Gary Hinman's Bus -- Again

There are two basic versions of the events that led up the murder of Gary Hinman at his home on Old Topanga Canyon Road on July 25-27, 1969. The first version is that Charles Manson believed that Hinman had come into an inheritance and sent Bobby Beausoleil, Susan Atkins, and Mary Brunner over to Hinman's house to get that inheritance from him, by violent means if necessary.

The second version is that Hinman sold some mescaline to Beausoleil who in turn sold it to the Straight Satans Motorcycle Club. When the Satans claimed that the mescaline was bad and demanded their money back, Beausoleil went to Hinman's house to get a refund on the transaction and events escalated into his murder. 

It is worth looking at these two motive versions in some detail, but before we do this we should understand why discerning the correct motive is important.

Gary Hinman's house at 964 Old Topanga Canyon Road

(Photo courtesy of Cielodrive.com)

Why does it matter? 

If the first motive version (the strong-arm robbery gone bad scenario) is true, it reinforces the perception of Charles Manson and the people around him as being violently murderous sociopaths who would stop at nothing in order to further their own interests. If the second motive version (a drug deal gone bad) is true it reinforces an alternative perception of those same persons being caught up in unfortunate criminal circumstances that spiraled out of control and culminated in murder. 

The determination of motive is also important because if a preponderance of evidence supports the drug deal scenario it also reinforces that idea that Charles Manson was not the originating force behind the incident, which further reinforces  the viewpoint that Manson was not the impetus behind all of the illegal activity that emanated from Spahn's Movie Ranch in the summer of 1969.

Looking at the two versions --

The first motive version is the one presented by the prosecution at the various Hinman murder trials. It has also been reiterated in numerous books and media statements regarding the crime. The reason for this is obvious --  it was the only scenario that demonstrated any criminal intent for any of the defendants besides Bobby Beausoleil. But what real evidence is there that Hinman was killed during an attempt to obtain his money and belongings?

Several people (Bruce Davis at his parole hearings, and Kitty Lutesinger and Danny DeCarlo at Bobby Beausoleil's second murder trial) said that Beausoleil, Mary Brunner, and Susan Atkins were going to Hinman's "to get money." This "get money" reason has been advanced to show that the Hinman homicide was the result of a strong-arm robbery gone bad. Maybe so, but yet there is nothing in the general  contention that people went to Hinman's "to get money" that doesn't also jibe with the idea that people went to Hinman's "to get money" as a refund for the Satans on their dope deal. (There are variations in the amount of money people were supposed to "get." Danny DeCarlo has said both $20,000 and $10,000.  Mary Brunner was not sure, saying either $3,000 or $30,000. Susan Atkins, in her book Child of Satan, Child of God, said $12,000. Bobby Beausoleil and Charles Manson say that the amount was $1,000.) Also, although there has been much contention that Manson sent Beausoleil to Hinman's to get a supposed inheritance (or, as Ella Jo Bailey testified at Beausoleil's first trial (which ended with a hung jury) because it was thought that he owned his house and stocks and bonds) this aspect of "get money" was not introduced at Beausoleil's second trial where he was successfully convicted. Was it not mentioned because the prosecution knew that it was nebulous? Remember, trials are where contentions might have to be supported by actual evidence, as opposed to books, media statements, or even statements to police, where no rules of evidence are in effect.

There is no corroborating evidence that supports the "get Gary's inheritance" scenario. And this is not surprising, because there was no inheritance. As to the witness statements that allegedly support the inheritance theory, let's be serious: Any cop or prosecutor will tell you that eyewitness testimony, although sometimes effective on the stand, is actually the worst kind of evidence that you can take into a criminal proceeding. Why? Because there's simply too much opportunity for the witness to be mistaken, or to intentionally lie out of animus towards the defendant, or for other reasons such as being offered deals regarding charges pending against them (See DeCarlo, Ella Jo Bailey) in exchange for what the prosecution believes to be "truthful testimony" (i.e., testimony damaging to the defendant). And as we have seen, there was no introduction of the "get the inheritance" motive at the second and successful prosecution of Bobby Beausoleil. 

