The Manson Family Blog

Monday, February 17, 2020

Spahn Ranch - Strange RV Tours

Monday, February 10, 2020

Charles Manson; Vincent the bug... Rivals

Tuesday, February 4, 2020

MansonBlog Tour 2020

The 2020 Tour dates will be from April 29 to May 4 in Los Angeles.

If anyone is interested in attending please email me. There's no charge, but you need to make your own travel, lodging and other arrangements.

The exact itinerary is never announced before the Tour but the links below will give you an idea of what it's like.

Monday, February 3, 2020

Amazing Similarities and Links between the Manson Family and the Symbionese Liberation Army(SLA)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbionese_Liberation_Army
The United Federated Forces of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) was an American left-wing terrorist organization active between 1973 and 1975 that considered itself a vanguard army. The group committed bank robberies, two murders, and other acts of violence.
The SLA became internationally notorious for the kidnapping of heiress Patricia Hearst, abducting the 19-year-old from Berkeley, California. Interest increased when Hearst, in audiotaped messages delivered to (and broadcast by) regional news media, announced that she had joined the SLA. Hearst later said that members of the terrorist group threatened to kill her, held her in close confinement, and sexually assaulted and brainwashed her.

Similarities with the Manson Family:

--Both groups were led by charismatic ex-cons.
For the SLA it was Donald DeFreeze (aka General Field Marshall Cinque DeFreeze):

From the book Season of the Witch: Enchantment, Terror, and Deliverance in the City of Love, by David Talbot c. 2012 pg174
The SLA leader mesmerized his followers with his revolutionary gibberish ....

https://escholarship.org/content/qt8tw2935x/qt8tw2935x.pdf
Hearst... stated that whenever Cinque had a point of view, “no one doubted anything he said.”

                                               General Field Marshall Cinque* DeFreeze
   *(pronounced 'sin-Q')

--Both Charlie and Cinque had delusions of divinity:

https://escholarship.org/content/qt8tw2935x/qt8tw2935x.pdf
... Cinque gathered his small army together for what he considered a major announcement. While drinking his ever present plum wine, he told his troops that he had just discovered that “I am really a prophet. I am here on earth to lead the people.”

--Their philosophies were similar:

The Voices of Guns by Vin McClelland and Paul Avery pg19
This was to be a black revolution, a neo-Maoist Helter Skelter, the triumph of the nonwhite over the bourgeois white capitalists.

Season of the Witch by David Talbot pg174
..."the revolutionary vanguard" believed that it was its duty to set an example and inspire the people to rise up*. A thick air of doom and drama hung over the youth... 'As the SLA assassins ran for their getaway car, she was heard giggling. When Steiner asked Nancy how she felt about killing a person, she said, "He's not a person, he's a pig." '

*just like Charlie would have to show the blacks how to do it.

--Manson had his well-known 'get out of jail free' card. And so did DeFreeze:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbionese_Liberation_Army
DeFreeze escaped from Soledad State Prison on March 5, 1973, by walking away while on work duty in a boiler room located outside the perimeter fence.

Soledad

Season of the Witch by David Talbot   pg174
As Cinque roamed around the Bay Area, prison authorities seemed surprisingly lax about tracking him down. ...

pg193
Lake Headley, a Los Angeles private investigator hired ... to dig into Cinque's shadowy past,.. ran down Cinque's long rap sheet and the special treatment he had received from police and the courts as a multiple offender. Headley, whom Manson prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi once hailed as "the best private investigator on earth" .... came the closest to understanding Cinque. He was a "monster," Headley said, created in the dark criminal netherworld where police and government agencies manufacture their agents of chaos. And when their Frankenstein went rogue and began imagining that he truly was a revolutionary hero, he had to be put down.

--Both led a small group of disaffected, fanatical followers, mostly female:

Season of the Witch, by David Talbot pg174
...Cinque's consciousness-raising class became the seedbed for the Symbionese Liberation Army, an "army" ... made up of earnest, middle-class firebrands suffering from deep self-loathing...

https://escholarship.org/content/qt8tw2935x/qt8tw2935x.pdf
...the SLA demonstrated a knack for developing alternate identities.. They kept isolated from their past lives...

https://escholarship.org/content/qt8tw2935x/qt8tw2935x.pdf
When Patricia began opening up to Angela Atwood and Willie Wolfe regarding her personal and family life, she found the love and acceptance that she had not found at home with her family. ....

