A A M Ma an ns so on n M Mu ur rd de er rs s E Es ss sa ay y

A Labyrinth13 Chapbook






















Copyright 2008 by Curt Rowlett

All rights reserved. All materials contained in this book are
protected by United States copyright law and may not be
reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or
broadcast without the prior written permission of the author.

Front cover & interior art Copyright 2008 by Chadwick St. John,
www.inkshadows.com.

2008 1st Edition. Edited & formatted by Curt Rowlett and Melissa
Plotsky. Published via Lulu.com. Front and back cover layout by
Curt Rowlett.
















A A M Ma an ns so on n M Mu ur rd de er rs s E Es ss sa ay y



A Labyrinth13 Chapbook



Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ................................................................................. 1

Introduction ............................................................................................ 7

A Man Called Manson .......................................................................... 12

The Roots of Mansons Philosophy ................................................... 27

Rumor Has It ......................................................................................... 38

An Interesting Comparison Between Jesus Christ and Charles
Manson ................................................................................................. 50

Revelation 9 .......................................................................................... 53

About the Author ................................................................................. 56

Footnotes.............................................................................................. 57



1
















Acknowledgments

Special thanks go to the following fine human beings for their assistance
in creating this work:

John Aes-Nihil: For invaluable information concerning the many Manson
rumors and related minutiae.

Melissa Plotsky: For her help in proofreading, editing, and formatting this
book.

Chadwick St. John: For the exceptional cover art and interior images.


2
3




Charlie was always saying that fear was beautiful. l must have heard
him tell the Family fifty times they ought to live in a constant state of fear.
To Charlie, fear was the same thing as awareness. The more fear you
had, the more awareness you had. The more awareness, the more love.
You know what it's like? Its like when you're really all scared out. You
know, and you come to Now. Well, when you're at Now, you're totally
conscious. The more fear the better. Charlie said that death was
beautiful because people fear death. Fear really turns Charlie on.

Dialog from the 1976 television movie, Helter Skelter



Have you ever seen the coyote in the desert? Watching, tuned in,
completely aware. Christ on the cross, the coyote in the desert - its the
same thing, man. The coyote is beautiful. He moves through the desert
delicately, aware of everything, looking around. He hears every sound,
smells every smell, sees everything that moves. Hes in a state of total
paranoia, and total paranoia is total awareness.

Quote from Charles Manson about getting the fear, as published in the
June 1970 issue of Rolling Stone magazine



To save the people from themselves would take a greater fear than the
earth has ever seen.

Charles Manson



What is these places, that hide behind faces, that act like Im just a
demon?

Lyric from the Charles Manson song, Riding On Your Fears


4
5
6
7
Introduction

There will never be another crime case quite like that of the
Charles Manson murders. Other infamous murder cases, such as the
unsolved Jack the Ripper, Black Dahlia and Zodiac murders, contain
enough elements to keep armchair researchers guessing for many years
to come; indeed, there are numerous websites and books devoted solely
to all of those crimes.

But it is my personal opinion that, due to the large number of
unanswered questions, lingering mysteries, and unparalleled weirdness,
the Manson murders tops them all.

The reason why the Manson case continues to hold such great
fascination after nearly 40 years has everything to do with the unique
parameters in which those crimes occurred, that being the rise and
proliferation of the whole Haight-Ashbury hippie phenomenon, which by
itself alone, was one of the most singular events in human history. And it
is precisely because the murders occurred in the midst of the hippie
explosion that makes the Manson saga so exceptional in that the
Manson family probably would not have flourished, nor had the same
sort of impact if the murders had occurred in any other combination of
factors. And that observation is merely one element among many that
makes this case such an exceptional moment in human history.

I was only twelve years old when the Manson murders occurred.
But I remember vividly the sensational and lurid press coverage, the
horror and disbelief of my parents, neighbors and friends, the
subsequent mistrustful looks and outright hostility aimed at anyone who
even remotely looked like a hippie. But being young and fascinated with
anything and everything connected with the hippie movement, I read
everything that I could get my young hands on about the Manson family.
(Even at that young age, I had already begun to develop an interest in
true crime and occult studies, an attraction that has not subsided to this
day).

My original, youthful enthrallment for the Manson case has never
diminished. Since that time, I have read every book and magazine
article, watched every movie and television special, visited every
website, and talked to as many people as I have had access to about the
Manson murders. Over the years, I have found myself returning time
and time again to the story because, just when I think that I have heard
everything there is to know about the case, something new and exciting
will surface. Charles Manson remains quite an enigmatic person and
though we know considerably more today about him as a person and the
inner workings of the family as a group (thanks largely to independent
researchers), there are still many major areas of uncertainty surrounding
the case.

8
It is not within the scope of this essay to provide you, the reader,
with all of the details surrounding the Manson family and the crimes that
they committed, but rather to focus on those areas that either remain in
obscurity or where unanswered questions linger. Accordingly, I am
working under the assumption that readers already have a basic
familiarity with the core elements of the case. In the event that this is not
the situation with you, I would suggest reading the following books on the
Manson murders in order to familiarize yourself with the basic elements
of the case:

Vincent Bugliosis Helter Skelter - for the prosecutorial side of the case.
Be forewarned that this book definitely has its flaws. The book is, in
essence, an anti-counterculture morality play. Close scrutiny by
independent researchers has revealed that some of its facts are either
erroneous or slanted toward the theory that Manson committed the
murders solely to ignite a black-white race war called Helter Skelter.
Many people believe that Helter Skelter was something that Manson truly
believed in, but that it served primarily as a way for him to program and
control his followers. Another theory is that the murders may have
actually been committed as revenge for a drug deal gone bad between
Tate homicide victims Voytek Frykowski, Abigail Folger, and Jay Sebring
on one side, and either Manson himself or his followers Charles Tex
Watson and Linda Kasabian on the other. Yet another premise
suggested is that both the Tate and LaBianca murders were committed
as a way to free former Manson associate Bobby Beausoleil from jail by
committing copycat murders similar to the Gary Hinman slaying that
Beausoleil had been arrested for. Finally, there are those who believe
(myself included) that the motive was a combination of all of the
aforementioned factors. Those disclaimers aside, Helter Skelter is still
very well written and remains as an important and often vital factual
record of the Manson murders in many ways. Just be advised that this
tome is very much not the first and final word on the Manson murders.

Nikolas Schrecks The Manson File - for the pro-Manson side of the
case. This book is a bit outdated now, but still has interesting
information relating to some of the more obscure angles in the Manson
saga, including essays and quotations written by or attributed to Manson
himself, sidebar issues of interest that include many strange
coincidences and synchronicities, and discussions of noteworthy people
who were on the scene at the time of the crimes.

Ed Sanders The Family - for the ultra-conspiratorial side of the case.
Although this book is a bit too wacky at times, it still has worth as a
research guide, particularly for the background information that it
supplies regarding Mansons early years prior to the murders. Just be
prepared to take many things found in it with several large grains of salt,
especially wherever the author attempts to make satanic cult and other
occult-type connections to the Manson crimes. (Look for the rare first
edition copy with the chapter on the Process Church in it).
9

Other books and film that I recommend would include Paul
Watkins My Life With Charles Manson, Karlene Faiths The Long Prison
Journey of Leslie Van Houten, Jess Bravins Squeaky: The Life and
Times of Lynette Alice Fromme, the 1972 documentary film Manson by
Laurence Merrick & Robert Hendrickson, and the television documentary
A&E Biography, Charles Manson - Journey into Evil.

Additionally, one should not forget to check the Internet for both
historical and real-time information supplied by the various Manson
websites, message boards and blogs. There are numerous good ones
out there that are worth your time and any good Internet search engine
will take you right to them.

One thing that I want to make clear to the readers of this essay is
that I do not consider myself to be either pro-Manson or anti-Manson.
To date, most of those who have written about the Manson case have
taken either a pro or anti-Manson stance, with the majority weighted
toward the anti side. This essay differs from those past efforts in that I
strive to take a sort of middle ground. I felt that I could not write this
work using any other method and within these pages, I strive to remain
as honest to that ideal as possible. To quote Virginia Woolfe, If you do
not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people.
Understandably, some readers may find this approach to be
disconcerting, but I am at all times pro-truth. This middle ground
approach of mine is, in essence, a willingness to give credit where credit
is due. I am reminded here of yet another quote, this one from George
Orwell, who wrote, In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth
becomes a revolutionary act.

Why the middle ground? I have studied this case for years and
have come to the realization that Manson is not the ultimate bogeyman
that the media has made him out to be, nor is he the infallible, super
mystically-attuned, guru of gurus as others would have you believe. The
truth lies somewhere balanced in between those two extremes. Within
these pages, I do at times place myself in the position where I play
Devils advocate (no pun intended) to Mansons ideas for arguments
sake. There are also instances where it may appear that an admiration
on my part is showing through where I am trying to convey to the reader
how I think Mansons thought processes work. And I will admit there are
aspects of Mansons philosophy that - at times - I actually agree with and
occasionally, those beliefs even parallel my own. This is because I truly
believe that anyone who undertakes a genuinely objective and
dispassionate examination of Mansons beliefs will find that there are
certain instances where his insight into things existential and
metaphysical are actually quite remarkable. As noted above, I have
studied this case closely over many years and know enough about the
same abstract ideas to be willing to admit when and where Mansons
10
observations about society, life and philosophy are valid. To deny that
validity does, in a very real sense, play directly into Mansons hands.

Additionally, I also believe that, to some degree, the trial of
Manson and his three female codefendants was as much for the murders
they were accused of committing, as it was for the alternative lifestyle
they engaged in and the anti-establishment stance that they held. (For a
full discussion of that topic, see The Summer of Love Breeds a Season
of Hate: The Effects of the Manson Murders on Public Perceptions of the
Hippie Lifestyle, which appears as Chapter 11 in my book Labyrinth13:
True Tales of the Occult, Crime & Conspiracy).

Finally, I cannot stress enough that I am strongly opposed to all
forms of violence (except in the most extreme circumstances or in self-
defense) and that I abhor any forms of racism or misogyny. Basing my
judgment on all of the evidence I have seen to date, those are all things
that Manson appears to either believe in, indulge in, tolerate and/or has
espoused in the past. It is precisely there that Manson and I part
company.

This essay seeks to explore some provocative, yet intriguing
questions, specifically, could Manson be considered a true counter-
culture revolutionary? Was he actually a well-intentioned, but ultimately
misunderstood guru whose followers took it upon themselves to murder
for him? Or was he, as the prosecutor at his murder trial portrayed him,
simply a crazed cult leader and career criminal? It is my contention that
Manson is a varied combination of all of those things. Just exactly where
it all begins, converges, morphs, and ends is among the many enigmas
of this case.

What follows here are simply my musings on certain aspects of
the case, a few interesting anecdotes, rumors, speculations, and urban
legends about the Manson saga.


11
12
A Man Called Manson

That Manson inspired and continues to inspire fear in the
establishment is a given, and when one begins to seek to truly
understand exactly what Mansons beliefs actually consist of, it becomes
immediately apparent that inspiring and maintaining such fear is at that
philosophys core.

Fear Turns Charlie On

Manson believes fear is a beneficial thing. He preached to his
followers that developing and maintaining a high level of fear was central
to the effort of becoming a super-aware or tuned-in person. Manson
talked often about getting the fear, a state of being that he described as
being in a condition of total paranoia because, in Mansons own words,
total paranoia is total awareness. Manson further described the person
who is totally aware as having Come to Now, a level of consciousness
where - like the desert coyotes of Death Valley that he held in such high
regard - one hears every sound, smells every smell, sees everything
that moves. Such a person who achieves that level of awareness is, as
described by Manson, in the thought. (It is important to understand that
the condition of total awareness described by Manson as Coming to
Now, is in fact indistinguishable from the phenomenon of ego death and
rebirth commonly experienced by both LSD users and certain Zen
Buddhists, who have achieved the enlightenment that accompanies the
egoless state of being. This concept is discussed in detail later in this
essay).