So, the only evidence that supports the "strong-arm robbery gone wrong" motive theory is eyewitness testimony from questionable witnesses. There is nothing else to corroborate it. 

To date, most of the "drug deal gone bad" motive has come from two of the persons convicted of murdering Hinman, Bobby Beausoleil and Charles Manson.  Beausoleil has given several versions of the crime at his various parole hearings, but for his past several sessions with the parole board he has stuck with one version, and it is worth going into some detail here. A good synopsis can be found in Beausoleil's 2003 parole hearing, where he explained the particulars of the drug deal scenario thusly: 

"Well, it was a couple of days before Gary was killed…. [The Straight Satans Motorcycle Club], I was looking up to these guys. I kind of – I was kind of romanticized that their lifestyle was something that I liked. I kind of thought they were cool. I was young, and these guys were 10 – 15 years older than me. And I wanted to impress them, and they were going to have a party at Venice Beach. I wanted them to invite me. I wanted to go along on the party. They said that they wanted to – it was like a ten-year anniversary party for the, you know, for their ten-year motorcycle club anniversary, or something like that. And they wanted to score something different, some psychedelics for their party. And I thought that I might be able to impress them to, you know, to kind of get in with them if I were to set up a deal for them. I knew someone in Topanga Canyon who made mescaline out of peyote cactus buds. That was Gary Hinman. I’d known Gary for a couple of years, and I saw an opportunity to sort of ingratiate myself in these – with these people. So I set up a deal. It was 1,000 tabs or capsules of homemade mescaline for 1,000 dollars. [But] the next day [after the mescaline was delivered to the club], [they] came back to the Spahn Ranch and essentially [they] kind of beat me up. You know. They hit me in the stomach and, you know, pushed me around and held a knife up to my throat and said they wanted the money back because I had sold them bunk. They said that they had gotten sick on the drugs, and they wanted their money back. So I told them I would do everything I could to get the money back."

Some people have decried the description of Gary Hinman as a "drug dealer" as a libel against a dead person unable to defend himself, but it is worth noting that the term "drug dealer" can be used to describe a wide variety of individuals, from the stereotypical image of the shady character peddling narcotics on the schoolyard to someone who is merely a friend who can get you drugs. Hinman likelier fit more into the latter category. (In the 2009 HIstory Channel "docudrama" Manson Tate-LaBianca prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi said that Hinman "furnished drugs to the Family." The Los Angeles District Attorney's Office referred to Hinman's involvement with illegal drugs in a letter mentioned at Bobby Beausoleil's 1985 parole hearing. And finally, from the August 22, 1969 police report on the investigation into HInman's murder comes this: "A home made scale was observed in a kitchen cupboard containing a white powder on one pan. The pan and powder was taken for examination…. The white material in the balance pan was negative for narcotics." 

Los Angeles County Sheriff's investigative report on the 

finding of a scale at Gary Hinman's residence

In 1969 there was no test in routine use by law enforcement agencies that would have identified a suspect substance as mescaline, which, when processed from peyote buds, is in the form of a white powder. 

Powdered mescaline processed from peyote buds

It has been asked why, if Gary Hinman was manufacturing mescaline at his house, no drug-making paraphernalia was found at his residence by law enforcement officers investigating his murder. The answer to that question is simple: Because one doesn't need specialized equipment to manufacture mescaline out of peyote. Everyday items such as pots and pans, a candy thermometer, and straining cloths do the job nicely (and could easily be missed by cops investigating a homicide and thus not necessarily looking for subtle evidence of drug brewing). The procedure is not particularly difficult, but it does require concentration, and there are numerous steps involved, any one of which if done incorrectly could result in a bad batch. (See http://www.clearwhitelight.org/hatter/extract.htm)

Of great interest to me regarding the Gary Hinman homicide has been the question of what became of Gary Hinman's 1958 VW bus? The answer to this seemingly ancillary query is actually quite important. Bobby Beausoleil claims that he took both of Hinman's vehicles in order to settle the debt he owed to the Straight Satans because of the botched mescaline deal. And if the bus was indeed given to the Satans that would be strong circumstantial evidence in support of Beausoleil's contention that the entire Hinman affair was an effort to satisfy a debt owed to the motorcycle club and not a general "get his money at any cost" scheme. According to Beausoleil and Manson, the bus was taken from Hinman's residence after his murder to give to the Straight Satans as payment for the money they had lost in the mescaline deal. As Beausoleil recalled at his 2003 parole hearing, "….[Hinman] had a couple of old cars, and he offered to sign these over to -- as something that I could take to the bike club that might be worth $1,000."

