Burton Katz and the First Grogan Trial

Burton Katz worked for the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office as a Deputy District Attorney. He was the prosecutor for Bobby Beausoleil's second trial in 1970. In 1971 he was the lead prosecutor for both of Steve Grogan's trials for the murder of Shorty Shea.

In Katz book Justice Overruled, 1997 Warner Books, he relates why a mistrial was declared in Grogan's first trial. Newspaper articles hint that the mistrial was because of something Nancy Pitman, aka Brenda McCann, said while on the witness stand. There is a little more to it than that. Here is the story from Katz's book, pages 167-175.

                                   *******************************************

Scared Off by the Manson Family

In many ways, the worst judges are not the corrupt or crazy ones. The worst are decent, well-meaning judges who are just not up to the job. The first time I tried Steven Grogan for the murder of Donald "Shorty" Shea, the case ended in a mistrial because Judge Joseph Call could not keep going when things got rough. When you were dealing with the Manson Family things could get rough.

Judge Call had been appointed to the bench over thirty years before the Grogan trial. Few lawyers were willing to risk a complicated case before Judge Call. As luck would have it, we drew him for Grogan. We reluctantly agreed to Judge Call. It was to prove a costly mistake for both the defense and prosecution.

During the trial, Nancy Pitman, (aka Brenda McCann), "Squeaky" Fromme, Mary Brunner, Sandra Good, and other Manson Family members slept out and "held court" on the corner of Temple and Broadway, just outside the Hall of Justice. 

Each morning, outside my office, I would encounter the Family huddled together picnic-style, looking like innocent suffragettes bonding together for the cause. The Manson girls were as schizophrenic and enigmatic as Charlie himself. Sometimes they were pleasant, even coyly flirtatious. They would invite me to go camping with them at Spahn Ranch so they could reindoctrinate my misguided and corrupt establishmentarian ways of thinking. When things were going poorly for Charlie, they were menacing and dark-spirited, rubbing the sheath knives they kept lashed to their hips. They were always strangely entertaining, shrouded in mystery, myth, and rumor.

During the Grogan trial, a fierce rumor floated about that the Manson Family was going to free Manson, Steve Grogan (the defendant in my trial), and Tex Watson. Death threats had been directed at Judge Call and everyone else involved in the trial- even at the defense attorneys. Security was beefed up. Undercover cops were sprinkled throughout the audience. I was told I was to dive under the counsel table if a shootout started, because I was (as they delicately put it) "expendable" in any court shootout. The cops' priority was to protect the judge. The DA's bureau assigned a personal bodyguard to protect me, and my family, and armed me with a snub-nosed .38, which I carried strapped under my arm. We were all edgy. But Judge Joseph Call came completely unglued. It started in the judge's own chambers.

Fearful that Grogan would accuse him of something sinister if a chambers hearing occurred outside Grogan's presence, Judge Call allowed the defendant to be present in chambers during a discussion with counsel. The judge sat there nervously, jiggling some coins. Grogan sat only a few feet away. As the judge attempted to reassure Grogan everything he could do to provide a fair trial, Grogan suddenly moved. He knelt in front of the startled judge, his hand on the judge's knee- like a supplicant with a beatific smile, kneeling before Christ. We all stared, transfixed. At that moment Grogan could have killed him. The judge's face was ashen; his hands shook. Before the bailiff could help, the judge looked at Grogan for reassurance and said in a quivering voice, as if to convince himself: "Steve doesn't mean anything by it." Grogan, looking up at the judge and still smiling, gently replied: "It's oaky, Joe, I know you're just trying to be fair... you'll do the right thing." From that moment on, the judge began to unravel. All he wanted to do was to get out of trying this case. The only way he could do that was to declare a mistrial. You will probably not be surprised that he found a way to do just that.

Things might have settled down, had there been no further incidents. But that was not to be. Several Manson Family members, including Mary Brunner and Catherine Share (aka Gypsy) tried to rob a gun store. In the ensuing gun battle with the people, over fifty rounds of ammunition were fired, but miraculously no one was seriously hurt. Manson Family lore has it that Gypsy's bra was shot right off of her by police gunfire ripping through the getaway van in which she was waiting. The police did find a bloody bra in the bullet-ridden van, which amazed me. To my knowledge, Gypsy had never previously been sighted wearing a bra. Following their arrest, an additional cache of weapons was recovered- weapons that were to be used in freeing Charlie Manson and his faithful followers.

Needless to say, we were all on edge as we began the third month of trial. The stage was now set for the showdown on the stand with Brenda McCann. McCann was an important witness because she was present during a conversation between Grogan and Paul Watkins, a Manson Family member and close confidant of Charles Manson.

After surviving a mysterious trailer fire that nearly took his life, Watkins turned state's evidence. He believed Manson was behind the fire, and he was probably right. As a government witness, he had testified to a stunning confession made by Grogan in that conversation. You have read part of it earlier:

Charlie told me to cut his [Shorty Shea's] head off. So, I had this big machete and I chopped his head off and it went bloop, bloop, bloop and rolled out of the way...it was really groovy...

Grogan told Watkins that he had blood spattered all over him, and it was all warm, and he had it all up his arm.

Watkins then asked Grogan if he felt guilty. Grogan replied,

Any guilt I have is my changes [a term used in scientology] because in reality one baby should be able to kill another baby and then reach over and eat his shit... any guilty I have is something I have to work out with myself.

Defense attorney Charles Weedman called Brenda McCann as a witness in an effort to refute the damning confession. She claimed she had heard the same conversation, and denied that Grogan had ever confessed to the murder of Shorty Shea. In an effort to discredit Watkins, she claimed he boasted he was avoiding the draft by feigning mental instability, epilepsy, and seizures. Further, she said that Watkins he had learned to mock up cancer in his lungs so that an x-ray would reveal a black spot! She also added that he claimed to be a homosexual. The last point was hilarious inasmuch as the jury had just observed the extremely handsome and youthful Watkins on the stand for several days, regaling them and the court with his tales of lust for the Family females, who, like honey attracting bees, had induced this adventuresome youth to join the family. Watkins testified,

Well, when I first met Charlie, I was all alone and I wandered into a house and then there was Charlie and a couple of guys and ten girls, and that was what I had been looking for. I knocked on the door and three girls met me at the door, and right away I recognized the smell of marijuana, and they asked me to come in. And so, then I went in, it was [sic] some people didn't have their clothes on, and so right away I felt the free atmosphere, and I was overcome by a feeling of this is what I was looking for.

