by Jeff Guinn
Jo Ann and her husband stayed away: Jo Ann interview.
Ethel Miller, whom everybody in town loved: Bill Miller interview.
Charlie finally made a few friends: John Catlett, Richard Hawkey, and Jason Clark-Miller interviews.
Somehow Charlie got his hands on a guitar: Jo Ann interview.
particularly liked Frankie Laine: Phil Kaufman interview.
Charlie’s attempt to fit in: Virginia Brautigan interview.
the Wheeling mob wouldn’t wait: George T. Sidiropolis interview.
she thought it was in some way poignant: Jo Ann interview. Most Manson legends have Charlie going to California first, his mother following after Charlie went to prison for violating the Dyer Act. In fact, Kathleen went west first.
He called Jo Ann back in Ohio: Jo Ann interview.
The judge ordered psychiatric testing: Bugliosi, pp. 140–41; Ed Sanders, The Family (Da Capo, 2002), pp. 3–4.
Chapter Five: Prison
The fact that the Dale Carnegie Institute and the Church of Scientology are frequently mentioned in this chapter should not imply that their teachings and printed materials are in any way responsible for criminal behavior by Charlie Manson or anyone else. Charlie used what he learned from these sources in ways that the Dale Carnegie Institute and the Church of Scientology never intended.
Lyle Adcock has done groundbreaking research on the subject of Rosalie Willis’s life after her divorce from Charlie, and I thank Lyle for sharing the information with me for this book.
It was one of a handful of federal prisons: Phil Kaufman interview.
he was still fascinated by pimps: Sanders, p. 4; Stephen Kay interview.
His initial months at Terminal Island were brightened: Bugliosi, p. 141.
Prison officials even restricted him: Ibid.
Kathleen had to break the news to Charlie: Sanders, p. 4.
Rosalie’s adult life got off to a rough start: Lyle Adcock interview.
On April 10 he was caught: Bugliosi, p. 141.
a nationwide penal system overhaul: Volker Janssen and Jason Clark-Miller interviews.
It was as though Dale Carnegie not only read Charlie’s mind: Phil Kaufman interview.
Charlie spent the rest of his time: Sanders, p. 4.
Kathleen had some doubts: Nancy interview.
In rapid order Charlie worked: Sanders, p. 5.
Charlie’s career as a pimp: Vincent Bugliosi interview; Bugliosi, p. 142; Sanders, p. 5.
Charlie was arrested for attempting to cash: Bugliosi, pp. 142–43.
In December he tried to expand his territory: Sanders, p. 6.
The Washington penitentiary sprawled: “Doors Closing at McNeil Island Prison After 135 Years,” Seattle Times, February 28, 2011.
Hubbard taught how to change yourself: L. Ron Hubbard, What Is Scientology? Based on the Works of L. Ron Hubbard (Bridge Publications, 1998), p. 673.
he still had his mother: Nancy interview. The story about Charlie throwing a fit when Kathleen adopted a baby girl instead of buying him a new guitar is told in Nuel Emmons’s Manson in His Own Words, which supports my impression that Emmons wrote down exactly what Charlie told him, and that every once in a while Charlie told the truth.
Karpis was an accomplished steel guitar player: Sanders, p. 9.
He didn’t read books, but he listened: Charlie said that he read Stranger in a Strange Land while in prison at McNeil. But after his conviction for the Tate and LaBianca murders, he told fellow inmate Roger Dale Smith that he threw out all his prison mail because he couldn’t read it. I consulted several reading skills experts, and they generally agreed that if Charlie could read a printed book, he could read even scribbled handwritten letters by “decoding”—matching sounds to individual letters. The question then becomes: If Charlie was a very slow, limited reader, would he devote the months it would take to work his way through a novel? Based on what I learned in researching this book, I don’t think so. Charlie always tried to get others to do the work for him.
There was nothing special about the songs that resulted: Phil Kaufman interview.
Now when Kathleen visited: Nancy interview.
Senior McNeil staff noted: Bugliosi, pp. 145–46.
Lewis had a parting shot for Kathleen: Nancy interview.
Its barred doors had hardly slammed shut: Phil Kaufman interview; Kaufman, p. 51.
Charlie got his last prison report: Bugliosi, p. 146.
Phil Kaufman thought Charlie was a decent singer: Phil Kaufman interview; Jess Bravin, Squeaky: The Life and Times of Lynette Alice Fromme (Buzz Books/St. Martin’s, 1997), p. 52.