But it appears that Manson, a career criminal and sociopath, was
not simply trying to lead his followers toward mere spiritual illumination;
he was in fact, also conditioning them to become indifferent to inflicting
pain and death. Manson family member Tex Watson, the chief killer in
the Tate-LaBianca murders, describes the Manson process of ego death
this way:

Charlie had made us see that once you die to your ego,
once you strip yourself down to a perfect being -- all
body, like some monkey or a coyote free in the wild, not
thinking, not willing once you do that, fear doesnt exist
anymore. Youve already died, everything except that
animal body of yours, so even death cant frighten you.
You are free. Free to live, free to die. Free to kill.
1


It must be noted that Mansons personal moral code has deep
roots in his adherence to the sort of social Darwinist, law of the jungle
ethic that is the key to surviving in Americas toughest prisons, where
having a healthy fear can often make the difference between life and
death. (In fact, one of the many keys to understanding what makes
Manson tick is to recognize that he holds that prison ethic in very high
13
regard and considers that lesson to be one of the most important of his
fathers. Manson is fond of talking about how he grew up fatherless and
as such, he looked for fatherly mentoring wherever he could find it. He
has often been quoted as saying that certain male figures that he met in
prison were one of my fathers or that anything that teaches an ultimate
lesson, such as the horrors of war, is a father).

Manson taught his followers that animals were perfect creatures
that lived always in Now and he urged them to cultivate an animal -like
amorality. (Amorality is generally described as the quality of having no
concept of right or wrong, whether it is the result of a persons early
development or because of some intrinsic quality, such as a diagnosis of
antisocial personality disorder. For the purpose of this discussion, I am
also including those who simply do not subscribe to any popular moral
code. The latter scenario seems to be, at least in part, Mansons modus
operandi, in that he consciously has chosen to nurture his strong
individualistic inclinations, while simultaneously not seeking to be
included into any commonly-accepted structure of ethical behavior). In
Mansons view, animals were incapable of sin and that when an animal
kills, it is something done in complete innocence or, simply as a
manifestation of the perfection that is a characteristic of the natural order
of the Universe.

Messages in the Music

The Beatles White Album, which Manson felt had the greatest
significance as far as the messages he claimed to be receiving are
concerned, was released in December of 1968. According to Tex
Watson, Manson first began talking about Helter Skelter in early January
of 1969 and that subsequently, the Manson family began to make the
first physical preparations for Helter Skelter that winter.

That Manson claimed to hear hidden messages in the Beatles
music is not quite the completely far-fetched notion or singular event that
one might at first assume it to be.

All popular music during the 1960s was, for the greater part,
heavily censored by the music industry. In order to get around that
censorship and insure radio play, artists often made oblique references
to taboo subjects such as sex and drug use in their songs.

But those in the hip drug culture of the times, the tuned-in
people, as Manson often referred to them, knew how to look for such
references, most of which were not immediately obvious to straight
society. Examples of these hidden messages in popular songs of the
day include, Puff the Magic Dragon by Peter, Paul & Mary (alleged to be
about marijuana smoking), Mellow Yellow by Donovan (which references
a hippie joke about smoking banana peels to get high), White Rabbit by
Jefferson Airplane (a thinly-disguised reference to the psychedelic
14
experience), Dr. Robert, With a Little Help From My Friends, and Lucy in
the Sky With Diamonds by The Beatles (commonly thought to be
references to amphetamine, marijuana, and LSD use respectively).

Worth mentioning in this same discussion is the whole Paul
McCartney is Dead phenomenon: Beginning around September or
October of 1969 and lasting for a period of almost six weeks, many fans
of Beatle music found themselves deeply immersed in the bizarre rumor
that Paul was actually dead and had been secretly replaced by a
mysterious double. This early example of a modern urban legend
claimed that the Beatles had deliberately made references to Pauls
death by recording clues about it directly into their songs and that
there were other clues hidden in plain sight on the bands album covers
and in their publicity photos. Fans of Beatles music spent hours listening
to their records and studying the album covers looking for these hidden
messages about Pauls alleged death.
2


The tale above also illustrates just how much of an overall
impact the Beatles had on the hip youth culture of the times and that the
influence they had on their fans should not be underestimated.

The Beatles were also among the first rock and roll musicians to
experiment with LSD and many of their songs were written about the
experience. A sampling of LSD-inspired Beatles songs would include:
She Said She Said, Tomorrow Never Knows (with lyrics directly inspired
from LSD guru Timothy Learys book The Psychedelic Experience), Lucy
In The Sky With Diamonds, Within You Without You, Strawberry Fields
Forever, All You Need Is Love, The Inner Light, Across The Universe,
and Rain (a song with lyrics that were inspired after John Lennon read
philosopher Alan Watts account of his own LSD experiences).

Although most of the LSD references in the songs listed above
were rather indirect, people who had used LSD themselves were able to
instantly recognize what the Beatles were alluding to, while those who
were not tuned in, i.e., who had not experienced the effects of LSD
themselves, could not.

That Manson found corroboration for his own LSD-inspired
philosophy in the lyrics of the Beatles songs might explain why he was
so willing to believe that there might be hidden references to other
secrets there. The Beatles songs during that particular time period were
full of lyrics that paid tribute to the hippie ideal of practicing peace and
believing in love as an all-powerful tool for conquering adversity. Those
songs also reflected the same hippie ideas about dropping out or more
precisely, living free and conducting ones life in a manner that, although
often directly at odds with the current establishment ideals of how to live,
was seen as something both positive and progressive in nature.

15
Manson has often said that he is not to blame for what the
Beatles music was telling the kids to do, in essence, implying that it
was the message in the music that was the impetus behind the violence
and not anything that he had personally said or done himself. But to
make such a claim is really simplistic in the extreme as I find it hard to
believe that such radical notions as expressed by true hippie idealism
were actually, in any form, shape or fashion, responsible for the brutality
that followed. The vast majority of young people from that era quite
obviously never thought that the Beatles music was some call to violent
action, nor was any other pop music of the time truly considered as such.

But perhaps there is a precedent to that suggestion: one could
possibly argue that the violent sixties radical group known as the
Weather Underground might be a known exception to this idea, given the
fact that their very name was taken from the lyric of the Bob Dylan song
Subterranean Homesick Blues, although that is, admittedly, probably
stretching things a bit. (The Weathermen also had an interesting use of
LSD, in that they often required their members to take LSD during group
sessions as a means to identify possible infiltrators into that group).
3


In the end, it seems more likely that there was something deep in
the psyche of Manson himself that caused him to misconstrue and
scramble any Beatles messages into such a weird scenario as Helter
Skelter.

The Mysterious Motive for Murder

The exact formula or elements that upped the ante on fear and
paranoia surrounding Manson and his followers and ultimately leading to
the murders is not known to a 100% certainty. Just prior to the murders,
Manson underwent a radical and very negative change, a fact that has
never been fully explained, but which has been noted by many others
who knew Manson at that time. It has been speculated that Manson,
possibly out of his frustration at being a failed artist and/or because of a
drug burn allegedly involving one of the Tate victims (a theory that is
discussed in detail below), decided to drop the peace-loving hippie
veneer and simply reverted back to his original criminal roots. Combined
with his innate hatred for society fostered by years in the establishments
prisons, and his seemingly driving need for revenge, we are talking about
a rather potent combination.

This sudden change in Manson at that time is one of the
lingering mysteries in the case. As some family members who broke
free from Manson would later explain, Manson was not always the
overly-paranoid person he was later to become. Indeed, former family
members have described their own confusion and wonder about the
negative changes that seemed to suddenly appear in Manson late in
1969, turning him from a person who was once truly about love,
16
understanding and unity, into a person who suddenly became completely
obsessed with fear, death, and murder.

Paul Watkins, a Manson follower who would later write a book
about his experiences with Manson and the family, had this to say about
Manson prior to the turn to violence:

[T]he public has always known Charles Manson as a
murderer. They did not meet him, as I did, on that
evening in March 1968 in Topanga Canyon. When I met
him, there was no violence in the Family, no talk of Helter
Skelter; in fact, it was the complete opposite, Charlie's
love then was real. It had some integrity. But the public
met Charlie through the media only after the murders; by
then, the whole story was tainted with blood.
4


And, while discussing the negative changes that later came over
Manson with filmmakers Robert Hendrickson and Laurence Merrick,
Watkins would lament on camera how, Everything that everything was
for was always for fucking; thats what it was all for; thats what
everything we did was for, until he [Manson] got on his Helter Skelter trip.
Then everything seemed to change.
5


One part of the motive may have been Mansons desire to strike
back at record producer Terry Melcher for his failure to come through on
recording Mansons music for an album, an event that Manson allegedly
felt would help to kick-start Helter Skelter.

Paul Watkins also described the sudden changes that came over
Manson just prior to, and immediately after Mansons trip to Los Angeles
from their Barker Ranch residence in order to secure a record deal:

One night during a rap, he [Manson] paused in the
middle of a sentence and stared straight ahead, as
though addressing a presence above our heads.

I came to you, he said softly, his face wearing a
distracted expression, as a deer in the forest. I came to
you with wonder in my eyes and love in my heart for you.
For you were man and you were God and I could see it.
I came to you with love. And you slaughtered me.

Though it didnt register consciously at the time, his
statement was a prophetic one. It was the first sign that
the flower child in Charlie Mansion was dying, wilting
away in Death Valley by day, freezing by night. Maybe
the scorpion had returned to the valley of death where
he belonged.

17
Then, all at once, things changed dramatically. Charlie
returned from L.A. and a meeting with Dennis Wilson
and Greg Jakobson to discuss the chance of our
recording an album. He appeared agitated, yet
enthusiastic. He said there was more violence in the
city; that the blacks were on the verge of full-scale
revolution. Its just a matter of time, he declared. The
shits gonna come down . . . its gonna come down hard.
What was different, however, was Charlies attitude.
Instead of advocating passive resistance, instead of
seeking to remain aloof from the impending conflict, he
began speaking of the Familys role in it.

What we need to do is program the young love to split;
when the scene comes down, theyre gonna need
someplace to go. Well, we got that place. Were here,
and we can show the young love where to come. And
we can show them with music.
6


That record deal never materialized, and along with that failure,
an integral part of Mansons master plan for launching Helter Skelter was
thwarted.

The final provocation that seemed to push everything over the
edge can probably be traced to the shooting of a black man named
Bernard "Lottsapoppa" Crow. According to former followers and
researchers who have written about the case, Mansons fears became
even more fixated on the black-white race war scenario in the aftermath
of the Crowe shooting (a crime that Manson was directly involved with as
he was the one who actually pulled the trigger). The Crowe shooting
occurred on July 1, 1969; approximately three weeks later on July 27,
the murder of musician and drug dealer Gary Hinman took place. And
after Manson learned that Bobby Beausoleil had been arrested for the
Hinman murder on August 8th, the Tate-LaBianca murders followed on
August 9th and 10th.

After the Crowe shooting, the entire scene suddenly became
infused and guided by Mansons own personal paranoia and
subsequently, he began to tell his followers that the End of the
World/Final Apocalypse called Helter Skelter was at hand.

The Tate-LaBianca murders hit Los Angeles like a bombshell
and thanks to the high level of sensational and often lurid press
coverage, the story also reverberated throughout all of America and the
rest of the world. (In order to try to illustrate the impact that the Manson
murders had on America at the time they occurred, try to imagine what it
would be like if the same thing were to happen today, where the home of
some prominent A List Hollywood figure was invaded and the
18
inhabitants brutally murdered by a group of killers who were members of
some controversial modern youth subculture).