Watkins was as homosexual as John F. Kennedy. I began my cross-examination. I wanted to show the jury this witness was completely untrustworthy because of her Manson affiliation. The attitude of the "family" towards conventional values was summed up as follows in their own words:

Whatever is necessary, you do it. When somebody needs to be killed, there's no wrong. You do it, then you move on. And you pick up a child and you move him to the desert. You pick up as many children as you can and you kill whoever gets in our way. That is us.

Virtually from my first question, I knew it was not going to be easy, as Charles Weedman and the court kept jumping in. I began to focus on the subject of her being a member of the Manson Family, and her obvious loyalties and biases. Here is some of that testimony:

KATZ: [Y]ou understand at this time Mr. Grogan is on trial for his life, don't you?

McCANN: Yes.

KATZ: You understand the significance of your testimony, don't you?

McCANN: yes.

KATZ: You understand... if the jury believes you, they might acquit the defendant; isn't that right?

McCANN: Yes.

Manson and his followers had disavowed society's rules and laws; they X'ed themselves out of society. I explained to the judge that, during the Tate-LaBianca trials, Charles Manson, Susan Atkins, Katie Krenwinkel, and Leslie Van Houten had carved X's on their foreheads. Other Family members quickly followed suit, symbolizing the Family's rejection of society's rules and conventions. Hence, I felt it appropriate to ask whether Brenda recognized her duty to tell the truth under oath.

KATZ: [Y]ou would do anything you could, you would lay down your life for Clem [Grogan]; wouldn't you?

McCANN: Yes.

KATZ: As a matter of fact, Brenda, with respect to the so-called establishment and society as we know it, you have X'd yourself out from society, haven't you?

WEEDMAN: Oh, Your Honor, for heavens sakes. How long is this going to go on?

The court said it was not a proper cross. Then I asked her if she believed in the law against perjury. More objections were sustained by the court. Now I turned my attention to the actual conversation between Grogan and Watkins. On direct, I had deliberately refrained from asking Watkins about the entire conversation in which Grogan and McCann had talked also about killing Frank Retz, who owned the property next to Spahn Ranch. Retz had physically thrown Manson off his property and advised George Spahn strongly to kick the Family off Spahn Ranch. He was regarded as an enemy of Manson. I believed that this information was irrelevant to the confession and arguably too prejudicial. However, when Weedman made a tactical mistake in asking Brenda McCann on direct whether she had described the whole conversation, to which she replied yes, the door was open wide enough to accommodate two elephants and a rhino. The law allowed me to elicit the entire conversation, which included the damning death threats to Retz. I asked McCann whether she and Grogan had talked about killing Frank Retz. Of course, I expected her to lie about it, and she did. Before I could ask a follow-up question, Weedman jumped up and asked to go into chambers. The testimony was reread. Weedman argued that this was impeachment on a collateral matter and highly prejudicial. He then made a brief argument and a halfhearted motion for a mistrial. Judge Call had been terrorized with the news of the gun-store shootout just five days earlier. Weedman’s mistrial motion was just what the judge had been waiting for – a way to get himself out of this case.

The judge started talking about a whole series of small matters he claimed were prejudicial, things that had not even come up as objectionable at the time of the testimony, things that were not even the basis of Weedman’s motion. What is absolutely amazing is that he was ignoring virtually indestructible, well-settled rules of evidence. I asked for a recess so I could prepare a brief on the law permitting such questions to be asked. This was summarily denied. It was clear where Judge Call was going, and he wanted no impediment to his decision to jettison the case by declaring a mistrial. The judge said, “I am serious on the question of a mistrial. I am serious about it. I think it is highly prejudicial, highly inflammatory, and it can’t be otherwise.”

Dejected, I went home. The next morning, I appeared in court. Weedman and I were locked out of chambers for two hours. I had case citations with me establishing that my cross-examination about Retz had been entirely proper. But Judge Call never heard about those citations because he did not want to hear anything that interfered with his decision to get out of the case. At 10:50 A.M. we were ushered into chambers. The judge immediately started picking over the entire transcript of the previous day’s proceedings. He read into the record minor points having nothing to do with the subject of Weedman’s mistrial motion, and even alluded to questions asked of a witness other than McCann. This nitpicking went on for nearly three hours. Then the judge stated, “This is my final summation. I do grant the motion for a mistrial.”

As the old saying goes, you should be careful what you wish for, because it may become true. Wedman was horrified. I know he had moved for a mistrial. The judge had granted his motion. Why was he upset? In truth, a mistrial was the last thing he wanted. All he was trying to do was set up an issue on appeal. Basically, he had moved for the mistrial so he could argue to an appellate court later that he should have gotten a mistrial he did not really want. Defense lawyers do this all the time. This was nothing different. What was different was having such a weak motion granted by the court.

Weedman frantically tried to backpedal. First he asked the court if he could confer with his client before the jury was dismissed. The judge was ready to discharge the jury, but Weedman asked for another chambers discussion in which Grogan was present. Craftily, Weedman then told the judge that while he did not necessarily agree with his client’s assessment, Grogan had expressed “feeling that some of these matters could be sufficiently cured as to insure [sic] him a fair trial in this matter.” Weedman mentioned this this had been a long trial, and it had been a considerable strain on Grogan; who might disagree that a mistrial was necessary. Weedman had cleverly placed the court in a vise, on the one hand suggesting his client might object to a mistrial, even though he, as his lawyer, believed it was warranted. A declaration of mistrial over strenuous objection oof the defendant can result in double jeopardy, barring a retrial. The trap was being set.

Judge Call quickly began to reiterate, apparently for the benefit of Grogan, how devastating the supposed prosecutorial error had been:

Your jury is prejudiced. I’m telling you my opinion again. It is deadly. I think it has created irreversible prejudice in the minds of those folks. You should go out and get a new jury on this and a new judge; let somebody else rule on it. I’m out of it. I mean, in a new trial, they should get somebody else in.

