Saturday, April 30, 2016

MansonBlog Tour 2016: The Gun Toss And Steven Weiss' House

After the murders on Cielo Drive the killers turned up Benedict Canyon Blvd. to return to Spahn's Movie Ranch. After crossing Mulholland Drive on the crest of the Santa Monica mountains they turned north on to Beverly Glen Blvd. and began their descent into the San Fernando Valley. Soon after starting down the hill Linda Kasabian threw the .22 caliber High Standard Buntline revolver used in the killings out of the car's window. The gun went over the side of a hill and landed on an embankment leading down to the back yard of the Bernard Weiss residence where it was found by son Steven Weiss while he was working on a sprinkler fixture on September 1, 1969. The gun was turned over to police the same day, but no connection was made between the weapon and the murders for over two months.


The former Weiss residence at 3627 Longview Valley Road
in the Sherman Oaks neighborhood of Los Angeles

Google Maps view of the Weiss residence 
and Beverly Glen Blvd. behind and above it. 

The road sign in the center of the picture gives a good idea of 
how close to the Weiss house Beverly Glen Blvd. is. 

The hillside behind the Weiss house where 
the gun used in the Cielo Drive murders was found

The property has a very small back yard.

The gun (Photo courtesy CieloDrive.com)

On tour day the house was seemingly vacant and being made ready for repairs, so we were able to explore it completely, even venturing into the back yard. The house practically abutted the hillside behind it, but someone in a car on Beverly Glen at night would likely not have been aware that there was a neighborhood and houses situated so closely to where the gun was tossed out. 






Thursday, April 28, 2016

MansonBlog Tour 2016 - Jane Doe 59

Helter Skelter page 620:
On November 16, 1969, the body of a young girl was found dumped over an embankment at Mulholland and Bowmont Drive near Laurel Canyon, in almost the same spot where Marina Habe's body was found.  A brunette in her late teens, five feet nine, 115 pounds, she had been stabbed 157 times in the chest and throat. Ruby Pearl remembered seeing the girl with the family at Spahn, and thought her name was "Sherry." Though the Manson girls traded aliases often, LASO was able to identify only one Sherry, Sherry Ann Cooper, aka Simi Valley Sherri.  She had fled Barker Ranch at the same time as Barbara Hoyt and was, fortunately, still alive.  The victim, who had been dead less than a day, became Jane Doe 59 in police files.  Her identity is still unknown. 
The proximity in time of her death to that of Zero suggests the possibility that she may have been present at the murder, then killed so she wouldn't talk. But this is strictly conjecture, and there is no evidence to support it. Her murder remains unsolved.
There have been conflicting reports of the location of her discovery. Some articles have identified the spot as Mulholland and Skyline which is 3/4 mi down the hill from Mulholland and Bowmont. We stopped there first:


It is an isolated drop-off and a good place for a panicked perp to throw the remains. Below the ravine is a jogging trail which would have made it easy to spot the body from.


Looking north from the top of the ravine you can see the Chatsworth hills where Spahn Ranch is...

Reet Jurvetson's remains were found by a bird watcher. The level of decomposition was fairly light.



The MansonBlog investigative team is on the scene.

At the intersection of Mulholland and Bowmont there is a very steep drop-off ideal for disposing of a body




The first thing we noticed exiting the car was that there were surround sound bird calls. Plus, there were markers for bird watchers like the one above. You would think it is likely that since a bird watcher found Jurvetson's remains that the Mulholland/Bowmont site is the more likely of the two places of the discovery. However Mulholland/Skyline is where Jurvetson was found.

This is mansonblog.com reporting live...





Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Mulholland Drive Jane Doe #59 Identified

Jane Doe #59 found Nov. 16, 1969 in LA County on Mulholland Drive has finally been identified.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/jane ... d-38700800

Los Angeles police have identified the body of a woman found stabbed 150 times in 1969 near the site of the Manson family killings as a 19-year-old from Montreal, People magazine reported Wednesday.

Police have identified the woman as Reet Jurvetson, who moved to Los Angeles from Montreal the year she was killed, according to People.

Los Angeles police Detective Luis Rivera told the magazine that investigators can't rule out that the Manson family was involved in the killing. He said the best lead police have is a man known as "John," whom Jurvetson met in Toronto before flying to Los Angeles to see him the summer of 1969.

