LaBianca: The DARK Secret Behind Harbor Freight's LA Store

 

 

 

Patricia Krenwinkel Granted Parole Again

 

How a 77-year-old Manson follower has Newsom in familiar bind

By Bob Egelko, Courts Reporter

June 3, 2025

San Francisco Chronicle

 

Once again, a state parole board has found one of cult leader Charles Manson’s followers – Patricia Krenwinkel – suitable for release after more than 56 years behind bars for her role in seven 1969 murders. And once again, Gov. Gavin Newsom must decide whether there is any evidence that Krenwinkel, 77, would pose any danger if released – and whether a decision to free her would affect his political future.

The Board of Parole Hearings, whose members were appointed by the governor, voted Friday to grant parole to Krenwinkel, the state’s longest-serving female prisoner. The board had ruled against her 14 times before recommending parole in 2022, but Newsom vetoed her release, saying she had not shown “sufficient insight” into her crimes.

The governor gave a similar explanation in 2022 for vetoing the parole of another Manson follower, Leslie Van Houten, whose release had been approved five times by the parole board since 2016 but blocked each time by Govs. Jerry Brown and Newsom.

But a state appeals court ruled in 2023 that Newsom had failed to justify his conclusions that Van Houten, 73, lacked sufficient understanding of her actions and could still be dangerous after 54 years in prison. She was freed after the governor decided not to appeal the ruling.

“The only factor that can explain this veto (of Van Houten’s parole) is political optics, and California law does not allow governors to veto people’s parole because it will look bad,” said Hadar Aviram, a professor at UC College of the Law San Francisco and author of the 2020 book “Yesterday’s Monsters: The Manson Family Cases and the Illusion of Parole.”

And she said the same thinking will most likely affect Newsom’s upcoming decision on Krenwinkel, once the parole board’s decision becomes final in 120 days.

“What does he think people have an appetite for in this political reality?” Aviram asked, noting California voters’ approval last November of Proposition 36, which increased some sentences for drug crimes. “It costs him nothing to oppose (her release). In the worst-case scenario, the court overrules him again and she gets out.”

Newsom’s office denied a request for comment.

Manson ordered seven of his followers, including the 21-year-old Krenwinkel and two other young women, to kill nine people in three gruesome attacks in the Benedict Canyon area of Los Angeles in July and August 1969. 

During her trial, Krenwinkel admitted chasing Abigail Folger, heiress of the Folger coffee family, and stabbing her 25 times in the home of actress Sharon Tate, another murder victim, and then helping to kill grocery store executive Leno Bianca and his wife, Rosemary, and using their blood to scrawl “Death to pigs” on a wall.

Convicted of seven murders, Krenwinkel was sentenced to death along with Manson and three others in 1971. But the sentences were reduced to life with the possibility of parole after the California Supreme Court overturned the state’s death penalty law in 1972.

The voters passed a new law in 1977 making capital crimes punishable by death or life in prison without the possibility of parole, but those sentenced under the earlier law, including Krenwinkel, remained eligible for parole. Another ballot measure, approved by the voters in 1988, authorized the governor to veto decisions by the parole board.

In prison, Krenwinkel has a clean disciplinary record, earned a college degree and has taken part in community-service programs, working to support other inmates with mental illnesses. At her 2022 parole hearing, she said that after dropping out of school and becoming an infatuated member of Manson’s so-called family at age 19, “I allowed myself to just start absolutely becoming devoid of any form of morality or real ethics.”

In a statement released by Krenwinkel’s lawyers, Jane Dorotik, a former inmate and now part of the support group California Coalition for Women Prisoners, said, “Those of us who served time with her came to know her as a thoughtful, gentle, and kind person – someone deeply dedicated to creating a safe, caring environment.”

Relatives of the murder victims have not been persuaded.

“I beg the board to consider parole for Patricia Krenwinkel only when her victims are paroled from their graves,” Anthony Demaria, a nephew of victim Jay Sebring, testified at one of her hearings.

And Patrick Sequeira, a prosecutor in the murder cases, told the board that if Krenwinkel “truly understood her crimes and the horrific nature of it, she wouldn’t be here at a parole hearing. She would just accept a punishment.”

Not so, said her lead attorney, Keith Wattley, executive director of UnCommon Law, an Oakland-based firm that represents inmates seeking parole.

“Pat has fully accepted responsibility for everything she did, everything she contributed to, every twisted philosophy she embraced and endorsed and, most importantly, every life she destroyed by her actions in 1969,” Wattley said in a statement after the board’s latest decision.

“Now it’s the Governor’s turn to show that he believes in law and order when the law requires a person’s release despite public outcry.” 

Bruce Davis Must Be a Special Kind of Stupid

After his failed parole hearing where he was denied for three years because he appeared on Keith Rovere's "The Lighter Side of Serial Killers" he continues to communicate with Rovere. 

These pics were snagged from Rovere's Instagram page.

Deb's original post on the subject:

https://www.mansonblog.com/2024/02/bruce-davis-podcasts.html

Today, Please Don't Forget Why We Have Memorial Day

 

Delivery Boy At Sharon Tate House Hours Before Manson Murders. Full Interview

 

 

 

They Blabbed

They blabbed about their crimes.  They blabbed, and blabbed, and blabbed.  And when they were done blabbing, they blabbed some more.  Sadie's famous blab to her jail mates Cory Hurst, Nancy Jordan, Ronnie Howard, and Virginia Graham wasn't the only time the Family suffered from loose lips when talking about the murders. Anybody watching the Family closely would probably have picked up on the many incriminating statements.
(confessions to the cops and lawyers not included)

Chaos, by Tom O'Neill

pg125
John Parks, Beach Boy tour manager:
One of Manson's girls, he explained, had already told him that the Family had murdered one of the caretakers at the Spahn Ranch--Donald "Shorty" Shea, whose body wasn't found until 1977.

pg174

A fire patrolman reported that Family members had told him they'd moved into the canyons because they'd "killed a member of the Black Panthers."

