by Greg King
Soon, Manson began to couple the songs on the White Album with his own unique interpretation of the Bible’s Book of Revelation. For Manson, the four angels spoken of in the scripture were the four Beatles—John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. The Bible’s fifth angel, Abadon, was, according to Manson, himself. This fifth angel held the key to the bottomless pit—Manson’s fabled hole in Death Valley, where, during the race war—Helter Skelter—he and his followers, who would number 144,000 according to the Bible, would live, thus escaping the eventual slaughter of all the white race. At the end of the war, total confusion would reign; the blacks would be unable to make a go of things, and Manson and his followers would then present themselves, taking over and ruling the world.7
This talk was a constant factor in the daily lives of Manson and his Family, and they made continual preparations for what they believed was the unavoidable coming slaughter. They poured over the desert in search of the entrance to the bottomless pit, outfitted dune buggies to use as Helter Skelter vehicles to make trips around the desert, and began to arm themselves with a massive supply of artillery. If Manson, as he later claimed, was only playing a game, then it was proving to be a very expensive, mind-consuming game.
By spring of 1969, the Family was safely back at the Spahn Ranch, with Squeaky—Lynnette Fromme—having sweet-talked elderly George Spahn into their return to the property. With the addition, in July, of twenty-year-old Linda Kasabian—who left her husband and brought with her to the ranch her infant daughter Tanya—the Manson Family was complete. The wheels were now set in motion for the momentous events of the summer of 1969.
Chapter 22
The Storm Builds
Terry Melcher and Candice Bergen moved out of 10050 Cielo Drive over the Christmas holidays in 1968 and into his mother Doris Day’s beach house in Malibu. The main house stood vacant from January until the middle of February, when Sharon and Roman signed their lease with Rudi Altobelli. During those six weeks, Gregg Jakobson arranged for Manson Family member Dean Morehouse to temporarily stay in the main house. Fellow Manson follower Tex Watson apparently visited Morehouse there frequently during that time.1 Author Bill Nelson has also discovered that Manson Family members Catherine Share and Susan Atkins visited the property to swim in the pool.2
On Sunday, March 23, Manson himself drove to 10050 Cielo Drive. He went first to the main house, the occasion on which he was met by Shahrokh Hatami, Sharon Tate’s photographer, who told him Melcher no longer lived at the house and that he should try the guest house. As soon as he saw Sharon walk onto the front porch, Manson fled back down the flagstone walk to the paved parking area, turned round, and strode up the dirt path toward the guest house at the far end of the estate. No one was home, and Manson left. This took place in the afternoon. Several hours later, he returned.
Rudi Altobelli was taking a shower in the guest house when he heard his dog Christopher barking. He jumped out, grabbed a robe and walked into the hall, only to find Manson standing in the enclosed screened porch. Altobelli was immediately angry that Manson had opened the door and walked in uninvited.
Manson began to introduce himself but Altobelli cut him off, saying, “I know who you are, Charlie. What do you want?”
When Manson said he was looking for Terry Melcher, Altobelli quickly declared that he no longer lived on the property. Manson asked for his new address, but Altobelli replied that he did not know it—a lie. Manson then began to question Altobelli about his business contacts, saying he would like to talk about his music career, but Altobelli again cut him short, saying that he was in the middle of packing for an extended trip and that he would not be returning for a year—another lie. He asked Manson, in the future, not to disturb his tenants in the main house, and coldly said goodnight, closing the door in Manson’s face.3
Facing Altobelli’s rejection, Manson tried to rebound. He and his Family made concerted efforts that spring to land a recording contract. Bobby Beausoleil apparently visited musician Frank Zappa in an effort to find support for Manson’s quest. But Zappa, frequently exposed to an endless stream of freaked out would-be stars, had no time for this newest request, particularly after Beausoleil tried to explain that the Family was busy building a tunnel to Death Valley to escape the coming race war. Another Family member, Catherine Share, known in the Family as “Gypsy”, arranged for The Doors’ producer Paul Rothschild to listen to Manson’s demo tapes; after hearing the offered product, Rothschild passed.