The Voices of Guns, by Vin McClelland and Paul Avery   pg36
In two months of isolated captivity a conventionally liberal teenage girl had been completely transformed, brought to the point where she was apparently willing to kill and smirk.

    Patty, .... and 'Tania'

--Both groups had celebrity victims. Both had victims who were the heiresses of wealthy old-line blue-blood California families from the Bay Area.

(Talking of Abigail Folger and Patricia Heast.)

--Both had group sex practices.

Season of the Witch by David Talbot pg174
He strutted around the SLA's various safe houses buck naked and fully erect, quickly establishing sexual dominion over the women in his flock... Cinque and his women formed the power nucleus within the group. None of the men ever challenged him; his... prison credentials gave him supreme status.

--Both had cute nicknames for the members.

Family:
Sexy Sadie, Ouish, Snake, Cappy, Squeaky, Tex, Donkey Dick, Scramblehead

SLA:
Fahizah, Teko, Yolanda, Kahjoh, Bo, Gabi, Zoya, Osceola, Mizmoon

Check out this excellent short video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrqqJ_dm9Ak

--Both groups were steeped in talk about death and destruction:

https://escholarship.org/content/qt8tw2935x/qt8tw2935x.pdf
“Death stalked the foul air in that safe house,” wrote Patricia, “More than ever before, all of them talked of death. Hardly a day or night went by but that someone mentioned death and others quickly took up the subject.”

--Both had people linked to their groups that tried to whack the President.

In Manson's case it was of course Squeaky Fromme, who pulled a .45 on the President during an appearance in Sacramento on September 5, 1975.

In DeFreeze's case, it was Sarah Jane Moore, who sent a .45 round whizzing past President Ford's head in San Francisco just 17 days later, on Sept 22, 1975. She was not a follower, but rather a volunteer in the organization set up by Patricia Hearst's father to comply with the kidnapper's demands to deliver free food to the poor before they would release his daughter. But even before that, she was an informant for the FBI.
[She was also a visitor at the radical Wellspring Commune's Northern California retreat. Also at this camp at the time was one-time Family member Larry Bailey.]

Soliah: The SaraJane Olson Story, by Sharon Darby Hendry, pg114
She(Moore) knew people who knew its members and would admit later on, "I had a catalog--I was one of the few people around who had a copy of every one of the SLA tapes, every one its communiques."

--Both the Mansons and the SLA were media darlings, with the Media giving them all the publicity they ever wanted to spread their goals:

https://escholarship.org/content/qt8tw2935x/qt8tw2935x.pdf
What made the SLA so unique was their access to the media. Every communiqué was published and every audio recording played for public consumption. No other movement within the New Left ever had such easy media access as the SLA had.
... The media placed the SLA on center stage for all to see and hear.... they also served as enablers for the SLA’s enthusiasm for publicity. Cinque and his followers knew that any public action or statement created instant news.

--Both had probable government informants planted within their ranks.

Though significantly, it appears DeFreeze was an informant himself:

Vegas PI Lake Headley pg128
During the early fall of 1968, the LAPD detective and his agents, including DeFreeze, became part of a new subversive super secret unit--the Criminal Conspiracy Section (CCS). DeFreeze's job involved moving guns and grenades to be used against the Black Panther Party.

--Both committed terrible crimes to kick start the revolution, but that just ended up advancing the agenda of The Man.

https://escholarship.org/content/qt8tw2935x/qt8tw2935x.pdf
...what resulted from this unique opportunity to take a deeper look into the issues and concerns of the New Left led not to the embrace of these ideas by the middle class, but their almost total alienation from the SLA and its goals. ... Within progressive circles, discussions concerning Cinque as an agent provocateur ensued because the actions of the SLA led directly to police actions against those involved in progressive causes.

http://disinfo.com/2013/01/the-parts-left-out-of-the-patty-hearst-trial-part-2/
The family of slain SLA member Willie Wolfe hired Lake Headley–an ex-police intelligence officer who was chief investigator at Wounded Knee–to find out what had really happened. What he discovered, with fellow researchers Donald Freed and Rusty Rhodes, was that the SLA was part of the CIA’s CHAOS program.

-- https://escholarship.org/content/qt8tw2935x/qt8tw2935x.pdf
After taking the photograph, in a manner similar to that of the American military, the members of the cell proceeded to “unceremoniously cut off” Patricia/Tania’s hair leaving “no more than a half-inch growth” around her head.

