Ages ago, in 2013, the blog tour visited with Michael Channels on his Back Porch. We were treated to view his collection of memorabilia. We took lots of pictures. One picture I took was of an arrest report that Michael had where Manson had been arrested for failure to pay a traffic ticket. On that arrest report Manson gave his address as 3924 Topanga Lane, Malibu.
Brass Tacks Press, a website that features all things Topanga, has an archive of photos that includes photos from the 1960's in Lower Topanga. Among those photos is a picture of a home that looks to be all boarded up and has a spiral staircase leading up to the second floor. There is a house number visible in the picture and it's the same house number that is on Manson's arrest report!
Photo Archive Scroll to the 1960's and the picture of the house is in that group about 3/4 of the way down the page.
At long last the house has finally been identified.
UPDATE
I've gotten a couple of emails that say the house number is photoshopped in the image of the house. I don't believe it is photoshopped.
The article states in the paragraph just below the rainbow trumpet:
He related a story about a house he’d sold to a friend in Topanga Canyon (Southern CA)… “…it was kind of a weird place, it was kind of off the main road into Topanga, the houses weren’t a big deal, I sold it to him for $5,000. He never moved in and kind of disappeared, so I went to check on the house, Charles Manson had moved in, so I kind of let it go.”
If you click on the link "Photo Archive" above and find the picture of the house, click on the picture and it will open in a new window. In the lower left corner of the picture it reads (pic:c/o Newman Family). The Newman family donated that picture to the archive. I have to believe that the picture is genuine.
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Wow! That's awesome Deb!
ReplyDeleteOh, the staircase was outside!
ReplyDeleteI don't think anyone has mentioned that.
Great detective work, Deb!!
Thanks for this, Deb! Even after more than 50 years, we can still find documents and photos that help establish facts. Great work as always.
ReplyDeletePoking around that website, its in the section called Snake Pit. Do you think the other photos there are of the same house?
ReplyDeleteWell done, Deb!
ReplyDeleteWell done, thanks! I appreciate researchers so much. I just returned from a week at the Library of Congress, doing manuscript research in my field.
ReplyDeleteIs the house still there? Hard to tell on Google Maps.
Jenn
@Jenn: No, the house was demolished LONG ago...IIRC, I believe that residence was gone by 1970, and very possibly earlier than that.
ReplyDeleteJenn, as Sixties said, the house is long gone. I checked out Topanga Lane in Google Maps with satellite view. The street is there, but is a dead end with no houses on either side of it. There appears to be at least one foundation slab visible, though. The area seems to be overgrown and has no doubt flooded over the years from Topanga Creek.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, the Malibu Feed Bin is alive and well. To one side of it was the house known to the Family. It looks like it may have disappeared as well, and may only now exist as a concrete foundation slab.
The Malibu Feed Bin is no longer alive and well. It’s been burned to the ground during the wildfires recently
DeleteThe arrest report's date (2-19-67) must be wrong. Manson wasn't released from prison on his check forging sentence until late March of '67.
ReplyDelete"The name came from the fact that the wooden house had a spiral staircase on the outside, which was the only way to access its upper floor. There was no first floor to speak of because years of neglect had left it filled with sand. It was nestled into an area people dubbed the snake pit...."
ReplyDeleteSo wrote Snake in Member of the Family, p97
Since the area was called the snake pit, the other photos may be of a different house.
Calguy, you are correct, that date is wrong and likely a typo. If you look at the top of the report, there is a booking number and file number. The file number has the correct date.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the photo of the Spiral staircase house. I don't think I ever saw a photo of it before. Always fascinated by this part of the story. So many of the base family members came to meet and stay with the family following a chance meeting at the spiral staircase house. Members like Paul Watkins and Dianne Lake.
ReplyDeleteMedium Patty said:
ReplyDeleteOh, the staircase was outside!
I don't think anyone has mentioned that
It's interesting that you should say that. For some reason, I always imagined it to be on the outside. Years before pictures started appearing in book updates, YouTube videos or online, all of the places mentioned in the various books and/or articles had to be formed in my imagination and as I had nothing in particular to go on, my imagination went wherever it went.
