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The Family
The Story of Charles Manson's
Dune Buggy Attack Battalion
by Ed Sanders

Charles Manson and a few of his followers

now
live condemned to die in the cyanide gas cham-
California.
ber in San Quentin Prison, Tamal,
The nation's newspapers and magazines have
filled their front pages with pictures
and stories
Until publication
of Manson and his "family."
of this book, despite the headlines, the un-
all

told number of man-hours devoted to

the case

by radio and television, the thousands of pages

of testimony and investigative reports,
no con-
sistent set of facts has emerged to explain in
any depth how a group of young people became
welded together into a warlike clan that killed.

For two years, working day and night, Ed

Sanders descended into a nether world that
knows no boundaries. In seeking the answers
as to how a Charles Manson can exist, how
he can wield such extraordinary power
over other human beings,
Sanders gained access to
every material witness, in-
cluding Manson, to the
Tate-LaBianca
murders, journeyed
many times to the

(continued on back flap)

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Charles
DuneBuggy
Attack Battalion

Ed Sanders

E. P. Dutton and Co., Inc

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Copyright © 1971 by Ed Sal

All rights reserved. Printed in the U.SA.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form*

or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording,
^r any information storage and retrieval system now knovs'n or to be
invented, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a
\ reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review
written for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper or broadcast^
Published simultaneously in Canada by
Clarke, Irwin & Company Limited, Toronto and Vancouver

%
For my friend
Paul Fitzgerald
 Introduction

heard of Charles Manson and his family, so to speak, around

I first
October 20, 1969, when I received in the mail an issue of an ecology
newsletter called Earth Read-Out. The newsletter had reprinted a
story from the San Francisco Chronicle dated October 15, 1969:

The last survivors of a band of nude and long-haired thieves

who ranged over Death Valley in stolen dune buggies have been
rounded up, the sheriff's oflBce said yesterday. A sheriff's posse,
guided by a spotter plane, arrested 27 men and women members
of the nomad band in two desert raids. Deputies said eight chil-
dren, including two babies suffering from malnutrition, were also
brought in. Some of the women were completely nude and others
wore only bikini bottoms, deputies said. All the adults were booked
at Inyo county jail for investigation of charges which included car
theft, receiving stolen property and carrying illegal weapons. Six
stolen dune buggies were recovered, deputies said.
Deputy Sheriff Jerry Hildreth said the band lived off the land
by stealing. He said they traveled in the stolen four-wheel-drive
dune buggies and camped in a succession of abandoned mining
shacks. The band previously escaped capture by moving only at
night and by setting up radio-equipped lookout posts on the moun-
tains, he said. "It was extraordinary the way they covered up their
tracks and would make dummy camps to throw us off," Hildieth
said. "They gave us a merry chase. . .This is probably one of
.

the most inaccessible areas in Cahfomia."

Six weeks after I read thosetwo paragraphs in Earth Read-Out,

the front pages of newspapers were filled with glaze-eyed pictures
8 THE FAMILY

of Manson, the accused murderer. He was depicted all at once as

a hippie satanist car thief cult-leader sex-maniac bastard butcher.
His followers— a few young men and around twenty girls— were de-
picted as "Satan's slaves," willing to do anything anytime anywhere
for him. Out of all of the headlines and stories no consistent set of
facts seemed to emerge that explained in any depth how a group
of young American citizens could develop into a commune of
hackers.
Accordingly, in January of 1970, I began to gather data about
the family, as a matter of personal curiosity. Then I decided to write
a book about the family, thinking would take only three or four
it

months, after which I life of poetry and

could return to a quiet
peace. Almost at once, upon my first flight to Los Angeles, I dipped
into a frenzy of continuous day and night activity that would last
for a year and a half, resulting in this book.
At the beginning of my research I prepared an elaborate plan
for securing information so that my personal safety would be in-
sured and so that I would have to make as few deals as possible
with anyone. That is, I wanted to have information that I could feel
free to use in any way I saw fit. Quite often, people would want
anonymity in exchange for supplying data. Only in a few instances
when I knew the information was true and was vital to the book did
I agree to anonymity. In several cases, when it seemed that the per-

son's life might be in danger if I printed his or her name, I have left
it out.
There was a lot of information— particularly related to the occult
—concerning the private lives of various murder victims that I have
left out in respect for the memory of the innocent slain. Accordingly,
this book deals main v^dth the growth and development of the
in the
family of Manson and the murders they committed, and deals only
in brief with the lives of the deceased.
Every assertion in every sentence of this book is based upon in-
formation received from ojBBcial documents, court records, trial tran-
scripts, taped and written interviews with wdtnesses to events
described herein, personal observation, maps, photos and public
officials.

For a year and a half, I wrote down literally everything I heard

or saw related to the so-called Manson family. I carried with me at
 INTRODUCTION 9

all times a tape recorder and recorded at least one hundred hours
of interviews, confrontations and comment. Each day I wrote a re-
port on the day's activities. Nothing was too trivial to escape my
jotting Rapidograph. Often a strange bit of information that seemed
to have no meaning would, a year after I received it, turn out to be
important. With me at all times during my peripatetic data-
collecting was an Instamatic camera and a Polaroid camera with
which I snapped hundreds of pictinres. Day and night I roamed
Los Angeles gathering data. I became a data addict. I ran ads in
underground newspapers for information about Manson's group
which brought forth a lot of data.
In addition to daily data-reports, I estabHshed files on selected
subjects. For instance I put together separate files on the L.A. oc-
cult scene, on Manson's relations in Hollywood and on each aspect
of the history of the family, around fifty files in all. In addition, I
transcribed important taped interviews and inserted the data into
the appropriate files. In regard to each subject file I compiled vast
hsts of unanswered questions which in subsequent interviews and
data-forays I sought to answer. In this way interviews spawned in-
terviews and continuous examination of my data horde was nec-
essary in order to isolate unanswered questions. After a few months,
I was traveling around with about 10,000 pages, literally, of data.
From my daily reports and subject files, I created monthly data
files covering the years 1967-68-69. These monthly files contained

the week-by-week history of the family. It was from these chrono-

logical files wrote this book.
that I

The 25,000 or so pages of the Tate-LaBianca trial transcript, of

which I read a large part, were invaluable in determining in many
cases where an event fitted into the chronology. The same is true
of the transcripts of the trial of Robert Beausoleil for the murder
of Gary Hinman. I obtained considerable information by compiling
a chronological set of newspaper cHppings, totahng several thou-
sand, from all over the United States and Europe dealing with the
Tate-LaBianca homicides and the Manson family.
Occasionally my research required the adoption of a persona to
secure data, as when I posed as a New York pornography dealer
with Andy Warhol out-takes for sale during an elaborate two-montli
caper in which I attempted to piurchase certain famous pom-films
10 THE FAMILY

of Manson and the family and citizens of Hollywood. On other oc-

casions I posed as satanist, drooling maniac and dope-tranced
psychopath.
Over the period of a year I wrote about twenty-five articles for
the Los Angeles Free Tress covering the Manson trial and the on-
going existence of his family of followers. Without the friendship
book could not have been written,
of the Staff of the Free Tress, this
for the Free Tress office was a zone of sanity where I could escape
after a day of gathering insane data about corpses, rituals and
weirdness. I want particularly to thank Paul and Shirley Eberle,
Brian ICirby, Judy Lewellen, brave publisher Art Kunkin, John Car-
penter and Kitty for their help and friendship.
Part of this book was written in the Hall of Justice in downtown
Los Angeles where I attended about four months of the trial of Su-
san Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, Leslie Van Houten and Charles
Manson. I also attended Robert Beausoleil's second trial for the
murder of Gary Hinman and numerous court hearings pertaining
to other trials and murders involving the family. It was necessary
to maintain a considerable correspondence with individuals all over
the United States and Europe.
It was necessary
to spend several weeks reading microfilm in the
New York Public Library where I had the pleasure of reading the
greater part of the Los Angeles Times and San Francisco Chronicle
for 1968 and 1969. It was necessary to study maps of murder
houses, to see photos of death, to read autopsy reports and to re-
create in written form acts abhorrent.
I divided the Los Angeles area and indeed all of California into
investigatory grids. Each grid had its own problems regarding in-
formation, because Manson and his group tended to have different
relationships with different areas. Thus the "image" of the family
was vastly different in Topanga Canyon than it was in Death Valley
and required different investigation techniques. I visited the Spahn
Movie Ranch over twenty times to try to understand exactly what
this group of humans known as "the family" really believed and
practiced. I even trekked up into Devil Canyon to check out obscure
campsites of the family.
Four times I went on overnight trips to Inyo County and Death
Valley,where I camped out and talked to miners, officials, etc. I
rode up the treacherous Goler Wash waterfalls in one of the family's
 INTRODUCTION 11

abandoned vehicles to see what it was hke. I hung out at the Bal-
larat Ghost Town, I walked over Mengel Pass, I visited the Barker
and Meyers Ranches, old mine shacks, obscure springs, following
the routes of Helter Skelter.
During the last six months of my investigation, I was aided con-
siderably by a private investigator, Mr. Larry Larsen, an intrepid
sleuth whose persistent, resourceful collecting of data was amaz-
ing. Together we conducted an intricate investigation of various
occult societies in Los Angeles concentrating on cruelty-freaks,
satanists, and other partisans of pain-magic. We had quite a few
adventures. One moonlit night we staked out a beach in Ventura
County where we thought a group of occult corpsoids were going
to conduct an animal sacrifice. On another occasion we scraped
what we thought to be animal blood oflF a ritual altar at an aban-
doned movie set on an obscure mountaintop fire road above To-
panga Canyon.
It was to be expected that there were quite a few psychopathic

liars encountered during the four or five hundred interviews neces-

sitated by the investigation. In the majority of anecdotes in this

book, there were two or more versions received from separate in-
dividuals regarding the same event. Each interview required sort
of a "truth analysis" where everything was checked against the main
chronology of knovm facts. One of the biggest problems is the fade-
out that human memory experiences with the passage of time. For
instance, the memory of a human for the week of November
first

1967 is usually very vague. Add elements of damaged minds, use

of psychedelics, fear, etc., and the recollection of many was pretty
tattered.
Naturally my path crossed many others whose activities were not
directly involved in family fife and death but who were nevertheless
weird beyond weird. Particularly in the areas of occult groups I
encountered the spiritually wounded: drinkers of dog blood, the
video-bugger crowd, people who hang rotting goats' heads up in
their kitchens, people who rent corpses for their Bel Air parties,
victimizers of every persuasion.
There were problems of a scary nature that hampered my investi-
gation, particularly the problem of the body in the car trunk. Sev-
eral business friends of Jay Sebring have been murdered. I was
trying to locate one of them, a man named Rostau, from whom I
12 THE FAMILY

wanted some information, when news came in the fall of 1970 that
he had been found dead in a car trunk in New York. Another as-
sociate was found murdered in Florida around Christmastime 1970.
These events caused me to swerve my investigation to safer areas
of inquiry. No book is worth permanent meditation next to a tire.
It is not the intention of this book to solve any murders although

there are plenty to be solved. Accordingly a number of homicides

were not brought into the narrative. The probabiHty that uncaught
murderers— plus groups who commit human sacrifices and from
whom the family drew ideas and support— were running loose in
California also crimped investigation. One encountered several no-
madic hippie Cassandras whom no official seemed to believe and
who told ghastly tales of sacrificial rituals in the mountains and
beaches of California.
There is no pretense that this book is the final work on the Man-
son family. A scientific, scholarly study, for instance, is needed on
techniques of psychedelic brainwashing and criminal behavior un-
der complex hypnotic suggestion-patterns. Yoimg people need to
know the techniques a guru or so-called leader might use to entrap
them in a web of submission so that they can keep a constant vigil
against it.

Manson and his associates now live condemned to die in the cya-
nide gas chamber in San Quentin Prison, Tamal, California. I am
opposed to capital punishment because I believe that killing killers
only perpetuates the vengeance and violence. There must be an
existing facility wherein Manson can be kept during his life and
from which he would be unable to direct any further violence
through his disciples, many of whom, in my opinion, are crazed
with the willingness to murder. In fact they are all crazed: Manson,
Susan Atkins, Tex Watson, Patricia Krenwinkel, Leslie Van Houten
and many others in the family. Psychiatric examination has re-
vealed that when certain of the family are alone by themselves in
cellsthey seem to enter into a state of deep psychosis. When they
are together they seem bound by iron bands as if connected to the
same body and will. And that is the story presented in this book,
how a group of young Americans became welded together into a
war-like clan that killed.
 Contents

Introduction

Section I

The Family
From the Beginning to mid- 1969

One
A Poor Risk for Probation
14 THE FAMILY
 CONTENTS 15

Section III

Manson Captured
August 16-December 1, 1969

Twenty
The Search 299
Twenty-one
Berserkl The Spahn Ranch:
August ia-31, 1969 313
Twenty-two
Rommel: The Barker Ranch:
September 1969 330
Twent^'-three
The Burning of the Michigan Loader 338
Twenty-four
The Capture of Manson:
September 20-October 12, 1969 343
Twenty-five
The Breaking of the Case:
October-November 1969 360
 Section

The Family
From the Beginning to mid- 1969
 One

A Poor Risk for Probation

Around July 22, 1955, Charles Manson drove a stolen 1951 Mercury
from Bridgeport, Ohio to Los Angeles, bringing with him his

seventeen-year-old pregnant v^if e Rosalie. All was.

In September he was arrested and pleaded guilty on October 17,
1955. The psychiatric report prepared after Manson's arrest stated
that he was a "poor risk for probation" but, on the other hand, it
was felt that married life plus incipient fatherhood, which calms
down juvenile delinquents everywhere, might put him onto the di-
rect path of the American Way. So on November 7, 1955, Manson
was sentenced to five years probation. Manson had been on parole
since May 18, 1954. He was twenty-one years old. He had been in
prison since he was sixteen and in various corrective institutions be-
fore that since he was thirteen.
After his arrest Manson made the mistake of admitting to the Feds
during interrogation that in 1954, the year previous, he had taken
a hot auto from the strip-mine area of West Virginia down to
Florida.
As a result of this self -snitch, on January 11, 1956, Manson ap-
peared before the Federal Commissioner in Los Angeles regarding
a complaint filed in Miami, Florida charging violation of the Dyer
Act.
Released on his own recognizance, Manson was told to retiun to
court on February 15. Shortly thereafter he fled Los Angeles, evi-
20 THE FAMILY

dendy accompanied by his heavily pregnant wife Rosalie. They

drove back home to Appalachia.
OnFebruary 29 the chief probation oflBcer in Los Angeles re-
quested the court to issue a bench warrant because Manson had
not reported in to his probation oflBcer. He was arrested on March
14, 1956, in Indianapolis, Indiana and transported back to Los Ange-
les for trial.
In March of 1956 a son Charles, was bom.
Jr.,

On April 23, 1956, Judge Harry C. Westover revoked probation

and imposed a three-year federal prison sentence for Manson at
Terminal Island Penitentiary in San Pedro, California.
For almost a year during the first part of his Terminal Island sen-
tence, RosaHe, his wife, stuck by him—living with Charles, Jr., the
son, and Manson's mother Kathleen in Los Angeles. Early in 1957
Rosalie discontinued her visits and according to a Federal proba-
tion report, was living with another man, which upset Manson
greatly. On May 24, 1957, Manson tried to sneak away from Ter-
minal Island and was indicted under the United States Code Title
18 Section 751, Escape from Federal Custody after Conviction.
Manson pleaded guilty on May 27, 1957, and on June 10, 1957 was
given a suspended sentence by Federal Judge WilHam Mathes and
placed on probation for five years.
Shortly thereafter Manson's West Virginia wife sued for divorce.
A summons was served on Manson on July 15 at Terminal Island
in San Pedro. AflBdavit of final judgment of divorce was filed August
30, 1957. Adios, wife.
Manson served from April 23, 1956, until September 30, 1958:
two years, five months, five days of so-called rehabilitation. In prison
the young, 125-pound man played on various basketball teams and
evidently boxed a bit. He continued his sex life in the only way pos-
sible in jail—by hand, by mouth and by buttock.
For two and one-half years Manson was exposed to the endless
discussions of schemes and crimes and psychopathy out of the
mouths of older, so-called seasoned criminals. At Terminal Island
there was a lot of what might be called "pimp talk"— about the de-
vices to be used in controlling a bevy of prostitutes. Charhe Hstened
avidly, according to people interviewed from Terminal Island. A
friend who knew him then writes: "We'd rap a lot about whores,
 A POOR RISK FOR PROBATION 21

especially how to control them. We talked about Main Old Ladies

—a pimp's number one girl who controlled all the others; stables-
more than one girl working for you; and we talked mostly about
how to turn chicks out."
Time passed young Charhe Manson and "Subject was released
for
from the FCI, TI on 9-30-58 and is on CR till 10-24-58"— noted his
federal parole office on October 1, 1958, in what are called chrono
notes.
Manson announced that he was going to Hve with his mother on
Harkinson Avenue in Los Angeles. This was the first of twenty ad-
dresses Manson would have in this particular year and eight months'
stretch of freedom.
The parole office gave him some employment leads. His employ-
ment pattern for the following months reads like a struggling
novelist's. But Manson was just struggling, working as a bus boy,
bartender, frozen-food locker concessionaire, canvasser for freezer
sales, service station attendant, TV producer and pimp.
On 1-16-59 an irate father complained to the Los Angeles police
department that Manson was making attempts to turn his daughter
Judy out onto the streets to hustle. Manson also ran around with
Judy's roommate, a wealthy UCLA student named Flo from Baker,
Cahfomia, who drove a white Triumph.
On May 1, 1959, Manson was caught running from a Ralph's
Market in Los Angeles having attempted to forge and cash a stolen
government check for $34.50. Earher in the day he had cashed an-
other stolen check at a Richfield service station. He was to be se-
verely spanked for this. Impounded at the scene of the crime was a
blue 1953 Cadillac convertible evidently belonging to Manson's
mother.
After the Los Angeles police department had turned Manson over
to the federal authorities, the Feds while questioning Manson made
the mistake of leaving the forged check lying out in an open dossier.
Manson appears to have seized and gobbled down the check when
the secret service agents turned their backs for a moment. In any
event, the check disappeared and Manson soon begged to go to the
bathroom in order to void the contents of his stomach due to gob-
bled check nausea.
On June 19, 1959, an attractive, according to the parole officer.
23, THE FAMILY

nineteen-year-old female Caucasian named Candy Stevens visited

Manson's parole and announced that she was pregnant by
ojfficer

Manson and that he and she were going to get married if only the
mean old federal authorities wouldn't salt him away. In reahty, she
was not pregnant but was a strumpet currently working for Manson.
In fact, Manson may have been the first to turn her out.
On September 4, 1959, another psychiatric examination was given
Manson by the same doctor who had examined him foiu- years previ-
ous. The report concluded:
He does not give the impression of being a mean individual. How-
ever, he is very unstable emotionally and very insecure. He tells

about his life inside the institutions in such a manner as to indi-

cate that he has gotten most of his satisfactions from institutions.
He said that he was captain of various athletic teams and that he
made a great effort to entertain other people in the institutions. In
my opinion, he is probably a sociopathic personality without psy-
chosis. Unfortimately, he is rapidly becoming an institutionalized
individual. However, I certainly cannot recommend him as a good
candidate for probation.

Charlie Manson was twenty-four years old.

Manson had a hearing on September 28, 1959, with the young lady
Candy beseeching and weeping in court before the judge in behalf
of Manson— and the judge relented and suspended sentence of ten
years, placing Manson on probation for five.
In November of 1959 Manson met an eighteen-year-old girl from
Detroit named Mary Jo who had been suckered out to Los Angeles
by a magazine ad for an airhne stewardess school. When the girl
reached Los Angeles the school turned out to be a fraud and she
couldn't get her money back. She talked her parents into letting her
remain in Los Angeles and moved into an apartment with a girl

friend named Rita.

In late 1959 Manson hooked up with a Tony Cassino forming
something called 3-Star Enterprises, Night Club, Radio and TV pro-
motions, Suite 306, 6871 Franklin, Hollywood. (This address was
just a couple of doors away from the apartment where a decade later
Manson would gim down the black dope dealer Bernard Crowe.)
Manson was president and Tony was VP. Allegedly Manson ob-
 A POOR RISK FOR PROBATION 23

tainedsome money from Detroit Mary Jo for three of his so-called

promotions. The reality of 3-Star Enterprises seems to be that Man-
son was dealing female sex objects out of the Hollywood Roosevelt
Hotel.
In October Charhe's mother moved back to West Virginia and
alleged that she was going to stay there.
On 12-4-59 Candy Stevens, the girl who cried in court, was ar-
rested in Beverly Hills for prostitution. Manson raised money and
bailed her out, but a short time later she was given a jail term. In
the meantime, Manson caused pregnancy to occur within that girl
from Detroit, Mary Jo.
On December 24, 1959, Christmas Eve, Manson was arrested and
was accused of sending a person named Harold in a stolen car with
Candy and a girl named Elizabeth to Needles, Cahfomia in order
to deal out bod. soon released for lack of evidence. On New
He was
Year's Eve Manson was picked up on charges of stealing credit cards
but was released on January 4, i960.
On January 5, i960, Manson was summoned to court as a witness
regarding theft of American Express and Bank of America credit
cards. Things were heating up for the young Manson, "this weak,
tricky youth"— as The FBI began an
his parole officer called him.
intensive investigation of Manson, and February 15, i960, was the
last date that Manson reported in to his parole officer.
On February 20, i960, the pregnant Mary Jo from Detroit became
very ill. Her pregnancy became ectopic— i.e., the fetus was growing
in the Fallopian tube, a serious condition— and the girl began to
bleed and was taken to a hospital. Manson called the girl's father,
an insurance executive in Detroit, who flew immediately to Los
Angeles where he was met at the Los Angeles International Airport
by Manson and Mary Jo's roommate Rita. On the way back Manson
announced that he didn't have a driver's license and that he was a
federal parolee. Mary Jo's father, according to a Federal probation
report, was shocked at the sudden flash that his daughter had been
knocked up by a convict.
Mary Jo seesawed through her then quickly recovered. Her
crisis,

father hustled her away to a private recuperation home. Manson

somehow found her phone number and began to call her. Mary Jo
told her father that she was deeply in love with Manson. The girl's
24 THE FAMILY

father began snoop around Hollywood and discovered a few peo-

to
ple who alleged that Manson had been doing a bit of pimping. To
quote the parole oflBcer's report of that era, the father was "sick with
the thought that this subject planned to have his daughter and Rita
work for him." Then to the father's horror, he discovered that the
man his daughter loved, on the very night that Manson had taken
Mary Jo to the hospital in serious deathly condition, this man Man-
son had seduced Mary Jo's roommate Rita.
On 29, 1959, the father visited Manson's federal parole
February
officer to complain. The father, a skilled insurance investigator al-
ready, really burned up the roads getting the data on Manson.
had
He was angered over Manson's refusal to hand over Mary Jo's lug-
gage. The father even had tried to get the Pasadena police to arrest
Manson, but they refused.
In the afternoon after seeing the parole officer, the irate father
drove to Manson's rooming house in Pasadena and foimd that Man-
son had abandoned the pad but not Mary Jo's luggage which Char-
lie took with him. Father was horrified to find semi-nude girlie

photos left behind. A pohce officer neighbor in the rooming house

described Manson as a "sex maniac" and hinted that Manson may
have been taking beaver photos for sale out of state.
It was all over for Manson. The machinery of justice began to gob-

ble up his trail.

In April of i960 Candy Stevens snitched to a federal grand jury

and on April 27, i960, an indictment was handed down charging
Manson with violation of Title 18 Section 2421, Transportation of
Women in Interstate Commerce for Purposes of Prostitution. Evi-
dently he himself transported the young ladies, Candy and Eliza-
beth, on December 12, 1959, from Needles, California to Lordsburg,
New Mexico in a stolen Triumph convertible.
On petition of the federal parole office. Judge Mathes revoked
parole on the previous check forgery charge. On May 23, i960, bond
was set at $10,000. On June 1, i960, a week after the issuance of the
bench warrant for his arrest, Charlie was picked up in Laredo,
Texas, evidently on a separate matter, charged with violation of the
Mann Act, aka ( also known as ) White Slave Act. A few days later,
on June 16, Manson was returned to authorities in Los Angeles.
On June 23, i960, Judge Wilham Mathes sentenced Manson to
 A POOR RISK FOR PROBATION 25
serve ten years at McNeil Island Federal Penitentiary in the state
of Washington. On July 10, i960, the federal pimp charges were
dropped but Manson had already been sentenced for parole
violation.
Manson had been free for one year, eight months and two days.
He appealed the ten-year sentence and remained about a year in
Los Angeles County Jail on the top floors of the Hall of Justice
where a decade later he would be tried for murder.
In June of 1961 he gave up after losing a court appeal, and al-
lowed himself to be shipped to McNeil Island Penitentiary.
In December of 1963 Manson's mother, evidently remarried and
Hving in Spokane, Washington, wrote a letter to Judge Mathes of-
fering to put up her house as secmity for Manson's release. The
judge had his clerk write her back that after ninety days the judge
had no jurisdiction to alter terms of sentencing.
For most of the 1960's Manson sat in jail. Through tlie tumult of
the various hberation movements outside in America, through riots,
through assassinations, the beginning of Vietnam, peace rallies, sex-

ual liberation, rock and roll, the Beatles For Sale, the Beach Boys,
napalm. Hare Krishna, and the growing refusal of women to be vic-
timized—a movement of which he had little awareness— through all
this sat Manson monitoring reality through magazines and hearsay

conversation.
It was while counting the days at McNeil Island that Manson be-
gan studying magic, warlockry, hypnotism, astral projection. Ma-
sonic lore, Scientology, ego games, subliminal motivation, music and
perhaps Rosicrucianism.
Especially hypnotism and subliminal motivation. He seemed de-
termined to use it to effect control over others, to his benefit.
One prison mate ofManson at McNeil Island recalls vividly the
great Charlie Manson Headphones Caper.
Utilizing the prison radio station, Manson planted what his cell
partner called "posthypnotic suggestions" in all the prisoners at Mc-
Neil Island Penitentiary.
Each prisoner had access to the station by means of headphones
hanging on the bunk beds in the cells. Manson set up a clandestine
scheme whereby the radio station would broadcast messages at
26 THE FAMILY

3 A.M. over the earphones. The message or instruction was repeated

over and over.
The prisoners hang their headsets at night on
were required to
the bedsteads so that the messages were picked up by the sleepers
but were not loud enough to attract the guards.
The story continues that McNeil Island had a basketball team
that rarely won any games. Manson beamed messages to the sleep-
ing inmates urging them to get out and to root for the McNeil Is-
land team.
Charlie then placed bets with the zealous new fans that the op-
posing teams would win and quickly won himself two hundred
packs of cigarettes, the medium of exchange in U.S. prisons.
Another was the applause caper: he planted suggestions over
the earphones that everyone should keep applauding for Manson
when he sang at a particular prison talent contest. Manson won the
contest earphones-down, evidently receiving a standing ovation of
some duration.
Of irony, Manson seems have become a protege in prison of
to
prohibition gangster Alvin Karpis, a member of the evil Ma Barker
gang, which left fourteen victims dead.
Alvin "Old Creepy" Karpis taught Charlie to play the steel guitar
and seems to have been a general counselor to the young man, al-
though when interviewed after Manson's arrest, Karpis said that he
had considered Manson the last man on earth "to go into the mass
murder business."
"Charhe was hooked on this new thing called 'Scientology,' " says
Karpis. "He figured it would enable him to do anything or be any-
thing. Maybe he was right. The kid tried to sell a lot of other cons
on Scientology but got strictly nowhere."
Scientology is a reincamationist religion that claims to train in-
dividuals to experience past lives, to leave their bodies— i.e., "exteri-
orize"— and to achieve great power and immortality, among other
things.Manson learned about Scientology from one Lanier Raymer,
from Gene Deaton and from Jerry Milman, who was Manson's room-
mate at McNeil Island Penitentiary.
Lanier Raymer, according to Manson's followers, had been active
in the study of Scientology and had become a Doctor of Scientology,
an early rank in the movement, now abolished.
 .

A POOR RISK FOR PROBATION 27

Raymer broke away from Scientology and formed his own group.
He was apprehended for a shotgun holdup and was sent to McNeil
Island.
Manson has told a jail house he received 150 sessions
visitor that
of "processing" in jail, evidently from Lanier Raymer.
Manson has contended that he learned Scientology methods very
quickly because his "mind wasn't programmed." But Manson was
not a "product" of Scientology in any way; he merely borrowed a
few ideas from it. The scientologists call it "squirreling"— that is,
borrowing and mutating Scientology practices or methods.
Manson picked up a fair number of Scientology phrases, neolo-
gisms and practices which he put to his own use when he began to
reorganize the minds of his young followers.
Phrases Hke "to mock up" and "cease to exist" and "to come to
Now" and the concept of "putting up have their
pictures" all seem to
origin in Manson's McNeil Island sessions with Lanier Raymer.
Manson also studied Masonic lore and picked up some knowledge
of Masonic hand signals (which later he would flash to judges dur-
ing court appearances )

He evidently learned something about Scientology recognition

Manson would de-
signals also. Later, in the era of creepy crawlie,
velop his own complex system of hand and body signals—really a
whole language of chop-notation— among his followers.
For someone so unskilled in reading and writing, Manson took a
high interest in certain books on hypnotism and psychiatry. Accord-
ing to a friend, he was interested particularly in a book called
Transactional Analysis by Dr. Eric Berne, the author of Games Peo-
ple Play. Charlie, ever the proselytizer, urged his friends to read his
discovered books.
From his study of Transactional Analysis, Manson may have de-
veloped his perverse doctrine of Child Mind. Certainly he borrowed
lots of ideas from the pioneer work in group therapy.
He had a friend, one Marvin White, who appears to have been
released from McNeil Island and then to have made arrangements
to mail Charliebooks on black magic and related subjects.
Another book tliat helped provide a theoretical basis for Man-
son's family was Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein, the
story of a power-hungry telepathic Martian roaming the earth with
28 THE FAMILY

a harem and a quenchless sexual thirst while proselytizing for a new

religiousmovement. Initially, Manson borrowed a lot of terminology
and ideas from this book— not, hopefully, including the ritual can-
nibalism described therein.
Manson was, however, to identify vdth the hero of the book, one
Valentine Michael Smith ( Manson's first follower's child was named
Valentine Michael Manson)— a person who, in the course of build-
ing a religious movement, took to killing or "discorporating" his ene-
mies. Smith, in the book, ultimately was beaten to death by an angry
mob and ascended to the Sky.
To day Manson's followers hold water-sharing ceremonies
this
where Manson, in jail, magically takes a long-distance hit off a glass
of water which is being stared at by a circle of sitting adepts.
What he seems to have known most intimately though was the
Bible, which he was able to quote at great length.
Singing and songwriting began to occupy his time also. The idea
of becoming a performer seemed to interest him. Manson at some
point, appears to have been allowed to own a guitar. "A Mexican
taught me the guitar," Manson has written. One young lady who
owned a boutique in the Silverlake area of Los Angeles remembered
CharHe, after he was released from jail, coming to her shop with
his guitar and singing her "beautiful love songs in Spanish"— songs
probably learned in jail.

The Beatles attracted Manson's consciousness early in their ca-

reer, even during the Wanna Hold Your Hand mania of 1963-64.
Alvin Karpis of the Barker Gang remembers it: "He was con-
stantly telHng people he could come on hke the Beatles, if he got
the chance. Kept asking me to fix him up with high-power men like
Franlde Carbo and Dave Beck; anyone who could book him into
the big time when he got out."
After five years at McNeil Island, several friends of Manson,
"prison lawyers"— prisoners with legal expertise—worked out a legal
maneuver whereby on June 29, 1966, Charlie was transferred from
McNeil Island, Washington, to Terminal Island prison in San Pedro,
California near Los Angeles. Probably it was felt that he stood a
better chance of early release at Terminal Island.
At Terminal Island Manson really began to prepare for operation
 A POOR RISK FOR PROBATION 29
superstar. He spent the better part of a year there. Friends remem-
ber him as being fanatically dedicated to music and singing.
One person, Phil Kaufman, in on a federal marijuana charge,
jail

was impressed by Manson's musical abilities and offered him cer-

tain connections on the outside whenever Manson should be set
free. Kaufman, whom the pohce beHeve to have possession of the
legendary Manson video-pom, evidently gave Manson the name of
a person at Universal Studios in Hollywood where Manson, in late
'67, would record his songs.

Manson made many friends during this last seven years in prison.
Some cellmates say that Manson planned all along to collect an
army of outcasts operating "beneath the awareness" of the
mother
culture. Others sayhe was an out-and-out creep, but a few remem-
ber him with affection and seem almost dazed that he became the
leader of a kill-coven.
Butit is safe to say that when he was released, he had a chance.

A complex, long-term tragedy had been punching Charles Manson

in the face all his Hfe. But now in the year 1967, love had caught
the attention of war-crazed America and the streets were paved
with acceptance for a troubadour and a peripatetic collector of
walking wounded war children.
 Two

Out of the S!ams

With thirty-five dollars and a suitcase full of "clothes," Manson

walked out of jail on March 21, 1967, after serving six years and
nine months of punishment. He was thirty-two and a half years old.
The legend is that Manson actually tried to re-enter the prison,
or balked at leaving the front gate. Once on the street, however, he
began two and a half years of ceaseless wandering.
At first, Charhe walked around and rode buses in Los Angeles
for about three days after leaving Terminal Island. Then he went
north to Berkeley to visit some friends he had met in prison.
Manson was anxious to impress as a minstrel/wandering singer.
He spent time at the University of California Berkeley campus with
his guitar.
Guitar in hand, he began to scrounge around the streets of Berke-
ley. One spring day he was sitting and singing in the open-air mall
near Sather Gate on the University of California campus when he
met slim, red-haired Mary Brunner of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, a re-
cent graduate of the University of Wisconsin who was working at
the library at the University of CaHfornia. Also working in Berkeley
then, at the University of California Art Museum, was Abigail Fol-
ger, heiress to the Folger Coffee Company fortune.
Right away Manson and Brunner became friends and evidently
he moved into her apartment with her.
As a federal parolee, Manson was required to keep close contact
 OUT OF THE SLAMS 31

with a federal parole officer, informing the officer of his where-

abouts, employments and activities. Manson was assigned to a fed-
man named Roger Smith, who befriended him.
eral parole officer, a
Charlie was heavily into using many Heinleinian words like Grok
and Thou Art God and Share Water and other Strange Land ter-
minology, so Manson and the renamed Roger Smith Jubal
girls after
the fatherly protector Jubal Harshaw in the novel, Stranger in a
Strange Land.
Parolees are supposed to find gainful employment so Manson
sought or was offered work as an entertainer. He actually played at
a club in San Francisco's tenderloin district. He also may have
played a club in North Beach. His parole officer says he was offered
a job in Canada to sing.
It is nearly impossible to follow the peripatetics of Manson in
early 1967 because he began his roaming at once and who indeed
can remember the specifics of
really a given week in early 1967?
Manson made definite attempts to locate his mother Kathleen.
He secured permission from his federal parole officer to travel out
of state several times.Once he went north to Washington in search
of her.Another time, east to West Virginia.
A young redhead named Lynn Fromme joined Mary Brunner as
addition number tv^^o to the inner circle of ladies. She was picked
up near the beach in Venice, California where Charlie coaxed her
off a curbside as she was sitting, crying. Legend has it that she had
just been throwai out of her father's pad inRedondo Beach following
a quarrel.
She was initiated. "I am the god of fuck" were his words.
Manson and girls moved
to San Francisco where they evidently
lived near Haight Street with a beautiful ex-nun named Mary Ann.
Manson spent some time on the streets of the Haight, meandering
among the flower children. A sixteen-year-old flower waif, perhaps
a boy, perhaps a girl, it doesn't matter, homeless and alone, offered
Charlie his or her friendship. It was amazing, to the man who'd
spent his youth in jail, that this young boy was sleeping in Golden
Gate Park located near Haight-Ashbury.
There are hundreds of anecdotes floating around about Manson
in the Haight— a lot of which are glorified. The reality was that he
was a glib grubby little man with a guitar scrounging for young girls
32 THE FAMILY

using mysticism and guru babble, a time-honored tactic on the

Haight.
According to Manson, he became a sort of hostel-keeper for run-
aways. At the start, he ran into a runaway girl whom he put up at a

friend's house and as he was walking out of his friend's house he

found still another young girl with flowers in her hair who became
his housekeeper.
When Manson first changed his
took acid the story goes that it

life in that he went into a heavy where he

stations-of-the-cross trip
experienced the crucifixion of Jesus Christ— a common enough LSD
experience but one that he really grooved with since it gave form
to his chaos. Charlie Manson, the Son of Man, you dig.
The essence of the Jesus rap for the family was that Jesus and
his original followers were much like Charlie and the girls. For this
is what they believed about Jesus: that ninety years after Christ,

priestly creeps killed off the loving sensual-sexual Christians, thus

annihilating the original Christian impulse; and substituted for the
original their own black-robed sexless death-breaths.
On the Haight, Manson encountered the entire collection of sub-
cultural currents that had been building up in the United States
during the previous decade. Acid music. Dope. Sexual freedom.
Turn on, tune in, drop out. The politics of free. Peace rallies. Provos.
Guerrilla theater. Communes. Long hair. The concept of the under-
ground superstar. Astrology. The occult. Underground newspapers.
Crash pads. Dayglo art.
At a Grateful Dead concert at the Avalon Ballroom Manson
curled up into a fetal position right on the dance floor while the
strobe hghts blinked him into a trance.
He seemed be a familiar darting figure on the Haight. He
to
claims to have hung around with the Diggers as they distributed
their daily food in Panhandle Park. He may have even stayed a
while in a house behind the Digger crash pad on Waller Street. This
Waller Street house, later, in the era of psychedelic satanism, was
to be renamed The Devil House.
Charlie had a tremendous effect on those he met. Open. An in-
credible talent for using one part of a personality against another.
For spotting weaknesses— for creating confusion and appearing
therein as a source of leadership. He had a quick, gHb but seem-
 OUT OF THE SLAMS 33
ingly complicated answer for everything. Even though he told ev-
eryone to do their own thing, to be themselves, his own personal
magnetism, combined with a constant process of selection, atti*acted
those who thirsted for a leader. Control was what Charles was into
all along, in spite of the claims of liberation and freedom.
"I'm a very positive force. I'm a very positive field. I collect nega-
tives,"he later told a lawyer friend.
The guy had experienced nothing but ugliness, strip mines, jail,
poverty and boredom for most of his life. Now he could have his
own universe. He was terribly insecure, and the praise from his fol-
lowers was no solace.
One day, perhaps in July of 1967, Manson and gang were down
in San Jose, California where they met a minister named Dean
Morehouse and his wife and fourteen-year-old daughter RuthAnn
aka Guish. Mansons tale of meeting Dean Morehouse contends
that Reverend Morehouse, driving a pickup truck, picked Charlie
up and that Manson blew him, thus kicking off a friendship of great
duration. Until Morehouse a year or so later would be sent to prison
for forking over LSD to a thirteen-year-old girl.
Manson's parole oflBcer visited the family when they were visiting
Dean Morehouse in San Jose, and he played the very piano in More-
house's residence that Charlie would soon trade for a Volkswagen
camper. Morehouse gave, it seems, the beautiful piano to Charlie,
who traded it for a 1961 Volkswagen microbus, bearing the Hcense
plate CSY 087.
At the end of July 1967 the troupe traveled to the Mendocino
coast north of Frisco where Mary Brunner became pregnant.
The pregnancy of Mary Brunner seems to be the only verifiable
instance during the history of the family of a pregnancy caused by
Manson. Which is strange. Because if one calculates, with data sup-
pHed by Manson intimates, an average of three orgasms a day for a
total of something like three thousand fornications in two and a half
years, one would expect a greater number of pregnancies.
On July 28, 1967, Manson was arrested in Mendocino County for
trying to come to the aid of a runaway being apprehended by the
police. He received a suspended sentence.
One almost had to live there to understand the frenzy that en-
gulfed the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco in the spring
34 THE FAMILY

and summer of 1967. The word was out all over America to come
to San Francisco for love and flowers. California was flooded with
what The New York Times labeled hippies.
But all over the United States, in hundreds of cities, in the spring
and summer of 1967, there were love-ins, be-ins, share-ins and flow-
ers. However, once again, as in the beat generation of the late

1950's, the nerve center was San Francisco. Potentially, flower-

power was one of the most powerful forces of change ever seen in
recent history. Through the work of the San Francisco Diggers, the
Free Clinic in San Francisco, the San Francisco music scene, the
San Francisco Oracle, its underground newspaper of that time-
through these enterprises and others, things came into focus in San
Francisco. It was a noble experiment. It was the politics of Free.
The Diggers served free food in Panhandle Park each day. The
Haight-Ashbury Medical Clinic gave free medical care. There were
outdoor free concerts held all the time in the park. People hved
and loved in the streets and parks. It was Free. There were no rules.
But there was a weakness: from the standpoint of vulnerabiHty the
flower movement was like a valley of thousands of plump white rab-
bits surrounded by wounded coyotes. Sure, the "leaders" were
tough, some of them geniuses and great poets. But the acid-dropping
middle-class children from Des Moines were rabbits.
The Haight attracted vicious criminals who grew long hair. Bik-
ers tried to take over the LSD market with crude sadistic tactics.
Bad dope was sold by acne-faced methedrine punks. Satanists and
satanist-rapist death-freaks flooded the whirling crash pads. People
began getting ripped off in the parks. There was racial trouble. Puke
was sold as salvation. Ughness was.
And Manson took his children away from it. Because by the end
of the summer of flowers, the streets of the Haight were griseous
and filthy, psychedelic weirdburger stands were springing up in
mutant profusion. As Charlie roamed up and down the California
coast, he warned all the hitchhikers and runaways he met not to go
to the Haight.
Two buddies of CharHe from Terminal Island lived with
jail

CharHe on the Haight during the summer of love, 1967. One of

them was the legendary Danny M., a skilled counterfeiter. Family
members would brag that Danny's twenty-dollar bills were 96 per-
 OUT OF THE SLAMS 35
cent perfect, on the average, whereas the U.S. Treasury's were only
94 percent on the simulacral scale.
These guys were mean and rough-tough but when they came un-
der Charlie's influence— just like a wind that blows first one way
then another— they grew their hair long and began to groove with
flower-power.
One anecdote from the summer of love deals with the ritual of
the Golden Gate gun-drop. It goes that at the end of the summer
Charlie and the flower girls were set to hit the bricks and roam the
void. His dear friends, the two ex-cons, one of whom was the 96-
percent-perfect tsventy-dollar-bill counterfeiter, evidently were go-
ing to remain behind. Charlie asked the guys for the guns he knew
they had. He received the weapons,wrapped them up in a cloth,
held some sort of ceremony over them, then carried them to Golden
Gate Bridge where he dropped the cloth-wrapped guns into San
Francisco Bay several hundred feet below.
At the end of the summer of love the group set out to roam the
coastal highways.
They survived by odd and cleaning service stations, any-
jobs
tliing. Another legend swift growing was of Charles Manson the

master panhandler. He could get things with ease. He would walk

up to a house and people would seem to give him things, the legend
being that it was because of his Christ vibes.
Sometime, perhaps in August '67, Charlie and Lynn Fromme aka
Squeaky and Mary Brunner acquired a residence at 705 Bath Street
in Santa Barbara, California, 334 miles south of San Francisco.
On or around September 8, 1967, Charhe, Lynn and Mary Brun-
ner visited a former jail buddy named Greene who had an apart-
ment in Manhattan Beach near Los Angeles. Visiting Greene also
was one Patricia Krenwinkel, a lonely, searching girl from Los An-
geles with an endocrine problem— an excess of bodily hair. She was
the girl, as her early diaries note, that the men seemed to neglect at
the high school dances.
Patricia Krenwinkel of Inglewood, California was eighteen years
old, a former Sunday school teacher and a Bible freak— she would
really get into the acid Bibleland of Manson, quoting and counter-
quoting with abandon from the scriptures.
Patricia Krenwinkel was Hving with her sister Charlene in an
36 THE FAMILY

apartment in Manhattan Beach, and while the girls drove the micro-
bus north Manson remained with Miss Krenwinkel at Manhattan
Beach for four days.
Then Squeaky and Mary returned. Patricia Krenwinkel had been
unhappily employed as a process clerk for the Insurance Company
of North America. On the night of September 12, 1967, she aban-
doned her car in a service station to become a clerk in the Process
of Charles Manson. Most popular accounts of the Manson story are
careful to note that Krenwinkel dared to leave behind uncollected
her final paycheck from the Insurance Company of North America.
The point being, indeed, what true American would abandon a
paycheck?
Patricia Krenwinkel was able to present to the budding family-
then known, of course, only as "Charles' girls"— besides her soul, the
gift of gifts: a valid Chevron credit card backed by her father who
loved her enough to pay the bills. Also she gave a telephone credit
card number.
They drove north through Santa Barbara to San Francisco, fi-
nanced by Patricia Krenwinkel's father's credit card. Then on Sep-
tember 15, 1967, they proceeded into Oregon. The Volkswagen van
spent two weeks shuttling back and forth between Washington and
Oregon, spending a considerable time in the Seattle area. One of
the purposes of this trip in the northwest probably was to locate
Charlie's lost mother.
It was on this trip Manson et al. met a twenty-five-
north that
year-old man from Monroe, Louisiana named Bruce Davis, soon to
be a prime male follower of Manson. Davis had been the editor of
his high school yearbook in Kingston, Tennessee, had attended the
University of Tennessee for three years, then had gone through a
series of odd jobs until November of 1966, when he dropped down
from America and became a transient undergrounder.
On October 1, 1967, the microbus passed through Carson City,
Nevada, on the way to San Francisco. The group spent about ten
days in the San Francisco-Berkeley area, then hit the bricks, pro-
ceeding toward Sacramento where they stayed for a couple of
weeks, possibly at the Sacramento residence of the beautiful ex-nun
Mary Ann, with whom they had stayed in the summer of flowers.
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 OUT OF THE SLAMS 37

On October 6, 1967, residents of the Haight held a funeral for

hippie, son of media, in Buena Vista Park in San Francisco. It was
more than symbolic for it marked the end of a noble experiment

and the beginning of the era of pig.

Invitations were sent out reading as follows:

FUNERAL NOTICE
HIPPIE
Haight-Ashbury District
of this city,
Hippie, devoted son
of
Mass Media
Friends are invited
to attend services
beginning at sunrise,
October 6, 1967
at
Buena Vista Park

Manson's group was growing. There were too many to sleep,

much less grope, comfortably in the Volkswagen. And winter was

oozing onward.
So the opportunity arose to acquire a school bus for their further
travels.
It was Ken Kesey and his band of Merry Pranksters, including
the wonderful Neal Cassady, who popularized in 1964-65 the con-
cept of the travehng school bus, painted and decorated artistically,

full of decorous wanderers.

It was they who experimented group acid trips and, more im-
in
portantly, group mystical experiences under LSD. They were into
filmmaking during wandering. Kesey's group, however, was essen-
tially good.
Manson carried this onward, making it evil, slowly changing the
colors, the red tempura becoming dog blood, the acid test turning
to psychedeHc satanism, the filming of happiness turning to the
filming of hapless miurder of female Caucasians on the beaches of
38 THE FAMILY

southern California. But it was a slow change. Such weirdo warping

takes months and years to put together.
It Sacramento where they seem to have traded the Volks-
was in
wagen bus as down payment for an old yellow school bus, large
enough to hold the growing youth-pack.
On October 16, 1967, at the Stuart E. Miller Standard Chevron
station in Sacramento, they outfitted the school bus with a thirty-
nine-dollar battery and two sets of 825-20 tires costing $216.20.
They removed the from the back of the bus to create an
seats
area in which to live. On top of the bus they built a large rectangu-
lar storage compartment. Inside the bus, as time oozed by, they

emplaced an icebox, a stereo set, a floating coflFee table suspended

by wires and pillows aplenty. Gradually the walls became painted
with Early Acid-American Dayglo whirlings of color. God's eyes,
peacock feathers and musical instruments gave the dope-mobile
cheer. At first, the bus remained school yellow in color, but the po-
lice began to stop them for violation of laws governing school buses.

At a beach somewhere they acquired a quantity of black spray

paint and some bikers sprayed the bus, even the windows, black.
They meant to paint the bus with white letters, "Hollywood Pro-
ductions," but a French girl did the painting and spelled it as she
pronounced it, "Holywood Productions."
The scam was to come on like a roving film crew—to avoid the
obvious problems that a thirty-three-year-old man with a busload
of mini-skirted teenage girls might pose, particularly to the police.
In November, Manson's parole supervision was transferred from
San Francisco to the Los Angeles office indicating that he intended
to shift his base of operations to southern California. Around No-
vember 7 or 8, 1967, Manson drove to San Francisco where he met
a pretty young female named Susan Atkins at an apartment on Lime
Street possibly belonging to Sandra Good, a future Manson fol-

lower.
Susan Atkins was an impressionable nineteen-year-old from San
Jose, California with a background of strife and bad news. There
was fighting and drinking aplenty at home. Her mother died of can-
cer when Susan was thirteen and Susan led her church choir in a
religious serenade outside her dying mother's bedroom window.
 OUT OF THE SLAMS 39

After the deatli of Susan's mother, Mr. Atkins had to sell their house
topay the medical bills for the high cost of dying of cancer.
When Susan was fifteen she quit school and then, age sixteen,
she headed for San Francisco. It was 1964. There she dwelled.
In 1966 she was a waitress, Hving alone, so to speak, in a hotel in
San Francisco. She met a couple of men who were into armed rob-
bery.
In August of 1966, when she was eighteen, Sue met a human
named Al Sund in San Francisco. Al and another human, Clint
Tahoferro, took Susan along on a trip north in a stolen Buick Rivi-
era to Salem, Oregon.
They hid in the woods when they learned the fuzz were after
them, snuflBng food from other campers— just ordinary outlaws in
the wilderness.
On September 12, 1966, she was arrested by the Oregon State
Police. She languished in the slams for three months till December
of 1966 when she was placed on two years probation. She hit the
trail, returning to San Francisco where she worked as a waitress, a

knocker-trembler at a topless bar, and as a domestic on Muir Beach.

She returned to San Francisco, resuming a career as a topless
dancer and cocktail waitress. She took LSD and began to experi-
ment with life styles. She had a succession of men friends who used
her. Then she met God.
The day before she met Manson she told a social worker she was
hot to pursue a career in dancing. When they met, Manson sang
songs to her and accompanied her to her apartment where they lay
naked together. He asked her to pretend he was her father while
they made love. She did. Later she claimed that it was the most
ennobling experience of her nineteen years.
The story goes that after this initial encounter, Manson went back
to Sacramento and brought to San Francisco the newly bedecked
school bus.
He scooped up his waifs preparing to travel south.
He asked Susan if she was ready to accompany them. Yes she
was. Later he blessed Susan Atkins with a new name, Sadie Mae
Glutz.
Around November 10, 1967, Susan Atkins checked in with her
probation office in San Francisco all excited about some roaming
40 THE FAMILY

preacher named Charlie. She did not know his last name. Susan
stated that there were seven girls, two of whom were pregnant, who
were going to accompany this Charlie on a trip to Los Angeles and
on to Florida.
The probation ofiBcer was unenthusiastic about the venture. Forth-
with the oflBcial fired off a letter to Oregon authorities requesting
that Miss Atkins be hauled into court for a revocation of probation
hearing. But Sadie/Susan was already in the bus whizzing down
101.
Through credit card data, it is known that on November lo, Man-
son called Universal Studios in North Hollywood, seemingly to ar-
range for a recording session to kick off operation superstar.
There was a man at Universal Studios in Los Angeles named Gary
Stromberg who was a close friend of Manson's jail pal, Phil Kauf-
man. Through Kaufman, Manson met or contacted Stromberg and
a routine was arranged whereby Manson would record a session or
so for Universal Records, the company evidently agreeing to pay
for the recording costs.
Down the coastline toward an appointment with fame drove the
bus. They stopped in San Jose where they snarfed up Dean More-
house's fourteen-year-old daughter, RuthAnn, adding her to the
pack. Morehouse went Three days after Manson had
into a rage.
left with his defiant daughter, Morehouse, traveling with the man

who'd given Manson the original Volkswagen microbus, located

Manson near Los Angeles and was prepared to kick ass.
"I'm just doing to her what you want to do"—was what Manson
is supposed to have said to the raging father. Charlie also slipped

him some LSD. Morehouse's wife, subsequently divorced, was

amazed at the effect that Manson had on her husband during that
trip to get Ruth back. Ruth stayed with Charlie but Dean returned
to San Jose a changed man. He had left foaming with anger; he re-
turned a near-convert to the Way of the Bus.
On November 12, 1967, Manson was thirty-three years old.
The family stopped for a couple of days in Santa Barbara, then
drove to Universal Studios in North Hollywood for a recording ses-
sion. Manson recorded only one three-hour session for Universal
Records, then hit the breeze, off to the Mojave Desert though Mr.
Stromberg was eager to record more sessions with this barefoot lit-
 OUT OF THE SLAMS 41

tie minstiel. Later on Charlie would help a group of writers to pre-

pare a film script for Universal Studios.
Charlie Manson, biblical quote-freak and living Christ figure, was
hired as a "technical advisor" oflp of whom the writers were to
bounce ideas. The script was to be a "what-if" story of Christ return-
ing as a black man in the South. The white Southerners, of course,
would be the drool-lipped Romans.
Universal never made the Jesus as a Black Man movie because
the executives higher up couldn't buy the concept. Working on this

Jesus projectmay have made a strong impression on Manson. In-

deed the idea of a Second Coming with the current money-waving
Christians starring as the jaded Romans soon to join the rubble of
history lay heavily in his later lectures.
Submission was always a key factor in Manson's rap horde. Once
diuring the idea flagpole sessions for the film, Charlie and the
twenty-year-old callipygian Squeaky aka Lynn Fromme performed
a reciprocal foot smooch, she bending down to kiss his feet and he
hers.
All through 1967 and '68, foot kissing, mutual submission and
love were very much in vogue with tlie M brigade. It wasn't until
1969 that Charlie got into kissing people's feet after he shot them.
There had been some gossip about Manson's supposed commin-
gling with certain prestigious people at Universal so Manson was
asked about it and he wrote back that he couldn't remember their
names but said this: "I knew lots of people at Universal Studios."
Right around the time tliat Manson was making that demo tape
at Universal Studios, Roman Polanski was finishing up the final work
on Rosemary's Baby, living on Malibu Beach on the Los Angeles
coast. Soon he would return to London for the world premiere of
the satanoid epic and he and Sharon Tate would marry.
The family stayed for about a week in the Los Angeles area, then
hit the road. They took a swing up into the Mojave Desert, then
back to Los Angeles on November 26, 1967. The next day they were
in Santa Barbara, then they went to San Francisco, and then back
across the state, across the Mojave Desert, then to Las Vegas, Ne-
vada where they spent four days in early December. They passed
through Arizona and New Mexico and arrived in El Paso, Texas
on December 6, 1967. They backtracked into New Mexico for about
42 THE FAMILY

a week then went into the deep South, into Mississippi and Ala-
bama. Patricia Krenwinkel visited her mother in Mobile, Alabama
on December 14, 1967. The black flower bus drove back to Los An-
geles, arriving about December 19, 1967. They stayed for four days
in Topanga Canyon, then left for Arizona. Out, demon, out.
Topanga Canyon wdnds and twists up from Topanga Beach on
the Pacific Ocean to a high point overlooking the San Fernando
Valley. There is a creek that runs its pleasant boulder-strewn and
cabin-sited way down the Topanga Canyon into the Pacific. Follow-
ing along the creek is Topanga Boulevard, which runs from the

ocean up over the top of Topanga into the San Fernando Valley and
north a few miles in a straight line to Santa Susanna Pass Road, the
home of Helter Skelter.
Woody Guthrie once lived in the canyon and his cabin still

stands. In spite of themutant condition of Los Angeles, the canyon

maintains a form of rustic beauty and its inhabitants are among the
most knowledgeable to be encountered anywhere.
It was in the Topanga Canyon/Malibu Canyon area in Decem-
ber 1967 that the family was first to establish vertical roots in Los
Angeles. It became necessary— because of the hordes of adepts—
to put down roots, to camp near a friendly house, to set up tent
cities, to spread out.
summer of love Manson had met a lady named Gina who
In the
Hved Topanga Canyon near the beach. She invited him to come
in
down to Los Angeles sometime for a visit. This lady, Gina, had an
ancient famed two-story house located on Topanga Canyon Lane
behind the Raft Restaurant at the mouth of the canyon.
Because of a large spiral staircase the house, since torn down,
was known merely as The Spiral Staircase. It became a scrounge-
lounge for the family. They stayed on and off there for several
months parking the black bus there. All kinds of people congre-
gated at the spiral house including an occasional starlet driving a
Rolls-Royce.
At one "light show party" at The Spiral Staircase one Robert K.
Beausoleil, a young twenty-year-old actor-musician from Santa
Barbara, wearing a pointed beard and smoking a hand-carved skull
pipe, arrived and found Charlie and the girls singing together. He
joined in and began playing along v^th Charlie. A few days later,
 OUT OF THE SLAMS 43

Charlie, wearing an oldtweed jacket, a tweed cap and a walking

came to see Beausoleil then living at Gary Hinman's house.
stick,

Hinman was a thirty-year-old music teacher from Colorado with a

Master's degree in Sociology.
Beausoleil was young man who possessed some skill in music
a
and songwriting and more than a passing interest in devil worship
and magic. In 1967 he was associated with famed author and weir-
warped filmmaker Kenneth Anger in San Francisco. Beausoleil evi-
dently lived with Anger in an old house in San Francisco called the
Russian Embassy, where Anger introduced him to the universe of
magic, not to mention the cruelty-streaked universe of Aleister
Crowley. Anger was involved in making an occult movie called
Lucifer Rising in which Beausoleil played the role of Lucifer. At
that time Beausoleil has said that he was on an all-meat diet and
believed himself to be the devil. Beausoleil was the lead guitarist
and sitarist for The Magick Powerhouse of Oz, an eleven-piece
rock ensemble formed by Kenneth Anger to perform the music for
Lucifer Rising.
On September Magick Powerhouse of Oz played at
21, 1967, the
a gathering at the Straight Theater on Haight Street to celebrate
the so-called Equinox of the Gods. The film Lucifer Rising was sup-
posed to be nearly completed so the night was one of celebration.
Anger filmed the event that night but Beausoleil remembered later
that Mr. Anger flipped out during the proceedings and smashed a
priceless caduceus-headed cane that had once belonged to the king
of sex-magic himself, Aleister Crowley.
Things went awry between Beausoleil and his mentor Kenneth
Anger shortly thereafter. Beausoleil seems to have ripped off An-
ger's automobile, some camera equipment and, more importantly,
some of the footage of Lucifer Rising. Then he split. Beausoleil
claims that he only took what already belonged to him.
The rip-off may have occurred in late October 1967 when Ken-
neth Anger, during the famed Exorcism and March on the Penta-
gon, was in Washington, D.C. conducting a notable magic ritual
beneath a flat-bed truck parked in front of the Pentagon.
While various Diggers and exorcists were standing atop the flat-
bed truck screeching "Out Demons Out," Anger, bare from the waist
up, revealing what appeared to be a tattoo of Lucifer upon his
44 THE FAMILY

chest, burned a picture of the devil within a consecrated penta-

gram, shouting oaths and hissing as he flashed a magic ring at in-
quiring reporters thrusting microphones at him hunched down in
the gravel.
When he discovered that Beausoleil had ripped him off, Anger
thereupon fashioned a locket, the face of which bore the likeness
of Bob Beausoleil. The obverse contained the Ukeness of a toad,
with the inscription "Bob Beausoleil—who was turned into a toad
by Kenneth Anger."
Beausoleil moved down Topanga Canyon in the fall of '67 fol-
to
lovdng his break with Anger. He became friends with Gary Hin-
man. When he met Manson, Beausoleil and a girl friend Laurie
were living at Hinman's small hillside house at 964 Old Topanga
Canyon Road. Hinman had a tendency to allow people in transit
to use his home for temporary crashing, and several times members
of the family would cop zzz's there.
Beausoleil and Charles Manson would have a diflBcult relation-
ship since Beausoleil had his group of girls and Charlie his group.
There was a bit of friction between the two because of Charlie's
Second Coming hangup. Beausoleil would tend to keep himself
separate and that was a sin. There were striking similarities in the
two. But only Manson had the Rommeloid passion for the fine de-
tailsof government.
Another convert, Diane Lake, a red-haired, fourteen-year-old
with hip parents, met Charlie and the girls at The Spiral Staircase
house of flickers. Diane and her parents had been living in the Los
Angeles area with the Hog Farm, an important seed commune later
to roam the continents as a world peace brigade. Somehow, the
fourteen-year-old Diane was impressed enough to join up with the
family bus. Squeaky and Patricia Krenvdnkel asked her if she
wanted to accompany them to the desert and off she went. In fit
time, Miss Lake was renamed Snake, evidently in tribute to the
transverse ophidian wiggles she made during intercourse.
Diane Lake's parents both highly valued their daughter's free-
dom to develop on her own. They allowed Diane to travel with the
family, although later Mrs. Lake would visit the Spahn ranch to try
to reclaim her daughter, only to be rebuffed, according to Diane,
by one of CharUe's chief disciples, Squeaky. The story has it that
 OUT OF THE SLAMS 45

the mistress of The Spiral Staircase house, Gina, apologized to

Snake's parents when she left with the Manson dope-bus. After all,

Snake was fourteen and Manson was thirt}'-three.

But the bus was very persuasive. There is general agreement that
the family was neat, orderly and extremely clean in physical ap-
pearance, during these early days prior to snuff. So Diane's parents,
just Hke RuthAnn Morehouse's, let their daughter do her thing.
On December 22 the family took the barely pubescent Snake
Lake touring through Arizona and the deserts of New Mexico. Five
days later, on December 27, 1967, the bus broke down near Wins-
low, Arizona and had to be towed to a Chevron station. Some peo-
ple hitched back to Topanga Canyon, and after repairs the bus
itself proceeded back to Los Angeles where the family would stay,

more or less, for three and a half months until early April of 1968.
The people of the black bus lived in a profusion and confusion
of places in Topanga Canyon. One night one place, one night an-
other—but the numbers were growing. They proceeded to try to
settle in various abandoned homes and canyon crash camps, but
they kept having to move. For a few weeks they parked their bus
at The Spiral Staircase.
Strange doors open to the floweroids. There was no telling where
a man with a black bus full of girls might end up for the night— in a
cave or castle, by a hot springs in the wilderness or by a heated pool
in the Malibu hills. Doors opened all over Los Angeles to Charles
Manson and the family.
The poUce in Mahbu became aware of Manson. They saw the
bus parked at The Spiral Staircase on Topanga Canyon Lane be-
hind the Raft Restaurant. They noted that the family was doing
odd jobs for various residents in the Malibu-Topanga area.
In December of 1967 the Beatles released their album Magical
Mystery Tour and their corresponding movie. The Beatles to the
rescue. This seems to be the first Beatles album from which Man-
son drew philosophical guidance. The whole black bus trip came to
be called "The Magical Mystery Tour." They were into such a trip
of mystic transformation that the family evidently believed that
there was an archetypal core personality in each human that could
be discovered through acid-zap, mind-moil, role-playing, bunch-
46 THE FAMILY

punching, magic, blasting-the-past and commune-ism. This was the

Magical Mystery Tour.
For most of the early part of 1968 the family stayed in the Los
Angeles area. They continued to spew out in quick trips here and
there. In early 1968, evidently on such a voyage, Susan Denise At-
kins, aka Sadie Glutz, was made pregnant by a human named Blue-
stein in New Mexico.
In February 1968, through a service attendant named Jerry, Man-
son met a lady named Melba Kronkite who owned a luxurious
ranch in the between Mahbu and Topanga Canyons, near the
hills

old Malibu sheriff's substation. Evidently the lady

had been wealthy
but had fallen into impecunious times. She was amazed at the bri-
gade and became a close friend. Unmentionable and secret were
the encounters around her heated Malibu pool. She became so
friendly with the family that she was used as a character reference
when family members got busted later on.
Off and on the family would visit MaHbu Melba. They worked
for her. Manson claims to have given her some money. Manson also
gave to Melba a 1967 Ford Mustang which a New Yorker named
Michael, divesting himself of worldly goods, had given to Manson.
Mrs. Kronkite had huge stables and an exercise track on her prop-
perty. Once the family, (Hke Heracles cleaning Augean stables,)
spent a week cleaning an incredible mountain of horse dooky from
several hundred stalls in her stables.
Sometime in February '68 Manson and crew were left temporarily
homeless. After his stay vidth Gary Hinman, Robert Beausoleil had
moved into his own house on a steep hillside at 19844 Horseshoe
Lane, above Fernwood Pacific Road in Topanga. This property
was a citadal of pom, consisting of a burnt-out basement dwelling,
below which lay a crude swimming pool. Beausoleil said, "Sure,
come on up and live here," so a gypsy tent scene was set up down
the hillside and the family filled the pool with archeological refuse
picked up over later during research for books. They stayed at the
Horseshoe Lane property for about six weeks and this seems to be
the first known time they got into making movies— or, as they say,
allowing people with cameras to film their activities.
Around this time the family added to itself Brenda McCann of
Malibu and one Little Patty aka MadeHne Cottage aka Shirley
 OUT OF THE SLAMS 47

Amanda McCoy aka Linda Baldwin. Both girls would cling to the
thrill until the end, one and a half years later. Also oozing into the
acid mosaic at this time was a lovely girl named Ella Beth Sinder
aka Ella Bailey aka Yeller, whom a biker named Danny De Carlo
describes as a slim shapely Greta Garbo type.
Various others, gone now, and nameless, lived with the family.
There are a hundred or so whose names are known but who flitted
away into the void. This account deals with those who passed the
process of selection and remained with the family.
One of the jewels in Charlie's barely pubescent pack at this time
was the twelve- or thirteen-year-old Didi Lansbury, the daughter
of actress Angela Lansbury. To ward off possible jail-bait charges,
the young Miss Lansbury carried around with her a to-whom-it-
may-concem letter from her mother, OK-ing association with CM.
Manson has said, however, that he only met Angela Lansbury her-
self once or twice.
Manson seemed to seek out encounters with the children or rela-
tives of entertainment personalities. In Los Angeles famous sons
and daughters often form close associations with one another. This
was okay with Manson in that, like one of his beloved coyotes stalk-
ing a nestHng, he zeroed in on the fame children in order to scarf
up free credit cards, money, hospitality, fame-grope, connections
and, most important, acceptance and adulation.
While the family was camped on Horseshoe Lane, Bob Beau-
soleil and Manson formed a six-piece electric rock band called The
Milky Way. Manson played guitar and Beausoleil was on guitar and
bass clarinet. The Milky Way was short-lived, though it did have
one weekend of public performance.
While The Milky Way was rehearsing one day, a man from the
Topanga Corral, a country and western night club in Topanga Can-
yon, came to hear the group and thought they were "tight" so he
hired them weekend gig.
for a
Diu-ing the weekend the group was fired. When asked why,
Beausoleil said that the group was too far out, that the potheads
came to the club but not enough beer drinkers. Adios Milky Way.
Sometime in late March of '68, the family traded houses with
someone Hving on the other side of Topanga Canyon at the top of
Summit Trail and High Vale Trail. The dwelling lay above a maze
48 THE FAMILY

of trails in the woods. There they parked the black bus and set up
camp.
Manson's jail friend, Phil Kaufman, was released from prison in
March. A couple of weeks later he went out to Topanga to check
out the family. Kaufman stayed around for a while but found the-
ocracy a bit overbearing, though he remained a "sympathetic
cousin."
PhilKaufman had a friend named Harold True who came out to
Topanga to visit him in March '68. Harold True hved in an opulent
house located at 3267 Waverly Drive near the Silver Lake area of
Los Angeles. Next door to True's house was a home owned by the
family of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca at 3301 Waverly Drive.
Harold True met Manson and the family through Kaufman. Be-
fore True moved out of his Waverly house in August '68, Manson
visited Waverly Drive four or five times during the summer, sleep-
ing over twice. True himself went out that spring to Topanga ap-
proximately ten times to check out the lair of dope-grope.
Danny summer of love, drove
M., the ace counterfeiter from the
onto the set bearing some fresh sheets of twenties, just off the press.
Charlie talked him into printing up some i.d.'s and driver's licenses
for the family. Danny, according to Topanga gossip, later went into
business in Woodland Hills, got caught and was sent to jail.
On April Fools eve, President Lyndon Johnson abdicated, an-
nouncing he would not seek another term in office.
The next day, April 1, 1968, in the woodsides of Topanga, Valen-
tine Michael Manson was bom to Mary Theresa Brunner in the
shack on Summit Trail. To relax during the birth she filled her lungs
with dope. She was attended by her friends.
On the night Mary gave birth, Sandy Good, twenty-four-year-old
daughter of a San Diego stockbroker, flew down from San Fran-
cisco with a friend in a private plane, rented a car and sped toward
the family. Charlie drew her aside and they clinked bodies near the
High Vale bus camp. She marveled out loud after they made love
at Charlie's continuing permarigid condition. Boy, other girls didn't
know what they were missing.
Although a bright, well read college graduate who was active in
civil rights causes, Sandy was ready to submit herseff. It became an

item of gossip among her friends back in San Francisco that she
 OUT OF THE SLAMS 49
had "joined somebody's harem." Sandy was also to acquire great
skill at coaxing money from her wealthy father, a skill ever cher-

ished by Manson.
One Paul Watkins, a short, sixteen-year-old baby-faced drifting
diopout, became another addition to the family's lair on Summit

Trail.He was wandering through the hills and spotted the black
bus and six naked girls. Needless to say it was paradise to the young
boy Watkins, soon dubbed Little Paul, evidently a name chosen by
the girls.

That night everybody took LSD and experienced a group en-

counter involving indiscriminate apertural-appendage conjugation.
It can be seen that LSDwas the wafer. Conceivably, the family
provided the first instance where a man, believed to be Christ, ever
dispensed LSD as a sacrament, before an act of group sexual psy-
chodrama and after a garbage run.
In early April, a few days after Mary Brunner gave birth, the
Magical Mystery Tour decided to leave Topanga Canyon. They
were around twenty in number, maintaining the four girls to one
guy ratio that was pretty constant throughout the history of the
family.
Citizens in the arearemember how the heat from the fuzz was
severe in the Topanga and Mahbu Canyon areas in early 1968, a
year of great unrest everywhere in the United States. And Manson
and his friends received their share. Arrests, particularly for stupid
laws regarding marijuana, create hatred. It had to be a factor in the
family's switch from flowers to knives. And then there was also the
baleful hate-spell cast by the war.
The Vietnam war lay like a ciuse upon America in 1968. In
March, unknown to milHons, Calley and friends creepy-crawled a
village called My Lai and blew oflF the head of a white-robed Bud-
dhist monk stooped to his knees in prayer. Such was the curse.
On
April 14, 1968, a drifting racist hick, probably under contract,
snuffed Martin Luther King in Memphis, Tennessee.
The Panthers had been calling the police pigs for some time. The
Hog Farm's main force, a gentle leader named Wavy Gravy, pro-
posed to run a porcine animal for President. The idea caught on.
The Yippies, preparing to pull aside the bandages placed atop the
50 THE FAMILY

unattended sickness of the Democratic presidential convention,

adopted the piggie-for-President proposal. Pig was born.
Somewhere in England, probably in the summer of '68, one
George Harrison of the Beatles wrote a song called "Piggies." No-
body had heard the song yet, but it was there, to be released in De-
cember 1968. Pigs appeared in ecology ads on television, gobbling
garbage at the beach. Respected citizens, long accustomed to call-
ing the police fuzz or cops, switched to pig.
Sometimes happy, sometimes blue, Sergeant Charlie's dope-
troupe wandered up the coastline.
They camped for a while on the beach at Leo Carillo State Park,
up tents. Leo Carillo Beach is just south of the L.A./Ventura
setting
County line, the location of the famed dog-blood beach where L.A.
satanists later sacrificeddogs and animals and drank the blood.
Bruce Davis, whom the family had encountered some months
previous, perhaps in Washington state, showed up on a motorcycle
about this time and became an avid member. Bruce Davis began
to listen so carefully to Manson's speeches on religion and philoso-
phy that he could repeat them word for word with an easy exact-
ness, even imitating Manson's voice. Observers in the canyon,
however, noted that when Charlie was around, Davis talked in his
own Tennessee dialect.
They broke camp at Leo Carillo Beach sometime around the sec-
ond week of April '68, and drove further north up the coast to a
wooded area near Oxnard, California in Ventura County. This was
the location of the great Oxnard bust, which occurred on April 21.
The black bus got caught or broke down in a ditch so the family
evidently set up camp in nearby woods. Ventura County sheriff's
deputies stopped to investigate and were shocked to find a bunch
of nude hippies sauntering in the woods.
Charlie and Sadie and several others were arrested, evidently for
possessing those homemade from the counterfeiter.
driver's licenses
The next day each was fined ten dollars. Mary Brunner also was
arrested, as a result of felonious breast-feeding in a ditch. Family
legend has it that the police were upset over the casual and shame-
less public feeding of Pooh Bear aka Valentine Michael Manson.

The Oxnard bust made the second page of the Los Angeles Her-
ald Examiner, something about "Nude Hippies Found in Woods";
 OUT OF THE SLAMS 51

and, of course, tlie local radio stations made mention of it in the

latest up-to-the-minute news bulletins.
After the arrests in the Oxnard ditch, the family drove back to
the encampment on Summit Trail in Topanga Canyon. There they
dwelled for a few days until around May 2, 1968, when police
raided and arrested a bunch of them, including Manson, Sandy
Good, Snake, Patricia Krenwinkel, for possession of marijuana. They
were held in jail for a couple of days, then they were released. The
charges were eventually dropped.
This seems to be the time that musician Gary Hinman bailed
Snake and Sandy out of the slams and then they accompanied Hin-
man to his house for a couple of days of rest and rehabilitation. At
that time Hinman's house on Old Topanga Canyon Road was one
of the few semi-crash pads in the canyon housing young transients.
Hinman never entirely would "die in his mind" and join the family
but was one of those "sympathetic cousins." Until they made a
poster with his blood.
Around May 6, 1968, the black bus drove for the first time to the
scroungy, dilapidated Spahn Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, Califor-
nia. The family went to consult with a person named John, a friend
of Sandy Good, who occupied the so-called "back house," a cor-
roded, wooden building removed about a half mile down a bumpy
dirt trail from the main Western movie set.

John had an arrangement with the then eighty-one-year-old

George Spahn to pay for his rent by keeping in repair the various
Spahn Ranch automobiles and trucks.
They stayed about four days while John helped to repair the
black bus. Manson continued to give. He sent a couple of the girls
out with a credit card to purchase some retreads for an old Chrysler
belonging to one Richard Kaplan, from whom Manson was going
to secure possession of the back ranch house of the Spahn Movie
Ranch.
Around this time,Bob Beausoleil was acting in an X-rated hat-in-
lap film called Ramrodder shot near Happy Trail in Topanga
Canyon.
had been working at a restaurant, since snuffed by fire,
Beausoleil
called the Topanga Kitchen, located at the Topanga Shopping Cen-
ter. The producers of Ramrodder offered him a job at a dollar per
52 THE FAMILY

hour building sets for the flick. Beausoleil accepted and began to
movie location with his girl friend Gail.
live in a tepee at the
While shooting the movie, Beausoleil met a girl named Cathy
Share aka Gypsy aka Manon Minette aka etc. who was acting also
in the movie. Beausoleil played the foreboding part of an Indian
who murdered and tortured a white man who had sexually as-
saulted an Indian girl.

Gypsy, Gail and Bob became inseparable and lived together in

the tepee on the movie set. Gypsy, playing Earth Mother, became

part of a two-girls-one-guy triangle which was to serve as a model

for nighttime deportment in the family.
Beausoleil was a fierce person in the canyon, with a hooded falcon
on his shoulder and a huge black dog. Like Manson, he gave ofiE
the dual love-hate vibes. Beausoleil evidently had a grope scene
with the wife of the producer of Ramrodder and had to split. He
struck his tepee camp, scarfed up Gypsy into his group and went
to live again at Gary Hinman's house for a few days.
After a while he went to the Spahn Ranch and got employment
there, such as it was, for a few days, then Beausoleil and his follow-
ers drove north to the San Francisco area, driving an old Dodge
powerwagon that George Spahn gave them.
Meanwhile, the Manson group had left the Spahn Ranch, travel-
ing north in the black bus to San Francisco and to Mendocino
County before returning to Los Angeles. They seem to have spent
a few days back in Topanga Canyon, parked by The Spiral Stair-
case.
Around this time the family moved home on Sun-
to a luxurious
set Boulevard belonging to Dennis Wilson, a member of the Beach
Boys, an enormously successful singing group of that era which
had sold tens of millions of albums to fans around the globe.
Wilson, drummer and singer for the Beach Boys, was living on a
three-acre estate at 14400 Sunset Boulevard near Will Rogers State
Park. Opinion is divided, even in the family, about how the family
somehow wig-hawker
barnacled in on Mr. Wilson. Some say that
Tex Watson had a hand by picking up Dennis Wilson who was
hitchhiking. An unlikely story. Another recension has it that Garbo-
esque Ella Beth Sinder aka Yeller was picked up by Wilson as she
hitchhiked, and she introduced Wilson to the family. Manson at
 OUT OF THE SLAMS 53
one time seems to have claimed that he met Wilson in San Fran-
cisco.
Whatever happened, one day, after he had already met parts of
Manson's magnetic field, Wilson came home from a Beach Boys'
concert tour to discover the black Hollywood Productions bus
parked outside and twenty-five people in his Hving room, the ma-
jority ofwhich were nubile caressing females.
On Sunset Boulevard Manson plugged into the restless world of
successful rock musicians and continued his adventures inside the
interlocking circles of young sons and daughters of figures in the
motion picture and music industries. It was a sociopath's paradise.
Like a dowser's wand, the httle hypnosis addict homed in on two
American symbols:
A. The Beach Boys—America's perfect singing group with their
clear excellent high harmonies and their enormously popular
songs about surfing, hot rods, good vibrations and fun, and
B. Terry Melcher— son of virginity incarnadine.
Terry Melcher was bom Terry Jordan on February 8, 1942. Doris
Day, at the time, was a singer with Les Brown and his Band of Re-
nown. She was married to a musician named Al Jordan. After his
parents were divorced, he was raised in Cincinnati by his maternal
grandmother.
D.D.'s third husband Marty Melcher adopted Terry. He attended
Beverly Hills High School, class of i960. For a year he attended
Principia College in Illinois. Melcher attempted to become a singer
wound up producing groups
himself but after a short atonal period
for Columbia Records. He produced some of The Bird's early and
excellent records and then recorded the hype-ridden Paul Revere
and the Raiders, a group from Washington that was quite success-
ful in the late 1960's.
In 1966 he rented a secluded L.A. house at 10050 Cielo Drive and
was hving there when he met Manson in the summer of 1968 at
Dennis Wilson's Pacific Palisades home. Melcher's father Martin
had died in April of 1968 and Terry had been the co-executor of
the estate, inheriting great wealth in hotels, oil and real estate in
California, Texas and Oklahoma, not to mention the helm of his
mother's then upcoming comedy series for CBS, plus various music-
publishing and TV enterprises.
54 THE FAMILY

Manson also met Gregg Jakobson, a songwriter and colleague of

Melcher who was evidently working at the time for one of Melcher's
music-publishing companies. Jakobson was to become quite inti-
mate with the family. He recorded Manson singing several times
and was privy to non-lethal family affairs for several years.
Manson was singing when Melcher first met Manson and the girls.
Manson went to Melcher's home several times and even on occa-
sion borrowed Melcher's Jaguar. On one occasion when Melcher
visited Dennis Wilson, Dennis and Gregg drove Melcher home to
10050 Cielo Drive while Manson sat in the back of the Rolls-Royce
singing and strumming the guitar.
The relationship between the family and Melcher is much more
extensive than has been known. What William Burroughs calls an
"area of silence" has been created about the matter. People can't
really be blamed because a strong relationship with Manson could
chop points from a TV series.
Dean Morehouse, the white-haired former minister, arrived in
Los Angeles evidently still trying to regain possession of his
fourteen-year-old flowering daughter, RuthAnn. He sought help
from people at the Wilson residence in gaining back RuthAnn but
was unsuccessful. Somehow he too began to live with the family
at Wilson's estate. Morehouse lived in the guest house and secured
some sort of employment from Manson and Dennis Wilson as the
gardener and groundskeeper.
The rest of the Morehouse story is acid. Dean became the most
devout of Charlie's occult changeHngs. He was to become an ob-
sequious embarrassment to Manson because Morehouse himself
went on a Jesus-identity trip under LSD. And how many Jesuses
can one cult contain? Morehouse became a daily dope gobbler,
his thin white hair growing long, declaring himself both the Christ
and the devil as he made himself happy at the parties that summer
at Melcher's home and Wilson's residence.
Dean was such an apostle of lysergic acid that once in the
mountains before he broke up with his wife he dropped a few tabs
on the sly into her orange juice, leaving her alone in the wilderness
to have her own trip. Thanks a lot, Dean.

Morehouse brought wdth him a young man from Texas named

Brooks Posten, a musician who later would create family legend by
 OUT OF THE SLAMS 55
being able, on command, to put himself into a trance. Posten forked
over to Manson a credit card belonging to his mother which was
used extensively in family travels in 1968.
Posten too grew quickly to beheve Manson was Jesus. He stayed
most of the summer with the family at Wilson's house, helping Dean
Morehouse with the "gardening."
Manson's greatest work of magic, however, was the transformation
of Charles Denton Watson. When they met Watson in the spring of
1968 at Dennis Wilson's house, Watson was a swinger dating a
stewardess from Chicago. The family was proud that it could create
a change in Tex Watson, the holder to this day of a Texas high hur-
dles track and field record. Watson dressed mod. He looked mod.
He had a wig shop. He was strictly now. But they erased the
swinger from him. Years later, when he was down to 110 pounds,
weeping in his cell, covered over wdth a blanket, just before they
shipped him to the Atascadero nut hatch, he was truly now. No past
—time burnt—books burnt—past burnt. All bridges melted vidth
dope and fervor. All time factors in the now. The now of Charlie.
Tex Watson was bom in Copeville, Texas on December 2, 1946.
He Hved a normal hfe for a boy growing up in the agricultural
cotton-raising areas of central Texas. People in Copeville remember
him riding his bicycle, working in the cotton fields, helping his
father at the family grocery store-gas station in Copeville. They
were stunned that he had turned into a murderer.
He wore a flat top and modified duck-tails in high school in
Farmersville, Texas where he was an ace high hurdler and a star
halfback.
For a couple of years he attended North Texas State College
where he studied Business Administration and joined a fraternity.
He was an American.
Watson dropped out of college after 1966 and in early 1967
moved to Los Angeles. He attended college for a semester or so
in Los Angeles in 1967, then dropped out again. He lived at resi-
dences on Glendale Boulevard, Wonderland Road, Dracena and
North Larrabee— a street famed for dope-dealing.
Before Manson, he began to work as a wig dealer, opening a pop-
ular hair store called Crown Wig Creations Ltd. at the mouth of
Benedict Canyon. He and a buddy from Denton, Texas were in
56 THE FAMILY

partnership. The shop was located at 9499 Santa Monica Boule-

vard, near Beverly Hills.
At the time he met Manson, Watson seems to have been living at
a beachhouse at 18162 Pacific Coast Highway. He drove an elegant
1935 Dodge pickup truck.
Among three billion possibilities, Watson chose to become Charlie.
"I am Charlie and CharHe is me," went a tune of the day. They were
his replicas. Watson has complained that he actually thought he was
Charhe. He even used Manson's name. Once in Mendocino County
he signed Manson's name when buying gas with Terry Melcher's
credit card.
Tests at the University of Southern California Neuropsychiatric
Institutehave shown that as a result of his trip in Manson's void,
Watson's IQ dropped thirty points, probably through use of drugs
like telache or belladonna. If the Pentagon ever formulates the
Manson secret, the world's in trouble.
The Wilson house was a great address to use with his parole of-
ficer. In fact, Manson used the Sunset Boulevard address on his i.d.

long after he moved out of the place. Manson was really cooking in
his Jesus image— kissing feet and granting immortality as never be-
fore. "Are you ready to die?" he'd say, and if the answer were yes,
he'd say: "Then live forever."
He was
always finding places for people to crash. He'd send
Squeaky with a carload of sleepy crashers out to Topanga Canyon
or to theSpahn Ranch to find beds for the night.
Wilson possessed a rock star's booty: two Ferraris, a Rolls-Royce,
a house in Benedict Canyon, a fabulous rock-star wardrobe, a boat
equipped with radar. He was rich.
The girls went on garbage runs in the Rolls-Royce. It must have
looked weird to see them loading the discarded supermarket pro-
duce into the back seat.
But Dennis Wilson let it happen. Once during that summer, he
took Snake, Lynn and Ouish with him when the Beach Boys per-
formed at a music festival in Colorado. Later, during a Beach Boys'
English tour, in an interview with a rock magazine called Rave he
would call Charles Manson "The Wizard" and said that Manson
would probably issue an album on Brothers Records, a label owned
by the Beach Boys. Manson brought Robert Beausoleil out to Wil-
 OUT OF THE SLAMS 57

son's house for a swim at the palatial pool after meeting him in To-
panga Canyon one day.
It was strictly a locust scene as far as Wilson's personal property

was concerned because the family evidently managed to give away

the substance of Wilson's immediate wealth in the course of two or
three months. But it was the year of the Maharishi and transcen-
dental meditation so Wilson seemed to groove with Manson's mil-
lenarian material detachment, and later came to live in a state of
poverty himself— when that fall he moved into a penurious one-room
basement apartment at Gregg Jakobson's house on North Beverly
Glen Drive.
It was summer 1968 at the Wilson estate when it first became ap-

parent that Manson had some sort of prostate problem. Part of the
legend eagerly spread abroad by the family then was that Charlie
made love seven times a day: once before and once after each meal
or snack and once in the middle of the night, when he awakened
with desire. Each new girl shared with Manson an extensive multi-
hour lovemaking session using the picture-me-as-your-father routine
plus lots of perv. And perv is what the L.A. music scene eats for
breakfast. The word must have gotten around. It could be called
an exhaustion grope. It seems that Charlie felt that it was only after
the first three or four hours that the sex really got good—when the
woman "gave up," lost her ego entirely, then the act was of the Soul.
And it was true. Out of many, many oral depositions taken from
ladies in the Los Angeles area, there was only one who claimed
that Manson waxed unable in eros.
Most girls thought Manson was very young, even in his early

twenties. Which was okay with Charlie, because his scene really was
prepubescent girls. They couldn't get young enough.
But he didn't fool everybody. His face when seen inches away
revealed incipient biological phasing.
"His face seemed very young but close up he was wrinkled," re-
called one lady friend of 1969.
 Three

Sleazo Inputs

People remember that Sadie particularly was eager for people they
encountered to go to Los Angeles "to meet Charlie." Everything
oozed past. Sometime, probably in late May '68, Charlie made a
decision to send a scouting expedition north to Mendocino County
in the black bus to look for a permanent place to settle. Susan At-
kins aka Sadie Glutz was the leader of the journey and driver of the
bus.
by a chosen core of followers, stayed behind
Charlie, buttressed
for fun and games at the Wilson house. MaUbu Brenda, Sandy
Good, Ouish, Squeaky Fromme and Snake Lake were the girls
picked by Charlie to keep close at hand during those easy months
on Sunset.
Before going north to Mendocino Susan Atldns' group resided
temporarily at a commune at 532 Clayton a couple of doors up the
hill from the Haight-Ashbury Free Medical Clinic. Mary Brunner's
seven- or eight-week-old baby. Pooh Bear, was treated for a yeast
infection at the Free Clinic.
The bus bearing the family, without Manson, attracted consider-
able sympathy. There had been that pattern of harrassment from
the police and the idiotic marijuana arrests. And the girls were
eager proselytizers, according to observers. They were zealous, these
and when they resided
girls, in Mendocino became known as the
Witches of Mendocino.
 SLEAZO INPUTS 59
The officials of had already
the Haight-Ashbury Clinic certainly
heard of them since Manson's former federal parole officer, Roger
Smith, had left the parole scene and in January of 1968 had estab-
lished a drug counseling treatment program associated with the
Haight-Ashbury Medical Clinic.
The cHnic was housed in a three- or four-story house just off
Panhandle Park on Clayton Street. Several of the staff of the clinic
began to spend time observing the group. Al Rose, the administra-
tive head of the clinic, gathered data on the girls when they were
placed in a Mendocino jail and later visited them when they were at
the Spahn Ranch. He and Dr. David Smith, the medical director,
later wrote a formal paper entitled "The Group Marriage Com-
mune: A Case Study" about the family of 1968, which was
published replete with footnotes and scientific terminology in the
November 1970 issue of the Journal of Psychedelic Drugs, a slick
but interesting pubUcation analyzing the so-called drug cultiure.
The Haight-Ashbury Free Clinic had opened just prior to flower-
power in late 1966. It struggled bravely to survive through 1967
when it treated the countless children.
Once in 1967 it closed briefly for lack of funds but soon reopened.
The need to be perpetuated meant becoming chummy with the
foundations to get grants to continue its deserved existence. Also,
in previous years, the rock and roll groups of San Francisco occa-
sionally performed benefits to aid the Free Clinic.
To focus briefly on the Free Clinic: There had been a mild furor
in the papers during the spring of 1968 over a benefit rock and roll
concert the Free Clinic was proposing to present on Easter Sunday,
April 15, at the prestigious Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. The
affair would raise a needed twelve or thirteen thousand dollars for
the clinic.