Jurvetson's body was found Nov. 16, 1969, by a birdwatcher in dense brush off the iconic Mulholland Drive. She had been stabbed 150 times and didn't have identification.

"It was personal," Rivera told People. "It was a maniac ... or love gone wrong."

After going unidentified for years, Jurvetson eventually became known Jane Doe No. 59. The location and timing of her killing, just a few miles away from several Manson family murders, has long fueled speculation that Jurvetson's case was connected.

Police are working to solve the murder, with Rivera saying, "No one deserves what happened to her."

"It's our job to find out who's responsible and bring them to justice," he said.

Police said they used DNA to identify Jurvetson after her sister recognized a photo posted of the young woman's body online.

The sister, Anne Jurvetson, told People that the "free-spirited and happy" teen went to Los Angeles after meeting and becoming smitten with "John."

Anne Jurvetson said her sister sent her family a postcard saying she had found an apartment and was happy but that they never heard from her again after that. Her parents never reported her missing because "they thought that she was just living her life somewhere," Anne Jurvetson said.

Eventually, she said she came to realize that her sister was probably dead.

"It is such a sad, helpless kind of feeling to always question, to never know," she said. "After all these years, we are faced with hard facts. My little sister was savagely killed."

Manson became notorious in 1969 as the leader of a "family" of young killers that terrified Los Angeles. Manson was convicted of killing seven people, including pregnant actress Sharon Tate, the wife of director Roman Polanski.


The Manson Family has long been suspected of being responsible for her murder. That does not seem to be the case as they have another man in their sites for having committed this brutal "overkill" murder. The victim was stabbed about 150 times.

The information from The Doe Network which has yet to be updated-

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/358ufca.html



Artistic rendering and sketches of the victim (Barbara Martin); Victim's jewelry and clothing



Unidentified Female
◾Date of Discovery: November 16, 1969
◾Location of Discovery: Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California
◾Estimated Date of Death: November 14, 1969
◾State of Remains: Recognizable face
◾Cause of Death: Homicide by stabbing

Physical Description
** Listed information is approximate

◾Estimated Age: 20-23 years old
◾Race: White
◾Gender: Female
◾Height: 5'8" to 5'10"
◾Weight: 110-115 lbs.
◾Hair Color: Dark brown, tinted.
◾Eye Color: Green

◾Distinguishing Marks/Features: Vaccination scars on her left arm and outer left thigh. A one-quarter-inch horizontal scar underneath her right breast. A light brown birthmark on her right buttock.

◾Dentals: Available. She had 16 silver amalgam fillings in upper teeth #2, 3, 4, 5, 12, 13, 14, and 15; and lower teeth #18, 19, 20, 21, 28, 29, 30 and 31.
◾Fingerprints: Available.
◾DNA: Available at the state lab.

Clothing & Personal Items
◾Clothing: Blue corduroy jacket (size 9-10; made in Canada), blue Levi hip-hugger jeans (made in Boston, MA), tan knee-length riding boots (possibly made in Spain) that were well-worn and re-soled, tan long sleeved sweater with perpindicular ribbing (size 32), and a 2" wide leather belt (Thom 38 or Tham 38, with one-inch leather strips which go through a brass ring.

◾Jewelry: Yellow metal ring with a red oval stone worn on the right ring finger. A white metal ring with Indian designs worn on the left middle finger, made in Mexico.

◾Additional Personal Items: Unknown

Case History

A hiker found the victim's body down an embankment on Mulholland Drive and Skyline Drive near Laurel Canyon. She had been stabbed over 100 times, indicating overkill.

A witness remembered seeing the girl with the Manson Family at Spahn and thought her name was "Sherry." Because of the labels in her clothing, detectives suspect she may have come from Canada or the east coast, possibly Europe.

Investigating Agency(s)
If you have any information about this case please contact;

◾Agency Name: Los Angeles Police Department
◾Agency Contact Person: Cold Case Homicide Unit
◾Agency Phone Number: 213-847-0970

◾Agency Name: Los Angeles County Coroner's Office
◾Agency Contact Person: Daniel Machian
◾Agency Phone Number: 323-343-0512

◾Agency Case Number: ME: 1969-12644; LE: 69-668-376; Jane Doe No. 59
◾NCIC Case Number: U393785300
◾NamUs Case Number: UP #2997

Please refer to this number when contacting any agency with information regarding this case.









