Sunday, March 23, 2014

The Curious Case of Brooks Poston

I had finished editing Manson Family Movies in 1984, minus the soundtrack. I was living in Encino and saw that Brooks & Jane were playing in Venice so naturally I went to see them. I figured I was the only one in the audience who knew who Brooks was in relation to Manson. Between sets we talked and I told him I had made a Manson movie that was in some ways a comedy due mainly to being made with no money. He thought that was a good approach. I also told him I was working on the soundtrack and he said "I recorded some of Charlie's songs you could possibly use." So I got his number. When I tried calling the number a few days later it did not work.

The next time I ran into Nick Bougas I told him the story, and he said he would work on locating Brooks. As it turned out, Nick was living in Burbank and so was Brooks, so Nick told him he was really interested in his music and arranged a meeting. He was able to score one of the audio tapes that Brooks and Jane had put out, but claimed that Brooks was adamant that he never recorded any of Charlie's music, and that he never said he had.

Nick made me a copy of the tape that he got and gave me Brooks' number, so I called him. I told him how we met and reminded him of what he had said, and again he denied ever having said that he recorded any of Charlie's music. I told him that I would like to get a copy of the other tape he put out, so he said to send him like $5 and he would send me one, which he did. Sometime later Nick told me that Brooks and Jane had joined some other cult and fled L.A. because their new cult leader told them that "L.A. would fall in the ocean."  

Many years later Nick moved to Georgia and I talked to him maybe once a year rather than all the time. Several years later I heard a rumor that Paul Watkins was talking to Nick on the phone, who recorded the call, and that Paul said that he had never turned on Charlie and that the Bug told him, as well as many others involved with Manson, that if they did not say in court what he told them to say that he would charge them with accessory to first degree murder. I wanted to hear this call so I called Nick but he denied any knowledge of it. I told him I had heard otherwise. He then said he had a flood in his basement, and since he had so much stuff he may have had it but it most likely got destroyed.

More years went by. I ran into [a prominent TLB scholar] at a flea market and he told me he had paid a lot of money for the original tapes of Brooks and Jane's music, and that Nick's girlfriend told him to not buy from me because I had crappy copies of this music. I had always been good friends with her and Nick, so now what's up? I told this man that Nick got one tape directly from Brooks and I got the other one directly from Brooks, and that Nick had made my copy off of the one that he had, so this "bad quality story" was some sort of con or who knows what.

Even more years pass and it is now close to the present time. Some guy turns up selling CDs of about 15 concerts and studio recordings of a band I never knew existed called Desert Sun comprised of Brooks, Jane, Paul and this other guy. The amazing thing is they HAD recorded a number of Charlie's songs!  It was obvious that this band was into Charlie as they recorded a number of his songs live and in studio. Furthermore Paul did a song explaining his present feelings toward Charlie, basically saying that he was still with him but they had gone different ways.  This band seems to have existed from 1972 on however I'm not sure when it ended.

I have been involved in ways with the Manson case since I first heard of it in 1969 following Altamont in November 1969, which I attended. When the case broke in December 1969 I was all over it. From 1971 and onward for the next several years I was Hitch Hiking on the Road and immediately ran into a number of people and we stayed together for years as a sort of Family. We were quite aware of the parallels with the Manson situation. The reason I mention that is because if I had known of this band's existence back then, I definitely would have gone to their concerts.

Another CD in this collection is called Hello Nick and it is a 40 minute message from Paul to Bougas. I was finally able to hear it recently. This was not the rumored phone call between Nick and Paul regarding Paul's being coerced by the Bug into testifying against Charlie in court. So perhaps the recording of that phone call actually was drowned in Nick's basement? Then again I did hear from someone years ago regarding the gist of the call. So someone somewhere has a copy.

I also found out recently that the mysterious new cult leader that Brooks and Jane fled with was Paul Crockett. It was around 1984 or 1985 as that's when Nick lost track of them and they were no longer living in Burbank. They had all moved to Washington.

Even more recently I heard that Crockett had died so now what is Brooks to do?





25 comments:

  1. Thanks to ChatsworthCharlie for finding the link to the Paul recording.

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  2. Aes-Nihil, it doesn't surprise me much that he said he recorded some of Manson's music but then at a later date said the opposite. I'm sure he believed both stories. Going only by what I've read about him I think he's very fragile psychologically.

    Hearing from him today could go any number of ways but my gut tells me he too sees babies with third eyes. I hope I'm wrong.

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  3. It's very hard to even imagine just how fragil Brooks might be. He bought into the " Charlie BAD, Bugliosi GOOD" but IF Brooks had NOT joined the Family, he would have been DRAFTED and likely died in a rice paddy in Vietnam.