Note Judge Call’s insistence that he personally should be removed from the trial. The usual rule is that the trial judge at the first trial also presides over the second. Because he is already familiar with the evidence and the law pertaining to that case, the rule saves time and makes good sense. But Judge Call was the senior judge. He was not worried about anyone junior to him telling him he had to retry this case. Not on your life.

Weedman took one last stab. First he told the judge he had no objection to his continuing in this trial. Then he was allowed to confer once again with Grogan. Upon returning, he asked that the court delay the discharge of the jury until the following Monday (it was Friday) with a view towards withdrawing his mistrial motion. The judge refused. The jury was dismissed. The case was over, as far as Judge Call was concerned. The jurors were confused, shocked. Not one juror understood the reason for the mistrial. Not one thought the question about Frank Retz was that important. Fortunately, the case was quickly reassigned to the very competent Judge James Kolts. He conducted a fair and expeditious trial. The case was tried swiftly and without incident to a conviction and a death-penalty verdict which Kolts reduced to life in lieu of granting a motion for a new trial.

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Steve Grogan after sentencing Dec. 23, 1971

Katz's account of why Grogan's death-penalty sentence was reduced to life is likely what is in the official records. We don't have the transcripts from that trial, only the first trial. The newspaper accounts of Judge Kolts, saying that Grogan was too stupid to have acted on his own, are an opinion and not part of the official record.

Manson Family High Schools Master List - Community Request Post

 
Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there! 

Shoe's recent work motivated me to attempt to group the folks from the Manson arrests together and look for patterns and commonalities within the created groups. I've wondered if Paul Watkins was fibbing about Charles Manson sending him back to high school to procure young loves ever since I read Watkins' book on the Col's site during the halcyon days of my early Manson research. Let's start there.  

Hey, man,” Charlie said after a long silence. “Speaking of young love, how about you hustling some new blood? You know, maybe enroll in that high school. I see some fine-looking girls walking to school in the morning. Can you dig that?”

“Sure, why not… maybe I can get my diploma!”

Charlie chuckled. “Yeah… get educated… study the mystery of history, and the ramis-jamis… and in the meantime, we’ll call it the in-between time. Then, on the other hand, of course, you have a ring.” Charlie looked down at his left hand, the middle finger of which sported a turquoise ring. “Now,” he went on, “take the toad’s toenail… pretty ain’t it – bleep, bleep – ride in a jeep.”

And then..

It was two o’clock by the time we got back to the house. I had Stephanie draw me a bath, then I changed clothes and drove the BSA bike I’d just acquired down to Birmingham High to enroll.

The wrap up...

By then my stint as a student at Birmingham High had come to an end. After two weeks of classes, I’d gotten bored, but not before luring several attractive girls to Gresham Street to get loaded and make love. While none of these girls ever joined the Family, my success pleased Charlie.

“Motherfucker! Those little gals love your ass!”

* I don't necessarily believe Lil Paul remembered conversations word for word. Or even at all. 

When I wrote about Patricia Krenwinkel a couple of months back, we touched on today's cultural focus on stopping the sex trafficking of minors and discussed how our modern opinions influence parole hearings for crimes that took place over half a century ago.  

If I could somehow disengage from my generalized misanthropy, inability to suffer fools, germs thing, unwillingness to engage in or witness human contact, love of central air, dislike of discomfort and inconvenience, aversion to desert dumpsters, sleeping on the ground, viruses, and (of course) the murders, I can totally see myself enjoying machine guns, dune buggy races, and nonstop Tommy Chong-sized 1969 joints beside a campfire while assuring Mary Brunner that Wisconsin football will always take a back seat to the mighty Buckeyes. 

EJB could fill us in on the teams in the MAC. I'd say, "Yeller, put yer glasses on. That rule really ain't a rule. And your conference is junior varsity." But only if Bill wasn't around. I do my best to avoid fights with boxing champions. 

I'd wager Charlie was skilled at thumping bigger dudes. If the no eyeglasses rule really was a rule, maybe I could bribe the boss with a crow or some other desert animal I summoned via my magical powers and a triangle I stole from the Chatsworth High band room. How am I supposed to read my books without my spectacles, Charlie? 

Picture me rollin. Tokyo drifting across that hot sand with Brenda McCann in a bikini top beside me in the passenger seat. She's a minor. I'm a minor. We're all freakin minors with dune buggies and it's so hot outside. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you as always for tuning in to your forever honest journalist, Goodness Gracias Greene-Whyte, reporting from out back behind old George's movie ranch.  

Before I go ranking my favorite Manson girls and choosing a mattress that smells like cat urine, I have to know if anyone was exploiting minors. If yes, I want to know how that particular machine worked. Where did the minors come from and who reeled them in? 

If I turn to the Internet for answers, it's super easy to find someone saying, "Oh, they were a cult yackity yackity and all day was spent recruiting." That gem is uttered to death. 

Searching to verify, I'll sometimes ask others to ask this or that person from the family if they were part of a cult and spent all day recruiting. Without fail, the people always come back repeating things like, "No way. We met up in the morning for chores and then broke off into groups or alone to do whatever we wanted all day." 

But if I return here with that info and present a front row view from 1969, multiple views from front row 1969 even, some readers will scoff. "Whatever. They're a pack of g-damn liars who should burn in Hell." 

Oh, how the venom drips. Who am I left to believe? Someone who lived it, or someone on the Internet who acts like they know things? 

Rhetorical. The answer is obviously the Internet. Here's a short list of things I think we can believe without a ton of debate: 

- We have public records proving Charlie was a pimp in his younger days 

- Lynette Fromme mentions herself, Katie, and Brenda turning tricks out of Pete DiLeo's house 

- Prostitution has been with us longer than written language  

Let's take that list, the Manson mugs, sundry others caught with the Slippies, and build a shrine upon Mt. Data. I want to make a spreadsheet of their high schools and see if any rhyme or reason pivots out. 

See what I did there? I know. Writer jokes are corny but they're all I have. 

On with the show. I'm posting the mugs again below so no one has to scroll. Let's add as we go. Again, please feel free to correct. The people who steal this work and present it without credit to their cliques will appreciate you but not like I do. My love is real. 