Big Brother and the Holding Company, featuring Janis Joplin,

and Quicksilver Messenger Service were scheduled to play at the
benefit. Certain San Franciscans complained that the elegant Palace
of Fine Arts should not be used for an affair featuring rock and roll
especiallyif it was to benefit clap-suffused hippie slime. They won

and at the last minute the concert had to be moved to the Carousel
BaUroom.
It was sometime in the spring or summer of 1968 when Mrs. Inez
6o THE FAMILY

Folger, the mother of Abigail Folger, began to help the Haight-

Ashbury Medical Clinic. She worked as a volunteer aiding Dr. Roger
Smith's drug treatment program. Mrs. Folger helped the clinic re-
ceive a grant from the Bothin Foundation and $25,000 from the
Merrill Trust, according to a high oflBcial at the clinic. She held
several fund-raising parties during the year she worked at the clinic.
Abigail Folger, as well as Colonel and Mrs. Tate, attended one such
benefit party given by Mr. and Mrs. Folger and it appears that one
or more members of Manson's family, perhaps Manson himself, at-
tended that fund-raising cocktail party.
At least one official at the chnic recalled that fund-raising party
on the day when he read in the newspapers that Manson was ar-
rested for the murders.
Sometime in the first two weeks of June, the girls drove north of
San Francisco into Mendocino County looking for a home. They
lived for awhile in a commune-type house located off Route 128
near Philo, northwest of Ukiah, in dope country.
A little while after midnight on June 21, 1968, one Mrs. Rosenthal
of Booneville, California phoned the resident deputy sheriff of
Mendocino County and requested that an officer be sent to her
house because someone had given some dope to her 17-year-old-
son. When the police arrived they found young Allen Rosenthal
speaking of his legs as if, in fact, they were snakes and he was
having color hallucinations.
He told the police that the Witches of Mendocino of the Philo
"hippie" house had laid a small blue tab of dope on him.
That night the sheriff's deputies raided the hippie lair occupied
by five females (the Witches of Mendocino), three males and an
infant, Pooh Bear. The police searched the house and surroundings
and in a woodshed next to the house came up with a small film
can containing cannabis and also a plastic bag with some blue
kernels of acid inside. They caught the commies with dope. Ar-
rested were Ella Beth Sinder aka Yeller, Mary Brunner, Patricia
Krenwinkel, Sadie Glutz, someone named Mary Ann Scott, Robert
Bomse, Peter Kombuth and Eugene Nagle plus the eleven-week-old
Valentine Michael Manson aka Pooh Bear.
After the arrest one of the girls phoned Dennis Wilson's house
down in Los Angeles to tell Charlie about the bust.
 SLEAZO INPUTS 6l

The next day, June 22, 1968, Sadie Mae were charged
Glutz et al.

with violation of Section 11910 of the California Health and Safety

Code, possession of a dangerous drug with a prior conviction, Sec-
tion 11913 of the California Health and Safety Code, felonious im-
placement of dope into the mouth of a minor, and Section 11530,
possession of the herb marijuana.
Katie was booked under the name of Katherine Smith. Evidently
Mary Brunner was afraid that she would be the one to be convicted
so they told the police that the young Sunstone Hawk aka Pooh
Bear was Katie's baby because they thought Katie had a good
chance of getting oflF. And the girls were afraid that the state would
take Pooh Bear away when they found out that Mary Brunner had
recently been arrested for felonious breast-feeding in a ditch down
in Oxnard, Cahfomia.
Naturally, the girls were unable to raise bail. Pooh Bear was
taken away from his mother and placed in a foster home. Mr. and
Mrs. Roger Smith of the Free Clinic were somehow chosen to serve
as foster parents for the child.
It was discovered, horror of horrors, that not only had the baby
no birthcertificate, but that it had not been circumcised. Both were
accomplished in rapid time.
So the girls languished in jail until at a hearing on July 2 some of
the charges were dropped but the Witches of Mendocino were re-
arrested right in court on what was designated as "an amended
complaint." The girls continued to be held in jail.
While the Witches of Mendocino remained incarcerated up north,
Manson spent most of his time in June and July '68 in Los Angeles.
The small misogynist was busy dominating women and making
contacts.
One was talking his followers into the wor-
of his greatest tricks
ship of infant consciousness. Somehow, the infant was the ideal.
Children were not cursed by the Culture but acted spontaneously,
from the Soul. It must be remembered that the family believed in
reincarnation and in the possibihty of monitoring past lives. So the
child was the sum culmination of the life-chain of evolution.
Charhe encouraged childbirth. Rubbers, pills, i.u.d.'s, diaphragms
and. Lord forbid, vasectomy were not allowed. Women, according
to the Manson hype, had no souls but were super-aware slaves whose
62 THE FAMILY

duties were to whelp and to serve men. Ironically, there were ac-
tually very few pregnancies in the family, a fact, according to Sandy
Good, that used to upset Charlie.
In a place where twenty women love one man the attention paid
each one by the man becomes an issue. Manson had a quick mind
and maintained an intimate disarming relationship with each of his
followers— and somehow satisfied them all.
As a flip-side of the jealousy question, Manson had the greatest
scam of all. He'd tell the girls that if they really loved him they'd go
out and bring him back a girl prettier and younger than they were—
and he got away with it. He seemed really to dote upon short,
skinny masochistic redheads with superstitious minds. And he
loved to find kids who'd been stomped on by their parents.
They came and went. "If you fit in, you can stay," was the formula
and some of them did their damndest to fit in.
This is the image his followers would present the world.
But Manson's life wasn't merely spent compiling a harem and
gearing for stardom.
There was another Manson, a Manson with years of connections
with a seamier side of Los Angeles. Manson seems to have main-
tained contacts with criminal types for years. It will be remembered
that he came to Los Angeles in 1955 and operated in Los Angeles
throughout his fourteen-year career in California as prisoner, pimp,
bartender, forger and robber and then as minstrel and guru.
Manson was a guy that claimed thousands of friends. For
was a person named Pete who lived in Sacramento
instance, there
with whom in late 1967 the family visited for several days during
their wanderings. Pete and Manson evidently had worked together
at a bar in Mahbu in 1958. He kept up his friendships.
Manson used to hang out on the Sunset Strip using the name
Chuck Summers. There were a bunch of sleazo bars and cafes on or
near the Sunset Strip with names like the Galaxy Club, Omnibus
and The Melody Room that Chuck Summers frequented in 1968.
Bikers, prostitutes, petty criminals and pom models flocked to these
clubs.
The Galaxy Club was a favorite of Chuck Summers. Manson, as
Summers, used to come around in the mornings according to the
club manager of that era. The manager was also a stage hypnotist
 SLEAZO INPUTS 63

who later opened something called the Hollywood Hypnotism Cen-

ter. He and Manson used to talk about hypnotism. The Galaxy Club

was located up the street from the Whiskey A Go-Go. Manson

probably met the bike club, Jokers Out of Hell, at the Galaxy. Some
of Manson's lesser-known girl friends, with names like Mouse and
Venus, were also frequenters of these estabhshments.
Sunset Strip seems to be where Manson first made contact with
the Satanic variety of bike groups, with names like The Satan Slaves,
The Jokers Out of Hell, The Straight Satans, The CofiBn Makers and
other snuff-oriented groups of young men. It is undeniable that an
increasing contact with some of these clubs with hellish names
would create great violent "reflections" in Manson. With some of
the groups like Straight Satans and particularly The Satan Slaves
Manson had deep associations during the following year of violence.
There had been a year of flowers. But sometime in the summer
or spring of 1968 a change occurred in the family. Into the mix of
flowers, sex, nomad-communality walked Satan, devil-worship and
violence. Perhaps it was the will to change—the need to maintain
that magnetism— that caused Charhe to groove with gore.
Something happened. After all, Patricia Krenwinkel didn't just
jump upon command, aroused from sleep, and drive to the Polanski
residence, as some would like to think, because of sex, drugs and
communes.
It was a continuing claim of Manson that he was merely a reflec-

tion of those around him, that he was "dead in the head" and there-
fore acted from the Soul. There is no doubt that he borrowed his
ideas from plenty of sources. He was ever the avid listener and he
prided himself on a vast range of weird information.
But what was it that caused Manson's death-trip? The factors that
seem to have fed the violent freak-out shall be termed here sleazo
inputs.
Gazing about Los Angeles, it is possible to discern at least three
death-trip groups thatmust have provided powerful sleazo inputs
into Manson and the family. It is significant that there exist in Los
Angeles occult groups that specialize in creating zombi-like follow-
ers. These are groups that have degrees of trust and discipleship,

that use pain and fear and certain di*ugs to promote instant
obedience.
64 THE FAMILY

These three groups are:

1. The Process Church of the Final Judgment, an English organ-
ization dedicated to gore, and End of the World
weirdness
slaughter. The Process, as they are known, was active in Los Ange-
les in 1968, when Manson abandoned flowers, and in the summer of

1969— when murder reigned.

2. The Solar Lodge of the Ordo Temple Orientis, a loony-tune
magical cult specializing in blood-drinking, sado-sodo sex magic
and hatred of blacks. The Solar Lodge of the O.T.O. was run by
one Jean Brayton, a vicious middle-aged devotee of pain who at-

tracted a crowd of groveling worshipers.

an obscure occult group of forty or so which we shall here call
3.
the Kirke Order of Dog Blood.
All three cults certainly were aware of one another, and the
similarities and connections between them and the family cannot
be avoided. They will be described in subsequent chapters.
It was the Process that Manson probably encountered first. One
family member has claimed that the head of the Process, one Rob-
ert DeGrimston aka Robert Moor, was hanging out at The Spiral
Staircase in Topanga Canyon. Whatever the case, Manson had to
have run across them on Sunset Strip where Processoids dressed in
black capes went around hawking their cult magazines and books.
One of the stories the Process would dream up to explain its con-
nections with Manson was that somehow Father Christian of the
Process sold a copy of the Process magazine number 4, the sex issue,
toManson somewhere on the Sunset Strip in the spring of 1968.
Manson was cooking. It was June 1968.
While Manson was scrounging on the Strip and singing and kiss-
ing feet at 14400 Sunset Boulevard, just a couple of miles away to
the northeast, Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski were moving into a
house at 1600 Summit Ridge Drive located in the hilly fameland
above Beverly Hills.
 Four

The Polanskis

"Characters and utmost fear

are the most important thing in cinema.*
—Roman Polanski

Sharon Tate was bom on January 24, 1943, in Dallas, Texas. Her
father was a career army oflBcer and the family subsequently Hved
in various parts of Europe and the United States. Her family en-
tered her in a Tiny Tots beauty contest in Dallas and she won. As
she grew older her parents continued to move, Uving in San Fran-
cisco, Washington state, Washington, D.C., etc. She was Miss
Autorama in Richmond, Washington.
Her family moved to Verona, Italy where she attended something
called Vincenza American High School. She was Homecoming
Queen and Queen of the Senior Prom. How many tens of thousands
of American girls crowned queen of the prom have hungered for
Hollywood? When she was Hving with her family in Verona, Italy,
she met Eli Wallach, Susan Strasberg and Richard Beymer who
were shooting a movie there.
Mr. Beymer encouraged Miss Tate with the old "yo^ ought to be
in pictures" and it seems to have led to her resolve to become an
actress.
Her was transferred back to the United States and the Tate
father
family was stationed in San Pedro, California, just a few miles from
Hollywood. From San Pedro, she made her move. She used to hitch-
hike to the various movie studios where the soft-voiced eager Miss
Tate was known as the girl from San Pedro.
66 THE FAMILY

There one memorable interview about her start in Hollywood

is

that she gave on the set of a movie about vampires, The Fearless
Vampire Killers. She said: "I used to hitchhike in Los Angeles to all
the studios because I couldn't afford the cab fare. The men were so
generous, especially the truck drivers; they all gave me lifts. My
first experience was doing TV commercials.

"I convinced Daddy that I'd be safe in Hollywood."

Miss Tate acquired an agent, Hal Gefsky, and in due order began
to make automobile and cigar commercials. In 1963, when she was
twenty years old, her agent sent her to New York to audition for a
bit part in Petticoat Junction, a CBS-TV series in preparation and
produced by one Martin Ransohoff and his company, Filmways.
Ransohoff arrived on the set, checked out the beautiful young
girl, then called her over. According to columnist Lloyd Shearer, in

a London newspaper story, Ransohoff spoke to Sharon these

formuletic words:
"Sweetie, I'm going to make you a star." With emphasis on the
I'm.
Mr. Ransohoff was the producer, yuk-yuk TV comedy
also, of a
series called The Beverly Not since Troy Il-a, known in
Hillbillies.
archeological circles as the Slob Culture, had there been anything
like The Beverly Hillbillies. Ransohoff signed Sharon to a seven-
year contract. For two and a half years he kept her as his own. Like
a beautiful date-palm, she was watered into stardom. She was given
singing and dancing and acting lessons. She was given tiny training
roles, wearing wigs, in The Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction,
plus several films produced by Ransohoff, including The American-
ization of Emily and The Sandpipers.
She spent a considerable amount of time in the Big Sur area of
California, a beautiful coastal region she grew to love. She stayed
there with Ransohoff while he filmed The Sandpipers starring Eliza-
beth Taylor.
Sometime in 1963 Jay Sebring, hair stylist for male movie stars,
met Sharon Tate in a Hollywood restaurant. They became friends
and lovers quickly and sometime later became engaged to be
married. Jay Sebring was an eager, successful entrepreneur, rapidly
establishing himself as the king of the haircut.
If you are a pubHc performer, you pay a lot of attention to your
 THE POLANSKIS 67

face and hair— that's all there is to it. You do. In many cases, the
face and hair of a talent is just about all he has to donate to his ca-
reer. Sebring had a way that commanded the respect of many of the
famed and wealthy of Hollywood. He was almost a magician at
keeping hair from disappearing down the shower drain. And he
came along in fit time to aid the transition in hair styles from Marine
Corps to mod.
Right around the time they met, Sebring purchased a remarkable
home in Benedict Canyon where he lived until his death. Sebring's
house at 9860 Easton Drive had a certain grim fame in that it was
once the hideaway of actress Jean Harlow and it was there Harlow's
husband Paul Bern snuflFed himself with a bullet in 1932.
After two years of preparation, the starlet was ready. In late 1965
RansohoflF gave her herfirst "major" role opposite David Niven and

Deborah Kerr in the movie 13 aka Eye of the Devil. 13 was the story
of a hooded religious sect which worshiped the devil and com-
mitted sacrificial murders.
The movie was made London. Jay Sebring came to London
in
and they lived together in an apartment at Eaton Square, but pres-
sures of his own career caused him to return to Los Angeles.
When Ransohoff made Eye of the Devil (13) in London, the com-
pany hired an English magician called Alex Saunders, the so-
called "King of the Witches," as technical advisor. Alex Saunders
aka the High Priest Verbius claims that Aleister Crowley tattooed
him as a tenth birthday present. He claims to have initiated and
trained people in two hundred covens of witches in the British Isles.
He also claims that he became friends of Sharon Tate on the set of
the devil movie. Before filming ended, Saunders claims he initiated
Miss Tate into Witchcraft. He has photos purporting to show Miss
Tate standing within a consecrated magic circle.
In early 1966 Martin Ransohoff hired one Roman Polanski to di-
rect a film written by Polanski called, at various times, The Fearless
Vampire Killers or Dance of the Vampires or Pardon Me, But Your
Fangs Are in My Neck, or something. Mr. Ransohoff was eager for
Sharon Tate to be in the flick so he made arrangements for Roman
Polanski and Sharon to meet.
A number of Polanski films notably Knife in the Water, Cul-de-
Sac and Repulsion had achieved great success. Repulsion has the
68 THE FAMILY

grim distinction of being one of the most horrifying films ever made.
Roman Polanski was born in Paris of PoHsh parents on August
18, 1933. In 1936 liis family traveled back to Poland and settled in
Krakow. Five years later they were taken away to the Nazi concen-
tration camp, where his mother died in the gas chamber. Shortly
after incarceration, Polanski's father, armbanded with the Star of
David, took his young son to the barbed wire surrounding the
Krakow ghetto. He cut the wire and the young boy escaped, living
on his own with various famihes till Hitler was beaten out of Poland.
During the horror of the war, movies became a refuge to him.
When he was still very young, he became an actor and a movie-
maker. He attended the Polish State Film College in Lodz, Poland
for the five years, and there he seems to have met Voityck
Frykowski.
His earliest works were short, bleak Beckettoid films. In i960
Polanski went to France for eighteen months where he directed and
acted in The Fat and the Lean. In 1961 he divorced his wife, Polish
actressBarbara Lass. In 1962 he returned to Poland where he made
an eleven-minute film called Mammals. Also in 1962 he created a
feature-length movie, Knife in the Water, which made him famous
in the West.
Knife in the Water won the Venice Film Festival Critics Award
in 1962. In 1964, when it finally arrived in America, it was nomi-
nated for an Oscar as best foreign film.
In 1963 he went to Holland where he directed an episode for a
movie entitled The Best Stdndles in the World. He also that year
wrote the scenario for Do You Like Women? which is a movie
about a "society of cannibals" in Paris who like to cook and
eat pretty girls. Oo-ee-00. Fade in electronic soundtrack from Rose-
mary's Baby.
In the early '6o's, Roman Polanski collaborated with Girard Brach
and turned out scripts for three movies: Repulsion, The Fearless
Vampire Killers and Cul-de-Sac. Producer Gene Gutowski, an ad-
mirer of Knife in the Water, brought Polanski to England where in
1965 he made his first film in English, Repulsion.
Repulsion is the story of a beautiful manicurist, played by Cath-
erine Deneuve, who suffers horrific violent hallucinations and winds
up hacking and pummeling two male acquaintances to death. Re-
 THE POLANSKIS 69

pulsion, horrible dictu, was a success and Polansld was able to raise
the money to make Cul-de-Sac, a story of murder and weirdness in
a seaside castle.
Polansld gained a reputation as a meticulous and thorough crafts-
man. The success of his blood-suffused movies and his obvious skill
attracted Martin Ransohoff, who agreed to produce Polanski's script
The Fearless Vampire Killers for MGM. In it, Sharon Tate would
play a vampire.
One story always told is that on the night Roman and Sharon met
they were alone in an apartment together. Mr. Polanski excused
himself and left the room. Then he up behind the unsuspect-
crept
ing Miss Tate wearing a Frankenstein mask and pulled a boo! scene,
throwing her into hysterics.
Vampire Killers is a comedy about a university professor and his

servant, played by Roman Polanski, who travel into Transylvania

to brick out a castle full of vampires. Sharon Tate played Sarah, an
innkeeper's daughter who abducted to castle necksuck by the
is

head vampire. There she is turned into a vampire herself. Etc. On

the set of The Fearless Vampire Killers, she posed for pubhcity pic-
tures, flashing her vampire bicuspids, shiny and fanglike.
In April of 1966 Jay Sebring complained to friends that he'd been
bird-dogged by Roman Polanski, who seemed to have scooped the
lovely Sharon Tate into his life. Sebring traveled to London and
returned in the early summer of 1966, announcing that it was all
over between him and Sharon.
Her public statements during that time regarding her breakup
Vidth Jay Sebring were almost self-deprecating.
"Before Roman I guess I was in love with Jay. It was a fine rela-
tionship but the truth is I was no good for Jay. I'm not organized.
I'm too flighty. Jay needs a wife and at 23 I'm not ready for wife-
hood. I still have to live, and Roman is trying to show me how."
Sharon returned from England in 1966 to play a role in Dorit
Make Waves, with Tony Curtis and Claudia Cardinale. During this
stage in her career her father. Lieutenant Colonel Paul Tate, was
doing his thing in Vietnam, capping a career in army intelligence.
In the March 1967 issue of Playboy magazine there appeared a
photo series called "The Tate Gallery" featuring Sharon with bared
bosom, shot by Roman Polanski.
70 THE FAMILY

In '67 Sharon Tate gained notice for her role as Jennifer in the
movie Valley of the Dolls. Jennifer was a young starlet who commits
suicide in the flick.

Somewhere in the chronology, Martin Ransohoff, the producer of

The Beverly Hillbillies, and Polanski had a feud over The Fearless
Vampire Killers. Mr. Ransohoff cut footage out of the film before
its release in the United States. This film-cut caused Polanski to de-
mand that his name be from the movie's credits. Ransohoff
stricken
also bought U.S. and altered the movie exten-
rights to Cul-de-Sac
sively, angering Polanski. Sharon subsequently severed relationships
with Mr. Ransohoff, reportedly purchasing her contract back for
$175,000.
His continued triumph made it possible for Polanski to become
the filmmaker from a so-called Iron Curtain country to direct
first

a picture in Hollywood. Lucky Roman.

The head of Paramount Pictures offered Polanski the opportunity
to direct and write the screenplay for Rosemarys Baby, a novel by
Ira Levin. Rosemary s Baby, a saga of satanic chauvinism, is a story
about the big-league affluent hail-Satan crowd and their evident suc-
cess in getting Satan to make pregnant an innocent female victim,
played by Mia Farrow.
Mr. Polanski flew to Hollywood and stayed up all one night read-
ing the galleys of the book, and the deal was made. Veteran
moviemaker Wilham Castle produced the film.
The studio wanted Mia Farrow to play the lead so Polanski was
shown reels of the TV series Peyton Place wherein Miss Farrow
acted, and he okayed her role in Rosemary's Baby. The Polanskis and
Miss Farrow, according to most accounts, became close friends.
Rosemary's Baby had a shooting schedule of around 56 days.
There were around 10 days spent filming in New York at the ele-
gant Dakota apartments off Central Park West. The Dakota was
transformed into a lair of Satan during the filming. Editing and
dubbing evidently were done in Los Angeles, occupying the latter
part of 1967.
Jay Sebring and the Polanskis maintained a friendly relationship.
Some friends claim that Sebring still loved Sharon. While Rose-
mary's Baby was being created, some of Polanski's friends threw a
party at Sebring's house on Easton Drive. Evidently the party was
 THE POLANSKIS 71

a mock-up magical mass where guests wore white robes. One Eng-
lish joumahst was invited and blindfolded, whereafter Jay, robed

in white, offered him, hopefully in jest, the choice of two antique

goblets, one containing wine, one containing rat poison.
San Francisco satanist Anton La Vey was a "consultant" for Rose-
mary's Baby. La Vey played the role of the devil in the movie. There
are rumors that the real-life black-mass freaks were angered with
Polanski for making such a movie. At the completion of the film,
the cast gave Polanski an engraved 45-caHber Colt revolver, per-
haps as a bit of amuletic humor because of the grumblings of the
hail-Satan crowd. Rosemary's Baby has been called the greatest ad-
vertisement for satanism ever concocted. And Los Angeles possesses
more than one lady moon-yodeler who claims to have given birth
to children of the devil.
OnJanuary 20, 1968, following the completion of Rosemary's
Baby, Sharon Marie Tate and Roman Polanski were married in Lon-
don. He was attired in what the press described as "Edwardian
finery," she in a white mini-dress. They moved into a mews house off
Belgrave Square. The world premiere for Rosemary's Baby was held
in London and became obvious that the film was a smash success.
it

Polanski and his bride moved to Los Angeles where they evidently
occupied a suite at the Chateau Marmont Hotel. With the success
of the film, Polanski was a popular man— the cooers and back-
scratchers as usual, attending the man of the hour. The Polanskis
were part of an energetic, liberal group of actors and actresses and
businessmen at the heights of Hollywood success. They were all air-
Hne nomads, always packing, always on the move. But always work-
ing and planning.
Both admitted in print that they tried LSD. Polanski was bum-
mered by it but his wife said, "It opened the world to me," although
she was hesitant to trip again.
In May '68 Roman Polanski attended the Cannes Film Festival. At
the same time, the students of France revolted and nearly toppled
the government. Polanski, in solidarity with the students, resigned
from the festival jury.
On June 5, 1968, Roman and Sharon and friends dined vidth Rob-
ertKennedy at a beach house in Malibu. After dinner. Senator
Kennedy was driven to the Ambassador Hotel where he was shot.
72 THE FAMILY

June 15, 1968, was the date of the West Coast premiere of Rose-
mary's Baby. "Pray for Rosemary's Baby" was the legend in the
newspaper ads. The film was so popular in Los Angeles that extra
showings were added to the theater's schedule. It opened in San
Francisco on June 19, where it began a smash engagement. The film
was on the track to a ten to twenty-milHon-doUar gross.
Mr. Polanski's screenplay was nominated for an Academy Award.
Mia Farrow received the Best Actress award at a film festival in Rio
de Janeiro. Ruth Gordon received an Oscar for Best Supporting
Actress for her role in the film.
In the summer and Dean Martin and Elke
of 1968, Sharon Tate
Sommers movie called The Wrecking Crew. In
starred together in a
June of that year, Roman Polanski rented a house at 1600 Summit
Ridge Drive in the Hollywood Hills. The house was owned by
young actress Patty Duke with whom Sharon had become friends
during the filming of Valley of the Dolls. The Polanskis hired a
housekeeper named Winifred Chapman who worked for them dur-
ing the following year, on Summit Ridge and then on Cielo
first

Drive. It was she who was picked by fate to discover the tragedy.
Sharon and Roman gave a housewaraiing party to celebrate their
new rented house on Summit Ridge Drive. There was a strange
occurrence at the party, according to a friend of Sharon Tate, in-
volving Roman Polanski and some vicious dogs from down the hill.

The Polanskis had agreed to take care of Patty Duke's sheep dog
while they rented the house. The sheep dog had the habit of run-
ning away. On the night of the party, the sheep dog bounded away
down the hill, in the direction of the old John Barrymore mansion
located at 1301 Summit Ridge Drive.
Polanski went after the dog and somewhere down the hill seems

to have encountered a group of vicious Alsatian dogs belonging to

a group of English occultists who were in America to promote the
end of the world. Mr. Polanski got locked in a garage, evidently to
try to escape the demi-wolves of the cult's dog pack. He had to bat-
ter himself out of the garage.
 Five

The Process

"My prophecy upon this wasted earth and upon the corrupt
creation that squats upon its ruined surface is: THOU SHALT
KILL." —from Jehovah on War
by Robert DeGrimston aka Christ

The black-caped, black-garbed, death-worshiping Process Church

of the Final Judgment arrived on the Los Angeles scene in early
1968. They stayed in public view till a few days after Robert Ken-
nedy's assassination in June of '68, after which they dropped from
sight inLos Angeles.
And for what purpose were these noble Englishmen journeying
to the United States? Gore and world-end.
They had made a decision to travel around the world to make
converts and plant the seeds of their cult. They had spent quite a
bit of time in a remote beach lagoon on the Yucatan peninsula and
there they had discovered Satan and sacrifice— full moon frolics in

which they paid obeisance to gore. From there the Process moved
into southern California to collect violence-prone adepts— a form of
human that just loves southern California, the home of weird cults.
And now was the spring of the Year of the Pig 1968 and they
it

were swarming the streets of Sunset Strip, trying to convert psyche-

delic merchants, seeking out movie stars and especially they doted
on the hell-oriented bikers and bike gangs that frequented Holly-
wood.
The Process really grooves wdth war. Among their many publica-
74 THE FAMILY

tions, founder Robert DeGrimston has published three books on the

subject of war, Jehovah on War, Lucifer on War and Satan on War,
alleging that the words are from the three gods themselves as oper-
ating through the mouth of Robert DeGrimston. It is interesting to
note that as things got hot for the Process, they toned down some
of the violent language in later editions of the same books, particu-
larly Jehovah on War.
In Satan on War, for Instance, Robert DeGrimston urges humans
to:

Release the fiend that lies dormant within you, for he is strong
and ruthless and his power is far beyond the bounds of human

fraiHty.

It is necessary, unfortunately, to devote a few words of descrip-

tion to this depressing unsalvation army, these black-garbed
DeGrimston-zombies, in order to describe yet another sleazo input
which warped the mind of Charlie Manson.
The Process Church of the Final Judgment is an English occult
society dedicated to observing and aiding the end of the world by
stirring up murder, violence and chaos, and dedicated to the prop-
osition that they, the Process, shall survive the gore as the chosen
people.Sound like Manson?
It was formed by two fierce occult death-freaks, Mary Anne
Maclean DeGrimston Moor and Robert Sylvester DeGrimston
Moor. At his wife's suggestion, they dropped the name Moor, except
when they want to travel incognito, and do so using the surname
Moor. She is now around forty, if she is still alive, and he is around
thirty-six years of age.
Mary Anne DeGrimston is a baleful lady who dotes on groveling

followers. She has assumed various names such as Hecate and the
Oracle and possibly Circe.
Both are devout reincamationists. According to one account,
Mary Anne DeGrimston believes she is the reincarnation of Goeb-
bels. But in the era of Manson she was known as Hecate, an apt
appellation. Hecate in ancient lore was the queen of ghosts and
magic, she haunted crossroads, she was attended by hellhounds,
she was the protectress of enchanters and witches.
Robert DeGrimston is thought by the cult to be Christ. He was
 THE PROCESS 75

bom on August lo, 1935, in Shanghai, China. Before waxing weirdo,

DeGrimston studied architecture.
Bob and Mary Anne met at the Hubbard Institute of Scientology
on Fitzroy Street, London in 1963 or 1964. They had been training
to become Scientology auditors or instructors. They were married in
1964 and left the Hubbard Institute a few months later, to seek some
sort of spiritual salvation together.
At the time, Robert DeGrimston was powerfully built, tall, blond
with a well-cut beard. He was known as a sharp dresser. He had
been educated at Winchester and had received preUminary
architectural training at the Regent Street Polytechnic.
Mary Anne DeGrimston worships spank-spank. She was bom on
November 20, 1931, in Glasgow, Scotland, an illegitimate child.
In her youth, she was slapped into reform school. At some point she
moved to the United States, where she became engaged to the
former boxing champion Sugar Ray Robinson. After breaking up
udth Sugar Ray Robinson, she went back to London, where she was
a dance-hall hostess and a prostitute. She set up hooker headquar-
ters at 31 Lesusington Street in London where she was a kept
woman for several influential men, including one gentleman who
was later to become the lawyer for the Process. She was energetic
during the Christine Keeler era at sado-sodo in London.
Mary Anne, in the manner of all occult ladies who dote on wor-
ship, possesses that fixed gaze of imminent punishment. Her hair
has been in the past coppery red in color. Her vehement fingernails
have been known to be long and painted silver. Process members
are trained to fawn and grovel at the very thought of her. And, of
course, none but the most trusted are ever allowed to see her in
person.
Together Robert and Mary Anne DeGrimston formed something
called "Compulsions Analysis." The purpose of this group was to
study the reasons behind compulsive behavior, to remove the need
for such behavior and to set people free from such behavior. A key
point in the group was that an individual is totally responsible for
his acts, that even birth defects were chosen by an individual, in-
cluding any characteristics held over from alleged prior lives. Mary
Anne was always saying that Jews died in the Nazi camps through
free choice.
76 THE FAMILY

Their charismatic and dihgent eflForts created around them a

circle of followers, mostly young and perturbed English youth. They

specialized in attempting to attract wealthy people, for they
charged considerably for trying to find the causes of various neu-
rotic behavior. And the two founders, as they are known, just loved
and gobble up that hotel room service.
to fly first class
In March of 1966 they secured the lease on a luxury mansion on
Balfour Place in the exclusive Mayfair district of London. Twenty-
five young followers were required homes at once and
to leave their
move into the mansion. In addition, they were required to turn
over all their money and worldly possessions to, guess who. Bob
and Mary Anne.
Mr. and Mrs. DeGrimston encouraged complete emotional de-
pendence from their group of followers. The Founding Couple, as
they were called, established themselves in the top apartment of
the Balfour Process Palace, to which only the inmost group was
admitted.
"When Bob and Mary Anne came down, they descended like
gods. She was the resident deity, he her consort." So deposed an
acolyte of that era.
Mary Anne DeGrimston took care never to be seen alone, but al-

ways as the center of a crowd, always as the magical matriarch.

One day, after she and Bobby DeG. moved into the Balfour man-
sion, they each got a large, vicious Alsatian dog, a variety of Ger-
man shepherd. Other member puppets also acquired the Alsatians,
to the pointwhere a dog pack was assembled.
was decided to go abroad with the full membership of the bur-
It
geoning cult. So, on June 23, 1966, having sent out an advance party
to prepare their arrival, Mary, Robert, eighteen Processans and six
Alsatian dogs went to Nassau in the Bahamas.
They encountered some difficulty there, so they looked around for
a more suitable location for their group. In August of 1966 they se-
cured a large property in Xtul, Mexico, a village of the Gulf of Mex-
ico on the north coast of the Yucatan peninsula, near Merida. There
they acquired an estate for $175 a year, which included four miles
of seashore, a palm tree jungle, a lagoon and the roofless, gutted,
stone remains of a salt factory, plus various wooden huts. It was
desolation alley.
 THE PROCESS 77

Because of the tendency of the DeGrimstons to attract the young

sons and daughters of wealthy, aristocratic EngHshmen, several
parents hired lawyers to attempt to get their children back from
Mexico. So in November of 1966, lawyers, representing the parents
of converted adepts, flew to Xtul, Mexico, to bring back several
young people. The Sunday Telegraph of London, a newspaper,
printed an article entitled: "The Mind Benders of Mayfair," dealing
with the return of the youth-pack from the jungle lagoon.
It was at Xtul where the Process got into satanism. Up to then,
their "gods" were Lucifer and Jehovah. They added Satan, evil Satan,
the god of human sacrifice, bloodshed and rip-off.
At Xtul they coined a word "xtummie," evidently an adjective
denoting a satanic state of preparedness. A "good" satanist exists in
periods of depravity, periodically "exploding in dynamic action" i.e.,

cruelty. Oo-ee-oo.
Even though many of the Process members returned to London,
some stayed behind or returned to Xtul to continue experiments in
the new modes of psychedelic satanism.
The concept of a Process Church was also formed in Xtul. This
formative period was recounted to all new converts.
"Xtul .was a place of revelation. It was a time of revelation.
. .

The basic church formed itself at that point," recalled Brother Ely
in an interview.
The grim experiences of Xtul had more or less divided the Process
group. The issue seemed to be whether to proselytize or to become
a very inner-directed group. One of their members had inherited a
considerable amount of money, so evidently they used about
$80,000 of it to buy a yacht in Greece, in order to crisscross the seas
in secret comfort between the Mayfair mansion and the Satanic
Lagoon in Mexico.
In London, in the spring of 1967, the Process was into fixing up
their stately mansion in Mayfair. They had opened up an all-night
coffee bar, where they showed
movies to attract the intellectuals.
art
They made forays into the pop field, attempting to attract the
Beatles and Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones. They held lectures,
demonstrations, telepathy classes and outdoor soapbox rant sessions
in Hyde Park. They opened up a book store. They began to publish
expensively produced tiacts and philosophical works. They began
78 THE FAMILY

to put out a magazine called Trocess that, gradually as the issues

oozed out, became more and more murderous. The magazine eulo-
gized Hitler, slaughter and carnage, adorning itself occasionally
with pictures of battlefield death. Somehow, they managed to at-
tract for a while Marianne Faithful, the singer and actress, into their
circles. In Trocess magazine number
3, they showed Marianne Faith-
ful lyingdown, holding a rose, as if she were dead. The story goes
that Mick Jagger was instrumental in weaning Miss Faithful away
from the cult.
In the latter half of 1967, the DeGrimstons seem to have made a
tour of the Far East and Turkey.
In October of 1967, perhaps during his travels in the East, Rob-
ert DeGrimston recorded or wrote a book called As It Is. On the
front page of As It Is is a seven-sentence gibberish plexus, declar-
ing the unification of Christ and Satan, in order to snuff the human
imiverse. It is this:

Love thine enemy. Christ's Enemy was Satan and Sa-

Christ said:
tan's Enemy was Christ. Through love, enmity is destroyed.
Through love, saint and sinner destroy the enmity between them.
Through love, Christ and Satan have destroyed their enmity and
come together for the End. Christ to judge, Satan to execute the
judgment.

They have printed this statement in several of their subsequent

publications, although, to soften it a bit, they have added, after the
finalword "judgment," the words: "Salvation or doom."
The title. As It Is, and the last line of the thirteen-page tract, "So
be it," became a sort of hosanna of the cult, which they would re-
peat over and over to each other when they met each other in the
corridor or halls or streets: "As it is, so be it," almost like a "hello"
and "good-by."
From Xtul or the Far East or somewhere, DeGrimston and Hecate
arrived from their proselytizing travels and the Process celebrated
their return by printing a handbill for a meeting called "Christ Has
Returned," which was held on November 24, 1967. Shortly there-
after, the Process ran into trouble with the pohce. They kidnapped

a recalcitrant follower and zapped him with some shock treatment

and/or torture. There was a fall 1967 freak scene, since which Rob-
 THE PROCESS 79

ert DeGrimston and Mary Anne DeGrimston have not been seen
anonymously back and forth from air-
in public, except in shuttling
port to airport in their world travels.
From this point forward, it was a go-ye-forth and convert scene.
There is a picture published in an issue of their magazine in late
'67 showing eleven Processors sitting around a table, dressed in

black, all looking intently at their leader Robert DeGrimston aka

Christ. A globe of the world sits in the center of the table, perhaps
indicating a meeting to plan where on earth to send their cult's
spores.
It was tlie game of the gods. Here is Brother Ely talking:

"The gods set up tlie game a long time before the players came
onto the scene. And part of the way, the gods have set up this
game, as if there are certain beings who are the gods (Lucifer,

Jehovah, Satan), beings who are servants of the gods, whether

they know it or not, consciously or unconsciously, they serve and
do their part. What the Process did was sweep through the whole
world and when they went into each area, those beings who were
of the gods, those beings who were serving their purpose those . . .

beings that were in the service of the gods came magnetically at-

tracted to the Process in that area. So in going through the world

systematically, they've picked up those people who are of the gods,
who are servants in the destiny of things. And they've picked those
people up. Some stayed with the Church, some were taught, and
in that way, the seeds were planted."

The Process had now become firmly subdivided into three groups,
the Luciferians, the Satanists and the Jehovans. The Luciferians
were of this world; they were fun-loving, they celebrated tranquil-
hty, harmony, order, peace and sensuality. The Jehovahs were up-
tight,narrow-minded, rectitudinous, anti-sex, zealous and austere.
They beat each other as punishment and were into self-flagellation
according to a girl who once was associated v^dth the group. And
Satanists—well, the Satanists were both cold and calculating, and
cruel,and violent; they were the goons.
desires, an individual could become an advocate
According to his
of any of the three. It didn't really matter because all were going to
unite at the End— i.e., for the world-wreck.
In late 1967 the Process spores spewed out to America. They also
8o THE FAMILY

sent a contingent to Germany, always a fertile ground for death-

freaks.
The Process, or members of it, visited Los Angeles late in 1967
around the same time as the DeGrimstons sent Process members
to San Francisco. In Los Angeles they spent several weeks at a house
operated by the Diggers on North Highland just south of Sunset
Boulevard, then they headed north.
Meanwhile, an advance party of Jehovans consisting of Father
Alban aka Christopher Alfred Fripp and Father Aaron Tubal-Cain,
with his dog Lucifer, voyaged to the Haight-Ashbury district of San
Francisco, arriving in November 1967, just about the time Manson
was driving his school bus full of girls toward Hollywood.
Father Aaron, once called Hugh Mountain, had given over a hun-
dred thousand dollars to the Process. He was a founding father.
Eager were they to win over the Haight. They visited the ofiBces
of the San Francisco Oracle, the underground newspaper of the
Haight, wearing their black capes and tlieir black suits and their
but were hooted oflF the set.
silver crosses,
Father Alban gave a lecture on the Berkeley campus of the Uni-
versity of California sometime in that fall of 1967. For his lecture,
there was an advertisement in the Berkeley campus newspaper.
Attending the Process recruiting meeting was a former dental
student, Victor Wild, a twenty-seven-year-old dropout from Los
Angeles. Wild had been attending dental school in Chicago and had
experienced a vision on LSD that involved a Christ-figure telling
Wild to gather up a group of followers and go to California. Later
he associated this vision-wraith of Christ with Robert DeGrimston.
He went to San Francisco in 1967 where he found employment
servicing artificial kidney machines. He had been graduated in 1964
from UCLA with a degree in zoology.
Evidently Wild Hved at 407 Cole Street near Panhandle Park. He
was living in a commune where other ripe plums for the Process also
lived.He saw the ad for the Process meeting on the Berkeley campus
and decided to attend. It was the answer to his prayers.
After the meeting Wild brought Father Alban back to meet the
members of his commune on Cole Street. Process members have
claimed that Father Alban almost wept at the sight of such a large
 THE PROCESS 81

group of people waiting for the word. He went Jaweh-batty with

happiness.
Victor Wild turned over his followers and his possessions includ-
ing almost a thousand dollars to the Process. In due time, after
proper instruction, Wild was renamed Brother Ely.
And no one was as gung-ho for the Process as Victor Wild aka
Brother Ely.
In quick order, Processans began to flood into San Francisco.
At fiist the Process stayed at 407 Cole Street. But they were eager
to set up a "processcene"— a center where they might have church
"services" and proselytize. The cult acquired a house at 1820 Oak
Street where they ate and slept and did their thing. Members would
rise at 6 a.m. in silence. There was a morning invocational service
of obeisance to Jehovah and Satan. Internal members of the Process
wore black robes, silver crosses and what was known as a "Mendez
goat," a triangular red magical sign, the goat symbol of Satan, sewn
on their cult-capes. As for a church, they located a basement at
2416 Geary Street where they poured pillars and painted the walls
red and black and set up lighting as befitting a chapel.
Bob and Hecate sent Luciferans to proselytize in New Orleans,
Louisiana. There is indication that the Satanists continued to oper-
ate on the beaches of Xtul, Mexico. They tried to incorporate in
New Orleans as the Church of the Process of Unification of Christ
and Satan, but they weren't allowed to use the name Satan.
Instead at 1:35 p-^- on January 29, 1968, under the name "The
Process Church of the Final Judgment," the Process incorporated
in New Orleans as a non-profit rehgious scam. Their address listed on
the corporation papers was 1205 Royal Street.
In New Orleans, the Process rented a large house in the French
quarter. The London home church, wdth
eight Luciferans from the
Alsatian dogs, began to run a coflFee house and serve home-made
brownies, attempting to relate to the hippie community. One night
a week they ran telepathy sessions. They talked about the Gray
Forces of moderation which needed to be annihilated. They also
talked about some of the Process "work" on the Yucatan peninsula.
There is some indication that while in New Orleans they became
interested in voodoo.
In early 1968 Processans left New Orleans for Cahfornia. Reports
82 THE FAMILY

from two people, one a former Processan, say that they encountered
trouble with the local authorities in New Orleans. In any case they
were summoned by Robert and Hecate to San Francisco.
There developed in San Francisco considerable strife between
the dope-loving, sensual Luciferans and the austere sexless self-
flagellating Jehovans, according to witnesses. There was talk among
the Luciferans of gang-banging the "prissy Jehovan bitches." People
were accusing one another of being anti-Christ— the ultimate sin in
a cult whose leader is thought actually to be Christ.
It was decided by Hecate and Christ to abandon, at least pub-
hcly, San Francisco.
Meanwhile, the DeGrimstons were in Los Angeles where they
located a real estate operator named Aarons with oflBces on Robert-
son Boulevard who showed sympathy for the group. Father Chris-
tian aka Jonathan dePeyer claims that it was John PhilHps who lo-
cated Artie Aarons for them and that PhiUips, a songwriter and pop
singer, offered them aid and comfort.
Once a week the Process would go around and clean up and do
repairs and small construction jobs at the various properties owned
by Mr. Aarons. In exchange for this work service, the real estate op-
erator agreed to permit the Process the use of a large, two-story
house at 1882 Cochrane in south central Los Angeles. It was a
fifteen- to twenty-room house which now is a rest home for the
aged. At that time, it was far from a rest home.
One night in early March 1968, DeGrimston called from Los
Angeles and gave the Process two days to pack up and come to Los
Angeles. Around March 10, 1968, a convoy of seven Process auto-
mobiles containing thirty people and fourteen Alsatian dogs jour-
neyed toward Los Angeles. The Process moved into the South
Cochrane house with all their dogs and their black turtlenecks and
black pants and black capes with pictures of the devil sewn on them.
In the following week they went around to various mansions, clean-
ing them up, in order to pay for their rent. One such mansion that
the Process work group visited while working for Artie Aarons was
the John Barrymore mansion, located at 1301 Summit Ridge Drive.
It is a large, four-story mansion located several blocks down the hill
from where Roman Polanski rented his house at 1600 Summit Ridge.
Early in 1968, a young man from Baton Rouge, Louisiana named
 THE PROCESS 83

Kim was living at 1882 South Cochrane with a few friends of his
from Louisiana. He was employed in some capacity by Artie Aarons,
the owner of the property at 1882 South Cochrane.
In February of 1968 Lawrence Kirn, because of the heavy
freakiness-ratio at the house on South Cochrane, got permission
from Artie Aarons to move John Barrymore man-
into the so-called
sion at 1301 Summit Ridge Drive, in the Hollywood Hills.
A few days later the Process Chrnrch of the Final Judgment
moved into the house owned by Artie Aarons on South Cochrane.
Kim remembered would come to see Aarons.
that Processans
"They were trying to get him to move them over to a Pasadena
property he had because it was a lot bigger and they were expecting
more of the followers in or something." He already had a caretaker
for that property, a woman and her son, so he was loath to turn it
over to the Process.
The Process spent some time at theBarrymore mansion, and may
have attended parties there for show business personalities. Mr.
Aarons did not actually Hve at the Barrymore property but rented
parts of it out, and there were parties aplenty there.
In March '68, the Process held public meetings to recruit dupes
at the former Digger house on North Highland. They flooded the
streets to whisper about the end of the world and to hawk their
magazines.
At the time, there were approximately six grades or degrees of
status in the Process. The first and lowest was that of acolyte, which
was the status of a person just joining up with the group. The next
step was that of initiate, which lasted for about six weeks of inten-
sive training for the nascent cultist. The next step was that of mes-
senger, where one acquired his or her cult name. The next step was
that of prophet and then priest, and finally the highest rank in the
order, that of master.
The cult used the family unit as a model. Those of the degree
master were called Father this and Mother that. After a few months
group the Founding Couple (Christ
of intensive training with the
and Hecate) chose a cult name for new converts, such as Sister
Sarah or Brother Reuben, and they left their legal names far be-
hind.
84 THE FAMILY

Like any ciilt, information was not shared. Practices of the upper
grades were not known by the lower punks. How convenient.
It is known that in the early phases of the initiation sexual celi-
bacy is practiced. Further on, however, in the trek toward higher
ranks, all sorts of bunch-punchings take place.
At one stage the Processans are required to enter into a pro-
longed worship of Satan, involving satanic ceremonies and blood
sacrifice. They engage in various telepathy meditation sessions and

are into psychometry, a form of group telepathy. They sit in a circle

and exchange personal objects in order to scan each others' personal
vibes and to communicate via telepathy.
Mary Anne hked giving rings to people for the psychometric
effect—a practice used by Manson, who once gave Dean Martins
daughter a ring at Dennis Wilson's beachhouse.
Every night at midnight the inner Processans hold a worship
service for Satan, Jehovah and Lucifer. Twice a month on Wednes-
day nights, the Processans sit in a circle and summon the gods
Satan, Jehovah and Lucifer, who talk through the mouths of the
cult members. Oo-ee-oo.
Their vicious Alsatian dog-pack accompanied the group. It is in-
teresting to note that the dogs were considered members of the
group and were given special names and even oaths to bind them
to the group.
They pimped the psychedelic merchants. For instance, the
Brother Joshua and Brother Reuben, a recent convert from New
Orleans, came into a psychedelic shop on North Cherokee called
Stick It in Your Ear and tried to convert the proprietor, Ron
Mathes. They backed off when they discovered he was a practicing
Gurdjieffan.
Doubtless you ask, what publications were they hawking on the
Los Angeles? The main publication at that time was issue
streets of
number 4 which
of the Process magazine, the so-called "sex" issue,
depicted on its ceremony involving an inverted cross
front cover a
and a naked girl upon an altar surrounded by hooded snuffoids, one
bearing what appears to be a sword. In another part of the front
cover a long-haired young man raising a sword is walking across a
beach or a desert toward the full moon, perhaps a reference to Pro-
cess full-moon beach ceremonies. On the back cover of the Process
 THE PROCESS 85

magazine a large winged skeleton is hovering atop a mound of

shrieking suffering naked bodies evidently dead or in hell. Inside
the magazine contained a hodgepodge series of articles about sex,
an article about black masses and corpse violation, and various pain-
streaked items of confused writing.
One place that spring where the Process distributed their litera-
ture was at the Omnibus Restaurant on North LaCienega Boulevard.
A lot of the bikers that later associated with Manson hung out there.
Rick, "a biker," brought in Process material to the Omnibus. Rick
worked on Sunset across from Whiskey A Go-Go.
at a Shell station
The Process tried to deal with the Satan-oriented bike groups
but had to be content with stirring them up. One girl associated
with the cult then said this: "They tried, you know, getting them
[the bikers] to come to meetings and you just can't do nothing with
a motorcycle rider. So they decided to use them and it would be
easier to sort of incite them and get them to do what they wanted
done. That is the thing, you know, figuring they were the forces of
Satan."
They, or at least Brother Ely, had great visions of the bikers be-
coming Process Sound like Manson?
assault squads.
"When it really gets going, we'll have a mobile conversion unit
with messengers in jack boots on black Harleys, wearing black
leather jackets with the Process symbol [an inverted swastika] in
studs on the front and the cross in studs on the back." This is what
a dropout from the Process says that Brother Ely told him in the
summer of 1968, following the breakup of Process activities in Los
Angeles.
It was the message of the unity of Christ and Satan that Manson
grooved with.
"Christ and Satan through love dissolved the enmity that existed
between them and the unity of Christ and Satan is what the proc-
ess is all about. They've come together to usher in the end of the
world," said Brother Ely to a reporter from an English occult maga-
zine.
The unification of Christ and Satan is exactly what Manson was
getting into at that time, when the family was roaming Hollywood
in the black bus.
The Process decided to make it big in the entertainment business,
86 THE FAMILY

so they formed a rock andgroup called The Black Swan. Some

roll

Process members claim that the rock group was actually called the
Voice of the Process. The Black Swan consisted of Brother Joshua
on guitar— Brother Joshua had been in a pop group in London for
quite a while— and Brother Benedict, the satanist, on drums. Brother
Ely on and Brother Barnabas on string bass. Says Father Ely:
flute
"Brother Barnabas was a really good string bass player. You know,
he was doing lounge shows in Las Vegas. Very professional bass
player.
"We never made much money. We used to pass the hat. Some-
times we'd get a couple of bucks, but that's about all." The Black
Swan, the world's only rock group that believed in human sacrifice,
at least publicly, would play in various clubs and bars, generally
fiUing in between the main acts.
"We went into a biker bar one time. They took up a collection
for us. They really liked us," said flutist Ely. The biker bar was on
Sunset Boulevard near the Strip.
The Process sought out rich and successful people. Father Chris-
tian of the Process has claimed, for instance, that the Process man-
aged, in addition to John Phillips, to meet Warren Beatty and Cass
Elliott. To understand this phenomenon, anybody has to do is
all

create a hit record or a successful film and watch the money-

grubbing psychopaths come aswarming.
They approached Terry Melcher right around the time Melcher
was meeting and grooving with Manson at Dennis Wilson's house
on Sunset Boulevard.
It isknown that the Process tried to make an appointment to see
Joey Bishop who then had a talk show on ABC-TV.
It is interesting to note that there was an employee of the Joey
Bishop show living at the Barrymore mansion at the time the Proc-
ess was above ground in Los Angeles.
The Process members, most of whom were English citizens, had
been allowed into the United States on three-month visitor's per-
mits. Apparently they tried to get permission to stay by saying that
they were students of the Church of Scientology. There was talk
about a $100,000 bond that the group was going to have to put up
in order to stay in the country.
In the third week of May 1968, the U.S. Immigration oflBce in Los
 THE PROCESS 87

Angeles forwarded the Process files to New York for deportation pro-
ceedings.
At the house on South Cochrane they scraped possessions to-
gether and held a garage sale to raise money. Artie Aarons, the
owner of the house, complained that they sold some of his stuff also
in the sale. They moved out. Some of them seem to have gone to
New York to work on their immigration problems. There was talk
of going to Toronto.
Some may have been staying at the
Others went into hiding.
Barrymore mansion on Summit Ridge when the vicious dogs went
after Roman Polanski.
On Monday, June 5, an oflBcial for the Church of Scientology—
evidently an English citizen— went to apply for an immigration per-
mit to the United States. The Scientology official's appUcation was
refused because "Twelve members of the Church of the Process of
Scientology" had been ordered to leave the country by June and
supposedly had fled the set. The Church of Scientology waxed
miffed and evidently made attempts to locate the Process because
as long as the Process got away with posing as scientologists, things
would be grim for scientologists trying to come to America.
It is possible that the Process had a baleful influence on Sirhan
Sirhan since Sirhanis known, in the spring of '68, to have fre-
quented clubs in Hollywood in the same turf as the Process was
proselytizing. Sirhan was very involved in occult pursuits. He has
talked several times subsequent to Robert Kennedy's death about
an occult group from London which he knew about and which he
really wanted to go to London to see.
There was one Process member named Lloyd who was working
as a chef for one of the large Los Angeles hotels, either the Ambas-
sador or the Sheraton. Lloyd was around fifty years old and was
always complaining of the pemuious hfe of the Jehovans while Bob
and Hecate cruised the world in jet comfort.
It is probably a coincidence that Sirhan seems to have visited a
friend who worked in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel the day
before he shot Senator Kennedy.
Sometime in mid or late June, the Process was holding internal
meetings at a Hollywood motel. Some people interviewed claim that
the gatherings were public recruiting meetings for new followers.
88 THE FAMILY

But others say it was for internal Process members only. The motel
may have been the Yucca Motel, a known Process haunt on Holly-
wood Boulevard. This may have been the motel where Robert De-
Grimston caused a Process member to freak out and require
sedation, merely by being in the same hotel as the member.
It will be remembered that the ace selling point of the Process,
besides being the "chosen few," was that DeGrimston was Jesus
Christ snuflBng the world. The DeGrimstons were never seen by the
underlings of the cult. Cult members were expected to have the
attitude of fawning dogs wetting in fear.
This is what our trusty informant tells us about the event: "They
were not allowed to see Robert because they were on the bottom
floor of this one hotel and he was on the top floor and they were just
all shaking and crying because he was so powerful. One of the men

happened to see him and just ran back into the room and had hys-
terics and they had to sedate him."
"We discovered the Process group staying in a Hollywood motel
. . and reported it to immigration authorities," said Reverend
.

Gordon Mustain, a Deputy Guardian of the Church of Scientology.

Some sort of raid ensued but the wily Processans had already hit
the bricks.
Some members of the Process, including Robert and Mary Anne
DeGrimston, went to New York, where they set up a church there
for a while. Others went underground and traveled north to San
Francisco and to the Santa Cruz Mountains and evidently to King
City and points here and there. Their subsequent activities will be
recounted later.
Brother Ely aka Victor Wild went to San Francisco and then to
San Jose, where he opened up a leather shop and became rich.
 Six

The Spahn Movie Ranch 1968

Sometime tliat summer of '68 Manson recorded his songs at the

recording studio located in the home of head Beach Boy, Brian
Wilson, Dennis Wilson's brother and the producer of their albums.
In Los Angeles, it was a heavy status symbol among the nouveau
chart-toppers to have a fully equipped recording studio in their
homes.
The Beach Boys, as is common in many rock groups, were quar-
reling, soManson claims that he wrote a philosophical song for
them to heal their schisms. The song was called, beUeve it or not,
"Cease To Exist" and it was put on the album that the Beach Boys
were then working on. It has subsequently been a key family song.
It was the song Gypsy was singing when first this writer encoun-

tered the family.

The key words of the song "Cease To
were changed by
Exist,"
Wilson to "Cease To Resist," as if the song had to do with sexual
submission. The title was also changed to *'Never Learn Not To
Love." The song was given a full Beach Boys' production job with
those excellent back-up harmonies. Nevertheless, it was upsetting
to Manson, who hated more than anything for someone to tamper
with his words.
When the song was released on the B-side of a Beach Boys' single,
it did not sell so well. Manson believed the song would have been
a smash if only they'd left the words intact. As payment for the
90 THE FAMILY

song Manson evidently got some cash and a BSA motorcycle which
he gave to Little Paul.
Tex seems to have been the one to hang out at Terry Melcher's
house that summer of 1968. Tex and the former minister, Dean
Morehouse. Dean Morehouse was a familiar sight at the parties
at Melcher's house where he was well known as a dirty old man.
Manson has said that he was at the Cielo Drive house about five
times and that he used to wheel around Melcher's Jaguar.
Rudy AltobeUi, Terry Melcher's landlord at the house at 10050
Cielo Drive, was a successful show business talent manager. He
testified at Manson's murder trial how Terry and Gregg Jakobson
were always talking about Manson and his philosophy. They were
anxious for Altobelli to meet Manson, perhaps having in mind that
Altobelh might guide Charlie's career. That summer Altobelli met
Manson at a party at Wilson's residence on Sunset Boulevard. He
listened to a tape of Charlie singing.
"They talked to me on many occasions about Manson. They
wanted Dean to come and talk to me." Altobelli expressly ex-
pressed to Gregg and Dennis and Terry that he didn't want to be
philosophized by Manson and his group. "They were telling me
about his philosophy and his way of living and how groovy it was."
But Altobelli didn't dig it and was not interested in managing Man-
son and his crowd.
John Phillips of the Mamas and Papas recording group was ap-
proached. Says he: "Terry Melcher and Dennis Wilson and the
people who were living with Manson at Dennis Wilson's house
used to call me all the time, you know, and say come on over, it's
incredible. I'd just shudder every time. I'd say no, I think I'll pass."
Others say that Manson and some of the family in fact met Phil-
lips, not a hard task to accomplish actually, and one witness claimed

that Manson's blue bus was parked for a while in the fall of '68 at
Phillips' house on Bel Air Road. It is not surprising, because if Phil-
hps indeed came to the aid of the Process and helped them find a
house, would he not have aided Manson and friends?
Things got weird for Manson on Sunset Boulevard. The family,
like the hairy locusts they later admired in the Book of Revelation,
had pretty much devoured the scene. Dennis Wilson's fabulous
rock and roll wardrobe became community property and Manson
 THE SPAHN MOVIE RANCH 1968 91

gave away Dennis Wilson's gold records, which are given to a group
whenever an album grosses over a million dollars in sales. One gold
record wound up in the possession of the lady who owned the
Barker Ranch in Death Valley. Another gold record evidently
wound up in the hands of George Spahn's brother. This was evi-
dently distressing to Wilson.
Around August 1, Dennis Wilson and Gregg Jakobson aban-
doned ship and moved to a house near the beach on Pacific Coast
Highway. They left the house on Sunset open for anybody who
wanted to crash, according to Jakobson.
Shortly thereafter, Dennis Wilson's manager threw Manson and
crew off the Sunset Boulevard property.
Off and on throughout that fall, people showed up at the Sunset
Boulevard crash-estate to pick up belongings left there. New own-
ers purchased that property and hired a guard to defend the house
and grounds from crashers in the night.
Sometime around the first week of August, homeless Charlie
drove to the Spahn Ranch and asked the people who were Hving
at the back ranch area at the time if it was okay for the family to
use the outlaw shacks nearby. The so-called "outlaw" shacks, small
movable huts looking Hke tornado-devastated motel units from
the 1920's, were located near the back ranch. These shacks were
evidently used as props during the heyday of the good guys versus
the bad guys kind of movies shot at the ranch. Several of the resi-
dents were reluctant to let Manson stay but it was agreed to let
Charlie and the guys and gals stay "for a few days," as one person
remembers. The possibihty of gourmet garbage, family cooking,
housekeepers and the use of the family credit cards weighed heav-
ily inthe decisions to let the brigade remain. John, the previous
occupant of the back ranch, had moved out but the family knew
the people who had moved in. They stayed this time at the Spahn
Ranch about two and a haff months.
After a couple of days at the outlaw shacks near the back ranch,
CharHe, backed up by some of his silent harem waifs, approached
blind George Spahn and conned Spahn into letting the family stay
for a while at the front ranch on the Western set itself. They spent
the first few days wooden barred jail.
living in the
The deal that Charlie worked out was that the family was to cook,
92 THE FAMILY

bale hay, help rent horses, help keep the bam, corral and grounds
clean. Ultimately Charlie set up a near-nude geriatrics care squad
for the elderly owner, cowboy-hatted George Spahn.
There were sixty or so horses to tend, many of them headed for
the Jello factory, that were rented out for about three dollars an
hour to weekenders. On the ranch, almost like a mental aflBiction,
were thousands and thousands of Spahn Ranch horse flies which
were a devouring menace, especially to vulnerable lovemakers.
George Spahn had bought the ranch in 1948. It had once be-
longed to silent movie actor WilHam S. Hart.
Spahn's eyesight was failing over the years as he pursued a career
owning the movie ranch and renting out horses to high school
classes, etc. He had a long-time associate named Ruby Pearl who
managed his ranch aflFairs. Ruby, according to family gossip, was
a former animal trainer and dancer. She was in her late forties dur-
ing the Manson era when she was seen overseeing the activities
wearing a cowboy hat and riding clothes. With the family she had
a wavering relationship because the family at all costs wanted to
keep on George's good side. Ruby Pearl had George's ear and was
constantly observing what the family was up to, except at night
when she went home. Which was okay with the family, because
night is when it loas.
Ruby Pearl is rumored to have a great autograph book contain-
ing the signatures of all kinds of entertainment figures who have
visited the Spahn Ranch over the years.
The Spahn Movie Ranch, as it was called, was located at 12000
Santa Susanna Pass Road, running west of the northernmost sec-
tion of Topanga Boulevard in the northwest of the San Fernando
Valley.
The ranch was located midpoint between the wilderness and the
city so that it was at the same time a thirty-five minute ride to
Sharon Tate's living room and also a fifteen-minute dune-buggy
ride out into the wilderness of Devil Canyon into the Santa Susanna
Mountains. It was also located in heavy dope traflBc country. The
communes of the northwest San Fernando Valley at that time were
warehouses for the L.A. dope trade on the outskirts of any
just as
big city there are wholesale grocery and merchandise terminals.
The Spahn Ranch was situated just in front of a creek which cuts
 THE SPAHN MOVIE RANCH 1968 93
down from the northwest and oozes and trickles down along Santa
Susanna Pass Road behind the Spahn Ranch. There are waterfalls
in the creek which were the bathing spa of Helter Skelter. The
Spahn Ranch is backed up by bouldery hills which climb sharply
north and south. It is Grade B Western movie turf from the 1940's.
The ghosts of Tim Holt and the Durango Kid yodel in the moun-
tain crags.
The Western set, where movies were made, was located just off
Santa Susanna Pass Road. It was a ramshackle collection of build-
ings in a straight row. A boardwalk extended the length of the set.
Sleazy awnings held up by crooked posts ran the length of the mock-
up cowboy main street. There was a mockup restaurant called the
Rock City Cafe; a jailhouse with wooden-barred cell; the Long Horn
Saloon complete with mirrors and room-length bar and juke box; a
carriage house full of old carriages; an undertaking parlor and sev-
eral otiier buildings including George Spahn's small house which lay
perpendicular to the right of the movie set. All these were built in
the manner of a Kansas town of the early America. A dirt driveway
connected the movie set with the reality of Santa Susanna Pass
Road. Painted movie props often were strewn about, leaning against
the haystack or corral.
It was fantasy land. But the era of the formula Western was
over, and the ranch needed horse rentals to keep it going. On holi-
day weekends the ranch sometimes took up to $1000. In the case
of the Spahn Ranch, an occasional beaver movie, TV commercial,
sci-fi or monster movie brought in additional amounts of money.

Across the road from the Spahn Ranch was a bouldered, hilly
area called the Garden of the Gods. And in a slit which ran for miles
up into Santa Susanna Mountains were Devil Canyon and Ybarra
Canyon, which would come to be a favorite helter-skelter haunt of
the family. There were several little ranches in the area. In the Gar-
den of the Gods was something called Wonderland Movie Ranch
where, after Manson got arrested for murder, the owners kept a
caged jaguar in the front yard for protection from the family.
At the Spahn Ranch, the salary for the ranch hands was food, a
place to sleep and a pack of cigarettes a day. Some of the ranch
hands, Hke Randy Starr, worked as stunt men in films. Randy Starr
speciaKzed in neck drags, horse falls and various gravity-defying
94 THE FAMILY

stunts and fancied himself a performer of high quality. Others

worked the rodeo circuit. Some like Larry Cravens were attempting
to be stunt men. Murder-fated Shorty Shea was a Spahn Ranch stunt
man and actor who eagerly pursued a career in the movies until
they killed him. The stunt men used the Spahn Ranch as a business
address.
The family met a sixteen-year-old Spahn ranch hand from Simi,
California, Steve Grogan aka Clem aka Scramblehead, who crashed
Wilson's red Ferrari into a barn near the Spahn Ranch, trying to
seehow fast he could take a curve. Smasho. After crunching up and
down the hills of Santa Susanna Pass the $15,000 machine was aban-
doned.
Clem became one of Charlie's righthand men. He was able to
copy Charlie's guitar style almost exactly and even copied Man-
son's voice. Clem is now in jail, accused of decapitating Shorty Shea,
the stunt man.
Manson met a young muscular Panamanian ranch hand named
Juan Flynn who had been working for the Spahn Ranch since 1967
after he had fought in Vietnam. Juan Flynn would have a great eflFect
on Manson because of Flynn's excruciating bloody battle experi-
ences.Under the influence of LSD Juan Flynn would relive the
Vietnam blood bath and scream and shriek describing in shocking
detail sitting three days trapped in a trench beneath the blown-up
bodies of his comrades.
On a typical day at dawn George Spahn arose and clanged the
Spahn Ranch dinner bell, whereupon the hippie horse wranglers
awoke to feed the horses and put them out to pasture. They gob-
bled breakfast and then saddled horses in preparation for possible
rentals. Some were positioned in the front to guide the riders down
the various riding trails. Then they had to clean the stalls and pre-
pare the oats and hay for the horses.
The story is told how some of the family, evidently as part of
the program to experience everything, reveled in horse excrement.
They walked barefoot as they cleaned the dilapidated Spahn Ranch
bam, shovels in hand, grokking the fullness of the green horsemush
between their toes.
The family, after staying in the jailhouse barn, quickly branched
out to the Long Branch saloon and the nearby Rock City Cafe, a
 THE SPAHN MOVIE RANCH 1968 95

mockup These buildings shared the same boardwalk

restaurant.
as the movie set. up an "office" in a small building that
Charlie set
lay on the extreme east of the Western set, a building which during
the era known as Helter Skelter, became a repository for weapons.
Like a Dayglo mosaic, the family began to spread out over the
woods and streams and fantasyland buildings of the Spahn Ranch.
They built lean-tos, they set up tents in remote clearings in the
woods. Manson would roam about supervising the construction.
"All my women are vvdtches and I'm the Devil," he told the people
at the back ranch house.
Evidently they fashioned occult items for the decoration of the
ranch. For instance, one person recalled seeing in a gulch by the
back ranch a steer skull residing atop a stake, the skull painted with
arcane emblems. Manson's very owti tent was painted with an oc-
cult host of eyeballs, sun symbols and loony-tune scrawls.
The ranch hands were meat eaters but the family was more or
less vegetarian, and usually ate communally in a large circle with
communal bowls passed around counterclockwise. After dinner,
dope was brought forth and Manson would whip out his guitar and
lead the singing.
The bulk of the choff was garbage. Part of the "rent" the family
paid at the ranch was the preparation of food. To the west of the
Spahn Ranch, in Simi Valley, and to the east in Chatsworth, and
in fact all over the San Fernando Valley, the family made daily
garbage runs. At the San Fernando Valley supermarkets they throw
away fruits and vegetables that in the slums of New York would be
sold as Grade A.
Even the car the killers would drive to the various murders, John-
nie Schwartz's 1957 yellow Ford, would have the back seats re-
moved in order to receive more readily fruit crates full of throw-
away food.
For instance, several miles away from the Spahn Ranch, at the
edge of the concrete loading platform in back of the Market Basket
supermarket in Chatsworth, lay two four by four by six-foot salmon-
colored wheeled garbage bins. On a typical day, the bin on the
left was packed solid with wooden crates tossed askew, cardboard

boxes, celery, lettuce, sHced display melons, slightly mutant bell

peppers, com husks, pink unripe tomatoes, raggedy squashed balls
96 THE FAMILY

of lettuce. In the right bin were hunks of fatty tissues cut from the
steaks of dead cows, old peach boxes and pink-brown wavy blobs
of suet. To test the edibility of much of it the only known test was
the snijff test.

And was no hesitance on the part of the soul-driven girls

there
to get down and grovel in the gunge of large bins of rotting animal
and vegetable matter in order to sort out the good from the less
good.
The girls were in to using their witchiness even in preparing for
the daily garbage run when they would "get a picture" in their minds
as towhat store would have the best gourmet garbage. That is, they
would scan the void with witch-rays to locate the location of the
most food-filled bins. Then they would drive there.
There were always parts of movies being shot at the Spahn Ranch.
The karma of the Marlboro man cigarette commercials, some of
which were made at the Spahn Ranch, must have lingered on. So
they played games, the family. They played, believe it or not. Cow-
boys and Indians, Mexican knife fighters, flatlanders versus the hill
people, Charhe Manson as Mexican bad-ass raping the stockbroker's
daughter from San Diego. Be what you don t want to be; free your
mind.
These games were part of the so-called Magical Mystery Tour.
They were carried out like encounter group games designed to
liberate the psyche. The master game was to find the real per-
sonality amid the maze of traits handed down through reincarna-
tion and the traits given by parents and society. Whatever role
the person "got stuck in" in his various game-roles, that was his real
archetypal personahty. Charlie called it "getting stuck in one part."
Paul Watkins, for instance, got "stuck" in the part of playing the
Apostle Paul— and also an entity called "daddy's boy."
Manson, over the years, has taken a more cynical attitude about
his relationship with his followers at the Spahn Ranch. He said he
would "play around with the kids at the ranch" and pick up a
beat-up old truck at the Spahn Ranch and drive to Dennis Wilson's
house all dirty. He would shower, don a few expensive clothes, grab
up some money and head out for a few laughs in the luxury hiUs.
One girl, named Roberta, who left the group shortly thereafter,
said this about Manson in the summer of 1968: "He was very beauti-
 THE SPAHN MOVIE RANCH 1968 97

fill in many ways and gave out lots of love." They were always hug-
ging and kissing and making love. Ceaseless was the lovemaldng.
And wdth the remote, seemingly safe fantasyland location of the
Spahn Ranch, the word really went out and people began to flock
in.

Like any other youth movement, the greatest number of recruits

appeared in summertime. Charlie was upset at the throngs appear-
ing at the ranch so he threw matches to see who split.

Recalled Roberta: "Charlie was uptight cause so many people

came down to the ranch, so he was doing the thing about like . . .

how many of us would stay. ... He took matches and he threw

them out and the direction
. . .
." would evidently determine
. .

who would stay or leave. "It meant that a certain amount of girls
would leave and boys would stay."
Charlie would imitate someone's facial expressions if he didn't
hke them around. Or worse, he would sing songs about them. The
girls, with that trump card that men fear, would cut them off of the

grope hst.

And then there was the gorilla problem for CharUe— guys kept
coming around merely for the sex. Some of the girls like Ella and
Sadie, who Hked to hang out on Sunset Strip downtown, were al-
ways bringing home what Charlie termed "gorillas"— guys who did
not fit in.

One (Manson always accused Sadie) brought in the

of tlie girls
vehement Vietnamese clap to the ranch in summer '68. It got so
bad that Charlie had to bring in a doctor to wipe it out. Juan Flynn
had such a bad case of it that it took three months to clear it up.
Books were banned by Manson, the semi-illiterate prophet of
doom. Manson was heedless of Revelation 1:3—"Blessed is he that
readeth." But that didn't stop him from getting the girls to read to
the hairy-chested pasha, books such as SiddhartJia and, of course,
the Bible.
Charlie also deprecated what he called "black slave music" and
wouldn't allow Jimi Hendrix records to be played. This did not
prevent Charlie from trying to sing like Nat King Cole during some
of his recording sessions and from borrowing blues riffs and chord
progressions for his songs.
Charlie impressed everybody with his drum-playing ability. He
98 THE FAMILY

was "mean at the drums" according to Richard Kaplan. But his

sense of pitch seemed faUible. "Let me hear a note, man," was often
heard during pauses to tune, during "familyjams." "It is a test of
enhghtenment how far you are into the drums," Charlie told Rich-
ard Kaplan.
Not only books and Jimi Hendrix records but even glasses were
put on the nicht list. Charlie did not beheve that George Spahn
was blind. In fact, that was one of Charlie's raps: about how George
was conditioned by his former wife over the years so that he slowly
became blind, evidently through some sort of shrewing on the part
of the wife. In fact, Charlie did not cooperate with any form of ocu-
lar disease. Mar^-^ Brunner was supposed to have possessed as many
as fourteen pairs of glasses, according to Danny De Carlo, but these
were banned by Charlie. No glasses.
Charlie was also out to impress with his power over animals. Pick-
ing up snakes and zapping them with the stare, allowing the Spahn
Ranch horse flies to land on his mouth and swarm upon his lips. The
girls claimed he conjured them not to bite him.

Later on, it was always amazing to see unconcerned family mem-

bers with horse flies on their lips— horse flies that can really chomp
into a lip, should they decide it.

But Charlie hankered to obtain the remote back ranch for his
growing family of friends. The back ranch was a ramshackle dive
consisting mainly of one large room with a stone fireplace and a large
five by eight multi-paned window. The back ranch was powered
by a clandestine tapping of county power lines. And for water it
had the rather yucky creek water from a homemade dam created
upstream. A small water pump pumped the water to a tank up on
the hillside. From the hillside, a green plastic water hose brought
water to the bathroom, and another green water hose stretched
across the living room into the kitchen.
Like any edge-of-desert location, the Spahn Ranch seemed to
gather rusty ancient hulks of various pieces of automotive and in-
dustrial equipment. It was cluttered, dusty, creepy, tarpapered,
metal-roofed, broken-windowed, tawdry, tarnished
rusty-posted,
ramshackle plexus of buildings that Charlie saw to overrun with
his hemp horde. But it was remote and more importantly it was
run by a weak, confused old blind man who was beleaguered on
 THE SPAHN MOVIE RANCH 1968 99

all sides by relatives and associates, some seeking to bum him,

and all delivering advice gratis.
Manson finally ran the people out of the back ranch and took over.
A biker from Topanga that some of the family probably met
downtown Galaxy Club, gave Richard Kaplan some LSD
at the
which turned out to be p-c-p animal tranquilizers, or steam, as it
is known in dope-land. It is a weird mind-zapping drug. Kaplan,

freaked out on the steam, stumbled into Charhe's office at the end
of the boardwalk and found Charhe and the torrid twenty Hstening
to a tape of guess who, singing. Charlie then took him on a tour of
the family camp and asked him if he would fork over the back ranch
to the family because Charhe sorely needed it. Charlie offered
to trade his witchy painted tent for it. So, tranced on dope, Kaplan
gave up the ranch. That night the family had an orgy of celebra-
tion when they moved from the Western set down the trail to the
back ranch. To this day, Kaplan possesses the witch tent as a
Manson-mania relic first class.
As befits book-haters, the family burnt all his books including his
magical Hbrary and the young man fondly remembers seeing his
books on alchemy and Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil going
up into flames in the back ranch stone fireplace.
Meanwhile, back up north in Mendocino County, the witch girls
were finally released on August 16, 1968, on their own recognizance
Brenda and Squeaky
after fifty-five days in the slams. Charlie sent
north to Ukiah to bring the rest of the recently freed girls back
to the Spahn Ranch. Eagerly they fixed up the back ranch so that
the girls released would have a place to prepare themselves for
upcoming court dates, which were to occin: several weeks later in
early September. When Brenda and the girls were driving the black
bus back they passed through San Jose where the bus broke down,
leaving people stranded.
Somewhere around August 20 or so. Bob Beausoleil, traveling
with his girls in northern California, called the Spahn Ranch. There
was something afoul with the pink ownership slip to the truck
George Spahn had given him so he called to clear the matter up. It
was then that Beausoleil was told the bus had broken down in San
Jose.
In June of 1968 an eighteen-year-old girl named Leshe Van Hou-
100 THE FAMILY

ten was living with some the Kalen Ranch near Vic-
girl friends at
torville and Apple Valley, California. Along came Bob Beausoleil,
who freaked the group with his throwing of knives. He scooped up
Leslie Van Houten, leaving in a 1962 blue Volkswagen ofiFed from
Leslie's roommate's stepfather. Later the VWwas de-wired and
dumped in San Francisco.
Throughout the summer, Gail and beautiful Gypsy the Magna
Mater embodiment and Leslie and Beausoleil and two unknown
female Caucasians from San Francisco drove in the environs of north-
em CaHfornia in the old black Dodge powerwagon formerly be-
longing to George Spahn.
Born Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Leslie Van Houten had been the
in
freshman class treasurer at Monrovia High School in California.
She was in the Job's Daughters service organization and was active
in her church choir. She was mystically inclined, became involved
in the Self Realization Fellowship, became a dropout, met Beausol-
eil and slowly became enmeshed in the agreements and submis-

sions and mutations that led to murder.

When Beausoleil called the Spahn Ranch around August 20 and
learned that the black bus had broken down in San Jose, he drove
to the rescue. Beausoleil and friends went to San Jose and towed
the broken bus to a plum orchard. Data regarding events are con-
fused at this point. Beausoleil evidently secured a new bus for the
family, abandonng the old one. The new bus also was painted black.
After Beausoleil and the girls drove to the place where the family
was stranded, in San Jose, there occurred some sort of jealousy
squabble among Beausoleil's girl friends so he was forced to cut
loose Gypsy and Leslie from his thrill pack. "About one in a hundred
of the girls I'd make love to we'd go through our changes and I'd
add her to the pack," he said. Little Paul and Gypsy and Leslie then
drove to the Spahn Ranch from San Jose.
While the family was still in San Jose, a schoolteacher named
Joan Wildbush aka Juanita picked up four hitchhikers, T. J. Walle-
man akt T.J. the Terrible, Tex Watson, Ella Sinder and Clem aka
Scramblehead, while she was driving her shiny new 1968 Dodge van
near Palo Alto, California; or so she said later to the police. She was
a schoolteacher on a summer vacation, an eager young lady of Ru-
benesque frame. She took the four to San Jose where evidently she
 THE SPAHN MOVIE RANCH 1968 loi

was persuaded to drive down Spahn Ranch to meet Charhe.

to the
Juniata was, in the language of poHce reports, a female Caucasian,
height five foot four inches, blond/blue, weight 150 pounds, d.o.b.
1-21-44.
Manson must have singed her beams during
soul with the love
one of those all-day love sessions because Manson drew her forth-
with into the fold of the followers. She withdrew $11,000 from a
trust fund which was set up for her by her father, a New Jersey law-
yer, and turned it over to Satan. The family was overjoyed.
Around this time in South Topanga Canyon Manson located a
great new bus, a 1956 White or CMC school bus owned by a lady
in South Topanga Canyon named Mitzi. They saw the school bus
one day when Manson and Kaplan and Ouish were whizzing
through the canyon on an errand. The price was $600. Manson used
some of the newly acquired Juanita booty to pay for the bus.
The family painted the bus light green in color and began to out-
fit it for possible trips.
Dean Morehouse recalled seeing Tex and Mary Brunner driv-
ing to 10050 Cielo Drive in the new green bus, looking for Terry
Melcher, but he wasn't at home.
Another input into the mind of Manson was provided by a re-
The Fountain of the World, located west of the Spahn
ligious cult.
Ranch in Box Canyon near the Santa Susanna fire department. He
was very impressed with the Fountain and spent a lot of time visit-
ing it.

The Fountain of the World, a religious sect dedicated to "Peace

through Love and Service" or so the sign on the hill above the cult
comer reads, was an apocalyptic Christian cult that held public
meetings every Saturday night. Several of the Spahn ranch hands,
including Shorty Shea, were associated with The Fountain of the
World. Ranch hands would attend the Fountain's religious meet-
ings and group song sessions. Manson and the family occasionally
attended these meetings. A black guy named John was involved
in the leadership of The Fountain of the World and Manson several
times hungered to take the place over. The cult members wore
robes and practiced celibacy. Charlie assigned some of the girls to
try to seduce the priests of the order, evidently to no avail.
The Fountain was formed by a holy man named Krishna Venta
102 THE FAMILY

who died by violence. The family grooved with the violent history
of the Fountain. The religious retreat occupied subterranean cham-
bers and caves wherein they did their thing. As the cult progressed,
dissension ensued and parties unknown blew up the founder,
Krishna Venta, and nine of his followers— with forty pieces of dy-
namite placed in the catacombs. This occurred on 12-10-58, where-
after the Foimtain struggled onward and was still thriving when
Manson discovered it.

Charlie seems to have gotten the idea for his crucifixion cere-
mony from The Fountain of the World.There was a large rock
at The Fountain of the World that looked remarkably like a huge
skull. At the top of the "skull" was a wooden upright cross. Fountain

members, so one is told, were wont to strap themselves up on the

cross for penitential meditation sessions. Far out.
Not far from the Spahn Ranch the family discovered an almost
secret clearing guarded by a natural surrounding wall of large
boulders. On one side of the clearing was a hill, The Hill of Martyr-
dom. For upon this hiUy boulder-shrouded secret clearing was per-
formed perhaps the world's first outdoor LSD crucifixion ceremony.
There they snuffed Charlie, in role as Jesus, strapping (not nail-
ing ) him to an actual rustic cross, while others, acting as tormenters
and apostles, jeered or weeped. One chosen female was Mother Mary
cloaked and weeping at the foot of the cross.
Then they fucked, evidently after some form of resurrection
sei"vice.

