Chaos : Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties (9780316529211)
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14 entry for November 20: Ibid., 4.
15 a three-page summary: Paul LePage, “Chronology of Information on the LaBianca/Tate Murder Investigation,” Oct. 15–Nov. 31, 1969.
16 minutes of Atkins’s November 26 arraignment: California v. Atkins, Case no. A058031, Los Angeles Superior Court Archives, Nov. 26, 1969.
17 produced no results: Mary Hearn, Director of Public Information, Los Angeles Superior Court, told me this.
18 worked there himself for eight years: Dial Torgerson and Ron Einstoss, “Jury Hears Tate Case Girl Today, Los Angeles Times, Dec. 5, 1969.
19 close with his former colleagues: California v. Charles Manson, Susan Atkins, Leslie Van Houten and Patricia Krenwinkel, case 22239, 25063. Caballero acknowledged that—like his law partner who assisted him in the case, Paul Caruso—he was a member of the “EJY Club,” a steering committee of citizens dedicated to electing DA Evelle J. Younger as attorney general of California in 1970. The club was disbanded after Younger’s opponent charged that its members received favors from Younger in exchange for donations.
20 Police Chief Edward Davis: “3 from Bay Commune Named in Tate Slaying,” Santa Monica [Calif.] Evening Outlook, Dec. 1, 1969, 1.
21 well-known mob lawyer: Jeanie Kasindorf, “The Case Against Evelle Younger,” New West Magazine, Oct. 23, 1978. This eight-page cover story alleged that DA Younger protected organized crime figures through the help of friends like Caruso. The story focused on a notorious 1967 case involving Caruso’s representation of Maurice Friedman, a mobster, who, with Johnny Rosselli—Charles Baron’s associate—was tried for fixing card games at the Hollywood Friars Club.
22 she’d been “at the scene”: All the quotes in this paragraph from an unbylined front-page story, “8 Women, 2 Men Held in Tate Killings,” Santa Monica Evening Outlook, Dec. 2, 1969, 1.
23 Atkins had accepted their deal: Bugliosi and Gentry, Helter Skelter, 223.
24 Manson’s dictatorial methods: Charles Hillinger and Dial Torgerson, “Revenge Claimed: Grudge Against Doris Day Son Linked to Slaying in Tate Case; Deaths Were Ordered, Suspect Says,” Los Angeles Times, Dec. 3, 1969, 1.
25 “to a snack from the icebox”: “Attorney for Girl Member of Cult Tells Her Version,” Santa Monica Evening Outlook, Dec. 3, 1969, 1.
26 a four-day fusillade of specificity: Associated Press, “Attorneys Accuse Hippies in Sharon Tate’s Murder,” Dec. 4, 1969.
27 the president of the Los Angeles County Bar: Marilyn Elias, “Bar Chief Scores Atkins Attorney over Tate Comments,” Santa Monica Evening Outlook, Dec. 5, 1969, 1.
28 “might save her from the gas chamber”: Torgerson and Einstoss, “Jury Hears Tate Case Girl Today.”
29 Bugliosi described it as “excellent”: Bugliosi and Gentry, Helter Skelter, 232.
30 nothing was ever formalized or signed: When pressed by Kanarek about not having a signed agreement, Caballero said, the “common practice is such that these agreements aren’t written down. It is just normally not done. These people are lawyers, professional people. You make an agreement and you keep it” (Caballero testimony, California v. Manson et al., 25803). Kanarek made sure to point out that Linda Kasabian’s attorneys had received a fully executed contract for her deal with the prosecution.
31 “Do the French drink wine?”: Lawrence Schiller, The Killing of Sharon Tate (New York: Signet, 1969), 63.
32 unstable witness and a murderer: Bugliosi and Gentry, Helter Skelter, 234.
33 “unusual” but “not unprecedented”: Ibid., 221.
34 Atkins spoke on tape: Ibid., 229–30.
35 that she didn’t kill Sharon Tate: Atkins testimony, Los Angeles Grand Jury, Dec. 5, 1969, 66.
36 consider not asking for the death penalty: Bugliosi and Gentry, Helter Skelter, 218.
37 But after the grand jury, the deal changed: In Helter Skelter, Bugliosi wrote that once he learned Atkins wouldn’t testify against the others the deal was all but over, despite their promise to Atkins about not having to testify at trial (ibid., 338).
38 “we still didn’t have a case”: Ibid., 285, 295.
39 who came bearing messages from Manson: Ibid., 295, 338.