Buntline got us started and I added what I know. Homie is en fuego. 

1. Charles Manson - No HS 

2. Bobby Beausoleil - Santa Barbara HS - CA

3. Danny DeCarlo - Crenshaw HS?- CA 

4. Clem Grogan - Simi Valley HS - CA

5. Sandra Good - Point Loma HS - San Diego, CA 

8. Susan Atkins - Leigh HS - San Jose, CA

8. Susan Atkins - Los Banos HS - CA 

11. Leslie Van Houten - Monrovia HS - CA

12. Sherri Cooper - Royal HS - Simi Valley, CA

13. Stephanie Rowe - University HS - Los Angeles, CA

14. Ella Jo Bailey - Holland HS - Holland, MI

15. Mary Brunner - Regis HS? - Eau Claire, WI 

16. Patricia Krenwinkel - Westchester HS -  CA

18. Catherine Share - Hollywood HS - CA

22. Harold True - Birmingham HS - Van Nuys, CA

23. Tex Watson - Farmersville HS - Farmersville, TX

27. Sue Bartell - Canoga Park HS - CA

29. Vern Plumlee - Washington HS - Portland, OR

31. Karate Dave - San Pedro HS - CA

32. Colleen Sinclair - Lutheran HS - Los Angeles, CA

33. Stephanie Schram - Grossmont HS - CA

34. Nancy Pittman - Hollywood HS -  CA

35. Dianne Lake - Big Pine HS - CA 

36. Kitty Lutesinger - Granada Hills HS - CA

38. Allen Lee Delisle - Granada Hills HS - CA

39. Catherine Gillies - Sanger HS - CA

40. Charlie Giffin - Simi Valley HS - CA

41. Bruce Davis - Roan County HS - TN 

42. Lynette Fromme - Redondo Union HS - CA

42. Lynette Fromme - Westchester HS - CA

44. Ruth Ann Moorehouse - Westmont HS - CA

45. "Madeline Cottage" - Freedom Area HS - PA

48. Linda Kasabian - Milford High School - NH

49. Diane Von Ahn - Washington HS - Portland, OR 

50. Barbara Hoyt - William H Taft HS - Woodland Hills, CA

53. Paul Watkins -  Thousand Oaks HS - CA

56. Ruth Gordon - Chatsworth HS - CA

58. Robert Earl Murray -  Pittsford Central HS - Pittsford, NY

59. Thomas Galella - Simi Valley HS - CA

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Not shown in Mugshots but on Deemer's list or elsewhere:  

AL-Louis Covell - Woodrow Wilson HS - Long Beach, CA

Jennifer Gentry - Santa Monica HS - CA

Sharon Rayfield - George Porter MS - CA

Linda Rose Hovsepian - Leuzinger HS - Lawndale, CA

Chuck Lovett - Birmingham HS - Van Nuys, CA

Brooks Poston - Weslaco HS - TX

Kevin Schooler Raph - Chatsworth HS - CA

Onjya Sipe (JoAnn Myers) - Downey Union - CA 

Juanita Wildebush - Westwood HS - New Jersey 

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* At a glance, several kids went to Simi Valley High. The most major figure from the family who attended Simi Valley is Steve Grogan. 

** I believe Lynette Fromme also attended Westchester HS but not at the same time as Pat. 

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

Music: 

MC5 - High School 

MC5 - American Ruse (The host announces Anne Murray as the following act at the end.) 

Manson Community message. 

The Photos Bugliosi Showed Hatami - via cielodrive.com

Dave, is that you? 

My homie Mr. Beckham sent this along. Thanks, Beck. 

Abandoned Home of Former Manson Family Member Paul Watkins

Shoshone - The Caliche Mud Caves

A video that blog reader Chris did in Shoshone. The cave seen in this video are where Little Paul Watkins and Paul Crocket stayed after leaving Barker Ranch in fear.

These caves are mentioned in My Life with Charles Manson by Paul Watkins and Guillermo Soledad (1979):

"...I continued to work with Crockett and Brooks, but I was divided within myself. I can honestly say that no time in my life was more agonizing than the months between Charlie’s capture and his conviction. I walked a mighty thin line. The view from the middle often gives a panorama of all sides. But my balance was precarious at best, and what I paid for that vantage point in suffering was more than I could afford. That I survived at all appears, in retrospect, something of a miracle.

"The hillsides around Shoshone are riddled with manmade caves, dug originally by itinerant miners, prospectors, and other vagabonds, who, over the years, found the town a convenient oasis in the scorching lowlands of the Amargosa Valley. Shoshone was also a water stop on the railroad line and for a time the site of a thriving hobo jungle which centered in and around the tufa caves. Crockett and Poston were broke and living in one of those caves when I arrived on October 9. Don Ward had told them (as he did me) not to leave Shoshone, that the Barker Ranch was about to be busted.

"The following day, just before dawn, while the three of us slept off a reunion celebration on the floor of the cave, officers from the highway patrol, the Inyo county sheriff’s office, and the national park rangers assembled near Golar Wash for a raid on the Barker Ranch—a raid that lasted three days and resulted in the capture of Charlie and most of the Family. All were taken to the Inyo county seat in Independence (just four hours north of Shoshone) and booked for auto theft.

"I didn’t know then, nor did Brooks or Crockett, that during the raid Stephanie (Schram) and Kitty Lutesinger (Bobby Beausoleil’s girlfriend, who was then five months pregnant with his child) had been trying to escape from the Family. They asked the police for protection and were taken to Independence to be interviewed by detectives. When it was learned that Kitty was Bobby’s girlfriend, she was asked what she knew about the Hinman murder. She said she had heard that Manson sent Bobby and a girl named Susan Atkins to Hinman’s house to collect some money and that when he refused to pay, they had killed him."

Fuel to the Fire: The Family's Use of Amphetamines in the Summer of '69

The accepted wisdom says that Charlie did not tolerate hard drugs within the Family.  They smoked marijuana and hash, used LSD with some regularity, and ingested a smattering of other psychedelics like psylocybin(mushrooms), mescaline(Peyote buttons), even Belladonna.  One known exception is the admission by Atkins and Watson that they snorted from a jar filled with meth just before they left to go to Cielo Dr.  But that was it.