And that is exactly what seems to have happened to it. 

Let's look at these entries from police investigative reports into the Gary Hinman homicide that touch upon the fate of Hinman's bus after it was taken from his residence following his murder (reports courtesy of the excellent researchers and archivists at Cielodrive.com).

From the supplementary report to the Hinman murder investigation dated January 20, 1970: 

"MR. PUTTEK states that he purchased the 1958 Volkswagen van, that formerly belonged to GARY HINMAN from MARK AARONSON. He described MARK AARONSON as having his front teeth missing, wavy brown hair, 125-130 pounds, 29 years of age, the tattoo on one of his forearms approximately three inches in length. MR. PUTTEK states that he met MARK AARONSON through MARK ROTH…..

"MR. PUTTEK stated that he was told after his arrest on October 8, 1969 [Puttek was arrested and charged with murder after having been pulled over while driving a murder victim's vehicle.], that MARK AARONSON had been given the bus on the ranch by CHARLIE MANSON. He stated that he never worried about title to the bus because he was given the pink slip, and it was signed and dated by GARY HINMAN. He stated that he altered the date to avoid paying penalties to the Department of Motor Vehicles…. (Emphasis added)

"

MR. PUTTEK was asked if he recalled the names of any of the other people who might have been at the ranch or that he met who frequented the ranch. He stated that he remembers the name JOE SHOMMACHER. He describes JOE as 27 years of age, 6 feet 4 inches, brown wavy hair with a mustache and beard. He stated that JOE had a Chopper Harley Davidson Bike and frequently drove a dunebuggy…. He stated that JOE went with MARY ROMMICH two or three weeks after she and MR. PUTTEK broke up. 

"He was then asked to view pictures of people associated with the ranch and CHARLIE MANSON. He states that he saw a picture of HAROLD TRUE and thought possibly MARK ROTH had it. He states that the picture of THOMAS ALDEN [Walleman?] aka TJ appeared familiar. He identified the picture of MARK BLOODWORTH DAMIAN as the person he knew as MARK AARONSON,  and the individual who sold him the 1958 Volkswagen Van belonging to GARY HINMAN.  He stated that the picture of ELLA BAILEY seems familiar but he does not recall why…. He also indicated that the picture of BRUCE MC GREGAR DAVIS appeared familiar as did the picture of MARK WALTZ."

From the February 20, 1970 supplementary report to the Hinman murder investigation: 

"On 7-31-69, Gary A. Hinman was found at 964 Old Topanga Canyon Road, Topanga Canyon, the victim of a homicide. Investigation revealed that two or the victim's cars were taken from location and the victim was forced to sign the pink slips over.

"On 10-8-6, LOUIS JOHN PUHECK was arrested driving the victim's 1958 Volkswagen bus, [license number] PGE 388, Mr. Puheck was advised of his Constitutional rights, which he waived. He stated in the middle of August, 1969, he met a Mark Bloodworth (a.k.a MARK AARONSON) and paid him $350 in cash for the above vehicle. Mr. Puheck further related S/Aaronson gave him the pink slip signed by the victim and told him he hadn't changed the registration."

From the supplementary report to the Hinman murder investigation dated March 17, 1970: 

 "…. a week prior to the Hinman murder, in the late part of July, Charles Manson stated to [Danny] De Carlo, 'We're going to Gary's house and get $10,000 one way or another.'

"On 3-12-70 Mark Arneson, **** Hawthorne, was arrested by LAPD Officer [name deleted], #11951, Venice Division, at 83rd Street and Fordham in Los Angeles, pursuant to Division 64 Warrant #A059953 charging A96 PC. Arneson was subsequently transferred to West Hollywood Station and interviewed by Deputy Charles Guenther. 

