He’s peeved at two reporters who failed to send him copies of their story on him.
March 11 1977 from Vacaville 4 pages on 8”x11” paper. SIG. About the argument between me & Sandy Good. CM steps in to calm us both down as well as scold me.
My comments to Sandy are found on p.2; CM comments on my comments.
HE’S MEAN: on bottom p.3: “Ive become a mean blind snake & almost impossible to live with. But I can play nice if I have to.
March 24 1977 from Vacaville. 2 pp on legal-sized paper. His dream of getting an amp to accompany the guitar I am going buy for him from the article sale to STERN magazine. He gave me the specifications for the guitar. Later on he hopes to get an amp to accompany the instrument.
April 5 1977. From Vacaville. 4 pges on 8 ½ in paper. Pages 1 & 2 CM writes about busting the expensive guitar I sent him. (NOTE: The guitar was paid for from the $$ STEN magazine paid me for the story. CM asked me to send messages to two male family members in prison. I had to decline that request for the same reason stated earlier.).
Page 3 is where CM warms up & speaks with clarity & wisdom. “Take real good notes in what is written here—If Im to wright letters through you to some one who understands what Im wrighting & you in your fear don’t understand what Im wrighting & you cut it off then I cnat git any thought through your understanding of the world. True, you are your world & you live in your understanding of the world that you understand but the world is bigger than your understanding of all the levels of thought…the understanding of a truck driver don’t see the world from a cooks stand point—a police don’t see from a newspaper reporter & the first person don’t understand the thoughts of everyone because he is in the lead & only sees where hes going—the last persons understanding is in ALL fromm the last through the different levels of thought…”
March 18 1977. from Vacaville. 1 legal-sized page.
Addressed to “Buck.” I don’t know him.
Manson displays his expertise with guitars as he explains to Buck the type of guitar he is looking for.
December 21 1977. from Vacaville, 1 page on 8 ½ in paper CM acknowledges receipt of this year’s Xmas package I sent. “The Shin cigars are really nice.”
November 7 1978 from Vacaville. One page letter 8 ½ inch paper. “I was thinking if your gona come & see me…I must know a person over 90 days & your about the only person I know that hasnt been in prison or probation. Anyway Ive known you 5 years so that’s long enough for a visit. So if you come wright me a note It will be nice to see you.
“Easy, Charles Manson”
(NOTE: It would be another year before our visit. He folded the paper in a Japanese style. Interesting.)
December 5 1978. from Vacaville. 2 pages on 8 x ½ paper. CM tells me in this short signed message that I “have T, B, L—Truth beauty & love. MYSTICAL: “Yes RR Im in harmony with what you say all is one & we are each other in the one of all—that’s a big thought…”Tomorrow “I go up the main line. If I get it, ill call or wright as soon as I can & we can do a visit thing.
April 3 1992 from Corcoran. 1 legal-sized page both sides. HIS FAREWELL LETTER.
Manson says that I am “a cold slimy ragtime cowboy shark…I always did and always will like you—BUT trust you HA HA.”
“I even forgot what you look like. When you didnt do what you said I felt raped & left alone….Now it seems you want to use me for something—I forgot all the good you did for me last time but I knew you were looking out for you & that’s JUST what I should of & will do. So you are a good teacher. Let us have a drink & think of this again—for what? & what do I git & HOW can I trust your brain. You always the smart one…I MUST BE CAREFUL.
Manson & Timothy Leary in Vacaville Prison*
The exchange between Leary and Manson took place when Leary was transferred to Vacaville Prison in January 1973. Leary was sentenced to serve twenty-five years for being busted on a marijuana charge in Loredo, Texas. President Nixon and J. Edgar Hoover joined forces to make sure that Leary was put away for a long long time. He was considered a menace to American society. President Nixon declared that “Timothy Leary is the most dangerous person in the United States.” Fortunately, Leary was pardoned by Governor Jerry Brown and released from California custody on April 21, 1976.
During the bus ride in a prison vehicle Leary was told by seasoned prisoners about the worst of the worst place in Folsom—known as “the hole” in the notorious Wing A-4 of the Adjustment Center.
