…. The white material in the balance pan was negative for narcotics." 

Los Angeles County Sheriff's investigative report on the 

finding of a scale at Gary Hinman's residence

In 1969 there was no test in routine use by law enforcement agencies that would have identified a suspect substance as mescaline, which, when processed from peyote buds, is in the form of a white powder. 

Powdered mescaline processed from peyote buds

It has been asked why, if Gary Hinman was manufacturing mescaline at his house, no drug-making paraphernalia was found at his residence by law enforcement officers investigating his murder. The answer to that question is simple: Because one doesn't need specialized equipment to manufacture mescaline out of peyote. Everyday items such as pots and pans, a candy thermometer, and straining cloths do the job nicely (and could easily be missed by cops investigating a homicide and thus not necessarily looking for subtle evidence of drug brewing). The procedure is not particularly difficult, but it does require concentration, and there are numerous steps involved, any one of which if done incorrectly could result in a bad batch. (See http://www.clearwhitelight.org/hatter/extract.htm)

Of great interest to me regarding the Gary Hinman homicide has been the question of what became of Gary Hinman's 1958 VW bus? The answer to this seemingly ancillary query is actually quite important. Bobby Beausoleil claims that he took both of Hinman's vehicles in order to settle the debt he owed to the Straight Satans because of the botched mescaline deal. And if the bus was indeed given to the Satans that would be strong circumstantial evidence in support of Beausoleil's contention that the entire Hinman affair was an effort to satisfy a debt owed to the motorcycle club and not a general "get his money at any cost" scheme. According to Beausoleil and Manson, the bus was taken from Hinman's residence after his murder to give to the Straight Satans as payment for the money they had lost in the mescaline deal. As Beausoleil recalled at his 2003 parole hearing, "….[Hinman] had a couple of old cars, and he offered to sign these over to -- as something that I could take to the bike club that might be worth $1,000."

And that is exactly what seems to have happened to it. 

Let's look at these entries from police investigative reports into the Gary Hinman homicide that touch upon the fate of Hinman's bus after it was taken from his residence following his murder (reports courtesy of the excellent researchers and archivists at Cielodrive.com).

From the supplementary report to the Hinman murder investigation dated January 20, 1970: 

"MR. PUTTEK states that he purchased the 1958 Volkswagen van, that formerly belonged to GARY HINMAN from MARK AARONSON. He described MARK AARONSON as having his front teeth missing, wavy brown hair, 125-130 pounds, 29 years of age, the tattoo on one of his forearms approximately three inches in length. MR. PUTTEK states that he met MARK AARONSON through MARK ROTH…..

"MR. PUTTEK stated that he was told after his arrest on October 8, 1969 [Puttek was arrested and charged with murder after having been pulled over while driving a murder victim's vehicle.], that MARK AARONSON had been given the bus on the ranch by CHARLIE MANSON. He stated that he never worried about title to the bus because he was given the pink slip, and it was signed and dated by GARY HINMAN. He stated that he altered the date to avoid paying penalties to the Department of Motor Vehicles…. (Emphasis added)

"

MR. PUTTEK was asked if he recalled the names of any of the other people who might have been at the ranch or that he met who frequented the ranch. He stated that he remembers the name JOE SHOMMACHER. He describes JOE as 27 years of age, 6 feet 4 inches, brown wavy hair with a mustache and beard. He stated that JOE had a Chopper Harley Davidson Bike and frequently drove a dunebuggy…. He stated that JOE went with MARY ROMMICH two or three weeks after she and MR. PUTTEK broke up. 

"He was then asked to view pictures of people associated with the ranch and CHARLIE MANSON. He states that he saw a picture of HAROLD TRUE and thought possibly MARK ROTH had it. He states that the picture of THOMAS ALDEN [Walleman?] aka TJ appeared familiar. He identified the picture of MARK BLOODWORTH DAMIAN as the person he knew as MARK AARONSON,  and the individual who sold him the 1958 Volkswagen Van belonging to GARY HINMAN.  He stated that the picture of ELLA BAILEY seems familiar but he does not recall why…. He also indicated that the picture of BRUCE MC GREGAR DAVIS appeared familiar as did the picture of MARK WALTZ."