Manson was persistent, and Wilson, Melcher and Jakobson could not put him off forever. In April, they arranged for Manson to record several more tracks in a studio in Santa Monica. He arrived with several of the women, Beausoleil and Watson to provide backing vocals; Dennis Wilson also lent his voice to this latest effort. While sitting in the studio, Manson composed a couple of impromptu songs, including one seeming bit of gibberish while he mindlessly strummed his guitar. The repeated refrain of “digh-de-day, digh-dow-doi, digh-tu-dai” evolved into “digh-tew-day, digh-tew-day,” and, finally, became a sinister chant of “Die today, die today, die today.”4 Melcher, amongst others, was unnerved, and soon left the building.
Together with his previously recorded demos, both from Brian Wilson’s home studio and from the set in Van Nuys, Manson now had a collection of a dozen songs. Some were still in very rough stages, but it was enough raw material for an album—Manson’s only real desire all along. Dennis Wilson and Terry Melcher both seemed sympathetic, and Wilson went so far as to discuss Manson in an interview he gave to a British music magazine called Rave. He referred to Manson as “The Wizard,” and said The Beach Boys would be producing and releasing his first album later that year on their own record label, Brothers Records.5
Unknown to Manson, he and his songs were the subject of several intense discussions between Wilson, Melcher and Jakobson that May. Wilson was eager to push Manson’s album, but Melcher, after his recording studio scare, was quickly losing interest. Jakobson, the only one who knew Manson well and had spent any considerable time with him, proposed a documentary about Manson, his followers, their way of life at Spahn Ranch and their music.6 Jakobson tried to convince Melcher that he should both finance and produce the documentary; but Melcher put off any decision for the time being.
Jakobson went to Spahn Ranch to discuss the idea with Manson, who was immediately taken with the thought of starring in his own story. But he had other ideas as well, which ran contrary to Jakobson’s vision of a peaceful, loving commune. Manson apparently wanted scenes of destruction; of garbage runs by Family members; of his Helter Skelter philosophy; and of Satanic worship. Jakobson knew that such a film would never win approval, but did not directly contradict Manson’s own aspirations.
On May 18, 1969, Terry Melcher drove out to Spahn Ranch to meet with Manson. On his way he picked up Bobby Beausoleil and his girlfriend Kitty Lutesinger. At Spahn, Manson gave Terry Melcher a guided tour by dune buggy of the various buildings and fire roads. But the main purpose of the visit was to hear Manson and the Family perform several new songs. “After hearing them sing a dozen or so songs I may have singled out one and said, ‘That is a nice song,’ just to be polite,” Melcher later said. “When someone performs for you, you don’t want to simply not respond to their whole presentation, and to be polite, I probably said something.”7 At the end of the session, Melcher gave Manson fifty dollars—all of the money in his wallet—to buy some hay for the horses.8
After Melcher’s visit, Manson had little contact with him. Eventually, he called up Jakobson and asked if Melcher had made up his mind, a clear indication that no deal had as yet been reached. Manson repeatedly asked for Melcher’s private telephone number at his Malibu house, but Jakobson would only give him the listing for his answering service.
A few weeks later, Melcher and Jakobson were back at Spahn Ranch. There was trouble at the ranch when they arrived. Two policemen were questioning Manson about the alleged rape of a young girl from Reseda. That morning, M
anson had gone to Los Angeles to find Melcher and discuss his recording contract. A witness recalls overhearing a violent argument take place between Manson, Melcher and Jakobson as they stood on the boardwalk of the Rock City Cafe. Jakobson had previously shot some footage for his proposed documentary, and garnered some interest from NBC-Studios. But both Jakobson and NBC wanted a film about a hippie commune, dealing with love and peace. Manson was outraged and refused to cooperate if the movie would not devote itself to his vision of Helter Skelter and his music. Eventually, both Melcher and Jakobson angrily left the ranch.