[Fireman Lynn Seeley, Spahn Ranch Raid docs, pg11of54]

pg206

...Leslie told Dianne(Lake) that she had stabbed someone who was already dead. ... Leslie also told Dianne that the murder had occurred some place near Griffith Park, near Los Feliz; that someone had written something in blood on the refrigerator door; and that she, Leslie, then wiped everything so there would be no prints...

pg243

When Guenther and Whitely finally found her(Lutesinger), she told them that Susan Atkins had boasted of torturing and finally killing Hinman with Beausoleil over two nights.

pg410
At the trial, a ranch hand told police that Manson had bragged about killing thirty-five people...

pg451
I located more than a half dozen documents in the Los Angeles District Attorney files and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office files indicating that Manson had discussed the Bernard Crowe shooting with Wilson within a week of the Tate murders...



Helter Skelter by Vince Bugliosi

pg102
....Kitty said she had heard that Manson had sent Beausoleil and a girl named Susan Atkins to Hinman's home to get money from him. A fight had ensued, and Hinman had been killed. Kitty couldn't recall who told her this, just that it was the talk of the ranch. She did recall, however, another conversation in which Susan Atkins told her and several other girls that she had been in a fight with a man who had pulled her hair, and that she had stabbed him three or four times in the legs.

pg105
witness Steve Zabriskie: ... a "Charlie" and a 'Clem' had committed both the Tate and LaBianca murders. He had heard this...from Ed Bailey and Vern Plumlee, two hippie types from California... Bailey had told him something else, Zabriskie said: that he had personally seen Charlie shoot a man in the head with a .45 caliber automatic. This had occurred in Death Valley.

pg119
...Springer said that on Aug 11 or 12... Charles Manson had bragged to him about killing people, adding, "We knocked off five of them just the other night." ... Charlie had told him about cutting some guy's ear off. ...(Crowe shooting) Charlie had told him about it. ... "..he told me something about writing something on the refrigerator. ...Charlie said they wrote something on the fucking refrigerator in blood."

pg124
Danny heard, from the girls, that Shorty "got to know too much and hear too much and got worried too much" and "so they just cut off his arms and his legs and his head off..."

pg137
DeCarlo's primary source was Beausoleil, who, on returning to Spahn after the (Hinman)murder, had bragged to DeCarlo about what he had done.

pg144

Bruce Davis had told him about Shorty's murder, DeCarlo said. Several of the girls had also mentioned it, as had both Clem and Manson.

pg475

...Sadie told Ouisch that Sharon Tate had been the last to die...

pg492
One night in early August 1969, Juan had been watching TV in the trailer when Sadie came in, dressed in black, "Where are you going?" Juan asked. "We're going to get some fucking pigs," Sadie replied. When she left, Jaun looked out the window and saw her get into Johnny Swartz' old yellow Ford. Charlie, Clem, Tex, Linda, and Leslie got in also.

pg500

Tex had told Leslie to stab Rosemary LaBianca, and, later, to wipe fingerprints off everything they had touched--since Katie had related these things to Dianne....

pg550
...Leslie told Dianne(Lake) that stabbing was fun, that, the more she stabbed, the more she enjoyed it....

pg604
Cathy (Gilles) had testified on direct examination that Katie had told her about the Tate-LaBianca murders.

https://www.cielodrive.com/archive/cult-girl-testifies-she-was-willing-to-kill-for-love/

“Katie didn’t say much…except that they had gone and murdered the Tates and LaBiancas,” Miss Gillies said of Miss Krenwinkel.

The Family, by Ed Sanders

pg209
The story of the shooting of the black man(Crowe) spread throughout the family...

pg249
That night the family got together for a songfest and tape-recorded a re-creation of the murder of Gary Hinman in musical form. Each person played a role.

pg250
July 27 Spahn Ranch raid
According to Sheriff's Deputy George Grap, Manson said, "We got into a hassle with a couple of those black motherfuckers and we put one of them in the hospital," after which Manson told him the blacks were going to wreak vengeance...

pg296
When DeCarlo walked up to Clem and asked, "What'd you do last night?" ... Clem then placed his hand on DeCarlo and said, according to DeCarlo, "We got five piggies."

pg339
(Ranch hand David)Hannon began to talk with Manson occasionally. Manson told him about the "Black Panther" he had shot.

pg351
(around Aug 18) Tex laughed and told Snake, according to Snake, that he killed Sharon Tate: "I killed her. Charlie asked me to. It was fun."

pg354

...the Shea murder was discussed from zombi to zombi. Charlie used to joke about it at campfires.

http://www.cielodrive.com/bruce-davis-parole-hearing-2007.php
....(Bruce Davis) knew fully well what was going to happen to Mr. Hinman, that Mr. Hinman was going to be killed, and in fact he bragged about it afterwards to other Family members.