Charlie was being both personally insightful and honest: Jason Clark-Miller interview.
He called one in Berkeley: There’s some question about why Charlie went to Berkeley immediately upon release from Terminal Island. In the Emmons book he’s quoted as saying he knew an ex-inmate there, and that sounds likely.
Chapter Six: Berkeley and the Haight
Tom Hayden and Mark Rudd contributed valuable interviews to this chapter, Hayden in person at his Culver City, California, office and Rudd through e-mail. I wanted to interview Mary Brunner, but among all the former Manson Family members, she (along with Ruth Ann Moorehouse) has successfully hid in the general population. Leslie Van Houten offered insights into the Manson-Brunner relationship.
George Laughead, an expert on the Beats, generously arranged interviews for me with his old friends Glenn Todd and Lorraine Chamberlain.
To understand San Francisco and Haight-Ashbury in the 1960s I read two exceptional books, The Haight-Ashbury: A History by Charles Perry and Season of the Witch: Enchantment, Terror, and Deliverance in the City of Love by David Talbot. Perry, whose credentials also include a long stint as a writer for Rolling Stone magazine back in the days when it was the publication of the counterculture, also granted me an extensive in-person interview.
Beginning in this chapter, certain key members of the Manson Family—Mary Brunner, Lynne “Squeaky” Fromme, Pat Krenwinkel, and a few others—are identified in the main text by first names. Last names are used for everyone else.
In 1960 a handful of student activists formed Students for a Democratic Society: Tom Hayden interview.
SDS-orchestrated antiwar rallies: Mark Rudd interview.
Free Speech Movement: Though I do not cite specific passages, David Burner’s brilliant Making Peace with the 60s (Princeton University Press, 1996) informs everything included here about the Berkeley Free Speech movement and campus unrest in general. If you’re at all interested in this event, or in the revolutionary student spirit of the 1960s, I urge you to read his book.
Actor Ronald Reagan made Berkeley Free Speech: Stephen E. Ambrose, Nixon: The Triumph of a Politician, 1962–1972 (Simon & Schuster, 1989), pp. 119–20.
The Panthers set up free health clinics: Mary F. Corey interview.
He’d been given $35: Sanders, p. 12.
people who might have been marginal characters: Tom Hayden interview.
Far from having to hide it: Gregg Jakobson interview.
Twenty-three-year-old Mary Brunner: Bugliosi, p. 163; Livsey, p. 107.
for years afterward she continued believing: Leslie Van Houten interview.
Mary was extremely knowledgeable: Ed George with Dary Matera, Taming the Beast: Charles Manson’s Life Behind Bars (St. Martin’s, 1998), p. 37.
the Haight was just as famous: Charles Perry interview.
it was ingrained in Charlie: Michele Deitch interview.
The Beats adopted the city’s North Beach: Glenn Todd interview.
its declining two- and three-story Victorian houses: Charles Perry interview.
many of these featured all sorts of inexpensive, ruffly garb: Ibid.
One of these was Ken Kesey: Charles Perry, The Haight-Ashbury: A History (Wenner Books, 2005), pp. 13–15.
Drugs were hard to come by: Charles Perry interview.
By the time Augustus Owsley Stanley
III appeared on the scene: Charles Perry, “Owsley and Me,” Rolling Stone, November 25, 1982.
There was usually enough not only to share: Perry, The Haight-Asbury, p. 246; Charles Perry interview.
These goofy little dupes were something less: Perry, The Haight-Ashbury, p. 5.
A thriving new music scene exploded: David Talbot, Season of the Witch: Enchantment, Terror, and Deliverance in the City of Love (Free Press, 2012), p. 93.
but if they weren’t different: David E. Smith interview.
The Diggers, who originally came to the Haight: Talbot, pp. 36–40; Perry, The Haight-Ashbury, p. 79, pp. 249–51.
The Haight Diggers harvested their crops: Perry, The Haight-Ashbury, pp. 94–95; Talbot, p. 40.
Musical entertainment was provided by the Chamber Orkustra: Tommy Udo, Charles Manson: Music, Mayhem, Murder (Sanctuary Publishing, 2002), pp. 91–92; Lorraine Chamberlain interview; Perry, The Haight-Ashbury, p. 112.
Flyers for the 1–5 P.M. event: Ellis Amburn, Pearl: The Obsessions and Passions of Janis Joplin (Warner, 1992), p. 112.