But two houses with internal spiral staircases sprang to mind ~ one was in the Monkeees TV show and the other was in the house of my wife's cousin. I always thought internal spiral staircases looked weird and in one instance, positively annoyed me ! It got in the way of the TV and and being tall, not banging my head every time I went near it was a major feat.
Ive always pictured the staircase on the outside as well. I also envisioned it with lots of gritty sand on everything and smelling of tan lotion and B.O.
ReplyDeleteGrim and Matthew: I think I assumed the staircase was inside because of the photographs put forth over the years as possible Spiral Staircase locations - the Love photo shoot and other bands. Now that I'm going back over peoples' memories, they repeatedly wrote it was outside.
ReplyDeleteI lived in a house with a spiral staircase (indoors) which looked great but it was impossible to move furniture upstairs.
Can you imagine trying to get a piano up one ? 😅
ReplyDeleteActually, I did help a friend get a piano up a twisty staircase. It wasn't spiral but it nearly was, at the top.
ReplyDeleteThen my friend discovered the piano was riddled with woodworm so a few weeks later, we had to take it down again.
I learned about 15 years later, that a long strip of carpet works wonders.
Good find Deb and David! I remember us walking all thru the snake pit on a recent Manson tour trying to visualize it!
ReplyDeleteWow Deb, this is incredible Want to know something else REALLY trippy? Earl Newman, who must have just died in the last couple of years (I contacted him not that long ago -- within the last 4 years or so) was a really great artist who did a lot of screen printed posters in the 60s, particularly for Monterrey Jazz festival and so forth.
ReplyDeleteHere's the crazy association to Manson besides the house -- Not one but TWO of his original posters are on the wall of the Tate house on the night/morning of the murder and they both can be seen in the crime scene photos! One poster is a Calendar poster for the year 1968 and other one was a Renaissance Faire poster. Both Earl Newman posters. One last sidenote, there's a Manson fan on ebay who was selling reprints of one of the posters and I guess reached out to Earl Newman who had no idea his posters were in the Tate house when she was murdered. It kinda sucks that he had to find that out right before he presumably died. Anyway, great find!
Also, that address number is definitely NOT photoshopped. Whoever emailed you that really has no idea what they're talking about.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Slight correction to my above post, according to his daughter who was responding to a post on Reddit, Earl Newman was aware his posters were in the Tate house on the night of the murders.
ReplyDeleteTheLatch, I too made a request to Newman about five years ago to purchase several of his silk screened posters, but the deal never went thru, as he did not follow up with a confirmation of my order or a bill. He may have been ill at the time perhaps?
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, I believe there was a third Newman poster at Cielo, and this would have been in the wet bar in the living room.
TheLatch, about that additional Newman poster at Cielo: it would have been a red star or starfish set against a green background in the wetbar, but I don't have a title for the print. Phoros of that poster can be seen with many of Newman's works at the Monterey Pop Festival, and it is likely Candice purchased at least three posters.
ReplyDeleteThere's a pretty good Facebook group about Topanga. LOTS OF PHOTOS. Some interesting (some hugely exaggerated) comments on certain posts.
ReplyDeleteTopanga Beach - before the bulldozers
https://www.facebook.com/groups/172678689458477/?ref=share&mibextid=NSMWBT
TheLatch and all, following up on the Newman posters, I have this week been in touch with April Newman about the availability of prints of posters that were at Cielo. She told me those posters are no longer available unfortunately.
ReplyDeleteOn a side note, I do not know whatever became of those posters in the living room at Cielo. Could they have remained in the posession of Rudi Altobelli or Terry Melcher? I have read that Altobelli kept the American flag that was draped over the couch.
Torque -- what you should probably be inquiring about are the possibility of more photos of the spiral staircase house from Newman's daughter, inside and outside. Frankly, those posters are not his best work and it's probably weird and unsettling to be asked about reprints from some Manson afficionados. Just my two cents. Also, I'm assuming Earl has died or did she not say?
ReplyDeleteTheLatch, I do not know if he has passed, but she did not volunteer that, and I did not ask. The prints here discussed were available on his website not many years ago, and I suppose they were probably available for purchase for a long time.