But there is good evidence that many others in the Family were using Speed.


Bruce Davis

http://www.aboundinglove.org/main/images/bookPDFs/Will_You_Die_For_Mesmall.pdf
pg63of120
Tex: "Charlie, for all his use of acid, was absolutely against speed. He believed it was bad for your body. But when a young guy from one of the neighboring ranches began sneaking it over,  Susan-Sadie, Bruce Davis and I started carrying it around in the bottom of a cigarette package."

pg76of120 
"I slept very late Saturday(Aug 9, 1969), then spent part of  the afternoon working on dune buggies and  snorting speed with Bruce Davis."


Kasabian

http://www.mansonblog.com/2015/03/goodbye-helter-skelter-chapters-fifteen.html  comment
"Another point: in the History channel special Kasabian ...also mentions taking a white speed tablet before embarking on the journey(to Cielo)."












Watkins

Testimony of  at the Watson murder trial(8-26-71):
http://www.cielodrive.com/charles-tex-watson-trial-08-26-71-am.php#bp
Q(Bugliosi):  Did you take speed on several occasions(while at the Ranch)?
A(Paul Watkins): Yes.


Krenwinkle

http://www.mansonblog.com/2015/06/the-mansonfamilytodayinfo-files.html
During Her time with the family, Patricia Krenwinkel used drugs heavily. ... She... at times would take various forms of speed such as Methedrine, Benzedrine and on occasion would smoke opium.



Grogan

My Life with Charles Manson by Paul Watkins  Chapter 20
Clem... was totally blitzed, and sat slouched over the steering wheel of the dune buggy, his eyes glassy, his hair matted and snarled... He appeared stiff, almost cadaverous. (Sept '69)
[Clem is obviously coming down off a lengthy Speed trip.]


Manson

Susan Atkins  The Shattered Myth of 'Helter Skelter'   pg26of63
"...Charles Manson was at his wit's end.  He was staying up for days at a time on drugs watching for Panthers." (July of '69)

Member of the Family  by Dianne Lake
(At Barker in late '68)
 "Charlie was too hyped up to make love to any of us, so we all just went to sleep.
"I been thinking about this," Charlie announced in the morning. He appeared like he had not gotten much sleep. "We should go back to town and get our things together."

The Shadow Over Santa Susana by Adam Gorightly
(At Barker in Sept/Oct '69)
"Manson, it has been said, became "feral beyond description" during this period.  According to Kitty Lutesinger:  "He got wild when he was out there.. he was just beating on Snake all the time-or everybody." "
[Sounds like an amphetamine-induced psychosis.]

http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/11/justice/california-charles-manson/

Manson Parole hearing from April 2002
"Manson also had a history of using drugs such as LSD, amphetamines and barbiturates... (Commissioner Gilbert)Robles said."

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-heilig/charlie-manson-the-life-a_b_4074267.html
He gathered unknowing young women from Berkeley and the Haight-Ashbury, where the clinicians at the landmark free clinic diagnosed him as an “ambulatory schizophrenic” with all manner of manipulative behaviors, not to mention a fondness for LSD, speed ... and marathon orgiastic sex directed by Charlie ...

https://nypost.com/2017/10/25/reliving-the-murderous-manson-familys-dark-pull-on-an-innocent-14-year-old-girl/   Dianne Lake interview:
When I got back from the Spiral Staircase House, I told Richard and Allegra about the possibility of going with Charlie and the girls. “I don’t know about that, Chicken Little,” Richard said. For some reason, he had changed his mind about Charlie. “It may not be such a cool scene. Maybe you should stick around here for a little while.”
That was the one warning I got about Charles Manson. It was not from my parents or from people at the Hog Farm. It was from my speed-addict friend who somehow understood something that the rest of us did not.
[Did he recognize that Charlie was into Speed?  Did it take one to know one?]

Everybody else

http://www.lsb3.com/search?q=speed&updated-max=2015-10-16T01:14:00-04:00&max-results=20&start=4&by-date=false
7/8/71- Psych examination of Tex Watson
Q. Meantime…did you go places?
A.  No, Charlie never wanted us to leave the ranch. Then it was drugs, drugs, drugs…  bags of acid and speed… we took a lot of speed.

http://www.cielodrive.com/charles-tex-watson-trial-08-26-71-am.php#bp
Q(Bugliosi): Was there quite a bit of speed out at the ranch?
A(Watkins): Not until late spring of '69.
Q: And from that point on there was quite a bit of speed out at the ranch?
A: Yes

http://murdersofaugust69.freeforums.net/thread/369/fountain-world?page=1&scrollTo=16281
Virginia(FOTW witness) said that most of the time the Family's conversations were confused and she felt that they "were usually up on something, sometimes they would just talk non-stop for hours and not sleep for three or four days."

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/life/features/denis-tuohy-the-day-i-came-face-to-face-with-charles-mansons-killer-cult-in-a-remote-mountain-ranch-36365134.html
Manson had linked some of the Beatles' songs with an apocalyptic vision of the future, a vision he preached to followers who were constantly high on LSD and amphetamines.

Susan Atkins  The Shattered Myth of 'Helter Skelter'  pg26of63
"The women began to fear for their lives as paranoid, speed-frazzled gunmen combed the ranch..." (July of '69)




So are we supposed to believe that all these followers were doing heavy doses of Speed and that Charlie was somehow unaware of it?  No way in hell.  I believe that Charlie was controlling the Family's amphetamine use--in the same way he exercised tight control over the Family's use of LSD-- by giving them the drug at certain times for certain reasons.

The use of the stimulant might also explain some other aspects of life at Spahn.  Like how they were able to be up all night fixing their dune buggies and doing their creepy crawls.  Like how they were able to make repeated bone-jarring rides back and forth from Spahn to Barker.


But when you play, you pay (as they say in Brooklyn).  There was an old anti-drug slogan from the '60s:  SPEED KILLS.  They should have listened, because there is a definite link between the heavy use of amphetamines and violent acts, according to numerous sources.

http://www.atdc.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/0/2015_06_03_EVENT_ARTICLE_McKetin-2014-Does-methamphetamine-use-increase-violence.pdf
Methamphetamine .. is notorious for its association with violent behavior. Epidemics of use have been marked by rises in assaults and violent crime and case reports have implicated the drug in homicides. Violence associated with methamphetamine use is characterized by its capricious and often bizarre nature, this seeming to be fueled by methamphetamine-induced paranoia... In conclusion, violent behavior is a key harm associated with the use of methamphetamine.
 