January 14 dawned clear and bright: Glenn Todd, Lorraine Chamberlain, and Charles Perry interviews; Perry, The Haight-Ashbury, pp. 120–23; Talbot, pp. 22–23; Joel Selvin, Summer of Love: The Inside Story of LSD, Rock & Roll, Free Love and High Times in the Wild West (Cooper Square, 1999), pp. 106–7.
subsequent broadcasts and articles and photographs: Glenn Todd, David A. Smith, and Charles Perry interviews; Perry, The Haight-Ashbury, pp. 126, 261.
Now there were more than three hundred a day: Perry, The Haight-Ashbury, p. 204.
It didn’t take long for neighborhood leaders: Talbot, pp. 31–35.
A neighborhood research team did its best: Perry, The Haight-Ashbury, p. 282.
Paul McCartney popped into the neighborhood: Peter Brown and Steven Gaines, The Love You Make: An Insider’s Story of the Beatles (McGraw-Hill, 1983), pp. 240–41.
But these new pushers offered hard drugs: Charles Perry, David E. Smith, and Glenn Todd interviews; Perry, The Haight-Ashbury, p. 219; Joan Didion, Slouching Towards Bethlehem: Essays (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1968), p. 108.
An April 16 street leaflet described: Perry, The Haight-Ashbury, p. 174.
One estimate had 75,000 more descending: Ibid., p. 229. In March 1967, when the influx began to strain the Haight at its seams, there were an estimated seven thousand hippies living there, according to Perry.
Chapter Seven: Charlie in the Summer of Love
Dr. David E. Smith was a generous guide to Haight history and his personal experiences with Charles Manson. Patricia Krenwinkel had valuable insights into the early days of what would become known as the Family.
The Diggers fascinated Charlie: Sanders, p. 14.
Virtually everywhere Charlie looked in the Haight: David E. Smith and Glenn Todd interviews.
Charlie drifted from one street guru to the next: Gregg Jakobson, Mary F. Corey, and David A. Smith interviews. Gregg Jakobson had many conversations with Manson about how Charlie developed his personal philosophies.
Charlie began to believe that he had a lot in common with Jesus: It wasn’t unique for LSD users to come down from trips believing that they were reincarnations of Christ. John Lennon famously did, telling his fellow Beatles and their business advisors that he was Jesus. They congratulated him, got on with life, and a few days later Lennon forgot all about it. Charlie has periodically proclaimed himself to be Jesus or some form of divine being right up to the present day.
On one of the benches a small redheaded girl sat and sobbed: Bravin, pp. 46–48; Livsey, pp. 194–97.
On one of Charlie’s first hitchhiking trips: Sanders, pp. 14–15; Emmons, pp. 99–101. In many books, Dean’s last name is written as “Morehouse,” but Social Security records list him as “Moorehouse.”
She was a cuddly tomboy: Leslie Van Houten and Patricia Krenwinkel interviews. There is considerable discrepancy about the age of Ruth Ann Moore-house. Some believe she was as young as fourteen when she was first seduced by Charlie. But the California Marriage Index estimates her birth date as “abt. 1952,” which means she was at least fifteen and possibly sixteen when she first met Manson.
Charlie was in his Jesus mode: Bugliosi, p. 235.
All over America it was a traumatic summer: Ambrose, Nixon, p. 103; Theodore White, The Making of the President 1968, p. 253; Patterson, Grand Expectations, p. 663.
An even greater danger to its overflowing community: David E. Smith interview.
More than 250 hippies lined up: David E. Smith interview; Talbot, pp. 55–56.
Green introduced Charlie to nineteen-year-old Pat Krenwinkel: Patricia Krenwinkel interview.
She’d abandoned him when he was young: Ibid.
She wasn’t pleased to see him: Nancy interview.
They thought the women in Charlie’s group: Charles Perry interview.
the weird group had a nickname for itself: Ibid.
Charlie always seemed to have knives: Patricia Krenwinkel interview.
One prominent dealer, well known for keeping a briefcase: Charles Perry interview.
“Haight Street smelled like piss”: Jan Reid, Texas Tornado: The Times and Music of Doug Sahm (University of Texas Press, 2010), p. 73.
In September filmmaker Kenneth Anger rented a Haight theater: Perry, The Haight-Ashbury, p. 231; Sanders, p. 25.
None of the Haight turmoil was reflected: Livsey, p. 201.
The kids were shunted aside: David E. Smith, M.D., and Alan J. Rose, “The Group Marriage Commune: A Case Study,” The Journal of Psychedelic Drugs, September 1970.
none of the hard stuff: Phil Kaufman interview.