Apocalypse Now in the Heart of Darkness

Writers are fond of pointing out how Manson has become the
worlds numero uno icon of fear (perhaps even more so than modern
terrorists such as Osama bin Laden) and no study of the case would be
complete without an analysis and commentary on the subject. As
Disinformation author and webmaster Ralph Metzger so succinctly puts
it, The continuing fascination with Manson is testament enough to his
enduring iconic legacy as societal bogeyman.
7


Indeed, to society, Manson certainly represented, and still
represents, the worst of all cultural fears possible: that of the amoral
individual who is a renegade and no longer a company man or team
player; one who operates beyond what society considers to be decent
restraint and control; a person who lives by his own self-created rules.
All of those are the same characteristics that are most notable in the
madness/genius of the Kurtz characters in both Heart of Darkness and
Apocalypse Now (respectively, Joseph Conrads classic novella and the
film adaptation of the same by Francis Ford Coppola).

Both Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now convey the idea
that every human soul inherently has a savage, evil side that remains
repressed by civilized society and that atrocities are often easily
committed when one culture comes into contact with another; that there
are boundaries that civilized man should not cross without running the
risk of becoming like their enemies in the end. In a vein quite similar to
the Manson saga, the Kurtz figure in both stories is worshipped like a
god by local indigenous people and lone individuals who come into
contact with him praise Kurtz genius for having enlarged their minds;
where extreme brutality is admired for being perfect, genuine, complete,
crystalline, pure logic; where Kurtz refusal to play by the rules of
normal society is described as totally beyond the pale of any
acceptable human conduct.
8


Apocalypse Now is a film about the Vietnam War where an
American Army Colonel named Kurtz has become dissatisfied with how
the war is being fought. He forms his own army and goes deep into the
jungles of Cambodia to fight the war his way and by his own rules. The
subplot of the film closely examines the dark nether regions of the
human psyche and poses important questions concerning the limits that
civilized men will allow themselves to go to in order to combat evil. In
one of the movies most memorable scenes, Marlon Brando as Colonel
Kurtz relates the following story, one that could easily have been uttered
by Charles Manson:

19
I've seen horrors . . . horrors that you've seen. But you
have no right to call me a murderer. You have a right to
kill me. You have a right to do that, but you have no
right to judge me. It's impossible for words to describe
what is necessary to those who do not know what horror
means. Horror. Horror has a face and you must make a
friend of horror. Horror and moral terror are your friends.
If they are not then they are enemies to be feared. They
are truly enemies. I remember when I was with Special
Forces. Seems a thousand centuries ago. We went into
a camp to inoculate the children. We left the camp after
we had inoculated the children for polio, and this old
man came running after us and he was crying. He
couldn't see. We went back there and they had come
and hacked off every inoculated arm. There they were in
a pile. A pile of little arms. And I remember, I . . . I . . . I
cried. I wept like some grandmother. I wanted to tear
my teeth out. I didn't know what I wanted to do. And I
want to remember it. I never want to forget it. I never
want to forget. And then I realized like I was shot . . .
like I was shot with a diamond, a diamond bullet right
through my forehead. And I thought: My God, the
genius of that. The genius. The will to do that. Perfect,
genuine, complete, crystalline, pure. And then I realized
they were stronger than we. Because they could
understand that these were not monsters. These were
men, trained cadres. These men who fought with their
hearts, who had families, who had children, who were
filled with love, but they had the strength . . . the strength
to do that. If I had ten divisions of those men our
troubles here would be over very quickly. You have to
have men who are moral and at the same time who are
able to utilize their primordial instincts to kill without
feeling, without passion, without judgment . . . without
judgment. Because it's judgment that defeats us.
9


Later in the film Colonel Kurtz is heard to say, "We must kill
them. We must incinerate them. Pig after pig. Cow after cow. Village
after village. Army after army . . . and they call me an assassin! Well
what do you call it when the assassins accuse the assassin?
10


And one scene is eerily reminiscent of the many paeans uttered
by Manson family members in praise of Charlie: a crazed follower of
Colonel Kurtz - played to perfection by Dennis Hopper - speaks of Kurtz
in a sort of awe, saying:

The mans enlarged my mind. He's a poet warrior in
the classic sense. We are all his children. The man is
clear in his mind, but his soul is mad.
11

20

And director Coppola seems to be acknowledging that the
Manson case parallels the central theme of his film: In yet another scene
from that movie, the character Chef reads aloud about Charles
Manson's role in the Sharon Tate murders from a newspaper clipping
that he has received along with a letter from home that includes
Mansons infamous Life magazine photo, saying aloud, Charles Miller
Manson [sic] ordered the slaughter of all in a home as a symbol of
protest.
12


Many other writers have theorized along these same parallel
lines. In an essay titled, The American Meaning of Charley Manson,
author David R. Williams reflects Ralph Metzgers earlier supposition by
making note of Mansons now iconic position in our culture, stating:

Why then is Charlie Manson, as Geraldo Rivera said,
the stuff of a nations nightmares? Not for what he did,
nor even for what he said. Others have killed more
people more brutally. It is because, as [Joan] Didion
foretold, we found in him an icon upon which to project
our own latent fears. No one was surprised because
everyone knew the potential was there, in each and all of
us. So Manson became a living metaphor of Abaddon,
the God of the bottomless pit. We, as a collective
culture, looked into Mansons eyes and saw in those
dark caves what we most feared within ourselves, the
paranoia of what might happen if you go too far. He was
the monster in the wilderness, the shadow in the night
forest, the beast said to lurk in the Terra Incognita
beyond the edges of the map. By projecting our
monsters onto Manson, and then locking him up for life,
we imagined we had put the beast back in its cage.
13


But it is not just Mansons radical ideas that make him unique in
the annals of the outlaw or modern heretic. Rather, it is his willingness to
continue to follow his version of the truth, coupled with his steadfast
refusal to repent that is of equal importance to the discussion here.
Further along in the same essay cited above, Williams takes that
observation deeper by addressing Mansons absolute refusal to
acquiesce to societys demands:

[W]hat makes [Manson] an antinomian [a person who
refuses to accept established moral laws] rather than
simply a lawless thug and mass murdering dog is that
his deeds and words are buttressed by an implicitly
antinomian philosophy. He constructed a belief system
and believed it and preached it. Another con-man could
be easily ignored, but Manson has proven himself
faithful to his beliefs. He is not faking them to get out;
21
instead, his refusal to abandon them keeps him locked
up tightly in jail.
14


Williams also notes that Mansons true crime is the fact that he
so thoroughly destroyed the existing paradigm by not just merely blurring
reality, but by completely obliterating the line between what is real and
what is purely of the mind, stating, [H]e crossed over to the other side,
completely outside society. [T]o some this is the meaning of insanity, to
believe things outside the circle of what society allows. Crazy becomes
a label applied to those who dont agree with the consensus.
15


Another line from Coppolas Apocalypse Now, uttered by Martin
Sheen as the character Captain Benjamin L. Willard, sums that
sentiment up quite neatly:

Never get out of the boat. Absolutely goddamn right.
Unless you were goin' all the way. Kurtz got off the boat.
He split from the whole fuckin' program."
16


There is no doubt that Manson now represents the Ultimate
Rebel: he is a person who gleefully advocates the dissolution of all
mental and moral boundaries; he is an unfettered and wild Dionysian
spirit guided only by pure instinct; a person without adherence to
consensus reason or institutional beliefs; a person who fully believes
himself to be the spokesperson for "Ultimate Truth" in our society.

As such, it seems that the writers are correct when they state
that it is Mansons status as the ultimate icon of fear that continues to
give the case its longevity and ability to linger forever in the public
consciousness.

X Marks the Alienated Spot

Perhaps it can also be inferred that the Manson phenomenon is
simply some sort of Nietzschean will to power in which Manson (who
claims to have studied Nietzsche) has recognized his actions as being
beyond good and evil and thusly, outside of standard moral
interpretation. (According to prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi, Manson
himself has implied that this is the case).
17


It should be noted that while Manson is serving time in prison
because he was convicted for his role in the conspiracy to commit the
Tate-LaBianca and other murders, it may actually be Mansons total
rejection of our rules and laws which constitute his greatest crime. As
noted in the documentary film, Charles Manson Superstar, it is Mansons
complete denunciation of everything that our society consists of and
stands for that may qualify him for the title of the last true heretic of our
time.
18


22
A heretic is defined as one who dissents from an accepted
belief or doctrine. In older times, heresy usually took the form of a
rejection of the religious dogma of a particular civilization and was
considered to be the ultimate transgression that is was possible for a
human being to engage in. Such heretics were often literally burned at
the stake.

Manson is a heretic among heretics. His infamous I have X'ed
myself from your world statement and action, in which he carved a
bloody X into his forehead to demonstrate that the court at his murder
trial had no jurisdiction over him (his followers later followed suit), made it
quite clear that he believes himself to not be subject to mans law, but
rather to what he calls Gods law or the Ultimate Truth (a spiritual
concept that is very familiar to those who have experienced the visions
imparted by the powerful effects of LSD).

The full text of the X'ed myself from your world statement,
issued as a street communiqu by Manson, is as follows:

I have Xed myself from your world. You have created
the monster. I am not of you, from you, nor do I
condone your unjust attitude toward things, animals, and
people that you do not try to understand. I stand
opposed to what you do and have done in the past. You
make fun of god and have murdered the world in the
name of Jesus Christ. My faith in me is stronger than all
of your armies, governments, gas chambers, or anything
you may want to do to me. I know what I have done.
Your courtroom is man's game. Love is my judge.
19


Manson also mocks what he sees as our societys hypocrisy in
the romanticizing of the rebel and the outlaw, whose unbridled freedom
we secretly envy on the one hand, while on the other, we seek to
condemn those (such as Charles Manson) who have taken that idea to
its ultimate, outer boundaries.

A Legion of Charlies

On a similar note, Manson has always enjoyed laying bare other
obvious hypocrisies prevalent in our society, with one of the most blatant
being that, while we as a society hold that killing in a war is not a crime,
killing under virtually any other set of circumstances is.

As pointed out to me by Manson researcher John Aes-Nihil, that
same double standard is the central theme found in the rare
underground comic book classic, Legion of Charlies, in which the
Manson murders are compared to the brutal murders commonly known
as the My Lai Massacre.
20


23
The My Lai massacre is the true story of a vicious four-hour
ordeal that occurred on March 16, 1968 during the Vietnam War. In this
horrific incident, over 500 unarmed Vietnamese civilians - primarily
women, children and the elderly - were systematically raped, tortured
and murdered by American soldiers near the tiny Vietnamese village of
My Lai. The chief perpetrator in those horrific crimes was one Lieutenant
William Calley, who had ordered the men in his platoon to carry out the
killings. (The official military name of Calleys platoon was Charlie
Company, a detachment actively engaged in searching out the Viet
Cong, or Victor Charlie, as they were known in military parlance -
minor facts that lend a real taste of irony to the discussion here).

Calley was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for twenty-
two counts of premeditated murder. He would claim at his trial that he
was simply following orders from his captain when he ordered the
deaths. The arrest, trial and conviction of Calley took place during
virtually the same time frame as the Manson murder trial and raised
moral and ethical issues of culpability that very closely paralleled that of
the Manson massacre.