Manson was livid. He approached a hanger-on known as Sunshine Pierce and asked if he would be interested in a bit of work. Pierce thought it might be robbery, and said yes. But what Manson had in mind was murder. “If you ever want to get anything and you want it bad enough, you can’t let anybody come between you when you are going to do something,” Manson declared. He told Pierce that there was one person in particular that he wanted killed, although it might be necessary to kill others as well. He thought he could come up with about $5,000 if Pierce was interested. Pierce was not, and left Spahn Ranch the following day. Although he did not mention any names, it seems obvious that Manson had decided to kill either Terry Melcher or Gregg Jakobson, or both men.9
In the middle of July Manson finally had his last falling out with Melcher. By this time, Manson was in trouble on several fronts. He went to see Dennis Wilson at his offices, but found him away. Instead, he was greeted by Wilson’s agent, who, in answer to Manson’s request for money, threatened to call the police, and threw him out, telling Manson to never come back. Manson next went to see Melcher.
By this time he was beyond anger. “Goddamn, Terry!” he recalled screaming. “We’ve been going through this kind of crap for the last year. Is it ever going to happen or not?” To this, according to Manson, Melcher answered slowly: “Look, Charlie, there’s mixed emotions about promoting you. You’re unpredictable. You amaze me at times, and at other times, disappoint the hell out of me.”10
Manson left Melcher aware that his dream of becoming a recording star was now over. He had tried to win members of the industry over to his side with his music and failed. Dejected, Manson allegedly told a friend that summer, “How are you going to get to the establishment? You can’t sing to them. I tried that. I tried to save them, but they wouldn’t listen. Now we’ve got to destroy them.”11
Chapter 23
Murder
By early summer of 1969, Manson and his Family had reached the point of no return. It was apparent that neither Wilson nor Melcher was going to come through on any of their proposed business deals, and Manson, at first depressed with the situation, quickly became angry. His anger was directed not only at the men who had rejected him, but at the symbols which represented their culture: the establishment, Hollywood, fame and money.
Manson’s paranoia had been growing steadily over the last few months. He was certain that something was about to happen. In preparation for a possible outbreak of Helter Skelter, the Family, under his direction, began to assemble a caché of arms for use in their future struggles. While in residence at the house in Canoga Park, the Family became heavily involved in a number of illegal ventures, including auto theft and drug dealing. A small car theft ring operated out of the house, and, when the Family moved to Spahn Ranch, it followed. Family members and many of the bikers who stayed at the ranch regularly stole vehicles, stripped and then sold them. At Manson’s directive, dune buggies were particularly prized, for use in the desert during Helter Skelter.1
Straight Satan biker Danny De Carlo helped the Family assemble an impressive collection of arms. He set up a special gun room at Spahn Ranch, appropriately enough in the former Undertaker’s Parlor, where he slept to guard this caché of weapons. It included a 303 British Enfield, a .22 caliber rifle, a .30 caliber carbine, a .20 gauge shotgun, a .12 gauge riot gun, an M-1 carbine and a submachine gun. Manson himself had a long, sharp sword which was kept here, along with a number of buck knives, which were sharpened down both sides of their blade, creating a double edge. Finally, there was a .22 caliber revolver, called a Buntline special, modeled after a pair of guns which Ned Buntline made for Wyatt Earp. The gun had a long barrel, wooden grips, and its chamber held nine bullets. Sometime in June, Manson went to a Jack Frost Surplus Store in Santa Monica and purchased several hundred feet of white nylon, three ply rope.2
Manson’s philosophy, already violent, took a more immediate, dramatic turn in the middle of July, 1969. He predicted to several people that soon members of the establishment would be slaughtered in their Bel Air mansions, their bodies scattered across the front lawns, with messages written in blood on the walls of their houses. To Danny De Carlo, Manson declared that the “pigs ought to have their throats cut and be hung up by their feet.”3 Talk of violence was spurred by his impatience. He had been talking about Helter Skelter, making his plans, buying supplies, waiting for the crisis to erupt, but, so far, nothing had happened. The blacks in Los Angeles had not risen up against the white establishment. One day, Manson took Paul Watkins aside and announced, “Helter Skelter is ready to happen … it’s gotta happen soon. All the piggies are gonna get their jolt of where it’s really at. We have to stock supplies at the desert and be ready to boogie.… I’ll tell ya, blackie never did anything without whitey showin’ him how.… Helter Skelter is coming down. But it looks like we’re gonna have to show blackie how to do it.”4 To ranch hand Juan Flynn, Manson complained: “The only way I’m going to show them niggers how to do it is to go down and kill a bunch of those motherfucking pigs.”5