40 in negotiations with the attorney of Linda Kasabian: In Helter Skelter, Bugliosi made it appear that they didn’t begin negotiations with Kasabian’s attorney until after they’d been notified on February 26, 1970, that Atkins wouldn’t testify at trial (which, again, she didn’t have to do anyway). But according to documents I found, they’d already started discussing a Kasabian deal on or before January 22. One such document from the LePage files, dated January 22, 1970 and titled “Minutes of Meeting at Robbery Homicide, LAPD,” contained the following: “Present [at meeting], LePage [eight other LAPD detectives], Stovitz and Bugliosi… On Kasabian, for us to agree to a plea of manslaughter she would have to give full testimony in each trial. Her attorneys strike me (Stovitz) as being sincere…”
41 “joyous”… “both burst into laughter”: Associated Press, “Happy Jail Reunion: Miss Atkins, Manson Rejoined,” Mar. 6, 1970.
42 “Charlie doesn’t give orders”: William Farr, “Manson, Atkins in ‘Joyful’ Meeting,” Los Angeles Herald Examiner, Mar. 5, 1970.
43 Atkins fired Caballero and Caruso: Bugliosi and Gentry, Helter Skelter, 353.
44 declined to testify for the state: William Farr and Charles Sterling, “Susan Atkins to Deny Her Story,” Los Angeles Herald Examiner, Mar. 10, 1970.
45 “outlandish” and “nonsensical” motions: Bugliosi and Gentry, Helter Skelter, 353.
46 “to testify before the grand jury”: “2 New Tate Suspects?,” Hollywood Citizen News, Mar. 24, 1970.
47 “instrumental in getting Dick Caballero”: Author interview with Gary Fleischman (now Gary Fields).
48 “Hollywood journalist and communicator” named Lawrence Schiller: Bugliosi and Gentry, Helter Skelter, 261; Schiller testimony, California v. Manson et al., 24875.
49 far from the eyes of any potential jurors in Los Angeles: Bugliosi and Gentry, Helter Skelter, 262.
50 Atkins’s byline landed: “Susan Atkins’ Story of 2 Nights of Murder,” Los Angeles Times, Dec. 14, 1969, A1.
51 “world’s great real estate sections”: David Felton and David Dalton, “Charles Manson: The Incredible Story of the Most Dangerous Man Alive,” Rolling Stone, June 25, 1970, 25.
52 “a fair trial in Los Angeles”: “Checkbook Journalism,” Newsweek, Dec. 29, 1969, 46.
53 Claiming to be “shocked and surprised”: City News Service, “Atkins Lawyer Raps Story, Threatens Suit,” Santa Monica Evening Outlook, Dec. 17, 1969.
54 “could not have been produced”: Schiller, Killing of Sharon Tate, 5.
55 landed on his doorstep: Bugliosi and Gentry, Helter Skelter, 260–62.
56 Helter Skelter left all of this out: All the information—including direct quotes—in this section is taken from the transcripts of the death-penalty phase testimony of Susan Atkins, Richard Caballero, Paul Caruso, Carmella Ambrosini, Lawrence Schiller, Vincent Bugliosi, and Aaron Stovitz, unless otherwise indicated. Ed Sanders also wrote a series of articles in the Los Angeles Free Press in 1970 (under his own name and various pseudonyms) detailing his suspicion that Caballero and Caruso had been planted by the prosecution and sabotaged the Family’s defense: “Manson Can Go Free: Distinguished Attorney Maps Out Manson’s Defense,” Jan. 16, 1970, 1, 6, 7; Dunbar J. Van Ness, “Changing Focus on Manson,” Jan. 23, 1970, 2, 12, 13; A. J. Stapleton, “Manson Case: A Fair Trial?,” Feb. 13, 1970, 21, 22; Ed Sanders, “Talk to Charles Manson—$1000 a Crack,” June 5, 1970, 3; and Ed Sanders, “The Case of the Susan Atkins Rip-Off,” July 24, 1970, 3, 20, 24.
57 the comedian Lenny Bruce: Grace Lichtenstein, “Gilmore’s Agent an Entrepreneur Who Specializes in the Sensational,” New York Times, Jan. 20, 1977; author interview with Richard Shackleton.
58 “until her fate is decided”: Schiller, The Killing of Sharon Tate, 66.
59 $40,000 for exclusi
ve English rights: Bugliosi and Gentry, Helter Skelter, 262. The New York Times reported Schiller’s gross at $175,000—see Lichtenstein, “Gilmore’s Agent an Entrepreneur.”
60 collaborating with Cohen on a book of his own: Author interview with Vincent Bugliosi.
61 said reporter worked for the same newspaper: Schiller testified that Cohen had taken a three-day leave of absence from the Times to write the story (Schiller testimony, California v. Manson et al., 24911).
62 afterward he claimed in interviews: See David Margolick, “Letter from Los Angeles: O.J.’s Ghost,” Vanity Fair, Nov. 1996, 116; David Scheff, “Playboy Interview: Lawrence Schiller,” Playboy, Feb. 1997, 23; Lichtenstein, “Gilmore’s Agent an Entrepreneur”; Norman Mailer, The Executioner’s Song (New York: Warner, 1980), 599.