http://www.cielodrive.com/manson-case-files/BOX-24.pdf?fbclid=IwAR1lSaOh0WybfAF-4eUVZBHp3x21SzDmLCv8gZiGqzamRDO3cjCVLZPCpKs
Box 24 pg265of396
VH: "Sadie came in grinning saying, "We killed him(Hinman)."

http://www.cielodrive.com/manson-case-files/BOX-57.pdf?fbclid=IwAR3k9X0l-Zp4U6SOwpUHZINqNu91Zbqy0hXWFfCA-vQaFNtoI_um8TG4d4A

Box 57 pg180of491 April 1969 Grand Jury testimony of Brunner:

"Sadie told me she killed him(Hinman)..."

http://www.cielodrive.com/gary-hinman-homicide-report-05-18-70.php
--A day or so later, late at night .. Mary and Susan ... both related how Gary had snatched the gun and they wrestled it away from him and of Charles Manson and Bruce coming to the house and Charles slashing Gary’s face and telling Hinman to cooperate. Further, how they wiped the house down for fingerprints, how Bobby killed V/Hinman and wrote on the wall “Political Piggy” and each held the pillow over Hinman’s face until he died.

--The following morning... Beausoleil told the same story of the Hinman killing adding that he stabbed Hinman and wrote with his blood on the wall.

--Later the same day, Miss Bailey talked with Bruce Davis who said when he went with Charles Manson to the Hinman house, he held the gun on Hinman while Charles hit him with the sword in the face. Then the girls laid Gary down and Charles said to Hinman, “You might as well cooperate, you’re gonna die anyway.”

--On the following day, while in the saloon at Spahn Ranch, Charles Manson stated, “I found it necessary to use the sword on Gary; I got $27 and his cars.”

The Killing of Sharon Tate, Lawrence Schiller, (and Susan Atkins) published in Jan 1970
pg110

But everybody on the ranch was pretty quiet(the day after the Cielo murders). Everybody on the ranch--and there might have been twenty-five or thirty of us, though people came and went--knew by then there had been a killing. But they didn't know who had done it. They had their suspects, because most of them knew that we had gone out the night before.

https://www.cielodrive.com/stephanie-schram-statement-12-04-69.php

STEPHANIE SCHRAM re Cielo murders:  "I knew that they did it, you know. I, nobody ever said anything, but just from the way they talked and the things they did and you know little snatches of things I'd hear, here and there I could read these articles and just put them together.  ....

....(at Barker)the girls were sitting around and there was one girl who was kind of new to the group and she said something like you mean you guys really killed, you know, somebody before. And Sadie said, sure, she said, and then I heard her talking about stabbing some great big guy in the leg wrestling with some big guy and stabbing him."

Juan Flynn testimony at TLB trial:
http://murdersofaugust69.freeforums.net/thread/479/people-manson-august-1976-appeal
"Q. There was just you and Mr. Manson there?

"A. Yes. I wasn't watching him. I was watching the food, you know. Then he grabbed me by the hair, you know, and put a knife on my throat, and he said, 'You son-of-a-bitch, don't you know I am the one who is doing all these killings?

LVH tape-recorded disclosure to her lawyer Marvin Part:

Miss Van Houten: *** And then the next morning Sadie was watching the news, I think. Somehow I found out that they had done it. Oh, no. I asked Katie, and she told me.
MR. PART: What did she say?
MISS VAN HOUTEN: She(Krenwinkle) said that — that they had murdered five people;

https://archive.org/stream/ladiesgentlemeno00lief#page/255/mode/1up/search/manson

Prosecution's closing argument. Bugliosi: Barbara(Hoyt) also testified that in Sept of '69, while at Myers Ranch, she heard Sadie tell Ruth Moorehouse that Sharon Tate came out and she said "What is going on here," or something like that, and Sadie said, "Shut up, woman." She said Sadie also told Ruth Moorehouse that Sharon Tate was the last to die because she had to see everybody else go first."

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-08-10/how-charles-manson-cast-his-spell

Lake: Van Houten and Atkins gushed about the killings, which disgusted her. She had never connected with either but always had seen Krenwinkel as a nurturing soul. Now she was hearing her close friend Patty tell how she repeatedly stabbed Abigail Folger at the Tate house on Aug. 9 and Rosemary LaBianca the next night.

http://www.cielodrive.com/manson-case-files/BOX-30.pdf?fbclid=IwAR3X_Jd5u7Wyd1RIL6JfmGX0YkmzWJ6ERH2NhpQxLV767nS8aivttzhmZWU
Box 30 pg190of738
Miss Lake had a conversation with appellant Krenwinkle in the last part of August or early September 1969, outside the house at Willow Springs. Other people were present. Appellant Krenwinkle said that she had dragged Abigail Folger from the bedroom to the living room.

http://www.cielodrive.com/manson-case-files/BOX-11.pdf?fbclid=IwAR3DyuZZwQfA5wACZTjQHxo_MmstEU3ByrGL89hqSem2lwmlnXvNj8tkpKM
Manson Case Files Box 11 pg412of446
Atkins interview with Paul Caruso
"...I called Clem in (to see the report of the Tate killings on the TV), because Clem knew about it. ..
Q: Was the killing discussed in front of Clem?
A: Yes."

https://themansonfamily-mtts.medium.com/helter-skelter-began-tonight-c259b18712ba

Sandra gave birth in October 1969 to a little boy. While at the hospital recovering from childbirth, she was visited by Susan Atkins and Patricia Krenwinkel, another one of the Tate/LaBianca killers.  Sadie started dropping hints about the name Tate, Katie threw her an angry look and Sandy demanded to know what was going on. They told her about Cielo Drive. They told her that Sharon was pregnant when she was stabbed to death.

http://www.aboundinglove.org/main/images/bookPDFs/Will_You_Die_For_Mesmall.pdf
Tex Watson, Will You Die For Me?  pg65of120

Re Crowe:   ...At the ranch the next day, Charlie couldn't stop talking about how he “plugged blackie.”