Charles Manson Now by Marlin Marynick   pg129of155
Vicki(apparently an associate of the Family) assured me that, during her initial visit to the ranch, the family was living a peaceful, happy existence. The only drug on the property was marijuana. "Then they did LSD and, when speed came along, that was when it all went bad."

Then it becomes a legitimate question to asked to what extant did amphetamine use contribute to the murders?

I think that the use of amphetamines might be one of the missing links in this case.  So important that without the Speed, there would probably not have been the slaughter.  But why didn't Bugliosi mention it in his book?   In the penalty phase of the trial, he made extensive preparations to counter the defense witnesses who would claim the defendants were too drug-addled by LSD to be responsible, but he didn't do this for the Speed usage.  Even more curiously, the defense lawyers didn't introduce this evidence as a possible exculpatory factor.  Why not?  Was there some kind of agreement by everybody not to touch this subject?

http://www.goodbyehelterskelter.com/Reviews.html
Bugliosi discounts the importance of speed in the murders. He ignores most of the drug use at Spahn except for the use of LSD which he says Charlie used to brainwash his followers...

What Freaked Out Charlie?

 "Something freaked Manson out in early 1969 enough for him to prepare for the end of Western Civilization." (The Family pp.147)

Brooks Poston (Watson Trial):

“Q: While the rest of the family was at Barker Ranch, that is Manson, you and the others, did Manson ever leave Barker Ranch for Los Angeles and then return to Barkers?

A: Yes.

Q: When is the first time he did that?

A: He left in November.

Q: 1968?

A: Yes.

Q: When he returned to Barker Ranch did he say anything about what was happening in Los Angeles?

A: Yes, he said, "The shit's coming down."

Q: Did he say what he meant by that?

A: Yeah, that the revolution, the Black-White war was in the process of happening.

Q: This was in November of 1968?

A: Yes.

Q: Did he leave for Los Angeles several more times?

A: Yes.

Q: And when he returned, what would he say?

A: He also said the same thing; he said that it was really coming down fast.

Q: On New Year's Eve of 1969 did Manson again return to Barker Ranch from Los Angeles?

A: Yes.”

Paul Watkins (Watson Trial): 

“Q: How did it start out?

A: It started out in about New Year's -- as a matter of fact, it was New Year's Eve between 1968 and 1969, that Charlie was down in the city and the rest of the family was up at the Barker Ranch****

*****

Q: Did it happen at or about the time you met somebody by the name of Mr. Crockett?

A: Yes, it did. I will tell you about it. I was telling you I began to get rather disgusted and disheartened with what was going on at the ranch, because it got to be a revolution type scene where everyone was talking about revolution and we were collecting guns and building dune buggies and things like that --

Q: Let's stop this; let's tell us about collecting guns.

When did you start to do that?

A: It was about the spring of 1969”

It has been said that the shooting of Bernard Crowe was the ‘trigger’ that set Manson off, ‘freaked him out’ but Bernard Crowe was shot on July 1, 1969, seven months after these events and two months after Paul Watkins left the family because of Manson’s violent ideas. 

“Q: In late May, was it, 1969, at Spahn Ranch?

A: Yes.

Q: Charlie said, "We are going to have to show Blacky how to do it"?

A: Yes.

Q: Now, when Manson said this, what effect, if any, did it have on you?

A: Had a heck of an effect because I already knew how he had said it. It was supposed to be done and I didn't want to kill anybody. I didn't want to show him how to do it.

Q: So what did you do?

A: I left, left the family and went to the desert.

Q: How long after Manson told you that "We," apparently referring to the family, were going to have to do it, did you leave?

A: That day.

Q: You went up to Barker Ranch?

A: Yes.

Q: You didn't want to have anything to do with helter-skelter?

A: No, I didn't.

Q: Because you knew this would involve killing?

A: I suspected such.

Q: You didn't want to kill anyone?

A: Correct.”

By the middle of January Manson was obsessed with Helter Skelter. By the time the Family moved to the Gresham Street house (Yellow Submarine) from Barker, it would appear Manson was already over the top. 

“In January 1969, Watkins said, “we all moved into the Gresham Street house to get ready for Helter Skelter. So we could watch it coming down and see all of the things going on in the city. He [Charlie] called the Gresham Street  house ‘The Yellow Submarine’ from the Beatles’ movie. It was like a submarine in that when you were in it you weren’t allowed to go out. You could only peek out of the windows.”   Bugliosi, Vincent; Curt Gentry. Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders . W. W. Norton & Company. Kindle Edition.

It might be argued that the source of Manson’s ‘freak out’ was the Beatles, White Album. He returned on that New Years Eve, with a copy and made his ‘hep to the Beatles’ comment but on closer examination the Beatles only served to provide a framework for what Manson had already concocted from his Farad (Fard)-Nation of Islam- Book of Revelations-Racist ideas: the black versus white race war. The Beatles only gave it a name: Helter Skelter. They didn’t inspire it. 

“Charles Manson was already talking about an imminent black-white war when Gregg Jakobson first met him, in the spring of 1968. There was an underground expression current at the time, “the shit is coming down,” variously interpreted as meaning the day of judgment was at hand or all hell was breaking loose, and Charlie often used it in reference to the coming racial conflict. But he wasn’t rabid about it, Gregg said; it was just one of many subjects they discussed.”  Bugliosi, Vincent; Curt Gentry. Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders . W. W. Norton & Company. Kindle Edition.

“Q: Now, prior to New Year's he used to say the s-h-i-t was coming down fast?

A: Yes.

Q: But this particular occasion he came back to Barker and said, "Helter-skelter is coming down fast"?

A: Yes.

Q: So he substituted the word "helter-skelter" for "s-h-i-t"; is that correct?

A: Yes.

Q: Thereafter it was always "helter-skelter is coming down"?

A: Yes.”