In August of 1968 part of the family spent about a week Hving at

The Fountain of the World. There is talk that Manson gave about
$2,000 of the money given to the family by Juanita to the Fountain.
At some point in its development, the family—particularly the
girls— began to say "Amen Amen" whenever Charlie spoke, as if his
words were divine.
Manson began to formulate obedience tests for his followers as
when he once told Sadie Glutz during a meal to go get him a coco-
nut, even if she had to go clear to Rio. She executed an about-face
and she trotted off to Rio. However, after a few steps he called her
back. Another time, at a meeting at The Fountain of the World, when
he was trying to impress the Fountain members with the obeisance
of his followers, he instructed Little Paul to go spend a week on the
 THE SPAHN MOVIE RANCH 1968 103

cross—which Little Paul darted off to do but the Wizard showed

mercy and called him back.
On August 20, 1968, the very pregnant Sadie Mae Glutz aka Susan
Denise Atkins had a hearing in the Mendocino County Supreme
Court and pleaded guilty to the 11530 H. and S. possession of pot
charge. She was ordered to reappear in court on August 30 for sen-
tencing, pending a probation report ordered by the court. An ar-
rangement was made whereby Susan (Sadie) agreed to cop out
to the pot charge and to take that guilt upon herself and Mary
Brunner decided to take the acid charge so that the others then
would go free.
Sadie managed to pull off a charm job on the deputy probation
oflBcer up there, one David Mandel, because he wrote a sympathetic
probation report which might be called the damaged soul document.
It concludes, "Your Honor, it is our opinion that incarceration for
this defendant would be of httle or no use to society or to herself.
"Even while she was still a minor, she was well on her way to a
career of minor confidence-style operations, high styled prostitu-
tion and prostitution of herself in the more general sense, as an
object of entertainment and vicarious satisfaction for other dam-
aged souls."
The Witches
of Mendocino were able to spend only a couple
Spahn Ranch before they had to go to their dope trials.
of days at the
Around the last part of August the girls prepared to drive north
to the Mendocino County trials from the Spahn Ranch in the new
green and white family bus. They drove up the coast highway
through Big Sur to Mendocino County. Sadie was the driver of the
bus.
On August 30, Mendocino County Superior Court in
1968, in
Ukiah, California Sadie Mae Glutz was found guilty by reason of
plea of guilty on violation of Section 11530 of the California Health
and Safety Code aka pot bust. And the pronouncement of sentence
of sixty days in the slams was suspended and she was placed on
three years' probation.
Evidently she waited around until the others had their on trials

September 6, 1968. On that day Mary Theresa Brunner aka Mother

Mary pleaded guilty to Section 11910 of the Health and Safety Code
aka LSD bust and Judge Robert Winslow sentenced her to sixty
104 THE FAMILY

days in jail with time credited already served. Though Mary Brun-
ner also had a favorable probation report, she was carted away
to jail.

The rest of the defendants, Susan Scott aka Stephanie Rowe,

Katherine Patricia Smith aka Patricia Krenwinkel aka Katie and
Ella Sinder, beat the rap in Department Number i in Mendocino
County Superior Court before Judge Winslow. Another human,
one Robert Bomse, was convicted for possession of the herb.
This exercise in justice, the smashing of a cabal of hippie witches,
cost the county of Mendocino considerable money. The fees for
the court-appointed lawyers alone cost the taxpayers $2,999.50.
After the court hearing on September 6, 1968, Susan Atkins aka
Sadie Glutz and the girls drove back down and spent a few days
visiting San Jose. Susan was heavily gravid, the child due in about
six weeks. Susan's father contends that Manson and Susan and sev-
eral of the family spent a few days then, staying at his house. Quite
a few family members also were scrounging around in San Jose in
September of 1968.
One day in September '68, Manson came to Dennis Wilson's
Mahbu Beach house and Charlie told him and Gregg Jakobson
in the style of a psychedelic Billy Graham that it was the hoiu* of
decision. It was time for them to join, or not to join. You were
with him or against him. He wanted Jakobson and Wilson to choose.
The family was with them, but were they?
Tex Watson of Copeville, Texas, the former sports editor for his
high school yearbook, joined the family forever that fall. He gave
up his wig shop on Santa Monica Boulevard and he gave to Man-
son his 1935 Dodge pickup truck.
Manson met quite a few interesting people at Wilson's beach-
house. One was a wealthy young lady named Charlene Cafritz. Mrs.
Cafritz took some motion pictures of Manson and various of the
girls at Wilson's house. Later in the fall Manson visited her for two

weeks at a luxury dude ranch in Reno, Nevada, about which more

later.

While Manson was in San Jose during those days after the Men-
docino he ran
trials, into a man named Patterson, evidently an
employee of a local underground newspaper. Manson told Mr. Pat-
 THE SPAHN MOVIE RANCH 1968 105

terson an interesting anecdote that gave tribute to Manson's trigger

temper.
Manson told astounded Patterson—because
Patterson, in fact
Manson seemed so much a part of flower power— that one time a
few months previous Manson had chased a father and his daughter
down a street with a knife in his hand prepared to cut them up
and that Manson ascribed this homicidal urge to a toothache where
the poison from the inflamed tooth had seeped into his brain.
Meanwhile Brother Ely of the Process had opened up a leather
shop at 74 East San Fernando Street in San Jose, California with a
girl friend and another couple.

Ely aka Victor Wild had, by every account, been a gung-ho Proc-
essan but evidently had found the sexual ceHbacy required by the
Jehovan wing of the Process to be unacceptable. He drifted into
the spirit of the Luciferans, where dope and sex were allowed. When
the Process was forced to flee Los Angeles, various members went
underground and carried on ceremonies in secret. According to
various police sources and individuals interviewed, Wild main-
tained a group that was, in fact, a Process organization. Several
friends and associates of Manson's family became a part of Brother
Ely's group.
Wild communicated with the main Process force operating
still

in New York as the months passed, according to one of his girl

because of fear for her safety.
friends, nameless here
A Wild at that time said that Patricia Krenwin-
close associate of
kel and others from the Manson family came into the leather shop
and bought some sandals.
Important in terms of sleazo inputs is to remember that Brother
Ely was and is, one of the most gung-ho members of
to this day,
the Process. Who
knows how much information and Process ideas
he imported to Manson and the family?
The leather shop was located in the head shop area near San
Jose State College. Wild made "leathers," i.e., leather pants and
jackets, for the bike clubs. Members of the Gypsy Jokers began to
hang around the leather shop. One Gypsy Joker was interested in
one of the girls associated with the shop and connections with the
club sprouted.
Brother Ely aka Wild became so involved, in fact, with them
io6 THE FAMILY

that he was "flying the patch" of the Gypsy Jokers, i.e., wearing a
jacket bearing the club's emblem, according to the San Francisco
police department.
The Manson family stayed with some of the Gypsy Jokers in San
Jose. CharHe told one Straight Satan that the family stayed in sev-
eral houses that September belonging to the Gyspy Jokers. Later
the family had Victor Wild make some leather outfits for Manson
and Watson, etc.
The Gypsy Jokers were extremely violence-prone. They were
among the elite of the i percenter bike clubs. According to his one-
time friends, Wild liked to watch the violence committed by the
group.
The Gypsy Jokers lived in the world of aliases, using such names
as Theo, Dago, Dirty Doug, Gypsy Jack, the Thumper, Frenchy,
Big Rich. Included in the group were a terminal cancer sufferer who
decided to die freaky and a one-legged person named Garbage Can
who had a shotgun built into his wooden leg. In September of
1968, on the Labor Day "run" to Mendocino County, Brother Ely
went along and observed with dispassion according to a witness a
violent sadistic "turnout," which is biker terminology for a violent
gang rape. Only this girl was nearly killed—punched, slugged, gag-
ging and puking with mouth rape, while four men held her down,
punching her in the face whenever she wouldn't obey. Later, they
picked her up, put her clothes on and dumped her at a road near
the location of the biker frolics.

Evidently Brother Ely envisioned the bikers as being the brown

shirts for theFathers of the Process.
In August of 1968, Brother Ely and his girl friend casually
watched some members of the Gypsy Jokers slam a car door re-
peatedly upon the head of a middle-aged man who had called
one of the bikers a punk in an obscure bar in San Jose.
In December of '68, police shot and killed a member of the Jokers
while twenty or thirty of the club were burning down a house on
Sunnyvale Road in San Jose.
There was an interesting article which appeared in a Berkeley
newspaper authored by a person named Blaine. The article pur-
ported to tell of the involvement of Charles Manson in a "death-
 THE SPAHN MOVIE RANCH 1968 107

cult" in the summer and which operated out of the

fall of 1968
notorious Waller Street Devil House in the Haight district. The
Devil House, it will be recalled, was formerly, during the era of
flower-power, a crash-house run by the Diggers. Manson claimed
to have Hved there briefly.
The article describes a "trial" conducted by the cult, called the
Final Church of Judgment (perhaps a garbled version of Church
of the Final Judgment ) wherein a person who was accused of put-
,

ting a curse on the Haight-Ashbury.

It is interesting to who lived at the Waller Street
note that people
house had, in been associated with the Process. One man
fact,

named Green and his wife had Hved there until they accompanied
the Process Church of the Final Judgment down to Los Angeles in
March of '68.
It is known that there had been a group on the Haight that had set
up sort of a pseudo-Process group that broke up when the actual
Process arrived to set up operations. Perhaps the cult of which Man-
son was part was such a pseudo-Process group.
Or it is also possible that this is an actual account of an actual
Process inner meeting as filtered through the memory, months later,
of a magic-oriented witness.
In any case, the story is internally consistent enough with known
facts tobe recounted here, numbered from one to thirty.
This what Blaine alleges:
is

1. He first heard of Manson in 1964 when he was a prisoner in

the U.S. Medical Center, where a guy named Richard was sent,
transferred from McNeil Island Federal Penitentiary in Washing-
ton. Richard had been a gobble-mate of Manson, but alleged that
after Manson spumed his affections, Richard tried to kill himself, an
act forwhich he was sent to the U.S. Medical Center.
2. Blainemet this Richard in the Medical Center prison library
where Richard allegedly babbled a lot about his "lost lover" Charles
Manson— referred to evidently by name and as a convict from West
Virginia. Blaine remembered that Richard said this about Manson:
"Charles will be a great man some day." Why? "Because he knows
all about magic."
3. Blaine, after release from prison, went to the Haight-Ashbury
io8 THE FAMILY

love scene in 1967. He met Manson in theI-Thou coffee shop in

1967, not knowing who he was. He talked with Manson, Manson
mentioning that he, Manson, just got out of the slams. Blaine claims

then to have discovered, in the course of the conversation, that

Manson was Richard's lost lover, so to speak. Manson evidently
said that now he was into girls, allegedly saying: "Boys aren't where
it's at. Out here it has to be girls. You can control girls easier than
boys." And "Hey, I know where all that's at. And it's this way: two
scorpions together would only sting one another to death." A per-
son named Sam Tela was also involved in this conversation at the
I-Thou coffee house. Manson left the shop and the two didn't meet
for about a year.

4. Blaine and Manson met again in summer-fall 1968, again on the

Haight.
5. become involved in a "death-cult" called
Blaine claims to have
The Companions The Final Church of Judgment. "The
of Life or
Final Church is the name Manson chose for the church he eventually
founded," Blaine wrote. The church was operating in the Waller
Street Ashram or Devil House.
6. Cult members would talk about Manson, saying that he was

living down in L.A. on a "movie lot"— evidently the Spahn Ranch.

7. The cult evidently was led by one Father P. the 66th (666?)

aka Carl who claimed to be an M.D. and Ph.D. and a magician, and
wore a mustache and was said to have been expelled from pre-
Castro Cuba, to have set fire to some church in North Carolina for
which he was run out of town, and to have recently returned from
Damascus, Syria.
8. The cult was homosexual. There was a "crash room" where
girls could sleep but women could not venture into the adyta or
inner rooms of the homo-thanatos cult.
9.Manson supposedly showed up at a "medieval trial" in late
summer 1968 wherein it was to be decided whether or not to put
to death a former cult member named Sadyi for "committing crimes
against Haight-Ashbury, against nature and for crimes against
Pussycat." They accused him of (1) cursing the Haight, (2) consort-
ing with a woman, (3) causing a demon to enter the body of Fa-
ther P.'s kept cult-boy, Pussycat.
 THE SPAHN MOVIE RANCH 1968 109

10. They said, in regard to Pussycat, that Sadyi, after leaving

the cult, had re-entered the cult house one night and somehow
caused a demon to possess the body of Pussycat. So, evidently, part
of the ceremony required trying to drive the demon of Sadyi
out of Pussycat. Poor Pussycat.
11. Manson showed up with a female Caucasian, maybe Sadie
Atkins-Glutz, who had to remain in the "crash room" and could
not come into the trial room. A man named Smith, a former college
teacher, allegedly alleged to Blaine that Manson had been called
in "to sit in" on the Manson himself had been a magical
trial, since
understudy of Father P. Evidently Manson was forgiven his interest
in young ladies, as long as he did not bring them before the holy of
holies.
12. Charlie talked about being his "own master soon." Charlie
sat next to a person referred to as D.K., upon a mattress.
13. Father P., to begin the trial, donned a brown tunic and pre-
pared his religious relics, for purification.

14. Pussycat began to fight, calling Father P. an arsonist, so that

they tied Pussycat, a twenty-year-old youth, hand and foot and
gagged him.
15. Father P. then started running around the room screaming:
"I'm God! I'm Satan! I'm Jesus!" while Pussycat on the floor was
moaning behind his gag.
16. Father P. proclaimed him, Pussycat, again possessed by Sadyi
so he, Father P., sent Manson and D.K. out to steal holy water from a
nearby church.
17. Blaine and Smith stood guard over the trussed cult-lad while
they went for the holy water.
18. Manson and D.K. returned and Father P. sprinkled the holy
water on Pussycat's face.
19. Pussycat calmed down. Father P. motioned for them to untie
Pussycat, but as soon as the gag was off, Pussycat began to scream.
So Manson and Father P. retied Pussycat.
20. Father P. then supposedly ran to the altar, seized a large
wooden "stolen" crucifix and began to beat Pussycat across the face
with the crucifix.

21. Blaine then claims to have run to his microbus and grabbed
110 THE FAMILY

a small tape recorder and carried it within the ashram to record the
ceremonies, secretly.
22. Pussycat was yelling, "Help! PoHce!"

23. Father P. threatened to retie the gag, kicking the trussed

victim.
24. Evidently it really got freaky for a while, where they got into
plans to sacrifice the lad. "If you must die, Sadyi vdll die with you,"
Father P. said, allegedly.

25. D.K. got a stake and began to carve it, saying: "He must die."
26. People came to the door, stopping the action inside. Father
P. then tried to remove the influence of Sadyi from the lad: "Sadyi,
go away or I will take your body and destroy it with great pain. I
will burn it piece by piece and I will chop it up in Httle pieces." Evi-
dently he would also have had to destroy Pussycat.
27. Blaine alleges that Manson left the next day to drive back
to the Spahn Ranch in the hot bus.
28. Blaine says that Father P. went down to L.A. subsequently,
to see Manson.
29. Blaine alleges that later, after the death of a member of the
Final Church, he, Blaine, drove Father P. and Pussycat down to the
Topanga Canyon area and dropped Father and Pussycat ofiF.
30. And as for Sadyi and his pregnant wife, they picked up on
the bummer vibes and left the Haight, so at least part of the story
has a happy ending. Oe-ee-oo.

The Manson Family seems to have oozed back to Los Angeles

where they spent the latter part of September and October occupy-
ing the Spahn Ranch. The old black bus, the Love Bus, Charlie gave
to a person named John, that friend of Sandy Good who at one time
had rented the back ranch. John gave Charhe in return a pickup
truck. John took the black bus and drove it to a commune called
the Commune of the Sacred Heart in Oregon.
As for Beausoleil, in the early fall he and his girl-friend-wife Gail
spent time in Santa Cruz, then went to Santa Barbara where Beau-
soleiltraded his truck for a boat in which he began to live in Santa
Barbara harbor. Gail spht and went back to San Francisco while
Beausoleil remained, living in his houseboat. Later, Manson came
to the houseboat, according to Beausoleil, and asked him to come
 THE SPAHN MOVIE RANCH 1968 iii

away and help to prepare the music for a record album. This he
did.
Sometime October during a group acid trip, the family
in early
members began and growl and whip one another and tried
to fight
to throw each other into the burning fireplace. Further family legend
has it that they finally succeeded in throwing one another into the
flames and even threw a cat into the flames but the soul was so
strong among them that no one got burned.
On October 7, 1968, Susan Atkins aka Sadie gave birth at the
back ranch to a premature baby boy whom she named, by the eye-
brow of Ra, Zezo Ze-ce Zadfrak aka Zezo. When
Sadie announced
to the happy family that she was about to give birth, Charlie sent
Sadie to boil some water. He sent Katie to fetch a razor. Upon the
arrival of the water and the razor, even with labor coming on,
Charlie proceeded to shave, thus giving a lesson in cool and calm
to his idolators. This was almost like a koan to the family, this
"breaking the fear force"— as they termed it.

Itwas a breech delivery. When first the arm and then the body of
the Zezo emerged from the laboring mother, Manson, accord-
little

ing to legend, seized the moment by halting the singing, tearing

from his Spanish guitar a guitar string and tying off the umbilical
cord with it.

Evidently the family sang songs to relax the atmosphere as Sadie

gave birth. The family had a form of relaxation mantra
particular
which they sang during times of tension. This relaxation mantra
was added by the Beach Boys as a coda to "Cease To Exist/Resist"
during the fadeout at the end of the song.
The week following, Tex Watson and kourephile Dean More-
house drove to Ukiah in Terry Melcher's Jaguar to pick up Mary
Brunner's baby. Pooh Bear aka Valentine Michael Manson. There
is an area of silence around the matter because of uptight individ-

uals, but it is known that producer Terry Melcher allowed family

members to use his Jaguar and his Standard Oil credit card. The
family ran up a large bill on the credit card, using it for their im-
portant travels.
Mrs. Roger Smith, as will be remembered, had been appointed
as foster parent for Pooh Bear during Mary Brunner's trouble with
the law in Mendocino. Her husband had been Manson's parole of-
112 THE FAMILY

ficer and was then operating a drug abuse program for the Haight-
Ashbury Free CHnic Annex.
On the day Tex and Dean drove to Mendocino, Mrs. Smith
brought the baby to Ukiah evidently for a custody hearing, to give
it back to its mother.
 Seven

Death Valley 1968

Sometime in the evening of October 13, 1968, two ladies, Clida De-
laney and Nancy Warren, were beaten and strangled to death with
thirty-six-inch leather thongsabout six miles south of Ukiah, Cali-
fornia on U.S. Highway 101. The thongs were left tied around the
necks of the victims.
Mrs. Warren was eight months pregnant and the wife of a High-
way Patrol officer. Mrs. Delaney was her sixty-four-year-old grand-
mother who operated an antique store next to a house trailer where
she lived.
This double homicide is mentioned because it is the first of a se-
ries of unsolved murders that occurred strangely enough when vari-

ous family members were in the vicinity of the killings. Two of

those convicted to die for the so-called Tate-LaBianca murders
were in Ukiah, California for hearings of some sort the afternoon
of these two hideous events, according to Officer Bob Richardson of
the Mendocino County sheriff's office.
Sometime in the middle of October 1968, the family left the
Spahn Ranch. Manson decided to take a trip all of a sudden to
"Grandma's place" in Death Valley, California.
With the usual satins and silks and pillows and Arabian tapes-
tries, they fixed up the new bus in the style of Manson Moorish.

The family had learned of the place in Death Valley in the re-
mote vastnesses of the wilderness from one Cathy Meyers aka
114 THE FAMILY

Cathy Gillies aka Patty Sue Jardin. Cathy Gillies had been raised
on a ranch or piece of patented mining land located high in the
bordering mountains of the Death Valley National Monument. The
ranch was known as the Meyers Ranch after Cathy's grandparents
who still own the property. The Meyers Ranch was located about a
quarter mile east of the Barker Ranch in Goler Wash. Goler Wash,
formerly a gold mining area but now an unused wasteland, is a
narrow treacherous slit in the Panamint Mountains that connects
the Panamint Valley to the west with the hilly high desert area near
the Meyers Ranch to the northeast. She had met Manson at a ranch
in Topanga Canyon and was highly tuned in to the Los Angeles
music scene where she had been an ardent BufiFalo Springfield
groupie.
The green bus traveled somewhere for a few days, then drove to
Grandma's place in Death Valley, arriving around Halloween. They
proceeded north several hundred miles to a small desert town
called Trona, a town plagued by crusty fallout from a potash plant.
Trona is located a few miles south of the Death Valley National
Monument. From Trona they proceeded north on Highway 28
about twenty miles to a long thin salt lake where they turned right
and crossed over the salt lake to the Ballarat ghost town, the home
of the only retail food source in the area, the Ballarat General Store.
The ghost town Ballarat— a mining settlement from the late 1800's
—serves as a supply center for the local miners who still search
avidly for gold. It on the edge of a thin, twenty-five mile salt
lies

lake at the junction of Ballarat Road and Wingate Road, two roads
of the bumpity-bump variety. Having driven up the west side of
the salt lake, the bus drove south on the east side of the salt lake of
mushy selenite, a good salt source protected by law against en-
croachment or mining.
It is fourteen miles on Wingate Road from Ballarat to the slim

mouth of famed Goler Wash. The bus passed an old Spanish ar-
rastre, a burro-driven ore-munching machine from the previous cen-
turies, but now little more than a rusted metal shaft jabbed up from
the hill void.

In the distance, on the left as the bus headed south, up against

the Panamint mountainside, lay the Cecil R. mine, a little man-
made greed gouge in the hillside. The bus bounced past South Park
 DEATH VALLEY 1968 115

Canyon, then past Redlands Canyon and then Redlands camp

where Harry Briggs' Schultag Mine is located.
The ends about ten miles south from the Ballarat Gen-
salt lake
eral Store and several miles south of the lake's ending is a white
pole stuck in the dirt on the right side of the road, which marks the
almost hidden access road to Goler Wash.
There the bus hung a left and began the bumpity-bump climb
east toward the narrow mouth of Goler Wash and the dry water-
falls which mark the way into the Meyers-Barker Ranch area.

The road at that point is impassable to normal conveyance, espe-

cially to an old bus full of hippie wanderers. The road up Goler
Wash used to be the main road between Las Vegas and the Pana-
mint Valley during the heyday of the Goler Wash gold strikes early
in the twentieth century. But devastating floods in the winter of
1941 washed out the road leaving a series of sheer waterfalls. Ac-
cording to the local miners, Cathy Meyers' grandfather dynamited
the falls so as to allow at least some sort of conveyance to pass up
and down the Goler Wash road.
The bus drove past the rusty hulk of a Model T Ford and the old
rear window lying near it in the dust until it reached the first water-
fall where it burnt out one of its brakes and was backed down and
abandoned.
The family walked the seven and a half miles from the begin-
ning of the waterfalls to the Meyers Ranch, up the long, very nar-
row, steeply clifFed gash in the mountain where barrel cacti stick
out from each cHffside like big green fingers.
Immediately the family hikers encountered the first dry water-
Climbing up it they reached a second waterfall and crossed a
fall.

big curve to the right and encountered the third waterfall. Then,
grabbing a boomerang curve to the left they came to the treacher-
ous fourth Goler Wash waterfall, then the fifth, sixth and seventh.
Then they had to hang along some sort of sheer cliff. After that it's
merely two or three miles of rollercoaster creekbed travel, where-
upon they arrived in the vicinity of the Barker and Meyers Ranches.
In the journey up Goler Wash there are several cabins in which
travelers may stay. All cabins in the area are always kept open.
There is the Newman cabin, which is the first cabin to be encoun-
tered upon coming up the wash. There is something called the
ii6 THE FAMILY

Lotus Mine, which is owned by Warner Brothers, of all people, on

which there are two houses and a mine shaft perched up on the
mountainside.
After about five miles, the road forked at Sourdough Springs. The
left fork proceeds up north over Mengel Pass in the direction of
Death Valley. And the fork straight ahead leads directly first to the
Barker and then the Meyers Banches. The Barker Banch con-
sists two small cabins and a third larger main ranch building.
of
The Barker mine itself exists further down Goler Wash high up on

a precipice which is reached only by risky footpath. Scrap iron junk-

ies have long since hauled away the cable and metal for the hopper

and the mine car which lowered the ore down to the wash.
Proceeding further east on Goler Wash they encountered the
Meyers Banch, which is a well-kept series of buildings, including
the ranch house, a trailer and several outbuildings. The watered
ground grows all kinds of wild fruits, grapes and wild vegetables.
The plants are watered by a spring shafted into the hillside. They
stayed for a couple of days at the Meyers Banch but were unable
to secure permission from Meyers' grandmother to remain so the
family estabHshed headquarters at the dilapidated Barker Banch
just a quarter mile west of the Meyers Banch down Goler Wash.
A
gentleman named Ballarat Bob, a local miner, had been pros-
pecting out of the Barker Banch for about three and a half years
and was more or less in charge of the upkeep of the place. Ballarat
Bob trained several vdld burros for use in his prospecting expedi-
family arrived at the Barker Banch, around
tions. Shortly after the
Halloween 1968, Ballarat Bob showed up vidth a friend and found
nude hippies ensconced in his pad. But there was nothing much
he could do about it because this remote area was never patrolled
by the police.
The Barker Banch is encircled by a fence. Inside the fence is

deposited forty or fifty years of desert detritus. There were several

old collapsed trucks, a chicken coop, plus, upon the hill in back,
an old pear-shaped concrete swimming pool.
There was part of an old mining-ball grinder on the property,
the body of an old World War II plane, wing tanks and bits
of ejected cockpits. There was a huge tire which Ballarat Bob used
to drag the wash with in order to make ita more serviceable en-
 DEATH VALLEY 1968 117

trance road. Constant use of Goler Wash, especiallyby dune bug-

gies, sometimes made it impossible to negotiate the wash even
with four-wheel drive because the spinning tires would throw all
the gravel out, exposing the boulders.
The main Barker ranch house is an L-shaped building with a
kitchen equipped with stove and refrigerator. The electricity was
not working at the time. A generator was necessary to supply elec-
tricity because the remote ranch is fifty miles from the nearest

power lines. There was a concrete bathtub and shower and a small
medicine cabinet over the lavatory. Beneath was the twenty-two-
inch cabinet in which Manson would be found hiding a year later.
There was Ballarat Bob's bedroom in the main ranch house and
a haven of mattresses toaccommodate the family.
The only had was Juanita's Dodge camper
transportation they
and a jeep belonging to Gregg Jakobson that Dennis Wilson had
given them.
It was a paradise for Manson. He could do anything in this wil-
derness where park rangers so seldom patrolled. It was as remote
as Xtul, Mexico.
Manson became friendly with the gold prospectors who con-
tinually comb the Death Valley highlands looking for the Mommie
Mine. Manson would pick up rocks from various quartz veins and
show them to the prospectors. In Death Valley there are a few
younger miners, some of whom smoke pot and some have long hair.
It is strange on a summer night in a prospector's camp to hear con-

versation about rock music and gold mining and minerals and the
Grateful Dead. Some of the older miners also knew Manson and
they asked him the locations of the various places where Manson
had found promising rocks. Manson has said that he showed some
miners the sites of possible mining claims and that they had offered
him percentages of any gold profits therefrom.
In Hopi Indian legend there was a myth called the Emergence
from the Third World wherein there was a reference to a large un-
derground world from which the Hopi nation emerged to dwell on
Earth's surface. Manson believed that there was some geological
The Hole.
possibility for the existence of
Sometime in the fall of 1968, Manson grew zealous about The
Hole. He thought The Hole was a large underground city where he
ii8 THE FAMILY

could live with family and escape from the profligacies of the
liis

mother found a hole in the desert that goes down into a

culture. "I
river that runs north underground, and I call it a bottomless pit be-
cause where could a river be going north underground? You could
even put a boat on it. So I covered it up and I hid it. I called it . . .

The Devil's Hole."

It is not known who or what inspired him to believe that a sub-
terranean paradise was waiting for him and his followers. Perhaps
itwas a vision on an acid trip. Who knows? There evidently have
been claims made in the past that there is a huge city-sized cave
under Death Valley fed by the underground Amargosa River.
Death Valley, the claim goes, is a geological "graben" developed
along formations that could conceivably house a large open under-
ground area. But not certainly a place with chocolate fountains
and food-trees and a race of people aheady Hving there, as they
came to believe.
The family claimed even into 1970 that there are places on the
edge of Death Valley where there are openings to the Amargosa
River. The family would go out on Hole patrol to try to find hidden
openings to The Hole because they felt there was some sort of oc-
cult conspiracy to keep secret the entrance to their paradise. Man-
son seems to have claimed that he had personal access to The Hole
and was able to go down there, or so he got his followers to believe.
One such entrance to The Hole was thought to be the so-called
Devil's Hole in the northwest triangular corner of the Death Valley
National Monument where the monument extends briefly into Ne-
vada. Devil's Hole, fenced off from potential visitors, is a baleful
pit full of water, and inhabited by blind fish according to the fam-
ily. A couple of skin divers had drowned several years previous
trying to touch bottom.
For anyone interested, to get to Devil's Hole you proceed to
Death Valley on Route 127. Then drive north to a town called
Death Valley Junction. Hang a right there and proceed to Ash
Meadows Rancho. Then grab a northish county road across the
California-Nevada fine to The Hole. Manson considered that this
Devil's Hole was the key toThe Hole.
For three days, abject and humble, at the edge of The Hole, Man-
 "

DEATH VALLEY 1968 119

son meditated and contemplated the meaning of this bottomless

well-pit. Then it dawned on him that the water in Devil's Hole must
be the door or the blocking mechanism preventing entrance to the
Underworld, so that, were the water sucked out, the Golden Hole
of chocolate fountains would be revealed.
He consulted a pumping company to see about pumping The
Hole dry and supposedly received a bid for the job of $33,000.
Manson received, on the metaphysical plane, further guarantees
of the existence of such a hole in key passages of Revelation. Wasn't
the world hip to references to locusts proceeding from the bottom-
less pit— the puteum abyssi— as foretold in Chapter 9 of the Book
of Revelation?
There was a new persona developing for CharUe: The Devil from
the bottomless pit beneath Death Valley. Oo-ee-00.
Sometime in the desert that Manson undertook a prolonged
fall

nude meditation period in the high desert chill, discovering death.

Indeed it was a legend among Manson's followers that he experi-
enced his "final death" when he picked up a hve rattlesnake in
Death Valley National Monument. Paul Watkins tells how he and
Charlie encountered a rattler one day and Charlie persuaded Wat-
kins to sit rightdown in front of it, beam it out with a snake.
In his vidldemess revelation, Manson seems to have suffered a

typical experience that thousands have encountered, say, on psilo-

cybin: that of the experience of submission to Death.

CharHe always talked about a final flash he received while medi-
tating in the desert:
"Once I was walking in the desert and I had a revelation. I'd
walked about forty-five miles and that is a lot of miles to walk in
the desert. The sim was beating down on me and I was afraid be-
cause I wasn't v^ling to accept death. My tongue swoll up and I
could hardly breathe. I collapsed in the sand.
"I looked at the ground and I saw this rock out of the comer of
my eye. And I remember thinking in this insane way as I looked at
it, ^Well, this is as good a place as any to die.'

Then he began laughing like an insane man,

started to laugh. "I
I was so happy." Then he got up "with ease" and walked ten miles

forthwith and reached safety.

120 THE FAMILY

Manson developed in Death Valley a great fondness for the coy-

ote, the predator's predator. Nothing is more vicious and overbear-
ing in the pursuit of varieties of food than the coyote.
He began to applaud a state of mind called here coyotenoia. Here
is the basic Manson quote on coyotenoia: "Christ on the cross, the
coyote in the desert— it's the same thing, man. The coyote is beauti-
ful. He moves through the desert delicately, aware of everything,
looking around. He hears every sound, smells every smell, sees
everything that moves. He's always in a state of total paranoia and
total paranoia is total awareness. You can learn from the coyote just
like you learn from a child. A baby is bom into the world in a state
of fear. Total paranoiaand awareness. ."
. .

Gregg Jakobson wanted back his jeep that Wilson had given to
Manson. So on November 24, 1968, Jakobson and Dennis Wilson
drove to Death Valley to retrieve the jeep. Jakobson's jeep was
broken down somewhere in the vastness of Goler Wash so they
towed it out to Trona to be fixed, taking Manson with them. While
driving in Goler Wash, Jakobson ran over a spider, which made
Manson angry. Better a human, he contended, than a spider.
Jakobson and Wilson took Manson with them out of Death Valley
to L.A. perhaps to celebrate the impending release of the song writ-
ten by Manson.
Two weeks later Jakobson returned to Goler Wash in a motor-
cycle to visit and broke his bike on the treacherous terrain. So he
went back to Trona, picked up his jeep which had just been re-
paired and threw his motorcycle in the back and went back to Los
Angeles.
On December 8, Beach Boys'
1968, Capitol Records released the
single, "Bluebirds Over the Mountain" "Never Learn Not To Love
( Cease To Exist ) ." Charlie Manson was on the charts.

A more important event occurred, however, on December 7, 1968.

Capitol Records released the white-jacketed Beatles double album
containing among the thirty songs, such gems of snuflF as "Sexy
Sadie," "Rocky Raccoon," "Blackbird," "Revolution 9" and "Helter
Skelter"— all found by Manson to foretell his conquest of the World.
Manson felt able to twist and interpret the lyrics and production
of these Beatles' songs as if they were holy writ. After Wilson and
Jakobson took Manson out of Death Valley in late November 1968,
 DEATH VALLEY 1968 121

Manson seems to have stayed on Topanga Lane at tlie mouth of

Topanga Canyon by the ruins of The Spiral Staircase.
The Spiral Staircase house where Manson and crew had stayed a
year previous had subsequently been demolished. Manson was hv-
ing in a blue bus parked by the ruins.
Manson was seen at a Thanksgiving dinner at Layne Wooten's
house in Topanga Canyon on November 28, 1968.
In early December 1968, Manson sent ace-acidassin Bruce Davis
on a trip to England where he spent around five months, including
considerable time at tlie London headquarters of the Process.
Little Paul described it as being a go-to-Rio-and-get-me-a-
coconut scene where Manson told Davis to take a trip around the
world and report back. Whatever the case, Bruce Davis, with two
travehng companions, journeyed to England by way of North
Africa.
There is about that Davis took a collection of
also a story flitting
500 silver dollars over to England to sell. People that have intimate
knowledge of the Tate-LaBianca case will see an interesting possi-
bihty if in fact, Davis did transport the silver to Great Britain.
In London, Davis approached the Church of Scientology to pur-
sue courses of study. He was employed by the Church of Scientol-
ogy for a short time, working in their mail room. The Church of
Scientology fired Davis after a couple of weeks when he wouldn't
stop using drugs, they say.
According to a homicide investigator extremely close to the case,
Bruce Davis then began to hang out with the Process Church of the
Final Judgment at their Mayfair townhouse. Later, when he re-
turned from London to the Spahn Ranch, Davis was talking and
whooping about the Hitler-loving satanic organization.

In the summer of 1968, Processeans flooded the New York un-

derground where they sought out writers, editors and musicians as
They hounded Paul Krassner, editor of the Real-
potential converts.
ist for days trying to get Tim Leary's home phone number for a con-
version attempt. They claimed to Krassner that they only had to be
physically present in a street scene to cause street riots.
For a while, Robert and Mary Anne DeGrimston aka Christ and
122 THE FAMILY

Goebbels-Hecate, lived for a while with a lady named Godard in

Brooklyn while the main body of caped Process members Hved in a
building on 12th Street in the
Lower East Side.
The up a chapter of their so-called "church" at 28V2
Process set
Cornelia Street in Greenwich Village where they held more or less
public meetings. With their black capes and black garb they flocked
about on the streets near the Fillmore East. Once poet Allen Gins-
berg was attempting to purchase an egg cream at the Gem Spa
luncheonette at 2nd Avenue and Saint Marks Place when several
Processoids approached him, giving forth the there is no good/ there
is no evil routine. When Process members were encountered they
usually announced that they were on the way to California.
In August 1968, Robert DeGrimston-Moor dictated his book, A
Candle in Hell.
The Process continued their feud with the Church of Scientology.
Once Father Aaron Tubal-Cain interrupted a Scientology meeting
in N.Y. to try to hold an auction of E-Meter parts. An E-Meter is a
form of electrogalvanometer used by the Church of Scientology in
the training of their converts. In the early period of the Process,
they also used the E-Meter but later abandoned its use.
In the summer of 1968, the Process told at least four people inter-
viewed by this writer that they were traveling to California, yet in
interviewing people up and down the state of California, there is

only the faintest indication that they were there.

It is known that the Process had, among its "chapters" three
closed chapters, the locations of which are kept secret. In California
there were Process activities in Marin County, Santa Barbara, The
Santa Cruz Mountains and the Santa Ana Mountains.
It is regarding activities in the Santa Cruz Mountains south of
San Francisco beginning in late fall 1968, that ghastly reports of
The same people indicate that
occult sacrifices have been received.
the Process stopped using the name Process and began to use other
names.
Pohce began reporting finding exsanguinated animals and de-
capitated animals, in the remote Santa Cruz vidlderness. One hu-
man has recounted witnessing ritual executions in a grove on Route
17 south of Santa Cruz. The ceremonies involved use of a portable
crematorium to dispose of the bodies, a wooden altar adorned with
 DEATH VALLEY 1968 123

dragons and a wooden morgue table. There were as many as forty

people in attendance at these sacrifices. The instrument of sacrifice
was a set of 6 knives welded into a football shaped holder. The
heart was eaten.
The group was called the Four Pi movement, and was dedicated
to the "worship of evil." Later, the group moved ceremonies to the
Santa Ana Mountains south of Los Angeles where they continued
their barbaric abhorrencies. The leader of this human sacrifice
group, a large man, held the cult title Grand Chingon. It was not
Manson.
However, at least five times in this vmter's presence Manson has
been called The Grand Chingon or the Head Chingon by members
of his family.
According to interviews with individuals in New York who had
contact with the Process chapter in New York in late 1968, part of
the Process returned to England in December and others spread out
across America on the sly, and open activities in New York were
ceased. By early 1969, the Process was operating in New Orleans
openly. For secret activities in the Los Angeles area, there are indi-
cations that the sacrifice group was running pre-arranged obscure
ads in the personals sections of underground newspapers to inform
members of upcoming nocturnal assembHes.
 Eight

From Death Valley to Canoga Park

Voityck Frykowski and Roman Polanski went to school together in

Lodz, Poland.
Evidently Mr. Frykowski's father financed PolansM's first film,
Two Men with a Wardrobe. He also served as an assistant on sev-
eral of Polanski's productions. He had been married twice, once to
a well-known writer Agneski Osiecka. He had a son Bartyke Fry-
kowski, now fourteen and Hving in Poland. He was an educated,
intelligent man who formed part of an energetic circle of artists
and intellectuals, some of whom defected to the West.
Sometime in the latter half of 1967 Mr. Frykowski split from Po-
land and moved to Paris where Roman Polanski encountered him
and gave him some financial help and encouragement.
Polish writers and intellectuals who have fled the confining at-
mosphere of the homeland help each other considerably. They keep
in touch, aid one another's careers and even celebrate Polish holi-
days together.
Voityck Frykowski was thirty-seven years old when he died.
In early 1968 it was arranged that Voityck Frykowski come to the
United States to live. He was diligent in his study of the Ameri-
can language and kept daily notebooks learning the nuances of
American-speak. He was interested in poetry and evidently was
writing verse during his stay in America. He was viewed by his
writer friends such as noveUst Jerzy Kosinski as a perceptive critic
of their work.
 FROM DEATH VALLEY TO CANOGA PARK 125

Sometime in January of 1968 Mr. Frykowsld met Abigail Folger

at a party in New York City. Miss Folger was bom in 1943 and was
raised in the closed tradition of San Francisco society. A talented
pianist, she was also interested in art and painting. She was edu-
cated at the Catalina School for Girls in Carmel, California and at
RadcliflFe College. After graduation from Radcliffe, she did graduate
work at Harvard.
Her father was the chairman of the board of the Folger Coffee
Company, now a subsidiary of Procter and Gamble. Miss Folger's
private fortune was extensive. A close friend estimates that her per-
sonal income after taxes was around $130,000 per year.
In 1967 she was employed by the University of Cahfomia Art
Museum in Berkeley. In the fall of 1967, Miss Folger came to Hve
in New York City. After working for a magazine she worked one of
the best avant-garde bookstores in the world, the Gotham Book
Mart on Forty-seventh Street.
Miss Folger met Jerzy Kosinski at a party when she was working
at the Gotham Book Mart. Subsequently, Mr. Kosinski introduced
her to Voityck Frykowsld. They were both fluent in French and he
was eager to learn the American language.
In the fall of 1968 Abigail Folger and Voityck Frykowski drove a
Drive-a-Car across the United States to the West Coast. They
moved into a house at 2447 Woodstock in Los Angeles, a residence
located off MulhoUand in the Hollywood Hills.
She was involved in the struggle for racial equality. Miss Folger
worked as a volunteer social worker for the Los Angeles County
Welfare Department from sometime in fall 1968 till March 31, 1969.
Her place of employment was south central Los Angeles, where
evidently she aided black ghetto children.
In Los Angeles, Miss Folger and Voityck Frykowski stepped into
the world of movie actors and actresses, friends of Sharon and Ro-
man. They also acquired friends of their own, including friends of
Charles Manson and the family, one of whom, a lady singer who
video-bugger film classic, hved on a nearby
later starred in a hilltop.

Miss Folger's money attracted people. More than one aspiring

film producer approached her to contribute money to film projects.
She met hair tycoon Jay Sebring and he persuaded her to invest in
126 THE FAMILY

his empire of barber shops and hair-care products. Through Mr.

Sebring, theymet others in the interlocking circles of film-fame.
In late December 1968, Miss Folger made arrangements to pur-
chase around $3500 worth of stock in Sebring International.

In December of 1968 Charlie and three girls drove in an old

Studebaker to an exclusive dude ranch near Reno, Nevada where
they spent two weeks as guests of Charlene Cafritz, whom Manson
had met the previous summer at Dennis Wilson's beach home. Mrs.
Cafritz was in Reno logging enough time to get a divorce.
Manson seems to have had a great effect on the young lady in
terms of material detachment. As a result of her divorce settlement,
the lady was left with a fortune in excess of two million dollars.
This sum she spent in something Hke ten months, aided in early
phases of her spend-frenzy by guess who.
Sometime toward the end of December, a friend named War-
nick drove the young divorcee back to Los Angeles from Reno. In
January '69 Mrs. Cafritz visited New York where she spent $92,000
during that month.
At one point, Manson told the young lady that he wanted a blue
Fleetwood Cadillac. The young lady erred and purchased instead
a fire engine red Cadillac and he told her to take it back. She also
evidently purchased a number of thoroughbred horses which Char-
liegave away for her.
She bought him a number of items, including a chain saw which
he gave to some people who were cutting wood for a Hvelihood and
even a quantity of fly spray to help snuff the huge horde of Spahn
Ranch horse flies.

Mrs. Cafritz took numerous motion pictures of Manson and the

family in Reno which no one seems to want to discuss. Mrs. Cafritz
was a friend of Sharon Tate and Terry Melcher and many others
associated with theoncoming tragedy.
There is great confusion about where certain family members
were Hving in the late '68 and early '69. They seem to have been
scattered here and there, some in Death Valley, some in Topanga
Canyon, one or more with the Process in England, and some in
Laurel Canyon in the Hollywood Hills.
One former Manson family associate claims that a group of four
 FROM DEATH VALLEY TO CANOGA PARK 127

to six family members lived on Laurel Canyon Boulevard in the

log cabin house once owned by cowboy-actor Tom Mix. They lived
there for a few weeks, in late 1968, in a cave-like hollow in back of
the residence.
At tlie end of the year there was a savage, hideous murder in the
Hollywood Hills of a young girl who may have been associated
with the family.
Marina Elizabeth Habe, seventeen years old, was home for a va-
cation from the University of Hawaii where she was a student. On
Sunday, December 29, she had a date with John Hornburg, age
twenty-two and an old family friend. Later that night Eloise Hart,
her mother, at 3:30 a.m. heard noises in the driveway of their home.
She looked through the window and saw a man standing beside
Marina's red sports car. A black sedan was in the driveway, Mrs.
Hart remembered.
The man said "go"; he got into the sedan and drove quickly away.
There seemed to be two people in the car. John Hornburg told the
police this: "That among other things they visited a club on the
Sunset Strip; that after their evening Miss Habe returned with him
to his parents' home, changed from evening dress into capri pants, a
white turtleneck sweater, brown coat and drove home in her car."
She was found on New Year's Day in thick underbrush ofiF Mul-
hoUand Drive, 100 feet west of Bowmont Drive. Only maniacs
could have wreaked such hatred upon a human. Contusions in eyes,
slashes in throat and heart, burns inflicted, raped, nude, except for
a shoe. According to one former family associate Marina Habe was
known by members of the family.
Manson seems to have attended a New Year's Eve party thrown
for the cast of Hair by John and Michelle Phillips at their home in
Bel Air.
Meanwhile, back on Cielo Drive, Terry Melcher began to move
his belongings out over the hoHdays, and in January of 1969 he
moved into his mother's beachhouse at 22126 MaHbu Beach Road
in Malibu, California.
Manson returned to Death Valley in January 1969. Early in Jan-
uary 1969, Little Paul Watkins led a deputation into Las Vegas, Ne-
vada from the Barker Ranch in order to trade Juanita's red Dodge
128 THE FAMILY

van, which was unsuited for traversing through the wilderness ter-
rain, for a 1953 four-wheel drive International Scout jeep.
While Watkins and Juanita were in Los Angeles Charlie was hav-
ing the green and white bus towed out of the mouth of Goler Wash
by a local fireman to have a brake shoe fixed. They had learned of a
long, looping route of a couple of hundred miles which would lead
them into the Barker Ranch from the north. So Charlie drove the
bus full of nascent creepy crawlers north through Emigrant Pass
and around Stovepipe Wells, up around the Tucky Mountain area
and down the middle of Death Valley where they stopped off at
the small town of Shoshone. The townspeople remembered them
with some amazement at the thought that anyone could drive a
school bus into the wilderness.
Out of Shoshone the bus drove west past vast pile-hills that
looked like giant oblong loaves of milHons of huge burnt match
heads. They drove past Salisbury Pass, Jubilee Pass to the dry
Amargosa River. They drove past Ashford Mills and turned left
going northwest on the first gravel road passing a sign "Warning:
Road Not Patrolled Daily." ( Gurdjieff said not to trust maps of wil-
derness roads.) One's map of Inyo County indicates that the turn-
off is east of Ashford Mills whereas in reahty the turn-off is west of
the Mills. Although by now the road may have been changed, for a
road in those voidal stands is whatever the county road grader cre-
ates in his quarterly scraping of the roads.
From the Death Valley floor, the bus climbed up a long ribbon
leading up the east side of the Panamint Mountains.
The bus made another left at the Wingate Jeep Trail past a sign
"Warm Springs, 4 miles. Anvil Springs, 18 miles."
The bus was, from oozed into the mountains,
that point on, as it

inside the Death Valley National Monument, passing a sign with

white letters on a black background: "Firearms prohibited."
"Charlie could drive like a mother fucker," Clem commented
when he was crossing the same road a year and a half later. It was
on this trek over the wilderness down to the Barker Ranch that sev-
eral miracles were alleged to have been performed by Charles
Manson.
The green and white bus had to go over unbelievable creek-bed
roads, twisting and creek gravel. At one point they broke a wheel.
 FROM DEATH VALLEY TO CANOGA PARK 129

They ripped the bottom of the bus. Clem claimed that Charlie levi-
tated the bus over a creek crag. And the girls, naturally, often had
and planks.
to bridge road pits with rocks
Gradually as the road headed up into Warm Springs Valley it
began to coincide with the creek bed. Four miles in lay a cluster of
talc mines, huge mounds of baby powder on the hillside. At the
warm water springs, the bus passed a cluster of trees, gasoline pump
and trailers for the miners.
The road got worse immediately as the bus passed the talc mines,
evidently because the trucks hauling the talc to market used the
road out rather than the road in toward Mengel Pass, so only pros-
pectors and campers used the road which passed the black and white
Striped Butte.
Bounce bounce was the experience for the family as it entered
the strewn chaos. The road forked and the sign, "J^^P Road— Butte
Valley" pointed to the left. To the right the road curved around to
more talc mines. Packs of wild burros roamed the Striped Butte
Valley and coyotes prowled openly, their thin noses rising above
the greasewood bushes.
The bus rose from the high valley floor over Mengel Pass some-
how, and then bumped another five miles or so down sacred Goler
Wash to the Barker Ranch. There they dwelled.
Somehow, as of a miracle, the bus arrived at the Barker Ranch
where to this day, its engine removed, it reposes at an angle facing
Ballarat Bob's chicken coop. Upon its back fender some sardonic
individual had placed a red and white sticker saying, "America.
Love it or leave it."

Meanwhile, in sacred Goler Wash, things started getting brrr

in the high desert. A chill swept upon nudism. Winter was creeping
in.

Manson left to find more suitable habitats, taking "quite a few

people with him"— as Brooks Posten recounted it.

Apparently there was a housing problem in early 1969. Some-

thing was preventing their return to the Spahn Ranch.
Susan Atkins spent some time living at a house on the Buchanan
Ranch in Topanga Canyon. She lived with a man named Rory. This
may have been the time when Manson threw Sadie-Susan out of the
family and took baby Zezo Ze-ce Zadfrak away from her.
130 THE FAMILY

Friends of Sadie at the Buchanan Ranch were scheming how she

might reacquire Zezo. It was interesting that, according to ob-
servers, Sadie was Manson down and asserting her
actively putting
independence. Until one day Manson appeared at the top of a ridge
above Sadie and yelled "Sadie!" motioning her to come, whereupon
Sadie Glutz immediately returned to the family.
Somehow Charlie obtained a house at 21019 Gresham in Canoga
Park, Cahfomia in the San Fernando Valley, not too far from the
Spahn Ranch. They occupied the house and a small guest house
to the rear of the property where they set up their musical equip-
ment and their commune.
21019 Gresham is a sleazy red-roofed house with columned porch
and a small Httle green "guest house" behind it. To the left are some
horse stalls or stables behind a double garage.
Down the dirt road toward Devonshire Street are the Island Vil-
lage apartments where various associates of Manson lived.
Cutting down San Fernando Valley from the hills to the north is
Brown Canyon wash, more like a huge paved storm sewer. This wash
ran just to the west of the house on Gresham, and Manson used to
drive his dune buggy down the wash to the Gresham house from
the Devil Canyon area, the home of Helter Skelter.
Because Manson allegedly was living in the Death Valley Hills,
his federal parole supervision was from Los Angeles to San
shifted
Bernardino. On January 17, 1969, Manson's new federal parole of-
ficer attempted to pay him a visit in Death Valley. He got as far as

the Ballarat General Store and there he learned from an old miner
that he would have to walk seven miles up the waterfalls if he
wanted to visit the family camp. No thanks.
After a week or so at the Canoga Park house on Gresham Street,
Manson sent a squad up to the Barker Ranch to remove the rest of
the family. These people were left behind at the Barker Ranch to
take care of things: Brooks, Juanita and Gypsy the violinist.
A week later, the International Scout jeep, for which Juanita and
Watkins had traded her Dodge camper in Las Vegas, arrived in
Golcr Wash to pick up the remaining three and took them to the
house on Gresham Street in Canoga Park.
From around February 1 to 20, 1969, they all stayed at the sleaze
cottage on Gresham.
 FROM DEATH VALLEY TO CANOGA PARK 131

group at this time are

Specific inputs to specific activities of the
scant but there are ample depositions concerning the famous
"Death Mockup Party" that occurred at the house on Gresham Street
on the day that Brooks, TJ., Juanita and others returned from the
desert in the new jeep.
That was the time that the people arrived from the desert, attired
in leather, tanned and trim of form. And they were all sitting around
"mocking up snuff," postulating the event of their own death so as
to experience it mentally. Sound like fun?
A part of the group was stoned and were sitting in the middle of
the room. They had begun to write a song and had left off the proj-
ect. Charlie was sitting in the midst of the gathering and the topic

was the ever-present subject of snuff. Charlie said, "Die," so all lay
down and pretended they were dead. Bo started screaming "Char-
lie"— and then "Oh-h-h-h-h!" Paul Watkins testified to the following
concerning this famous party: "I was listening to Charlie say die."
Watkins testified that he tried to think of a way to die but he
couldn't so when Charlie said, "Die," Watkins lay down and "acted
like I was dead." Everybody else did and Bo was screaming and
Charlie was sitting in the middle of the room moving the fingers,
talking about the confusion in the air, how fine it was.
Evidently Brooks Posten was able to go into a trance on command
and Charlie commanded him to die. So he died. He went into a
trance that lasted three or by some accounts five days. As he lay
wasting on a couch in the living room the girls would clean up after
his natural functions and even Charlie would try to pull him out of
it but he couldn't. So on the fifth day, lo! Charlie commanded that

his very own sacred embroidered gray corduroy vest be placed be-
neath Brooks as a symbolic diaper. Horrified with the prospect of
Jesus' very own vest being used as a diaper. Brooks revivified him-
self from his trance. Or so it is told.
During this three-week stay at the house on Gresham occurred
the famous Manson gobble-miracle. Zonked on lysergic acid, Man-
son was being blown by a hysteria-prone young adept named Bo.
Bo was a small masochistic girl with thyroid eyes and long black
hair, one of CharHe's favorite pain-targets.
The legend continues that during the gobble the girl went nuts
and, all in one incision, bit in twain Manson's virility. Then, through
 132 THE FAMILY

the miracle of magic, Manson, they claim, at once healed his tragic
amputation and continued onward.
Meanwhile back in the Hollywood of reflections, on February
18, 1969, Chailes Manson checked in with his parole oflBcer and an-
nounced that he was living in Los Angeles. His parole supervision
then was changed back from the San Bernardino oflBce to Los Ange-
les. He told his parole ofiicer that when the snow melted in the high

mountains, he would be returning to the wilderness.

Also, on February 18, 1969, a DG-3 "Gamblers' Special" loaded
up with a drunk pilot and thirty-five gamblers crashed into the
snows of Mt. Whitney near Bishop, California in a flight from Haw-
thorne, Nevada to Long Beach, California. According to the tale,
the plane remained buried in deep snow until summer when the
snow melted. The plane and dead occupants were located but sup-
posedly all valuables and cash had been stripped from the gam-
blers, booty valued at a quarter of a million dollars or so.
The finger of blame has pointed naturally at Manson and his dune
buggy battahon. One defected family member says, though it is
hard to believe, that pieces of the crashed airplane were used by
the family to adorn their dune buggies.
Around February 20, 1969, Charlie sent a force back to Death
Valley consisting of Brooks, Juanita, T.J., Bo, Mary Brunner and a
female Caucasian named Sherri, probably Simi Valley Sherri.
There were heavy rains in Goler Wash during these days, causing
a flash flood,
and the water rose up to the ranch buildings. Shortly
after the floods, Sherri
and Juanita and others went into Shoshone,
California and perhaps to Las Vegas to get suppHes. On the way
back they stopped in Shoshone where occurred the notorious dope-
smoke involving the local deputy sheriff's daughter.
The Inyo County sheriff's deputy stationed in Shoshone, Cali-
fornia lived in a trailer camp near the town. The deputy
had a teen-
age stepdaughter. She seems to have become friendly with members
of the family. When Sherri and the others came
through the town,
they stopped at the trailer and were entertaining themselves
visit-
ing the deputy sheriff's young daughter. Little Paul
remembers the
event like this: "She was up there in the bushes with
the family,
smoking a joint and the sheriff comes up and asked, What
are you
doing?' His stepdaughter replied, 'Oh, smoking
a joint, Daddy.'"
 FROM DEATH VALLEY TO CANOGA PARK 133

Waxing furious, the deputy went into action. He sent his stepdaugh-
ter away forthwith to live with relatives and then mounted a raid
against the Barker Ranch, the alleged dope source.
Somebody called Charlie down Los Angeles and he immedi-
in
ately sent a big van up to the Barker Ranch and took everybody out
except Juanita and Brooks, who were ordered to pretend to be mar-
ried. Evidently the thinking was that appearing as a married couple
would ward off any form of arrest.
Sure enough, the deputy and another deputy and some Death
Valley National Park Rangers came to the Barker Ranch asking
about marijuana. No, no, they didn't know anything about mari-
juana. So they beat the bust.
Juanita and Brooks had enough food for a one-meal-a-day scene
for two weeks. WTien the rest of the family left they told Juanita and
Brooks that tliey would send for them shortly. Manson et al. were
not to return to Death Valley for six months, after the murders.
 Nine

Helter Skelter

Around the first of March 1969, two miners named Paul Crockett
and Bob Berry arrived at the Barker Ranch to find Brooks Posten and
Juanita living there following the marijuana raid. Bob Berry had
visited the Barker Ranch area the preceding autumn and evidently
had enjoyed himself. Crockett, an articulate gentleman in his fifties
filled with the lore of Scientology, left his home in Carlsbad, New
Mexico to come to Goler Wash
purpose of discovering gold.
for the
In the ensuing weeks, Bob Berry and Juanita began to have an
affair, culminating in their marriage and her leaving the clutches
of Manson.
Bob Berry and Paul Crockett began to stay in the small tar-roofed
cabin to the left of the main Barker Ranch house. The two began
to scour old mining sites in the Panamint Mountains, Wingate Wash
and south into Dora Canyon, in order to hook into the mother lode.
By night Berry and Crockett would sit and chat wdth Brooks and
Juanita, and later Paul Watkins when he returned from Los Angeles.
One thing that struck the miner/metaphysician, Paul Crockett, was
the enormous fear that Paul Watkins and Juanita and Brooks had
for this mysterious Charlie.
It came to pass that Paul Crockett hired, for board, Brooks Posten
to help haul ore down from
the hillsides. It is common for miners to
engage someone weekly shipments of supplies via jeep to
to bring
their claims or their camps from supply depots such as the Ballarat
 HELTER SKELTER 135

General Store. Crockett upped his food order to accommodate the

thin young trance-prone Texan Posten.
They would go out by day to inspect old mine sites, old diggings
and outcroppings, hauling ore samples back down to the ranch
when they returned at dusk. They would crunch up the samples in
a rock-breaking machine that could chew the mineral into forty
pieces per cubic inch. Then they would pan the gold out to see how
much was in the samples.
Sometime in the spring Little Paul Watkins traveled to Death
Valley where he visited Juanita and Brooks and met Crockett. Little
Paul returned to tlie Spahn Ranch to announce the horrible news
that "scientologists" had taken over the Barker Ranch— news which
triggered off a fearful reaction within the family.
Watkins persuaded Charlie to let him go back up to the Barker
Ranch, perhaps to keep an eye on the so-called scientologists, look-
ing for the mother lode. Several times during these spring months
of 1969, Manson and the others tried to drive up to the Barker
Ranch, but it always seemed that something went wrong. Witch-
beams were thwarting them? Or were the so-called scientologists
keeping the family away? Paul Crockett certainly didn't do any-
thing to dispel this illusion that he was preventing the family from
coming up there by means of his mental powers. In fact, he was pro-
moting the idea that he could establish a magical warp to prevent
Manson from returning to harm those remaining in Death Valley.
The family seems to have begun to believe that occult beams and
powers were attempting to prevent them from returning to holy
Devil's Hole. Even Manson, ever a beam-phobe, evidently held some
belief in Crockett's power.
Paul Watkins, so he claims, decided at the advent of various mur-
derous schemes to get out of the family. So he placed himself in the
tutelage of Paul Crockett: "He [Crockett] knows how Charlie set
up hiswhole thing and I went to Paul, 'Paul, help me out of this!'
Blam! Just, like, I was hung right up in it. And using processing, and
looking at what is, I was able to be free from it. But old Clem,
Sandy, Lynn and Gypsy, there ain't no way they can get free from
that. I mean they could snuff Charlie out, and they're still stuck to
him."
"Is the power that great that held you there?" he was asked.
136 THE FAMILY

"It's by agreement," he replied. "You see I can't do anything to

you without your agreement, without your saying it's okay. But to
someone who's so asleep, and so unconscious, they'll agree to any-
thing—" Then it's a different story.
"I gotunhooked from the family with just a few simple words. I
got Charlie to agree to a few things and then just walked right out."
Once that spring Sadie and a member of the Straight Satans mo-
torcycle club tried to go up to the Barker Ranch and met with fail-
ure. Another time, Charlie Manson himself, the Devil, loaded up
the CMC dune buggies, but the truck
truck and trailer with two
broke down not far from the Spahn Ranch and the mission was
aborted. So the legend grew that this guy Crockett up there was
using freak-beams to prevent the family from returning to the Barker
Ranch.

By the middle of January 1969, the new Beatles' white double

album had already grossed twenty-two million dollars in the United
States alone. The white double album was the first cultural instruc-
tion from the Beatles since the album Magical Mystery Tour a year
previous. Even its all white cover was symbolic to the family— all
white, dig it?

Something freaked Manson out in early 1969 enough for him to

prepare for the end of Western civiHzation. He had akeady talked
about an impending Armageddon of some sort but he had always
preached "submission is a gift, give it to your brother." That is, walk
humble beneath the violence.
Along oozed Helter Skelter.
Manson had a hypnotic rap about how the modern blacks were
arming themselves, how he, Manson, had talked to blacks in prison
and he had learned of heavy arms caches here and there.
He had a wayof stirring up paranoia that was legendary. Goose
bumps shivered the back of the arms during his whispered super-
stitious lectures on karma and imminent doom. With language as
flawed as a President's announcing an invasion of a South Asian
country, he announced that the blacks would rise up, kill
a few mil-
lion whites, take over the reins of government.
Then, the story continues, after forty or fifty years the blacks
 HELTER SKELTER 137

would turn the government over to Manson when they supposedly

found themselves run the world. Oo-ee-oo.
unfit to
It was the pig Christian wealthy Americans that were going to

get cut. He, Christ, he, Devil, was going to pull oflF the Second Com-
ing. "Now it's the pigs' turn to go up on tlie cross," he would say.
On a metaphysical plane, Manson linked the impending Helter
Skelter with the concept of The Hole. For inside this mystic Hole
in Death Valley, Manson and his family would live and dwell while
the blacks and the whites in the cities would fight to a bloody end
and then the blacks would take over.
From The City in The Hole, Manson would make forays to sack
cities with his hairy locusts of the Abyss. And the blacks, through
their "super awareness"— in the words of the family— would know
that Charlie was where it was at, and nod him into power.
On a higher level, if higher is any word to be used, Manson taught
that the family bringing the seven holes on the seven planes into
ahgnment would be the ones to squirt through to the other side of
the universe. And The Hole was to be the magic paradise— magic,
because where else can you find subterranean chocolate fountains?
He even over-dubbed a weirdo exegesis atop the chapters and
verses of the Book of Revelation, to back up his claims.
The dune buggies were the horses of Helter Skelter with those
^^breastplates of fire," described in the Book of Revelation of St. John
the Divine, Chapter 9. And unknown to them, were the
the Beatles,
"four angels" who would wreak death upon a third part of mankind.
And Manson found a scriptural basis forannouncing that the
Beatles were destined to have a fifth member
or "angel"— the angel
of the bottomless pit, otherwise known as guess who.
One of Manson's favorite passages from Revelation 9 was:
"Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor
of their fornication, nor of their thefts"— words he would quote over
and over again, preparing his worshipers to kill. And did not the
family have "hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the
teeth of lions"?
And wasnot Manson the king of the pit?
"And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bot-
tomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in
the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon." When they translated
138 THE FAMILY

name
the Bible from Latin to English, the translators left out another
in the text besidesAbaddon and ApoUyon, for the angel of the bot-
tomless pit. The name in Latin is Exterminans.
Exterminans—what a word to sum up Charles Manson.
The correlations that Manson found between the Book of Reve-
lation and the Beatles and his own crazies could be continued in
moonfire profusion but the reader will be spared.
Manson began to listen to the song "Helter Skelter" off the new
Beatles' album with earphones and somehow, as of a miracle, he
began to hear the Beatles whispering to him urging him to call them
in London. It is unfortunate that Manson evidently did not know
that a helter skelter is a slide in an English amusement park.
The girls say that at one point Manson placed a long-distance
phone call to London to try to talk to the Beatles. There is no doubt
that the song "Helter Skelter" on the white Beatles double album is
a masterful, insistent, rock and roll number— and it is very weird
sounding, especially the long final section which fades out twice at
the end, sounding like a universal march of wrecked maniacs.
"Charlie, Charlie, send us a telegram" was what he thought lay
beneath the noise plexus of the composition "Revolution 9." It was
felt that if one were to listen closely on headphones, one could hear

the Beatles softly whispering just that. As

it is, so be it.

would scream during the playing of

"Risel Rise! Rise!" Charlie
"Revolution 9" (which Manson associated with Revelation, Chapter
9 ). Later they wrote Rise in blood on the LaBiancas' wall.
It is necessary to Hsten to the white Beatles double album to un-

derstand what Manson was hearing and seeking to hear. The album,
as a whole, is of confusing quality. It has flashes of the usual Beatle
brilliance but it was produced at a time that the Beatles were locked
in bitter quarrels and it is reflected in the album.
The album has the song "Piggies," of course, and, more creepily,
a song called "Happiness Is a Warm Gun." Other songs hke "Black-
bird," "Rocky Raccoon," etc., were interpreted strictly as racist
doom-songs.
The song, "Sexy Sadie," must have sent Susan Atkins aka Sadie
Mae Glutz, into spasms of happiness. "Sexy Sadie, you came along
to turn everybody on," the song croons, and "Sexy Sadie, you broke
the rules, you laid it down for all to see."
 HELTER SKELTER 139

While the family was still at the house in Canoga Park, Manson
began to encourage members of various motorcycle clubs to hang
out with the family. The two gangs closest to the family were motor-
cycle groups with the initials S.S., the Satan Slaves and the Straight
Satans. He wanted the bikers to join in his group to supply a
needed military wing.
The family was also associated wath the Jokers Out of Hell, a
group whose members were into the occult and one of whom had
a record store in Santa Monica. According to people interviewed,
the Jokers had houses in the San Fernando Valley near family
headquarters.
Manson used his girls to entice the motorcycle riders to hang
around the family. He would order a girl to strip and suck. Forth-
with the zippers zipped and the mini sldrt hit the ground. The
bikers loved it. Manson also set his followers to work on the bikers
in terms of material possessions. They would peel the wristwatches
from the bikers' arms while one girl would coo in his ear, "You don't
need time. What's time?" And sometimes a biker would try to move
into the ranch with a wife and the girls would say, "Why do you need
an old lady?" and they would deprecate the "old lady's" jealousy.
Manson put on a whole public relations project to attract the
bikers. He loaned them money. They were encouraged to fix and
park their bikes there, and after the family had reacquired the
Spahn Ranch, there were plenty of horses to ride and girl-objects
and there was always food. Bands of brigands always have flocked
on the edges of desert wilderness. The deserts ringing L.A. carry
on this distinction, with rip-offs, clandestine shipments of dope and
stolen automotive parts, and weird magic ceremonies abounding.
In many ways the Manson family became like a bike club: the
incredible male chauvinism, the outlaw attitude, the "death-trip,"
the Satanism, the rituals. The new girls of the family even wore own-
ership ankle chains Hke some bike club mamas.
The bikers are famous for their elaborate funerals with single-
file lines of motorcycles forming the funeral procession. The
woman's "colors"—her club garb— are often buried with the colors
of "her man" in the grave. Sometimes there are mourning periods
for the woman, v^th periodic observances at the gravesite such as
pouring wine on the ground.
140 THE FAMILY

One who lived with the

Straight Satan family for a while was a
tall handsome man named Joe. Joe came to the family's house on
Gresham Street looking for directions to a house he was going to
rent. So enticed was he by the family, particularly Sexy Sadie, that
he stayed on. He had a girl friend who was hooked on reds at the
time.
Joe the Straight Satan an important role in the helter-
fulfilled

skelter preparations: he was the architect of the secret escape route

to Death Valley.
Joe's stay with the family cost him about $2600. He gave up his
watch, a revolver, a microbus and even his motorcycle to the com-
mon kitty. He on Gresham Street for about a
lived with the family
month, HoUowberry Hill Ranch of Satan for a couple of
at the
weeks, and then at the Spahn Ranch till Mother's Day, 1969.
A mustached Straight Satan named Danny
short, black-haired
De Carlo had the longest and strongest known relationship of any
of the bikers with Manson.
In March, Danny De Garlo came around to fix a bike. Charlie
invited him to stay, proffering an endless supply of women. De
Carlo was soon dubbed, by the girls. Donkey Dick Dan due to
abundance in down-scope.
A lot of the Straight Satans spent passing time at the various
houses in which the Mansonists Hved. The Satans had those colorful
aliases likeDroopy, Dirty Old Man, 86 George, Stickman, Phila-
delphia John and others.
De Carlo's wife Marian was around for a while but De Carlo beat
her up and she fingered out Manson and Char-
instead as the culprit
lie was arrested on March 30, 1969. But the matter was quickly
cleared up.
De Carlo was bom in Canada and had been in the U.S. since the
early '50's. He had served in the United States Coast Guard. His
owned a machine shop in Inglewood. In August of 1965
father
Danny De Carlo, his brother Laurence and a couple of others were
busted for smuggling dope at the Mexican border coming back from
Tijuana. He was given a five-year sentence which he was still ap-
pealing when he came to live with the family.
De Carlo had a son Dennis, over a year old, the same age as Pooh
 HELTER SKELTER 141

Bear. Dennis was handed over to be raised at the Spahn Ranch

creepy-crawl nursery.
De Carlo was one of the first "gun-freaks" to be associated with
Manson. De Carlo worshiped guns. He is an authority on many
kinds of rifles and firearms.
After the family had conned themselves back onto the Spahn
Movie Ranch, he quickly set up a small munitions factory in the
"Undertaker's Parlor" on the Western ranch set. The undertaker's
parlor was renamed the gun room. It was from the gun room that
they sallied forth to murder.
The gun room had equipment for making four or five different
types of bullets. It was a repository for all kinds of knives and bay-
onets. De Carlo slept there and parked his bike there. Among De
Carlo's weapons were a 303 British Enfield, a .22 caliber rifle, a .20
gauge shotgun, a .30 caliber carbine, a .12 gauge riot gun, an M-i
carbine and a submachine gun ( a spizer MP 40 SH ) De Carlo ob- .

tained one machine gim from a gun collector in a Hollywood rock

and roll group.
De Carlo and various of the Straight Satans used to visit the house
occupied by the rock group. The gun collector in the band was on
an LSD Spirit of Nonviolence trip and decided to throw away his
machine gun so he gave it to Donkey Dan.
Manson and the family really put down alcohol so there was a
conflictwith some of the bikers, notorious juicers, especially De
Carlo. The girls used to get miffed also at Danny listening to black
jazz programs on the radio. They were horrified by the Aphrosheen
commercials. "They thought we were listening to 105 [on his radio
dial], listening to jazz was eh .was plastic," he said. It of-
. . . . .

fended their Olde- Aryan racism.

Anxious though Manson was to please the bikers, not all of them
passed the race test. For instance, Joe of the Straight Satans once
brought a guy to the ranch that was one-half Indian, a guy named
Sammy. Charlie would not allow him to make it with the girls. A
person named Mark who was only one-quarter Indian was not al-
lowed commerce with the Aryans at the Spahn Ranch.
In conjunction with plans for Helter Skelter, Manson began to
work on an escape route to Death Valley. He wanted to forge a se-
cret trail over the Santa Susanna Mountains and over the Mojave
142 THE FAMILY

Desert so he could tiavel with his chosen band when the blacks
were sacking the L.A. Civic Center, clear to Death Valley without
crossing a major highway.
He decided to begin to build a dune bug-
fleet of helter-skelter

gies with which to transport the family back and forth from the
Spahn Ranch to Death Valley, up into the Santa Susarma Moun-
tains by means of Devil Canyon and across the Mojave Desert.
From his experience in the rough terrain of Death Valley, Man-
son decided that dune buggies were the vehicles for his mobile snuff
squad. They were great for outrunning cops in the abyss. They were
Hght enough so that two or three of the gore groupies could hft them
over boulders and precipices. Motorcycles, on the other hand, were
scorned as being inadequate in the wilderness.
But dune buggies, ah sacred dune buggies— they were like battle-
He would later outfit dune buggies with huge gas tanks giving
ships.
them a looo-mile assault field. They put machine-gun mounts on
them and Manson's command dune buggy was fixed so that it could
be slept in. There could be food dune buggies, ammunition dune
buggies, dope-supply dune buggies, etc.
Manson met a young man whose family owned the Steele Ranch
on the other side of Santa Susanna Pass Road from the Spahn
Ranch. There were a series of dirt fire roads that connected the
Steele Ranch with Devil Canyon. So it came to pass, as it is/so be
it, that the Steele Ranch was chosen as the beginning
of the Arma-
geddon trail.
Manson kept cutting the locks on the gates and substituting his
own so finally the foreman just gave him duplicate keys. There was
an old World War H weapons carrier and a water truck at the Steele
Ranch that Manson coveted for his helter-skelter hardware. For the
first time the family was into gathering possessions.
At first, Manson actually bought units
for his flotilla of dune buggy
assault vehicles. Later they would steal Porsches and strip off the
bodies to make buggies. On March 6, 1969, Charlie, Bill Vance and
Little Patti moved into the Butler Buggy Shop on Topanga Canyon
Boulevard near the Spahn Ranch. Charhe had a big thick roll of
hundred-dollar bills and purchased two rail-job dune buggies for
$1300.
 HELTER SKELTER 143

The Butler Buggy Shop was owned by two brothers, one a Los
Angeles police officer.

The family subsequently had quite an interesting relationship

with the Buggy Shop, as did the Satan slaves who, according to po-
Hce reports, claimed that they got free Volkswagen parts from the
shop. The L.A. raided the Spahn Ranch and seized some dune
sheriff
buggies that were purchased with money stolen by Linda Kasabian.
Anyway, to pay for the first two dune buggies, CharHe forged and
cashed a $700 check which had come in for Juanita from an insur-
ance company. The other $600 came from some stock that slim
blonde Sandy Good sold.

One day late in March, a member of the Satan Slaves named Joey
C. arrived at the Gresham Street house looking for a place to live.
Manson asked him where he had been hving and he repHed that he
had been staying at a large house out west on MulhoUand in the re-
mote MaHbu Hills near Agoura. The place had about ten bedrooms
and a swimming pool and the owner was evidently away. The house
was further noteworthy in that a descendant of the outlaw Jesse
James hved next door.
Since the owner was gone— a fact that created possibiHties— Man-
son pulled tent pegs and moved the family to the MaHbu mansion
where they overran the place for about t\\'o weeks.
It was from the ten-room MaHbu house that they plotted a helter-

down through the fire roads to the sea.

skelter escape route
Joe of the Straight Satans knew the fire roads in the area from
serving on the county work gangs when incarcerated. In Los Ange-
les County there are several work camps where prisoners work on
fire roads and fire prevention because of the high incidence of fires

in the mountains surrounding the city.

Somehow the family obtained keys or a master key to the fire

roads in the area.

While the family was at the Satan Slaves' house in Agoura, Joe
charted a helter-skelter freak-road from the house in Agoura down
to the sea. All they had to do was clear out about a hundred feet of
brush and the road was perfect.
PatriciaKrenwinkel purchased a couple of hundred dollars' worth
of United States topographical maps of the mountainous area be-
144 "^^^ FAMILY

tween the Spahn Ranch and Death Valley, in order to plot the master

helter-skelter escape course. They plotted supply-cache locations

along the way. They laid out all the various topographical maps one
day driveway and taped them together so that all of southern
in the
California from sacred Goler Wash to Malibu Beach was one.
These helter-skelter maps later were found buried in Death
Valley.
Most of the plotting was done by map although they did check
out some of the trails with the buggies. But, according to the person
who plotted the helter-skelter snuff-route, the family never did
travel the route all the way to Death Valley.
In all its glory, the helter-skelter escape trail led from Malibu
Beach up Castro Fire Trail to the HoUowberry Hill Ranch in Agoura.
From Agoura it led by fire road and creek bed to the Steele Ranch,
north of the Spahn Ranch. From there it sliced up Devil Canyon and
oozed across the Mojave Desert and on to sacred Goler Wash, cross-
ing only two major highways (Highway 99 and the Antelope Free-
way) on the way.
There is a rumor that Manson or someone in the family stole a
half-track from an auto salvage lot in Chats worth near the Spahn
Ranch which was used, and perhaps burned out, in digging part
of the helter-skelter escape road over the Santa Susanna Mountains.
There was one heavy problem facing Helter Skelter. By early
1969, the West Valley Station of the Los Angeles sheriff's depart-
ment had in use Bell-65 two-man helicopters with powerful search-
lights installed that could light up a city block from 1000 feet in the

air.

Manson had various plans to deal with these hehcopters. One

was to attack the helicopter with magic. Another method was to
thwart the heHcopter at night by taping the headlights of the dune-
buggy battahon with black tape, leaving only a small slit in the tape
to allow a thin ray of light to escape, hopefully undetectable from
the air.

Manson added a murderous ingredient to the concept of Helter

Skelter—that is, the possibility of a trigger that would set it off. Man-
son somehow came to believe that the big race war would begin
with blacks murdering some white famiHes in their homes.
 HELTER SKELTER 145

"The karma is turning," he said, meaning that "to complete the

karma of the world," such a collision was inevitable.
Helter Skelter was a dream project for ambulatory schizophrenics.
There was something in it for everybody. Those who had had creepy
childhoods looked upon Helter Skelter as a means of "saving the
children." Others had a more racist point of view in that CharHe
put up a picture of a white ehte ultimately ruling over a black
population.
People who Hked violence looked upon Helter Skelter as a chance
to engage in warfare. People into robbery and chase dug
it for its

plunder and looting. End-of-the-world freaks could really rejoice

in Helter Skelter.
was the Satan Slaves— that secretive aloof motorcycle club with
It

occult prochvities thathved and operated in the Malibu-Topanga

Canyon areas— which seems to have provided another impulse for
family violence. The previous year, members of the Satan Slaves
club had been seen at a Ku Klux Klan rally in the valley, complain-
ing that black people were scarfing up welfare benefits that be-
longed to good white folk like the Slaves, according to a reporter
who attended the rally.

They hung out sometimes in Hollywood. The Satan Slaves used

to come into the Compleat Enchanter, a shop on Los Palmas, to pur-
chase medalHons.
About four of the Satan Slaves were linked v^dth an obscure
Satanic cult of around 40 members that held outdoor ceremonies—
a cult called here the Kirke Order of Dog Blood. The headed
cult is

by a woman whom the members worship. They believe her to be

the reincarnation of Circe, or in the Greek, Kirke, but she seems to
take on names Greek goddesses
of other also. Circe or Kirke is

thought to be red-haired and to be Enghsh.

Adepts of the Circe/Kirke cult carve the so-called Star of Circe,
a fourpointed star emanating from a rectangle, into their chests,
evidently as a mark of adoration of Circe. The Circe group held out-
door ceremonies twice a month, on the new and full moons, per-
haps on the secluded beaches of L.A. and Ventura Counties, where
they sacrificed black dogs, black cats, black roosters and probably
also goats. Animal vampirism is supposedly involved.
There are grim hints that some of these blood sacrifices were
 146 THE FAMILY

filmed and that members were involved in the filmings.

of the family
There is some indication that some members have the letter "K'*
tattooed on them and wear "K's" around their necks. The cult is sup-
posed to have elements of voodoo in its rituals, including belief in
werewolves. Because of the Manson family's very close relationship
with the Satan Slaves there is no doubt the Circe group provided
another sleazo input into Manson's mind.
One of the headquarters for the Circe group or the Kirke group
was a house not far from the Spahn Ranch in the Granada Hills
area.
Manson got into studying what would cause group freak-outs.
Around this time an Indian came to the Ranch and showed Charlie
a plant called telache, believed to be belladonna. Charhe tried it
and was in a coma for three days. They collected leaves and stewed
them, placing the coffee colored brew in water jugs. This was to be
dropped into water reservoirs. Anybody who was stupid enough to
try belladonna in the beatnik belladonna craze of the early 1960's,
will understand how grim telache was.
Danny De Carlo remembered
it vividly: "It drives you insane

where they see Httle people and goofy things like that and you bang
your head against the wall. It drives you mad. They had jugs of this
stuff because the girls would take all the leaves and they put them
in water and boil them and it comes out a coffee color— brown and

really rank tasting stuff."

Manson even planned robberies through the use of telache. The
theory was to sneak into a house where a party was going on and
put belladonna into the water.
Again, De Carlo: "All their drinks
were going to have belladonna
in it and right away-going them nuts. While they're in there
to drive
going through all these contortions and don't know what the hell is
happening to them, they [the family] just walk on in and take what
they want to take and do anything they want to do and
just sneak on
out."
Manson used to talk about pouring LSD into the L.A. water
supply. They believed mass acid use would cause citywide vio-
lence.
Around this time Charlie and the girls made a pornographic
 HELTER SKELTER 147

movie by the swimming pool at 2600 Nicholas Canyon Road in

the hills above MaHbu. The producer, according to Los Angeles
homicide officers, was Marvin Miller. The owner of the property,
Mrs. Gibson, after receiving nmnerous complaints from her neigh-
bors, inspected her house in tlie company of her lawyer and found
a bloody machete which police say Manson used during the film-
making to slash somebody's arm.
After a couple of weeks living at that mansion on Mulholland
near Kannan, the family talked 82-year-old George Spahn into let-

ting them return to live at the Spahn Movie Ranch.

They stole an intercom from the swank Kannan Ranch house and
some other items which they stored in back of the Spahn trash
dump, the site of the upcoming dune-buggy assembly Hne.
It may have been while the family was staying with the Satan

Slaves at the Hollowberry Hill Ranch in the hills above Malibu Beach
near Agoura that they began to associate with the occult group
known as Jean Brayton's gang or the Solar Lodge.
It is thought that a few of the bikers that Manson met were part

of Brayton's outlaw Solar Lodge of the Ordo Templi Orientis, and

that they turned him on to it.
There certainly were quite a few family credit card forgeries
out in the Blythe, California area during that time. North of Blythe
is where the Brayton gang had its blood-suck initiation ranch.
At least five separate individuals have claimed that they were
told by a member of Brayton's rebel O.T.O. Lodge that Manson
was involved with the Lodge, both at the Lodge's desert ranch near
Blythe, California, and at one of the cult houses in L.A., near the
use campus.
Two family members, one of them Susan Atkins aka Sadie Glutz,
have said that the family participated in ceremonies involving the
drinking of dog blood and the sacrifice of animals. This was alleged
to be a sexual tonic. Readers, however, should not take that pos-
sibility seriously. The blood-drinldng of the family forces contem-
plation of the hideous possibilities of a new form of psychedelic
vampirism, i.e., getting hits off of blood while on dope.

According to testimony at the Brayton gang's trial, the Brayton

gang was into drinking the blood of sacrificed animals.
148 THE FAMILY

More important to the study of the Manson family is the fact that
the Brayton cult also believed most vehemently that there was an
iinminent black-white bloodbath to occur.
And that it was going to happen in the summer of 1969. Sound
like Manson?
 Ten

The Solar Lodge of the O.-.T.-.O.