From the February 20, 1970 supplementary report to the Hinman murder investigation: 

"On 7-31-69, Gary A. Hinman was found at 964 Old Topanga Canyon Road, Topanga Canyon, the victim of a homicide. Investigation revealed that two or the victim's cars were taken from location and the victim was forced to sign the pink slips over.

"On 10-8-6, LOUIS JOHN PUHECK was arrested driving the victim's 1958 Volkswagen bus, [license number] PGE 388, Mr. Puheck was advised of his Constitutional rights, which he waived. He stated in the middle of August, 1969, he met a Mark Bloodworth (a.k.a MARK AARONSON) and paid him $350 in cash for the above vehicle. Mr. Puheck further related S/Aaronson gave him the pink slip signed by the victim and told him he hadn't changed the registration."

From the supplementary report to the Hinman murder investigation dated March 17, 1970: 

 "…. a week prior to the Hinman murder, in the late part of July, Charles Manson stated to [Danny] De Carlo, 'We're going to Gary's house and get $10,000 one way or another.'

"On 3-12-70 Mark Arneson, **** Hawthorne, was arrested by LAPD Officer [name deleted], #11951, Venice Division, at 83rd Street and Fordham in Los Angeles, pursuant to Division 64 Warrant #A059953 charging A96 PC. Arneson was subsequently transferred to West Hollywood Station and interviewed by Deputy Charles Guenther. 

"Arneson stated he went to the Spahn Ranch in July or August, 1969 and had a conversation with Charles Manson in the accompaniment of Robert Beausoleil in the salon [sic] building. He stated that Manson asked him if he would like to have a car and he replied 'Yes.' Manson and Beausoleil and himself got into a 1965 white station wagon with the engine sticking out of the front (Beausoleil driving) and went to the rear of Spahn Ranch where a 1956 Volkswagen Micro-bus, red and white in color, with a large eagle painted on the sides, which was parked among the trees. 

"Manson got out of the station wagon and showed Arneson how to hot-wire the car and started it. Manson started the vehicle and drove it back to the saloon building and gave Arneson the pink slip to the vehicle. Manson stated to Arneson, 'If you get stopped by the cops, tell them you bought the vehicle from Gary HInman, who is a Negro wearing a black beret and black jacket.'

"Arneson stated a few weeks later, he sold the vehicle to Louis Pubeck. The vehicle was subsequently recovered and the registered and legal owner is Gary Hinman."

What do all of these reports tell us other than the fact that LAPD and LASO officers had trouble recording the correct names of individuals they interviewed? (Misters Puttek, Puheck, and Pubeck are obviously the same person, as are Misters Aaronson and Arneson.) They tell us that Gary Hinman's VW bus was given to Mark Aaronson at Spahn's Ranch around the end of July or early August of 1969 by Charles Manson in the company of Bobby Beausoleil. And who is Mark Aaronson? According to the January 20, 1970 police report, he was an associate of  Joe Schumacher. Now although Joe Schumacher was not a member of the Straight Satans, his brother John was. And the description of Joe ("He describes JOE as 27 years of age, 6 feet 4 inches, brown wavy hair with a mustache and beard. He stated that JOE had a Chopper Harley Davidson Bike and frequently drove a dune buggy…. ") suggests that he at least had a passing familiarity with the biker lifestyle (as does the description of Mark Aaronson, "having his front teeth missing, wavy brown hair, 125-130 pounds, 29 years of age, the tattoo on one of his forearms approximately three inches in length.") And how well acquainted was Louis Puheck (his actual name) with the Joe Schumacher? He knew him well enough to know his correct age and well enough that his girlfriend Mary Rommich started going with Schumacher after she broke up with him. 