(Oddly, he says this happened around July 15)

www.mansonblog.com/2017/01/when-did-dennis-wilson-finally-sever.html    From the progress report

... While at the Wilson residence, there was a conversation between Manson and Wilson regarding a man who died from a gunshot wound to the stomach. ...   During the conversation, Manson indicated that he had been the one that had killed the unknown person.

Knox document release
https://wvw.mansonblog.com/First-Spahn-Raid.pdf
(Charlie to Fire Dept personnel at Spahn) Further explained they had an armed camp and that they were having trouble with the Panthers and that there had been a guy who gave them trouble and his body was dumped on the UCLA campus.

https://www.cielodrive.com/updates/brooks-postons-october-3rd-1969-interview-with-james-pursell-in-inyo-county/

October 3rd, 1969  Brooks Poston interview by Inyo County Sheriff Don Ward.

And he’s(Manson) talked about killing a negro, militant leader in Los Angeles. And he’s talked about killing, a guy named Shorty there too. Or having his people do it – cutting his head off and having the girls bury the body somewhere.

http://murdersofaugust69.freeforums.net/thread/635/barker-ranch-raid-report-1969

Barker Ranch Raid Report

Regarding the rumor that a person known as "Shorty" had been killed, Watkins said Manson told him that Tufts(Grogan) had killed "Shorty". Watkins also stated that Tufts told him that he had killed "Shorty."

LADA files Box 56-2 Bruce Davis' Hinman/Shea trial Dec '71 to Feb '72

Springer: "And that (Bruce)Davis had said(at Mark Ross' house in late Nov '69) that they had taken care of the guy at the ranch... they were afraid he was going to inform on the police... and they had cut him up and buried him--and Clem had buried him at the ranch...
That Mark Ross then said--then asked, "Do you mean Shorty?' And Davis said, Yeah."

http://murdersofaugust69.freeforums.net/thread/1044/life-charles-manson-chapter-22

My Life With Charles Manson, by Paul Watkins, Chapter 22

Bruce(Davis) did a lot of talking on that trip. ... he told me Helter-Skelter would stun the world. He also told me something I’d heard before; how hard it had been to kill Shorty Shea.

http://www.cielodrive.com/manson-case-files/BOX-23.pdf?fbclid=IwAR1CQ93nsaYFf3kB42SjqcFwZqMqh4wlkZfeQhbxUXGaZ3NLl1HKL__dBVE
Manson Case Files Box 23 pg401of416
Sgt McGann interview with Van Houton 11-26-69
McGann re the Tate killings: "They talked freely about it when they got back that night, the next day, and for days following."

LADA files Box 22 vol9028  pg19of144 transcript of LVH interview with Part on Dec 29, 1969
Mr. Part: Now, when you left with Charlie in the car, was there anybody else who saw you leaving?
Miss Van Houten: Only Cathy(Gilles). And she knew. 'Cause she wanted to go." ...
"We were all present. We all knew what we were going to go out to do. Nobody didn't know."
Mr. Part: Well, how did you know?
Miss Van Houten: We all talked about it.

Kasabian trial testimonly, JULY 30, 1970
"So I hitchhiked up there the next day and I found him(her husband) and I just told him what I have told you the last couple of days, not in great detail, but just basically that I witnessed these murders and I would not go into it again, I told him — "

A: I told him I knew about the Sharon Tate murders and the people that had Tanya were these people that killed Sharon Tate, and that is basically what I told him. ..
Q BY MR. BUGLIOSI: When you told Joe Sage this, was any other person present?
A: Yes, there was. ... A boy named Jeffrey.

The Family blabbed so often that even if Susan Atkins hadn't told her jail-mates what happened, and even if Lutesinger never told cops about Charlie's involvement in the Hinman slaying, the cops eventually would have heard the tales emanating from the Family and would have picked up the thread that way.  TLB was not a crime that would have remained unsolved.

One on One Interview with Manson Follower Susan Atkins | From the Archives | NBCLA

 

Mentalism, Magic, Mesmerism, Mirroring, and More. A Meander into Manson's Mind Manipulation Methods, Means, and Madness

 Chaos by Tom O'Neill, pg369
"The most puzzling question of all," Bugliosi wrote, was how Manson had turned his docile followers into remorseless killers. Even with the LSD, the sex, the isolation, the sleep deprivation, the social abandonment, there had to be "some intangible quality... It may be something that he learned from others."

Here are some other candidates for that 'intangible quality.'


MENTALISM

Death to Pigs, by Robert Hendrickson, c.2011 pg323
".. Phil Phillips was actually being played by the workings of a "mentalist" ..."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mentalism
...mentalists, appear to demonstrate highly developed mental or intuitive abilities. Performances may appear to include hypnosis, telepathy... mind control.... Mentalists perform a theatrical act that includes effects that may appear to employ psychic or supernatural forces but that are actually achieved by "ordinary conjuring means", natural human abilities (i.e. reading body language, refined intuition, subliminal communication, emotional intelligence), and an in-depth understanding of key principles from human psychology or other behavioral sciences....