"Arneson stated he went to the Spahn Ranch in July or August, 1969 and had a conversation with Charles Manson in the accompaniment of Robert Beausoleil in the salon [sic] building. He stated that Manson asked him if he would like to have a car and he replied 'Yes.' Manson and Beausoleil and himself got into a 1965 white station wagon with the engine sticking out of the front (Beausoleil driving) and went to the rear of Spahn Ranch where a 1956 Volkswagen Micro-bus, red and white in color, with a large eagle painted on the sides, which was parked among the trees. 

"Manson got out of the station wagon and showed Arneson how to hot-wire the car and started it. Manson started the vehicle and drove it back to the saloon building and gave Arneson the pink slip to the vehicle. Manson stated to Arneson, 'If you get stopped by the cops, tell them you bought the vehicle from Gary HInman, who is a Negro wearing a black beret and black jacket.'

"Arneson stated a few weeks later, he sold the vehicle to Louis Pubeck. The vehicle was subsequently recovered and the registered and legal owner is Gary Hinman."

What do all of these reports tell us other than the fact that LAPD and LASO officers had trouble recording the correct names of individuals they interviewed? (Misters Puttek, Puheck, and Pubeck are obviously the same person, as are Misters Aaronson and Arneson.) They tell us that Gary Hinman's VW bus was given to Mark Aaronson at Spahn's Ranch around the end of July or early August of 1969 by Charles Manson in the company of Bobby Beausoleil. And who is Mark Aaronson? According to the January 20, 1970 police report, he was an associate of  Joe Schumacher. Now although Joe Schumacher was not a member of the Straight Satans, his brother John was. And the description of Joe ("He describes JOE as 27 years of age, 6 feet 4 inches, brown wavy hair with a mustache and beard. He stated that JOE had a Chopper Harley Davidson Bike and frequently drove a dune buggy…. ") suggests that he at least had a passing familiarity with the biker lifestyle (as does the description of Mark Aaronson, "having his front teeth missing, wavy brown hair, 125-130 pounds, 29 years of age, the tattoo on one of his forearms approximately three inches in length.") And how well acquainted was Louis Puheck (his actual name) with the Joe Schumacher? He knew him well enough to know his correct age and well enough that his girlfriend Mary Rommich started going with Schumacher after she broke up with him. 

Joe Schumacher was well enough acquainted with Spahn's Ranch and the people who lived there that one of his addresses listed for him in Police Lieutenant Earl Deemer's list of "The Family" and related characters is that of the ranch. The list also notes that Schumacher was "FIR'd" (interviewed briefly for law enforcement for a field interrogation report) while he was associating with "Family members." (Mark Aaronson also had a lengthy familiarity with "the Family," having been arrested with them as early as April 21, 1968 during a bust in Oxnard, California.)

In sum, Gary Hinman's bus was given to a known close associate of the Straight Satans motorcycle club. 

That's Gary Hinman's bus behind the exhibit tag

Whenever there is a discrepancy in the testimonies of individuals a person can choose to believe whichever version fits the scenario they want to believe. Thus, people who want to believe that the Hinman murder was the fatal end result of a strong-arm robbery can believe the statements and testimonies of Danny DeCarlo, Ella Jo Bailey, etc. A person who wants to believe the drug deal scenario can believe the statements of Bobby Beausoleil and Charles Manson. To the extent that one relies on witness statement to bolster a case it seems here to be a classic "they said/they said" situation. But in this case the latter "they said" version is supported by the physical evidence of the fact that Gary Hinman's VW bus was indeed given to very close associates of the Straight Satans by Charles Manson and Bobby Beausoleil. There is no corroborating evidence for the strong-arm robbery theory. Gary Hinman had no inheritance, and in fact he had very little material possessions of any value at all. 