Monday, April 25, 2016

Retrospective - Manson Family Web Site: History Rewritten by Losers

"History is written by the victors."
- Walter Benjamin

This old article, found in the NY Times archive addresses the original Access Manson (ATWA) site published by George Stimson and Sandra Good. I first read the article in 1997, but not since then until recently. I remember the media feeding frenzy that took place, including on those trashy pre-prime TV tabloids like Inside Edition. Among other things they made it sound like Manson had his own website.

Hindsight being 20/20 and now knowing George personally I have a more objective perspective on the media and their portrayal of this issue (the original Access Manson [ATWA] site). Kay's comments in the below article were responded to on Access Manson here.

It would be interesting to hear feedback from readers after reading this article and reading the archived website's rebuttal. With the authors' permission we have hosted that previously defunct website for almost a year, for those curious to (re)visit it.



Manson Family Web Site:
History Rewritten by Losers

By REBECCA FAIRLEY RANEY

On the Internet, Charles Manson is not just an innocent man. He's four inches taller. So says Access Manson, a Web site created by followers of the man who led one of the nation's most bizarre killing sprees.

The webmaster, George Stimson, is an environmentalist and friend of the Manson Family member Sandra Good. He developed an interest in the case as a crime buff and describes his occupation as writer -- "It says I'm a writer on my 1040." He found the state's case hard to believe and visits Manson in prison regularly.

Credit: White Devil Incorporated
Charles Manson
"The district attorney's book, Helter Skelter -- I thought, this doesn't even sound real," Stimson said. In response to the Web site, "I've had people say, 'For 20 years I thought I was crazy, and now I see the site and know I'm not.' They thought Manson had been railroaded."

Like most webmasters, Stimson asserts that 90 percent of the e-mail he has received is positive.  But he had to disable e-mail access to the site at least once; last spring someone started bombing it at the rate of 3,000 e-mail messages per hour.

For the Manson Family, the Internet provides the first opportunity to publish their point of view, uncut and unfiltered, in a place where history is no longer written by the victors. It's fair to say the Family has been disappointed by their treatment in the press.

"Before, if you wanted to get your point of view across, you had to deal with the mainstream media," Stimson said. "They'll humor you to get you to cooperate. I thought it was pointless to deal with the mainstream media. You're just burying yourself deeper in the lies. We're not interested in having someone balance you and talk to the prosecutor."

That prosecutor, Stephen Kay, says he has been alarmed by what he sees as the rewriting of history on the Internet.

These days, he works as head deputy of the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Long Beach branch. He has an oceanfront office with a view of the Queen Mary, and the walls are hung with plaques thanking him for winning cases in some of California's most grisly murders and banners congratulating him for being named this year's Prosecutor of the Year by the Los Angeles County Bar Association. He received the accolade after successfully prosecuting the county's latest high-profile murder case, the death of a model, Linda Sobek.

Even after 25 years of endless press inquiries about the Manson case, Kay takes all the time he needs to make sure the record is straight. His patience comes from a basic philosophy: He doesn't want these people ever to get out of prison.

So he rattled off the story again, the details and events spilling out strangely, in dry lawyerly tones: the bikers, the Beach Boys, the drugs, the movie stars, the record business, the race war the Family wanted to start by framing black people for murdering white people.

Credit: Access Manson
Sandy Good in November, 1996
Kay took more than an hour recently to examine Access Manson, the first time he had seen the site. He started groaning from the opening lines, which say that Manson does not participate in the production of the Web site.

"That's absolutely untrue," Kay said, "because Sandy Good would not do anything without his approval. Just like I thought he put Lynette Fromme (another Family member, known as "Squeaky") up to trying to assassinate President Ford. These girls do not do anything unless he tells them to."

Kay took a hard line against the Web site. He disputed the notion that if Manson could have published a site in 1967, he might not have felt the need to lead followers to murder to get his point across. Quite the contrary, Kay said: If Manson had had a Web site 30 years ago, "he would have had a bigger Family."

"I think it's sad there is this Web page, because it obviously is sucking in unsuspecting young people who have no idea what a bad person Manson is," Kay said. "Manson is not a cult hero. He's a despicable excuse for a human being."

The Manson persona has attracted moderate attention on the Web from outside the Family. There's an interview with Stimson featured in Revolting, a section on Manson on White Devil Records' Web site and a fan page by a Canadian Web publisher.

