Charles Manson's Creepy Crawl
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Playing catchup also means that I have had the chance to find and admire work that covers some of the same ground I travel on and wish I had found and cited in the first edition. Foremost here is Steven Jones’ great multipart series (“Death Valley ’69” and “Revolution Blues”) in Sing Out!: I missed this my first time around, and while I don’t agree with every conclusion Jones reaches, I am deeply impressed by his learned attention to detail and the wide net he casts.5
I belatedly found Sean Howe’s fantastic work on Terry Melcher: It is nice to have company! In this great essay, Howe writes of Melcher’s self-titled album “It all seems like a joke, if you’re not listening carefully” and I just wish I could have been that efficient. Howe also makes the fascinating (conceptual/theoretical) claim that the opening line of the record (“Where were you last Friday night?”) is a question that had been posed to Squeaky Fromme four years earlier about her activity during August of 1969.6 I also finally got to hear Alex Chilton’s 1977 live version of the Beach Boy’s “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” which he wickedly introduces by saying “I’d like to play a song by Charlie Manson now.” I was able to learn that one of the Mexican wrestlers named for Manson (“Charly Manson”) himself went to jail for assaulting police officers and emerged with a new persona: Sharlie Rockstar. The narrative by which this professional wrestler begins as Manson and then ends up in jail only to come out and as a “Rockstar” seems like a cosmic troll. I just don’t know who the joke is on. Likewise with the sad story circulated by actor Randy Quaid and the woman he is married to, Evi Quaid, who went into hiding after presenting the media with information about “star whackers” out to get them and various other Hollywood figures, a narrative that seems to have borrowed liberally from post-Manson paranoia in Los Angeles.
Given my interest in contending with the “end of the ’60s” narrative that has so dominated discussions of the Manson I also probably underemphasized just how fully the new social arrangements of the 1960s continue to be elaborated in the 1970s and well-beyond. Where I live there are still communes—not to mention articulations of the co-housing movement that owe at least some energy to the commune movement of the 1960s. The still-trucking fan communities surrounding the Grateful Dead, and in the jam band phenomenon the Dead helped inspire, demonstrates the need so many Americans have to join affiliative groups larger than the ones they have been scripted into. I do not mean to paint too rosy a picture here: as I discuss earlier in the book, too many of these countercultural community-building efforts have been monetized and made less oppositional: the food co-oops have largely been coopted and have disappeared into the voracious and insatiable jaws of capitalism (aka Whole Foods). But still we can find more than a few pockets of resistant communal activity all over the social landscape.
Mansonland continues to be a multimedia space. Death Grips (whom we met earlier as one of the many acts to sample Manson’s “I roll the nickels” speech) released their record Year of the Snitch in June of 2018. A couple of years earlier the group had a record called Bottomless Pit, which most likely was some kind of reference to Manson’s plan to hide out in the desert during the race war he (sometimes) prophesied. It is conventional wisdom that Death Grips owe at least some of their popularity to the dynamic relationship they enjoy with various online communities—none more important that the participants on the /mu/ forum of 4chan. Various online commentators noticed that Death Grips had planned the release of Year of the Snitch to coincide with the birthday of Manson Family member Linda Kasabian who had, of course, turned state’s evidence. Further evidence was found in the song “Linda’s in Custody”—which has at least some legible hints that the titular character is Kasabian. But Death Grips rarely work on a denotative level. On some level it seems clear that even more than most popular music acts, this group’s “performance” depends upon fan investment and recreation. Death Grips go to the Manson well for a number of reasons, but not least of all because they know their fans like to drink from it and they have proven quite deft at figuring out how to provide just the threshold amount of Manson content to inspire yards and yards of online commentary.
The makers of television’s American Horror Story similarly engage with fans of the show. After dropping some hints in season one that we were going to get some Manson business, the folks behind the show then spent a number of years fanning the flames of audience interest. Finally, in season seven, American Horror Story finally gave it to us, with an episode called “Charles (Manson) in Charge.” The show has some serious business to attend to, but above all it wants to discredit families of origin and families of choice and affiliation. With its tongue-in-cheek reference to the 1980s sitcom starring (Trump supporter) Scott Baio as a college student who played the title role as the babysitter “Charles” in Charge—one of many shows in the era that mined and monetized unlikely family relationships for laughs—American Horror Story carries forward the tradition I describe in the pages of this book of imagining Charles Manson as a terrifying joke.