Sure enough, the Guru of LSD was assigned to the garbage heap in the dark cavern below Wing A-4. In his dungeon cell Leary was “comforted” with a seatless chipped and stained toilet, “a rusty face bowl, and a concrete slab, on which I threw the soiled smelly mattress. A single sliver of light shone down the hall from the outer door.”
Twenty-five years to serve.
I felt a strange sense of elation. This was it. The indisputable undeniable Dantean bottom. While being escorted to his cell Leary notice ‘a small man sat on the floor in the lotus position, reading a Bible, smiling benevolently.’
After an hour of darkness and silence the outer door opened. A young blond trusty entered, leaned against the bars of my cell. ‘Sorry, you’re here, man. But welcome. I’m the go-fer on the first tier. Do you smoke? You want something to read?’
‘Yeah I smoke and read.’
Manson And Timothy Leary ‘I’ll get you something heavy to read.’ My friend slid out, leaving the center door open. Reflected light from the setting sun warmed the cell. In a few minutes he came back with rolling papers and a white envelope filled with tobacco.
‘These came from Charlie. He’s your nearest neighbor.’ That would be the guy sitting in the lotus position looking like Jesus Christ. ‘He wants to know if you take sugar and cream with your coffee. And if you like honey.’
‘Sure. Tell him thanks.’ It was the ancient courtesy-ritual of prison. The new inmate, who arrives with nothing, is provided available luxuries by the old-timers. I sniffed at the tobacco. Bugler. I rolled a cigarette and watched the smoke curl and cloud in the sunlight.
The trustee darted back in carrying four books. Charlie sent The Teachings of the Compassionate Buddha, In Search of the Miraculous by Ouspensky, The Teachings of Don Juan and The Master and Margarita, a satirical novel by life in modern Russia. (NOTE: The novel was banned in Russia until the downfall of Communism.)
Next my friend popped in with a cardboard cup of organic honey, a box of graham crackers and more envelopes—powered coffee, sugar cubes, powered cream.
‘Charlie sent these. I gotta go now. I’ll leave the door open a couple more minutes. Listen, I’m your fan. I owe everything to you.’
‘You’re welcome,’ I said, wondering.
‘Hey Doc,’ a cocky patronizing voice came from the cell just beyond the outer door. I suddenly realized the identity of the only other person I was allowed to talk to—Charles Manson. ‘So you finally made it. I been watching you fall for years, man. I knew you’d end up here. I’ve been wanting to talk to you for a long time. I want to ask you how come you blew it?’
‘Blew it?’
‘You had everyone looking up to you. You could have led the people anywhere you wanted.’
‘What I had in mind was to teach people to avoid leaders and direct their own lives,’ I said wearily. ‘When I got out of prison in ’65, I was amazed. Thousands of kids just waiting to be programmed. Give them acid and they’d do anything.’
‘Charles, have you ever been interviewed by psychologists or experts about how you did it?’
‘Did what?’
‘Brainwashed your people.’
‘No.’ ‘Now that’s amazing. You did what every intelligence agency in the world dreamed of. You programmed people to go out on assassination missions. And they’d probably do it again today, right?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Why did you do it?’ ‘I’m a Christian, man. The Bible’s my manual. The Bible gives you the program. It tells you right the
re in Revelation that the women are the cause of all man’s problems.’
Officer Stanley, my inside contact at the prison, reported that he overheard (eavesdropped) on the next and last conversation between Leary and Manson. The exchange was told to me in my San Francisco flat. Three days later Leary was transferred to another unit, leaving Manson in a rage after this exchange:
MANSON: What’s happenin’ dude?
LEARY: Charles, I’ve been thinking about your interpretation of the Bible.
MANSON: I’m listenin’.
Leary: ‘Love one another’ is the Bible’s message. Not ‘kill for love,’ as you directed your people to do.
Stone silence. LEARY: Charles, you’re a control freak. You’re evil with a capital ‘E.’
Stone silence.
LEARY: I want to expand on something I said before. I think the CIA, FBI, Interpol, Scotland Yard and Russian intelligence should get here pronto to study you.