Georgina Brayton aka Jean was bom on December 29, 1921. Her
husband, Richard M. Brayton, age fifty -nine, was a teacher in the
philosophy department at the University of Southern California.
Jean Brayton and her O.T.O. Solar Lodge operated right at the
gates of the USC campuswith a network of cult houses and a book-
store. They also owned various houses in the desert near the Colo-
rado border in Riverside County, California.
Like Mary Anne DeGrimston of the Process, Jean Brayton had,
or has, collected circles of fearful, brain-washed followers, many
of them young, but a significant number also older and in the pro-
fessions.There were around fifty known followers in the group,
with many more probably undetected at this time.
Her magic organization, the Ordo TempH Orientis (O.T.O.) was
founded in 1902 in Germany. The cult purported to continue the
work, so to speak, of the Order of the Knights Templars.
Crowley formed his own O.T.O. "chapter" in England
Aleister
in 1911. It has been around ever since, with current world head-
quarters in Switzerland.
Crowley had problems in the field of sadism. His books hinted at
human sacrifice.His aphorisms such as "Know! Will! Dare! and
be silent" betokened violent encroachment. Crowley took peyote
60 years before beatniks gobbled it in North Beach. He was into
using drugs to pulverize the personality a half-century before the
 150 THE FAMILY

advent of brain-wash cults like Manson or the Brayton gang or the

Process.
In California there are evidently two O.T.O. jurisdictions—one
for northern California and the other in the south. The Southern
lodge was overrun by Jean Brayton's group.
The O.T.O. is another occult society where initiates proceed
upward through degrees of initiation, so that slowly the acolytes
are sucked into a weirder and weirder scene. It is pyramidal, with
the Ipsissimus (Jean Brayton) occupying the position of the eye-
ball atop the pyramid.
The hype was similar to other groups including Manson's: tear-
ing down the mind through pain, persuasion, drugs and repetitive
weirdness— just Hke a magnet erases recording tape— and rebuild-
ing the mind according to the desires of the cult.
Get this: Brayton's Solar Lodge would hold magic meetings where
they would try to summon and radiate hate-vibrations into the
Watts ghetto in order to start riots. The Solar Lodge beheved that
a heavy race war similar to Manson's Helter Skelter was imminent.
To venture ahead of the Manson story, in late spring 1969, Brayton
sent followers around to various desert locations to find places to
stay when the race-blaze would occur. She sent some to Utah and
others went to Taos to hunt.
And the conflagration was imminent.
Everyone, all her followers, were to be out of Los Angeles by the
summer solstice, June 21, 1969—prepared for the brick-out.
Brayton doted upon John Symonds' book on Crowley, The Great
Beast. From reading the book, The Great Beast, Brayton came to
believe that Aleister Crowley, while operating his Abbey of Thelema
in Sicily, drank the blood of freshly snuffed animals as part of the
higher rituals of his cult. The first two grades of the Brayton Holly-
wood cult, the so-called Minerval grades, didn't have to drink
blood. But the upper levels reveled in sacrificing cats,
dogs, chick-
ens, etc., and drinking their blood reportedly
consummating acts
of sex-magic while animal blood was poured upon the fornicators.
The Solar Lodge
of the O.T.O. was heavily opposed to Scien-
tology. In addition to anti-black rituals,
they held anti-scientology
rituals, mocking-up the enemy, so to speak.
 THE SOLAR LODGE OF THE O/.T/.O.*. 151

Brayton was into collecting bikers and used telache or belladonna

at thesame time as Manson.
Aleister Crowley had been a noted user of drugs arcane and
Brayton herself was known to use them all— Hke a wandering
amphetamine-head on New York's Bowery who would pause and
eat the pills contained in an old medicine chest that someone was
throwing from a condemned building in the rain.
According to the depositions of her former followers, the Brayton
gang used, for mind-zap reasons, marijuana, LSD, demerol, scopo-
lomine, jimson weed, datura root, ether and belladonna. The
weirder the better.
She had that great Manson programming people while
trick of
they were on LSD trips. She would get highly personal data from
them under acid and then use it later, as a form of extortion.
The rumor was that Brayton was loan-sharking among dental
students at USC. Certainly she was eager to cultivate them as good
dope sources, especially for pain killers and ether.
Naturally there were a number of young hippie types attracted
to Brayton's groups. Very young people today are sexually free
as never before, with healthy sexual rhythms established early in
life. Brayton interrupted these rhythms by forcing adepts in the
early stages of cult training totally to forgo sex— a cruel act designed
to confuse, frustrateand conquer the person for her purposes.
One member named George was having difficulty, sin of sins, in
controlling his sexual drives. So Jean Brayton had George cut his
wrists every time he felt sexual pleasure coming on. His arms be-
came gouged with slashes.
One girl, whose husband Clifford finally turned state's-evidence
against this spank-magic lodge, told the police that when she be-
came pregnant, Jean Brayton was enraged. Brayton told the girl
that she should condition herself to hate the child and upon birth
the baby was be turned over to the cult. The girl says she duti-
to
fully tried to hate her growing stomach, but could not, so left the
creep cult during pregnancy.
One dentist associated with the Solar Lodge disappeared rather
mysteriously. He had a practice in Palm Springs. One Monday morn-
ing he called in, saying he had suffered injury in a skiing accident.
152 THE FAMILY

He has not been heard from since. Jerry Kay, the art director for
the movie Easy Rider, was a member of Brayton's Solar Lodge.
Brayton had the great scam of owning houses which she rented
Georgina and Richard Brayton have
to the cult creeps. Since 1963,
owned property at 1251 West Thirtieth Street in Los Angeles, a
house— perhaps the only house in Los Angeles— where occult
chicken sacrifices took place. This is Manson frequented.
the house
They also own a house at 2627 South Menlo, the adytum for their
Crowleyan magic group. This house is an old three-story mansion
with light green siding and a dark green roof. Property also was
ov\aied at 1241% West Thirtieth Street— a paradise pad for sex-
magic chicken-snuffers.
They also acquired in 1966 a ranch off on a dirt road between
Vidal and Blythe, California, about four miles from the Colorado
River. Mrs. Brayton was the world's only up-front Baphomet-
worshiping real estate speculator. One cynic, interviewed, said
that it was in order to keep all her houses fully occupied with rent-
ers that Jean Brayton so zealously sought followers. They used
the remote desert commune for initiation rites.
The Lodge Hbrary and "temple" were on the third floor
Solar
of 2627 South Menlo. The walls and ceilings of the third-floor
temple were painted with magical and Egyptian murals by a cult
member, in the manner of the paintings at Crowley's notorious Ab-
bey of Thelema in Cefalu, which Mussolini stomped out of exist-
ence.
The Solar Lodge operated a bookstore directly across the street
from the USC campus 947 West Jefferson Boulevard— called The
at
Eye of Horns Bookstore. It was a small bookstore, painted red and
yellow, located in a building that has since been torn down. The
bookstore was blessed with an amuletic eyeball of Horus painted
on the outside.
The eye of Horus was used as a magic amulet by the Egyptians
symbolizing the solar triumph of the hawk god Horus' eye. Horus
got his eye bricked out by the evil god Seth in a heavy sky battle
in the early stages of the universe. Horus' eye was saved and re-
constituted through magic aka Magick.
There was another Eye of Horus Bookstore opened at 137 North
Broadway in Blythe, California near their desert hideaway.
 THE SOLAR LODGE OF THE O.'.T.'.O.*. 153

Before their arrest, Jean Brayton and her husband had applied
for a hquor Hcense to operate a magic bar-cafe complex in Vidal,
California. They claimed to have an income of $3000 per month
from a pension plus the rentals in the various cult houses in L.A.
The group also ran what seems to be the v^^orld's only known oc-
cult service station. One Richard Patterson, ardent follower of Jean
Bra>i:on,opened Richfield station Nmiiber 1087 ^^ June of 1968 with
a rock band and pom-pom dancers from USC. The station attend-
ants tried to convert customers who drove up for a spark plug
change or gas. The station was operated for a year until around
June 1969 when Brayton freaked out and announced Helter Skelter
was imminent.
As Brayton was preparing to marshal her cult forces to leave
L.A. before Armageddon, a tragedy took place at the cult ranch
in the desert. A young boy, Anthony Gibbons, age six, started a
fire around June 10, 1969, which resulted in the main residence

building being burned up and various animals fried. Braytons

group had been into steaHng rare magic relics and valuable occult
books over the years, pai*ticularly manuscripts of Aleister Crowley.
Brayton even stole the so-called Golden Dawn robes once belong-
ing to Crowley. Some of these rare books and manuscripts were
burned up in the fire.
As punishment, Brayton locked the boy out of doors in a closed
wooden box for fifty-six days in high desert temperatures.
Jean Brayton called a group meeting and announced that she
had punished six-year-old Anthony by holding a match underneath
his hands. The boy refused to say that he was sorry that he had
set the buildings on fire. Tsk tsk.
Jean put the boy into the box and even suggested that she might
burn the box itself down while giving Anthony just enough chain
to crawl away from the flames.
The six-year-old boy was held in a packing crate. His left ankle
was chained to a metal plate fixed into the ground. There was a
folded mattress in the corner for rest. For waste, there was a bucket
full of excrement. The crate was closed over with a lid although

there was a slight gap allowed to let in light and air.

No one was allowed to come near the boxed boy, much less to
154 THE FAMILY

offer him any comfort. Temperatures in July 1969 were around 110
degrees at the desert cult-quarters.
There was another small child named one only two years
Eric, tliis

old. Mrs. Brayton felt was acting uppity (in

that two-year-old Eric
the manner of Anthony Gibbons ) so she required that the baby sit
in a yoga cross-leg position from sunup till sundown for several days.
While they waited for the race wars, they built an open-ended
metal building as a temporary dormitory. On Saturday, July 26,
the day Gary Hinman was being murdered, two horse buyers went
to Brayton's desert residence to look at some horses.The two gentle-
men spotted Anthony in the crate under the hot sun. They were
horrified. They drove to a store in Blythe and called the police, who
raided and arrested eleven of the cultoids, for felony child abuse.
The boy's father James Gibbons, separated from the mother,
claimed to the police that he boarded the boy and his sister Tammy
at the Vidal commune because he "liked what the group was
doing"— as newspapers quoted him. He escaped arrest himself prob-
ably because he was a Los Angeles County probation oflBcer as-
sociated with the Gonzales Work Camp in Malibu.
One grim anecdote tells how the cult had managed to instill its

racism into the six-year-old Anthony Gibbons. After the arrests, the
lad was sent to a foster home where he was cared for by a black
lady. The boy requested a sword from her so that he might per-
form a magic ritual called "The Lessor Ritual of the Pentagram."
The woman remained nearby as if to observe the ceremony but
Anthony announced that "we don't let niggers watch."
One O.T.O. follower was later found buried near the desert com-
mune in early August 1969. He seems to have died of an overdose
of telache or jimson weed tea.
Following the issuance of warrants for her arrest, Brayton and
select followers floated away to property she owns in Ensinada,
Mexico.
Several followers who escaped her clutches came forward after
her flight to testify against her. Eleven members of the commune
were put on trial, including Beverly Gibbons, Anthony's mother,
charged with felony child abuse. The trial was held in October-
November 1969, resulting in convictions for all.
 THE SOLAR LODGE OF THE O.'.T/.O.*. 155

FBI fugitive warrants were issued against Brayton and various

of her henchmen for refusing to stand trial. As of this writing, Jean
Brayton and her closest followers are still on the lam as it were, but
FBI agents are hot on her heels. And now back to Manson in April
1969-
 Eleven

Donner Pass

While the family was still house on Gresham Street in early

at the
1969, an old jail buddy of Manson began to hang around. His name
was Wilham Joseph Vansickle aka Bill Vance aka William R. Cole
aka David Hamic (a name Vance borrowed from his nephew) aka
Duane Schwann. To the family he was Bill Vance and he became
in the family structure sort of a Minister of Rip-oflF.
According to gossip, Vance was the former Hght-heavyweight
boxing champion at Brushy Mountain Penitentiary. He was thirty-
four years old, tall, with a broken nose and several teeth missing.

Vance seems to have taken residence in an apartment building

on Gresham Street near the family. As the months passed, Vance
came to lead a crack team of forgers and second-story men operat-
ing out of the Spahn Ranch.
Here is Paul Watkins of the family giving forth on Vance:
"When I first met Bill Vance, we were living in the Canoga
house. We just came from the Barker Ranch for a while because
it was getting cold up there in the desert; and BiU was a friend of

Charlie.
"Bill started coming around and we turned him onto acid. He
had some heavy trips with us. One night we just sat around and
started eating. Every hour we'd eat a tab and get a little higher.
"And so Bill started staying around. Except that he had this thing
about stealing. He just 1-o-v-e-d to steal. Really, he had a demon
 DONNER PASS 157

in him do nothin but rob; even if he had all the things

that couldn't
he wanted, he'd still have to go out and rob some."
Paul Watkins said that Bill Vance once owned something called
the Topanga Stables in Topanga Canyon and that he had an interest
in forming a dope-gobbling church so that psychedelics could be
used legally as a religious sacrament.
Bill Vance was always coming on with a "money trip/' At one
point, he was going to set up Joe and Danny De Carlo with a motor-
cycle repair shop in Venice, California. Another great Vance scheme
was the topless dancer caper.
Bob had met Mr. Jack Gerard, the head of the Gerard
Beausoleil
Theatrical Agency, a company specializing in supplying actors and
actresses for porno movies and topless dancers for night clubs in the
Los Angeles area. The agency was also a retail outlet for G-strings
and dancing apparel. Beausoleil went to work for the Gerard
Agency. Among his duties was delivering station wagons full of
topless dancers to various clubs each night.
The Gerard Theatrical Agency was located up the hill from the
Whiskey A Go-Go at 8949 Sunset Boulevard on the Sunset Strip.
On March 23, 1969, Beausoleil signed a songwriting contract with
the Gerard Agency. Beausoleil had a copy of the key to the front
door of the Gerard Agency and was allowed to use the tape-
recording equipment there to produce a demo tape of his songs.
When Beausoleil began talking about the Gerard Agency, Bill
Vance became convinced, and Manson also became convinced,
that it would be possible to send some of the girls from the ranch to
the Gerard Agency to apply for jobs as topless dancers. Bill Vance
agreed to act as the "agent" for the girls. He got all dressed up in
a suit and a tie, and the girls old enough to have i.d. got dolled up
in high heels and costumes thought befitting topless dancers.
Charlie thought that each girl would make about $200 per week,
and he figured that with ten girls working and turning the money
over to the family, of course, that there'd be about $2000 a week
coming in.
Part of the plan for escaping during Helter Skelter required
the purchase of a very expensive gold rope that cost about three
dollars a foot, and Charlie wanted a truck equipped with a winch
and thousands of feet of this golden rope in order to dangle the
158 THE FAMILY

family down into the Hopi hold during the end of the world. It was
thought that ten topless skelterettes working full time would
quickly pay for the world-end rope. Oo-ee-00.
Joe of the Straight Satans took Vance and a gang of prospective
nude dancers oflF to the Gerard Agency. He picked them up after
the caper at Ben Blue's CofiFee Shop on the Strip.
Sexy Sadie Glutz was so changed by lipstick and make-up that
the people hardly recognized her. They set up an appointment
with a lady at the Gerard Agency who interviewed the girls. Mr.
Gerard himself then showed up, and because some of the girls had
diminutive breasts Gerard evidently wanted to give silicone in-
jections to them, in order to produce the ponderous, jiggly quaUty
sought in topless dancers. No thanks.
During the spring of 1969, Bob Beausoleil was cultivating Dennis
Wilson, Melcher and Gregg Jakobson, with hopes of furthering
his own musical career. Jakobson went twice to the Gerard Agency
to listen to Beausoleil's tapes.
In April, Beausoleil lived for about a week atDennis Wilson's
and Gregg Jakobson's house on North Beverly Glen. There
Beausoleil met and later Hved with a slender red-haired seventeen-
year-old girl named Kitty Lutesinger.
Beausoleil and Kitty then lived for a couple of weeks at the Lute-
singer Ranch owned by her parents on Devonshire Boulevard
not far from Spahn Ranch. Kitty became pregnant and then in
late May 1969 they moved to Laurel Canyon for a few weeks, then
to the Spahn Ranch just in time to take part in hell breaking loose.

On February 12, 1969, the Polanskis entered into lease arrange-

ment with the owner and a half acre property at 10050
of the three
Cielo Drive, Mr. Rudy show biz manager whom
AltobeUi, the
Melcher and Wilson had tried to interest in the Charhe Manson
superstar project. Altobelli himself lived on the property in a
smaller "caretaker's" house located about 150 feet away from the
main residence.
On February 15, they moved into the house. The rent for the
year's lease was $1200 a month, which seemed to be a bit of a rip-
oflF, especially since the house had only three bedrooms, although
 DONNER PASS 159

it was well lit by night and fully serviced by landscapers and

groundskeepers.
There was that elegant loneliness of the location, high in Bene-
dictCanyon, hidden in the wooded hillside. There was also a swim-
ming pool and that huge two-story living room with that fabled
liWng room loft edged with a white raihng where they found the
black hoods and the black leather aprons.
The rent was made more palatable by the fact that, according to
dear friends, Paramount Pictures was picking up the tab. Roman
Polansld was going to put his offices in the apartment above the
garage.
On March 15, 1969, Polansld threw a catered housewarming party
at 10050 Cielo Drive. There was a brawl of sorts at the party in-
volving uninvited friends of Voityck Frykowski and Abigail Folger,
friends whom they met evidently through Cass Elliott, the singer.
Elliott hved near Folger and Frykowski's house on Woodstock
Road.
Someone named Pic Dawson stepped on Sharon's agent's foot
and josthng occurred. Humans named Tom Harrigan, Ben Car-
ruthers and Billy Doyle sided with Pic Dawson in the hassle. Ro-
man Polanski got angry and threw Dawson and friends out of the
party.
All through the following summer, however, the four mentioned
above were frequent house guests at the Polanski residence, while
Mr. and Mrs. Polanski were working in Europe.
According to a story told by reporters in the hallways outside the
Manson trial, a story allegedly emanating from the producer of
The Love Machine, Nancy Sinatra was a guest at the party and she
grew incensed over the open dope-smoking. She requested that
her escort take her away from the party forthwith. As they left, walk-
ing past a white wrought-iron settee on the elegant lawn, they
noticed Warren Beatty and Jane Fonda and Roger Vadim sitting
and talking together.
left the grounds and began to walk
After Miss Sinatra and escort
down the hill to their car, they encountered a group of long-haired
hippies who asked them, "Where's the party?" They motioned back
up the hill and to this day they have wondered if the hordes of
Helter Skelter were pointed thus into the Cielo Drive estate.
i6o THE FAMILY

The next day, March 16, Shahrokh Hatami, Sharon's photog-

rapher, and Sharon drove Roman to the airport, for a flight to Rio de
Janeiro where Mia Farrow was given an award for her role in
Rosemary's Baby.
After the Rio de Janeiro film festival, Roman Polanski was off to
London to work on a movie script for United Artists called Day of
the Dolphins— a spy tale involving dolphins who learn to speak.
He was also slated to produce and direct the movie, probably
through Cadre Productions, a company he co-owned vidth his good
friend. Gene Gutowski.
Sharon was off to Rome where she made a film called Twelve Plus
One Chairs with Vittorio Gassman. Additional scenes were filmed
in London later on in the summer.
Even though they were to be gone for four months, the Polanskis
decided not to put their belongings in storage but to keep their
house open and get someone to stay there and care for the dogs,
etc.

A young Englishman, Michael Same, the director of the motion

pictures Joanna and Myra Breckenridge, was going to stay in the
Polanski residence, but just prior to Roman Polanski's departure
for Rio, he decided to rent a MaUbu beachhouse instead.
Voityck Frykowski volunteered then to stay at the Polanski
residence for the spring and summer. Polanski agreed that Voityck
could move in, provided that Miss Folger stay there also.
The owner of the Polanski residence, Mr. Altobelli, planned to
spend the summer in Europe. One day he picked up an eighteen-
year-old hitchhiker from Lancaster, Ohio named Wilham Garret-
son. Altobelli hired Garretson to serve as caretaker for the property
while he was away in Europe. Garretson was given the "guest
house" or caretaker's house on the property as his residence during
employment. He was paid a whopping thirty-five dollars a week.
Garretson's duties included taking care of Terry Melcher's twenty-
six cats, which Melcher evidently left behind for a while at the
house. He also took care of Saperstein (Sharon's Yorkshire terrier)
and, later, Abigail Folger's Dalmatian, plus Rudy Altobelli's hos-
tile Weimaraner, Christopher, a dog that loved to bark and even to
bite. Also on the care list was Altobelli's green singing finch. He
 DONNER PASS 161

was to keep an eye on the property, but not to fraternize, and he

was to man the phone at the guest house.

On March 23, 1969, in the evening, Manson showed up at the

front door of tlie Polanski residence at 10050 Cielo Drive.
Hatami answered the door. Shahrokh Hatami was occupied at
tlietime, or so he testified, in filming Miss Tate as she was packing
for her trip to Rome the following day. Hatami was making the film
supposedly as part of a private-Hfe TV documentary on movie
actresses.
Why was the five-foot six-inch hairy-chested person with a
woman tattooed on each arm named Charles Manson knocking at
the front door of Sharon Tate's house?
Hatami testified at the trial that Manson wanted to know where
"somebody" Hved—referring to Terry Melcher. Hatami supposedly
directed him to the caretaker's guest house on the other side of the
pool, where Rudy Altobelli Hved. While Manson was near the
came to the door to ask who it was.
porch, Sharon Tate
Rudy was packing to leave. He was going to fly to
Altobelli also
Rome the next day v^dth Sharon Tate. Altobelli was taking a
shower when Manson came to the screened porch.
AltobelH told the court later that his dogs, among their barks,
bark two types of bark: people barks and animal barks— so he must
have heard people-woofing.
He answered the door, clad in a towel, wet from shower.
Altobelli testified that the purpose of Manson's visit was to find out
where Terry Melcher was Hving, even though Melcher had moved
off of Cielo Drive almost four months previous.

Manson started to introduce himself according to Altobelli, but

know who you are, Charlie."
Mr. Altobelli said to him, "I
Altobelli supposedly told Manson that he did not know the
whereabouts of the executive producer of the Doris Day Show,
Terry Melcher.
Since Gregg Jakobson, a close friend of Melcher's, testified at
Manson's trial that they were recording Manson while the family

was still house on Gresham Street, it is hard to believe that

at the
Manson know that Melcher had moved out to his mother's
didn't
beachhouse. The family was hving at the house on Gresham up till
i62 THE FAMILY

right around the time that Manson visited the Polanski residence. It
is known that Manson made an appointment with Melcher for Mel-
cher to visit the Gresham Street house and he didn't show up, miff-
ing Manson.
The visit of Manson to Cielo Drive is still mysterious.
The next day on the plane to Rome, Altobelli and Sharon had a
conversation about Manson.
On March back in sleazo-ville, it was time for a little
24, 1969,
statutory rape. Two unknown male Caucasians, driving a shiny new
convertible, managed to coax a seventeen-year-old girl from
Reseda, California into the car as she walked along a Chatsworth
street, about two miles from the Spahn Ranch. With the jail bait
snared, they whizzed off to a sleazy ranch house west of Topanga
Canyon Boulevard. Possibly they took the girl to the back house of
the Spahn Ranch because the girl told the poHce that the house was
a distance from the road. When she arrived, it was weirdness. The
event is best described by the police report.

Victim states that this was the strangest place she had ever seen
in her Iffe; 20-25 people sitting, standing, lounging around in a

livingroom; men, women, girls, boys and even little children; strobe
lights were going off and on; things hanging from the walls, every-
thing psychedelic; some were on the floor plunking on some types
of musical instruments; and that they were all drinking out of a
dirty looking jug and smoking something.

"Where am I?" asked the Reseda flower.

"This is where it is," replied an unknown female Caucasian.
Evidently the entrapped girl became hungry and some girl from
the family offered her some corn flakes but, according to family
custom, the lady offered the flakes first to a dog named Tom, then
she could eat them— for the dogs always ate first, before the women,
according to family table manners.
They introduced the young girl to CharHe. He took her out in
private to explain the game to her and, according to the girl, raped
her in an automobile and then pulled up his pants and went back
into the house to sing to the assembly. Later the young girl
had someone drive her to a liquor store in Chatsworth for some
cigarettes and she ran away to her parents, who were loath to press
 DONNER PASS 163

charges, because of the publicity you know, and Manson got away
with it.

Sometime following the film festival in Rio de Janeiro, Roman

and Sharon took a short trip together to Jamaica where he lost his
passport and had to go back to London. She returned to Rome.
Later in the spring she traveled to London to be with her husband.
Mr. Polanski's career as writer and director and businessman
was speeding along. As of April 1969, an original screenplay written
by Polansld entitled A Day at the Beach had completed filming in
Copenhagen by Cadre Productions. Adapted from a Dutch novel
by Heer Heresma, the film was directed by a young Moroccan di-
rector, Simon Hesera.
And there was more.
When he went to Europe in early April of 1969, in addition to his
United Artists project, Roman Polansld was working on two original
screenplays evidently for Paramount Pictures.
One, a film of the life of Paganini, was to be written in collabora-
tion with the author who wrote L'Avventura.
The other film, in collaboration with Ivan Moffat, was to be called
The Donner Pass, a tale of pioneers turned temporary cannibals in
the Squaw Valley disaster winter of 1851.
In an interview with Joseph Gelmis in early 1969, Polanski said,
"The film is the story of people going from Illinois to California. At
that time, therewere only seven hundred Americans in California.
So these travelers were going to this paradise and they were
stranded in the snow in the Sierras in very early winter. Most of
them died. The few that survived were accused afterwards of can-
nibalism."
"Cannibalism?" the interviewer asked, as if in surprise.
"Yes, yes, I know, I know. But it has nothing to do with any of my
earHer pictures. What makes you think I am obsessed by the
bizarre?"
On April 1, 1969, Voityck Frykowski and Abigail Folger moved
into 10050 Cielo Drive.
 Twelve

The Spahn Movie Ranch

April-May-June 1969

According to Danny De Carlo, it was red-haired eager Squealcy

Fromme who persuaded George Spahn to allow the family to re-
turn to the Spahn Ranch en masse. The date of the return to the
Spahn Ranch was sometime in the early days of April 1969.
Part of Charlie's master plan was to get George to sign the ranch
over to Squeaky when he died. After all, George was eighty-two

years old at the time, and Squeaky was assigned a permanent posi-
tion in Spahn's saddle-filled house.
It was not outside the realm of possibility that Manson might have
wound up owning a movie ranch. For, to this day, Spahn is eager to
have the family ladies around him. And, according to numerous in-
terviews with observers, he had no hesitance, say once a week or so,
to get after it with girls sixty-five years younger than he.
Ruby Pearl, George Spahn's long-time associate, was still there,
but somehow Manson seemed to overrun the ranch, as he had the
previous summer. The family always had a fragile relationship with
Spahn's family, but in spite of what any of the stunt men or his own
family would whisper into Spahn's ear, Manson had the ace of love.
There was always some hassle with Jim, George Spahn's son. Of-
ten he wanted to run the hippie freaks oflF the set. And, in turn, the
girls were sorely hostile to him because he castrated the horses.

Meanwhile Manson kept the house on Gresham in Canoga Park till

May when they were evicted for nonpayment of rent. There he
 THE SPAHN MOVIE RANCH 165

maintained his own private stash of eight girls. No other male was
allowed in the house according to a next door neighbor.
Manson seems even have become involved in the fiscal opera-
to
tions of the ranch. That spring, Spahn needed money to pay his
property tuxes and Manson, according to De Carlo, helped him
with around $3000.
RuthAnn Morehouse aka Ouish was and placed into
arrested
Juvenile Hall. She was released into the custody of George Spahn,
who served evidently as her foster parent. We shall have to pause
here for an 00-ee-oo.
Ouish had matured to the elderly age of fifteen. She began to
work behind the "register" in the oflBce by the corral, collecting
money from horse renters. This is an example of Manson's control of
the scene.
When they first moved back Spahn Ranch they spent a lot
to the
of effort to try to convert the Longhorn Saloon into a "music hall"
or a night club. Charlie persuaded George Spahn that it was going
to bring in the business. Later Manson told a lawyer that he opened
the saloon merely to give the girls something to do.
The girls remember the "music magnet which
hall" caper as a
attracted the local youth from the San Fernando Valley area in
droves.
At the end of the saloon there was a stage with guitar
far right
amplifiers and a sound system and drums, suitable for a whole band.
There was a rock-stocked juke box in the comer. The ceiling was
hung with white and orange parachutes. On the left side was a
long bar where they served free popcorn, chips, soda, coffee and
dope. On the floor were spread rugs and mattresses for conjunction.
These Spahn Ranch helter-skelter teen-hops attracted a lot of heat
from the cops, who came to visit the ranch more and more fre-
quently regarding young runaways.
The triumph of the Longhorn Saloon was a mural painted in Day-
glo and black-light colors, the fresco of Helter Skelter. In the
painting there was depicted a mountain and the desert and Goler
Wash. A personification, evidently the Angel of Helter Skelter, was
depicted coming out of heaven, or the sky, to save. At the bottom
of the mural were the words: "Helter Skelter, Goler Wash and Death
i66 THE FAMILY

Valley." Nearby on a table there was a jug with a notation: "Dona-

tions for Helter Skelter"— createdby Ouish.
After several weeks the enterprise was snuffed by the police.
George Spahn was handed a $1500 citation for operating a night
club without a license. Adios Helter Skelter A Go-Go.
Manson had as many interests as a corporation executive. As the
spring changed into summer of this year of murder, the pressures,
most of which he himself created, mounted from every comer.
There was no escape.
One source of pressure upon Manson was the Transcontinental
Development Corporation, which avidly sought to purchase the
Spahn Ranch in order to build a resort complex for German Ameri-
cans. They began to purchase property around the Spahn Ranch
and they were attempting to work on Spahn, himself of German
ancestry, to sell out.
Spahn's family, of course, was eager to close the deal because of
the profits to be reaped from the sale. Naturally the Transcontinental
Development Corporation would immediately tear down such an
asymmetrical eyesore as the Spahn Ranch and run off the hippie
slime.
Things were pretty much the same at the Spahn Ranch as they
had been the previous year, at least physically so.
In the hidden gullies and remote woody areas of the Spahn Ranch
nudity was the order of dress. Only when on the front movie set
which was only about a hundred feet from the traffic on Santa
itself,

Susanna Pass Road, was some body-covering required.

There were the same odorous toilets by George's house. There
was a shower that broke down often. An auxihary shower was the
eight-foot waterfall down the creek behind the ranch.
Directly above the waterfall was a cave where occasionally some
of the family slept and camped out.
There were a number of vans and old house trailers located in
back of the movie set where people slept.
The whole ranch was heavily strewn with sleeping bags and lots
There may have been a
of mattresses to aid instant gratification.
tendency to go to bed early because the longer at night people
waited to crash the further away from the ranch they would have
to roam to find a mattress.
 THE SPAHN MOVIE RANCH 167

The bikers, many attired in the grease-suflFused leathers with

Hitlerian medalhons, some with 1-o-v-e tattooed on one set of
knuckles and h-a-t-e on the other, provided freedom-training for
some of the girls who were afraid of them. Gypsy supposedly at
first was extremely hesitant to have affairs with the Satans but grew

to grok it.

"The motorcycle gangs would come out there and he would tell a
girl, 'Take your clothes off,' and she would take her clothes off and

he would just give the girl to any of the motorcycle guys there that
wanted to screw her," remembered Sunshine Pierce.
As said before, Danny De Carlo of the Straight Satans set up
residence in the Undertaker's Parlor, soon dubbed the gun room
because of the small arsenal De Carlo owned. De Carlo was a repro-
bate and never did fit in with the scheme as Manson saw it.
What Manson did see was that De Carlo used to be president of
his bike club and that, through De Carlo, they might be able to latch
onto the Straight Satans and get them to be the family's brown shirts.
But it never really worked out that way, because the theme of the
Spahn Ranch was leisure. The family became masters at "hanging
out"— that skill evinced outside drugstores in small towns every-
where.
The bikers would fit right in, drunk, carousing and taking their
bikes apart at leisure. De Carlo and the bikers would cash in Coke
bottlesand buy \\dne and Manson would complain. De Carlo also
grew a pot plant named Elmer up by the waterfall. Elmer was one
of the least powerful pot plants ever grown, but has acquired a cer-
tain fame in that it was about the only gentle symbol at the ranch
during that summer of death.
There were literally hundreds of ordinary L.A. people who visited
the Spahn Ranch once in a while, just to hang out.
One "starlet" who had performed in a Grade B cheapo-cheapo
movie filmed at the Spahn Ranch kept coming back every weekend.
At once, upon her arrival, somebody would haul her onto a mat-
tress or into the bushes and slip her clothes off.
"Every time I come here I get raped," she complained.
A few of the bikers were offered bit parts in commercials and
movie segs shot at the ranch. The relationship between the family
i68 THE FAMILY

and moviemakers, a hush-hush paranoid bribe-suffused area in the

Manson saga, will be discussed later.
A gentleman who worked for a church in L,A. collected oodles
of leftovers from the Van de Kamp's bakery in Los Angeles and used
to drive up to the Spahn Ranch to give the family all sorts of pies
and cakes and pastries. Sexy Sadie and Joe would take the extra
pastries down to Venice or Santa Monica, to give them out to
dereHcts and hippies on the streets.
A word must be said about meat-fits. Sadie Mae Glutz was prone
to meat-fits. The vegetarian Spahn Ranch was difficult
diet at the
to follow for some. Sadie occasionally would rush off to a restaurant
somewhere and order a steak, the need was so great. Danny De
Carlo and Joe, of the Straight Satans, also would go off once a week
to Venice for a top sirloin meal.
There was one enormous difference at the Spahn Ranch compared
to the previous year when the family first showed up. Murder re-
placed mind-games as the favorite conversational subject.
"They talked about killing all the time," recalled a young man
who lived at the nearby Steele Ranch.
For a long time Charlie had been saying, "There is no good, there
isno evil," but now he was saying things like "You can't kill loll,"
and "If you're willing to be killed, you should be wilHng to kill,"
and "It's the pigs turn to go up on the cross."
He began to talk about murder and carnage so openly that it was
almost like a self-fulfilHng prophecy.
Sometime that spring Manson acquired his "magic sword." It was
a homemade two-foot sword with a knuckle-guard that wounded a
lot of people. A Straight Satan named George Knowl gave the magic

sword to Charlie. Charlie, one day, just asked for it after he had
paid a traffic ticket for Knowl down in Simi, California.
It became like Manson's ceremonial sword. As violence over-

whelmed him, Manson would be seen jumping around on the ranch

boardwalk slashing and jabbing the air with the sword.
During the filming of one of the family movies, Manson sup-
posedly hacked someone's arm with it. God knows what flesh the
sword cut.
It cut Gary Hinman's ear in two. It may have been carried into
 THE SPAHN MOVIE RANCH 169

tlieLaBianca house. It was stuck into a metal "scabbard" on Man-

son'scommand dune buggy as he patrolled Devil Canyon.
After the murders the Straight Satans raided the ranch to get the
sword. Perhaps they had heard hints about the deeds done with the
weapon.
Manson made a deliberate decision to begin to kill. His series of
raps, ever added to, like the repertoire of a night-club act, shifting
and changing, pointed toward butchery.
Juan Flynn, the tall Panamanian ranch hand who'd worked for
George since 1967 and who had been to Vietnam and had lived
through horrible slaughter, counseled Charlie against starting to kill.
According to Paul Watkins, when Charlie began to talk about
killing, Juan would say, "It's just like smoking cigarettes, Charlie;
once you start, you just keep wanting to do it."
As the family got freakier and freakier, doors began to slam in
tlieir faces. They began to hate rich people, the piggies, they called

them, of Brentwood and Bel Air and Benedict Canyon. One of Man-
son's favorite raps was built around a rural pigslaughter. Those who
have been unfortunate enough to have witnessed it will know how
a pig is tied up and hung by its hind feet, de-skinned and then
ripped open and innards removed. This is precisely what Manson
preached for the so-called "pigs" of Brentwood. And this is probably
the purpose for which Watson carried that forty-three-foot piece of
rope into the Polanski residence. The origin of the so-called "list"
of famous people to be killed may date from these early months of
1969 when violence overwhelmed the Spahn Ranch.
The family and the bikers began to race motorcycles and dune
buggies around at night. Neighbors complained and Manson told
one of them to shut up or he'd burn their houses down.
Spahn evidently complained to the poHce about the late night
sound of the motors. It was scaring the horses and alarming the
neighbors. A couple of sheriff's deputies came to investigate and to
prepare a field investigation report. After they left, George told
Manson that the police wanted him to run the family off the prop-
erty. Manson went into one of his triggered rages. He screamed and
yelled. He accused George of being an ingrate, of actually being
able to see.
He supposedly flashed a knife in front of George Spahn's eyes to
170 THE FAMILY

try to make him blink. He ordered a girl to strip in front of Spahn.

No blink.
Then there was silence, and, depending on which family member
is telling the tale, there was a grope-scene in the room in front of
Spahn.
Manson then, according to legend, said, "I love you, George," and
split.

In the spring or early in 1969, Patricia Krenwinkel bought ten or

fifteen deer hides with some gift money that somebody, perhaps
Sandy Good, obtained from daddy. From these skins, the girls at-
tempted to make buckskin outfits for the men of the family. Snake
and Ouish and Gypsy and the others started cutting and sewing
the "buckskins," but they were creating apparel for mutants and
could not even sew the seams straight, so that the project had to be
removed from their hands. Manson evidently took the skins and
hides to Brother Ely of the Process, aka Victor Wild, whose leather
shop sewed the buckskin outfits for the men at his leather factory in
Santa Barbara. Manson was wearing his "buckskins" when fijially

arrested inDeath Valley on Aleister Crowley's birthday.

Because of the heavy war between the Hell's Angels and the
Gypsy Jokers, Brother Ely had been forced to move his leather shop
to Santa Barbara from San Jose. There, in Goleta, just north of Santa
Barbara, he began to prosper.
He also was the chieftain of a clandestine occult group in Santa
Barbara which poHce in Santa Barbara contend was a "chapter" of
the Process Church of the Final Judgment. The poHce have a list of
names of those associated with the Santa Barbara Process group.
One of the members is alleged to be Danny De Carlo of the Spahn
Ranch.

In the middle of April of 1969, a young Texan named Charles

Pierce, aka Sunshine,was hanging out on the Sunset Strip when he
met Ella Sinder aka Yeller and Sadie. Charles Pierce was a young
man from Midland, Texas who had come to California in order to
surf and hang out
in the sun and just enjoy himself. Sadie and EUa
persuaded Charles "Sunshine" Pierce to visit the Spahn Ranch,
where Sunshine gave up everything— his money, his id. and his
 THE SPAHN MOVIE RANCH 171
silver1968 Plymouth Roadrunner, which Manson gladly received
and used for a while, and then gave it away to Randy Starr.
Armstrong jumped down onto the moon in July,
Just before Neil
repossession agents from Texas took the Roadrunner back to the
auto company. But while the family had it, they used it. The Road-
runner was really the only good, sturdy car at the Spahn Ranch at
the time, so they used it dope dealings.
a lot for various
"We was running dope down from San Francisco and Los Angeles,
selling it on the street corners—" said Sunshine.
Manson had one famous incident with the new Roadrunner where
he challenged a bunch of cops to a race.
About eleven o'clock one night, Charlie, T.J. the Terrible, Sadie
and Ella went out in Sunshine Pierce's Plymouth Roadrunner to cop
a few thrills. On Topanga Canyon Boulevard they challenged a cop
to a race and sped ofiF.
Danny De Carlo tells it like this: "Nobody outdrove Charhe. He,
one night, got loaded on acid, and Ella, I think Sadie was there,
. . . they went down to just antagonize the police . . . and he out-
ran four cars. Finally, he pulled over and he just stopped, and they
did not know what the hell to make of this guy, so they stopped
'way behind him and he jumped out of the car and he says: 'Come
on, come on after me,' then jumped back into the car and took off
again."
Ultimately the police caught them and they held Manson for
several days but finally set him free.
Sunshine Pierce, as did all new recruits, received the usual Man-
son lecture series on Helter Skelter, The Hole, there is no good/no
evil, everything belongs to everybody therefore let's steal, etc.

Gradually as he gained trust, Pierce was allowed to partake in vari-

ous criminal capers.
Sunshine Pierce said that one of Manson's dune-buggy fantasies
was to kidnap schoolgirls after they got off their school bus in rural
areas.They would scout out the area to see where the girls got off
the bus and then snatch them up and take them to the desert hide-
out.
Guys like Sunshine Pierce and Joe and others left the Spahn
Ranch partly because they found themselves slowly becoming one
172 THE FAMILY

of those "program people" that Manson talked about. And who on

earth really wants to become a zombie.
There were quite a few arrests for Grand Theft-Auto in April
of 1969, chargeshowever which were dropped. Leslie Van Houten
aka Leslie Sankston and Stephanie Rowe aka Jane Doe 44 were
among those arrested.
On April 23, 1969, Charles Watson, still dressed in a mod fashion,
according to his mug shot taken at the time, was stopped by the
Los Angeles police department on a charge of being drunk on drugs.
Officer Escalente rolled Watson's fingerprints, a grim event for Wat-
son, since it was the set of prints that the police would use to link
him to his fingerprint on the Polanski front door.

On April 25, 1969, Bruce Davis, sent to London by Manson five

months previous, left Process-land and passed through Heathrow
Airport in London, bound for the United States. He left behind in
England the former husband of Sandy Good aka Sandy Pugh, one
Joel Pugh, who soon died.
Pugh, according to his wife, was the son of a doctor at the Mayo
Chnic. His death in London was the first death connected with the
family where there was writing in human blood upon the wall. He
was found in a locked hotel room in London, wrists slashed. There
was writing on the wall in his own blood according to a Los Angeles
homicide officer. The coroner, through the testimony of a psychia-
trist at the coroner's inquest, ruled that the wrist-slash and writing

on the wall were part of a suicide. Scotland Yard still has the mat-
terunder investigation as a possible homicide.
According to Tex Watson, ever since early 1969 Manson had
ranted and raved in his murder lectures about the Process. Weeks
later some of the family, including Manson, began to wear black
capes and black-dyed clothing just like the Process.
In early May, just before Mother's Day, Bruce Davis of Monroe,
Louisiana arrived at the Spahn Ranch and threw himself avidly into
the crime schemes. Davis developed a novel scheme, or thought he
had done so, for getting free gas for the dune buggies. He wanted
to drive up into the mountains to the edge of the desert to the loca-
tion of the gas transmission lines. Then he wanted to tap the lines
and put barrels there to collect a permanent supply of gasoline for
 THE SPAHN MOVIE RANCH 173

Mission World Sneers met this proposal from at least one

SnuflF.

biker, because was either natural gas or raw petroleum— not gaso-
it

line. But Manson and Bruce Davis were convinced, so they tried it

anyway, even hauling a few stolen fire-department water barrels up

Devil Canyon for the purpose of collecting the gas.
In spite of preparations for the end of the world, or Helter
Skelter, Charles Manson still found time to make attempts at be-
coming a superstar.
Beausoleil went to Frank Zappa, the brilliant composer and pro-
ducer, and wanted Zappa to come to the ranch to hear the music.
Beausoleil said that the family was building a tunnel to the Mojave
Desert, or something. Zappa, to whom the freak-flocks always flock,
did not have the time or desire to handle the "act," however.
Gypsy Share, the former child violin prodigy, arranged for Paul
Rothschild, the producer of The Doors, to hear the family music,
with no evident success. Gypsy had connections in the business,
having once Hved with the composer of the hit country and western
song, "Don't Sell My Daddy No More Wine."
Gregg Jakobson and Dennis Wilson arranged for Charlie to re-
cord at a studio in Santa Monica, in Westwood, not far from the
Mormon Temple. This studio was owned by a gentleman named
George Wilder, whose attitude was "Where's the mon?" and was
worried lest Charlie should burn him for the session money. Charlie
got angiy and walked out of the studio and left behind what Jakob-
son described as: "Two or three amplifiers, two electric guitars, an
acoustic guitar and some other instruments." Manson managed to
record about twelve songs or so, enough for an album. He spon-
taneously composed two new songs at the recording session. Some
of the girls were there to provide choral backup, as was Bob Beauso-
leil. Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys, Gregg Jakobson and Terry

Melcher were on hand to grok the set.

It was at this recording session that Manson really freaked

Melcher out with a little spontaneous guitar vamp. During a break,

Charlie was strumming his guitar, scat-singing behind the strum-
ming with apparently nonsense syllables— digh-tu-dai, deigh-du-doi,
di-tew-deigh, etc.— and gradually the scat-song came clearer, until
die-tew-dai, die-tu-day, die-today became die today die today die
today.
174 THE FAMILY

In May
or June of 1969, during an English tour, Dennis Wilson
told an English rock magazine about Manson, in an interview. Wil-
son called him the Wizard and said that the Beach Boys' record la-

bel would probably release an album of Manson.

After Jakobson and Melcher and Wilson had recorded Manson,
they talked several times out at Melcher's Malibu house about
what to do with this enormous talent of the universe. Jakobson was
pushing the potential of a documentary movie about CharHe and
his gore groupies, but Melcher, the president of Arwin Productions
and Daywin Music Publishing Company besides being the execu-
tive producer of the Doris Day Show, needed persuasion. Jakobson
was eager for Melcher to serve as "producer and financer" of the
flick.

It was the visual impact of the family that would "sell" them to
the pubhc, it was thought.

For instance, Jakobson was totally impressed by Charlie Man-

son's dancing ability. Says he: "When Charlie danced, everyone else
left the floor. He was like fire, a raw explosion, a mechanical toy
that suddenly went crazy." Now if they could just capture that on
film. And then was
there the whole visual 'TDeauty" of the family
as they lived and worked and loved and sang.
Several times Jakobson came to the ranch to take pictures of the
family as it did its thing. The idea was to create a presentation on
film, to impress potential backers.
There was conflict about the so-called direction the film would
take.
It will be remembered that 1969 was the year of the movie Easy
Rider— 3. nomadic flick with themes of violence, dope, communes,
bikes, dope-dealing, honkies and hatred.
Manson had in mind a movie that could be given a title like
"Easy Snuff." He wanted satanism. He wanted robbery and chase.
He wanted the men of the family depicted in dune-buggy brigandry.
He wanted good Armageddon footage with helter-skelter carnage.
In other words he wanted to create an "honest" movie presenting
the state of his current insanity and that of his followers.
It seems that Jakobson, Melcher, et al., were more interested in

the gentler aspects of the family: the singing, the love, the tribal
They seem to have wanted a here-come-the-hippies
religiosity, etc.

documentary with Lowell Thomas type narration.

 THE SPAHN MOVIE RANCH 175

On May 18, 1969, National Guard troops ripped up Peoples' Park

in Berkeley.
Also, on May 18, Melcher was persuaded to come
1969, Terry
to the Spahn Movie Ranch an audition of Charlie and his choir
for
in their natural setting. Jakobson and Melcher picked up Bob
Beausoleil and his girl friend Kitty Lutesinger where they were stay-
ing with her parents at the Lutesinger ranch, and they went to the
Spahn Ranch for the "audition." Manson took Melcher on a dune-
buggy ride. Melcher observed men putting a generator into the trac-
tor truck. Manson told Melcher that the truck was being put
together to transport dune buggies and motorcycles out of the city.
Shortly thereafter Manson tried to drive the tractor ti'uck loaded
with dune buggies to Goler Wash but the truck broke down,
thwarted they thought by the magic of the so-called scientologist
gold miners.
The audition was held in a clearing in the woods in back of the
ranch. The only way of getting to the audition was to Tarzan down
tlie steep creek bank, holding onto a rope that was tied to a tree.

Everybody went down the stream. The girl choir walked in si-
lence, equidistant apart— or so they seemed to Melcher. CharHe
Manson sat on a rock as he sang and the girls gave up background
percussion claps with their hands and hummed in harmony behind
his singing, uttering "yeas" and "amens" as if aroused by revival
fervor.
Melcher gave Manson fifty dollars, the contents of his pocket, as
a gift to buy hay for the horses at the ranch. "I hope it wasn't con-
strued as an advance on a recording," Melcher later testified at the
Manson trial where he tried to assert he never ran around with the
family.
People interviewed in the family claim that Melcher told Manson
he'd have to sign some contracts— probably meaning film contracts
plus songwriting agreements— with one of Melcher's music publish-
ing companies. But Charlie was very much against signing contracts.
Too plastic, man. He just wanted the money.

After the audition by the creek, they went back up to the front
ranch and and behold, they ran into Randy Starr, who was in
lo
his pickup truck painted with the words "Randy Starr, Hollywood
Stunt Man." Randy was drunk and belligerent and had a gun
176 THE FAMILY

strapped to his hip, and it seemed he was going to draw the

revolver. CharHe stepped in and slugged Randy in the stomach and

took the gun away.
Speaking of guns, no doubt there is heavy interest in knowing
a bit about the history of the 22-caliber revolver that Manson et al.
used in their miu-der activities in the summer of 1969. It was some-
time in the late spring that it showed up at the ranch.
The family acquired a 1952 Hostess Twinkie bread truck regis-
tered to the Continental Bakery Company. It was in this truck that
Manson visited the Esalen Institute in Big Sur six days before the
murder of Abigail Folger and the others. Danny De Carlo, former
president of the Straight Satans, bought the bread truck off of one
Dave Lipsett, a friend of Manson.
De Carlo traded some stolen motorcycle parts, including an en-
gine, for the Twinkie truck. There has always been controversy over
the ownership of the bread truck. Manson has claimed that the mo-
torcycle engine and parts were actually stolen by his devices, there-
fore the truck should have been his. But Charhe didn't care;
everything was everybody's.
One night Bill Vance was rip-roaring drunk and, in the manner
of extra y-chromosome drunks everywhere, he was belligerent and
was going to shoot up the ranch. Perhaps there was a dishonor-
among-thieves squabble about rip-off booty. Other accounts say that
Vance was having hassles with Randy Starr, the stunt man specializ-
ing in the neck drag.
Whatever the case, Manson entered the squabble and traded De
Carlo's bread truck for the gun that Vance was waving about. De
Carlo seemed to protest— my truck, my truck—but Manson told him
that Vance wanted to use it for a couple of months then De Carlo
could have it back. Okay.
The revolver that Vance turned over to Manson is a sixty-dollar,
three-pound item of western chauvinism, manufactured by the U.S.
Firearms Corporation. The description of the weapon in the com-
pany catalogue is, for history, as follows: "This long barrel beauty
is reminiscent of the Wyatt Earp days when Ned Buntline presented

the Marshall with a similar long barreled gun. Shoots nine shots
faster than Tanning.' Crisp trigger action and button-swaging pre-
cision barrel rifling. Genuine walnut grips. Gold finish trigger guard."
 THE SPAHN MOVIE RANCH 177

This revolver killed Jay Sebring, shot Voityck Frykowsld, shot a

black dope dealer in the stomach, and God knows what else.
After Melcher visited, Manson kept asking Jakobson if Melcher
was still interested in the project. Evidently there was a period
wherein Melcher was to "make up his mind." Manson wanted
Melcher's phone number, so Jakobson gave him Melcher's answer-
ing service number. Manson was really counting on Melcher to come
through for him with the movie and the records.
On May 21, 1969, Manson called his parole officer and asked if
he could leave immediately for a tour to Texas with the Beach Boys.
He was going to earn $5000, or so he said. The parole officer said
that he would have to furnish verification of employment dates.
Manson waxed upset at this because he felt it would be an impo-
sition to get the Beach Boys or their manager to supply a letter of
verification of employnient. A couple of days later, Manson called
back and said that it was too late, the Beach Boys had already left.

He told his parole officer that he had a song on the hit parade and
that he had just recorded an album which was going to be released
in about a month.
On Tuesday, May 26, 1969, Mayor Yorty, blatantly appealing to
the okie-honk racism in Los Angeles, won re-election as Mayor of
Los Angeles over black candidate Tom Bradley. Abigail Folger
worked long and hard for the election of Mr. Bradley.
Only occasionally can the focus really be precise on actual details
of a particular day in the hfe of the family, especially when they
did not beHeve in time and months and days. It was all Now. One
girl claimed, when arrested in Death Valley later in the year, that
she didn't even know Nixon had been elected President.
June 3, 1969, however, can be scanned with some precision.
On June 3, 1969, Charhe tried to put out a contract on somebody's
Hfe.
On June 3, Melcher and Gregg Jakobson again visited
1969, Terry
the Spahn Ranch. They encountered two poHcemen who were on
the set also, investigating CharHe's rape of the from Reseda in
girl

March. Melcher brought with him a gentleman named Mike Deasy,

who possessed a van in which was a complete recording studio. Mr.
Deasy had recorded several Indian tribes and was experienced in
recording "tribes" in the field, so to speak. Melcher evidently was
1/8 THE FAMILY

going to use Deasy perhaps to record the sound track for the docu-
mentary or to record an on-site live recording of Manson and the
all-girl creepy-crawl chorus.
With Melcher was the beautiful "star" named Sharon or Shara
who used to visit the Spahn Ranch wearing wigs. It was not Sharon
Tate as Sunshine Pierce thought when he copped a visual on her.
Sharon Tate was in London, six months pregnant and happily pre-
paring to return to Los Angeles for the baby's birth.
Sunshine and Tex were changing the spark plugs in the green
and white GMC tractor truck with which Charlie planned to haul
the tarp-covered trailer to the desert. This was the tractor truck with
the Olds engine. Manson had planned, but never accompHshed, a
false bottom on the trailer in which runaway girls could be hid on
their way to the desert (or to a ritual). Hot and thirsty. Sunshine
walked up to the front ranch into the kitchen and filled up a quart
jar with water.
As he left the kitchen to return to the truck, he saw Melcher, the
starlet, Gregg and Manson standing by the couch on the boardwalk.

They were arguing and CharHe was cursing and yelling at them.
Sunshine didn't think much of it, because Charlie was always chew-
ing out somebody or other, threat-tripping the weak links in the
family and chasing away imdesirables, as is wont of a commander.
That morning, Charlie had gone down to "Hollywood" to discuss
the film and record project and had come back with Terry Melcher
and "this other guy that had come out there and taken pictures of
us this one time"— as Pierce later told police. With dedicated inten-
sity, Jakobson had taken many many photos of the nude commune

of lovers, for the album cover. Now they were arguing.

Sunshine Pierce went back down to the GMC, the "jimmy" as it
is known in trucker circles, and finished up the plug change. He

then lay down under the trailer on a mattress and amused himself
with CharHe's pet crow. Devil. About thirty minutes after Pierce
had overheard the argument, Manson himself came to join him at
the trailer. Pierce thought that, perhaps, Charlie was about to de-
liver himself of a lecture— as often he did to instruct his followers.
Charlie asked Sunshine how long he intended to stay at the ranch.
Uh oh. Pierce was afraid that Manson was going to brick him oflF
the ranch and not a dime had Pierce. His new silver Plymouth Road-
 THE SPAHN MOVIE RANCH 179

runner Charlie had long since given to Randy Starr. His i.d. too had
disappeared. No car, no money, no i.d— not a condition in which
to be set adrift in America.
Sunshine replied that he planned to stay on two, three, maybe
four weeks then hit the wind. CharHe asked him if he was interested
in helping him pull oflF a job. After the caper, Pierce could then split.

Charlie, according to Pierce, said he'd give him a three-wheeled

motorcycle (\\dth legal pink shp)— probably De Carlo's three-
wheeler with the word LOVE written on the back with aluminum
tubing— and some cash. No one would know about it but them— for
that was a rule; you didn't discuss anything Charlie talked about
with you, unless he said was okay to speak.
it

Sunshine was interested because he thought, as he claimed, that

the project proposed involved some sort of robbery. There had been
action aplenty, of course, during the six weeks that Pierce had lived
on the ranch: the antiques and paintings, the proposed armored car
heist, the offed travelers' checks, the trading in dope. So Pierce
thought that Charlie was going to cut him in on some plunder.
It was murder. Charlie revealed that he wanted Sunshine to help

him kill someone, saying, in substance, according to Pierce: "Well,

you know, if you ever want to get anything and you want it bad
enough, you can't let anybody come between you when you are
going to do something."
This was something new to the twenty-year-old lad from Mid-
land, Texas, so he told Manson he'd have to think about it and would
lethim know soon.
"He said that he had one person in particular he wanted me to
help him kill and he said that there might have to be some other
people killed.

"He said he could probably round up maybe $5000 or more and

give it to me if I helped him pull this job."
Later that evening. Pierce learned that the argument on the
boardwalk was over the "direction" the film would take-already
they'd shot pictures and made tapes for a presentation. The NBC
oflficials, on the one hand, wanted a verite hippie-commune
movie
Mdth a narrator. But Charlie hated hippies. Charlie wanted to make
an honest movie presenting tlie family in an as-is situation, adding
i8o THE FAMILY

marauder elements, bikers, creepy-crawlie capers—in order to mag-

net in on potential followers and attract them.
And what about Pierce? Later on, after the arrests, he told the
Richardson, Texas police the following: "I thought it over for a
while. I figured, well, it's something I couldn't get away with and
if I could get away with it, I don't know if I'd like going around
knowing that I done it. So I told him no. And so, right after that,
well then I called my mother in Midland and told her where I was."
The next day, June 4, the girls patched his pants for him, his
mother wired him money, and Sunshine Pierce flew back to Texas.
On June 4, 1969, Charlie Manson was arrested as a result of a
follow-up investigation on the rape in March of that from Re-
girl

seda.But he got out the next day on bail of $125. Nothing ever hap-
pened with the charge and once again Charlie Manson got away
with encroachment.
On June Mike Deasy, the man with a recording studio in his
6,
van, visited theSpahn Ranch where he recorded Manson singing.
Family gossip has it that Deasy took an acid trip with Manson,
flipped and had a death-trip involving Manson that later required
entrance into Jungian analysis.
Manson gave Deasy some and eight-track tapes of "the
four-
music" for his listening pleasure. Manson called him later and
wanted him to bring his kids out to the ranch. No thanks.
In early June and once also in July at the Jack Frost Surplus Store
in Santa Monica, Charlie Manson bought several hundred feet of
white nylon three-ply rope, forty-three feet eight inches of which
only sixty days later would be looped over the ceiling beam of the
Polanski residence. The rope was fairly expensive but it was taken
care of by running a phony credit card for it. Some of the rope was
used around the ranch to tow vehicles. Charhe gave George Spahn
part of the rope. The blind George felt the rope and admired it.
Around 200 feet of the rope Charlie kept behind the bucket seat of
his command dune buggy.
Danny De Carlo recalled one escape scheme Manson dreamed
up for the rope: "He had a winch on the front of his dune bug, and
the thing, what he wanted to do was, when the police were chasing
him, see, he'd like take this winch and he'd throw the line out there
and he'd winch himself up in a tree, and the police would just drive
 THE SPAHN MOVIE RANCH l8i

right on by. You wouldn't see the dune buggy sitting up in the tree
up there."
Manson became more and more involved with blending violence
into his transactions. He seemed to be eager to see which of his "pro-
gram people" would kill.
After all, Manson said, "We are all one." Killing someone therefore
is just Hke breaking off a piece of cooky. And did not the Manson

adage say, "If you're walling to be killed you should be willing to

kiUr
One of Manson's potential "program people" was the Vietnam
veteran, the sLx-foot five-inch Panamanian ranch hand Juan Flynn.
One day sometime in late May of 1969, according to Juan Flyim,
Manson and Juan Flynn went to an ice cream parlor in Chatsworth
and Manson talked a Httle bit about Juan's family, some of whom
lived at the Porter Ranch, located in the north part of the valley,
not far from the Spahn Ranch. Juan Flynn testified about it at the
Manson trial: wanted to see where they lived at, you know,
"So I

and I was looking it, you know.

into
"So I says, 'Why don't we look up this address and go down and
see where my family fives.'" Manson agreed to drive him there.
After they'd looked for the house and the street and they'd found
it and parked, Manson asked if they had a fittle dog in there, and

Flynn replied, "Yes, they have a little dog.

"And then he says, 'Well, why don't we go in there and tie them
up and cut them to pieces,'" Flynn told the court in volume 103,
page 11903 of the trial transcript.
Juan Flynn has claimed that on several occasions he and Charlie
drove around Chatsworth, near the ranch, and Charlie tried to get
Flynn to enter the houses, tie up the occupants, force-feed them
LSD, kill the children in front of the parents, then kill the parents
when they were going berserk.
There was another occasion when Manson wanted Juan to help
him kill a black man.
Around June 13, 1969, Manson and Flynn drove in a dune buggy
down the paved storm sewer of Brown's Canyon Wash, which twists
down through Chatsworth and past the two-block section of
Gresham Street, where the Manson family had once fived. Manson
pointed to an apartment building near the former family house on
i82 THE FAMILY

Gresham where some black dope dealer lived. And Manson

Street,
asked Juan to help him kill him because the guy had been giving

*Tiis" girls dope and balling them.

Manson has denied, however, that there ever was any trouble
vidth the black guy on Gresham.
Manson's snuff-offers to Sunshine Pierce and Juan Flynn pose a
grim question: Was Manson, through his extensive fourteen-year
connections with the California underworld, becoming a "hit man"
who took murder contracts?
Charlie had trouble with his federal parole officer in June of 1969.
He seems to have almost got his parole revoked because of his as-
sociations with three other federal parolees. Federal parolees are
denied close contact with one another to prevent collusive criminal
activities.

The three were dope dealers whom Manson

gave access to the
harem. One of the federal parolees visited the Spahn Ranch then
returned to his home in Las Vegas where he mumbled something
to his wife about living off the land and getting a dune buggy.
One wife of the parolees was upset because Manson tried to se-
duce her when he visited them in Las Vegas.
Another worry for CharHe, in this summer of pressures, was that
he really hated to lose a follower, once the follower was enmeshed
in the nets, so to speak.
Charlie was always talking about Scientology in his various raps,
and it should have been no surprise when some of his followers de-
cided to investigate it. Around the middle of June, two of the fam-
ily, a boy and girl, evidently left to pursue formal training with the
Church of Scientology.
Vem Plumlee, who came to the Spahn Ranch in the middle of
June, said this about the matter:
"They left right after I got there. They met some guy from Scien-
tology and the dude who was interested in Scientology—he started
talking to these two people and they left and CharHe'd been down
on them ever since."
Charlie was miffed. It was not enough that sacred Goler Wash
was being held by Crockett and crew but now his followers were
defecting to Scientology. Pressure, pressure, pressure.
Manson was a knife-freak. Everybody used to throw knives at the
 THE SPAHN MOVIE RANCH 183

haystack. After all, the police could hear gunfire for miles in
the desert but blades would be silent. And shrieks melt easily in the
distant air.

He gave the girls lessons in and later that year he

knife throwing
actually got into lessons in throat sHtting and skull boiling— evi-
dently having in mind adorning the Barker Ranch with human
skulls.

Machete chauvinism was one of Manson's ultimate devices, un-

less the stories are true that the family was into filming human sac-
young female Caucasian victims.
rifices of

Charhe had an old sixteen-inch army surplus machete and he was

the only one who could throw it. Charlie could throw it fifty feet,
the family claims, and stick the target. He used to put girls up
against the haystack and see how close he could throw the machete
to them.
In his universe, women had no soul. They were to be slaves of
Man.
The were required instantly to submit to the men Manson
girls

stated to be on the grope-list. Any time, anywhere. The girls sup-

posedly were not allowed to ask for sex but had to wait, though
they could smile alluringly if they wanted. Sounds like the Protes-
tant ethic.
Manson to blame women for the institution of capital
is known
punishment, for and for practically all repression.
jails

"We hve in a woman's thought, this world is hers. But men were
meant to be above, on top of women."
He hated women.
"I am a mechanical boy,
I am my mother's boy."
Went one of his songs.
Manson decreed that only the men could talk to the babies. The
women, though they still cared for them, could only speak gibber-
ish to the children. There was rebellion on this. Mary Brunner told
Linda Kasabian that she didn't care what Charlie said, she was go-
ing to love and talk to Pooh Bear, her baby.
The women were not allowed to discipline the children in any
way. After all, the child was the perfect state.
 i84 THE FAMILY

As noted, the women offered food to the dogs before they them-
selves ate. Tlie children often were fed sour milk, according to Sun-
shine Pierce. Infant sexuality was encouraged. Susan Atkins told a
cellmate later that she used to perform fellatio on infants.
More incredibly, the women in the family were not allowed to
ask questions. The word "why?" was banned. Only a few knew ex-
actly what the men were doing. The men had almost a separate life.
The girls were always saying, "He's not our leader. He falls down
at our feet. But doesn't let us step on him." If they did, he'd punch
them in the face.
When Charhe would beat any of the girls, they'd say, well, it was
really because they wanted him to do it. Snake Lake, for instance,
then fifteen, was to become a kind of punching bag for Charlie dur-
ing his anger spasms. But she stayed on. The family claimed she
wanted "attention," so she deliberately angered the Devil. The girls
would fight among each other, but the rule was when a man told
them what to do, they had to do it immediately. The girls would
say, "I don't care or know about you, I've got my own love for me."
They talked his raps, spoke his language, but over and over again,
he told them that he was not really tellingthem what to do. As a
matter of fact, that was the reason that Manson was amazed that he
got indicted for murder. Because he claimed he never told anybody
what to do. They'd walk around singing Httle ditties about them-
selves as "die, Leslie, do die," for that was the essence of the mes-
sage, to die in the mind in order to live in The Hole.
But Charhe's greatest hold on the girls was fear. Threatening to
cut off their breasts was one of his favorite snarls. He'd always man-
age to commit a few felonies in front of them and to get them in-
volved in murders and die burial of bloody clothes and the wiping
down of houses for criminal fingerprints and the forging of checks
and the planning of robberies. They'd think they were equally im-
plicated in events, even though they had merely witnessed them.
He'd always blend them into this plexus of gore and grime and
crime.
Early in the day Manson would "program" the girls— give them a
listof things to do. They sewed a lot. Charlie always wore his cor-
duroy vest— embroidered with those witchy whorls. Each girl wove
a part of it, sometimes adding locks of human hair with bright
 THE SPAHN MOVIE RANCH 185

threads depicting snakes, dragons, humans and animals in a mural

of religious meaning that the family understood very well—it told
stories and illustrated the concepts of Charlieism.
And people ask how on earth it happened.
anybody has to do is open the nearest anthropology book and
All
check out any number of weird religious cults throughout history
that, among them, have believed every conceivable thing. Man-
son's scam was the old live-forever chosen-people hype.
It was all summed up by Country Sue:

"This group of people has come up from millions of years. It's

like every one of them is just so familiar that each person is perfect.
It's like, you can remember— after you took acid and stuff— you can

sort of remember all the lives you've lived, all the people you've
been and all the struggles and all the dying and coming back and
over and over and over. But this is the last time. Like, the way I
feel is like I've got exactly the body I wanted, you know for the last
time. The perfect, the strongest one, the one that's going to make
it through. And like, I'm willing to die for anyone, anyone who's me,
."
'cause it's like one soul. . .

Manson used to brag how he was a "man with a thousand faces."

In a life-style where everything is a hype and a con, that is an asser-
tion of virtue.
On the crime front in June of 1969 Manson was in full
May and
frenzy. Naturally there are many gaps in trying to depict criminal
activities in the summer of '69.

Like any entrepreneur must, Charlie had to scheme constantly

since only a certain percentage of the capers could come to frui-
tion. He talked about a thousand capers. He wanted to rob an ar-
mored car. He wanted to break into a military reservation and steal
weapons.
They had a whole network of crime, enabling them to
set up
fence anything or readily to get hold of any psychedelic substance
they should require. They had a fence and a dope source in Santa
Monica for sale of hot items. Manson had a strict rule that when-
ever he discussed with any of the family members any proposed il-

legal venture, the person was not allowed to discuss the criminal
activity with any other person in the whole universe. Charlie sat at
the top of a pyramidal structure of small criminal bricks.
i86 THE FAMILY

Tex Watson had acquired extensive contacts in the Hollywood

area when he was a co-owner of that wig shop on Santa Monica
Boulevard. He was active in handling dope deals for Manson. He
was completely under Manson's power.
Once someone with a full beard visited the ranch and Tex ad-
mired the beard, saying: "Maybe someday Charlie will let us grow
beards." And Tex wasn't just dealing nickel bags for Charlie. They
were dealing big in acid, hash, pot and sometimes coke.
One L.A. dope dealer interviewed by this writer requested that
if one ever ran into a certain family member, now under indict-

ment for murder, one was to ask him for the $2000 he burnt him
for in fake hash-bricks in 1969.
Vem
Plumlee has told of the large amounts of cash the family
sometimes obtained:
"There have been times when the family had $25,000, $40,000—
gee,you know. At one time right before I came they had $30,000
and they went down and bought all kinds of sitars, guitars, drums,
all kinds of things.
"Then they went out and they set 'em up in the back ranch house.
Everybody dropped some acid, got loaded and started, you know,
working out on the drums and everything. And at the end of the
acid trip there wasn't an instrument that was playable."
It is known that Charlie was considering feeding four of the girls
into a Hollywood prostitution syndicate. Manson probably kept up
his ties in thepimp-hype from the 1950's when he claims he oper-
ated a whore scene out of the Roosevelt Hotel.
When stolen travelers' checks were brought in, various men
would try their hand at forging the name. The one able to copy it
was the one honored with cashing them.
In early summer 1969, members of the family stole an NBC-TV
station wagon loaded up with film equipment. There was tens of
thousands of dollars' worth of cameras, lenses and Nagra recording
equipment aboard. The truck was dumped and the film equipment
buried. Manson approached Gregg Jakobson to try to locate a pur-
chaser but Jakobson refused to serve as a fence for it.
Most of the film equipment was given away. Torrid video-porn
and perhaps brutality-films were shot with the NBC cameras. Man-
 THE SPAHN MOVIE RANCH 187

son took an NBC camera with him to Death Valley in September

1969-
With the sound-pack the family recorded their song sessions and
other activities including the re-creation, in song form, of one of
the murders.
Charlie hungered for male additions to the family and special-
ized in attracting youths with kleptomaniacal tendencies.
John Phillip Haught aka Christopher Zero aka Zero, and Scotty
Davis were young boys from Ohio who got enmeshed in the webs
of creepy-crawhe. Zero would die in the fall under suspicious cir-
cumstances. A young man named Lawrence Bailey aka Little Larry
arrived from a chicken farm in Oklahoma and he joined up.
Zero, Scotty, Vern and Bill Vance formed a crack squad that
plundered San Fernando Valley, stealing cars, robbing service sta-
tions and uttering forgeries. They even stole a bunch of checks from
the back of George Spahn's checkbook and bounced them around
the valley.
A human named Brother Bill was an antique dealer in Santa
Monica who had helped the family in the past. The family was hard
up for mon but Brother Bill refused to continue to give.
Bob Beausoleil aka Jasper Daniels took Bill out to breakfast one
morning while Charlie et al., strangely enough happened along and
looted Brother Bill's worth of antiques and paintings
store of $70,000
which were taken to the Spahn Ranch. Bill came storming out to the
ranch later claiming that Beausoleil had set him up. But once again,
the family waltzed away free.
They buried items Voityck Frykowski's credit
like ritual films or
card. Less sensitive material they could hide by crawhng beneath
the wooden foundation timbers and sticking it on a rafter.
They were always burying things— food caches, the helter-skelter
maps, guns, antiques, film. To this day, Manson's Spanish guitar lies
buried in Death Valley, awaiting his escape. Shudder, shudder.
They set up a creepy-crawhe dune-buggy assembly plant in the
trash dump behind the corral of the Spahn Ranch. They stole
Porsches and Volkswagens and brought them to the Devil's Dune
Buggy Shop in back of the corral, and then the man would strip
off body and
the fenders, and cut everything up, and load the cuts
onto a truck and cart it away. Then they'd make dune buggies out
i88 THE FAMILY

of the skeleton Porsches or Volkswagen frames. They would then

sell somewhere out on the desert,
the fresh fashioned dune buggies
in exchange for dope and money. It was creepy-crawlie capitalism.
They ripped off an electric welding set and tools from a rental
agency. They ran up an incredible electricity bill for George Spahn
by day-and-night welding and drilling at the trash-dump buggy
works.
Sunshine Pierce observed "He would go out and trade these
it:

dune buggies to these guys in the desert. They were hippies,

. . .

and he would trade these dune buggies to them for dope and money
and things that they would steal from these little towns and stuff out
on the desert."
They were forced to learn methods of quick auto theft. The family
record for hot-wiring a vehicle was evidently held by Sadie aka
Susan Atkins. It was rumored that she could hot-wire a vehicle in
thirty seconds flat.

On June 24, 1969, thirteen-year-old Virginia Lynn Smith was

found murdered in Cobal Canyon, Claremont, California. A person
who spent time living at the Spahn Ranch had been dating her.
Somebody from Florida has confessed to the slaying. However, con-
sidering that over twenty people have confessed to the evil Black
Dahlia murder in L.A., anything is possible.
On June 27, 1969, twice-married twenty-year-old Linda Darleen
Kasabian, a blond gii'l with a sixteen-month-old baby girl, Tanya,
flew to Los Angeles from Milford, New Hampshire.
Since April 1969, she had been separated from her husband Bob
and had been crashing with her mother in Milford. Prior to separa-
tion,she and Bob had been residing in communeland, Taos, New
Mexico. In 1968, as was noted, they lived for a while in L.A., where
once Linda had peyote fruit punch at the house next door to the
residence of Leno LaBianca.
At her husband's invitation, she flew west for reconciliation. Bob
Kasabian and a human named Charles Melton aka Crazy Charlie
invited Linda on a trip they were planning to South America, where
they intended to buy a boat and sail the seas.
It is necessary to discuss at this point the hostilities Manson, par-

ticularly in June '69, had with a black drug dealer named Bernard
 .

THE SPAHN MOVIE RANCH 189

Crowe. The hate scene culminated in Manson shooting Crowe in the

lower abdomen and leaving him for dead.
Bernard Crowe, twenty-seven years old, five feet nine inches,
290 pounds, was a man bearing the nickname Lotsa Poppa. Numer-
ous times he had run afoul of the laws regarding sale of drugs.
He lived in a house at 7008 Woodrow Wilson in the Hollywood
Hills above Sunset Boulevard. The house was a famous crash pad
in the area, with numerous complaints by neighbors regarding sun-
deck sex and dope traflBcking.
Manson seemed to have become entangled in hassles with a so-
called '*black dope syndicate" in Hollywood, the true facts of which
are only partly known.
At the time there was definitely a group of black dope dealers in
HolK'wood, some of whom were arrested during the investigation
of the murders at the Polanski residence.
There was plenty of gossip among those interviewed who lived
in the group of houses near Crowe's place on Woodrow Wilson that
Manson and his crew were hanging around Woodrow Wilson and
Loyal Trail ( a short road running right behind Crowe's place )
It seems clear that Manson and select associates used to hang

around the Woodrow Wilson area both at Crowe's house and, ac-
cording to several sources, at singer Cass Elliott's house. It may have
been there that Manson met Abigail Folger and Voityck Frykowski
and several Hollywood dope dealers.
"I've heard that Charlie went down to Mama Cass's place and like
they were all sitting around jamming for hours and she'd bring out
the food. Squeaky and Gypsy were down there. Everyone would
jam and have fun and eat," related a former family associate named
Melton.
Hearsay emanating from a tuba player for the Los Angeles Phil-
harmonic Orchestra (who lived near Crowe) says that Manson spent
time on Loyal Trail. A lady living right next door to Crowe claimed
that the family bus had been parked there for a while. This would
have had to have been late '68 when some sort of blue-colored Man-
son bus was roaming around the Hollywood and Bel Air hills.
One former family "member" interviewed said that in late 1968
some of the family used to visit "Bemie's house" somewhere in the
Laurel Canyon- Woodrow Wilson area.
 )

igo THE FAMILY

Snake once referred to Crowe as "the Negro member of the

family."
The family also stole a red Toyota Land Cruiser for use in Helter
Skelterwhich was owned by a person named Kemp who lived on
Loyal Trail about a hundred feet from Crowe's house at 7008
Woodrow Wilson.
Gregg Jakobson has claimed he heard Manson say he was going
to shoot Crowe days before the act was accomplished. It appears
that Manson had actually been trailing Crowe, that he had Crowe
staked out under surveillance, so to speak.
Sometime in the evening of June 30, 1969, Manson arranged for
Tex Watson to burn Bernard Crowe. Watson never made a move
without Manson's "programming." All the dope dealers in the family,
except Manson have stated that it was totally Manson's idea to bum
Crowe.
In March Tex Watson met a beautiful girl named Rosina
of 1969
who lived at 6933 Franklin Avenue in Hollywood, right next to the
Magic Castle. (The Magic Castle is reputed to be the home of the
Count Dracula Society, a society of well-known film-men and writers
who groove behind old vampire movies.
Tex spent a lot of time at the house on Franklin and occasionally
Manson and some of the girls would also visit. A lovely member of
the ill-fated Acapulco, Mexico production of the musical. Hair, was
a roommate of Rosina.
Crowe's version, uttered under sworn oath, at the Manson trial,

is Tex Watson and Crowe drove to an

that beautiful Rosina Kroner,
address in El Monte, CaUfomia to cop dope. Crowe forked over
$2400, allegedly to purchase marijuana. Tex left the automobile and
entered the building, then left by the back entrance to return cack-
hng to the Spahn Ranch.
Crowe and Rosina waited for a while, then returned to her apart-
ment on Franldin Avenue. Crowe was enraged, vowing to maim the
burners.
In a subsequent interview in a hospital after Crowe got shot in
another altercation, this time in the foot— he keeps getting shot-
Crowe claimed that it was actually a $20,000 deal and that the $2400
was merely a portion of it.
 Thirteen

The Locusts
July 1969

About 2 A.M. on the morning of July i, a phone call came in over

the pay phone by the corral. T.J. answered the call. It was Rosina
Kroner and she was hysterical. Bernard Crowe was at her house. He
wanted his money and was threatening to kill her. She was calling
from her apartment at 5933 Franklin Avenue in Hollywood. She
wanted to talk to CharHe.
CharHe talked to her and then to Crowe. They had a heated con-
versation during which Crowe threatened to come over and shoot
up the ranch. Charlie said, "Don't come over here. I am coming over
there."
Tex and Bruce and T.J., Danny and Charhe were alone by the
dusty corral. Charhe told them that Crowe threatened to do in
everybody and he had to be stopped. He said, "I'm going to go over
there. Does anybody want to go?" It is not recorded whether or not
any hands were raised.
"Come on, let's go"-CharHe to T.J. the Terrible.
CharHe got into the car and put the revolver on the seat between
them, the Buntline Special which later was to kill Jay Sebring. The
automobile was wrangler Johnny Swartz's yellow/white '59 Ford—
the same car which was be driven to the murder of Gary Hinman,
to
to the Polanski residenceand to the LaBianca house.
It was a thirty-minute freeway ride from the Spahn Ranch to Miss

Kroner's residence. Charhe got out of the car and walked up to the
192 THE FAMILY

up the gun from the front seat and followed

front door. T.J. picked
Manson. He handed the revolver to Charlie, who stuck it in his belt.
Bernard Crowe wasn't there when they first arrived. Rosina an-
swered the door. There were two men in the apartment, Dale Fim-
ple and Bryn Lukashevsky, a friend of Dennis Wilson. They told
Charlie that Crowe was enraged because of the burn. He wanted
his money or else he was going to take vengeance on the girl and
raid the ranch.
When
he entered, Charlie placed the revolver on the table. In a
few minutes Crowe re-entered the apartment and he and Charlie
were talking calmly. Charlie told him to the eflFect that you can't
take my friend'syou must take my life. When Crowe said that
life,

no he didn't want to harm Charlie, just the people that had burned
him, Charlie had him where he wanted him.
According to Dale Fimple, Charlie performed some sort of "ritual-
istic dance," and then got ready to leave. He picked up the gun.

Rosina was sitting on the bed; T.J. and the other two men were at
the door. Charlie was standing about eight feet from Bernard Crowe,
gun in hand. Crowe stood up and said, "Are you going to shoot
me?"— putting his hand to his abdomen, the evident trajectory of
any possible bullet.
Charlie pulled the trigger— click. Nothing happened. Charlie, per-
haps in an act of instant theater, laughed and said, "How could I
killyou with an empty gun?" The trigger clicked again and then
there was a shot— and Crowe fell down in a ball, clutching his stom-
ach.
Charlie turned to one of the men and said that he liked his shirt
and wanted it. It was a leather shirt; Charlie liked leather shirts.
Quickly the guy gave it up, fearing a bullet. Charlie then walked
over, kissed Bernard Crowe's feet and told him he loved him. Other
versions say he kissed the feet of the guy who gave him the leather
shirt. Then he split.
Manson thought Crowe was dead.
When they were driving back to the ranch, T.J. claimed that Man-
son told him he didn't like the way T.J. was looking at him because
it made him question himself and he shouldn't question himself. Not
Jesus. It was his first public gunfight, an act that triggered two
months of violence, leaving around fifteen people dead.
 THE LOCUSTS 193

Tex, Bruce and Danny were sitting on tlie boardwalk in front of

the bunkliouse when they arrived. Charlie told about the shooting
and freaked out by the apparent murder, walked back to the
T.J.,
corral where he spent the night meditating with the horses. The
next day he left the ranch.
An ambulance picked Crowe up at 4:15 a.m. and took him to the
use General Hospital Medical Center. He sent a telegram announc-
ing impending surgery to his sister in Philadelphia, then was
operated on by two surgeons. He evidently stayed in the hospital
till June 17, after which he returned to 7008 Woodrow Wilson to
recuperate.
The bullet lodged in Bernard Crowe's torso remains there to this
day. In the spring of 1970, Bernard Crowe was incarcerated in the
L.A. New County Jail where he ran into Manson again. If it is true
that Charlie thought Crowe was dead, it must have been a weird
surprise to see him in the jail. When the prosecutor learned that the
bullet was still inside Crowe, he was very eager to secure possession
of it since it would definitely link Manson with the murder weapon.
They Crowe to the Mayo Clinic for a painless ex-
offered to send
traction of the lead butCrowe refused.
The next morning after Crowe was shot, tilings were panicky at
the ranch. There were scared looks in the eyes of Tex, Charlie and
Bruce Davis. Tex pulled out a wad of money— saying that it was
$2500— and blew air into Danny De Carlo's face by fanning the mon.
T.J. was in grim shape. He announced that he didn't want any-
thing to do with "snuffing people." And Charlie was, in the words
of De Carlo, "chewing his ass off" about "getting on his case"-as
they say in jails when a person butts into the affairs of another.

The story of the shooting of the black man spread throughout the
family, but in mutated forms. Always it took the form of a so-called
Panther meeting, not in its real context of a dope burn. The Crowe
shooting is so garbled in its telling that there is a suspicion that there
were several blacks shot and that only Crowe's shooting has
surfaced.
One story, for instance, has it that there was a black guy chopped
to death at a "meeting" attendedby about ten people at a location
near a college campus. This story emanated from a girl who sup-
posedly overheard the family talking about it. Dan De Carlo said
194 THE FAMILY

Manson said that the two witnesses called a couple of days later and
toldManson they had dumped the body in a park.
In any case, Manson subsequently was to tell several versions of
the shooting of Mr. Crowe, usually placing it in the context of a
Black Panther meeting.
Manson seems to have considered any self-assertive black man a
Black Panther. He certainly didn t know anything about the Pan-
thers since in a jail interview he didn't know of Huey Newton, for
instance. Manson was totally paranoid over reprisals from the "Black
Dope Syndicate."
More specifically, the family was afraid that the black friends of
Bernard Crowe would storm the ranch and kick faces. Each night
armed foot patrols were set up to guard the grounds. Often men
with guns would stand on the roof above the boardwalk at night
awaiting the supposed Black Panthers. Little Larry slept on top of
the haystack as a sentry.
One day, De Carlo discovered the Buntline special used to shoot
Crowe sitting in its holster in the "gun room" on top of his radio.
They wanted him to clean it, which he was hesitant to do because
Dan was afraid it had been used to snufiF the black guy.
In the first few days of July, Bob Beausoleil and his pregnant girl
friend moved to the Spahn Ranch from their place in Laurel
Canyon. Bob and Kitty moved into one of the "outlaw shacks," per-
haps the one painted "Alice's Restaurant." Two humans named
Little Joe and Fat Frank lived in nearby shacks, according to a dope
dealer who dealt in the neighborhood.
At hissecond murder trial, Beausoleil testified that he returned
to the Spahn Ranch because Gregg Jakobson had called him and
said that the movie deal was on, that Terry Melcher wanted to do
it. Jakobson, according to Beausoleil's testimony, wanted Beausoleil

out at the ranch to help with the music for the sound track.
Just before he went back to live at the Spahn Ranch, Beausoleil
second-storied the Gerard Agency to snatch up his contract and his
demo tapes. He was seen by Gerard Agency employees slithering
out of a second-story window. Shortly thereafter a videotape system
was stolen from the Gerard Agency building which former Gerard
executives suspect may have been ripped oflF by Beausoleil or
Manson.
 THE LOCUSTS 195

It is known that Manson approached his old friend and former

manager of the Galaxy Club, stage hypnotist William Deanyer, with
a videotape system to sell. Manson told him that the video system
would help him in his hypnotism act.
On July 2, Tex Watson went to Butler's Buggy Shop on Topanga
Can) on Boulevard to get a dune buggy customized for desert specifi-
cations. He wanted a forty-gallon gas tank installed so that the ma-
chine would have that 1000-mile raid diameter. The frame was to be
fixed so that there was a sleeping area within it. He paid for it with

$350 cash in advance.

On July 4, Gypsy aka Yippie aka Cathy Share and Manon Minette,
saw fit to take herself to Topanga Lane near the beach in Topanga
Canyon to visit Charlie Melton, a bearded friend who lived in a
canvas-covered stake truck notable in that it had an automobile seat
perched atop its cab. There Gypsy was to fall into a scheme which
would add considerably to that helter-skelter contribution jar in the
saloon.
Linda Kasabian, her husband Bob, Blackbeard Charles and Jim
and Juli Otterstrom— all were living in the stake truck, preparing
for that trip to South America. Charles Melton had inherited around
$23,000 and some of that was going to pay for the trip. The rest he
had been giving away, much to the delight of various Topanga resi-
dents.
Inside Melton's trailer, Gypsy picked up his guitar and began to
sing "Cease To Exist." Gypsy began to tell Linda about the Spahn
Ranch and particularly about Charles Manson. She said that children
were the most important thing at tlie ranch, that everything was
communally owned, that everybody was going to live in the desert.
She told her about The Hole, and the river of Gold which Linda
had already heard about from Hopi legends. It sounded out of sight.
According to Linda, Gypsy told Linda that Charlie was above
wants and desires— he was dead. That it wasn't Charlie any more.
It was the Soul. They were all Charhe and Charlie was they. And

the men. There were men there who were great lovers, lots of them,
ready for love that was total. The others in the trailer were shining
Gypsy on but Gypsy said that their ego wouldn't let them listen to
the Truth.
Mrs. Kasabian, though reconciled with her husband for only seven
196 THE FAMILY

days, was having trouble with him. It seems that already he and
Charles Melton had cut her out of the trip to South America. Gypsy
invited her to come to the Spahn Ranch.
Linda had been planning that day to go to the July 4 Love-In on
Topanga Beach but she went to the Spahn Ranch instead, taking
her sixteen-month-old Tanya with her. Everybody hugged her when
she and Tanya arrived at the ranch. They took from her her identifi-
cation and her carried belongings. All was love and peace.
And she was ready for it for she had grown up in the dope-trip
love generation, roaming sweet from commune to commune since
she was sixteen. Tanya was taken, of course, to join Pooh Bear. Linda
was told that Tanya's egomust remain free from the programs of
the mother, therefore she was not to speak to her with the EngHsh
language.
Mrs. Kasabian soon became pregnant after intercourse with Beau-
soleil, Manson, Tex, Bruce, Danny, Karate Dave, Clem et al. It was
Beausoleil, however, who claims to be the father of the child.
It is interesting to note that the family scarfed up all i.d.'s and
credit cards to be held one central place, usually with Squeaky,
in
in George Spahn's house. When a new runaway appeared they
would gather up the i.d. almost like a ritual. Linda Kasabian was no
exception. Thus, when Charlie told her to drive to Sharon Tate's
house, she had to obtain her driver's license from the central i.d.
cache.
That night Linda Kasabian encountered her first mystic experi-
ence at the ranch. She and Tex Watson made love in a dark shed
and it was, as she later testified, unlike anything she'd ever experi-
enced. It was total, but eerie, as if she were being possessed by some
force from without. Her hands were clenched at her side at the
culmination of the sex and her arms were paralyzed.
Later she asked Gypsy about the meaning of such paralysis.
Gypsy reportedly told her that such things occurred when you don't
give in completely to a man; her ego was dying.
Tex, during the loving, learned about the inheritance money that
Charlie Melton had in his truck. He was all ears. He kept up a steady
chant of there no good/there is no evil, and everything belongs to
is

everybody. She accepted it and decided to rip off Charlie Melton.

Linda slept that first night on the mattress on the roof of the Long-
 THE LOCUSTS 197

horn Saloon. That was the last night that Charlie allowed anyone to
sleep on the roof. "The Panthers could easily spot us and kill us," he
said.

July 5 was a day of happiness for the family. In the morning

Tanya, Linda, Gypsy and Mary Brunner went to Topanga Canyon
to go to the beach. They ran into Charles Melton and Bob Kasabian
behind the Topanga Shopping Center by the creek. They smoked
some hell-weed and Bob and Charles went off to downtown L.A.
to get their passports for their trip.
Linda and the girls drove to Melton's canvas truck-house to get
her possessions. She dug up a buried Bull Durham pouch full of

pink acid tabs she had brought from the East.

thirt}'

She packed up her gear, including household utensils and the

tape-handled knife that was later to kill Abigail Folger and the old
Buck would lose in a stuffed chair at the
clasp knife that Sadie
Polanski residence. Then she went into Melton's duffle bag and re-
moved a Velvet tobacco pouch containing fifty $100 bills which she
took to Chatsworth to give the Wizard. $5000.
Charlie was working on his dune buggy with Snake and Brenda
when Linda was brought to him to be introduced. To Linda, Manson
looked magnificent dressed in his buckskins. Charlie asked her why
she had come to them. Linda told him that her husband didn't want
her any longer and that Gypsy said she'd be welcome here. Charlie
received the money. He scanned Linda's legs— "He felt my legs;

seemed to think they were okay," as she later testified with a smile.
He was pleased.
He was told about the probability that Charles Melton and friends
would be coming to the ranch to get back the money. Manson then
decided to send Linda to the cave down the creek behind the ranch,
to hide from the wrath of her husband.
For her efforts, Linda was rewarded with a grotto-grope. When
on the night she stole the money, July 5, Manson came to the cave
where Linda was staying, Manson and she got after it on the cave
floor in the presence of Gypsy, Ouish and Brenda. Up to his old
tricks, Manson told Linda that she was hung up on her father. She

admitted that she had a stepfather she didn't dig.