Conclusion --

To stick with the strong-arm robbery theory, one would have to be willing to believe that Charles Manson thought Gary Hinman had an inheritance and ordered Bobby Beausoleil to get it from him no matter what it took. When Hinman wouldn't turn over the money that he didn't have, things escalated to the point where he was injured and eventually killed. Manson, apparently desperate enough for Hinman's possessions that he was willing to order murder in order to obtain them, then gave away those possessions. Even assuming Charles Manson's alleged craziness, does that make sense? Why would anyone be so intent on gaining another person's property that he would commit murder to get it, only to give that property away? The answer to that question is the obvious one: He wouldn't. (You can't say that he wanted to get rid of the bus because he thought it was too hot after the murder, because if that was the case why not simply abandon it somewhere? Why give it to persons who could later testify that you had it? Or why take the vehicles at all? Why not just leave them at Hinman's house?)

Unless someone can come up with a credible and evidence-supported reason for the "strong-arm robbery gone wrong" theory to be correct, the only reasonable alternative reason for the murder is the one advanced by Bobby Beausoleil and Charles Manson -- that he was killed as the result of a drug deal gone wrong. And if Gary Hinman was killed as the result of a drug deal gone bad, that not only goes against the stereotype of Charles Manson being an orderer of murders, but it also supports the theory of the chain of events that led to the "get brother out of jail" motive that was the true reason for the Tate-LaBianca murders. 

What could turn the previously carefree and non-violent Bobby Beausoleil into someone who could bludgeon and stab another person to death? Ruling out a sudden and inexplicable metamorphosis into a sociopathic hit man, a likelier explanation is that he had recently had such violence visited upon himself -- as he recalled in his 2003 parole hearing, "[The Straight Satans] came back to the Spahn Ranch and essentially [they] kind of beat me up. You know. They hit me in the stomach and, you know, pushed me around and held a knife up to my throat and said they wanted the money back because I had sold them bunk."

So Beausoleil decided to take care of the problem himself, and he did it with ill advice from other persons. And that was a tragic mistake. Because the Straight Satans just wanted their money back.They didn't care if the money came from Hinman or from the man in the moon. If Bobby Beausoleil had called his mother and said, "Mom, I'm in a jam. Can you wire me $1,000" and she did, the Satans would have been satisfied with that money. And none of the murders that now so interest us would ever even have happened.

Manson Tour 2015: Gary Hinman's Bus -- Not

To me the fate of Gary Hinman's 1958 VW bus is one of the most crucial aspects of the Tate-LaBianca case, because if the bus ended up after his murder in any proximity to the Straight Satans Motorcycle Club it reinforces the scenario that the Hinman homicide occurred during an unsuccessful attempt to get "refund" money from Hinman for a bad $1,000 mescaline deal brokered for the Satans by Bobby Beausoleil, as opposed to Hinman being killed as the result of a strong-arm robbery of his supposed inheritance money gone awry.

Although it is the chain of possession of the Hinman bus (and not the bus itself) that makes it important to the case, the actual bus would certainly be a major macabre memento of the events of the summer of 1969.

Whatever became of the Hinman bus? Certainly a possible answer to that question would be the vehicle depicted here. But a reader of this blog also recently suggested another possibility, said to be located on the property of the old Murphy Ranch in Rustic Canyon in Topanga State Park in Los Angeles. During this past weekend two members of the 2015 Manson Family Tour took a few hours to check this latter bus out. 

The bus was certainly located in a remote area. It was reached only after a strenuous walk up the Sullivan Ridge Fire Road into the wild and rugged country of Topanga State Park. After passing through the ruins of the gate of the old ranch, the investigators descended down a decaying road onto the property, which was peppered with buildings and other structures brightly painted in wild colors and designs.  And then, in front of the ranch's old power house, they came upon a demolished and decaying VW bus. Was it the one?

The style of the remains of the body certainly confirmed that it was made pre-1968, but all of the locations of where a vehicle identification number (VIN) could be located and researched for a more accurate determination were long-ago rusted away. That left an examination of whatever remained of the body as the only clues to its vintage. That examination, however, very quickly determined that the bus could not be Hinman's because the hole in the rear of the bus for the taillight housing was much too big for a model year 1958 bus, which Hinman's was. 

Thus was a rumor about an interesting but ultimately inconsequential aspect of the Tate-LaBianca case laid to rest. But that doesn't mean it's the end of the story. It just means that I'd like to see a rear shot of the vehicle shown in the above-linked YouTube video to see what its taillight housing holes look like. 