Long Beach Independent, 10-28-70
"When I(Vern Plumlee) first met Charlie, he walked up and said 'Let me run your life down' and he did. It just kinda blew my mind. He said I had been in jail since I was 14; knew I was at McClaren (Juvenile) Hall; knew I was AWOL. I don't know how he knew."

Maybe Charlie was employing the mentalist tactic of 'cold reading.'

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_reading                                                                                                                                                                  Cold reading is a set of techniques used by mentalists, psychics, fortune-tellers, and mediums. Without prior knowledge, a practiced cold-reader can quickly obtain a great deal of information by analyzing the person's body language, age, clothing or fashion, hairstyle, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, level of education, manner of speech, place of origin, etc. during a line of questioning. Cold readings commonly employ high-probability guesses, quickly picking up on signals as to whether their guesses are in the right direction or not, then emphasizing and reinforcing chance connections and quickly moving on from missed guesses.

Before He Became a Monster by Lawson McDowell
By fourteen, Charlie had an uncanny ability to decipher the unspoken vocabulary of body language. His skills were as honed as those of the best analysts.

The Mind Manipulators, by Alan W. Scheflin and Edward Opton, c.1978  pg38
Through his uncanny ability, developed and refined in prison, to see straight through to a person's weaknesses. Charlie was able to build up an immediate trust on the part of the women, and to appear clairvoyant and, therefore, omnipotent.

Dianne Lake 2022 interview
"He (Manson) ...had an uncanny ability to read people..."

------------------

MAGIC

Manson also used simple magic tricks to impress his followers with his powers:

Lynette Fromme says in Reflexion, pg19, shortly after first meeting Charlie:
"Later that night I watched cards, coins, and cigarettes disappear and reappear, slipping through his(Manson's) fingers. Not only did the tricks capture my awe, but his showmanship and spirit did too. I had to remind myself that this person could barely read..."

https://www.vanishingincmagic.com/mentalism/articles/history-of-mentalism/
These talented mind manipulation artists combine their keen understanding of human psychology with excellent showmanship and theatrics to create the illusion of extraordinary powers.

Death to Pigs, pg461
Good: "We've seen him do, you know, what people call supernatural things. We saw him bring a bird back to life. We've seen him jump over things that no human being could jump over, all kinds of things."

Bringing a bird back to life is actually a fairly common magic trick:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxQc3HbHJ88

----------------

HYPNOSIS

Manson apparently had sophisticated hypnosis skills, too:

medium.com/@donallogue/before-helter-skelter-2b86c0d3d8d0
(Danny Trejo) said (Manson) had hypnotic powers.
“That was the dude’s trick,” Danny said. “He survived inside by getting people high just talking to them. If he wasn’t a career criminal he might have been one of those dudes who went to high schools and state fairs, the kind that brings people up on stage and gets them to do stupid things like pretend they’re a cat and sh**.”

Helter Skelter, pg162
Joseph Krenwinkel, father of Pat, re Manson:
"I am convinced he was some kind of hypnotist."

Death to Pigs, pg327
Interviewer: "How could he control people like that?"
Inyo County Deputy Sheriff Don Ward: "Through suggestion--through mysticism--hypnosis if you wanna call it."

Shadow Over Santa Susanna, by Adam Gorightly, pg23

Most likely, Charlie employed various elements of hypnotism. It all had to do with the cadence of his voice, the intense look in his eyes, and the rhythmic movements he made with his hands and body.

Cease to Exist – Charles Manson, the Beach Boys and the Death of the Sixties
Atkins: "And as he sang, the song that hit me hardest was The Shadow of Your Smile. Even before I saw him, while I was still in the kitchen, his voice just hypnotised me, mesmerised me. Then, when I saw him, I fell absolutely in love with him."

Death to Pigs, pg244
Brooks: "Well, before when he put his motions in with it, all he had to do was start his motions and it's like, I would immediately turn on like a computer. Like, the button would be clicked and I'd become whatever machine or whatever tape was playing at the time."

http://www.woodstockjournal.com/pdf/RFK%27sFinalDayA.pdf
In late August of 1964 CIA off-oid Sydney Gottlieb
put into place a project called MK-SEARCH.
“A member of the American Society of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis was recruited for the purpose. The hypnotist was dubbed ‘Fingers’ by Dr. Gottlieb from the theatrical way he used his hands to put a patient into a trance."

------------------

ACTING

Amazing acting skills were also part of his repertoire:

Reflexion, pg88

"Charlie was full of characters who took our attention, among them a lounge singer, a cowboy crooner, and "Hyme Feinschleister," a nebbish."

Will You Die For Me? by Tex Watson
He described Manson as a chameleon."And with each change he could be born anew... Hollywood slicker, jail tough, rock star, guru, child, tramp, angel, devil, son of God."

Member of the Family by Dianne Lake
"He could change his voice, intonation, and accent depending upon who was on the receiving end.   ,,,,
Charlie used the shape of his eyebrows and the muscles in his face to become different people. He must have practiced a lot in prison, because he could isolate parts of his face that I didn't realize could move separately from the whole, dropping his brows in unison and then raising up only one. Then he made a V with his brows that made him look like the devil. With every movement of his face, his eyes changed as well, like a shapeshifter creating the illusion of different people and personalities."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tdb8w6UHw8 15:25
Dianne Lake 2022 interview

"He (Manson)just had this uncanny ability to morph into these different personalities and people..."