Joe Schumacher was well enough acquainted with Spahn's Ranch and the people who lived there that one of his addresses listed for him in Police Lieutenant Earl Deemer's list of "The Family" and related characters is that of the ranch. The list also notes that Schumacher was "FIR'd" (interviewed briefly for law enforcement for a field interrogation report) while he was associating with "Family members." (Mark Aaronson also had a lengthy familiarity with "the Family," having been arrested with them as early as April 21, 1968 during a bust in Oxnard, California.)

In sum, Gary Hinman's bus was given to a known close associate of the Straight Satans motorcycle club. 

That's Gary Hinman's bus behind the exhibit tag

Whenever there is a discrepancy in the testimonies of individuals a person can choose to believe whichever version fits the scenario they want to believe. Thus, people who want to believe that the Hinman murder was the fatal end result of a strong-arm robbery can believe the statements and testimonies of Danny DeCarlo, Ella Jo Bailey, etc. A person who wants to believe the drug deal scenario can believe the statements of Bobby Beausoleil and Charles Manson. To the extent that one relies on witness statement to bolster a case it seems here to be a classic "they said/they said" situation. But in this case the latter "they said" version is supported by the physical evidence of the fact that Gary Hinman's VW bus was indeed given to very close associates of the Straight Satans by Charles Manson and Bobby Beausoleil. There is no corroborating evidence for the strong-arm robbery theory. Gary Hinman had no inheritance, and in fact he had very little material possessions of any value at all. 

Conclusion --

To stick with the strong-arm robbery theory, one would have to be willing to believe that Charles Manson thought Gary Hinman had an inheritance and ordered Bobby Beausoleil to get it from him no matter what it took. When Hinman wouldn't turn over the money that he didn't have, things escalated to the point where he was injured and eventually killed. Manson, apparently desperate enough for Hinman's possessions that he was willing to order murder in order to obtain them, then gave away those possessions. Even assuming Charles Manson's alleged craziness, does that make sense? Why would anyone be so intent on gaining another person's property that he would commit murder to get it, only to give that property away? The answer to that question is the obvious one: He wouldn't. (You can't say that he wanted to get rid of the bus because he thought it was too hot after the murder, because if that was the case why not simply abandon it somewhere? Why give it to persons who could later testify that you had it? Or why take the vehicles at all? Why not just leave them at Hinman's house?)

Unless someone can come up with a credible and evidence-supported reason for the "strong-arm robbery gone wrong" theory to be correct, the only reasonable alternative reason for the murder is the one advanced by Bobby Beausoleil and Charles Manson -- that he was killed as the result of a drug deal gone wrong. And if Gary Hinman was killed as the result of a drug deal gone bad, that not only goes against the stereotype of Charles Manson being an orderer of murders, but it also supports the theory of the chain of events that led to the "get brother out of jail" motive that was the true reason for the Tate-LaBianca murders. 

What could turn the previously carefree and non-violent Bobby Beausoleil into someone who could bludgeon and stab another person to death? Ruling out a sudden and inexplicable metamorphosis into a sociopathic hit man, a likelier explanation is that he had recently had such violence visited upon himself -- as he recalled in his 2003 parole hearing, "[The Straight Satans] came back to the Spahn Ranch and essentially [they] kind of beat me up. You know. They hit me in the stomach and, you know, pushed me around and held a knife up to my throat and said they wanted the money back because I had sold them bunk."

So Beausoleil decided to take care of the problem himself, and he did it with ill advice from other persons. And that was a tragic mistake. Because the Straight Satans just wanted their money back.They didn't care if the money came from Hinman or from the man in the moon. If Bobby Beausoleil had called his mother and said, "Mom, I'm in a jam. Can you wire me $1,000" and she did, the Satans would have been satisfied with that money. And none of the murders that now so interest us would ever even have happened.

Charles Manson???

While looking up things for a post on the blog, every so often stuff pops up that seems like it might be an unearthed treasure.  Upon further reading it turns out that what was found has nothing to do with the Manson Saga.  These are a few of the things I've run across that have made me do a double take, then chuckle or shake my head when reality set in.