It's not much, but from the prosecutor's perspective any lionizing of the man who serves as America's monster-in-a-cage is cause for concern.

Even so, Kay feels no need to counter Access Manson with a Web site of his own. He figures he's made his point.

"Hey," Kay said. "He's convicted."





Monday, April 18, 2016

The Bottomless Pit

Perhaps one of the most fantastic stories connected with Charles Manson and his "Family" is that of their attempts to locate a "bottomless pit" in Death Valley where they would ride out the Helter Skelter race war brought on by their lethal Cielo/Waverly jumpstarts.

Leslie Van Houten recalled the "Family's" attempts to locate the bottomless pit in her interview with her attorney Marvin Part on December 29, 1969 (Transcript courtesy of Cielodrive.com): 

MISS VAN HOUTEN: "But we — after that, we started decide — seeing where we were in this position, because we knew that we were part of this Revolutions — of the Revelations in the Bible. We knew that we had a part in it.

"And so we read, and it talked about a hole in the desert or going to the Kingdom. We found out — we started looking into the Death Valley, what’s underneath Death Valley, and we found out there was the Armagosa River and blind fish and all kinds of things that just made us believe that there was a whole world underneath. And that some of the Montezuma’s people are already under there waiting for us.

"And that what would happen is that about a couple thousand of the chosen people — white people — would go down into the center of the earth and stay there for about fifty years. And then there would Athens or — I can’t remember all the names, but something was going to happen. And then we were going to come back up.
And this was when we — the earth would be all black.

"Because to go into the hole, you would have to be perfect in your mind and in your body."

MR. PART:  "Now, how were you supposed to get down to the center of the earth?"

MISS VAN HOUTEN:  "Well, we hadn’t quite figured it out yet. We were looking for the hole.

"That’s what we were doing in the desert with the dune buggies. And that’s why we needed more dune buggies.

"And we were — we had a good idea that it was in the Death Valley area, but we weren’t sure just where.

"And we weren’t quite — we weren’t quite sure of how it was going to work, where we’re going to get in there.

"But maybe it was going to be rigged up from someone who’d gone down before, that it would have water on the top and then like the water would like move away — go away somehow by some kind of mechanism.

"And if we played around the hole enough that went down there, we’d find it out.
And then we could just walk down it and then we’d have to float down a river, one of the rivers, and then it would take us down and take about — I think about two weeks, we figured it out, to get down to the center.

"And then once we got to the center we’d be tiny, and everything would be great big, magnified, like the pearls.

"It talks about the pearls. There’d be giant pearls, and we’d be just little tiny, about maybe five inches compared to everything else."

MR. PART:  "You say it talks about the pearls. Who talks about the pearls?"

MISS VAN HOUTEN:  "At the end of Revelations, in the very last book, almost to the last page, it says that the kingdom will have giant pearls.

"I don’t know who said it — I don’t know who wrote it — but it talks about that, and gold everywhere."

(Van Houten also discusses the Hole briefly in this interview from 1975.)

Recalling Charles Manson's alleged obsession with the pit, sometime Manson associate  Brooks Poston told Inyo County deputy sheriff Don Ward during an October 3, 1969 interrogation at Barker Ranch that the pit was "a cave that he [Manson] says is underneath Death Valley and leads down to a sea of gold that the Indians know about…. [Manson said] every tuned-in tribe of people that's ever lived have escaped the destruction of their race by going underground, literally, and they're all living in a golden city where there's a river that runs through it of milk and honey, and a tree that bears twelve kinds of fruit, a different fruit each month…. and you don't need to bring candles nor any flashlights down there. [Manson] says it will be all lit up because…. the walls will glow and it won't be cold and it won't be too hot. There will be warm springs and fresh water, and people are already down there waiting for him." (Helter Skelter, page 313)

Whence sprang this weird story of paradise in an infinite hole in Death Valley? 

With regard to the "Manson Family" there are several supposed sources for the belief that Manson and his associates could disappear into a bottomless pit to wait out Helter Skelter. One of these sources, as mentioned by Van Houten in her Part interview, was from Chapter Nine from the Book of Revelations in the Bible, specifically,  "And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth; and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit…. and there came out of the pit locusts upon the earth; and unto them was given power, as scorpions of the earth have power…." 