Only one day after having been sentenced to life in prison,
President Richard Nixon would order Calley to be released from custody
and would ultimately grant him a full pardon.
21
(As students of the
Manson case will recall, Nixon was the same man who had declared
Mansons guilt while the Tate-LaBianca trial was barely underway).
22


From an essay titled, An Introduction to the My Lai Courts-
Martial comes the following graphic account of one of the more
disturbing acts of brutality that occurred at My Lai:

Calley ordered the dozen or so platoon members there
to push the people into the ditch, and three or four GIs
did. Calley ordered his men to shoot into the ditch.
Some refused, others obeyed. One who followed
Calley's order was Paul Meadlo, who estimated that he
killed about twenty-five civilians. (Later Meadlo was
seen, head in hands, crying). Calley joined in the
massacre. At one point, a two-year-old child who
somehow survived the gunfire began running towards
the hamlet. Calley grabbed the child, threw him back in
the ditch, then shot him. On September 5, 1969, Calley
was charged with premeditated murder in the deaths of
over 100 Vietnamese civilians near the village of My Lai.
On March 29, 1971, Calley was convicted for the
premeditated murder of twenty-two of those civilians as
part of his role in the massacre and was subsequently
sentenced to life in prison. Evidence presented at his
trial showed that Calley had ordered the men in his
platoon to shoot everyone in the village. During the
24
course of the trial, Calley underwent several
psychological exams. Although it was not brought out
during testimony, several of those mental health doctors
confided that Calley told them that he thought of killing
the Vietnamese people in the same way he thought of
killing animals. A portion of Calleys trial testimony
gives yet another perspective on his state of mind: I was
ordered to go in there and destroy the enemy. That was
my job on that day. That was the mission I was given. I
did not sit down and think in terms of men, women and
children. They were all classified the same, and that
was the classification that we dealt with, just as enemy
soldiers. Part of Calleys defense was the claim that he
was merely following the orders of Capt. Ernest Medina,
his commanding officer. On April 1, 1971, only three
days after he was sentenced, President Nixon ordered
that Calley be released from prison and eventually,
granted him a full pardon. (Calley would serve only 3
1/2 years of his life sentence - not in prison, but while
confined to his military living quarters while under house
arrest).
23


A psychiatric report indicated that Calley believed that he was
not killing human beings but "rather that they were animals with whom
one could not speak or reason." That sort of dehumanizing sentiment is
a true glimpse into the very heart of darkness and very closely parallels
that of Charlie Manson, who often referred to establishment figures as
"pigs" or "plastic face mannequins."

The noted contrast between these two crimes is, of course, how
two incidents of such completely immoral and brutal acts of murder can
be viewed in such different perspectives by our society: one is roundly
condemned and its perpetrators sentenced to death, while the other
appears to have been given official sanction and its perpetrators set free.
The message that one gets is this: All violence not officially sanctioned
by the government is labeled as either criminal or mentally ill behavior.

As John Aes-Nihil stated to me in an email, This whole thing
(referring to the murders committed by both Manson and Calley) is really
just a philosophical discourse and ultimately a game of semantics, with
reality merely being that which occurs at any given moment in time, and
as to why it occurs, just a bunch of conjecture.
24


Manson has always pointed out that it is easy for us to accept
those aspects of the will to power that our cultural value system has
labeled as "positive," while tending to de-emphasize that same concepts
more unpleasant features. To again quote Ralph Metzger:

25
[I] do see Manson's place in American society as an
important one: because underneath it all, beyond the
hype of the most evil man alive, Charles Manson has a
pivotal role in the cosmic play as a teller of unpleasant
truths . . . a warped witch doctor, a hillbilly exorcist, a
white trash shaman.
25


The suggestion here is that Manson, like Nietzsche before him,
merely points out that the concepts of good" and "evil" are nothing more
than a dominant cultures moral analysis applied to observable facts that
he believes are a natural part of human existence. In a very real sense, I
feel that Manson has transcended the ideals of normal society and has
become something very much like Nietzsches Ubermensch. (Whether
that is a good or bad thing is left to you, the reader, to decide).

Here is what I believe is a good summation of the same
statement above, only in Mansons own words: I dont break laws. I
make the laws. I am the lawmaker.
26




26











27
The Roots of Mansons Philosophy

In the book The Manson File, editor Nikolas Schreck suggests
that corporate media interests have always had a financial stake in
creating and maintaining societal scarecrows, particularly where the
creation of the whole Manson myth is concerned. Schreck points out
that rather than openly discussing or trying to understand the nature of
Mansons beliefs, such media interests dismiss the elements of
Mansons raison d'etre (reason for being) and instead, pander almost
exclusively to the publics salacious interests, while simultaneously
engaging in moralistic tongue-clucking. He writes:

Is it possible to peer behind the monumental edifice of
the Manson myth, that fiction forever frozen in time by
the famous Life magazine cover of December 19, 1969?
What is the reality behind the provocative clichs of
hypnotic powers, drug crazed teenage sex-slaves,
brutally killed blonde starlets (the stuff that marketing
executives dreams are made of?)

Let us make a bold speculation. Perhaps NBC, CBS,
ABC, the Los Angeles Times, Vincent Bugliosi and most
of the other supposed purveyors of truth had allowed
interests more pecuniary than ethical to rule in their
creation of the Manson mythos. We have all heard, for
instance, that Manson possesses a dangerous
philosophy. Dangerous? In what way? And to whom?
Of what, exactly, does the philosophy consist?
27


Anyone who has read the book Helter Skelter has explored the
theory that Manson based his philosophy on parts of the Christian Bible,
the Beatles song lyrics, aspects of Scientology, such Eastern religious
ideas as karma and reincarnation, and possibly even what can be
loosely defined as occult practices. But whether or not those factors -
in any amount and combination you choose to mix and match for your
own theory - were the prime elements in Mansons beliefs is very much
still open to debate.

Manson On Acid

One area that is often not subjected to the close scrutiny that it
should be is Mansons philosophy as it is related to the use of LSD. It is
my own opinion that the real key to understanding Mansons beliefs is
primarily rooted in the LSD experience.

LSD is an incredibly powerful drug. Mild to moderate effects can
be felt with as little as 10-20 micrograms. A full-blown LSD experience is
usually brought on by dosages in the 50-150 microgram range. (These
days modern blotter acid contains anywhere from 30-100 micrograms).
28
It is important to note here that during the height of the hippie era and
particularly in the Haight-Ashbury scene, the typical dosage of an LSD
hit was much higher than it is today, with a typical tab of Owsley acid
often containing as much as 500 to even 1000 micrograms.
28


One user described the extraordinarily powerful effects of the
LSD that was commonly available in the 1960s with the sort of awe that
the drug regularly invoked among its early users:

If there was one thing LSD was not - and I do not refer to
todays light mood enhancer - it was not just a drug. It
has never ceased to amaze me that such a minute
dosage, one appearing to pass completely from the
somatic system long before the experience subsides,
can produce such an effect. It has been called the
psychological equivalent of the nuclear bomb.
29


According to my research, it was not uncommon for Manson
family members to take multiple tabs of this high-octane LSD and doses
that high can quite literally blow your mind, to use the old descriptive
phrase of psychedelic users from the 1960s.

Dr. Albert Hoffman first synthesized LSD in 1938. Working as a
research chemist for Sandoz Pharmaceuticals in Basel, Switzerland,
Hoffman was experimenting with preparations of ergot (a type of fungus
that attacks rye grain) in the hope of creating a drug to use as a
circulatory stimulant. His 25th synthesis of the compound produced
LSD-25. He would shelve that particular project until the spring of 1943
when a peculiar presentiment concerning that 25th LSD synthesis
overtook him. In Hoffmans own words:

I could not forget the relatively uninteresting LSD-25. A
peculiar presentiment - the feeling that this substance
could possess properties other than those established in
the first investigations - induced me, five years after the
first synthesis, to produce LSD-25 once again so that a
sample could be given to the pharmacological
department for further tests.
30


On April 16, 1943, Hoffman accidentally either inhaled or
absorbed through his fingertips a very minute amount of the LSD.
Feeling dizzy and thinking that he was coming down with a cold,
Hoffman left work and began pedaling his bicycle home. In what
students of psychedelic lore now refer to as the Magic Bicycle Ride,
Hoffman experienced the full effects of the first ever LSD trip. Hoffman
describes the incident:

Last Friday, April 16, 1943, I was forced to interrupt my
work in the laboratory in the middle of the afternoon and
29
proceed home, being affected by a remarkable
restlessness, combined with a slight dizziness. At home I
lay down and sank into a not unpleasant intoxicated like
condition, characterized by an extremely stimulated
imagination. In a dreamlike state, with eyes closed (I
found the daylight to be unpleasantly glaring), I
perceived an uninterrupted stream of fantastic pictures,
extraordinary shapes with intense kaleidoscopic play of
colors. After some two hours, this condition faded away.
31


LSD invokes a common experience in its users in the form of the
phenomenon known as ego death. People who have undergone ego
death will tell you that it can sometimes be an extremely frightening
experience and one that is as close to what it feels like to actually die
as it is possible to do without really dying. Common aspects of this
death include the user feeling that he/she is losing ones grip on, or no
longer has normal control of the ego; where the normal day to day
personality has disappeared and the growing sensation that the self no
longer really exists or that it is slowly dissolving away into some
nothingness. As a result, fear and panic can sometimes occur when a
user feels the normal sense of who they are slipping away. (The ego
seems to have a built-in mechanism for staying identified with what is
known. It is for that very reason that later advocates of the use of LSD,
Timothy Leary in particular, stressed the importance of set and setting
to minimize the sometimes overwhelming fear and subsequent psychic
trauma involved with the LSD ego death experience).
32


However, once this ego death has passed, the user experiences
a rebirth into what is often called the Clear Light of the Void, the
Ultimate Truth and "Ultimate Reality. This clear light is a place and
state of being that is of literally indescribable beauty and peace; where
the person undergoing the experience feels that they have achieved the
transcendence of all space-time dimensions, and have been freed
entirely from the limitations of the ego. A person in this state often feels
that for the very first time in their lives, they are part of some Grand
Order of the Universe and are now one with everything in cosmic unity.
(And it is not unusual for people who find themselves immersed in the
Clear Light to report having a conversation with God or some supreme
being).

The ego death caused by LSD use is remarkably similar to what
is termed as a "Near Death Experience," or NDE. A typical NDE
experience can be triggered by clinical death during surgery, or as a
result of medical trauma from which a person recovers, as well as from
unusually intense dreams, extreme stress, some forms of meditation,
seizures, and even during orgasm.

30
Manifestations of an NDE involve an experience where the
person undergoing it feels that they have left their body (an out of body
experience or OBE) and has passed over to the other side. There the
person often finds themselves traveling down a long tunnel that has a
light at the end of it. Once the person emerges into the light, they often
encounter dead relatives, alien beings, or unseen presences that they
sense are god-like or divine beings. Persons who have experienced an
NDE also report a deep sense of peace, mental alertness, and a feeling
that they are at one with the Universe.

The Beatles described both the ego death experience and the
Clear Light phenomenon in many of their musical compositions: In the
song She Said, She Said, John Lennon sings about an LSD trip he took
with actor Peter Fonda, who kept babbling on to Lennon about how his
first trip was so intense that he knew what it was like to be dead. In the
song, Lennon describes the fear he felt in hearing Fondas words (just as
he was beginning to experience the effects of some LSD he had taken
and as his own ego was disintegrating) with the song lyric, And you're
making me feel like I've never been born." And Beatle George Harrison
was describing the peak of the LSD experience in the song, Within You,
Without You, when he wrote, When you've seen beyond yourself, then
you may find peace of mind is waiting there. And the time will come
when you see we're all one and life goes on within you and without you.

As discussed earlier, Mansons belief that he was receiving
messages from the Beatles through their song lyrics is not as
completely weird as it may seem at first glance - at least not in part. LSD
use was not simply a driving force within the hippie movement; at times it
actually served as the brick and mortar that held it together. One must
keep in mind that the use of LSD was a very new thing at that time and
taking LSD was, as Haight-Ashbury historian Charles Perry put it, like
being in a secret society, where only the most tuned in people shared
the forbidden knowledge discovered by the use of LSD. This silent
conspiracy was largely due to the illegal status of the drug; dropping
acid was most certainly not something that users discussed in an open
and casual forum, nor was LSD use even written about in the same way
that other new mind-expanding drugs might be discussed today.
33


A perfect example of this sort of wink, wink, nod, nod cryptic
acknowledgment of LSD use during that time is best illustrated in the
Jimi Hendrix song Are You Experienced? I can tell you from my own
personal experience that most squares and straights at that time had
no clue just exactly what Jimi was talking about in that song and the
majority thought that Hendrixs words were merely some vague sexual
reference. But the tuned in people knew.