Links:

Incredibly, DeFreeze may actually have known Charlie.

Season of the Witch by David Talbot pg176
"I crave the power Charles Manson had," declared Cinque, who claimed that he had met the fellow ex-con in Los Angeles."

aadl.org/node/200649
Who Ran The SLA? by Dick Russell
Ann Arbor Sun, January 22, 1976
(Donald) DeFreeze, as an informer for a special Public Disorder Intelligence Unit(of the LAPD), did not want for "useful" tasks. During the fall of 1969, police sources recall DeFreeze informing on the Charles Manson family concerning a planned arms burglary. He next surfaces in Cleveland on October 11...

More evidence that Charlie knew Cinque is this insert from the 'Lie' Album of Manson tunes, which was signed by fellow inmates at the Los Angeles County Jail, probably in the spring of 1970 when Charlie was there awaiting trial, and shortly after the album was released.

(contributed by DebS)

Highlighted in yellow you can clearly read "Donald DeFreeze." It's entirely possible that were even friendly during that time period.

OO-ee-OO!

Monday, January 27, 2020

The Col Presents: THE LAST WORD on DEBRA TATE

The thing about research/journalism/writing is that the writer has a tendency to focus on their story predicated on the supposition that the reader is up to speed on things on their end. This is a mistake. Thus the Col will give you a quick summary on Debra Tate.

Debra Tate is the middle daughter of Paul and Doris Tate. She was a teenager when the murders took place. Even before the murders she was clearly troubled and a problem to her parents. Soon after the murders their father, Colonel Paul Tate discovered fully nude photos of his daughter Debra hanging out with some of the drug related suspects of the murders and lost his shit in disbelief. The relationship with Debra was always contentious with both parents at a loss as to what to do.

A fully nude pictorial in OUI magazine in the 70s didn't help things within the Tate Clan, nor did Debra's disdain for younger sister Patti's relationship with a woman. Whether Debra is fully homophobic or just hangs out with homophobes (like Robin/Vera Dreiser of this blog) is not full clear but Patti died in 1997 and Debra has not associated with her nephew and nieces since.

Mom Doris Tate was a gangster and revolutionized victim's rights. When it became clear she was dying she made sure that Patti became the next designated rep at the Parole Hearings of the asshole killers. It was too much for Paul and Debra could not be counted on. The fact that NOW Debra attends has as much to do with attention seeking as it does anything else- it was NOT what Doris or Paul would have wanted because they knew she was unreliable. Doris always also understood that here were FOUR people who were responsible for her darling Sharon's death (5 if we include Charlie) and wanted to make sure they stayed locked up- she didn't fuck around with the other killers by showing up at their Parole hearings as emotional support. She had a job to get done and by gum she did it the best she knew how.

When Doris died the house in Palos Verdes as I understand it was sold to Patti's GF though Colonel Paul and his eventual new GF would live there during their lives. Debra hated this and hated the fact that her father would not give her any of the Sharon belongings stored in the house.

The "Estate of Sharon Tate" was distributed to Col Paul and Doris (remember Polanski agreeing to this?) This did include some likeness and name rights. When Colonel Paul died the Estate of Sharon Tate was left to Patti's children and Debra's daughter.

Debra's daughter (who was at one point available for nude photography and perhaps more online) is an attractive woman whose body seems to be 96% covered in tats, in my non-educated opinion a sign that you do not really like the way you look. The ex husband had a police record of drug use and abuse.

Debra for many years in the 2000s had her "friend" Don Wilson, a convicted sex offender, as her sometimes assistant/representative, until he went away for prison stint.

Debra over the last 15 years would threaten people about using Sharon's name and likeness regularly. Usually she would do this with people who didn't even need any rights in the first place, but as noted above, she doesn't have any rights ANYWAY. This doesn't stop the general public from thinking she does and acting accordingly.

Debra has claimed that while working as a Postal carrier she was damaged by a mail bomb. We know she has collected money for this but try as we might we cannot prove this actually happened.

Recently, Debra collected $18,000 on GoFundMe for breast cancer treatment. I've seen this disease up close and it is sickening. I hope Debra is cancer free- the concern is I have been told by some sources that she was always cancer free.