(Brooks Poston: Watson Trial)

There were, in fact, coincidences in the songs on that record, ‘Sadie’ appeared in ‘Sexy Sadie’, the phrase ‘coming down fast’ appeared, ‘piggies’ were ‘whacked’ and the interesting ‘in’ that appeared in Revolution #1 tantalized. But every one of these can be explained by the common parlance or shared beliefs of the time (except ‘Sadie’). 

So what event or events triggered Manson’s freak-out? 

Here are some possible ‘suspects’. 

1. The Assassination of Alprentice ‘Bunchy’ Carter and John Huggins

On January 17, 1969 US Organization members gunned down Carter and Huggins at the Black Student Union meeting in Campbell Hall on the campus of UCLA.

Los Angeles Times, Saturday, January 18, 1969

 The Argument For

Both Carter and Huggins were Black Panthers. Carter was the LA chapter head and Huggins was a senior ‘Captain’. Carter, like many Panthers, was a ‘black muslim’ (The term here means Nation of Islam-influenced: 'Fard-ists'.) politicized and converted in Soledad prison.

The UCLA-Panther connection is present. They were gunned down on the UCLA campus, which happens to be the only Panther shooting (or Panther bodies found) on the UCLA campus, although neither were ‘dumped’ there. 

It would have been well known. Manson didn’t read newspapers and there was a lot of notoriety about this event. Carter was the leader of the LA Panthers and the former ‘Mayor of the Ghetto’ or ‘Mayor of Watts’ depending on what you read. He was also a former high-ranking member of the Slauson street gang and commander of Renegade Slauson a group who could make the Crips, cower.

They looked like they were ready to start a war. Three hours later, ostensibly to prevent retaliation against US, 150 LAPD descended on Huggin’s home and arrested 17 Panthers confiscating a small arsenal of weapons including military carbines and home made bombs. 

The Argument Against

By the time the Family relocated to the Yellow Submarine Manson was already 'freaked'. The murders happened on January 17th. The murders don’t fit Watkins and Poston’s timeline of November-December 1968. 

The US Organization carried out the murders. This was one black militant group against another, the Panthers. This doesn’t fit Manson’s Helter Skelter. Blacks should have been killing whites. 

2. The Strange Case of Frank ‘Captain Franco’ Diggs

Here is how Elaine Brown, one time head of the Black Panthers, describes Diggs: 

“Frank Diggs, Captain Franco, was reputedly leader of the Panther underground. He had spent twelve years in Sing Sing Prison in New York on robbery and murder charges. Now he was Bunchy’s right hand. 

****

Franco was slightly insane, Ericka had told me. Prison had done it. He thought he had been fed peas in prison that contained small microphones, which, remaining in his body, allowed  guards and police to monitor his life. That was why, even now, he lived so carefully, outright paranoid about everything, especially dirt. He showered at least twice a day and never wore any item of clothing more than once without it being cleaned or washed. He polished his shoes daily, tops and bottoms. The result was spectacular. 

****

‘You don’t have to be afraid, Sister Elaine [Diggs said]. I would make it so beautiful for you. Other than making love to a Sister, downing a pig is the greatest feeling in the world. Have you ever seen a pig shot with a .45 automatic, Sister Elaine?’”

Brown, Elaine. A Taste of Power: A Black Woman's Story (Kindle Locations 2636-2638). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

By all accounts Diggs was Bunchy Carter’s ‘enforcer’. His preferred weapon a .45 automatic. He was also the LA Panther with ties to the ‘underground’ which is a nice way of saying he was the one who obtained dope and more importantly difficult to obtain guns like military grade carbines. 

What makes Diggs’ murder strange is the fact no one seems to agree where it took place, when it took place or how he was killed. There is also almost a complete lack of information about the murder and only one mention in the press. Given the FBI (COINTELPRO) was at its anti-Panther pinnacle in late 1968 this event should have garnered more publicity, especially given the claims (by some) that Diggs was killed by his own people. Instead, this is the only record of the event I could find. 

Independent Press Telegram, Saturday, December 21, 1968

Most other mentions of the murder are inaccurate, including Elaine Brown's. Main and 157th is not in Long Beach it’s in West Compton and he was killed on December 19th not the 30th or the first and he was shot twice in the head: 

“Franco had been killed. He had been shot in the head three times in an alley in Long Beach. It had happened earlier that evening [December 30].”  Brown, Elaine. A Taste of Power: A Black Woman's Story

“The slaying of Frank Diggs in Los Angeles in December, 1968, suggests the same ruthless discipline at work within the Panther party. His lacerated body, with two bullet holes in the chest, was found in an alley.” Who Will Bell the Panthers, James Kilpatrick, The Fresno Bee, June 20, 1970. 

“December 30: Los Angeles Panther Frank Diggs is shot in the head and killed by police agents.” Black Panther Party, Pieces of History: 1966 - 1969

“On Jan. 1, 1969, Captain Franco (Frank Diggs), the reputed leader of the BPP's local underground apparatus, was shot dead in an alley in Long Beach.” The FBI's War on the Black Panther Party's Southern California Chapter

“Franko Diggs, forty, who was a captain in the Black Panther Party, was found fatally shot in the Watts section of Los Angeles on December 19, 1968. No witnesses to the shooting could be found, but the police identified the murder weapon from the bullets as a foreign-made 9-mm. automatic pistol. Almost a year later, when the Los Angeles police crime laboratory was doing routine ballistics tests on eighteen weapons seized in a raid on Black Panther headquarters early in 1969, it was found that one of the confiscated Panther automatics ballistically matched the bullet that had killed Diggs.” The Black Panthers and the Police: A Pattern of Genocide? NEW YORKER, February 13, 1971 by Edward Jay Epstein

Epstein puts an end the discussion by claiming Panthers killed Diggs. His accusation is picked up and repeated by other ‘law and order’ writers at the time. Kilpatrick, above, was the first to make the claim. The problem is no source is cited for this information and there does not appear to be one that I could find. Diggs was Bunchy Carter’s ‘enforcer’. While it is possible US murdered Diggs, a Panther murder, given his connection, seems unlikely. 