Charlie expected rapt devotion: Patricia Krenwinkel interview.
struggling to remember spur-of-the-moment lyrics: Leslie Van Houten interview.
The best way to get them, Charlie knew: Susan Atkins, with Bob Slosser, Child of Satan, Child of God (Bantam, 1978), p. 84.
Of all the followers who came to Charlie: Susan Atkins compiled or contributed to three books about her childhood and experiences with Charlie Manson: The Killing of Sharon Tate by Lawrence Schiller; her own Child of Satan, Child of God, co-authored with Bob Slosser; and “The Myth of Helter Skelter,” an unpublished memoir written with her husband, James Whitehouse, which can be viewed at www.susanatkins.org. In 2011 I met briefly with Whitehouse, who said he would consider talking to me about his late wife, and in a subsequent message he agreed to answer questions submitted to him by e-mail. After many months he cited a factual error in one of the questions and refused to communicate further. I’m particularly sorry because, according to Leslie Van Houten, Whitehouse continues to provide legal services to women at the California Institution for Women.
As soon as she turned eighteen: Atkins, pp. 49–52; Sanders, p. 19; Livsey, pp. 35, 178–86; Bravin, p. 70.
Susan visited some friends at their Haight apartment: Atkins, pp. 1–9; Lawrence Schiller, The Killing of Sharon Tate (Signet, 1970), pp. 81–84; Atkins unpublished memoir.
Charlie took his women up to Sacramento: Patricia Krenwinkel interview.
other women in the group would get pregnant: Smith and Rose, “The Group Marriage Commune,” The Journal of Psychedelic Drugs.
That made them regular patrons of the Free Clinic: David E. Smith interview.
In the early fall, Charlie took the bus out: In describing his meeting and subsequent confrontation with Dean Moorehouse, Charlie always claimed that Ruth Ann was present at her father’s house and begged to come with him, but her father refused. This cannot be the case. According to California state records, Ruth Ann married Edward L. Heuvelhorst on May 20, 1968, legally emancipating her from her parents. If Ruth Ann had been at her father’s that day and wanted to leave with Manson and the rest of his followers, she could have. But every reliable account has Ruth Ann joining the group after it moved from San Francisco to Los Angeles.
but he was mollified a few days later: Sanders, p. 17.
T
he girls considered him to be a pompous lightweight: Leslie Van Houten and Patricia Krenwinkel interviews.
This crazy man was about to murder him: Manson tells this story in Emmons, Manson in His Own Words, pp. 121–22, and Gregg Jakobson later heard it described by several witnesses. In some versions, Dean Moorehouse was accompanied by a friend who put the shotgun to Charlie’s head.
L.A. reps who came to check out San Francisco talent: Charles Perry, Lorraine Chamberlain, and Gregg Jakobson interviews.
Everyone knew that the fabled Beach Boys: Kent Hartman, The Wrecking Crew: The Inside Story of Rock and Roll’s Best-Kept Secret (Thomas Dunne, 2012), pp. 153–55.
four of the five Byrds didn’t perform at all: This is true: Gregg Jakobson interview; Hartman, pp. 97–101.
“No matter how”: Priore, p. 22.
Chapter Eight: L.A.
Interviews with Mary F. Corey, Gregg Jakobson, Leslie Van Houten, Tom Hayden, A. J. Langguth, and, especially, Joe Domanick, David Dotson, and Gerald L. Chaleff helped me better understand the unique atmosphere in Los Angeles during and after the Watts riot of 1965. For anyone remotely interested in that subject, Domanick’s Edgar Award–winning To Protect and to Serve: The LAPD’s Century of War in the City of Dreams, is essential and gripping reading.
Chronology is inevitably questionable in this part of the Manson saga. Charlie and his followers (soon to be known as the Family) were nomadic even when they were in L.A. In between city residences, they toured in the school bus. Nobody was keeping track of departure and arrival dates, or how many days were spent on the road. It may be, for instance, that Dianne Lake joined just before they drove into the Mojave Desert rather than after (and her name may be either “Dianne” or “Diane”), or that Sandy Good became a full-fledged member prior to Phil Kaufman leaving (Phil doesn’t think so but isn’t certain). So some of the sequences of events described here are best guesses, but the events themselves are factually presented based on interviews and descriptions in previous books, documents, and articles, all noted.
Los Angeles became a place: Mary F. Corey, Joe Domanick, David Dotson, and Tom Hayden interviews.
As many as one thousand flooded in each week: Joe Domanick interview.