 

https://www.cielodrive.com/archive/charlie-mansons-music-still-rings/

Curt Gentry, co-author of Helter Skelter

"He can change his face so amazingly and there are so many facets of his personality. He seems able to be whatever a person wants or needs him to be,” Gentry said.

-------------------

LSD

Charlie's employment of LSD to influence his recruits is well known, using some well placed props:

Shadow Over Santa Susanna,  pg17
On the wall of Manson's pad was a picture of Jesus, and below it Charlie often sat, sending out heavy vibes. ... Brockman was stunned by the realization that, if one dropped enough acid, then--like a psychelic alchemist--Charlie could manipulate the elements, turning himself into Jesus at will. "Charlie as Jesus was branded into my thoughts.... .. I knew I couldn't submit to whatever it was the idea of Charlie as Jesus expected of me. I only knew the man was playing heavy games. Charlie could plant that in a person's head, or create it, the same way a magician creates a bunch of flowers in the air.."

Transcript from May 1977 LVH retrial:
“Looking back,” she said, “I know he (Manson) used the acid and the acid trips (for the group living at the Spahn ranch near Chatsworth) to help encourage us to lose our own identities."

----------------------

PSYCHOLOGY

Charlie also used his knowledge of human nature to exploit people's vulnerablities:

Psychedelic Drugs Reconsidered by Lester Grinspoon c. 1997  pg186
In a 1977 prison interview with one of the authors... When she(LVH) became attached to Manson as a father-substitute, he taught her to "get rid of Leslie": abandon the self that cut her off from the work, and allow it to die so that she could give herself up completely to him. She had to purge from her mind everything that her parents had taught her--what Manson called "reflections."

https://www.stlmag.com/news/years-of-chat-with-charles-manson/
Ken Dickerson, 20 in 2017, Manson pen pal 2005 to 2012
"He always wanted people to get rid of their ego..

--“He would make sure that any weirdness you had inside you, he found it.” Manson used that knowledge two ways: “He’d make you feel good about yourself, always make sure that you were happy in one way or another, give you compliments. If you didn’t feel comfortable with your body, he’d always say, ‘You are perfect. There’s nothing wrong with you. What’s wrong is other people judging.’” On the other hand, he also knew how to “make you as uncomfortable as possible.” Suggest homosexuality to someone who was totally straight. Keep people off base."

www.oxygen.com/true-crime-buzz/helter-skelter-charles-manson-follower-stephanie-schram
Schram said there was something about the cult leader that immediately drew her to him.
“He just had something and it’s hard to put your finger on it, but he made you feel so special,” she said on the podcast. “It was as if he could read your thoughts. He told you what you wanted to hear, somehow he knew that.”

hallegralansing.medium.com/was-the-manson-family-a-cult-c3626b939239
Manson frequently used fear of rejection, guilt over disloyalty... to maintain control.

 

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VISUALIZATIONS

Examples of how Charlie manipulated his followers, according to Tex Watson psych reports:


From Dr. Joel Fort's interview of July 1971, pg6:
"In recalling his life on the ranch Watson states that a "bunch of times Manson would give us a lot of acid and have us play games with make believe people there and us killing them. " "

From Dr. A. Tweed's interview of June 15, 1971, pg4,7,8:
.... Every night, while they were under the influence of various drugs, Manson would work through their fear and resistance against killing. ... He(Watson) became so confused during that period that he began to see imaginary people which were being "killed" in these situations which Manson was creating for them to visualize.

Alone with the Devil by Ronald Markman and Dominick Bosco, c.1989 pg205
Manson led the Family in "visualizations" where they were imagined they were killing people. ... they would go through exercises in which they would kill "imaginary people,' who were visualized sitting on chairs in the middle of the group.

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MIRRORING

No Journey's End My Tragic Romance With Ex Manson Girl, Leslie Van Houten (c.2015) by Peter Chiaramonte, pg n49
Charlie had plenty of experience handling runaway teenaged girls like Leslie before. First, he tacitly implied he possessed insight into all of her lonely disaffections. For example, he used a common theatrical device to mirror her moods. By copying each changing expression or gesture Leslie made, Manson intended to show how well he could identify what she was thinking and feeling.

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LOVE BOMBING

-'Love Bombing' is showering the subject with intense affection and praise

Dianne Lake: "[Manson] made you feel like you were his one and only love. ... He made you feel really special, and specially loved."

“He called me beautiful. He made me feel like I belonged, like I was important.” (Lake & Herman, Member of the Family, c. 2017)

LVH letter written not long after being sent to prison:
"Charlie gave me and Bobbie a warm hug before we left. His touch was gentle. The love put forth in that hug I can still recall. I carried the memory of it for a long time knowing I had already become part of the family."

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQ937CtExjw&list=PL5ExWv9LjBFQPZxAwcwTdWFQjVodmuhSh&index=3

Hoyt: "I felt like I was loved and accepted the way I was. It was unconditional. I needed that."
https://lamag.com/lahistory/manson-an-oral-history

Sharon Rayfield, a girl who lived near the Spahn Ranch and rode horses there, said: “I always thought I was ugly, but Charlie made me feel beautiful.”
https://www.nytimes.com/1970/01/04/archives/charlie-manson-one-mans-family-charlie-manson-one-mans-family.html

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FEAR

No Journey's End, Chiaramonte (c.2015) pg24
...Mr. Bugliosi discussed the ways Manson used fear to make his followers' sense of themselves disappear, so he could replace their will with his own. In fact, Bugliosi admitted, "Whether he perfected this technique in prison or later is not known, but it was one of his most effective tools for controlling others."