Charles Perry also makes note of one of the most compelling
features of a full-blown LSD trip, that being the attainment of
31
enlightenment, satori, or instant Zen that accompanies the death of the
ego:

[The effects of LSD brings the user] right up to a
featureless experience called the [Clear] Light, in which
all details are equally important and all connections
equally valid. In a sea of perpetually changing
impressions, the meaning of anything can differ wildly
from moment to moment. The exaltation of being stoned
might be the dawn of birth, the moment of death or a
mystical unity of the two. The world might be the play of
eternal archetypes or nothing but the moment-to-
moment flashing of spontaneous energy. A place might
disclose its utter uniqueness, or it might reveal itself as
being beyond time and space. This is what people
mean when they speak of LSD hallucinations - not full-
fledged visions of things that are not there, but
extraordinary and uncontrollably shifting interpretations
of things that are.

But [the LSD experience is] more than an intellectual
challenge. The exaltation of the high has no real parallel
in ordinary life, either in intensity or duration. Since the
high is bound up with the perception of real things,
unlike, for example, the effects of heroin, people coming
down from LSD often feel that they have been unfairly
cast out of a state of mind that is their birthright, and
hence they go questing for a way to recover that
experience . . . LSD tends to form cabals of initiates.
34


In a nutshell, the psychedelic experience or LSD equation can
be stated as this: ego death = emergence into the Clear Light (full
awareness) = attainment of true enlightenment or Love/Understanding.
(For the non-initiated, it should be pointed out that the egoless state is
desirable because it gives the mind freedom from illusion. According to
Buddhism, the attainment of the egoless state is also the precise
moment a person realizes their own divine nature. This is where they
experience a subsequent emergence into ultimate reality, absolute truth,
or Nirvana, the highest spiritual plane that one can obtain, as it frees one
from suffering and fear of death).
35


Manson described this same LSD-induced ego death in more
basic terms, noting that the often highly magnified and intense fear that
LSD users feel during that process eventually resulted in finally breaking
free of that fear (surrendering to the death) and the Coming to Now,
or the attainment of true awareness. And a person who had Come to
Now, was thus In the Thought or filled with the Love/Understanding of
Ultimate Truth.

32
But perhaps from his own personal Heart of Darkness, Manson
was said to have preached to his followers that the act of killing someone
was actually an act of love based on how a person ultimately judges him
or herself. Manson believed that all people had the potential for both
good and evil, i.e., that they carried both Christ and Satan within
themselves and that each of us has the capacity to offer either life to
another human being, in Christ-like wisdom, or to act on a satanic
impulse to kill them. In this extreme reasoning, both were seen as acts
of love because both were judgments made within that same Universal
understanding.

Manson taught his followers that there was no such thing as a
separation between life and death, that all things in life are linked to each
other. Accordingly, a person who killed another was only killing a part of
his or herself or simply striking out at their own reflection in the cosmic
mirror. (The idea that all humans are part of one undivided totality is a
bit of wisdom that obviously stems from the LSD-inspired we are all one
revelation and egoless state commonly experienced by users of that
psychedelic drug).

Tex Watson, a male member of the Manson family who was the
chief killer in the Tate-LaBianca murders, put it this way:

Love was always the key word: love as nothingness,
love as death. Each night the Family would eat together,
smoke a little grass or hash, often drop acid. Then after
the meal we'd all sit in a circle to listen to Charlie sing his
songs and preach to us. He called it deprogramming,
that is, stripping away all the untruth and ego and
confusion that our parents and our society had laid on us
from the moment we were born, stripping it away to get
back to a purity and nothingness that was ours when we
first came into the world. [E]verything was one, he said.
The programming which our personal histories had built
into us put barriers between us and the realization of that
oneness, kept us broken in separate fragments torn from
our connection with the Whole. We kept seeing "you"
and "me," when in reality there was only "it," the one.
The only way to break down those barriers between
ourselves (or the fantasy of self) and true oneness, true
unity, was love. [O]nce you were dead in the head, you
could truly love because there was nothing left of you,
nothing but the oneness which was love itself to fill the
void. When you were one it no longer mattered if this or
that part of the Whole died, if you died or if someone
else died, because the Whole remained. As bizarre as
Charlie's teaching might sound to an outsider, it was
compelling to us. The more acid we took and the more
we listened, the more obvious and inevitable it all
33
seemed. It was not just a matter of belief, either. We
lived it, we experienced what Charlie talked about.
36


In the book Helter Skelter, prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi, while
attempting to investigate the Tate-LaBianca murders, sought to interview
as many people as possible concerning the core elements of Mansons
philosophy. To that effort, he interviewed former Manson follower and
close confidant of Mansons, Paul Watkins. Bugliosi writes:

One aspect of Manson's philosophy especially puzzled
me: his strange attitude toward fear. He not only
preached that fear was beautiful, he often told the Family
that they should live in a constant state of fear. What did
he mean by that? I asked Paul.

To Charlie fear was the same thing as awareness,
Watkins said. The more fear you have, the more
awareness, hence the more love. When you're really
afraid, you come to Now. And when you are at Now,
you are totally conscious.

Manson claimed that children were more aware than
adults, because they were naturally afraid. But animals
were even more aware than people, he said, because
they always live at Now. The coyote was the most
aware creature there was, Manson maintained, because
he was completely paranoid. Being frightened of
everything he missed nothing.

Charlie was always selling fear, Watkins continued. He
wanted people to be afraid, and the more afraid the
better. Using this same logic, Charlie said that death
was beautiful because people feared death.
37


As such, the Manson LSD equation can be stated as: Fear
(ego death) = Coming to Now (full awareness) = Love/Understanding.

A list of the core elements of Mansons philosophy that were
most likely directly inspired by LSD includes:

A belief that we are all part of the same Cosmic Whole.

A belief that time is only an illusion and is only really relevant to the
moment that we live in.

A utopian belief that everything belongs to everybody, so you cant
steal what is already yours. (Manson believed that human beings have
inherent rights to the fruits of the planet. Subsequently, he taught his
34
followers that you cannot steal what has been given to every living
creature by birthright and what essentially belongs to us all).

The ultimate secret that LSD imparts to the user is the
knowledge that freedom on this planet is complete; that there really are
no rules except those of basic survival; that the ones created by men are
sometimes in direct opposition to human nature; that life is essentially a
blank check that one can write in any way one chooses.

And therein lies the rub and ultimately, the true measure of the
character of the person who receives such knowledge. For what one
does with such unlimited freedom is the purest of ethical tests.

It should be pointed out that during the same time period, there
were many other active hippie groups quite similar to the Manson
family. Those groups also lived communally, took drugs, engaged in
alternative sexual practices, and a few were even very, very angry at the
establishment. And quite often, those groups were led by a single
charismatic individual in what could be described as the same sort of
personality cult that the Manson family was. Author Jay Stevens, while
describing the evolution of the hippie quest for meaningful spiritual paths,
makes note that the Manson family represented an extreme exception to
the accepted ideal:

Consumer choice, in the grand American tradition, had
come to the private revolution. Following the Summer of
Love, the hippie ethic . . . fractionated into a dozen
different sects and cults, each with its own techniques
for accessing the Other World. The deeper hippies, the
ones who hadn't come to the Haight for a lark, began
chanting and meditating; they sat down and finally read
all those arcane Tibetan texts they'd bought at the
Psychedelic Shop. A surprising number joined the Hare
Krishnas, one of the most ascetic and dogmatic sects
around. Others gravitated to various gurus (the
Maharishi and Meher Baba were popular) or followed
charismatic hippies, either good ones like Steve Gaskin,
or tragic ones like Charlie Manson, whose little family
would become a mocking paradigm of Leary's tribal
vision.
38


To date, my own research has not uncovered any other hippie
group that went so far astray from the peace and love ethic as the
Manson family did, or who at any time, made the decision to immerse
themselves so completely in crime or choose to strike out at the
authorities in such a violent manner as the Manson family did.

That fact alone is the greatest indicator of just how singular an
event the Manson murders were and that it was not the hippie lifestyle
35
per se that was to blame, but rather Mansons manipulation and abuse of
the trust and faith that his followers had placed in him.
39


The Post-Apocalyptic Manson

One often hears the remark from people who have watched one
of the many post-conviction interviews that Manson has given over the
years to various media figures (such as Tom Snyder and Geraldo
Rivera) that Manson must be completely crazy. Those people usually
reach that instant conclusion after witnessing Manson either talk in his
famous gibberish, or after hearing him utter lines in the middle of a
straightforward dialogue that just seem to be completely off the wall.

And they may be right to some extent, but personally, I think that
Mansons craziness is in reality more inline with the old euphemism
crazy like a fox, i.e., that Manson seeks to purposely confound, perplex,
trick, and belittle certain interviewers and subsequently, the general
public who tune in for the show.

It is important to understand that one must view those particular
antics of Mansons in the full context of the atmosphere in which the
interview is being conducted. If one listens very closely to what Manson
says and if one understands a great deal about what makes Manson tick,
it will soon become obvious that Manson will often play as crazy as
needed in direct relation to who the person conducting the interview is.
This is especially true when it concerns how much respect or lack thereof
Manson has for a particular interviewer. After having studied his
speeches for some time, it is obvious to me that the less Manson likes
an interviewer, the more often he will attempt to shine them on in that
manner, or perhaps, simply treat them like square johns or children.

But make no mistake, Manson is actually a fairly astute
philosopher and understands highly complex and abstract ideas in a way
that is often absolutely amazing to behold, and many people have
attested to this. It is also worth noting that Manson attracted a great
many highly intelligent people into his inner circle, some with advanced
college degrees, people who were well-versed in spiritual and religious
studies, or who possessed similar intellectual credentials. That is not
something that a purely crazy man would have been able to do.

Another thing that seems to be frequently misunderstood about
Manson is the swastika that he has tattooed on his forehead and exactly
what that symbol ultimately means to Manson. Manson has been quoted
as saying that the swastika symbol is, My father. It is the Second World
War. What he seems to be alluding to is that the swastika/Second
World War is where, as a child of that particular generation, he learned
his ultimate moral lesson, i.e., what our society judges to be an
acceptable line of behavior in dealing with ones enemies. Manson will
often point out that the swastika/Second World War is the father of his
36
generation, just as the lessons of the Vietnam War, the Iraq War, and so
on, is to other generations. Since Manson believes that fear is the prime
motivating force in the Universe, for him, the swastika represents not just
Nazism, but also his generations worst fear, all encased in one compact
symbol.

Manson also sees the swastika as the Universal Life symbol.
The Hopi Indians - a race of people whom Manson held in high regard -
used the swastika for just that purpose. (Remember that it was the Hopi
Indian legend of an underground city in the desert that inspired Manson
to look for the Devils Hole or Bottomless Pit in Death Valley). The Hopi
swastika is an ancient emblem that symbolized the Infinite, the
beginning-less and endless motion of life, cycling periods of time, and
spiraling cosmic forces, all that which awakens Universal life.