But if before the joke was about hippies, free love, drug use and all that, now the punchline is Donald Trump. “Charles (Manson) in Charge” opens with a moment from the 2016 presidential debate during which Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump sparred over which of them could rightly be understood as a puppet of Vladimir Putin. The show centers on Kai Anderson, who has transformed personal trauma into white nationalist and misogynist rage. Moving from minor celebrity to a position as a cult/political leader with a growing following, Anderson channels Manson to help inspire and guide his minions. The show recreates the Tate murders as by now nauseatingly familiar grindhouse stuff, mostly so that Anderson can holler out his battle plan to his assembled followers: “Night of 1000 Tates!” Somehow, he and his followers are going to locate a thousand pregnant women (I think they are trying to steal a patient list from a Planned Parenthood office?) as the way to kick off his own nutcase Helter Skelter plan to take over the world—or at least the Senate. American Horror Story admirably centers misogyny at the center of contemporary white nationalist movements and at least by implication reminds us of the patriarchal heart of Manson’s project. But the show is a mess and its invocation of the Tate murders is clearly organized for shits-and-giggles and not energized political revulsion.
But by this point you don’t need me to tell you that we are not even close to being done with Charles Manson or his family. He is a meme, a trope, a script, and an archive. He will continue to be sampled and remixed. He will, for the foreseeable future, find a place in our political conversations and our cultural creations. His body may have been put on ice for awhile, but his ongoing relevance puts me in mind of that Rolling Stone cover from 1981, the one that tried to get at the constant rediscovery and cultural investment in the leader of the Doors, Jim Morrison: “He’s Hot, He’s Sexy and He’s Dead.”
Endnotes
Notes to the Introduction
1 Margalit Fox, “Manson Dies at 83; Wild-Eyed Leader of a Murderous Crew,” New York Times: November 20, 2017; Aja Romano, “The Life and Death of Notorious Cult Leader Charles Manson, Explained,” Vox: November 20, 2017; Parker quotation found in Greg Kot, “Death as a Career Move,” Chicago Tribune: October 12, 1995.
2 George Bishop, Witness to Evil, 146.
3 Sarah Churchwell, Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe, 7.
4 Joan Didion, The White Album, 47.
5 Barbara Grizzuti Harrison, “Only Disconnect” in Off Center, 113.
6 Deana Martin, Memories Are Made of This, 169.
7 Rob Sheffield, Dreaming the Beatles, 203.
8 Bernie Leadon, of the Eagles, says this in a BBC documentary Hotel California. Don McLean hints at the same mistake in his song “American Pie.” The locus classicus is John Burks’s account in Rolling Stone, “In the Aftermath of Altamont.”
9 Michael Denning, The Cultural Front, 26.
10 BBC documentary Charles Manson: The Man Who Killed the Sixties.
11 “Hollywood: Where All Walks of Life M
ingle,” Sandusky Register, December 17, 1969: 46.
12 Vernon Scott “Hollywood Is Susceptible to Drifters Like Manson,” Raleigh Register December 16, 1969: 13.
13 Quoted in Vincent Bugliosi with Curt Gentry, Helter Skelter, 647; and Tommy Udo, Charles Manson, 152.
14 Tony O’Neill, Sick City, 145.
15 Sawyer interview found here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4qZB2ytq10.
16 Quoted in Udo, Charles Manson, 153.
17 Curt Rowlett, “The Summer of Love.”
18 Bill James, Popular Crime, 265.
19 Buck Henry in Peter Biskind, Easy Riders 79; Van Dyke Parks in Harvey Kubernik, Canyon of Dreams, 200; and Barney Hoskyns, Hotel California.
20 Peter Vronsky, Female Serial Killers, 395.
21 Phil Proctor, personal communication.
22 Jonathan Crary, 24/7 112–114.
23 “Manson Admits Mansion Visits,” Fairbanks Daily News Mirror: October 24, 1970: 3.
24 Anthony DeCurtis, “Peace, Love and Charles Manson.”
25 Mike Rubin, “Summer of ’69,” 152.
Notes to Part I
Mother Father Sister Brother
1 Testimony found at www.cielodrive.com/susan-atkins-grand-jury-testimony.php.
2 www.cielodrive.com/archive/susan-was-a-good-kid-then-came-sadie-glutz/.
3 Robert Shellow and his co-authors in “Runaways of the 1960s” (1967) tried about as hard as anyone in their essay to reorient the study of these young people, but to little apparent avail. iii–iv, 1–51.
4 www.cielodrive.com/susan-atkins-grand-jury-testimony.php.