Last year Debra held an auction of Sharon's things to benefit her favorite cause, Debra Tate. How did she get these possessions? According to my sources, she "wanted all of Sharon's stuff" and threatened to sue her father, to commit her father, to attack her father if she didn't get them. Col Paul finally relented and had Patti's GF put together a trunk of stuff- but it was to be left at the bottom of the driveway and Debra was not to enter the house. And so it was.

In an act that made me actually hire a lawyer and do some Estate planning, Colonel Paul didn't fill out some fucking form and so his ashes went to next of kin- Debra. Colonel Paul is NOT buried in Holy Cross next to Doris and Sharon. His grandchildren from Patti have no idea where their grandpa's remains are, although it is safe to say that Debra does. Perhaps she looks at them and laughs and does all kinds of Shakespeare shit. She certainly seems small and petty enough.

---------

One of the things Debra and her fangirls wanted to do circa 2000 was get Sharon Tate a STAR ON THE HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME. This is a tourist thing along Hollywood Boulevard from La Brea Avenue to Vine Street. I promised you that without a book you will not know even 50% of the honorees. Since stars are based on your field, some folks have like 4 stars. It is historical, with honorees dating back to the silent era.

It is also a worthless "award". Nowadays they have ceremonies a few times a year- usually the recipient is promoting something. And someone, usually a studio, has to agree to pay $25,000 for the Star and more for the event. At one point I believe Debra et al were going to take up a collection for a star for Sharon. This never happened. As far as I know they never contacted the right people to even start the process.

Again, this is not a "worthiness" test so even a meh actor like Sharon Tate could certainly get a star. It's political and promotional more than anything.

When Tarantino announced his film ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD Debra did an early interview in which she excoriated the film sight unseen.

Debra tells TMZ she believes Leo and Brad only saw the Benjamins when they signed up to star in Quentin Tarantino's "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" ... a film about a struggling actor who lives next door to Sharon Tate at the time of the 1969 murders.

Debra says, "To [celebrities] it's a paycheck and these people just don't care. They are terribly hurtful to the actual family and all the living victims. They don't give a sh*t."

She goes on to say she'd like to believe Brad and Leo haven't thought this through because they're "throwing all their social responsibility to the wind."

As for her feelings about Quentin, Debra's adamant his movie will just end up glorifying Manson ... given Quentin's thirst for eroticizing murders.

Then a few short months later, Debra was on board, loves the script, Tarantino was amazing, the film really reflect Sharon etc etc etc.

What happened?

Mommy got paid of course. Sources tell me the number was close to $50,000 simoleons.

But think a bit- Debra is the sole surviving key member of Sharon's family. Sony cannot have her out there dissing their $90 million film with big movie stars. VICTIM!!!!!

But where did that number come from? The initial discussion from Tom Rothman the studio Chairman was to get Sharon a star. This made sense- Publicity for the film and something Debra allegedly wants. AMIRITE? Or door #2, take the money and run.

I believe my sources, but let's be chill- maybe they are wrong and the Star was never an option offered from Sony. I promise you 100% Sony would have gone for it if Debra had wanted it- they had a big problem with her as a loose cannon out there.

She didn't want it.

The "Last Word" on Debra Tate? Next time someone like Tom O'Neill (god I cannot stop hating on that guy) screams at me (or any of you) that she was a victim too, hang up on the loser. Doris, Paul and Patti were victims but they were not horrible people.

NEXT UP : The Col Presents THE LAST WORD on ROBERT HENDRICKSON

Monday, January 20, 2020

The Col Presents : THE LAST WORD on Quentin Tarantino's ONCE UPON A TIME ...IN HOLLYWOOD

We'll begin by acknowledging a history with Tarantino that dates back to 1991. It resolved itself by 1998. Except for minimal "hi/bye" interactions with the guy since then, there's no issues on either side.

I saw the movie ONCE UPON A TIME...IN HOLLYWOOD twice. Like in all things in this world, I feel the word "amazing" should be used sparingly.

I felt the music was AMAZING. One of the greatest soundtracks of the year. Just awesome, playable on its own, fantastic. Image result for once upon a time in hollywood lp

Image result for once upon a time in hollywood lp

I felt the production design, recreating the era was AMAZING. One day during the shoot I made a bad turn and ended up in the parking lot base camp. I felt like I was there, on Hollywood Boulevard 1969. I got my ass out of there rather than trip out. But it was cool.

I felt that Brad Pitt was AMAZING. Funny. Cool. He has always been a great actor but man was he a blast in this film. Funny. Tough. Wry. Hell, even hot.