Another supposed reference to the pit and "the Family's" equally supposed obsession with it comes from the Beatles' song "Helter Skelter," the alleged anthem behind the Tate-LaBianca murders, wherein Paul McCartney sings, "When I get to the bottom I go back to the top of the slide," a lyric which, according to the prosecution at Manson's murder trial, referred to "the Family" going into the bottomless pit and then returning to the Earth's surface post-Helter Skelter. 

Although Charles Manson very possibly made some note of the bottomless pit mentioned in Revelation 9, he likely did so because he had already heard of another bottomless pit, namely the one mentioned in Indian and mining lore in the area around Death Valley. 

In his 1930 classic book Death Valley author Bourke Lee explained. "The Great Basin Paiute lived surrounded by weird, unearthly beings. They lived in the air above him and in the ground beneath him. They were in the trees, below the surface of the water, in caves and niches in the rock, on the plain and high in the mountains. The U-nu-pits were the commonest of this host of evil spirits. Most evils and mishaps were attributed to the activity of the U-nu-pits. They made their homes in the high cliffs and searched the desert for foolish and unwary people, whom they carried of to toss of the brink of some high canyon wall. No Paiute ever slipped off a high trail to his death solely as a result of his own carelessness or because a rotten path had crumbled beneath him. To the Paiute mind it was clear that the man who fell had been tripped by a U-nu-pits, or that a U-nu-pits had prepared the trail to trap him.

"The Yan-tups were the evil spirits of the springs. They lived in the ground around the subterranean sources of the mountain waterholes. They came out of their deep hiding places at night and say on the surface of the water singing in low, doleful voices. The often seized little children who went to the springs for water and carried them off to hidden caverns."

Besides these examples from Native American lore there are also fairly modern day stories about seemingly bottomless pits and the people who supposedly dwell therein. Here are two of them, as recounted in Mysterious California, by Mike Marinacci (and previously presented here on the MF Blog): 

"Tom Wilson [was] a Charoc Indian who was a Death Valley guide in the 1920s. Wilson said that when he was a boy, his grandfather told him he had found a tunnel that extended for miles beneath the valley. Walking its length, the man ended up at an underground chamber where a race of fair-skinned people dwelt.

"Welcomed by these subterraneans, Wilson's grandfather lived with the for a while. The people spoke a strange foreign language, wore clothes made of a leatherlike substance and illuminated their home with a pale greenish-yellow light of unknown origin.

"The Indian eventually resurface and returned to his people, who were understandably skeptical about his adventure. But Tom Wilson believed that the old man hadn't lied, and he spent the rest of his life searching for the entry of this underground world, convinced until his death in 1968 that it actually existed somewhere beneath Death Valley."

[1968! - GS]

"At one point, Wilson teamed up with a prospector named White, who claimed that he too had found strange underground dwellings in Death Valley. White had been exploring an abandoned mine in Wingate Pass when he fell into a hidden tunnel that led to a series of rooms.

"The rooms were filled with leather-clad human mummies. Gold bars and other fabulous treasures were stacked in piles around them. There was a passageway leading beyond the rooms as well, lit by an eerie greenish-yellow light. But White dared not explore any further, fearful of what might lie beyond.

"White visited the rooms three more times, once with his wife and once with another miner. But he was unable to locate the cavern later when accompanied by Tom Wilson and a group of archeologists, although they did find a curious dead-end tunnel into the solid rock. The area around Wingate Pass was eventually absorbed into the China Lake Naval Weapons Center, and is now closed to the public." 

If there is a bottomless pit in the Death Valley area, where might its entrance be?

One likely candidate is the Devils Hole, a water-filled opening in the earth located about a dozen miles northeast of the town of Death Valley Junction. Although explored extensively, the depth of the water in Devils Hole has never been determined, thus making it an excellent candidate as an entrance into the pit. 

The entrance to the Devils Hole

In June of 1965, just a little over three years before Manson et al.'s initial arrival in the desert,  three amateur scuba divers from Las Vegas ventured into the Hole for some surreptitious recreational diving. Two of them never returned to the surface, and despite a days-long search by scores of would-be rescuers from all over the western U.S., no trace of them was ever found. Manson and his companions absolutely knew about this tragedy, as Catherine "Gypsy" Share referred to it when she was interviewed for the June 25, 1970 Rolling Stone magazine article on "Charles Manson, The Most Dangerous Man Alive."