MANSON: I’m listenin’. LEARY: You’ve done something that no other person in history has been able to accomplish. I’m saying the CIA, FBI, Interpol, the English and Russian intelligence agents should combine forces for a definitive study on your intuitive grasp of human nature.
MANSON: You got that right. Even ‘Bugs’(Vincent Bugliosi) knows that.
LEARY: Did you see the film Manchurian Candidate?
MANSON: I know its message. LEARY: To carry out their assassination plot, the government had to put a chip into the assassin’s head.They had to spend millions of dollars. Yet you did it without money, without needing top psychologists, psychiatrists and a cadre of think tank experts.
MANSON:Dude, I dig what you’re tellin’ me.We’re gonna get along jus’ fine.
LEARY: I doubt it Charles.
** In my San Francisco flat, I and Officer Stanley, in civilian attire, are savoring Jamaica Mountain Blue coffee and noshing on creamy New York cheese cake. I opened one of Manson’s letters and extracted six-pages on legal-sized paper. Officer Stanley looked on with interest.
“Stanley, what you’re telling me now makes sense. This is a letter Charlie wrote to Leary. By the time he finished the letter Leary had been transferred to anther section at Folsom. Then he was pardoned by Governor Jerry Brown.”
The corrections officer poured over the letter. “My God, Charlie is in a rage for being called a control freak and evil.”
“Let me show you something,” I said.
I was given the letter. I quickly located where Manson accused
Leary of speaking wisdom but not matching it with action. I showed Stanley the first page which read: ‘…as for evil—I never use the word.’
I searched for another accusation Manson directed at Leary: ‘You’re just another school brain dummie.’ And this remark: Leary has ‘book brain confusion—like others who are well-educated.’
I said, in Manson’s view, Leary is a coward for failing to languish in his cell for a long period of time. Here are Manson’s words: ‘You (Leary) cant sit in a cell with yourself.’ He goes on to say Leary did not have the courage to sit in darkness and be willing to behold what the eye could see in the pit. Manson is saying he possesses the eyes beyond all eyes.
I gave the letter to Stanley, who was engrossed. “Wow, listen to this, Richard: ‘Many people say that I hold fear and that I am in fear.’”
“That’s common knowledge,” I said.
“Are you ready for the good news?”
“What’s cookin’?” I asked.
“I was in this stressful job that has no rewards. This will sound
bizarre and totally crazy but the only person around here who enjoys life is Charlie Manson.”
“Go on.”
“There are two things I have to congratulate Charlie for. He got me to end my self-inflicted torture. He got me to recognize how I felt guilty and wanted to punish myself.”
“I remember you told me that he played with your head.”
“When I first met Charlie in lock-up he said, “Dude, you know why I’m here. What did you do to get here?’”
I waited for his Officer Stanley’s response.
“I was dumbfounded,” he said. “I couldn’t think of an answer so I walked away. I heard Charlie cackling. He knew he got to me.”
“Are you telling me that you’re no longer punishing yourself by being in that cesspool of a job?”
“Exactly. Goodbye prison. Goodbye Charlie. I will get in touch with Rubacher. He’s the only one who will believe that you helped me from going insane.”
“Does that mean you are ex-Officer Stanley?”
He smiled.
“Free at last,” I said.
Ex-Officer Stanley and I clinked our coffee cups.
* Excerpt from FLASHBACKS, An Autobiography by Timothy Leary, Jeremy Tarcher Publisher, Los Angeles, CA 1983. Permission pending.
Charles Manson 1989 Interview on “Geraldo”
Great thanks to Aaron Bredlau for his many hours of transcribing! Aaron also transcribed the Tom Snyder interview.
M: (inaudible) Listen I don’t want to go to no point ‘til we get our heads together man. Stop that until we get our heads together. G: Let me, let me, let me ask you something
M: Here’s some stuff that I’ve written down that I can forward to you and then we can reflect it back. G: Ok, sure.
M: You dig what I’m saying?
G: Sure
M: Crime factories are buying and selling crime.
