Monday, September 30, 2024

Charlie and the Family and a Cabin in the Redwoods

 Quite a few years ago I came into possession of a guest book the belonged to people who owned a vacation cabin in San Mateo County, northern California. The cabin was located in the redwoods, seven miles from the ocean, between  the towns of Pescadero and Half Moon Bay which are on the coast. The owners would rent or loan the cabin to friends and family. They had a guest book that people would sign when they stayed at the cabin.

I did not get an exact location for the cabin but I am somewhat familiar with the area. There is a road that goes inland between Half Moon Bay and Pescadero. It's Hwy 84 or locally known as La Honda Rd.  That road runs between Hwy 101 at Redwood City, through Woodside where the Folger's lived, and out to the coast ending at San Gregorio State Beach. 

Back in the day San Gregorio Beach was a nude beach. You could go there and get naked and not get hassled by anyone, including the sheriff's. I have a feeling that it may have been a destination for Manson and the Family and that the cabin was on or just off of La Honda Rd. It would have been a great place to troll for additions to the Family.

Apparently, Manson and some of Family members, I don't know which ones, made themselves at home at the cabin. Chas Manson even went as far as signing the guest book!



I also got a letter of authentication when I got the guest book.




8 comments:

TabOrFresca said...

Thanks DebS.

It is somewhat interesting that Frank Fowles name pops up again. Somewhat recently in the article “Unsolved Murders and the Tex Tape Situation” Fowles is communicating with Interpol in May 1970 regarding Joel Pugh. In this article Fowles is stating in May 1972 that the guestbook signature is Manson’s. It appears that a lot of investigation was initiated by Inyo County. Inyo and Fowles seem to be looking beyond the charges from the Barker Ranch Raids.

Regarding the guestbook.

On other pages of the guestbook, was it custom to sign in the whitespace after the bottom line of each page?

Do the dates on the preceding page and following page line up sequentially?

Are there other documents that show that Manson signed using “Chas”?

Do you know if Fowles involvement in authenticating the signature was official (part of an investigation) versus unofficial (concerning memorabilia)?

DebS said...

It was not a custom to sign in the white space on other pages of the guest book, though in one instance someone wrote a comment in the white space and in another instance a name runs over to the white space. The dates on the following page are sequential with the next date being 5-13-69. The dates in the book start on 7-15-66 and end on 10-9-71. There are 12 full pages of signatures.
There is both black ink and blue ink in the book. The signature following Chas Manson appears to be the same color ink.
I remember looking up whether or not Manson signed his first name as Chas and found one instance but I don't recall where it was. When I have time I will go through the documents and let you know.
I think that Fowles had the signature authenticated unofficially. If he had done it officially I think the book would have been held by sheriff's or DA's office. The last guest signed the book in October 1971 so the signature was not discovered until after the TLB trial. The book was not germane to the arrests and trials.
I think that Inyo County was under appreciated as investigators. They were able to dig up a lot on the Family and definitely helped to connect the dots. They also gave up a lot in the way of bringing charges against some of the lesser Family members. LA wanted the charges dropped in exchange for those Family members telling authorities details they otherwise wouldn't have been able to learn. In the end LA took top billing as bringing the Family down and Inyo County was barely mentioned but without Inyo County LA's case wouldn't have been nearly as inronclad.

Medium Patty said...

The timeline checks out, although I'm sure some group was always on the move and often in the area. This is around the time George Spahn kicks them off the ranch. Tex also mentioned a trip to Sacramento to visit the Candyman. Cool find, DebS!

Milly James said...

My grandfather was Charles. He frequently abbreviated his name to Chas in writing. It's quite old fashioned now but was common practice. I don't know how further forward this gets us!

DebS said...

It doesn't get us any further, Milly. I think the only thing it tells us is that Manson and the others had no problem breaking into houses and making themselves at home anywhere they happened to be. The guest book is simply an interesting relic from their travels.

Unknown said...

It might be fun to kick back on a nice beach and get naked with the Family.

cerberus said...

Groovy!!! LOL

Matt said...

Cool name, cerberus. I'm naming my next dog that.