5 Kevin Kennedy, “Manson at 50”; also, testimony at www.cielodrive.com/charles-manson-trial-testimony.php.
6 Rolling Stone article at www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/charles-manson-the-incredible-story-of-the-most-dangerous-man-alive-19700625.
7 Susan Atkins with Bob Slosser, Child of Satan, 75–80.
8 David Smith and Alan Rose, “The Group Marriage Commune.”
9 Donald Nielsen, Horrible Workers, 79.
10 Ibid.
11 Christina Grogan, Father-Daughter Incest, 15.
12 Quoted in Steve Blush and George Petros, .45 Dangerous Minds, 39.
13 Vincent Bugliosi with Curt Gentry, Helter Skelter, 526.
14 Tommy Udo, Music Mayhem Murder, 153.
15 Vincent Bugliosi, Helter Skelter, 165.
16 Donald Nielsen, Horrible Workers, 84.
17 Betty Friedan, Feminine Mystique, 63.
18 Stephanie Coontz, Way We Never Were, 10.
19 Capote interview can be found here at www.capote.wordpress.com/2011/05/14/truman-capote-interviews-bobby-beausoleil-san-quentin-1973/. I am also relying on my own conversation with Beausoleil for this section.
20 Susan Atkins, Child of Satan, 77.
21 Ibid., 95.
22 Donald Nielsen, Horrible Workers, 70.
23 Vincent Bugliosi, Helter Skelter, 551.
24 Anita Stevens and Lucy Freeman, I Hate My Parents, 113, 117.
25 David Smith and Alan Rose, “The Group Marriage Commune.”
26 Interview with Manson in Box 1, Folder 8 of John Gilmore papers at UCLA, page 25.
27 Karen Staller, Runaways, 93.
28 Ibid., 91.
29 Ed Sanders, The Family (2002), 15.
30 Natasha Zaretsky, No Direction Home, 2.
31 Ibid., 11.
32 Vincent Bugliosi, Helter Skelter, 510.
33 Natasha Zaretsky, No Direction Home, 12–13.
34 Tom Brinkman, Bad Mags 2, 446.
35 Ann Jones, Women Who Kill, 2–3.
36 Ibid., 11.
37 Video currently found here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Agtau1zFUuM&t=181s.
38 “Report to the President” found at www.archive.org/stream/whitehouseconfer00inwhit/whitehouseconfer00inwhit_djvu.txt. See also Barbara Chandler, “The White House Conference on Children.”
39 www.mansondirect.com/transa.html.
40 Interview with Bobby Beausoleil in Box 1 of John Gilmore papers at UCLA, “Burning Is the End.” 47.
41 Susan Atkins, Child of Satan, 72–73.
42 Micol Ostow, Family, 39.
43 Currently copies of the Manson Life issue (“The Love and Terror Cult”) sell for around $20. Its text can be found here: www.eviliz1.rssing.com/chan-10867740/all_p5.html.
44 Jeff Guinn, Manson, 157.
45 Ed Sanders, The Family (2002), 26.
46 Jeff Guinn, Manson, 129.
47 Emma Cline, “See Me,” Paris Review, found here: www.theparisreview.org/blog/2014/03/17/see-me/.
48 Bobby Beausoleil, personal communication.
49 Donald Nielsen, Horrible Workers, 79.
50 Brian Wilson, I Am Brian Wilson, 54–55.
51 Paul Watkins, My Life, 47.
52 From the documentary Charles Manson: The Man Who Killed the Sixties.
53 www.eviliz1.rssing.com/chan-10867740/all_p5.html.
The Family That Slays Together
1 On these films and Manson, see especially David Ray Carter, “It’s Only a Movie?” and Jon Towlson, Subversive Horror Cinema, 134–135.
2 Nick Cull’s great analysis of The Exorcist can be found here www.historytoday.com/nick-cull/exorcist.
3 For Nathan Rabin on Billy Jack see www.thedissolve.com/features/forgotbusters/593-forgotbusters-billy-jackthe-trial-of-billy-jack/.
4 On Father Peyton, see Joseph Gribble, “Family Theater of the Air.” on Spirit, see William Ruhlmann, “Spirit.” Part’s obituary is here: www.legacy.com/obituaries/latimes/obituary.aspx?n=marvin-lawrence-part&pid=139539359.
5 “Getting Cute with Charlie Manson,” Rolling Stone.