 The view from rugged Rustic Canyon looking south towards Santa Monica and the Pacific Ocean

The gate to the Murphy Ranch

One of the remarkably painted structures at Murphy Ranch

The suspect bus

The taillight hole

A 1958 VW bus with the much smaller earlier taillight

More on the "Missing Link:" Bikers and Meth

Parts 1 and 2 of this series can be found here and here.

We cannot go much further with Patty's current line of inquiry without addressing methamphetamine (aka meth) and biker culture. Admittedly, Patty doesn't know shit about any of it firsthand. However, she once had biker neighbors who were probably cooking meth. She knows this because of the weird foot traffic, the weird hours, the weird smell, and the rather large, glass shattering explosion at 2am several years back. Patty became peripherally friendly with them, and they protected Patty's property from harm on more than one occasion. She felt that they were good people with bad habits and worse friends.

Her attitude is likely influenced by the fact that Patty grew up in a Southern California town known for its abundance of meth: it was freaking EVERYWHERE, she remembers. In the early eighties, a lab down the street from her junior high blew up violently, and became the butt of many a schoolyard joke. A local bar called The Starlight purportedly distributed it via table service ("I'll have a beer and a bump!"), but Patty was too young back then to know if that is actually true. Patty cannot imagine anyone actually liking that messed up, tweeked out, way-too-much-coffee feeling. But, a lot of people apparently do. Or, they get started so they can work harder, thinking that they will kick after they make the big money. Um, BAD IDEA.

There was also a spaceship cult in Patty's town called Unarius (pictured at left) that had property out in Jamul (pronounced "huhMOOL"). Patty recently found out on facebook which of her high school friends' parents were involved: she never had a clue at the time, so it was a real shocker. Jamul is conveniently located on Highway 94, a desolate back road that leads to the US/Mexico border crossing at Tecate (see below). Yes, that is where they make the beer of the same name. Patty remembers going to the dulceria there as a child: it was her treat for waiting patiently while Mom and Dad Patty haggled over the price of terra cotta garden pottery with the locals.

As a teen, Patty was forbidden by Mom Patty from going to Jamul and beyond because of its bad reputation: it is not uncommon for hikers or sportsmen to find dead bodies in the surrounding areas. Sometimes, people die from exposure while trying to cross the border; other times, people have been shot for one reason or another. Supposedly, "Stephanie Schram's sister" (she has two: Susan Jane who was married three times between '69 and '76, and Sally Joanne who seems to have been a bit more stable) lived in Jamul, and this is where she and Charlie were going in early August, 1969. Oh. by the way, you know Charlie speaks pretty good Spanish, right? Si! Esta es la verdad! Whether or not there were also bikers in Jamul back then, Patty knows not. But she is beginning to think that Jamul may have been one of the 40 regional BEL distribution centers written about in Schou. At the very least, it would have been a convenient stop just north of a very sleepy, low-security border crossing well known to dealers on both sides.


Another place that a friend of the blog has suggested is involved in our story is Carbon Canyon, which is just east of Brea in Orange County. He says that "after getting LSD in Laguna, kids would go to Carbon Canyon and drop it." There was a bar there at the time called "La Vida" which was part of an old hot springs and soda pop factory. It became dilapidated by the 1960s: it was a hippie/biker hangout until the late 70's, at which point it became a notorious underground punk club. Patty is not sure if you can still get a beer there or not, but she thinks not. Patty's friend compares Carbon Canyon to Topanga and (like Patty, Mom Patty and Jamul) remembers that he was forbidden to go out there. He would anyway, but it was "wild," and you NEVER went alone. This may be because La Vida was purportedly a bar that served "many patches."

In Northern California, the Hell's Angels made a deal with Nick Sand to distribute his leftover cache of STP by selling it as "acid" on the street. In return, Sand would make methamphetamine for them. As you know, this is what the Angels were messed up on at Altamont. As we discussed last time, meth is very similar to MDA, as are the starting materials. Sand just put some of the batch aside to be processed in a slightly different way to give a slightly different product. In this way one could make a case for the California methamphetamine trade having risen from the earlier trade in psychedelics.