The swastika is believed by some scholars to date back as far as
10,000 years (long prior to it being misappropriated and maligned by
Hitler and the Nazis) and strangely, has served as an important religious
symbol among many far-flung cultures that had absolutely no contact
with each other. For example, the swastika has been found on ancient
temples in China and Tibet and on Native American religious artifacts.
Symbolically, the swastika is often associated with the sun and its power,
with its intersecting arms signifying sudden flashes of inspiration on the
path to self-realization. According to some Buddhist sects, the swastika
symbolizes that which has no beginning or end and is suggestive of the
infinite peace of a balanced and enlightened mind. Buddhists so
honored the swastika that it is inscribed on the chest of images of the
Buddha. The swastika is found frequently in Buddhist temples and on
objects of art. It symbolizes the ceaseless activity of the universal life
principle in the ever-evolving cosmos and represents the wheel of the
law or teaching.

Manson, often in his usual cryptic way, will sometimes tell an
interviewer that his use of the swastika is his way of pointing out what he
sees as societys willingness to project their ultimate worst fear onto a
symbol. As noted above, he does this by declaring the swastika to be a
symbol of his father, the Second World War, in which the Nazis, led by
Hitler, were defeated, but only by the violence fueled by societys fear.
Manson believes that all wars are merely the final result of a dominator
societys reaction to an ultimate fear. When asked by Geraldo Rivera
about the swastika, Manson replied, How do you have peace on Earth?
How do you communicate to a whole group of people? You stand up
and take the worst fear symbol there is and say, there, now Ive got your
fear. And your fear is your power and your power is your control. Im
your king of this whole planet.
40



37

38
Rumor Has It

In my book, Labyrinth13, I discuss some of the interesting
similarities between Mansons philosophy and the beliefs of the Process
Church of the Final Judgment, as well as the rumors that there was
some sort of working relationship between Manson and the Process. I
essentially dismissed those connections as having been primarily of a
coincidental nature, but it is always interesting to note such
synchronicities and to explore them in-depth.
41


There have also been quite a few efforts by some researchers to
link the Manson murders to larger conspiracies involving elements within
the American spy and intelligence agencies. While most of this
theorizing must be taken with several huge grains of salt, there are some
factors, such as the idea of mind control, that make such speculation
seem plausible. Certainly Manson himself proved that actual mind
control is possible. Again in Labyrinth13, I discuss alleged secret
government projects to create mind-controlled assassins and touch
briefly on the Manson case there, theorizing how Manson was able to
program his followers, and where he may have picked up such
techniques. While such speculation can be an interesting intellectual
exercise, I will admit that I included my musings about the Manson family
and mind control in that discussion almost purely for the entertainment
value.
42


Roman Polanski - husband of murder victim Sharon Tate - once
commented to a Tate-LaBianca police investigator that, If I'm looking for
a motive, I'd look for something which doesn't fit your habitual standard
with which you use to work as police - something much more far out.
43


That so many rumors - both fantastic and plausible - exist in
such a high profile case as the Manson murders is to be expected. My
only interest in the rumors below stems primarily from the fact that it
tends to show that early investigators - including prosecutor Vincent
Bugliosis factual information in Helter Skelter - may have purposely
omitted or downplayed facts about the case that put either the witnesses
or the victims in too bad of a light.

By engaging in this discussion, in no way am I trying to imply that
because of certain lifestyle choices, the victims brought anything upon
themselves. Nor do I claim that any of the more fantastic rumors
discussed are true, particularly where no evidence beyond mere
conjecture is presented. Rather, I am simply providing this information
because it offers much interesting fodder for speculation and/or shows
where early investigators may possibly have attempted to soft peddle
other motives in order to protect certain people from publicity.

Below, I offer some of the more interesting rumors and
innuendos that have always hovered in the background of the Manson
39
case, as well as brief discussions of alternate theories concerning
motives for the murders.

The Alleged Steven Parent/William Garretson Gay Liaison

Since the day that the news of the Tate murders broke, there has
always been considerable controversy surrounding William Garretson,
the only person present at the scene of the bloody Tate murders to
survive.

Originally arrested by police as a suspect the same day that the
murders were discovered, 19 year-old Garretson was later released after
police questioning and having passed a polygraph test.

To refresh memories, Garretson is the person that Tate murder
victim Steve Parent had come to visit that night at the Tate residence,
ostensibly, to try and interest Garretson in the purchase of a clock radio.
Later, as Parent was attempting to leave in his car, he was confronted by
Charles Tex Watson, who shot and stabbed him to death, making him
the first of the five Tate victims to die that night. (The police found his
body still slumped behind the wheel of his car).

Garretson told police that he had met Parent while hitchhiking.
Parent had picked him up and given him a ride to the Tate residence
several weeks prior to the murders. Recounting his activities on the
night of the murders to the police, Garretson said that Parent had
showed up unannounced at his place that night, supposedly in an
attempt to interest Garretson in purchasing a clock radio. (Garretson
estimated the time of Parents arrival at around 11:45 that evening and
recalled that he stayed only half an hour, drinking a beer he had been
given, and making a phone call. The time on the same clock radio found
in Parents car had stopped at 12:15 a.m.; a fact which the prosecution
later speculated was due to Parent having set the time while
demonstrating how the clock worked for Garretson).
44


At least that has always been the official story. However,
independent researchers looking deeper into the Parent/Garretson
relationship have revealed new information that has led many to suspect
that Steve Parent was not simply visiting Garretson at the Tate residence
that night in order just to sell a clock radio, but rather for a homosexual
liaison.

In the book Helter Skelter, one is given the impression that
Parent was essentially your average, clean-cut high school kid and that
his presence at the Tate residence that night was under the most
innocent of circumstances. But upon closer scrutiny, a much different
image emerges. It was later determined by other researchers that
Parent had been arrested in the past for petty theft and as a result,
served time in a youth correctional facility and was placed on probation
40
afterward. From the original crime investigation of the Tate murders we
learn this about Parent:

Steven Earl Parent, male Caucasian, 18 years, 6-0,
175, red hair, brown eyes. He lived with his parents at
11214 East Bryant Road, El Monte. His main
occupation was that of a delivery boy for Valley City
Plumbing Supply Company in Rosemead, California. He
also worked part time at night for Jonas Miller Stereo,
8719 Wilshire Boulevard. On Friday morning, 8-8-69, he
told his mother to have a clean change of clothes for him
when he came home for lunch from his job at the
plumbing supply company. He told her he was going to
work at his second job and didn't want to come home
after work before going to Hollywood for his second job.
Parent has an arrest record as a juvenile for burglary.
The chief object of attack during the five burglaries he
was caught at was electronic equipment. He served two
years in the California Youth Authority program. He was
described as having both sadistic and homosexual
tendencies by a probation officer. (Italics supplied).
45


Garretson was a houseboy/groundskeeper/caretaker at the Tate
residence who, at the time that the murders occurred, was living in the
guesthouse located at the back of the property. Garretson had been
hired by Rudi Altobelli, the owner of the property at 10050 Cielo Drive, to
look after the guesthouse and to take care of Altobellis three dogs.
(Altobelli was also gay - flamboyantly so, according to some - so it would
not be at all unusual for him to have hired a gay or bisexual houseboy).

During his August 10, 1969 polygraph examination, Garretson
was asked if he was gay or if he had ever had sex with any of the Tate
victims, which he denied. However, he did admit to having engaged in
gay sex in the past. (Garretson may have actually been bisexual). From
the transcript of the polygraph interview:

Q: Are you gay?
A: No.
Q: Huh?
A: No.
Q: Ever had sex with Steve?
A: No.
Q: Ever have sex with a man?
A: Yes.
Q: Who?
A: Well, when I first came out here, you know, I was in the big city and
everything, and, well, some guy named Rice or something like that - I
don't know if I did or not. I was asleep when it happened, but the kid that
I came out here with said that, you know, he did whatever he did.
41
Q: What was he supposed to have done?
A: Well, what they usually do.
Q: Well, they do a lot of things.
A: Well, that was what he said.
Q: Screwed you in the butt?
A: No.
Q: Made you suck him?
A: No.
Q: He sucked you?
A: Yes.
Q: And he gave you a head job?
A: Yes, he said that. That's what he said.
Q: But you don't know this?
A: I, well, I don't know. He showed us a movie, and we rolled over and
went to sleep, and there was a lot of people that crashed it and
everything. I thought it was just a regular place where people slept. That
was in Hollywood.
Q: He was supposed to have given you a head job?
A: Yes.
Q: And you're supposed to sleep through this?
A: Well, I was asleep. Well, I didn't know it until a couple of days later.
That's what I heard.
Q: You think somebody could give you a head job and you'd sleep
through it?
A: Probably.
Q: You think so?
A: Yes.
Q: I find it hard to believe.
A: Well, I was up for about two nights. That's when we first came out
here.
Q: Okay, unless you are high on downers or something like this.
A: No, I wasn't on downers; that was when I first came out here. We
hitchhiked all the way across from Ohio.
Q: Uh huh.
A: And I was up for a few nights and . . . (Page 39 missing, narrative
continues on page 40)
A: . . . and I met this one kid - he was about 26 or 27, you know, and he
said, well, asked where I was going, and I told him I was going to some
movie. And he wanted, you know, he says, "Do you care if I come
along?" and I says, "I don't care." You know, anyway delayed it, and I
just, you know, I says, "Well, why don't you buy some beer, you know,
and play monopoly or something?" Play monopoly, and we did, and we
played monopoly and stuff, but I never had sex with him or anything. But
I figured he might be gay, but I don't know. Because, you know, how
they get around - he asked me if I ever had sex with anybody, you know,
men; and I told him no. I just told him maybe one time before.
Q: While you were at this residence where you are living now-
A: Yes.
46


42
What does the revelation about a possible Parent/Garretson
sexual tryst prove as far as the murders themselves are concerned?
Absolutely nothing. But if it is true that Parent went to visit Garretson
that night primarily for a quick sexual interlude, then it tends to show that
the book Helter Skelter and others are not the definitive investigations
into the Manson case that they purport to be. And in particular, that
Bugliosis portrayal of Steve Parent was inaccurate, i.e., that there was
something more to the story than Parent simply being in the wrong place
at the wrong time, as Bugliosi seems to want to imply, a scenario that
really has never made proper sense. (As one researcher very succinctly
pointed out on a Manson-related blog, Steven Parent was not at the
crime scene for reasons that make logical sense in the human
experience. Just ask yourself when you last tried to sell a piece of
electronics to an acquaintance at midnight?)
47


Since day one, police investigators and other researchers have
always felt that Garretson has not told everything that he knows about
the case and that he was lying about what he had seen and heard that
night. Garretson was at home (in the Tate residence guest house)
during the entire time that the murders occurred, but originally claimed to
police investigators that he neither saw nor heard anything because he
had stayed inside and had been listening to a stereo at a loud volume.

Police who interrogated Garretson described his answers to their
questions as "stuporous and non-responsive" and believed that he was
under the influence or coming down from some drug.
48


Garretson admitted during his polygraph exam that the night
before the murders occurred, he had slept very little, staying up late
drinking beer, smoking pot, and taking Dexedrine (speed), which made
him sick the next day. That night, when the murders occurred, he
claimed that he had again stayed awake all night, writing letters and
listening to the stereo "until just before dawn."
49


Garretson admitted to police that he had been "scared" that night
because he noticed that the handle on the door had been turned down
as if someone had tried to get inside.
50
(Manson girl Patricia
Krenwinkel, one of the assassins sent to the Tate residence, would later
state that she had approached the guesthouse and had tried the handle
on the door. One also has to wonder whether or not Garretson's "fear"
might have been, in part, speed-induced paranoia).

Later Garretson would admit that he actually had both seen and
heard unusual things the night of the murders. In a 1999 television
interview, Garretson stated the following:

That he probably did hear Steven Parent being shot:

43
It seemed like firecrackers. And I thought maybe it was,
you know, his car backfiring. You know I had no idea. It
didn't alarm me as much, I mean it just seemed, It made
me angry because I thought he was throwing
firecrackers out and I thought If he comes back up here
again I'm going to give him hell. And, you know, 'cause
I thought he was going to be waking the people up next
door or something.
51


That he may have seen Manson killer Patricia Krenwinkel chasing
murder victim Abigail Folger and heard her plea for her life while she was
being stabbed to death:

I heard a scream. And the scream sounded like, you
know, like somebody was getting ready to get thrown
into the pool. And, you know, or something. I looked
through the window and it seemed to me that there was
a girl chasing a, uh, girl. I wondered What's going on?
And I didn't look anymore. You know, I don't wanna look
like somebody looking at you know, looking out the
window.