Family member Leslie Van Houten later recalled: “Manson had started changing his talking about surviving the Helter Skelter war and that perhaps we would have to do something to instigate it, because it wasn’t coming along as quickly as he had anticipated. I didn’t know, specifically, when it would be starting.”6
“Being around Charlie during that time,” remembers Van Houten, “was like playing a game of Scrabble. He never labeled anything as exactly like it was. He’d say, ‘The question is in the answer,’ and ‘No sense makes sense’—things that would make your mind stop functioning. Then it wasn’t a matter of questioning when things began to get bad. We’d stopped questioning months before.”7
For some time, Manson had been instructing his followers on ways to slip into the mansions of the wealthy in the dead of night, using credit cards to trip the door locks. Sometimes, they would steal jewelry or money; other times, dressed in black clothing, Family members would simply wander through the house, perhaps rearranging an item of furniture here or there to startle the owners when they awoke. They referred to these nightly forays as “creepy-crawling.”8
One of Manson’s apparent targets that July was the house of John and Michelle Phillips on Bel Air Road in Beverly Hills. Earlier, Phillips had expressed disinterest in meeting or assisting Manson. Certain members of the Family are believed to have at least been acquaintances of Cass Eliott, one of the two women in Phillips’ The Mamas and The Papas, and Manson himself—friends with Melcher and Jakobson—was aware that Phillips, too, had rejected him. Michelle Phillips recalls: “One night John and I were in bed. He had become very paranoid recently, and begun to sleep with a gun beneath his pillow, which really angered me. In the middle of the night, he heard something, and got up to investigate. I remember telling him to go back to sleep, but he grabbed the gun and went off. When he came back a few minutes later, he told me that in the garage he had seen a number of people dressed in black, walking like penguins. He was pretty heavily involved with drugs at the time, and I thought he was imagining the whole thing. ‘Go back to bed, John,’ I told him, and he eventually settled down. Only later did we suspect that Manson had sent his followers out to our house.”9
Such activities were possible as members of the Family increasingly came to trust Manson, losing their individuality as the group melded together to form a collective conscience. “When it came time to
play Helter Skelter,” write Flo Conway and Jim Siegelman, “life in the Family had become a game with no borders on fantasy and reality, an extended ‘trip’ that kept up long after any chemical effects had worn off.”10
By the beginning of the summer of 1969, the Family was deeply involved in criminal activities. Through a source in Santa Monica, they fenced stolen vehicles and other smaller goods. But they seem to have made most of their money from illegal drug activities, which were widespread.
Perhaps the biggest participant was Tex Watson. Before joining the Family the previous summer, Watson had regularly dealt drugs as co-owner of his wig shop on Santa Monica Boulevard. Significantly, for someone who would claim to be completely under Manson’s influence and unable to escape when the time for murder came, Watson divided his time between Spahn Ranch and his drug-dealing girlfriend. He had actually left the Manson Family during late 1968 for several months, and made his own choice to return in March, 1969. And, although he would later insist that it was his drug use with Manson which had led to the murders, Watson—even away from the Family—continued to be heavily involved with the selling and using of illegal drugs.11
“It was strange,” Watson would later admit, “but even though I truly believed that Charlie knew everything, I could sometimes ignore what he said, even disobey him.” He detailed, for example, his secret stash of speed, which he kept hidden from Manson and shared with fellow members Bruce Davis and Susan Atkins. “I was willing to kill for Manson,” he said, “but I wasn’t willing to give up my speed.”12 This admission of selective control hardly supports Watson’s view of himself as a mindless zombie who belonged body and soul to Manson.
Watson remained in control enough to be trusted with organizing the Family’s drug orders. They were involved not only in dealing marijuana, but also apparently LSD, hashish, coke and mescaline.13 One of their prominent drug contacts was black dealer Bernard Crowe, known as Lottsa Poppa. Manson mistakenly believed that he was a member of the Black Panthers organization.