As a result of the deal made with Sand, the Angels got a bad reputation for their bad "biker acid" (Patty wonders aloud if the Woodstock catch phrase "don't eat the brown acid" was some of the same stuff?). As a result, by 1968 the BEL was shopping around for new distributorships or franchises to peddle their wares. This created a large part of the internal chaos within the BEL that culminated with the death of founder John Griggs who ingested a bad (or over-) dose of "synthetic psilocybin" that was making the rounds just days before Cielo.

Bob Ackerley states that an old friend from Anaheim, Elliot Miller (aka The Joker) was "another brother from Anaheim that nobody knows about, and he had a whole network." Whether or not Miller was a Gypsy Joker is unknown to Patty. She has learned however that The Gypsy Jokers were formed in San Francisco in the 1950's, and were forced out of the bay area by the Angels in 1967 (this is, coincidentally, around the same time that the Angels made their business arrangement with the BEL to sell STP). The Jokers later relocated to Oregon and Washington. They are still active up north selling meth, and they are still scary as hell. We will absolutely have to come back to speaking about Oregon at some point.

Anywhoo, in Southern California around the same time, there were Satan's Slaves and the Straight Satans. According to DebS' research here, the Slaves were legitimate 1%-ers. In the US, they eventually patched over to become Angels. They still exist abroad in the UK and elsewhere. While they are not much discussed in Helter Skelter, the Straight Satans are discussed therein quite a bit. Deb believes that they were not nearly as tight and as legitimate of an organization as the Slaves were.
At least one gentleman was murdered in 1971 for the offense of impersonating a Satan according to an article found by DebS. Another that was written by Sue Marshall infers that the impersonators were police informants who used confiscated Satans membership paraphernalia as credentials. It also infers that Satans were not big time dealers: rather they only traded in small quantities. Supposedly, Danny DeCarlo was a Satan. This idea fits with the material contained in the following interview blogger Cybot referenced with Bobby Beausoleil, that was conducted by Oui Magazine, circa 1981:

Q. Why did you go to Gary Hinman's home on July 25th, 1969?
A. I didn't go there with the intention of killing Gary. If I was going to kill him, I wouldn't have taken the girls. (Mary Brunner and Susan Atkins). I was going there for one purpose only, which was to collect $1,000 that I had already turned over to him, that didn't belong to me.
Q. When had you given him the $1,000?
A. The night before.
Q. You paid Hinman $1,000 for 1000 tabs of mescaline and then returned to the Spahn Ranch?
A. Right. The whole transaction with the Straight Satans motorcycle club took place at Spahn's Ranch. There were a few Satan Slavers hanging out there as well. The Straight Satans took the mescaline back to the motorcycle club at Venice where they were intending to party, they were really mad about it.
Q. How did you know that it was strychnine instead of mescaline in such a short time? If you didn't try the drug yourself, how could you be certain that it was bogus or poison?
A. I don't think that those guys would have lied to me. They wouldn't have been that mad.
Q. How long had you and Hinman been doing these transactions?
A. Very rarely. I just happened to know that he had something. I was trying to be a nice guy, trying to be in with the fellows, trying to impress somebody.

Bobby, who knew Gary as far back as at least October of 1967 according to evidence found at the murder scene, has perfected the art of looking the part of the pathetic victim of circumstance. Here, he is talking about a relatively small deal conducted for a small, loose-knit biker club with a tiny little manufacturer of "synthetic mescaline." This was an independent deal, not a "syndicate" deal, as Shreck would call it, which may also explain why Bobby handled the whole situation so ineptly. Why would the bikers think that it was strychnine? It is not a product of the chemical processes in question if the synthetic mescaline was STP or PMA. However, Robert Hendrickson suggests that Gary may have been experimenting with extracting scopolamine from Atropa belladonna.  Strychnine and belladonna have an established historical connection: they used to be packaged together in Victorian times to treat a host of internal ailments, and can still occasionally be found together in over the counter "homeopathic" preparations. Either way, the experience would still have been extremely unpleasant.

It is also interesting to Patty to hear that there were also Satan's Slaves at Spahn, who had known ties to the BEL during a very unstable time in California's drug trade for all of the reasons mentioned above, and more. Were Satan's Slaves the source of the chaos that ensued when someone realized that established territory was being impinged upon? Was Bobby auditioning for a larger role in an already established organization, or maybe just filling in for someone else like one of the two Charleses, since the stakes were pretty low?