All the next day, high up the hill by the cave, the young ladies
scanned the dirt driveway of the Spahn Ranch below with binocu-
198 THE FAMILY

lars. And, just as predicted, Mr. Melton, Bob Kasabian and Jim Ot-
terstrom pulled into the drive in their stake-bed truck.
Charles Melton asked someone by the boardwalk to locate Gypsy
and Linda. The person left and returned with Manson, who re-
warded Melton with Idll me/kill you routine.
According to Melton, Manson said, "Who are Linda and Gypsy?
I can't even remember their names.''
Melton replied, "They took $5000 from me."
Manson said, "What's money? Nothing is yours." Then Charlie
took out his knife and handed it to Melton, urging him to Kill
Charlie with Charlie's own knife.
Mr. Melton refused the proffered knife. Manson said, "Then
maybe I should kill you to show you that there's no such thing as
death."
At this point. Melton and company were quick to drive away into
the wind.
The person named Bryn Lukashevsky who witnessed the shooting
of Bernard Crowe called Dennis Wilson several days later and told
him about it. Gregg Jakobson heard the conversation and evidently
told Melcher. Melcher was very upset about it and that may have
been the cause of the final rupture in any and all plans to record or
film Manson. And Manson was really counting on Melcher to come
through.
One day Manson asked Jakobson if Terry had a green spyglass set

up outside beachhouse in MaHbu.

of his
"Yes," Jakobson replied.
"Well, he doesn't now," chortled Charlie.
So it was Doris Day's telescope that the family used when scan-
ning for Black Panther raids from the Santa Susanna hilltop.
Slowly, Manson began to become infuriated with Melcher. He
was welching on his commitments. One day Manson sent Leslie and
another girl to Malibu Canyon to see Melcher. Melcher wouldn't
see them but talked to them through an intercom at the door. "They
used to talk about kidnapping him," Miss Lutesinger remembered.
Kasabian leaped with full force into the ranch life-style. Tex Wat-
son and Linda Kasabian became close companions, a fact which
may hold the answer to many baffling aspects of the so-called Tate-
LaBianca murders.
 THE LOCUSTS 199

When Gypsy testified at the trial she spoke of Linda Kasabian s

eagerness after stealing the $5000.

"She got a whole lot of attention for that. She just kept on bringing
back presents."
Manson quickly accepted Kasabian, she claims, and began, she
her trusted assignments. Manson told Linda about the
says, to give
good old days long gone when he had his bus full of girls traveling
freely. Those were the days.
Manson would paraphrase a song by John Lennon:
know it ain't easy,
"Christ you
You know how hard it can be,
They're gonna crucify me."

This was absolute proof that Lennon was gonna take the cross
upon himself. 'They crucified me last time but now John Lennon is

taking my place," Charlie chortled.

Charlie promoted himself as a miracle healer. Once he cut his
arm and "Someday I'll be able to
said to Kasabian something like,
heal myself." Another time supposedly he sat down and talked with
a dying horse, Zane Grey, and miraculously the horse recovered.
Then there also was the miracle of the club foot. Someone, unknown
as of this writing, came to the ranch who had an enlarged foot and
limped. Charlie allegedly cured him over the days, gradually, by a
series of commands.
Things remained crusted with a sense of normalcy though family
life was rapidly becoming berserk. Every evening George, Ruby

Pearl and one of the family, usually Squeaky or Ouish, would drive
to the International House of Pancakes in Chatsworth to eat. On
the way back they stopped to load the truck up with com for the
horses. Then Ruby would drive to her own house and aged George
would sack out in his house by the movie set, attended by his teen-
age geriatrics squad.
The girls spent a lot of time cleaning tools and dune-buggy parts,
organizing them and helping to build the buggies. LesUe, Katie,
Little Patti and Brenda, for the most part, were occupied with tlie

children.
But Charlie was really jumpy.
Once Snake dared to talk during one of his lectures at dinnertime
200 THE FAMILY

and Charlie grew furious and told her never to speak when he's
talking.
One day in July Charlie was late for chow so the family started
to eat without him, a sin. He got really angry when he arrived and
stormed out of the house. Tex, Bobby, Clem and Bruce followed
him out, begging forgiveness. Soon they all came back and Charlie
played the guitar and they held a songfest. All was happy again.
And his raps about imminent death from the blacks caused waves
of paranoia— especially on acid trips. Charlie loved the fear
emanating from the silent circle of paranoid young men and women
in the Longhorn Saloon listening for the oncoming footsteps of
the marauder-killers.
On July 10, Charlie Manson took a wad of $100 bills into Butler's
Dune Buggy Shop and purchased for $2400 four dune buggies for
the battahon. His trusted assistants, Bill Vance, Danny De Carlo,
Tex and Bobby, now would possess their own legally purchased iron
horses of Helter Skelter— and the work began on them immediately
to modify the dune buggy for the north desert campaign.
Oneday, around the 10th or 11th, a black man with a dog stopped
on the road by the Spahn Ranch and checked it out. He then drove
down and looked at the trash dump—where the dune-buggy assem-
bly line was located. Tanya and Bear were playing by the "gun
room" on the boardwalk. This triggered off the fear that perhaps the
Panthers might sometime gun down the children, so it was decreed,
and it came to pass, that all children were to be kept at a new camp
by a waterfall in the hills about a mile north of the Spahn Ranch on
the other side of Santa Susanna Pass Road. They set up a tent and a
campfire to cook. All runaways, all children and some of the older
girls were kept there.

was possible to walk up the Spahn Ranch creek to the new

It

camp. Charlie wanted to be able to drive the dune buggies all the
way up to it, which was diflBcult because of the rocks and boulders
in the creek bed. He ordered the girls to remove the boulders. They
did.
Linda was proud when she was named by M. to drive the girls
back and forth on the creek bed from the waterfall to the ranch.
There was also a visit from two carloads of black men with cam-
eras. Charlie hid in the hoUowed-out haystack by the corral; the
 THE LOCUSTS 201

girls ran to hide in the trash-dump dune-buggy factory. The blacks,

eight in number, took pictures and generally checked out the ranch,
then split. Family paranoia dictated that this had to be an advance
Black Panther snuff unit who were out to wipe the aware white
world-savers. They found candy wrappers in the weeds across the
road from the ranch— another sign that the Panthers were watching
them.
On July 14, Danny De Carlo and Bruce Davis went to a store
called Surplus Distributors on Van Nuys Boulevard in Van Nuys.
There they purchased several weapons including a .45-caliber pistol
and a nine-milhmeter Radon pistol, under assumed names, a viola-
tion of federal law. Davis used the name Jack McMillan and De
Carlo used Richard Allen Smith.
Davis later told the police that Crowe had said he was going to
kill them, therefore they bought the weapons.

On July 15, Officer Breckenridge of the Los Angeles sheriff's office

was hovering above the Spahn Ranch in a 'copter when he noticed
"at least three" Volkswagen floor pans scattered about, indicating
to him at least the possibiHty of car theft and car strip. The sheriff's
office was beginning to gather data on the car-theft aspect of the
ranch. In a month they would raid.
Late one night during the five days that the family camped at
the waterfall, the were busy sewing an ocelot skin upon
girls

CharHe's dune buggy. Malibu Brenda had hberated various furs

from her mother's closet. Her mother was to flip out when she was
to see her furs, worth thousands of dollars, garlanded upon his
buggy in the Life magazine cover story a few months later.
Just before dawn, Charhe sent Brenda from the ranch with scis-
sors bearing a wonderful announcement: it was time for the sacred
witchy Tonsure Rite. Charlie said that they were ready to cut their
hair-for, at last, their egos were dead. It was special privilege time.
Snake announced that she did not want her long red tresses shorn.
She was told they'd hold her down and do it anyway so she sub-
mitted to it. Katie was spared the hair chop because her full witchy
mane was to serve as the magic blanket when they were to find ref-
uge in The Hole. Oo-ee-00.
The next day the tonsured young ladies went to the ranch to re-
veal themselves to the Wizard. They had left one long lock uncut,
202 THE FAMILY

each of them, hanging down. The girls, according to legend, each

buried one of their cut hairs and each also burned a hair in the fire.
They saved their hair, each wrapping and tying their own into a
swatch which they gave to the Soul. Charlie was pleased. "It looks
good." He then told four or five others to snuff their hair also.
Around July 15, 1969, Charlie decided to move everyone in the
family about three miles up Devil Canyon to a secluded spot in the
woods, off a fire road. There they remained for about a week until
a motorcycle patrol of poHce rousted them off the set.
From the ranch, from the cave and from the Fern Ann Falls camp-
site, around twenty of Manson s followers thronged to a new loca-
tion, a pleasant grassy croft with a birch tree bent over the edge of
it, providing a natural tent pole. The girls set up a ten-man tent and

placed a parachute over the dune-buggy factory as camouflage.

Unfortunately, fire trucks used a nearby road and there was a
riding trail cut just up the hill from the camp, so that quickly the
camp was spotted. Almost at once a police helicopter checked out
the camp. Manson or somebody in the family seems to have threat-
ened firemen patrolling the dry fire trails with menacing motions of
their "tommy guns"— as the family called their sub-machine guns.
They camouflaged with brush the short entrance driveway that
led from the fire road to the camp. The girls strung a telephone
wire a mile or so down the rocky Devil Canyon so that the field
phones could be set up for guard outposts.
There was a twenty-four-hour guard set up at the mouth of the
canyon on a hill that overlooked the Spahn Ranch itself. The pur-
pose was to watch for the police and the "Panthers." If any should
invade, the watch was to phone up to the camp with a warning. The
watch was divided into three shifts.
Charlie decided to have the NBC motion-picture camera handy
and to string up lights as if a movie were in preparation. That was
to be part of the excuse to the police, should they raid and find long-
hairs and young girls.
At one point Charlie told Linda and Vance to go hot-wire a large
truck with a generator on the back and drive it to the camp. They
drove a car to the location of the truck; she was to drive the car
back, he the truck. The mission was aborted, however, when Vance
couldn't get it started, and Kasabian became afraid. Charlie and
 THE LOCUSTS 203
Vance went back and started it up. They drove it up the steep can-
yon to the camp. Tex needed the generator so he could work on his
dune buggy and finish it.
They used the generator for three to four days, after which Vance
then took it back and parked it a block from the owner's house.
Linda and an unknown visitor went to pick Bill up and drive him
back to the ranch.
When everybody moved to the canyon, they left a skeleton
geriatrics force back at the ranch to take care of George and to help
cook for the ranch hands. Included in the group left at the ranch
were Little Patti, Zezo, Squeaky and Ouish.
Charhe told the girls to hang "witchy things," usually made from
beads, feathers and leather, from the trees so that, by touch, they
might return to the campsite at night. The girls set up a camp
kitchen. Staple sustenance was provided by a hundred-pound sack
of brown rice. The girls were told to secure additional food from the
wild, a diflBculty in such dry unfertile country. Linda Kasabian lo-
cated a hot sulfur spring which soothed vidth its mud the endemic
family skin problems: sores and lesions.
People would swim in a large wooden water tower nearby. At
night they would he about on sheepskins and sleeping bags while
Danny played drums and Bobby or Charlie would sing and play
the guitar. And the creepy-crawlie chorale would raise itself in
unison.
Devil Canyon is rather dry but heavy rains in the winter of 1968-
69 had kept the creeks water even into the summer so there
full of

was water aplenty in which to bathe and to wash the dishes nearby
but no one was to go there in the daytime or in large numbers.
On Sunday, July 20, 1969, some of the family listened to the
Apollo II moon landing on Danny De Carlo's radio in the bunk-
house and gun room, located at the end of the Western movie set,
by the corral.
Around July 20 a sixteen-year-old boy named Mark Walts was
found by the roadside in Topanga, gored to death as if struck by
an automobile several times. His brother, according to Danny De
Carlo,came storming out to the Spahn Ranch to confront Manson
about the death since the young boy had been supposedly staying
204 THE FAMILY

there. Several police officers visited the Spahn Ranch to investigate

the death.
Sometime in this era, ayoung girl, referred to in pohce records
as Jane Doe 44, was murdered and buried in a shallow grave near
Castaic a few miles northeast of the Spahn Ranch on Whitaker fire
road. Jane Doe 44 is thought to be Susan Scott aka Joan Junior aka
Stephanie Rowe, the girl arrested with the witches of Mendocino
in 1968. The girl, totally unidentifiable by the time she was found
months later, wore a short, puffy-sleeved dress which several have
identified as a dress they saw at the Spahn Ranch.
Around July 20, the day on which Mark Walts died in Topanga,
Charlie went into one of his fits of anger. The only known reason
was that Gypsy had sinned by roUing a conga drum down a hill.
Ella, Sadie, Mary and Ouish ran down to the ranch from the Devil
Canyon camp upset and sweaty. Charlie was beating Gypsy. In fact,
he was going nuts. Kicking her in the ribs, hitting her in the head,
until she couldn't move. He had yelled at Mary, in substance:
"Why don't you take Bear to your mother? That's what you want
to do." Then he smashed his guitar, drums, saying something about
how "nobody cares enough for the music." He even smashed the
sound-pack for the stolen NBC camera.
Tlie police found the outside container of the sound system by
the Devil Canyon camp. After the recorder was smashed, the tran-
sistors from it were placed in Baggies and were hung around the
canyon and ranch as those witchy nighttime trail markers.
Within two days after Manson went berserk, the police raided
the Devil Canyon creep camp and everyone had to move back to
the ranch. Fortunately for Manson, the artist John Friedman and
his family,who had been living in the back ranch, moved out, haul-
ing with them the out-of-service International Scout given to the
family by Juanita, and Helter Skelter was able to move in.
Charhe made arrangements with George to rent the back ranch.
He moved the trailer truck back there and for a while everyone, in-
cluding the children, lived in the ranch building. Nouveau mattress-
on-floor was the decor of the barren back ranch.
The pohce raided again, however, so Charhe had a few girls set
up the tent in a thicket of woods down the creek across from the
house. This is the residence referred to as "the wickiup" in the testi-
 THE LOCUSTS 205

mony of Barbara Hoyt, a family follower who was later fed an

LSD-drenched hamburger in Honolulu to keep her from testifying.
The children and all runaway girls were enjoined to sleep in the
wickiup.
The dune-buggy works was set up again in the dump behind the
bunkhouse. Security precautions were established by Manson. No
one was to hang out at the front ranch, except those assigned tasks
there by Satan.
When they moved back ranch, some of them reminisced
into the
about the good old days of 1968 when they had first lived there,
how groovy it was with all those tapestries and pillows bought with
Juanita's money. They also recounted the tale of the fire orgy of
October '68 where no one got burnt even though they were hurled
into the flames.
But was tough going. It will be remembered that the Transcon-
it

tinental Development Corporation was hot in pursuit of the various

properties in the Spahn Ranch area for that German-American re-
sort. Unfortunately for Manson, and another pressure upon him, was

the fact that George Spahn s property fine ran right through the
middle of the back ranch building causing some problem regarding
who actually owned it. Transcontinental had purchased a chunk of
land adjacent to the back ranch and claimed the back ranch be-
longed to them. The officials of the Transcontinental Development
Corporation were natiu-ally eager to wipe the hippies out of the area
so theybegan to pressure the family to leave the back ranch.
In honor of reacquiring the back ranch, CharHe decreed that
there be an orgy, an event far-famed in the annals of Manson
family lore, for it was to be tiie Initiation of Simi Valley Sherri.
Simi Valley Sherri was a fifteen-year-old local girl who tended
horses at the ranch. Her last name is not mentioned here because
she has since returned to high school.
The orgy was attended by about twenty people plus four "guests"
—whose identity is unknown at this writing.
The event probably took place about July 22, 1969. Some people
have claimed that it was filmed. Charlie positioned the fifteen-year-
old girl in the center of the assembly then stripped her bare except
for her bikini underpants. Everyone stared. Cameras whirred. She
was less than v^dlling. CharHe pushed her to the floor and began to
2o6 THE FAMILY

touch her head to toe. He and her breasts.

started to kiss her neck
Simi Sherri bit Manson on the shoulder causing him to punch her
in the face.
According to Linda Kasabian, a key participant in the orgy, Man-
son said, "Sherri, remember the time when I chased you down the
creek with a brick in my hand and said if you didn't make love to
me I was going to hit you over the head and rape you?"
She lay quiet and Manson ripped off her panties. He told Beau-
soleil to make love with her. This Beausoleil did.
Then Charlie flashed the signal to begin indiscriminate apertural-
appendage caressand conjugation. "The whole scene was perversion
like I've never seen before," declared Linda Kasabian. And was she
active.
There was between Kasabian, Leslie and Tex Watson.
tri-love
Clem then lay with Linda. Snake Lake twined in love with the
twenty-year-old Mrs. Kasabian. "Sometimes I looked up," Mrs.
Kasabian testified at the trial when asked if she observed what was
happening in other parts of the room.
 Fourteen

Getting the Fear

One of Manson's summer 1969 raps was about how groovy fear
was, is. "Getting the Fear," as he called it, was an exquisite physical
experience. It's actually an old LSD phenomenon— conquering a pe-
riod of intense fear. But Manson decided that the entire substance
of expanded consciousness was fear— the "infinite plain of fear unto
infinity."

He says the girls kept asking him what he meant about getting
the fear. Manson would tell them, in substance, "Well, I go into
Malibu and pick a rich house. I don't steal, I walk into the house
and the fear hits you hke waves. It's almost like walking on waves
of fear."
He advocated going into wealthy homes where there were lights
on. He taught that "the rich piggies" inside would be too scared
themselves to do anything. He showed his followers how to shim
open those pushover summer cHmate doors with a thin plastic card.
He demonstrated how to cut open a screen with a knife.
"Do the unexpected," he said. "No sense makes sense. You won't
get caught if you don't got thought in your head."
Forthwith all the trusted girls of the family began to jump in the
waves of fear, crawling into houses and stealing jewehy and furs.
They would wear dark clothing and open windows silently and
crawl about in that Malibu living-room fear surf. Then they would
leave, taking booty.
2o8 THE FAMILY

The actual term "creepy-crawl" began to be used in July of 1969

and was invented by the girls. "I didn't tell them to creepy-crawl.
They just did it," Charles Manson said on June 24, 1970.
Sadie, it seems, was a creepy-crawler among creepy-crawlers.
Dressed in a black cape and her newly purchased genuine Roebuck
jeans, she would go scout for targets, peeking into windows. De
Carlo says it like this: "And that's all they did. Spend all their time
up in the rich district up there in Beverly Hills, and the Brentwood
area. All around there where all the rich people hang out. And their
theory was to make such a gruesome thing out of it, like he wanted
to go as far as hanging 'em up by their feet and slice 'em."
It seems strange that all of a sudden they got into wearing black

capes. The girls made Charlie one that reached to the floor. With a
flourish Manson tried it on, remarking how no one for sure now
would see him when he creepy-crawled. Mary Brunner had a black
cape. Sadie had a cape. Squeaky, according to Danny De Carlo,
used to dye clothing black in a pot in the Spahn Ranch kitchen.
Black capes, black clothes, getting the fear. Just hke the Process.
Because guess what the Process was doing in the summer of 1969?
They were preparing the "Fear" issue of the Process magazine,
issue number 5, which has to be seen to be believed. The "Process
Fear Issue" was pubhshed in the fall of 1969 after they returned
from their proselytizing in America. The "Fear" issue is Uke a plane
wreck. Page after page babbles about fear. There is a page devoted
to quotes from members of the Hell's Angels motorcycle club, an
article called "Satan Is Fear," a grim photo of all twenty-four Proc-
ess Alsatian dogs lined up in a hostile row, and so on and so forth.
The centerfold, so to speak, of the magazine is a collage honor-
ing the Lamb of Christ and the Goat of Satan. The gibberish of
the centerfold ends: "The Lamb and the Goat must come together-
pure Love descended from the pinnacle of Heaven, united with
pure hatred raised from the depths of Hell."
On the back page of the "Fear" issue is a flaming pink skull on
various sections of which are superimposed images of evil. As if out
of the skull's mouth there is a marching Hne of Nazis holding a Nazi
banner parading atop people burning in a fire. On the lower right
there is a depiction of the face of Hitler seen through a warped fun-
house mirror. In the left eyesocket of the pink skull is a human, per-
 GEHING THE FEAR 209

haps a Vietnamese monk, burning to death. Or it may be one of those

"meteorite hippies"— burning sacrificially Hke a Druid. There is a
snarhng monkey above the skull nose, with what appears to be a
dead baby superimposed on the monkey's ear. In the right skull
eyesocket is a petrified or eroded upper torso of a human.
At the top of the page the words: "Next issue: DEATH."
One of the things the Process was doing in the summer of 1969
was recruiting in the Los Angeles area, on the sly. They were going
around to various extant cults and seeking membership. There is
also indication that they had their own secret Process commune out
in theSan Fernando Valley.
Tex Watson has said that Manson raved and ranted about the
Process in his lectures. Bruce Davis was involved with them in
England. The family knew about the Process group in Santa Bar-
bara. But when asked about the Process, most family members
merely dealt out that blank hostile stare they are famous for.
Manson may have visited New York City during July of 1969,
using thename Chuck Summers— his "Hollywood name."
For instance, in July 1969, a man named Chuck Summers
bought a book in a Scientology bookstore in New York.
Robert and Mary Anne DeGrimston-Moor, the founding couple
of the Process, are thought to have been in New York in July 1969.
There are ominous rumors that Manson may have "hooked up"
with Robert DeGrimston, the co-founder of the Process Church of
Final Judgment.
When the Process returned to England from the U.S. in late 1969
they bore with them several converts from the Los Angeles area.
They claimed to a reporter for United Press International to have
"converted" over 200 to the Process in the United States.
When asked about the possibility that he knew DeGrimston, Man-
son rephed, "I am DeGrimston." He further explained that what he
meant was that people who beheve the same are the same person.
Sure, sure.
Since the trials, Manson has been by Process members
visited
through the kind offices of his attorney. Manson has written an arti-
cle for the so-called "Death Issue" of the Process magazine, issue
number 6, which is forthcoming.
The Process symbol is a sort of inverted swastika. And why has
 )

210 THE FAMILY

Manson, since he has been found guilty of murder, carved an in-

verted swastika that looks remarkably like the Process symbol into
his forehead?

There are subjects associated with the Manson case that are so
soaked in evil that the mere knowing of them is hke a nightmare.
All kinds of people, including Beausoleil, Manson, Vern Plumlee
and others, admitted that people sometimes made motion pictures
of family activities. The family made films in Topanga Canyon,
Malibu Canyon, Death Valley, in Hollywood, at the Spahn Ranch.
Vern Plumlee said this about family filmmaking: "They made
home movies; yeah— I watched the family make movies, you
know, just crazy movies."
"What about subject matter?" he was asked.
"Well, just anything, you know, just anything that came up, Hke
if a person was having a heck of an acid trip, they filmed that, you
know. And hke just goofy things."
Plumlee said that they had three super-8 film cameras with which
they filmed.
He was asked about violent films. "Like dancing, you know. Like,
they'd be dancing with knives, you know, and they'd pretend they
were cutting each other up or something like that. I really didn't
think that much of it—just another weird thing that they did."
( Laughs.
Another family associate independently described in an interview
what seems to be the same pretend-to-hack type of film. He was
more exuberant about it than Plumlee was: "It's really a trippy flick
—uh, it's maybe seven minutes long—but it's Charlie and everybody
like nmning round in a circle with knives— you know, the belt
. . .

with the knife on it— and they're holding the knives, you know, flick-
ing around and uh— for about three minutes this goes on and then
they just start, you know, start charging everything and everything
with the knives, you know, trees, to the house, and so on."
Plumlee told of several friends of the family who processed films
for them. One was a person who lived on a dirt road in Granada
Hills, east of the Spahn Ranch, who may have done film developing

for the family. For a long time, the family films seemed merely to
 GEniNG THE FEAR 211

be sexual—with the added spice of a few famous faces and bodies.

Ho hum.
Once this writer was in Los Angeles posing as a New York por-
nography dealer with Andy Warhol out-takes for sale. There was
an opportunity at that time to purchase seven hours of assorted
erotic films including Manson porn collected during the pre-trial
But the price was $250,000. Then there was a note
investigations.
which was written to a reporter by a person named Chuck, a friend
of Gary Hinman, claiming possession of films of "Malibu and San
Francisco ax murders."
Later it turned out that a Los Angeles dope dealer allegedly sold
a film depicting the ritual murder of a woman to a famous New York
artist whose name will not be mentioned here.
Finally a person was interviewed who had been hanging around
on the edges of the family for about two and a half years. He told
a tale which, if true, and it seems to be, ushers in the ugly age of
video-vampirism. He told about movies which the family would
show at night, evidently in the woods behind or above the Spahn
Ranch. It was sort of an outdoor Hght show with several movies
shown at the same time.
"The family had things where they'd show flicks, you know, like
Hght-show type things; they were running four or five different
movies at once; you know, playing tapes at the ranch."
He said they played various tapes as a sound track. For movie
screens they hung up white sheets. They rented four or five battery-
operated eight-millimeter movie projectors down in Los Angeles for
these grim events. The batteries supposedly ran the machines for
a half hour or so. And shown seem to have been reels of
the films
family happenings, music, the aheady noted knife dance, lots of sex
—but other films also.
According to a study called "The Blood Sacrifice Complex" by
E. M. Loeb (printed in the Memoirs of the American Anthropologi-
cal Association, Volume 30 ) there were human sacrifices performed
in much of prehistoric America but somehow the CaHfornia area
was spared— spared evidently till recently.
The person who has been interviewed shall remain anonymous
for obvious reasons.
After graduation from high school in the Midwest in 1968 this
212 THE FAMILY

individual came to Haight-Ashbury where he met the family when

they were crashing on Clayton Street. He possesses a lot of informa-
tion about the Haight, the Haight-Ashbury Free Clinic, the Waller
Street Devil House, etc. Manson, he says, invited him down to live
in Los Angeles. He claims to have scrounged around with the
family off and on since then.
There are a great number of reasons for believing that what he
tells approximates the truth. The biggest is that, from ten or fifteen

long interviews, it is apparent that his knowledge of the Manson

family history is very detailed and accurate. He knows facts about
the Process Church of Final Judgment that only someone close to
it would know. In essence, he alleged that members of the Process

and others were involved with members of an obscure bike club

in a ritzy hilltop commune not far from the Spahn Ranch. He al-
leged that the family was involved with this group. That they went
there to score dope. That they participated with them in out-of-
door filmed beach ceremonies involving sacrifices. That some of the
family were in the films. That screenings of the films were given
secretly at the Spahn Ranch.
During a year of investigation, there were numerous rumors and
reports from people interviewed that there had been occult and
magic ceremonies on various secluded beaches north and south of
Los Angeles.
He alleged that the site of some of the filmed ceremonies was lo-
cated on the beach by Highway i near a restaurant called Pete's
Beef across the street from the County Line Mobil station. He also
pointed out other locations.
There were three types of films that he seems to have witnessed:
(i) family dancing and loving; (2) animal sacrifices; (3) human
sacrifices.
The dates he gave for the making of the film varied. He claimed
thatsome were made in 1969 and some, O Lord, in 1970 in the
summertime.
In most of thefilms, he claimed that a lot of the participants were
dressed in black and were wearing crosses, though some of them,
however, wore white clothing. Some wore black hoods but others
had no hoods on. In the dog-blood flick, the film allegedly began
with everybody sitting around singing. Then it was all hideousness.
 GEniNG THE FEAR 213

Here is his description of the dog-sacrifice movie:

"It was Hke a nighttime thing. It started out with the people, you

know, everybody was sitting around— and they just, uh, one of the
cats came, and uh, it was about eleven o'clock at night and uh, they
started their trip, right— and uh, type thing. Just sitting around and
a guy brought out a thing of blood and everybody took a hit. Then
the guy was, you know, poured it over everybody. Then, like, this
other cat came by and uh, and then this whole funny trip . . .

"They cut up a dog. Then they brought a girl in there— two girls.
They took their clothes off and poured the blood off the dog on top
of the girls. They just held the dog. And they took the girls and they
put the blood— and the bodies— all over both of them. And every-
body balled the two girls ... it was a couple, two couples—they
were being, uh— but I'm not, you know, this was a while ago. But I
remember they were all taking hits of blood. It was really weird
... I recognized maybe eight to ten people in that film. You know,
people that I know, people that I've seen come to the ranch, you
know, people that have, you know, for the weekend or so They . . .

had two or three similar to that that I've seen of theirs."

He further fingered out two key Manson female followers as hav-
ing taken part in the drinking of blood, one of them having sexual
intercourse while blood was poured on her. All on film.
"I've only seen a few sacrifices," he said. "I've seen one with the
dog. I seen, uh, one with the cat— that cat was the most gruesome."
Here is part of the interview dealing with the cat:

Q. Where was it?

A. It was outside. This was the one I was talking to you about,
on the beach.
Q. Where they had the cat?
A. And the dog.
Q. Same place?
A. Yeah. I think they had their monthly things there. The out-

of-doors freak-outs.
Q. You know where on Malibu Beach?
the beach that is?

A. No. It's a private beach, uh, on the boundary

it's like just

line of Los Angeles County and Ventura. It's on Highway 1.

Q. What's the name of the house?
A. It's not a house. It's just a beach.
214 THE FAMILY

Q. Who owns it?

A. I don't know. Nobody. It's like a private beach I don't even

know who owns it.
Q. What day of the month (do they meet)?
A. Wednesdays.
Q. Full moon?
A. Or full moon, whatever.
Q. Every other Wednesday?
A. Something like that, but, you know, Ive seen three or four
movies like that and the cat movie was the stupidest one
I've seen; it was gruesome. They took firecrackers what . . .

do you call it, M-8o's, and lit it and had the cat sit on it.
Blew the cat to smithereens. It was just so gruesome. Sick-
ening.
Q. What'd they do with the blood?
A. They just smeared it all over themselves and poured blood
all over themselves, you know, they had maybe a pint of

blood, they were, they'd pass around and everyone'd get a

hit oflF of it. Those movies were really gruesome.

He gave considerable information about a short movie depicting

a female victim dead on a beach. This film, he contended, was part
of a larger movie.
He was asked initially if he was aware of such movies. His answer
was:
A. I, I, I knew, I know, I only know about one snuff movie. I,

uh, you know—

Q. Which snuff movie do you know about?
A. I just know like a young chick maybe about twenty-seven,
short hair yeah . . . . . . and chopped her head off, that
was . . .

Q. Whereabouts was that?

A. Probably uh, from the scenery somewhere around Highway
1, and the beach.

Q. Who'd they look like? Who was in the fikn besides the de-
capitated girl?
A. It didn't show anybody's face. It just had everybody on black
creepy-crawlies with the black hood and uh—
Q. What do you mean black? Black hoods with eyeholes you
mean?
A. (Nods) and uh—
 .

GEHING THE FEAR 215

Q. What else?
A. You know, long black type dress (es)
Q. Any crosses on?
A. No, it was all black and with these kind of straight type
slits and they, uh, people
things to go over their faces with
were just dancing around it. Nobody ever said what it was.
It was a short thing maybe five minutes.

Q. WTiat'd the girl look like? What was the scenario?

A. What was the what?
Q. What was the scenario? Was she tied up. Did she look will-
ing?
A. She was dead. She was just lying there.
Q. She was abeady dead?
A. Yeah. Legs spread, uh. She was nude but nobody was fuck-
ing her. They said her head was just chopped ofiF and she
was just laying there.

Q. That's when the movie started? They didn't show the actual
sacrifice?
A. (Shakes head no) They showed people throvdng blood all

over, all around the circle.

Q. Did it look like anybody was the leader?

A. No, maybe it was a short. You know what I mean, don't you?
It could have been just something, you know, shot, you

know, that they didn't edit in one of the other movies. It

was only five minutes long. It was just a small thing.

Q. Five minutes is thousands of frames. It sounds like one I

know about. It was inside the footage that was shot this
summer?
A. (No answer)
Q. What was the rest of the movie like?

A. I didn't see it. I just, you know—

Q. Red-haired?
A. Yeah.
Q. The head was just lying there?
A. Right next to the body.
(Gives a demonstration with his own head)
Q. How many people were in the film with black clothes?
A. Five. They were circHng around the body.
Q. Was there a campfire?
A. Campfire was about here (points) and you could see a
few other people walking around, but you know.
2i6 THE FAMILY

Q. Were they in robes, all the other people too?

A. It could have been a continuation of something else, but I
didn't ... It was kind of an interesting flick. (I 1)

Q. Was she lying on a rock?

A. No, she was just, you know, on a beach.
Q. On the sand?
A. Yeah. Just really weird.
Q. Did it look like a protected area?
A. Boy, you can't do stuff like that unless it's really protected.
Q. Do you think it's that area on the beach on Highway i where
that restaurant is?
A. It doesn't look— I mean—there was so mu—you know—you can
usually tell that one place if you've seen it, but you know it

wasn't that place—it could have been somewhere else along

Highway i; they could have done that and dug a little hole

and dropped in the remains. You can hide shit like that. This
was a short one. Only five minutes long. The only difference
in the Apogee one and the dog movie was that there was no
crosses.
Q. In the dog movie they had the hoods on too?
A. Well, they didn't have them on all the time. Sometimes they
had them off.

Q. But sometimes they had the pointed cowls on?

A. But the thing is, you can teU who it was by the faces, you
know. It wasn't always the same.
Q. You don't think it was the same people then?
A. It probably—unless they didn't have crosses on. One time
they had crosses, another time they didn't.
Q. They wear gloves?
A. No.
Q. What kind of knives did they do their work wdth?
A. Bowie. Twelve-inch Bovde knives. It's the ones I've seen. I
saw Bowie knives and a hatchet. One of the persons had a
Bowie knife on this side and a hatchet on this side.

If this information is true, there is no girl, no woman, no bather

at the beach, no hitchhiker at the Freeway ramp who is safe in south-

ern California till these people are taken off the streets.
 Section II

The Murders
July 25, 1969-August 15, 1969
 Fifteen

The Death of Gary Hinman

Compared to the Spahn Ranch, the house on Cielo Drive was like a
citadel of mental healtli.
Things were pretty casual at 10050 Cielo Drive while the owner
Mr. Altobelli and the lessees, the Polanskis, were all in Europe dur-
ing April, May, June and July 1969.
John Phillips, the songwriter, told a reporter that there were
weirdos hanging out at 10050 Cielo Drive that summer of the type
he had been studiously avoiding for years.
In April and May of 1969 Abigail Folger took an active part in
the Tom Bradley mayoralty campaign. According to a co-worker,
she worked at the Youth Headquarters on Wilshire Boulevard. She
also worked for a few months as a volunteer helping children in
Watts. During the mayoralty campaign, Abigail Folger became in-
terested in a black group called the Street Racers who evidently
served as security forces for the Bradley rallies and offices.

Sometime in June, after Mr. Bradley's defeat on May 26, Miss

Folger and her mother visited New York City for a while. Abigail
would travel frequently, almost commuting from Los Angeles to San
Francisco.
In the spring and summer of 1969, Mr. Frykowski made lengthy
work on his grasp of the Eng-
daily entries into notebooks in order to
lish language. He was hoping to become a movie script writer.
In early June, Sharon Tate was seen at a party in London's May-
220 THE FAMILY

the party she was driven home in her new Rolls-

fair section. After
Royce. was Roman's birthday present to me," she said. "We're
"It
taking it back to Hollywood to be with our seventeen cats, three
dogs and the new baby. I can't wait to get back to start on the
nursery."
Around July 7 or 8 Frykowski learned that Sharon was coming
back around July 20. He and Miss Folger began to move clothing
from Cielo Drive to their own home on Woodstock Road.
A Polish artist named Witold Kaczanowski aka Witold K. had
been brought to the United States through the kindness of Roman
Polanski. He naturally came to live in Los Angeles where he culti-
vated the Polanskis' circle of friends. He was staying, during the
summer of murder, at the Woodstock Road home of Abigail Folger
and Voityck Frykowski. He was a frequent house guest at 10050
Cielo Drive during the spring and summer of 1969. An actor friend
of Voityck by name of Mark Fine also had been staying at the Wood-
stock address but moved out the second week in July, having stayed
one week.
Early in July, several friends of Frykowski from Canada promised
him samples of a new drug called Methlenedioxylamphetamine or
MDA, a euphoric stimulant with overtones of aphrodisia that was
coming into vogue. According to police reports, Frykowski was
being set up to serve as a wholesaler of quantities of manu- MDA
factured in Toronto.
Roth Mr. Frykowski and Miss Folger were enjoying MDA on the
night they died.
In mid- July Frykowski's friends from Canada went to Ocho Rios,
Jamaica allegedly to create some sort of movie about marijuana use
there. This Jamaican movie project was a front for a large mari-
juana import operation involving private planes secretly winging
the dope to the United States via Florida and Mexico. Investigation
into the operation after the murders resulted in one of the biggest
dope busts in Jamaican history.
They were making films on Cielo Drive. One day in July William
Garretson, the caretaker, saw Voityck Frykowski taking pictures of
a nude lady in the swimming pool. A cable TV repairman named
Villela came to the Polanski residence and encountered some sort
of a nude love set going on.
 THE DEATH OF GARY HINMAN 221

Around July 14 Voityck ran over Sharon's Yorkshire terrier,

Saperstein. The dog had been named Saperstein after the doctor in
Rosemary's Baby who prescribed weird herbal drinks during her
Satanic pregnancy. Voityck called London with the news. In Lon-
don, Roman Polanski then purchased another Yorkshire terrier
which was named Prudence.
Sometime in the middle of July, Brian Morris gave a catered
party for 150 at the Polanski residence, seemingly to round up mem-
bers for Bumbles, a new private club that was to serve the Polanski
circle.

On Sunday, July 20, Abigail, Voityck, Jay Sebring, Lieutenant

Colonel Tate and Sharon Tate watched the moon landing at 10050
Cielo Drive.
Mrs. Polanski asked Abigail Folger and Voityck Frykowski to stay
at Cielo Drive until her husband was to arrive from London on Au-
gust 12. He had remained behind finishing the script of Day of the
Dolphins and also to receive an award for Rosemarys Baby at the
Taormina Film Festival in Sicily.
In the days before her death, Sharon was seen in local department
stores purchasing baby suppHes. Her white Rolls-Royce was on the
way home from London. Roman had employed an English governess
who was to arrive in Los Angeles in the middle of August.
Sharon Tate was bubbling with happiness over the impending
She was exercising in preparation for the delivery.
birth of the baby.
She bought books on child care and suppHes for the nursery, which
was being built in July in the north wdng of the house.

Jay Sebring was a frequent house guest at the Polanski residence

whenever he wasn't overseeing his far-flung business interests.
Jay Sebring served in the U.S. Navy during the Korean war. He
was short, about five feet six, and slender, weighing maybe 125
pounds, and intense. Paul Newman, San Francisco
according to the
Chronicle, said that Sebring's method prevented him from losing
his hair. Actor George Peppard allegedly spent $2500 to fly Sebring
to a movie location to trim his locks. Frank Sinatra used to fly Se-
"He was a legendary name in hair
bring to Las Vegas to cut his hair.
commented his friend Art Blum.
styling,"
He was born with the surname Kummer, the son of a CPA in
222 THE FAMILY

Detroit. In Hollywood, he changed his name, incredibly enough,

to correspond to that of an automobile racetrack, Sebring.
Actors and singers and businessmen would play chess in Sebring's
shop. When a particularly illustrious client would arrive, he would
rush to cut his hair himself. By the time of his death, the fee for his
personal haircut was fifty dollars. If his assistants performed the
cut, the fee was about a third as much. Is it possible toimagine
paying fifty dollars for a haircut?
The corporate oflBces for Sebring International were located above
the hair shop at 725 North Fairfax in Hollywood.
In partnership with pubhc relations executive Art Blum, Sebring
opened another shop in the summer of 1969 in San Francisco at
629 Commercial Street. Shortly afterwards Sebring rented a house-
boat in Sausalito, California, just north of San Francisco. Throughout
the summer, he flew frequently north to check on his new enter-
prises. On several occasions he visited Colonel Tate and family at
Fort Barry. Mr. and Mrs. Tate would stay at Sebring's houseboat
in Sausalito when they came to San Francisco. One Saturday, either
the last Saturday in July or the first Saturday in August, Sebring
threw an afternoon publicity party at his hair shop in San Francisco
attended by Paul Newman, Miss Folger and a throng of guests. In
the days following, Mr. Sebring was in Los Angeles where he spent
a great deal of time at the Polanski residence with Abigail Folger,
Voityck Frykowsld and Sharon Tate.
There was a so-called darker side to Sebring. The police, after
his murder, found films at his house which revealed an interest in
hoods, whips, studded cuffs and people chained submissively to
fireplaces.

Every day for about a week Charlie instructed Mary, Bruce Davis,
Bobby and various others to use a bunch of the ripped-off credit
cards to purchase a large supply of helter-skelter equipment. They
bought hundreds of worth of sleeping bags, dune-buggy
dollars'
tools, lots of Buck clasp knives, mess kits, baby clothes.
Each girl wrote down her measurements. Charlie wanted each
one to have a straight-looking dress and a dark creepy-crawlie out-
fit. Included in the clothing were ten or so sets of dark blue tee

shirts and genuine Roebuck jeans.

 THE DEATH OF GARY HINMAN 223
A
young man from Simi Valley named Hendrix came across a
car wreck in San Bernardino where a man named Dries had died
and his credit cards were strewn on the highway. Hendrix grabbed
up the credit cards and took them to the Spahn Ranch.
Hendrix, a seventeen-year-old known to the family merely as
Larry, was an example of the psychopathic youth attracted to the
family. He was another gun freak, operating a gun business "on the
street." He was also a teenage demolition expert, claiming
that he
once blew a hole in the side of a mountain. Once he was arrested
and accused of blowing up a house.
Hendrix incurred Charlie's wrath by stealing a huge motorcycle
using one of the family automobiles. Someone spotted him. He bur-
ied the bike in the sand and later claimed that as soon as he was re-
leased from the insane asylum, he was going to dig it up and
it would be all his.

Late in July the family bought some bayonets and sharpened

them at a shop on Devonshire. These were added to the arsenal in
De "gun room." The bayonets and swords, etc., were
Carlo's all kept
in readiness in a sht between the door and the wall.
There was one caper discussed in July '69 involving the robbery
of a gambling casino near Box Canyon. Manson and Linda Kasa-
bian, according to Kasabian, actually drove up a steep dirt road to
the casino to plot the caper. The plan was: he'd have one of the
girls stand at a nearby stop sign and ask for a ride from anyone leav-

ing the casino. Manson would follow behind him and make him pull
over then seize the person's wallet. An alternative was to follow
someone home and then get all his valuables.
to his
A person named by the family "Karate Dave" spent several weeks
during July at the Spahn Ranch. He helped the group with karate
lessons— lessons which Tex Watson would use when he was kicking
bodies at the Polanski residence.
There was a car shortage in the family in late July. The '68 Plym-
outh Roadrunner had been repossessed. The sleazy dune buggies
could not be legally driven on the road. De Carlo's bread truck had
not reappeared as yet. About the only good automobile, a yellow
and white 1959 Ford with back seat removed to accommodate
garbage crates, belonged to a ranch hand named Johnny Swartz,
224 THE FAMILY

who lived in one of the house trailers. It was the car driven to the
Polanski residence and to the LaBianca residence.
Manson seemed to have a number of private interpersonal rela-
tionships, outside of his so-called family, where he was the tormen-
tor. There was one girl who worked at the Moonfire Inn in

Topanga on whom he pulled a terror scene. He threatened to kid-

nap her baby and take it to the mountains. When a fireman named
Witt came to the ranch and told Manson to cut the weeds for fire
safety reasons, Charlie threatened to gouge out the fireman's eye-
balls. Manson threatened to kill Dennis Wilson's son, Scotty, when

Wilson refused to give him money. And then there was Hinman.
Thirty-two-year-old Gary Hinman was near to getting his Ph.D.
in Sociology from UCLA. He had always helped out the Manson
family. People in Topanga Canyon would send people to crash for
a night at his house. For about a year he had been intensely inter-
ested in Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism, a militant sect headquartered
in Japan with Los Angeles headquarters located on the Coast High-
way at the Santa Monica Beach.
In Hinman's house were found considerable lists of names of po-
tential converts to Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism. Found in the house
were an abundance of gohonzas to give to new members. A go-
honza is a religious scroll used by the sect.
Hinman had a small setup at his house where he made quantities
of synthetic mescaline. A young married couple who lived with
Gary right up to several days before his death were partners with
him in the manufacture of the mescaline. "We were making mescal-
ine. It was a really long long process but the advantage was that it
was really cheap. You bought things and no one would ever con-
nect the things you bought with what you were going to do. You
could order zillions of them from the chemical supply houses and
they'd never get hip not unless somebody really did some thinking.
Gary had a degree in chemistry." His partner's wife has indicated
that Hinman had developed a method of manufacture whereby two
steps in the process were eliminated.
About four days before Gary Hinman was murdered, Eric, the
mescaline partner, visited Hinman's house at 964 Old Topanga
Canyon Road. When he entered the small hillside house he found
Gary Hinman on the phone, arguing with Manson. He says: "When
 "

THE DEATH OF GARY HINMAN 225

I came into the house they were arguing. Like, Gary was really into
Nichiren Shoshu and the concept of leadership and the concept that
people needed to be directed, which was something that Charlie
was very opposed to, and so they were in a heated discussion about
that was like there was a response: it was pretty together
and then it

and I talked to Gary afterwards to verify what Charlie said— He

said, you know, hke it's your last chance, Gary. And Gary responded
to that: I'm sorry, Charlie. I'm not going to sell all my things and
come and follow you.' Those were his exact words.
"And so Charlie said, in response to that, that he couldn't be re-
sponsible then for the karma that Gary was going to incur. He then
reiterated that it was his last chance. And Gary said, TU decide
. . . I'll take care of my own karma.'
Manson has claimed Hinman had made drugs
to jail visitors that
and tliat had threatened Hinman as a result of
certain individuals
the sale of bad dope. Hinman, he said, came to him seeking pro-
tection.
On
Thursday, July 24, Manson sent Ella Bailey aka Ella Sinder,
over to Gary Hinman's house to get the money and then to kill him.
Miss Sinder had been a close friend of Hinman. Although she was
a long-time Manson follower, she was not veiling to snufiF anybody
for him. Bill Vance, who
loved Ella, tried to intercede with Charlie
but Charlie was furious. So Ella and Bill Vance left the ranch to-
gether and went to Texas. The family was enraged with this, mutter-
ing among themselves, how they were going to kill Bill and Ella if

the two should dare to come back to the Spahn Ranch.

Everything was murder. One day around this time Cathy Gillies
Myers went off by herself without checking out. When she returned
Tex threatened her. "Don't you ever leave here without telHng
someone where you're going, next time I'll kill you, your life means
nothing to me," he said, according to Linda Kasabian.
The next
day, July 25, 1969, Kitty Lutesinger asked Beausoleil
if she could leave. She was getting a little weary of living at the
ranch, the constant hassles, the raids and the general atmosphere
of impending doom. So Bobby said that he would ask CharUe if she
could leave. He asked Charlie and Charlie said tliat under no cir-
cumstances could she leave the ranch.
Charlie and Kitty apparently never got along for Charlie would
226 THE FAMILY

say that she looked too much Hke his mother, also a thin, short red-
head. Manson came up to Kitty and accused her of trying to trick
Bobby into leaving the family. He threatened to torture and to kill
her. That afternoon Manson was seen pacing up and down the
Spahn Ranch boardwalk, sword in hand, fencing with his shadow,
jabbing the sword at bales of hay, angry.
Also that afternoon,Bobby and Charlie went for a ride in his dune
buggy up Devil Canyon. They checked out an old abandoned mine
whereupon, according to Beausoleil, Manson noted that it would be
a good place to hide a body. Manson was armed. Indeed, he was
armed: the magic sword was stuck in a metal tube on the steering
column of the dune buggy; a pistol was in a holster on the bucket
seat between Charlie's legs; and there was a knife strapped to his
ankle.
Some say the long hair swatches shorn from the were tied
girls

together and were aflBxed to the dune-buggy roll bar. The canopy of
ocelot fur decorated the back deck near the machine-gun mounts.
Manson shifted in the bucket seat toward Beausoleil and asked if it
were true that Bobby was thinking of splitting from the ranch. And
when Bob said yes, Charlie according to Bob, said, "Maybe I ought
to sht your motherfucldn' throat." Manson used his old con routine,
saying that Bobby knew too much to be allowed to leave.
Abruptly, according to Bobby, Manson changed the subject to
Hinman and asked Bobby if he would be willing to go over to Gary's
house and try to get some money out of him.
Beausoleil, at his second murder trial, testified that the reasons
for getting money from Hinman were to help the family move to the
desert. "I was supposed to tell Gary about the idea of making the
desert a place for a lot of people. Gary is the type of person who
would be interested in something like that, making a place for peo-
ple where they could express themselves in music."
Linda Kasabian remembered that around dusk she was standing
in front of the ranch and Bobby and Chai-lie were in the bunkhouse
talking. Sadie and Mary were outside the bunkhouse standing pa-
tiently, waiting for Bobby to come out so that they could go some-
place. Sadie told Linda Kasabian that they were going to get some
money and that she and Mary had been chosen to go in order to
work out a personaHty conflict.
 THE DEATH OF GARY HINMAN 227
Manson has admitted several times that the entire Hinman affair
was about some botched dope deal.
The story most circulated by family members was that Gary Hin-
man had an inheritance of $20,000 stashed away in his house, and
they were out to get it.

One version of the grim tale says that Beausoleil, Sadie and Mary
were driven to Hinman's house by Bruce Davis in Johnny Swartz's
Ford, the same car they would drive to the murder of Sharon Tate
and the others. Sadie and Mary evidently went in first to see if any-
body was there. Sadie signaled out the window, apparently by
lighting a cigarette, and Beausoleil went in.
But there are strange variations on this story. For instance, there
is a black jazz composer, a close friend of Hinman, in Topanga

Canyon who claims to have driven Manson and two girls to Hin-
man's house that night.
At the Spahn Ranch, while Beausoleil and Sadie and Mary were
working Hinman over, the family ran the walkie-talkie system
from the movie set a half mile or so to the back ranch. A girl would
stand guard at the front ranch, prepared to call the back ranch in
case of any invasion by the police or the blacks.
Hinman had been living with a young, red-haired girl named
Diane right up to the end of his hfe. She and Gary were seen the
day before the family began to torture him, smiHng and waving as
they drove through Topanga Canyon in Hinman's 1958 red and
white Microbus with a red thunderbird emblazoned on the side. It
is hoped that Diane, believed to have been a runaway from San

Diego, was not subsequently killed by the family.

That afternoon Gary Hinman had gone down to Los Angeles to
obtain a passport. In two weeks he intended to undertake a religious
pilgrimage to Japan. He had taken with him Glen Krell, who owned
a music school where Hinman taught piano, bagpipes, trombone
and the drums. Hinman called Krell to ask if Krell would sit in as a
him in the obtaining of his passport. So about 2 p.m. they
witness for
drove downtown to Los Angeles from Hinman's house at 964 Old
Topanga Canyon Road, and returned to Krell's house about five
o'clock in the afternoon. Hinman stayed there until about 7:10 when
he said he was going to go to a meeting somewhere. That was the
lasttime Hinman was seen on his feet
228 THE FAMILY

Krellhad wanted to borrow the Volkswagen Microbus for that

weekend but Hinman said he couldn't because he was going to haul
some rocks in for his driveway. But that Krell could use the Micro-
bus the following weekend.
Beausoleil and Mary and Sadie talked to Hinman for a couple of
hours but was no use. Hinman told them, in substance, to get lost.
it

Beausoleil had brought with him the nine-millimeter Radon pistol

purchased by Bruce Davis in Van Nuys a couple of weeks previous.
Beausoleil pulled the gun on Hinman and informed him that they
weren't kidding. Beausoleil decided that he'd go check out the house
and look money. So he handed the gun to Sadie and went into
for
the other rooms. Then Beausoleil heard a scuflBe and ran back into
the living room. Hinman and Sadie were fighting, the gun dis-
charged and a bullet hit the wall. Beausoleil grabbed the pistol and
smashed Hinman a few times with it. Hinman's head was bleeding.
They called up the Spahn Ranch and told Charlie it was no use be-
cause there'd already been a scufiBe and gunfire and Hinman
wouldn't do a thing for them. Shortly thereafter, close to midnight,
Bruce Davis and Manson, waving his sword, arrived at the Hinman
house. Charlie was angry. Right away he barked at Hinman that he
wanted "to talk about that money." Hinman began to shout at him,
telKng him to get out and take his family with him and Manson
raised up his sword and hacked Hinman's ear. It was an ugly five-
inch wound, cutting deep into the jawbone area and angling up
through the ear.
After this, Manson and Davis split, evidently in Hinman's Fiat.
Before leaving, Manson told Hinman he'd better give up the money
or else. Those left behind tied Hinman up and placed him on the
rug on the living room floor next to his bookcase, where he lay
wounded, cursing Manson and vowing vengeance. They decided
they'd stay up all night and keep watch over him so that he should
not escape. They pulled up a chair alongside the bleeding body.
They gave him a drink of wine or beer, or something, and then Mary
Brunner took some white dental floss and sewed up his gaping
wound. Beausoleil and Mary thoroughly searched Hinman's house,
turning it upside down, breaking open a cash box, looking here and
there, and they couldn't find the money. Sadie went out to get some
food and some bandages.
 THE DEATH OF GARY HINMAN 229

They made Hinman sign over his two cars— the Volkswagen
Microbus and the souped-up Fiat— by signing the pink slips, dating
them July 26, 1969. There is one report that they stole Hinman's
bagpipe from the house and took it with them to the ranch after
they killed him.
They waited all wounded Hinman. On Saturday,
night with the
July 26, two Hinman, both also associates of the Manson
friends of
family, tried to contact Gary Hinman while he was held victim by
the family prior to his death. One, a boy named Jay, called Hinman's
house on Saturday afternoon, July 26. The alleged purpose of his
call was to try to get Gary to rent him the lower apartment in Hin-

man's house at 964 Old Topanga Canyon Road. A girl answered

the phone, supposedly Sadie Glutz, talking with an English accent.
The English voice told Jay that Gary was in Colorado where his par-
ents had been involved in an automobile accident. Maybe it was
actually an English girl who answered the phone. Another person
from Santa Barbara named Dave showed up in Hinman's house in
person. A female Caucasian, none of the family according to Dave,
answered the door and wouldn't let him in.
Sometime late Saturday or early Sunday they called the Spahn
Ranch and, according to Danny De Carlo, Manson told them to kill
Hinman: "He knows too much."
It is known for certain that Hinman was threatening to expose the
family and their activities, perhaps to the police, and that the family
might have to break up. So it was decided that he would have to die.
There is another version that says the death was a result of Hinman
suddenly starting to scream.
Manson had said that they were all set to take Hinman out to the
ranch to let him heal his wounds but that Beausoleil panicked, evi-
dently when Hinman started screaming out the window. Whatever
the case, he was stabbed twice in the chest, one of the stabbings
cutting the pericardial sac causing Hinman to bleed to death. Rob-
ert Beausoleil resides on Death Row, San Quentin, convicted of the
murder.
As he died, they put him on the floor of the living room near his

bookcase. Above him they fashioned a makeshift Buddhist shrine

for the Nichiren Shoshu faith. As Gary Hinman lay dying, they gave
him his prayer beads and he chanted "Nam Myo Ho Renge Kyo—
230 THE FAMILY

Nam Myo IIo Renge Kyo," tlie chant of his faith, until he lapsed
into unconsciousness.
Mary and Sadie removed the bloody bandages from Hinmans
thread-sewn face. They gathered all the bloody towels and clothes
and took them away to dispose of elsewhere. There was some-
body's black cape, bloodied— perhaps Mary's, perhaps Manson's—
that was carried out of Hinman's house and thrown away also.
They covered Hinman up with a green bedspread. On the wall in
the corner of the room just above Hinman's head someone scrawled,
in Hinman s blood, "POLITICAL PIGGY." To the left of Pohtical
Piggy someone finger-painted in blood the paw of a cat, intended
to be a panther. With a narrow brush someone painted the claws
of the paw. They wanted the police to think that black militants
committed the murder.
They wiped the house down for fingerprints and burnt some docu-
ments, evidently linking the family with Hinman, in the Hving-room
fireplace. They locked all the doors and crawled out the side
window. As they were leaving they began to hear Hinman making
a lot of heavy rasping sounds so Beausoleil climbed in the rear
window and went over to Hinman's body and started smothering
him and Sadie came in and grabbed a pillow and put it over his
face until he lay still. Mary pulled Hinman's wallet out and re-
moved twenty dollars then thrust the wallet halfway into his back
pocket.
Then they tripped down the steep, wooden staircase to the street
where they hot-wired Hinman's VW van painted with the thunder-
bird.
According to Maiy Brunner they were hungry after they left the
house and drove over to the Topanga Kitchen at the shopping cen-
ter where they had some cherry cake and coffee. They then drove
back to the Spahn Ranch. When Hinman's Microbus arrived at the
ranch some of the girls saw that there were some paints in the back
so they used them to paint some pictures. Then right away Mary
Brunner, Linda Kasabian and Kitty took Hinman's Fiat into Simi for
a garbage run.
That night the family got together for a songfest and tape-
recorded a re-creation of the murder of Gary Hinman in musical
form. Each person played a role. Someone played the part of the
 THE DEATH OF GARY HINMAN 231
dying Gary Hinman, who is supposed to have mumbled several
times, "Iwanted to live, I wanted to live." This taped re-creation of
the murder of Gary Hinman is among the tapes that Bill Vance, deep
in hiding, has in his possession.
On July 27, the dayHinman was murdered, Jean Brayton's blood-
drinking occult commune north of Blythe, California was raided by
the pohce.
One Father Ryan of the Order of St. Augustine claimed that
Charles Manson, or Manson's simulacrum, a short hirsute hippie with
a new beard, on Sunday, July 27, 1969, approached the back door
of his parish house located about a half-mile from the LaBianca res-
idence. "I'm Jesus Christ," announced the short fierce individual,
according to Father Ryan. The Jesus-claimer looked at the Father
with a cold hard stare beneath heavy eyebrows. He asked the Father
why he was a priest and evinced an intense dislike toward the
priesthood. The Father claims he shut the door in Manson's face.
This incident has no doubt provided the basis for many a sermon
delivered by the good Father on Sundays since.
Later that eventful day and night of July 27, around 1 a.m.
Charlie was lurking near the Spahn Ranch on Panther patrol. He
had concealed himself and his dune buggy in underbrush near the
tumoff from Topanga Canyon Boulevard onto Santa Susanna Pass
Road, awaiting the invasion of hostile forces.
Agroup of police cars from the California Highway Patrol and
from the Malibu sheriffs station, about five in number, turned onto
Santa Susanna Pass Road preparing another raid on the Spahn
Ranch about a mile and a half away. The poHce gathered together
near the game-plan because they came
turnoflF to finahze their raid

across Manson's hidden dune buggy.

Officer Sam Olmstead of the sheriffs department approached
Manson and asked him what he was doing. According to Olmstead's
testimony at the trial, Manson said that he was watching for Black
Panthers who were expected to attack the Spahn Ranch.
According to Sheriffs Deputy George Grap, Manson said, "We
got into a hassle with a couple of those black motherfuckers and we
put one of them in the hospital," after which Manson told him that
the blacks were going to wreak vengeance. He said that the "Pan-
232 THE FAMILY

thers" had been out to the ranch several times scouting it out, riding
horses.
Manson then pulled a great con routine on the assembled officers.
He them that the people back at the ranch were heavily armed
told
and that, were the officers suddenly to raid, they might think them
to be attacking hordes of Black Panthers and open fire. So Charlie
obtained permission from the officers to proceed first to the Spahn
Ranch and cool out the gun-toters. The police agreed to this. Charlie
then leaped into his dune buggy, peeled out and raced back to the
ranch, jumped from the buggy, raced into the Saloon, warned every-
body, whereupon the youth pack fled to the four winds, leaving be-
hind only their warm sleeping bags.
The five police cars were right behind Manson when he leaped
and ran into the Saloon. The officers checked the buildings but no
one was there.
Officers Crap and Olmstead ran what are called DMVs on the
automobiles in the ranch driveway to see if any were stolen. One
happened to be the red VW bus with the white thunderbird on the
side belonging to the recently deceased Gary Hinman. Wlien they
called in the license number and it came back as belonging to Hin-
man, one of the officers said: "Hey, I know Hinman; he must be out
here visiting."
Charlie ffipped part of his threat trip upon the by drawing
officers
their attention to the dark steep hills north of the Spahn Ranch. He
told the officers thathe had people scattered throughout the hills
with guns trained upon the officers and that on Manson's command
the police could be wiped out. He told police officer Olmstead that
only dune buggies could reach his hidden troops, and to forget
about reaching them with their patrol cars.
According to Deputy Grap, as he was filling out the standard
Field Investigation Report (FIR), Manson approached him about
joining up wipe out the 'Tanthers." 'Ton know, you cops
forces to
ought to get smart and join up with us; those guys are out to kill you
just like they are out to kill us. I know you hate them as much as we
do, and if we join together we could solve this problem."
Horse wrangler Johnny Swartz was arrested during this raid for
"false evidence of registration" for the '59 Ford.
On Monday afternoon, July 28, Bob Beausoleil went into the
 THE DEATH OF GARY HINMAN 233
bunkhouse/gim room/office/undertaker's parlor where lie joined
Charlie, Danny and Sadie— who was sewing a knife case for Charlie.
Mary Brunner came into the gun room in a huff, angered by rumors
that Sadie had told Shorty Shea that "CharHe killed a black man and
I don't know who else." According to Beausoleil and Snake Lake,

Mary told Sadie that she was going to kill her unless she kept her
mouth shut.
CharHe, taking up the theme, smashed Sadie's head against the
wall, muttering something about Shorty "knowing too much." Un-
fortunately for Manson, there would be no wall in Sybil Brand Jail
only three months later upon which he might bash the babbly head
of Glutz as she confessed to Virginia Graham.
At 3:07 P.M. on July 30, somebody at the Polanski residence
called the Esalen Institute at Big Sur, California. Charles Manson
himself visited the Institute only three days later.

On
Tuesday, July 30, Bob Beausoleil went back to the Hinman
house to wipe down the house more thoroughly for fingerprints.
The house was full of flies. Beausoleil neglected to remove a finger-
print from the kitchen door with twenty-six points of identification
linking him to the house and to Death Row.
The same day that Bobby went to Gary's house to clean it up, his
girl friend, the pregnant, attractive Eatty Lutesinger, ran away from
the ranch. After Charlie threatened, according to Miss Kitty, to
carve her up, accusing her of trying to lure Bobby away from the
family.
Frank Retz, the agent for the Transcontinental Development
Corporation, was on the property north and west of the Spahn
Ranch at the very moment that Kitty made her move to escape. She
went along the underbrush toward the back ranch in order to find
a stretch of road away from the main ranch complex whereupon
she might hitchhike out of the area safely.
Mr. Retz had driven to the property with the then current owner,
a Mrs. Kelly, in order to negotiate purchase of the land. Just
minutes previously they had stormed in on the back ranch which,
it be remembered, was on the property line, and demanded
will
that Manson and the others leave the premises. When Mr. Retz and
Mrs. Kelly returned to his car they discovered that it had been
robbed of Mrs. Kelly's pocketbook. Right at that time, Miss
234 THE FAMILY

Lutesinger ran through the brush and asked for protection from
Manson.
Retz drove Miss Lutesinger to a pohce station and she was trans-
ported by police oflBcers to her parents' horse ranch. This sowed the
seeds for the dissolution of Helter Skelter even before the murders
were committed. For the pohce started visiting her home to get in-
formation about the Spahn Ranch, which they considered an illegal
haven for runaways and an assembly plant for stolen dune buggies.
After returning home Miss Lutesinger was very afraid and kept
all doors to her parents' house locked for several days because

Charhe, she said, had told her he would kill her mother and sister
if she left the ranch. She refused to answer the phone, even when

Bobby called to say he was going to San Francisco.

Gary Hinman missed participating in a bagpipe parade in Santa
Monica on the 27th and his friends began to worry. On Thursday,
July 31, three of his close friends, fellow chanters and Nichiren
Shoshu Buddhist adepts, came to his small brown-shingled house
and walked up the steep ivy-sided steps to encounter the many flies
of death swarming in and out of the open window on the second-
floor front of the house. They called the poHce.
Late in the afternoon, a call came into the L.A. County Sheriff
Homicide OflBce on the third floor of the Hall of Justice in aromatic
downtown L.A. with details of a death in Topanga Canyon, a man
badly decomposed, a hippie, so to speak; possibly a suicide. The
sheriff's homicide oflBcers handle all murders that occur in imincor-

porated areas of Los Angeles County and the two oflBcers on duty
that afternoon were Sergeant Paul Whiteley and Deputy Charles
Guenther, two formidable gentlemen indeed.
They could have left the matter for the evening watch to handle,
since their shift was almost over, but they decided to drive out to
Topanga Canyon to check out the possible crime. After surveying
the scene they felt it was murder, and from the state of the body,
the murderer had at least a week's jump on them.
They sent out for a couple of six-packs of beer and some room
freshener. The smell in the house was intolerable. For five days Of-
ficers Whiteley and Guenther spent almost all their waking hours
inside the residence sifting through Hinman's personal effects, try-
ing to locate the culprit. The earliest suspects were the couple who
 THE DEATH OF GARY HINMAN 235
had been making mescaline with Hinman, but they were quickly
cleared.
These two sheriff's office homicide detectives, Whiteley and
Guenther, were the ones mainly responsible for bringing down the
house of Manson, but it would take about ninety days— days replete
with the screams of uncounted victims.
In fact, the $25,000 reward set up by Peter Sellers, Warren
Beatty, Yul Brynner, John Phillips and friends perhaps should have
gone to Officers Guenther and Whiteley instead of it going, as it

seems to have gone, to Danny De Carlo and Shelley Nadell.

 Sixteen

The Anvil into Tartaros

On August 1, the pages of the newspapers were crowded with outer

space news— the first moon, a report from Mariner
pictures of the
6 on chmatic conditions on the surface of Mars, astronauts in motor
parades across America.
Elvis Presley, with fifty gold records hanging on his wall,
opened a four-week engagement at the International in Las Vegas.
In San Francisco there were five homicides.
One day in early August, Linda Kasabian and pregnant Sandy
Good went to Topanga beach to panhandle and to enjoy the ocean.
They were picked up by a movie actor named Saladin Nader in an
old white Jaguar. Mr. Nader had starred in a Lebanese movie called
Broken Wings, about the youth of poet Kahlil Gibran. Sandy and
Linda went with Saladin Nader to his apartment at iioi Ocean
Front in Santa Monica. Mr. Nader showed the girls pictures of him-
self in various movies. There, he and Linda got after it in the bed-

room while Sandy took a nap.

Later he drove the girls to a shopping center in the San Fernando
Valley. Early in the morning of August lo, Linda and Manson and
Sadie and Clem would return to his house on Ocean Front to try to
kill him.
Meanwhile, at the ranch, Charlie got rid of the nine-millimeter
Radon pistol used at Gary Hinman's murder by trading it to that boy
from Simi named Hendrix for a blue '55 Chevy four-door sedan.
 THE ANVIL INTO TARTAROS 237
Charlie gave one Mark Arneson Hinman's VW Microbus. Arneson
also wanted Hinman's souped-up Fiat but Beausoleil needed it. The
family wanted Mark for their membership rolls. Leslie Van Houten
was working on Mark to join the family and she put him on the no-
sex list to put the pressure on him.
On August 1, Charlie was talking about taking a trip up north to
gather recruits. Beausoleil testified at his trial that he was called into
a trailer where he had a conversation with Bruce Davis and Manson.
According to Beausoleil, Charlie told Bruce he should be willing to
do what "he" did at Gary's; he told Bruce that Terry Melcher should
be ready for death; it was his karma.
Charlie had his ear-hacking sword at hand and told Bruce, accord-
ing to Beausoleil, that he should be willing to go into the city and cut
and slash until he had blood and guts up to here— motioning to his
chin.
Around 6 p.m. that day, a resident at the Crest Haven Ranch on
Fern Ann Falls Road up by the waterfall campsite saw some bikers
prowling along the road and he heard automatic weapons' fire com-
ing from the Devil Canyon and Ybermo Canyon area. After
George Spahn went to dinner, it was always rifle practice time. The
carbine was evidently Charlie's favorite weapon. He'd let all thirty
rounds go in a burst of rapid-fire, standing in the surf of Fear.
In the evening, the girls cleaned up the Hostess Twinkies Con-
tinentalBakery truck, outfitting the bed in the back for the Wizard's
important trip to Big Sur.
Danny De Carlo CharHe talked about being gone for
said that
about three months. Others say he talked about going north to re-
cruit girls. Beausoleil has claimed that Manson left the Spahn Ranch
for the trip about midnight.
The chronology of Manson's whereabouts during the days be-
tween August 1 and 8 is filled with gaps.
known from interviews that between 7 and 8 a.m. on Sunday,
It is

August 3, Manson purchased gasoline in a service station in Canoga

Park, near the Spahn Ranch. He must quickly have sped north be-
cause his whereabouts during a double homicide in San
alibi for his

Jose on Sunday afternoon, August 3 is that he was visiting the

Esalen Institute in Big Sur, enjoying the hot springs and steam
baths.
238 THE FAMILY

On Sunday the 3, Randy Reno, a musician and occasional visitor

to the Ranch, visited the family and they told him that CharUe was
up in Devil's Hole. Beausoleil later testified at his April 1970 trial
that after Charlie cut out, he felt that people were watching him,
as if to prevent his leaving. Throughout the history of the family
whenever CharHe took a bit of time oflF, that provided the oppor-
tunity for people to escape. Tex and Bruce Davis seemed to be keep-
ing their eyes on him. Bobby waited. "I smiled a lot, tried to be
myself. It seemed that they were trusting me so I left." He told the
girls to clean up Hinman's customized Fiat station wagon which
"was full of junk"— as he testified.

Why did Robert Beausoleil leave for San Francisco driving the
car of the very man in whose murder he had participated?
So, around Tuesday, August 5, Robert Beausoleil drove Hinman's
grill-less Fiat,with Toyota motor and a radiator set at a 45-degree
angle, toward San Francisco, unaware that Hinman's body had
been discovered.
He passed through Santa Barbara and stopped at a restaurant
where he was told by a policeman to take his Mexican sheath knife
off. He put it in the car trunk. He continued driving north and some-

time in the night the Fiat broke down on Highway 101 near San
Luis Obispo.
At 10:50 A.M. a California Highway Patrol car stopped behind the
parked car and, as it halted, Beausoleil raised up in the back from a
sleeping bag. Beausoleil had no driver's license to show the officer
but had identification for Jason Lee Daniels and a credit card plus
a business card for the Lutesinger Ranch.
Officer Humphrey of the Highway Patrol called in Hinman's
license number to the computer and he learned that the car was
reported stolen from Los Angeles. He drew and ar-
his revolver
rested Beausoleil. When he arrived at the CHP was a
station, there
Los Angeles sheriff's office "All Points Bulletin" that the car be im-
pounded and occupants held in regard to Hinman's death.
As part of a prearranged scheme, Beausoleil said that he had
bought the car in the week previous from a black man. The Fiat was
locked up, to preserve fingerprints, and Jim's Tow Service hauled
it into custody in San Luis Obispo.

The same day around 8:30 p.m., homicide officers Paul Whiteley
 THE ANVIL INTO TARTAROS 239
and Charles Guenther and a fingerprint expert named Jake Jordan
arrived in San Luis Obispo to interrogate Beausoleil. They brought
with them the card bearing Beausoleil's thumbprint lifted from the
kitchen door jamb of Hinman's house. They had the man.
Beausoleil remained pretty quiet during interrogation though he
finally admitted going to Hinman's house with two female Cauca-
sians. He claimed he did not reveal their names but only that Hin-
man was injured, when they got there, and that they came to his
aid, sewed liis face, etc., then left. He said that Hinman rewarded
tliem for suturing his face with dental floss by signing over his auto-
mobile to them. Hinman, he said, told them he got involved in some
political hassle with blacks and that one of them had knifed his
face.
The next day, on August 7, Robert Beausoleil was brought to Los
Angeles and booked for homicide. As per California law, he was al-

lowed to call the Spahn Ranch. Linda Kasabian was manning

incoming day and Beausoleil gave her the bad news but
calls that

said that everything was okay and that he was staying quiet.
Beausoleil himself has said that Linda was upset and that she
asked what could be done to help him and a discussion was held
regarding possible plans of action. According to Beausoleil the dis-

cussion involved copy-cat murders, or murders removing those who

might have knov^ni about the Hinman matter. Such discussions of
possible murder to get Beausoleil out may have served to rev up the
family for more snuffs, another example of the self-fulfilling
prophecy.
Sadie Glutz testified at the Tate-LaBianca trial that soon after
Bobby called, LesKe, Sadie, Linda Kasabian, Katie and others had a
homicide-klatch to discuss and to determine how to get Bobby,,
their brother, out of jail. According to the Glutz/ Atkins testimony,
one of the girls had seen a movie where copy-cat murders were
committed over a period of time, enabling a killer to get out of jail.
They wanted to raise money for him to get a lavi^er. The girls
decided to hold a night of streetwalking to raise money for Beauso-
leil. They donned their finery and high heels, and painted their lips

and hit the bricks.

Meanwhile, where was Manson during all this?

Manson seems to have left the Esalen Institute sometime late

240 THE FAMILY

Sunday. Manson was then cruising around the Big Sur area in the
1952 Hostess Twinkie bread truck with two unknown male com-
panions.
About 3 or 4 A.M. Monday morning, August Manson met a preg-
4,
nant seventeen-year-old girl named Stephanie who was entering
the ladies' room at a service station. He scarfed her up.
This is her story:
"I was with this guy and we had gone to Nevada, saw his uncle
and came back through San Francisco and down through Big Sur.
He was weird; he wasn't my boy friend, I just went with him
to keep him company. He did everything according to the rules and
I was sick of it. So we stopped at this gas station late at night or
early in the morning and this guy in a milk truck whistled at me
when I went into the bathroom. When I came he went, *Do you
want a sweet roll?' I took one and he started talking to me
and showing the flowers to me.
*'Then he asked me if I wanted to come with them. He said, I'll
take you back to San Diego, we will see Big Sur tomorrow as long
as you come to my ranch.' I said okay and I was really freaked out
and I went. Nobody forced me to, I just went."
During her time with Manson he became attracted to the lovely
girl. She made Manson vow that he would not leave her side for two

weeks, a vow that has long caused consternation and disbelief

among his female followers, who would not have thought such a
vow possible. He initiated her into a prolonged session of LSD sex.
According to her, Manson took her down into a Big Sur canyon,
stuflFed a tab of dope into her mouth and ordered her to swallow

it. Then he said, according to the girl, "Open your mouth and

vdggle your tongue around."

"He wanted to make sure that I took it," she told an interviewer
a few months later. "He sure did send me on a trip that one day."
The two male companions who were with Manson when he
picked up Miss Stephanie outside the ladies' room, she testified,
were hitchhikers who left them shortly thereafter. The two new
lovers toured the Big Sur area for a couple of days then headed
south for the Spahn Ranch, arriving the afternoon of August 6, 1969.
Manson and Stephanie stayed part of the afternoon and evening
at the ranch then split toward San Diego where Manson, as per the
 THE ANVIL INTO TARTAROS 241

bargain, was to deliver Miss Stephanie back home. They only got a
few blocks when they parked and spent the time of night in blissful
repose in the back of the Twinkie truck. The next morning they
headed south to Jamul, California, where Stephanie lived with her
sister and brother-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Hartman.

At 4:15 P.M. near Oceanside, California, Manson and Stephanie

were stopped by the California Highway Patrol. Manson received
a citation for not possessing a driver's license.
They drove on to Stephanie's sister's house. They had dinner
with the Hartmans and Charlie talked a lot, CharHe was
as usual.
attired in gungy blue jeans and his witchy-whorled sequined vest.
He rapped for about two hours. It was a general sort of Manson dis-
cussion. Slaughter, music, hypnotism and the Beatles.
Manson really weirdized the Hartmans, according to Mrs. Hart-
man, by saying that soon "people were going to be slaughtered and
they would be lying on their lawns dead." Stephanie was afraid her
former boy friend was going to show up, so she and Manson had to
leave rather than stay for the night. Charlie talked her into return-
him to Spahn land.
ing with
They drove in the Hostess Twinkles bread truck to somebody's
lawn, a friend of Stephanie, and the lovers slept on the lawn, the
night of August 7.

Miss Stephanie stayed with the family October 1969 and is

till

now operating her own dog grooming shop at the age of nineteen.
In the morning of August 8, Manson and Stephanie drove back
north to the ranch, arriving about 1 p.m., with murder eleven hours
away.

On Friday, August 1, 1969, a hair stylist named Carol Solomon

and a girl named Linda, a Beverly Hills doctor's daughter now de-

ceased through an overdose of doraden, attended a small paiiy

thrown by Voityck Frykowski at 10050 Cielo Drive. Sharon Tate
and Abigail Folger were not there. Linda was Voityck's date and
was known to have "hung out" at the home during the summer.
Chicken and champagne were served at the pool. It was a quiet
scene involving about ten people, some of whom spent time in the
242 THE FAMILY

bedroom watching TV. The two girls, according to Miss Solomon,

were invited over again for the following weekend.
During the weekend of August i and August 2, 1969, either Abi-
gail Folger or Sharon Tate may have stopped in at the Esalen Insti-
tute in Big Sur for one of those famous Esalen weekends where
people pay money for elitist mental health sessions.
It is known that the Esalen Institute is extremely uptight over the
fact that Manson visited there that weekend. In fact, this writer re-
ceived an oblique snuff-threat from someone representing Esalen
interests.
According to the vice-president of Sebring International, Jay Se-
bring had visited the Polanski residence on Sunday, Tuesday and
Thursday, during the week before the murders.
On August 4, 1969, Sharon rented a 1969 Chevrolet Camaro from
Airways Rent-a-Car "to be leased from August 4, 1969 till August 8,
1969," as the contract reads. Her red Ferrari was in the garage being
repaired, following an accident.
On August 4, Voityck's actor friend Mark Fine called Frykowski
and reminded him that Frykowski had a meeting with a movie pro-
ducer on the sixth regarding sale of a story. Frykowski told Fine
that on August 6 he would have to pick up some friends at the air-
port coming in from Canada.
Sometime during that week, perhaps Tuesday or Wednesday, a
dope dealer from Toronto named Billy Doyle was whipped and
video-buggered at 10050 Cielo Drive. In the days before his death,
Sebring had complained to a receptionist at his hair shop that
someone had burned him for $2000 worth of cocaine and he wanted
vengeance. Billy Doyle was involved in a large-scale dope-import
operation involving private planes from Jamaica. There seem to
have been many dope-burns, perhaps like the falling of a line of
dominoes, during the days around the Tate-LaBianca murders.
Dennis Hopper, in an interview with the Los Angeles Free Press,
said, about the video-bugger and the circumstances there:
"They had and masochism and bestiality— and
fallen into sadism
they recorded on videotape too. The L.A. police told me this.
it all

I know that three days before they were killed, twenty-five people
were invited to that house to a mass whipping of a dealer from Sun-
set Strip who'd given them bad dope."
 THE ANVIL INTO TARTAROS 243

On Tuesday orWednesday, August 5 or 6, there evidently was a

party at 10050 Cielo Drive in honor of French director Roger Vadim,
in celebration of Vadim's completion of a motion picture and his
imminent return to Europe. An area of silence surrounds this event.
Attempts to secure information about it have resulted in tense un-

easiness from those alleged to have been on the set, so to speak.

Sharon, Voityck and Abigail on August 6, were at Michael Same's
house for dinner. Sharon was tired and got up to leave shortly after
dessert. Her life revolved around the baby. She floated during the
day in a rubber ring in her swimming pool—to take the weight off
her stomach.
Mr. Frykowski seems to have acquired a new shipment of MDA
two or three days prior to his death. Mrs. Chapman, the house-
keeper at Cielo Drive, was offWednesday and Thursday. Sebring
had some films developed at National General Film Lab on Wednes-
day, August 8, so the films may have been taken on Tuesday night.
Another of Voityck's dope-dealer friends from Canada showed
up on August 6 and later claimed to reporters that Frykowski was
in the fifth day of a "ten-day mescaHne experiment." In fact, the
Canadian claimed that both Jay Sebring and Mr. Frykowski were
out to lunch on mescaline. The dope-hawker talked to Frykowski
about an impending shipment of MDA. The same dealer showed
up the next day about 4 p.m. and shared a bottle of wine with Fry-
kowski. He met Sharon Tate that day, indicating that he was a
recent friend of Frykowski, or from another circle of acquaintances.
Novelist Jerzy Kosinsld and wife were supposed to come to Los
Angeles on August 7 to visit at the Polanski residence and wait for
Roman and for the baby. Kosinski's lug-
to return for his birthday
gage was lost on the way to New York from Europe so, instead of
traveling immediately to Los Angeles, they waited in New York for
the luggage. This probably saved his hfe, because he was not able
to arrive in Los Angeles on the 7th or the 8th.
On Friday, August 8, 1969, the housekeeper, Winifred Chap-
man, arrived at the Polanski residence at 8 a.m.
Around 8:30 a.m. a Mr. Guerrero arrived to paint the nursery.
He worked until mid-afternoon, completing the first coat. He was
scheduled to return on Monday to complete the second coat of
paint.
244 THE FAMILY

Before lunch, Winifred washed down the front Dutch door be-
cause the dogs had dirtied it. Pig and a fingerprint would dirty it

later.

Mrs. Chapman testified that on Tuesday August 4, she washed

the French doors in Sharon's bedroom where Friday midnight
would find a murderer's fingerprint. Wednesday and Thursday
were Mrs. Chapman's days off.
About 11 A.M. Roman Polanski called from London. Mrs. Chap-
man answered the phone. Then Sharon talked.
Sharon asked him if he wanted a birthday party when he re-
turned. She was anxious for him to arrive soon so that he might
attend a course for expectant fathers. Mrs. Polanski planned to have
natural childbirth. She told her husband a fittle kitten had wan-
dered onto the property and she was feeding it with an eyedropper.
In the afternoon, the gardeners and groundskeepers of the estate,
Joe Vargas and Dave Martinez, arrived.
Joanna Pettit and Barbara Lewis, old friends of Sharon Tate, ar-
rived about 12:30 for lunch. Abigail and Voityck showed up, after
which Mrs. Chapman served a late lunch for Pettit, Lewis, Sharon,
Abigail, Voityck and herself.
Joanna Pettit and Barbara Lewis departed at 3:30 p.m. Around
3:45 Dave Martinez, one of the gardeners, left the property. He
asked Bill Garretson to be sure to water the grounds during the
weekend.
Jay Sebring called at 3:45. Afew minutes later Gibby Folger left
in the red Firebird. Voityck left at 4 p.m. in Sharon's rented yellow
Camaro. At 4:30 Miss Folger went to her usual daily appointment
with her psychiatrist. Dr. Marvin Flicker.
Frykowski drove to Sebring's house on Easton Drive and picked
up a Susan Peterson with whom Sebring had spent the previous
night. With her, Frykowski drove to stick-artist Witold K.'s gallery-
boutique Beverly Wilshire Hotel to get the keys to Voityck
at the
and Abigail's house on Woodstock Road where Witold K. was stay-
ing.Mr. K. did not have the keys to the house because they were
left over at Mr.
K.'s girl friend's house. Mr. Frykowski finally lo-
cated the keys at the girl friend's house and then went with Miss
Peterson to his Woodstock Road house.
There they dallied, listening to records.
 THE ANVIL INTO TARTAROS 245

At 4:30 Joe Vargas, the gardener, signed for the arrival of Roman
Polansld's two steamer trunks because he didn't want to awaken
Sharon, who was napping in her room.
As it was extremely hot and dry, Sharon thought it would be un-
comfortable in Mrs. Chapman's apartment so she asked Winifred
if she wanted to stay over. No, thank you.

Around 4:45 Joe Vargas left the property, giving the housekeeper
Mrs. Chapman a ride down to the bus stop. When they left, Sharon
was alone in the house, asleep.
Sebring was seen on Easton Drive by a neighbor, whizzing past
in his black Porsche, followed closely by another sports car, about
5:30 P.M.
Between 6:30 and 7 one Dennis Hearst delivered a light-
p.m.,
weight bicycle to the residence. Abigail Folger had purchased it
earher in the afternoon. Jay Sebring answered the door, wine bottle
in hand.
Sharon Tate had invited people over for the evening but later
called them and said she was not feeling well.
Evidently Sharon was supposed to stay overnight v^dth an old
friend Sheilah Welles at Miss Welles' house. Sharon and Sheilah
Welles were roommates for a year in Hollywood. Something caused
her to change her mind.
Director Michael Same was considering going to Sharon's on
Friday night. Also Dino Martin, Jr. and a host of others, including
John PhiUips. One popular folk singer, according to Leonard Lyons,
claimed that he was supposed to go to the murder house that night
from Jay Sebring.
to get a haircut
If the number of people who claim to have been invited to 10050
Cielo Drive the night of August 8 had shown up, there wouldn't
have been room for a murder.
According to a Mrs. McCaflFrey, a receptionist at Sebring's hair
shop, her boy friend Joel Rostau delivered cocaine and mescaline
to the house on Cielo the night of the murders. She said that
Fry-

kowski and Sebring wanted more, but Rostau, unable to score, didn't
return.
Frykowski called his friend Witold K. in the evening sometime
and invited him over but Witold K. was busy laying down a rug in
his new art gallery at 9406 Wilshire Boulevard.
246 THE FAMILY

The foursome and Sharon had a late dinner

Jay, Voityck, Abigail
at a Spanish restaurant, El Coyote, on Beverly Boulevard, about
the same time as the coyote-worshiping Charles Manson was plot-
ting his evil.
Miss Folger's mother called from San Francisco. Miss Folger
was scheduled to fly the lo a.m. United Airlines shuttle the next
morning to Frisco in order to be with her mother for her birthday.
It was about midnight. They were in bed. Voityck was evidently

asleep upon the flag-draped living room sofa. Abigail was reading a
book in the northeast bedroom. Sharon Tate and Jay Sebring were
talking in the southwest bedroom when the knife stabbed into the
gray screen, scratching and slicing an entrance into the empty nurs-
ery at the far north end of the house.

