Saturday, January 15, 2011

The Miners




Crockett, Little Paul and Brooks.





22 comments:

Panamint Patty said...

Oooh that's a good photo. I love the story they related about Chrlie creepy crawling them in the bunkhouse of the Barker Ranch. A good book on the Death Valley days in case you haven't read it is "Desert Shadows: A True Story of the Charles Manson family in Death Valley" by Bob Murphy. Lots of good info about these three.

GrumpFromPahrump said...

One thing I noticed about this picture...It is only in the first edition of Helter Skelter. It is not in the later versions. Wonder why??

MrPoirot said...

I too like "Desert Shadows" more than all the other M books because just like the title suggests; it captures the mystery of the Family's escapades in Death Valley. It is like a film noire version of Bugliosi's book. I was left with a very good impression Of Paul Crockett by that book but later I discovered that Crockett was a bit of a conman guru just like Charlie only not as bad. People flocked to Crockett and Crockett happily took their money.

MrPoirot said...

One thing I noticed about that picture.... I doubt the mailman came up there to Barker Ranch very much. Wonder why?

Matt said...

Aren't we all con-men? Other than family & friends don't we all want people to flock to us & give us money?

St. Circumstance said...

Brooks Poston seemed like such a country bumpkin lol he actually used the term " Poked fun at" Charlie used to poke fun at the hippies...

stayed in a fake coma for days and slept in his own waste while he waited for charlie to " resurrect him"...

You get the feeling some of the guys were tuned in on the Charlies line but they dealt with the nonsense for the girls and drugs - But most of the girls and Brooks really all bought it....

I know all about Watkins and the honorary Mayor stuff but I wonder whatever happened to Poston

Matt said...

Liz, you've just been challenged to find Poston.

eviliz said...

no Matt you have!!!! ive found plenty. i taught you well my friend, you carry the torch now!



o.k. i will start searching. Shawn
you too!!!

eviliz said...

i do recall trying to find him quite some time ago. he is as hard to locate as Mother Mary.

Matt said...

I'm but a humble techie. R&D is your gig.

Matt said...

JAY-EEE-TEE-ESS JETS! JETS! JETS

eviliz said...

no your too busy with your JETS to do any r&d.

markprokes said...

crocketts a pretty sinister looking guy!
hes one of the few that i don't remember ever seeing photos of.

eviliz said...

all i really remember about Crockett is he was kinda older. Murphy's book is a good one, totally different way to read about the crime. that book goes for alot on ebay.

Anonymous said...

Paul Watson was a little shit!

markprokes said...

i just ordered desert shadows through my library.
all i know of crockett is through the watkins book.
i've always assumed that there was nothing in the murphy book that was'nt in watkins or the bugs book.

Anonymous said...

Crockett reprogrammed Brooks and Paul to work for him mining for free, that's what he did. Crockett has some screws loose and was not a credible witness to anything. Brooks is loopy with his claims that Manson put him in a three day trance. Pauly, well we all know he's full of dung. These three are a nice fit for each other.
According to court testimony, Pauly also retold the story of Manson re-attaching a severed penis with his "powers". How was he even credible to the jury?

MrPoirot said...

[quote]Matt said...
Aren't we all con-men? Other than family & friends don't we all want people to flock to us & give us money?

January 16, 2011 8:56 AM[end quote]

Uh...........not exactly, LOL.

Both Crockett and Watkins were con men. Neither were violent like Charlie though. I've never seen anything to indicate Poston was a con man. Crockett mislead Watkins into seeking his counceling for $100 pr hr concerning a treatable form of cancer. Thus wasting valuable time that led to Watkin's death before he sought medical help.

A con man seeks to gain your confidence so he can take advantage of you in some nefarious way; cheating you anotherwords.
A honest person will not do this even to strangers. They seek to be paid fairly for an honest days work. They exist within the rules of the system.
Con men basically seek to beat the system. We are all sinners they say but we are not all con men. Perhaps that is what you mean.

In the late 80s Watkin's and Poston parted ways as Poston became more assertive in their musical work. Watkins and Crockett parted ways over Crockett's expensive phoney counceling. After believing in them totally, Watkins figured out that both Charlie and Crockett were con men. To his credit Watkins left Charlie pre TLB before it was too late. He was not involved in the murders. Sadly he left Crockett too late to stop the cancer/leukemia.
It was good to see that before Watkins died that he learned to lead himself and not blindly follow others.
I am unaware if Poston and Brooks stayed friends. I think they are both still living in the California desert.

eviliz said...

crockett has to be dead by now. i think he was alittle older than Charlie at the time.

beauders said...

during the late 90's a source told me crockett was living seattle and that posten was an alcoholic and possibly involved in a non violent cult.

Panamint Patty said...

Crockett could still be alive - Ballarat Bob only recently passed away. Something about that desert air - it must preserve ya by dessication.

MrPoirot said...

Crockett would be around 86-92 today.
Poston an alchy? That's a step up for him isn't it? Probably all that rain in Washington drove him to drink.

Just kidding. I based my guess on Poston's whereabouts on 1988 interviews with Paul Watkins. Poston stayed near Crockett near DV over 20 years at least. Poston was very trackable up till Watkins died.