I did not like the film overall- there's two reasons.

FIRST- and thankfully easiest, "what is the story of the film overall?". I would say- "Flailing and failing actor in 1969 worries about his career going down the shitter and shares with his stunt double."

LAME. BORING. WHO THE F CARES???? Image result for once upon a time in hollywood margot feet

Image result for once upon a time in hollywood margot feet

But this isn't Slashfilm, this is the last remaining TLB Blog not run by the mentally deficient.

What we want to do is examine the Manson stuff in the film, and by extension some of the Tate stuff too.

Perhaps we can try to categorize scenes

1- Spahn Ranch- very key sequence for TLB folks
2- Stray Manson shits
3- Assault on Cielo Drive
4- Sharon Mains (Theatre, Final Montage)

1- The production department did a great job in this scene. With the notable exception of Spahn's house it feels like the Ranch- they went to Corriganville and looked at the photos and made it look amazing. Horse rides. Check. Tex leading in Charlie's absence? Sure why not. Gypsy was a babe, Dunham anything but, but sure let's take it. Their attempt to put BOBBY in the background in a top hat looking like a mental patient when he was considered extremely beautiful was bizarre. Using real names of some people versus made up names (Sundance ffs?) makes no sense- it was not for legal reasons, Gypsy is still alive. But the sequence is strange and pointless.

There is this dramatic buildup with Squeaky (and her feet!) that establishes....ummm nothing.
Cliff forces himself into see George who he barely knows and....ummmm nothing.
Cliff promises to come check on George- and he never does
Cliff beats the living fuck out of Clem and makes him change the tire- this establishes that Cliff is prone to violence (setting up the end), but the Bruce Lee sequence shows that just as well.
Picking up the hippie chick is a great scene and of course she would love to get him to join the Clan- but she doesn't really try and flips on him too easily.

But you know what rings like holy empty bullshit? All the Family gathering outside the house to have a showdown with Cliff. Which never happens/ And never happened. There was never a show of force. And where did this "you cannot see George" bullshit come from?

It is a fun scene, it is a pretty scene, but it is Tarantino's attempt to make the Family scary and intimidating long before any murders happened and it doesn't ring true. Squeaky called the shots? Rats in traps out of PSYCHO? Image result for once upon a time in hollywood margot feet

Literally the only purpose I can see in this sequence, which is long, is to have Tex meet Cliff and have Cliff mock him before the later home invasion.

2- Charlie shows up in the Twinkie Truck looking for Terry. This scene, the only for the poor actor playing Charlie, is just so people can go "Oh look, Manson." It is fine and mercifully brief. Andie MacDowell's daughter on the street corner is suitably cute and sexy and nuts. There is almost nothing else in the movie about Manson before the Assault.

3- Assault on Cielo Drive- Five people, real living people including an 8.5 month pregnant woman were slaughtered by drugged out hippie idiots on Cielo Drive on that date in 1969. It wasn't funny. It was chaos- ropes, bullets, gun butts, knives, blood, death. Real people died.

I could maybe see if you wanted to do a fairy tale where the five people lived and you taught me all about them so I cared. But Steve Parent doesn't even exist in this QT world. Voytek and Abby are nothing. Less than nothing. Only Sharon has any real (minimal screen time). "Saving" these characters (which isn't even what really happen) has no depth whatsoever.

Also, as scholars what jumped out at all of us? Charlie didn't send Tex and Sadie and Patty and Uma Thurman's boring daughter to just kill some rando straights in Bel Air. He sent them to kill everyone at Melcher's house (or something). It was designated, it was targeted, it was purposeful. To this day we debate what the purpose was but it could NOT have been any other house that night. So the convoluted conversation in the car quoting Hendrickson's film about the love of violence where they decide fuck it let's kill that Western actor- it is nonsense.

For Tarantino's plot to work they have to switch houses. Rick doesn't save Sharon in HER house. Rick and Cliff do not save her at all. In this reality they never know she was even the target. They are scarcely even heroic- they save themselves from a drugged out hippie home invasion. Yes this is good but it is not heroism.

I cannot address the violent deaths of Katie, Tex and Sadie because they are absurd and come out of fucking no where. I did laugh at the "I am the devil" exchange, but Voytek waking up to this terrified and Cliff tripping on an lsd cigarette ( no such thing btw) are way different.