63 if not for Pete Miller: All the information in this section is taken from the transcripts of the death-penalty phase testimony of Pete Miller, Caballero, and Bugliosi, unless otherwise indicated.
64 “the prosecution didn’t put up any obstacles”: “Checkbook Journalism.”
65 wanted the publicity from the case: Ed Sanders, “‘Gas Chamber’ Prosecution Girds Its Loins for Battle,” Los Angeles Free Press, June 12, 1970, 12.
66 Lawrence Schiller wouldn’t talk: His assistant in 2005, Kathleen, told me the Manson case was “the one subject he doesn’t discuss” (of course, from his interviews with Playboy, Vanity Fair, and more, that hardly appears to be true).
67 supporting the official explanation: Richard Warren Lewis, The Scavengers and Critics of the Warren Report: Based on an Investigation by Lawrence Schiller (New York: Delacorte Press, 1967).
68 Ruby’s confessing to the murder: Released by Capitol Records in 1967 as an LP, it’s titled The Controversy.
69 hadn’t killed Oswald: According to documents I found at the National Archives, Schiller sent a prerelease transcript of the Ruby interview to, among others, J. Edgar Hoover, offering it as proof that Ruby shot Oswald “on an impulse and there was no conspiracy” (House Select Committee on Assassinations, Rec. 180-10019-10176, File 62-109060-4429, Jan. 20, 1967, 2). In an effort to refute Warren Commission critic Mark Lane, who claimed that a famous photograph of Kennedy’s alleged assassin Oswald holding the rifle used in the crime was doctored, Schiller appeared in a 1967 TV documentary to present the findings of his “independent study” of the picture, showing it was authentic (The Warren Report, CBS, June 25, 1967). A decade later, in Carl Bernstein’s groundbreaking exposé, “The CIA and the Media” (Rolling Stone, Oct. 20, 1977), Bernstein reported that “CBS was unquestionably the CIA’s most valuable asset,” adding, “over the years the network provided cover for CIA employees, including at least one well-known foreign correspondent and several stringers” (61).
70 Their identities were never revealed: Bernstein, “The CIA and the Media,” 55–67.
71 believed Schiller was one of those assets: Author interview with Mark Lane.
72 “smear” him in the press: HSCA, Rec. 180-10019-100034, File 008976, June 6, 1978.
73 Schiller had been acting as an informant: Most of the information in this section is taken from the records of the National Archive’s Kennedy Assassination Collection. However, I also relied heavily on a book by Joan Mellen, a Temple University professor, about New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison’s unsuccessful prosecution of alleged CIA “asset” Clay Shaw, for the murder of President Kennedy. A Farewell to Justice: Jim Garrison, JFK’s Assassination, and The Case That Should Have Changed History (Dulles, Va.: Potomac Books, 2005) used many of the same documents I found to make a compelling case that Schiller and Cohen were among many CIA and FBI media assets tasked to obstruct and derail the controversial DA’s investigation.
74 publications that provided CIA employees with cover: Bernstein, “The CIA and the Media,” 63. Bernstein reported that Henry Luce, the founding publisher of Time and Life magazines, “readily allowed certain members of his staff—at Time and Life—to work for the Agency and agreed to provide jobs and credentials to other CIA operatives who lacked journalistic experience” (ibid.).
75 and then sharing his findings with the FBI: HSCA, Rec. 180-10046-10153, File 105-82555-unrecorded, Mar. 16, 1967, 1–6; FBI, Rec. 124-100048-10455, File 62-109060-4876, Mar. 15. 1967, 1; FBI, Rec. 124-10050-10025, File 62-109060-4907, Mar. 22, 1967, 1–4; FBI, Rec. 124-10050-10018, File 62-109060-4903, Mar. 29, 1967, 1–4.
76 “in possession of the names”: FBI, Rec. 124-100048-10455, File 62-109060-4876, Mar. 15. 1967, 1. A week later, according to two follow-up memos, Schiller met with agent A. Rosen of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office and provided the name, aliases, and likely addresses of Lane’s informant—see FBI, Rec. 124-10050-10025, File 62-109060-4907, Mar. 22, 1967, 1–4; FBI, Rec. 124-10050-10018, File 62-109060-4903, Mar. 29, 1967, 1–4.
77 According to memos, the FBI eagerly awaited: FBI, Rec. 124-10050-10006, File 62-109060-4897, Mar. 28, 1967, 1. In addition, Schiller informed the FBI of articles “under consideration” at Life that “attacked the conclusions of the Warren Commission” (FBI, Rec. 124-10043-10283, File 62-109060-4846, Mar. 21, 1967) and of articles in preparation at other publications—in this case The New Yorker—with information about Garrison’s investigation that hadn’t been made public yet (FBI, Rec. 124-10050-10006, File 62-109060-4897, Mar. 28, 1967, 3).