In the early afternoon of August 8, 1969, Charles Manson arrived

at the Spahn Ranch, bearing the pregnant runaway seventeen-year-
old graduate of Anaheim High School, Stephanie. Charhe called
Stephanie tlie "product of 2000 years of good breeding." He was
proud of her. Charhe was quickly apprised of Robert BeausoleiFs
arrest. The whole trip up north had been a bummer for Charhe, who
hated rejection. And now, with Beausoleil's arrest for murder, Man-
son's whole empire was threatened.
As soon as he got back, driving the 1952 Continental Bakery
Hostess Twinkle truck, Charhe sent Mary Brunner and Sandy Good
off to run a credit-card caper at the Sears store. Before they left
they took Stephanie's credit cards and identification away from her,
naturally, and filed them with the master credit-card horde in
George Spahn's house.
Around 4 p.m., Mary Brunner and Sandy Pugh— for Sandy was
using the name of her snuffed-out, former husband at the time-
were completing purchases at the Sears store at 1030 Celis Street in
San Fernando, Cahfornia. They bought merchandise with a stolen
credit card, recently ripped offfrom Vern Plumlee's brother-in-law
in Bothwell, Washington. Mary Brunner forged the name Mary
Vitasek on the credit card.The two young ladies left. If they had
away, they probably would not have been arrested.
split right

Instead of leaving they decided to make some more purchases

 THE ANVIL INTO TARTAROS 247

at a difiFerent checkout counter and again presented the same stolen

credit card. The cashier, an alert lady named Mrs. Ramirez, noted
that the card was on the "warning sheet." Mrs. Ramirez became sus-
picious when she noticed that the pregnant Sandy kept looking
over her shoulder all the time.
The store manager intervened and the girls fled. The Sears' store
manager proceeded to follow the girls in his automobile, trying to
get tliem to pull tlie bakery truck over to the side of the road. Sandy
and Mary cut through a service station, trying to ditch the Sears
oflBcials. The chase led to the Chatsworth entrance to the San Diego

Freeway, where the girls were stopped, evidently having some

sort of accident. Sandy had managed to toss the credit cards out the
window but the act was spotted by the pursuers.
Captured with the two young ladies were a creepy-crawl fuU
house of various credit cards from Hancock Gasoline, J. C. Penney,
Sears, Gulf, Texaco and Richfield, plus various forms of identifica-
tion cards. Three of the cards belonged to John Dries, who had been
killed in a trafiBc accident.
The poHce found the Manson the day be-
trafiBc citation given to
fore in Oceanside, CaHfornia. Mary and Sandy were charged with
violations of Section 459 and 4840 of the California Penal Code.
Mary Brunner admitted that she, in fact, forged the credit card but
Sandy Good proclaimed her innocence.
They were booked at the police station just as, thirty miles away,
Abigail Folger was ending her appointment with her psychiatrist.
Mary and Sandy Good were taken to the pohce station and then
later that evening hauled into downtown Los Angeles where, at
10:21 P.M., they were booked into the Sybil Brand Institute Inmate
Reception Center.
Meanwhile, back at the Spahn Ranch, murder was on the minds.
Mary Brunner arrested. Sandy Good arrested. Bobby Beausoleil ar-

rested. CharHe Manson rejected in Big Sur. It was a tragic time for

California.
In the afternoon, someone went on a garbage run for the evening
meal. At the back ranch, they cooked dinner on the Coleman four-
burner camping stove. Everybody was excited that CharHe was
back. CharHe said that people up north were really not together,
they were just oS on their own little trips and they were not getting
248 THE FAMILY

together. "Now is the time for Helter Skelter" is what Charlie Man-
son said.
At the meal, Charlie issued instructions that all people under
eighteen were to sleep in the wickiup by the back ranch. After din-
ner, the slave girls washed the dishes and Tex Watson and CharHe
plotted what to do about Beausoleil's arrest.
When Sandy and Mary were booked into Sybil Brand Jail at 10:21
they probably called up the ranch and told them the grim news.
Within an hour, the killers were on their way.
About an hour after dinner Charlie took Stephanie into a trailer
and left her there. "He told me he'd be back in a little while," she
testified at Manson's murder trial.
Manson didn't return till dawn.
Approximately an hour after the meal, Manson pulled Sadie aside
and told her to get a knife and a change of clothes. Sadie immedi-
ately called the back ranch over the field telephone and told Bar-
bara Hoyt to gather three sets of dark clothing and bring them to
the front ranch.
Linda Kasabian had helped fix dinner, helped to clean up, had
walked to the front ranch and was standing by the Rock City Cafe
when Charhe came up and pulled her oflF to the end of the board-
walk and told her to get a knife, a change of clothing and her
driver's license. With Mary Brunner arrested, Kasabian seemed to
be the only person at the ranch with a vahd driver's license, and one
of the few who could be trusted with such a heavy mission as mur-
der. Linda Kasabian walked across the dusty driveway from the
Spahn Ranch movie set and went into George Spahn's saddle-lined
house to look for her creepy-crawlie accouterments. There she rum-
maged through a box and found a blue denim mini-skirt made from
chopped-off blue jeans and a lavender knitted top. She asked
Squeaky, who ofttimes served as the family quartermaster, where
her driver's Hcense was.
Squeaky told her to look in some chests of drawers. Not there. In
a box on the mantel of the fireplace. Not there. Then she went into
the Saloon to look for her knife. Couldn't find one. She was looking
for the Buck knife she had brought with her to the ranch. She
walked down the boardwalk, east, went into the Rock City Cafe
kitchen, saw little Larry Jones there and got her kitchen knife from
 THE ANVIL INTO TARTAROS 249
him, a knife with a flawed handle that required it to be wrapped
with dark electrical tape. Sadie was using Linda's old Buck clasp
knife.
Patricia Krenwinkel was already asleep, coming down oflF an acid
trip, when she was awakened and told to get a knife and a change
of clothes. She really didn't want to get up but she did, summoned
by the Devil.
Someone must have called in advance to the Polanski residence
to see who was going to be there or at least that there was no party
going on. Vern Plumlee, for instance, has claimed that they thought
Sharon Tate was not going to be there.
In the hot August evening, people were sitting and chatting on
the boulders and rocks and chairs that were situated in front of
the Sphan Ranch, unaware of what was going on. In the presence
of Manson, Brenda came up and handed Linda her driver's license.
All was prepared.
The automobile, an old yellow and white 1959 Ford with another
car's license plate on it, was parked and ready in the space between
the end of the Rock City Cafe and George Spahn's house. George
Spahn was not at home. It custom to dine about this hour
was his
at the International House of Pancakes in Chatsworth. Or perhaps
he was visiting his relatives, following his meal.
Linda Kasabian got into the car, in the right front passenger seat.
Sadie and Katie were in the back of the car. Also in the back of the
car were a pair of red-handled bolt cutters and a long, coiled, three-
quarter-inch nylon rope. Tex got into the car and the car backed
away and then headed out down the dirt driveway toward the exit
to the west, by the About halfway down the drive, Manson
corral.
stopped them. He came over and stuck his head into the window
on Linda's side and said, according to Linda, "Leave a sign. You
girls know what to do. Something witchy." Then Manson stood

alone,watching the car drive off.

car belonged to Johnny Swartz, a horse wrangler at the
The
Spahn Ranch. He was sitting in his trailer near George Spahn's
house when he recognized the sound of his engine and walked to
the window of his trailer just in time to see the tailHghts of his auto-
mobile fade away down the road.
Tex told Linda that the gun was in the glove compartment.
250 THE FAMILY

Three knives were on the front right floor of the automobile. Tex
told her to bundle up the knives and gun, and then to throw them
out the window if the police attempted to pick them up. This Linda
did, bundling them with her very own shirt. Linda Kasabian testi-
fied that she beheved she was merely going on a second-story caper
in Beverly Hills. A second-story caper with forty-three feet of rope
and gun, change of clothing and three sharp knives.
After the 1959 Ford, license plate GYY435, had pulled away to-
ward its desolate goal, Barbara Hoyt came trundling to the front
ranch from the back ranch, bearing the three sets of dark clothing
that Susan Atkins had ordered over the field phone. Charlie was an-
gry at her and snapped, "What are you doing here?" Because it was
a rule that all those who didn't have a reason, particularly soul-less
females, were to stay in back out of sight and not appear in the pub-
lic part of the ranch. Miss Hoyt told him what Sadie had asked her
to do and Manson said that they had already left.
In the speeding car, the girls seemed to be barefoot. Sadie had
on blue denim genuine Roebucks and a baggy blue tee-shirt. Linda
was barefoot and in her lavender top and dark blue denim skirt.
Tex wore moccasins, jeans and a black velour turtleneck sweater.
Katie wore a black tee-shirt and jeans.
In the car, Tex said that they were going to Terry Melcher's
former place, but that Melcher no longer lived there. He described
the setup of the house, including the rooms inside, and evidently
noted that there was a smaller guest house on the property, and
to make sure that the guest house was creepy-crawled also.
According to Sadie, Tex said that they were going to kill whoever
was in the house and then get all their money.
They drove there straightaway, leaving around eleven o'clock in
the evening. They evidently drove along the Ventura Freeway, San
Diego Freeway, grabbed a left on Mulholland to Benedict Canyon
Boulevard, and then drove up the Valley side of the Canyon, up
and over the mountains, such as it is, and down the hill to Cielo
Drive, where they grabbed a right and proceeded to the house on
thehiU.
 Seventeen

Death on Cielo Drive

Bill Garretson, the caretaker of the guest cottage at the Polansld

residence, got sick Thursday night, August 7, on four cans of beer,
a dexedrine and two marijuana cigarettes, so he stayed home all
day Friday until the evening.
It was the windup of Mr. Garretson's employment at the Polanski
estate. The owner, Rudy Altobelh, who had been in Europe all sum-
mer, was due to return. In addition to the thirty-five dollars a week
that he was earning, Altobelli promised to buy the young Garretson
an airplane ticket back to his home town, Lancaster, Ohio.
It was Garretson's habit to go to bed late and get up early in the

afternoon and go check on his mail. By arrangement, Garretson took

care of Sharon's Yorkshire terrier and Abigail's Dalmatian. The
guest house sat at an angle to the main house, up against a steep
hill. Between the two houses lay the swimming pool. Four entrances

and numerous windows make the guest house a pushover to creepy-

crawl. There is a back door, a door to the dog's room, a door to the
back yard and front door.
Unknown people came around 8:30 in the evening who took Gar-
retson down the Canyon to the Sunset Strip. Garretson went to
Turner's Drugstore, got a TV dinner and a Coke and a pack of cig-
arettes,and then walked up, then down, the Strip. Boredom. He
then hitchhiked back to Benedict Canyon Drive from Sunset, then
hitched up Benedict to Cielo Drive. He walked up Cielo then up
252 THE FAMILY

the hill to the back house. It was around ten o'clock. He watched a
movie on TV, then he put the TV dinner in the oven. While his din-
ner cooked, the American boy ate potato chips and drank Coca-
Cola. Around 11:45 p.m., Steve Parent arrived unannounced, with
an AM/FM clock radio to sell, They talked. Parent
or one like it.

evidently asked Garretson who the two pretty young ladies were
who were inside the main house.
Garretson thought that Voityck Frykowski was Roman Polanski's
younger brother, so Garretson explained that Miss Folger was the
"younger Polanski's" girl friend and the other one was Polanski's
wife, to which Parent replied, "You mean Polanski has a girl friend
and a wife?" And Garretson said, "No, the younger Polanski has a
girl friend and the other one was the older Polanski's wife." Finally,

Parent got it straight.

Steve Parent placed a phone call around 11:45 or 11:55 or so to
a man named Jerrold Friedman on Romaine Street in Hollywood
and Parent told him something to the effect that he was at the home
of a movie star, "somebody big." Friedman asked him if there was
a party going on, and Parent said there was not. Parent was going
to help Friedman build a stereo, so they made a date for Parent to
come to Friedman's house in about forty minutes, which would help
put Parent at Friedman's house at 12:30 a.m. Garretson gave Parent
a can of Budweiser beer. They listened to the stereo, which v/as lo-
cated next to the couch in the living room of the guest house.
As Garretson walked Parent to the door, Christopher, the Wei-
maraner, began barking and Steve asked, "What's the matter with
Christopher?" Garretson said, "Oh, I don't know. He usually barks."
According to AltobelH's testimony at the trial, Christopher gave
forth two types of barks, a generahzed bark and something called a
people bark when anyone approached the house. Probably Gar-
retson was not able to distinguish between the two types of barks.
The Weimaraner was not known for its gentleness. In fact, at one
time, it had even bitten Rudy Altobelh.
Around 12:15 a.m. Garretson said good-by to the young man
from El Monte, Steve Parent. The dog was yipping and barking.
Garretson contended that he only walked Parent to the door. He
never heard any shots or any shrieks or any screams during the en-
suing butchering on the lawn, less than 150 feet from the house. He
 DEATH ON CIELO DRIVE 253
claimed that he spent the night writing letters to a friend of his
named Darryl Kistler and listening to the record player, which was
turned up to medium volume. At one point in the middle of the night,
the Weimaraner began to bark and Garretson looked up from the
couch in the living room and noticed that the bar-shaped door han-
dle had been turned down by something or somebody. He leaped
up and walked to the bathroom and looked out the window to see if
anybody had tried to force the door. From the bathroom window it
was possible to see out onto the screened porch where the front
door to the guest house was located. Garretson also noted that some-
thing or some force had cut loose the screen to one of the win-
dows in another part of the house near the kitchen.
When the polygraph interrogation oflBcer, Lieutenant Burdick,
ran a polygraph examination on Garretson on Sunday, August 10,
Garretson admitted that perhaps he may have gone out to the back
yard at some point during the night.
Patricia Krenwinkel has contended that they creepy-crawled the
back house and found no one there. So perhaps Garretson, hearing
the shrieks and the bullets and the screams, ran out back to hide
then crept back into the house in the early dawn, fearing either for
his own life or that he would be charged for the crimes.

At 12:15, Garretson saw Parent to the door of the cottage. Be-

fore he left. Parent reached over and unplugged his unsold Sony

AM/FM clock radio, taking it with him. When the pohce found it
the next morning on the front seat of the Ambassador, the clock was
frozen at 12:15.
Steve Parent walked off the screened porch, past the redwood pic-
nic table, past the smallswimming pool set against the steep hill-
side; he walked down the east path, on the walkway by the white
spHt rail fence, then down the paved driveway. He got into his car.
Sebring's Porsche, Abigail's yellow Firebird and also the Camaro
which Sharon had rented while the red Ferrari was being repaired
were parked there.
He backed his car out of the driveway so quickly that he broke
the split rail fence that borders the parking lot. The paint from
the fence was found on the underside of his car the next morning
254 THE FAMILY

by OflBcer McGann. He may have seen the killers in the house or

coming out the drive or cutting the communication wires. Or he may
have heard the splat of the telephone cables as Watson cut them. He
turned on his car hghts. He drove down the parking lot. The parking
area narrows at a point a few feet in front of the electric gate. At
this narrowing point, on the left side, is the housing box for the elec-
tronic button which activates the main gate. Parent never got as far
as this button;he never pushed it. Death punched his face.
The white and yellow, back-seatless, 1959 Ford four-door sedan
pulled up the paved, winding, cliffside driveway to the top, facing
the rattan fence. The car turned around at the gate. The lights were
oflF. Coyotenoia was. They parked the car facing downhill on the

right side, away from the main gate, next to the telephone pole that
jutsup above a cHflF-hke hill that falls down to the north. Eighteen
feetup were the telephone communications lines.
Tex asked for the red-handled bolt cutters from the back seat.
They were given to him, and the six-foot two-inch, 190-pound,
former All-District halfback for the Farmersville, Texas high school
football team shimmied up the pole and cut two wires— one a tele-
phone wire which did not fall and one an old communications line
from the days when Mark Lindsay and Terry Melcher first rented
the property in 1966. Splat. The communications line fell to the
ground, but it draped over the right side of the iron-framed, wire,
electric gate.
Tex Watson slid back down, jumped, hit the road, got into the
car on the driver's side and coasted down the At the
hill, hghts oflF.

bottom of the driveway, he grabbed a right and parked on Cielo

Drive, to avoid suspicion. They all got out of the car— Linda Kasa-
bian, Tex Watson, Sadie Glutz and Katie Krenwinkel. All was chop.
The entrance to 10050 Cielo Drive is located at the northwestern
edge of the property, consisting of a wrought iron fence and a gate.
The gate is six feet high, twelve feet wide and located in the center
portion of the fence. On either side of the iron gate, rattan facing
has been placed. On the left of the gate, a clifF falls away. On the
right is a steep hillside going up at about a fifty- or sixty-degree
angle.
The gate is electronically controlled from both the inside and
outside. Affixed to the telephone pole that Tex had just shimmied
 DEATH ON CIELO DRIVE 255
up was the electronic button. The electronic button was housed in
a metal box on a three and a half-foot metal stalk pipe. There was
a locking device on the button, to be operated by key, but it was
never used. Someone would push the button and the gate would
swing inward, allowing them to enter, Mdth the gate automatically
closing behind them.
Tex wasn't sure just what sort of line he had cut that had splatted
across the electric-eye gate. In any case, it had fallen in a north-south

direction, but right over the gate, and they were afraid it was some
sort of utilit}'^ cable, charged with electricity. Fear of electrocution
caused the young murderers to hesitate to enter via the front gate.
They had nothing to fear, since the wire hadn't been used since the
Polanskis moved into the estate. At one time the wire had been con-
nected to two speakers, which were used for communications be-
tween the house and the front gate.
So they trudged up the hill, carrying their changes of clothes,
their weapons and their rope. They arrived at the gate, where they
located an area about ten to fifteen feet up the steep embankment
on the right where, by cover of bushes, they were able to climb over
the fence. Sadie ripped her shirt on the barbed wire. Tsk, tsk. Then,
after they had crossed the fence, as they were creeping down the
embankment toward the driveway, lights appeared, a car, moving
down the driveway-parking lot. Tex said, "Lie down and be still."
All lay down. Tex leaped forward, having evidently deposited the
coils of rope from his left shoulder but holding his revolver in his
right hand, his knife God knows where—probably in his left hand
or in a scabbard.
Evidently Parent spotted them coming in and he said "Hey, what
are you doing here?" Watson seems to have believed, luckily for
Garretson, that Parent was the caretaker. Parent must have just
been slowing down to touch the exit button when Tex ran up in
front of the white, 1966 Nash Ambassador two-door sedan and
yelled, "Stop! Halt!" It must have been around 12:20 a.m. Through
the open driver's window, Tex jammed his formidable weapon up
against Parent's head. It was a weapon right out of the spirit of tlie
American West: a .22-caliber, nine-shot, walnut-handled, blue steel,
long-barreled, Ned Buntlined to Wyatt Earp, longhorn, fifteen-inch
256 THE FAMILY

revolver, loaded with .22 long rifle bullets. Parent said: "Please
don't hurt me. I won't say anything."
Bang, bang, bang, bang.
Mrs. Seymour Kott, living just over the lip of the hill, on the other
side of the driveway, about a football field distance away, heard,
just as shewas about to go to bed around 12:30, four shots fired in
quick succession. Bang. Parent was shot in the upper chest. Bang.
Once in the back of the left forearm, exiting on the other side. Shot
in the left cheek— exit wound through the mouth. Shot in the lower
chest. Somehow, Parent's Lucerne wristwatch got torn off— per-
haps Tex was jabbing him with a knife as he was shooting him. It
was found in the back seat with a severed watchband. There was a
defensive wound in Parent's left arm— a deep wound between his
ring and little fingers that severed the tendons.
The young man, Steven Parent of El Monte, California, was at-
tired in a red, white and blue plaid shirt, blue denim pants, black
shoes and white socks. His body slumped slightly into the direc-
tion of the passenger's seat when he was shot, part of his weight
against the armrest that separated the bucket seats, his head lean-
ing back and out to the right, into the separation. Blood was splat-
tered on the dashboard, blood and bone chips, bullet fragments on
the rubber floormat and the right front door from Detroit.
Tex reached into the car, shut off the lights and the engine, put
the gear selector in neutral, pushed the car back a few feet, turning
the automobile a quarter circle to the southeast, out of the way.
Then he put the gear in second forward and ran back to the
crouching girls by the fence. Tex picked up the rope coils, put them
on his shoulder and said, "Come on."
They had stashed their clothing on the estate side of the fence,
in the bushes, as per Charlie's helter-skelter instructions.
On Watson's left shoulder were about seven coils of the white,
three-quarter-inch, three-ply nylon line— seven or eight coils, a total
of forty-three feet eight inches. And why was
Texan carrying a
this
rope? Part of the game-plan, which later was abandoned in their
haste, was to tie the victims up to the beams and draw and quarter
them. They walked past the Porsche, the Firebird, beneath the trees
that hover over the edge of the front lawn, and up the walkway,
where they paused to scout the house. Tex ordered Linda Kasabian
 DEATH ON CIELO DRIVE 257
to go around the back of the house to check for any open windows
or doors. Linda walked around between the north edge of the house
and the tliree-car garage and checked the back porch door, looked
into the kitchen windows and the back door into the living room,
but was nothing open. On her way back, evidently she spotted
tlicre

the bouquet of flowers on the table in the dining room, or so she

testified a year later. She came around front and found Tex stand-
ing at the fresh-painted window of the unfurnished nursery room
on the far north end of the house, next to the garage. He was cut-
ting the lower part of the screen, slitting
it with his bayonet.

Tex Linda to go down by the fence and keep a lookout for

told
people coming. She complied, walking downhill to the gate end of
the parking lot, by the fence, and she knelt down on one knee,
waiting. She could see Steve Parent, the young boy, slumped over
his bucket seat. Sadie and Katie walked up the elliptical sidewalk
which curves from a north/south direction to an east/west direction,
where it hooks into the covered flagstone front porch. Never say
why. Cease to exist. You can't Idll kill.
Tex crawled in through the window once he had slashed the
screen and pulled it oflF the frame. There was the smell of fresh paint
in the nmsery being prepared for the late August arrival of the baby.
The first coat of paint had been finished that very afternoon. Tex
entered the kitchen walking south, through the dining room, into
the entrance hall then opened the front door and let the two girls
in. They grabbed a left out of the entrance hall into the large, white-

walled, cream-carpeted living room. Bordering the west side of the

living room was a carpeted and furnished with chairs and a
loft
telephone, reached by a redwood ladder, located adjacent to the left
side of the large stone fireplace on the west wall of the living room.
In the southeast corner of the living room, facing out into the room
at a triangular position, was a baby grand piano wdth a metronome
on the left side. Onthe music holder of the piano stood two com-
positions. One on the left side: a song called "Straight Shooter" by
John Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas, a song off their first al-
bum. The song on the other side of the music stand was "Pomp and
Circumstance" by Edward Elgar.
The grounds were lit up all around the house. The bug light on
the north edge of the two-story garage was on. Several Hghts out
258 THE FAMILY

on the front lawn were on. The poolside light was on. The two front
porch lights were on.
The stereo inside the front hall closet beneath the shelves of film
and videotapes was which may have prevented the fom*
blaring,
shots that killed Steven Parent from being heard.
In the center of the east wall was a large desk, jutting out into the
living room. On the desk was a candelabra, flowers, various scripts
and papers and a white pushbutton phone.
On the high-backed chair next to the desk was Jay Sebring's blue
leather jacket, with his wallet, containing four twenty-dollar bills,

and a tube of white powder. Nearby was Jay's briefcase, containing

hair dryer, mirror, electric clippers and address book, some sort of
pilot's map and miscellaneous barbering tools.
Dark wood stereo speaker cabinets were positioned on the east
wall. The area of the living room which was to serve as the tableau
for the murders was a sort of enclosed section near the large stone
fireplace on the west center wall, in front of which was a large zebra-
skin rug. Piles of books and movie scripts lined the hearth, as well
as several throw pillows. Facing the fireplace, a few feet from the
zebra skin, was a large, three-cushioned, beige velvet sofa.
To the immediate left of the couch was an end table, to the east.
Two comfortable, cream-colored, stuffed easy chairs were set at
angles on each side of the beige divan, forming sort of a closed
area, facing the fireplace. Near the chair on the right was a brown,
wide-reed, woven basket for holding magazines and a floor lamp.
Above the couch and parallel to it, rurming the entire length of
the living room, east to west, was an apparently solid, four-inch by
twelve-inch beam, painted white, over which the satanist Texan was
soon to throw the nylon rope.
Draped over the back cushions of the beige divan was a large
American flag, turned upside down. This was, in spite of the mut-
terings of the police officials a few hours later, about the only power-
ful symbolic element in the decor of the room. The flag, about five
by three feet in size, had only been in the house about two weeks,
according to the testimony of the maid, Mrs. Chapman.
On the north end of the living room was a bar, serving liquor.
Also on the north end of the living room, near the hallway door,were
Roman Polanski's two large, shiny blue steamer trunks which had
 DEATH ON CIELO DRIVE 259
justbeen delivered that afternoon, while Sharon was taking a nap.
They stood stacked one on top of another, just inside the door.
Voityck Frykowski lay on the couch, in front of the fireplace, doz-
ing zonked under the pleasant influence of the moderate psy-
oflF,

chedelic, MDA. Past the desk and toward the back of the couch
crept the death-minded butcher. Evidently Watson walked around,
standing on the zebra skin, his back to the fireplace, and leveled the
Wyatt Earp revolver at Voityck's head. He motioned with his knife
hand for Katie and Sadie to line up behind the couch, prepared to
enact their helter-skelter exactitude. Voityck woke up, stretched
and asked, "What time is it?"

"Don't move or you're dead."

"Who are you?"
"I'm the Devil. I'm here to do the Devil's business. Give me all

your money," said Tex Watson, tall and hairy, knife in one hand,
gun in the other. Voityck must have seen the two girls at this point,

standing silently by the flag. The one, Katie, with her long, brown,
magic hair that would be the blanket for the chop clan when they
went into The Hole. The other, Sadie, with her dark brown hair
now shorn closely, except for one long strand which hung over her
left shoulder in witchiness. This Southern boy would later, in Death

Valley, tell sixteen-year-old Snake Lake, "It was fim," to tear down
the Polansld residence.
Elegant Abigail Folger was lying alone on the antique bed in her
bedroom extreme southeast comer of the house, clad in a full-
in the
length, white nightgown, reading, wearing her reading glasses,
shghtly stoned on the euphoric MDA. Most of her and Voityck's
personal belongings had been taken back to their house on Wood-
stock Road. But she and Voityck were remaining with Sharon until
Roman Polanski should return from London. Her Nikon camera was
visible on the chest of drawers. Inside the small bedstand nearby
was the box containing capsules of MDA
and a Baggie full of can-
nabis, for spiritual comfort.
In the Kving room, Voityck Frykowski kept asking the creepy
crawlers who they were, what they wanted, over and over. "My
money is in the wallet, on the desk," he said.
Sadie went over to the desk to look for it and announced that she
couldn't find it. Later, Sadie would claim to her jailhouse snitch,
26o THE FAMILY

Virginia Graham, that she put a pahn print on the desk when she
was looking for the wallet, but her witchy force field prevented it
from being identifiable. She said, "My spirit is so strong that obvi-
ously it didn't show up, 'cause if it had, they would have had me by
now."
Tex told Sadie to go get a towel in the bathroom with which to
tie up Frykowski. Sadie went looking for the bathroom. She took

a towel back to the couch by the fireplace and tied Voityck's hands
behind his back with a loose knot. Frykowski was then made to lie
back down on his back, trapping his hands behind him. Tex then
told her to scout the house for other people. Sadie evidently climbed
up the redwood ladder to look in the loft. And then she walked to
the south, toward the hallway off which were the two main bed-
rooms of the house. In the one on the left, Abigail Folger lay reading
alone. She looked up, she saw Sadie and Abigail wavedl Waved
and smiled and Sadie smiled back and walked away. Hi, death.
Sadie turned, crossed the hallway, walking west and glanced into
the bedroom of Sharon Polanski. Sharon, her stomach tanned and
full of child, was lying in bed, propped up on pillows, her blonde
hair down over her shoulders. She was wearing matching blue-
yellow, floral-patterned bra and panties. For jewelry, she had on
her wedding ring and gold earpins. The lime green and orange
sheets were pulled down. It was about 12:25 a.m. On the edge of
the bed where the beautiful Sharon Tate lay sat Jay Sebring, clothed
in a blue shirt, black high-top boots and white pants with black verti-
cal stripes. On his wrist was an opulent Cartier watch. They were
talking. They did not see Sadie.
On each side of the bed were semicircular, marble-topped tables.
The one on the right held a princess phone and an oval-framed
wedding portrait of the Polanskis. On the right marble table sat a
bottle of Heineken's beer, Jay Sebring's favorite drink.
There was a white, louvered, double French door leading out to
the swimming pool on the south wall of Sharon Tate's bedroom.
The windows looking out onto the pool area were shuttered also
with white, louvered blinds. It was out this door just minutes later
that Abigail Folger would run for her life and Katie Krenwinkel
would leave her Death Row fingerprint.
There was a large closet in Sharon's bedroom. Also a bathroom
 DEATH ON CIELO DRIVE 261

and a dressing room. On the east wall of the bedroom was a tall
armoire with drawers near the bottom. One of the drawers was
full of photos of Miss Tate. On top of this wardrobe was a new white
bassinet for the baby, wrapped in clear plastic; and, to the right,
an ornate hookah. To the left of the armoire was a television set and
a Sony videotape viewer.
Sadie retm-ned to Watson in the living room and told him that
there were people in the bedrooms. Tex was angry. Where was the
money? He told Sadie to go into the bedrooms and bring them out
into the living room. Sadie unfolded her Buck clasp knife and
walked into Abigail Folger's bedroom waving her weapon: "Go out
into tlie living room. Don't ask any questions." She did the same
tilingon the other side of the hall in Sharon's bedroom.
Sadie waved her knife at Jay and Sharon and they all walked out
into the living room confused and angry. Jay Sebring said, "What's
going on?"
"Sit down!" Sebring refused to sit.
A crisis occurred for Katie at this point. She had no knife! So she
walked outside and went down past Steve Parent's Ambassador to
the gate to get Linda Kasabian's knife with the taped irregular
handle. Katie told her, "Listen for sounds," then walked back up the
hill to the house.
The tendency of Sebring— cool, experienced businessman— and
Frykowsld— survivor of Hitler— must have been not to panic or to
fight— at first. But when Tex told everybody to lie down on the floor
on their stomachs atop some pillows near the fireplace, Sebring
would not stand for that and said: "Let her sit down, can't you see
she's pregnant?" Then Sebring lunged for the gun and Tex waxed
murderous and shot Jay in the armpit. Jay fell and Tex drop-kicked
him in the bridge of the nose. Abigail Folger screamed.
The bullet entered Sebring's left axilla, penetrating downward
through the left fifth rib, lung and exited out the
through the left

left side of his mid-back. The bullet was found by the coroner sev-

eral inches from the exit wound, trapped between skin and shirt.
Christopher, the Weimaraner, left the back patio porch of the
guest house, barking and excited. The dog evidently trotted into
the front door of the main house about this time. Sadie told Virginia
Graham that a "hunting dog" came around. Sadie even thought that
262 THE FAMILY

somehow the dog got hold of her knife: "We looked all over for it.
... I really think the dog got it."
The sight of Jay Sebring lying on his side gave the former cotton
picker, Charles Watson, instant credibility. "All right, where's the
money?"
Abigail said that her money was in her purse on the couch in the
bedroom. Sadie stuck her knife up to Miss Folger's back and
marched her into the bedroom where Abigail opened up her black
canvas shoulder bag and took out seventy-two or seventy-three
dollars for the satanist. Sadie refused Gibby's oflFer of her credit
cards and they walked back into the living room. Five souls, seventy-
two dollars.
Tex then tied them around and around their necks with the
nylon rope and threw the end of it over the white ceiling beam and
told Sadie to choke the rope so that Abigail and Sharon had to stand
up or else strangle. Jay's unconscious body acted as a dead weight
on the other end of the rope which was knotted around his neck. A
large hematoma was swelKng on his left eye.
Tex was worried lest Voityck Frykowski should get loose so he
told Sadie to retie his hands with a bigger towel. She went into
the bedroom and got a larger towel, a beige forty-six-inch Martex
bath towel, and tied his hands behind him more securely, then she
pushed him back down onto the couch, standing guard over him.
Tex told Katie as he was wrapping the rope around their necks
to turn out all the lights in the house. This she did, according to
Susan Atkins. The next morning the only lights the poHce found
on in the house were the hall light leading into the back bedrooms
and the desk lamp on the east side of the living room.
Katie assumed choke duties on the end of the rope. One of the
ladies asked, "What are you going to do to us?"
Charles, the smug muscular boy from Copeville, had them trapped
in his own phoneless hamburger universe. "You are all going to die."
And again he told them that he was the Devil. Immediately the
moans and shrieks and beggings rose up from the trussed victims.
They struggled to get free.
Tex ordered Sadie to kill Voityck Frykowski. Voityck lay quaking
up and down, desperately trying to loosen the knot behind his
back. Sadie raised her knife and, by her account, hesitated. Voityck
 DEATH ON CIELO DRIVE 263

wrenched his hands free and reached up from the couch and
grabbed hold of her hair and pulled her down, grabbing her knife
arm. He hit her on tlie top of the head and they fell against the end
table to the left of the sofa and rolled onto the stuffed chau:.
Sadie got her arm free and stabbed blindly, one, two, three, four
times, parallel down left leg. He turned toward the
the front of his
front hall as if She managed to stab him once in the back but
to flee.
the knife hit bone. Then she stabbed him deeply in the right back
lung. The skin surface widths of the wounds were three quarter
inch, the same as the width of her Buck knife. In the scuffle she lost
her knife somehow, the knife the little terror-addict thought the dog
had carried away. The pohce fomid the knife lodged blade up be-
tween the cushion and the back of the overstuffed chair, seven feet
from the north wall and four feet from the west wall. Knifeless, she
clung to his back and yelled.
Still, Voityck staggered onward. Tex ran up, wrestled Frykowski

around and shot him below the left axilla, the bullet lodging in his
middle back. He shot him also through the front right thigh. Still he
walked on. He shot again— the gun misfiring. (The gun had a his-
tory of misfiring, as when Manson shot Bernard Crowe on July 1.)
Tex began to club his face and scalp with the gun, holding it by the
barrel. Voityck's blood type was found on the intact left gun grip
and on the inside of the cocked hammer of the gun. The right wal-

nut grip broke into three pieces, two pieces falling in the front hall,

the remaining tiny piece skittering out onto the front porch.
What was WilHam Garretson doing during the screams and the
shots? According to his testimony he was sitting in his living room,
just fifty yards away, Hstening to The Doors and a Mama Cass al-
bum. And t\vo freeways distant, on the northwest edge of the San
Fernando Valley, Charles Manson was waiting by the dusty drive-
way in front of the Longhorn Saloon for the return of his patrol.
When Tex ran up to the hall door to get Voityck, Sharon and Jay
and Abigail struggled to get free from the knots on their necks. Katie
was holding the rope where it trailed down on the other side of the
beam. Abigail broke loose and headed for the back bedroom, where
the door to the swimming pool led to freedom.
Krenwinkel dropped the rope and gave chase. Abigail, taller and
stronger, fought for her life. Meanwhile, Tex spotted the struggling
264 THE FAMILY

Sebring and ran up. Stab stab stab stab, four times Watson hacked
him in the left back, into the lung. The wounds were one and a half
inches wide on the surface, penetrating deeply. Tex's knife was
sharpened, of course, along itsnormal cutting edge but the top edge
had been sharpened also, for about an inch. The coroner was able
to declare this long before the arrests by noting that vital organs
were pierced by a double-edged instrument while the skin surface
wound indicated that the upper knife edge was thick. Tex kicked
his face, then turned, his attention caught by the yells from Katie,
his black velour turtleneck beginning to get bloody, his eyes shiny.
He ran up to Abigail, who was wounded only defensively at this
point, in the hands and arms. Abigail surrendered. "I give up. Take
me." He did, slicing her neck and smashing her head with the gun
butt. He stabbed her in various parts of her chest and abdomen.
She clutched a gaping tear in her lower right stomach. She fell.

Watson glanced up when he heard Voityck screaming near the

front lawn. He ran to the front porch to see him rise up from the
bush into which he had fallen and stagger across the grass toward
the southeast, yelling. Sadie Satan told her cellmate, Shelley
Nadell, about it. "He got to the lawn and was standing there holler-
ing, 'Help! Help!' and nobody even heard him." An unlikely story.
The pohce undertook noise tests at the Polanski residence and you
can hear yells all over Benedict Canyon, not to mention a guest
house with open windows. Did you hear those screams? Shut up
and go back to sleep.
Deep in flower-power knelt the young mother Linda Kasabian
by the dark When she heard the screams, she claims she
fence.
looked over at the dead Steve Parent and it dawned on her on a
sudden that the occupants of the house were being killed. Then just
like a tadpole wriggling toward a light source, she raced toward
the shriekers, "to try to stop it"— as she later testified. She ran up
the walkway, onto the grass. "I ran over to the hedge"— probably
the almost s-shaped hedge to the immediate north of the front
porch.
"Waited a minute— then I saw Frykowski staggering out the door
—drenched in blood— I looked in his eyes— he looked in mine— I saw
the image of Christ in him, I cried and I prayed with all my heart."
In her testimony at the trial she mentioned two mental events
 DEATH ON CIELO DRIVE 265

that occurred as their eyes met: her silent prayer, "Oh, God, I am so
sorry. Please make it stop"; and also that in the midst of the terrible
glance she began to feel Charles Manson no longer to be Jesus
Christ the Son of God. He was a Devil.
Tall Voityck stood up against tlie square wooden support post
on the northeast corner of the porch and he tried to step from the
flagstone onto the sidewalk, holding onto the post. His balance
failed; he spun around the post and fell head first into the dirt.
Sadie ran out of the house upset that she had lost her knife. Linda
testified that she tried to tell Sadie to make it stop, that she heard

voices. Sadie said, "It's too late." They talked and somehow as the
witches chatted Voityck got to his feet and began to scream into
tlie smog, down the Canyon. Someone had to hear.
must be noted that where Linda claims to have trotted back
It

into the parking lot after watching Frykowski fall into the bushes,
Patricia Krenv\1nkel has said that Mrs. Kasabian entered the house
as she was struggling with Abigail Folger. Katie/Patricia called for

her to help. Then, according to Krenwinkel, Linda gave her a stare,

turned on her heels and walked out the door.

Tex was out the front door in a red-dog chop bUtz and rode Fry-
kowski to the ground, stabbing in the unprotected left side of his

body. Frykowski suffered sixteen defensive wounds in his left lower

arm trying to ward off the Evil. Fifty-one wounds Tex dealt to the
spleen, abdomen, left lung, right back, heart, chest, hands. And still

the man who twenty-five years before survived the Nazi atrocities
in Poland crawled on, till he crumpled.
Inside the house Abigail somehow got to her feet and careened
toward the French doors to the pool, leaving a trail of blood, as
Katie, who was standing guard over Sharon and Jay, chased after
her, chopping. Gibby clawed at the shuttered door smearing blood,
to open it up. Katie put herself on Death Row when she tried to
prevent the door from being opened, leaving the print of her left
Httle finger with twelve points of identification just above the knob
on the right French door.
Abigail Folger got out of the house dripping upon the sidewalk
leading to the pool. She ran left, splattering the green garden hose
in the grass. She almost reached the split rail fence, past the pole
fight near the tall fir tree. Collapse. The white-gowned heiress who
266 THE FAMILY

believed in integration, the tall expert equestrienne, butchered by

the racist harem girl from the Pit.

Linda could see it as she looked through the porch over the
shrubs. Linda turned and ran down the hill, past Sebring's Porsche,
past Parent, through the narrows, sprinted left, up the bank, crossed
over the fence, and ran dovm the hill to the '59 Ford and lay down
insome bushes, panting.
As Linda ran away, all the killers were out of the house, leaving
Sharon, as yet untouched, and Jay Sebring, dead, inside. Mrs. Polan-
ski, unguarded, started toward the front door just as Katie Kren-
winkel re-entered the back door by the pool and walked into the
living room.
Sharon was alive, crying for the Hfe of her child. She must have
gotten to her feet and Sadie got her in a headlock. Tex told her it

looked like Sharon wanted to sit down. "So I took her over and sat
her down on the couch."
want to do is have my baby."
"All I
Sadie was worried that Sharon might get hysterical so she talked
with her to calm her down, about how she had no mercy for her.
Words, getting her attention. After all, Sadie didn't want the woman
she was about to kill to get hysterical, did she?
They killed Sharon last. About a month after the murders, Bar-
bara, the girl who was late with the clothes, overheard Sadie tell
Ouish at the Meyer's Ranch in Death Valley National Monument
that Sharon Tate was the last to die because she "had to watch the
others die." That was a favorite Manson fantasy. To kill someone
in front of an observer.
sat on the couch quietly. They waited a few minutes. It is
Sharon
not known what was done during that time. Finally it came. Sadie
told Virginia Graham that she held Sharon's arm back behind her.
She told Snake in Death Valley that she held her legs. What a flimsy
memory. She held Sharon's arms and Sharon turned her head
around and looked back at Sadie, beseeching her, "Please don't Idll
me, please don't kill me. I don't want to die." She was crying.
"Please, I'm going to have a baby."
Sadie, ever crude, replied, according to Graham, "Look, bitch!
I don't care if you're going to have a baby. You'd better be ready.
 DEATH ON CIELO DRIVE 267

You're going to die. . .

." Sadie to Graham: "Then we killed her a
icw minutes later."

begged Sadie to take the baby, the perfect

In a final plea, Sharon
unborn Richard Paul Polanski. It was impossible. Sadie could chop,
but she couldn't to that.
Tex told Sadie to kill.

No. Tex, I can't kill her, you do it. Katie? No, Tex, you do it, but
she was willing enough to hold her legs. Tex, ever eager, was the
one. He stabbed her several times in the left breast through the bras-
siere. Screams. Stabs. Aorta. Death.
Then they all stabbed her, jixteen times, with both knives. To
Sadie it was thrilling: "It felt sogood, the first time I stabbed her."
Then tlie little acidassin vampire licked blood from her own
fingers.
But it wasn't adventuresome enough for her. "We were going to
mutilate them but we didn't have a chance to." To both cellmates,
Sadie confided that part of the game plan included gouging out their

eyeballs and smearing them against the walls.

All of a sudden, Tex said: "Get out." The girls left and then Tex
came out and proceeded to go berserk in a final dutiful circuit to
check out death. He ran in a counter-clockwise direction. He ran
over to Abigail: chop chop chop. He ran over to the lifeless Fry-
kowski who actually lay clutching the grass in his hand, vdth his left
arm still perpendicular to the ground in death, where he crumpled.
Tex used some of his football training on him. Then the hell-creep
ran inside to arrange the tableau.
While Tex was and Katie walked around
inside the house, Sadie
whisper-yelling for Linda. They couldn't find her. Tex came out of
the house, saw the girls, and told Sadie to go in the house and write
something on the door. Something witchy, CharUe had said. Tex
lefton the front Dutch door a Death Row fingerprint.
Tex and Katie walked downi the walkway and Sadie went in the
front door. Sadie walked into the haunted room. Evidently Tex had
looped the nylon rope twice around Sharon's neck. There was a
double loop around Sebring's neck vdth an overhand knot formed
by the second loop. The rope led from one end, which was under
Jay's body, around his neck twice over to Sharon, who was
lying in

front of the couch beneath the flag, around her neck twice, then
268 THE FAMILY

back along the couch and over the ceiling beam, the rope just touch-
ing the floor on the other side.
Sharon seemed to Sadie more cut up than before, probably from
Tex. Then Sadie got a towel. Sadie next went over to Sharon Tate
and put her head on her stomach to listen, kneeling on the floor by
the velvet couch. Sadie picked Sharon up slightly off the floor and
sat with Sharon's head in her lap and embraced her. Finally Sadie
went over hands and came
to the yellow towel used to tie Voityck's
back, obtained some blood from Sharon's walked the front
breast,
hall and knelt down to print PIG in blood type 0-M. She turned,
walked back into the living room, threw the towel toward the
hearth and split. She left the door wdde open and also she left, as
she moved east off the porch, her two barefoot prints in blood.
One hundred and two stab wounds riddled the bodies. Thirty
minutes, one stab every twenty seconds, and Sharon's black kitten
walked mewing among the bodies.
When Sadie reached the electric gate she found them waiting for
her. Tex forgot electrocution and touched the button, leaving a
smear. The blood was Sebring's. The gate opened. They scooped up
their spare clothes and trotted down the hill huflBng. Murder is
hard work. The gate closed.
Meanwhile, by the Ford, Linda lay down for about five minutes
in the brush. Then the floweroid, who today is a free woman, stood
up, entered the automobileand started the engine. Was she going to
split? The others arrived wdth their knives and clothes in hands.
"They looked Hke zombies," she later wrote; the dead-eyed, dead-
alive.
Tex, baleful with murder, yelled at her. He stopped the engine
and pushed her over into the passenger side. Then he chewed out
Sadie for losing the Buck knife. He and crept off,
started the car
turning right onto Benedict Canyon Drive. Then he turned the
lights on. Up
Benedict Canyon Drive drove the creepy-crawHe
four, fresh from battle, changing their clothes as the car drove up
the hill. Linda steered for Tex as he slimed out of his wet black
velour and jeans. They talked excitedly. It was hot.
Linda took all the clothes and made them into a ball—the black
velour turtleneck, black jeans, genuine Roebuck jeans, blue jeans,
bloody white tee-shirt which was probably used as a weapons-
 DEATH ON CIELO DRIVE 269

cleaner hand towel, black tee-shirt and blue tee-shirts. A Death

Row hair, belonging to Susan Atkins, clung to the bundle. Also
clinging to the bundle when the Special Investigation Division of-
ficers got hold of the clothes on December 16, 1969, were many long
fourteen-inch blond hairs belonging to an unknown female. Since
the car was about the only working vehicle at the Spahn Ranch,
some girl or otlier, one who had not undergone the family tonsure

rite, probably had brushed her hair in the car and left some runaway
strands \\'hich were picked by the wet clothing.
up from the floor

Tex told Linda Kasabian to wipe the prints off the gun and the
two knives. He pulled off to the right of Benedict Canyon and
stopped. Linda threw the bundle do\Mi the ravine on the right. It
bounced down intact, lodging within eyesight of the road, against
a bush.
She was told to throw out the knives. She did— first one, which
went down a hillside, then the other, which bounced on the curb
as the car moved away. Evidently Tex had turned around before the
tossing of the knives because Linda testified that the car was head-
ing downhill. He announced that next they had to find a place to
wash up. He pulled off Benedict left onto Portola Drive, just a block
north of the street where Jay Sebring lived.
A couple of hundred yards from the turnoff they spotted a gar-
den hose hooked up to the home of Rudy and Myra Weber. They
turned the car around and parked the car toward the canyon road
so they could get away easily. They walked to the house. It was
twenty feet from the sti-eet.

Rudolph Weber was asleep but the sound of running water woke
him up. He thought it was a leak in his plumbing so he grabbed
a flashhght and walked down to his basement, opened his garage
door and went in to check out the pipes. No water was leaking so
he figured everything was all right. Then he heard voices, from the
street. Goddamn kids. He went over and flashed the light on them.
teenagers.
"Just what do you think you're doing?" They looked like
Tall Tex dialed his mind to smiHng psychopath and said, "Hi-
we're just getting a drink of water and we're sorry to have dis-
turbed you." Rudolph walked over and turned off the water, where-
after the girls started walking down to the car.
"Is that yom- car?"
270 THE FAMILY

"No, it'sWe're walking."

not.
Weber followed the young folk and by this time Myra was awake
and by his side, announcing that her husband was a member of the
SheriflPs Reserve. Tex opened the door for the girls and Weber was

offended by the disarray inside. Tex got in and flooded the engine.
Weber made as if he were trying to remove the keys from the car,
reaching in while Tex was trying to start it. Finally the engine caught
and Tex peeled out, wrenching Mr. Weber's clutching hand. As the
car sped away, he memorized the number and later wrote it down,
GYY435.
Tex on his lights until he reached the San Fernando
didn't turn
Valley, where they stopped for two dollars' gas. Tex went to the
John to wash, as did Sadie and Katie. Sadie noticed when coming
back to the car that there was some blood on it. She hoped the at-
tendant didn't see it. Tex told Linda to drive. On the way Tex evi-
dently threw the Longhorn revolver out the right window down a
ravine at a location about one and a half miles from the slaughter
zone. It is strange, however, that none of the murderers seems to
have mentioned throwing the revolver away. Perhaps Manson threw
it away later.

During the remainder of the drive, the foursome seemed to re-

lax, becoming even jovial. The weapons, the blood, the clothes, they

were gone, weren't they? They were Helter Skelters finest butchers.
And they began to chit-chat.
To start it off, poor Tex had hurt his foot and it was killing him.
Sadie's hair was hurting terribly where Frykowski had pulled it.
Katie babbled on about how the knife handle hurt her hand each
time she stabbed. All agreed that the knives were inadequate. Next
time they would need heavier equipment. Sadie complained about
the toughness of Voityck's legs when she strained to stab them. They
had quite a time describing the moans of the murdered, how Sharon
kept calling out to God and Abigail kept ciying out to her mother.
"How come you're back so early?" Charlie asked when they ar-
rived at the Spahn Ranch. Charhe was waiting in the driveway, sit-
ting by the Saloon. It was 2 a.m.
Sadie told Charlie that she had seen blood on the Ford. He told
her to go to the kitchen and get a sponge and water and wash it
down. Linda and Katie were to check the interior for spots. They
 DEATH ON CIELO DRIVE 271

found none, so Manson told them to go into the bunkhouse while

Sadie washed the outside of the car. Charlie then took Tex aside to
debrief him.
Clem and Brenda were in the bunkhouse when Katie and Linda
am\'ed. They were totally exhausted. Pretty soon Tex and Charlie
came into the bunkhouse for a general discussion of the evening.
Tex told Charlie that everything had been messy; bodies were lying
around, but all were dead. CharUe was happy.
Tex made several laugh when he revealed that he said to people
in the house, "I'm the Devil, I'm here to do the Devil's business,
where's your money?" Ha ha. Manson then polled the hackers to
see if any felt remorse for what they had done. Katie: "No." Sadie:
"No." Linda: "No."
There is some indication that someone removed a credit card
belonging to Voityck Frykowski from the mm'der site. One witness
claims that the credit card was brought out on later occasions as a
relic tobe passed from hand to hand during family gatherings.
People were sleepy. Kasabian went to the back ranch to sleep.
Sadie made love with a human—she thinks it might have been Clem
—then sacked out. Katie and Tex slept in the Saloon, according to
Kasabian. It was over. But not quite.
There is considerable discrepancy between the scene of the mur-
ders, as left by Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, Tex Watson and
Linda Kasabian, and the one found by the police tlie next morning.
Neither Susan Atkins nor evidently any of the others tucked any
face towel over the head of Jay Sebring, yet the police found a towel
over his head.
There was not enough slack in part of the rope extending from
Sharon Tate to Jay Sebring for her to have been standing and moving
around, yet she moved around the room the killers say. So tlie
rope perhaps was aflBxed some time after her death. The murderers,
including Susan Atkins, do not mention fixing the rope, although
the efl^usive Atkins gave long detailed accounts to anybody who
would Hsten about every aspect of the crimes. Nor did Susan At-
kins talk about the brown framed glasses found by the bloody
steamer trunks. These glasses were found face down with the frames
open and jutting up perpendicular to the floor. They had belonged
to a person with severe eyesight problems.
2/2 THE FAMILY

There were two large pools of blood on the front porch, one to
O-M, Sharon Tate's, and the other on
the left of the door mat, type
the north edge of the porch, type O-Mn, Jay Sebring's. All the fe-
males involved, Linda, Katie, and Sadie, have claimed that at no
time were Sharon Tate or Jay Sebring ever near the front porch.
How did the blood get there?
Steve Parent's, Frykowski's and Folger's blood types were all

B-Mn, so thatnone of the blood on the porch could have been

theirs. A police report describing the homicide scene said, regarding

the blood of Sharon Tate on the front porch, that: "From the amount
of blood there it would appear that she remained there for at least
minutes prior to movement."
The police also thought that Mrs. Polanski's body may have been
moved from one location to another, because of its condition. There
were various spatters of Sharon Tate's blood in the front hall and on
the door sill, but never, while the Idllers were at the estate, was she
in the hall.
There were two steamer trunks in the living room by the hall door
which were knocked away during the night. The killers didn't do it.
The right end of the top trunk was resting on the left end of the
bottom trunk, and the left side of the top trunk had tipped to the
floor. There was a stain of blood, apparently from the same drip-

ping, extending from the left side of the upper trunk to the top of
the bottom trunk. It is Sebring's blood, yet the killers claim he was
shot and stabbed and killed in one spot and never moved.
Manson stated one time that he had gone to the Polanski resi-
dence after the murders. "I went back to see what my children did,"
he is alleged to have said. Later, Manson denied that he had gone
to the house. Whether he did or not, the crime scene was disturbed
by someone during the night before the police arrived.
One of the Manson game plans involved hanging "rich piggies" up
on their porches and slicing them. Perhaps he or someone went
to the house and the bodies of Sebring and Tate were carried out
onto the porch to do just that, but there was nothing adequate to
string the rope over, or through, to support the weight of the bodies.
Then they may have decided, through panic, to recreate the orig-
inal scene and accordingly carried the bodies back inside, leaving
spatters of blood behind. Manson also told someone he had pur-
 DEATH ON CIELO DRIVE 273
chased the brown eye glasses in a pawn shop and placed them by
the steamer trunk to cause confusion.
What is more likely to have occurred is that Manson, master of
disguises, or one of his henchmen was wearing the glasses and was
carrying Sebring out to the porch, or back in from the porch, and
because it is difficult to see out of the glasses, made for an extremely
myopic person, bumped into the steamer trunks. The top trunk,
its end tipping off, almost fell onto the floor. Blood dripped from

the dead body onto the end of the top trunk and on top of the bot-
tom trunk. During the bumping of the trunk, the glasses fell off, hit
the floor and were abandoned.
Then the bodies were carried back to their original places by the
sofa and armchair, the white nylon rope was looped around their
necks and the end proceeding from Mrs. Polanski's neck was thrown
back over the white ceihng beam with the rope-end just touching
the floor on the other side. Someone then took that beige towel and
hooded over the head of Jay Sebring, tucking the towel ends under
it

the rope-loops. There is no way of knowing what else could have

occurred.
Danny De Carlo has related to the police about a night around
August 8, 9 or 10, 1969, when Tex, CharHe and Clem left one
night and returned the next morning. They asked De Carlo if he
wanted to go along but he said no thanks. When they returned in
the morning, De Carlo spotted Clem meandering in the dirtway by
George Spahn's house. When De Carlo walked up to Clem and
asked, "What'd you do last night?" De Carlo looked back over his
shoulder and spotted Charlie behind him, smiling. Clem then
placed his hand on De Carlo and said, according to De Carlo, "We
got five piggies." Then Clem turned heel and walked away grinning.
Stephanie, Manson's new-found love, testified that Manson woke
her around the morning after the murders and took her in to
dawn
Devil Canyon, probably the waterfall campsite, where she stayed
about a week.
It was Over for five sparks of the
over. universe, butchered by
some new form of programmed zombi-spore.
 Eighteen

Fear Swept the Poolsides

There were a number of screams and shots reported in Benedict

Canyon during the night. Various people in various locations near
the Polanski residence heard them between 2 and 4 a.m. Most of
the screams were after the murders were committed. Nothing much,
just ordinary Friday-night screams.
Between 4:30 and 5 a.m., Steven B. Shannon delivered the morn-
ing Los Angeles Times to the Polansld front gate and noticed that
there was a wire down, draped across the fence. At 7:30 a.m., Mr.
Seymour Kott, the temporary resident at 10070 Cielo Drive, walked
out of his house to get his paper and noticed the wire down and
saw the yellow bug light on the Polanski garage, shining in the dis-
tance.
Mrs. Winifred Chapman, the Polanski housekeeper, a well-
spoken lady who had been working for them for just over a year,
took a city bus to Santa Monica and Canyon Drive at the southern
end of Benedict Canyon, arriving about 8 a.m. She was late and
was considering calling a cab for the remainder of the trip to the
Polanski residence when she saw a friend of hers, a man named
Jerry, who took her up Benedict Canyon and Cielo Drive to the
front gate of the estate. It was 8:30 a.m.
Mrs. Chapman pushed the button of the electronic gate, noted
that the wire was down, picked up the Los Angeles Times and
walked up the drive. She reached the garage, snapped off the yel-
 FEAR SWEPT THE POOLSIDES 275

low bug light, then walked past the front of the three-car garage,
turned right, out of view of the bodies, walked along the extreme
north edge of the house to the back, turned left and went into the
house through a service entrance door.
She reached up on the rafter above the door and obtained a key
from its usual place, unlocked the door, put the key back, walked
into the service area, right, into the kitchenwhere she switched off
the back patio hght and put her purse down. She picked up the
phone. It was dead.
She went into the dining room, walking south, to wake someone
up to tell them there was no phone service. She saw the bouquet of
flowers that Linda had seen the night before, resting on a small stand
in the dining room.
When she reached the front hall, she saw a towel, she saw the
steamer trunks, saw blood, saw a door open, saw out over the front
porch, over the bloody doormat, saw Frykowski. Panic.
She ran back out of the house as she had come in, picking up her
purse on the way. She ran screaming down the hillside parking lot,

pushed the bloody exit button at the narrowing of the driveway, the
gate opened up and she fled. She rang the doorbell of the house
immediately down the driveway from the front gate. No answer.
She ran down the hill to the Asim residence, where she encoun-
tered fifteen-year-old Jim Asim, a member of Law Enforcement
Troop 800 of the Boy Scouts of America.
"There's bodies and blood all over the place! Call the policel"
Mrs. Chapman wasdistraught to the degree that the young Boy
Scout called up the police emergency number to seek assistance
himself. Three times he called and finally a patrol car arrived, then
another and another and another, sirens keening.
At 9:14 A.M., Officer J. J. De Rosa, operating West Los Angeles
unit 8L5, and Officer W. T. Whisenhunt, operating West L.A. unit
8L68, were given a call by the Central Dispatch: "Code 2, possible

homicide, 10050 Cielo Drive."

Officer De Rosa arrived first, encountering the young man Jim
Asim and the Chapman. She told him
hysterical housekeeper Mrs.
of the blood and the body and she showed the officer how to op-
erate the electronic gate.
De Rosa, rifle in hand, walked onto the property and encoun-
276 THE FA//.ILY

tered Steve Parent slumped in the Ambassador. The motor was off,

As OflBcer
lights off. De Rosa was checking out Parent's automobile,
Officer Whisenhunt arrived, having "received a call to back up a
fellow officer investigating a possible homicide" as he later testi-
fied.

They radioed for an ambulance and verified death. Whereupon

they walked up into the property again, into the chaos of stilled
souls. They noted Parent, then walked toward the garage, rifles
ready to fire. They went up into the second story of the garage,
where Roman Polanski was to set up his office, by the steps on the
side,and checked it out. Nothing.
They walked past Sebring's black Porsche and the Firebird and
the Camaro in the garage, and into the front yard, across the lawn
where they encountered Voityck Frykowski, wearing colored bell-
bottomed pants and a purple shirt, and buckled, brown, high-top
shoes. They saw Miss Folger a few yards to the south, white gown
red.
Officer Burbridge of unit 8V5 was the next officer to arrive, join-
ing the two policemen in the investigation. The three policemen
could see the great amount of blood on the front porch and, of
course, the open front door. They paused. Who could know what
sort ofmaniac might lurk within the house? With De Rosa covering,
Whisenhunt and Burbridge went around to the back of the house
to check out possible entrances, but the door was locked. Whisen-
hunt and Burbridge decided to enter the open nursery room
window on the far right of the house, the very window that Tex
Watson had crawled upon. The window screen, with a slit, was rest-
ing against the house.
A few seconds later. Officer De Rosa observed his fellow patrol-
men within the house, so he made to join them, walking over the
flagstone porch into the hallway, avoiding the blood. He saw the
ugly PIG scrawled in ugliness. And he walked into the ugly ghostly
desolation of Manson's tableau. They noted the bodies and the rope
and quickly searched the house, the bedrooms, the loft. Later, Of-
ficer De Rosa was unable to recall seeing the two red barefoot prints
on the porch.
Their job was to protect the scene and to make note of the orig-
inal physical circumstances of the area, leaving it undisturbed.
 FEAR SWEPT THE POOLSIDES
277
The completed search of the house and were evidently
oflBcers
checking out the rest of the estate, the pool area, and were proceed-
ing toward the guest house when they heard dogs barking. Then
they heard a male voice within the guest house yelling at tie dogs
to quiet down. Five dead bodies and someone yelling at a dog.
Bill Garretson heard the dogs barking as the cops approached
and yelled: "Quiet down!" and started to get up from the couch in
the hving room where he had been sleeping since shortly after
dawn, or so he testified. He was a short, tanned boy with slightly
long brown hair, age nineteen, barefoot,shirtless, and wearing pin-
striped pants. He
looked out the window onto the front porch and
what he saw was an officer pointing a rifle at him. The officer told
him to freeze. Christopher, theWeimaraner, was barking furiously.
Garretson saw another him from the red-
officer leveling a rifle at
wood picnic table on the porch. It was time for fear.
The first cop. Officer De Rosa, kicked the front door in and the
Weimaraner rushed forward and chomped the officer's leg. They
threw Garretson on the porch floor, ripping his pants knee, and
handcuffed his hands behind his back. Garretson kept asking them,
"What's the matter? What's the matter?"
"You want to know what's the matter? Well, we'll show you what's
the matter."
They marched the handcuffed Garretson across the lawn to Abi-
gail Folger, who lay upon her back in her nightgown. He thought
the body was that of the maid, so destroyed was it. They marched
him over to Voityck Frykowski. He
looked away from the unidenti-
fiable victim. Then they took him to the Ambassador, where he
couldn't identify the person inside.
Thinking that the first body was the maid, Garretson was taken
aback encountering Mrs. Chapman alive, in the custody of an Of-
ficer Gingras, when he reached the front gate. When he asked whose
body had been, he was told in error that it was Mrs. Polanski's.
it

The police had captured the person who had probably been the
last human to have seen the victims alive and the first person to
have seen them dead. It was a classic investigation, requiring only
that a lot of pressure be forthwith applied until he or she confessed
and the case would be solved.
Mrs. Chapman and WiUiam Garretson were driven to the police
278 THE FAMILY

station by OflScers De Rosa and Whisenhunt while 0£Bcer Burbridge

remained behind to protect the location. Mrs. Chapman evinced
hysteria and was taken to the UCLA Medical Center for sedation
and then was escorted by OflBcer Richard Gingras to West Los Ange-
les police headquarters for questioning. Bill Garretson was led daze-
eyed into the lockup and sometime later an officer walked up and
said, "There's the guy that killed those people.'*

Fear swept the poolsides of Los Angeles on the hot August morn-
ing as the news of the murders seeped through the network of
phones.
Media who monitor police radio broadcasts, were quick
sources,
to note thatsomething had happened on Cielo Drive. Reporters
heard something about fires in Benedict Canyon with five people
killed and that Sebring was a victim so one of them called Jay Se-
bring's house and spoke to an employee of Sebring, who had stayed
over to paint or to repair the house. After the reporter called, the
employee called John Madden, the vice-president of Sebring Inter-
national, who called Sharon's parents in San Francisco. Mrs. Tate
called Cielo Drive. Even though the phone hnes were severed, the
telephone appeared to ring, giving the appearance that no one was
home. This was not startling. Sharon was supposed to be staying at
a girl friend's house.
All at once six squad cars sped up to the gate. Then more arrived.
Sergeant Klorman, the first uniformed supervisor, arrived with

Officer Gingras, who took Mrs. Chapman to the station house.

Aerial photos taken a few minutes after the police arrived, show
the front gate of the estate aswarm with reporters, none of whom
was allowed through the electric gate onto the property.
The reporters badgered the policemen as they entered and left
the front gate. Security was tight but Sergeant Klorman, the first
uniformed supervisor on the set, saw fit to announce to reporters
about the condition of the beds: "All of the beds, including those in
the guest house, appear to have been used. ... It looked hke a
battlefield up there."
And thereafter the police entering and leaving began to give out
bits of information on the crimes. One officer said about the mur-
 FEAR SWEPT THE POOLSIDES 279

der scene that "It looked Those three words set the
ritualistic."

tone for early reportage of the events. The Los Angeles Times hit
the stands that afternoon with a page-one story about "Ritual Mur-
ders."
The police gave out so much information that they were deplet-
ing the possible supply of "poly keys"— polygraph interrogation
keys— which are key bits of information about the murders that only
the killers could know, so that on a lie detector test the possible
killer could be asked questions about these facts. If the facts were

printed or broadcast, they would be spoiled for such a purpose.

One officer told the press that the victims were attired in "hippie
type clothes." Another saw fit to announce that one of the victim's
pants were down. Another that it looked like a "typical fag mur-
der." There no knowing what led reporters to print or officers to
is

say that Sebring was wearing a black hood over his head. There is a
great difference between a light-colored bloody towel and a black
hood.
The police swarmed upon upon the roof, upon
the residence,
the grounds, scraping, dusting, making notes. It seemed like half
the Los Angeles police department showed up at Cielo Drive that
day. Over forty officers, including the chief of the Beverly Hills poHce
department, plus ambulance drivers and four members of the
coroner's staff, visited the property.
PoHce photographers took hundreds of photos of everything in
the house and grounds. One of the jobs was to find out as much as
possible about the victims immediately-with emphasis on enemies
and people with motives. There were literally thousands of things to
do immediately. First, they looked in purses and wallets to learn
the identity of the deceased.
Around 10 a.m. the police called Sharon's mother in San Fran-
cisco. They were terse. They obtained from her the name of
WilHani
Tennant, her business agent. The police then seem to have located

Mr. Tennant at his tennis club. He traveled immediately to 10050

Cielo Drive, arriving about noon, still attired in his tennis clothing.

He identified Mrs. Polanski, Miss Folger, Mr. Sebring

and Mr.
Frykowski, and the premises at
left once, sobbing and holding back
at gate.
his stomach, refusing to talk to the congeries of reporters
tiie

A female TV gossip asked him if it was "really Sharon."

28o THE FAMILY

"Oh, don't be an was the anguished reply.

ass,"

When Mr. Tennant called abroad, it was early evening in Lon-

don, and Roman Polanski was at the apartment of Victor Lownes,

managing director of the London Playboy Club. At first Mr. Polan-
ski thought it was a joke and hung up. The phone rang again and it

was true. The rest is grief and tears. "She was such a good person,"
Mr. Polanski said over and over during the early shock.
Before lo a.m. a team of West Los Angeles detectives arrived to
take charge of the investigation. For the history, they were Lieuten-
ant R. C. Madlock, commander; Lieutenant J. J. Gregoire, Sergeant
F. Gravante and Sergeant T. L. Rogers. In addition, there were
numerous West L.A. patrol oflBcers on the property.
OflBcer Rivera covered the bodies with sheets. They went into
the guest house to look for weapons, for Garretson at that time was
a prime suspect. They checked immediately for signs of robbery and
ransacking. There were no drawers open. Sebring still wore his
$1500 watch. They went up on the rooftop to trace where the
downed telephone and communications wires led. The glasses were
found, face down, ear frames open and sticking up, just east of the
blood-spotted steamer trunks.
They took for inspection Mr. Polanski's engraved .45-caliber re-
volver,which had been given to him by the cast of Rosemary's Baby.
They took into evidence all knives to check for blood.
When Mr. Raymond Kilgrow of the phone company arrived
between 10 and n a.m., newspaper and media reporters were al-
ready flocking at the outside rattan fence. Forthwith, Mr. Kilgrow
discovered four lead-in wires fallen down, severed a few inches
from the attachment at the top of the pole. He repaired two tele-
phone wires and left two down pending police investigation. The
police wanted to know what sort of device had severed the v^res,
so the phone man examined the wire to see what might have
clipped it.

Later, Sergeant Varney found a rivet setter in the driveway and

a pair of phers and shears in the guest house. These were received
as possible evidence. The ofiBcer cut a piece of the telephone cable
to test these instruments on it to see if the cut marks were the same.
They weren't. A foot and a half length of wire was cut off containing
 FEAR SWEPT THE POOLSIDES 281

on one end the actual marks of tlie instrument used by the killer or
killers to sever the wire. This was taken into evidence.
A call went out for the Special Investigation Division ( S.I.D. ) of
L.A.P.D. to send in blood analysts. Sergeant Granado arrived at
10 A.M. and began to take blood samples from forty-three locations
all over the house and grounds. In effect, the oflBcer created a blood-
map murder house which was useful in determining how the
of the
crimes were committed. They removed the flag from the couch
since it was spattered. They located three pieces of broken pistol
grip from the Wyatt Earp revolver.
Everything was weird. There was that bloody flag. There were
those blood-barefoot prints on the sidewalk to the driveway. There
were bloody pink ribbons hanging on the front door. There was a
blood soaked purple scarf found by Frykowski. These were re-
moved.
Some police officer or other tracked blood on the front porch,
leaving three red footprints. This created problems later when the
police were trying to recreate the undisturbed crime scene. They
had what sort of soles officers had on their shoes in order
to find out
to determine that the bloody shoe prints were in fact made by a
policeman at the scene.
What seems to remain a part of the mystery is an evident bloody
boot-heel print on the flagstone front porch that was not made by
the pohce. Whose is it? Probably not Watson's or Manson's since
they seem to have been wearing moccasins.
Sometime around noon the investigation of the murders was re-
assigned from the West Los Angeles division of L.A.P.D. to the
robbery-homicide division of L.A.P.D. Inspector McCaulay ap-
pointed Lieutenant R. J.
Helder, supervisor of investigation,
robbery-homicide division of L.A.P.D. to take charge. Lieutenant
Helder sub-assigned responsibihty for the investigation to Sergeant
Michael J. McGann, and Sergeant J. Buckles, Sergeant E. Hender-
son, Sergeant D. Vamey and Sergeant Danny Galindo. These homi-
cide investigators finally arrived between 1:30 and 3:30 p.m.
Officer Jerome Boen and Officer Girt, fingerprint speciahsts, ar-

rived at the Polanski residence about 12:30 p.m. and immediately

began dusting for prints. The ridges of the fingers, palms and soles
ooze with oil and fluid, constantly. An impression of the ridge pat-
282 THE FAMILY

terns is made wherever surface contact is made. On hard, smooth

surfaces the ridge impression or print can be removed.
First the officer powdered the surface with a gray powder. The
powder was then brushed away with powder sticking to the ridges
of the fingerprint or footprint. The print is then sprayed with iodine
and transferred to a card with a special tape. Photographs are made
of the precise location of the print.
The fingerprint officers were joined that afternoon at 5:30 p.m. by
Officer Dorman and civilian fingerprint expert,Wendell Clements.
Another method of detection was used on those prints where dust-
ing didn't detect the "moisture ridges" sufficiently because of the
faintness of the ridges. They sprayed on an iodine chemical mixture
and within twenty-four to forty-eight hours the print appeared.
There were fifty fingerprints found at the Polanski residence.
Twenty-two were eliminated, three were "unmakable" and twenty-
five remain unidentified. Of this twenty-five, quite a few were
located on the freshly painted window sill of the nursery window,
indicating that they were left there either tlie afternoon or the eve-
ning of the murders.
The Chief Medical Examiner of Los Angeles County, Dr. Thomas
Noguchi, took charge of the bodies. Noguchi ordered the bodies not
to be disturbed till he and three assistants should arrive at the scene.
The nylon rope connecting Sebring and Tate was ordered severed
by Coroner Noguchi. Later the police cut sections of the rope to
trace source, manufacturer and possible purchasers. It was all grim.
A deputy coroner took liver temperatures of the victims, as an aid
in determining the time of death. Hands were wrapped with bags
to save possible hairs and skin from the struggle with the killers.
The ambulance crew brought wheeled stretchers and removed the
victims, leaving behind pink death slips.
As he ran the query-gauntlet at the front gate of the estate, Dr.
Noguchi told reporters he would announce autopsy reports about
noon on Sunday, August 10.
Officers quickly went to Sebring's home to look for evidence. Sev-
eral friends of Sebring rushed over to Sebring's house on Easton
Drive to clean it out of contraband, evidently ahead of the police.
Sergeant Varney gathered up all the cutlery in both the care-
taker's house and the main house. He also visited the Folger-
 FEAR SWEPT THE POOLSIDES 283

Frykowsld house at 2774 Woodstock and confiscated ten address

and notebooks, some or all of which were written in Polish. Also
taken into possession were various personal papers of the dece-
dents and a box of "miscellaneous photographs and negatives" as it
was item number 65 in the police property report. This is a
listed in
notorious photo collection containing erotic photographs of some of
Hollywood's most prestigious people.
Later the police backed a van up to the Polanski house and carted
a truckload of stuflF down to S.I.D. headquarters for examination.
A few days later they evidently brought most of it back and placed
it in the same order to try to recreate the original undisturbed crime
scene.
Someone picked the up from the floor and put them on
glasses
the table in the foyer. They were given to Mrs. Polanski's father,
who held them for two weeks trying to locate the owner, who
would have been a prime suspect.
The caretaker, WilHam Garretson, was "questioned by investiga-
tors" at West Los Angeles jail at 4 p.m. He was advised of his rights
and agreed to speak without counsel. "He gave stuporous and non-
responsive answers to pertinent questions," a police source said.
Shortly after the 4 p.m. interview, he retained the services of Los
Angeles attorney, Barry Tarlow. Garretson was then transported
to Parker Center, the downtown L.A. poHce headquarters, where he
was interviewed again, this time in the presence of Mr. Tarlow. It
was fruitless. It was agreed that Garretson would submit to a poly-
graph examination (He detector test) on Sunday, August 10, with
Mr. Tarlow present.
Police instituted a day-and-night guard on the house that lasted
almost two weeks. The Animal Regulation Department removed the
dogs and the kitten.
The police conducted a dope search. They found a Baggie half full
of twenty-six grams of marijuana in the living room in a cabinet
against the west wall. They found thirty grams of hashish in a box
in the nightstand in Frykowski and Folger's room, plus ten MDA
capsules. They found cocaine and marijuana in Sebring's Porsche
and that vial of coke in his coat pocket.
Steve Parent's body remained unidentified for quite a while,
lost

plate
in the rush. A reporter at the electric gate could see the license
284 THE FAMILY

on Parent's Ambassador so he ran a make on it and got Parent's

home address. A priest friend of Parent went down to identify the
body. Steven Parent's father and mother evidently learned of his
death over television. Already the murders were becoming the Tate
Murders.
And so it went. Some policemen would not sleep for three or four
days, so forceful was the investigation.
There were thousands of things to do. There were grief-whelmed
relatives and friends. There was fear as never before. Thousands of
rumors poured out of mouths. Acquaintances of the victims, some
of them with enemies also, seemed to ask themselves, "Am I next?"
What maniac was slouching through the smog with a grudge?
 Nineteen

The Second Night

Sadie woke up in the morning and went into the ti'ailer to watch
the news. Immediately she encountered bulletins of the murders.
She was excited. She hurried out to summon Katie, Clem and Tex
so that they toomight get a few thrillies from the tube. Tex seemed
satisfied when the identity of the victims was revealed and com-
mented: "The Soul really picked a good one this time."
Everything was normal at the Spahn Ranch for a Saturday. There
were the usual weekenders on the scene to ride the horses. Ouish
or one of the girls was in the corral-side ofiBce receiving the money
from the riders. There was a garbage run down the hill into Simi.
Some girls took care of George. Others got a load of com for the
horses. People worked on the dune buggies, preparing for the des-
ert. Groins were clinked. But, in spite of the usual work, things seem
to have been pretty tight-lipped. A young runaway named Mau-
reen overheard Charlie chewing out various key people over the
sloppiness of the murders.
was generally known that it had been necessary to discorpo-
It

rate a few bodies into The Hole. Only a few knew who had done
it and where. Everyone was acting calmly. Tex was his
normal smil-
ing self.

In the late afternoon, Sadie entered Johnny Swartz's trailer and

demanded to watch the six o'clock news on Channel 2. She left
immediately after the report on the homicides was over, comment-
286 THE FAMILY

ing, "We're going to get all those pigs"— evidently referring to the
KNX-TV broadcaster. Juan Flynn, Barbara Hoyt, Katie, Linda and
Tex were also in the trailer. The killers laughed during some of the
broadcast, seeming to enjoy the report. Miss Hoyt later testified that
she received enough information in the trailer to solve the case,
had she been a snitch.
There was a garbage gobble about sundovm. Everybody sang
together and smoked some dope, after which there was a clean-up
in the kitchen. Kasabian said Gypsy had driven back from the wa-
terfall and was talking about taking more girls there. She gave Linda

Kasabian some Zu-Zus— Manson's term for candy— which Linda put
in her pocket to eat after the long hard night ahead. Linda was
going to go vdth Gypsy to the fall until Charhe came to the board-
walk and called her and LesHe and Katie outside.
He told Linda to get her license and a change of clothing. Linda
has claimed she tried a beg-off with her eyes: "I looked at him— his
eyes— my mind told him I didn't want to go— afraid to say it." It

didn't work.
Charhe told the girls to meet him in Danny De Carlo's bunkhouse
gun room. Stuck in a sHt in the wall by the door were four bayonets
and the Straight Satans' club sword. De Carlo was not in his room
while Charhe briefed his disciples. But later that night when he
returned to the room he noticed that the weapons were missing
from their slit.
There they were: Tex, Sadie, Clem, Katie, Leshe, Linda and the
Wizard. Charhe said they were going out again. He seemed upset
because of the messy caper of the night before. Tonight he would
lead them himself, to show them how it should be done. Vem
Plumlee, eager to be cut in on the caper, came up and asked Charlie
ifthey needed any help but the car was too crowded.
Tex complained about the quahty of the weapons used the night
before. They decided to use sturdy bayonets and the Satans' sword.
Once again they would use the yellow and white '59 Ford. Charhe
drove vdth Linda and Clem in the front seat. Leslie sat on Tex's
lap in the back udth Katie and Sadie.
They started out of the driveway then stopped. Charlie called
for Bruce Davis. Several minutes later Bruce came out of the woods
where he had been sleeping. Charlie got out of the car and talked
 THE SECOND NIGHT 28

for a while with Bi-uce and BiTice gave him some money for gasoline.
Although all concerned have been extremely hesitant to talk about
the second night, it is known that everybody was on acid. Charlie
drove away down Santa Susanna Pass Road to Topanga Canyon
Boulevard, turned right, drove to Devonshire, turned on Dev- left
onshire. They stopped for gas on Devonshire, after which Linda
Kasabian drove. They turned onto the San Diego Freeway and
drove to the Ventura Freeway. They drove ofiF the Ventura Free-
way at the Fair Oaks turnoff in Pasadena. Throughout the drive
Manson kept up a steady reassuring stream of conversation.
The trip to the LaBianca house was hesitant and tortuous. Charlie
announced that the mission was to be split into two units of three.
Up and dovra the streets of Pasadena drove the '59 Ford looking
for a quiet reserved suitable location. They stopped at a house and
Charhe got out. He told Linda to drive around the block and when
she returned, CharUe was waiting. He got in and told them to
wait and look.
In a driveway a few doors away a rotund gentleman and a lady
got out of a parked car. Charlie said, drive on. They were informed
that Charlie had seen pictures of children through the windows.
Later, perhaps, they might have to harm children, but now they
were to be left safe. Still in Pasadena, they cruised into an area of
hills and larger houses. Charlie decided to drive. He drove to a hill-

top and contemplated the possibility of crawling a two-story house

there. He decided against it because of the nearness of neighboring
houses. Someone might hear it.
On drove Soon they passed a church and Charlie turned
SnuflF.

off onto the paved parking lot of the fane. God, you could just pic-
ture the headlines. But there was no one there. It was locked.
Charlie got back into the car.
He drove to the Pasadena Freeway, proceeding westerly; hooked
onto another freeway, winding up on Sunset Boulevard whereupon
he allowed Linda to drive. She drove west, turning onto a dirt road
near Will Rogers Park, not far from Dennis Wilson's house of tlie
good old days. Manson decided to game a bit, directing Linda
through a series of turns and maneuvers that left her confused.
She drove up a steep hill to a closed gate in front of an estate of
some sort. She went into a series of left and right turns, arriving
288 THE FAMILY

at a house. Charlie told her to return by the same route she had
come. He was pressuring her. Finally he showed her how to get
back to Sunset Boulevard.
They traveled east on Sunset Boulevard where it twists through
Brentwood Park when lo, Manson spotted a small white sports car
driven by a young man, headed the same direction. Manson told
Linda, "At the red Hght pull up beside it." Charlie was going to
strike.

Charhe started to get out of the car. Was Satan to write upon
the white metal? Luckily for the young man, the light changed and
the car got away.
From this point onward the Wizard seemed to know exactly
where to go. Straightway he directed Linda to Silverlake. She drove
down Sunset Boulevard, past Sunset Strip, past the several miles
of garish hoardings advertising the latest rock and roll recordings,
through the foothills of hype.
They arrived at the Los Feliz district just south of Griffith Park,
pulhng up in front of the home of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca
on the other side of the street from their driveway. Both Sadie and
Linda recognized the house right next door to the LaBiancas' resi-
dence. Linda recalled at the trial that she had been served a peyote
fruitpunch there the summer of the Chicago riots, when Harold
True had Hved in the house.
Linda said, according to her testimony, "Charlie, I've been here
before. You're not going to *do' that house, are you?"
Manson, according to Linda, then said, "No, the house next door."
Charlie got out of the car, grabbed a weapon and sneaked up
the steep driveway, twin thong-nooses slapping his breast. While in
the car, Linda lit up a Pall Mall King Size and passed it around,
awaiting the return of the Soul.
On August Mr. and Mrs. Leno LaBianca had gone to the home
5,
of Leno's mother, Corina LaBianca, where they picked up their
speedboat which they kept stored in her garage. They drove it north
to Lake Isabella where their son, Frank Struthers, age sixteen, was
visiting family friends. They left the boat there for Frank to use and
returned to Los Angeles.
On Saturday, August 9, the LaBiancas returned to Lake Isabella
accompanied by Rosemary's attractive twenty-one-year-old daugh-
 THE SECOND NIGHT 289

ter, Susan Stnithers. Their purpose was to visit the Saffie family
where Frank was staying, to pick him up and to haul the boat back
to Los Angeles. They spent the day on the lake, had dinner and
prepared to leave. Frank Struthers was asked by his young friend,
Jim SaflBe, to stay on till Sunday. Accordingly, Susan Struthers and
the LaBiancas left the SafiBe residence at Lake Isabella around
9 P.M., leaving Frank there. They were driving a green 1968 Thun-
derbird, hauling the ski boat.
They drove immediately to Los Angeles. At 1 a.m. they dropped
Susan off at her apartment in the 4600 block of Greenwood Place,
not far from their own home. Shortly after 1 a.m., John Fokianos,
who operated a newsstand at the comer of Hillhurst and Franklin
Avenue, near the LaBianca house, observed their green Thunder-
bird pulling a boat-trailer, headed east on Franklin. It turned into
the Standard station, made a U-turn and pulled up adjacent to Mr.
Foldanos' newsstand.
The LaBiancas remained in the car. Leno bought a Sunday
Herald-Examiner and the Sunday National Daily Reporter, a horse-
betting publication. Rosemary LaBianca expressed concern about
the murder of Sharon Tate and the others so Mr. Fokianos gave
her a front-section filler from the Sunday Los Angeles Times with
its murders" page-one story.
"rituahstic
They talked for several minutes about the murders, shocked at
the gruesome details. "She seemed quite emotional about it,"
Fokianos later was to tell reporters. Leaving the newsstand, Mr.
and Mrs. LaBianca then drove to their home, parking the car on
Waverly Drive just west of the house, with the boat still hitched to
the back.
The white Waverly Drive was in a quiet
one-story house at 3301
upper middle-class neighborhood near Griffith Park. The house,
once owned, according to United Press International, by cartoonist
Walt Disney, had been owned for a number of years by Leno's
mother. Leno had Hved in the house before, for a while, but moved
out in 1959 when he married Rosemary. In 1968 Leno and Rose-
mary purchased the home from his mother, Mrs. Corina LaBianca.
They moved to the location in November of that year. Rosemaiy's
son of a previous marriage, Frank Struthers, Jr., also lived in the

newly purchased house.