Hell everything about the assault is movie nonsense. Uma Jr runs away with the car and they shrug? Sure. Superhuman dog with snapping jaws. Sure why not. Working, filled flame thrower just a few steps away?

And what is the result? Two dead girls that we know NOTHING about. One dead Tex who we saw for 2 minutes previously- this is all so Tarantino can make them cutouts we don't give a shit about. Go ahead toast them, they mean nothing. They were stupid enough to switch houses! Image result for once upon a time in hollywood spahn house

Image result for once upon a time in hollywood spahn house

REAL PEOPLE DIED THAT DAY. They were not "saved" because the killers went next door.

And anyway, the real life death of Susan Atkins, death by 1000 papercuts, was more deserved that an instant shish kabob anyway.

4- Sharon at the Westwood theatre and in the Westwood Theatre and the Final Montage-

The whole Westwood theatre sequence is sweet (even the dirty feet). The real Sharon doesn't seem all that innocent or "good" as Tarantino calls her. She partied with the rest of them (look at PLAYBOY AFTER DARK sequence). It does make her seem like a ditz. It does give her some dimension. She is still not a real character but it is a sweet sequence.

I was less pleased by the pre-Assault montage. Pregnancy melancholia? What the actual fuck is that? Why go to El Coyote and then use a different table?

I don't know- QT saves Sharon but it doesn't feel like a real person.

-------
The film just got a boatload of noms and will win for Cliff and script 100%. The four hour cut, coming in a year or so will be fascinating. Ultimately though a mediocre actor stops some hippies who might have killed a cipher. That's the story and it is a pretty weak one, when most of us know so many much more interesting details.

NEXT: The Col Present: THE LAST WORD on DEBRA TATE

Friday, January 17, 2020

WFAA Footage from 50 Years ago Today regarding Collin County's finest - Tex Watson

Thanks, Tom!

Monday, January 13, 2020

The Col Presents: THE LAST WORD on Tom O'Neill's CHAOS

In 1992 a hoax was published, THE DIARY OF JACK THE RIPPER, in which the forever unknown killer was alleged to have been the husband of a 1880s woman poisoner. It was nonsense, attempting to link two separate but famous murders of the time, akin to alleging that Richard Speck was the Zodiac.

Longtime Manson Researchers no doubt have seen Maury Terry's THE ULTIMATE EVIL on the fifty cent rack during a library sale. Written in 1987 it is one long series of conspiracies that essentially allege satanists all over the United States getting together and killing randos because reasons. The Son of Sam? Charles Manson? CIA? Mind Control? Sure why not.

It is a supremely silly book.

In 2003 a sad, deranged individual named Steven Hodel published a book called BLACK DAHLIA AVENGER where he tries to work his Daddy issues out by blaming his deceased father (of course) for a string on unsolved woman murders in LA in the 1940s. Since idiots listened to him he has published multiple subsequent books in which he alleges Daddy was The Lipstick Killer and The Zodiac and who knows who else, maybe he killed Hoffa too.

The above trend shows you that the True Crime arena is sloppy, lazy and filled with people alleging absolute bullshit without any proof- oh, as long as the people being talked about are dead.

On February 4, 2019 I reviewed on this illustrious blog the first section of CHAOS by Tom O'Neill. In that review I noted my history with Mr. Tom and provided evidence that he was a dick I also pointed out that the book was, as far as that section was concerned, filled with lies and incorrect statements. I offered to help review the rest of the manuscript and took the liberty of offering the assistance of you all (blog readers) to try to get things right. Tom of course refused.

The book came out, sold a few copies and has vanished. No serious researcher will ever consult it.

Tom as a "journalist" (his jacket blurb lists only magazine writing credits for mags that have been shut for over a decade) is of the slimy type who works like this- "Answer my question". "No comment." " Well if you don't answer my question (which you have every right not to do) I have to conclude you have something bad to hide" He states several times that he tried to get a hold of celebrities and others who did not want to speak with him, then implies that they are guilty of some unexplained shit.

But once the finished volume came out the whole thing turned into the ramblings of a deranged fan. In fact much of it reads as bad fan fiction, if you were a fan of shitty sixties spy novels.

A good portion of the book is all about how hard it was for Tom to write the book. They advertised that it was 20 YEARS!! in the making as if that was a good thing. It took 20 years because he waited for people to die so he could accuse them of things.