I heard somebody saying, Stop. Stop. I'm already
dead. And it didn't make sense. How can somebody be
saying, Stop, you know, I'm already dead. How would
they be talking if they were dead? It just doesn't make
sense.
52


Hearing someone (later determined to be Patricia Krenwinkel) trying the
lock on the guesthouse door:

It seemed like the handle was moved. Like someone,
you know, wanted to come in. It seemed like a few
seconds. Just a few seconds and all of a sudden I
heard, like, someone running [away from the guesthouse
door] in the direction of the main house. You know,
What's going on? And, you know, no idea. You know, I
just said, Somebody's running away. You know, why
would they be running away?
53


While it seems fairly certain that Garretson was not involved in
the murders himself, what we have been led to believe about his doings
that night, and specifically, what he heard and saw, can most definitely
be called into question.

The Alleged Manson Sex Films

In the voice-over commentary to his film, Manson Family Movies,
director/producer John Aes-Nihil mentions that he once interviewed Paul
44
Krassner
54
, who claims to have seen a film shot at the Tate residence
that allegedly showed Abigail Folger, Voytek Frykowski, Charles Manson
and Susan Atkins engaging in group sex while high on MDA.
55


Concerning this same incident, Paul Krassner, writing for a 1999
edition of Scope magazine, stated:

I'd always felt that Manson and his killers had some
connection with their victims before the murders took
place.

When Hal Lipset, the renowned private investigator,
informed me a few years ago that the Los Angeles
Police Department seized pornographic films and
videotapes found in Polanski's loft and, additionally,
certain LAPD officers were selling the tapes, that
seemed like a clue. One police source told Lipset that
there was seven hours worth of Polanski's homemade
porn, and that it was worth a quarter of a million dollars.

Lipset gave me a litany of those private porn flicks.
There was Greg Bautzer, an attorney for Howard
Hughes, with Jane Wyman, the ex-wife of then-California
Governor Ronald Reagan. There was Cass Elliot in an
orgy with Yul Brynner, Peter Sellers, and Warren Beatty.
This trio, along with John Phillips, had offered a $25,000
reward for the capture of the killers. There was Sharon
Tate with Dean Martin. There was Sharon with Steve
McQueen. And there she was with two black bisexual
men.

The cops weren't too happy about that one, Lipset
recalled.

I eventually tracked down a reporter who told me that
when she was hanging around with the LAPD, they
showed her a porn video of Susan Atkins, one of
Charlie's devils, with Voytek Frykowski, one of the
victims. This contradicts the official story, which is that
the executioners and the victims had never met until the
night of the massacre.

But apparently the reporter mentioned the wrong victim,
because when I wrote to Charlie and asked directly, "Did
Susan sleep with Frykowski?" he answered, "You are ill
advised and misled. Sebring [one of the victims] done
Susan's hair and I think he sucked one or two of her
dicks. I'm not sure who she was walking out from her
45
stars and cages, that girl loves dick, you know what I
mean, hon. Yul Brynner, Peter Sellers."
56


A similar rumor that is often bandied about on various
Internet message boards portrays Voytek Frykowski as an active
playboy with a penchant for picking up young hippie girls on the
Sunset Strip in Los Angeles and then taking them home to the
Tate residence for drugs and sex. As such, it has been alleged
that Manson family member (and later prosecution witness)
Linda Kasabian was one of those females picked up by
Frykowski and that she was videotaped doing drugs and
engaging in sex with him at the Tate residence. Yet another
rumor concerning the same Frykowski/Kasabian sexual liaison
has Kasabian being forcibly raped by Frykowski. (This alleged
rape is often noted as a motive for revenge on the part of the
Manson family).

The Alleged Drug Deal Burn Motive for the Murders

According to the first Tate homicide report issued by the
investigators, Jay Sebring, Voytek Frykowski and Abigail Folger were
confirmed narcotics users on a daily basis who habitually associated
with confirmed narcotics users and peddlers, a fact that was played
down by a great many other mainstream researchers on the subject, but
which tends to support the drug burn theory as a motive for the
murders.
57


The police found plenty of illegal drugs at the Tate residence. At
the murder trial, Sergeant Michael McGann of the Los Angeles Police
Department testified that marijuana, hash, cocaine and MDA were all
found on the premises.
58


In fact, Voytek Frykowski was high on MDA when the murders
took place. And there is a persistent rumor that Frykowski was dealing
MDA and had ripped people off in the past. It is also been alleged that
Frykowski had burned either Manson or some of Mansons followers for
a large sum of money in a past deal for the drug.

The rumored scenario has Manson himself or some of his
followers involved in a drug deal with Frykowski and his associates for
MDA and that they ripped him off, either by delivering bad drugs or
simply by not coming through with the promised goods and keeping the
money. Subsequently, Manson is said to have sought revenge for being
burned by them.

It is known that Manson was involved in a lot that his followers
knew nothing about and it is certainly within the realm of possibility that
he might have used them as a hit squad over the bad drug deal, while
leading them to believe that they were actually killing in order to ignite
46
Helter Skelter and for love of brother, i.e., to free Bobby Beausoleil from
jail. (Another possibility is that there was a three-fold motive for the
murders: 1) revenge for the bad drug deal; 2) to free Bobby from jail by
committing copycat murders similar to the Hinman slaying; and 3) to
ignite Helter Skelter - which I am still convinced was something that
Manson actually believed in).

During the penalty phase of the Manson trial, Susan Atkins
testified that Linda Kasabian told me to get a knife and a change of
clothes . . . she said these people in Beverly Hills had burned her for
$1,000 for some new drug, MDA. (But in the interest of real objectivity,
any such utterance that issued from the mouth of Susan Atkins must be
viewed with a great deal of skepticism).
59


But if one continues to follow along that line, it is possible that
the people in Beverly Hills may have been Harris Pickens Pic Dawson
and Billy Doyle, two Canadian drug dealers that Voytek Frykowski and
Jay Sebring were alleged to have been involved in drug deals with.
Dawson dealt in both cocaine and MDA. Dawson at one time dated
Mama Cass Elliot, who was also acquainted with Manson, as he and
his followers were frequent visitors to Elliots house. Cass Elliot was
questioned thoroughly by police about her relationship with Dawson and
Doyle, both who were initial suspects in the case. In the same
conspiratorial vein, it is worth noting that Voytek Frykowski knew Cass
Elliot, too.
60


In post-arrest interviews from prison, Manson has been quoted
as saying that if the true story about the murders were ever known, there
would be a scandal the likes of which Hollywood had never seen, hinting
that what he was talking about involved kiddie porn (child pornography)
and large-scale drug dealing by the Hollywood elite. (Many researchers
into this case believe that the drugs and porn theory explains why
prosecutor Bugliosi went with the more fantastic Helter Skelter motive to
convict Manson because the real story involved way too many high-
profile celebrities). Manson has also alluded to an $11,000 drug burn the
he said implicated a millionaire friend of his.

All of the foregoing is certainly no smoking gun. But when the
known drug use of the victims and the celebrities connected to the case
is taken into account, along with Roman Polanskis later conviction for
the statutory rape of a 13 year-old child, it becomes considerably less
easy to dismiss out of hand what other researchers and Manson himself
hints at.

Bodies Buried at Barker

In March of 2008, the press began reporting about a new search
for possible Manson family murder victims long rumored to have been
47
buried in the desert near Mansons old hideout at Barker Ranch in
Californias Death Valley.

Barker Ranch was the Manson familys last known residence
and the place that they fled to immediately following the Tate-LaBianca
murders. It is located in Death Valley National Park, one of the most
desolate places on the face of the earth.

The theory of unknown murder victims at Barker Ranch stems
from several sources, most notably, from a 1969 statement attributed to
Manson family member Susan Atkins. Atkins, a notorious braggart,
allegedly told a fellow inmate she was incarcerated with that not only was
the Family responsible for killing Sharon Tate, but that they had also
killed other people, saying theres also three people out in the desert
that they done in," supposedly referring to other possible victims of the
Family during their spree of killings in the summer of 1969.
61


Additionally, Manson prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi claims in his
book Helter Skelter that one (unnamed ) source with close ties to the
Manson family stated that he overheard how there are supposed to be
two boys and a girl buried about eight feet deep behind Barker Ranch.
62


It has also been theorized that the bodies may possibly be those
of unknown drifters, hitchhikers, or some of the many young runaways
who came into contact with the Family, only to end up being murdered
and then buried in the vast, featureless desert behind Barker Ranch.

One much bandied about scenario has a witness claiming to
have seen Charles Manson and Manson follower/head hit-man Charles
Tex Watson leave the ranch house at Barker to walk a young girl who
had become disillusioned with the Family up through a desert pass.
Supposedly, Manson and Watson came back an hour later without her
and she was never seen again. If this eyewitness account is true, you
either have a story of two men who were gallant enough to see a young
girl on her way (implausible, knowing Mansons general attitude about
women), or an evil scenario for a brutal murder.

What would make the latter possibility seem the most likely
(again, presuming that the rumor is true) is the fact that Barker Ranch
lies well within Death Valley, many miles from the main highway and
over some of the roughest road one can image. It is hard to picture a
young girl leaving on her own to walk all the way back to civilization
under such daunting conditions. Unless, perhaps, she knew something
she was not supposed to know and/or she feared for her life.

Tex Watson described the road conditions leading up to Barker
Ranch like this:

48
Charlie was especially attracted to two isolated ranches
at the top of Golar Wash - Myers and Barker. The Wash,
even by day, without LSD and a knife in your ribs, was
hellish, unbelievably rugged. It could take a good half a
day to work your way up on foot, and even the toughest
jeep would have a hard time against the boulders and
narrow turns.
63


Intrigued by the rumors, Sergeant Paul Dostie of the Mammoth
Lakes Police department traveled to the Barker Ranch multiple times
over the years during his off-duty hours. He would eventually lead an
unofficial and informal team of forensic investigators to Barker Ranch
where they used specially-trained cadaver dogs and other equipment in
an attempt to locate these possible victims.

Along for the trip and acting as a guide was prospector Emmett
Harder, a local miner with a claim in the area, who was also a veteran of
many meetings and run-ins with the Manson family back in the day.

Harder was interviewed by the press about the search and
related the tale of yet another incident that is often cited in order to give
credence to the bodies buried at Barker rumor: In October of 1969, two
teenager runaways, Stephanie Schram (a favored girlfriend of Mansons)
and Kathryn Kitty Lutesinger (girlfriend of Bobby Beausoleil, the Mason
follower who murdered Gary Hinman) fled in fear from the Barker Ranch
during the night. These two were so terrified of the Manson clan that
they made the trip in the dark, through the rugged mountain and desert
terrain, all the way back to the main highway in their bare feet.

Once there, they flagged down a California Highway Patrol
vehicle. Placed in custody as runaways, they began to tell the police that
Manson had threatened to kill them and also divulged details about the
Hinman slaying and other murders. Acting on their story, the police
traveled up the wash toward Barker. There, they arrested Manson family
members Steve Grogan (a.k.a. Clem Tufts, the murderer of Donald
Shorty Shea) and Hugh Rocky Todd and confiscated a shotgun the
men were carrying. It has been alleged that Grogan and Todd were
actually stalking Schram and Lutesinger with the intent to kill them as the
two girls fled from Barker Ranch. The implication of this tale is, if these
two barely managed to escape with their lives, how many more may not
have been so lucky?
64


According to press reports, Sergeant Dosties search team
located three to five areas of interest at Barker Ranch. In May of 2008,
over a three day period, a team of scientists and crime scene
investigators conducted a detailed excavation of the suspected sites at
Barker. Nothing of any interest was recovered.
65



49
50









An Interesting Comparison Between Jesus Christ and Charles
Manson

Below is a comparison between the original Christian sect that
adhered to a belief in Jesus Christ as the new Messiah, and that of
Charles Manson and his followers, who believed that Manson was
actually the Second Coming of Christ.