Headline From the Santa Cruz Sentinel, June 23, 1965

A scuba diver in the Devils Hole during the search for two divers who vanished there in 1965

Just a few hundred yards away from the Devils Hole to the north is another mysterious entryway into Death Valley's subterranean world, the Devils Hole Cave. The Devils Hole Cave also has no known bottom. In fact, it is not even known whether the Cave and the Hole are even connected, despite their close proximity to each other.  

The entrance to the Devils Hole Cave is secured by a welded steel cover to 
prevent unauthorized persons from entering. 

Also in the area are several spring fed pools that likewise have no known depth or origin.

One of the pools in the Devils Hole area. Nobody knows anything about them either. 

There are hundreds of vertical mine shafts in the Death Valley area that could also lead to an underground paradise. And still another entry candidate is the "blow hole" located in the southwestern side of  the Striped Butte in Butte Valley, just a half dozen or so miles from the Myers and Barker ranches.

And another mysterious natural phenomenon of the Death Valley area that might figure into the story is the Amargosa River, which flows in a generally southeasterly direction in the Amargosa Valley east of Death Valley proper adjacent to California Highway 127. Certainly it is one of the strangest rivers in the world. There are portions of the Amargosa that only exist as dry river beds. In other places it flows over the desert floor just like any other substantial stream. No one knows the origins or the source of water for the Amargosa River. Its beginnings and ends are mysteries, as is what happens to it between its wet and dry segments. Still, despite all of the unknowns, it is still regarded as "the longest underground river in the world." (Death Valley and the Amargosa, by Richard E. Lingenfelter)

*      *      *

So, how would all of these legends from Indian lore and miners' stories wind up connected with Charles Manson and his "Family?"

Because of his background of being raised in institutions Charles Manson is an extremely paranoid-type person, and his resulting proclivity for awareness means that he has an intense interest in anything that is going on around him. He likes to talk with people and find out what they know. And there can be no doubt that during his time in the desert Manson spoke with as many of the local residents as he could and that he absorbed everything they told him. Thus there can also be no doubt that Manson was aware of every Indian legend, every miner's tall tale or hallucination, and every legitimate news story about anything that occurred in Death Valley before he got there. Further, Manson's interests can be infectious, especially since another of his characteristics is that he likes to point out the interests of the life experience to those around him and, if possible, channel those interests into positive energy. Therefore, I find it completely believable that Manson, upon learning of various stories about a bottomless pit in the Death Valley area, would not only communicate those stories to the persons around him but that he would also even channel them into some kind of activity for his friends to engage in, as in, "Hey, I heard that there's a bottomless pit somewhere around here. Let's try to find it!" 

And that's where we get reminiscences of people like Leslie Van Houten who recall "the Family's" earnest search for such a hole.






Thursday, April 14, 2016

Parole approved for Charles Manson cult member Leslie Van Houten


Associated Press

CHINO, Calif. --
A California panel recommended parole Thursday for former Charles Manson follower Leslie Van Houten more than four decades after she went to prison for the notorious killings of a wealthy grocer and his wife.

The decision will now undergo administrative review by the Board of Parole Hearings. If upheld it goes to Gov. Jerry Brown, who has the final word on whether the now-66-year-old Van Houten is released from the California Institution for Women in Chino.

Brown previously blocked the parole of former Manson follower Bruce Davis, citing the gravity of his offenses and his refusal to fully accept responsibility for his role in the murders of a stunt man and a musician.

Van Houten was "numb" after the parole board decision was made at the California Institution for Women, said her attorney Rich Pfeiffer.

Van Houten, a one-time homecoming princess, participated in the killings of Leno La Bianca and his wife Rosemary a day after other so-called "Manson family" members murdered pregnant actress Sharon Tate and four others in 1969.

The killings were the start of what Manson believed was a coming race war. He dubbed it "Helter Skelter" after a Beatles song.

Van Houten was the youngest Manson follower to take part in one of the nation's most notorious killings after she descended into a life of drugs and joined Manson's cult in the 1960s.

Since then, she has completed college degrees and been commended for her behavior as a model prisoner.

Earlier Thursday, she described in graphic detail how she helped secure a pillow over the head of Rosemary La Bianca with a lamp cord and hold her down while someone else stabbed the woman in her home in 1969.

Van Houten recounted the killing during her 21st parole hearing at the California Institution for Women, saying she had looked off into the distance until another Manson follower told her to do something and she joined in the stabbing.