290 THE FAMILY

To the west of the LaBianca residence was the former estate of

Troy Donahue, movie giant. To the north was an unoccupied hill-
side. To the east at 3267 Waverly Drive was the large house once
rented by acquaintances of Charles Manson during the period
September 1967 to September 1968. The three renting the house
were Harold True, Ernest Baltzell and Allen SwerdloflF. It was at
Harold True's house the summer before that some of the family had
undertaken a group LSD journey.
Leno LaBianca was the chief stockholder of the State Wliolesale
Grocery Company which operated the Gateway food market chain,
businesses begun by his late father and later managed by Leno
prosperously. Mr. LaBianca had extensive property interests in
California and Nevada. He owned an enterprise called Arnel
Stables and possessed nine thoroughbred race horses, including
Kildare Lady, a horse of some prominence. He formerly was a
member of the board of directors of the ill-fated Hollywood Na-
tional Bank. He left $100,000 in various life insurance policies.
He was an avid coin collector, owning at times, $10,000 to $20,-
000 worth of rare coins. At the time of his death, Mr. LaBianca had
$400 worth of uncirculated nickels in the trunk of his Thunderbird.
At the time of his death, he was negotiating the purchase of a ranch
in Vista, California for $127,000. Whereas his financial affairs were
amazingly intricate, one thing remains apparent: he was rich. Leno
liked to gamble, visiting the race track often. He did it in st)de, often
betting as much For some reason the La-
as $500 in a single day.
Bianca telephone was tapped. This is known because a telephone
repairman was called to the home the day before the murders due
to some trouble on the line. The repairman discovered the tap. It
is thought that the phone was monitored because Mr. LaBianca

may occasionally have used the services of a famous bookmaker

known as The Phantom who lived just down the street.
Mr. LaBianca was only forty -four years old.
Rosemary LaBianca was thirty-eight years old. She was co-owner
of a successful dress and gift shop. Boutique Carriage, located at
2625 North Figueroa within the Gateway shopping center which
her husband owned. She herself was a successful businesswoman,
speculating in stocks and commodities. She left her children an
estate valued at $2,600,000.
 THE SECOND NIGHT 291

To ward oflF theft, they removed the water

from the boat and
skis
carried them back entrance of the house and set them on the
to the
fender of Mrs. LaBianca's '55 Thunderbird, which they had left
parked by the garage. When they entered the house Mrs. LaBianca
placed her purse on the liquor cabinet in the dining room. She went
to the bedroom, turned down the covers and prepared to go to bed.
Both put on sleeping attire.
A few minutes later Leno was sitting in his pajamas in the south
side of the living room, checking out the Herald-Examiner sports
section and the racing form, drinking a can of apple beer. The rest
of the newspaper and his reading glasses rested on the table in front
of the L-shaped sectional sofa on which he was sitting.
He was creepy-crawled. He looked up and saw a short hairy male
Caucasian wearing a black turtleneck sweater, levis, moccasins
and waving a cutlass. Charlie told Leno, "Be calm, sit down and be
quiet." He located Mrs. LaBianca in the bedroom. He told them to
stand up and tied them up, back to back, using two forty-two-inch
leather thongs from around his neck. The knot was a double square
knot. He told them was okay and they weren't going
that everything
to get hurt. He sat them down on the divan, and then he walked
over to the liquor cabinet, removed Mrs. LaBianca's wallet from her
purse, and walked out the front door, leaving it unlocked.
Linda Kasabian was just finishing her Pall Mall cigarette when
Charlie walked down the driveway to the car and looked in. He'd
been inside the house about five minutes.
Sadie claimed later that when Charlie looked at her, she begged
off of the mission with her eyes and that Charhe could scan her mind

and know that she didn't Linda too contended in her

want to do it.

various statements that she confronted CharHe with silent vibes

so that he would refuse to nod her into the murder crew.
Charlie called Tex, Leslie and Katie out of the car and gave
them a few final instructions. They could hear only parts of the

briefing in the car. He were two people in the house and

said there
that he had tied them up. He told them that the people were calm
and not to instill fear in them. Then kill them. Then they were to
hitchhike back to the ranch. Katie was to go to the waterfall.
CharHe opened the door and Linda slid over into the passenger
side and Charhe got in, handing her Rosemary's billfold. He started
292 THE FAMILY

the engine and drove the Ford away, bearing the second half of
the two-part squad.
They walked house bearing their changes of clothes. Once
into the
inside the front foyer and entering the living room, they saw the
terrified couple. They went to the kitchen to choose the weapons.
From a drawer they obtained a white-handled ten-inch bi-tined
carving fork, belonging to a set, and an eight-inch serrated wood-
handled knife. They pulled down the kitchen shades to avoid de-
tection. Everything was calm. Nothing was said about the Devil.
The Katie and Leslie, untied Rosemary LaBianca and took
girls,

her to the bedroom where they placed her face down on the bed.
She was attired in a shorty nightgown over which she wore a robe.
They removed the pillowcase from one of the pillows and fitted it
over her head. Then they pulled out the plug and tied her neck with
the cord of a heavy bed lamp which was attached also to another
bed lamp, knotting it near the end. Everything was going to be okay,
they told her.
Tex pushed Leno back upon the couch and ripped open his pa-
jama tops, exposing the large full stomach of the businessman.
Homicide Sergeant Galindo was to find a ripped-oflF button lodged
in a buttonhole of the pajamas the next night. Tex began stabbing
him and Leno struggled and screamed and shrieked, his hands be-
hind him. He fell against the table, knocking the apple beer and
newspaper all over the floor. Blood covered the cushions.
Tex had him down on his back and slashed him four times in the
throat leaving the serrated knife buried deep within. He stabbed
him four times in the abdomen into the colon, all fatal wounds. He
bled to death, helped by the throw pillow with which Tex smothered
his face to stop the screams.
When Mr. LaBianca began to shriek, Mrs. LaBianca began to
struggle. She fell to the floor pulling the neck-cord taut and the
lamp toppled. Over and over again she kept screaming, "What are
you doing to my husband!"
Later, when everybody had returned to the Spahn Ranch, Sadie
was quick to debrief Katie about what had gone on inside the La-
Bianca house. Katie told her about the screams: "That's what she'll
carry into infinity." Sadie agreed.
Leslie held her, Katie stabbed. She crawled approximately two
 THE SECOND NIGHT 293
feet, thelamp cord on her neck, dragging the heavy lamp. Her
spine was severed and she v^^as paralyzed, lying on her face, parallel
to the bed and the dresser.
Tex left the dying Mr. LaBianca in the hving room and raced to
tlie aid of the girls. Forty-one times they wounded her, mostly in

the back; three were in the area of her chest. There were three linear
abrasions on her back, made with a dull instrument, perhaps the
electrical plug. All wounds were made with the same knife.
They pulled her nightgown and her robe over her shoulders and
over her head, exposing her back and her buttocks. Leslie was not
participating.
Tex wanted Leslie to stab. So did Katie. Leslie was very hesitant
but they kept suggesting it. She made a stab to the buttocks. Then
she kept stabbing, sixteen times. Later the nineteen-year-old girl
from Cedar Falls, Iowa would write poems about it.
They were dead. It was time to leave the world a few signs. Tex
took the bayonet or perhaps the metal prongs of the electrical plug
and made a series of scratches near the navel proceeding toward
the chest of Leno LaBianca which, from a distance, looked like a
row Up
of overlapping X's. close the bayonet cuneifoim scratching
turned into the word WAR.
Not to be outdone, Katie took the carving fork and stabbed
both bodies with it. Seven double punctures she punched here and

there into the abdomen of Mr. LaBianca, till she left it embedded
in his flesh near the navel to the bifurcation of the tines. Katie said
she was fascinated by the fork. She reached over to it as it stood out
from his stomach and she gave it a twang and it vibrated.
Knife in the throat, fork in the stomach, acts insanely inspired
by the song "Piggies": "You can see them out for dinner with their
piggie wives, clutching forks and knives to eat their bacon."
They took the white electrical cord attached to a massive floor
lamp near the couch and tied it around his neck, knotting it. They
put the small throw pillow over his face. Then they fitted a pillow-
case from the main bedroom over both his head and the pillow.
They left him on his back, the WAR and the fork exposed.
Then they wrote on the walls. They removed a long narrow
tapestry on the north wall facing the front door and placed it on
the floor. There, in Mr. LaBianca's blood, they scrawled for all to
294 THE FAMILY

see as they entered: DEATH TO PIGS. Later, when Sadie de-

briefed her, Katie told how she had seen pictures of the children
would probably
in the house. Katie said that she figured that the kids
be coming over Sunday and they'd find the dead bodies.
for dinner
Six feet eight inches up on the south wall of the living room, di-
rectly to the left of the front door, they printed the word RISE,
above a painting. They folded a piece of paper to use as the blood
brush. It was found, bloody and frayed on one end, in the dining
room.
In the kitchen on the double doors of the refrigerator Katie began
to scrawl. She meant to write HELTER SKELTER but committed
some sort of psychological slip by wiiting HEALTER SKELTER

instead.
Leslie wiped the house down for prints, taking her time, wiping
all the surfaces they had touched and more, leaving no family prints
for the police. Then they took a shower together in the rear bath-
room and changed their clothing.
They went to the kitchen. Boy, were they hungry. But first the
girls fed the dogs. They patted the three dogs who had watched

silently throughout the massacre and who had licked the gory
hands of the killers. Then the humans ate, locating some food in
the icebox. They left a watermelon rind in the kitchen sink then they
found some chocolate milk which they drank and carried with them
as they left by the east door, leaving it ajar. Clutching their bloody
clothes, down the hill, drinking the milk.
None camera equipment, diamond rings, rifles,
of the expensive
shotguns, valuable coins were disturbed. Leslie Van Houten seems
to have taken a sack containing about twenty-five dollars' worth of
rare domestic and foreign coins. These she sorted out at the ranch.
They threw the clothing away into a garbage can a few blocks
away. They walked to the Golden State Freeway, found an en-
trance and began to hitchhike, securing a ride all the way from
Griffith Park to Santa Susanna Pass Road, near the ranch. The
driver was familiar with the Spahn Ranch, even going so far as to
ask them if that was where they were going. Oh no, they said. This
person's identity, although known by some, was never determined
by the police.
 THE SECOND NIGHT 295
Meanwliile, the second triad of killers had driven away in the
yellow and white Ford. After Manson handed her the wallet, Linda
Kasabian checked out the credit cards and saw the i.d.—Rosemary
with some ItaHan surname.
They drove quite a distance on the Golden State Freeway out
into the valley to Sylmar where they pulled ofiF onto Encinatus
Boulevard. They drove into a Standard station where Linda Kasa-
bian walked into the ladies' room to dispose of Mrs. LaBianca's
billfold. She placed it inside the water closet above the flushing
mechanism where it remained for four months, although it is com-
pany poHcy at all Standard ser\dce stations to change the bluing
agent in restroom water closets once a day.
When Linda returned, Charlie was displeased that she had placed
the wallet in so obscure a location as inside the water closet. They
drove then to a beach south of Venice, near some oil tanks, where
they parked the car on a hilltop. They all Manson with
got out,
Linda, Sadie with Clem. Then the young mothers walked hand in
hand down the beach with Clem and Charlie.
According to Kasabian, Manson asked her on the beach if there
wasn't some "pig" nearby that she and Sandy had met. According
to Manson, on the other hand, Linda aka Yana the Witch announced
that she wanted to waste some "fat pig" in Venice, so he agreed to
drive her there but she didn't have a weapon.
The person in question was the actor, Saladin Nader, whom Linda
and Sandy Good had met a few days previous on Topanga Beach.
It was he who had played a role in a movie about the youth of poet
KahHl Gibran. Nader's apartment was located on the fifth floor of
1101 Ocean Front Street, near the Beach House Market, in Venice.
The four drove there from that beach south of Venice. After they
arrived Linda agreed to show Manson Nader's apartment. She
said that she took Charhe to the floor below Nader's and
pointed

to another door, evidently seeking to save Nader. They

then walked

back downstairs.
Clem, or one of them, went to a biker's house and borrowed a

anything goes wrong, just hang it up," Charlie said.

"If
Manson said for Kasabian to knock on the door while Sadie and
pad
Clem waited down the hall. When she was able to get into the
296 THE FAMILY

then all should pounce and Idll. Charlie gave her a pocket knife and
showed her how to slit a throat.
Then Exterminans got into the '59 Ford and evidently drove back
to the Spahn Ranch.
Mrs. Kasabian, two months pregnant, having already decided to
save Mr. Nader, instead led Clem and Sadie to an apartment on the
floor below Nader's apartment. There she seems also to have delib-
erately spared the occupant. She knocked on the door. Someone
opened it a little ways. Mrs. Kasabian then excused herself, say-
ing she had the wrong apartment and the mission was voided.
They walked along the beach. Sadie went into the ladies' room
on the beach near a pier. Clem seems to have buried the revolver
in a sand pile or by a pier. They hitchhiked north along the Pacific
Coast Highway. Someone gave them a ride to the mouth of Topanga
Canyon.
Then they stopped to visit a house next to a business known as
the Malibu Feed Bin. They went in, sat around in the living room
for a while, smoked a joint, then Sadie, Linda and Clem went back
to the street to hitch to the ranch. A second ride picked the three
up and took them up and over Topanga Canyon and down into the
valley.
A third car drove them up Topanga Canyon Boulevard through
Chatsworth and let Linda and Clem off at Santa Susanna Pass Road.
During the third ride, Sadie and Clem sang snatches of George Har-
rison's song, "Piggies."
Sadie went further up the highway to the road leading the back
way to the waterfall campsite where she and Katie talked about
the details of the second night of terror.
 Section III

Manson Captured
August 16-December 1, 1969
 Twenty

The Search

The investigation facing the police was extremely complex and,

for the most part, a labyrinth of blind alleysand tedium. Every-
thing at the Polansld residence, even the wastebaskets, had to be
sifted for data.Address books, personal papers, house and grounds,
everything, sifted for enemies. PoHce combed the brushy hillsides
of Benedict Canyon looking for the murder weapons. Others be-
gan to search for the type of revolver to fit the bloody bits of walnut
pistol gripfound in the residence. 10050 Cielo Drive was kept un-
der continuous police guard for about two weeks.
On Sunday morning, August 10, the Los Angeles County Medi-
cal Examiner, Dr. Thomas Noguchi, supervised the autopsies of the
victims, he himself conducting the examination of Sharon Tate. Sev-
eral homicide investigators were on hand during the autopsies. In-
cluded was one of the sheriff's oflBce detectives investigating the
Gary Hinman murder. This detective approached the officers han-
dling the Polanski murders and told them about the similarities
between the two sets of murders: writing in blood, wounds inflicted
by knives, etc. The officers of the Tate investigation considered the
similarities insignificant, however, since there was already a suspect
arrested for the Hinman murder when tlie Sebring-Parent-Folger
murders were committed.
Press accounts of autopsy findings took care to note that the baby
was perfectly formed, evidently to curb possible speculation per-
300 THE FAMILY

taining to one of Polansld's movies. The wildest assertions appeared

in national publications about the physical state of the decedents,
based on inaccurate information supposedly leaked from an em-
oflBce. All around the world there were arti-
ployee of the coroner's
cles and broadcasts speculating about the circumstances of the
crimes and lives of the deceased. In Los Angeles, reporters thronged
at police headquarters for data.
Since everything any officer said was being printed, they had to
be careful. On Sunday, Lieutenant Robert Helder, the head of the
investigation, told a news conference that efforts to locate the killer
or killers were centered on acquaintances of the short, slim caretaker
William Garretson. Sergeant Buckles explained later that homicide
detectives were "not entirely satisfied" with Garretson's answers to
their questions. In the afternoon Garretson was given an hour-long
lie detector test, in the presence of his attorney, Barry Tarlow.
Lieutenant A. H. Burdick of the scientific investigation division,
L.A.P.D., administered the polygraph examination at 4:25 p.m.,
August 10, at the Parker Center police headquarters. Investigators
had found Garretson "stuporous and vague" as if he were under the
influence of some kind of narcotic. During his polygraph interroga-
tion he still seemed confused and unable to remember things.
Garretson was extremely vague about what had gone on at the
Polanski residence the evening of the murders.The polygraph ex-
amination revealed that someone seems to have arrived at the resi-
dence immediately prior to Garretson's trek down to the Sunset
Strip where he bought food. Here's what he said: "And so I stayed
home all day Friday, August 8, and I cleaned up the house a little

bit and did the dishes and everything, and they came around 8:30,

9 o'clock, somewhere around there. And I went to get something

to eat, and I went down on the Strip; I had something down there,
and I could see her light all the way down from Cielo— not Cielo, but
Benedict Canyon, all way down to the Strip."
the
Who are the "they" who arrived about 8:30? The victims return-
ing from dinner at the El Coyote restaurant? Or guests? Garretson
was even more vague about what he was doing during the murders.
At the trial he testified that he spent the time ^Anriting letters to a
friend named Darryl and listening to The Doors and a Mama Cass
album. During the polygraph examination he admitted he may have
 THE SEARCH 301

gone out in back of his house. The back yard of the guest house is
out of view of the main house and grounds so perhaps he hid there.
In spite of inconsistencies, his answers regarding his innocence were
shown on the polygraph to be truthful, so Garretson was eliminated
as a suspect. The matter of William Garretson is far from cleared
up however. There remains the possibility that he was hypnotized,
drugged and left at the murder site as a fall guy.
Steve Brandt, former press agent for Miss Tate and a gossip
columnist for Photoplay magazine, arrived on Sunday, August 10,
from New
York where he had been working on assignment. He was
questioned repeatedly by police investigators and supplied "volu-
minous information," according to reports at the time, about Sharon
Tate and her circle of friends and about dope and Frykowski's ten-
day mescaline experiment. Mr. Brandt had been a legal witness
when Mr. and Mrs. Polanski were married in London in 1968.
Friends of the deceased began to fly to Los Angeles and some
were interrogated and given polygraph examinations. Rudy Alto-
belli arrived from Europe Sunday evening. Since the residence was
sealed off, he went to a hotel. He was interviewed by the police.
They asked him about the party in March where Roman Polanski
threw a person out. Early speculation held that the PIG on the front
door was actually PIC, the nickname of one of the men thrown
from the party. They also asked him questions about the relationship
between Mr. and Mrs. Polanski. Mr. Altobelli was asked at the trial
when he, AltobelH, first thought that Manson might be responsible
for the murders. AltobeUi replied that he thought of Manson as a
suspect on the plane trip back to the United States just after the
murders. He did not volunteer the information to the police, he
said,because he was not asked about it.
Later on Sunday evening, August 10, Roman Polanski arrived
at Los Angeles International Airport and was silent coming through
customs when the reporters crowded about with Hghts and micro-
phones. His friend and associate. Gene Gutowski, read a short
statement to the press that spoke against sensationalistic printed
rumors of rituals, marital rifts and so on that had filled the front
pages and airways of Europe and America. Roman Polanski at once
went into seclusion in an apartment located within the Paramount
Studios complex.
302 THE FAMILY

Late Sunday night police found Polanski's 1967 red Ferrari, li-
cense number VAM 559, in a body repair shop where it had been
taken for maintenance— thus removing the possibility that it may
have been used as a getaway car by a robber-killer. Around
this

time, artist Witold K., speaking nervously in Polish, called a friend

in New York from a phone booth in Los Angeles. He claimed that
he knew who the killers were and that he was afraid.
Friends in New York then called a Islew York Times reporter in
Los Angeles and related the development. The reporter thereupon
called the Los Angeles police.
Since Witold K. expressed fear for his life, the police promised
him twenty-four-hour protection if he would talk. Then his friends
called Witold K. back at the phone booth where he was waiting and
he agreed to the guard. Three police cars picked up Witold K. and
took him to the apartment at Paramount Studios where Roman
Polanski was in seclusion.
Witold K. told police that Frykowski was oflFered an exclusive
dealership to sell the drug MDA, evidently in the Los Angeles area.
Subsequent friction developed, he claimed, and one of the suppliers
threatened Frykowsld's life. Witold K. claimed not to know the
names know them by face only. And
of the possible killers but to
that theywere Canadian. One close friend claims that Witold K.
went around, escorted by police, to the many prestigious addresses
in Frykowski's notebooks to try to locate the killer— always leaving
behind Witold K. claimed that the identity of the
his business card.
killers was contained perhaps in these notes and diaries but he seems

to have said that "it would take two weeks" for him to decipher the
from Frykowski's notebooks.
killers' identity

Like many new

arrivals from a foreign country, Mr. Frykowski
made voluminous notes and took many phone numbers and ad-
dresses. He also kept a diary, written in Polish.
Witold K.'s painting career was enhanced by his revelation. One
newspaper account showed a picture of Witold K. posing with sev-
eral of his paintings on the Polanski front lawn. A friend has
claimed that Witold K. even sold a couple of his paintings to two
policemen investigating the case.
This is typical of the hundreds of leads followed vigorously by
 THE SEARCH 303
the police that led to blind walls of cool, silent traffickers in dope.
And nothing is more secret than the big-league dope trade.
Around 8:30 p.m., August 10, the sixteen-year-old son of Rosemary
LaBianca by a previous marriage, Frank Struthers, was driven home
from his vacation at Lake Isabella and was dropped ofiF in front of
3301 Waverly Drive. He saw the family car, the '68 Thunderbird,
parked on the street with boat attached. He walked up the drive-
way past the kitchen windows, noticed that the window shades
were drawn, evidently an unusual condition. He walked up the
driveway to the garage to the back door and knocked. No answer.
The door was locked. He saw the water skis on the fender of the
other family car, also a Thunderbird, parked by the garage. He
knocked on the den window. No answer. He walked down to a Char-
burger stand and phoned. No answer. He made another phone call
to try to locate his sister, Susan Struthers. In a while, Susan Struthers
called back and her brother told her of his apprehension.
About 10:30 P.M. his sister Susan and her fiance, Joe Dorgan, ar-
rived at 3301 Cielo Drive where they met sixteen-year-old Frank
Struthers, Jr. They obtained the house keys from the ignition
switch of Mrs. LaBianca's Thunderbird. The three walked into the
house through the back door. Susan stayed in the kitchen while
Frank Struthers, Jr., and Joe Dorgan walked through the dining
room into the living room and saw Mr. LaBianca "in a crouched
position" on the floor. They knew something was v^ong. The two
about-faced and fled. Dorgan picked up the phone in the kitchen
as if to call, then dropped They ran into the yard yelling
it. for help

and a neighbor called the police. About 10:45 p.m. police cars be-

gan shrieking to the scene.

In short order the property was aswarm with reporters and homi-
cide investigators. The Los Angeles Times made it a page-one story
with the caption "2 Ritual Slayings Follow Killing of 5," as if link-
ing it to the murders of Friday night. Police released practically all
the major details of the LaBianca murders to the media. The news-
papers made mention of the knife and fork in Mr. LaBianca and
the word "war." They "hood"— the pillowcase over
told of the white
his head. What evidently was not released to the media were the
bloody words "Healter Skelter" written on the icebox doors. But
they did release the fact that there were blood words on the icebox
304 THE FAMILY

doors. The Los Angeles Times story, for instance, mistakenly related
that "the words 'Death to Pigs' had been smeared on the doors of
."
the refrigerator, apparently by the heel of a slayer's hand . .

Manson's good friend, Gregg Jakobson, was questioned right

murders by the police because of his association with Rudy
after the
AltobelH. Had the words Healter Skelter on the icebox been re-
leased to the media by the police, Jakobson, who was one of scores
of people who knew what would have
the words meant, certainly
told the police about the Manson family. Then Manson and crew
probably would have been arrested immediately and further mur-
ders would have been prevented. It is possible, however, that the
police, alarmed by the untoward discussion of tlie so-called Tate
murders by the police at the Polansld residence, may have wanted
to make certain that a number of polygraph interrogation keys re-
mained this time. Therefore they may have withheld Healter Skelter
as well as the bloody word "rise" in the living room.
On August 11, in the afternoon, authorities released the care-
taker, William Eston Garretson, having held him for two days. He
walked out of custody with his attorney, Barry Tarlow, into a bar-
rage of cameras.
On August 11, police "backed away" from linking the Cielo Drive
and Waverly Drive murders. "There is a similarity," remarked Ser-
geant Bryce Houchin of L.A.P.D., "but whether it's the same suspect
or a copy cat, we just don't know." The diflFerence in life styles, the
different circles of friends, the lack of any apparent connection,
were important factors in the decision to split up the investigation
of the two sets of murders. By Tuesday, August 12, 1969, detec-
tives oflBcially ruled out any link between the Tate and LaBianca
crimes.
The LaBianca investigation team was headed by Captain Paul
LePage and detectives from robbery-homicide including Sergeant
Phil Sartuche, Sergeant Manuel Gutierrez and Sergeant Frank
Patchett, all of whom played considerable parts in bringing down
the house of Manson. The LaBianca investigation centered on
business dealings and gambling activities of Leno LaBianca. It was
discovered that there was about $200,000 missing from Gateway
Markets, one of Mr. LaBianca's business enterprises. Mr. LaBianca
was a rare coin collector with collections worth thousands of dol-
 THE SEARCH 305

lars.A rare coin collection, believed to be Mr. LaBianca's, was

found in a house on Waverly Drive a couple of blocks from the
LaBianca residence. This house was owned by a notorious book-
maker known as The Phantom aka Edward Pierce and had been
abandoned by him a week after the LaBianca murders.
Close associates of Mr. LaBianca denied the possibility that the
Mafia had contracted his death. If it had, they said, they would
have heard about it. Pohce made an activity chart by date divided
into half-hour increments showing the activities of Leno and Rose-
mary LaBianca between August 4 and August 10, 1969. They gave
he detector tests to most major acquaintances of the decedents.
There were twenty-five prints found in the LaBianca house. Nine-
teen were eUminated, six remain unidentified. 41,634 suspects were
checked against the print on the liquor cabinet where Mrs. La-
Bianca's wallet was stolen by Manson.
The LaBianca investigation team arranged so-called "M.O. runs"
with the CII (State Bureau of Criminal Identification and In-
vestigation) computer, in Sacramento at the California Depart-
ment of Justice. The CII crime computer has a huge amount of
information stored regarding crime and criminals. An M.O. run
collects all crimes with the same methods of perpetration. A police
agency can, as in this case, get a list of every murder where the killer

tied up the victim, or Mnrote on the wall, in order to obtain the

identities of potential suspects.
Oneof the problems facing the police in the PolansM residence
murders was the overwhelming number of suspects. The decedents'
hves were fraught with relationships that could have spawned vio-
lent grudges. The police investigation can be examined in three
major areas of concern: 1) dope traflBc 2) fame-porn and 3) the
occult— areas about which there is a veil of secrecy extremely diffi-

cult to penetrate.
The murders provided impetus for a great number of narcotics
arrests. Some individuals, however, were promised immunity from
dope prosecution if they would provide information about the de-
ceased and possible culprits. Three L.A. homicide detectives went
to Vancouver to help the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to or-
ganize a dragnet for the Canadian dope dealers that Witold K.
and others had fingered out. The dope dealers were believed headed
3o6 THE FAMILY

toward Edmonton, Alberta or already holed up in the Western

Canadian woods.
U.S. Treasury agents investigated aspects of drug traflBc to see
if there was a pattern of interstate traflBcking. In the days following

the murders there were large-scale cocaine arrests around the coun-
try which have been linked to the reverberations resulting from the
murder investigation. Police traveled around the country admin-
istering polygraph examinations. They even went to England to
interrogate suspects.
Lieutenant Colonel Paul Tate, Sharon Tate's father, resigned
from the service two weeks prior to his scheduled retirement after
a twenty-year career. He proceeded to work ceaselessly in pursuit
of the killers, concentrating on drug motives. He grew a beard and
infiltrated dope lairs. "I guess I've seen just about everything in
hippie communes while checking out drug angles," he commented
in an interview after Manson's arrest.
Mr. Peter Folger, Abigail Folger's father, according to numerous
people interviewed, initiated an intense investigation into the mat-
ter, as did Roman Polanski who was assisted by several famous Los

Angeles private investigators. "Polanski worked on it himself. But

Polanski didn't realize it was hippies. He was working in his own
area," reported one of his investigators. Polanski was protected con-
stantly by two armed bodyguards. In fact, at least ten private in-
vestigators in Los Angeles were used extensively throughout the
investigation of the case, both by private parties and the district at-
torney.
In the matter of the movies, police found a bunch of films and
videotapes during the follow-up investigations. Some were found
in the Polanski residence in the main bedroom closet. One particu-
lar videotape was found in a room off the living room loft and was
booked as item #36 in the police property report. Other films were
taken into possession in Jamaica and in Annandale, Virginia. Part of
the films involved an elite underground film group in Hollywood
that swapped torrid films of each other.
During Manson's trial, his lawyers were approached by a rep-
resentative of a rising movie actress who had left a roll of undevel-
oped 35 MM film containing pictures of herself getting after it at
the Polanski residence on the day of the murders. The representa-
 THE SEARCH 307

hVe asked Manson if the family had removed the film from the house
that night since she had been unable to find out what happened
to it, and she felt that if the film were publicized her career would
be adios'd.
The police found evidence that some of the residents at 10050
Cielo Drive were into collecting humans from Sunset Strip and from
various clubs in the area for casual partying at the estate. It was
thought for a while that perhaps the murders were the result of a
"freak-out" from one of these pick-ups.
Meanwhile, pohce investigation progressed, all forms of
as the
v^dld speculation was passed from mouth to mouth regarding the
crimes. There was speculation from close friends of Frykowski that
it had been done by the Polish secret police who took a plane from

Los Angeles to Rome right after the crimes, in reprisal for Polanski's
defection from Poland. There was every form of speculation regard-
ing mutilation and ritual.
There was a flame of violence in Los Angeles in early August 1969
where from Friday the eighth to Tuesday the twelfth, twenty-nine
people were murdered. Ken's Sporting Goods Shop in Beverly Hills
sold 200 guns in two days following the murders. The Bel Air Patrol,
a private security force serving the exclusive Bel Air area hired
something hke thirty extra men. People slept within hands reach of
the electronic panic buttons which could summon the Bel Air
patrol. Bodyguards were in great demand. Individuals placed their
own homes imder 24 hour surveillance by teams of private detec-
tives. People packed guns at the funerals of the deceased.

The spirit of Moloch prevailed. Quickly, the movies in which

Sharon Tate had performed, were re-issued. Valley of the Dolls
went into twelve theatres in the Los Angeles area, with Mrs. Polan-
ski receiving top billing. Also showing up was The Fearless Vampire
Killers, starringSharon and Roman Polanski. Distributors hit the
screen again with a movie made in 1966, called Hondo Hollywood,
a section of which was devoted to Jay Sebring as hair styler of the
stars. Also playing a part in Mondo Hollywood was Bobby Beausol-
eil who
portrayed Cupid addressing his bow, in a brief section. The
role in the fliick was the origin of Beausoleil's nickname, Cupid.
Around August 15, 1969, two lawyer friends of Jay Sebring, Harry
Weiss and Peter Knecht, hired Dutch psychic Peter Hurkos to scan
3o8 THE FAMILY

the murder scene in order to try to pick up vibrations regarding the

identity of the killers. On Sunday August 17, Peter Hurkos, ac-
companied by an assistant, Roman Polanski, a writer named Tommy
Thompson, and a photographer named JuHan Wasser went to the
death house at 10050 Cielo Drive to enable Hurkos to perform a
death-scan. Mr. Hurkos crouched down in the blood-stained Hving
room, picking up the vibes while Roman Polanski gave Mr. Thomp-
son a running narrative about the crime scene. The photographer
took Polaroid snapshots and some color photos of the event. The
entire event was written up for a photo spread in Life magazine
several weeks later. Mr. Wasser gave Hurkos some of the Polaroid
test snaps which somehow wound up published in the Hollywood
Citizen-News. It was John Phillips, the songwriter, who talked
Roman Polanski into allowing Hurkos into the house.
After his void-scan, Mr. Hurkos announced that "three men killed
Sharon Tate and her four friends— and I know who they are. I have
identified the killers to the pohce and told them that these three
men must be stopped soon. Otherwise, they will kill again."
It was felt that possibly the Canadian dope dealers involved in

that Jamaican grass-traflBcking were also involved in a Jamaican

voodoo group that was somehow connected with the crimes. Ac-
cording to a reporter named Min Yee, he and John Phillips went to a
voodoo astrologer who informed them that midnight August 8-9
was a fitting time for a voodoo sacrifice. There was also indication
that one of the voodoo adepts had threatened Voityck Frykowski a
few days prior to his death.
On Tuesday, August 19, Roman Polanski held a press conference
at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Los Angeles where he announced
that he was leaving town. He decried the scandal-oriented news
accounts of the murder house: "A lot of newsmen who for a selfish
reason write unbearable for me horrible things about my wife. All of
you know how beautiful she was and very often I read and heard
statements that she was one of most, if not the most beautiful
woman of the world but only a few of you know how good she was.
She was vulnerable." He decried public speculation about orgies
and dope, acknowledging the occasional smoking, as in almost every
house in Hollywood, of cannabis. He denied that his wife used
drugs and that there had been any marital rift, saying: "I can tell
 THE SEARCH 309

you that in the last few months as much as the last few years I spent
with her were the only time of true happiness in my life ."
. .

Shortly thereafter, Mr. Polanski and John Phillips flew to Jamaica

to continue investigation into drugs and voodoo, according to Mr.
Yee, At the end of the month a Los Angeles poHce department
polygraph expert also went to Jamaica where he spent about a week
investigating.
On September 2, 1969, Rona Barrett asserted on KTTV, a Metro-
media station serving Los Angeles, that Roman Polanski had re-
ceived $50,000 from Life magazine for the photos and story from
the murder house. The charge was hotly denied by Polanski and
his attorneys. Mr. Rudy Altobelli became incensed over the alleged
$50,000 and later sued Roman Polanski and the estate of Sharon
Tate for around $668,000, charging "trespassory conduct" re-
garding Abigail Folger and Voityck Frykowski in that the house had
been rented for one family residency. He also sued for damages,
depreciation to property, emotional distress and back rent.
On September 3, 1969, Peter Sellers, Warren Beatty, Yul Brynner
and others announced the establishment of a reward of $25,000 for
the arrest and conviction of the murderers. "We handed the money
over to Roman Polanski and his lawyers in the hope that that
would bring the killers to justice," Sellers commented in an inter-
view.
In Los Angeles, after the initial release of information about the
crimes, there was on information about the police
a tight lid kept
investigation. Los Angeles Police Department sent only a three line
homicide report to the State Bureau of Criminal Identification and
Investigation (CII)— barely complying with the law that requires
information about crimes to be collected with the CII. After a month
of investigation the chief causes of the crimes under consideration
were a residential robbery, a drug grudge, or a "freak-out" of some
sort.

A dope burn, whether large or small, tends to trigger off violence.

When a burn involves thousands of dollars, deaths or death-threats
often occur. Manson had said several times that, if the true story
were known about tlie Tate-LaBianca murders, there would be a
310 THE FAMILY

"big stink" of a scandal. He has said that he has chosen silence be-
cause of the age-old code of criminal behavior that makes telling the
names of people involved in a crime equal to the crime itself. Man-
son has, naturally, also said that the Polanski murders were the idea
of his followers. "I don't care. I have one law I live by and I learned
it whenI was a kid in reform school, it's don't snitch and I
have never snitched, and I told them that anything they do for their
brothers and sisters is good, if they do it with a good thought," Man-
son testified on page 18, 123 of his trial. A dope burn, however, re-
mains as the motive.
One former family associate stated that he was told by Gypsy
that the burn involved "63 keys [kilos] of grass, something like fifty
dollars' worth of smack and some speed." One of Manson's closest
friends outside the family told this writer on 12-1-70 that an $11,000
LSD bum was involved and that involved also was a "real million-
aire" friend of Manson whose car Manson wrecked around the time
of the murders. Vern Plumlee also claimed that the motive involved
LSD. Plumlee, certainly a trusted family member during the time
of the mm'ders, worked closely with Bill Vance in committing var-
ious robberies and forgeries during those days of murder. Plumlee,
in a taped interview, said that Bill Vance told him that the Tate and
LaBianca murders were both committed as a result of an acid burn.
This is what Plumlee said about Vance's explanation of the mo-
tive: "You see, I worked with him for quite a while, you know,
burglaries and things like that. And during the time I was do-
. . .

ing it I was, you know, we got to be pretty able to talk vnth each
other.
"I heard things about something to the effect the LaBiancas were
supposed to have sold to *the Tates,' the Tates were supposed to
have sold to the family, and some people got uptight about it, 'cause
itwas a burn. Like, I was told by him, he says,
. . . don't *.
. .

worry about it though because they'll never find out who did it.' So
I just let it slide."

On another occasion Plumlee told a reporter that the family went

there to get Frykowski and anyone else present. According to Plum-
lee, the family had received information that Sharon Tate was not
going to be at Cielo Drive.
Even while the Manson murder trials were underway, in the fall
 THE SEARCH 311

of 1970, several private investigators, working for the district at-

torney, were looking into the possibihty that the murders were con-
tracted. It was beheved that a wealthy individual in Kansas City,
Missouri contracted the crimes because of a grudge against Polansld.
They checked banks if money had
in Kansas City, Kansas to see
been deposited forManson, Watson or Susan Atkins, Bill Vance and
three others. They also checked possible bank deposits in a coastal
town of Texas, perhaps Corpus Christi, to no avail.
A reporter covering the Tate-LaBianca trial got hold of Tex Wat-
son's address book and found the phone number of a former Polan-
sld residence in it. A private investigator who worked on the case

for the family of one of the decedents for months after the murders
told this writer that the motive for the crimes was that "they knew
too much about what was going on."
Sadie Glutz aka Susan Atkins said the impetus for the murders
was twofold: to get Beausoleil off and because Linda Kasabian was
burned on a purchase of MDA. On Volume 180 page 23,049 of the
trial transcript she testified tliat Linda Kasabian came to her and

complained about being burned at the Polanski residence: "You re-

member the thousand dollars I had? I told her yeah— and she said,
Well, I went up to some people in Beverly Hills for some MDA'—
some new kind of drug . MDA. Oh anyway, she went up there
. .

tobuy something and they burnt her for the bread."

Robert Beausoleil has claimed that Tex Watson and Linda were
operating together during those weeks prior to the murders and
that the key There remains the possibihty that Manson
lies there.

wanted to raise a large amount of money in an attempt to pay off

someone for the purpose of freeing Beausoleil. Danny De Carlo said
this: "Mary and Bobby got busted. It was all-the main objective

was to get money to get them out of jail so they could all get in the
wind which was to the desert. Mary's bail was $500 and they were
going to get out— they needed some fantastic amount of money to
get Bobby out. Hell, I didn't understand. There was no bail on him."
So perhaps the family went into a flurry of quick dope deals or took
a snuff-contract to raise large amounts of fast cash.
De Carlo, after his testimony at the Tate-LaBianca trial, told a
CBS-TV reporter that the true motive has not been told, but he
312 THE FAMILY

would not elaborate. Since then, De Carlo has abandoned his gun
shop in Medford, Oregon and has gone underground.
Considerable information will possibly come out of the forthcom-
ing trial of Tex Watson where he is expected to tell all. Watson's IQ
has dropped thirty points from the use of telache so he may have
a memory problem. His tapes, reportedly containing the whole story
of the Tate-LaBianca murders, have been sealed up in Texas where
he was held for about eight months, fighting extradition, and not
even the L.A. district attorney has been able to secure them.
 Twenty-one

Berserk!
The Spahn Ranch
August 10-31, 1969

Around 7 a.m., Leslie, alone, came to the back ranch. Little Patti,
Cathy Meyers, Barbara Hoyt and Snake were there asleep. Into the
stone fireplace she dropped a short length of rope, a credit card, a
fancy leather purse and a woman's blouse. It burnt with an awful
smell. She had a plastic sack of change which she counted out. Then
she slept.
Around 7:15 a.m. three or four men came to the back ranch, evi-

dently to rout out the sleepers. LesHe covered herself over with
covers and said to Snake, according to Snake, "Don't let that man
see me or let him in because he gave me a ride from Griffith Park."
One or two of the men entered the sleazy ranch house and one of
the men questioned the "Where did you get these field
girls,

phones?" The man said that the girls had a lousy bunch of men on
the ranch. They stayed about three minutes, then spHt. They cut the
clandestine fines tapping the electricity before they left in a pink-
colored automobile. Intruders gone, Miss Van Houten came out
from under the sheets.
People were completely jittery at the Spahn Ranch in the week
between August 10 and August 17 when Charlie began moving stuff
to the desert. The removal into the Inyo County area was
inter-

rupted by the Great Raid of August 16, but finally, by the first week
in the
of September, Manson and his aimed chumps were safely
desert.
314 THE FAMILY

On August 10, Sunday, Sergeant William Gleason of the Los

Angeles sheriffs Lutesinger at her parents' ranch
ofiBce visited Kitty
where she had fled following Manson's kill-threats. Sergeant Glea-
son was compiling a file of disturbing information about the Spahn
Ranch preparing for a huge police raid to come the following week.
He had become aware of Miss Lutesinger when she had run away
from the Spahn Ranch on July 30 and Frank Retz had driven her to
the police station. During the conversation she asked him if it had
been the "Panthers" who had committed the so-called Tate murders.
He replied that it didn't appear that any blacks were involved. "I
had been programmed to believe it was the Panthers who did it,"
Kitty recalled.
About August 11, Ruby Pearl hired a new ranch hand named
David Hannon, a twenty-one-year-old blond boy from Venice, Cali-
fornia, who was befriended by Manson. Hannon began to talk with
Manson occasionally. Manson told him about the "Black Panther"
he had shot. Hannon knew a lot about California desert areas and
Charlie was eager to talk about the subject. Manson talked as usual
about raiding and plundering small desert towns. Once they walked
through the desert together and Hannon killed a rattlesnake. This
enraged Manson and he told Hannon he was going to chop his head
off.

Hannon, being a newcomer, was actually unaware of the large

number of girls hving in the area. He only saw two or three, the
others of course being hidden in the various hillside camps.
Hannon told Manson about a twenty-six acre ranch owned by his
mother in the desert near Olancha, a few miles from Goler Wash.
On this property were two ranch houses. The property was located
on a remote rural road and Manson was eager to move his family
there.
On August Linda Kasabian, on orders of the Wizard, put on
11,
her high heels and dress, tease-combed her hair and borrowed David
Hannon's '61 Volvo and drove to downtown L.A. to the Hall of Jus-
tice court building to see if Mary Brunner had a court hearing. She
was supposed to see Bob Beausoleil also but she did not have proper
identification. Linda was unable to locate Mary Brunner so the mis-
sion was a total failure.
The next day Manson sent her in again to the Hall of Justice.
 BERSERK! THE SPAHN RANCH 315

There was a hearing and Sandy Good was set free but Mary was
held on a forgery charge under $850 bail. However, Linda never
showed up. Having again borrowed the white Volvo and acquiring
a credit card from Bruce Davis, the family comptroller, she picked
up two hitchhikers she had met the day before and proceeded forth-
with to drive to New Mexico. A couple of days later near Albuquer-
que, she was forced to abandon the automobile when a service
station attendant wouldn't honor her credit card for repairs.
David Hannon was sorely unhappy a few days later when Linda
sent a letter to the ranch notifying him that she was sorry but his
car was parked at a service station outside Albuquerque, should
he care to come pick it up.
Mrs. Kasabian's baby, Tanya, was left behind at the waterfall
nursery because she felt that those guarding the children might get
suspicious if she demanded to take Tanya to the court building with
her.
One thing that remains a mystery is why Manson let Mary Brun-
ner remain injail. Her bail was only around $850, a sum that easily
could have been raised by sending a trusted zombi on a bank rob-
bery or perhaps a dope bum or something. Since the credit card
that Mary had forged belonged had been stolen from, Vem
to, or
Plumlee's brother-in-law, the girls were thinking of driving up to
see him to try to talk him out of pressing charges, they would pay
him back, etc. But Manson, for reasons unknown, let Mary Brunner
remain in jail until her release on probation late in September.
Charhe drove around looking for money. On two occasions
around the days of the murders he and Stephanie drove to Beverly
Glen Drive to try to obtain some money from Dennis Wilson but
were unsuccessful. As they were leaving Wilson's house one of the
times, Wilson told Manson, according to Stephanie, that the police
had questioned him about a guy who was shot in the stomach, evi-
dently referring to Bernard Crowe.
The second time Manson visited Wilson to beg for some money,
a human named Richie Martin was there and overheard Manson
threaten to kill Wilson's son Scottie, a child by a former marriage.
Wilson was by his son Scottie on weekends, so this would
visited
indicate that it was the weekend of the murders since Manson
would be in jail during both of the following two weekends.
3i6 THE FAMILY

Manson
visited Gregg Jakobson's house around the time of the
murders also, but Jakobson's wife was alone in the house and re-
fused Manson's request to use the shower. Manson looked like a
wild man and snarled that if she wasn't Gregg's wife he'd seriously
injure her.
Mary Brunner Melba Kronkite, from
called an old family friend,
jail money but Melba was not able to help her. The
to ask for bail
following night, probably August 12, Manson appeared at 1 a.m.
banging loudly on her door. When she answered, Manson de-
manded money for Mary's bail. When she refused, Manson left in
what the lady later described as a "big black car which he was driv-
ing"— and he was angry. The black car that Manson was seen driv-
ing belonged, according to a close friend of Manson, to a rich friend
of Manson—"a real millionaire" as the friend described him.
Around Tuesday, August 12, Manson threatened to slice up Juan
Flynn. Flynn had been working outside feeding corn to the horses.
He then went into the Rock City Cafe to prepare some food. He
then sat down at the table to eat. Several girls were in the cafe
kitchen. Others were sitting and chatting outside on the boulders
and chairs on the porch. In the door walked Manson, flashing a sig-
nal to the girls in the kitchen to leave, a flicking, brushing motion
hand on his left shoulder. They left the room.
of his right
Manson, five-foot-six, grabbed the six-foot-five Juan by the hair
as he sat in the chair and passed a knife close to his throat. "You
son of a bitch, I am going to kill you," he said to Juan. "Don't you
know I am the one that is doing all the killings?" Manson said, ac-
cording to Flynn's testimony.
Manson wanted Flynn to come to the desert to live in The Hole.
Charlie proffered his knife to Flynn and bade Flynn to begin killing
him but Flynn demurred. According to Flynn, Manson bragged
about taking thirty-five lives in two days. Manson evidently offered
tallJuan the opportunity to be his actual personal zombi. He
wanted Juan to wear a ring in his nose and serve as slave. Manson
was always terrorizing Flynn, according to Flynn, and once Manson
took a few shots at Juan with a pistol as Juan and a girl friend were
walking down the creek.
After knowing Manson only about seventy-two hours, David Han-
non, the new ranch hand, offered the family the use of his mother's
 BERSERK! THE SPAHN RANCH 317
ranch in the desert near Olancha, California. The ranch was located
on the edge of the Panamint Valley, just an hour or so from sacred
Goler Wash. It was ideal for the family. The opportunity to move
ever)'body in the family away from the L.A. area couldn't be passed
up. Things were simply too hot for the family on the coast of Cali-
fornia.
On August Tex and Juan Flynn and Hannon loaded up the
14,
bread truck with dune-buggy supplies and, towing a dune buggy
affixed to the Twinkie truck with some of the famous white nylon
rope, headed for Olancha. They unloaded the skelter gear and
drove back to the Spahn Ranch. Tex remained behind at Hannon's
ranch in Olancha.
Whenthey arrived back at the ranch in the early morning hours
of August 15, Manson asked them to return immediately with more
dune-buggy equipment and parts. Hannon and Flynn refused but
did help load up the truck. Bruce Davis drove the tiTick back to
Olancha, accompanied by the melancholic sixteen-year-old Snake
Lake, who remained in Olancha with Tex.
The architect of the August 16 Spahn Ranch raid, Sergeant Bill
Gleason, was an expert on motorcycle gangs for the Malibu station
of the L.A. sheriflfs office. For a couple of months he had been
gathering data about Manson. He knew about Manson's threats to
various firemen. He knewabout Manson's alleged shooting of that
"Black Panther." He knewabout the weapons and machine guns at
the ranch and about the incident in the spring where Manson raped
that girl from Reseda. He knew about the dune-buggy manufactur-
ing line at the ranch and that the family, so to speak, was girding for
a war with the blacks. He had learned from Kitty Lutesinger about
the hideous death-threats with which Manson terrorized his follow-
ers. From the officers involved. Sergeant Gleason learned about the
July 27 mini-raid where Manson announced that he had hidden
guns trained on the policemen. A decision was made to mount a
large nighttime land-air operation against Manson involving heli-
copters, horses, patrol cars, submachine guns and 102 law enforce-
ment officers.

On August 12, 1969, Sergeant Gleason along with "Malibu detec-

tive personnel" met at the Van Nuys district attorney's office to dis-

cuss the proposed raid with deputy D.A. Robert Schirn. They
3i8 THE FAMILY

reviewed the facts, then Mr. Schirn issued search warrant number
2029, dated August 13, 1969, and it was signed by MaHbu Justice
Court Judge John Merrick. The search warrant was good only for
the day indicated upon it but the raid did not take place on the
thirteenth. The fearsome Special Enforcement Bureau of the sher-
iffs office whose purpose is "saturation patrol of high
(S.E.B.)
crime areas"— in the words of an officer interviewed—was picked
to raid the Spahn Movie Ranch.
Several days prior to the August 16 raid a couple of family friends
came to the ranch in a blue Camaro to warn Manson about the im-
pending arrest. Among them was the daughter of a law enforce-
ment officer and she supposedly had inside information but Charlie
scoffed at the data.
On Friday night, August 15, the Straight Satans came to the
ranch in several cars, to get Danny De Carlo back and to collect the

club sword and for other reasons unknown. They threatened to kill
Manson and burn the ranch. The Satans wanted Danny to leave that
night but he talked them out of it. "So they gave me until five
o'clock the next day to get my ass back to Venice; they said they
would burn the place down"— as he testified at the trial on Septem-
ber 18, 1970, volume 92, page 10, 842.
After the sword was taken back to Venice, it was broken up, per-
haps dehberately, by the Satans. They may have been fearful that
the sword was linked to too many grim deeds. After it became
known that Manson's group was responsible for murders, the sword
pieces were taken into custody by the police.
There was a great possibility of a gang fight. Clem leaped up on
the haystack with a weapon and was going to shoot but Manson
was able to turn the violent affair into a party which lasted far into
the night. Charlie decreed an emergency flood of female bodies
from the surrounding hills. According to Kitty, Charlie came up to
the waterfall and told all the girls to come down to the ranch.
David Hannon was amazed at the number of girls that appeared
from the hills to make love with the bikers.
Violence was quelled and most of the Satans left. De Carlo got so
drunk that a couple of girls had to carry him into his bed in
the bunkhouse-gun room. Sleep was. The front driveway was ht-
 BERSERK! THE SPAHN RANCH 319
tered with Olympia beer cans, an uncommon scene at the Spahn
Ranch where only dog blood, pot and acid passed the lips.
Tlie night the Straight Satans raided the ranch Kitty Lutesinger
called the Spahn Ranch and asked for someone to pick her up. She
had called the ranch several times to talk to Beausoleil. She did
not know that he had been arrested for murder. Finally she talked
over the phone to Manson, who said that Beausoleil had been ar-
rested but that it was nothing, he would be out soon and why didn't
she return to the ranch to wait for him. The seventeen year-old girl,
pregnant by Beausoleil, was having problems with her parents, one
of whom wanted her to get an abortion. There was quarrehng and
she decided to spht.
About midnight Sadie, Gypsy, and a male Caucasian named Jun-
ior, came to Northridge in Swartz's car to pick up Kitty. Right there,

in the driveway of her father's horse ranch, Sadie cut Kitty's hair
oflF, tail adangle. They told her to burn one
leaving the single witchy
hair,bury one hair and turn the rest over to the Soul.
She arrived just in time to party with the Straight Satans, to catch
a couple of hours sleep, then to get arrested in the dawn raid of
the sheriff.
On August while the family and the bikers were reveling, there
16,
was a 2 A.M. briefing at the Malibu sheriff's station given by the nom-
inal head of the operation, one Inspector Graham. Then they
darted forth, wdth a warrant seventy-two hours out of date: 102
policemen in twenty-five squad cars, aided by various support ve-
hicles and aided, according to the family, by a canteen truck supply-
ing coffee. They arrived near the ranch at 4 a.m. in silence.
Large numbers of Special Enforcement Bureau personnel
(S.E.B.) started hiking into the ranch from the hills of the south
side, some toting their M-15's purchased through the National Rifle
Association and some even creeping along with bayonets fixed to
their rifles. They surrounded the ranch from the west, east and
south, an encircling maneuver, according to Deputy Gillory, that

had its origins in techniques used to surround suspected Viet Cong

villages.
According to an oflScer who was in the raid, there were orders
not to fire the weapons. Some of the officers had large patches wdth
the word SHERIFF sewn on the back of their uniform.
320 THE FAMILY

The raid was filmed by the authorities, who wanted to use the
raid footage in a training film. Evidently the land-air operation
against the Spahn Ranch was the first of its kind and would serve as
a model for future encircling raids against alleged hippie com-
munes. Some of the officers appear be out
definitely to of unifrom
in the photos of the raid, wearing an admixture of Marine Corps
fatigues and regulation sheriff's-office clothing. During the raid they
posed for the cameras in front of their commune arrestees, their
automatic rifles held high.
Everything was still when just before dawn the officers kicked
down the various doors to the main Ranch Western set, the three
trailers, the "lean-to," the parachute room, George Spahn's home.

They hauled the suspects out of the buildings and placed them sit-

ting in a circle in the driveway in front of the movie set. Gypsy,

Kitty, Barbara Hoyt, Krenwinkel, Little Larry, Sandy Good and
Vern Plumlee were arrested in the Saloon.
Manson and Stephanie were asleep in the Rock City Cafe when
the police began kicking. Flash— Charlie was out the back door and
under the porch, crawling into the dirt beneath the building.
They Craven and David Hannon sleeping on a
arrested Larry
mattress at the north end of the green house trailer. They were
taken outside to the cong circle. In a ditch, some distance from the
ranch, the police found a stripped, stolen and abandoned 1969
Volkswagen providing a legal basis for the arrest of the group.
Out of the back door and off the porch of the Saloon leaped one
Herb Townsend, Simi Valley Sherri and beautiful Ouish— they ran
down to the creek where they were arrested. John Friedman, the
twelve-year-old boy whose parents had moved out of the back
ranch, was found sleeping on the roof, was hauled down and
herded into the circle. Clem was arrested at the beginning of the
raid, trying to glide unnoticed off the front porch.
In the trailer next to an old abandoned 1930 Dodge were the
nurses Leslie
: Van Houten, Kathy Gillies and They were
Little Patti.
"sleeping nude" attired in panties upon a mattress, arms and legs
dangling upon the floor. infant, Dennis De Carlo.
With them was the
They were covered with a sleeping bag.
Next to the trailer was a small wooden hut/trailer— the "Gypsy
Trailer"—in which were sleeping Sadie, a young runaway named
 BERSERK! THE SPAHN RANCH 321

Laura and Malibu Brenda. They were sleeping with Zezo Ze-ce
Zadfrak, Pooh Bear aka Valentine Michael Manson and little Tanya
Kasabian. The three children, in the language of the raid arrest re-
port, were "detained as non-delinquent, and Mr. Pickens of Pro-
bation Intake Control authorized taking them to foster homes."
The ranch was rotten with filth and refuse. The poHce found a
dish of "fecal matter" in one of the iceboxes in the trailer.

At 6:15 A.M., George Spahn sat quietly, his cowboy hat on head,
his hands folded in his lap, facing the root beer clock on the op-
posite wall above a poster for the movie Roman Scandals. Near
him, tsvo stufied chairs were pulled together with a blanket and
pillow on them as if the slim Squeaky were sleeping there, before
the raid. Two officers posed in George's house with a display of
booty: a revolver, a rifle and a violin case containing a "tommy"
gun. They ripped down the curtains in the front v^ndow, evidently
to get more light for the photos.
Two bikes were parked outside the bunkhouse, one with a flame
job painted on the gas tank, and both with high "sissy bars" on the
back end, sticking up. The bikes belonged to Robert Rinehard, a
bearded balding Straight Satan, and De Carlo.
In the undertaker/bunkhouse De Carlo lay collapsed upon the
floor where two girls had carried him drunk. With him was Rine-
hard, wearing his thong-laced sleeveless club jacket with the picture
of the devil on the back. Deputy Gillory and Deputy Neureither
crashed in; De Carlo went for his .45 automatic and Neureither
stomped him in the bridge of the nose. The two deputies quickly
subdued the using clear plastic disposable handcuffs.
suspects,
Deput}^ Neureither guarded while Gillory searched the bunkhouse.
They really cleaned up in the bunkhouse, seizing a motorcycle
engine, DeCarlo's radio, a Polaroid camera, binoculars, the 45, a
.30-caHber Winchester carbine, a radio/stereo tape player, a solder-
ing iron, a Spartan bullet crimper, a rifle stock, various ammunition
and other important items. Click click went the police cameras.
There is a photo, among the file of police shots, of the top of De
Carlo's radio, in the room where ten murders were schemed,
upon
which lay a dusty paperback copy of Hunter Davies' "authorized

biography" of the Beatles.

They removed the t^vo bikers from the bunkhouse. They threw
322 THE FAAAAY

De Cario, nose abiaded. down iirfo the dost Rfrtehard sat neaiby on
a fmck bed for a wiHle, fben fhey- iqiped ^art his Sbsd^ Satan
one pttixaM. jadbet widi ffae devifs head. The two poficemen ^piead
2 oat over the hood of a car and posed for photos with fhexr aoto-
atic lAs nosed erect, one 6t die d^nties bearing a fidd ladio
oi«r fas iliwAV'i, a wMMiifan IB Ins ear and an antenna on his Marine
Corps capL Tlie polioe took mfo cnsfody^ the Strai^ Satan cutaway
jacket to hang as a memenfo vpcfa the wall of die East Los Angeles
mm'jmi itaiioD.
The ta^a tmtk with die ekctric generator, some dune boggles
aad JdbBOf Swatt£% '39 Focd with the ficense piate CYY 435 weie
looDd in the al^ betwwn die movie set and die bam. In
Swait^s car tnmk die ^rrrr foand an assortment of weaponry: a
y-o6 rife, aa Fnirld iAr, a .20-gange lAotgim, a pdlet gnn, a Win-
diester G7A, a lafge boK of ammooilioo and powdo- and a gon dean-
iog box. Depoif Ead Loob^ asiced Swartz aboot die gnns in the
liiwl aad Swartz rep&ed: They bron^ diem np hat
.'
m^ and
woe si^posed to get rid of diem today
AM vdwJes-tfae '59 Ford, Baady Stands '54 Fofd tmd^ die two
b&ei, die '6z Ford, the fom done boggles—were towed to Howard
SoBHKn Car^e in Canoga Park by Howard Sommers Towing Gxn-
pOBf. Hk '59 Ford-tfae Crowe; Hinman, Tate and Tafttanra mur-
der aatOMobile— n as to remain in Sommers Carage nntil 12-2-69
when OSoo- Cranado of S.LD. checked it for bloodrtains.
It feemed sarreaiL Everybody was arrested and ^placed in die
aide. Two hdicogtea whiued orediead, creasii^ die hair bdow
when dBppiug near. One of die dogs was ranntng aroaad wearing
a brassiere placed on it by someone in die family.
Bat where was Manson?
*1Vhen^s Jesos?^ The oficeo began to look aboot for Satan. At
hA^^beyaoadieddownhkibeeaAyakaEtdheaiaedh^itshA^
space beneadi the floor of die Saloon among die foondation

Deputy Donlop spotted Qiaziie iymg face down thirty or yo ieet

from die bade pofdb. They told Manson he'd better haid faimsdf out
So he dad, aad when he reathed the edg/s <A die porch, Lhrnlop
pofled hnn the rest of die way oat by the hair. As Oiarhe stood op,
a folder of cre& cards fdloutof his shirt podcet, bdoagh^ to a
 BERSERK! 1HE SPAHN RANCH 3^
Dr. Weiland of Ha>-v«ihur$t A\-«Mie. Tbey dng^ed Inm donnm tlie
alle>' bam. Tbe>- handcoflBed lus hands beluiid lum
in front of dte
and carried him, aims bent up like a pbvr tiOer, to die CDcfe. He
was barefoot wearing bndskin troosers and a h^ht-colared dosljr
shirt. The>- duniped him next to De Caria

E\er> bod>- was charged with auto dieft

Nfanson was also charged with barg^anr^ probib^ becanse of the
credit cards that fell out during his airest De Ciffk> was chained
with assault with a deadh* weiqpon: Sectioo 245 Penal Code> because
he went for his ^5 as they kicked in die gunroom.
Out of the l\vent\-fi\^ arrested, seventeen used pseodonyms.
Sque.ik>as usuaL began to ct>\ She asked if anyone mi^t stay
.

to cook George Sp..ihn breakfast. Simi Sheni ]^eaded: who's gSCMona

take care of the horses? The police wefe coDoemed aboiA the d^
ratio so they made the group take showeis^ after which,, actordimg
to Ae famih", Aey were spra\'^ widi DDT. That ni^hl they slept
on blankets at the sheriff's sub-station in Mahbu then were tians>
ported to the countv' jail in elegant downtown La\.
The hippie and runaway ring was smashed. What the
cir theft
sheriff's oiBce imfortunateh' did not know is that they were airesting

murderers, murderers that would be set free a^an about sevesttty-

two hours after their arrest.

The day after the raid on the Spahn Ranch, ^tber SeigjeaiA
Whiteley or Deput\- Guenther, die officexs in chai^ of die HInman
in\-estigation. caUed the number listed on die Lutesingier ranch caid
finmd in BeausoleiTs jeans when he was arrested. Beausoleil evi-
denth- told them that Kitt\" Lutesinger was his girl £nend so die
officers called to find out where she was. They wanted to talk widi
h&t about Beausoldk
The officers at diis time knew nothing about die Spahn Ranch or
Manson or Beausoleirs connection witib die family. latty was not
home for she had lun away the night be&we. In fact, unknown to die
officers, Kitt> was sitting at that moment in Jail Mis. Lutesinger toM

die officer tbit she hadnt reported Kitty as a nanaway because sheVl
*been throu^ that before,* She was told that her daughter was
being sou^t on a murder investigatiott wanant
324 THE FAMILY

Mrs. Lutesinger filed runaway papers on her pregnant daughter.

OflBcers Guenther and Whiteley made arrangements with the pohce
station near Kitty's home to be notified should the girl show up.
This arrangement sowed the seeds of Manson's downfall.
Bruce Davis returned to the Spahn Ranch from Olancha after
he had delivered a load of dune-buggy parts and family equipment
and was shocked to find everyone arrested. Tex and Snake Lake
stayed behind at David Hannon's ranch in Olancha. On Monday,
August 18, Snake was arrested for sunbathing nude in the rocks near
Hannon's ranch. While they were at the ranch near Olancha, Tex
went into town and returned with a paper that accused "Mau Mau
devil worshipers" of the murders. Tex laughed and told Snake, ac-
cording to Snake, that he killed Sharon Tate: "I killed her. Charlie
asked me to. It was fun." Tex told Snake to keep quiet about it and
that he didn't want to discuss it further.
Also on Monday, August 18, the evidence for consideration of a
complaint against the twenty-five arrested in the Spahn raid for
violation of sections 487.3, 245 and 12200 of the CaHfornia Penal
Code was rejected as not sufficient. Also, the search warrant under
which the arrests were made had not been valid. Manson, Van
Houten, ICrenwinkel, Clem and the others were set free. All the
children, Zezo, Pooh Bear, Dennis De Carlo and Tanya Kasabian,
were sent to foster homes. A few days later Sadie kidnapped Zezo
back from the foster home.
Johnny Swartz called Shorty Shea from the Los Angeles County
jail and asked him to come and help pick them up. Vern Plumlee

came instead, driving Shorty's car. Shorty was murdered a few days
later.

When they got out of jail, the ranch was in a shambles: doors
kicked in; dune buggies, tools andcredit cards removed by the Law.
The poHce wiped out the gun room armaments. All De Carlo had
remaining, for instance, were his boots.
Manson was only out of jail for three days before he was arrested
again.
On Friday afternoon, August 22, CharHe and Stephanie were
alone together in an outlaw shack near the back ranch, getting after
it. During the love, Sadie quietly entered the shack and placed a

wrapped crimp-ended reefer in Charlie's blue denim shirt, then

 BERSERK! THE SPAHN RANCH 325
crept away from the Devil and his partner. Afterwards, Manson was
sitting, shirt oflF, and the abundant Stephanie sat also, shirt off, and
two deputies raided the oudaw shack and arrested tiiem.
sheriff's

Miss Stephanie was asked a year after the incident why they were
arrested. Her answer:
"Because we didn't have any clothes on and because we were
trespassing and because they found some dope. I don't know who
brought the dope in there. I think Sadie may have done it. She may
have thought it would be groovy to give it to us. I remember seeing
her out of the corner of my eye and I thought she just walked in
and out then all of a sudden they saw it there and I didn't even
know it was there."
The police loaded the couple into the back of the patrol car and
drove along the dirt path that led to the front ranch. Passing the
Western Manson
set, yelled out the window, "Call the station
house." Manson called the Spahn Ranch from jail and issued a com-
mand whoever put the "j" in his shirt pocket should haul them-
that
selves down to the Malibu sheriff's station and cop out to the deed.
According to Manson, the deputies were disgusted that he should
make some follower take the guilt upon herself. Gypsy was going to
volunteer to go to the station house and say it was her grass but it
was unnecessary.
The police sent the joint to the laboratory for chemical analysis
and, truth stranger than fiction, came back that it was not
die results
dope. Manson says that the girls were growing what they believed to
be grass but evidently it was some sort of fool's dope or perhaps male
plants, or maybe a few leaves from De Carlo's weak pot plant, Elmer.
Anyway, it was not cannabis. And there apparently was no law pre-
venting Stephanie from resting barebreasted in the privacy of an
outlaw shack, and since she denied any fornication, the sheriff could
not charge Manson with anything. Once again, Manson was set free.
As for seventeen-year-old, pregnant Stephanie, she was sent by
the court to her parents' house in Anaheim and placed on probation.
She spent about two weeks at home then she dialed DI 1-9026 and
asked to be taken back within the family. Clem and Gypsy drove to
pick her up on September 5. "In spite of Charlie, I loved everyone
so much," Stephanie deposed, when asked why she decided to re-
turn to the ranch.
326 THE FAMILY

Manson approached the Butler Dune Buggy Shop to get dupli-

cate sales slips for the four buggies purchased there and seized by
the sherifiPs oflBce during the raid a week previous. Mr. Butler re-
fused so they couldn't get them back from the police. The buggies
removed from the ranch were later sold to the LeMans Salvage Yard
for junk. Manson's fur-covered command dune buggy later wound
up as a special attraction at a car show in Pomona, California. It
really didn't matter because the family quickly stole replacements.
They Ford tliat was used a lot in transporting
also stole a red '69
people to the mouth of Goler Wash.
Vance, Vern and Zero used the red '69 Ford to rob a few gas sta-
tions in the San Fernando Valley. Vance would conceal a revolver in
a briefcase, engage the station attendant in chitchat, draw the
weapon and rob the till.
Sometime during this era they robbed the Deer Vale Road home
of singer Jack Jones, the husband of Jill St. John. Armed with a
sawed-off shotgun, they entered boldly at 2 a.m., even though the
lights were on in the house. No sense makes sense, Manson decreed.
They stacked everything they wanted from the house by a window.
They went down to get the car but by the time they got back the
police were there so they kept right on going.
Vance managed to steal one thing, however—Jack Jones' own
white Stetson cowboy hat which Vance wore to the Barker Ranch
in Death Valley.
In late August, Bill Vance and Vern took a trip up north to Port-
land, Oregon. They brought back a young girl named Diane Von
Ahn and one Ed Bailey to add to the family. After a couple of days
spent at the Spahn Ranch, Vern, Ed Bailey, Diane Von A. and Bill
Vance moved into a rented house off Victory Boulevard in Burbank.
There they continued rip-off forays until they joined Manson in
Death Valley.
Manson was released from his marijuana charge around August
26, 1969. That night the family killed the rotund stuntman, forty-
year-old Donald Jerome "Shorty" Shea. "While he was in jail. Shorty
was doing a lot of nasty talking about Charlie," recalled Kitty Lute-
singer a year later. Charlie believed that it was Shorty who set up
the raid on the outlaw shack where he and Stephanie were ar-
rested.
 BERSERK! THE SPAHN RANCH 327
Shorty and Johnny Svvartz were working together to try to get
the family thrown oflF the ranch. Manson threatened Johnny Swartz

around this time, saying, according to Swartz, "I could kill you any
time. I can come into your sleeping quarters any time." Swartz left
the ranch thereafter in fear. De Carlo claimed that Shorty was going
to work for the German-American resort builders as watch guard of
the back ranch property. Manson has said that he got down on his
knees and begged Shorty to stop stirring up dissension against the
presence of the family, but that Shorty was relentless, so he had to
be killed.

Some members liked the outgoing Shorty Shea. Shorty

family
wanted to become a movie star so he had at least three friends who
allowed him to use their phones as answering services in the event
a producer or director should want to call Shea about a movie job.
Every day the stuntman would call these friends to inquire if any
filmmaker had called. These daily phone calls ceased to exist August
27, 1969.
Another "sin" of Shea in the crazed eyes of the family was that he
had married a black dancer whom evidently Shorty had met in Las
Vegas. The family was upset because his wife's black friends started
coming around. He was working with John Swartz to get the family
run oflF the ranch. But the murder was really triggered because
Shorty knew something about the Tate-LaBianca killings.
The murder of Donald Jerome "Shorty" Shea is probably the most
sickening of their crimes, the stories circulated by disaffected
if

members are to be believed. They tortured him and, during the

torture, tampered with his mental state, as if they were conducting
experiments. The was involved in the oflBng of Mr.
entire family
Shea. Some killed, some buried, some burned, some packed his
gear. "By that time, we all had our job to do," Leshe Van Houten
remarked, discussing her assigned task of burning Shorty's clothes.
As she began to bum them, a ranch hand wandered nearby, so she
had to abort the mission, cover them up with brush and burn them
later.

They buried him during the night down the creek by the rail-

road tunnel back of the ranch, in a crude, temporary, brush-topped

grave.
Full moon for August 1969 occurred at 10 a.m. on the 27th,
328 THE FAMILY

which is about the time several girls reburied Shorty in broad

just
daylight. His body, chopped into sections, was emplaced some-
where down the road toward Simi, probably in Box Canyon.
They packed up the belongings of Mr. Shea and loaded them into
the trunk of his automobile, which had been parked at the Spahn
Ranch. Bruce Davis left a fingerprint on one of Shorty's trunks, a
grievous mistake for Mr. Davis. Gypsy aka Cathy Share later ad-
mitted to the police that she helped drive Shorty's automobile to
be abandoned in Canoga Park. A bloody shoe belonging to Mr. Shea
was taken into custody of the Los Angeles County sheriff but his
body, or head, was never recovered.
Only three people— Steve Grogan aka Clem, Bruce Davis, and
Manson— are under indictment for the murder as of this writing.
Bruce Davis owed De Carlo money so he gave De Carlo the pawn
tickets on Shorty Shea's matched brass-handled pistols. De Carlo
evidently bought the weapons out of hock. They were seen around
the Spahn Ranch for a while. Later he sold the pistols to a Culver
City gun shop for $75, using the alias Richard Smith.
Whereas there was almost a complete silence about the Hinman-
Tate-LaBianca murders within the family, the Shea murder was
discussed from zombi to zombi. Charlie used to joke about it at
campfires. When asked by Ruby Pearl and wrangler Johnny Swartz
about the whereabouts of Shorty, Manson told them: "He's gone
to San Francisco. I told him about a job there."
At the end of August, Charlie sent Sadie, Katie and Leslie to the
Fountain of the World in Box Canyon to seek permission to live
there. CharHe had a scheme to slowly encroach upon the Fountain
and ultimately take it over. "Sadie blew it," remembered Kate, 'l3y
calling a lady at the Fountain a pig." The sister in charge ordered
them off the property and as the cropped-headed killers split, they
were reported by the sister to have sung a song by George Harrison
called "Piggies."
On September 1, an eleven-year-old boy, Steven Weiss of Long
View Valley Road, located in Sherman Oaks, was out in his hillside
back yard repairing a lawn sprinkler when he located the .22-caliber
Longhorn murder weapon in the brush.
About fifty feet up above Long View Valley Road and running
parallel to it is Beverly Glen Boulevard, off the side of which the
 BERSERK! THE SPAHN RANCH 329
grimy revolver was flung, down into the brush in back of the Weiss
residence.
The young boy, Steve Weiss, forthwith turned the pistol over to
an ojBBcer of theVan Nuys division of the Los Angeles police de-
partment. The boy was careful not to touch the revolver to protect
fingerprints. The poHce smudged it up and filed it away, the
chambers of the weapon containing seven spent shells and two live
bullets. Not till December would the police, after young Weiss re-
minded them, remember about the revolver found on Labor Day.
 Twenty- two

Rommel
The Barker Ranch
September 1969

In early September, Manson moved his troops toDeath Valley. Over

a period of several weeks they stole a bunch dune buggies, about
of
seven in number. They tried to steal a red Toyota from Dennis
Kemp on Loyal Trail just a few feet down the road from where
Bernard Crowe was living at 7008 Woodrow Wilson Drive. Kemp
was able to drive the robbers away. A few days later, however, on
September 1 they followed Kemp's Toyota to Ventura Boulevard
and while Kemp was in a house in a card game, the coyotes stole
the red, four-wheel-drive Toyota and drove it to the desert.
The same batch of happy people— Barbara, Ouish, Kitty, Sherri,
Snake and Charlie— drove to the mouth of the Wash, then charged
up the dynamited waterfalls seven miles to the Barker Ranch.
Charlie drove back and forth in the various rented and stolen cars,
personally escorting his family to the desert paradise. There ulti-
mately were thirty or forty humans living there. Charlie left Squeaky
and Katie Krenwinkel behind at the Spahn Ranch to take care of
George.
Manson and Tex Watson drove in early September to see Ballarat
Bob in Trona, a small town adorned with a plant owned by Ameri-
can Chemical and Potash Corporation. The town is encrusted with
a mist of potash and a sulfurous smell hangs in the air. Ballarat Bob
told them it was okay with him to stay at the Barker Ranch. He asked
Manson to round up his burros for him and take care of them for
him because he wanted to go prospecting later.
 ROMMEL: THE BARKER RANCH 331
Sometime in September Manson also visited Mrs. Arlene Barker,
the owner of the Barker Ranch, at her home in Sunland. Mrs.
Barker flew up on weekends in her own plane to a ranch called
the Indian Reservation located just north of Ballarat. Manson asked
Mrs. Barker he could stay a few days and she gave her permission.
if

In Los Angeles, on September the 4, Linda Kasabian hit town

from New Mexico to try to get her kid back from the foster home
where it had been placed following the August 16 raid at the Spahn
Ranch. She came on timid and anxious when talking to Mr. Kroeger,
the officer conducting a dependency investigation for the Depart-
ment of Public Social Services for the county of Los Angeles. Linda
said she had no idea how terrible the living conditions were at the
Spahn Ranch and that she had left her daughter Tanya with Mary
Brunner and had gone to Arizona to meet her husband.
She said to Mr. Kroeger, "I planned to return in about a week to
pick up Tanya to return to New Mexico, and when I called the Spahn
Ranch, they told me that Tanya had been placed in custody. I called
Sergeant Jones at the Mahbu sheri£F's station and he advised me to
see you." Linda told the officer that she planned to estabhsh a per-
manent home for Tanya at the Church of Macrobiotics located at a
ranch near Taos, New Mexico. She was given custody of Tanya af-
ter the interrogation. The young mother took her daughter to New
Mexico, then to Miami and finally back home to her own mother's
place in Milford, New Hampshire where she remained till she was
arrested for murder on December 1, 1969.
On September 4, Robert Beausoleil had a hearing in Malibu jus-
tice court where it was decided that he stand trial for murder on
November 12, 1969.
And on September Stephanie called from her parents' place
4,
and asked the family to help her run away. Clem and Squeaky
drove to pick up Stephanie in Anaheim and brought her to the
ranch. It had been two weeks since she had been arrested with
Charhe at the back ranch and placed on probation. They stayed
four or five hours at the ranch and near dawn they took oflF for the
desert in a green 1969 Ford, just rented by Brenda with a stolen
credit card.
When Stephanie arrived at the Barker-Meyers Ranch area, Charlie
gave her a knife. Charhe gave everyone instructions in throat-
332 THE FAMILY

slitting. There was talk of decorating the Barker Ranch with skulls.
Manson talked about boiling the skulls in large kettles to de-meat
them. "We were around and he asked if we could do it.
all sitting

He asked if it came down to it could we do it and everyone said,

'Oh yeah' and I said, *Oh yeah,'" Miss Stephanie remembered ten
months later when she was interviewed just prior to a class at her
dog grooming school. She said, "When I said, 'How? I don't really
know how,' he used me as a live demonstration—how you cut from
here to there" indicating throat gash—"Then he said, Tfou have to
know how to hide everything so no one will find it.' We were down
in some canyon somewhere."
A few days later Stephanie had a conversation with Manson about
going back to her sister's house in San Diego. The farouche young
lady was standing holding a rifle in her arms. "I guess I looked
homesick so Charlie asked me if I wanted to go home." She said
that was true that she was homesick. Manson then told her, ac-
it

cording to her testimony at the trial, that he'd give her one more
chance to go home.
Then he had one of his anger spasms. "Then he took the rifle and
hit me in the head a couple of times and told me to forget about go-
ing home."
Months later she was asked by interviewers why she tolerated
a person punching her in the face with a rifle butt. She repHed, "I

never wanted him to hit me but I wanted to be made to see in a dif-

ferent way.And the only way Charlie knew how to make me see in
a different way was to do that."
One of the barriers preventing total takeover of Goler Wash was
the so-called gold-miner Paul Crockett, who had
scientologist
snared away two of the family— Brooks Posten and Paul Watkins. Mr.
Crockett and his new-found disciples were living in a tarpaper-
roofed cabin located at the Barker Ranch itself.

Manson told Brooks Posten that he still belonged to Manson and

that he was released from none of his agreements. Manson tried the
time-worn "Kill you— kill me" routine with Brooks, handing him his
knife saying, "Brooks, kill me." And when Brooks refused, Charlie
seized the knife and said, "Then I can kill you."
Manson had a remaining grudge against the sheriff's deputy from
Shoshone, who had led the raid against the Barker Ranch in February
 ROMMEL: THE BARKER RANCH 333
1969 after several of the family had given his step-daughter some
marijuana. Posten claimed that Charlie said that if Posten loved
Charlie then Posten would walk to Shoshone and kill the deputy.
"That was if I loved him," Posten said.
Then Juan Flynn began to consort vdth the so-called scientolo-
gist gold-miner Paul Crockett and the two ex-family members, Posten
and Watkins, where he began living with them in their
to the point
tarpaper shack surrounded by bins of gold ore samples. Another
follower was snared away by Crockett. Crockett even began to bad-
mouth Manson to some of the girls, an ineffable sin in the eyes of
Manson.
One night at midnight, Crockett, Posten, Watkins, Juan and a
German shepherd were asleep in the cabin. The dog began to bark
so that Paul, Little Paul and Brooks went outside to check it out.
They didn't find anything unusual so they went back to sleep. Later
on, the dog began to growl so Juan stood up and looked out the
window. In the moonhght he saw Clem and Manson creep-walking
toward the cabin. Flynn claimed that Manson had a knife and that
the fringes on Manson's buckskins were going swish, swish. Naked,
armed with a shotgun, Flynn left the cabin to confront Satan and
Satan's latah. But nothing came of it. Charlie and he just had a con-
versation and walked away.
Many times Charhe put his knife up to the throat of the six-foot
five-inch Juan Flynn demanding that he give in and accept the v^l
of the so-called Wizard.
Charhe and the gang, using a stolen Master Charge card, began
to buy all sorts of suppHes for the end of the world— tools, toolboxes,
cases of twenty sleeping bags, lots of knives, food, camouflage
oil,

parachutes. Over and over he claimed to Crockett and the other

miners that all the items brought to the desert were legally ac-
quired. Such a claim was credible because of the several times
Charhe had been able to get large sums of money from rich young
ladies in search of truth. ^

He had two large telephone wire which he had

spools of
brought in to set up desert communication. They stayed away from
the Barker Ranch mainly because of the presence of Watkins,
Posten
the time,
and Crockett in the Httle cabin. But they would visit all

did
roaring in and roaring by. On a couple of nights, the family
334 THE FAMILY

build a bonfire and smoke dope. Charlie lifted up his guitar to lead
the singing outside the Barker Ranch. In the middle of the night,
Charlie would roar into the ranch bragging about all the people he
had killed, according to Paul Watkins, and "sending out pictures" of
slaughter. According Watkins and Posten, Manson laughed
to
about how he had made some girls bury Shorty Shea and how he
had shot a "Panther." But there was no mention of Tate-LaBianca-
Hinman.
Manson talked about General Rommel and desert campaigning.
He was going to be the Desert Fox of Devil Hole at the head of a
flyingV of dune buggies racing across the desert for plunder. Man-
son spray-painted his stolen dune buggy and then, while the paint
was wet, threw dirt on the paint to create a brown camouflage ef-
fect.

They talked a lot about taking over the Death Valley town of
Shoshone and also Trona. Manson felt a bit of hostility toward all

the desert people, wanting to ping them one by one. Manson talked
about terrorizing the police. He talked about killing approaching
policemen, removing their bodies from their clothes, then leaving
the uniforms and shoes and hats neatly arranged on the desert
ground, as if the bodies had somehow just disappeared from their
uniforms.
Everybody, even when nude, wore a hunting knife strapped to
the leg or waist. The family was so completely into gore that every-
body was armed, not so much in fear of the police perhaps, but in
apprehension of possible spontaneous slashing from fellow family
members. Charlie liked to comment on those whom he considered
the weak links in the family. The girls must have been desperate
not to be thought of as a weak hnk. For weak links could find them-
selves on the receiving end of a satanic ritual. Accordingly, the
behavior in the desert was brutal and freakish. For instance, one
witness reports Gypsy as being absolutely fearless with regard to
handling live rattlesnakes: "She'd just pick it up and hold it and stare
at it. .was really far out." No, thank you.
. . It
And there were deaths, according to Sadie, Vern Plumlee and
others. There are supposed to be two boys and a girl buried about
eight feet deep behind the Barker Ranch. They filmed some of their
despicable activities also. Several witnesses have described what
 "

ROMMEL: THE BARKER RANCH 335

might be termed the Barker Ranch chop-stab dance, where they
danced in a circle, then pretended to go into slash-frenzies— attack-
ing trees, rocks and one another with their knives. God knows
what else they shot with their stolen NBC camera.
Torture seemed to comprise the substance of most of the conver-
sation about Manson few days before his capture. He
in the final
became feral beyond mean beyond description. In the
description,
wdldemess the man of a thousand masks could slip them all off and
could assume his cherished role of exterminator. "He got wild when
he was out there. I don't know, he was just beating on Snake all the
time— or everybody," Kitty Lutesinger remembered a year later.
She was asked about the thieats and she replied, "Oh, the usual stuff,
like We'll hang you from the trees and cut out your tongue,' or
^We'll tie you up to a tree and put honey on you and let the ants
crawl all over you.'
At first the family set up camp Meyers Ranch, a lush,
at the
foliage-covered forty acres of patented land, purchased by Kathy
Meyers' grandparents from a legendary local miner named Seldom
Seen SUm for a side of bacon. They also occupied several cabins at
the Lotus Mine— owned by Warner Brothers, according to Ballarat
Bob— located about a mile down from Sourdough Springs in Goler
Wash. They moved from cabin to cabin on orders of the Wizard,
spending some time at the Newman cabin, another small dwelling
a couple of miles further down Goler Wash toward the dry water-
falls.

At the Meyers Ranch, they filled up the swimming pool and fixed

some of the watering devices for the wdld fruit trees and foliage
which made it like an oasis in the high desert.
Once Snake got caught wearing a murdered man's work shirt:
"One time I was up at the foot of the Lotus Mine. I was wearing a
man's blue shirt and Charlie said, "Where'd you get that shirt?
You've got Shorty's shirt on.'

"Iwas on acid when he said it."

Itwas all pain. One night, Kitty committed the pardonless trans-
gression of falling asleep during a fireside rap of CharHe's and he
punched her in the face, knocking her into the ashes.
One day Kitty and Sadie were sitting by the Meyers Ranch swim-
ming pool. Kitty was already five months pregnant and unhappy.
336 THE FAMILY

Nobody talked about Bobby Beausoleil. Kitty tried to strike up a

conversation with Sadie about Bobby but Sadie wouldn't look her in
the eye. Charhe had told Kitty several times that Bobby was in jail
but that it was a minor charge and he impHed that Bobby would be
back soon.
Kitty was determined to find out about it.
'What's he in for?" asked Kitty.
"Oh, nothing, just some Httle thing," replied Sadie. But Sadie
looked sneaky about it, Kitty thought.
"He's in for murder, isn't he?"
"Yes."
"Is it serious?" asked Kitty.
"Whatever serious is," Sadie replied. Sadie then burst into
laughter.
There is a story from Death Valley '69, passed from mouth to
mouth, which, if true, relates the first known belladonna truck hi-
jacking. Several people have told how the girls sometimes wore
pouches of crushed telache leaves or belladonna with which they
could disable people by sHpping it into food or water. Leslie, Sadie
and perhaps Little Patti were hitchhiking somewhere between
Shoshone and Las Vegas when along came a refrigerator truck
bound for Vegas bearing a load of fruits and vegetables. Naturally,
the driver picked up the pretty young hippies.
Sadie supposedly began a pattern of very positive hints that she
was willing to ball the driver. The driver was ready right then and
there. But Sadie said something like, "Come on, come on. I know a
place."
So she directed him on Route 178 into Death Valley. They
turned left just past Ashford Mills on Furnace Creek Road and

drove into the desolation. The trucker was anxious to stop im-
mediately and create conjoinment but Sadie said, "No, no, we have
to drive further." They passed the road sign that read, "Warning:
Road not patrolled daily," and Sadie said, "No, no, drive on." So
they drove forward up into the foothills of the Panamint Moun-
tains. Finally they stopped. Sadie said something like, "Before we
make love, I have to make you some coffee." Instead of coffee, she
made the muddy, brown, bitter telache tea from her little Baggie of
flip-out. Allegedly the truck driver passed out from the telache.
 ROMMEL: THE BARKER RANCH 337
Meanwhile, one of the other girls ran to get a brush-covered
dune buggy and while the driver was out cold, they broke open
the truck hatch, loaded up the produce onto the buggy, took the
dune buggy away to the ranch and then drove the driver to an ob-
scure location and abandoned him there.
And so it went with The Hole in the Universe Gang. For about
two and a half weeks the family swarmed all over Goler Wash and
the southwest part of the Death Valley National Monument. Then
Manson flipped out and attracted the attention of the Park Rangers
and the California Highway Patrol so the family had to go into hid-
ing. But that's why they went to the desert, to hide. Now it was
like hiding within the hideaway.
 Twenty-three

The Burning of the Michigan Loader

On Sunday, September 14, a computer engineer named Gary Tufts,

who was a temporary family associate, plus Gypsy, Bruce Davis
and Tex Watson drove the red '69 Ford, stolen by Vem and Vance,
to the Death Valley area from the Spahn Ranch. They parked the
Ford at the sHm mouth to the Goler Wash waterfalls and Tex
walked up the Wash and returned with the red four-wheel drive
Toyota stolen from Van Nuys, Cahfomia on September 1, 1969,
police DR #69-068 #306.
Following Tex back down Goler Wash was Manson driving his
mud-painted camouflaged command dune buggy. Fair-voiced Gypsy
jumped in with Charlie and the computer engineer Tufts rode with
Bruce and Tex in the Toyota back to the Meyers Ranch where they
spent that night and much of the next day, Monday, September 15.
Around this time Manson humiMated Barbara Hoyt and Simi
Valley Sherri. Simi Valley Sherri was commanded to perform an
act of fellatio with Juan Flynn. She refused and for this defiance,
Manson beat her up. Next, he ordered Sherri's close friend, Bar-
bara Hoyt, the girl who later was fed the LSD hamburger in Hono-
lulu, to perform the act and, in fear, she complied.
The two girls decided to sneak out after this grim scene and
some of the others, like Gypsy and Ouish, expressed desire among
themselves to split also, but only the two actually dared to leave,
walking down the entire length of Goler Wash to the Wingate
 THE BURNING OF THE MICHIGAN LOADER 339

Road along the salt lake to the Ballarat General Store, barefoot:
twenty-eight miles of sharp rocks. The sneak-trudge occupied the
greater part of the dark night and near dawn they crawled ex-
hausted into a car near the store and slept.
Manson was furious when he found out they had cut out. He
roared down the gulch the next morning prepared to kill them. He
found them eating breakfast in Mrs. Manwell's Ballarat General
Store. He stood outside the door and flashed the girls inside one
of his silent signals, evidently, according to Mrs. Manwell, some
sort of rolling eye-whirl as indication that he wanted them to come
outside for a chitchat or chit-chop.
The girls told Manson that they were leaving, and just like a
wind that changes its direction and therefore changes its name,
Manson calmed down, commenting that well they couldn't leave
without money, so he gave them twenty dollars. And away he
roared in his iron horse of the hairy locusts. Mrs. Manwell took the
two young ladies across the salt lake and down south into Trona
where they bought some tennis shoes and caught a bus toward Los
Angeles. Later Manson Clem down to Los Angeles to find them.
sent
A few days previous, Manson had met on a road somewhere a
friendly resident who possessed knowledge of caves,
detailed
camps, shacks and Death Valley-
hot mineral springs in the vast
Panamint area. This was a twenty-four-year-old bearded gentle-
man named Larry Gill, who was evidently living in a cabin off
Furnace Creek Wash Road near Ryan, an old borax ghost town, on
the Death Valley side of the Panamints. At least this was where he
was living a few months later, according to an Inyo County sheriff's
deputy.
Mr. Gill, trusting the hirsute group because they were driving
a new Ford, agreed to show Manson the hard-to-find springs and
camps. So, on Monday afternoon, September 15, Manson led a

group of vehicles out of Goler Wash onto the Panamint Valley

floor where they set up temporary camp for the night.
Perhaps he
feared that the cut-out of Simi Valley Sherri and Miss Hoyt would
so he
prove that it was easy for any of the girls to leave the area,

wanted to find a more remote locale for the family. Or perhaps it

was dune-buggy imperialism. In his raps, CharUe talked about
desert.
stashing dune buggies every ten or fifteen miles all over the
340 THE FAMILY

with hordes of food, ammunition and gasohne buried near them.