6 Ibid.
7 The whole song is reprinted in John Aes-Nihil, et al. The Manson File, 67.
8 John Aes-Nihil, The Manson File, 67.
9 Theo Wilson, Headline Justice, 169.
10 Ibid., 182.
11 Ibid., 179.
12 Ibid., 178.
13 Ibid., 178–179.
Ranch, Hill, Farm
1 From the BBC documentary Cease to Exist.
2 “Hey dad” is from a Theo Wilson article in the Daily News found here www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/court-finds-manson-children-guilty-1971-article-1.2069176. Of course a number of variations of “dad” travel in counterculture circuits, in a number of tonal registers. Manson’s trial speech can be found in John Aes-Nihil, et al., The Manson File.
3 Andres Killen, 1973 Nervous Breakdown, 128.
4 On the Source Family, see Jodi Wille’s documentary and the Isis Aquarian book, and Doug Harvey’s “Father Yod Knew Best.”
5 From the Jodi Wille’s documentary.
6 David Felton, “The Lyman Family’s Holy Siege,” Rolling Stone.
7 Ibid.; see also Ryan Walsh, Astral Weeks.
8 Brian Burness, “Quiet Survivors,” found here: www.trussel.com/lyman/quiet.htm.
9 Robert Levey, “Reinventing Life,” found here: www.trussel.com/lyman/levey.htm.
10 Ellen Herst, “Mel and Charlie’s Women,” originally in Boston After Dark, found here: www.trussel.com/lyman/women.htm.
11 Ibid.
12 Brian Burness, “Quiet Survivors.”
13 Lisa Law, Flashing on the Sixties, 91. See also Alice Echols, Shaky Ground 22.
14 I found this documentary at the UCLA Film and Television Archive.
15 Ellen Herst, “Mel and Charlie’s Women.”
16 Ibid.
17 Ibid.
18 Ibid.
19 Ibid.
20 Jeffrey Blum and Judith Smith, Nothing Left to Lose, 7.
21 Ibid.
22 Ibid.
23 Robert Houriet, Getting Back Together, 19.
24 Ibid., 21.
25 Ibid., 83.
26 Barry Miles, Hippie, 270.
27 Jerry LeBlanc and Ivor Davis, 5 to Die, 49.
28 Jeffrey Sconce, “XXX: Love and Kisses,” 213.
29 Ibid., 214.
30 Ibid., 209, 214.
> 31 Episodes 45 and 47 of Karina Longworth’s Charles Manson’s Hollywood are helpful here.
32 Gay Talese, “Charlie Manson’s Home on the Range.”
33 Paul Krassner, Confessions, 225.
34 This is from an order filed on behalf of Sandra Good claiming contempt against Bugliosi in September 1970, found in Box 2 of the John Gilmore papers at UCLA.
35 Tex Watson, Will You Die for Me? 51.
36 Quoted in Richard Cándida Smith, Utopia and Dissent, 368.
37 Timothy Miller, Hippies and American Values, 36.
38 www.thefarmcommunity.com/FAQ.html#17.
39 Jonathan Crary, 24/7, 114.
40 Ibid., 115.
41 Judith Stacey, Brave New Families, 269.
Hush Little Dropout
1 Robert Houriet, Getting Back Together, 19.
2 Jeffrey Sconce, “XXX: Love and Kisses,” 215.
3 www.murdersofaugust69.freeforums.net/thread/654/terry-melcher-grand-jury-testimony.
4 Jason Cherkis, “The Lost Girls.”
5 Charles M. Young’s “RUN RUN RUN RUN RUNAWAYS,” from Crawdaddy’s October 1976 issue. It is not easy to find online but is, currently, here: www.runawaysonline.proboards.com/thread/520/infamous-crawdaddy-article.
6 Jeffrey Sconce, “XXX: Love and Kisses” 220.
7 Abbie Hoffman, Revolution for the Hell of It, 74.
8 Karen Staller, Runaways, 85.
9 Ibid., 85, 89.
10 David McBride, “On the Fault Line,” 96.
11 Karen Staller, Runaways, 69.
12 Bobby Beausoleil, personal communication.
13 Karen Staller, Runaways, 89, 109.
14 Ann Moses, “The Runaway Youth Act,” 232.
15 Karen Staller, Runaways, 82.
16 Ibid., 111.
17 Richard Fairfield, Communes USA, 273.
18 Vincent Bugliosi, Helter Skelter, 315.
19 Ann Moses “The Runaway Youth Act,” 236.
20 Per Karen Staller’s framing in Runaways.
21 J. Anthony Lukas, “The Two Worlds of Linda Fitzpatrick”; Leticia Kent, “High on Life”; Richard Goldstein, “Love.”