"I don't let myself off the hook. I don't find parts in any of this that makes me feel the slightest bit good about myself," she told the parole board panel.

The La Biancas were stabbed numerous times and the word "WAR" was carved on the stomach of Leno La Bianca.

Van Houten's lawyer, Rich Pfeiffer, said in an earlier interview that she presents no danger to the public and should be freed.

"The only violent thing she has ever done in her entire life was this crime and that was under the control of Charles Manson," he said. "She is just not a public safety risk, and when you are not a public safety risk, the law says you shall be released."

The Los Angeles County district attorney's office declined to comment ahead of Thursday's hearing.



Former Charles Manson follower Leslie Van Houten is seen during a hearing before the California Board of Parole Hearings at the California Institution for Women in Chino, Calif., on Thursday. (Nick Ut / AP)






Monday, April 11, 2016

High Times February 1981

I don't always find Paul Krassner to be believable but I do usually find him to be entertaining!















Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Manson Family Murderer Mailed Hand-Written Edits for His Wikipedia Page From Prison

Ashley Feinberg


Everyone hates being burned online, even convicted murderers. So when someone who appears to be former Manson Family member Tex Watson decided that his Wikipedia page wasn’t giving him a fair shake, he did what any currently incarcerated felon would do: Print out the page, physically mark every point of contention, and mail it in to Wikipedia.

Discovered by The Wikipedian, a new section was added to the article’s discussion page this past Thursday under the heading “Edit requests.” In the addition, a member of Wikipedia’s Volunteer Response Team, tasked with answering the sites’s emails, explains, “The requested changes were presented as a printout of the 16 February 2016 version of this Wikipedia article, annotated with handwritten notes by the subject of the article. A copyright release was sent with the notes. The scan of the notes is uploaded to Commons.” According to Wikipedia’s editors, the scan was from none other than the former Manson devotee himself.

For a man who helped brutally murder at least seven people, including then-pregnant actress Sharon Tate, Watson’s purported edit requests are surprisingly banal. Some of his suggestions are syntactical, while others point out basic errors of fact—like this one noting that he actually attended Cal State, not the University of California:


The editor also attempts to clear Watson of at least some degree of culpability in the Manson Family murders. Here, for instance, Watson seems to assert that he merely assisted co-Manson Family member Patricia Krenwinkel in killing Folger.


Apparently, Tex was much happier with the previous version of the post, which not only included the murderer’s real first name (Charles) but also plugged his autobiography.


As William Beutler of The Wikipedian points out, “It does seem that Watson has done at least a bit of research into how Wikipedia works: he understands there should be citations, and knows he can lobby for the removal of uncited material—although it seems more likely someone will just find a news story about the signature drive than remove this detail.”

At the time of publication, Watson’s alleged edits have yet to be made. Wikipedia’s editors are, however, still in the process of discussing the submission, so that might very well change. Of course, there’s no way to be certain from scans alone that Tex is who he says he is. The ticket for the request was made private by Wikipedia, and without the envelope allegedly sent from prison, it’s hard to verify without speaking directly to Watson. We’ve reached out to Wikipedia for comment and will update if and when we hear back.

You can read the scanned edits in full below.



Original Gawker Article






Monday, April 4, 2016

Susan Atkins broke up Mike Love's marriage

Mike Love, the despised Beach Boy, had an article written about him in the February 25, 2016 issue of Rolling Stone Magazine.  He claims in this article that Susan Atkins was the straw that broke the camel's back regarding his marriage.

Love was much married but the wife in question, Suzanne Belcher, was married to him in the right time period although a divorce was not filed for until April 1969.  That seems to be a delayed reaction to his allegation that Susan Atkins broke up his marriage by virtue of babysitting his children at Suzanne's behest while she was having an affair with his cousin Dennis.  Also, there is the little matter of Susan being ensconced in the Mendocino County jail for most of the time that the Family spent at Dennis Wilson's home.  I'm not certain of how much time Susan would have been at Dennis's house but I'm guessing it was not for long and quite early in the encampment.

Mike Love has many children by his six-pack of wives.  There was one child, a daughter Shawn Love, that he did not acknowledge for many years, who the result of an affair he had while he was married to Suzanne.  Shawn Love ended up marrying her father's cousin, Dennis Wilson.