Ed Sanders and Maury Terry really missed an opportunity with this first article.  Just think of the conspiracy theories they could have come up with had they stumbled on this one!

WOW!  Charles Manson was murdered.  The timing was right, July 1967, Charlie was out of prison.  The location was right, Oakland CA, right next door to Berkeley in the San Francisco Bay Area.  The age is certainly in the ballpark, about 34 years old.  What could be wrong?

I was curious enough about this one that I located a relative of this Charles Manson and sent her a message through Ancestry.com.   She was a cousin and young at the time of the murder.  Her mom and aunt had given her just the bare facts and she had some unanswered questions.  I was able to email her the article, which she had never seen, and in turn she sent me pictures of her cousin.



This next one is more humorous than anything else.  The mind plays tricks, seeing what you want to see and not necessarily what is really there.

From the Ukiah newspaper.  Was the Manson Family doing an LSD musical production in Mendocino County in 1968? 

What do you want to bet that there was never a revival of this production after 1969!

Then I came upon something that was purported to be an actual photo of the Manson Family.  The photo appeared in the April 1970 issue of Men's Digest accompanying an article titled "MODERN WITCHCRAFT Part 20- Charles Manson and his cult of Black Magic."

The article was predictable and rehashed the many rehashed stories about the Family written up until that time.  But the photo, OMG, had I found the Holy Grail of Family images?  A picture of the Family at Dennis Wilson's home with Dennis in the picture.  Okay, so the caption doesn't say they are at Wilson's home nor is Dennis mentioned but the home is very nice looking, well furnished and it certainly is not Spahn or Barker.  And, there is a resemblance between the guy sitting in the wing chair in the upper right and Dennis.  The caption begins, Charles Manson, sitting on a rug in the foreground......

I contacted Jon Aes-Nihil to ask about this amazing find.  He had never seen the picture, so he fired up the Helter Skelter Telegraph.  A frenzy of emails and phone calls ensued.  Comparisons were made of the people in the photo, that could be so and so, this could be such and such, shouldn't  a tattoo be here or there.  We were flummoxed and wanted to believe it could be true.  Then one of the Skelter-ites asked, "Is there a photo credit?"  Brilliant!  

There was no credit on or around the photo itself so I went looking through the magazine.  I found what I was looking for.  Right there on the index page down in the lower left corner buried in the publishing info with the smallest print ever, it read, Photos in MEN'S DIGEST posed by professional models.  What a giant letdown......

So if you ever see this photo, which someone will undoubtedly poach from the blog, and it claims to be the real deal, you will know better!

I will leave you with a great Blues tune by none other than Charlie Manson.  This song is titled Nineteen Women Blues.   oo-ee-oo

The song is on a CD titled Mama Let Me Lay It On You 1926-1936. 

"The Mind and Motives of Charles Manson" by Dylan Klebold 11-3-98

Dylan Klebold took Creative Writing class at Columbine High, a class he shared with Eric Harris. On April 20, 1999, Eric and Dylan skipped their 4th period Creative Writing class. Their teacher, Judith Kelly, noted in her report to police after the shootings (posted below) that Eric had never missed her class before that time.

One of his essays, The Mind and Motives of Charles Manson, drew a lot of media attention due to its subject matter. You can find copies of the pages below, excerpted from the Columbine Report. His teacher graded it and handed it back. But then he wrote another essay - just a few weeks before the shootings - that was rather disturbing to Ms Kelly. It was a fictional piece where in a lone gunman goes on a killing spree. The subject matter and foul language used unnerved his teacher so much that she refused to grade it before she could sit down and talk with him and his parents about it. During the conference, when the story was addressed, Dylan excused it as being "just a story".

Original story here

Thanks RH!

PETER FALK at the Trial?

I was recently looking at a biographical video of Doris Day. The subject turned to Terry Melcher, and of course the Manson connection. At 2:46 in the video there is a shot of Melcher entering the courthouse. The figure at the bottom of the screen looking at TM is unmistakably Peter Falk, star of the hit detective series "Columbo".