78 President Kennedy and his brother Robert: Noyes’s book, Legacy of Doubt (New York: Pinnacle, 1973), blamed right-wing intelligence operatives and organized crime for the assassinations of both Kennedys.
79 pressured him to abandon the project: Author interview with Pete Noyes.
80 Noyes was fairly certain that Cohen: The CIA never responded to my 2002 FOIA for information on Cohen. His widow, Dorothy, a former journalist and two-term mayor of South Pasadena, declined my request for an interview. His daughter, Cassy, also a journalist, spoke to me briefly but said she couldn’t continue without consulting an attorney.
81 interview with Howard: “Interview of Rena Howard—Sybil Brand Institute,” Nov. 18, 1969, 1–4, LePage personal files.
82 drugs on the nights of the murders: Kasabian testified more than a dozen times that she didn’t take drugs anytime around the murders. “I just know,” she said under cross-examination by Kanarek (California v. Manson et al., 6302). “Do I have to give a further explanation? I just know.”
83 all the killers had taken speed: Kasabian voice-over, Manson, Cineplex Productions, 2009: “Before we left the ranch, I remember that we all took some speed. A white capsule was handed to me and I took it.”
84 repeated incessantly in Atkins’s later accounts: In the Dec. 14, 1969, Los Angeles Times story, Schiller quoted Atkins saying Manson “instructed” her to do things five times in just the opening column of the multipage article.
85 They may not even have known: Keith Ditman testimony, California v. Manson et al., 25347.
86 he had no explanation for why: By the end of Manson’s life, this had evolved to his saying he might’ve had an idea what they were going to do, but he had nothing to do with it. “I didn’t direct anyone to do a motherfucking thing,” Manson told Rolling Stone in 2013 (Erik Hedegaard, “Charles Manson Today: The Final Confessions of a Psychopath,” Rolling Stone, Nov. 21, 2013).
87 eyeglasses recovered from Tate’s living room: LAPD First Homicide Investigation Progress Report, DR 69-059-593, 16.
88 “a misleading clue for the police”: Nuel Emmons, Manson in His Own Words (New York: Grove Press, 1986), 207.
89 Manson himself vaguely disavowed: Author interview with Craig Hammond.
90 several televised interviews to promote it: Manson, with Emmons, was interviewed in prison by Tom Snyder for Snyder’s eponymous show on June 12, 1981, and again, for Today on Jan. 27, 1987.
91 “So what if I did make you”: Charles Manson to Linda Kasabian, Mar. 21, 1970, LASO files.
92 she told Atkins to stop cooperating: Bugliosi and Gentry, Helter Skelter, 294.
93 never
given an interview about Manson: Author interview with Danny Bowser.
94 covert surveillance on known criminals: All the information about SIS in this section is from a series of investigative pieces the Los Angeles Times ran about the secretive unit, beginning with David Freed, “Special Investigations Section: Watching Crime Happen—LAPD’s Secret SIS Unit, Citizens Terrorized as Police Look On,” Sept. 25, 1988; and including Matt Lait, “SIS: Stormy Past, Shaky Future; LAPD’s Special Investigation Section,” Los Angeles Times, Nov. 29, 1998.
95 “We weren’t even connected”: Ibid.
96 SIS was called the “Death Squad”: Lait, “SIS: Stormy Past.”
97 “documented numerous instances”: Freed, “Special Investigations Section.”
98 “Even within the LAPD”: Lait, “SIS: Stormy Past.”
99 The later piece in the Times reported: Ibid.
100 “One of his responsibilities”: Roman Polanski, Roman by Polanski (New York: William Morrow, 1984), 310.
101 his real eye had been shot out: Ibid.
102 taken into custody on August 9, 1969: First Homicide Investigation Progress Report, 16.
9. Manson’s Get-Out-of-Jail-Free Card
1 The events of June 4, 1969: All information about the June 4, 1969, arrest is from the two-page police report (Officer G. M. Heidrich, LAPD, Arrest Report, DR 69-469997).
2 The police had discovered a warrant: The information about the arrests and prosecution of Atkins, Brunner, and other female Family members in Mendocino, as well as the probation violations of Atkins after her sentence, and Mendocino County’s effort to revoke her probation, comes from arrest reports, court minutes, probation reports, news clippings, and interviews with principal subjects. Sources are cited below whenever a document, news report, or interview is quoted. If information is presented without quotation marks, it comes from the more than two dozen documents, clips, and interviews compiled for this section. The same goes for the almost identical events in Oregon a year earlier.