As for Gary, what was his motivation? As Leary suggested, was he trying to raise a little money for his trip to Japan: a one-off kind of thing? Was his intention to become more involved at some point, or at least, did someone believe that was his intention? Did his being a buddhist with ties to Santa Barbara have anything to do with the BEL and/or his death?

That's enough to think about for now. Does Patty even need to say that THERE'S MORE?!

A young boy who hung around with Straight Satans M/C in Carson, CA

We recently heard from "RW", who as a young boy hung around the farmhouse in Carson, CA that was rented by members of the Straight Satans MC Club SFV and was visited by Manson. Here are some memories he has shared with us:

I don't know much about Manson from back then. Only seen him at the house a couple times. I didn't know who he was just heard people calling him Charlie. But when he was around I was sent home the same when the Pres of the M/C was around.

The house was on the corner of Carson and Martin St. in Carson, surrounded by farm fields. I lived about 3 blocks away on Martin St. I started stopping by there on the way home from school and looking at the bikes. Skip and Anita took a liking to me and let me hang around doing little chores like cleaning bikes and bike parts, and taking some bikes apart the best I could (hot bikes).

Hung around there about 3 yrs. Until one day I went to the farm house and Skip and Carl had cut their hair and shaved their beards. They were in tennis shoes and t-shirts. Skip gave me his Mexican wool vest (I still have it). Skip, Anita and Carl got on their bikes and headed back to Oklahoma. They looked like college kids riding off on their choppers. The farm house was empty overnight. Skip, Anita, Carl, Guss and Zipper were the ones who lived at the farm for several yrs.

RW will be checking this post, so if you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Satan's Slaves and the Straight Satans

In doing a little research on both the Satan's Slaves and the Straight Satans I learned that they were two different motorcycle clubs.  Both are said to have been 1%er clubs.  The term 1% comes from the idea that 99% of motorcycle riders are law abiding citizens and the remaining 1% are outlaws.

Informally, in the 1950's, there was an agreement among the 1%ers to agree to certain guidelines, regardless of club affiliation, concerning stealing from one another, rat-packing, etc. and to be committed to biking and brotherhood not as a weekend activity but as a way of life.  The Hells Angels originally went along with this but soon decided that they were committed to no one except their fellow Hells Angels.  This put them in a class by themselves leaving the remainder of the outlaw motorcycle clubs to be known as the 1%ers.

I was able to find mid '60's articles on the Satan's Slaves which legitimizes them as true 1%ers, using the same logo over the years until they patched over with the Hells Angels.

Bugliosi in Helter Skelter does not mention the Satan's Slaves but there is plenty on the Straight Satans.  Both Al Springer and Danny DeCarlo reportedly gave evidence of the Family's involvement with many murders attributed to the Family.  Generally there is a code of silence among the 1%ers but some members of the Straight Satans were like babbling brooks.  The March 13-19, 1970 article that appeared in the Los Angeles Free Press has me wondering how legitimate the Straight Satans were as a 1%er club.

I was able to find an article saying that one Straight Satan, Robert Driscoll, was charged with murdering a fellow who was impersonating a Straight Satan in June 1971.  Apparently 10 people were originally arrested but by the end of 10 days only one person was charged.  I could not find anything further on the arrest, a trial or a conviction.  The person murdered is listed in the California Death Index.  After that there are no more articles on the Straight Satans.  This article struck me as a little odd considering the LA Free Press article on people impersonating the Straight Satans.

Quote accompanying the patch:

"Satan's Slaves. MC SFV. We do know the Slaves were a well known outlaw club from 1960 till New Years Day 1978. Then they patched over. My ole man got these around the 50th anniversary of the club. They are a memory collection item. Produced around that time.

"A one chapter hard core outfit. Some called them a club. Others called them a gang. A big part of the history of the 1%er. 'Any thing you heard about them is likely true.', one of their ole ladies told my ole man.

"Selling my ole man's collection. He was injured by a violent act but is recovering."