Death to Pigs, by Robert Hendrickson, pg209

Watkins:  He'd say it like this, "if you go against me, I'll kill you." He said that many times."

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THE RUSSIAN SCAM

Give something to get something back

Another tactic that Charlie used was something known as the "Russian Scam" in magic circles. It's based on the theory of reciprocity. The magician gives you something--like a playing card--and he then gets you to give him something back--like your wallet.
Charlie of course was known for giving a lot of stuff away--cars, cash, sex with his girls--but you can bet he always demanded or expected something in return. Note how Charlie used this tactic to get Tex to go to Cielo when Charlie reminded Tex that he had killed for Tex(referring to the shooting of Crowe) so Tex had to kill for him.

Cease to Exist – Charles Manson, the Beach Boys and the Death of the Sixties
Charlie was no hippie. He was an entrepreneur. He gave people things – drugs, his own shirt – to get things back. ....


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STRUGGLE SESSIONS

Communist-style indoctrination techniques used:

LVH: "It was a strange feeling to see them all sharing their food and listening to each other tell secrets about themselves most people would have been ashamed to ever reveal. The hang ups they had, things they'd done, and incidents that used to upset them. As one would tell of a situation, others would listen, then giggle because each of us had the same ones. It seems that by doing this, the Family became so much closer. Instead of hiding from one another, we were learning to show off for one another. .... Soon, I became accustomed to revealing my personality's hidden secrets. Everytime I gave one up, it was gone forever, never to haunt me again."

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REPETITION, RHYME-AS-REASON, and CHARLIE-BABBLE

The Mind Manipulators, by Alan W. Scheflin and Edward Opton, c.1978  pg39
Another aspect of the indoctrination process that served to increase Manson's control over his Family is a technique familiar to all persons interested in persuasion, from teachers to brainwashers... repetition. He preached his philosophy daily, over and over again. ... This daily drumming-in of doctrine, did much to erase the members' former thoughts.

youtu.be/rs03qn8uSCk

"Cult leaders often use this rhyming, ambiguous language as a tool to exert control over followers. This can be explained by a few key principles here.
"First, there is something in psychology called the 'Rhyme as Reason' effect. We tend to make this error because it suggests that statements that rhyme are perceived as more truthful, So rhyming makes a statement easier to remember and process, which tells our brain, 'Oh, that must be some good data there.' ["Thinkin' is stinkin'" "If the glove does not fit, you must acquit."]
"Second, ambiguous or nonsensical language [Charlie babble] can create mental confusion or cognitive dissonance, so its a form of a confusion technique where the leader obliterates the familiar, and replaces it with weird, and makes you more susceptible.
"Finally, unusual language can serve to separate the cult from the outside world and kind of creates a unique little vocabulary that only members think that they understand."
["(prosecutor Dino Fulgoni at LVH's second re-trial) ...stated that the mansonites actually used a private language as part of their everyday communications."]

------------------------------

 

AMORALITY

Another big weapon that Charlie used to bastardize the minds of his followers was his relentless promotion of amorality--the absence of any morality at all.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amorality

Amorality (also known as amoralism) is an absence of, indifference towards, disregard for, or incapacity for morality. ... Amoral should not be confused with immoral, which refers to an agent doing or thinking something they know or believe to be wrong.

Witness to Evil, by George Bishop c.1971 pg352
Manson told Jacobson, through the course of many conversations, that he believed there was no such thing as right or wrong and that he personally could do no right or wrong.
Q: (Bugliosi) He told you that it was not wrong to kill?
A: Yes

lamag.com/lahistory/manson-an-oral-history

Bugliosi: While they were on these trips he’d say, “Who says it’s wrong to kill? There’s nothing wrong with death. Death is a very beautiful thing.”

Alone with the Devil by Ronald Markman and Dominick Bosco, c.1989 pg205
...a major part of the Family program planned by Manson was their fear and resistance to killing. Manson led the Family in "visualizations" where they were imagined they were killing people. Manson told them there was no such thing as bad and no such thing as wrong,  Also, Tex recounted, "there was no such thing as death, so it was not wrong to kill a fellow human being." ... And then they would go through exercises in which they would kill "imaginary people,' who were visualized sitting on chairs in the middle of the group. "He'd tell us that they were already dead, and that the only people that were, were at the ranch."

The Manson Women, a "Family" Portrait, by Clara Livsey MD, c.1980 pg196
She(Lynette) was admired and respected by Manson, unconditionally. ...she felt that according to Manson she could do no wrong.

Will You Die for Me? by Tex Watson pg67
I quoted Charlie and told her(Kasabian) that there was no wrong, no sin; everything anyone had was meant to be shared.

Witness to Evil, by George Bishop c.1971 pg7
I asked if they have any sense of remorse for anything they might have done.

"No guilt feelings at all," Fitzgerald replied. "They've been conditioned away from society's generally accepted mores."

Death to Pigs, by Robert Hendrickson, c.2011 pg367
Ronnie Howard: " ...they really don't see that they've done anything wrong. ... if you wanna call it a religion or cult or whatever, that's the way they believe. They do not believe they have done anything wrong. After all, they haven't killed the soul, they've only killed the body or bodies. ... So they were doing people a favor."

IMO, it was this, rather than any inherent coldness or callousness, that caused all the inappropriate behavior by the girls in the courts--the singing, the giggling, etc.