Because he had in mind raiding httle towns Hke Shoshone and
Trona in some dune-buggy Rommel scene, he naturally wanted
to be aware of any potential hideouts and raid outposts.
known that he hid some 300 gallons of gasoline near Greater
It is
View Spring in the Striped Butte Valley, in an old airplane wing
tank. Also there were several other tanks of gasoline that were
buried in the desert, not to mention the barrels that the owner of
the Ballarat Store saw the miner Mr. Paul Crockett haul down Goler
Wash as his own following the October arrests of the family.
Manson, Gypsy, Ouish and an unknown female Caucasian drove
away in the red Ford on Monday night, while the others remained
at the camp at the mouth of Goler Wash. They went up north
through Emigrant Pass up around Devil's Cornfield and down into
Death Valley south to Ryan to Larry Gill's cabin to see him about
the promised scouting maneuvers.
The next morning, Manson and the girls brought Mr. Gill back
to the Panamint camp. And then from the camp a caravan of ve-
hicles headed north to the Hunter Mountain-Race Track area of the
Death Valley Monument and on into the Saline Valley to check out
certain mineral springs. The red Toyota, the green '69 Ford, hyped
from Hertz, the red '69 Ford and a dusty-blue flecked dune buggy
stolen from the La Paz Buggy Builders on September nformed
the caravan.
Gill showed them some camping spotsand cabins near Jackass
Springs southwest of Hunter Mountain. The red and green Fords
were not able to drive into the SaHne Valley because of the nearly
impassable condition of the road so they were stashed on Hunter
Mountain in the forest. There are two roads leading into Saline
Valley from the southern end and the M. brigade drove in via the
southernmost route over the high twisting pass and down into the
desolate salty valley to the northwest.
The is where two travelers had burnt up in the
Saline Valley
aroimd 140 degrees Fahrenheit in July of 1969. But
friable air of
the hot baths known as Palm Hot Springs were especially inter-
esting to Manson in his continuing search for the entrance to
chocolate-land.
Late that night, the group ran into a high government official
 THE BURNING OF THE MICHIGAN LOADER 341
named Boyd Taylor who was evidently camping out with his wife
in the Saline Valley. The U.S. Commissioner for the Eastern Dis-
trict of California, Mr. Taylor was later to testify on December
3,
in Inyo County court auto theft proceedings against Manson, that
he saw Manson "in the middle of September" driving the stolen
blue flecked dune buggy at 2 a.m. Also he would bring charges, in
his official capacity as U.S. Commissioner, against Bruce Davis be-
cause of the gun used to pistol-whip Gary Hinman that was bought
by Davis under an assumed name, in violation of U.S. law.
After encountering the campers, the family drove back over the
pass to Hunter Mountain and spent the night. Larry Gill evidently
drove or was driven back to his cabin because there was never any
testimony linking him to the burning of the Michigan skip-loader.
The next morning, Wednesday, September 17, the red Toyota
and one or two dune buggies, evidently including the camouflaged
command dune buggy, bore the family back into the Saline Valley
to the hot springs where once more they encountered the campers.
According to Kitty, Charlie talked to them and shortly thereafter
they pulled away in their camper.
Kitty Lutesinger and Diane Lake say that the following citizens
spent two days exploring and having fun in the Saline Valley: Kitty,
Diane, Scotty Davis, Tex, Clem, Ouish, Manson and Gypsy. One
incident was related by Miss Lutesinger. When they encountered
one of the hot springs, Manson commanded Clem and Ouish More-
house to jump in and see if they coulcj swim to the bottom, but
the water was too hot. Nevertheless, Clem jumped in feet first but
was unsuccessful. They then tried to tie a string on a rock and
sink it the spring-cleft went o£F at an angle. CharUe men-
down but
tioned something about getting skin-diving equipment and going
down to see if the springs led to The Hole.
Late Thm-sday night or early Friday morning, September 18-19,
Manson led his troop out of the Saline Valley over the bumpy wil-
derness trail up the mountain pass, the single headlight on his dune
buggy his only guide. At the very top of the pass which would have
led him down to the Hunter Mountain campsite, he stopped. Right
in front of him were two large wide holes in the dirt-way,
evidently

scooped out by some nearby earth-moving equipment.

According to Kitty, Manson thought the authorities had dehber-
342 THE FAMILY

ately dug the holes in his path so that he would crash his dune buggy
into them! Manson commanded her and Gypsy to fill up the large
but shallow gouge-outs with rocks and dirt. As they did this, ac-
cording to Snake Lake, Scotty, Tex, Manson and Clem removed
some gasohne tanks and a grease gun from the $30,000 Clark Michi-
gan skip-loader, the evil machine of the Beast that tried to wipe
out Jesus' dune buggy. Then they let out the fuel oil, poured
some gasoline on the wires and the engine, then poofed it.
Then the family raced away and the rest of the night was spent
in a roaring dune-buggy frenzy. They arrived at the cabin in the
forest area near Hunter Mountain and proceeded to get the '69
green Ford stuck in the wilderness. Finally they rammed it into a
tree. They stripped what they could ofiF it and then abandoned it,
speeding away in the red Toyota, leaving telltale Toyota tracks in
the dusty trails for many miles. "It was a vvdld night," as Miss Lute-
singer remembered eight months later.
The burning of the Michigan loader enraged the rangers at the
Death Valley National Monument, which owned it. Relentlessly the
Park Rangers, the California Highway Patrol and, to a lesser degree,
agents of the Fish and Game Commission would begin to track down
this un-cool group of murderers.
If they hadn't roamed the Death Valley area as marauders, the
Mansonists could have Hved in that wilderness for years without
any trouble. As one of the policemen said after the raid, "You could
hide the Empire State Building out there and no one could find
it."

It would take three weeks for the Rangers and the Highway Pa-
trol to catch Manson.
 Twenty-four

The Capture of Manson

September 20-October 12, 1969

Death Valley law began to enter the Manson nightmare.

oflBcers
The Toyota tracks from the bm-nt Michigan loader led south, so
Park Rangers and the Highway Patrol oflBcers responsible for the
area began to work south down into the Panamint Valley, asking
questions to try to locate suspects owning a four-wheel-drive
Toyota.
On September 20 Oflficer Manning of the C.H.P. found the
smashed green '69 Ford that had been abandoned near Hunter
Mountain. Miners in the area advised the oflficer that they had ob-
served a group of **hippie-type people." Near the wrecked Ford
they found Toyota tire tracks which were the same as those found
near the bmnt-out Michigan loader.
On September some of the girls took the stolen red Toyota
22,
into Hall Canyon which is a beautiful canyon about fifteen miles
north of Ballarat, climbing over 10,000 feet into the Panamint
Mountains. The girls were exploring waterfalls and old mine-
works, wandering from rock to rock, when Park Ranger Powell and
California Highway Patrol Oflficer Pursell drove into Hall Canyon
and encountered the group of "four female and one male suspects"
—as the poHce report read. The Hcense plate on the red Toyota did
not belong to it but belonged to Bob Beausoleil's old '42 Dodge
power wagon which was registered in the name of Beausoleil's wife
Gail. The oflficers did not have radio equipment to run the plate
344 THE FAMILY

through the computer. When they reached the Highway Patrol

Station and learned that the plate was illegal, they then had sus-
pects.
Cahfomia Highway Patrol owns an IBM system called the Auto-
matic Statewide Auto Theft Inquiry System which in great part
was responsible for bringing down the house of Manson. This auto
theft system feeds out data regarding stolen vehicles to 200 police
agencies including eight California Highway Patrol oflSces. It was
data from this system that revealed stolen dune buggies.
On September 24,Park Ranger Powell and an Inyo County
sheriff's officer named Dennis Cox returned to Hall Canyon to seek

out the suspect hippies they had encountered two days previous.
They were informed by miners there in the canyon that the red
Toyota and suspects had split about four hours after the cops had
left.

Park Rangers and other officers began to visit the Ballarat General
Store, the only store for about forty miles. Various family members
had made purchases there both in 1968 and in late summer '69
so the officers started obtaining data about the Mansonoids. They
learned from the owner of the store about the two barefoot girls
who had walked twenty-foin* miles to escape Goler Wash. More
importantly, from the view of spotter planes, they learned that a
large light green bus belonging to the group was parked at the Bar-
ker Ranch where they lived.
Sometime around mid-September Sandy Good-Pugh gave birth
to a baby boy named Ivan aka Elf at a hospital in Los Angeles.
Why the Wizard allowed Sandy to deliver her baby in an institu-
tion is not known. Quickly thereafter, Sandy took Ivan to Death
Valley. Danny De Carlo also went to the desert but has claimed
that he only spent about three days there before returning to Los
Angeles.
On September 23, 1969, Mary Brunner was set free from jail on
probation for that Sears credit card forgery. Her child, Valentine
Michael Manson, had been taken by grandmother to Wisconsin.
its

Mary herself evidently did not journey to Death Valley but visited
for a few days at the Spahn Ranch after which she went home to
Wisconsin.
In the days following the burning of the loader, Manson con-
 THE CAPTURE OF MANSON 345
tinned his terror operations against the gold miner Paul Crockett
and tlie trio of former family members that were living with him.
Charlie sent girls in once to try to steal their shotguns. Other times
he waved his hunting knife at their throats.
During their final days, the family spent a great deal of time in
the area of Willow Springs and Mengel Pass and Anvil Springs
which is on the Death Valley side of Mengel Pass in the Striped
Butte Valley. About a half mile from Willow Springs is a valley
where there's a cabin also owned by Arlene Barker. Charlie set
up his dune-buggy repair shop at Willow Springs. It was far easier
to truck automotive parts to Willow Springs from Shoshone than it
was trying to negotiate the waterfalls of Goler Wash from the
Panamint Valley.
There was once a road over Mengel Pass from the Striped Butte
Valley down to Goler Wash during the gold rush in the early part
of the twentieth century but had long ago washed away. Mengel
it

Pass was named after a prospector named Carl Mengel who lived
from 1868 to 1944. He was a famous local prospector and operated
a mine near his cabin. He filed for water rights on Anvil Springs
oozing out of an abutment below his cabin on the west ridge of the
Butte Valley. When he died, his ashes were buried on the pass top
beneath a steel-banded conical pile of rocks, with a large cherry-
shaped rock on top. Inside this rock pile v^th his ashes was buried
Mr. Mengel's wooden leg. Near Carl Mengel's old cabin, Manson
and crew hid 300 gallons of helter-skelter gasoline in an old airplane
wing tank.
On September Park Ranger Richard Powell and High-
29, 1969,
way Patrol OflBcer James Pursell paid a visit to the Barker Ranch.
The oflBcers approached the ranch from the northeast over Mengel
Pass. They checked out the two dweUings at the Barker Ranch
where they encountered what they termed "two females uncom-
municative"— evidently two family members who were rifling
through Crockett's cabin. The girls said that the person who lived
at the ranch had gone to Ballarat and would be coming up Goler
Wash.
That morning Juan Flynn and Paul Watkins had gone away to
get suppHes and make arrangements to go to another place to Uve
until the Manson problem was solved.
346 THE FAMILY

Charlie had hauled to the mouth of Goler Wash a batch of tires,

tubes, batteries and equipment for servicing his dune-buggy as-

sault squad. Crockett agreed to haul the supplies to the ranch and
drove down the waterfalls in Beausoleil's old orange truck to pick
them was driving back up the sheer creek bed, he ran
up. As he
and Park Ranger Powell. And
into California Patrol OfiBcer Pursell
as Crockett later recounted it, "They wanted to know what it was
that I was doing and what I had in the truck and what was going
on.
The police officers asked Crockett and Posten to tell them about
the family. Crockett agreed to talk but the battery in the truck was
low so he couldn't kill the engine. Therefore, the officers followed
Crockett back to the Barker Ranch for a discussion. Crockett filled
them in on Manson's schemes of becoming a Devil Hole Rommel
and so forth.
Crockett did not reveal much to the cops because of fear that
Manson was perhaps listening. "He can sneak into Shoshone and
sit six from you in back of a window and hear everything that
feet
is going on and the next time he sees you he tells you the whole

conversation and he starts laughing at you and tells you how stupid
you are. ... I didn't know whether he was ten miles away, a hun-
dred miles away, or six feet."
Posten, who was riding with Crockett in the orange pile wagon,
told them that the entire family had been arrested on August 16
in Chatsworth for grand theft auto. This information enabled the
Inyo County authorities to coordinate their investigation with the
Los Angeles sheriff's office.
After the officers left Crockett's cabin, they were scouting around
the area in their four-wheel-drive vehicle when they encountered
a nude group of hippies, seven in all— scampering away in a draw
near the Meyers Ranch. They also found a red Toyota which did
not have a Hcense plate on it but they noted down the vehicle in-
spection number and were able to run it through the computer
when they got back to discover that it was Dennis Kemp's Toyota
stolen during that card game on September 1. They also found a
dune buggy which they later learned was stolen in Santa Ana. Both
of them were concealed by tarps and sleeping bags and clothing.
While tlie police were chasing the suspects, Manson came run-
 THE CAPTURE OF AAANSON 347
ning up to the canyon, ran into Crockett's cabin and grabbed
Crockett's double-barreled shotgun and sped up over the hill, evi-
dently taking a position on the ridge between the Meyers and
the Barker Ranches. Brooks Posten said that he heard Manson fire
the shotgun three times. Manson claimed later that he dodged
around behind the rocks, shouting, trying to unnerve the police.
That night into the Barker Ranch compound roared Rommel and
his teenage vampires in their attack vehicles. They had an engineless
dune buggy set up in the front yard. Tex and some female Cau-
casian called Linda, probably Little Patti and Manson asked
Crockett to help them haul in a motor for the buggy which they had
stashed in the canyon behind the ranch. Crockett helped them lift
the motor onto a wheelbarrow and they carted it down to the dune-
buggy frame. They put the motor into the dune buggy by lantern
light and then drove away, giving forth the family coyote yips and
shooting oflF pistols.

Around 10 p.m. on September 29, after the ofiBcers returned from

Goler Wash, the policemen had a strategy meeting. Homer Leach,
Chief Ranger for the Death Valley National Monument, contacted
Sergeant Hailey of the Lone Pine Resident Post of the California
Highway Patrol and informed him about the situation in Goler Wash.
Accordingly, four representatives of the Inyo County sheriff's office,

four National Park Rangers and six California Highway cops drove
back in to the Barker Ranch area in four-wheel vehicles to snare the
hippie car thieves.
At dawn, Ranger Powell and Officer Pursell came to Paul Crock-
ett's cabin and asked Crockett and Posten if anyone had come into

the campsite during the night. Crockett told the officers about the
dune-buggy motor-mounting and that the family had ridden away
into the night, possibly proceeding over Mengel Pass.
Then many of the officers converged on Crockett's cabin for a
chitchat. Crockett gave them some more information but they were
suspicious of him. They suggested to Crockett that he haul himself
out of the area there but Crockett claimed that he felt that he was
still of use to Charlie so that Charlie wouldn't kill him yet.
There-
fore he thought he'd stay on at the ranch. The cops told him to drive

out in the old orange pile wagon if Charlie came back but Crockett

felt that Charlie's forces would be guarding both exits on

the Barker
348 THE FAMILY

Ranch, the exit west through the mouth of Goler Wash and the
exit northeast over Mengel Pass. Therefore he and Brooks would
have to walk out by night.
On September 30, spotter planes buzzed overhead to locate the
hippie deployments. But the family covered themselves with tarps
or froze in their tracks and evidently were not seen.
That day the police raiding party drove over Mengel Pass where
they located two vehicles near Willow Springs: a gold-flaked 1962
Volkswagen dune buggy stolen in the San Fernando Valley and a
yellow 1967 Volkswagen dune buggy stolen in Culver City. They
also located all the automotive supplies that were being hauled
in the day before by Posten and Crockett. They removed the wiring
and the distributor caps and rotors from the dune buggies to pre-
vent their use.
That night, Crockett and were sitting on the front
his helpers
porch of the Barker Ranch when they heard a noise. They went
to get their two shotguns out of the cabin. That night someone
creepy-crawled the cabin, the dog growled, the door was open and
Crockett claimed that Charlie had a half dozen girls chasing around
to grab the guns.
It was right about that time, after it became really obvious that

the police were after him, that Manson banned all daytime activity.
By day everybody was to remain hidden in the wilderness. They
were to freeze if there were any spotter planes or cover themselves
with camouflage parachutes and remain completely out of the way.
Food became scarce. No one was allowed to use the Meyers Ranch
swimming pool for baths.
After splitting from Death Valley, Simi Valley Sherri spent time
with Danny De Carlo in Venice prior to his arrest. De Carlo got
the bread truck out of the impound garage around October 1. It

had been there since Sandy and Mary had been arrested the day of
the Polanski residence murders.
Bruce Davis and Clem were dispatched to Los Angeles to look
for Sherri and Barbara— perhaps to kill them. De Carlo caught
Clem going through the glove compartment of the bread truck
somewhere in Venice. Clem brought back to Death Valley a sixteen-
year-old boy named Rocky whose mother was an oflicial at the
Fountain of the World sect near the Spahn Ranch. Rocky was in-
 THE CAPTURE OF MANSON 349
fatuated with Katie aka Patricia Krenwinkel, talking with her for
horns about motorcycles and horses.
Around October Vance, Vem, Zero and Diane came to the
1,

Goler Wash camp,bringing with them an advance copy of the new

Beaties album, Abbey Road, which was played on a battery-operated
machine. Late on Wednesday night, October 1, Crockett and Posten
were asleep hugging their shotguns. Around 2 a.m. Charhe and
Tex drove up and gave them some tobacco.
Earlier that night, at the other end of the Panamint Valley, one
Filipo Tenerelli, a biker from Culver City, California, was shot
near Bishop, Cahfornia. It was first listed as a suicide. However,
three days later his car, a Volkswagen, blood smeared on the inside
and on the outside, was found 400 feet down a cliflF near Crowley
Peak which is on the road between Ballarat General Store and
Olancha. It is quite a distance between Bishop where the body
was discovered and Crowley Peak where his car was found.
On Thursday, October 2, there was a hostile confrontation be-
tween Manson and Paul Crockett. Manson went into a snuff-spasm
when Crockett told him that the police had accused him of abetting
and aiding a fugitive from the law, namely Manson. "He told me
just before I parted and walked out that I should be more afraid of
him than the law," Crockett said. Crockett and Posten, in order to
save their lives, packed up a few cans of food and walked out over
Mengel Pass, down the Striped Butte Valley to the trailer camp near
the Warm Springs talc mines, where they found safety.
The next morning, October 3, early in the morning, Crockett and
Posten had a nice long discussion vdth the poHce, which was taped.
Crockett offered the suggestion that the best way to get Manson
was either to pick the family off one by one or to mount a large
raid against them. They also told the police that Manson had seized
Crockett's shotguns and that all the girls were armed with knives
and that the were all like zombies trained for instant obedience.
girls

On the night of October 2, 1969, Charles Tex Watson seized the

'42 Dodge power wagon, drove down Goler Wash, bumping into

the night, to the mouth of the Wash and he crossed the semi-dry
salt lake evidently seeking a shortcut to the Trona Road. He
slowed
down or stopped in the middle of the lake and became mired in the
salty mush. Watson was fleeing.
350 THE FAMILY

He spent the night sleeping by the side of the road. The next
morning, a man named Mr. Holliday, a pipefitter, from Rialto,
California, picked up Watson. Watson told him that the Forestry
Department was after the commune he was living in so Holliday
drove Watson to the heliport in San Bernardino and then to the San
Bernardino railroad station where he dropped Watson oflF. Watson
said he was going back to Texas where his parents owned a chain
of supermarkets. When he returned to the commune he was going
to bring a truckload of groceries because that was what the com-
mune needed most. Watson returned to Copeville where he seems
to have maintained a routine existence, dating a doctor's daughter,
till the end of November when he was picked up by his cousin, the

sheriflF of Collins County, Texas, for murder.

With Crockett and crew ousted from the set, Manson began to
use the Barker Ranch as headquarters but only at night. Everybody,
by this time, was on hand, including Sadie and Katie. By night and
by day the police tried to catch them.
Once a day, after dark, the girls would prepare a large meal for
everybody in the Barker Ranch kitchen and everybody would skulk
in and get a little chow. Sometimes in the middle of the night they'd
have to walk for supplies from the Barker Ranch eighteen miles over
Mengel Pass to Willow Springs and back.
"We walked to Willow Springs and back in one night. We had to
because of the police. Of course, we were helped by some good sun-
shine," said one of the girls a year later. "We were carrying dune
buggies down the hills when the police were chasing us," she said.
They began to leave false campfires to lead the police away from
their real campsites.
Some day at a campsite about a mile
of the girls spent the light of
and a from the Meyers Ranch where they car-
half east-northeast
ried sleeping bags and bottles of water. Other girls were required
by day to hang out in the hot rocks near Mengel Pass. They "hid
out all over the hills, hiding in parachutes," according to Kitty. By
night, after supper, they were honored with the task of building the
so-called bunkers.
Manson issued an order that all were to stop smoking
of the girls
cigarettes. Subsequently, he asked for a show of hands as to who
exactly had obeyed his order, and was chagrined to find that there
 THE CAPTURE OF MANSON 351

were some who had ceased to obey. So he commanded that those

who refused to stop smoking cigarettes dig several bimkers by night
which were to serve as hidden shelters. Evidently, against the po-
lice and against the winter air.

They built a bunker on a hill south of the Barker Ranch which

they roofed over with metal and on top of the metal they placed
sand and stones. Inside the bunker was a huge Playboy mattress
on which bounced the bodies of Helter Skelter. They had a tele-
phone set up. They ran field wires leading from this bunker up to
a rectangular rock command post about 300 feet up the hillside so
that from this bunker by telescope a spotter could look about a mile
and a half down Goler Wash.
There was a set of bunkers to the north in a draw between the
Meyers and Barker Ranch, one a rock-lined hillside bunker, and
down in the gulch near a spring was another bunker built with
debris and old window frames.
According to Diane Lake, just before the police finally netted the
family, Charhe sent Cathy and Zero down to Los Angeles in order
to kill her grandmother, enabhng Cathy to inherit the Meyers Ranch.
This would have legitimatized Manson's position in the area. This
grim caper was aborted evidently when the automobile they were
driving broke down.
On October 8, Bill Vance left the Barker Ranch area
Manson and
and traveled Los Angeles together. There's not much known
to
about the reasons for this little trip but it had to be important be-
cause Manson had been sticking close by his followers.
As usual, the golden opportunity to escape the family occurred
whenever CharHe took a trip away. This was no exception.
Life was grim for the pregnant girls, Kitty and Stephanie: Httle
food, no showers, living by night, hiding by day, fearful, threat-
ened by a maniac, confused. Kitty recalled it: "Now when I start
thinking about it I remember how bad it really was. How he just
talked about it so much that you just you know
. . .
about
. . .

snufiBng people and torturing them, and all kinds of different orgies.

You get so you just can't listen to it any more. It really was pretty
bad."
So, on Thursday night, October 9, Kitty and Stephanie sneaked
away a couple of hours after sunset. Clem had been assigned bed-
352 THE FAMILY

check duty and discovered the girls missing. He yelled immediately

for everybody to roust out and capture the runaways. Manson had
issued proclamations that if they found anybody escaping, they
were to beat them up, or worse.
Night held the young girls in safety as they wandered up the
Wash to Mengel Pass and on to the Willow Springs area. They had
gone in the opposite direction that Barbara Hoyt and Simi Sherri
had taken when they escaped in September. Clem and Rocky
went to sleep down the Wash in the middle of the creek bed armed
with a sawed-oflF shotgun, prepared the next morning to go out look-
ing for the young ladies.
On October 9, 1969, the same night that Stephanie and Kitty
skulked away from the camp, the police set up their final net to catch
the car thieves. There had evidently been careful surveillance of
the area by the police who determined that the ranch was being
used until daylight. Patricia Krenwinkel had been assigned the job
of seeing that everybody got out of the Barker Ranch and out of
sight before dawn. It was getting cold in the high desert with winter
approaching, and on this morning it was very cold and the family
hung around the Barker Ranch area too long and were caught.
By cover of darkness the police approached the Barker Ranch
from two directions: from the mouth of Goler Wash and from the
Striped Butte Valley over Mengel Pass and down the long seven
and a half miles to the ranch. The California Highway Patrol sup-
plied radio equipment for these two advancing parties so that when
they got close enough they could communicate with each other and
exchange information.
Up Goler Wash came the following ofiBcers: Brad Hailey, E. B.
Anderson, A. B. George, J. B. Journigan of the California Highway
Patrol. Also in this crew was Ranger Powell. The party was directed
by Lieutenant Hurlbut of the California Highway Patrol.
The other party parked their four-wheel drive vehicles at the sum-
mit of Mengel Pass and walked down through the wilderness on
foot. The Mengel Pass party was comprised of James Pursell and
Highway Patrol and others, includ-
Officer O'Neill of the California
ing a warden of the Federal Fish and Game Commission by the
name of Vern Burandt. There were numerous Inyo County officials,
including the Inyo County D.A. and assistant D.A., on this impor-
 THE CAPTURE OF AAANSON 353
tant mission. The idea was to converge on the Barker Ranch at
dawn.
Just before dawn the two advancing teams of police officers
achieved contact via walky-talky. The team of officers coming in
from the west, from the Panamint Valley up Goler Wash, encoun-
tered, sleeping in suspicious tandem on the creek bed between
blankets, Clem and Rocky. Near Clem's head was Clem's sixteen-
inch sawed-off shotgun and twenty rounds of ammunition.
Officers Journigan et al. awakened them and put them under ar-
rest for having a sawed-oflF shotgun and for arson and for grand
theft auto. The officers parked their four-wheel-drive vehicles evi-
dently in a small draw to the west of the Barker Ranch. Officer
O'Neill took a position high on the south slope across from the
Barker Ranch up above tlie bunker. It is not known if the police
were really aware of this disguised bunker. However, shortly after
dawn, Sadie, wearing a red hat, emerged from the hidden bunker
to relieve herself. She was evidently spotted by the cops. The cops,
according to the girls, let loose a friendly shotgun blast on top of
tlie metal hidden bunker roof causing the girls to come out.
Arrested at the south hill dugout were Leslie Van Houten using
the name Louvella Alexandria, Sadie, using the name Donna Kay
Powell, Gypsy, using the name ManonMinette, and Brenda, us-
ing the name Cydette Perell. Inside the ranch house, the cops ar-
rested Marnie K. Reeves aka Patricia Krenwinkel. They arrested

Robert Ivan Lane aka Soup Spoon. They arrested Linda Baldwin
aka Little Patti. Some of the girls were nude. Official note was made
of it on the arrest report:
"When the group of female prisoners were arrested, several
initial

of the females disrobed. Several of them urinated on the ground in

the presence of the officers. They also undressed and changed
clothes in the presence of the officers."
Proceeding north in the small draw between the Meyers and
Barker Ranches, the poHce raided the "spike camp,"-as they called
it, where they arrested Sandy Good, who was carrying
Sadie's baby

Zezo, Ouish, using the name Rachel S. Morse and carrying Sandy
Good's one-month-old baby Ivan, and Mary Ann Schwarm aka
Diane Von Ahn. The babies were burnt raw from the sun and one
of them had a large cut on his face.
354 THE FAMILY

These three girls had in their possession a Miramar mail bag

which contained the magic swatches of hair which had been cut
ojBF during the tonsure rites of the preceding July. Also in the mail
bag was a stolen .22-caliber single-shot Ruger pistol and a ring of
keys,one of which fitted the stolen red Toyota.
All day long the police stayed in the area checking it out. Finally,
around dusk, a group of ten women, three men and two babies
were chained together and transported down Goler Wash. Followed
by police vehicles, they walked down the steep waterfall area to
the mouth, the chains clanging in the night.
They were all transported to Independence, California by Ser-
geant Hailey and Warden Burandt, to be booked for arson and
theft and receiving stolen property.
As officers searched the area they found the stolen Toyota at the
dry wash camp a mile and a half northeast of the Meyers Ranch. The
Toyota was out of gas and covered over with sage brush. The same
Toyota was used to escort Clem and Rocky and Soup Spoon down
Goler Wash on the way to jail.
Officers continued to search the area, and in addition to the dune
buggy at the bottom of the canyon and the stolen Toyota, they re-

discovered the two vehicles that were dewired on September 30.

They called the Don Lutz Tow Service of Olancha, California, 130
miles away, and requested the company to haul the stolen vehicles
out. What a towing charge.
Then they proceeded to search north along Mengel Pass and
found the mud-painted command dune buggy down a clifE with
punctured tires and seemingly abandoned although it was covered
and camouflaged with brush. The police took color photographs of
the vehicles and the arrests.
It was night time before the rest of the officers drove over Mengel
accomphshed. As they drove toward Death Val-
Pass, their mission
ley, through the Striped Butte Valley near Anvil Springs, Kitty
Lutesinger and Stephanie Schram stepped out of the brush and
flagged down the officers. They told the officers they had run away
from the family and were afraid for their lives.
Clem Grogan called up the Spahn Ranch from the Inyo County
jail in Independence, California and asked to "speak to the Devil."
 THE CAPTURE OF MANSON 355
Clem told Charlie about the arrests. Manson for reasons unknown
seems to have Death Valley about a day later.
left for

Early in the morning of October 11, Stephanie and Kitty were

allowed to call their parents, collect. When Kitty called her mother
at the Lutesinger Ranch, her mother asked her if she knew that
Officers Guenther and Whiteley were looking for her in regard to
tlie murder of Gary Hinman. She did not know. Kitty wanted her

parents to come and pick her up but her mother said that she would
just have to turn her over to homicide officers anyway, so they
couldn't pick her up.
Kitty's mother spoke to OfficerDave Steuber, an energetic auto
theft officer for the California Highway Patrol, and told Officer Steu-
ber the details concerning her daughter's connection with Robert
Beausoleil. Afterward, Officer Steuber contacted the L.A. County
sheriflPs office, homicide division, and evidently spoke to Deputy
Guenther. Officer Steuber supplied Deputy Guenther with con-
siderable data regarding Charles Manson's activities on Death
Valley and the August raid on the Spahn Ranch. This is evidently
the first time that Deputy Guenther had learned of the connection
between Beausoleil and the Spahn Ranch.
Officers Whiteley and Guenther spent a day researching the
Spahn Ranch, Manson, the August 16 raid and various other ac-
tivities involving the family there. They obtained pictures of the
people arrested at the August 16 raid from the Los Angeles County
sheriflfs office, auto theft division, and on October 12 they proceeded

to drive up to Inyo County to secure possession of Kitty Lutesinger.

It was the beginning of the solution of the Tate-LaBianca homi-
cides.
The same day, perhaps on the same road, that Guenther and
Whiteley were driving to Death Valley, Charles Manson also was
on the way there. October 12, 1969, was Aleister Crowley's birth-
day, a fit day for the arrest of killers.
Why was Manson returning to Death Valley?
He probably reahzed the amount of fear he could generate to
keep everybody in line was greater if he were near his followers.
Also, Manson knew that Bruce Davis and others were in Las Vegas
getting supplies so he wanted to avert their arrest when they re-
turned.
356 THE FAMILY

What did he have to fear?Manson had been arrested that year

alone on March 30, June 3, August 16, August 23, for a variety of
charges and had walked away free. He had shot, killed, plundered
according to his own schedule and gotten away with it. Why not
now?
There are indications that Manson was about to undertake his
wildest scheme of all, a series of assassinations of prominent Los
Angeles citizens against whom he held grudges. The dune-buggy
locusts would raid from The Hole, destroy, then return. Perhaps
he liked the media attention given to the Tate murders. After all,
he had been trying for fame as a recording artist for several years.
Now he could be Charlie the Knife.
Central to a discussion of plans to famous people is the "list,"
kill

about which a heavy area of silence has been created. The "list" was
found in Death Valley and it marked out those to die.
In one report it contained thirty-four names of stars and business-
men to be killed. This "list" of family enemies included supposedly
those who had helped out in the past but had ceased to aid. It is a
common phenomenon for cults to have a hate list or enemy list.
At least two groups operating in lower California, besides the Man-
sonoids, have, or had, enemy lists.

High Inyo County officials visited Miss Lutesinger down in L.A.

following the Barker Ranch raids and told her they had in their
possession a written list of people to be killed, and she was on the
end of the list.
Taken into evidence by the Los Angeles police department from
family material seized by the police in Inyo County was a myste-
rious pack, perhaps Manson's, which may have confirmed visual aids
for the preparation of the "list."

The "army type pack," as the police report read, contained,

among other things, sixty-four movie and TV star magazines, one
canvas money bag marked "Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas" and
one paperback book Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Hein-
lein.

Manson may have returned to his original game borrowed from

Stranger in a Strange Land, where the novel's Valentine Michael
Smith took to murdering or "discorporating" his enemies. There
was one occult shopkeeper on Santa Monica Boulevard who re-
 THE CAPTURE OF MANSON 357
ported selling Manson a copy of Stranger in a Strange Land around
this time. The movie magazines may have been brought in to help
stir up hatred.
Quite a few of the family members escaped arrest on the Octo-
ber 10 raid.Among them were Diane Lake and Claudia Smith aka
Sherry Andrews. Both of these girls hid under a canvas not far from
the front ranch gate of the Barker Ranch when the raid occurred.
So they were around when Charlie got back. Others had fled and
were lurking in various parts of Goler Wash, never to be caught.
The poHce seized the last of the stolen NBC film equipment, a
camera loaded with unexposed film. Bill Vance is supposed to have
disappeared later with some of the Death Valley footage.
Late in the afternoon of October 12, Charlie walked up to the
Goler Wash, stashed his pack near the Lotus Mine, then proceeded
to the Barker Ranch, guitar in hand, ready for chow. He was in the
company of three other male Caucasians. Bruce Davis, in a stake
truck that Clem had rented, came back from Las Vegas and got the
stake truck stuck in the sandy wash between Mengel Pass and the
Barker Ranch and abandoned it.
Cahfomia Highway Patrol Officer Pursell and Park Ranger Powell
and another Ranger went back in to the Barker Ranch area on Sun-
day, October 12, to look for more dune buggies and check out the
various family campsites for contraband. A passing motorist told
them that a stake truckwas abandoned in the Wash so the officers
checked it out. Pursell and the two Park Rangers located the Chevro-
let truck still loaded down with drums of gasoHne and supplies. They

decided that un-caught hippies, perhaps even Manson himself, had

re-entered the Barker Ranch area.
So Pursell radioed out on the C.H.P. radio equipment and talked
to other officers. It was decided that then was the time to noose
Satan. About five o'clock in the afternoon police entered the area
and took up clandestine positions near the Barker Ranch. They
waited. Meanwhile other officers were summoned who were on
the way up Goler Wash from Ballarat.
From a position on a ridge up above the Barker swimming pool
north of the ranch Officer Pursell and Ranger Powell observed
Manson and a couple of other people walk up the gulch and into
the house. Manson was carrying a guitar case. Ranger Curran
358 THE FAMILY

worked his way around to the front of the ranch so that he could
meet the officers who were coming up the Goler Wash from Ballarat.
They began to hear giggling and laughter and conversation from
the house so they knew there were quite a number of people in
there.
The Chief Ranger for the Death Valley National Park, Homer
Leach, Deputy Don Ward of the Inyo County sherifiF's office, and
Al Schneider of the sherifiF's office arrived just after dark. Then they
radioed Officer Pursell, who walked down the hill in the back,
slinked along the back side of the cabin just to the left of the Barker
Ranch and walked in under the ivy-trellised side porch, kicked
open the side door and said, "Stick 'em up." He slid along the wall
to the left using it as a cover in case any of them should care to
attack him and he told them to put their hands on top of their
heads. In slow-motion defiance, the killers complied.
"I ordered the subjects out backwards one at a time where Dep-
uty Ward took charge of them," P^u•sell recounted later. Once again,
as in the Spahn Ranch raid of August 16, the question had to
be asked, "Where was Jesus?"
It was about six-thirty in the evening. Seven dirty hippies had

been hauled out and handcuflFed. The quick desert darkness was
imminent. Officer Pursell carried the single candle which had lit
the supper around the four-room cabin. He paused at the small
blue bathroom with a poured concrete bathtub and a small blue
lavatory. Beneath the lavatory was a little cabinet out of which,
as the officer placed the candle's flame near, protruded hair. Then
he saw wigghng fingers and he said, "All right, come on out, but
slowly." And before he could ask, the small human uncoiling from
the tiny cabinet said, "Hi. I'm CharHe Manson."
After the police arrested Manson, Pursell went back into the
house and ran into Bill Vance standing in the bedroom. After being

handcufiFed Vance had somehow gotten away and was hiding in

the house.
The girls were Beth Tracy aka Collie Sinclair, Diane
arrested
Bluestein aka Snake Lake, Sherry Andrews aka Claudia Leigh
Smith. All suspects were marched down to the draw and when they
got to police vehicles they were escorted in the vans to the head of
 THE CAPTURE OF MANSON 359
the waterfalls whereupon they walked down to the Panamint
Valley.
They put them in units of three and began to march them down
to the draw toward the vehicles which were parked in the Barker
Ranch dump area. Men arrested were Manson, John Philip Haught
aka Christopher Jesus aka Zero, Kenneth R. Brown aka Scott Bell
Davis who was a partner of Zero from Ohio, David Lee Hamic aka
WiHiam Rex Cole aka Bill Vance, Vern Edward Thompson aka
Vem Plumlee, Lawrence L. Bailey aka Little Larry, and Bruce Davis.
As the chop-fallen killers were walking down the wash from the
Barker Ranch, Manson tried an escape caper. He told the oflBcers
that he had left his pack very near there and he requested the
oflBcers to help him find it. The oflBcers looked and they couldn't
find it so Manson asked them to open his handcufiFs and let him
look around in the darkness for his pack. Then he might have es-
caped. The pack, probably the one containing those movie maga-
zines, subsequently was found by one of the oflBcers and "booked
with the rest of the property."
The oflBcers noted that several times during the walk Manson
said something and his followers replied with "Amen, Amen"—
as if in gospel response. Also, a mere hostile glance from Manson
was enough to cause the giggling of the suspects to lapse into si-

lence. Manson were going to take

told the oflBcers that the blacks
over the country and that the blacks would wipe out the police.
Just as the car thieves arrived at the mouth of the wash, followed
by the bouncing headhghts of the four-wheel-drive police vehicles,
Country Sue and Cathy Meyers were arriving at the Goler Wash
in a black Oldsmobile full of $500 worth of groceries. The two girls
also were arrested. The food was taken in custody also to save Inyo
County taxpayers money by supplementing the jail diet of the
prisoners.
 Twenty-five

The Breaking of the Case

October— November 1969

Mark Arneson, the human to whom Manson had sold Gary Hin-
man's Microbus, soldit in turn for $350 to another human named

Louis Puhek. In Puhek's possession, the bus still looked the same
with the thunderbird printed on the side. It even had the same li-
cense plate PGE 388. Someone, however, had put a new engine
in the vehicle. There was an all-points bulletin out for the stolen
Microbus. Sometime around October 5 or 6 police in Venice, Cali-
fornia stopped Puhek and ran the license number, discovering that
the vehicle was to be impounded regarding the murder of its owner.
Police in Venice questioned Puhek and it was learned that one of
the possible owners of the vehicle had been Danny De Carlo of
the Straight Satans, who then became a possible suspect in the
murder.
Around October 7, Sergeant Whiteley asked Sergeants Gleason,
Elliott and Sims of the sherijBTs oflBce about Danny De Carlo and if
they had a present address on him. They also wanted general in-
formation on the Straight Satans regarding possible connections
with Hinman. The officers promised to check out De Carlo and
get back to Sergeant Whiteley with the data later.
When Sergeant Whiteley and Deputy Guenther learned about
Kitty Lutesinger they temporarily forgot about Danny De Carlo
however. October 12 they drove to Inyo County and brought the
girl back to the San Dimas sheriff's station where she was inter-

rogated.
 THE BREAKING OF THE CASE 361
The words "gas chamber," when uttered by police officers, had
a magical way of causing some family members to wax loquacious.
At first the oflBcers suggested to Kitty that she was one of the girls
that had accompanied Beausoleil to Gary Hinman's house. She re-
pHed that the girls were "Sadie and Mary" but certainly not she,
and that they had "screwed up" at the Hinman's residence, having
been sent there by Manson merely to acquire money.
Another factor that caused mouths to open was that Manson
evidently uttered a few threats over the phone directed against
weak links, either when Clem called him down at the ranch or when
Manson called out after he was arrested. She was worried about her
life and that of her parents.
The next morning at 9 a.m., October 13, the officers flew from
the Ontario, California airport to Independence to talk to Susan
Atkins aka Sadie Glutz. They arrived about noon. They brought
with them photos of the family. The Inyo County jail was so
crowded with car thieves that interrogation was difficult so Officers
Whiteley and Guenther took Sadie to Lone Pine substation of the
Inyo County sheriff's department for a chat.
During the officers' skilKul interrogation, Atkins admitted par-
ticipation in the Hinman murder and shortly thereafter even did
some talking about Shorty Shea. But she refused to tape-record it.
They talked for about twenty-five minutes. Then the officers flew
with Miss Atkins back to Ontario. They drove her to the San Dimas
sheriff's station and booked her for suspicion of murder. The next

day they drove back to Inyo County.

On October 13, Kitty was interviewed by the Los Angeles sheriff's
office regarding auto Sergeants Gleason and Sims interro-
thefts.

gated her for four hours. She told about the Michigan loader ar-
son, about various dune-buggy thefts, about stolen credit cards,
about the crashing of the '69 Ford from Hertz and about the Hin-
man case. Kitty was held for several days in Juvenile Hall then
released in the custody of her parents.
Sadie Glutz was arrested under the name Donna Powell but the
police had been able quickly to determine who she was. The iden-
tity of the "Mary" who had been at Gary Hinman's house remained

a problem. Patricia Krenwinkel had been arrested as Marnie Kay

Reeves, and had a prior arrest under the name of Mary Scott. There-
362 THE FAMILY

fore she was taken down to Los Angeles on October 14 as a possible

murder suspect.
Kitty had revealed that "Mary" was a slim redhead, because Of-
ficers Whiteley and Guenther also took red-haired Squeaky Fromme
aka Lynette Alice Fromme aka Elizabeth Elaine Williamson with
them. On the ride down to Los Angeles, Squeaky, according to
legend, told the oflScers that Charlie had the girls perform fellatio
with dogs as part of his mental-death program.
Krenwinkel quickly told the poHce that it was Mary Brunner not
she who had gone to Hinman's house. Krenwinkel, Sadie and
Squeaky were held in the Los Angeles sheriff's facility in Lancaster.

The team of investigators working on the LaBianca murders

had requested from the Los Angeles sheriff's office information re-
garding any murders carried out in styles similar to the Waverly
Drive homicides. The LaBianca team had rigorously pursued its
investigation.
They had connected the bloody "Helter Skelter" and "Rise" with
the Beatles album, catalogue number SWBO 101. Also they had
correctly interpreted the knife and fork in Mr. LaBianca: "The words
in the song 'Piggies' make reference to a knife and fork in the ba-
con"— as a police report read.
By the time of the LaBianca team's second homicide investiga-
tion progress report, dated October 15, 1969, Manson and crew were
prime suspects in the LaBianca murders although Manson had
not yet been interrogated. Manson's association with the Satan
Slaves was noted. Several Satan Slaves had been suspects previously
in the LaBianca matter.
The murders were similar, the police noted. Blood writing on
the wall, knives as the weapons, both crimes involved the placing
of a pillow over the victim's face. And one suspect in the Hinman
murder, Susan Atkins, had been free the night of the LaBianca
crimes, unlike Beausoleil, who was in jail. Because of all this infor-
mation about Manson supplied by Officers Whiteley and Guenther,
the LaBianca team began to concentrate on the family.
Plans were made by the LaBianca investigators, as of October 15,
to compile a list of everybody who had lived at the Spahn Ranch
 THE BREAKING OF THE CASE 363
and to obtain a handwriting sample and fingerprints of each. Some-
time evidently in mid-October Manson submitted to a polygraph
examination but terminated it in the middle. He must have known
that the noose was set around his operations and several deaths
may have resulted to create silence and fear.
Sadie and Katie were asked to write Helter Skelter to see if either
had written on the LaBianca refrigerator.
it

On October 15, fourteen of the Mansonoids were arraigned in

Inyo County Superior Court on twenty felony charges. The bail
totaled out at $263,500. Ten were set free with charges dropped.
On October 15, Danny De Carlo, a Straight Satan named Al
Springer and six others were arrested in Venice for receiving stolen
property and possession of marijuana. De Carlo's charge stemmed
from a hot engine he traded to acquire his bread truck. De Carlo
was released on bail. His troubles were mounting. De Carlo had a
child custody hearing on September 12 to try to gain possession of
his son Dennis, seized during the August 16 raid at the Spahn
Ranch and placed in a foster home. At the hearing De Carlo was
arrested on a federal charge of purchasing a pistol under a fictitious
name. De Carlo also had a five-year conviction for smuggling mari-
juana in from Mexico which he was then appealing. Danny's many
troubles with the law forced him a few days later to finger out the
family as the killers of Sharon Tate and others.
Meanwhile, up in Independence, California, where the so-called
family was being held, the brave girls would raise their dresses in
the exercise yard. Manson would utter coyote yips and his disciples
would yip in return. Once during their stay in jail there they asked
for peanut butter and honey for a purification rite, whatever that
meant. It was all happiness.
On October 16, Inyo County sheriff's deputies plus Los Angeles
sheriff homicide and auto theft teams, and CHP officers scoured
the Barker Ranch area for incriminating data. There they located
some more dune buggies and, according to the police report, nu-
merous food and equipment caches and, perhaps most important,
de-
a grease gun and cartridge that witness Lutesinger had earUer
scribed to the investigating officer in San Dimas as being stolen

from the National Park Service loader prior to its being found by
364 THE FAMILY

the hippie group. The cached vehicles were covered with sage
brush, willow branches and camouflaged parachutes.
On Thursday, October 16, Susan Atkins aka Sadie was arraigned
in Mahbu Justice Court for murder. A preliminary hearing was set
then for November 12.

In the afternoon of October 17 the sheriffs office in Lancaster

called Patricia Krenwinkel's father. Mr. Krenv^dnkel drove to pick
her up. Katie stayed with her father for five days and then on October
^3' 1969, she flew to her mother in Mobile, Alabama via National
Airlines.
Also on October Los Angeles Police Chief Robert
17, assistant
Houghton told a press conference that the initial part of the Tate
investigation was over and that now the police would backtrack
over the entire case and compare notes. More than 400 police
interviews had been conducted to that date.
At the end of forty days' intensive investigation, the chief pos-
sible motives for the Cielo Drive homicides were considered to
be a drug burn or a drug freak-out.
October 20.
Officers Whiteley and Guenther were impressed that Miss Lute-
singer told them that she had overheard Susan Atkins talking about
stabbing a man in the legs as the man was pulling Susan's hair. The
man was someone other than Gary Hinman, and since Susan Atkins
had been free the night of the so-called Tate murders, they felt that
she might have something to do with it.
Whiteley and Guenther informed the Tate team about Manson.
The Tate detectives waited until October 31, eleven days after they
were informed, to interview the young lady.
October 21.
At the Inyo County Courthouse in Independence, California pre-
liminary trials were held for Leslie Sankston aka Leslie Van Houten,
Nancy Pitman aka Brenda McCann, Manon Minette aka Gypsy and
Robert Ivan Lane aka Scotty. The theft charges were dismissed
but all four defendants were held to answer to charges of violating
section 182 of the California Penal Code.
October 22.
Charles Manson "aka Jesus Christ"— as noted on the arrest re-
port— Manon Minette (Gypsy), Diane Bluestein aka Snake Lake
 THE BREAKING OF THE CASE 365
and Rachel S. Morse aka Ouish were held to answer for violations
of Section 449a of the California Penal Code, referring to the bum-
job on that Michigan loader.
October 23.
Sandy Collins Pugh-Good and Mary Schwann aka Diane Von
Ahn and Ouish were held to answer in the Inyo County Court at
a preliminary trial on the charge of receiving stolen property (the
Ruger pistol that was inside the Miramar mail bag with the witch-
swatches of hair, when the three young ladies were arrested in the
gulch back of the Meyers Ranch).
Zero, Bill Vance, Little Larry, Vem Plumlee, Sherry Andrews aka
Claudia Smith, Beth Tracy aka Diane Von Ahn, Sue Bartell and
Cathy GilHes were all released with charges dropped.
Quite a few of the freed family then went to Los Angeles where
they stayed in Venice at the residence of one Mark Ross located
at 28 Club House Drive, just off the ocean. It was there that Zero
would die.
October 25.
At the Sybil Brand Jail for Women, in Los Angeles, news broad-
casts were available to the inmates, and Sadie was stimulated to
babble more than once by news bulletins about the investigation
into the Tate murders. Around October 24 and 25, the airways were
filled with announcements of a hot new clue in the homicides— the

possibihty that the murders were committed by a nearsighted bullet-

headed freak with deformed ears. A newspaper had printed the
story of the pair of glasses found near Mr. Polanski's blue steamer
trunks, lying open with the ear bars sticking straight up, as if the
murderer had been wearing them and they had fallen off. Local
radio stations flashed broadcasts derived from newspaper accounts
of the glasses. The poHce had taken the glasses to a HolMvood
optometrist who opined that the glasses, because of certain bend-
ings in them, belonged to someone one of whose ears was lower than
the other, and who was very very myopic and who had a rounder
head than most humans. So, when the broadcasts occurred about
the glasses, Sadie talked about it with a fellow inmate nicknamed
Casper aka Roseanne Walker, a young chunky brown-haired lady
in jail for various offenses relating to a passion for taking
downers.
Casper was that sort that you find in many jails, a businesswoman
366 THE FAMILY

selling cigarettesand candy to fellow inmates on the sly. She would

have people hold her merchandise and her excess profits for her,
since it was against prison regulations to have more than a certain
fixed amount of money or cigarettes. According to Casper, Sadie be-
came friendly with her because of her pleasant open disposition
and because literally Sadie had not a dime, and Casper had lots of
candy and cigarettes she was willing to share.
Sadie and Casper had a debate whether or not the person own-
ing the glasses was connected with the murders. Sadie said that just
because glasses were found it didn't mean they were the murderer's,
for, indeed, they might have been planted there "to spread con-

fusion." In fact, Sadie, according to Casper, thought it funny that

someone innocent might be arrested and accused because of those
glasses. Sadie's comment, after some of the broadcasts about the
homicides, was, "That ain't the way it went down."
It was Casper, the friendly cigarette saleslady, to whom Sadie
told the frightful story that Sharon Tate had asked Sadie to cut out
the baby and save it, but that Sadie claimed she lacked the nerve.

She could only kiU.

October 31.
Halloween. Detectives from the Cielo Drive homicide investiga-
tion finally interrogated Kitty Lutesinger. A believable informer
can do wonders for a murder investigation. This is what Miss Lute-
singer did, pointing the Tate investigation toward a set of dream-
land criminals: a death-crazed band of so-called hippies.
Also on Halloween '69, Steve Brandt, personal friend and former
press agent for Sharon Tate, and also a columnist for Photoplay, a
witness for the Polanski wedding in London in 1968— and, of
course, also that excellent early information source for the police-
called up Eddie Fisher, reached Mr. Fisher's secretary and an-
nounced that he had taken enough downers to kill himself at his
apartment on 1260 N. Eangs Road. As he regained consciousness
sometime later, in County-USC Hospital, his dimmed eyes focussed
in on two Tate detectives who asked him forthwith if his attempted
suicide had anything to do with the homicides. "They wanted to
know if what I'd done had been connected with the case," Brandt
told reporters.
November 1.
 THE BREAKING OF THE CASE 367

Detectives checked in with Sam BaiTett, Manson's federal parole

officer, in order to obtain all the data available about him. Around
November one Virginia Graham, one Ronni Howard aka Shelley
1,

Nadell, and Sadie Glutz-Atkins were moved to an open fifty-person

sleeping area called dormitory 8000, a so-called working dormi-
tory whose residents every day worked in various parts of the jail.
Virginia Graham was very concerned that she was going to be
returned to Corona State Prison for Women on a parole violation.
She had done time there in 1966 and was on parole when she was
picked up on October 20. Virginia had many aliases she had used
over the years, including Virginias Browne, Lopez, Ciocco and
Benedict. She entered the jail, spent four days in the infirmary, then
a week in another cell block before she was transferred into the
bunk-bedded dormitory 8000.
Sadie was brought into dormitory 8000 about a day or so after
Virginia, according to Virginia's testimony at the trial. Sadie was
assigned a top bunk bed in the back of the dorm. Virginia was
assigned lower bed number 3, in the front. Ronni Howard, who
was an old friend of Virginia Graham for about ten years, was also
brought into dormitory 8000, incarcerated since August 27 for a
charge that she forged a prescription for drugs. After a few days in
dormitory 8000, Sadie would move to a sleeping position right next
to Roimi Howard, so that literally they were vdthin inches of one
another.
The inmates made fun of the young Sadie Glutz saying, when
she would come by, "Oh, here comes Sadie Glutz." Sadie was singu-
lar among the others because of her weird name and because she
would sing and dance torrid go-go steps to the piped-in music and
she would bend over and contort during physical exercises, without
underwear. The others would kid her, and for this, they claim, Ronni
and Virginia befriended her, feeling sorry for the hot-blooded girl.

Mrs. Graham has said: "She was singing and dancing all the time.
In fact, it didn't seem to fit a place like that, that type of happiness."
November 2.
Anonymous phone calls were made to the Los Angeles Times,
The New York Times, KNXT-TV, etc., informing the media of the
connection between the Hinman case and the LaBianca-Tate cases.
And, in the Sybil Brand Institute, Virginia Graham helped her
 ,

368 THE FAMILY

new-found friend Sadie Glutz get a job as a prison runner, a job

had been assigned a day or so before. Runners
that Virginia herself
carried messages all over the prison for the authorities. They also
delivered the yellow visitor slips to the various inmates whenever
visitors came to the jail, so that the job seemed to be a happy one.
"I did speak with somebody about it," Miss Graham replied when
she was asked if she helped Sadie get a runner job.

So Sadie and Virginia began working side by side. Much of their

time was spent sitting on Httle stools near what is called "control"
waiting for messages to be needed to be dehvered. They would take
turns delivering them. The hours of their employment were from
7:30 A.M. till 3:30 P.M.
Naturally, at some point they discussed the charges for which
they were incarcerated.
November 4.
Danny De Carlo, Al Springer and the others arrested in Venice
were held over for trial on November 18 on charges of possession
of marijuana, receiving stolen property and theft of automotive
parts. Springer evidently remained in jail while De Carlo was out
on bail.

In the afternoon, Sadie and Virginia were sitting on their stools

near "control," awaiting message chores, when Miss Graham asked
Sadie, "What are you here for"? as if in mild reproach that such a
tender small girl as Sadie should be in jail.

"First degree murder."

"Oh, you are, huh."
Sadie told Virginia a little bit about her charges. She was very
upset about Bobby Beausoleil, because she felt that he had men-
tioned her name to the poKce. She told Virginia Graham that the
police had shown up with a deal for her, if she would testify against
BeausoHel, but Sadie had a plan to act crazy, and it wouldn't be
necessary to do anything at all. Each day would find Sadie telling
Virginia more and more.
November 5.

Christopher Zero died in Venice of a gunshot wound in his head.

It happened 28 Club House Drive while the owner of the house,
at
Mark Ross, was away attending an acting class. A witness to the
grim deed said that Cathy Gillies Vance, Claudia ( Sherry Andrews )
 THE BREAKING OF THE CASE 369

Bruce and others were sitting in the living room when Zero died.
Zero and Little Patti were in a bedroom and, according to the wit-
ness, Little Patti was sleeping on the bed. Country Sue was preparing
Zero a cup of tea in the kitchen. She heard laughter from the room,
tlien a sharp splitting sound, as if a firecracker had gone off.
Little Patti came stumbhng out of the room, saying, "J^st like in
the movies, just like in the movies."
"Then," Sue said, "Bruce went in and picked up the gun on the
bed," an act that caused Sue to yell at him. A fingerprint belonging
to Davis was found by police on the finger guard of the weapon.
Sue held Zero as he lay dying. "I held him till he died. I felt his
pulse. Which was real fast and fluttery." Then the pulse began
to slow down, "and, uh, his face got all purple." Then he died. Little
Patti, long since in hiding, called the police, using the name Linda
Baldwin.
After the police arrived and entered the bedroom where Zero
lay, evidently inside a sleeping bag, Sue walked around on the out-
side of the house to the bedroom window and looked in and she
claimed that his eyes were then closed, his face had whitened and
he had a slight smile on his face.
Vem Plumlee was told by a female family member about the
shooting. "She said, he wanted to know what it was like, you know,
to die. And he had been laughing and everything like that, on an
acid trip."
Vem didn't believe it though. "Acid doesn't make you want to

kill yourself," he commented.

Later Plumlee claimed that family sources revealed the kil-
ler's true identity to him, telling him that Zero may have been one

of those who "knew too much." The family told the police that Zero
had been playing Russian Roulette so the death was ruled a suicide.
It must be noted that Mr. Zero, if he tampered
in fact killed himself,
considerably with the odds of the game because there was only
one empty chamber in the loaded revolver.
A day or so after the demise of Zero aka John Philip Haught,
Country Sue visited Susan Atkins at Sybil Brand Institute where
Sue told Sadie how Zero had rouletted himself. She'd held his hand,
wasn't that groovy, while he died and that he had "climaxed all
over himself."
370 THE FAMILY

Ronni Howard was working in visitor receiving at the Sybil

Brand Jail, so Sadie introduced Sue Bartell to Ronni before Sadie
visited with Sue. When Sue told her about the roulette, Sadie, en-
thusiastic as ever about gore and death, rushed out to tell Ronni
about it, in gruesome detail.
November 6.

At 1:30 P.M. Lieutenant A. H. Burdick of the scientific investiga-

tion division of the Los Angeles police department, the gentleman
who ninety days previous had administered a He detector test to
William Garretson, was in Independence, California, interviewing
LesHe Van Houten. He claimed, in a report to Sergeant Patchett
of the Los Angeles police department robbery-homicide division
that Miss Van Houten indicated to him that there were "some
'things' that caused her to believe that someone from her group
was involved in the Tate homicide but denied knowledge of the
LaBianca homicide. At this time she declined to indicate what she
meant and stated that she wanted to think about it overnight, and
that she was perplexed and didn't know what to do." The next day,
Miss Van Houten had gained her composure and refused to speak
any more about the matter.
The friendly runners, Sadie and Virginia Graham, ran messages
all day till 3:30 p.m., then they went to dinner, returning to the

8000 dormitory about 4:35 p.m. Virginia was all set to go take a
shower when Sadie came over to Virginia's bed and asked if she
could sit and talk for a minute. Virginia said okay. They talked.
Somehow the subject centered at first on LSD, which the thirty-
nine-year-old Virginia had taken for the first time on October 1,
a few days before her arrest. Sadie had taken hundreds of trips,
so it was something in common to talk about.
Then Sadie began to talk about the Hinman matter, confessing
freely to participating in it. Miss Graham reproached Sadie for her
loose talk.
"I told her that I didn't care particularly what she had done, but
I didn't think it was advisable for her to talk so much," Virginia
remembered later. Graham told Sadie she had heard of cases where
people in jail were victims of entrapment after confessing to crimes
to cellmates who later snitched.
 )

THE BREAKING OF THE CASE 371

Sadie replied that she wasn't worried because looking in Vir-

ginia's eyes, she just knew she could trust Virginia. April Fool.
Sadie then began to talk about Death Valley and the people ar-

rested up tliere and the Underground City for the chosen. And she
began to talk about Manson. Then Sadie became visibly excited and
began to talk quickly. What triggered it off? Evidently a general
discussion of crime and murder.
"We were you know, various murders,
talking about crime and,
and all that," remembered Miss Graham.
And Sadie said, in the course of the conversation, according to
Graham, "Well, you know, there's a case right now. They are so
even know what's happening."
far off the track they don't
There was a pause.
"What are you talking about?"
"That one on Benedict Canyon."
"Benedict Canyon?"
"Benedict Canyon, yes!"
"You don't mean Sharon Tate?"
"Yeah," Sadie said. Then she grew excited even more and the
baleful words of chop-mania were spewn out. "You're looking at
the one that did it."
Several times Sadie raised her voice and Graham had to tell her
to lower Out came the horror, the deathly details, the scenarios.
it.

And Miss Graham began to ask questions to determine if Sadie was

really telling the truth, querying Sadie about the rope, what the vic-
tims were wearing, etc., in order to trip her up. But the story seemed
to hold, except that Sadie claimed to have left a palm print on the
living room desk and to have lost her knife in the fray, events un-
mentioned in the media. (And any palm print would aheady cer-
tainly have led to Sadie's arrest.
For just over an hour they talked. At 6 p.m. there was a jail pris-
oner count so it had to stop, but not before Miss Graliam's mind
was filled with an unforgettable mixture of shocking data. Right
away. Miss Graham rushed over to her ten-year friend Ronni How-
ard and told her what Sadie had related. They weren't totally con-
vinced but they planned to try to find out more from Sadie.
"We'll ask her certain questions that only a person would
know
who had been in on it," Miss Howard said to Miss Young. "Try
372 THE FAMILY

and ask her what color the bedroom was, or what the people had
on or anything."
Because Sadie had moved into the bed right next to Ronni, Ronni
was able to begin to talk to Sadie, by night, in privacy. Since the
prisonmatrons counted the sleeping inmates each half hour, it was
possible by means of a system of lookouts to visit each other in-
timately for half-hour periods in between head counts.
November 8.
Virginia Graham didn't want to rouse Sadie's suspicions, so she
waited to bring up the subject of murder. One day, she told Sadie,
approximately two to three days after the bedside conversation,
this:"Hey, you know ." revealing to Sadie that she and her
. .

former husband years before, around 1962, had been to the resi-
dence at 10050 CieloDrive to see about renting it. "Is it still done
in gold and white?" Taking a shot in the dark, because she
had never actually seen the interior.
"Uh huh," Sadie replied.
On November 8 or 9, Sadie came to Virginia's bed with a movie
fan magazine in her hand. The magazine was opened to a picture
of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Sadie seemed jolly as she
disclosed to Virginia a list of future victims, including Richard Bur-
ton, whose groin was to be trimmed of appendage, Elizabeth Tay-
lor, Frank Sinatra, Tom Jones, who was singing over the jail radio

at that moment and Steve McQueen— although Sadie said that she
hated to have to do in Tom Jones because he tvurned her on. She
also expressed enmity for Frank Sinatra, Jr. The most hideous of
deaths Sadie plotted for those on her Hst.
November 12.
Both Susan Atkins and Bob Beausoleil had hearings at the Santa
Monica Superior Court, on the Hinman matter, but before dif-
ferent judges. Sadie appeared before Judge John Merrick, in a
hearing to determine if she should be held for a trial. Her lawyer
was court appointed, a Mr. Gerald M. Condon.
Deputy Guenther of the Los Angeles sheriff's office homicide
division, testified about information obtained from her on October
13 at the Lone Pine sheriff's station house. Officer Guenther also
testified that Sadie told him that she held Mr. Hinman while
Beausoleil stabbed him. Deputy Guenther told of interviewing Kitty
 THE BREAKING OF THE CASE 373
Lutesinger, who evidently had overheard a phone conversation
wherein Susan Atkins had talked about kilhng Hinman, "indicating
that Bobby and Susie had screwed up, that they had to kill Hin-
man." Sadie was angry, to be sure, at Kitty when she heard this.
Judge Merrick found that there was sufficient cause that Miss
Atkins be brought to trial and, accordingly, he set a trial date of
November 26, 1969.
Sadie came back to Sybil Brand Institute an upset woman. Evi-
dently, she had made notes which she showed to Ronni Howard.
Gosh, how could Deputy Guenther testify that she held a 200-pound
man's arms, Uttle old she, while Beausoleil stabbed him? What
she told Graham and Nadell was that she stabbed Hinman, not
Bobby.
It happened that on November 12, Virginia Graham had a
so
parole hearing and it was decided to send her back to Corona State
Prison for Women. Just before she left (after Sadie had returned
fiom her own court appearance) Ronni and Virginia had a short
conference about what to do about Sadie's confession.
Ronni said that she had been talking every night to Sadie, com-
menting, "Boy she weird."
is

Ronni aka Shelley aka Veronica felt that she could ask Sadie the
question which would determine Sadie was telling the truth.
if

Ronni knew what it was Hke to stab someone, since she had once
stabbed her former husband. So Ronni decided to ask Sadie what
it was Hke, physically, to stab someone.
Ronni evidently agreed with Virginia that the key might be to
stari: out by talking about LSD trips, since
that seemed to get Sadie
told Ronni that
going. As Virginia Graham left to go to Corona, she
agent.
if she found out more, she could then go to her parole
down receiving, there
Ronni repHed that, since she worked in
the and
always lots of homicide detectives coming to
jail,
were
Ronni
she'd just one of them. Whereupon, Virginia said that, if
tell
matter, Virginia
decided to teU anybody in authority about the
could be reached at Corona State Prison.
The hour for Hghts-out in dorm 8000 at Sybil Brand
Institute is

Sadie and Ronni Howard

9:30 P.M., and that very night, after taps,
were talking face to face. "Oh, how I got her to tell
me about it; I
trip. You know, because
told you we were talking about an acid
374 THE FAMILY

not too many of the girls take acid in there and I guess I was one
that she could talk to," is how Miss Howard described her method of
getting Sadie to talk.
Ronni had taken twelve acid trips. Sadie told her that there was
nothing that could shock her, nothing that she hadn't done. Then,
upon the subtle prodding of MissHoward, the subject somehow
shifted to butchery and Miss Atkins began to tell all. Ronni scoffed
enough and asked enough questions to force Sadie to reveal all the
details, whispering in the dark dormitory.
Each from November 12 through November 15 or 16,
night,
Shelley Nadell aka Ronni Howard would lie down with Sadie Glutz
in the darkness collecting data. Sadie really upset Ronni, however,
when she told Ronni that the deaths were going to continue and
that theywere going to occur at randoml
Venice detectives interviewed biker Al Springer in the L.A.
County jail. Springer had not been able to raise bail. The poHce
were interviewing anybody who had any connection with the family
in the hope of finding someone with information who would talk.
They hit pay dirt this time, a rare occurrence because of the veil
of fear that kept the family quiet. Springer told them about a con-
versation that Danny De Carlo had allegedly heard from somebody
after the Tate murders, something like "we got five piggies."
The Venice detectives located De Carlo living with his mother,
who was caring for Dan's two-year-old son Dennis. Hesitant to talk,
De Carlo had so many charges against him that pressinre forced
him to loosen his tongue.
Then the LaBianca detectives interviewed both Springer and De
Carlo on November 12, and the road to victory was entered at
last.

November 14.
Testimony was heard against Robert Beausoleil, following jury
selection which took most of the preceding day. Because the case
had not yet become such a media trip for the district attorney, it was
agreed, with trial Judge John Shea concurring, that the death pen-
alty was not being sought. Testimony was heard from twelve prose-
cution witnesses and one defense witness so that the trial was
scheduled to conclude after two days of testimony, with the closing
 THE BREAKING OF THE CASE
375
arguments of defense attorney Leon Salter and prosecuting at-
torney Ross to be had on Tuesday morning, November 18.
The case against Beausoleil, at that time, was circumstantial and
fairlyweak, until the very day that the trial would probably have
ended, when the prosecution learned about De Carlo and the con-
fession that Beausoleil allegedly had made to him.
It is this writer's opinion that the two ladies, Graham-Ciocco and

Nadell- Young entered into a pact between them to milk a confes-

sion out of Susan Atkins, possibly in pursuit of a reward offered
privately by a concerned individual.
Around November 14, Virginia Graham claims to have decided
to talk about Susan Atkins' confession. She filled out a "blue slip" or
request to speak with a staff member and sent it to the psychologist
at Corona State Prison, Dr. Vera Dreiser, with the note:
"Dr. Dreiser, it is speak with you."
very important that I

Dr. Dreiser sent a "blue slip" back indicating that Miss Graham
was to talk with Dr. Owens, Dreiser's administrator. Finally about
twelve days later she told her counselor, Miss Mary Ann Domn,
about the Manson family.
November 16.

Pohce called Gregg Jakobson to make an appointment to see them

about Manson. The next day, several officers including Lieutenant
Helder, the head of the Tate investigation, and Sergeants Patchett
and Gutierrez of the LaBianca investigation came to Jakobson's
house on Beverly Glen for a long interview. A key incentive for
Jakobson to talk, as in the case of De Carlo and Lutesinger, was
that Manson was in jail and off the streets, therefore seemingly un-
able to harm. They asked Jakobson to relate everything he knew
about Manson's group.
At 3:30 P.M. on November 16, an unidentified body of a girl was
found in the Hollywood hills off Mulholland Drive near Skyline
Drive. This girl referred to by the police as Jane Doe number 59,
had been dead for about a day. Again the crime had been com-
mitted with savagery.
November 17.
Hughes
Ronni Howard aka Shelley Joyce Nadell aka Veronica
Connie Scham-
aka Veronica WilHams aka Connie Johnson aka
Con-
peau aka Sharon Warren aka Marjie Carter aka Jean Marie
376 THE FAMILY

ley had an appearance in Santa Monica Superior Court before Judge

Brandt regarding her false prescription charge.
California law allows a defendant a phone call for each separate
court appearance, so Ronni called the Hollywood division of the Los
Angeles police department, because she believed that the Holly-
wood division was handling the Tate investigation. She told them
about Sadie's confession.
After Miss Howard returned to Sybil Brand Jail from court,
L.A.P.D. Special Investigators Brown and Mossman came to Sybil
Brand and talked to Ronni in a private room for about an hour and
a half. She supplied them with most of the information that Sadie
had given her, except she left out some of the names involved.
What made it totally believable to the police was that Sadie had
told Ronni of things only the Idller could have known, such as the
Buck knive that Sadie said she lost in the house.
There are some interesting aspects to Ronni Howard aka Shelley
Nadell snitching to the police. Nadell testified at the trial that she
told certain details to Officers Brown and Mossman but that she
never repeated these details later.
On Monday, November 17, the same day Ronni Howard aka
Shelley Nadell was about Susan Atkins, other of-
telling the police
ficers at L.A. police headquarters were taping a long interview with
Danny De Carlo of the Straight Satans. De Carlo came in volun-
tarily.

The interview ranged over every aspect of the family and De

Carlo's memory was very exact. He told them about the white ny-
lon rope found at the Polanski residence. He talked about the Hin-
man murder, the Shea murder, the death of the sixteen-year-old
boy in Topanga and numerous other crimes.
When interrogating officers suggested that De Carlo, since he was
seen sporting one of Shorty Shea's matched .45's after his death,
may have been involved in the miurder, De Carlo replied, "I got no
put anyone's lights out."
balls to
De Carlo was uptight about reprisals from Manson and Bruce
Davis. The family girls now set up headquarters in Venice where
they had been spotted by the Straight Satans. The police assured
him that Manson was going to remain in jail. But Davis was a free
man.
 THE BREAKING OF THE CASE 377
De
Carlo was interested in obtaining some part of the $25,000
reward in order to put his boy Dennis through mihtary school. The
pohce agreed not to turn De Carlo over to federal authorities on
the gun violation nor to turn him in on a charge filed in Van Nuys.
Late in the afternoon Sergeant Manuel Gutierrez called Deputy
Guenther of tlie Hinman investigation and told him of De Carlo's
statements bragging about Hinman's death. He gave Guenther De
Carlo's home address.
November 18.

In the afternoon Dan De Carlo had a hearing in Santa Monica

Superior Court regarding his theft bust in Venice on October 15.

He agreed to Robert Beausoleil in exchange for the

testify against
Venice charges being dropped. Accordingly, De Carlo waited by
the phone all morning for a phone call summoning him down to

court to testify.

Both prosecution and defense now rested in Robert Beausoleil's

trial and both sides were set to discuss jury instructions with the

judge, when the prosecution became aware of De Carlo. Around

10:30 A.M., the deputy district attorney, Mr. Ross, requested a con-
tinuance till 2 P.M. He told the court that there was an "individual"
with information relative to the case.
That morning Sergeant Whiteley and Deputy Guenther were
handhng a kidnapping case on trial at the Hall of Justice in dowTi-
town L.A. At the noon break the officers sped out to Santa Monica
Superior Court where they apprised the prosecution of De Carlo's
evidence against Beausoleil. Thereafter the policemen returned to
downtown L.A. to continue their testimony in the kidnapping case.
At 2 P.M. the D.A. requested a week's continuance till Monday,
November 24. The motion was granted over the strenuous objec-
tions of Beausoleil's attorney, Mr. Leon Salter. After all, both sides
had rested and now there was to be more evidence given against
Beausoleil.
Evidently only one heutenant and five detectives were still as-
signed to the Polanski residence case. Right away, after
Ronni
Howard aka Shelley Nadell snitched, the full investigation involv-
ing two Heutenants and sixteen men was reactivated. With the
evidence supplied by Nadell, De Carlo, Kitty, Jakobson and others,

it was all over.

378 THE FAMILY

On November 18, 1969, at 2 p.m., District Attorney Evelle

Younger assigned Deputy D.A. Vincent T. Bugliosi and Deputy
D.A. Aaron Stovitz to handle the case. These two energetic gentle-
men proceeded to coordinate the gathering of conclusive evidence
against the murderers.
November 19.
Deputy D.A. Vincent Bugliosi, Sergeant Calkins, Deputy Guen-
ther, Sergeant Whiteley and other officers w^ent to the Spahn Ranch
to gather data. They w^ere looking for .22-caliber shell casings and
also for knives. They had not located yet the Buntline Special
turned over by Steve Weiss on Labor Day and stored by the police.
The officers obtained George Spahn's consent to search the ranch.
Sergeant Lee, of the special investigation division of the L.A. police
department, found twenty-two .22-caliber shell casings around 100
yards south of the Western set and also a quarter of a mile up the
canyon toward Hialeah Springs. White panels were placed on the
gully where the .22-caliber casings were found so that a plane
overhead could take aerial photos.
Deputy D.A. Aaron Stovitz, possessing a search warrant for the
green and white bus, traveled to the Barker Ranch to acquire data,
leading a team of L.A. police officers.
Various law enforcement officials in the Inyo County area, nota-
bly Sergeant Dave Steuber of the California Highway Patrol, pre-
pared detailed reports regarding the Mansonoids. Officer Steuber
produced, on November 20, a skillful document entitled: SUM-
MARY OF THE ARRESTS AND THE CRIMES COMMITTED
IN THE DEATH VALLEY AREA OF INYO COUNTY BY A
GROUP OF HIPPIES KNOWN AS "THE FAMILY" UNDER
THE LEADERSHIP OF CHARLES MILES MANSON.
November 21.
Sergeant Phil Sartuche of L.A.P.D., robbery-homicide, who had
been a part of the resourceful LaBianca team of detectives, col-
lected from Inyo County courthouse a large quantity of boots, moc-
casins, shoes and clothing seized at the Barker Ranch. Officials had
not yet located the bloody attire used by the murderers and pos-
sibly wanted to match the boots and shoes v^th the new heel print
on the Polanski sidewalk. All items were turned over to Sergeant
Granado for analysis at the L.A.P.D. crime lab.
 THE BREAKING OF THE CASE
379
Also taken into custody by Sergeant Sartuche was that "army
stylepack" containing the sixty-four movie star magazines, the copy
of Stranger hi a Strange Land, the Federal Reserve money bag, etc.
On the evening of November two Scientology students,
21, 1969,
one of them a girl friend of Bmce Davis, were murdered near a
Scientology commune called Thetan Manor located at 1032 South
Bonnie Brae. The victims, particularly the girl, were unspeakably
slashed.
Doreen Gaul, twenty-one— a Scientology "clear"— from Albany,
New York, and James Sharp, fifteen, of Crystal City, Missouri, were
living in the Westlake area near L.A. Scientology headquarters in
separate residences. Miss Gaul hved at Thetan Manor, an old three-
story Victorian house then filled mainly with students of Scientology.
Several humans connected with a voodoo group lived there also,
according to an ofiBcial of the Church of Scientology who investi-
gated the murders.
They were last seen alive at 7:30 p.m. hitchhiking in front of Vons
Market. Their desecrated bodies were found four hours later at
11:30 P.M. dumped in a nearby alleyway lined with pastel-color
garages lettered with strange and ornate teen-gang spray-paint
writing called placa.
November 23.
Sergeants Patchett and McGann of L.A.P.D. in the evening inter-
viewed Shelley Nadell at the Sybil Brand Institute. The next day,
Nadell was removed from the dormitory where she slept alongside
Susan Atkins. Nadell could not continue to stay in the same dormi-
tory lest it appear to the court that she had attempted to entrap
Miss Atkins into a confession.
November 24.
The trial of Robert Beausoleil for the murder of Gary Hinman
ended with Danny De Carlo being allowed to testify. With De

Carlo's added testimony, the Beausoleil jury went into deliberation

and after considerable debate was unable to come to a decision.
The jury remained locked 8 to 4 for conviction so a mistrial was de-
clared. This was unfortunate for Beausoleil, for in the retiial of
April 1970, the district attorney decided to seek tlie death penalty
and ultimately secured it.
The night of November 24, a newscaster for Channel 11 in Los
38o THE FAMILY

Angeles announced, after a tip to one of his sound men from a de-
"Break was coming soon in the Sharon Tate murder
tective, that a
case." The press entered the investigation of Manson several weeks
before the December i arrests. Reporters checked facts with the
police and the police, in turn, learned details from the newsmen.
An oflBcial of Los Angeles radio station KFWB reported that his
staflF uncovered a link between the Hinman case and the Tate case

in the middle of October 1969.

One radio station picked up on the family after it noticed that
an unusual number of L.A. sheriffs deputies were filling out travel
sheets for Independence, CaHfornia where the killers were in-
carcerated.
By November 19, the Los Angeles Times had a general knowl-
edge of the Manson family and had a page-one story already writ-
ten a week before Police Chief Davis announced the breaking of
the case to a press conference.
TV camera and light crews who roam began
L.A. tragedy sites
to get informed, "in strictest confidence," that the case had been
solved. Helicopters bearing TV camera crews showing up in Goler
Wash. CBS considered venturing to the Barker Ranch via dune
buggy but heard that the family was armed and that they employed
walky-talky warning devices. A helicopter was used instead.
Pressure mounted for the solution to be publicly aired. On the
other hand, the press refrained from announcing details because
of the possibiHty of further murders or suicides or that crucial evi-
dence would be destroyed.
Some police ofiBcers have expressed privately that, had the ar-
rests been held off for a while, "we could have got them all." One
key homicide investigator stated that the murder of Jane Doe 59
probably would have been solved had the arrests been delayed. But
the police knew about Zero's death, and about possible connections
with murders in Bishop, Ukiah, Topanga, etc., so there was great
concern to get such maniacs immediately off the streets.
November 25.
Sergeant Gutierrez of L.A.P.D. Robbery-Homicide visited the
Spahn Ranch. There he talked toJuan Flynn, who showed Gutier-
rez a cabinet door in his trailer bearing "various writings." Flynn
allowed the door itself to be removed from the cabinet and brought
 THE BREAKING OF THE CASE 381
into custody. The writing on the door was as follows: "1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
6, 7— all good children go to heaven— Helter Skelter." At the bot-
tom was the inverted Yoni-sign or peace symbol.
of the writing
Pohce reinterviewed Mrs. Nadell-Young-Howard-Conley-Hughes-
Williams-Lopez at Sybil Brand Jail and taped it. Police informed
Mrs. Nadell that there were perhaps two or three others with whom
it would be necessary to share the reward. Ronni asked the cops,

or suggested to the cops, that they send her back in to get more
information from Sadie, for if Ronni had returned to Sadie's bed-
side, it would have meant more data.
"You mean to say that you couldn't forget your code of ethics or
something like this because this is something out of the ordinary,
really."
To which Sergeant Patchett told her, "We have to take this thing
to court to prosecute these people and to do so we can't put you
back in there; because you will be our agent then."
On November 25 Los Angeles police department took a half
dozen prisoners (Clem, Gypsy, Ouish, Brenda, Snake and Leslie)
from Independence, Cahfomia to Los Angeles, on subpoenas from
the grand jury. The end was near. Manson was left behind in In-
dependence.
All prisoners were intensively interviewed to attempt to get in-
formation incriminating Manson but not even the words "gas
chamber" seemed to loosen their tongues. Susan Atkins' confession
be used to convict Miss Atkins. It could
to her cellmates could only
not be used against Watson, Manson, Krenwinkel, Kasabian and
the others, because of strict rules pertaining to the admissibility of
so-called cellmate confessions.
November 26.
Sadie/Susan had a court hearing in Santa Monica on the Hinman
matter.
Richard Condon was reheved of his job as court-appointed at-
torney and Richard Caballero, a former assistant district attorney,
was appointed to represent Miss Atkins, at county expense. Mr.
Caballero had a long, lengthy discussion with Atkins. She was evi-
dently confronted with the considerable evidence against her from
her ceUmates. She was made to believe that the evidence was over-
whelming against her, Manson and the others. Somehow she was
382 THE FAMILY

convinced by her attorney that only if she made a full confession

to all the murders and cooperated with the police could she hope
to avoid the gas chamber. She did not know that in fact her cooper-
ation would be the evidence-in-chief at that time against the others.
Now the case was truly broken.
In the morning of the same day that Susan Atkins agreed to con-
fess, her former cellmate Virginia Graham related to Miss Mary Ann

Domn, Graham's counselor at the Corona State Prison for Women,

what Miss Atkins had told her about the homicide.
The same day, at 3:15 p.m. Sergeant Mike Nielsen of the Los
Angeles pohce department taped an interview with Miss Graham
at the Corona State Prison.
November 28.
Sergeant Mike Nielsen of L.A.P.D. robbery-homicide division,
called Joseph Krenwinkel and asked where his daughter Patricia
was. He told them that Miss Krenwinkel was to be found in Mobile,
Alabama. She would be arrested several days later in Mobile where
she was staying with her aunt.
On November 30, Charles Denton Watson was picked up in Cope-
ville, Texas for murder.
At 2 P.M. on December1, Los Angeles Police Chief Edward Davis

held a press conference in an auditorium at Parker Center, the L.A.

poHce headquarters, where he announced the solution of the Tate-
LaBianca-Sebring-Folger-Frykowski-Parent homicides.
Facing about fifteen microphones and a knot of jousting camera-
men. Chief Edward Davis announced that 8,750 hours of police
work brought down the house of Manson.
It was over.

Ahead were the grand jury indictments, the scandals involving

the publication of Susan Atkins' confession, the legal maneuvers,
the weirdness, the threats, Beausoleil's second trial putting him on
Death Row, the Tate-LaBianca trial putting Susan Atkins, Patricia
Krenwinkel, Leslie Van Houten and Manson on the Row. Tex Wat-
son's trial, following a period in Atascadero State Mental Hospital,
is forthcoming. Also in progress, as of this writing, is the trial of
Steve "Clem" Grogan, Bruce Davis and Charles Manson for the mur-
der of Shorty Shea and the trial of Bruce Davis and Charles Man-
son for the murder of Gary Hinman.
 THE BREAKING OF THE CASE
383
Without a doubt the trials will continue. For justice demands it.

And only when all these evil aflFairs are known and exposed can
the curse of ritual sacrifice, Helter Skelter and satanism be removed
fiom the coasts and mountains and deserts of California.

5N
,
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 (continued from front flap)

family's quarters at
the Spahn Ranch, camped
out in Inyo County and
Death Valley, the desert
hideaways of Manson and his associates, in-
vestigated occult societies in Los Angeles who
A'
conducted various forms of sacrificial rituals in
the mountains and beaches of California, inter-
viewed members of motorcycle gangs whose
paths crossed Manson's and members of his
family.

Brilliantly re-creating the climate and imagi-

nation of Charles Manson and his family, Ed
Sanders demonstrates that their extraordinary
adventures are not the isolated phenomenon
that received so much attention in the media
but bear strong and definite connections to
the culture of the 1960's and 1970's. The culture
of Hollywood, drugs, the occult, rock music,
encounter groups —the passions and madness
that define us all.

About the author

Ed Sanders was born in Kansas City, Missouri,

on August 17, 1939. He attended New York Uni-
versity and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts
degree in Greek. Poet, editor, minstrel, owner
of a bookstore, he is married and has one child.

Printed in the U.S.A.

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