ReplyDeleteEarl Newman is not dead. On
ReplyDeleteMy own I saw those posters of his on the walls of the Tate house. If you go to Earl newsman’s website he made a 2018 version of the dayglo carrot calendar just like the 1968 version. It’s also no longer available. I did see an original 1968 version of it up for auction at an auction house. I found the dimensions of the original and had one photocopied and framed it and it’s in my wall now. You can go to earl newmans website. It has his phone number on it and he lives in Oregon to this day. I asked him directly about if any of those posters where going to be printed again he told me no. I’m considering ordering one he has for sale that has a merry prankster theme on it. 125 dollars
https://www.earlnewmanposters.com/
Deletehttps://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/original-1967-1968-earl-newman-1940205755
DeleteScroll down on this link and you can see the 2018 dayglo carrot calendar that sadly is no longer in stock
Deletehttps://www.earlnewmanposters.com/shop/page/2/?orderby=popularity
Also scrolling down farther is the merry prankster theme poster that is still in stock for 125 dollars
Deletehttps://www.earlnewmanposters.com/shop/page/2/?orderby=popularity
Looks like you might have to cut and paste those links they don’t seem to work just clicking on them as posted
DeleteAlso I’d like to comment on the fact that I took a photo of my wife last October in the parking lot of the gas station that sits across from the Malibu feed bin. I didn’t really know the history of that place or that it was so close to areas you talk about in these threads, such as the spiral staircase etc. I just knew it was obviously old and had been there for years.
ReplyDeleteWe came to Los Angeles tii ok attend one of David Gilmore shows at the Hollywood bowl, it was fabulous by the way.. I took my wife to Spahn ranch and we walked down to see the wave cave and other things there. I took her to Barbie’s beanery and we also ate at the El Coyote Mexican food joint also.
I have an inquiry to see if anyone know of any connection to the Manson family and a little town I lived in as a kid in the late 60’s early 70’s when the Manson group was active. The town is Ridgcrest California. Very near Trona, Lone pine, independence ETC. Near Ballarat and not to far from barker ranch.
I was maybe 7 or 8 when the trials where going in and I had a family member who was attending UCLA studying chemistry. I have recently found out some interesting things about him from back then and his activities of manufacturing a certain popular chemical back then due to his major at UCLA. I’ll leave it at that as far as that’s concerned.
But my mother claimed years later that a couple of the young women who worked at the local ridgcrest book store shaved their heads and out the X on their foreheads just like the Manson group did when the trials where going on. I figured being so near to a lot of the Death Valley sites tgat the man on group had to pass near or maybe through Ridgcrest at some point
I have been fascinated by the goings on back then for years . I did go to the original Tate house in Benedict canyon in the late 80’s and looked around just outside the gate while looking at the photos in the helter skelter paperback book I had.
I’m now 63 and am still fascinated like many of you about this subject. I get no response from direct emails to some who have lots of information on the subject on independent websites when I inquire. So I’ll just leave this here in hopes of any other knowledge I can get.
Sorry to see a few months later that the feed bin and other structures in that area where destroyed di soon after I took the photos.
ReplyDeleteMy wife is from the Phillipines and she had no idea about any of the Manson murderes or if the places a took her, Spahn ranch ETC. But she had a nice time as I introduced her to the Los Angeles area . She did not know who Pink Floyd or David Gilmour is or the Hollywood bowl. She had never been to a rock concert but she now likes David Gilmour very much and we both had a really nice time. I’m trying to make sure she sees as much of her new home country as she can. I’m really enjoying sharing it with her . She now knows about Ken Kesey , the merry pranksters, the hog farm and wavy gravy, the greatful dead and Jerry Garcia . We took a whale watching trip from depot bay Oregon which was the filming location of the fishing scene in one flew over the cuckoos nest movie .
Next we are flying to Las Vegas to see Dead and company at the sphere.
For what this is worth, I took a screen shot of the dayglo carrot 1968 earlier Newman calendar. I sent it out with about 100 other photos I wanted printed to hang up. I was not sure they would actually print that photo because maybe copyright laws. But I received it today finally. It’s the exact dimensions of the original screen print. It’s very good and yeah it’s not original but it looks really good. I’ll hang it up in a frame on my wall for myself. It looks really good,
ReplyDelete