For example- BUG was a punk. My hatred for BUG was public on the ONLY Official TLB Blog while Bug was alive. I had clear reasons- he made up the motive that has confused this case for 50 years. He lied under oath,. He stalked his milkman. He beat his mistress. You do not usually get an actual crazy person in charge of a major prosecution but then we haven't had an actual crazy President before now.

But you have to remember Tom is an angry, credulous child. He befriends BUG to get background for his book. BUG wants to control the narrative (shocking!). He and BUG fight. He gets a hold of some documents (not reprinted in any format) and alleges BUG committed perjury. BUG threatens him. O'Neill is freaked out.

What the hell did he think was going to happen?

I focused on this section (the rest gets worse) because back when I liked the guy (pre his TV interviews about Charlie's Karate School Inc) I knew he had met with Terry Melcher and gotten some hot information from him. It was a secret rendezvous on a rooftop. This was over 15 years ago and conveniently Melcher is dead now.

The big reveal is that Melcher probably hung out at the Ranch again at least once after the murders. OO-EE-OO. BUG hid that from the defense. If it had ever come out....what? I mean Crazy Tom basically says that this BOMBSHELL would lead to the killers being released. Uh huh.

So this is not useful, is not interesting and could only matter to Terry and BUG. But you read the book and you conclude that this is better than DNA- to Tom O'Neill.

The second half of the book goes the full Conspiracy Tinfoil Gamut. Manson's parole officer was CIA. Another dead guy was the linchpin for a mind control operation. Jet fuel cannot burn steel girders. Kubrick shot the fake moon landing. HAIL Q!

Tom contacted me in June after the book was published to ask if I had any questions. I held off on this review because it seemed pointless. The book was not mattering because it was the life's work of an angry wannabe journalist who was going to publish the book no matter what, even if there was no story.

Tom hopes his readers will fall for shit people fall for on the internet all the time. Life is not a narrative. It doesn't always make sense one hundred percent. There are things I cannot explain about Amanda Knox's behavior, but there is plenty of evidence that she killed her roommate. I am uncertain if Charlie did go back to Cielo; I do not know whose glasses they were; I think Kasabian was more involved. But Tex Watson and the girls still stabbed all those people. Not being able to explain EVERYTHING does not make a case weak.

I am sad this book is out, because that means I cannot mock Tom about it any more.

I hope he found the journey worth it. The end product was a waste.

UP NEXT: The Col Presents THE LAST WORD on ONCE UPON A TIME ...IN HOLLYWOOD

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	DEBUNKING THE BUNK PART 1: A Look at Joel Rostau Manson Blog Proves the Updated Manson File is Fiction!

	Thoughts on the LaBiancas and the motive on August 10th Could Watson Have Conspired With Suzan LaBerge???

	Benedict Canyon Acoustics and Bugliosi's Timeline "It was so quiet, one of the killers would later say, that you could almost hear the sound of ice rattling in the cocktail shakers in the homes way down the canyon."

	The Law: Conspiracy to Commit Murder, Felony Murder and One for the Colonel The key impact of both crimes is that Conspiracy to Commit Murder and Felony Murder do not require the defendant to actually kill anyone or even be present when someone is murdered to be guilty of murder. That, of course, rather obviously is directed at Charles Manson.

	A Conversation with Johnny Ussery- The Then 7 year old son of Clyda Dulaney! Manson Blog Locates and Interviews Son of Clyda Dulaney!

	Follow up on Filippo Tenerelli Manson Blog Proves that Tenerelli Was Not a Gypsy Joker!

	Bobby Beausoleil = Herbert the Pervert? Manson Blog Shines Light on Sassy Bottoms!

	Sassy Bottoms Manson Blog Reveals Bobby Beausoleil's "Art" Focuses on Child Domestic Discipline!

	More on "the missing link" Manson Blog Considers the Brotherhood of Eternal Love Connection to TLB

	Tour 2012 - Day 3 Sgt. Dostie Demonstrates Buster Alerting at Barker Ranch!

	"Hey, Charlie… Black Beard Charlie!" Manson Blog Locates Charlie Melton!

	Debra Tate and Don Wilson Debra Tate Disgraces the Words Victims' Advocate

	Ruby Pearl Redux Manson Blog Reveals True Identity and Fate of Ruby Pearl

	Anniversary thoughts- Leary7 said it best. "I was a half-assed nothing...". As they say, truer words were never spoken.