Both Manson and Jesus followers believed they were the prophesied
Son of God and worshipped them accordingly.

Both had their twelve apostles (Manson, several times over).

Both were ultimately betrayed by one of these followers (Jesus by
Judas and Manson by both Susan Atkins and Linda Kasabian).

Both had devoted female disciples and close confidantes named Mary
(Jesus had Mary Magdalene and Manson had Mary Brunner).

Both lived in the desert and had tribulations of importance while there.

Both Mansons and Jesus followers believed that they had magical
powers.

Both were arrested, denounced for their revolutionary beliefs, and
placed on trial.

Both were found guilty at a criminal trial and sentenced to death.
66




51
52
53
Revelation 9

According to the most popular theory, Manson truly believed that
there were hidden messages in the Beatles songs foretelling of a coming
Armageddon; that he also believed that the Beatles were actually divine
messengers sent by God to reveal the secrets of this impending world
destruction; and finally, that in order to kick start this Apocalypse, the
Beatles were actively seeking to find Manson - as Jesus Christ
reincarnated - to act as the final spark that would set everything into
motion.

Reprinted below is the full text of Revelation 9, part of the
chapter found in the Christian Bible on which Manson based his Helter
Skelter, End of the World, Apocalyptic beliefs, in conjunction with the
messages he heard from listening to the Beatles song, Revolution 9.


1. And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto
the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.

2. And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the
pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were
darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.

3. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto
them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.

4. And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of
the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men
which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.

5. And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they
should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment
of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.

6. And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and
shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.

7. And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto
battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their
faces were as the faces of men.

8. And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the
teeth of lions.

9. And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the
sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses
running to battle.

54
10. And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their
tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.

11. And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless
pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek
tongue hath his name Apollyon (in Latin, Exterminans).

12. One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.

13. And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns
of the golden altar which is before God;

14. Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, loose the four
angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.

15. And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour,
and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.

16. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred
thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.

17. And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them,
having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads
of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued
fire and smoke and brimstone.

18. By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by
the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.

19. For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were
like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt.

20. And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet
repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship
devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood:
which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:

21. Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of
their fornication, nor of their thefts.


55

56










About the Author
Curt Rowlett is a researcher and writer with
a penchant for the mystical, mysterious,
and macabre. His work has appeared in
the books Popular Paranoia, Labyrinth13:
True Tales of the Occult, Crime &
Conspiracy, and the magazines Fortean
Times, Strange Magazine, Paranoia, and
Steamshovel Press.

He is also: a serious student of the
paranormal and the unexplained, a former
merchant marine who has traveled all over
the world, an ex-rock musician, and a
genuine southern gentleman.

For more information, please visit: www.labyrinth13.com



57
Footnotes

1
See Will You Die for Me?: The Man Who Killed For Charles Manson
Tells His Own Story, by Tex Watson, as told to Chaplain Ray, Fleming H.
Revell Company, Chapter 1, Sure Charlie, You Can Kill Me.

2
In a nutshell, the rumor stated that Paul McCartney of the Beatles was
decapitated in a car crash at 5:00 a.m. on Wednesday, November 9,
1966. Fans looking for clues to Paul's death found them in surplus on
the group's album covers, in the fan booklets that came with albums, and
even embedded in the band's music. While it is true that some of the
"Paul is Dead" clues are simply too preposterous to accept, a few
actually remain unexplained, both as genuine mysteries, and as
examples of unusually strong coincidences that cannot be quite so easily
dismissed. See the books, Turn Me On, Dead Man: The Beatles and the
"Paul Is Dead" Hoax, by Andru J. Reeve, and The Walrus Was Paul: The
Great Beatle Death Clues, by R. Gary Patterson.

3
See The Brotherhood of Eternal Love, by Stewart Tendler and David
May, Panther Books, Granada Publishing, 1984, p. 74 (of PDF version).

4
See My Life With Charles Manson, by Paul Watkins with Guillermo
Soledad, Bantam Books, 1979, Part One: I Am You and You Are Me,
Chapter 1.

5
See the documentary film Manson, by Robert Hendrickson and
Laurence Merrick, 1973.

6
See My Life With Charles Manson, by Paul Watkins with Guillermo
Soledad, Bantam Books, 1979, Chapter 12.

7
See Charlie Don't Surf, But He's Got His Own Website!, article by
Richard Metzger.

8
See Apocalypse Now, 1979, directed by Francis Ford Coppola. See
also, Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, Hesperus Press, 2002.

9
See Apocalypse Now, 1979, directed by Francis Ford Coppola.

10
Ibid.

11
Ibid.

12
Ibid.

13
See essay title, The American Meaning of Charley Manson, by David
R. Williams.

14
Ibid.
58


15
Ibid.

16
See Apocalypse Now, 1979, directed by Francis Ford Coppola.

17
Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders, by Vincent
Bugliosi with Curt Gentry, Bantam Books, First edition, 1974, p. 641; see
also, Society and the Individual in Nietzsche's The Will to Power, by
Travis J. Denneson, Section II, The Will to Power. Denneson states, A
psychological presupposition of Nietzsche's is that humans are always
attempting to inflict their wills upon others. Every action toward another
individual stems from a deep-down desire to bring that person under
one's power in one way or another. Whether a person is giving gifts,
claiming to be in love with someone, giving someone praise, or
physically harming someone, the psychological motive is the same: to
exert one's will over others. This presupposition entails that all human
beings are ultimately and exclusively egoistic by nature. Therefore,
according to Nietzsche, there are no truly altruistic actions.

18
See the film, Charles Manson Superstar, by Nikolas Schreck.

19
See Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders, by Vincent
Bugliosi with Curt Gentry, Bantam Books, First edition, 1974, p. 421.

20
From correspondence between the author and Manson researcher
and memorabilia collector, John Aes-Nihil.

21
See essay titled, An Introduction to the My Lai Courts-Martial, by Doug
Linder.

22
See Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders, by Vincent
Bugliosi with Curt Gentry, Bantam Books, First edition, 1974, p. 438-442.

23
See: The My Lai Massacre: A Case Study, by Major Tony Raimondo,
JA, Human Rights Program, School of the Americas, Fort Benning,
Georgia.

24
From correspondence between the author and John Aes-Nihil.

25
See Charlie Don't Surf, But He's Got His Own Website!; article by
Richard Metzger.

26
From Manson's 1988 interview with Geraldo Rivera.

27
See The Manson Files, edited by Nikolas Schreck, Amok Press, 1988,
p. 14.

59

28
See The Haight Ashbury: A History by Charles Perry, 1st Edition,
Random House, 1984, pp. 3-4, 125.

29
See A Season in Heaven: True Tales from the Road to Kathmandu, by
David Tomory, p. 115.

30
See LSD: My Problem Child; Reflections on Sacred Drugs, Mysticism,
and Science, by Albert Hoffman, Putnam Publishing, p. 14.

31
Ibid, p. 15.

32
See The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan
Book of the Dead, Citadel Press, 1995.

33
See The Haight Ashbury: A History, by Charles Perry, 1st Edition,
Random House, 1984, p. 7.

34
Ibid, pp. 254-255.

35
Definition supplied at: http://www.selfknowledge.com/109719.htm. In
Zen Buddhism, Nirvana is the realization of the true nature of the mind
(consciousness), which is identical with the true nature of how human
beings experience their world - the Buddha-nature . . . Nirvana frees one
from suffering and fear of death. It is the highest, transcendent
consciousness.

36
See Will You Die for Me?: The Man Who Killed For Charles Manson
Tells His Own Story, by Tex Watson, as told to Chaplain Ray, Fleming H.
Revell Company, Chapter 8, Magical Mystery Tour.

37
See Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders, by Vincent
Bugliosi with Curt Gentry, Bantam Books, First edition, 1974, pp. 320-
321.

38
See Storming Heaven; LSD and the American Dream, by Jay Stevens,
Grove Press; (October 1998), p. 347.

39
For a full account of my research into this area, see my first book,
Labyrinth13: True Tales of the Occult, Crime & Conspiracy, Chapter 11,
The Summer of Love Breeds a Season of Hate: The Effects of the
Manson Murders on Public Perceptions of the Hippie Lifestyle.

40
From Manson's 1988 interview with Geraldo Rivera.

41
See Labyrinth13: True Tales of the Occult, Crime & Conspiracy,
Chapter 10, Charles Manson, Son of Sam and the Process Church of the
Final Judgment: Exploring the Alleged Connections.

60

42
See Labyrinth13: True Tales of the Occult, Crime & Conspiracy,
Chapter 12, Project Mind Kontrol: Did the U.S. Government Actually
Create Programmed Assassins?

43
See Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders, by Vincent
Bugliosi with Curt Gentry, Bantam Books, First edition, 1974, p281.

44
Ibid, 1974, p. 25.

45
See First Homicide Investigation Progress Report, DR 69-059 593, pp.
27-28.

46
From pages 37-40 of a tape-recorded polygraph examination of
William Eston Garretson, conducted on August 10, 1969.

47
See message board for the Official Tate-LaBianca Murders Blog.

48
See Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders, by Vincent
Bugliosi with Curt Gentry, Bantam Books, first edition, 1974, p. 30.

49
Ibid, p. 49.

50
Ibid, pp. 49-50.

51
Excerpted from an interview conducted with William Garretson. See
transcript of the show, The Last Days of Sharon Tate, The E! True
Hollywood Story, original television broadcast, July 25, 1999.

52
Ibid.

53
Ibid.

54
Paul Krassner was the editor of The Realist magazine and a key figure
in the 1960s counterculture. He was also a founder of the Youth
International Party (the Yippies) and a member of Ken Kesey's famous
hippie band, the Merry Pranksters.

55
See Manson Family Movies, written, directed and produced by John
Aes-Nihil, 1984. (In order to hear the comment, one must have the
director commentary activated on your DVD player).

56
See Movie stars, drug dealing, and the LAPD, article by Paul
Krassner, published August 9, 1999 in Scope.

57
See First Homicide Investigation Progress Report, DR 69-059 593, p.
29.

61

58
See People v. Manson, 61 CA3d 102, Court of Appeals of California,
2nd App. District, Div. One, Aug., 13, 1976; Footnote 41.

59
See Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders, by Vincent
Bugliosi with Curt Gentry, Bantam Books, first edition, 1974, p. 576.

60
See Dream a Little Dream of Me: The Life of Cass Elliot, by Eddi
Fiegel, Chicago Review Press, 2007.

61
See Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders, by Vincent
Bugliosi with Curt Gentry, Bantam Books, first edition, 1974, p. 642.

62
Ibid, p. 642.

63
See Will You Die for Me?: The Man Who Killed For Charles Manson
Tells His Own Story, by Tex Watson, as told to Chaplain Ray, Fleming H.
Revell Company, Chapter 1, Sure Charlie, You Can Kill Me.

64
See Dig at Barker Ranch for Manson Victims - Forensic Investigators
Hope to Find Clues to Clandestine Graves, Associated Press, March 23,
2008.

65
See Dig at Manson Ranch Ends; No Bodies Found, Los Angeles
Times, May 22, 2008.

66
See also, Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders, by
Vincent Bugliosi with Curt Gentry, Bantam Books, First edition, 1974, p.
656.
62