You might remember this post from 2012. In the featured letter, Manson writes (among other things):

"That ass Peter Falk & guy that played James West, in WILD WILD WEST, propositioned me. James West also came to the car. I don't fuck with closet queens. There is more but I can't spell. Like one night a girl took me to Elvis' pad... with big iron gates & she was begging to suck on my ice cream."

The other person he refers to is Robert Conrad. That very entertaining post is worth another (or a first) read!

Here's a more readable copy of that letter:

The full video:

Are You Obsessed Yet?

UPDATED: Leary Estate Sells Letter from Manson and Squeaky to Timothy Leary

The Leary Estate has notified us that eBay has taken down this listing, citing their policy of not allowing postings of "items that are closely associated with individuals convicted of violent felonies or individuals notorious for committing murderous acts." Persons interested in purchasing it can contact Patty (Patty at Mansonblog dot com) and she will put them in touch with the seller's representative. Please note the description below is an updated version.

The Timothy Leary Estate is selling a pair of interesting letters from Charles Manson and from Lynette (Squeaky) Fromme to Tim Leary, who had several weeks earlier escaped from prison and was currently living as a fugitive in Switzerland.

Manson's 1400 word, 3-page letter is addressed to "General Tim Leary (Sunstone)" with a typed signature "Manson."   The letter can be dated from it's appearance on the front page of the LA Free Press, Oct. 9, 1970, under the title "An Open Letter to Tim Leary."  It was subsequently reprinted throughout the underground press. It comes together with a handwritten letter from Fromme to Leary in Switzerland one year after his prison escape.

This letter displays Manson’s philosophy and hypnotic style of writing and caused paranoia in the counterculture by linking him and Leary. At the time Manson's guilt was not yet confirmed, and some wondered if he and his followers were being set up to disparage the hippies.

Leary recounts in his autobiography "Flashbacks" (1983) how he and Manson conversed from adjoining cells in prison after he was captured and incarcerated at Folsom State Prison in 1973. A play about this meeting was staged in Los Angeles in the early ‘90s. Manson’s “open letter” served as a media platform for his philosophy and his apocalyptic vision of the future, and to get Leary's attention. Leary referred to Manson as "the first psychedelic criminal,” which is how he himself was viewed by his many detractors for promoting LSD.

Manson family member Squeaky Fromme, one of his earliest followers and “ex-officio leader of the Family after Manson’s arrest,” was one of the most articulate and outspoken members of the Manson family. In this letter she writes Leary in Switzerland, enclosing ”an old letter to you once printed in the [LA] Free Press. Did you see it?” Fromme's letter (a little over 100 words) is written in ink on both sides of a xeroxed photo of one of the Manson girls who shaved their heads during the trial.



She refers to John Lennon lyrics which she interprets, and adds: “The close of Charlie’s second trial is near as J.C. still hangs on public opinion.” On another page there are 15 lines of typed text probably written by Fromme referring to the vigil: “You ask why do we sit on this corner day after day, and why we’ve sat here for over a year . . . We have many times wanted to get up and trip off. Yet we are bound here in one love.”

The letter comes with the original mailing envelope bearing the return address c/o a friend of hers in Hollywood addressed to “Gen. Tim Leary” in Villars, Switzerland, postmarked Oct. 14, 1971 (one year after the Manson letter was published). Knowing that Leary was a fugitive on the run, Fromme assumed he had never seen it, so she mailed him this corrected carbon typescript which she herself may have typed, the top copy (without corrections) having been the one used by the LA Free Press typesetter. Leary passed it on to his archivists when they visited in early 1972.


These letters are iconic artifacts, linking two of the most famous/ infamous figures from that era, not to mention the best known of the Manson girls.Original autograph material from the period of Manson's arrest and trial rarely if ever appear on the market. Provenance:  Timothy Leary Estate (Futique).