The claim is precisely the type of information the FBI would have blared like Joshua’s trumpets and yet there is no mention of Diggs in the newspapers of the time or the FBI files. A Panther hit on a Panther is precisely the type of information the FBI was struggling to make up in 1968. They’d have dropped to their knees thanking the Lord above if they had been handed these ballistics. Instead…..crickets. 

Then again, since I make my living being paranoid, the absence of any Panther rhetoric in response to Diggs’ death at the time or now is highly unusual. Here is what Elaine Brown (not a particularly trustworthy reporter) says. She is typically ‘all in’ on the ‘FBI plot to exterminate the Panthers’. It fills the pages of her book:

"In December of 1968, one of our comrades, Frank "Franco" Diggs, was killed in an alley in Long Beach. We, to this minute, can't trace how that happened. Franco was one of the key figures in the formation of the chapter and probably one of the people closest to Bunchy Carter."

The Argument For

Unless you are a conspiracy buff (I'm not), there is none. 

If you are a conspiracy buff here are a few questions that might make you go 'hmmm': Is this the Panther Manson actually killed? He is essentially a gunrunner and drug dealer. He may have been dumped in an alley (not at UCLA). Why does anyone believe that Manson or anyone else believed Bernard Crowe was a Panther when they knew who he was-a drug dealer? Diggs was killed by a 9mm, isn’t that a Family favorite? Hinman? LaBianca? Where did Manson get his small arsenal, confiscated at Spahn? Wouldn’t killing an actual Panther, especially Diggs give Manson a real reason to be paranoid they were after him?

I was told that because Diggs’ murder is listed as ‘unsolved’ (and given its age, probably closed and destroyed) a request for information to LAPD or LASO will be declined. 

The Argument Against

The murder is too obscure. It gained little notoriety. Even Panthers who were close to it at the time (Elaine Brown) get the facts wrong and again it is a Panther being killed so it doesn’t fit Helter Skelter. 

3. The Murder of Bryan Clay

On December 9, 1968 at 9:40 p.m. three black youths approached 18 year old Bryan Clay on fraternity row on the USC campus and for no apparent reason stabbed him to death. At least that is what Manson likely heard. 

Los Angeles Times, Wednesday, December 11, 1968

Trivia: Paul Fitzgerald represented the murderer. 

USC is a ‘private’ institution. Tuition was high. The student body was drawn primarily from affluent, white families. One fraternity brother described USC like this: ‘We are a white island in a black sea and you have to face it.” 

The Argument For

The murder of Clay fits Helter Skelter. Blacks leave the ghetto and kill whitey. Its timing is right, early December 1969. It is a seemingly random murder (unless you read). It is a black murdering an affluent white young man in a ‘rich’ (Fraternity Row) neighborhood. Because it involved a black man killing a white man it received a good deal of press at the time so it likely was common knowledge. 

It also eerily foreshadows the murders to come eight months later: a knife-wielding killer(s) invades a ‘white bastion’ and murders a wealthy white young man. 

Did this influence Manson? Is that why, despite the multiple guns at Spahn, Manson sent knives? Certainly he should have realized the Panthers were about guns, not knives. Didn’t he know about the Panthers appearing armed at the state legislature? That act, incidentally, spawned the most restrictive anti-Second Amendment (right to bear arms) law in history- a law signed by Governor Ronald Reagan- because openly armed black men showed up at the capital. Guns were the whole point of the Panthers. It stirred memories of ‘armed slaves’ and scared white people. Was he trying to tie the later murders back to Clay? 

Not likely. 

The Argument Against

I’ll leave the arguments for you. 

4. The Times

Of course it could have been the times. Until January 1968 there were no Black Panthers in LA and likely they didn’t even make an impression until a month or so later. Then they were there and a big, scary presence. 

The membership of the LA Panthers was drawn from the Slausons a street gang (the 1968 equivalent of the Crips or Bloods) and went on to demonstrate a willingness to further the revolution ‘by any means necessary’. 

On August 5, 1968 during the Watts Festival commemorating the Watts riots police followed a carload of Panthers to Ham's Mobil Service Station (The Crenshaw Shootout) supposedly because they turned suspiciously into a driveway and then backed out. When three of the four Panthers refused to respond to police commands a shootout followed. By all accounts the Panthers fired first. Three Panthers were killed and two police officers were wounded. 

“If anything, the fact that these Panthers stood their ground and fought the police to the death strengthened the Party’s revolutionary credentials and drew new recruits, including alienated Vietnam War hero Geronimo Pratt.”  Bloom, Joshua; Martin, Waldo E., Jr.. Black against Empire: The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party (p. 216). University of California Press. Kindle Edition.

The Redlands Daily Facts, Tuesday, August 6, 1968

Look who was also involved: our friend Frank Diggs.

After this event LA Panther rhetoric became increasingly threatening. The feud also developed between the Panthers and the US Organization that culminated in the deaths of ‘Bunchy’ Carter and John Huggins (and others).

The Argument For 

It certainly looked like a black revolution was imminent. Even the Panthers believed  it was occurring.

“Readers today may have difficulty imagining a  revolution in the United States. But in the late 1960s, many thousands of young black people, despite the potentially fatal outcome of their actions, joined the Black Panther Party and dedicated their lives to revolutionary struggle”.  Bloom, Joshua; Martin, Waldo E., Jr.. Black against Empire: The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party (p. 2). University of California Press. Kindle Edition.

The Argument Against

This was a ‘slow burn’ and nothing of any significance happened in November-December 1968 on this timeline. Manson may have seen this all happening and viewed it from the perspective of his apocalyptic hallucination but nothing on the timeline stands out as a catalyst after August 5th.

I do wonder if Manson used the anniversary of the Watts Riots (August 11-15, 1965) as his focal point for the murders but like many of his schemes screwed up the details, getting the precise date wrong. 

“While at the Gresham Street house, Manson had told Watkins that the atrocious murders would occur that summer.  It was almost summer now and the blacks were showing no signs of rising up to fulfill their karma.”  Bugliosi, Vincent; Curt Gentry. Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders . W. W. Norton & Company. Kindle Edition.

Something, did, indeed, freak Manson out in late 1968 or early 1969.

“We didn't know when it was happening -- like I'd look out the window and wonder if it was going to happen today, you know -- think what was the quickest way to get to shelter if it was to happen right now.” Paul Watkins.