    There are many - who witnessed and or participated in the HORRORS of Vietnam and are walking time bombs - even today. AND there are those who avoided the DRAFT (Celebrities, movie stars, producers, politicians, etc.) who THINK eveyday that they will be found out and then looked down upon - forever more.

    KARMA can be a bitch !

    "Death to Pigs" is running out, catch it IF you can.

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  4. good story, Mr. Aes Nil, thank you! Patty would love to hear more.

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  5. There are a few Desert Sun song about Charlie.
    I was told by someone close to Desert Sun, from Tecopa and now in Pahrump, that they scared off a lot of their fans due to their talking about Charlie all the time.

    Brooks broke Desert Sun up. He ran off the band they had for a short time, and then fired Paul and left with Jane.

    Here's an interesting dialog with Brooks and Paul, talking about Charlie and poking fun.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HDNSudICv0

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  6. The Col posted that Paul recording years ago if it is the one where he talks about his kids- maybe 5 or more years ago.
    Why does everyone just rehash old stuff?
    Acid casualty AesNihil posts here then emails me asking me about the Desert Sun Cds I bought. Why do you need them John? You can find them on my site in a dropbox file.

    Damn

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  7. Dood we thought u were AWOL. Chill.

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  8. Col, this story is rehashed? Did you read it? The story isn't as much about the recordings as it is Poston's first saying he recorded Manson's music, then denying he did, followed by Aes-Nihil's finding out that he indeed had recorded it. The implication being that Guru Paul Crockett may have have a hand in his reversal...



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  9. Poston was nothing but a dickless android powered by the everlasting coppertop battery Paul Crockett.

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  10. John, NO - I haven't heard the story - why not tell it here?. I'll trade for the 16mm.

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  11. ColScott, it's nice to be important. But it's more important to be nice!

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  12. Suze you know what is MORE Important? I'm not going to tell you because it is all mine.

    Matt- stfu just because you have the coolest blog doesn't mean everybody likes you the most.

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  13. Brooks could, and should, go to prison for lying on the stand when he said he rec'd no favors from the DA's office for testifying against Manson & CO. He did, I saw the paper work: he was given an exemption from military service in exchange for his testimony at the personal request of DA Frank Fowles of Inyo County, co-signed by the Bug (both liars, but more so the Bug, cuz he repeated the lie at the Tate-LaBianca trial and later trials that Poston testified at (not to mention in his NOVEL). They should all be ashamed of themselves.
    There, you have it. And that's just the tip of the fuckin iceberg.
    Consider that a "gift" from Vera to, despite the Col's underhanded "compliment", the least cool blog site on this subject.

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  14. Vera, to say you saw the paperwork is one thing, to produce it would be better. We'd all like to see it.

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  15. POSTON admitt on tape that HE was EXCUSED from avoiding the military draft in "Death to Pigs" - and I have it on audio tape. At the time, most intelligent men would have testified against their BEST friends or even family members to avoid drowning in the blood pools of Vietnam. Because the military DRAFT could ONLY be excused by the US Federal Government under Federal law, the US was "involved" in the prosecution of the nortorious MANSON murders.

    Looks like "Tricky Dick" AKA President Richard Nixon got the last laugh on Charles Manson, EXCEPT Charlie may be the last man standing.

    SORRY, but we had to raise the price of the last few MANSON books we have left.

    P.S. As far as motive is concerned: Anyone know of evidence as to why Oswald would kill Kennedy OR do we just assume that because HE shot at and hit Kennedy HE intended to KILL JFK? Maybe HE was aiming for someone else in the car that day ? Because EVERYONE in the TATE house was KILLED, did the prosecutor HAVE to invent a motive where ALL were the intended targets?

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  16. I would like to hear this music...are there any links? I really liked the stuff on Robert's movie, I thought it was atmospheric in that uniquely 70s way.

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  17. Fiona here are links to things I uploaded. Just follow the download links. You may have to use captcha. They are zipped files, but most computers have unzippers. When DLed just click extract. https://www.mediafire.com/folder/lio0oia5wh0hzn5,xqfzj4qpud4cdi8,k9iruhih3zrxz68,k5t1ninc66ii5u5,oe4809mlw13d4yt,3w41qzb78jlsy99,69olts4o7tcs6io,3xh6zlhf0j7my1x,jbzp77sxr33tj56,yi7s6y1l6tr8a2c/shared

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  18. Ok...Dooger...thanks..I think. (captcha?? Why am I so dumb...)

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  19. Holy shit, it wants me to pay 343 HK$ for something called winzip for Mac!

    Can anyone tell me how to get around that, bearing in mind at all times I AM ONLY A GIRL....

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  20. fiona, on mac you don't need any special utility to unzip a file. Just double click on it and it will extract itself.

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  21. thanx Dooger, interesting files some of them, Nice to hear the Bausoleil & Grogan music from jail

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