The success Charlie had conning people out of their property is a testament to his powers:

Death to Pigs, pg230
Watkins: "Charlie could go into some guy's house and talk him out of a ten thousand dollar piano."

The Family, pg50
-"Manson.. gave to Melba(Cronkite) a 1967 Red Ford Mustang which a New Yorker named Michael... had given to Manson."

Death to Pigs, pg258
Watkins: When a guy goes off the ranch and comes back thirty minutes later and has a car and two hundred dollars and says somebody gave it to him. you know. He used to do that...

Reflexion, pg120
Lynette: "I don't think I ever heard him directly ask for money, but it seemed that people couldn't wait to give it to him."

The Myth of Helter Skelter by Susan Atkins-Whitehouse ©2012 (credit to H. Allegra Lansing)
Sandra Good has reported to have given Charles Manson over $6,000… Linda Kasabian confessed to stealing $5,000 and giving it to the Family. Juanita donated over $10,000 and her van, turning it all over to Charles Manson. And poor Dennis Wilson estimated he spent close to $100,000 on Charles Manson during the several months he provided for the Family.

The point of this thread is not to show that Manson had some kind of natural affinity for one or two mind-manipulation skills. The point, rather,  is to show that Manson seemed to be EXPERT in ALL of them.  Charlie wasn't just good at what he did, he was TOO good.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mentalism
Like any performing art, mentalism requires years of dedication, extensive study, practice, and skill to perform well and perfect.

Charlie developed a high degree of expertise in the use of these mental techniques. The question is, where did Charlie acquire these skills? He didn't get it from reading a book on magic tricks or hypnosis. Someone must have taught him.  He probably spent years being schooled in the various techniques by multiple experts in their respective fields.

We all know that Alvin Creepy Karpis schooled Charlie in prison on the rudiments of playing the steel guitar. So why don't we know the names of these other teachers?

Anthony DiMaria (nephew of Jay Sebring) pt 2

 

Gibbie being surveilled?

 This poster on a defunct forum claims to have had connections to the case via her dad's friendship with Vince Bugliosi, and posted this re Gibbie:

http://truthontatelabianca.com/threads/maybe-something-new-maybe-not.5232/

When Abigail moved to NYC, she did so with the blessing of her father. He was eager to see her begin a career and was hoping that she might also be introduced to another blue-blood, marry, and have little blue-bloods. But we know that Gibbie liked the bad boys and had a few of them as paramours prior to her being introduced to Voytek.

Peter Sr. immediately became suspicious of the new man in his daughter's life, after all he was an immigrant who had only been in the US for a very short time and seemed to have neither ambition nor money.

What many do not know is that from very early on in their relationship, Peter Sr. had all of Gibbie's and Voytek's comings and goings monitored. Peter Sr. had an investigative and security team which could put the CIA and FBI to shame. In fact, both of these teams were made up of former members of these institutes and of the Secret Service as well as other high-ranking retired military men. His legal team was beyond reproach as well.

Needless to say, Gibbie was on a much shorter leash than she believed she was. And the heat on she and Voytek only increased with their move to California. Peter did not approve of Voytek whom he saw as an opportunistic cad who was riding on Gibbie's financial coattails.

This being said, Peter Sr. did have Voytek extensively investigated and traced his whereabouts in the US prior to meeting Gibbie and throughout Europe. Unfortunately, for those tin-foil hat wearers, Peter Sr. was only able to find out that Voytek was a deadbeat dad and husband having left behind in Poland both a wife and son who were barely getting by while he was flitting around Abigail's fortune. He also found out that although Voytek was a drug user, and a sometimes seller of the stuff, he was not a dealer of any notability.

It has been said that Voytek didn't want to marry Gibbie because of her money. That's total BS. He would have jumped at the chance at marrying her had it been possible. But it couldn't, because, #1 he was married already, and #2 Peter Sr. was in the process of putting in place an iron-clad pre-nup should the event ever occur. There was no way Voytek was ever going to inherit a penny from Abigail other than what she willingly gave him while alive.

Voytek was a cad, and a user...no doubt, but he wasn't a high-level drug-dealer as much as we would like to believe he was.   ....

Abigail was watched the entire time she was living in LA.  ...

Peter Sr. had people stationed in LA who reported back to him regularly about Abigail's whereabouts. I do know that he was concerned about the frequency of her visits with her psychiatrist. He was afraid that this information would get into public hands and that Abigail would be perceived as "unstable". Back then, seeing a shrink wasn't nearly as accepted as it is today. There was a definite stigma associated with it.

As far as Voytek was concerned, he was definitely low-level when it came to drug-selling. Peter thought him to be dangerous to Abigail not so much because of who he would expose her to, but rather because he could provide her with drugs that she could become dependent on. He was suspicious of Jay too but not for the same reasons. Abigail had asked her father to look into investing in Sebring International. Jay was not a great businessman. His forte was PR and the actual artistry of the cut. When he died he was in debt, not to drug dealers but to creditors. He tried to expand too much and too quickly and this is what Peter was wary of.

Peter Sr. was an incredible businessman and he did question Abigail's judgment in investing in Jay's company even though the amount of her investment was negligible. He was looking into Sebring International's fiscal viability at the time of the murders. I doubt he would have invested had that night not happened because Jay had bitten off more than he could chew.

I will say that Jay's investors were all legit. There was not money laundering within his business nor were there any sketchy shareholders. This was all confirmed via investigation by the DA's office.

 

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Thoughts?  It sounds realistic, imo.