G: What is a crime factory?
M: Crime factory is this fucking thing here. This is a crime, this is where we create our crime. This is a crime factory, Uh for jobs and prophet. We can stop the crime.
G: How?
M: Buy stop buying and selling it. As long as we’re selling it, it’s gonna be there.
G: What about…let me ask you this question. How do you stay in touch with the world outside the prison? M: I’m thinking the world outside the prison. The judge represents me, I stand in the courtroom. The judge represents me, the lawyer represents me. The attorney general represents me. They represent me (points to the guards.) The whole thing represents me.
G: Why are there 20,000 murders a year?
Manson And Geraldo M: Because you’re selling it. You’re buying and selling it. G: Be a little more specific.
M: Well when you take, you put up an image, you put up this image up and you say ‘Here kids, don’t be like that, don’t take them red pills kids.” They didn’t even know there was red pills until you says “Now you, you can say no. You can say no”, and then the kid said “I didn’t know I could say yes” (laughs) In other words you’re projecting that thought.
G: That’s not a bad point. M: You’re projecting that thought, When the DA jumps up and says “this guy did so and so and so forth and he’s boombabombom” and that’s what he makes me into, that’s not what I am man, that’s not me. That’s what these fucking ignorant assholes need me to be. He needs me to be violence because he needs his ass kicked. He’s begging somebody to kill him. So he needs me to be a killer. Cause he wants to die and go to Heaven and be with Jesus. It’s got nothing to do with me, I don’t respond to it. I just shine it off, put it on another world, man. It doesn’t exist…in the planet I live on.
G: What planet is that?
M: The one that I live on.
G: Do you think that this world, San Quentin, has any relation to the world outside? M: This world of San Quentin is where all the children of God are. This is where you keep all of your children that you don’t want. The ones that you get to carry the heavy load.
Guard: Can you lower your voice here, we have things going on. M: That’s… I just talk natural on the level.
G: Charlie, Charlie, wait man, let’s just..
M: I told you man, see, nothing I do is right man, Unless I stay in a cell. They crowd me and I got his little space. (raising voice) My life is bigger than this little space! I live in the desert, I live in the mountains, man. I’m big! My mind is big! B
ut everyone’s trying to crowd me down and push me down and make me into all these little things that they need me to be and that’s not me at all man. That’s not me! I killed nobody. I broke no law.
G: You broke no law?
M: I broke no law. I didn’t even get to put on a defense, man! G: But Charlie, you were in prison half your life.
M: So what?
G: Why?
M: I didn’t have no parents. When you don’t have any parents and you’ve got nobody there’s no place to, they take you off the street and throw you somewhere. I’ve been in here since I was nine years old.
G: I know.
M: Yeah. Cause I didn’t have no parents.
G: But then why did you start taking other peoples property? Why did .. M: Because I was…
G: You start messing with other peoples space?
M: Whoa, whoa, whoa. I reflect the will of God, son. You can have anything I’ve got.
G: What God is that Charlie? M: The will of God…(starts singing) NUUUUUUHHHHHH.. DIDDLEDIDDLEDIDDLE…whatever you want call it (starts singing) DUHNDUHNDUHNDUHNDUHN…you can call it Jesus, call it Mohammad, call it Boogybops, call it, call it Nuclear Mind, call it Blow The World Up, call it uh, Your Heart, call it whatever you want to call it, it’s still music to me. It’s there. It’s the will of life.
G: Why are 20,000 Americans being killed every year?
M: Because the District Attorneys are selling your blood, man. G: I don’t understand that.
M: When you go to court, they need a conviction. They need criminals man, and they need people to lock up in cages. If they didn’t have people to lock up in cages, man, they wouldn’t to be able to sell more fear to the public. And they sell more fear to the public, and all the old women, they love to buy that fear. They just lay back and watch that fear, and read the detective magazines…
G: What makes the knifer knife? What makes the shooter shoot? M: Society, the reflections of the child.
G: But what about the reflections of the responsibility of the person that’s doing it? M: What person that’s doing it?
Charles Manson's Blood Letters: dueling with the devil Page 7
